• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 453 0

pathways existed to reach these endings, and any other endings that might have evolved from the players’ actions would have also been acceptable. He had planned what would happen if we defeated the orcs through battle and what would happen if the orcs were allowed to pass, but the actual pathways in the adventure were left up to the party. For example, when our party first encountered the orcs rather than ask “Do you fight?” or “Do you negotiate?” the DM simply poses the question “What do you do?” We decided to carefully sneak up and assess the situation upon which David entangled the orcs, and we interrogated them. However, we could have attacked, returned to Gateway with the information that the orcs had invaded, made a treaty with the orcs or done pretty much anything we could imagine and justify a course of action to the other players. In the case of the TRPG, the diagram of the plot may end up looking similar to Ryan’s (2003) tree diagram and my chart from the Winter Wizard, but there is nothing in the chart to account for who creates the possible choices. Like the narrative writeup in the appendix, an attempt to chart the TRPG session would erase the signs of the negotiation that took place between players and the DM.

Interestingly, while there is more freedom in the TRPG to come up with possible choices, there is sometimes less freedom when it actually comes to deciding which path is followed. This is another factor that is simply not accounted for in the tree structure of interactivity. Players often suggest an action that they would like their character to take, but that action will then need to be confirmed by rolling the dice. Dice rolls are made in either/or decisions where an action either succeeds or fails. The player may be able to propose any action, but the factor of chance contributes to whether or not the player is allowed to progress down that chosen path. Not only did Cuthalion need to give a good speech to convince Grumbach to withdraw his army, but Mark also had to make a successful diplomacy skill check on his twenty-sided die. In other words, he rolled a die, added the number of points he had given his character in the skill of diplomacy, and the DM decided if the combined number was enough to succeed. When dice rolls are included there is interactivity, but the choice comes from creating possible pathways rather than deciding which one to follow.

Finally, multiple pathways can simultaneously be pursued in D&D by different players. When Mary could not attend the Blaze Arrow session she decided that her character, Maureen, would go back to town. At this point her character entered an alternate plotline that none of the other characters had access to. Scott talked with Mary separately to work out the details of what happened to Maureen in town while the rest of us were dealing with the orcs. This example of a completely alternate pathway is rather extreme and does not happen often, yet smaller examples of the phenomenon can be found within the story of the orcs. The reason that Cuthalion’s speech to Grumach, despite its success, is not fully reported in the writeup in the appendix is that Whisper and Fletch were not present for the speech, and the story is written from Whisper’s point of view. At a decision point these characters chose to stay in the town while Cuthalion and David chose to confront Grumbach. Thus, the two plotlines were able to happen simultaneously, though neither decision was reversible. Depending on the situation, the player may remain and listen to what happens in a passive role as audience, but not as an active participant. I remained to hear Cuthalion’s speech, though I could not affect its outcome because my character was not present. On the other hand, Maureen’s adventures in Gateway were done behind closed doors and I was not allowed to find out the results. Thus, the model of narrative possibilities is complicated because, as Mackay (2001) also notes, each player’s experience is different due to his or her character’s position within the story (p. 86). To really create