Creation of Narrative in Tabletop Role-Playing Games - Jennifer Grouling Cover [25]
In addition to the changes in the demographic, the original game created by Arneson and Gygax has gone through multiple editions and changes. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (1978) was released not long after the original D&D game, and entered its second edition in 1988 (Park and Chin, 1999). Wizards of the Coast released Dungeons and Dragons 3rd edition in 2000, followed up by Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 in 2003. At the time of this writing, D&D has just entered edition 4.0. When I asked game designer Monte Cook (personal communication) if the differences in editions changed the narrative of the game, he said that he did not believe so. He noted that there were many minor changes between editions, but in terms of changing a tale like The Temple of Elemental Evil between editions, he did not see major changes to the story. However, Cook has continued to release game products that are compatible with the 3.5 rather than the 4.0 edition. Even when editions change, gamers may still prefer older forms. Particularly in times when genres are changing, we see that older forms continue to be used because the changes in the genre may not fit with previous expectations. If they are powerful enough, the older form may persist, as tabletop games have done despite efforts to make similar computer games. So far, it seems that none of the new D&D editions has instituted changes so significant as to create a new genre, but they show that the genre has continued to change throughout time. One significant change that came with edition 3.0 was the switch to a d20 System where many key dice rolls would use a twenty-sided die. This shift simplified what were seen as overly complex rules in 2nd edition, and also mainstreamed the tabletop gaming industry. Through the Open-Game License, Wizards invited other gaming companies to also use the d20 System. Certainly, another significant change in the genre of the TRPG is the expansion of the genre away from just D&D to include role-playing in other settings. It may no longer be a 12-year-old male playing D&D (if it ever was), but a 40-year-old female playing Vampire, the Masquerade. The demographics have changed and so has the genre.
D&D has been key to the development of computer games, particularly computer role-playing games, but the original game has also continued to change. With these changes, the question remains of how to recognize a new genre when we see it. When does the new form separate itself enough from the antecedent form to be considered something new? For example, is D&D Online a change within the larger genre of role-playing, or is it a different genre altogether? Does shifting to a different medium automatically mean a shift in genre? As I continue to explore these questions in the next section, I move from a formal to a rhetorical definition of genre.
Toward a Rhetorical Definition of Genre
It seems clear that the texts discussed in chapter 1 that tabletop games, gamebooks, and text-based adventure games, all represent different genres. All three exist in different media, and follow different forms. While gamebooks and text-based adventure games were influenced by TRPGs, they are referred to by separate terms and are not similar enough to be considered the same genre. Yet, not everyone would separate out the TRPG and the CRPG as different genres. Hammer (2007),