Creation of Narrative in Tabletop Role-Playing Games - Jennifer Grouling Cover [26]
Burn and Carr (2006) explain that genre is a tricky word to get a handle on when talking about games:
A game can simultaneously be classified according to the platform on which it is played (PC, mobile phone, XBox), the style of play it affords (multiplayer, networked, or single user, for instance), the manner in which it positions the player in relation to the game world (first person, third person, “god”), the kind of rules and goals that make up its gameplay (racing game, action adventure), or its representational aspects (science fiction, high fantasy, urban realism) [Carr et al., 2006, p. 16].
The TRPG clearly operates on a different system than other TRPGs, using pen and paper rather than a computer platform. It favors collaborative play, but those within the game shift between first person and other positions in relation to the game world. A player may have a first person relationship to the story, but the DM may be seen more as a “god.” Finally, there are TRPGs in all of the settings that Burn and Carr mention, just as there are CRPGs in these same sorts of settings. Burn and Carr (2006) argue that genre classification that looks at only one of these features is limited. However, they see the style of game play as the most important factor in determining game genre (Carr et al., 2006, p. 16).
In particular, they argue that it is a set of common ludic characteristics not a common type of setting that defines a game as a CRPG. These characteristics include the use of a character over which the gamer is given some choice, the ability of that avatar to gain experience points and skills as the player progresses through the game, the use of a team rather than a single avatar to complete challenges, and “long, journey-based narratives set within detailed and crowded worlds” (Carr et al., 2006, pp. 20–21). These elements of RPGs hold true for both computer and tabletop games and for games that are either collaborative or played alone. Even when a CRPG is played alone, that player often is responsible for multiple avatars or companions, thus meeting the criteria Burr and Carr set for focusing on a team. In addition, they note that “RPGs tend to prioritize reflection, reading and strategy over pace or spectacle” (Carr et al., 2006, p. 21). The features laid out by Burn and Carr do appear to be the sort of “family resemblances” that link together RPGs of all sorts.
However, Burn and Carr’s (2006) definition of the RPG genre does not account for one very important factor—why people play the game. Current theories of genre, particularly within the field of rhetoric, have focused on purpose over form. According to Jonathan Swales (1990), “a genre comprises a class of communicative events, the members of which share some set of communicative purposes” (p. 58). When I posed a question on a role-players’ blog asking the differences between computer and tabletop RPGs, the fifteen users who responded agreed that there were major differences between the two forms and that playing both met different needs. One user directly states “different needs are fulfilled by each.” Another agrees that “you play each one for different reasons.” For Swales, purpose is “the principal criterial feature that turns a collection of communication events into a genre” (Swales 46), and the users’ comments above seem to indicate that the TRPG does indeed fulfill a different purpose than the CRPG.
In order to assess what that purpose might be, I continued by asking the members of the role-playing forum what kept them playing both games. I repeated this question in an online survey completed by 65 roleplayers. Participants