Creation of Narrative in Tabletop Role-Playing Games - Jennifer Grouling Cover [31]
In light of the aforementioned scholars’ practice of defining genres based on common terminology, the names used in the history of the RPG become significant. The distinction between TRPGs and CRPGs does not come from scholarship, but from the gaming community itself. The term role-playing is used by both computer and tabletop gamers alike, but when communities do intersect and a distinction is necessary, the RPG label is most commonly reserved for the tabletop gamers. For example, conventions often separate their gaming schedules into “computer games,” “Live Action Role Plays (LARPs)” and “RPGs.” Not only do gamers acknowledge that they have different purposes in mind when playing TRPGs than when playing other games, but they refer to their activities by different names. Because the community of gamers recognizes the TRPG as a distinct genre that both uses different tools and has a different desired outcome from computer games, it would be irresponsible for scholars not to respect this differentiation.
However, one danger with genre theory is the tendency to universalize what may not be universal. It is difficult to say that the purpose of every gamer who plays in a TRPG is to gain a sense of narrative agency. Different types of gamers exist who prefer to focus on different aspects of the game. This issue of compatibility is one that participants in my survey brought up as a difficulty when finding people to play with face-toface. In this way, the very concept of a genre becomes problematic because individual users’ experiences may be quite different from one another.3 Burn and Carr (2006) recognize that player expectations often determine the style of play. They note that the CRPG Anarchy Online served as a means of role-play for some audiences, but others outright rejected the possibilities for role-play and preferred to focus on the features of the game that resembled first person shooters (p. 28). Murray (1998) also notes that the same game can serve different purposes depending on the point of view of the player. She explains that the computer game SimCity, a simulation game in which users create and maintain their own city, was viewed very differently by a couple who both played it. The husband saw it as an engineering problem while the wife saw a narrative emerging in the lives of the townspeople in her city (Murray, 1998, p. 88). The husband and the wife imposed different generic conceptions on the text in order to achieve different purposes; perhaps because they drew on their knowledge of different antecedent genres.
Nevertheless, I maintain that the common purpose of narrative agency frees us from the trap that this audience-focused approach throws us. Not only do players have narrative agency to change the story, but they have textual agency; what Hammer (2007) defines as control over the text (p. 73). In the case of the TRPG, the text can be seen as both the rule books and other printed materials, and the text of the face-to-face gaming session. Players can adjust the text, even the rules, to fit their expectations. This agency allows a group that prefers to delve into character interaction, such as the Sorpraedor group, to do so. Meanwhile, a group such as the RPGA group I witnessed, can focus on conflict resolution and combat. Certain social situations may be more likely to elicit certain types of play. For example, modules may lend themselves more easily to combat and tactical oriented play, but the flexibility is there for the group to take advantage of. Diametrically opposed players may not function well together, but the truth is that most players fall in the middle of the spectrum in terms of preferred style, and that negotiation in the TRPG allows for game play that meets a variety of interests. The TRPG as a generic form gives players agency to define the form of their game, their social interaction, and the narrative that results.
Whether or not the players take full advantage of this agency depends on the group.