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character to a trapped urn. This memory shows the importance of the emotional connection to character. When all other memories had faded, the loss of a character remained. For another player, who commented on it having been “a million years” since they played Temple, still remembered the setting: “I remember delving into an endless maze of rooms divided into four sections that related to the four elements—air, fire, water, earth.” For this player, the image of the temple itself seems to have embedded the deepest memories.

The response to the survey indicates that we must not assume that story is the most memorable part of Temple or what is most easily transported between media. Elements of story are certainly important, including character and setting. However, a congruent plotline is not necessarily transportable between media. Even players who had engaged with the same version of the text chose to focus on different elements of it in their narration, which lends credence to the idea that different types of players may experience a text differently, possibly even as different genres. I now turn to my own readings of the Temple module, computer game, and novel to discuss in more detail the different affordances present in these different media and the way that they work together to form a player’s experience with this well-known adventure.

Media Affordances and Versions of The Temple of Elemental Evil

When looking at the TRPG version of Temple, we have two different media to consider—the print module and the oral text created by the players. Gygax and Mentzer’s (1985) print version of the Temple module is more of a technical manual than a narrative. It does have possible narrative interludes, but there is a distinct difference between the text of the module and the story that emerges during the playing of the module. As we have seen from player comments, there is the potential for the embedded story to never completely emerge, as many early gamers seem to have focused on the combat and game-like parts of the module instead. In contrast, even if the computer game focuses primarily on combat, the story will emerge eventually through the cut-scenes and narration that the player unlocks. The relationship between the audience and the narrative, then, is far more variable in the module than in the computer game or the novel. This increased agency can lead to narrative control and exploration, but it can also lead to a rejection of story altogether.

Rather than progress as the novel does from one event in the story to the next, the module is written in four parts (sometimes referred to as T1–4). These sections include “The Village of Hommlet,” “Nulb and the Ruins,” “the Dungeon of Elemental Evil,” and “The Nodes of Elemental Evil”. Within these parts of the module, there are further divisions that are numbered according to different locations. Players may encounter these locations in any order, or not at all. At times, these encounters include read aloud text that the DM is instructed to read to the players. Often these passages describe the location, but sometimes they are also used to describe the action of NPCs that are encountered in that space. The read aloud passage on p. 93 begins with detailed description: “Atop the dais to the west is a huge throne of silver, adorned with hundreds of precious gems.” However, unlike the majority of passages, this one leads to action. A crone, seen sitting on the throne, “cringes and shrieks when you approach” (Gygax & Mentzer, 1985, p. 93). At times NPCs’ actions are narrated thusly, but this information is not always essential to the game.

There is also a great excess of information in the module. There are areas that the players will never explore, characters they will never meet, treasure they will never find. Yet, it is all detailed by Gygax and Mentzer on the possibility that it will be a direction that players choose to explore. The village of Hommlet alone includes 33 locations, some of which are extremely mundane. Other locations serve as points of initiating action where