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between TRPGs and possible-world theory. Possible-worlds theory originally comes from the study of philosophy and logic. It helps explain how someone can say, “If it rains tomorrow, I will wear my jacket” when the current situation does not involve rain. Logically, the speaker can think of a world where it will rain. That world is not the present state of reality, but based on previous reality, the speaker is able to logically think of a possible world where there is rainy weather.1 This theory has been appropriated by fiction scholars in order to show how we can logically explain the truth within fictional worlds. The actual world is current reality. Possible worlds are everything else.2 We are able to understand the storyworld because of our comparison with our own actual world. We recognize that things are true in this possible world that may not be true in the actual world because we recognize the logic of that storyworld. Thus, possible-world theory accounts for the idea of truth in fictional stories.

Daniel Punday (2005) also makes the connection between possible worlds and tabletop role-playing, however, he ultimately uses TRPGs to help define concepts within possible-world theory rather than to create a model for future study of the TRPG. It is important to note, as Punday (2005) does, that possible-world theory does not consider the way that an author creates a world but the logic that governs these worlds apart from an author’s intentions (p. 129). Regardless of what an author conceives, a reader will be able to understand certain things about a world because of the logic inherent in narrative and in narrative worlds.3

I find that possible-world theory is especially useful in the case of the TRPG because it does not just involve a storyworld created by an author but multiple worlds with their own logic rules that are referenced and understood by players in a TRPG session. The multiple frames that Fine (1984), Mackay (2001) and Hendricks (2006) use for the TRPG can be seen as different possible worlds. They all contain their own systems of logic, and players are able to shift between the worlds without confusion because of these separately functioning logic systems.

For understanding this particular use of possible-world theory, I draw on terms used by Ryan (1991) in her book Possible Worlds, Artificial Intelligence, and Narrative Theory. These terms prove useful for explaining the different worlds referenced in the TRPG and thus I give an outline of them here (see figure 2). There can be only one actual world (AW), which is the current physical reality. However, multiple alternate possible worlds (APWs) can exist and are treated as AWs in fictional stories. These APWs, however, are not narratives in and of themselves. Instead they hold the potential for many stories, as does the AW. The text reference world (TRW) is the APW that the text refers to, while the textual actual world (TAW) presents the view of the TRW that the author projects (Ryan, 1991, p. vii). Thus, the TRW is one of many APWs. Finally, Ryan (1991) also includes a category for the narratorial actual world (NAW), which is the view of the TRW provided by the narrator (p. vii).

This separation between author and narrator can be useful when looking at fiction. At times, the view of a narrator does indeed work against the view of an author. This distinction is more important if we look at TRPGs that build on published campaign modules and settings. In this case, the TRW might also refer to worlds such as Ptolus or Forgotten Realms that are created as references for the Dungeon Master (DM) to use. When the DM then reads a passage directly from a module, one might say that the TAW becomes the NAW because the text in then narrated. A clearer distinction exists between the TAW and the NAW in games that utilize a pre-generated module than in those where the DM is also the creator of the world because textual worlds exist in print outside of the gaming session, making them separate from narrative worlds. For a home campaign such as Sorpraedor when the