Creation of Narrative in Tabletop Role-Playing Games - Jennifer Grouling Cover [61]
At the beginning of this transcript, we see the group going back and forth both planning what is next and stating their actions. Mark states, in present tense, that he is going with Mary. However, I state in future tense that I will go with Mary. Mary seems to be in the frame of planning as well as she expresses uncertainty over whether or not this part of the story is one that the group as a whole would like to pursue or whether it is something for her character to do alone. When we reach line 12, however, there is a clear move to narrative suggestion. Mark no longer states his individual intent, but speaks for the party and their decided action: “We go clubbing.” The DM then proceeds with narrative speech describing the journey to the Foppish Wererat. Because going “clubbing” is not the sort of thing that requires a dice role to confirm, this narrative suggestion skips over this stage and becomes a part of the narrative.
If dice rolling is necessary, the player moves to that level on the chart. Dice rolling acts are higher in their degree of narrativity because once the dice are rolled, there is usually no going back to the point of suggestion. A player will call out the dice rolled, such as “I got a 23,” and the DM will respond by narrating the action within the narrative itself, “You hit the orc.” A narrative suggestion may lead to a dice roll or may be overturned by the DM. Alex may say, “I cast the spell entangle on the orcs” as a narrative suggestion, but the DM may state, “Your character doesn’t know that spell,” thus preventing this narrative suggestion from taking root in the narrative frame. More likely, however, the DM would state, “Roll the dice to see if you hit.” At this point the success or failure of the dice roll will then determine what happens in the narrative.
The Narrative Frame
Once the players begin to discuss things in-game as characters, they begin to compose the textual world. The narrative frame differs from the game frame because it involves the actual construction of the textual world. It thus possesses the greatest level of narrativity. This frame is made up of in-character speech and narrative speech. Cook-Gumperz (1992) refers to moments when the player takes on the voice of the character as “in-character speech” (p. 184). In addition to in-character speech, the TAW consists of narrative and descriptive utterances spoken by the DM. CookGumperz (1992) observed similar types of speech in the children’s games. Instances when the children actually narrated the story they were creating are examples of “narrative speech.” Cook-Gumperz (1992) found that when the children explained events as if they were telling a story, they maintained a “reading tone”; an even tone with careful word enunciation (p. 184). I also observed this type of tone when the DM narrated the action of the D&D adventure. At these times, the DM is often granted a longer turn of talk, which is characteristic of narrative speech. In the case of a pre-written module, the DM may literally be reading as certain passages in these adventures are often set aside for the DM to read directly to the players. As mentioned in the previous chapter, these accounts can also contain description, such as when the DM described the scene at Blaze Arrow. However, even these descriptive scenes can be seen as temporally motivated. The description of Blaze Arrow tells the story of the battle that happened before the party arrived. Passages like this both describe the scene and advance the “plot” of the story.
In-character speech and narrative speech possess the highest levels of narrativity because they are the TAW formed by the oral discourse