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of the gaming session. However, in-character speech is one level below narrative speech because it involves both the DM and the players and is thus always subject to the authoritative power of the DM (who may retract it). For example, when Whisper went to open the cursed scroll tube, Nick made a statement in-character as Fletch, saying, “No, don’t do that!” However, the DM ruled that Whisper’s action took place so quickly and by such surprise that the characters did not have time to react and thus Fletch’s speech never reached the TAW of the narrative. However, unless directly countermanded by the DM in this way, in-character speech becomes a part of the TAW and does not need to be re-stated when the DM narrates the action.

While it may seem that narrative speech is only available to the DM, there are instances where players may also engage in it. When a player is fairly certain that an action will not require a dice role, he or she will go ahead and narrate it more directly. Similarly, narrative suggestions that go unchallenged by the DM or do not need dice rolls to determine their success or failure may rise to the level of narrative speech. However, these are below narrative speech by the DM on my model because it is the DM that ultimately controls whether players’ narration becomes a part of the TAW. A player may declare, “I order some ale at the tavern.” This sort of suggestion does not usually require a dice roll and would become narrative speech. Thus, this type of speech may function as both a narrative suggestion and narrative speech. However, there might be special circumstances in which the DM would determine that a dice roll is needed. If the bartender had a grudge against this particular character and was ignoring him, the DM might ask that player to roll for diplomacy to see if he or she is able to get the attention of his unwilling host. Thus, it is ulti

mately the DM that determines whether a narrative suggestion stands as narrative speech or whether the action must be further negotiated before entering the TAW.6

In TRPGs, the amount of in-character speech varies depending on the style of play that the group of gamers prefers to engage in. In general, the Sorpraedor campaign does not involve a lot of in-character speech; however, there were several notable instances of it during the orc adventure. When Cuthalion negotiated with Grumbach, Mark delivered an incharacter speech as Cuthalion7 that was so eloquent, the DM granted him extra experience points8 for it. The DM also uses in-character speech when representing another character in the story. For example, after Cuthalion’s speech, the DM responded in-character as Grumbach. In his linguist analysis of TRPGs, Ken Lacy (2006) finds that players often mark speech as in-character by prefacing it “quotative markings,” or statement such as “I say” (p. 67). I also found this to be true of in-character speech. Even when direct quotative markings were not present, a change in intonation marked in-character speech. However, because the game world includes its own logic system, these devices are not always necessary to show when a character versus a player is being referred to.

Because narrative speech creates the TAW, it represents the top level of my model with the highest degree of narrativity. Narrative speech is most often spoken by the DM. If the DM is describing a scene, such as the scene upon entering Blaze Arrow or the Temple of Elemental Evil, the present tense may be employed to give the players a sense of temporal immersion, or if the DM is responding directly to the narrative suggestions, he or she may declare that the action in question was a success in past tense. The use of past tense here is different from the prevalence of present tense during the majority of the game. Also, as Lacy (2006) notes, the DM’s speech is more often in third person rather than first person (p. 66).

The following transcript takes place just after the previous transcript as the players meet up with Ka’Goth at the Foppish Wererat. It illustrates some of the linguistic