Creation of Narrative in Tabletop Role-Playing Games - Jennifer Grouling Cover [69]
Just as in Murray’s (1998) notion of temporal immersion, the degree that the player has control over his or her character also increases the emotional immersion. Author and D&D player Shelly Mazzanoble (2007) clearly demonstrates this connection in her book Confessions of a Part-Time Sorceress. The title alone makes the connection between Shelly and her sorceress character, Astrid. When Mazzanoble (2007) describes creating her character, she immediately identifies with her in a motherly sort of way: “Cradling my mini me in the palm of my hand, I realized that D&D isn’t just a game—it’s a lesson in DNA” (p. 39). She talks of her creation as “a new life” that she has created and sometimes refers to herself as her character’s mother.
Creating a character is one of the times when the player has the most control over the game. In the Sorpraedor campaign, both Cuthalion and Maureen had elaborate backstories. Mark created multi-paged files detailing the lineage of Cuthalion and his elven heritage. Mary also decided that she wanted her character to have an interesting backstory; however, she collaborated more with Scott in order to make her character’s story fit in with the campaign.3 Even though players have a lot of control, that’s not to say that nothing is left to chance. Dice rolling can come into play when creating a character as well. In D&D, each character has ability scores such as strength, wisdom, and dexterity. These scores are often determined by rolling dice, although the player can determine which roll serves for which score. Another method for determining ability scores is to give players a certain number of points that can be distributed among the ability scores as the player sees fit (Tweet et al., 2003). Sometimes these points may help a player determine the backstory of a character. For example, if one roll is particularly low, the player may assign that to a certain ability score and then come up with a backstory to explain why that character is particularly deficient in that area. Perhaps the character has an extremely low charisma because he or she grew up in a very isolated part of the forest with little human interaction. In the game reality, the score may be low because of a poor roll on the dice, but adding backstory to explain it allows for greater emotional immersion on the part of the player.
In addition to initially creating a character, players continually get to outfit their characters. As characters progress in the game, they gain levels and additional abilities. For example, every few levels, the character gets an extra point to add to one of the ability scores. A DM may ask players to explain these additional skills in terms of the story in the game. For example, a wizard may need to explain and possibly role-play how he encountered a higher level mage that taught him a new spell. More often than not, however, these upgrades are more a matter of game mechanics than story. In addition, players may find or buy items to outfit their characters as they go. At times this may become a part of the role-playing, such as when Mary’s character Gareth decided to have her musical instrument imbued with magical abilities. The viola, as seen in the story at the beginning of this chapter, developed its own powers and actually became intelligent, adding a whole new element to the story. However, in the case of more standard items, players often assume they can purchase them at store in town and do not spend time narrating this part of the story. Nevertheless, outfitting a character can also add to the emotional immersion that connects player and character. While the Player’s Handbook provides the option of a starting package with standard equipment for each new player, Mazzanoble (2007) relates this option to “sitting on a bench outside of JC Penney with the elderly husbands waiting for their wives to finish shopping” (p. 67). Some players may opt for pretty standard equipment, but those who really become involved emotionally with their characters may find outfitting