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By Root 408 0

the TRPG setting where the creator of the character is right in front of you, pretending to be a character that has, quite possibly, a different race or a different sex. Although Mary originally played the character of Maureen, she later switched to the male character, Gareth. However, the group as a whole continued to refer to Gareth as a “she” and at the very least decided that Gareth was a very effeminate male character. Boundaries between player and character are blurred in the TRPG, in part due to the lack of a physical or visual text. This sometimes leads to over-applying the principle of minimal departure. If I were to read the description of Cuthalion created by Mark, I would realize that Cuthalion is, in fact, much shorter and older than Mark himself. However, when I picture the character of Cuthalion, it is very difficult to picture anything except Mark with more elvish features, such as pointy ears. Similarly, seeing Mary’s character as female over extends the principle of minimal departure in a way that does not happen with visual or print-based texts. What we see here, then, is that rather than being an internal logic of the APW, the medium of storytelling affects the way that we apply the principle of minimal departure and the degree to which we apply it.

Furthermore, the principle of minimal departure helps us explain why narratives, even fictional ones, might inform our views of the AW. If the way to understand the fantasy world is by placing it in relation to the AW, this process can easily be reversed and the fantasy world can be used to make sense of the AW as well. Schott (2006) gives an example of this from the game Oddworld. He cites one player’s connection between events in the game and the way African American slaves were treated (Carr et al., 2006, p. 141). This example shows the reversal of the principle of minimal departure where the player is able to apply something in the APW in order to understand something in the AW and explains previously cited claims that games can lead to greater political awareness. We can begin to see, then, why fictional narratives might still meet Bitzer’s criteria for a rhetorical situation of causing change in the world.

However, just because games hold this potential for increased understanding of the AW does not mean that the primary motivation for playing them, or the rhetorical situation that they respond to, relates to this understanding. For me, the point that TRPGs respond to such an exigence seems too clean, too simplified. It seems too much to argue that TRPGs always bring players a greater understanding of the world and their place within it. They are, after all, games—mostly played for entertainment. The above claims seem to benefit the educators in us, looking for value in a popular text. We want to show that it is valuable to learning, that it can be useful in our classroom, that it improves our lives.5 While this perspective is not altogether bad, it undercuts the way that TRPGs are actually engaged with in society. While there is often some truth in “socially marginalized” stereotypes, many gamers have successful careers and families. Many exist far more in the mainstream of society than we might imagine. Furthermore, the game may not directly add any insight into events in the AW. Rather than arguing that gamers emerge from their TRPG experience as more socially adjusted, politically aware individuals (although they might), I argue that TRPGs allow players to access their creativity and tap into the power of narrative. This power is a unifying purpose that allows us to separate the TRPG from other genres of both narratives and games.

Direct application of role-playing events to the AW may or may not happen, but some gamers find that through escaping to a fantasy world they are able to find comfort in their everyday lives. One survey participant mentioned that TRPGs helped them “be a better person then I could possibly be in real life.” Nephew (2006) argues that “role-playing allows the player to escape a sometimes harsh reality into a dreamworld