Creation of Narrative in Tabletop Role-Playing Games - Jennifer Grouling Cover [79]
From Literature to Gaming
As noted in the introduction to this book, fantasy literature (particularly the work of Tolkien) was highly influential in the emergence of fantasy role-playing. Fine (1983) notes that shared knowledge of fantasy books and films often connects players (p. 35). Likewise, players sometimes base their characters on those from fantasy literature. For example, let’s look at the character of Cuthalion from the Sorpraedor campaign. Mark was highly influenced by Tolkien’s work and based his character on “The Silmarillion.” He was struck by the character Beleg Cuthalion from this Tolkien story. As Mark describes it, Beleg Cuthalion was a truly noble ranger who protected the elven border. Beleg became friends with a human warrior, Turin, who ended up committing evil acts because of a cursed sword. Despite this, Beleg saw the good in his friend and remained loyal, even though Turin eventually killed him. Mark was drawn to the tragedy of this story and the nobility of the character Beleg Cuthalion. However, Cuthalion in the world of Sorpradoer is not Beleg Cuthalion. Instead, Mark wrote his own story in which Beleg Cuthalion once rescued an elven town from orcs, and the village was so impressed with the elf that many of them trained to become bowman themselves. Upon reaching adulthood, the elves in this village competed for the name Cuthalion, which had basically become a title. Mark explains that his character’s true name is Ivelios but that only his village would know that name—to the rest of the world he would go by his title after the famous elf—Cuthalion.
As an isolated story, one might be able to argue that the story of Cuthalion is a work of fan fiction. Like works of fan fiction, which “rework and rewrite” a primary text by “repairing or dismissing unsatisfying aspects, [or] developing interests not sufficiently explored” (Jenkins, 1992, p. 162), Mark incorporates a key character from Tolkien’s work and tells an untold story about this character saving an elven village from the orcs. However, the main difference between fan fiction and Mark’s writing is that this story is only the backstory for Mark’s character Cuthalion, not a part of the narrative told during the actual gaming session. In the world of Sorpraedor the original Cuthalion is never even mentioned, and it is Mark’s Cuthalion that takes center stage. This Cuthalion took on a life of his own and his views quickly shifted from the Tolkien world to the world of Sorpraedor. This shift is apparent in the way that Mark describes his reaction to the Blaze Arrow adventure:
Until the day the party chose to speak with the seven entangled orcs near Blaze Arrow, Cuthalion hadn’t ever tried to parley with orcs. He didn’t think it was possible. To hear that “civilized” orcs existed was an oxymoron. To actually see an orc give his word, then work very, very hard to keep it was an astounding shock to Cuthalion’s sense of reality... Like many [Tolkiensian] elves, he “follows” a god, rather than worshipping one. But he felt so strongly off-beat about his role at Barrenstone, that he went to the temple of Ehlonna to do penance for the “sin” of negotiating peace with orcs and ogres, rather than killing them. The vision of Ehlonna reassures him that what he did was genuinely good, and reinforces his brave new world view.
We see here a shift in Cuthalion the character (and likely in Mark the player) from the expectation inherent in the Tolkien worldview. There is the expectation that orcs are evil and uncivilized. Scott liked to challenge these sorts of assumptions in the world of Sorpraedor, and we see that Mark is adjusting to that shift. This commentary on Cuthalion’s response to the Blaze Arrow story was written as a response