Part 1 (1/2)

The Creation of Narrative in Tabletop Role-Playing Games.

Jennifer Grouling Cover.

Preface and Acknowledgments.

It was the fall of 2003, and my first semester of graduate school. I signed up for a course called aDiscourse a.n.a.lysis,a thinking it had something to do with Foucault. As it turned out, it was really a methods course in linguistics, and when my professora”David Hermana”told us we needed to tape record a conversation, I had the perfect idea: I would record part of a session from my Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) group. I signed up to present to the cla.s.s under the unit called anarrative a.n.a.lysis,a thinking my recording would be a perfect fit. I quickly came up against the traditional linguistic definitions of narrativea”that it was a story, told about an event in the past by a narrator to a narratee. aMaybe itas not a narrative,a David Herman said in reference to my D&D transcript. But as I sat there week after week engrossed in the story of Whisper and her companions in the world of Sorpraedor, I knew that at least part of what kept me interested was the story I was experiencing. And thus, I continued to attempt to reconcile my personal experience with the narrative theory that drew my academic attention.

My course project turned into other course projects, including a seminar paper for Carolyn Milleras rhetorical criticism cla.s.s where I first tested out some of my ideas on the rhetoric exigence behind the tabletop role-playing game. These course projects turned into a thesis, under the direction of David Herman, David Rieder, and Mike Carter. I can not thank my committee enough for their input in this process. It was one the most rewarding writing experiences, and when David Herman suggested that my thesis had the potential for a book, I was floored. After my defense, I went out and bought some s.h.i.+ny new dice for my D&D game.

At times, I wished that, like my sorceress Whisper, I could have summoned some magic energies, perhaps a polymorph spell, to magically transform the thesis into a book length project. Of course, I found it wasnat that simple. However, with the help of many people, I was able to complete what really is a transformation. I added ma.s.sive amounts of research to this book project, I completely rewrote nearly everything, and I even changed some of my ideas.

I would first and foremost like to thank my research partic.i.p.ants. From those anonymous gamers who completed a survey to my long-time gaming companions, this book is about you and in many ways by you. Even if your names do not appear here, your words and your stories do. I hope I have represented you well.

Then there were those who accompanied me on my writing journey. Like in D&D, some companions were with me all the way, while others came and went. My officemate Dan Lawson was rather like an oracle, who I consulted multiple times over the course of the book in times of need. We talked about ideas, and he directed me to several key sources.

Patrick Johnson was the equivalent of the fellow adventurer met in a tavern in the D&D world, who says, awhat is your quest?a And when you tell him, responds, aCool. Can I come along?a I met Pat in line for lunch at the Writing Program Administrators (WPA) conference in July 2009 as I was finis.h.i.+ng this book, and our conversation quickly turned to my research and D&D. Pat kindly volunteered to provide additional feedback on one of my revised chapters.

There were others who helped me out along the way, from Professor Brian Epstein, who fielded my questions about possible-worlds theory to my many professors at Virginia Tech who were flexible with my Ph.D. work while I was writing and who answered any number of questions on publis.h.i.+ng and book writing. There are my parents, who raised me to be an academic and a writer, and my husband who is the backbone of this book. Scott not only got me interested in D&D, but also pushed me to continue my academic work on the topic. He has held my hand when I was frustrated, and celebrated with me when I was excited, and is the main reason this book exists. Without the support of these people, I could not have completed this project.

Finally, there are those who would be considered members of my adventuring party, had this book been a D&D campaign. Dean Browell and Tim Lockridge are two of the smartest, most talented people I know, and I was extremely fortunate to have their feedback through the entire course of writing this book. Dean, who wrote a dissertation on World of Warcraft, served as my aMMORPG police,a helping me see beyond D&D to where my book might interact with videogame research. Tim is everything one could ask for in a readera”he is the type of guy that finds the loose thread in your writing, pulls on it just hard enough that everything starts to fall apart, and then hands you what you need to sew it back up again. This book is inordinately better because of his feedback.

However, all of these efforts would be in vain if it werenat for youa” my reader. Whether you are a gamer, a researcher, or just a curious onlooker, I invite you to take an active role as you read this book. I have tried here to write a book that will be useful in multiple disciplines, and it is my hope that it will help spur discussion about tabletop role-playing in multiple forums. Whatever your position in relation to this text, I hope that I have shown here that your voice counts. I have been told multiple times by multiple people that Iam not supposed to write a book yet, that as a graduate student I adonat have a book in me.a As the physical artifact in your hand provesa”I did. Likewise, I believe that you, my reader, has something to say, and I, for one, would like to hear it.

Introduction: Defining the Tabletop Role-Playing Game.

You approach the Blaze Arrow outpost. The bastion that guards the frontier of the city of Gateway is silent except for the distant cry of gathering carrion birds. You notice that the ground around the outpost has been scarred by the hobnailed feet of dozens of invaders. The three-story tower is surrounded by a now broken gate. The smell of burning orcish flesh, the smell of death, profanes the air. As you enter the gate, you find the remains of a ballista that once defended the outpost. Another rests farther in, still fully loaded, its human operator dead beside it. All in all, twelve human bodies lie around, evidence of the attack that took place only hours ago. It appears the victors have suffered losses as well, but their dead have undergone the cremation rituals known to exist in orcish societies. There are also orc bodies piled up and smoldering. Yet the process seems to have been done quickly and was perhaps not completed. Some remains of orcish clothing and some s.h.i.+elds have been left behind. They are marked with the symbol of a b.l.o.o.d.y hand, which you recognize as the sign of the Blood Fist tribe of orcs.

What do you do?

The pa.s.sage above is very similar to one that was told on a Sunday afternoon around a kitchen table during a session of the Sorpraedor Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) role-playing campaign. Yet, it fails to represent the complexity of tabletop role-playing games (TRPGs). No one pa.s.sage can represent the complexity of player interaction, textual manipulation, or cultural significance of the TRPG. For those of you who are familiar with the game, this pa.s.sage might bring up memories of your own gaming session. For those who are less familiar with gaming, you may be wondering how this story is different from any other story told in any other medium. Whatever your relations.h.i.+p to the game, this book is intended offer a scholarly look at TRPGs that highlights both their complex narrative and social structure.

If you are unfamiliar with TRPGs, you may first be wondering what exactly happens in a gaming session. As the book progresses, we will see that the answer is more complex than it first appears; however, I offer a brief introduction here. As suggested by the name, TRPGs are played faceto-face (around a table, most likely), and involve players aacting outa a role. This acting is not always literal. Players do not arrive in costume or speak exclusively in-charactera”something that differentiates TRPGs from live-action role-playing games (LARPs). Instead, players develop characters based on certain rules and are responsible for deciding what those characters do over the course of the game. The DM, or dungeon mastera” now called the gamemaster (GM) in some TRPGsa”develops a setting where the game takes place, a basic storyline, and any characters not being represented by the players of the game. The DM presents the players with situations, such as the one above, and asks the players, aWhat do you do?a at which point the players offer up actions for their characters. Many of these situations, referred to as encounters, involve fighting a monster or an evil villain. Most TRPGs also involve rolling dice to see whether certain actions succeed, and some involve positioning miniature figures on a battle map. Games may be played over the course of years, where a group continually meets to extend the same story with the same characters time after time, or they can be played over a few hours (usually at least four) as a one time endeavor. There is no awinninga in a TRPG, although characters do gain experience points for completing certain challenges, and in an ongoing game, these experience points allow the player to continue building his or her character. However, these challenges are met as a group, not as individuals.

TRPGs were introduced in 1974, and by the year 2000 they comprised a two billion-dollar industry (Dancey 2000). In addition, they have influenced countless other enterprises from other games to novels and movies. Despite their widely recognized influence, there is limited scholars.h.i.+p specifically on TRPGs. Gary Fineas ethnographic study Shared Fantasy (1983) lays a useful foundation for studying the TRPG and gaming culture, but is now outdated. In the past 27 years, there have been changes to both the D&D game itself as well as the community of gamers. Daniel Mackay builds on Fineas study in his 2001 book, The Fantasy Role-Playing Game, and s.h.i.+fts to view the TRPG as performance art. Mackayas study is useful in terms of looking at the TRPG as an aesthetic text and as a process-performance but does not include a specific discussion of the TRPG as a genre or relate it to other games. More recent work has continued to place the TRPG alongside other fantasy games in terms of cultural significance. Gaming as Culture: Essays on Reality, Ident.i.ty and Experience in Fantasy Games (Williams et al., 2006) features several essays that focus on aspects of the TRPG from gender and ident.i.ty issues1 to specific linguistic a.n.a.lysis.2 These texts can be said to be foundational; however, with games studies (not to be confused with game theory) emerging as its own discipline, more work clearly needs to be done on such a fundamental game as D&D. Some have called this new discipline ludology, but have limited it to the study of videogames rather than all games; not only has scholars.h.i.+p left TRPGs in the dust, but so have those seeking to define the boundaries of games studies as a discipline. Furthermore, the study of TRPGs serves an important role in the context of other scholars.h.i.+p as these games are highly complex, both in terms of narrative structure and their social interaction. Fineas book focuses on sociology, and Mackayas on performance studies. I engage with narrative, linguistic, cultural, and writing studies in this book, although, as a scholar I primarily identify with the disciplines of rhetoric and composition. The breadth of scholarly attention to the TRPG makes this project both exciting and challenging. In this book, I seek to explore multiple frameworks for the study of the TRPG rather than limit it to the purview of any one discipline. Thus, a central concern of this text is developing a way of talking about the TRPG that transcends disciplinary lines by seeing where disciplinary frameworks are useful, and where they are not.

In particular, I am concerned with the concept of genre and medium in relation to TRPGs and other games. Because so much scholarly attention has been given to videogames, I look at the differences between TRPGs and other games. Do theories about computer role-playing apply to the TRPG or should these texts be studied separately? How do we define genres for texts that function on multiple levels? What counts as a narrative when stories operate in different media? What might draw a person to a certain genre or medium over another? While my own study must be limited in scope, I suggest a possible framework for future study of TRPGs, and possibly other games, as rhetoric. Rhetorical study has so far not figured prominently in game studies; however, I believe it offers a way to meld semiotic and social issues currently being discussed in the field and thus opens the boundaries of this work in a meaningful way.

Situating the TRPG.

In order to further understand the differences and connections between TRPGs and other games and also other types of texts, it is important to look in greater depth at the origins of the TRPG. It all started with the release of Dungeons and Dragons in 1974. The idea for D&D began when Dave Arneson, a fan of the Lord of the Rings fantasy novels, introduced Tolkien-like fantasy elements into his war games and s.h.i.+fted the focus from controlling entire armies to controlling a single character (Mackay, 2001, p. 15). Mackayas account of D&Das origins clearly aligns the text with two different traditions: a gaming tradition and a literary tradition. In terms of antecedent genres to the TRPG, then, we have both war-gaming and fantasy novels.

If we look at the gaming tradition, it is clear that D&D emerged from war games, which involve enacting battles between armies, usually with a large battle map and many miniature figures. According to Mackay (2001), the first war game evolved from War Chess in 1811. Herr von Reiswitz created a war-strategy game called Kriegspiel with the purpose of educating Prussian military officers. In this game, miniature battlefields showed the terrain and counters represented troops; dice rolls added a degree of random chance in determining the way in which the battle progressed (Mackay, 2001, p. 13). War games moved from military use into the popular sphere in the latea”Victorian era, when H.G. Wells created a popular game called Little Wars. Little Wars replaced counters with miniature figures to represent soldiers (Mackay, 2001, p. 13). War games are still popular today, particularly Games Workshopas Warhammer series.3 D&D did not replace war games any more than computer games have replaced TRPGs, yet we can see that the optional use of battle map, miniatures, and dice reflect the war gaming side of TRPGsa history.

In addition to being fascinated with medieval war gaming, co-creator of D&D Dave Arneson was fascinated by the fantasy worlds created in J.R.R. Tolkienas Lord of the Rings trilogy (Mackay, 2001, p. 15). Although its creators later denied the direct influence of Tolkienas work, the D&D world consists of character cla.s.ses similar to those found in Tolkien such as a fighter, a wizard, and a rogue. The character races include humans, elves, and halflings (which were originally called hobbits but had to be changed to avoid copyright infringement). By incorporating the fantasy of Tolkien into these gaming worlds, Arneson also made significant changes in the relations.h.i.+p between gaming and literature. TRPGs became, in many ways, a response to literature and a way of interacting in literary worlds. The characters that resulted from Arnesonas initial attempt at roleplaying were endowed with magical weapons and spell-casting abilities, and their enemies evolved into amythical creatures such as dragonsa much like the characters found in fantasy novels (Mackay, 2001, p. 15). Thus, players were given a way to interact with fantasy worlds by playing their own heroes in those worlds. Soon after incorporating these elements of fantasy into his war gaming, Arneson teamed up with fellow war-gamer and fantasy buff Gary Gygax. In 1974 they published the first copy of the Dungeons and Dragons rule book (Mackay, 2001, p. 15).

Acknowledging both the antecedent game genre (war games) and the antecedent literary genre (fantasy) is important to showing the dual nature of the TRPG. As I will argue later, TRPGs are difficult to categorize because they are both games and narratives, thus breaking down a binary that both narrative theorists and ludologists often cling to. Perhaps one of the most significant advances that D&D made possible was a reimagining of the ways that stories and games interact. While D&D was the first of its kind, similar games (often also based on fantasy or science fiction literature) emerged as TRPGs. Among these are Vampire the Masquerade, based on the vampire mythos; Call of Cthulhu, based on H.P. Lovecraft; Babylon5 and Star Trek TRPGs, based on the sci-fi television series; and Champions, based on comic book characters.

Defining the TRPG isnat easy, but letas start by looking more specifically at the rather uncontroversial notion that the TRPG is a type of game. What does it mean to cla.s.sify something as a game? Ludwig Wittgenstein (1958) asks, What is common to them all?a”Donat say: aThere must be something in common, or they would not be called gamesaa”but look and see whether there is anything common to all.a”For if you look at them you will not see something that is common to all, but similarities, relations.h.i.+ps, and a whole series of them at that [p. 31].

These similarities, which Wittgenstein goes on to describe as afamily resemblancesa (p. 32), offer a good starting point for defining the TRPG. Often when studying games, or the even a narrower category such as role-playing games, it is difficult to find one thread that connects them all. While looking for connections is admirable and necessary, in terms of genre studies the lack of differentiation made by scholars is sometimes troubling.

A good example of this may be found in some of the early work on computer games. In his book Cybertext (1997), Espen Aa.r.s.eth comments that many MUDs (Multi User Dungeons) facilitate aDungeons and Dragons style gaminga (p. 146). Yet, he never explains what athe Dungeons and Dragons stylea is, and gamers are quick to recognize that even within a single game it is difficult to pinpoint one particular style. In addition, Aa.r.s.eth calls D&D a aboard gamea (p. 98). Some board games may have a similar structure to TRPGs, but they have more static game mechanics and always include a physical component such as a board and figures.4 The use of a battle map and miniature figures might be seen as a connection to board games; however, these are not mandatory features of TRPGs as they are for board games. Thus, D&D cannot be considered a board game. In fact, the use of a battle map and figures is actually more in line with war games than board games, a distinction that is important when looking back to the history of TRPGs. Scholars, in general, have been guilty of evoking gaming terms without acknowledging the history of individual games or the differences between them.

Although games have a lot of differences, we can continue to look for the resemblances that Wittgenstein calls for. One might say that one such resemblance is an element of chance; another that all games follow a set of rules. Indeed, an element of chance is often added to role-playing through the use of dice rolls. However, like miniature figures, dice are also optional in the TRPG. The Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) showed that 76 percent of gamers used some sort of detailed chart, though not necessarily a battle map; only 56 percent used miniatures; and 33 percent of TRPGs were dice-less. Furthermore, as many as 80 percent of those surveyed said their gaming group followed house rules (Dancey 2000). Simply trying to link together all TRPGs, let alone all games, is problematic. Gamers who play in their home rather than at official tournaments may alter rules and often gamers continue to play with older versions of the rules even when new rule books are released. These variations make it difficult to establish the relations.h.i.+p between TRPGs and more traditional, tightly rule-bound, games.5 How, then, do we define the TRPG? If we canat link it closely with other games, what is it that makes one TRPG resemble another?

Mackay (2001) defines the tabletop role-playing game as an episodic and partic.i.p.atory story-creation system that includes a set of quantified rules that a.s.sist a group of players and a gamemaster in determining how their fictional charactersa spontaneous interactions are resolved [pp. 4a”5].

This definition further defines the TRPG within the broader category of RPGs. For example, most CRPGs do not include the gamemaster, which is key to Mackayas definition.6 Although they can be played in a single session, TRPGs are often played by a group of partic.i.p.ants who meet on a regular basis. In this case, TRPGs are episodic because each session can be seen as an episode in a story that continues to develop. Even when a game consists of a single session, there are often multiple tasks, or episodes, that lead up to the climax of the story. In this story, each player partic.i.p.ates by controlling the character that he or she has created. The gamemaster (GM) also partic.i.p.ates in the creation of the story by setting up the storyworld and the situations that these characters encounter, as well as controlling any non-player characters (NPCs). Rule books such as The Playeras Handbook and The Dungeon Masteras Guide (for D&D) provide rules that a.s.sist partic.i.p.ants in creating and controlling their storyworld. These books create the system that is used to structure the game.

Naturally, this explanation is somewhat oversimplified. The dungeon master (DM) or gamemaster,7 for example, might not create the storyworld but might use a pre-prepared module or setting published by Wizards of the Coast or another gaming company. Likewise, an adventure module might even come with pre-made characters rather than having players generate them. However, a gamemaster still partic.i.p.ates by adapting that setting to the players and situations presented in that gaming session, and the players still partic.i.p.ate by controlling the actions of their characters. As previously mentioned, home rules may be inst.i.tuted in a particular game; however, rules continue to exist and guide players and DMs. In subsequent chapters, I will explore some of the differences in authors.h.i.+p and partic.i.p.ation among different types of TRPG sessions; however, I maintain that Mackayas definition is broad enough to encompa.s.s these variations.

Looking at this definition of the TRPG enables us to situate it in relation to other texts. TRPGs are episodic, but so are television shows and many computer games. They are partic.i.p.atory, but again, so are computer games. Pretty much every game, whether computerized or not, can be considered a system that uses rules, although those rules may vary from game to game or even player to player. Characters are present in nearly every kind of narrative. From this definition alone, we can see that TRPGs overlap with several different categories, including both narrative and game. However, it is the interaction between the players and the gamemaster that sets this form apart.

Game designer Andrew Rilstone also sees the interaction between player and DM, and the goal of that interaction, as the defining characteristics of the TRPG. In his 1994 introductory essay for the Inter*action magazine, aRole-Playing Games: An Overview,a Rilstone defines the TRPG as aa formalized verbal interaction between a referee and a player or players, with the intention of producing a narrative.a The DM, which Rilstone calls the referee, sets up the story and the world that the game will focus on. Often times this setting is as basic as a dungeon populated with monsters, but it can be as complex as a complete world. The DM presents a situation, such as the one presented in the epigraph, and asks the players awhat do you do?a The players, who create and manage characters in the world, respond with aI do [such and such].a For Rilstone, this form of interaction and its goal of producing a narrative is what sets TRPGs apart as a distinct form. Even still, this definition seems rather tentative as the interaction between a DM and a player may vary considerably depending on the individual group and game, just as the interaction between a teacher and student may vary greatly depending on the cla.s.sroom.

To what degree is definition and cla.s.sification a necessary prerequisite to studying games and to what extent must our definitions and cla.s.sifications come from our studies? Although I have cited previous definitions of TRPGs that I believe to be valid, I donat believe that they alone explain the complexities of TRPGs. Therefore, one aim of this book is to further define and categorize the TRPG. In addition, I believe the struggle to define a text such as this may pose questions for methods of defining and categorizing other texts as well, particularly other games. Thus, I also aim to address larger issues surrounding the nature of texts and the way we define them, particularly in terms of narrative, genre, and rhetorical studies.

Research Samples.

Many previous studies on gaming are ethnographic in nature. Although traditionally ethnography has involved a researcher looking at an unfamiliar culture, it seems to be more common in the field of game studies that researchers a.n.a.lyze cultures that they are already a part of. Mackay (2001) a.n.a.lyzes his own role-playing group as do many of the authors in the Gaming as Culture (2006) essay compilation. There are several reasons for this trend. In many cases, a great deal of ainsidera knowledge is needed not only to play these games but also to a.n.a.lyze them. Therefore, it is advantageous to have a researcher who is familiar with both the rules and norms of game play and the gaming subculture. In addition, while a computer game can easily be purchased and played alone or with others online, TRPGs often involve groups that develop over time and are by invitation only.8 Thus, researchers who have experience with a gaming community are in a better position to conduct studies than those who are not. In keeping with previous research I, too, base my study on examples from my own gaming experience.

However, as with ethnography in general, one experience may prove idiosyncratic and not generalizable, and thus not particularly useful for answering definitional questions. Therefore, I draw on multiple gaming experiences, both mine and others, as well as textual a.n.a.lysis for this book. As a result, I am more familiar with some of my research partic.i.p.ants than others. The home game of Sorpraedor, which I draw on heavily in this book, consisted of friends and my spouse, who was the DM in charge of the game. Although it would be nave to call such methods completely objective, I believe the advantage gained by this insider knowledge outweighs any bias that may be present in this study. In contrast, I had never met any of the gamers I worked with at the D&D Experience tournament, Worldwide D&D Game Day, and NC State Game Day, and these multiple experiences add balance to the current study. While each of these experiences is unique, I seek to present a comparison that will be more applicable to future studies than a single case study would be.

A common way to play TRPGs is to organize a gaming group, a number of people who meet on a regular basis to advance the same TRPG adventure. Such adventures are referred to as campaigns, and the characters, known as player characters, form a party. My first research sample comes from the Sorpraedor campaign, which began in the spring of 2002 and continued until 2006. The world of Sorpraedor was created by DM Scott Cover and has involved various players, though a stable group of five played twice a month from January 2003 through September 2004. In September 2004, one player moved away and in February 2005 two other players left the game. While new players replaced them, with new characters, the overall story arc remained continuous for the entire four years. In addition to some variation in players, when a character in the story dies, the corresponding player often continues playing with a new character. This has happened several times in the Sorpraedor world. In fact only one character, Whisper (my character), remained stable in the game world from its creation in 2002 to the end of the campaign in 2006.

While I draw on my experiences throughout the Sorpraedor campaign, I offer several specific samples as representative of our game play. The first of these is the narrative of Blaze Arrow that spanned several gaming sessions from the end of January to the end of February 2003. The appendix includes the full written story of this episode as I composed it after the gaming sessions. This narrative was originally written to report events in the Sorpraedor world for a player who had not been able to attend a gaming session, and was written before I began this research project. As such, I leave it in the original form as a research sample from the Sorpraedor campaign. For the second sample, I recorded and a.n.a.lyzed several hours from a session in October 2003, and snippets of this transcript serve as data in chapter 5. Even before I began officially gathering data as a researcher I was the group note-taker and had compiled detailed notes from most of our gaming sessions, which were useful to me as both a gamer and a researcher. In addition to these notes, I draw on notes that Scott took as the DM and email conversations saved between Scott and other players. Finally, I include interviews with several members of the gaming group to ask specific questions about their experiences.

Throughout my a.n.a.lysis I refer to both characters and players in the game, depending on whether the situation involved the character or the player. Note that other than myself and Scott (the DM) the names of my fellow players are pseudonyms. Because of my familiarity with these players and characters from years of campaigning, I often refer to them by name and thus offer an introduction to them here. When I refer to both player and character at the same time, I include the player name followed by the character name. The characters in the campaign at the time of the sample were as follows: a Whisper (played by myself): a 17-year-old human sorceress whose mother is a dragon. Her magical powers are innate, and as she grows older she develops more magical powers and more dragon-like features and abilities.

a Maureen (played by Mary): a human thief who led a hard life, but is always open for more adventures.

a David (played by Alex): a halfling ranger; a creature of the woods who believes strongly in his principles.

a Cuthalion (played by Mark): an elven ranger; who is extremely talented with a bow and arrow.

a Fletch (played by Nick): a human fighter; the strong silent type.

a Gareth (played by Mary): a bard with an intelligent viola who replaced Maureen as Maryas character.