Part 5 (1/2)
Throughout this book, I have argued that TRPGs defy certain binary oppositions. They are neither wholly games nor wholly narratives but use structures of both games and narratives. They are neither wholly immersive nor wholly interactive but, rather, both immersive and interactive. They both involve consumerism (buying rule books, etc) and rebellion against it (creating stories with no physical form). They complicate our understanding of the relations.h.i.+p between authors and audiences, and our definitions of these terms. Furthermore, the study of the TRPG challenges our disciplinary boundaries as such work does not clearly fall under the purview of any one disciplinary framework. I thus offer some suggestions for different disciplines based on the implications of my study.
For genre and media studies, I suggest further inquiry into the way that stories are formed across media. Jenkins has been a primary voice within media studies on fandom and its impact on culture. He joins with Janice Radway in criticizing athe tendency of academics to regard audiences as const.i.tuted by a particular text or genre rather than as afree-floatinga agents who afas.h.i.+on narratives, stories, objects and practices from myriad bits and pieces of prior cultural productionsaa (as cited in Jenkins, 1992, p. 36). While stories may be shaped by media, audiences exist outside of media and create their view of texts from experiences in multiple media. As we have seen in chapter 3 with The Temple of Elemental Evil, the same story is often re-envisioned in multiple forms, from a tabletop module to a videogame to a novel. The story does change based on the affordance of the medium, but rather than bringing this story to a new audience each time, it is often the same audience that engages with these multiple versions. It is fans who are most likely to seek out multiple version of a text and who are most likely to build their own version. Future studies should focus more on how these texts work together to form the experience of a fan rather than how they work against each other.
For those in narrative studies, my study suggests the need to look at narrative as an experience rather than a form. As the study of narrative continues to expand beyond its structuralist origins, it is important to look at narrative not just as a cognitive framework, but as a social one. Rather than asking if a certain text is a narrative, we might s.h.i.+ft the question to ask if a certain text offers the audience a narrative experience. And we might go on to define what such an experience might look like. In this case, I have shown that the structure of the TRPG incorporates multiple levels, which have varying degrees of narrativity. However, the immersion that players feel in the TRPG provides them with a narrative experience. When I hear players talk about their gaming sessions, I rarely hear them recounting the off-record speech and the conversation they had about the latest movie coming out. Instead, they tell tales of what happened in the gaming sessiona”how they beat the monsters, how they found the clue they needed, how they saved the world from evil. The actual text of the TRPG session is ephemeral. It exists in the moment of face-to-face interaction and then vanishes. Yet what is preserved are storiesa”write-ups like the Blaze Arrow narrative that show no signs of the complex interaction involved in creating it. While we could study these narratives that exist after the fact as we would any other story, I believe there is something to be gained by also studying the experience of collaboratively creating that narrative through game play.
Likewise, I believe game studies, as an emerging discipline, has much to gain by focusing on the experiences of the players rather than the structure of the game. A perspective that focuses on audience experience rather than formal characteristics will allow game studies scholars to bring in important theory from narrative studies and other disciplines while continuing to form a discipline of their own. It is possible to claim a unique status for games while still acknowledging their narrative characteristics. My study on the TRPG shows that they exist as their own genre, with their own form, but that they do not exist in a vacuum. TRPGs emerged from both a literary tradition and a game tradition and both draw from and influence fantasy literature as well as other types of games. Thus, I feel it is needlessly limiting for ludologists to study only videogames. This perspective does not fully account for the historical progression of games or for the many games that exist outside of computer-mediate environments. While videogames may represent the most mainstream form of gaming, TRPGs as well as LARPing, board games, card games, and miniature wargaming all continue to be popular.
Finally, I offer some possible directions for research in my home discipline of rhetoric and writing. Just as in games studies, I have seen a tendency here to focus on the way authors.h.i.+p has changed because of digital technology. I challenge us to look beyond this to texts like the TRPG which challenge views of authors.h.i.+p in media (like oral communication) that have always been within the purview of rhetorical studies. I do not feel that we should ignore the influence of digital environments, but too often I see us making a.s.sumptions that these are the only environments that challenge traditional views. In addition, the TRPG is a prime example of collaborative writing and although I have not dealt with it here, pedagogical applications are sure to arise from further studying of the way gamers work together and write collaboratively. As one of my survey partic.i.p.ants explained, aEventually, though, I began to want to tell a story with my characters, and as I blossomed into a writer, I found that telling a story using roleplaying media was what I most enjoyed doing.a What potential do games have for developing the writing abilities of those involved, for making them ablossoma as writers? Furthermore, the TRPG offers an interesting opportunity for both technical and creative writing scholars to connect. Game designer Monte Cook calls TRPGs an ainteresting mix of both technical writing and fiction.a Although the modules he writes are designed for players to come up with a creative story, he notes that when actually writing the modules ayou intentionally break all the rules they tell you in a creative writing cla.s.sa (personal communication, June 30, 2009). Though I touched on this connection over the course of the book, it is one that merits further exploration.
Despite the lack of attention it has historically received from scholarly audiences, the TRPG is a text that offers a wealth of possibilities for study both within disciplinary traditions and in terms of interdisciplinary research. In fact, academic work is not all that different from playing a TRPG. We each work within our own disciplinary structures, our own rule books, if you will. We have both agency within and authors.h.i.+p over those frameworks, as we adjust the rules to best fit the stories we wish to advance. Our individual narratives fit together to form larger stories, and it is our need to tell these stories that drives us to continue researching and theorizing. While this a.n.a.logy may take things a bit far, what I wish to convey as I close is the need for collaboration and for continued research. Mackayas (2001) study on the TRPG has been cited frequently, particularly his definition of role-playing. However, many of these later studies have appropriated Mackayas work to their own study of MMORPGs and computer games. While this potential exists, and these studies may offer important insight, they also represent the continued view that the TRPG is only valuable as a precursor to later games. Thus, the TRPG continues to occupy a marginal status within both society and academia. I have presented here one view of the TRPG as a genre and as a forum for narrative experience, but I am only one voice. What if a ludologist, a narratologist, a rhetorician, and a media specialist all came to the table to study the TRPG? What new insights would we discover on this culturally influential genre? Like the DM who presents a situation to her players and then asks for their contribution, I present to other scholars my current study, but then I turn and ask, aSo, what do you do?a Where will you take the research from here?
Roll initiative.
Appendix: The Orc Adventure at Blaze Arrow.
This is a write up I did of two gaming sessions that took place in Januarya”February 2003. I took detailed notes during the sessions, including writing some dialogue down word for word. Other dialogue and details I filled in as best I could from memory. I composed this tale and posted it on the Sorpraedor Yahoo list on 3/18/03 as a synopsis for my group members and to inform Mary, who was absent during these sessions, what she had missed. I added a few clarifying remarks and deleted a few bits of extraneous information for the present use.
How the Gang Defeated the Orc Army Through Cunning and Diplomacy.
The magistrate of Gateway had informed us that the outpost Blaze Arrow had not been heard from in over a week. A new bastion of guards had recently been sent there, but had never checked it. Considering all of the talk of attacks along the borders, the magistrate was understandably worried and sent us to investigate. Fletch, David and I headed in that direction. Maureen vowed to catch up with us as she had some apersonala business to attend to.
On our way out of Gateway, another ranger approached us. This one was an elf who called himself Cuthalion. Given my past experience, I wasnat keen on another elf, or another ranger, but Cuthalion soon proved useful as he captured some wild birds for our dinner. David returned from the hunt with bunnies, which may very well satisfy a halfling appet.i.te, but was not enough for the rest of us.
Other than a large ant snapping at us, our journey was uneventful. The main path veered to the East, but we needed to continue across the hills to Blaze Arrow. Concerned that Maureen would have trouble finding us if we went much further, we made camp and settled in to eat the feast our rangers had prepared.
Not long after we drifted off to sleep, we were disturbed by a caltrop being thrown into our camp. We readied our weapons and called out into the darkness, but there was no response. As David and the wolf crept out into the woods to check it out, Fletch was struck by a tickle. We heard the familiar giggle of Maureen.
aMaureen!a I exclaimed, aDonat scare us like that!a Maureen sighed. aWould you all like some almonds? David?a David grumbled, aYou take the second watch. Now.a He returned to his bedroll.
Maureen shrugged her shoulders and agreed to watch camp. So, we all snuggled back into bed, only to be awakened once more. Maureen had spied three figures in black robes approaching us. As David readied his sling, two arrows whizzed past Maureen and Cuthalion. The figure in the rear hurled a sack into the camp, which landed at my feet. I immediately began to investigate by poking it with my rapier. The sack seemed to be made from a fine cloak and was closed by gold-woven cord. I cut it open and two heads rolled out. I jumped back in shock ... it was the half-elven twins, Mirador and Mardowin! In addition to the heads were two hands tied to a long black arrow, and a scroll tube with the markings of Erbin, the G.o.d wors.h.i.+ped by those evil religious zealots we had encountered in Gateway. I wondered immediately what Maureen might be up to and grabbed the scroll tube and stuck it in my cloak. My thought was to see what it said before she did.
I found that Maureen had charged one of the a.s.sailants with her rapier, and he appeared to have fallen. By this time, Maureen and the others were chasing one of the other attackers, and I saw my opportunity to get some information without the others finding out. But Maureen must have had the same thought because she returned to the body as well. The guy was unconscious, so I sacrificed one of my healing potions in hopes of getting some useful information from him.
As he came through I challenged him, aWho sent you?a He spat at me. Without hesitating, Maureen cut off his ear and asked again, aWho sent you?a The prisoner glared at us, aYou know who sent mea”the one who will be your death.a Maureen went for his other ear, but I stopped her. After all, we needed him to be able to hear us. She cut off his finger instead and asked, aWhy were you sent?a aTo deliver a warning. Had they wanted you dead, you would be dead.a aDid Thaddeus send you?a I asked, trying to make my connection between the mysterious man I encountered in Travensburg and the Obsidian Brotherhood, the underground group that we fought in Gateway.
He scowled, aThaddeus is not my master.a aBut you know him?a I prodded.
aOf course, I know him.a aSo, who is your master?a Maureen proceeded.
aSoren. He will come for you.a At which point the prisoner faded into unconsciousness. We decided to end his suffering, so I gave Maureen my dagger to slit his throat. Much to my shock, she also carved her initial in his chest.
We returned to camp to find Fletch still there. The rangers were still in pursuit of the enemy, and knowing what a powerful enemy it was, I decided it would best to warn them and sent Poe, my raven familiar, to tell them to come back to camp. Meanwhile, Maureen offered us a much-needed drink.
The rangers returned to camp and asked about the attacker we had pursued. We hadnat thought much about how the party would respond to our interrogation of him, so we quickly said that he had been taken care of. They asked if we had searched the body, and I admitted that we hadnat.
David immediately wanted to check it out. At which point, Maureen and I stood in his way and tried to convince him it was of little importance. But this only piqued his and Cuthalionas curiosity, and they seemed in none too good a mood to begin with. So, they went and searched the body and were quite unhappy to find him with an aMa carved into his chest.
They returned to camp and demanded to know who these attackers were, who the heads were, and what was going on. At this point I had no choice but to trust my new party members. Maureen and I explained who the Obsidian Brotherhood were and our various dealings with them. Maureen even showed the group her tattoo.
Cuthalion thought that perhaps the tattoo was a tracking device that had allowed the Obsidian Brotherhood to find us so easily. I recalled the snake tattoo that was on one of the members of the Brotherhood we had captured back in Gateway and how the tattoo had come alive and strangled him when we began questioning him. I decided to detect magic on the mark. The brand did indeed radiate magic for a second and then faded. As I detected the magic, the magic amulet I wear grew warm and throbbed but the sensation faded as the magic faded.
aItas definitely magic!a I exclaimed as I looked suspiciously at Maureen, aHow do we know youare not a spy?a For that she did not have a very satisfying answer.
Cuthalion instructed us in ways of interrogating prisoners less violently and as he spoke, the nature of Maureenas actions began to disturb me, and I trusted her less and less.
I felt more uncomfortable with Maureen around. I figured she probably wasnat a willing spy but that the tattoo could very well be a scrying device and that she might inadvertently be allowing the enemy to hear or see us. So, I suggested privately to her that she return to town and seek out my magician friend, Ingie, to attempt to remove or deactivate the tattoo. She agreed. I sent Poe with her, instructing him to take her to Ingie and if anything went wrong to find Ingie or return to me.
In the morning, the rest of the party proceeded to Blaze Arrow. Now that Maureen and her possible spying device were gone, I relayed the rest of my adventures to my new friends. Then, as a show of honesty and good will, I whipped out the scroll tube and opened it in front of them for all to see. Unfortunately that didnat turn out to be such a good idea.
The scroll tube opened with a hiss. Inside, I found a sc.r.a.p of very old parchment that crackled with age as I unrolled it. As soon as I looked at it, a flash of light came from the paper and struck each of us, and we heard the following words: A curse upon you all in the name of ERBIN! For your meddling, you have now been marked so that any follower of the great G.o.d will know you for what you are. When we find you, your death will be most exquisite. You will be dragged to our new temple when it is completed, and you will be punished in the name of ERBIN. We will find you when we are ready for your death, but if we find you or any of your party here in Gateway again, you will not live to regret it. So sayeth the high priest of ERBIN!
The voice and glow faded and both the scroll and the tube crumbled to powder.
Well, the party was not real happy that I had shared thatbit of information with them, and there was a bit of bickering back and forth. I detected magic on us, and found that there had indeed been some sort of magic cast upon us, though it seemed of a more clerical nature than arcane. We decided there was not much to be done about it at that point and proceeded to Blaze Arrow.
We were nearly there when we came up a hill to see a bunch of orcs hiding in a grove of trees. I put two of them to sleep with a spell, and Cuthalion shot arrows at them. Fletch also started attacking and killed several. David killed one. We noticed that the orcs had a symbol on their s.h.i.+elds that looked like a b.l.o.o.d.y hand and Fletch identified them as a local tribe called aThe Blood Fist Tribe.a David rode over the hill to find many more orcs and smoke coming over out of the Blaze Arrow tower. The halfling thought quickly, knowing he would be no match for so many large orcs, and used his spell power to entangle the lot of them.
Luckily, Cuthalion speaks orc and could communicate with them. First he insulted them, aYou sylvan unicorns, what are you doing here?a An orc responded, aTrying to get rid of Skullbash.a Fletch recognized this as the name of one of the other local orc tribes.
aWhy are you taking out Skullbash? And why at this time?a aSmatter was destroyed. We go for vengeance.a Fletch told us that Smatter was an orc village off to the west, about a week away.
aHow do you know it was Skullbash that took it out?a The elf continued his questioning.
aWe saw them.a aWhoas in the tower?a aUs.a aWho told you to take the tower?a aChief Grumbach.a Fletch informed us that Grumbach was the leader of the Blood Fist tribe and that he was an ogre who had decided to take up farming.
Cuthalion proceeded, aHow long ago did you take the tower?a aThis morning. He told us take tower. Donat want to raise alarm on way to Skullbash.a aWhere is Skullbash?a aOver mountains.a Fletch confirmed that this is where he had heard the Skullbash tribe lived, up in a series of rugged mountains that most traders avoided because stone giants lived there.
aWhy would humans tell Skullbash you were coming?a Cuthalion continued.
aHumans no like us.a aIs Chief Grumbach in the tower?a The orc shook his head ano.a aWhere is Chief Grumbach?a aMe tell, you no kill?a We agreed. aOrders were take forts, meet chief in Barrenstone.a aWhat about Black Tower?a Cuthalion inquired about the other outpost.
aOther group there.a We discussed amongst ourselves the political repercussions of the situation and decided that if at all possible it would be best for humans to stay out of this orcish war.
Cuthalion once again spoke to the entangled orcs, aSend this message to Chief Grumbacha”tell him to find a way not to involve humans in this conflict. If you do, we will kill both tribes. Get your people out of both towers. One of you go ... the rest stay.a David released the entanglement and six orcs stayed, sitting and glaring at us, while the one we had been speaking with went to the tower.
Eight orcs came out of the tower and seven started to the east. The leader returned. aOk, we go tell Grumbach,a he said, aMeet other orcs and tell message.a Cuthalion smiled, aTell Grumbach you made a wise choice.a The orc nodded and headed off with his comrades.