The Creation of Narrative in Tabletop Role-Playing Games

Jennifer Grouling Cover

Jan 2014 · McFarland

About this ebook

Despite the rise of computer gaming, millions of adults still play face to face role playing games, which rely in part on social interaction to create stories. This work explores tabletop role playing game (TRPG) as a genre separate from computer role playing games. The relationship of TRPGs to other games is examined, as well as the interaction among the tabletop module, computer game, and novel versions of Dungeons & Dragons. Given particular attention are the narrative and linguistic structures of the gaming session, and the ways that players and gamemasters work together to construct narratives. The text also explores wider cultural influences that surround tabletop gamers.

Ratings and reviews

Jennifer Grouling Cover brings Tabletop Role-Playing Games into the modern age by creating a link between the learning of the game, the understanding of strategies, and the relationship of TRPGs as they differ from other RPGs that have emerged over the last forty years. Grouling Cover also talks about her personal relationship to learning role-playing games with friends and the struggles she had with the game coming in fresh from the real world. She creates an atmosphere that is both academic in study and personal in style as she delves deep into the essentials of TRPGs with Dungeons and Dragons being the most pivotal TRPG since its inception in the 1970's. The construction of narratives is Cover's main goal with this work as she examines the linguistic structures of gaming and how players work together to create a narrative unique to the group and how that brings players to the sociological implication of understanding people better.

About the author

Jennifer Grouling Cover is a professor and the director of the writing program at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. She currently studies writing assessment and teacher preparation.