Playing With Power
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A Dissertation on Authorship and RPGs
ABSTRACT: Authorship has undergone drastic revision in the twentieth century. A fundamental transformation in literature¸ wherein the author has become a multiplicity of voices¸ is evinced by the development of roleplaying games as both literary and cultural texts.
The literary roots of roleplaying games are self-evident¸ as they draw on writers such as H. P. Lovecraft and J. R. R. Tolkien. However¸ a consequence of the development of the roleplaying game has been a subsequent departure from these authorial beginnings; roleplaying games have irrevocably transformed the role of the writers who inspired them¸ altering the authorial position to become a border-blurring multiplicity. Not only do roleplaying game designers reinterpret literary texts as literary games¸ often borrowing rules material from other designers in the process¸ in modifying the function of the author from a single creative entity to an empowered storytelling among groups roleplaying games further complicate previous distinctions between author and audience. Players create a fictional world as a group endeavor¸ authoring a complex structure of fantasy that addresses Freudian concepts of dreams and wish-fulfillment.
In this way¸ roleplaying becomes a locus for issues of identity¸ including questions of performance¸ spectatorship¸ and gender construction. And by allowing play in regard to identity¸ roleplaying games are able to transgressively navigate expressions of difference¸ encouraging players to subtly work against the traditional split between spectacle and narrative. The thriving fan subculture surrounding roleplaying only emphasizes the transgressiveness of the hobby; this is a social formation that aggressively utilizes new technology such as the internet¸ through which fans are able to explore culturally subversive methods of authoring in the face of hostility from the surrounding cultural environment. They¸ too¸ are active producers and manipulators of meanings¸ rather than passively accepting dominant ideology.
By fusing the broader perspectives of literary and cultural criticism with personal experiences¸ this study examines the development of roleplaying games from the fiction of individual writers to the interactive roleplaying based on them¸ wherein fiction writers¸ the hobby's creators¸ designers¸ editors¸ publishers¸ fans¸ players¸ and the cultural environment are all invested with the creative power to contribute meaningfully to the narrative.