Rolls and Roles: An Intro to TTRPGs and Collaborative Storytelling

What are Tabletop Roleplaying Games?

The format of Table-Top Roleplaying Games (TTRPGs) covers a wide range of games, in countless genres and styles. In short, they are games where players will take on a role as a fictional character and enact scenarios as that character. The outcomes of those scenarios can be determined by randomised elements such as dice rolls, or the judgement of other players in the group, depending on the game being played. They can vary from rules heavy systems where players are rewarded for crunching the numbers to optimise situations, or story focused systems that reward lateral thinking and unique storytelling. The most well known game system is arguably Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) by Wizards of the Coast, a fantasy-themed roleplaying game that uses dice to help shape the story. However, roleplaying games have a vast and storied history, evolving from various forms such as war games and theatre.

What is Collaborative Storytelling?

Collaborative storytelling is an even more vast concept than roleplaying games. Simply put, it is stories that are created through the collaboration of more than one. This concept covers a huge range of media, from myth and folktale to soapbox television series. When multiple minds come together to craft a story, that is collaborative storytelling.

Collaborative Storytelling within TTRPGs

As players engage with TTRPGs, they take part in a form of collaborative storytelling. Take, for example, a game of D&D. The Dungeon Master (DM) will prepare the story, creating a world with characters and intrigue. The players will create their own characters to adventure within this world. Throughout the game, the DM will present story threads for the players to respond to, and through improvisation and skill challenges dictated by dice rolls the story will be crafted by all the people involved. The collaboration can even spread to people outside the game. Many TTRPGs have story worlds or settings that have been designed by the creators of the game for DMs to use for their personal games. A classic example of this is D&D’s Faerûn. D&D also encourages players to collaborate with the storytelling of the game system itself. “Homebrew” - or game rules, character classes, prebuilt adventures and more created by players at home - can be shared and even sold through the Dungeon Master’s Guild website. TTRPGs are able to facilitate a wide variety of collaborative storytelling forms.