From Dungeons to Drafts: Evolution of Roleplaying and Its Influence on Writing

I remember being introduced to the concept of role-playing when I was in middle school, before Star Wars Galaxies released the New Game Enhancements patch which ruined the game for everyone who enjoyed it.

It was described to me as “the act of assuming the roles of fictional characters or personas and engaging in improvised storytelling or interaction”. Roleplay can take place anywhere, including tabletop games, online forums, and video games. The common thread between these mediums, however, is collaboration.

Engaging in this improvised storytelling and interaction with others is a common pastime for both children and adults, with more and more people roleplaying everyday thanks to the recent popularization of dungeons and dragons; and game developers’ efforts to create more immersive experiences for their video games.

But this raises a curious question that I have been meaning to explore for some time now: How does roleplay influence someone’s ability to write? Well. In today’s video, we will explore this question as we discuss the evolution of roleplaying itself and how it affects the written word.

Origins of Roleplaying

I bet that most people would assume the concept of ‘roleplaying’ was born alongside Dungeons of Dragons, a tabletop game that was released in 1973 by Ernest Gary Gygax and David Arneson. It's a franchise that has seen its popularity soar thanks to shows like Critical Role and podcasts like The Adventure Zone, drawing in thousands of players into both the game and into the world of roleplaying since the 2010s.

But the concept has actually existed since long before the conception of Dungeons and Dragons, as war-games hosted by civilizations that date as far back as 70 A.D. Wargames and tournaments have since undergone a steady transformation where the focus has become less about fighting and more about storytelling and the creation of different myths and legends surrounding its participants. People dressed up as different historical figures; ostentatious displays were erected; and everyone worked to convey one message or another to each other to promote their families and heraldries.

Overtime, these games of nobility moved from the tourney fields to parlor halls as they gathered around tables and played cards or chess instead. By the 19^th and 20^th century, most of these games became accessible to a wider audience, inspiring the right people to create even more games, including those which promoted storytelling and collaboration between players. Including Dungeons and Dragons.

And with the release of video games such as Akalabeth: World of Doom, Final Fantasy, and EverQuest capturing the imaginations of hundreds of thousands of young gamers across the globe, dialogues between gamers of how their experience affected their emotions grew common. As well as the desire to share this experience with friends and loved ones.

Roleplay and Writing

"We role-play every night. Or, nearly every night. We take breaks, now and then, when time permits. Usually, though, it’s nightly. Often for hours. We find it invigorating, restorative, revealing. It strengthens our connection. In fact, it’s one of the foundational pieces of our marriage."

"The role-playing we mean happens not in the bedroom, but in our office. We’re referring to our co-writing process, years of nights working together to get into the heads and hearts of the characters we’ve put on the page."

"The comparison to role-playing isn’t unfounded due to the way we write together. Instead of exchanging chapters or wholly dividing duties (one of us editing and the other drafting, for instance), we write everything together, in real time, in one room. Every sentence is proposed out loud, discussed, and incorporated once each of us feels the character’s voice is reflected."

This comes from an article written by both Emily Wibberly and Austin Siegemund-Broka, a writing duo who have released popular romance novels since, including Do I Know You, a story which a married couple revisit their marriage from the perspective of two complete strangers learning to flirt with and love one another again.

Stories such as Wibberly and Siegemund-Broka aren’t uncommon - Couples and friends alike find joy from collaborating in a similar manner when they write their stories, much like sitting at a table together to play card games with one another. It’s easy to see how mediums that promote roleplaying can also stimulate the creative writing process for everyone involved. 

Dungeon masters are encouraging their players to create backstories for their characters, finding new ways to immerse their players in a world they made by plugging in said backstories in unexpected ways. People playing in MMORPGs fill their time between content patches by engaging with others to write unique scenes and stories based in the game’s world. And most are making a habit of logging these sessions to review and remix into literature too, as is what happened with Steven Erickson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen series, which is based on a RPG campaign he ran with his friend while in college. Roleplay and roleplaying games have inspired countless stories that are well loved no matter the genre.

But, does roleplay actually affect someone’s ability to write? After some research on this question, I found that roleplay helps to improve someone’s ability to write. A study by the British Journal of Education found that “Creative drama activities (role-playing) are an effective technique to enhance students’ creative writing skills.”

"Role-playing helps students to understand, evaluate, and appreciate text in a better way. It also helps them enjoy the literary text, and thus look at the text from a beautiful perspective. Dramatic play was highly related to total word writing fluency."

"The study findings also show that drama increases students’ ability to write texts related to creative writing. This result may be attributed to the fact that role-playing helps students to understand the literary text in a better way, and drama helps in improving students’ creative writing skills by increasing their vocabulary fortune."

"Through the use of creative drama, students can actively take part in the learning process and they can discover their skills and creativity as well. It is assumed that creative drama activities can be an effective method to increase students’ creative writing skills."

So we have confirmation that roleplaying can have a positive effect on someone’s creative writing ability, especially when done in a multimodal format like online forums or tabletop RPGs. Roleplaying provides us not only immediate feedback from the people we’re collaborating with but also a means to train our fluency of the written word through improved understanding of our composition.

The Future of Writing and Roleplay

As technology advances, so to do the means by which we’re able to immerse ourselves in each other’s worlds. Inspiration drawn by different media such as movies, T.V. shows, video games, and of course, books, paves the way to new creations as we innovate on existing ideas. Roleplaying allows us to work on conveying those innovations even long before we pen our ideas to paper.

New ways of training creativity are being developed daily, and providing different ways to immerse students in learning can help maintain the flames of creation that are, in the present day, not as highly valued as they used to be.

With the rise of virtual reality and online connectivity, the possibilities for immersive storytelling and translation to the written word are endless. Whether you’re a seasoned dungeon master or an aspiring novelist, roleplaying offers a wealth of opportunities to explore new worlds and test new ideas as you dive into a new character and unleash your perspective in ways never thought of before.

Conclusion

Thank you for tuning in. Penman Ventures is a multimedia web journal where I dedicate my time to diving into stories behind various works of art and media. From movies to video games; books to tabletop RPGs - I explore the creation that happens through mediums of entertainment and highlight the creator's journey to the present. It is also where I chronicle my journey as a storyteller and creative. Be sure to subscribe to Penman Ventures for notifications and updates to the journal and on the Penman himself.

Referenced Articles

• Effectiveness of Role-Playing in Enhancing Creative Writing of English Majors Students at Al-Quds University - Daghamin, Rashed & Naser, Inas & Khales, Buad. (2017). Effectiveness of Role-Playing in Enhancing Creative Writing of English Major Students at Al-Quds University. British Journal of Education, Society & Behavioural Science. 19. 1-12. 10.9734/BJESBS/2017/29794. An article that explores the effectiveness of creative dramatic play in improving students' creative writing and ability to comprehend and appreciate creative text.
• Roleplaying games were around hundreds of years before Dungeons & Dragons | Dicebreaker - Stephen Payne is a freelance writer and historian based in the south of England. He loves three things in life: animals, history and, of course, games.
• How Role-Playing Helps Our Writing - and Our Marriage | Writer's Digest - Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka met and fell in love in high school. Austin went on to graduate from Harvard, while Emily graduated from Princeton. Together, they are the authors of several novels about romance for teens and adults. Now married, they live in Los Angeles, where they continue to take daily inspiration from their own love story. They recently published the book: Do I Know You, a story where a married couple go on vacation and reexplore their marriage... from the perspective of two "strangers" who learn to flirt with and love one another again.