RPGs as Modern-day Oral Storytelling

If you're part of a Dungeons and Dragons campaign or some similar Tabletop RPG and you're like me, then you are constantly looking forward to the next session whether it's on the coming weekend or months away. I need to play D&D like I need to eat and sleep. Being at the game table for a session with my friends is simply a perfect mix of creativity, entertainment, and socialization—and I walk away from a session feeling like I just ate a feast after days without food. There is little else that fits the exact craving like D&D does—and this got me thinking: Tabletop RPGs as we know them are a relatively recently phenomena in human history. So did humans of the past just live boring lives devoid of collaborative storytelling and role-playing? Certainly not. The reason playing D&D sometimes feels like the satisfaction of a fundamental human need is because it is exactly that. Collaborative storytelling and role-playing have always been a major part of human society though oral tradition; modern RPGs are simply a continuation on this tradition.

Oral tradition was the way for communicating stories, values, and beliefs for most of human history. It is still the predominant way that our culture is perpetuated but it lacks the ritual and sacredness it once had and tends to be viewed as a "lesser" form of learning when compared to academic learning and reading. The majority of people trust a news article a whole lot more than their direct family when it comes to objective knowledge on what is going on in the world. Nevertheless, people exchanged information and stories orally for most of human history—and for good reason: sharing stories is an integral part to being human and satisfying our social needs.

What tends to come to people's mind when they think about oral storytelling in early human history is some wise old sage reciting the story of Beowulf as the tribe sits and listens—like a teacher reading to a group of students. But this seems to be far from the case. from what we know of prehistoric humans and what we see in indigenous people's traditions. Storytelling events are much different that what we are used to. Traditions often included rituals of singing and dancing performed by the audience, coinciding with parts of the story. Other Native American tribes, such as the Hopi are seen bringing the audience in as characters or props for the story such as by singling out someone who is not participating in the song and dance and appointing them as the villain. Native American traditions are also seen to have a discourse between the story teller and the audience. The audience may be asked what the hero would do in a certain situation or where there hero should look to find the villain; and then the storyteller would incorporate their response into the story. The audience are an essential part of these oral stories and are better viewed as active participants in the story rather than passive observers.

You can probably see where I'm going with this.

Is a Game Master not an oral storyteller telling a story that suits their audience i.e. the players, as they participate in a collaborative story? You may think: sure, but RPG systems are far more structured and have detailed rules to ground the game. It is true that RPGs have a lot of structure but there is no evidence that these oral storytelling "sessions" did not have similar structure. The only difference is that the rules are not written down. There are numerous morphological rules found in written folk tales that allow stories to be easily remembered, performed, and changed by the teller to suit their audience—much like how a GM changes a pre-written module to fit their homebrew campaign setting. Vladimir Propp, a Russian Folklorist, claims to have discovered 31 "functions" or plot elements that make up every folktale as well as numerous other rules that govern how a folktale is created. And while a storytelling event involving the audience yelling out their whims sounds chaotic, is that any different from your average D&D session?

The GM, as the storyteller, begins their RPG journey by preparing their first session. Some GMs find a module in a campaign book, familiarize themselves with it, and run it with their players like an oral storyteller would tell a story they have heard before. But as RPG sessions go, players stray from the module's intended course of action, and the GM must improvise changes to suit their players. Similarly, the storyteller may find that a certain part of the story would not interest their unique audience, so they change the story on the spot. GMs who wish to be a bit more creative may opt to prepare a homebrew campaign completely written by themselves. If they are like me, they will take tropes and plot points from their favorite fantasy books or movies and squish them together into their story while praying that their players aren't too familiar with the inspiration material. In other words, you are still perpetuating the common tradition by recreating common tropes. If you don't believe me, think about how different your homebrew world would be if The Lord of the Rings had never been written.

A final comparison is how oral tradition and RPGs alike reinforce cultural values. While the main point of oral storytelling is to create community and entertain each other, it also serves as a reinforcement of cultural values. RPGs are often the same. While it is not the case for every campaign, a grand majority of campaigns, especially in the ever-popular heroic fantasy genre, see some sort of battle between good and evil whether the players are working to defeat a lich bent on destruction or overthrowing a tyrannical government.

So if you ever feel like game night scratches an almost primal itch that no other activity can quite replicate. It's because RPGs could be one of the closest things to the collective oral storytelling that humans partook in all across the world regardless of their culture. Sharing in imagination is as natural as walking and children do it as soon as they are able to talk. So next time someone tells you that RPGs are childish or a waste of time, tell them what you heard here—and be sure to change whatever details you need to get it across.