Table-top Gaming Narratology for Digital Interactive Storytelling

n the current environment of digital games and immersive role playing systems, we often overlook previous methods of conveying and experiencing, interactive narrative-based entertainment. We present a fresh perspective on interactive digital storytelling systems based on table-top role playing games. Table-top games offer players the ability to negotiate and determine outcomes of a game with a referee. The nature of table-top gaming is such that players evolve, grow and maintain a rule set that represents an imaginary world. As such this form of gameplay provides a unique opportunity to study complex interactive storytelling structures under controlled circumstances. Using table-top role playing games as a model, we propose terminology and concepts that are different from the traditional literary or dramaturgical perspectives normally applied to interactive narrative systems.