NARRATIVE GENRE CODE MAP
Game: ____________________________________________________________________________
NARRATIVE TYPE
Determinate Space OR Indeterminate Space
Everything is fine and then there is a bad The normal situation is broken in some way
intruding element. It is the task of the central and creates internal conflict in the central
character(s) to resolve this conflict and return character(s). They must either conform or
things to good normalcy. face consequences.
Procedural OR Dramatic
This is a story about a character or characters This is a story about a character or characters
facing an external obstacle of some kind and who want a specific emotional relationship
trying to overcome it. with someone else but that someone else has
reasons not to want it.
Comic OR Tragic
This is a story that ends happily. The main This is a story that ends beautifully but
characters get what they want or achieve painfully. The main characters must pay for
their goals and do not have to pay a every victory with an equivalent loss. You
significant price. They may even get a can’t have your cake and eat it too.
supplementary reward.
Empowerment OR Disempowerment
This is a story about characters who are This is a story about characters who are at the
special. At least at some level we wish we mercy of their environment. At least at some
could be them. Often, they face and are level we are glad we are not them. Often,
equipped to overcome challenges that would they face and are unable to overcome
defeat average people. challenges that are beyond anyone to master.
Iconic Main Character(s) OR Complex Main Character(s)
The main characters in this story do not The main characters in this story are
fundamentally change but are rewarded for transformed by the end. If they are rewarded,
sticking to their guns and being who they are. it is for changing their perspective on what
If they make a discovery, it is that they had counts as success and failure. Usually, they
the power/truth inside them all along. either discover they were wrong, or they are
forced make an irreversible decision that has
some negative consequences.
IDENTIFICATION
Identification OR Disidentification
We are encouraged to identify with a specific We are discouraged or prevented from doing
character or characters, taking on their hopes this, which places us in a more reflective
and fears as our own. position, as though sitting in the seat of the
creator/narrator.
HEROISM
Hero OR Villain
The main character(s) do good things because The main character(s) do bad things because they
they are good people are bad people
OR OR
Anti-Hero OR Anti-Villain
The main character(s) do good things because The main character(s) do bad things because they
they are forced to by circumstance are forced to by circumstance
INDETERMINACY
Challenge-based OR Decision-based
Make sense with a question structured as Make sense with a question structured as
“Will the main character(s) be able to X?” “Will the main character(s) decide to X or
Tell the player what to value Y?”
Tend to line up with the first option story Let the player decide what to value
types Are more likely to line up with the second
Tend to invoke identification option story types
Tend to invoke disidentification
SETTING GENRES
Fantasy – suspends the laws of reality in order to allow metaphors to become real
Often affords empowerment
Often expresses infantile desires (I wish I could X)
Often blends with historical
Sci-fi – suspends the laws of reality in order to allow abstract ideas to become real
Often affords disempowerment
Often expresses superego guilt (If I follow my desire for X, a catastrophe will occur)
Often blends with dystopia
Historical – suspends contemporary social structures to produce nostalgia for a lost past.
Often affords reframing of socially unacceptable desires for oppression as natural
Dystopia – magnifies negative features of contemporary society to produce nostalgia for the present.
Often affords reframing of socially unacceptable desires for rebellion as natural
Post-apocalyptic – Basically the same as historical
HUMOUR / CUTENESS / EDGINESS (CYNNICISM) – What are you avoiding?
Humour – openly stages connections and disconnections that are usually repressed
Affords reinforcing identity around attacking out groups
Affords humanizing the inhumane
Affords building solidarity out of the shared indignity of being human
Cuteness – erases sex, murder, torture, disgust, ambiguity, contradiction, insoluble problems
Affords aesthetics of coziness, reassurance, safety
Constrains possibility of trauma or re-traumatizing, but also grief
Affords sincerity, but only in conformity with dominant values
Edginess - normalizes sex, murder, torture, disgust, ambiguity, contradiction, insoluble problems
Affords aesthetics of coolness, masochism, emotional invulnerability
Constrains possibility of sincerity
Affords possibility of confronting trauma, but without transformation or grief