Emergent Storytelling in Roguelike Games: From Digital Systems to Physical Play

This thesis explores how emergent storytelling works in roguelike and roguelite games and how their core narrative ideas can move from digital systems to physical tabletop play. It begins with the history and evolution of the roguelike genre, focusing on procedural generation, permadeath, repetition and systemic design as narrative tools rather than simple mechanical features. Drawing from academic work on game narrative and systems thinking, the thesis argues that roguelikes create meaning through the interaction of rules, randomness and player interpretation. The second part examines what happens when these processes leave the computer and enter a physical medium. Tabletop games cannot automate calculations or world updates. Instead, players handle variation, state changes and negotiation themselves. This creates new challenges but also new opportunities for emergent narrative through social interaction and player driven choices. The design project The Final Exam serves as a practical case study. The game tests how roguelike principles such as procedural variety, failure loops, risk and small narrative moments can be adapted to a physical format. Iterative playtests, surveys and redesign sessions show the difficulties of balancing randomness, controlling difficulty and keeping fairness without digital support. The thesis concludes that the core identity of roguelikes is not tied to code or graphics or platform. It depends on a systemic mindset. When rules are designed to interact in dynamic ways, players naturally create their own stories whether they are in a digital dungeon or sitting around a table. The Final Exam demonstrates that emergent storytelling can exist in both spaces as long as the systems encourage discovery, surprise and interpretation.