Roleplaying Games in the Digital Age: Essays on Transmedia Storytelling, Tabletop RPGs and Fandom

by Stephanie Hedge (Editor), Jennifer Grouling (Editor)

Overview

The Digital Age has created massive technological and disciplinary shifts in tabletop role-playing, increasing the appreciation of games like Dungeons & Dragons. Millions tune in to watch and listen to RPG players on podcasts and streaming platforms, while virtual tabletops connect online players. Such shifts elicit new scholarly perspectives.

This collection includes essays on the transmedia ecology that has connected analog with digital and audio spaces. Essays explore the boundaries of virtual tabletops and how users engage with a variety of technology to further role-playing. Authors map the growing diversity of the TRPG fandom and detail how players interact with RPG-related podcasts. Interviewed are content creators like Griffin McElroy of The Adventure Zone podcast, Roll20 co-creator Nolan T. Jones, board game designers Nikki Valens and Isaac Childres and fan artists Tracey Alvarez and Alex Schiltz. These essays and interviews expand the academic perspective to reflect the future of role-playing.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476642017
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	02/18/2021
Series:	Studies in Gaming
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	241
File size:	22 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Stephanie Hedge is an assistant professor of English and the director of the writing program at the University of Illinois Springfield, where she teaches classes on digital literacies, the intersections between English Studies and emergent technologies, and the ways that words do work in the world. Jennifer Grouling is an associate professor and the director of the writing program at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. She currently studies writing assessment and teacher preparation. Series editor Matthew Wilhelm Kapell teaches American studies, anthropology, and writing at Pace University in New York.
Stephanie Hedge is an assistant professor of English and the director of the writing program at the University of Illinois Springfield, where she teaches classes on digital literacies, the intersections between English Studies and emergent technologies, and the ways that words do work in the world.
Jennifer Grouling is an associate professor and the director of the writing program at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. She currently studies writing assessment and teacher preparation.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Introduction: Structure to the Stories
Stephanie Hedge and Jennifer Grouling
Part I—Analog Meets Digital
Paratextuality and Transmediation in D&D Board Games
Jennifer Grouling
Gateway Game and Kickstarted Community: An Interview with Gloomhaven Creator Isaac Childres
Jennifer Grouling
The Quest for More Yarn: Fiber Fictions as Transmedia Narratives
Shelly Jones
Cultists, Apps and Player Choice: An Interview with Mansions of Madness Creator Nikki Valens
Jennifer Grouling
Part II—Gameplay Experiences Meet Digital Affordances
Dungeons and Digital Affordances and Dragons: “Extremely Online” TRPGs
Stephanie Hedge
Multi-Windowed Play Commitments: The Virtual Tabletop Role-Playing Game
Noémie Roques
The Unexpected Responsibilities of Managing an Entire Ecosystem: An Interview with Roll20 Creator Nolan T. Jones
Jennifer Grouling
Roll20, Access and Rhetorical Agency in Digital Game Spaces
Daniel Lawson and Justin Wigard
Creating Canons in Tabletop Role-Playing Games Played Online
Maria Alberto
Off the Rails: Convergence Through Tabletop ­Role-Playing Modules
Colin Stricklin
Between pages 142 and 143 are 8 plates with 19 color illustrations
Part III—TRPGs Meet Fans
The Adventure Zone as Transmedia Stunt Spectacular: An Interview with Griffin McElroy
Stephanie Hedge
The Fandom Rushes In: Multiplicity and the Evolution of Inclusive Storytelling, Through Fan Participation in The Adventure Zone
Michelle McMullin and Lee W. Hibbard
The Limits of the “Infinite Imagisphere”: Collaborative Storytelling and Audience Participation in The Adventure Zone Podcast
Kira Apple
“Is It Thursday yet?” Narrative Time in a Live-Streamed Tabletop
Emily C. Friedman
Building on Resonances: An Interview with TRPG Fan Artists
Stephanie Hedge
Conclusion: “How do you want to do this?”
Stephanie Hedge and Jennifer Grouling
About the Contributors
Index

Editorial Reviews

...a necessary and timely intervention into studies of transmedia role-playing games and fandom.”—Paul Booth, author of Board Games as Media and professor of media and cinema studies at DePaul University

From the Publisher