Syllabus
Link to the up-to-date syllabus for 2023/2024: JKM153 Role-Playing Game Studies Research Seminar syllabus.docx
SCHEDULE
Session 1
Theory: Introduction to Role-Playing Game Studies + Safety Tools
Playthrough: The Deep Forest/For the Story (DM-less TTRPGs)
Session 2
Theory: TTRPG History & Combat Simulations
Reading: Chapter 2: Player vs. Environment (37–69) of Švelch, Jaroslav. 2023. Player vs. Monster: The Making and Breaking of Video Game Monstrosity. Playful Thinking. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press.
Assignment 1: Analyze a classic D&D monster.
Optional Assignment: Create a Shadowdark character (you can use the online tool https://shadowdarklings.net/)
Playthrough: Shadowdark’s starter adventure Lost Citadel of the Scarlet Minotaur (dungeon crawl TTRPG with modernized and streamlined mechanics)
Session 3
Theory: Political Economy of TTRPGs
Reading: Knowles, Isaac, and Edward Castronova. 2018. “Economics and Role-Playing Games.” In Role-Playing Game Studies, edited by José P. Zagal and Sebastian Deterding, 300–313. London: Routledge.
Assignment 2: Build a character on D&D Beyond and explore the monetization of this platform.
Playthrough: D&D 5e oneshot (Phandelver and Below: The Shattered Obelisk)
Session 4
Theory: Actual Play and Mediatization of Role-Playing Games
Reading: Friedman, Em. 2022. “How the First Decade of Actual Play Has Defined the Template.” Polygon (blog). September 14, 2022. https://www.polygon.com/23334732/how-the-first-decade-of-actual-play-has-defined-the-template.
Assignment 3: Analyze an actual play episode, excluding Critical Role.
Playthrough: Session Zero for an Actual Play Campaign (The goal is to design an actual play series drawing on best practices and the presented analyses of actual play episodes. Session zero refers to a planning stage of a TTRPG campaign during which players and the GM discuss core themes, worldbuilding, character narrative arcs, character builds, etc.)
Session 5
Theory: Genre, Theme, and Mechanics in TTRPGs
Reading: Albom, Sarah. 2021. “The Killing Roll: The Prevalence of Violence in Dungeons & Dragons.” International Journal of Role-Playing, no. 11 (December): 6–24. https://doi.org/10.33063/ijrp.vi11.281.
Assignment 4: Prepare a proposal for your UnEssay.
Playthrough: a non-fantasy TTRPG (selected by the students, e.g., Arc, Call of Cthulhu, Candela Obscura)
Session 6
Theory: Colonialism, Disability, Racism, and Sexism
Reading (choose one):
Dashiell, Steven. 2023. “Symbolic Violence in the Language of Game Descriptions of Blackness: The Case of Pathfinder.” Games and Culture, May, Online First. https://doi.org/10.1177/15554120231176630.
Hines, Mark. 2023. “Game Mechanics and Narrative as Symbiotic, Co-Constructive Elements in Tomb of Annihilation.” Analog Game Studies X (I). https://analoggamestudies.org/2023/03/thats-just-what-the-book-says-game-mechanics-and-narrative-as-symbiotic-co-constructive-elements-in-tomb-of-annihilation/.
Stang, Sarah. 2021. “The Fiend Folio’s Female Fiends: Kelpies, Vampires, and Demon Queens.” Analog Game Studies VIII (The Fiend Folio). https://analoggamestudies.org/2021/10/the-fiend-folios-female-fiends-kelpies-vampires-and-demon-queens/.
Assignment 5: Research and analyze a TTRPG ruleset or a CRPG, excluding D&D and any other games that we have played in the classroom.
Playthrough: a modern TTRPG (selected by the students, e.g., Glitter Hearts, Thirsty Sword Lesbians, Wanderhome)
Annotation
Tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) have been attracting academic attention since the 1980s, starting with Gary Alan Fine’s monograph Shared Fantasy: Role-Playing Games as Social Worlds. In the following decades, the cultural impact of role-playing games has only grown. Specifically, Dungeons & Dragons has inspired countless blockbuster video games and entered mainstream popular culture by being referenced and showcased in hit TV series like Stranger Things. In 2010s, TTRPGs have also spawned a new form of spectator entertainment – actual play with shows like Critical Role, which has become a successful transmedia franchise with its own spin-offs and tie-ins.
This course approaches TTRPGs from a media/game studies perspective, including concepts and theories such as mediatization or critical political economy. The goal is to understand role-playing games as both media artifacts/texts and play experiences by analyzing the impact of narrative themes and mechanics as well as the broader production contexts. To do so, the course will be based on an active and critical engagement with selected examples of TTRPGs, showcasing both the conventions and subversions in this area. Each session will start with a theoretical introduction by the lecturer and a class discussion about the assigned reading. Afterwards, we will go over the fortnightly assignments, leading us to a TTRPG playthrough. To unpack and analyze the play experience, we will debrief using conceptual inventory and methodological frameworks acquired throughout the course.
The class requires active participation and in-person attendance. The students will be asked to prepare for each of the fortnightly sessions by doing the assigned readings and assignments. The final assignment uses the format of the so-called UnEssay – students choose their own topics related to the core themes of the class and present the UnEssay in any way they please (paper, homebrew game content, actual play, presentation, video essay, website, etc.).
The class will consist of six 160-minute sessions (with a 10-minute break in the middle). This format is necessary for in-class playthroughs of TTRPGs.