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.

Full Product Details

Author:   Stephanie Hedge ,  Jennifer Grouling
Publisher:   McFarland & Co Inc
Imprint:   McFarland & Co Inc
Dimensions:   Width: 17.80cm , Height: 1.20cm , Length: 25.40cm
Weight:   0.435kg
ISBN:  

9781476676869

ISBN 10:   1476676860
Pages:   241
Publication Date:   08 March 2021
Recommended Age:   From 18 years
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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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

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 As platforms, fandoms, and transmedia all push hobbyist gaming into the mainstream Roleplaying Games in the Digital Age provides a clear vision of tabletop role-playing games as narrative media in the digitally afforded 21st century. --Evan Torner, associate professor of German and film and media studies, University of Cincinnati.

...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; As platforms, fandoms, and transmedia all push hobbyist gaming into the mainstream Roleplaying Games in the Digital Age provides a clear vision of tabletop role-playing games as narrative media in the digitally afforded 21st century. --Evan Torner, associate professor of German and film and media studies, University of Cincinnati.

Author Information

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.

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