Tabletop Role-Playing Games

White, William J.; Arjoranta, Jonne; Hitchens, Michael; Peterson, Jon; Torner, Evan; Walton, Jonathan

doi:10.4324/9781315637532-4

Cited by 14 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…That is, play in fictive context x benefits action in real context y . At the individual level, these functions include physical and emotional control ( Lillard, 2017 ; White et al, 2018 ), counterfactual thinking ( Buchsbaum et al, 2012 ; Gopnik and Walker, 2013 ), creativity ( Hoffmann and Russ, 2012 ), and factual and conceptual learning ( Weisberg, 2015 ; Zosh et al, 2018 ). Pretend play also allows children to rehearse engagement with cultural institutions such as behavioral and object-directed norms ( Nielsen, 2012 ), and formal institutions, including religion ( Renfrew et al, 2017 ), which may be built upon evolutionarily derived selection pressures for survival ( Steen and Owens, 2001 ), successful acquisition of artifact affordances ( Nielsen et al, 2012 ), all via forms of natural pedagogy ( Csibra and Gergely, 2011 ).…”

Section: Childhood Pretend Playmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The basic cognitive concepts of role-playing – engaging in pretense that involves representing others’ minds in the first person ( Lillard, 2001 ; Sachet and Mottweiler, 2013 ) – is familiar to anyone who has indulged the fantasies of a young child, or watched film, television, or theatrical productions. Table-top role-playing games (see Deterding and Zagal, 2018 ; White et al, 2018 ) 2 , then, are but the most recent and most adult-like instantiation of a tradition of fantastical, narratively driven, agentically rich expressions of imaginative culture that has roots in both the life-time development of humans, and the history of the species. We choose to focus on table-top role-playing as it is an highly illustrative example of adult imaginative play, and is a useful way to understand adult imaginative culture as the socio-cognitive extension of childhood pretend play (we have provided a glossary of potentially unfamiliar terms that are associated with table-top role-playing games, as we will use these throughout; see Table 1 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pretensive Shared Reality: From Childhood Pretense to Adult Imaginative Play

2022

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Imaginative pretend play is often thought of as the domain of young children, yet adults regularly engage in elaborated, fantastical, social-mediated pretend play. We describe imaginative play in adults via the term “pretensive shared reality;” Shared Pretensive Reality describes the ability of a group of individuals to employ a range of higher-order cognitive functions to explicitly and implicitly share representations of a bounded fictional reality in predictable and coherent ways, such that this constructed reality may be explored and invented/embellished with shared intentionality in an ad hoc manner. Pretensive Shared Reality facilitates multiple individual and social outcomes, including generating personal and group-level enjoyment or mirth, the creation or maintenance of social groups, or the safe exploration of individual self-concepts (such as alternative expression of a players sexual or gender identity). Importantly, Pretensive Shared Reality (both within the specific context of table-top role-playing games, and other instances) are primarily co-operative and co-creative. We draw on multiple examples, and focus on Table-Top Role Playing games (TTRPG) – and specifically, the most popular and enduring table-top role-playing games, Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) – as a primary example of such play. Our conception of “pretensive shared reality” links the widespread existence and forms of adult imaginative play to childhood pretense, places it within a developmental and evolutionary context, and argues that pretensive shared realities – which underpin many forms of imaginative culture – are an important topic of study unto themselves, and may be utilized to provide methodological insight into a variety of psychological domains.

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Section: Childhood Pretend Playmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pretensive Shared Reality: From Childhood Pretense to Adult Imaginative Play

2022

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“…The latter has broadened the scope of the role of the referee, a common feature of many wargames dating back to the influential Prussian Kriegsspiel (tabletop battle simulations generally involving two teams and a referee) from the 19th century, into a storyteller, who weaves a heroic epic for their players. The involvement of the so-called dungeon master (DM) or game master as well as the mechanics of character progression have become distinguishing features of traditional tabletop role-playing (White et al, 2018). In their basic form, tabletop roleplaying games are played by small groups of players (2)(3)(4)(5)(6) in a face-to-face setting over multiple sessions under the DM's guidance, which is informed by official rules (Zagal and Deterding, 2018).…”

Section: Media History Of Tabletop Role-playingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mediatization of tabletop role-playing: The intertwined cases of Critical Role and D&D Beyond

Švelch

2022

Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Med

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Tabletop role-playing has grown from a niche of analog gaming into a mainstay of popular culture. The original face-to-face way of playing has been complemented by online play using dedicated digital tools, and play itself has become spectator entertainment. In this article, I explore the process of mediatization of tabletop role-playing on the example of Critical Role – the most successful ‘actual play’ show, in which performers broadcast tabletop role-playing to audiences. I highlight the importance of commodification as a force in the process of mediatization, involving licensing, merchandising, and advertising. Empirically, the article is grounded in an analysis of Critical Role’s sponsorships and embodied player practices, focusing on the political-economic aspects of the show. While Critical Role presents a profoundly mediated form of tabletop role-playing, it promotes a traditional face-to-face way of playing using physical accessories both by cast members’ preference of such accessories (except for the digital toolset D&D Beyond) and sponsorships from manufacturers of these products. Mediatization of tabletop role-playing thus happens through an economic-driven process of addition – new mediated options for players with new opportunities for commodification exist alongside analog modes of consumption. As shown on the example of Critical Role, the digital and mediated forms of the analog hobby can be harnessed to promote physical consumerism.

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“…The basic cognitive concepts of role-playing -engaging in pretense that involves representing others' minds in the first person; (Lillard, 2001;Sachet & Mottweiler, 2013) -is familiar to anyone who has indulged the fantasies of a young child, or watched film, television, or theatrical productions. Table-top role-playing games (see Deterding & Zagal, 2018;White et al, 2018) 2 , then, are but the most recent and most adult-like instantiation of a tradition of fantastical, narratively driven, agentically rich expressions of imaginative culture that has roots in both the life-time development of humans, and the history of the species. We choose to focus on table-top role-playing as it is an highly illustrative example of adult imaginative play, and is a useful way to understand adult imaginative culture as the socio-cognitive extension of childhood pretend play (we have provided a glossary of potentially unfamiliar terms that are associated with table-top role-playing games, as we will use these throughout; see Table 1).…”

Section: Section 11 Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pretensive Shared Reality

Kapitány¹,

Goldstein²

2021

Preprint

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Imaginative pretend play is often thought of as the domain of young children, yet adults regularly engage in elaborated, fantastical, social-mediated pretend play. We draw on multiple examples, but focus on Table-Top Role Playing games (TTRPG) - and specifically, the most popular and enduring table-top role-playing games, Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) - as a primary example of such play. We describe imaginative play in adults via the term ‘pretensive shared reality'; Shared Pretensive Reality describes the ability of a group of individuals to employ a range of higher-order cognitive functions to explicitly and implicitly share representations of a bounded fictional reality in predictable and coherent ways, such that this constructed reality may be explored and invented/embellished with shared intentionality in an ad hoc manner. Pretensive Shared Reality facilitates multiple individual and social outcomes, including generating personal and group-level enjoyment or mirth, the creation or maintenance of social groups, or the safe exploration of individual self concepts (such as alternative expression of a players sexual or gender identity). Importantly, Pretensive Shared Reality (both within the specific context of table-top role-playing games, and other instances) are primarily co-operative and co-creative. Our conception links the widespread existence and forms of adult imaginative play to childhood pretense, places it within a developmental and evolutionary context, and argues that pretensive shared realities - which underpin many forms of imaginative culture - are an important topic of study unto themselves, and may be utilized to provide methodological insight into a variety of psychological domains.

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Tabletop Role-Playing Games

Cited by 14 publications

References 3 publications

Pretensive Shared Reality: From Childhood Pretense to Adult Imaginative Play

Pretensive Shared Reality: From Childhood Pretense to Adult Imaginative Play

Mediatization of tabletop role-playing: The intertwined cases of Critical Role and D&D Beyond

Pretensive Shared Reality

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