The construction of LGBT+ identities in tabletop role-playing games

Abstract

Tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) provide a unique opportunity for the creation of LGBT+ characters and narratives. There is a gap in existing scholarship in this area, but the research that is available suggests that TTRPGs are likely to present LGBT+ themes in a manner that is biased to its authors views. This thesis aims to determine the ways in which TTRPGs engage with LGBT+ identities within their rulebooks, and the ways in which TTRPG players construct their LGBT+ characters as a result. This study utilises mixed methods research, combining analysis of rulebooks focused on queer theory and ludology, and a survey of existing TTRPG players in order to achieve the aims set out above. The result of this research primarily discusses a demographic of young, queer adults who have consistently played as at least one LGBT+ character within a TTRPG. Overall, this study found that indicates that the construction of LGBT+ identities within TTRPGs is ultimately a collaborative effort between the rules as written, and the player’s actionable usage of them within a game. With regards to the fluff reality of the game, this meant that players typically ignored game content in favour of creating their own, personalised lore to match their ideal game world. With regards to the mechanical reality of the game, this instead meant that, while rulebooks could provide a clear overview of the author’s intent towards the place of queer content within their game design, players could purposefully choose to ignore any information provided by the game, as they functioned as the final authority on what rules were allowed within the game.

Ghosts of the Titanomachy: Structure, Commitment, Economics, and Risk as Causal Mechanisms in an Online Battle

“…Hence, avid gameplayers can remember decades-old gaming sessions with great clarity (Fannon, 1999;Fine, 2002). Moreover, confidence and experience gained inside the magic circle carry over into the player's real-life interactions (Cover, 2010;Fannon, 1999;Fine, 2002). Players who fought in the Battle of B-R5RB practiced communication, maneuver, and fire in contemporary air force wing or army brigade-sized formations rivalling those of professional military wargames and exercises (Curry and Perla, 2011;Sabin, 2014).…”

Role‐Playing Games as a New Adventure for Leadership‐As‐Practice: Forming a Leadership Framework Around Collective Creativity and Development

“…RPGs are a modern form of mythmaking and folklore, which both convey and construct cultural beliefs, norms, and values through collaborative storytelling and performance (Cragoe, 2016). The collaborative nature and social enactment involved in combining role‐playing, improvising, and imaginative storytelling can generate collective creativity through a group's formation of both game and group narratives (Cover, 2010; Lasley, 2020). RPG play requires individuals to operate with an awareness of several levels of social context.…”

“…RPG scholars have begun exploring the transformational potential of RPGs (Bowman & Hugaas, 2019; Daniau, 2016; Noroozy, 2023). In this context, role‐playing can become a generative, relational process accompanied by the potential for collective creativity (Cover, 2010), improvised synchronicity (Lasley, 2020), and transformational learning (Daniau, 2016). Thus, the opportunity to integrate LAPD and transformative play using RPGs is ready for action inquiry.…”

TTRPG UX: Requirements & Beyond

“…Instead each player holds a shared conception of the world, populating it with their own assumptions and expectations. In other words, each participant is collaboratively working towards a shared mental model of the world [5,20,33], but each is also acting within what Gofman might think of as frames of make-believe [12], which are each keyed and de-keyed as consensus is obtained and lost. The Theatre of the Mind sufers from its lack of explicit agreement on basic physiological factors of the imaginary world -even those as fundamental as 'where am I' and 'where is everyone else'.…”