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Many of today's hottest selling games--both non-electronic and electronic--focus on such elements as shooting up as many bad guys as one can (Duke Nuk'em), beating the toughest level (Mortal Kombat), collecting all the cards (Pokemon), and scoring the most points (Tetris). Fantasy role-playing games (Dungeons & Dragons, Rolemaster, GURPS), while they may involve some of those aforementioned elements, rarely focus on them. Instead, playing a fantasy role-playing game is much like acting out a scene from a play, movie or book, only without a predefined script. Players take on such roles as wise wizards, noble knights, roguish sellswords, crafty hobbits, greedy dwarves, and anything else one can imagine and the referee allows. The players don't exactly compete; instead, they interact with each other and with the fantasy setting. The game is played orally with no game board, and although the referee usually has a storyline planned for a game, much of the action is impromptu. Performance is a major part of role-playing, and role-playing games as a performing art is the subject of this book, which attempts to introduce an appreciation for the performance aesthetics of such games. The author provides the framework for a critical model useful in understanding the art--especially in terms of aesthetics--of role-playing games. The book also serves as a contribution to the beginnings of a body of criticism, theory, and aesthetics analysis of a mostly unrecognized and newly developing art form. There are four parts: the cultural structure, the extent to which the game relates to outside cultural elements; the formal structure, or the rules of the game; the social structure, which encompasses the degree and quality of social interaction among players; and the aesthetic structure, concerned with the emergence of role-playing as an art form.

Reviews over 400 seminal games from 1975 to 2015. Each entry shares articles on the genre, mod suggestions and hints on how to run the games on modern hardware.

Since the release of Dungeons & Dragons in 1974, role-playing games (RPGs) have spawned a vibrant industry and subculture whose characteristics and player experiences have been well explored. Yet little attention has been devoted to the ways RPGs have shaped society at large over the last four decades. Role-playing games influenced video game design, have been widely represented in film, television and other media, and have made their mark on education, social media, corporate training and the military. This collection of new essays illustrates the broad appeal and impact of RPGs. Topics range from a critical reexamination of the Satanic Panic of the 1980s, to the growing significance of RPGs in education, to the potential for "serious" RPGs to provoke awareness and social change. The contributors discuss the myriad subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways in which the values, concepts and mechanics of RPGs have infiltrated popular culture.

A thirtieth-anniversary retrospective explores the Dungeons & Dragons franchise, featuring a selection of essays and photographs that capture the events, products, personalities, art, and influence of the game through the years.

With the technology of the new millennium continuing to advance, there has been an increased interest in participatory forms of science fiction, fantasy, and horror entertainment such as role-playing and computer games, websites, and virtual reality settings. People seem to have a desire to go beyond the ordinary and well into the fantastic. This work is a compilation of new essays (all but one never before published) written by experts in both electronic and non-electronic game genres, covering computer games, web pages, Internet role-playing, interactive movies, table-top games, live-action role-playing, ghost hunts, action figures and amusement park rides. They cover a variety of viewpoints as to how and why people become so engrossed with virtual reality–type activities.

A one-stop, complete guide to tabletop role-playing games for novice librarians as well as seasoned players. Tabletop role-playing games (RPGs) are a perfect fit for library teen services. They not only hold great appeal for teen patrons, but also help build important skills ranging from math and literacy to leadership and dramatics. Role-playing games are cost-effective too. Dragons in the Stacks explains why RPGs are so effective at holding teenagers' attention, identifies their specific benefits, outlines how to select and maintain a RPG collection, and demonstrates how they can enhance teen services and be used in teen programs. Detailed reviews of role-playing games are included as well, with pointers on their strengths, weaknesses, and library applications. Coauthored by an experienced young adult librarian and an adult services librarian, this is the definitive guide to RPGs in the library, and the only one currently available.

This handbook collects, for the first time, the state of research on role-playing games (RPGs) across disciplines, cultures, and media in a single, accessible volume. Collaboratively authored by more than 50 key scholars, it traces the history of RPGs, from wargaming precursors to tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons to the rise of live action role-play and contemporary computer RPG and massively multiplayer online RPG franchises, like Fallout and World of Warcraft. Individual chapters survey the perspectives, concepts, and findings on RPGs from key disciplines, like performance studies, sociology, psychology, education, economics, game design, literary studies, and more. Other chapters integrate insights from RPG studies around broadly significant topics, like transmedia worldbuilding, immersion, transgressive play, or player–character relations. Each chapter includes definitions of key terms and recommended readings to help fans, students, and scholars new to RPG studies find their way into this new interdisciplinary field.

This Handbook provides a comprehensive guide to the latest research on role-playing games (RPGs) across disciplines, cultures, and media in one single, accessible volume. Collaboratively authored by more than 40 key scholars, it traces the history of RPGs, from wargaming precursors to tabletop RPGs like Dungeons & Dragons to the rise of live-action role-play and contemporary computer RPG and massively multiplayer online RPG franchises, like Baldur’s Gate, Genshin Impact, and World of Warcraft. Individual chapters survey the perspectives, concepts, and findings on RPGs from key disciplines, like performance studies, sociology, psychology, education, economics, game design, literary studies, and more. Other chapters integrate insights from RPG studies around broadly significant topics, like worldbuilding, immersion, and player-character relations, as well as explore actual play and streaming, diversity, equity, inclusion, jubensha, therapeutic uses of RPGs, and storygames, journaling games, and other forms of text-based RPGs. Each chapter includes definitions of key terms and recommended readings to help students and scholars new to RPG studies find their way into this interdisciplinary field. A comprehensive reference volume ideal for students and scholars of game studies and immersive experiences and those looking to learn more about the ever-growing, interdisciplinary field of RPG studies.

Bring a cultural-studies toolkit to bear on the world's most interpreted text The study of the Bible has adapted to the full range of analytical tools available to theologians, scholars, and researchers of every stripe. The marriage between cultural studies and Biblical studies has been especially fruitful, increasingly producing rich and provocative engagements with Biblical texts and contexts. Students of the Bible stand to profit significantly from a volume which illustrates the value of cultural studies approaches by putting these theories into practice. American Standard meets the needs of these students with a series of lively essays working through cultural-studies readings of specific Biblical texts. Drawing connections between the Bible and its modern settings, American popular culture, and more, it balances theory with direct close reading to provide an accessible introduction to the vast and varied landscape of cultural studies. American Standard readers will also find: An invaluable literature review of core cultural studies texts Detailed analyses incorporating fantasy gaming, the films of Joel and Ethan Coen, American diet culture, and more An author with an extensive teaching and publishing history in cultural and Biblical studies American Standard is ideal for advanced undergraduate or seminary students taking courses in biblical interpretation, American religion, critical theory, or any related subjects.