Tabletop Role-Playing Games And The Experience Of Imagined Worlds

Description

In 1974, the release of Dungeons & Dragons forever changed the way that we experience imagined worlds. No longer limited to simply reading books or watching movies, gamers came together to collaboratively and interactively build and explore new realms. Based on four years of interviews and game recordings from locations spanning the United States, this book offers a journey that explores how role-playing games use a combination of free-form imagination and tightly constrained rules to experience those realms. By developing our understanding of the fantastic worlds of role-playing games, this book also offers insight into how humans come together and collaboratively imagine the world around us. Front Matter ....Pages i-xiii Introduction (Nicholas J. Mizer)....Pages 1-22 Entering Imagined Worlds Through Enchanted Rationalization (Nicholas J. Mizer)....Pages 23-46 A Life Well Played: How the Past Shapes Our Experience of Worlds (Nicholas J. Mizer)....Pages 47-74 Color, Song, and Choice Diction: Using Chromomancy to Summon Worlds (Nicholas J. Mizer)....Pages 75-122 Responsibly and Accurately: Dwelling in Imagined Worlds (Nicholas J. Mizer)....Pages 123-159 Journey’s End (Nicholas J. Mizer)....Pages 161-166 Back Matter ....Pages 167-174