Roleplaying Games in the Digital Age

Essays on Transmedia Storytelling, Tabletop RPGs and Fandom

Stephanie Hedge editor Jennifer Grouling editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:McFarland & Co Inc

Published:8th Mar '21

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Roleplaying Games in the Digital Age cover

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.

“...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

ISBN: 9781476676869

Dimensions: 254mm x 178mm x 12mm

Weight: 435g

241 pages