DD 293

Since its first publication in 1974, Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) has been synonymous with the game genre it helped to popularize: tabletop roleplaying games. For decades, D&D has had a quiet but profound impact on the game design industry as a whole and on wider popular conceptions of fantasy and play. In this course, students will take a critical look at the mechanics, dynamics and aesthetics at the core of the Dungeons and Dragons experience - where they came from, what values they express, and how they have developed over time. The course will explore how dungeons and dragons’ design has influenced and reacted to a series of historical events, including the Satanic panic in the 1980s, the mainstreaming of digital gaming, the broadening of the gaming community to include players and creators from a variety of gender, racial, sexual, cultural and course identities, the rapid expansion of an indie and experimental game design scene, and the contemporary phenomenon of online live-streams that have made it possible to watch Dungeons and Dragons as something like a professional spectator sport. <br>