Another piece of information important to the class is the readings that we made use of. Below is the list from the readings put together for the course, along with a couple of links to other readings.

One of the things that I will do in this blog over the next few weeks is discuss each of these pieces, providing a summary, some context, some analysis, and some links to further expand on the content of the reading.

Full Books:

• Heinsoo, Robert; Collins, Andy; Wyatt, James (2008). Player's Handbook: A 4th Edition Core Rulebook. United States: Wizards of the Coast.
• Mazzanoble, Shelly (2007). Confessions of a Part-time Sorceress: A Girl's Guide to the D&D Game. United States: Wizards of the Coast.

Articles:

• Poole, S. (2008) "Working for the Man".
• Aarseth, E. (2007). "I Fought the Law: Transgressive Play and The Implied Player". In Situated Play (130-133). Tokyo: The University of Tokyo.
• Mona, E. (2007). "From the Basement to the Basic Set: The Early Years of Dungeons and Dragons".  In  P. Harrigan and N. Waldrip-Fruin (Eds.),  Second Person: Role Playing and Story in Games and Playable Media (25-30). Cambridge: The MIT Press.
• Hendricks, S. Q. (2006). "Incorporative discourse strategies in tabletop fantasy role-playing gaming". In J. P. Williams, S. Q. Hendricks and W. K. Winkler (Eds.), Gaming as culture: essays on reality, identity, and experience in fantasy games (39-55). Jefferson: McFarland & Co.
• Costikyan, G. (2007). "Games, Storytelling, and Breaking the String". In  P. Harrigan and N. Waldrip-Fruin (Eds.),  Second Person: Role Playing and Story in Games and Playable Media (5-13). Cambridge: The MIT Press.
• Rorty, A. & Wong, D. (1993). "Aspects of Identity and Agency". In O. Flanagan and A. Rorty (Eds.), Identity, Character, and Morality (19-36). Cambridge: The MIT Press.
• Manning, P. (1992). "Goffman's Later Work: Frame Analysis".In P. Manning, Erving Goffman and modern sociology (118-140). Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• Nephew, M. (2006). "Unconscious Desire and Role-Playing Games". In J. P. Williams, S. Q. Hendricks and W. K. Winkler (Eds.), Gaming as culture: essays on reality, identity, and experience in fantasy games (120-139). Jefferson: McFarland & Co.
• Winkler, W.K. (2006). "The Business and Culture of Gaming". In J. P. Williams, S. Q. Hendricks and W. K. Winkler (Eds.), Gaming as culture: essays on reality, identity, and experience in fantasy games (140-153). Jefferson: McFarland & Co.
• Stackpole, M. (1990). "The Pulling Report".

Selections from RPG Products:

• Gygax, G. (1978). Selections (Preface, "hit points", "alignment"). In G. Gygax, Players Handbook (5-8, 33-34).  Lake Geneva: TSR Games.
• Gygax, G. (1979). Selections (Preface, "alignment", "experience points"). In G. Gygax, Dungeon Masters Guide (7-8, 23-25, 84-86).  Lake Geneva: TSR Games.
• Petersen, S. &  Willis, L. (2001). "Sanity & Insanity". In S. Petersen &  L. Willis, Call Of Cthulhu: Horror Roleplaying In the Worlds Of H.P. Lovecraft (5.6.1 Edition) (69,71-81). Oakland: Chaosium, Inc.
• Siembieda, K. (1983). Selections ("alignment", "experience points"). In K. Siembieda, The Palladium Role Playing Game (12-14). Detroit: Palladium Books.

Now this is not an ideal list of readings. Indeed, two of my students think that there should have been more readings in the class. To some extent I agree with them, as I initially had more readings scheduled for the class which I removed due to the amount of gaming I required for the course. Future courses will probably have more and different readings.

Hopefully this post will provide some basic information to interested parties about what my RPG class was up to. I'll post some more detailed information later. I'll probably do an entire post on what a technoculture is.

Here is the short description of the RPG class that is finishing up right now (Last class is Tuesday!):


That's actually a big chunk to bite off, especially for a single-semester course. Accordingly, the course itself was really a brief survey of these ideas, tied to academic investigations wherever possible. As this is a second-year course in a developing field, I felt that it was alright to somewhat gloss over the deeper elements of much of what could be discussed.

What I discovered soon after actually beginning the course was that there was need for a lot more education on the basics of RPGs than I ever imagined. I thought that many in the course would need to be brought up to speed, but I did not think that the majority of the students would be totally inexperienced with the games. This made me make the course even more basic in some areas and will lead me to other changes in the future. But these issues I'll cover in another post.

Here is the longer description of the course, from the course outline given to students:


The "core thesis" is nice, but unfortunately I don't feel that the course, so far, does more than gesture in the direction of the thesis. The course does discuss some not-so-subtle interactions between RPG rules and social constructions that are worth discussing, however.

The course topics discussed were supposed to be the following, and I pretty much hit all of them.

• General Introduction to RPGs
• History of RPGs
• Table-top Play vs. Computer Play
• Discourse In RPGs
• RPGs using Popular Franchises
• Constraints on Narratives
• Identity in RPGs
• Erving Goffman's Frame Analysis Applied to RPGs
• Sex and Gender in RPGs
• RPG Institutions
• The Image of RPGs in Popular Culture
• Consumerism in RPGs
• Morality in RPGs

Well, that's all for now, I think.

I'll be developing this blog more in the future. The RPG course is on the go right now and seems to be moving pretty good.

I'm starting a blog in order to provide my students with links, and commentary on those links, that will be used for teaching purposes.

Ler's start with the current rough outline for my next RPG course.

Role-Playing Games as Medium and Technoculture - MIT 2407G

Beginning with Dungeons and Dragons in the 1970s, role-playing games synthesized diverse elements from narrative and war simulation in order to produce a new medium for group narrative entertainment. In the process, they created a new subculture. These games, and the subculture that accompanies them, in turn helped to create a foundation for some of the most successful properties in contemporary computer games. This course studies the nature of these games as a medium in themselves and the culture that surrounds these games.

The core thesis of the course is that the narratives, identity, and culture that gamers create is subtly influenced by the social constructions used in their gaming activity. These social constructions include the rules of the games, the rule-books, the miniatures, the images used in game products. These social constructions limit the way that game can be played and they also suggest certain narratives and overtly and covertly shape the narratives of the games and the culture of the gamers.  Accordingly, the subculture associated with these games form a technoculture, as the subculture is oriented around the peculiarities of the medium and the technologies of the medium.

Course Texts :

• Heinsoo, Robert, Collins, Andy, Wyatt James (2008). Player's Handbook: A 4th Edition Core Rulebook. United States: Wizards of the Coast.
• Mazzanoble, Shelly (2007). Confessions of a Part-time Sorceress: A Girl's Guide to the D&D Game. United States: Wizards of the Coast.
• Course Package of selected readings

Students will also be required to purchase a PDF copy of one of the following Pelgrane Press, LTD, products:

• Laws, Robin. Mutant City Blues (if available)
• Laws, Robin. The Esoterrorists
• Hite, Kenneth. Trail of Cthulu

(Students who cannot use PDF files may approach the instructor for an alternate text.)