Are you a seasoned tabletop games player, a curious novice, looking for ways to research games for your spring project, or just want to watch nerds being nerds? Please join our panel of experts for a conversation about worldbuilding in and with tabletop roleplaying games, such as Dungeons & Dragons. We will discuss how games invite us not only to create the worlds in which we play, but also to study how those game worlds can reflect and even affect the worlds each player inhabits. And indeed, these games can invite but also sometimes stifle explorations of identity.
Topics will include: Experiences with roleplaying games as creators, players, and scholars of games and gaming Challenges to traditional fantasy genres as ideologically prescriptive Cosplay and live-action roleplaying (LARP) Academic research on game design and gaming communities Games and psychology: as therapy, as social emotional learning, and more
Featuring: Mohanad "Mo" Bagaber, 3rd-year psychology major (UCI Tabletop Games Club); Dr. Ben Garceau (Humanities Core); Professor Aaron Trammell (Dept. of Informatics); Dr. Jackie Way (English); Dr. Brook Haley (Humanities Core), moderator