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Tabletop Role-Playing Games and the Experience of Imagined Worlds

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  • © 2019

Overview

Authors:
  1. Nicholas J. Mizer

    1. Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences Program, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, USA

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  • Focuses on old-school gaming, connecting with the nostalgic resurgence of interest in Dungeons & Dragons
  • Offers phenomenologically rich descriptions of actual play experiences
  • Combines anthropological ethnographic methodologies with cultural and media studies-based analyses

Part of the book series: Palgrave Games in Context (PAGCON)

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Table of contents (6 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xiii
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  2. Introduction

    • Nicholas J. Mizer
    Pages 1-22

  3. Entering Imagined Worlds Through Enchanted Rationalization

    • Nicholas J. Mizer
    Pages 23-46

  4. A Life Well Played: How the Past Shapes Our Experience of Worlds

    • Nicholas J. Mizer
    Pages 47-74

  5. Color, Song, and Choice Diction: Using Chromomancy to Summon Worlds

    • Nicholas J. Mizer
    Pages 75-122

  6. Responsibly and Accurately: Dwelling in Imagined Worlds

    • Nicholas J. Mizer
    Pages 123-159

  7. Journey’s End

    • Nicholas J. Mizer
    Pages 161-166

  8. Back Matter

    Pages 167-174
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Keywords

About this book

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.

Authors and Affiliations

  • Games and Simulation Arts and Sciences Program, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, USA

    Nicholas J. Mizer

About the author

Nicholas J. Mizer is a lecturer in games and culture at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, USA. His work has been published in numerous edited collections and in such journals as the Journal of Popular Culture and Evolution and Human Behavior. Mizer serves as co-chair of Game Studies for the Popular/American Culture Association, and is an editor at The Geek Anthropologist.

Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Tabletop Role-Playing Games and the Experience of Imagined Worlds

  • Authors: Nicholas J. Mizer

  • Series Title: Palgrave Games in Context

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29127-3

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media Studies, Literature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-29126-6Published: 06 December 2019

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-29129-7Published: 21 December 2020

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-29127-3Published: 22 November 2019

  • Series ISSN: 2731-5029

  • Series E-ISSN: 2731-5037

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIII, 174

  • Number of Illustrations: 2 b/w illustrations, 5 illustrations in colour

  • Topics: Cultural Anthropology, Popular Culture , Media and Communication, Ethnography

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