Introductions are always hard, so I may as well dive right in. I’m a senior undergrad Sociology/English major who has been studying tabletop rpgs for the past year. I’ve been an avid gamer for almost a decade, a gamemaster for at least half of that, and I have experience with a decent variety of systems. This summer I attended GenCon for the first time, and met and talked to a lot of lovely and interesting people. It was the first step into my academic research on tabletop roleplaying games.

Gaming has its stereotypes, and while it can be useful to look at them, I know that gaming is more than that. It’s full of brilliant, dedicated, creative people, and that’s what makes it so fun. It’s also a fascinating subject of study, combining social experiments and virtual worlds with geek culture and fantasy and science fiction fandoms. It of course has some now infamous toxic community members, but I think it’s important to look at the whole of the craft, and what it has the potential to do.

I’ve interacted and played with many people over the years who have wanted to do things to improve their gaming experience. They want to be Game Masters that can truly thrill a table, or players that can build deep and believable characters that are still fun to play. Just like knowing you like garlic can help guide you when you cook, I think that understanding what really draws people to tabletop roleplaying games can help us build even more engrossing gaming experiences. That’s what my research is about, and I hope my thoughts can be helpful for you. Thanks for stopping by~