http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification 720 https://escholarship.org/uc/analoggamestudies/rss Recent eScholarship items from Analog Game Studies Thu, 18 Jun 2026 05:46:55 +0000 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2sg3n9vs This collaborative, retrospective essay weaves together the reflections of fourteen participants at the Role-Playing the Humanities event at the University of Cincinnati (UC) on March 31 and April 1, 2025.1 The symposium brought together students, faculty, and administrators with expert designers and scholars of role-playing to think about how role-playing can enhance the work of the humanities and to explore the worldbuilding and radical worldmaking possibilities of role-playing games. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2sg3n9vs Tue, 2 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Chang, Edmond Y. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8736-1586 Alberto, Maria K. Condis, Megan Cox, Jason Ferguson, Michaele L. Friedman, Emily C. Hernandez, Luke Jones, Katherine Castiello Jones, Shelly Kask, Tim Livesey-Stephens, Bea Roda Martínez, Antonio Torner, Evan Zagal, José P. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2qz195fr <p>A review of The Rule Book: The Building Blocks of Games, which offers a constructionist ludology approach to address the definitions, understandings, and boundaries of play, games, rules, game design, and game studies.&nbsp;</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2qz195fr Tue, 2 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Livesey-Stephens, Bea https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9w84p6rk This paper investigate how social design games may support interaction between lonely young adults that due to long-term loneliness need to train social skills which later can help them out of their loneliness. A leisure game was hacked based on previous fieldwork and presented for lonely young adults. The game was played and the inquiry was video-recorded with a group of attendees and the data was transcripted and analyzed within a narrative and small story approach. The findings from the data showed that social design games can help lonely young adults to train social competencies. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9w84p6rk Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Bärenholdt, Mads Grønne https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9f96p7fn This article explores the aesthetic and philosophical tensions embedded in Yazeba’s Bed &amp; Breakfast, a narrative tabletop role-playing game that centers on queer domesticity, found family, and emotional intimacy. Drawing from a personal gameplay experience and broader theoretical frameworks, the essay interrogates how the game’s cozy aesthetic might both invite and constrain queer play. While Yazeba’s champions narrative openness and queergaming practices such as character sharing and metagaming, some of its visual and tonal cues may inadvertently domesticate queerness into normative forms of comfort and stability. Through the lens of aesthetic philosophy and queer theory, the article engages the works of Bachelard, Kant, Adorno, Muñoz, and Halberstam to question whether comfort-centered design can flatten the volatile, messy, and dissonant dimensions of queer experience. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9f96p7fn Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Haarman, Susan https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9f6679cd Drawing on analyses of a range of German board games, this essay offers an overview of the development and definition of board games and an exploration of why board games are a legitimate medium for storytelling. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9f6679cd Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Bornstedt, Pawel https://escholarship.org/uc/item/91g135z9 This essay close reads three sets of environmental or climate larps: first, there are those that simulate political or diplomatic summits: Pig Grove, Tree of Life, Fortitude, Forecasters, Baltic Warriors; second are larps as pseudo-fictional workshops: Cyborg Gaia Allies, A Ceremony for Hope; and third are blackbox larps, which make use of lighting, audio, props, and other means of stagecraft to create spaces for collaborative storytelling: The Ark, Spillover, From the Ashes, Leviathan. The essay hopes to stimulate a productive, creative discussion about game design, cultural expression, politics, and the affordances and limitations of climate larps. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/91g135z9 Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 op de Beke, Laura https://escholarship.org/uc/item/88d3z1k8 11.3 Table of Contents and Editor's Note: Perspectives on RPG Studies by Latin American Scholars (October 14, 2024) https://escholarship.org/uc/item/88d3z1k8 Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Bastarrachea-Magnani, Miguel A. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/87m3x2r6 This article provides a preliminary description and definition of the miniatures wargame. Rather than defining the miniatures wargame via the use of miniatures, which is obvious, it locates the specificity of the miniatures wargame in the centrality of the table to play, the use of non-discrete movement, the prominence of bricolage style craft in customization and terrain building, the order of operations in ludic storytelling, and the centralization of the hybrid industrial/craft miniatures wargames industry. The article aims to spark discussion of the specificity of miniatures wargames as a genre of analog game. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/87m3x2r6 Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Williams, Ian https://escholarship.org/uc/item/85c0486q In this article, I detail key experiences in my playthroughs of two solo journaling games that engage explicitly with environmental themes and use them to model material interventions into queer theory. In the first game, the Crushing Dark: A Solo Journaling RPG (2021), I explore the fragility of subjecthood and by documenting my player character’s (PC) attempts to maintain the integrity of a bathysphere against an inhospitable, albeit beautiful, submarine world. The second game, Dwelling: A Solo Game for Ghosts (2021), I investigate the erotic possibilities of memory as a ghost floating through rooms, creating memories, and making marks. I explore these vulnerabilities materially through the environmental humanities concepts of precarity and porosity. I argue that, while this intervention is not unique to the format of solo journaling games, this genre is a generative place of study because its format highlights the precarity of the player. To play one of these games is to engage... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/85c0486q Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Blackburn, Brandon https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7w08s7dk 10.1 Table of Contents and Editors' Note (March 27, 2023) https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7w08s7dk Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Editors, AGS https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7mg338m1 The book Around the World in 80 Games, by Marcus Du Sautoy, is a collection of essays about board, card, and other games based on Du Sautoy’s experiences traveling the world as a research mathematician. This article is a review of the book and a retrospective on its use as a foundation for a first-year general education seminar course on topics in gaming, targeting competency in critical thinking, information literacy, and global literacy. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7mg338m1 Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Jones, Keith https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7g13z87t In this essay, we seek to intercept the formation of queer analog game studies (QAGS) at the moment of its emergence with a lyrical and trans-informed critique of academic field-building. We ask how we might move from frameworks of analysis that attempt to identify inherent qualities of games and their mechanics and toward those that center play as fundamentally mutable and shifting? Drawing on trans studies, critical game studies, and the experimental poetics of lyric game design, we propose a reimagining of queer analog play that resists disciplinary ossification. Rather than endorsing QAGS as a formal subfield, the paper advocates for an unruly, lyrical approach to queer game scholarship—one that privileges creative play, illegibility, and transformation over coherence or institutional legitimacy. We weave personal narrative, theoretical analysis, and experimental form to argue that trans and queer analog play has always existed beyond the bounds of legible academic structures,... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7g13z87t Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Berge, PB Hornak, Percival https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7df2j22g This article analyzes the combat effectiveness of beginning characters in a variety of tabletop role-playing games against enemies they typically fight. We first orient the reader with the mathematical probability of critical successes and critical failures in several different tabletop game systems. For critical rolls, we examine D&amp;D 5th Edition, Cyberpunk, Deadlands and Shadowrun. Then we compare the likelihood of a low-level combat-oriented character hitting their opponent across different systems. Our in-depth analysis includes D&amp;D, Deadlands and Sword Chronicle. Games are rule bound systems and the random number generators selected for a TTRPG system and the parameters placed around those generators have a significant impact on the player experience. This analysis can help designers and players be more aware of their probabilities of hitting, and how these percentages change based on the gaming system that they are running. We roll out our research to highlight the... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7df2j22g Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Martin, Cathlena Tyler, Benton https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7c09x7ck This essay argues that analog games function as platforms that mediate affect through their specific combinations of rules, material components, and the player relationships and experiences. The purpose here is to examine the way that affect is mediated through intimacy during play through a close analysis of Nyctophobia, a board game designed by Catherine Stippell and published by Pandasaurus Games. This paper will examine the way Nyctophobia, which draws on classic tropes from horror slasher films, produces a type of mediated intimacy that orients the affective experience of play in relation to the assemblages of analog play. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/7c09x7ck Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Murray, Jack https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6sp975k7 This essay examines a recent adventure module for Dungeons &amp; Dragons Fifth Edition, which employs older game mechanics and who also espouse fascist or GamerGate-like rhetoric. This adventure, Tomb of Annihilation, takes mechanical, narrative, and setting inspiration from earlier D&amp;D adventures, presenting players with an adventure that is both challenging and player driven. This essay contributes to scholarship that identifies gameplay mechanics as constructs and vital contributors to storytelling in game worlds. Contrary to popular discourse which often ascribes game mechanics a moral or political neutrality, this essay argues game mechanics are often co-constructive with games' narratives, settings, and aesthetics. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6sp975k7 Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Hines, Mark https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6p1094gk While most transmedia scholarship has focused on narrative and its permutation across digital platforms, earlier analog examples—especially in tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs)—remain valuable for exploring how different media enable or constrain storytelling. This essay examines how transmedia adaptation in TTRPGs can produce ludonarrative dissonance, a conflict between a game’s narrative and ludic (gameplay) elements. Through a rhetorical analysis of the "Original" and "Advanced" editions of the Marvel Super Heroes Role-Playing Game (MSHRPG), I show how dissonance can emerge when designers attempt to reconcile the fantastical conventions of the genre of superhero comics with rule systems drawn from TTRPG genres that prioritize realism and mechanical granularity. These tensions illuminate the stakes of adapting across media and genres in the TTRPG space. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6p1094gk Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Lawson, Daniel https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6nw7r1cp 11.4 Table of Contents and Editors' Note (December 16, 2024) https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6nw7r1cp Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Editors, AGS https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6h43b14j This article provides a proof-of-concept for the complementary route of the scientification of games. We argue that the tasks and rules developed within commercially available games can exactly represent the same kinds of tasks studied in Cognitive Psychology. Consequently, analyzing games as though they were scientific paradigms a) allows for unique teachable moments in Cognitive Psychology using games as the vehicle of delivery, and b) feeds back principles of randomization and counterbalancing into the design and development of commercial games. Using the popular card game Ghost Blitz, we identify how players might resolve the game on a round-by-round basis in terms of both bottom-up (stimulus-driven) and top-down (expectation-driven) processes. We identify statistical biases within the card deck favoring one rule over the other, and a second bias where specific color/shape conjunctions are both under- and over-represented. These detailed analyses provided the insights necessary... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6h43b14j Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Dyson, Benjamin James Baik, Leo https://escholarship.org/uc/item/63c3c702 11.1 Table of Contents and Editors' Note (January 30, 2024) https://escholarship.org/uc/item/63c3c702 Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Editors, AGS https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5z17x8tf There are a multitude of digital and analogue games and simulations that place players in historical situations. However, there is a dearth of such mediums that foreground the human cost to both the historical actors being studied and players themselves. This paper suggests that approaches to recent controversial conflicts should be undertaken through the medium of narrative-based games and simulations. It focuses on how game design can lead both designers and players to gain emotionally and cognitively in the same way that visitors do when they visit a museum and engage with the physical artefacts on display. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5z17x8tf Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 O'Donnell, Hugh https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5bq4g6bd This article offers an account of the Bootcamp #PascualChallenge project led by a team of professors from Institución Universitaria Pascual Bravo. The Bootcamp #PascualChallenge focuses on challenge-based learning (CBL) immersing students in authentic, real-world scenarios relevant to their professional domains. The fourth iteration of the Bootcamp #PascualChallenge—titled "Social Fictions and Role-Playing Games"—asked students to create a role-playing game (RPG) to test their narrative and graphic text generation skills while incorporating regional myths and legends related to their Colombian identity. This event served as an opportunity for educators to review both practical and theoretical aspects of role-playing design. Simultaneously, students acquired general competencies in addressing specific issues, as evident from the learning outcomes. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5bq4g6bd Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Gallego Escobar, Francisco Fernando Henao Santa, Juan David https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5735h429 12.1 Table of Contents and Editors' Note (April 30, 2025) https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5735h429 Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 AGS Editors https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4sv9v3zf 10.1 Table of Contents and Editors' Note (March 27, 2023) https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4sv9v3zf Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Editors, AGS https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4r74s3ck This article examines tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) activities at Gen Con, the original, longest-running gaming convention in the world with 70,000+ annual attendees as of 2023 to document two key characteristics of Gen Con RPG events over 50 years: 1) a long-term and increasing transmedia presence, and 2) an overlooked educational function as a format to teach and learn about gaming. By examining TTRPG events at Gen Con between 1968-2017 against a backdrop of 160,000+ convention program offerings, this analysis demonstrates the "knowledge work" and transmedia nature of theoretical and ethnographic scholarship about fandom. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4r74s3ck Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Baker, Neal https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4hc0s1hf This paper compares and contrasts the vampire tradition with and against the mechanical elements of D&amp;D, considering each element in practice to illustrates the value and unique nature of D&amp;D within the vampire tradition. The first core mechanic this paper will examine is alignment. This paper shall also begin to establish Stoker's vampire Dracula as an important character of reference and contrast for Strahd. From here, the paper looks at the concept of agency and player led narrative. This section will look at the way agency is used in D&amp;D, both for the benefit of the vampire tradition, and at the possible detriment of D&amp;D as a game system. Finally, this paper will break down the key mechanic of the Tarokka deck, highlighting the marriage of mechanics and narrative. Overall, this paper, through the above points, will demonstrate how D&amp;D's unique mechanics work in tandem with the vampire tradition, while challenging both the tradition and game itself. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4hc0s1hf Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Hewitt, Meghan https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4d38j21m This paper discusses the term "mancala "and the implication of its use as a generic term for all classic African board games with holes, and seeds. We textually analyzed recent literature on classic African board games; we address the use of "mancala" in the literature. We focused on the names of three classic African board games and discussed these games names and the historical relationship between the game name and the ethnic group to argue that history, culture, and identity erasure happen when mancala is used as a generic term to classify these games. Mancala reflects the dismissal or neglect of African communities and ethnic groups contribution to the expansion of knowledge about games and gameplay. As shown by the literature of different fields, we contend that precise and appropriate use of names limits ambiguity, and even prevents the erasure of a group’s history, creativity, and game design approach. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/4d38j21m Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Bayeck, Rebecca Y. Bayeck, Joseph M. Randle, Olu https://escholarship.org/uc/item/44c281wn This collaborative essay brings together seven participants to reflect on their observations and experiences at the 2025 BIPOC Game Studies Conference at The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/44c281wn Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Chang, Edmond Y. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8736-1586 Condis, Megan Hernandez, Luke Jones, Shelly Kporwofa, Amanda Stolee, Mirek Torner, Evan https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3zs4n60m 12.4 Table of Contents and Editors' Note (December 8, 2025) https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3zs4n60m Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 AGS Editors https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3kk4261w This article attempts to classify the fundamental traits of the gamebook and to present a useful framework for the understanding of the gamebook as a technology for interaction and sense-making drawing on gamebooks of the 1980s and early 1990s. The article will look at the unique affordances, limitations, and creative opportunities that the gamebook derives from its materiality and medium specificity. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3kk4261w Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Arnaudo, Marco https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3kc1q1dc 12.3 Table of Contents and Editors' Note (September 25, 2025) https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3kc1q1dc Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 AGS Editors https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3j2407x4 11.2 Table of Contents and Editors' Note (June 24, 2024) https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3j2407x4 Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Editors, AGS https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3gn5g98h This study assesses the effect of Table-Top Role-Playing Games (TTRPGs) on students' mathematical and social science learning in the Engineering classes of the Autonomous University of Baja California (UABC), Mexicali campus, with students in their first and second semesters of Differential Calculus, Linear Algebra, Integral Calculus, as well as the propaedeutic courses of the Faculty of Medicine of the UABC, Mexicali campus. Two methods were used to measure this impact: first, questionnaires were distributed to students to gather their feedback and perceptions, and second, the academic performance of two distinct groups was analyzed: students who engaged in TTRPGs and those who did not. By comparing these two groups, the study aims to determine the influence of TTRPGs on students' academic achievements. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3gn5g98h Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Chavez Lizama, Eduardo Adrian Morales Carbajal, Ricardo https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1t0669xx This paper examines Table-top Role-playing Games (TTRPGs) in order to define the term Mega-campaigns and identify the constitutive factors within the TTRPG context. This paper will begin by providing background information on TTRPGs and their characteristics. It will then outline the methodological perspectives adopted in this study, followed by a systematic literature review. This comprehensive review will identify common factors relevant to Mega-campaigns in TTRPGs as well as outline the implications and significance of these factors within the context of Mega-campaigns. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1t0669xx Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Leon, Cristo Lipuma, james Cabobianco, Marcos O. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1s57p694 This paper explores the current market of Taiwanese board games to interrogate how these games present a conflicted image of Taiwan. Many designers in Taiwan strive to create "Taiwanese board games" but often replicate Western models and ideologies. Is there a different way to interpret this predicament when the history of Taiwan was predominantly formed in the maneuvers of colonial power? How can Taiwanese games counter the imperial influence when its presence seems to hold dominance in the creation and consumption of these games? Looking at games like Uncle Wang's Richman, this paper addresses the ways Taiwanese game appropriate figures of Western empire, yet the more organic and original scenes of Taiwan tend to be poorly depicted. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1s57p694 Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Chen, Aria https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1qs7w3vm A review of the German language edited collection Of Beer-Brewing Monks and War-Like Nuns: Cloisters and Clergy in Analog and Digital Games, which addresses how church history, monastic culture, and monks and nuns themselves are represented in analog and digital games. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1qs7w3vm Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Torner, Evan https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1nz7z32b This article examines Dungeons &amp; Dragons (D&amp;D) adventures as a genre to address game content, player agency, and reception. Specifically, Aristotle's Poetics serves as a starting point for the analysis of D&amp;D adventures in order to think about the similarities between theatre and TTRPGs but also the nature and experience of tragedy and D&amp;D adventures. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1nz7z32b Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 McKenzie, Brian https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1jm3f58w AGS Editor Evan Torner interviews Linda Codega, who writes not only journalism but long-form critique, fandom analyses, speculative fiction, and experimental tabletop role-playing games. Codega has extensively reported on Wizards of the Coast's initial abandonment in January 2023 of the Open Game License (OGL) for Dungeons &amp; Dragons (D&amp;D). https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1jm3f58w Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Torner, Evan Codega, Linda https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1hg3g193 Players face psychological risks when improvising in fictional worlds in which they may witness, enact, or be subject to danger, violence, violation, and dehumanization. In this article, we argue that there are limits to relying on conventional safety tools and protocols to ensure players are protected from emotional harm and trauma of bleed-out experiences during tabletop role play. We argue that actual play can reveal the limits of conventional TTRPG safety tools like the X card or lines and veils. We analyze a case study of an in-game sexual assault that precipitated the cancellation of the Far Verona stream. We examine the accounts given by players and GM after the event but zoom in on the sequential action of the live-streamed play itself. Adopting an ethnomethodological orientation to TTRPG play as accountable action, this article identifies four ethnomethods of bleed play through which character and player frames are acted upon by GM and players, and therefore, we call... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/1hg3g193 Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Klein, Sarah Voorhees, Gerald https://escholarship.org/uc/item/18x6t91p This article aims to renew the theoretical framework surrounding the guiding question: What are role-playing games? In other words, setting up the propaedeutics for an ontology of RPGs or a discourse of their essence and existence. Despite the apparent simplicity of the query, it is elusive and intricate. Addressing it is not only prompted by the inertia RPGs are gaining in popular culture but also a need for an integral view of the advancements produced by each discipline dealing with the phenomenon. The ultimate goal is to contribute to developing a genealogy and taxonomy (classification) of RPGs that distinguishes between different manifestations (such as tabletop RPGs and live-action RPGs or LARP). https://escholarship.org/uc/item/18x6t91p Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Leon, Cristo Meritano, Edgar Bastarrachea-Magnani, Miguel A. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0wp5c7h2 In this essay I argue that analog game engines speculate on what is possible for the digital, in a way that concretizes queer visions of the messy relationship between humans, systems, and computation. Drawing on Kara Keeling and Tara McPherson, I analyze the analog game engine Powered by the Apocalypse as an example of Keeling’s notion of a "Queer OS," or an operating system that encodes queer relational structures. In my close analysis of Powered by the Apocalypse’s mechanics and conceptual boundaries, I bring feminist platform studies and analog game studies into dialogue in order to argue for a more expansive definition of "game engine" that accounts for the ways in which analog games imagine forms of computation and human-computer interaction that are not yet possible for digital game engines. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0wp5c7h2 Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Doyle-Myerscough, Kaelan https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0wm342wx 12.2 Editor's Note: Be Queer, Do Games: An Introduction to Queer Analog Game Studies https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0wm342wx Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Chang, Edmond Y. https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8736-1586 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0jq886rm This study analyzes the shifts and changes in the ritual elements in the playing of Dungeons &amp; Dragons as players moved to virtual tabletops like Roll20. The essay draws on the formal elements of Randall Collins's Interaction Ritual Chains and the ritual categories of Arnold van Gennep's work. The study looks at two Dungeons &amp; Dragons 5th edition game groups playing during the pandemic—one a "traditional" table game and the other played remotely on the Roll20. The study's methodology is based on observations of participants and in-depth interviews with the players of the two game groups, establishing a total of 80 game sessions between both tables. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0jq886rm Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Leon, Cristo Lipuma, James Rangel Jimenez, Mauricio https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0hj3z32j This paper explores game-based learning in youth work, as games offer immense variety in form and subject matter and can vary from simple to very complex, enabling different learning outcomes from cognitive skills and affective changes (feelings and emotions) to interpersonal social skills. Specifically, the paper presents the findings and experiences of running a project called "Board Games Design as a Tool in Civic Education," which allowed young people take the role of creators and game designers to explore social topics they cared about. The project was a response to the theme of the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the EU 2021, "Europe for YOUth – YOUth for Europe: Space for Democracy and Participation," which hoped to strengthen young people's democratic participation. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/0hj3z32j Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Belc, Sabina Dumit, Joseph https://escholarship.org/uc/item/06t0v6h9 This article traces the history of the twenty-sided die or d20. The story of how the d20 became synonymous with wargames and role-playing games is an unlikely one, full of bizarre twists and fortuitous encounters. It includes some familiar characters, such as game designers Gary Gygax and Lou Zocchi, but others less well known in gaming circles, including eminent science writer Martin Gardner, and Ishida Yasushi, a quality control engineer at Toshiba. It spans several decades and three continents, from the seaside town of Kamakura in the autumn of 1950, to the shores of Lake Geneva in the winter of 1973-4. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/06t0v6h9 Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Evan, Peter D. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/069876t9 This essay seeks to examine how tactics wrought in contingency can offer a novel approach to understanding indeterminacy as a resource, rather than a burden. It uses the show Taskmaster to identify exaggerated examples of these instances that are explicitly contended with during the show to better understand how contingency can be leveraged. From there, this paper applies the mechanisms through which contingency is leveraged and identifies analogs where mental health clinicians utilize these tactics in their treatment of clients. Clinical data was collected in completion of a master’s degree disquisition through ethnographic interviews with 15 clinicians that utilize table-top role-playing games in their practices. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/069876t9 Fri, 15 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Thomas, Brian Jason https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9g8585nq <p><em>Dungeons and Dragons</em> (<em>D&amp;D</em>) may very well be the most important game ever created. <em>D&amp;D</em>, having evolved from the niche wargame <em>Chainmail</em>, is widely regarded as the first tabletop role-playing game. It is unlikely that David Arneson and Gary Gygax understood the impact their game would have back in 1974, but in this “golden age of <em>D&amp;D</em>” we can understand its influence on many aspects of culture including contemporary fiction, live performance, and even educational practice. My own teaching philosophy relies heavily on my 20+ years of experience as a Dungeon Master, and I count myself among the many people who have been positively impacted by <em>D&amp;D</em>. The book <em>Fifty Years of Dungeons &amp; Dragons</em> is both exploration and celebration of this truly remarkable game.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/9g8585nq Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Grieve, Victoria https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3913-2380 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8491s1wn <p>Editors' Note and Table of Contents for Volume 13, Number 1 of&nbsp;<em>Analog Game Studies</em> (March 31, 2026).&nbsp;</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8491s1wn Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Studies, Analog Game https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5tp698kn <p>Power fantasy, or media that are described as such, has been generally attributed to harmful or anti-social behaviors, typically those associated with toxic masculinity. After the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, power fantasy grew in demand with many new players giving tabletop role-playing games a chance, albeit through numerous virtual interfaces. Many of these players attributed TTRPG play with an empowering quality, one that helped support them emotionally, socially, and mentally through the 2020 lockdowns. Yet, discourses within and around the tabletop role-playing community also challenged the foundations of fantasy role-playing games, questioning game elements like “race” and creating alternative rules and entire TTRPGs in response. This article questions the extent that TTRPGs can “empower” players by looking to how discussions of racial justice in tabletop role-playing spaces trouble traditional depictions of power fantasy, exploring how the use of power fantasy in... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5tp698kn Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Irby, Cameron Lee https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1995-5531 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/45t7q164 <p>This article demonstrates how the nonviolent victory condition of questing to achieve twenty lore in Disney’s <em>Lorcana</em> subverts typical CCG conventions, player expectations, and maintains alignment with Disney’s brand identity of “goodness, kindness, and innocence”. <em>Lorcana</em> is worth analyzing because it diverges from CCGs that require eliminating an opponent’s health. The mechanics of questing, character willpower, and challenging (the game’s version of combat) are how the game maintains Disney’s brand identity. These mechanics demonstrate how CCG language is deescalated to imply a reduced level of violence. <em>Lorcana</em> would be less unique if it had the typical victory condition of attacking an opponent’s health, and the game would not have the Disney feel if it were as violent as <em>Magic the Gathering</em> or <em>Hearthstone</em>.</p> https://escholarship.org/uc/item/45t7q164 Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Racicot, Toben https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3h58w2ww <p>This review examines <em>Transformative Learning Through Play: Analogue Games as Vehicles for Educational Innovation</em> by Sara Rye, Micael Sousa, and Carla Sousa (2025), which explores the pedagogical potential of analogue game-based learning (GBL) in addressing complex contemporary challenges. The authors argue that traditional educational models often fail to prepare learners for “wicked problems,” advocating instead for analogue games as experiential, systems oriented learning environments that cultivate critical thinking, collaboration, and adaptability. The book develops a theoretical foundation for analogue GBL by synthesizing perspectives from experiential learning, play theory, and motivational psychology, including Self-Determination Theory. Particular attention is given to the tactile and social affordances of analogue games, which engage learners in dialogic and embodied forms of learning. The authors also introduce practical frameworks for educational game design,... https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3h58w2ww Tue, 12 May 2026 00:00:00 +0000 Roberts, Jeremy Mitchell https://orcid.org/0009-0000-2480-7675