Players sit around a table. A group of adventurers pause in their pursuit of escape. Stunned, they stare at the die that just rolled poorly, resulting in the loss of a dear friend, his throat ripped out because they could not save him. The players mourn the death of a fictional character who only ever existed within the game. Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) is a popular role-playing game illustrating the interconnectedness of drama, performance, and games. My presentation will examine this relationship, identifying factors from gameplay that suggest how performance fosters success in D&D for both actual players and fictional characters. Research into dramatic theory and game theory reveals how interdisciplinary concepts such as the “magic circle”, the “lusory attitude”, and uncertainty can apply to elements of D&D (Salen and Zimmerman, Suits, Costikyan). Data collected from in-person observation of D&D sessions, coding participants’ behaviour, and watching for instances of performance (e.g. voice change, pronoun switches, or mimetic gesture), has been combined with theoretical research to determine elements that better facilitate success in the game/campaign. These elements range from emotional situations that provoke players, to forms of invitations encouraging participation (Isbister, White). I have discovered that while in theatre performance acts as a vehicle for story, in D&D the story acts as a vehicle for performance. The in-game performance often facilitates fun between players, as well as leading them to success in the game, so a campaign that maximizes theatricality will not only result in more fun, but also more success.
Works Cited
Costikyan, Greg. Uncertainty in Games. MIT Press, 2013.
Isbister, Katherine. How Games Move Us: Emotion by Design. MIT Press, 2016.
Salen, Katie, and Eric Zimmerman. Rules of Play: Game Design Fundamentals. The MIT Press, 2004.
Suits, Bernard Herbert. The Grasshopper: Games, Life, and Utopia. Broadview Press, 2014.
White, Gareth. Audience Participation in Theatre: Aesthetics of the Invitation. Springer, 2013.
Mapping Design Spaces for Audience Participation in Game Live Streaming
