Remediating The Tempest As A Playable TTRPG Module

<b>Introduction </b><div>More than 400 years after it was written, Shakespeare’s The Tempest continues to be republished, restaged and remediated into different forms, prompting new ways of seeing and analyzing the play. This research paper examines the process of transmedia adaptation through the case study of Shakespeare’s The Tempest adapted into a tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) module. The Tempest is remediated as an interactive game based on Wizards of the Coast’s Dungeons and Dragons fifth edition ruleset, designed to be facilitated by a Dungeon Master and played by a group of three to five players. The process of remediating The Tempest takes the play’s setting, characters, narrative conflict, and dialogue and translates them into the formal structure of the TTRPG, prompting questions that have long been asked in adaptation studies: how important is fidelity to the source text? What is lost, gained, and changed in transmedia translation? What role does the translator play in the creation of the adaptation?</div>

Remediating The Tempest As A Playable TTRPG Module

<b>Introduction </b><div>More than 400 years after it was written, Shakespeare’s The Tempest continues to be republished, restaged and remediated into different forms, prompting new ways of seeing and analyzing the play. This research paper examines the process of transmedia adaptation through the case study of Shakespeare’s The Tempest adapted into a tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) module. The Tempest is remediated as an interactive game based on Wizards of the Coast’s Dungeons and Dragons fifth edition ruleset, designed to be facilitated by a Dungeon Master and played by a group of three to five players. The process of remediating The Tempest takes the play’s setting, characters, narrative conflict, and dialogue and translates them into the formal structure of the TTRPG, prompting questions that have long been asked in adaptation studies: how important is fidelity to the source text? What is lost, gained, and changed in transmedia translation? What role does the translator play in the creation of the adaptation?</div>

Ronnie James Dio

Although Ronnie James Dio is often parodied for his lyrical ruminations on dragons, demons, and other Dungeons and Dragons style phantasmagoria, he maintained a humor about himself and possessed a capacity for openness unique to heavy metal. He is known for popularizing the devil horn hand gesture (“malocchio”) at rock shows, though he said its history extended back to his Italian Grandmother who used it as a way of protecting against someone’s evil eye. Dio also said his Grandmother could use it as a curse when provoked. Thus, Dio linked the symbol of the devil horns to protection as much as provocation. Carter’s work likewise considers the polarities in Dio’s work that made him the formidable artist of Heaven and Hell.

Contesting the Political: Violence, Emotion and the Playful Subject

Tabletop role-play games (TRPG s) are undergoing a resurgence in popularity tied, in part, to the release of Dungeons and Dragons (5th edition) and a vibrant culture of live-streaming role-play games online. Research has now also shown that TRPG s – such as Dungeons and Dragons – provide a unique environment for the development of prosocial behaviours. There is an opportunity for researchers interested in political emotions and ideological performance to explore a community of collaborative storytelling where the altruism derided by philosophies of neoliberal economic rationalism is performed as a core value, with tangible outcomes for tolerance, generosity and well-being. As TRPG s become commonly accepted as part of the toolkit in both education and therapeutic contexts, they provide a new avenue of engagement for those interested in the development of prosocial values, community and social inclusion in the digital age.

Beyond Borders with Miéville, Borges, Wolfe, Ligotti, and Numenera

This chapter examines a final case study, the TRPG Numenera. It finds in writers such as China Miéville and Gene Wolfe precursors of how literary studies can inform and understanding of the imaginary worlds found in a game like Numenera. Miéville, for example, finds roots for his Bas Lag trilogy in elements from TRPGs like Dungeons and Dragons, articulating a granular style of textured detail like that found in the best of Lovecraft. With Wolfe, this chapter reads his blending of science fiction and fantasy elements, especially how he embraces a magical impulse. Numenera incorporates these elements into a post-anthropocene setting that imagines a post-human far future. Its cosmicism, though, lacks the pessimism of Lovecraft or a writer like Thomas Ligotto, who this chapter sees as moving beyond Lovecraft, yet retaining much of his insistence in resisting drawing the ultimate horror. This chapter ends by arguing that realized worlds such as those inspired by Lovecraft, e.g. Numenera, can also be seen in the first season of the HBO series True Detective, a series that valorized a pulp fantasism, yet refused to acknowledge it in the end.

Dungeons and Dragons’ Multiverse

This chapter analyses Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) as a case study for the investigation into how a seminal fantasy imaginary world has been represented through 40 years of gametexts. It does so by focusing on the grand metaverse within which players play this game. It sees in the construction of this metaverse critical elements that facilitate the harmonization of the different settings. For example, the different ‘planes’ of existence, as well as a godswar demonstrate how the designers have consistently crafted these imaginary worlds with both an ability to embrace highly textured and disparate details, as well as a sense of continuity and cohesion. This chapter addresses several of the most popular settings, such as Mystara, Greyhawk, Ravenloft, Krynn, Spelljammer, and Planescape. It focuses on the Forgotten Realms as a stellar example of how a fantasy gameworld develops as a shared universe into a realized world.