2024/12/17 by Maria Alberto, Paul Booth · 1 voice
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Digital Games and Media #Media Influence and Health #Media, Gender, and Advertising
paper · doi:10.1177/13548565241310097
openalex publication_date 2024/12/17 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/05/21
This article investigates gaming paratexts related to the popular tabletop roleplaying game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) as heuristics. Gaming paratexts are accessible communication and media artifacts that influence what new players learn about games as cultural and ludic texts. In this work we examine ‘official' and ‘unofficial' gaming paratexts about drow, D&D’s dark elves. We highlight authorship, circulation, and accessibility as key impact factors, then identify common themes such as insider knowledge, transmission of expertise, and knowledge acquisition. This analysis reveals how – beyond information about the game itself – gaming paratexts can lead players to receive biased or incomplete impressions of issues with D&D, such as racism within the game system. We find that this specific form of online discourse about TTRPGs influences popular conceptions about D&D and often parallels forms of fannish practise through its affective connections, citational politics, and modal variety.