Weather is getting chilly out, so stay wrapped up and warm inside and participate in some fun GameRT events! There are two coming up for this month – our usual monthly board meeting and a webinar on queerness in the tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) community.
GameRT Monthly Board Meeting
Thursday, December 8th – 10 AM Pacific, 11 AM Mountain, 12 PM Central, 1 PM Eastern
https://ala-events.zoom.us/j/96014498635?pwd=azZUMTNkMTkra0VCY1h6OXI2V2orQT09
All GameRT members are welcome to attend board meetings. Meet the board members and committee teams, hear updates on GameRT initiatives, and ask questions. Agendas for each meeting will be posted in the GameRT Connect forum
Webinar – Dice, Zines, and Pirate Queens: Queer Horizons and Tabletop Roleplaying Games
Registration required: https://ala-events.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_Ki52C6LMTP2cIHBzEaIGJA
Thanks to virtual tables, online actual plays, and pop culture, Dungeons & Dragons is larger than life. In the midst of this newfound popularity, the reactionary, queerphobic underbelly of the tabletop gaming hobby has reared its head as D&D wrestles with its own conservative legacy. Yet queer and trans designers are redefining tabletop play. From one-page microgames about gay pirates to deeply personal journaling games about discomfort in one’s body to games about becoming a lich to survive trans healthcare waitlists, tabletop games represent a bold horizon of queer play and storytelling. In this talk, game scholar PS Berge (they/she) will discuss tabletop roleplaying games (TTRPGs), transness, and “zine” game-design. They will examine the troubling histories (and present realities) of the TTRPG hobby and show how we might look beyond Dungeons & Dragons; learning from queer and trans TTRPG designers who are changing the game in indie spaces. They’ll talk about the making, archiving, and playing of queer indie RPGs, how we can engage zine games safely with students and new participants, and how we might center queer play and making in our own pedagogy and curation.