“Satan’s Game”: The Cultural Roots and Impact of Dungeons and Dragons

This focus group will investigate the cultural impact of the tabletop roleplaying game Dungeons and Dragons in U.S. popular culture. We will also critically examine the cultural and philosophical roots of the roleplaying game genre. By looking at the function and cultural definitions of roleplaying and through participation in a Dungeons and Dragons game, we can begin to understand the process of how a subject comes into being in modern U.S. society and the binaries constructed around reality/fantasy and roleplaying/interior self.