I will begin with a brief outline of the history and mechanics of TRPGs, and their proposed relationship to utopian thinking, moving into a discussion of the intersections between queer theory, dys/utopian theory and the ‘Magic Circle’ in play theory, exploring a case study that implements some of the theoretical models discussed (namely Avery Alder’s 2019 TRPG Dream Askew), before closing with an overview of iterations of performance practice within TRPGs. TRPGs offer a way of establishing a generative, performative space that is anti-hierarchical, experimental and process-based, privileging agency and emergent collaboration over a predetermined product or outcome. These interactive fictional worlds, co-created via collaborative world-building and storytelling, have the potential to support uniquely utopian, queer, performance strategies, and their instrumentalization within performance training practices could provide additional means of collapsing traditional theatrical divisions between the conception, preparation and public presentation of performance. It will outline a conception of training that does not prioritize an increase in technical skill or proficiency, but instead orientates itself towards the kinds of performative social languages and worlds facilitated by the structure of the TRPG – something akin to what Boal refers to as a ‘rehearsal for revolution’ (2008 : 135).
This paper will explore the ways that these three elements are linked in the form of the tabletop role-playing game, and how this connection opens a larger vision of training for, in and towards, utopias. Both Cross and Muñoz are speaking specifically here about the links between queerness, play and utopia, and how these concepts bolster and complicate one another when held in concert. With their well-established genre relationships to utopia, dystopia and performance, Cross states that these TRPGs ‘render social construction richly visible through their heavy emphasis on character, imagination, and story, which all work together as part of a process of constant enactment and engagement a perpetual process of “becoming”’ (2012: 72). He asks, how is it possible to stage small moments of utopia that meaningfully engage with its potentially radical politics? Furthering Muñoz’s suggestion, Katherine Cross posits that one such way to ‘stage’ these performative glimpses of utopia is via the mode of science-fiction and fantasy (SF&F) tabletop role-playing games (TRPGs) (such as, popularly, Dungeons & Dragons ). In Cruising Utopia (2009), José Esteban Muñoz treats the utopian impulse as a force driven by experiences of marginalization – a methodology contingent on being responsive, adaptable, perhaps even chaotic. This type of storytelling is noted as being politically significant in the ways it consolidates the roles of performer and spectator, engaging with Augusto Boal’s critiques of passive spectatorship, and framing of performance as possible “rehearsal for revolution”.
The paper goes on to look at how the conception of Utopia as a world apart (as in Thomas Moore’s ‘No Place’), the establishing of a ‘Magic Circle’ (coined by Johan Huizinga) as a zone of shifted possibility in both game and performance contexts, and the genres of science fiction and speculative fiction, can be used together to facilitate a form of collaborative storytelling. To illustrate this usage, Avery Alder’s queer, post-apocalyptic TRPG Dream Askew (2019) is later explored as a particularly appropriate case study to illustrate this usage. Particularly, drawing on the varied modes of reality offered by each of the above, and they ways they can support experimentation with alternative societies, relationships, and political ideologies.īeginning with a contextual analysis of Dungeons & Dragons, it outlines the structure, history, and current iterations of tabletop roleplaying games, towards an understanding of how the form can be used in the construction of playful, microcosmic utopias sensitive to queer experiences of solidarity within marginalisation.
This paper explores the connections between utopian approaches in performance studies, queer strategies for community building, and the world-creation tools made available by tabletop “pen and paper” role-playing games (TRPGs).
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