Dragonlord Campaign Setting, which is a book of 250 pages, is an accessory to the role playing game Dungeons and Dragons, published by Wizards of the Coast, Inc. It describes the game world Saviat that largely is like an ordinary fantasy world, with its fantastic elves and dwarfs, its magic, and supernatural monsters and events. What sets this world apart from all the other worlds that players can place their game in, is the complex and unique caste system in society, as well as the fact the it is real dragons that rule as feudal kings and nobles over the lands on the continent. In the book, the different nations’ geography, culture, history, and society are described, and also places and people that can be interesting for a player or Dungeon Master to know about. It also contains tips and tools that can be used by gamers playing in the world, so that their play in the world of Saviat becomes more interesting and connected to the world. The book directs itself mostly towards people who play D&D, and then mainly to the Dungeon Master. The book is available to be ordered from the Internet, and it is printed with a case-wrap hard cover. / Dragonlord Campaign Setting, som är en bok på 250 sidor, är en tilläggsbok till rollspelssystemet Dungeons and Dragons, publicerat av Wizards of the Coast, Inc. Den beskriver spelvärlden Saviat som i mångt och mycket är en vanlig fantasyvärld, med sina fantastiska alver och dvärgar, sin magi och övernaturliga händelser och varelser. Vad som skiljer denna värld från alla de andra fantasyvärldar som rollspelare kan spela i, är det komplexa och unika kastsystemet i samhället, och det faktum att det är verkliga drakar som styr som feodala kungar och adelsmän över kontinentens länder. I boken beskrivs de olika ländernas geografi, kultur, historia och samhälle, och även platser och personligheter som kan vara intressant för en som spelar rollspel att känna till. Den innehåller även tips och verktyg som kan användas av en grupp som spelar i världen för att deras spel skall bli mer intressant och kopplat till världen. Boken riktar sig främst till spelargrupper som spelar D&D, och då främst till spelledaren. Boken finns tillgänglig att köpa av alla på Internet, i form av en tryckt bok med hårdpärm. / Detta är en reflektionsdel till en digital medieproduktion.

This thesis examines the RPG game Dungeons & Dragons (D&D) and its players in the Czech Republic. Although, D&D is primarily a game that uses physical components such as paper character sheets or dice, technology has also found its way to it, which is no surprise because current world is full of new technologies. The aim of this work is to examine the motivation of players to play, what role mediation plays, what technologies are used in playing and what are the main differences players perceive in the case of face-to-face session and in the case of online session. Many different technologies are used in both cases. Research questions dealing with these topics are answered through semi-structured interviews with a total of eight players and two participant observations of a player group's session. The most important reasons to play are the social and creative aspects of the game - players play with others, with whom they often form long-term friendships, and enjoy creating and using their imagination to create unique characters, narratives and worlds. D&D is also a source of inspiration for them. The main differences in offline and online game are especially in sociality and opportunities for communication, which is related to the atmosphere and experience, which in the case of face-to-face game...

Tabletop roleplaying games are a type of social, narrative game driven by a group conversation in which a narrative which is co-created by the participants and propelled forward by some mechanical component (for example dice rolls used to determine the narrative outcomes of actions). As mode of spontaneous conversation that has a unique set of specific characteristics, it might be fair to claim that TTRPGs constitute a unique oral genre (or, in conversation analytic terms, a unique speech-exchange system).  One of the most notable characteristics of TTRPGs as conversations is the intensive use of footing shifts. As the players alternate between orienting toward the conversation as players of a game with mechanical components and as co-creators of a joint narrative, various different resources are used to signal what footing a particular turn-at-talk is produced from. Using video from Critical Role, a live-streamed Dungeons & Dragons show, this paper examines the use of footing in TTRPGs and what resources are used to signal these.  The results of the study showed that several different types of footing were used in this material, with a large amount of overlap between them. Though it was possible to identify the primary resources for signalling some of them, for others it was not clear.

Voices reveal information about the speaker, such as their age, what they are feeling and how they look. Vocal modulation is sometimes used by role-players, mostly game masters, in a tabletop role-playing context, to portray non-playable characters. This study investigated whether signal processing software could be used to enhance the vocal qualities of the speaker so that they represent different creatures with certain attributes. A listening test was conducted in which 24 participants evaluated different processings for physical attributes related to Dungeons & Dragons depiction of the creatures orc and elf with the purpose of finding design approaches for a vocal modulation software. The results showed that none of the processings were perceived to be very much like the suggested creature, but it was found that some processings were more effective than others to create desirable attributes. It was also shown that the same processings does not work equally well for different voice inputs.

In a world where gamification is increasingly prevalent, Dungeons & Dragons is a vast, seemingly untapped arena into which students in an EFL classroom could potentially venture. By exploring the various applications of the hugely popular tabletop role-playing game, there are several aspects in which students and teachers can explore in order to find practical as well as theoretical uses for a role-playing game of this size and scope. This study has discussed and analyzed the benefits and drawbacks of implementing Dungeons & Dragons in the EFL classroom through mental imagery and immersion as an effective teaching tool. The implementation of D&D in an EFL classroom is achievable through scaffolding and preparation. This study has also discussed the gamification aspects of the EFL classroom and the game specific areas of game-based pedagogy.

Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) is a Tabletop Roleplaying Game (TRPG) which offers playersthe chance to create and inhabit a fantastical hero in an equally fantastical world, creating ashared experience with their other players and the Game Master (GM) who facilitates play.Much research has examined D&D as an artifact, highlighting its problematic aspects and thepotential of the worlds and rules it presents as reinforcing real world hegemony orshortcoming such as male domination and racism. While building upon these ideas, thisresearch explores how players’ experiences in D&D interact with notions of heroism, how thegame presents what it means to be a hero and how it truly is experienced within my longtimeD&D playgroup. It does this through semi-structured interviews, to examine how the playersexperience the game, including my own reflections and input as GM for this group for anextended period of time. It utilizes the concepts of coloniality and hegemonic masculinity asframes for understanding the mechanics and narratives of D&D and how they interact withconceptualisations of heroism. Through thematic analysis of the interview data, it highlightswhere the players' experiences line up with conceptualisations of coloniality and hegemonicmasculinity, yet also highlights where players' experiences break with or undermine theseconcepts, highlighting alternatives that move away from colonial and masculine heroism.Ultimately determining that while these players understand heroism in D&D in ways whichreinforce or echo coloniality and hegemonic masculinity such as imperial violence, theiractual experiences with heroism are often removed from this, focusing more on collaborationand problem solving devoid of violence.

Robert Lepage’s play The Dragons’ Trilogy stretches across space and time, travelling through three generations and three major Canadian cities, each section named for a dragon in the Chinese game Mahjong. The Blue Dragon continues the story of Pierre Lamontagne twenty years later, and in doing so, rounds out and completes the cycle of the three Dragons of The Dragons’ Trilogy. This thesis studies the evolution of Lepage’s treatment of the Other and the Self in The Dragons’ Trilogy and The Blue Dragon. Grouping these two plays together should be a foregone conclusion, because of the titles of each section and the character of Pierre Lamontagne, who appears in both plays, but it has in fact been discussed very little. This thesis thus examines the transformation of characters such as Pierre, who, from one play to the other, and through language and space, find the Other in the Self. To address this issue, the second chapter explores the question of plurilingualism, in order to show how the plurality of languages in the plays and among the characters promotes the ideal of communication and communion with the Other. In the third chapter, the thesis examines the theatrical space of the two plays; from the closed-off city of Québec during the 1930s in The Green Dragon to Pierre Lamontagne’s intimate and modern loft in The Blue Dragon, the imagined worlds perfectly mirror the interior journeys of the characters. Finally, the last chapter, which studies the characters, focuses on the question of stereotypes, the quests for identity, and the role artistic creation plays within these quests. Ultimately, this thesis demonstrates that in The Dragons’ Trilogy and The Blue Dragon, although Otherness may at first appear to be the opposite of Self, it is in fact found within identity. / Thesis (Master, French) -- Queen's University, 2012-12-20 17:04:10.317

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Seguindo a ideia exposta por Caio Fernando Abreu em nota introdutória presente em todas as edições de Os dragões não conhecem o paraíso de que o livro pode ser lido não apenas como um exemplar de contos, mas também como um romance-móbile (ou espatifado) e considerando que, por meio do conhecimento de dados biográficos de um escritor, é possível construir a biografia de um escritor através de sua obra, a presente dissertação busca analisar Os dragões não conhecem o paraíso sob a ótica de uma nova perspectiva de leitura, entendendo o livro como um romance de ficção autobiográfica e formação / Following Caio Fernando Abreus statement about Os dragões não conhecem o paraíso [in english, Dragons] in which the author declares that the aforementioned work may be read not only as a short stories book, but also as a mobile-novel (or crashed) and considering its possible, by the knowledge about a writers biographical data, to build an authors biography through his works, this dissertation intends to analyze Os dragões não conhecem o paraíso from a new reading perspective, which comprehends the book as an autobiographical fiction and formation novel

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Seguindo a ideia exposta por Caio Fernando Abreu em nota introdutória presente em todas as edições de Os dragões não conhecem o paraíso de que o livro pode ser lido não apenas como um exemplar de contos, mas também como um romance-móbile (ou espatifado) e considerando que, por meio do conhecimento de dados biográficos de um escritor, é possível construir a biografia de um escritor através de sua obra, a presente dissertação busca analisar Os dragões não conhecem o paraíso sob a ótica de uma nova perspectiva de leitura, entendendo o livro como um romance de ficção autobiográfica e formação / Following Caio Fernando Abreus statement about Os dragões não conhecem o paraíso [in english, Dragons] in which the author declares that the aforementioned work may be read not only as a short stories book, but also as a mobile-novel (or crashed) and considering its possible, by the knowledge about a writers biographical data, to build an authors biography through his works, this dissertation intends to analyze Os dragões não conhecem o paraíso from a new reading perspective, which comprehends the book as an autobiographical fiction and formation novel

Cultural diversity in a global community demands our tolerant understanding of one another. Participatory art projects can be instrumental in facilitating equal-footing en­counters and creative communication between people from different cultures that transcend language barriers. Used as a methodology for synergistic exchange and exploration, they represent a useful tool for the study and advancement of alternative solutions to development-related themes, particularly where non-verbal communication is either essential or advantageous.This report considers an independent arts-based project, “How to Talk to Dragons”, which was carried out in Phnom Penh, Cambodia by cultural workers from Berlin. The inter-cultural project chose the art form of shadow puppetry to explore the country’s culture and the experiences of its people, and to exchange ideas and perspectives in an engaging and socially just forum. The question guiding this cultural voyage of discovery was how the symbolic dragon, a mythical creature with a global resonance but subject to different perceptions in Europe and Asia, might be used as an agent for opening the way to revealing insights into human nature.The report also explores the links between How to Talk to Dragons and ComDev practices and, by incorporating an auto-ethnographic approach, considers how this method can serve to provide a better understanding of practice and add value to project analysis from a practitioner's perspective.It finds that open concept projects offer an exceptional flexibility to adapt to local and cultural conditions and makes the case for the Cambodian shadow theatre known as Sbek Touch (literal meaning: small leather) as a valuable emancipatory tool for promoting communication across social, economic and cultural borders. It recommends further studies into its potential for raising and identifying sometimes controversial issues in a humorous manner and for uncovering collective solutions, particularly among marginalized communities and classes. Ultimately, the report points to Hooks’ “Practice of Love” as an overarching concept that can inform and transform activities designed to engage with and embrace diversity.