This project report describes a supplement for character creation in a tabletop role-playing game “Dragons and Demons." The purpose of this project is to improve the character creation for the players’ trough the narrative elements such as character’s background story. The applied qualitative methods such as a test panel and a questionnaire were conducted for the evaluation of theories used during character creation and to get feedback on the supplement’s creative value for the players. The aim of the questionnaire was to see how the method for the character creation differs from the regular way of making a character for a tabletop role-playing game and if this idea improves user experience during the tabletop role-playing game. The results of the evaluation are based on answers from novice and experienced players, and conclude that the additional background story creates an insight into the character's past, which makes it easier for novice players to get quick started with character creation. The experienced players expressed that the supplement for character creation was more entertaining than the traditional way of making a character for a tabletop role-playing game.

This study presents the concept of the pedagogy of the game-master. Written from a bricolage of autoethnographic perspectives, a fractured narrative was (de)composed out of the author’s dual experiences as educator and game-master of fantasy tabletop-role-playing games. The narrative seeks to evoke the blurred boundaries of what it means to occupy each role, dwelling between fantasies, (teaching) realities, and player/person/persona identities (Waskul & Lust, 2004), constructing and remaining in the middle of a bridged pedagogy which spans education and tabletop role-playing. From the narrative, the latter section of this manuscript presents a discussion of how the liminal duties of the game-master might help draw educators to and beyond the boundaries of what is possible in education.

Tabletop role-playing games (TRPGs), also known as Pen-and-Paper role-playing games(PnP-RPGs), are games that can be described as a mix between board games and improvisationaltheatre. Each player takes on the role of a single character, while the game’s leader(GM or DM) is in charge of both simulating the game world, acting out all remainingcharacters and facilitating the game rules. The games are often played in campaigns,continual stories told over several gameplay sessions. This thesis investigates whetherplayers’ types/characteristics and preferences affect the enjoyment of play, and in particularwhether being coherent with the rest of the role-play group in these respects affects theenjoyment of TRPG play. The research questions were addressed primarily by a surveyamong TRPG players that received 1,982 completed questionnaires. These were thenanalysed by correlation and factor analyses in order to find connections between responses.The thesis work shows that the length and depth of previous experiences have almost nocorrelation to the level of enjoyment. Some aspects of the game itself contributed to theenjoyment, but a clearer factor was that of group coherence – if the player perceives thegroup to have the same or similar stances as him/herself on game preferences.Keywords: tabletop role-playing game, pen-and-paper role-playing game, groupcoherence, game enjoyment, satisfaction / Bordsrollspel (TRPGs), även känt som penna-och-papper-rollspel (PnP-RPGs), är en typ avspel som kan beskrivas som en blandning mellan brädspel och improvisationsteater. Varjespelare antar rollen av en karaktär, medan spelledaren (GM eller DM) ansvarar för simuleringenav spelvärlden, agerandet av resterande karaktärer samt ansvar för regelhållningen.Denna uppsats undersöker om spelartyper (egenskaper) och deras preferenser påverkarspelglädjen, och i synnerhet huruvida det är viktigt att ha samma uppfattning som den övrigagruppen i dessa frågor (gruppkoherens). Forskningsfrågorna besvarades huvudsakligengenom en enkätundersökning bland TRPG-spelare som gav 1982 komplett ifyllda enkätsvar.Dessa analyserades sedan med korrelations- och faktoranalyser för att hitta kopplingarmellan svaren. Uppsatsen visar att längden och djupet av tidigare spelupplevelser nästan intehar något samband med nivån av spelglädje. Några aspekter av själva spelet bidrog däremottill spelglädjen, och den tydligaste faktorn var gruppens koherens – om spelaren uppfattar attgruppen har samma eller liknande ståndpunkter som sig själv när det gäller spelpreferenser.Nyckelord: bordsrollspel, penna- och papper-rollspel, gruppkoherens, spelglädje, nöjdhet

This study’s purpose is to explore the online medium known as “Actual Play” through the perspective of both content creators, who work within the format as well as their audience who consume and interact with the content. This is a qualitative interview and observation study on the subject of Actual Play. The empirical material consists of four interviews with participants who are in one way or another involved with Actual Play content creation or distribution, an entire episode of an Actual Play series has also been analyzed to demonstrate the concept to readers unfamiliar with Actual Play and/or role-playing games. The questions this study has sought to answer regard what Actual Play is and looks like in practice and what the interactions between participants within Actual Play as well the interactions between these Actual Play creators and their audience looks like. The study’s findings show that the interaction between the different social actors within Actual Play is similar to that of improvisational theater. To maintain the trust between the participants, social contracts that employ safety tools are often used. The interaction between the Actual Play content creators and their audiences seems more personal than average, since they’re all able to inhabit and interact over the Internet. The audience also seems to enjoy that aspect of getting to know the Actual Play actors and/or creators on both a personal level and through their characters. Finally, Actual Plays main appeal appears to be based around being a way to share and engage with others around a shared interest.