Thesis Project Overview

Campaign:

The Denouement of Damator

In a world of fantasy and magic, there is a nation known as the Kingdom of Damator. A region colonized by capitalist entrepreneurs a mere 356 years ago, the nation is young but immensely wealthy due to a vast quantity of natural resources.

What makes this country particularly unique is its unusual relation to magic, having outlawed most forms with the slightest of exceptions for the practices regarding the strange death deity that holds a tight grip on the people.

When the prior monarchs are suddenly assassinated by an unknown party, the nation is thrown into turmoil as a bastard child with dubious legal claim to the throne is swiftly crowned.

The players enter as foreign ambassadors invited by this young new king of mysterious origins, where they must navigate a complex and unstable political world to achieve their own aims in the Kingdom of Damator.

With parallels and metaphors for historical and sociopolitical real-life issues, this campaign heavily examines ethics in the political and personal realm. Topics range from the horrors of war, to the effects of propaganda, to the nature of corruption and greed, and beyond.

This campaign is run with Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition and uses much of the conventional lore and rules of the TTRPG system, with homebrew lore and rules interspersed throughout.

Thesis

Tabletop Roleplaying Games (TTRPGs), like Dungeons and Dragons, can foster a rich microcosmic environment of morality and ethics, wherein players can inject their personal experience and explore their own philosophies in relation to allegorical representations of real-world politics and history.

Abstract

A TTRPG is a game in which a mathematical system is devised in order to simulate a fictional reality. Players use the system to roleplay through a storyline assisted by a Game Master, who leads the game.

TTRPGs today often involve rich worlds which players often explore through the eyes of a character of their own creation. This can lead to a unique type of analysis, where one can be put in complex ethical scenarios by the means of a fictional character.

Players often emotionally process the events their characters partake in, as they embody the character in play. At the same time, there is a degree of separation when the players behave as their character while partaking in play, instead of behaving as themselves. This permits players to engage with a more empathetic analysis of an ethical question that parallels history and current socio-politics, thus allowing for a deeper comprehension.

The research paper explores ethical scenarios posed within TTRPGs, and how those affect players in a way that allows them to process roleplayed situations.

This creative project explores what it means to analyze historical and sociopolitical issues through the means of a TTRPG. In it, I detail my own attempt to create and run a TTRPG setting that fosters an environment for this kind of analysis, by borrowing heavily from real-life history and power hierarchies in society while mixing in fantasy elements that make the game more creative and enjoyable.

Please feel free to ask me for any elaboration! This campaign is the special interest for me right now, so I'd love to info dump to anyone who's interested!