Category: Free Inquiry

https://www.thrillist.com/news/nation/wendys-rpg-feast-of-legends-dnd

The above link is to a Thrillist article about Wendy’s DnD themed tabletop roleplaying campaign. As it concerns my free inquiry of the rise of Dungeons and Dragons, I think it’s safe to say that the assimilation of DnD’s game mechanics and narrative devices into an ad campaign for the creator of the Baconator is a fair sign that the stigma that once confined role players to their basements has faded. Or has it? Perhaps it’s valuable to consider who Wendy’s greatest market is and just who needs to be targeted in order to make DnD “cool.” This is an ad campaign by a fast food chain, is the majority of their clientele trend setters and Instagram influencers, or are they predominately the same audience that has continued to play Dungeons and Dragons for years despite the accompanying social pariah-ism.

Here is the full document that offers all the rules needed to play Feast of Legends

Here is an 1985 60 minute special on Dungeons and Dragons. While the retro aesthetic of the video and reporting style might be reminiscent of a spoof, this news report had serious impacts regarding the general reputation for Dungeons and Dragons. This was over 30 years ago, and was in regards to a later edition of the game which should shed some light on the extent to which the game’s stigma prevailed from the time of its conception. And what point did the Dungeon and Dragons reputation slowly switch over from something which causes teen suicide, to one of the biggest grossing games of all time. While other factors would have had an impact, I’m confident that the critical success of the Lord of the Rings movies – not just amongst fantasy fans but within the Academy, with the third movie taking home 17 Oscars – had a part to play. Another popular piece of fantasy theatre that would have opened up the social barriers of nerd culture would be Game of Thrones. A show so massively popular – again not only amongst fans but within the film community as demonstrated by the amount of Emmys it has won – that television networks are scrambling to find the next epic fantasy show to start filming.

A relevant YouTube video tracing some of the developments regarding a rise in the popularity of Dungeons and Dragons  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gUcx45ryT0

As it stands, my free inquiry will address the rise in popularity of roleplaying (digital or tabletop, I haven’t decided yet) and/or world building (Minecraft being the prime example I can think of for the later). I’m interested to see what other factors aside from Stranger Things have contributed to activities like Dungeons and Dragons evolving beyond a guaranter of social pariah-ism to something that people (at least within my social circle) freely admit to either playing or being interested in. This inquiry might lead towards the broader subject of Avatar-creation and whether or not the curating of one’s online presence might share some similarities to role playing. My initial research will involve googling some relevant articles and books concerning digital roleplaying.