Pinkston Acceptance TTRPG Representation

COOPERATIVE ACCEPTANCE AND TABLETOP REPRESENTATION:
GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN THE FANTASY TABLETOP ROLE-PLAYING
GAME DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS
Renee Pinkston
A Dissertation presented to the faculty of Arkansas State University in partial fulfillment

of the requirements for the Degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY

December 2019
Approved by:
Dr. Deborah Chappel Daniel
Dr. Ed Salo
Dr. Marcus Tribbett
ProQuest Number: 27543932
All rights reserved
INFORMATION TO ALL USERS

The quality of this reproduction is dependent on the quality of the copy submitted.
In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript
and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed,
a note will indicate the deletion.
ProQuest 27543932
Published by ProQuest LLC ( 2020 ). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author.
All Rights Reserved.

This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code
Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC.
ProQuest LLC
789 East Eisenhower Parkway
P.O. Box 1346
Ann Arbor, MI 48106 - 1346
©2019
Renee Pinkston
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
ii
ABSTRACT
Renee Pinkston
COOPERATIVE ACCEPTANCE AND TABLETOP REPRESENTATION:
GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN THE FANTASY TABLETOP ROLE-PLAYING
GAME DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS
Gender and sexuality are ‘hot topics,’ often being the center of much debate and
discussion. Although seemingly isolated, these subjects are found embedded and woven
throughout aspects of culture including games. I argue that games like Dungeons and
Dragons have within them core elements related directly to gender and sexuality and that
since its creation in 1974, Dungeons and Dragons has evolved from being a game that
exhibited both sexism and misogyny into a gaming platform that exhibits an open and
accepting view of both gender and sexuality not just within the game but outside of the
game in its players. Focusing on 14 editions and revisions of the Dungeons and Dragons
tabletop role-playing game, I examine closely each Player’s Handbook for textual
elements related to gender and sexuality and then again for elements related to the same
subjects but only within the art and illustrations contained in those Player’s Handbooks.
By doing so, I comb through each player’s handbook isolating those instances where
gender and/or sexuality are mentioned and use that data to create a larger image of the
movement and evolution of these concepts within the game and culture as a whole. Here,
iii
I argue that these forms of transient popular culture should indeed be considered as
‘heritage,’ because of the inherent and latent cultural ideas found throughout that relate
directly back to heritage. My work fits not only into the discipline of Heritage Studies,
but also game studies, role-playing game studies, Cultural Studies, performance studies
and helps fill a large gap in both scholarship and representation of gender and sexuality
within a gaming platform. At the time of this research, little had been conducted on
Dungeons and Dragons specifically, as well as gender and sexuality through the
evolution of the game and what implications that has on culture and society writ large.
iv
DEDICATION
To all the weirdos, gamers, readers, and introverts.
v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Writing a dissertation, no matter how fun your topic, is a difficult task. In no way
have I done this alone. Along the way, I have had the support and help of so many
individuals; their work and guidance show on every page. Without the guidance and
knowledge of my dissertation committee chair, I would not have gotten this far. Thank
you, Dr. Deborah Chappel Daniel, for arming me with the tools I needed and then letting
me wander off into the world and get to work. Without your time and dedication, as well
as your trust in me, this probably would not have gotten finished. Thank you to the
endless support of my dissertation committee members Dr. Ed Salo and Dr. Marcus
Tribbett. Without your time and perseverance of dealing with me and my ideas, and your
input and specific knowledge, I would have lost valuable viewpoints and perspectives
that have enhanced not only this dissertation but my own ways of thinking.
Honestly, I have gotten this far because of all the individuals I have talked to and
all the professors I have had in my life. Each one has influenced me in a multitude of
different ways leading to this culmination of my academic career. Without you all, this
would not have been possible. Thank you.
Throughout this entire process, I have had a wonderful support net of friends and
family. Without this collection of personalities and characters, I would not be the person
I am today. Many thanks to Dominique Hallett for your upstanding motivation and our
weekly Saturday breakfast and discussion sessions at the Edge; I am grateful for the time
and dedication you put into me and my project and hope that I offered you some
vi
semblance of what you gave me. A huge thank you to my partner Hannah Williamson
for her constant support and belief in me. Every time I had a doubt or was not sure about
what I was doing, Hannah was always there to back me up and stand in my corner. You
exemplify what I wanted out of a partner and I am lucky and forever grateful for you and
your love. Although we do not always see eye-to-eye, I am fortunate to have you in my
life, Rachel Williamson. You have helped open my mind up to the world and really
change me and my ideas for the better. If I had to choose another sister, I would always
choose you.
My father, my sister, my stepmother, and my extended family have been truly
beneficial during this process. I am so thankful to have a family who never pressured me
to conform and let me truly take the reins for my education and my interests, no matter
how many states away I traveled. Thank you so much for allowing me space to grow and
prosper in my own fields and supporting me every step of the way. This is for you.
I have been so lucky to have the community that I have and the love and support
of so many others, it is almost impossible to list you all! Just know that every time I
described my project to you and you did not laugh, each time you told me that I could do
it, and every instance where you asked about my project and took a genuine interest (even
though it was stressful to think about!) I was deeply touched and affected. I want to offer
the most heartfelt thank you to each and every person I was in contact with about this
dissertation because truly it was because of you that I kept going.
Last, but not least, a very special thanks are due to my first D&D group and
family. It was on a whim that our first group was created; I had no idea what I was
getting myself into. I am honored to have crawled through dank and vile dungeons, slain
vii
a dragon while on an airship, almost died in a pit of molten lava while trying to be a hero,
gotten lost in abandoned drain pipes while being poisoned by hallucinogenic fumes,
traveled to the Feywild, found the Ashen Crown, and jumped through the face of the
Great Green Devil with you all. I knew from the beginning that there was something
special there and now looking back I can see it even stronger. Drew McNutt, Hannah
Williamson, Rachel Williamson, Dylan Travis, and Jacob Buechler, if we ever make it
back to that tavern in Sharn, maybe we can all share a few drinks and reminisce on our
glory days as grand adventurers.
On a side note, because I use a number of illustrations and examples from
Dungeons and Dragons handbooks, I am required to say that this dissertation,
“Cooperative Acceptance and Tabletop Representation: Gender and Sexuality In the
Fantasy Tabletop Role-Playing Game Dungeons and Dragons is unofficial Fan Content
permitted under the Fan Content Policy. Not approved/endorsed by Wizards. Portions of
the materials used are property of Wizards of the Coast. ©Wizards of the Coast LLC.”
viii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................. xi
LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................. xii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................1
Heritage Studies and Games ........................................................................7
Games, Play, and Us .................................................................................10
Game Typology .............................................................................11
Definition of Terms........................................................................15
CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE ........................................................19
Methodology ..............................................................................................24
Literature Review Themes .........................................................................31
Identity ...........................................................................................31
Gender ...........................................................................................42
Agency ...........................................................................................50
Performance ...................................................................................56
CHAPTER 3: VISUAL AND TEXTUAL SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF DUNGEONS
AND DRAGONS PLAYER’S HANDBOOKS ......................................................64
Semiotics ....................................................................................................65
Brief History of Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbooks .................69
Men & Magic, 1974 ...................................................................................71
Dungeons and Dragons Basic – 1977 Holmes Revision ...........................76
ix
Dungeons and Dragons Advanced – 1978.................................................83
Dungeons and Dragons Basic – 1981 (Pink/Magenta Box) ......................89
Dungeons and Dragons Basic - 1983 (Red Box) ......................................99
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2 Edition -1989 ...............................108

nd
Dungeons and Dragons Basic -1991 (Black Box) ..................................121
Classic Dungeons and Dragons -1994 (Tan Box) ...................................132
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2 Edition - 1995 (Revision) ............139

nd
Dungeons and Dragons 3 Edition – 2000 ..............................................148

rd
Dungeons and Dragons Edition 3.5 – 2003.............................................160

th
Dungeons and Dragons Essentials – 2010 ..............................................177

th
CHAPTER 4: IMPLICATIONS AND FINDINGS ...........................................194
1974 to 1981 ............................................................................................194
1982 to 1989 ............................................................................................197
1990 to 1994 ............................................................................................198
1995 to 2003 ............................................................................................189
2004 to 2014 ............................................................................................201
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ...........................................................................205
APPENDIX: TEXTUAL AND VISUAL ANALYSIS SUMMARY .................213
BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................216
x
LIST OF TABLES
Table Page
1. Numbers of Male and Female Illustrations in 1974 Dungeons and .........73
Dragons Player’s Handbook.
2. Numbers of Male and Female Illustrations in 1977 Dungeons and ..........83

3. Numbers of Male and Female Illustrations in 1978 Advanced ..................87

Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook.
4. Numbers of Male and Female Illustrations in 1981 Dungeons .................98

and Dragons Player’s Handbook.
5. Numbers of Male and Female Illustrations in 1983 Dungeons ...............104

and Dragons Player’s Handbook.
6. Numbers of Male and Female Illustrations in 1989 Advanced ................113

Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook.
7. Numbers of Male and Female Illustrations in 1991 Dungeons ...............125

and Dragons Basic Black Box Revision Player’s Handbook.
8. Numbers of Male and Female Illustrations in 1994.................................136

Classic Dungeons and Dragons Tan Box Player’s Handbook.
9. Numbers of Male and Female Illustrations in..........................................144

1995 Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Revision Player’s Handbook.
10. Numbers of Male and Female Illustrations in .........................................153

2000 Dungeons and Dragons 3e Player’s Handbook.
11. Numbers of Male and Female Illustrations in..........................................163

2003 Dungeons and Dragons Version 3.5 Player’s Handbook.

2008 Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition Player’s Handbook.

2010 Dungeons and Dragons Essentials Player’s Handbook.

2014 Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition Player’s Handbook.
xi
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure Page
1. Witches Seated at Cauldron .................................................................74
2. A Beautiful Witch and an Amazon are Pictured ..................................76
3. Cover Art for the Holmes Edition of Dungeons and Dragons ............81
4. Harpies Illustration with Exaggerated Female Forms .........................82
5. One of Two Female Images in the 1978 AD&D

Player’s Handbook ...............................................................................87
6. The Second of Two Female Images in the

1978 AD&D Player’s Handbook .........................................................88
7. Morgan Ironwood Illustration Given in Handbook .............................91
8. Front Illustration Pieces Showing What a Dwarf is

Expected to Look Like ........................................................................91
9. Dungeons and Dragons 1981 Basic Edition Cover

Featuring Active Female Figure ..........................................................95
10. Illustration Panel Showing both Male and Females Thinking

about Character Creation .....................................................................97
11. Strong Female Figure in Illustration Panel in

1981 D&D Player’s Handbook ............................................................99
12. The Red Dragon Cover for the 1983 Dungeons and Dragons
Basic Edition Revision.......................................................................103
13. “Strong” Female Figure in Illustration Panel in

1983 D&D Player’s Handbook ..........................................................105
14. Male Character Saving a Female Character in

1983 D&D Player’s Handbook ..........................................................106
15. Cover Art of the 1989 Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd
Edition Player’s Handbook ................................................................115
16. Feminine Form Shown with Male in Background .............................116
17. Sexualized Feminine Form Performing Magic ..................................117
xii
18. Feminine Form Shown in Nature .......................................................118
19. Illustration Showing Group of Adventures,

Featuring Two Females......................................................................119
20. Female Shown in Armor and Holding Weapon

on Her Funeral Altar .........................................................................120
21. Cover Art of 1991 Revision of Basic Dungeons and Dragons .........126
22. Female Warrior with Exaggerated Physical Form .............................127
23. Illustration Showing Two Males and One Female ............................128
24. Dungeons and Dragons Illustration Showing

Hurt Male and a Female Healing Him ...............................................129
25. Illustration Showing Female Fighting Creature with

Another Male .....................................................................................130
26. Cover Art for the 1994 Tan Box Revision of

Dungeons and Dragons .....................................................................137
27. Illustration Showing What Appears to be a

Normal Female Figure .......................................................................138
28. Cover Art for the Player’s Handbook Featuring Males .....................145
29. Possible Female in Illustration for Player’s Handbook .....................146
30. Three Female Villains in Player’s Handbook Art .............................147
31. Player Character Sheet Front and Back from

Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition ...................................................151
32. Cover Art Design for the 3rd Edition of

Dungeons and Dragons ....................................................................155
33. Two-page Spread of Art Featuring a Male and

Female Example from each Race Type .............................................157
34. Female Monk Illustration Showing

Sensible Clothing Choice for Character Class ...................................159
35. Female Paladin Illustration Showing Sensible

Clothing Choice for Character Class .................................................159
xiii
36. Cover Art of the 3.5 Revision of Dungeons and Dragons ................164
37. Female Villain Shown in the 3.5 Revision of

38. Cover Image for 4th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons ....................172
39. Female Fighting in Battle in the 4th Edition of

40. Female Actively Wielding Weapon in the 4th Edition of

41. Armor Illustration Showing a Female Form ......................................176
42. Cover Art for Dungeons and Dragons Essentials .............................181
43. Cover Art of the 5th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons ...................190
44. Image of a Non-Stereotypically Beautiful Female

in the Player’s Handbook for D&D 5e .............................................191
45. Illustration of Female Elf Ranger in the

5th Edition Player’s Handbook for Dungeons and Dragons .............192
46. Illustration of Female Half-Orc in the

5th Edition Player’s Handbook for Dungeons and Dragons ..............192
xiv
CHAPTER 1:
INTRODUCTION
Of all the topics and areas that interest me, I chose tabletop role-playing games,
specifically Dungeons and Dragons, because it became an important part of my life at a
crucial period. I was born in Kentucky and spent my first 24 years there. In 2014, I
packed up and made my first big move out of my home state, to Jonesboro, Arkansas to
pursue my PhD in Heritage Studies. I moved here with a friend who was pursuing his
Master’s in English; besides him, I knew absolutely no one in Arkansas. We began
planning and later hosting D&D playing nights in October of that same year because we
both had no friends and needed to make some. From that initial game night on
November 8, to the last that we played together nearly two years later, I knew that I had
found a group. We named the initial faction, “In the Dens of Darkness,” and set up a
Facebook group to keep in contact and schedule weekly meetings to play. Quickly, these
gaming sessions would turn into social gatherings that included food, drink, conversation,
and friendship. Since that first group, we have created at least five other groups for other
game settings and campaigns. When I think back now, this collection of friends has
become my family. This was the group that slayed dragons together, were poisoned in
kruthik caves together, and ultimately saved the day, together.
Playing games is vital. I believe this is a statement too many people do not
believe is true or do not care to investigate. Games often get looked over and even
1
criticized because they are often not seen as productive or important parts of life and
culture. They are not real or do not represent real life, so how could they serve a purpose
beyond pure entertainment?
Games played a pivotal role in my life for as long as I can remember. As a child,
games were part of my most vivid memories; in fact, they make up the bulk of my
childhood memories, most of which feature the women in my family playing games. One
of the earliest memories is of my mom with a couple of huge 1980s arcade games. One
was a space-shooter game similar to Cosmic Monsters or Astro Fighter (I cannot recall
the name) and the second was Pac-man. I am not sure how my parents bought the arcade
games or where they even found them, but I remember them standing in our dining room.
Pac man consumed my mom; it was her favorite game to play and she was good at it. I
clearly remember standing beside her, still not tall enough to see the screen, waiting for
my turn to play. My grandmother, or Memaw as we called her, was another influential
figure in my life. She instilled in me a love for the more “modern” video games. On the
weekends, she would drive an hour to stay with us until Monday morning. We would do
normal family things, but after the sun went down and it started getting close to bedtime,
I would help Memaw inflate her green air mattress and get ready for adventure. We
would sit on it, in front of a floor-model color television and play Super Mario on the
original Nintendo NES console late into the night. Every night she would beat Super
Mario Brothers and she would show me all the tricks she had learned throughout her
tenure. Through the week, I spent my time trying to do the same but rarely did so. We
never fully worked through Super Mario 2, but Super Mario 3 became “our game.” She
2
taught me secrets of flying and how to get 99 extra lives in world 3-4 with shells and the
cloud man.
Playing games continued to be central to my family. I spent my summers next
door, at Memaw’s, playing games. We had family game nights of Uno and Yahtzee and
we all blazed through the Sega Genesis, Nintendo 64, Nintendo GameCube, Wii, Xbox,
PlayStation, PlayStation 2, and the PC racking up hours and hours of play and gaming
experience. I guess you could say that I grew up as a gamer. Having games as a pastime,
in my opinion, changes the way you see the world and interact with it. Games allow you
worlds to explore, and new ways to comprehend life and learn who you are while
learning how to play with others, how to lose and how to win. Games also allow you a
place to create and explore the concept of community; in a sense, community building
through shared problem solving.
I have tried hard over the years to get back to that initial state of child-like bliss I
experienced when playing games with my family. I have purchased my own PlayStation
4 console and own an Xbox 360, but I use them more for watching movies and television
than playing games. I regularly play PC-based games, The Sims being my top pick. Over
the years since first purchasing The Sims 3, which was the first to record hours played, I
have collectively played 2500+ hours combined of The Sims 3 and The Sims 4. Even
before that, I played endless hours of Roller Coaster Tycoon, The Sims, and The Sims 2.
Something I began to realize was that these games were not what they were for me when
I was young. Video games provided a central meeting space for my family and me to
socialize and gather. Today, video-based games are solitary acts that do not forge a sense
of togetherness, like I had known growing up and sought out as an adult. My own
3
collection of tabletop games and board games began to grow; in the name of research, I
collected a variety of party games, card games, and board games. My house is strewn
with more than 25 games. At first, D&D was just another game system to add to my
collection in search of that “feeling.” I collected several editions and versions of the
Dungeons and Dragons systems and handbooks and continue to do so. After the first
game we played, I realized that there was something more at work in the game than just
fantasy worlds, monsters, and dungeons.
D&D is a popular culture phenomenon that is rooted in the mid to late 1970s.
Since its birth in 1974, five editions of the game have been released, along with countless
versions, updates, and additions. The world of D&D has grown exponentially since the
first adventure module and rulebook were released by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson.
The two men, using their combined backgrounds in tabletop gaming and war-gaming,
created a cohesive system based on dice rolls, chance, and role-playing.1 Because of the
longstanding history of the game and the updates and multiple editions, aspects of culture
and society are embedded in the game and its rules. When I began playing, the group I
played in used the 4th edition. This edition alone has three player’s handbooks, two
dungeon master’s handbooks, three monster manuals, two monster vault books, two
adventurer’s vaults books, 12 character option books, 13 world and campaign settings,
and two more player’s handbooks for specific settings. This list does not include
adventure books and collections, along with any player and fan-made materials. D&D is
an expansive system of universes and worlds created and played by players and their
1
Shannon Appelcline, Dragons and Designers, Vol 1. (Silver Spring, MD: Mad Hat Productions,
2014), 12-15.
4
characters. While the system is nearly non-quantifiable, the influences of the first version
on to the most recent update of the game are grand. Occasions and adventures created
and played in D&D are shaped by the reality that creates them. In turn, history and the
present day influence the game and the interactions within it. When I first began playing,
I did not think about this. One day, I was reading the newest edition player’s handbook
and it hit me. I was sitting in Barnes and Noble, at the café area drinking a hot earl grey
latte. I did not want to buy the handbook yet (they cost upwards of $50) but just wanted
to check the new edition out and see what was different from the 4th edition I had been
playing. I browsed through and stopped reading at a sub-section titled “Sex.” I read
through it and realized that this was not a section in the 4th edition player’s handbook. I
knew because the week before we started meeting and playing, I studied the manual
cover to cover. This new section of the 5th edition player’s handbook said that you could
create and play a male or female character with no hindrances or special benefits and that
you should “think about how your character does or does not conform to the broader
culture’s expectations of sex, gender, and sexual behavior. You don’t need to be
confined to binary notions of sex and gender.” 2 This made me wonder why the creators
and writers of this newest edition of D&D had now added a section, not previously there,
about sex and gender. I quickly realized that something bigger than just this game was
happening; there was some shift coming in the way we thought and played being
reflected in our cultural products, like D&D. This moment, sitting in Barnes and Noble
2
Jeremy Crawford, Player’s Handbook 4th Edition (Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2014),
121.
5
with my head buried in a Dungeons and Dragons player’s handbook was where the first
inklings of this dissertation were born.
D&D has thoroughly captured me and placed me back into that feeling of
togetherness; it was not just a game, but also a setting that I could inhabit and grow in. It
gave me a chance to be social with people that I would have never approached. New
relationships grew and flourished because of the bonds created during game play. My
friendship with Jake, the friend I had moved to Arkansas with, solidified even more. I
became good friends with one of his colleagues, Drew, who served as my central
informant for coursework in field methods and ethnography and opened the history of
D&D for me. Drew became our most loved Dungeon Master for the group as well.
D&D served as a common bond for my friend Rachel and me. She is now my roommate
and is very dear to me. The adventures we went on and battles we fought, allowed me to
open up enough to let Hannah, another player, see a side of me that many do not.
Hannah is now my partner and I literally owe my life now and our relationship to D&D.
There is very little chance that I would have met Hannah on my own or had the bravery
to talk to her. Outside of the initial group I played with, D&D has given me a bank of
knowledge and experience with which I can connect with others that I normally would
not. I am not a social person, but D&D has given me tools to discuss worlds and ideas
with others.
D&D has taught me about myself, how I see the world, and how I interact with it
daily. The first character I created, Cro, is a treasured character. She is an Eladrin
Wizard (4th Edition race) who is quiet, dark, and aloof. She maintains a very high
wisdom score and tends to stand in the back of the group and only help during battles and
6
fights when she is needed because she would rather stand back and watch, and her
initiative score is somewhat low. She is me, but better in ways that I wish I could be in
my real life. Cro allows me to tap into parts of myself that are bothersome or that I did
not even know existed and correct or exploit those. She, along with the game, gives me a
canvas upon which I can paint whatever scene I want and tell whatever story I want
heard.
I believe that I can say, without a doubt, that Dungeons and Dragons changed my
life and the way I live it for the better in ways more profound than I had imagined that
first night my roommate and I sat up late in the living room, trying to come up with
creative names and classes for our characters and trying to figure out what “role playing”
actually meant. I have studied several subjects in my life, read a lot of books, worked at
different types of jobs, and earned a couple of degrees, but nothing has ever seemed so
intimately important to me as Dungeons and Dragons. Games help tie us to our everyday
and the not-so-everyday. They help to highlight and expound upon ideas and beliefs that
we are tied to historically, even aspects of our heritage and history.
Heritage Studies and Games

Heritage, for me, is something that is received from the past. This idea is very
broad, as I believe that heritage itself can also be very broad and should not be limited to
a specific set of physical objects and places. Heritage is not only our national monuments
and historic sites; it is not only the treasures in the museums, libraries, and home attics.
Heritage is not only tangible objects or places but can be ideas and beliefs that have
moved and been acquired through time. Perhaps the most crucial aspect of heritage is not
the thing itself, but the use of time in relation to it as it is time and experience that give it
7
meaning. Heritage is ours; it is personal and significant. It helps make meaning of the
world. This is where I find games fitting into the schema of Heritage Studies. Games
have existed for thousands of years. There is no general consensus for the oldest game in
the world; however, archaeologists consistently find pre-historic talus bones that served
as dice. In 2013, archaeologists found a nearly 5,000 year-old set of gaming implements
—small carved stones— in a burial site in current-day Turkey.3 The earliest example of a
board game called Senet was found in Predynastic and First Dynasty burial sites, just
over 3000 years old, in Egypt.4 This list continues, as most cultures around the world
have their own games and ways of playing. At first glance, it may seem dubious to claim
that games such as these helped teach people around the world ways of comprehending
their existence and how to interact with each other. I assume that generally when
discussing heritage, many people think about heritage sites, monuments, colossal
architectural feats, and artifacts of patriotism. Many of these are antiquities and have
some connotation of “high culture,” pride, “the ancients,” or “the greats.” While I do not
disagree that these are important, I believe that the more mundane things in our lives
should also be included in discussions of heritage and heritage studies. For me, this is
where games come in; while they are mundane in form and idea, they still serve as our
heritage.
In fact, games serve as vehicles for ideas passed through time. They serve as
mirrors of history and present day, as learning tools, education systems, and self-
3
Rossella Lorenzi, “Oldest Gaming Tokens Found in Turkey,” Seeker, August 14, 2013, accessed
November 26, 2016, www.seeker.com/oldest-gaming-tokens-found-in-turkey-
1767702348.html?slide=zqqtXK
Catherine Soubeyrand, “The Game of Senet,” The Game Cabinet, accessed November 26, 2016,
4
www.gamecabinet.com/history/Senet.html
8
discovery devices. They are transporters of the intangible aspects of culture enacted
every day through time; vessels that are easy to move, learnable, and adaptable for the
future. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis says that language influences thought, worldview,
and cognition.5 As we play, we become scribes. We write our current experiences on the
base from the past, for the future, with invisible language coded into play and action—a
sort of ludic communication. Just as we can now examine a chessboard’s war-based
system of black and white to contemplate what that said about the societies that favored it
as a pastime, the future us can inspect games we play today and extrapolate cultural ideas
and how those were treated.
With this, we can begin to examine specific aspects of ourselves and our cultures
that are being reflected and refracted through and over time, such as the representation
and reception of gender and sexuality. These topics have been a hot duo for years and
have caused much upheaval over the years. Since they are popular and pertinent topics,
one would only expect them to be crucial parts of culture and society that are also seen
navigating through time via heritage. It would be impossible to write or read a history,
through whatever media available, and leave these major topics out. Crucial as they are,
they also appear woven throughout games and the ways in which we play. It is upon the
mundane and everyday things and cultural events that we can find important information
and systems of thinking.
This is precisely why this dissertation and the research contained within it matters
both in terms of Heritage Studies and on the larger scopes of culture and history. Other
5
Paul Kay and Willett Kempton, “What is the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis?”, American
Anthropologist 86, no. 1. (March 1984): 65-79.
9
scholars have taken sociological, communications, and anthropological approaches when
studying Dungeons and Dragons and games like it. These studies put the game second,
and the human interaction within and surrounding it first. Little to no attention is paid to
what the game is doing and how it is moved and transformed through time and how that
is used by players. In other studies, the heritage angle is missing; the connection to the
rich past and possible future vanishes. This dissertation, while its scope is narrowly
based on Dungeons and Dragons, attempts to bridge the gap between past and future
heritage, by using the present to understand the changes that have occurred through the
years when dealing with crucial aspects like gender and sexuality and their reception and
representation.
Games, Play, and Us
Humans are game players. Scholar Johan Huizinga playfully used the term Homo
ludens, or ‘man the player,’ to describe humans and their attachment and need for games
and play.6 Sociologist Roger Caillois posits that play is a universal expression of shared
human nature, i.e. culture, that is expressed uniquely among and between cultures.7
Reflections of the real world appear in many facets of culture, as already mentioned.
This, of course, includes a plethora of games and ways of play that we still find beneficial
and fun today. The idea of culture itself is a contested idea in the purview of many fields
of study and areas of expertise. There is no definite line between what is real and what is
not; rather, the two tend to run together to create a blurry portrait of the world and how
6
Johan Huizinga, Homo ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture (Boston: Beacon Press,
1950).
7
Roger Caillois. Man, Play and Games, (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1961).
10
we interact with it. Games are one piece of culture in which both the real world and the
fantasy world are openly reflected, negotiated, and reaffirmed. Games and gaming have
proliferated in human culture and life for thousands of years. Early games were played in
parts of Asia, Africa, and India, and spread through cultural contact and invasion to
Europe and what is known as the New World. It could be possible that there is no culture
in the world that has not used or introduced games to its people.
Game Typology
The term “game” seems like a simple one. In most cases, thinking of a particular
game is not difficult since most Americans grew up with games played in school with
other children, games played in the home with family, games used for education, and
games played to keep oneself occupied. In today’s world, there is the addition of gaming
platforms to add some texture to the discussion. Games today can be played on a variety
of electronic platforms, as well as the more traditional board-based games.
Throughout the years, much work has been completed dealing with video games,
especially massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). During the
mid to late 2000s, research on MMORPGs boomed. Perhaps this was due to the rise in
the internet and the mystical feeling of online groups and game play. Regardless,
scholars quickly found this new subculture and began to study it. Over the years, several
studies have been conducted featuring MMORPG players, the culture that surrounds such
games, and the reasons for play. Topics studied with MMORPGs can range from nearly
anything; however, many pieces of scholarship discuss the importance of playing
MMORPGs for players, social work of MMORPGs, and how game play that is based in
non-face-to-face contact influences or changes players.
11
While both MMORPGs and tabletop role-playing games are games, they are not
the same. They are similar in their fantastic settings and other-worldly magic and beings.
The main difference is that MMORPGs are online games, usually played on a personal
computer but also some consoles. Tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) are played at
tables and include face-to-face interaction. Because the realm of MMORPG scholarship
is so vast and because MMORPGs are inherently different from TTRPGs, I do not plan to
use scholarship based on MMORPGs for this dissertation. However, some ideas such as
key terms and early history of gaming may prove useful. In these examples, I will make
exceptions.
This dissertation focuses on one specific type of game, the tabletop role-playing
game. Specifically, I will examine the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons and
Dragons (D&D). This type of game has been around since the early 1970s, but its
predecessors lie in early war gaming systems based on actual military campaigns and
actions. Games such as D&D are not created and played in isolation or without culture
involved. Rather, D&D specifically can reflect or refract reality and current cultural
movements or shifts. These forms of cultural phenomena are not isolated; D&D is not
played in a vacuum. For me and this dissertation, the focus is examining games that take
place in a face-to-face social arena, which is why I will not use scholarship based
exclusively on MMORPGs.
There are three types of role-playing games: Tabletop, live action role-playing,
and electronic or online. Live action role-playing, also known as LARPing, is based on
role-playing that takes place in an actual physical place by an actual human who is
dressed as a character. LARPing is akin to improvisation theater, as characters are acted
12
out for a period of time instead of just described. Tabletop role-playing (TTRPG), or
pen-and-paper role-playing (PnPRPG) as it is also called, takes place at a table and in the
imagination of its players. Where LARPing is akin to improvisation theatre, TTRPGs or
PnPRPGs can be described as social gatherings. In these gatherings, players take on the
persona of their created character. Rather than acting the actions out, TTRPGs rely on
the imagination and the description of actions and ideas from players. TTRPGs rely on a
figure to run the game, known as the Game Master or Dungeon Master. He or she is
responsible for listening to all the actions described by players and giving the outcome of
these actions. Electronic or online role-playing games rely on a format very similar to
TTRPGs; however, little to no actual face-to-face social interaction is required with this
type since it exists in an electronic space. Actions are described via text or translated into
computer and console language via clicking buttons on keyboards, a computer mouse, or
a console controller. Electronic or online role-playing games also allow for a single-
player game, as the first two options do not.8
Dungeons and Dragons is a tabletop role-playing system that uses a specific set
of handbooks, manuals, and guides along with a standardized but customizable character
sheet in order to facilitate imaginary adventures and quests in worlds and universes
different from those we live in. As mentioned previously, the amount of materials for
just one edition of D&D is huge. People, strangers or friends, gather in a common place
with their created and personalized characters and play the game as a cooperative group.
There is no competition in D&D, as players are required to work together in groups in
8
Joris Dormans, “On the Roll of the Die: A Brief Ludologic Study of Pen-and-Paper Roleplaying
Games and Their Rules,” The International Journal of Computer Game Research 6 no. 1. (Dec 2006),
http://gamestudies.org/0601/articles/dormans
13
order to maximize strength and intelligence in order to complete quests and garner
experience points. These points, imaginary at their root, allow characters to increase
levels and acquire better magical spells, weapons, and armor.
Next to advances in the game, there are other reasons why people play tabletop
role-playing games like D&D. First, these sorts of games give space for and allow the
creative expression of individuals that is often not allowed or held back in real life. One
can create a character and have him or her embody particular aspects or characteristics
that may not be socially accepted. Then, in game, these non-socially accepted forms can
be played and lived. Second, games like D&D give a safe space for those creative
expressions to exist and proliferate. This safe space can figuratively exist in the game
world or it can exist literally within the group playing together. Third, D&D is a social
gathering or group activity. It is impossible to play D&D alone9. Playing the game
creates the social gathering within which people grow and interact with others. The
audience who plays D&D is so dynamic and non-conventional. This by its very nature
serves as a gathering or meeting place for people who possibly would not normally
socialize in day-to-day life. And finally, D&D and games like it teach its players things
about the world they live in. The worlds and realms of D&D often share cultural norms
and ideas of the real world, because they are created and shaped by real humans.
Naturally, problems, issues, or places of constraint and contest are reflected from the real
world into the game world, and vice versa. By being immersed in an imaginary world,
one that you are invested in but is not solidly physical, it can be easier to notice these
9
It technically would be possible to play D&D alone if you created all the characters and monsters
and solely relied on dice rolls to make decisions, but this would probably not be the most enjoyable game
and the human aspects are completely taken out.
14
flaws and think critically about them. D&D worlds can be shaped and molded, whittled
away and added to. They serve as a place for imaginary game play and they serve as a
sort of cushion when thinking about everyday life and the often overlooked or taken for
granted aspects of culture.
This dissertation attempts to look at the tabletop role-playing game Dungeons and
Dragons and dissect the work that this game does in multiple formats, specifically when
thinking about gender and sexuality. The game does not just consist of people describing
what they want to do; rather, there is a plethora of resources and guides, books, manuals,
fan art, and popular cultural references that go into describing what the game is, how the
game is played, and why. The resources are influenced by and have influenced players
since their inception in 1974. Since then, up to the most current edition released in 2014,
changes in the text of the gameplay, art reproduced in handbooks, and descriptions of
characters are evident. These forms are not alone but are hugely impacted by culture and
society and the changes accompanied throughout time. This dissertation seeks to
examine those changes alongside D&D materials in order to discover those connections
and the intimate way that history, heritage, and social ideals are reflected through each
other along with how cultural forms such as D&D can shed light on paradigm shifts
taking place in culture now.
Definition of Terms
For the basis of this dissertation, it is crucial that some definitions be described
here in detail so that in future use they may be clear and understandable. Much of the
terminology as it relates to Dungeons and Dragons is quite specific and is a special sort
of language for the game and gameplay. Common terminology and words used in this
15
dissertation that could present some confusion in the future are listed and defined below
for clarity.
Game space: This is a concept related to Mary Hufford’s ideas of the Story Realm and
the Tale World from her monograph Chaseworld: Foxhunting and Storytelling in New
Jersey’s Pine Barrens.10 Here, Hufford argues that there are different levels of imaginary
spaces that are created when one does specific acts. In this case, telling stories about fox
hunting. For this dissertation, the game space is an imaginary or intangible realm that
exists when a player uses a character to act out game events. This is specific to fantasy
role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons because games of this type have no
physical place or materials where the game is enacted and seen the same by all players.
The imaginary or mental-based game space is all they have in order to understand and
relay what is happening in the game. Once the gameplay event is over, the game space
closes and it returns to the real world, where the characters and the events of the game are
not real. Players may revisit the game space by getting back into character and playing a
game or by telling stories or recounting events that occurred in the game space.
Role-playing game: The formal definition of a role-playing game is one in which a
game is played, and actions are taken by one person pretending to be something or
someone else. In effect, a person plays a role of another. In this dissertation, this same
concept holds true. In this research, a role-playing game is one that involves players
taking on the roles of other characters in order to act out situations either physically or
10
Mary Hufford, Chaseworld: Foxhunting and Storytelling in New Jersey’s Pine Barrens,
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1992.
16
verbally. It is through this acting that the game occurs, and it cannot occur outside of the
role-playing event. Players can take on roles by acting out what their character would do
in a specific event, acting out how they would feel in a specific event, or using their
language to speak as the character would in specific events.
Tabletop role-playing game: A tabletop role-playing game is a specific type of game
which is based on role-playing for the majority of its game events and is played by
gathering a group of people together for a specific amount of time and roleplaying
together. Traditionally, groups would gather around one table and play, hence the name
but now with technological advancement and changes in social and cultural structures,
groups can gather outside or in public spaces without a designated ‘table.’ Groups may
also gather in online spaces, such as in virtual chatrooms and video chats and play a
tabletop role-playing game together online. The key is that these games require a group
gathering to play together for a period of time. After that period of time is over, the game
is closed until the next time they gather.
Pen-and-paper: When tabletop role-playing games began, they were often called pen-
and-paper games. This refers to the fact that these types of games required close
attention to details that were often maintained on a piece of paper by the character. These
numbers and stats changed often and so players would continuously write and update
their stats as the game continued. Today, players do still keep paper character sheets that
are updated often, but in some cases, players opt for a digital version instead of a paper.
17
Player: In the most basic terms, the player is the physical human who is playing a game.
A player controls a character.
Character: A character is a person, being, or creature that is created by a player to be
played during a game. Characters, while fictional are often reflections of their players
and sometimes can have similar traits or characteristics of their players.
Gender: For the basis of this research and this dissertation, gender is the socially and
culturally constructed set of ideas that describe how a person is supposed to act, look,
talk, and relate to the world if they conform to a specific gender. In this research only
two genders are represented: male and female. Gender is what it means and looks like to
be a male and what it means and looks like to be a female. Gender can be either aligned
or not aligned with the sex one is born with. Sex, on the other hand, is a more physical
aspect based on sexual organs rather than social and cultural constructs.
Sexuality: For the basis of this research and this dissertation, sexuality is the way one
interacts with the world and other people in sexual circumstances and practices.
Sexuality has a plethora of categories today, each defined with a combination of gender
and sex.
18
CHAPTER 2:
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
The literature on game studies, particularly tabletop role-playing games like
Dungeons and Dragons, does not have an expansive history. D&D is young, brought to
life in 1974, and scholars of the subject are far-and-few between today. Very few
scholastic pieces have been written dealing with Dungeons and Dragons specifically and
there are only a handful that focus on role-playing games in general. For the most part,
few to no pieces or studies have been conducted that examine gender and/or sexuality
specifically, especially in reference to the physical texts used for gameplay.
One of the earliest and most well-known pieces amongst role-playing game
scholars is a monograph11 written by Gary Alan Fine, a sociologist. In 1983, Fine set out
to write about his fieldwork amongst tabletop role-playing gamers and the ways in which
these games functioned to create social worlds for the players. There is no scholarship on
role-playing games that does not use this seminal piece in some way. In fact, it was this
work that opened the doors for role-playing games like Dungeons and Dragons to
scholastic research and study. This piece is considered a crucial mark in scholastic
research on the subject because it began the process of seeing every day, I dare say
ordinary or unremarkable, activities as foci that could be studied through scholarly lenses.
If 1983 is the benchmark for scholastic research, the ‘newness’ of the subject is obvious.
11
Gary Alan Fine, Shared Fantasy: Role-Playing Games as Social Worlds, (Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press, 1983).
19
It is fair to state that, after reviewing the literature and seeing the directions research is
currently moving, a future resurgence of study based on games and especially role-
playing games is imminent. This is also probable when thinking about the importance of
popular culture today and how those aspects of entertainment and lifestyle have slowly
infiltrated other forms of communication and culture.
In United States cultural history, the 1980s was a period of great social change. It
came on the tail of the 1960s and 70s and ushered in changes in technology and society
as well as ways of thinking. Role-playing games, especially Dungeons and Dragons,
received negative feedback and were blamed for a number of runaway teenagers and
murder cases around the nation. Concerned parents believed that D&D influenced their
children to participate in and even encouraged devil-worshiping practices as well as a
number of other Satanic-associated activities.12 During this period, little scholarship
focused on the subject or even questioned the rumors and beliefs that were being
circulated by both mainstream media and smaller, grass-roots type organizations such as
BADD (Bothered About Dungeons and Dragons).13 It was not until the late 2000s and
early twenty-teens that scholarship focused on tabletop role-playing games and games in
general, began to surface. Within the academic sphere, interest in popular culture has
increased due to its prevalence in all corners of American culture today via the digital
revolution.14
12
Michael Witwer, Empire of Imagination: Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons and Dragons,
New York: Bloomsbury, 2015: 143-151.
13
“As BADD as it Gets: An Anti-Dungeons & Dragons Propaganda Booklet,” The Escapist,
http://www.theescapist.com/BADDbook.htm
14
Andrew Harrison, “Rise of the New Geeks: How the Outsiders Won,” The Guardian,
September 2, 2013, accessed November 1, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/sep/02/rise-
geeks-outsiders-superhero-movies-dork.
20
Because the base of scholarship for tabletop or even just role-playing games, in
general, is lacking, scholars are often required to go beyond their home discipline. Most
of the work published has been written by sociologists, anthropologists, performative
theory scholars, and communication scholars. The literature used for this dissertation
spans those four categories of scholarship types and includes the work of historians,
media studies scholars including film, psychologists, rhetoric and literature scholars,
American studies scholars, and game studies scholars. Without being willing to go past
my own experience and scholarship ‘home base,’ the lack of scholarship would be
devastatingly visible, making furthering my own research, as well as that on the subject,
quite difficult.
This literature review covers a vast collection of sources and previous literature
written on and around the subjects of role-playing games, tabletop role-playing games,
gender, Dungeons and Dragons, and gaming. Of the seventy sources used as the bulk of
literature for this dissertation, there are six different source types represented: scholarly
articles, monographs or books, magazine articles, online articles, dissertations and theses,
and essays and articles from published scholarly collections. Because the subject is so
dynamic and young, it was crucial to examine more non-conventional sources for
scholarship, including online journals and resources. Within the last 10-12 years, several
different collections of scholarship, mainly essays and articles have been published by
McFarland Press, an independent academic publisher. Of all the literature used, eight
different collections are represented within this dissertation and literature review,
comprising the bulk of published collections dealing with Dungeons and Dragons and
21
role-playing games.15 It seems as if a change is occurring with the dissemination of
information and research. This will be visited later in this review.
The subjects of the literature reviewed do not cover a wide variety of topics.
Generally, most of the literature reviewed is expressly on the subjects of role-playing
games, tabletop role-playing games, and Dungeons and Dragons. Outside of this main
body of literature, pieces also cover gender theory, game theory, storytelling and
narrative research, performance and identity creation, and game history. Several sources
do use games as their own research basis; however, I have chosen to only use Dungeons
and Dragons as my game base. There are hundreds of games that would fit into this
larger dissertation. I chose D&D specifically because it is a game that I am intimately
familiar with and knowledgeable of, few to no other studies have been completed on the
game, and it is the oldest and most well-known tabletop role-playing game; from it, the
masses of others were born. It is important to note here that there are several types of
role-playing games, including one of the most well-known types, the MMORPG
(massively multiplayer online role-playing game). Even though these types of games can
be spotted in current pop culture and cultural knowledge, I chose to omit any research
related to this field since it cannot be equated with games like D&D because it
completely lacks the personal connection. MMORPGs are played online, through a
computer or console and no human-to-human contact is required. While this opens the
playing field for ideas exactly like those I have selected as my major themes (identity,
gender, agency, and performance) they are not observed in the same way they would be
in a face-to-face game around a table. In fact, the result is often almost opposite from
15
As of 2019, McFarland had published another collection of essays titled The Post-Modern Joy
of Role-Playing Games, which was not considered for this literature review.
22
tabletop role-playing games and those that are played in person versus through an
electronic connection. Therefore, I have ruled out using any of these sources because I
do not feel as if they would actively contribute to this dissertation.
While the general collection of literature reviewed for this dissertation and the
larger topics of tabletop role-playing games and Dungeons and Dragons is quite broad,
the subject of this dissertation focuses only on the game Dungeons and Dragons. That
subject alone is still quite broad; the more specific focus of this piece is the representation
and visibility of gender and sexuality within the game’s player’s handbooks. Each
edition or revision of Dungeons and Dragons or D&D consists of several core books that
make up the bulk of materials needed for players. Always included in this core collection
is at least one “player’s handbook” or manual that outlines basic rules needed for
gameplay, but also consists of all the materials and text that one would require to create a
character for the game. This dissertation examines the first player’s handbook for each
edition and revision of the D&D game from its inception in 1974 up to the most current
edition (5th edition) published in 2014, a total of 13 player’s handbooks. The literature
reviewed for this dissertation covers a vast array of subjects and theoretical perspectives,
but all works focus generally on the worlds of tabletop role-playing games, role-playing
games, gender and sexuality representation in popular culture, agency and identity in
games, and gender and sexuality theory. Represented is a vast array of source types,
publication years, scholarly dispositions, and perspectives.
This dissertation fits into a large gap that is evident within the existing body of
literature both on but also relating to the subject of tabletop role-playing games, role-
playing games in general, and D&D. What is curious is that of all the sources examined
23
for this dissertation, fewer than 10 deal with the ideas of gender and/or sexuality in the
game or amongst game players. It seems odd that so many sources exist that examine
topics such as identity, performance, immersion, the creation of narrative, and
community creation but never gender. The open options for a study relating to gender
and/or sexuality are vast and could include topics such as gender performance, how
gender identity is shaped and formed, gender experience, agency, and sexuality, or
general representation in game worlds. The area is ripe with fruit and potential as games
and gamers are paramount sites for negotiating crucial social aspects not only with the
environment and other players but even with oneself.
Methodology
Throughout game scholarship, especially that which has been conducted on
games like Dungeons and Dragons, the most important and prominent methodology used
is participant observation. By allowing oneself to play the game and watch the game be
played, we can take on both emic and etic perspectives, opening more avenues for study
and interpretation. I do not disagree with the importance of participant observation when
dealing with an active group and active play; however, I do not feel that participant
observation is the most important methodology to be used in this dissertation, hence why
I have elected to not use it as the main methodology. On the contrary, I use the raw
materials for D&D in order to examine the actual and physical body of the game as a text
rather than the social interactions.
While scholars have studied gameplay, little to no scholarly work has been
conducted on the actual physical texts of the game. While social interactions and how
players generally interact with each other are important, the physical attributes and
24
artifacts of the game hold just as much importance and merit. Scholars have not
examined the rhetoric used in player’s handbooks and what this implies about the game
as well as those playing the game. The player’s handbooks and other physical
representations of D&D are such rich archives for knowledge and cultural ideas because
they are part of and reflect the cultures that we live and work within. Few studies have
been conducted on the visual rhetoric of the published player materials, which also relay
information to readers and viewers about the culture(s) they live and play in. Recently, a
large volume was released on the art of D&D over the years, but even this is fleeting in
depth as it only takes on the face value of art and never decides to delve any deeper into
intrinsic cultural and social meanings.16 This is where the original questions about the
player’s handbook and the central ideas for this dissertation became prominent; why did
the game creators and writers add in a section in the newest player’s handbook about sex
and gender when in earlier editions this was not the case? What does this literal writing
say rhetorically about the game’s creators, the game’s players, and possibly even the
culture at large? In this dissertation, the player’s handbooks serve as the literal texts
through which I conduct my research and examine the cultural and social changes
occurring and thus reflected within pop culture materials.
While reviewing the literature for this dissertation, I decided to use major themes
that I located amongst the pieces as the starting point for analyzing the body of previous
research available. Because both the subject and the sources available are quite young, it
seemed that using major and recurrent themes would be a more beneficial way to
16
Michael Witwer, Kyle Newman, Jon Peterson, and Sam Witwer, Dungeons & Dragons Art &
Arcana A Visual History: A Compiled Volume of Information and Imagery for Lovers of Dungeons &
Dragons, Including Art, Advertising, Ephemera, and More, (New York: Ten Speed Press, 2018).
25
organize and analyze each piece in order to discover the salient themes of each. After I
located these, I sorted them by the number of occurrences to compile a collection of four
key themes for previous research: gender, identity, agency, and performance. These four
themes serve as the backbone for analysis of this literature review. Each of the four
major themes has several smaller themes that I was also able to extract from the previous
research also. They each fit within the larger theme, for example, one of the larger
themes is ‘gender.’ Within gender, and as a sort of sub-theme, I included ‘gender-roles,’
‘gendered-space,’ and ‘sexism.’ While each of these three sub-themes is substantial
enough to become a larger theme on its own, for this dissertation and the literature
examined, the larger theme of ‘gender’ held a prominent space within the literature and
encompassed several other smaller, sub-themes making it a stronger and more viable
category for organization and analysis.
As mentioned earlier, ‘gender’ is one of the larger themes that is used for the
ultimate organization and analysis of literature for this literature review and this
dissertation. The other three themes used are ‘identity,’ ‘agency,’ and ‘performance.’
While composing a list of the four major themes, ‘sexuality’ was an initially prominent
subject that was situated within several pieces of literature. However, after delving
deeper into each piece, it became evident that sexuality was tied intimately with gender,
especially in reference to role-playing games and D&D. This can be a risky measure
since it seems as if the two areas can often be confused for being mutually exclusive; it is
important to actively discuss them and highlight why each is important on its own, versus
solely being part of a dyad of ideas. While they are similar and linked, it seems like
within the gaming world and especially D&D, gender and sexuality are two very different
26
ideas. Gender tends to be more about the representation of a character or a player
whereas sexuality seems to be linked more to gameplay. Without being said, gender does
have the ability to affect gameplay, but tends to be a more personal characteristic linked
to an individual, almost intrinsic in a sense; whereas sexuality and the play of sex will
often drive or direct gameplay or even create action in the game.
As for the specific mechanics of selecting, organizing, and analyzing the literature
for this dissertation, my process was quite lengthy. For the duration of this project, I kept
a journal in which I wrote any random ideas or notes but also recorded my notes from
each piece of literature I read for this dissertation and the literature review specifically.
Once I completed annotating and making notes for each piece, I then created a
spreadsheet to record all of my hand-written notes and ideas to create a digital
representation of those hours of work. Once my data was collected, I proceeded to add
columns for specific information such as the year of publication, source type,
keywords/themes, and how each piece connected to the larger scope of work. Once the
spreadsheet was completed, I then used the technique similar to ethnographic coding, as a
way to visually map out the similarities between pieces and discover the larger ideas, or
core categories at play between each piece. My organization and analysis techniques ride
a thin line between axial coding and selective coding since I organized my findings both
by smaller themes that give rise to a larger theme (axial coding) and also by integrating
my smaller and larger themes under the super-theme of gender and representation.17 I
17
Joey Saldaña, The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers. 3rd edition, (Los Angeles:
SAGE, 2016), Barney G. Glaser and Anselm L. Strauss, The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for
Qualitative Research, (New York: Routledge, 1995); Juliet Corbin and Anselm Strauss, Basics of
Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory, 5th ed., (Los
Angeles, SAGE, 2015).
27
find that coding, such as I was trained to do in my Anthropology background, is much
easier for me when hoping to find links between pieces of research and raw materials, but
also visually mapping out how and where sources connect. My familiarity with the
analysis type as well as the ease of transitioning into my current research is the reason, I
chose to use this type of analysis over other forms.
Once I finished coding my spreadsheet of collected pieces of literature by theme,
with colors, it was easier to see how each piece of literature connected to one another,
and then extract those connections for my larger themes to carry through this literature
review. To facilitate this, I quantified each theme type and then selected the five more
populous themes and considered those my top five larger themes that served as the warp
through which the weft or the bulk of the literature was woven in and around. In the
following section, each of these five major themes is discussed as well as the general
patterns and movement of literature on the subject, thus far.
When it comes to the larger portion of analysis and interpretation required for the
player’s handbooks, my methodology was quite similar. I also kept a very detailed
journal for the player’s handbooks. Before beginning my research and analysis, I made
sure to collect the first player’s handbook from each major edition or revision and create
a detailed timeline so I could physically see the number of pieces I would be working
with and the progression through time since 1974. Beginning with the first edition of
D&D, I began my work with the textual analysis. For this, I went through each
paragraph, sentence, and word in the player’s handbook. Here, I was looking for specific
things in each handbook such as pronoun usage, general gendered terminology, and the
use of examples in text that were gendered. For example, for most player’s handbooks I
28
examined, I was able to identify and quantify examples used in text that were given as
male or female, and even sometimes genderless. My goal here was to make sure that I
could quantify how many times males were used in text versus females and vice versa.
The ratios and percentages were important data that I derived from the physical texts
themselves.
Along similar lines, specific gendered ideas or moments in each player’s
handbook I encountered were also key. There were several times in the handbooks that I
was able to make note of a special or specific example or moment that was tied directly
to either gender or sexuality. While the overall quantifiable data that I sought out was a
crucial piece of the overall fabric of the analysis for this dissertation, those smaller and
more isolated points in the text were just as important if not a little more because while
they existed in the overall matrix of ideas represented in the player’s handbooks, they feel
like even more pivotal and perhaps raw representations of ideas and culture at the time,
within a larger context. Those moments, for me, opened up the world and worldviews of
the creators and writers in a way that could be analyzed and interpreted.
For the visual half of the player’s handbook analysis, the method was quite
similar. While for the textual analysis I had a specific set of parameters that I examined
each player’s handbook for, I also employed similar methods for the visual aspects of the
handbooks. While the text is key for gameplay in D&D, the pictures and illustrations
within the pages have an even stronger attraction for players and even non-players. The
art is usually very grabbing and will pull someone in, even if they do not play the game
or have no ideas about it. As the general visual analysis, I examined each player’s
handbook included in my study sample and quantified how many times I found a male
29
and a female represented. Within those two categories it was broken down even more
into a male or female in an active or passive pose. My goal here was to show first, how
often a male is depicted versus a female and then even further, how many of those male
and female illustrations were passive and how many were actively doing something.
These statistics derived from the study sample were very telling in terms of the ratio
between male and female and what percentage of those were active or passive.
Just as with the textual analysis, there were points in the player’s handbooks that
were clear and important enough to make special notes about them, just as the text had
certain moments that spoke volumes. For me, those specific illustrations or examples
were much louder than the overall art proportions because they were easier and quicker to
see versus a long-standing inequality of gender representations. After seeing this over
and over, for years, it is much easier to become numb to the inequality; when you
encounter specific examples that highlight and reinforce this, you are more likely to take
notice. While the overall trends provide a substantial amount of background data, those
isolated instances serve as highlights to prove points and make arguments.
The basic methodology for this dissertation was simply to let the game materials
and physical artifacts of Dungeons and Dragons speak for themselves. While participant
observation and interviews do provide valid perspectives and ideas related to the culture,
they do not let the game speak about itself for itself. Sadly, little has been done in the
scholarly realm on D&D in general, especially when it comes to groups and social
workings of D&D; this dissertation is crucial because no work has been done on the
physical texts of the game. Analyzing the game for what it is and as it was intended to be
30
read and played out is the underlying and perhaps most important methodology for this
dissertation.
Literature Review Themes
Identity
Amongst all the previous literature reviewed for this dissertation, including
scholarly articles, books, online journal articles, dissertations and theses, and websites,
the most common theme running through the bulk of the literature was identity. It seems
sufficient to say that identity has a major effect both in games and on game players.
Within the theme of identity, I have chosen to include the sub-themes of representation,
bleed, and community. Each of these ideas relates directly back to identity and how one,
whether the player or the character, is perceived in the game, and how this affects the
game. For identity, the literature seems to follow, modify, or comment upon at least one
of four different concepts: the idea that players identify with characters, the idea that the
game allows players to explore identity, the concept that identity can be transferred or
bleeds from character to player and vice-versa, and the idea that identity and community
creation are key factors and/or effects of games like D&D.
1. Players Identify with Characters
Throughout scholarship surrounding role-playing games, the connection between
players and their characters is one that has been discussed and brought up in so many
ways. This theme, perhaps one of the most prominent, runs through both scholarly
sources and those that are for entertainment such as memoirs and how-to-guides. This
seems common, since in most cases, players will create their characters, hand-picking
their attributes and dressing them to their own liking versus having a character that is
31
randomized or pre-designed. When we create something, we automatically feel
connected; the time and dedication put forth to create the character that a player will
explore a new world with translates into a connection.
Along with time and tedious dedication, players also explore imaginary realms
and worlds through the ‘eyes’ of their characters. It is through these avatars that a player
may live. Jennifer Growing Cover The Creation of Narrative in Tabletop Role-Playing
Games (2010) makes the observation that “players may be more likely to see avatars as
extensions of themselves.”18 Cover goes further to label this as emotional immersion,
which is the most intense form of immersion compared to social immersion. In this case,
being emotionally tied to an avatar or character creates a much stronger connection and
therefore increases a player’s possibility of identifying with their character.
In his memoir, David Ewalt Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons and
Dragons and the People Who Play It (2013), says that “D&D players live vicariously
through their characters”19 because the game is a performance, on multiple levels. The
layers of identity that a player puts on in a game can also give away some clues to their
actual, real-world personality and egos. This identity layering has been noted in several
pieces of literature, including J. Eric Holmes’ seminal book Fantasy Role Playing Games
(1981).
As an example of this type of layering of identity ideas and what these may say
writ large, avatars, although there are no physical manifestations of them in games like
18
Jennifer Growling Cover, The Creation of Narrative in Tabletop Role-Playing Games (Jefferson,
NC: McFarland Press, 2010), 113.
19
David M. Ewalt, Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons and Dragons and the People Who
Play It (New York: Scribner, 2013), 22.
32
D&D, become representations of what players want to show to the world. In Imaginary
Games (2010) Chris Bateman makes specific note of this phenomenon and furthers it to a
sense of representation within gaming that is otherwise non-existent.20
2. The Game Allows Players to Explore Identity
The idea that players identify with their character in games is directly linked to
other identity-based ideas such as how the game can allow players to explore aspects of
their identity and how those may or may not interact with the world. Identity exploration
is a topic that has been discussed multiple times throughout the small body of literature
that exists on the subject. Perhaps this is because the connection between player and
character is easier to see than other theoretical concepts; it is much easier for a player to
feel the connection between their character and identity, versus other theoretical
concepts.
Identity, as has been discussed in scholarly contexts for years, is a creation that is
a result of social and societal pressures or catalysts. It is how we want to represent
ourselves and be seen by the world, and therefore a critical concept for individuals. It has
been posited that activities, such as gaming have significant roles in influencing or even
creating one’s sense of identity. Katherine Cross, in her article “The New Laboratory of
Dreams: Role Playing Game as Resistance,” discusses complex identity creation and
how games act as an active party when dealing with identity building. She states that
“gaming activities are not neutral or isolated acts, but involve a person’s becoming and
acting in the world as part of the construction of a complex identity.”21 She goes on to
20
Chris Bateman, Imaginary Games, (Alresford, Hants, UK: Zero Books, 2010).
Katherine Angel Cross, “The New Laboratory of Dreams: Role Playing Game as Resistance,”
21
WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly 40, no. 3 & 4 (Fall/ Winter 2012), 72.
33
state that play is a process and creates constructions and ideas of self. In this sense, play
and games have a much higher function than just play; they transgress traditional ideas of
what a game is and its functions, to become a much more pertinent social and individual
building activity.
Games teach us about identity and what it could entail, but in a way that removes
preconceived notions related to identity. In imagined games, like D&D, characters are
created from a vast array of different races and ethnicities. When a player creates a
character or plays a character in one of these imagined worlds, the earthly notions of
social status, class, and race are stripped away. In Sarah Lynne Bowman’s, The
Functions of Role-Playing Games: How Participants Create Community, Solve
Problems and Explore Identity (2010), the importance of role-playing games and their
ability to help identity formation is expounded. She explains that “gaming scenarios
place players in crisis situations where characters must rely on each other for building
bonds between people, offering them the chance to look beyond surface forms of
identification such as age, race, sex, and occupation.”22 Bowman makes clear the
importance of the social work of games, even elevating them past entertainment and fun
and placing them into a new category of self-improvement and exploration.
Other pieces of literature also note the importance of identity and how games can
provide a valid space for exploration. Shelly Mazzanoble, in Confessions of a Part-Time
Sorceress: A Girl's Guide to the Dungeons and Dragons Game (2007) and Everything I
Need to Know I Learned from Dungeons and Dragons: One Woman's Quest to Turn
Self-Help into Elf-Help (2011), writes extensively about her connection with her
22
Sarah Lynne Bowman, The Functions of Role-Playing Games: How Participants Create
Community, Solve Problems and Explore Identity, (Jefferson, NC: McFarland and Company, 2010), 61.
34
character and how that influenced her own identity both in the game and in the real
world. She says that when creating and playing her first character, she came to identify
with her. At some points, she even goes as far as referring to her character as her alter-
ego and her “mini.”23 In her texts, Mazzanoble has no problem admitting how close the
identities of herself and her character were. In Everything I Need to Know I Learned
from Dungeons and Dragons: One Woman's Quest to Turn Self-Help into Elf-Help
(2011), Mazzanoble says that playing D&D and creating a character allows you to filter
out the bad parts of your personality,24 in order to create a character who both makes you
proud and embodies all the good aspects that perhaps you, yourself do not encompass.
Mazzanoble even credits playing D&D with helping her explore aspects of her identity
that are related to her spirituality. While this is not as common in other pieces of
literature reviewed, it still represents the strong connection between games and identity
exploration. While Mazzanoble’s writing style is witty and more for entertainment, she
breaches some heavy topics in her texts related to identity and character creation, as well
as having a connection between the real world and the game world. The ideas presented
in her texts meshes well with a major idea presented in Michelle Nephew’s doctoral
dissertation, “Playing with Power: The Authorial Consequences of Role-Playing Games”
(2003). In this piece, Nephew states that “roleplaying becomes a locus for issues of
identity.”25 This is not a moot point; as previously discussed, role-playing games do
23
Shelly Mazzanoble, Confessions of a Part-Time Sorceress: A Girl's Guide to the Dungeons and
Dragons Game, (Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2007), 39.
24
Shelly Mazzanoble, Everything I Need to Know I Learned from Dungeons and Dragons: One
Woman's Quest to Turn Self-Help into Elf-Help, (Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2011), 126.
25
Michelle Andromeda Brown Nephew, "Playing with Power: The Authorial Consequences of
Roleplay Games" (PhD diss., The University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2003), iv, ProQuest Dissertations and
Theses Global.
35
indeed create landscapes upon which ideas and conceptions of identity are contested and
reformulated. The idea of role-playing games becoming not just places to play, but also
plays to do work was known even early on. Five years after D&D was released, Leonard
Kanterman, a medical doctor and fan of role-playing games wrote an article for Different
Worlds: The Magazine of Game Role-Playing titled “My Life and Role-Playing” (1979)
in which he stated that “by exploring the possibilities of different courses of action, even
to the point of different morality systems, through the ‘safe’ medium of fantasy, people
can learn who they are and why they think and act the way they do.”26 Since this article
was written shortly after the birth of Dungeons and Dragons, and it was probably seen by
a large audience because of the magazine it was featured it, it was obvious to players and
fans that role-playing games were important and had a specific job that perhaps was not
intended or planned in the beginning.
While people were playing the game(s) they were also working through complex
identity ideas and cultural concepts while negotiating their own personalities and motives
for themselves through a medium that was fun. Games give players a space to look at the
world, through a reframed lens —often outside of their ordinary— and experience
connections with others that are not built upon superficial ideas of what identity is or
should be. In a sense, identity creation and connection in games may seem more
authentic and true to one’s self than what is found in the real world because of that ability
to slough off what we know and have come to grow in and look at it through new,
outsider eyes. Rather than creating new identities or getting outside of culture, players
26
Leonard Kanterman, M.D., "My Life and Roleplaying," Different Worlds: The Magazine of
Game Role-Playing No. 1, (The Chaosium),1979, 8.
36
learn to negotiate identity within the culture of Dungeons and Dragons and the larger,
real-world culture.
3. Identity can be Transferred or Bleeds
While it may seem obvious, it is crucial to mention that, while each of these sub-
themes under identity may focus on different aspects of the larger idea, all four of the
sub-themes explored here are very similar and work together cohesively to create the
larger theme of identity for the literature reviewed. The concept of bleed or transfer is
major in role-playing games, especially D&D and when discussing larger ideas like
identity and how it is affected by or affects gameplay and personal development.
The concept of ‘bleed’ is not new; several scholars of role-playing games and
identity formation processes have discussed the ways in which personality and identity
traits seem to flow and move between characters and players. The imaginary membranes
between the two are quite porous, allowing for bleed and transference to easily occur. In
general, bleed or transference can go two ways, from player to character or from
character to player. Remember, the player is the physical person playing the game and
the character is a created, imaginary entity used to explore and live in the imaginary
realms.
William White, J. Tuorras Harviainen, and Emily Care Boss in their article
“Roleplaying Communities, Cultures of Play, and The Discourse of Immersion” (2012)
liken bleed to leakage. They make clear that bleed affects the psychological reality of a
player27 and define three types of bleed: bleed-out, bleed-in, and direct bleed. According
27
William J. White, J. Tuorras Harviainen, and Emily Care Boss, "Role-playing Communities,
Cultures of Play and the Discourse of Immersion," In Immersive Gameplay: Essays on Participatory
Media and Role-Playing, (Jefferson, NC: McFarland Press, 2012), 71-72.
37
to this text, bleed-in is leakage from player to character, bleed-out is leakage from the
character to player, and direct bleed is akin to a player’s psychological response to the
events of a game that should belong to the character, but the player takes on instead.
It seems quite difficult to play a game, especially a role-playing game and not
have some sort of bleed occur since Gary Alan Fine Shared Fantasy (1983) says that
gaming is an extension of the self or a compromise between the real self and the role
self.28 In fact, Fine discusses the social role of games, especially in regards to identity
and community formation. While the subjects of this seminal monograph are critical for
the study of role-playing games, what is perhaps even more paramount about his 1983
text is that it was the first to study role-playing games in a professional and scholarly
light and set the bar for studying such a subject as a serious matter. In reality, this
dissertation rests on the backbone of Fine’s work as the starting point for examining a
leisure subject like role-playing games in a scholarly way. This text, while it considers a
multitude of ideas and social concepts, stands as an indispensable piece of scholarship on
role-playing games, and gaming in general.
Role-playing games, specifically Dungeons and Dragons in the case of Ethan
Gilsdorf’s text Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among
Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms (2009) help to
build the confidence of the players both in the game and outside of the game as well as
ideas of who players are. Gilsdorf, who became a role-player and used gaming to get
through some of the roughest times of his childhood and adulthood, states in his text that
28
University of Chicago Press, 1983).
38
D&D “made ‘me’ more me.”29 Throughout his text, Gilsdorf touts the social work and
impact of role-playing games, as well as how strongly they serve as places to negotiate
and explore identity and ideas of self. This, while not explicitly stated as bleed or
transference, is easily translatable and perhaps transmutable. Confidence gained within
the game setting will be visible on the player outside of the game setting. The same
occurs in the identity building process and goes both ways between the player and the
character. When a character learns who they are and works with the character traits they
may have been given or developed, the player, in turn, is allowed to discover more about
themselves through the guise of play and role-playing. Role-playing is not just ‘playing’
but also akin to trying on a new role or multiple roles to see which fit. Once these have
been ‘tried on for size,’ a player may learn more about their own play styles, personality,
or motives which can then be incorporated into one’s idea of self or allowed to bleed in
or out during gameplay and in the real world.
While Daniel Mackay’s text focuses more on performance in role-playing games,
he also writes a strong basis for understanding identity and how the contact between
player and character is crucial. While not explicitly stating this as bleed or transference
between the two entities, it is obvious that Mackay has noticed this occurring within the
game; he sees this directly connected to the performative aspects of the game, which is
true being that role-playing is highly performative on multiple levels. Mackay suggests
that the character becomes the imaginary point of contact between the player and the
fictional world, and in turn, the everyday self is reconstructed and reconstituted through
29
Ethan Gilsdorf, Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role
Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms, (Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press,
2009), 199.
39
both the player self and the game self.30 In other words, because of the bleed between
player and character and the acknowledgment—which may be active or passive—of the
connection between the two selves and their interaction, identity is created and re-created.
Without that bleed, according to Mackay, the everyday self and who we are as players
would not be influenced by or influence who we are as players. In this case, the role-
playing game would cease to be what it is, as role-playing would not occur. To be part of
a role-playing game is to be actively playing multiple roles, and regardless of which is
which, they will begin to bleed and co-mingle because the player and character take up
the same physical body. Complete separation of the two would be nearly impossible.
4. Identity and Community Creation as Key Factors and/or Effects of Games
The final aspect of the larger theme of identity that is apparent amongst a large
amount of the literature on the subject is related to the formation and idea of community
within a role-playing game and how that relates to identity writ large. Because role-
playing games such as Dungeons and Dragons are played with a usually static group of
individuals and involves an amount of communitas31 through both play and socialization,
it is obvious that some forms of community would be created. It seems as if the sense of
community and the bonds that are created are what help role-playing games like D&D
prosper.
Several scholars and role-playing game writers have noted the inclusion and
appearance of community and its importance to both players and the game itself. Ewalt
30
Daniel Mackay, The Fantasy Role-Playing Game: A New Performing Art, (Jefferson, NC:
McFarland and Company, 2001).
31
Victor Turner, The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure, (London: Routledge and
Kegan Paul, 1969), 131-133.
40
(2013) states that the “play community generally tends to become permanent even after
the game is over”32 and that the bonds created through the events of gameplay often
persist. Ewalt goes on to explain that this deep-connection and community building
occurs because the people you play a role-playing game with “become your clan...they
share your experiences, know your strengths and weaknesses, and help protect you from
a dangerous world”33 and “when a group of people play a game together, they enter a sort
of alternate reality where friendships form at an accelerated rate,”34 thus creating strong
social bonds that last outside of the game.
Fine similarly states that “shared orientation for games produces a sense of
community.”35 The importance and permanence of the play and game community was
even noted before role-playing games became popular when Johan Huizinga, game and
play scholar wrote in his crucial text, Homo ludens: A Study of the Play Element in
Culture (1950) that communities that are created and reified through play often become
permanent after play is complete; the act of play and the social work it does solidifies the
community surrounding it. This is echoed in Ewalt's ideas above and tends to be found in
most role-playing scholarship examined for this literature review in regard to identity and
identity formation both inside and outside of the game.
32
David M. Ewalt, Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons and Dragons and the People Who
Play It, (New York: Scribner, 2013), 119.
33
Ewalt, Of Dice and Men, 119.
34
Ibid, 118.
35
Gary Alan Fine, Shared Fantasy: Role-Playing Games as Social Worlds. (Chicago: The
University of Chicago Press, 1983), 36.
41
Gender
While identity holds as the top theme found running throughout the literature on
the subjects of role-playing games, tabletop role-playing games, and Dungeons and
Dragons, gender was located as the second most populous theme within the literature.
This is curious, as few to no full studies of gender and/or sexuality and its effects both in
and outside of gameplay have been conducted. In fact, while there are some smaller
articles and pieces of literature and research that do delve into gender and gender politics,
they only scratch the surface when it comes to the subject in relation to role-playing
games. The idea of gender in games is intimately linked to that of performance, which
will be discussed later. This is because role-playing games include performance as part
of their game base since role-playing or literally playing a role of another being is a
performance at its core. Connected with this is the idea and construct of gender and how
that functions within the game. Within the theme of gender, I was able to filter out three
specific areas of ideas that were proliferated throughout the literature: the idea that D&D
is a gendered space and is structured by gender ideals, the belief that gender is
performative, and finally the notion that sexuality can be a form of identity for players.
1. D&D is a Gendered Space and is Structured by Gender Ideals
Gender and sexuality are two terms that have been contested over the years and
have coming in question more than once. Literature used in this review tends to see
gender and sexuality as two very different concepts with different bases of comparison.
Generally across the literature, gender can be socially-based on who has primary care of
42
children,36 is an emergent feature of social situations,37 can be the socio-cultural aspects
of being a man or woman,38 is the “social and cultural identity that influences the way
people present themselves to the world and the way the world acts to them”39 or is the
“repeated stylization of the body, a set of repeated acts within a highly rigid regulatory
frame that congeal over time to produce the appearance of a natural sort of being.”40 In
the most general sense, gender is cultural and created from culture and society.
Sexuality, on the other hand, is not as often described or defined within the literature, but
is generally the result of a sexual designation (male, female, or other) and tends to be
seen as more authentic than the gender that we perform41 because it is an innate feeling or
idea, versus one that is projected or performed on a body versus for a body. Because of
this, and as Paul Fry, Queer Theory and Gender Performativity (2012) believes, sexuality
stands outside of traditional gender coding and is a completely separate concept.
The literature tends to agree, sexuality seems to stand outside and beside gender,
especially when dealing with role-playing games where sexuality is not seen as being as
important of a character factor as gender is. Gender tends to serve as the more important
36
Epstein, Linda B. "What Is a Gender Norm and Why Should We Care? Implementing a New
Theory in Sexual Harassment Law." Stanford Law Review 51, no. 1 (1998).
37
West, Candace and Don H. Zimmerman. “Doing Gender.” Gender and Society 1, no. 2. (June
1987).
38
Zalewski, Marysia. "'I Don't Even Know What Gender Is': A Discussion of the Connections
between Gender, Gender Mainstreaming and Feminist Theory." Review of International Studies 36, no. 1
(January 2010): 3-27. http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.astate.edu/stable/40588102.
Jo Bryce and Jason Rutter, “Gendered Gaming in Gendered Space.” In Handbook of Computer
39
Game Studies, eds. Joost Raessens and Jeffrey Goldstein, 301-310, (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2005), 302.
40
Judith Butler, Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity, (New York:
Routledge, 2006), 45.
41
Paul H. Fry, "Queer Theory and Gender Performativity." In Theory of Literature, 299-311.
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 303.
43
aspect to examine and take into consideration because role-playing games spaces, such as
Dungeons and Dragons, are gendered spaces rather than sexual spaces. The difference
and significance between the two are crucial, as they are not interchangeable.
Ideas and representations of gender run heartily throughout literature for this
review, although it is often not at the forefront of discussion. In “Circles, Charmed, &
Magic: Queering Game Studies,” Adrienne Shaw notes that “both queer and feminist
approaches to games reveal how all aspects of game culture, texts, and production are
structured by norms of sexuality and gender.”42 Indeed, using these ‘queer’ forms of
study to examine games and scholarship would indeed create a lens through which the
effects of society's norms would become evident. In fact, this is what this dissertation as
a whole seeks to do; to undermine the dominant ways of studying the male-sphere of
role-playing games, of examining the physical texts of role-playing games, and to extract
new conclusions about the game from a more queer perspective than what has been done
in the past. In doing this, the old gender and sexuality norms upon which the foundation
of role-playing games and D&D was built, as Gary Alan Fine also comments on in
Shared Fantasy (1983)43 can first be identified, and then have to be dismantled and
disarmed. Indeed, as J. Jack Halberstam states in Gaga Feminism (2012), if we were to
see gender categories as actually saturated with contradictions and as being
discontinuous, we could notice the more queer or odd forms of representation that are
42
Adrienne Shaw, “Circles, Charmed, & Magic: Queering Game Studies.” QED: A Journal for
GLBTQ Worldmaking 2. No 2 (summer 2015), 76.
43
University of Chicago Press, 1983), 76.
44
buried.44 It is getting past those old notions and antiquated ideas of gender that takes
work.
To further the idea of role-playing games being gendered space and space that are
steeped in gender and societal norms, Matthias Doepke and Fabrizio Zilibotti in “Boys
versus Girls: The Transformation of Gender Roles” (2019), claims that gender roles
reflect the economic circumstances of the society.45 This is not an idea lost to imaginary
worlds and role-playing games like D&D, because these worlds and societies are based
around the ideas of the real realm we experience every day. Because modeled after the
real thing, gender roles in imaginary worlds can often also mimic or mirror real-world
societies. In some cases, they can even exaggerate them, creating an almost comical
representation of society.
While on the subject of gender roles in gendered spaces, Jo Bryce and Jason
Rutter in “Gendered Gaming in Gendered Space” (2005) state that “the gendering of
computer gaming is consistent with the reinforcement and reproduction of established
gender roles, and the gendering of particular leisure activities.”46 While this resource
does specifically discuss computer-based gaming, it draws attention to how gendered
spaces within game help to reproduce and reinforce, often antiquated, gender roles and
44
J. Jack Halberstam, Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender, and the End of Normal, (Boston: Beacon
Press, 2012), 71.
45
Matthias Doepke and Fabrizio Zilibotti, "Boys versus Girls: The Transformation of Gender
Roles." In Love, Money, and Parenting: How Economics Explains the Way We Raise Our Kids, 185-214.
(Princeton; Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2019), 196.
Jo Bryce and Jason Rutter, “Gendered Gaming in Gendered Space,” In Handbook of Computer
46
Game Studies, eds. Joost Raessens and Jeffrey Goldstein, 301-310. (Cambridge: MIT Press, 2005), 301.
45
ideas. This quote goes on to state that, this happens in other leisure activities as well.
Here, we can include role-playing games.
The gendered basis for role-playing games like D&D also is evident throughout
several pieces of literature as they discuss the prominence of gendered titles and
categories and how they reflect antiquated ideas related to what a female does/can do and
what a male does/can do.
While not explicitly about games, but Culture in general, Judith Butler, in
Undoing Gender (2004) notes how marked categories produce marked objects, which in
turn draws unnecessary attention to the identification and deployment of gender when it
does not serve an innate or important purpose. Especially in earlier editions of Dungeons
and Dragons, marked categories proliferated the pages of the player’s handbooks.
Generally, the texts used almost exclusively male markers but did use marked categories
when discussing specific female examples. Marked categories often exists in pairs where
one label is specific to a group. In this case, genders are marked upon a title or noun.
For example, in the word pair priest and priestess, the gender is marked up on both titles
but more expressly the title of ‘priestess’ since the male form ‘priest’ is considering the
neutral form. This calls unneeded attention to gender and power dynamics. In some
cases, the ‘marked category’ can denote something of lower class or power. The use of
marked categories did not change the game or affect gameplay but just called unneeded
attention to gender and gender categories in the game, and the lack of equal
representation.
46
2. Gender is Performative
After identity and gender, performance was a major theme woven throughout the
resources examined in this literature review. While performance is crucial to role-
playing games and makes up the bulk of the activity within the game, the idea of gender
as performance, especially in the game is central to several crucial pieces examined for
this literature review.
When it comes to cultural and social theory, Judith Butler is a reigning champion
when discussing gender and performance. Part of the main platform from which she
works is that gender is a performance, on multiple levels. While Butler does not write
expressly about cultural phenomena like games, she does write from an open perspective
which allows the ideas and theories to be adapted where they are fit. For this literature
review, Judith Butler’s work heavily swayed the ideas of gender as performance and
stands as the base of this theoretical perspective.
In Gender Trouble (2007), Butler makes a direct connection between gender and
performance, stating that gender is almost always a form of performance, and she even
goes on to discuss parodic performances. For Butler, these parodic performances, or
drag, highlight the misunderstood and murky areas of gender ideals. Because gender is a
performance, but also an action, these representations do work within culture and society.
Other scholars make the connection between gender and performance. Paul H. Fry in
“Queer Theory and Gender Performativity” (2012) states that gender is always a
performance, Candace West and Don H. Zimmerman in “Doing Gender” (1987) also
elaborate on the idea that gender is performed and reinforced by performance, Rhiannon
O'Neal discusses how gender is a performance in her master’s thesis “Gender, Identity,
47
and Tabletop Roleplay Games” (2011), and Jennifer Jenson and Suzanne de Castell in
“Theorizing Gender and Digital Gameplay: Oversight, Accidents, and Surprises.” (2008)
come to the same conclusion that gender is always a performance, and, to go further, a
hegemonic one.
In Undoing Gender (2004), Butler says that self-expression is a form of
confession; even this when thinking about gender performances makes sense since
gender is a societal construction and is acted out on a body for outside consumption.
Here, gender is self-expression, no matter how it is created or represented. Paul H. Fry,
“Queer Theory and Gender Performativity” (2012) goes on to say that drag
representations “show us once and for all what’s behind the seemingly natural categories
of gender that we imagine ourselves to inhabit like a set of comfortable old clothes.”47 In
this, we can see how performance, gender, and self-expression work together.
In role-playing games, this idea is pertinent because gender and the expression of
gender in the game can and often does have a significant effect on the player, the
character, and/or the gameplay. Because games are played within a cultural and social
setting, which no one can fully escape, those aspects seep into the way we play and the
ways we understand worlds. Just as a character and player identity can bleed, real world
and game realms can bleed in and out, causing issues with leakage of gender ideals and
norms for both players and characters. What is important here is to note that these things
do occur and to recognize that these game realms, although imaginary, are indeed
gendered spaces and that gender is always, already a performance.
47
Paul H. Fry, "Queer Theory and Gender Performativity," in Theory of Literature, 299-311,
(New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012), 310.
48
3. Sexuality as a Form of Identity for Players
Finally, the last sub-theme for gender and sexuality is the idea that sexuality
within a gamespace or game idea can be a form of identity for players. This final sub-
theme may seem a bit out of place, since the others before focused more heavily on
gender as a concept and how that works within ludic expressions. The answer to this is
simple: while gender and sexuality are often lumped together as similar or even duplicate
ideas, they, in fact, are not. In the sense of role-playing games as well as the literature
used for this project, gender and sexuality are different branches on the same tree.
To begin, as we have already discussed, sexuality seems to exist outside of typical
gender coding, according to Paul H. Fry in “Queer Theory and Gender Performativity”
(2012). Sexuality, while being part of an identity, also has more work than what is seen
on the surface. Because sexuality is not performed or put on like gender is and is outside
of gender coding, it is seen as a more authentic idea of self and therefore, truer and
connected to a deeper level of mental and psychological awareness than gender. Because
it is ‘deeper,’ it is often embedded in areas of games and gaming spheres that are not
visible at first glance. For example, Jaako Sternos and Tanja Sihvonen in “Out of the
Dungeons: Representations of Queer Sexuality in RPG Source Books,” (2015) claim that
games generally tend to be conservative, but do have the potential to appeal to males
using sexuality.48 This is a very common device in games like Dungeons and Dragons
whose initial fan base and audience were males; the evidence of the use of sexuality is
rampant within the texts used for the game since the original edition from 1974. In many
48
Jaako Stenros and Tanja Sihvonen, “Out of the Dungeons: Representations of Queer Sexuality
in RPG Source Books,” Analog Game Studies 2, no. 5 (Summer 2015).
http://analoggamestudies.org/2015/07/out-of-the-dungeons-representations-of-queer-sexuality-in-rpg-
source-books/
49
cases, the heteronormative ideas of sexuality are reified and reinforced by game materials
and gameplay. Aaron Trammel, “Misogyny and the Female Body in Dungeons and
Dragons” (2014) suggests that early representations of females and sexuality reinforce
the idea that women are sexual creatures for men, men can use sex and sexuality as
power, and that beauty is key for power.49 While perhaps not as obvious as the earliest
edition of D&D, the use of sexuality is still key to maintain the conformation to gender
roles for players by characters. Although it does seem negative, the use of sexuality in
game, if used by specific parties, can impart a sense of identity along with agency
throughout the game.
Agency
While the first two themes of identity and gender fall into larger schemas of
theoretical ideas, the final two are much smaller in comparison, but are just as important
to both the scholarship and literature on the subject of role-playing games and the games
themselves. Agency, which is often defined as the ability to act on something, is key for
role-playing games because a significant descriptor of the role-playing games is a sense
of agency. Without this, role-playing games would not be what they are.
Agency, in general, is pivotal, but within that theme, there are two smaller sub-
themes —escapism and agency in text creation— that prove even more substantial both
to the game and the literature on the subject. One of the most popular reasons for both
games and playing games is the sense of agency they can impart to players, oftentimes
giving them a sense of meaning in life and helping players to create meaningful
49
Aaron Trammel, "Misogyny and the Female Body in Dungeons & Dragons," Analog Game
Studies 1 no. 3 (2014). http://analoggamestudies.org/2014/10/constructing-the-female-body-in-role-
playing-games/
50
relationships and experiences in their lives. This is a very common rationale and is given
in several pieces of literature on the subject, including Joris Dormans’ “On the Roll of the
Die: A Brief Ludologic Study of Pen-and-Paper Role-Playing Games and Their Rules”
(2006), Chris Bateman’s Imaginary Games (2010), David Ewalt’s Of Dice and Men: The
Story of Dungeons and Dragons and the People Who Play It (2013), Alexandra
Galloway’s Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture (2006), Jon Peterson’s Playing at
the World: A History of Simulating Wars, People and Fantastic Adventures from Chess
to Role-Playing Games (2012), and Michael Tresca’s The Evolution of Fantasy Role-
Playing Games (2011). Within each of these significant pieces of literature, the idea of
the importance of agency as well as what it does both in a game for a character and out of
a game for a player is highlighted and plays a significant role in the discussions therein.
In each case, agency is seen as a crucial particle for gameplay and as a necessary
component for individual interest and activity in gameplay. Without agency, as stated
previously, the game just would not be what it was meant to be.
1. Escapism as a Key Aspect of Games and Gaming
Games are fun and provide a momentary entertainment break for those who play,
but often games that have larger social and cultural aspects and implications often serve
the deeper purpose of escapism and social release. A large portion of the pieces of
literature considered in this review mentions the use of role-playing games and/or
Dungeons and Dragons as a sort of escape hatch or valve with the function of releasing
pent-up energy of players.
Stephen Hunt in his article “But We're Men Aren't We!: Living History as a Site
of Masculine Identity Construction” (2008), states that since the early 2000s, Americans
51
have for two centuries devised plans and collections of escape hatches, which are
maintained at the collective level of male identity. Hunt is specifically discussing the
idea of manhood in American history and culture and goes on to discuss different types
of ‘escape hatches’ for the ideals of masculinity. This, for Hunt, includes escapism that
reifies displayed violence as masculine, as well as keep anything considered feminine or
homosexual away.50 When discussing Dungeons and Dragons, he states that it is a form
of escapism into the super-masculine that provides a safe space to express those hyper-
masculine ideas. If we consider these ideas related to agency and escapism for the hyper-
masculine, the connection to gender and performance also becomes evident; in this case,
the male gender ideal is performed through gameplay via escapism.
Escapism and the ability of role-playing games like D&D to provide that small
outlet for release is found within several pieces of literature; Mark Barrowcliffe, in The
Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons, and Growing Up Strange: A Memoir (2007) states that
D&D provided an escape from a dull life, and even Gary Alan Fine recognized this
purpose in Shared Fantasy (1983), when he noted that games were an escape from
oneself and social norms. Ethan Gilsdorf, whose book Fantasy Freaks and Gaming
Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other
Dwellers of Imaginary Realms (2009) details growing up as a gamer and its effects in
adulthood, notes that fantasy and games were a place to escape. This idea is mirrored in
an earlier text written by J. Eric Holmes, Fantasy Role Playing Games (1981) where
“play and fantasy are ways of dealing with frustration, of solving problems”51 and that
50
Stephen J. Hunt, "But We're Men Aren't We!: Living History as a Site of Masculine Identity
Construction," Men and Masculinity 10 no. 4 (2008).
51
J. Eric Holmes, Fantasy Role Playing Games, (New York: Hippocrene Books, Inc, 1981), 208.
52
fantasy life provide an outlet for day-to-day frustrations of ordinary life. It is obvious
that role-playing games as a release from everyday life and pressures were a very
common thread since their inception. Perhaps the game itself was created as a form of
escapism in the beginning.
There is also a thread of ideas related to escapism that deal directly with gender
and masculinity. Katherine Castiello Jones, in “Gary Alan Fine Revisited: RPG
Research in the 21st Century” (2012) discusses the idea of games as escape hatches and
notes that “masculine leisure culture seems as an ‘escape hatch’ for changing cultural
understandings of masculinity, and provides a space removed from the real world where
men can enact more traditional forms of masculinity.”52 Although this may not always
be the case in terms of games and function of those games, it still has a strong basis being
that gender is performed and would include ‘traditional’ ideas of masculinity as they are
innately tied to the gender ideas of men and the masculine.
Jones is not the only scholar to bring up this idea. In her article, “Playing with
Identity: Unconscious Desire and Role-Playing Games,” (2006) Michelle Nephew also
notes the idea that games could serve as escape hatches for men and masculinity. In this
piece, she states that “games can allow male players to escape into a game world that
validates their own sense of worth by making their characters physically and socially
superior to others around them, whether they happen to be monsters or women.”53 In this
case, the game world provides the escape needed to reify the masculine ideals and
52
Katherine Castiello Jones, "Gary Alan Fine Revisited: RPG Research in the 21st Century." In
Immersive Gameplay: Essays on Participatory Media and Role-Playing (Jefferson, NC: McFarland Press,
2012), 91.
53
Michelle Nephew, "Playing with Identity: Unconscious Desire and Role-Playing Games." In
Gaming as Culture: Essays on Reality, Identity, and Experience in Fantasy Games (Jefferson, NC:
McFarland Press, 2006), 131.
53
feelings desired by some male players. This idea is related to an earlier idea Michelle
Nephew expounded upon in her doctoral dissertation, “Playing with Power: The
Authorial Consequences of Roleplay Games” (2003). Here, Nephew states that
roleplaying provides an outlet or escape for the erotic desires of the players through the
gender inequality that many RPG settings and gaming groups indulge in.54
Perhaps the final two ideas from Michelle Nephew stated it more bluntly, but
role-playing games and especially Dungeons and Dragons are not just places or ways to
enjoy a game or be entertained. These games, which become sites for contestation and
dissemination of ideas, do social and cultural work. The literature reviewed
demonstrated that these games, rich in agency, serve as escape hatches or valves to
release some sort of cultural or social pressure from the players. In turn, examining the
games and game spaces as these social release systems brings to light issues related to
gender norms and ideas, as well as common conceptions or misconceptions of the playing
public. Just as drag performance allows one to see the seemingly natural, but not so
natural categories of gender and performance, these release valves allow one to see where
issues in the ideas of gender and personality may arise.
2. Texts are Created by the Reader; Games are Created by the Player
Agency, while used quite broadly as the theme of this section can also include
how players interpret, read, and create the texts they use for playing a game. Some of the
literature reviewed included this idea in its own discussions and it felt like a pertinent
topic, as it becomes a conjoining theme amongst several pieces. Within literary theory,
54
Michelle Andromeda Brown Nephew, "Playing with Power: The Authorial Consequences of
Roleplay Games," (Ph.D. diss., The University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2003) ProQuest Dissertations and
Theses Global, 181-182.
54
reader-response criticism is a popular way of thinking about texts and the interaction
between reader and text. Loosely, in this theory, the reader is recognized as a crucial part
of a text who actively gives the text meaning through their reading and interpretation of
it.55 Without a reader, according to this theory, a text would not truly matter,56 as it is
meant to be read.
In a sense, all of the Dungeons and Dragons game can be viewed actively through
the reader-response criticism theory. At best, any text for gameplay is interpreted
through a reader and then given life through that reader’s actions. Without a reader,
D&D manuals, handbooks, and gaming modules are literally only words on pages and
only become ‘real’ through a reader. In theory, this gives readers and players the most
agency of the game since they ultimately decide not only what happens in a game, but if
anything does. Chris Bateman in Imaginary Games (2010) hints to this reality with the
statement that “agency is the capacity to turn action in a synthetic world or to choose how
to affect a fictional world.”57 Jennifer Growling Cover also realizes the importance of
this idea and its connection to the concept of agency in her text, The Creation of
Narrative in Tabletop Role-Playing Games (2010). Here, she relays the postmodern idea
that all readers, to an extent, are responsible for authorship of a text, and in turn, their
agency becomes apparent through the text. In Cover’s example as well as Bateman’s
agency is an important aspect to texts, especially when they are participatory texts like
role-playing games.
55
Lois Tyson, Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide, (New York: Routledge, 2015),
161.
56
Stanley Fish, Is There a Text in this Class? The Authority of Interpretive Communities
(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982).
57
Chris Bateman, Imaginary Games. (Alresford, Hants, UK: Zero Books, 2010), 83.
55
Performance
The final theme that serves as a linkage between the mass of literature reviewed
for this dissertation and on the subject is performance. There have been several places
already, where performance was mentioned, and its importance delineated. To continue
the discussion of performance and how it is used in the literature on the subject of role-
playing games, tabletop role-playing games, and Dungeons and Dragons, two sub-
themes will be discussed. These sub-themes are that performance, in a variety of types, is
central in games and secondly that role-playing games require active storytelling
mechanics.
1. Performance, in a Variety of Types, is Central in Games
To begin, let’s recount the ways in which performance has already been discussed
in this literature review. In the first theme of identity, it was noted that performance is a
key aspect of identity since it is performed both in and outside of games and gaming.
Identity, in most forms of the word, is an internal ideal of oneself that is not just
displayed for others to see, Stephanie K. Fleischer, in her doctoral dissertation “Playing
with Identity: Literacy, Discourse, and Identity in Role-Playing Gaming” (2007) made
clear that identity is performative. Rather, identity is performed upon the body; it is what
makes an individual unique. Without performance in identity, concepts of representation
and bleed would not be applicable to identity and identity formation processes.
Secondly, we saw that performance encompasses a large part of what gender is since
gender is inherently different from sexuality. Where sexuality is a deeper-seated idea of
oneself and preferences, gender is a socio-cultural idea that is performed on a body
through layers. Sexuality is not solely subject to the coding of gender upon a body —it is
not always seen on the outside— and therefore different. Lastly, the use of performance
56
and its relation to agency was discussed, including how some forms of agency can relate
to or give rise to types of performances, especially those dealing with gender.
To add on to these discussions of the importance of performance in role-playing
games, it should first be noted that play, in general, requires performance. Because play
is not something ‘real,’ but based on imaginary worlds or fantasy realms, it requires a
level of performance because a player is not re-enacting real life or enacting real life, but
just playing a part or a role. Without the concept of performance, play would not exist.
Cross, in “The New Laboratory of Dreams: Role Playing Game as Resistance.” (2012)
finds that play is a process in which constructions and ideas of self and society are
created and performed. Play here is not just entertainment or escape, but an action.
2. Role-Playing Games Require Active Storytelling Mechanics
The final sub-theme for performance is that active storytelling mechanics and
‘performance’ are required for role-playing games. At first, this may not appear as
important as other themes and sub-themes discussed in this literature review, but a
stunning number of sources included a clear discussion of gameplay mechanics and the
importance of performance and active storytelling. It seems as if the storytelling and
narrative building aspects are crucial because they link back to the other broader themes.
Active storytelling required identities of players and characters in order to create a
cohesive story and game. Without the construction of identities, the game would fall flat.
Gender works within active storytelling because it becomes a major plot device for
gameplay, but because it is a performance, it instructs players and character on how to act
and interact, and even how to break the molds and make use of more queer forms. As for
agency, it creates the narrative and game, since texts are just texts until they have readers
57
and games are just words in a book until they have players. Active storytelling also
requires performance, because as we should know by this point, performance in a variety
of forms is crucial for a role-playing game. Active storytelling mechanics run through all
of the major themes found within the literature and form the backbone of gameplay
aspects and theory.
Dungeons and Dragons is a unique game when it comes to active storytelling
mechanics, which includes the confluence of narrative and play, known as participatory
storytelling, because it was the birth of it. Before D&D, “there were no mechanics for
this kind of play.”58 Role-playing games today are known for their specific narrative
elements, as Sarah Lynne Bowman calls them in The Functions of Role-Playing Games:
How Participants Create Community, Solve Problems and Explore Identity (2010) which
not only determine gameplay but usher it forward. The storytelling leads to narrative
building, which in turn creates more stories. Role-playing games are “valuable to players
because of the way [they] immerse [players] in narrative experiences”59 and they put you
in the game instead of just telling a story.
Overall, the literature reviewed for this project tended to expound upon what was
already known about role-playing games and Dungeons and Dragons while adding some
details especially in the areas of gender and identity. The literature demonstrated that
amongst previous studies and texts, identity and identity formation process was one of the
common threads amongst scholarship. The attention to identity was expected because
role-playing games and most games, in general, have a significant amount of identity and
58
Chris Bateman, Imaginary Games, (Alresford, Hants, UK: Zero Books, 2010), 122.
59
Jennifer Growling Cover, The Creation of Narrative in Tabletop Role-Playing Games,
(Jefferson, NC: McFarland Press, 2010), 107.
58
the identity building present. For role-playing games, this is important because, in order
to play the game and participate, you make take on a role. In this case, you must take on
an alternate identity. In some cases, a role-playing game does not last just a matter of
hours, but may carry on over periods of weeks, months, and sometimes even years. Over
time, the identity of the character you play becomes ingrained in your own personal
identity, melding together and ‘bleeding’ or transferring in some respects.
Literature in this review also made clear the importance of performance and
agency and how these two aspects work together and are woven all throughout role-
playing games. Agency is crucial when it comes to creating a text and modifying a text,
and the performative aspects of role-playing games have their own form of agency that
adds to the game and its mechanics. Performance, although it may not seem so at first
glance, is ascribed to all parts of role-playing games. Not only in the most literal sense of
performing a character, but also performing gender and performing a role, and modifying
those things in order to have them work within the game scape.
While the themes exacted for this literature review, from the sources examined all
seem to be very separate entities, what is true is that they all work and meld together to
form what we know as a role-playing game. It is impossible to separate gender from
performance, not to mention the impossibility of separating identity from gender or
performance or agency. All the themes that were found to be crucial and overarching for
the literature examined are in fact all facets of the same piece. Like a polyhedral die,
each theme represents a different side; without each side coming together as one, the
actual object or thing would not exist. Without gender, which in turn gives rise to
identity and is a type of performance that can deal with agency in readership and
59
representation, a role-playing game could not exist. These relationships can easily be
switched around; putting performance, agency, or identity at the pinnacle and having the
other themes in relation to it. All of these ideas and theories exist symbiotically with one
another, in order to create an active storytelling mechanics-based game, known as a role-
playing game.
Currently, the literature on the subjects of tabletop role-playing games, role-
playing games, and Dungeons and Dragons is slowly growing. Over the past 10 years,
several scholarly collections of articles and essays based on role-playing games and
games, in general, have been published, each incorporating new perspectives and
deepened studies of these cultural phenomenon, adding to the rich bank of data and
information that is currently available. As of early 2019, when this literature review was
written, the bulk of research and scholarly essays are included in this literature review
and larger dissertation. The area of game studies is very young; the first official text to
study a role-playing game group was written in 1981. Since then, several articles, books,
and dissertations and theses have been written, expounding upon Gary Alan Fine’s
original 1981 text, Shared Fantasy. I expect the scholarship to continue to grow as the
concept of Geek Culture and the rise of interest in Pop Culture have steadily increased
over the years due to higher availability and visibility amongst the masses and a general
change in acceptance of role-playing games and things that were once not considered hip
or mainstream. McFarland Press, the leading publisher for essays and scholarly article
collections in this area has consistently released collections of pieces that deal with Pop
Culture and Geek Culture, but especially with games of all varieties. It appears that they
60
have a good hold on the publication world and will continue to do so, allowing more
pieces to be disseminated to the masses via themed essay and article collections.
When it comes to what the current literature and scholarship covers, in terms of
themes and subjects, there is a noticeable lack. To begin, little has been done on the art
of role-playing games, and specifically Dungeons and Dragons. In 2018, Michael
Witwer, Kyle Newman, Jon Peterson, and Sam Witwer, in conjunction with Wizards of
the Coast, released a massive 440-page all color tome that detailed the history of D&D art
since its inception in 1974. While this is a substantial addition to scholarship surrounding
the D&D franchise, there is a very noticeable gap when it comes to identifying
representation of genders and sexes in art. There are some places in the text where this is
alluded to, but it is never discussed in detail.
Along with this, no full-sized studies have been conducted that deal with gender
and/or sexuality in role-playing games, let alone representation of genders in role-playing
games. Several smaller, article-length pieces have been written, but these together only
represent a dotted history and analysis of these issues.
Similarly, no other full-length monographs on role-playing games or Dungeons
and Dragons have been published.
Because several gaps and flaws do exist when it comes to scholarship and
research on role-playing games and Dungeons and Dragons, there is great potential for
future study. Role-playing games are unique in that they do not belong to one discipline
and can be studied using an arsenal of techniques and theories. Game studies itself is
still quite new and can also be approached through a variety of lens if one only thinks to
apply them. Cultural objects like role-playing games, and even games in general beg to
61
be examined in a multidisciplinary setting in order to extract the most information from
them.
Future study for either role-playing games or games like Dungeons and Dragons
could include topics pertaining to art, art and representation, gender (in)equality,
performative aspects and how they shape gameplay, identity creation theory, hegemonic
reification in gameplay and performance, narratology and the creation of stories, or
language use and representation. Along with these ideas, there is a variety of theoretical
perspectives one could study games from, and well as major schools of criticism, thought,
and philosophy. As far as future study goes, the board is still quite open for a plethora of
scholarly lens and angles to study role-playing games and their kin.
The research I have conducted and compiled for this dissertation, including what
was ascertained through this literature review fits neatly into the gap in scholarship and
research previously discussed. This dissertation examines the ideas and representations
of gender and somewhat sexuality in the first player’s handbooks for each edition and
revision of Dungeons and Dragons. For each player’s handbook examined, my goal was
to study the written text and the visual representations and illustrations throughout in
order to view these sources semiotically. Through my semiotic analysis of the written
text and art for each, I was able to extract ideas and make generalizations about the game
and what they say about gender and representation. Because little to no work has been
previously conducted on art and text and its relation to and representation of gender in
D&D my research serves to fill a small part of the scholarship gap and hopefully
encourage others to do more work similar to it later.
62
My research is done from the perspective of Heritage Studies, which for me
becomes a highly multidisciplinary approach in which I can use my own backgrounds in
Anthropology and Folk Studies, as well as my knowledge of Cultural Studies and Gender
Studies to serve as the lenses through which I view role-playing games and Dungeons
and Dragons specifically. It is my goal to create a cohesive piece of literature that
examine gender and its representations but also helps to fill in the gaping hole within the
scholarship.
63
CHAPTER 3:
VISUAL AND TEXTUAL SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS

PLAYER’S HANDBOOKS
Within the tabletop role-playing game, Dungeons and Dragons (D&D), the
player’s handbooks and manuals serve as the key between real life and play. These
volumes hold all the formal or written rules created by the game makers and writers that
are needed to play a game. Like many cultural forms, the handbooks that are used by
thousands of players often have a second “language” that resides behind or below the
written text. This language is not one that is formally taught, but rather, it is transferred
through time amongst game players who consume the products. When a game like D&D
is played, the cultural ideas, values, norms, and mores embedded within the written and
non-written text of game supplements are transferred and transfixed in the player’s
minds.
This chapter will focus on the player’s handbooks and manuals from every edition
of Dungeons and Dragons published. Since D&D game writers sometimes liked to
include a plethora of play options for their enthusiasts, some editions of the game have
multiple player’s handbooks. For example, the fourth edition of D&D had three separate
handbooks, each with hundreds of pages. The three handbooks are comprised of a
whopping 780 pages devoted solely to creating characters, character races, and character
classes. Because there can be multiples in each edition, I have chosen to only examine
the first player’s handbook for each edition. As noted in the timeline, there are master
reprints of two of the players’ handbooks over the years. Since these are not new edition
64
additions, but those that were merely reprinted for sale, I have also chosen to not examine
these.
While at first glance they may just appear to be books that hold a lot of details
about playing a role-playing game based in the imagination, player’s handbooks and
manuals actually have much to convey. Because of this, I hypothesize that player’s
handbooks communicate ideas on two levels, verbally and visually. A handbook may
explicitly say something, or it can communicate the same idea using art and illustrations,
rather than written text. Dungeons and Dragons player’s handbooks are rich collections
of ideas that have been amassed and composed over the years. Like ideas in general, they
are not rigid or static, but fluid and can be manipulated with time and cultural changes.
Since these two levels of communication exist in the player’s handbooks, this chapter
will focus exclusively on player’s handbooks and the semiotic exploration of their texts.
Semiotics
Semiotics is the study and analysis of signs or the functions of signs within
systems of culture and understanding. In even simpler terms, semiotics involves locating
and examining specific elements of culture and deciding what those elements mean in
both larger and smaller scopes and how they work within Culture and between groups of
people. While the idea seems simple —looking at parts of our cultures and thinking
about them— semiotics has quite a convoluted and murky base that is packed with dense
terminology that can often be confusing or unintelligible almost like a puzzle of signs and
signifiers.
On a basic level, signs are not isolated in culture but have layers of meaning that
are related to the thing itself that is being discussed and the social and cultural elements
65
that surround it with meaning. In linguistics, a sign is two-sided and comprised of the
signifier and the signified. The signifier is the material aspect of the sign (idea being
conveyed).60 For linguistics, this is the physical word that is being written or the audible
sound of a word that is spoken. On the other hand, the second part of a sign, the signified
is a mental concept of the idea being conveyed. For linguistics, this would be the mental
or cultural idea of the word that is being spoken or written or heard.61
Already, this jumble of ideas is confusing so for simplification of terms let's look
at the word “game.” In this example, the physical word “game” that is typed here is the
signifier. If you read this paragraph out loud, the word “game” that you read out loud is
the auditory and physical version of the signifier. In this case, the signifier is what we
can actually see and hear and perceive in the physical world. Now, if you read the word
“game,” you probably can picture a game example in your head. For you, the reader, that
mental manifestation is the signified. While the signifier can have a specific set of
parameters that it fulfills and be quite similar for a variety of individuals, the signified
version of the sign (in this case, the concept of “game”) can vary vastly as there are
multiple versions of what a game is and examples from a variety of cultures.
This breakdown of semiotics is very basic. Semiotics can involve so many other
aspects and ideas; it is obvious that because cultures vary so much between individuals,
even something as simple as the idea of a game can take on multiple meanings and ideas.
Because it is such a vast subject and crosses so many disciplines and schools of thinking,
60
Gary Genoshko, Critical Semiotics: Theory from Information to Affect (New York: Bloomsbury,
2016).
61
Paul Cobley and Litza Jansz, Introducing Semiotics: A Graphic Guide, (London: Icon Books,
LTD., 2014).
66
there are several scholars who have been credited with shifts and changes within
semiotics over the years. While semiotics is still a valid school of thought today, I chose
to rely heavily on the basis of semiotics and take my own interpretations from Saussure,
Pierce, and Barthes who were each crucial figures within Semiotics. There are plenty of
other scholars who have informed or changed the way semiotics is used or perceived, but
for this dissertation, I wanted to stick to early basics to establish my research techniques
and make sure they were well-rooted.
Games can be examined and analyzed in so many ways, but for this dissertation
and project as a whole, I wanted to use semiotics in my analysis because it appears to be
a valid way to approach a game that is so heavily steeped in culture, and helps to create
culture, as Dungeons and Dragons seems to be. In current scholarship, little is being
conducted featuring theoretical frameworks like semiotics. Perhaps it seems too easy to
identify elements in a tabletop role-playing game but since it has not been done as of this
writing it is crucial that it be done. This dissertation, while original in its ideas and
methodology, seeks to stand as a solid foundation for other future works focusing on
D&D or tabletop role-playing games that may or may not feature semiotics. At its core,
D&D and games like it rely heavily on the sign/signified/signifier relationship, especially
since D&D is a game based in the imaginary realms and worlds of its players. Because
there is a drastic lack of physical game elements and artifacts, the relationship of player
to game idea is key.
In this dissertation, I use semiotics in two distinct ways. First, I examine the
physical text of the player’s handbooks and search for places where culture and/or society
may leak or bleed into the game and vice versa. For this section, the physical signifier is
67
at the forefront in analysis. Afterwards, I conduct a semiotic analysis of those signifiers
in order to delve into the cultural and social ideas tied to them and what these signifiers,
or physical words and descriptions may be saying about culture. The physical text of the
player’s handbooks serves the purpose of not only being a system of rules and guidelines
for gameplay, but also being handbooks through which cultural norms and systems of
mores and values are represented. Succinctly put, “all writing contains signs, that
indicate a social mode.”62 In this case, that social mode and perhaps even cultural mode
is what this dissertation seeks out. Of course, these systems are highly gendered; this is
the area where this dissertation thrives and seeks to expose and make sense of those
gendered areas.
When it comes to visual semiotics, this examination is not only interested in the
numbers of female versus male illustrations and figures, but also how each of these
categories are presented in the art and illustrations of the player’s handbooks. To
compare the categories, I have not only counted each male and female illustration in the
texts but have also delineated between whether the illustrations are pictured in an active
pose or a passive pose. In the earliest edition handbooks, the difference between active
and passive stances or poses are less noticeable than those of the later editions. Due to
increased quality in both illustrations and printing, it is obvious that differences between
poses and stances are also easier to see. Earlier editions and versions of D&D also have
somewhat poorer-quality illustrations compared to those in later editions. In illustration
examples in this chapter, those differences will become apparent. It is crucial to note
here that, while the first half of this analysis that deals with the physical text is quite close
62
Jonathan Culler, Barthes: A Very Short Introduction, (New York: Oxford University Press,
1983), 18.
68
to classic linguistic semiotics, this second half that deals with images is not. Images, as
they are also forms of signifiers, can also be studied using semiotics but the idea must
change just slightly to accommodate a physical representation and move away from
linguistics. This section was inspired by the work of Barthes, as in his 1957
Mythologies,63 he sought through a series of collected essays to discuss elements of
culture and what they said about those who subscribed. This section of my analysis was
inspired by Barthes’ quick use of semiotics and how it applies to a vast array of cultural
objects. While the range of topics in Mythologies is wide, I was able to discern that a
similar kind of analysis could be applied, in a much smaller scale, to tabletop role-playing
games like Dungeons and Dragons and the material included in their physical player’s
handbooks.
Brief History of Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbooks
When Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson published the first edition of Dungeons and
Dragons, after two years of play testing in Gygax’s basement, the world of tabletop role-
playing games came alive. The first edition of D&D was based on a series of rules
created by Gygax for his 1971 war game Chainmail and Arneson’s war/castle game
Blackmoor. While Gygax’s game incorporated combat and character role-playing,
Arneson’s game incorporated explorations and dungeons. From here the duo teamed up
to write the first edition of D&D rules. This game was different from war games in that
players would have control over one character, instead of massive armies. In this game,
all players would be their own heroes who would work with others in a group for a
cooperative gaming experience. It was finished, in rough-draft form, in 1972. In
63
Roland Barthes, Mythologies (Hill and Wang: New York, 2012).
69
Gygax’s basement, the game was play tested and improved upon more. After the name
“The Fantasy Game” did not fare too well for excitement and explanation, the game was
officially named “Dungeons and Dragons.” The final version of the first edition of D&D
was published in January of 1974.64 TSR Inc. (Tactical Studies Rules), the company
created by Gygax and investors, printed 1000 copies of the rulebooks and sold the
cardboard box covered in wood-grain paper via mail order. The game had a slow start,
but in 1977 after the rules were re-written to be more user friendly and players began to
share the game with others, the fantasy tabletop role-playing game spread like wildfire.
Since the first edition in 1974, 11 other editions or versions have been released.
The first came in 1977, when the Dungeons and Dragons system split into basic and
advanced. In 1978, the first edition of Dungeons and Dragons Basic and Advanced
Dungeons and Dragons were published. Game writers noted that the advanced edition
contained more in-depth details of gameplay and character creation. This is backed by
the sheer size of the two manuals. Side-by-side, the D&D basic player’s handbook is 48
pages long, while the AD&D player’s handbook is 128 pages long; almost three times the
size! The two lines of D&D survived as separate product lines until 2000, when a new
edition of D&D was released, which is said to have reworked the system to incorporate
rules of play from both the basic and the advanced game handbooks. Between the first
version in 1978, AD&D saw 2 revised publications and D&D Basic saw 3 revised
publications. Although the AD&D product line is noted for its more in-depth gameplay
rules, the famous and widely known “Dungeons and Dragons red dragon” comes from
the Basic D&D product line (specifically the 1983 Red Box).
64
Shannon Appelcline, Designers and Dragons, (Silver Spring: Evil Hat Productions, 2014).
70
In 2000, Dungeons and Dragons game owner Wizards of the Coast published the
new 3rd edition of the game. This version introduced the new D20-based game system
and a new Open Game License. Before this, gameplay was based on polyhedral dice
rolls, but did not use the 20-sided die as the basis for gameplay. After polling players and
taking suggestions under consideration, Wizards of the Coast released a revised version
of the 3rd edition, in 2003. Five years later, in 2008 a brand new 4th edition was
published. This edition expanded the character level cap from level 20 to 30, changed
some mechanics of game play and spell usage, and introduced multiple player’s
handbooks rather than the singular, as other editions and versions had done. Six years
later, in 2014, Wizards of the Coast published the newest edition, 5th Edition. This
edition simplified many of the gameplay rules regarding skills and checks, and the
reworked the system of magic and spells used in gameplay. The 5th edition, unlike other
editions, was created partially based on public playtesting. The general public was
permitted to play early versions of the edition and provide feedback for game designers
and writers to incorporate into the product. Fifth edition D&D writers and designers
credit the public’s opinions as driving the majority of changes to this edition, making a
game more about the players and audience rather than the designers.65
Men & Magic, 1974
The first edition of Dungeons and Dragons published was titled “Dungeons and
Dragons,” but consisted of three booklets, each with their own title: Men and Magic,
65
Ethan Gilsdorf, “Players Roll the Dice for Dungeons & Dragons Remake, The New York Times,
9 January 2012, accessed June 13, 2017 http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/10/arts/video-games/dungeons-
dragons-remake-uses-players-input.html.
71
Monsters and Treasure, and Underworld and Wilderness Adventures. Each title
conveyed the subjects covered in each booklet. The first booklet, Men and Magic
covered the details pertaining to character types and creation, as well as the use of magic
by magic-users. Upon reading this edition, it is clear that this is the first in the series.
The text is not as clear as later editions, the game play and mechanics are very specific
and use much more math and percentages than later editions. At this point, Dungeons
and Dragons appears very similar to early wargames, but with a fantasy twist.
Textual Semiotic Analysis
The first edition of Dungeons and Dragons, sometimes referred to as Edition 0,
gives a total of three classes from which players can choose: fighting men, magic users,
and clerics. Throughout this entire player’s handbook, only masculine pronouns are
used. There are no instances where feminine, third-person singular pronounces (she/her)
are used and no instances where any example written in the text is focused on a female.
In addition, gendered language is used in some character class descriptions. For example,
for the fighting-men class, some class level titles include swordsman, superhero, and lord.
In the magic-user class category, some class level titles include wizard and sorcerer. And
lastly, for the cleric character, some class level titles include vicar, bishop, and
patriarch.66 As far as textual analysis, this edition of Dungeons and Dragons lacks depth
for extrapolation, other than the complete lack of any female or gender other than male.
66
Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, Dungeons and Dragons: Rules for Fantastic Medieval
Wargames Campaigns Playable with Paper and Pencil and Miniature Figures, (Lake Geneva: Tactical
Studies Rules, 1974).
72
In 1974, when Tactical Studies Rules released the first edition, also called the
Dungeons and Dragons Original, ideas of sexuality and gender had been long based in a
system of binaries. Gender was one of two categories, male and female.
Visual Semiotic Analysis
Just as the way in which words literally say things, visual images and illustrations
can also speak. Illustrations and images serve as a text through which signs and ideas are
read without literal textual words. The 1974 edition of Dungeons and Dragons, unlike
later versions of the game, is not graphically dense. There are few illustrations and
images; a total of 15 images in the entire first booklet of the set. Of these 15 illustrations,
66% (n=10) are male while 13% (n=2) are female. Figure 1 below gives the breakdown
of male and female illustrations in this D&D edition.
Male Active Passive Male

Illustrations Male Male Percentage
10 6 4 66%
Female Active Passive Female
Illustrations Female Female Percentage
2 0 2 13%
Table 1. Numbers of Male and Female Illustrations in 1974 Dungeons and Dragons
Player’s Handbook.
Cover art for player’s handbooks are often the first impression one gets of the
game. Over the years, cover art has changed drastically. On the 1974 first edition of
Dungeons and Dragons, the cover art is not as complicated or involved as it is in the
newest edition. The 1974 cover of Men and Magic shows a man, fully clad in armor,
ready for battle. He holds a shield and a longsword, both ready for opponents. His face
is obstructed by his helmet. What body is visible outside of the armor is very muscular
and tense, as if ready to spring to life for the battle. He stands in an open stance, his legs
73
are apart, and his head is tilted slightly up, reflecting a haughty pose one would take in
the face of opponents. What is not shown are females or characters other than a strong,
human male. The cover art leaves out other genders, race, or classes, focusing on the
strong male human fighter character.
Unlike textually, where females are entirely left out, there are two examples of
females used in visual illustrations in the 1974 edition of D&D. The first example is
found on an early page of the player’s handbook. It is tucked beneath a table of statistics
and labeled “witches.”67 It is not explicitly stated that the two figures in the illustration
are female, but it can be assumed by the term “witches” since traditionally, witches were
seen as female. The two humanoids in the illustration have long hair and could be
wearing long black dresses. Even those details are difficult to say for sure.
Figure 1. Witches Seated at Cauldron.68

The second female illustration found in the 1974 edition of Dungeons and
Dragons is found near the end of the first third of the player’s handbook. In this
illustration, two females are pictured, each with their own label. On the left is a
67
Studies Rules, 1974: 17).
68
Gygax and Arneson, Dungeons and Dragons, 17.
74
“Beautiful Witch” and on the right, is an “Amazon.” Each female figure is drawn in a
suggestive and highly sexualized manner; the Amazon female is topless and what
clothing she is wearing is scant. The Beautiful Witch is wearing a curve-hugging dress
with a deep scoop-neck and tall slit in the skirt portion. Neither female is illustrated in an
active manner, which would seem needed since the game is one of adventure. It could
even be gathered that both females are drawn in ways that suggest openness or
willingness. The Beautiful Witch is posed so that her leg is visible through the slit in her
gown, which accentuates her hourglass figure. Her face is positioned downwards, adding
to her demure stance. The Amazon, on the other hand, is drawn in a way that beckons
viewers to look at her. Both of her arms are away from her body, in a way that opens the
entire front of her body up for view.
Both examples of female illustrations are texts that focus on women as well as the
place of women and females in early Dungeons and Dragons. In the first image, the
women are fully covered, seated, and do not appear to be attractive. Even the title only
labels them as “witches.” This draws upon the image of the matronly or even crone
figure. These women are wise (witches), older, not attractive, and usually not sexually
viable. The second image, however, changes drastically as both females are young,
highly attractive, and welcoming to their viewers. Even the name of the witch changes to
include the qualifier “beautiful” to help make clear the difference between her versus the
two previous females.
75
Figure 2. A Beautiful Witch and an Amazon are Pictured.69
Dungeons and Dragons Basic -1977 Holmes Revision
In 1977 John Eric Holmes, a professor of neurology, fantasy writer, and
enthusiast edited the second edition of the first Dungeons and Dragons player’s
handbook, producing what is now known as the Holmes Revision. John Eric Holmes was
introduced to the world of D&D by his oldest son in the 1970s after the first edition was
released. Holmes immediately was taken by the game and tried to play but had trouble
understanding the rules. He realized that to play the first edition of Dungeons and
Dragons, he would also need to purchase another game written by Gary Gygax,
Chainmail. Sometime between 1974 and 1977, Holmes wrote to Tactical Studies Rules
(the company headed by Gygax and in charge of game production) to offer to write an
introductory book for the first edition of D&D, for free. Because the game was not well-
69
Studies Rules, 1974: 27).
76
known and money was tight, TSR called Holmes back and took his offer. The “Holmes
Edition” features more clearly defined rules of gameplay than the previous edition.
Holmes’ youngest son, Chris, remembers his father as loving games and
especially D&D because of its fantasy base. In the May 11, 2016 podcast hosted by
“Save or Die: A Classic Dungeons and Dragons Podcast,” Chris Holmes is interviewed.
Here, Chris Holmes tells stories of his father and talks about what it was like for his
father to re-write the D&D player's handbook edition.70
If viewing the player’s handbooks as a timeline and noting the progression from
one edition or version to the next, the Holmes Revision stands as a middle point between
the first edition and the edition that follows. Where the first edition exclusively used the
masculine pronoun and did not mention females in the text, this second edition, edited by
John Eric Holmes, did begin to incorporate some examples of pronoun change and the
general idea of females being included in the game.
In this edition, the text begins with the he/she pronoun and includes both male and
female character examples as early as page 5 in the text. This edition goes further than
the previous and states that “characters can be either male or female.”71 Although there is
incorporation of the female in the form of character examples or pronouns throughout
this edition, there is still a generalized use of the masculine as the neutral. Throughout
70
Save or Die, “Episode 122: Save Vs. Chris Holmes,” Podcast Audio, May 11, 2016,
http://saveordie.info/?p=1449.
71
Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, Dungeons and Dragons: Rules for Fantastic Medieval Role
Playing Adventure Game Campaigns Playable with Paper and Pencil and Miniature Figures, ed. Eric
Holmes (Lake Geneva: TSR Hobbies, 1977: 7).
77
the entire text, 5 examples are given to demonstrate the difference between character
types and how to generally play the game. Of those 5 examples, only 1 is female. While
this example is a nice change from the previous edition where no female examples
appeared in the text, it still is limited and bound by conventional gender norms and
stereotypes regarding females in active roles and gameplay of the time. In this single
example of a female in the game text, the female discussed saves the masculine
characters after the long-fought battle. She appears out of nowhere, after the fighting and
battle has finished and other characters are facing death from their adversary. She swings
her weapon once and kills the attacking spider and saves the other male characters.
This passage can be read multiple ways. First, it can be a positive event since a
female must save the males, after they have fought too hard and are still coming out on
the losing team. They are facing imminent defeat and death until a female figure comes
out of nowhere, steps into the fray, and kills the attacker, thus saving the nearly defeated
male characters. On the other hand, we can read this passage a completely opposite way.
In this case, the male characters fought, eventually exhausting their abilities and energy
supplies to only be defeated in the end in a clean and fair battle. They are facing their
imminent defeat and possibly death, when a female character approaches and defeats the
attacker. Here, while the female is ultimately the character who saves the group, she
arrived almost too late and nearly cost the males their lives. Along with being late, she is
not allowed to fight in the same manner and depth as the males are. The male characters
can show their full abilities and fight almost literally to the end, thus weakening the
enemy. It is then that the female character can kill the enemy. Without the males
exhausting themselves, perhaps she could not have even gotten close enough to attempt
78
to kill the enemy. While she is the saving character here she must only come into battle
at the end when she is able to fight the enemy effectively because it has been weakened
and although she saves the adventuring party, it is only because of the work the other
male characters had already done.
When applying semantics and semiotic analysis to such a passage, it is difficult to
fully grasp what message the author was truly trying to get across to readers. Perhaps
Holmes and whomever else edited the first edition to create the second edition merely
wanted to make the female presence visible, creating a more open and fluid audience for
the game. Regardless of what the author(s) intended in the writing and editing, the text
itself still says specific things to readers when it was published and today.
Like the previous edition where examples and references were to male and
masculine character or examples, the same occurs in this second edition but with fleeting
mentions of the female. Perhaps here, these occurrences take the form of the “token
other”, in this case, “the token female,” a form of Tokenism. Tokenism refers to the
inclusion of minority groups into the larger group for the sake of having some diversity.72
Tokenism usually appears in tropes, which occur throughout television, media, and
games. Each has a specific name, such as the Smurfette Principle which takes place in
television when a cast is exclusively made up of males and only one female.
While they perhaps do not provide any real diversity, or change in the text, the
female examples are simply provided as merely covering the basis of including the
female in case of repercussions from audiences. It is not until the introduction of later
D&D editions that this pattern seems to change, and the incorporation of females and
72
Vivian Giang, “Feminism 101: What is Tokenism,” Femme Magazine, 20 November 2016,
accessed 2 May 2017 https://femmagazine.com/feminism-101-what-is-tokenism/.
79
feminine characters becomes a normal facet of Dungeons and Dragons, rather than an act
of tokenism.
Although the textual basis of the Holmes Edition of Dungeons and Dragons does
work to incorporate more females into the rules, the same cannot be said about the
artwork used throughout this player’s handbook edition. Perhaps this is an issue of artists
commissioned to produce pieces for this player’s handbook, or maybe there was not a
visual bank of images and illustrations to pull from, at the time this edition was written,
that used females in active roles.
Of the 39 figures used in this D&D edition, 19 were males (48%). Females
represented zero; the remaining 20 figures were monsters or inanimate objects such as
swords or treasure chests. When the term “figure” is used regarding this analysis, it
represents one figure or one being. An illustration may contain multiple figures. Of the
19 male figures, 16 or 84% were shown in active poses and the remaining 3, or 16% were
shown in passive poses. Generally, active poses include fighting in battle or using magic
if the figure is a magic-user.
Even though there are no females represented in this D&D edition, the remainder
of the figures is still important to examine. First, the cover (Image 3 below) shows two
men- a wizard and a human fighter- in battle against a dragon. This cover, while not
expressly stating anything other than the game title, could be construed as demonstrating
the crucial aspect of males in gameplay, since the two figures shown are fighting the
dragon. One could argue that there is no way to know if the figure on the right of the
cover is a male or female. At first glance however, most people would think that it was a
80
male since it follows the gender stereotype of both D&D players and D&D characters. It
is not generally assumed that females wear that much armor, especially in a game where
that has not been the case normally, and that females would be playing in the first place.
Wizards are not considered the conventionally strongest of the character types either, as
they do not wear armor and use their cunning, intelligence, and knowledge of magic in
order to create spells and deal damage. Wizards do not yield weapons and do not,
generally, do melee or hand-to-hand combat as other character classes may. Because of
this, some may already see the wizard as a physically weak and possibly more feminine
character. In that case, there would be no need for a physically female character because
the wizard already represents that facet.
Figure 3. Cover Art for the Holmes Edition of Dungeons and Dragons.73
Although no female characters are shown in the edition, there is one illustration in
the later section of the handbook that shows three males fighting three harpies (Image 4).
73
Holmes, (Lake Geneva: TSR Hobbies, 1977).
81
This is the only “female” illustration in the entire handbook. Being cautious with calling
this a female illustration stems from the fact that harpies, by tradition, are always female.
Drawing on ancient Greek mythology, harpies have the body of a bird, specifically an
eagle and the head of a woman. Harpies are said to be extremely ill-tempered and were
sent to tempt men and do the work of Hades.74 Their use in the player’s handbook is
important because they are drawn in such a way as to not mistake them for monsters or
merely birds. Rather, they have exaggerated breasts. Since there are no other female
forms in this D&D edition player’s handbook, the exaggerated female form is shocking,
perhaps even grotesque, in line with the other male and monster figures throughout.
Figure 2 below, gives the breakdown of female and male illustrations in the Holmes
Edition.
Figure 4. Harpies Illustration with Exaggerated Female Forms.75
74
Bernard Evslin, Gods, Demigods, and Demons: An Encyclopedia of Greek Mythology (New
York: Open Road Integrated Media, 1975: 213) OverDrive Ebook.
75
Holmes (Lake Geneva: TSR Hobbies, 1978: 28).
82
19 16 3 48%
0 0 0 0%
Player’s Handbook.
What is most important to take from the visual semiotic analysis of this Dungeons
and Dragons is the complete lack of females, in any form except for harpies. It seems as
if writers, or Holmes, as the editor did think about incorporating females into gameplay
by introducing some female examples in the text and using the feminine pronoun at least
once. The illustrators, on the other hand, seem to be lagging in this area, as no true
females were shown in the text’s illustrations. While the bare facts and numbers are easy
to see, the true reasoning behind this is more difficult to translate. What is important is
the obvious change to both the artwork and the text of the Dungeons and Dragons
player’s handbooks that follow.
Dungeons and Dragons Advanced -1978
While Eric Holmes was creating an easier to read and play revision of the original
Dungeons and Dragons, Gary Gygax and his team at TSR were working to create a
second version of the original D&D game. This new version was more complex and
included more rules for play. In 1977, TSR began releasing the first set of Advanced
D&D. This game was published in a series of four volumes from 1977 to 1980. While it
may seem like a non-needed publication to some, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons was
83
an important release to the role-playing game world as it produced one of the first
collections of monsters as a single text and served as a compilation of notes and
suggestions on how to create RPGs. Other editions left this information out and focused
only on character creation and monsters in gameplay. At this point, the Dungeons and
Dragons line was split into three very distinct sides: the original (OD&D) which was
based on the original 1974 edition’s rule and guidelines, the D&D Basic line with
simplified rules, and the Advanced D&D line with more difficult rules and guidelines as
well as the tools to create and play more RPGs.76
Unlike its predecessor, the original Dungeons and Dragons 1974 Edition,
Advanced D&D, AD&D for short, incorporates the use of both masculine and feminine
pronouns, more so than the Holmes edition. Along with this, AD&D 1978 also uses
gendered language that is equal. As discussed elsewhere, it is not common practice today
to use such gendered nouns because they draw unwanted attention to gendered and
gendering practices of our culture. In this player’s handbook, for example, the noun
patriarch and its opposite matriarch are used. The same goes for priest and priestess,
grandfather and grandmother, and guildmaster and guild-mistress.77 On the opposite side
of this, class titles are always given as male. This is the case with most early editions of
D&D and still plays into the previous idea that specific attention is given to female
positions which warrants the special noun. This in turn, sets up the masculine as the
76
Shannon Appelcline, Designers & Dragons: A History of the Roleplaying Game Industry 70-79,
(Silver Spring: Evil Hat Productions, 2014: 33-34).
77
Gary Gygax, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook, (Lake Geneva: TSR Games,
1978: 20,30).
84
neutral category whereas the feminine is the marked other, in this case, literally marked
with a different and special noun or term.
An added detail of Advanced D&D is the difference between male and female
characters in gameplay. Gygax, when compiling the Advanced D&D books, wanted to
create a game that had more rigorous and specific rules. For that, Gygax added a marked
difference between the strength of male and female characters. As far as current editions
and rules for Dungeons and Dragons, there are no rules that support differences in
character statistics depending upon gender or sex. In the case of the first AD&D edition,
males of any race or class were always stronger than females. According to the player’s
handbook, a female character could never reach the same strength level as a male,
regardless. Other than strength, female characters could reach the same level as males in
their intelligence, wisdom, dexterity, constitution, and charisma.78
What this says is that female characters are not as good as male characters
because they can never be as strong. In a fantasy game world that depends on fighting
and dungeon crawling, it is crucial to be strong in hopes that you do not perish. With
this, we should question why anyone would want to play a female character in the first
place. One would think that if strength was a selected-for trait that was sexually
dimorphic, other character traits should also have dimorphic counterparts, or at least
bonuses applied. Sadly, this is not the case. Textually, creating a game with more
rigorous and demanding rules seems to imply some sort of more ‘realistic’ split between
character genders and their abilities to perform.
78
1978: 15).
85
Once again illustrations, images, and art both on the covers and inside of this
edition of D&D mimic the same invisibility of females in the game. This edition’s
analysis begins with the cover art, which also continues onto the back of the player’s
handbook. Just as the previous D&D editions feature only men on their covers, the 1978
edition of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons does the same. On its front cover only, it
features six characters; the back cover features another five characters. Of the 11
characters, zero are female. Two men are stealing a jewel, two more are discussing a
map, while another is sharpening his sword, and a wizard is meditating. On the back, two
men are carrying a treasure chest, two men are moving a defeated creature, and one is
holding a door. Within these 11 possible positions, it would have been easily possible to
make at least one of these characters female.
Because this edition is heavier in the rules and guidelines for play, there are
seemingly less illustrations and images for its size. In total, there were 79 figures
throughout this 127-page player’s handbook. This is not counting any monster images or
inanimate objects, such as weapons or maps. Of these 79 figures, 77 or a whopping 97%
were male. There were a miserly 2 female figures (Images 5 and 6 below). Of the 77
male figures shown, the majority (56%) were shown in active poses while the other 44%
were shown in passive poses. As for the female figures, even though the measly total
number of 2 is bad enough, the fact that those two females were both in passive poses
does nothing for these images.
86
77 43 34 97%
2 2 3%
Table 3. Numbers of Male and Female Illustrations in 1978 Advanced Dungeons and
The first, Image 5, uses a female figure to give a visual example of the difference
between an elf and the other races used in the game. In this case, the fact that a female is
used to describe an elf is curious, since elves are considered the most feminine of the
fantasy races in D&D. Perhaps females cannot be used to give visual examples of
humans, half-orcs, half-elves, or dwarfs because the ideal or most-often thought of image
of these races are males. Regardless, the gender norm of females only being the more
passive, feminine, soft, and lithe characters continues in this illustration.
Figure 5. One of Two Female Images in the 1978 AD&D Player’s Handbook.79
79
1978: 18).
87
The second image, Image 6 below, shows a scene of four figures; three are male
and one is female. While the three males are studying a map and discussing what their
next tactical move will be, the female is gazing off at the viewer. While she is standing at
the table with the others, she is not part of the conversation. She is standing on the
periphery not holding eye contact with the others or participating in the discussion. The
message is clear, females do not belong and if they happen to be there, they should not be
active.
Figure 6. The Second of Two Female Images in the 1978 AD&D Player’s Handbook.80
When 97% of the figures shown in the player’s handbook are male, and the entire
front and back cover features males, it says a lot about the game and what is expected. I
could understand, by the art alone, if either females did not feel open to the D&D
community at the time this player’s handbook was written or if players in general did not
create or play female characters. This visual message paired with the textual message of
females always being the weaker sex, only solidifies the rejection of both female players
and female characters. Although this message seems strikingly strong, it does begin to
80
1978: 122).
88
morph and shift in later editions of Dungeons and Dragons, as will be discussed in the
upcoming pages.
Dungeons and Dragons Basic -1981 (Pink/Magenta Box)
After the 1977 split between basic and advanced versions of D&D and the
Holmes Edition revision in 1977, Tactical Studies Rules (TSR) published several separate
volumes, each building upon the framework set by the original 1974 version. In the line
of Basic D&D, the first volume after the Holmes Edition published was packaged in a
magenta or pink box. This collection, similar to the first edition in 1974, consisted of
three booklets. Enthusiasts often refer to the edition or version according to the box
color. This ‘pink box’ or ‘magenta box’ carried on the imagery of the dragon on covers
which started with the previous Holmes edition, giving rise to the initial red dragon now
well-known in the tabletop role-playing game world as being a symbol for D&D. This
edition still works with the same game play mechanics set forth by the previous edition
but also includes additions when dealing with possible character classes. There is also an
expansion of descriptions and the addition of both feminine and masculine, third person
singular pronouns rather than the only masculine pronouns found in the first edition.
When reading the text for this D&D edition, there is a marked difference between
it and its predecessors. As briefly mentioned, there is a shift from only masculine
pronouns and descriptors to both masculine and feminine. Now throughout the text, “he
or she” is used more than referring to only “he.” This edition does add in four other
character classes, making the total number of classes a character could be seven. Along
89
with this expansion, the player’s handbook text also makes sure that when gendered
language is used, such as in character class titles, both the masculine and feminine forms
are used. For example, when discussing the Cleric class, the handbook not only gives the
character class title of “priest,” but also makes sure to use “priestess.”81 Although today
we realize that using two gendered forms of a noun is not an effective way to manage
gendered societal ideas since gender specific titles still call unneeded attention to gender
in relation to job or class,82 the fact that for the time this was written and the precedent
that was set with the publication of the first two editions, acknowledging that females and
women could play or be strong characters in the game is crucial to realize.
This edition of D&D does seem to incorporate more inclusivity of genders,
especially when dealing with female characters and players. While at no point does the
actual text of the player's handbook say that a player can be male or female, there are
some poignant examples of females. To understand how the statistics and game play
actually occur, game writers will often create examples in text that show how statistics
are derived. In this edition, game writers chose to create a sample character to use as a
demonstration “guinea pig” so game mechanics could be explained through example.
Their character, named Morgan Ironwood, is a female dwarf fighter, and is influenced by
Morgan le Fay from Arthurian legends. While no description, other than “female dwarf
fighter” is ever given, a small black and white illustration of Morgan Ironwood is
81
TSR Hobbies, Dungeons and Dragons: Fantasy Adventure Game, ed. Tom Moldvay, (Lake
Geneva: TSR Hobbies, 1981: 9).
82
Using gender-specific nouns, such as priest and priestess or actor and actress, still reaffirms the
gender binary norms.
90
included (Image 5). What is curious is that the illustration for Morgan does not look like
a dwarf is expected to appear, but more elf-like.
Figure 7. Morgan Ironwood Illustration Given in Handbook.83
Figure 8. Front Illustration Piece Showing What a Dwarf is Expected to Look Like.84
In comparison, the illustration found on the first page of the rulebook (Image 8)
shows a dwarf. Although male, the dwarf shown there looks nothing like Morgan
Ironwood, and vice versa. The given illustration of Morgan shows her as tall and slender,
both of which are not Dwarven characteristics. Dwarfs are expected to be short, hairy,
83
TSR Hobbies, Dungeons and Dragons: Fantasy Adventure Game Basic Rulebook, (Lake
Geneva: Tactical Studies Rules, 1981: 20).
84
TSR Hobbies, Dungeons and Dragons, 1.
91
stout, and stocky. Male and female dwarfs are expected to look similar and all have long
beards. In this illustration, Morgan is the opposite of an expected dwarf physique. She
also has been given magnificent flowing hair and an exaggerated bosom for which her
plate armor was perfectly crafted to fit85. Speaking only of her dress and weaponry, the
illustration of Morgan Ironwood does not fit that of a dwarf. Generally, dwarves wear
more covering clothing and usually decorative armor rather than just plate. Dwarves are
not keen on swords for fighting but tend to use heavier weapons such as hand axes,
daggers, and war hammers. Obviously, the illustration of Morgan Ironwood, the most
predominant female example in this edition, was shaped to fit gender ideas rather than
actual character class ideas given in the player’s handbooks. There are other specific
details to examine in relation to the images used in this rulebook and their relation to
gender ideas and norms; these are discussed in the next section.
Along with the incorporation of Morgan Ironwood as a central example character,
there are also other places in this rulebook or player’s handbook that are not specifically
male. A crucial part of playing Dungeons and Dragons is keeping up with one’s scores
and abilities via the character sheet. This sheet, usually incorporated into the handbook
as a blank page of columns and rows, includes all the details needed for game play such
as armor class, special abilities, and character name. What is not included on this sheet is
gender or sex. This could say two things about Dungeons and Dragons at this time: its
writers and designers did not see a specific need for noting a character’s gender for
gameplay or characters of the game were uniformly seen as male. We can say that the
second concept is probably not true since the game writers chose to use a female as their
85
We should not fail to notice that this crafted plate armor somehow is showing her nipples. How
plate metal armor does this, I am not sure.
92
example character throughout the handbook. We are left assuming that gender and sex
have no direct implication on gameplay and are therefore details that are left out.
This unimportance of male versus female as characters also comes through when
looking at the basic language throughout the text. Remembering that the previous edition
never used a feminine pronoun, for the second version to do so is surprising. Along with
the slight third-person singular pronoun change, this player’s handbook edition also
incorporated female examples in the text, regularly. With Morgan Ironwood as the
primary example, other female characters appeared in the text. In this handbook,
examples include a female fighter and a female cleric, while other examples are male.
Unlike the first handbook but similar to the Holmes Edition, this edition
incorporates monsters in a separate section in the back. One should expect monsters to
not be solely males. This edition does sprinkle in some female monsters and villains, but
only if they must expressly be female. This is similar to what occurred in the Holmes
Edition with the incorporation of harpies. For example, one monster listed in the
handbook is Medusa. This, as well as with Harpies, is the only point where a monster
figure is explicitly called a woman or female. All other monsters are accepted as male
only even though nobles, doppelgängers, Neanderthals, lycanthropes, and goblins should
all exist in female form.

Perhaps the characteristics of the previous player’s handbook edition sets up a
space for a drastic difference between it, the Holmes Edition, and the 1981 pink/magenta
box basic edition. Just as with the textual changes, the imagery and illustrations used in
the 1981 edition change and are improved upon within the time span of seven years, from
93
the first edition. Most noticeably is the incorporation, in general, of female illustrations
throughout the text. This mimics the textual changes and the addition of female
characters and examples throughout as seen in Image 9.
One of the most important and visible changes is the cover design for this edition.
Cover art is important when it comes to something like a player’s handbook for a game,
since the cover is the first thing people see before flipping through the text and often, the
cover art is the selling display in game and hobby stores. Since the first edition of
Dungeons and Dragons, the cover art has changed drastically from only featuring one
male in armor to a dragon and a female, as is illustrated on the 1981 edition. The cover
art for this edition features prominently a female elf or human magic user in active form
with a secondary dwarf fighter male character, also in an active pose. This cover
illustrates a battle scene between a green dragon and two D&D adventurers. Here, the
dwarf is shown lower to the ground in an active stance; he seems to be getting his spear
ready and holding up his shield in preparation. The magic user, the female on this cover,
holds a torch in one hand and is either preparing a spell in her other hand or preparing to
throw an orb. We also notice that she has a dagger on her belt. This dagger is important
because magic users are not generally thought of as using common weapons since they
have magic.
This cover is the first to be in full color; the first edition was black and white, and
the Holmes edition was shades of blue. Because of this, the cover for this edition stands
out against the others and is bright and draws passersby into it.
Another important aspect of the 1981 cover art is the visibility of the female and
the male (Image 9). Here, a viewer almost does not see the dwarf fighting. Because he is
94
so low to the ground and the colors of his armor and clothing blend into the scene in
general, he becomes lost until second glance. The female, on the other hand, is dressed in
a bright red dress. She has a heavily painted face with eye makeup and lip color. We see
her dagger in her belt loop and a long leg coming out of a slit in her dress. She is a
highly stylized image of a magic-using female. In comparison with the male pictured, the
female is bright and alluring. Speaking in color theory only, the colors of the dragon
(green) and the female characters clothing (red) help draw their figures out to the eye and
make them the most noticeable features on the cover because red and green are
complementary colors and when used beside each other, they produce the strongest
contrast.86 In this case, because the two colors work so well, a viewer will probably see
the female and the dragon before the dwarf, making the female more visually striking and
possibly more important than the pictured male.
Figure 9. Dungeons and Dragons 1981 Basic Edition Cover Featuring Active Female
Figure.87
86
Rachel Nuwear, “The Scientific Reason Complementary Colors Look Good Together,”
Smithsonian.com, last modified November 8, 2010, accessed July 17, 2017,
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-scientific-reason-complementary-colors-look-good-
together-114030051/.
87
Geneva: Tactical Studies Rules, 1981).
95
In addition to the fighting female on the cover, the inside art plate also features a
female form fighting a dragon (previous Image 8). This female is a fighter and is shown
wielding her sword against a fire-breathing dragon. This female is also dressed in a
stylistic and stereotypical fashion, her clothing choices for a fighter seem non practical as
her complete midriff is bare. For someone who does melee battle with a sword, this is
one of the most vulnerable areas of the body. The armor on her biceps and scant clothing
does not make up for this flaw in dress design. Of course, her clothing is made perfectly
fitting her buxom figure.
Perhaps one of the most telling pieces of art in the 1981 edition is in the front of
the text in the discussion on creating a character. Here, there is an illustration that shows
both a young male and a young female creating their characters (Image 8).88 They are
daydreams, or maybe just thinking about their characters. The female shows a thought of
a female character who is a magic user. The male shows a thought of a male character
who is a fighter. While this illustration seems small or insignificant, it speaks volumes
about gameplay and characters in Dungeons and Dragons. This piece can be easily
missed. Semiotically, this small panel speaks to whomever is reading, buying, or
browsing. It conveys the message that may have not been as clear in earlier editions;
both boys and girls, males and females, anyone can play the game.
Even if the text of the player’s handbook still uses male-gender pronouns, the use of
gender-neutral and inclusive illustrations still gets the idea of anyone playing the game
across. While we are reading the text, when we look at the illustrations or even just
88
Geneva: Tactical Studies Rules, 1981), 6.
96
glance over them, our minds still see a male and a female character being created by a
male and female player. Our minds still see some sort of equality or inclusivity that the
text does not always convey.
Figure 10. Illustration Panel Showing both Male and Females Thinking about Character
Creation.89
While the physical number of females illustrated versus is males illustrated is
significantly less (males make up 76% and females make up 24% of illustrations shown
in Figure 4), the fact that a total of 6 female figures were included is a significant jump
from the previous editions where the last two editions had a combined total of two female
figures. This gradual increase in female imagery and visibility follows are marked
increase in the visibility of females in the game, in general as seen from the first edition
in 1974. Females were slowly being added into the game and more prominently seen
throughout its pages and covers.
89
Geneva: Tactical Studies Rules, 1981:6).
97
19 9 10 76%
6 3 3 24%
Player’s Handbook.90
Another female figure is shown on into the player’s handbook (Image 11).
Although there are five other males in the same illustration panel as the one female, she is
placed in the center of the panel. She is looking directly at the viewer and is wielding a
crystal ball, possibly a source of muse for her magic powers. In this illustration, the
female is not fighting but she is also not giving away any sort of demureness or
meekness. Rather, she is assertive, powerful, and in charge as she stares at the viewer. In
this illustration, although there are five other males in the same panel, they become mere
background noise for the central figure in this illustration. Interestingly enough, this
female figure is not using her body as a drawing point, but her own power and
domineering aspect.
90
TSR Hobbies, Dungeons and Dragons: Fantasy Adventure Game Basic Rulebook, (Lake Geneva:
Tactical Studies Rules, 1981).
98
Figure 11. Strong Female Figure in Illustration Panel in 1981 D&D Player’s
Handbook.91
As has been shown, gradual changes since the first edition of Dungeons and
Dragons in 1974 have slowly occurred in terms of gender in both the actual text of the
player’s handbooks and the art and illustration panels used. From here, those changes
only continue to occur as more and more visibility and inclusivity of females is included
in D&D player’s handbooks.
Dungeons and Dragons Basic -1983 (Red Box)

The year 1983 ushered in a lot of changes for Dungeons and Dragons handbooks.
The update to the D&D Basic line was released, and this edition included many new firsts
for the game and the company. During this period, RPGs and gaming began to pick up
speed in popular culture; it was in the 1980s that gaming and role-playing games
specifically came into their own amongst their players and enthusiasts. Underlying all
the major changes to both the basic and advanced handbooks were a myriad of changes
91
TSR Hobbies, Dungeons and Dragons: Fantasy Adventure Game Basic Rulebook, (Lake Geneva:
Tactical Studies Rules, 1981:10).
99
and issues within TSR at corporate and creative levels. In the early 1980s, many shifts in
ownership and management occurred as well as important additions to the creative team
which helped change and generate shifts in the game’s player’s handbooks and creative
materials.
Since the original D&D was published in 1974, many changes have occurred over
the years in regard to gender and sex in gameplay and game rules. We have seen
versions that completely exclude females and the feminine pronoun, editions that make
females more visible and include female key examples and gendered language, and
editions that fall in the middle of these two extremes. However, within the nine years of
production, only one other edition, the Holmes Edition, has explicitly stated that males
and females could play the game equally.
When reading the text only, the majority of the previous player’s handbooks seem
as if the female gaze or role is not applicable in games such as Dungeons and Dragons.
Within the first two pages of the 1983 D&D Basic revision, it is very clearly stated that it
does not matter if you are male or female; anyone can play.92 While going through the
text of this edition, it is clear that some sort of change in the demographics of players
and/or the incorporation of genders other than males is in place. In general, examples
strewn throughout the text are both males and females, although males do outnumber
females, and one female example -a cleric- is a stereotypical ‘female’ character since a
92
Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Manual, ed. Frank Mentzer
(Lake Geneva: TSR Hobbies, 1983: 2).
100
cleric is a healer. The male examples are stereotypically male – a bandit, a goblin, and an
armorer.
Another basic detail related to gender in the 1983 D&D Basic revision is the use
of pronouns as they relate to specific character types. For example, in this edition, when
referring to clerics, fighters, and thieves, the second-person pronoun or only a noun
identifier is used. For example, when discussing the clerics, no specific pronoun is used
in the text. Any identification uses only the noun “cleric.” In comparison, when
discussing magic-users, the 1983 D&D Basic revision specifically uses “he or she.” It
could be said that this is because magic users can be of any gender, but the same would
be true for any of the other characters listed. Perhaps magic users are one of the few
character classes that are seen as more neutral. Thinking back to the previous player’s
handbook, the cover featured a female magic-user. Going back one edition further, to the
Holmes Edition, its cover featured a male magic-user. Is it possible that the semiotic use
of “he or she” reflects that neutral gender position of the magic-user in Dungeons and
Dragons?
Another slight detail added into the 1983 D&D Basic revision is related to
dwarves. In all previous editions of the player’s handbooks, dwarves are not given much
detail as far as descriptions in text. Players relied on what the text did say, any
illustrations, and their own knowledge from other forms of popular culture. In the 1983
D&D Basic revision, it states that dwarves can be both male and female. With this, the
text adds that there are specific differences between male and female dwarves; they are
sexually dimorphic. This is the first point where a character race or class has been
singled out as having both males and females and has given details about the differences.
101
Besides this, readers and players are left to assume that either there are no females (as
examples in text would lean towards) or that there is no difference between males and
females.
The 1983 player’s handbook clearly states that both males and females can play
the game, within the first two pages, and that there is no true difference between playing
style or ability, although example characters found within the text to help players do
conform to stereotypical ideals (villains as male, tradespeople as male, healers as female).
While the text of the 1983 D&D Basic revision seems to clue players in on the ability for
both males and females, and any other gender to play the game, the illustrations and
artistic representations in this player’s handbook may not do as good of a job displaying
this.
While the previous Dungeons and Dragons edition player’s handbook may have
treated its viewers to equality amongst players and characters, the 1983 D&D Basic
revision seems to have taken a step back, reverting to traditional ideas of male and female
in the game. While this is not true in the actual text of this handbook, the art and
illustrations found throughout may not match as well.
Just as 1983 began a number of changes to the basic function of the game, as well
as company and creative changes, it also ushered in changes in the foundation of art in
the player’s handbooks and throughout other pieces and manuals for the game. Players
had been accustomed to the player’s handbooks of previous editions that used ink
illustrations. These were not professional and often had a whimsical feel about them.
The 1983 revision opened up the world to what is now seen as classic D&D illustration
102
and art. This was the birth of The Red Dragon of D&D, as was seen on the 1983 D&D
Basic revision cover (Image 12).
The Red Dragon is perhaps one of Dungeons and Dragons’ most popular and
iconic images through the years because of the drastic change in illustration and art form
since the original edition was published in 1974. On the cover of both the 1978 and 1981
editions, a dragon is featured, but if you go back and look at those illustrations or can
remember, they are crudely drawn dragons with little detail and little menace. The 1983
edition brings Dungeons and Dragons into a more detailed and advanced scene.
Figure 12. The Red Dragon Cover for the 1983 Dungeons and Dragons Basic Edition
Revision.93
While the art is more detailed and realistic, it does return to not including many
females. In this edition, there are a total of 38 illustrations that feature people (there are
93
TSR Hobbies, Dungeons and Dragons: Fantasy Role Playing Game, (Lake Geneva: Tactical
103
other illustrations in the player’s handbook that feature monsters, creatures, or inanimate
objects). Of those 38, only 7 are female while the other 31 are male. Female figures
make up 18% of figures in this player’s handbook, while males make up the majority, at
82%. Of the 7 female illustrations, 3 are shown in a passive stance while the other 4 are
in an active stance. For males, the difference between stances are split similarly. Of the
total 31, 16 are shown in passive stance while the remaining 15 are in an active pose or
stance.

31 15 16 81%
7 3 4 19%
While this edition lacks in sheer number of female illustrations and
representations, it makes up for that somewhat by the quality of the female illustrations
used. Unlike older edition’s that used highly sexualized female forms or illustrations that
were stereotypical, the female illustrations in the 1983 D&D Basic revision tend to not be
as sexualized, if at all, when compared to older editions illustrations. None of the
females pictured in this edition have much skin showing; all are wearing covering
clothing and practical armor. None of the females are shown in suggestive poses.
Rather, most of the females pictured are shown brandishing weapons and appear to be
94
TSR Hobbies, Dungeons and Dragons: Fantasy Role Playing Game, (Lake Geneva: Tactical
104
strong individuals. There is only one illustration that puts a female in an ultimately weak
position; she is lying on her side, on the ground, in what looks like defeat (Image 13).
Even here, the female pictured appears to be strong; she is wearing body armor and
practical clothing. There is no skin showing and body proportions seem to be realistic.
While this could seem positive, viewers cannot fail to notice the blatant sexualization of
the figure as she lays prone, at the feet of a man. While her clothing is practical in a
sense, her form is still highly sexualized; her position implies subservience and her pants
are as tight-fitting as skin. While she may appear strong, lets us not forget that she is in
the losing position of whatever is occurring in this illustration.
Figure 13. “Strong” Female Figure in Illustration Panel in 1983 D&D Player’s
Handbook.95
95
105
The same two characters shown in Image 13 are also present in another
illustration in this edition (Image 14). In this illustration, a male character is saving a
female. While the illustration itself is not overtly revealing, it is problematic in that the
male is saving the female. This trope seems to be prominent in popular culture, as the
females often need to be saved and never the opposite way around. We should also note
the position of the female in this illustration. Like the previous Image 13, this illustration
also shows a female in a subservient position to a male. In this illustration, Image 14, we
cannot be sure what is truly occurring but the general position of her body in conjunction
with that of the males is clear. What we can see of her body are two things, her buttocks
lifted into the air and her bound-positioned ankles. These two things become the focus of
the female body in this image. While images in this player’s handbook edition may not
overtly sexualize the female body, it does still work to place females in the text within a
lower position than males, making them the targets of defeat or individuals who must be
saved.
Figure 14. Male Character Saving a Female Character in 1983 D&D Player’s
Handbook.96
96
106
While there are some females represented throughout the text, the cover for the
1983 D&D Basic revision is an important piece of artwork to examine in this edition. As
already mentioned, the cover features the prominent and iconic Red Dragon. While this
is crucial for the general development of the Dungeons and Dragons line, what is perhaps
more striking, when compared with previous editions and versions, is the lack of a female
form on the cover.
The previous edition released in 1981 is so drastically different, in terms of art
and illustration, from the 1983 edition in several ways. Focusing just on the cover art for
now, the difference is prominent. Where the 1981 edition featured a female on the cover
fighting a dragon, the newer 1983 edition features a red dragon that is being fought by a
male. The cover, shown in Image 12, details a stylized male fighter-type. He appears in
full armor, brandishing a long sword and a shield as he attempts to attack the large red
dragon in the background. Viewers do not see his face; attention is focused on the active
stance he is in and the dragon itself. While the illustrative quality of the cover itself has
improved, it does not make up for the fact that no female forms are present. As
previously discussed, cover art is important in games like Dungeons and Dragons
because it is what a viewer sees first and is what attracts players to the game. Without an
image to connect to, how many young females would want to play a game that put
fighting males on its covers and few female illustrations within its pages?
Even though the illustrations and images detailed in the 1983 D&D Basic revision
do not completely exclude females, they are not as inclusive as they could be. The cover
art features a male where there was a female in the previous edition. Looking at the
numbers of male and female forms in the body of the player’s handbook, it is clear that
107
there was space for more females, but the space was given to male figures instead. This
is perhaps because by the 1980s, when Dungeons and Dragons really started to take root,
the majority of players were probably young males. But, including more females could
have possibly opened the fan base even wider, to include young females too. After the
1983 player’s handbook, D&D changed with each new edition and revision as cultural
ideas shifted and the number of players increased.
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition -1989

As Dungeons and Dragons became more popular in the 1980s and began to
collect a base of fans and enthusiasts, players often requested more in-depth rules
regarding both playing the game itself and creating characters. The first advanced edition
of D&D was released in 1978. Thinking back on that edition, there was a clear statement
that characters could be male or female with no real consequence. In the timeline of
editions of D&D manuals released, it was one of the earliest texts to attempt gender-
neutrality. Although the text strived for this inclusion, the illustrations may have not
done so well. The 2nd edition of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons attempts to do the
same and may do it somewhat better.
The 1989 AD&D player’s handbook begins with a specific note in the front
material regarding the use of pronouns throughout the text. Here, the writers state that
108
“the male pronoun is used exclusively throughout the
second edition of the AD&D game rules. We hope this
won’t be construed by anyone to be an attempt to exclude
females from the game or imply their exclusion”97
At first glance, there is not a real issue with this statement. Rather, it's refreshing
to see that the game writers and designers are taking note that not including the female or
feminine into game rules text could imply female exclusion from the game. While this
statement is deemed acceptable or perhaps even needed, it is the statements that follow
that weaken this declaration.
“Centuries of use have neutered the male pronoun. In

written material it is clear, concise, and familiar. Nothing
else is.”98
Reading this qualifying statement in conjunction with the previous voids the idea
that females are not excluded. What is so cringe-worthy in this last statement is the idea
that the masculine gaze and perspective are the only relative ways of viewing the world.
Although this is written for the text of a popular tabletop role-playing game, this still
speaks to a much louder issue of the time. To say that only the male pronoun is the
neutral form and that it is used to create a clear, concise, and familiar view is absurd.
Obviously, game writers and editors of the time were males and probably did not think to
put themselves in the role of a female or even feminine person to consider how familiar
the masculine gaze is to them, versus their own. At this scale, a second player’s
handbook should have been written and titled something along the lines of “Advanced
Dungeons and Dragons: The Feminine, Unfamiliar, Confusing, and Indistinct Game
97
TSR Inc., Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition: Player’s Handbook, Ed. David “Zeb”
Cook and Mike Breault, (Lake Geneva: Tactical Studies Rules, 1989: 8).
98
TSR Inc., Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition, 88.
109
Rules.” The credits page confirms this suspicion as the designer, developers, playtest
coordinator, and editor are all male. The only females included on the creative team were
a proofreader, a graphic designer, and typesetters. Although female and on the creative
team, none of those positions had the power to change text in the player’s handbook.
Rather, they were delegated to check for spelling errors, setting text, or working on
illustrations.
While this statement sets the mood for the remainder of the player’s handbook,
there are still other instances and examples in the text one can examine. The text begins
with an example adventure for readers who are not sure how to play the game or what
goes into an adventure. Here, the sample adventure is to save a lost princess. Writers
chose a traditional and even stereotypical example for readers, instead of one that is more
likely to happen in a D&D game, such as completing a quest for a noble person,
searching for a hidden treasure or artifact, or even exploring a new land, village, or town.
With the initial statement on feminine pronouns and the familiarity of the
masculine eclipsing the text, this player’s handbook still uses female examples in the text.
This also helps to negate the initial statement; if the masculine pronoun is considered
clear, concise, and familiar for this text, then why not use only masculine examples since
they are probably also the most clear, concise, and familiar?
Throughout the text, most of the examples and descriptions given are masculine
or for male characters. Characters are generally assumed to be male and the large portion
of class types and race types are considered male or male examples are given. There are
two places where females are added in as examples. In the case of the ranger class, a
female example is featured and the same in the case for the mage class. Each are equated
110
with historical examples; the huntresses of Diana and the figures Circe and Medea. Other
than these two classes, all others, including warriors, paladins, clerics, priests, thieves,
and bards are all considered male.
What is curious is that the two that include female examples, the mage and the
ranger, both classes that stereotypically are not considered “masculine” in the same sense
of the warriors and paladins. More often, male mages and rangers are slightly more
effeminate than other stereotypically male classes. Both rangers and mages do not use
the same weapon types as other “masculine” classes. Rangers are often only equipped
with a bow and mages do not use weapons at all. Their weaponry and magic leave their
bodies and strike from a distance whereas warriors and paladins, for example, wield their
weapons as a part of their bodies. Their swords, axes, etc. are part of themselves. These
classes do damage to foes and fight with their own bodies versus mages and rangers who
fight from a distance, and not even with their own bodies but with force. It is possible to
say that rangers and mages, because of their fighting forms, are not as masculine as other
classes could be considered. Perhaps, on a deeper or more covert level, this is why
female examples are given only for the ranger and mage classes.
Although there are some singular examples such as those discussed previously,
there does seem to be a general difference between this edition of Advanced Dungeons
and Dragons compared to the original edition published in 1978. The second, 1989
edition does seem to take into account female players and how the text and game could
be construed to eliminate the female from playing. The small passage in the beginning
does state that the game writers and designers hope that this idea of women or females
not being able to play would not occur. Although this is a tiny passage in comparison to
111
the entire 256-page player’s handbook, it was still written and placed in the text to be
read. Sometimes, it is not the large paragraphs and chapters that matter, but those small
details placed in. Those small sentences can speak volumes more than what they literally
say.
On the opposite side of this, readers and players could say that there is not a true
difference, but more of a change in the way idealizations are made evident. This is
apparent in the previously discussed passage, but also in the general shift of language and
semiotics in between this 2nd edition and the first edition published in 1978. Because
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons is somewhat separate from its parent line, Dungeons
and Dragons, it is useful to compare the differences between the two over the 11 years
between publications. These represent a micro-view of changes to and within the game
over the years. Where some could argue that there was a definite change between the
two, more on the side of gender inclusion and openness, it could also be argued that the
change was not as drastic as it appears to be. Rather, instead of separating abilities and
scores by sex and making females always weaker as the first 1978 edition does, writers
and designers still place females in the lesser status by simply not using examples in text
and by preemptively stating that there would be no feminine pronouns because it is not as
clear, concise, or familiar to the mass populations reading and playing. It is not as direct
as calling all female characters weaker, but more covert to say that the pronoun and its
use is not as familiar as the male, because “nothing else is.”99
99
112

84 43 41 80%
21 5 16 20%
Dragons Player’s Handbook.100
Since this player’s handbook is significantly larger than the previous handbooks
published, the opportunity for examining more art and illustrations arises. Although there
is a physical place for more, the percentages of male versus female illustrations changes
very little. Generally, there are more male illustrations than females. This is broken
down even more into those shown in a passive stance and those shown in an active
stance. Out of the 105 total illustrations, 80% (n=84) are male whereas 21% (n=21) are
female. On top of this, 76% (n=16) of those female illustrations show her in a passive
stance. The 5 active female illustrations include two women serving males at an inn, and
three females performing some type of magic
As previously mentioned, multiple times, the cover art for the Dungeons and
Dragons player’s handbooks are crucial to the initial response and ideas about the game.
This not only includes what the game is or what it may be based on, but how
characteristics are approached in the game in both its text and play. Often, the cover
image and what it depicts will set the mood for the entire text; as we read, we will usually
flip back to the cover art as it can help us visualize what the text is discussing. When
100
TSR Inc., Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition.
113
reading about dragons or characters clad in armor going into battle, it is often easier to
picture this if we look at the cover art which may be depicting the same scene.
While useful, cover art is not always the most inclusive or open when it comes to
how idealizations of gender, sex, and ability are negotiated. In the past examples, cover
art has included some females and some characters who are not stereotypical “men” in
armor and in an active stance (usually with a dragon or monster). However, in the case
of the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition Player’s Handbook, this is not true.
The cover of this edition features a full color illustration of two men on horseback riding
into a fight or a battle. No monsters or dragons are shown, but it is inferred that these
men are on their way to fight something. The first man, in the forefront of the illustration
is the most detailed. Viewers can easily see his armor, his war-steed, his masculine
grimace, and his masculine form. His sword, an extension of himself, is prominently
featured. In all, the cover is about this male character, probably a warrior or a paladin. In
the background the second rider is visible and behind him, a third is barely visible also.
Even though the cover art is well-done and illustrates a normal male warrior or
paladin character, it places at the forefront a male being a central, if not the most
important character. While adults may understand that this is simply an illustration, it
may be more difficult for younger people to take away the same point. Advanced D&D
was heralded in the tabletop role-playing game world because it included more advanced
and in-depth rules for gameplay, especially fighting and battles. Often, the people who
played the advanced versions were avid players, enthusiasts, and more emphatic of the
game rules and regulations than those who played the basic versions of the game.
Because of this, players stereotypically tended to be male (although females were not
114
exempt). What better to reinforce this idealization than a strong male warrior or paladin
figure wielding a sword and riding into a battle or fight? While the cover art is high in
quality, it does not say anything about gender inclusivity or equality like other covers
over the years may have.
Figure 15. Cover Art of the 1989 Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition Player’s
Handbook.101
This edition of AD&D also commits similar acts when it comes to illustrations
and different genders. For example, in this player’s handbook, females are often shown
as highly sexualized. The use of highly sexualized art seems to be more common than
not in the D&D player’s handbooks and could simply be a reflection of idealized forms
within fantasy. In this text, one such sexualized illustration features a seated female
character with her back to the viewer. We see that she, in the illustration, is looking at a
large male figure. He in turn, is looking at her with an expression that could read
101
Cook and Mike Breault, (Lake Geneva: Tactical Studies Rules, 1989).
115
excitement, enchantment, surprise, and/or lust. While viewers cannot see the front of her
body (only her back is showing), it is obvious that she is topless, and her skirt is not much
in the way of clothing or covering. It is open in the back, but because she is on her knees
and she has a tail, viewers are blocked from viewing her actual lower body. In this
illustration, the female is obviously stylized and sexualized, while the male watches.
Figure 16. Feminine Form Shown with Male in Background.102
Another example of sexualized illustrations in the text shows a female character
in a hallway. She has no weapons about her body, but she does have her hands displayed
in a way to suggest that perhaps she is a magic-user or a mage. What is notable about
this illustration is the physical form of the female and her lack of clothing. The female
figure is essentially wearing a bikini top that covers only a small fraction of her breasts,
which are quite large, and a very small strip of fabric on her lower half to cover her
102
116
genital region. Even that strip of fabric is as meager as it could possibly be. Other than
that, she is quite literally naked. Along with her marked lack of clothing, her physical
body form is perfect. She has a lean, long-ness that is desired in the female form coupled
with the extremely large breasts, high cheekbones, full and flowing mane of hair, small
and trim waist, long and narrow fingers with manicured nails, ample hips, lean and
muscular thighs, and lastly dainty feet. It is as if an illustrator compiled all the desired
physical traits equaled to beauty in society and created a frankenstein-ian female
illustration.
Figure 17. Sexualized Feminine Form Performing Magic.103
Along with the sexualized forms of females found within this D&D edition,
illustrations also move into a different type where the female form is more associated
with nature than culture. In the illustrations of males, they are found in battle, in a fight,
stealing, exploring, or enjoying a party at an inn. Never are they shown just in nature.
103
117
There is one illustration in this edition that features a male wizard performing a spell on a
monster creature.104 He is outside, and we can see the city behind him in conjunction
with green hillside. But even here, he is not just in nature, but he is handling nature, in
the form of a creature. He must be performing some action or taming rather than just
existing. Unlike this, female forms are illustrated just in nature not performing any
actions. In one such illustration, a female is found standing in a tree, perhaps leaping
from it. She is stereotypically beautiful with long flowing, what is possibly blonde hair.
She has a feminine face, piercing eyes, full and large lips, and the lithe feminine form.
Her dress is made of leaves and she is wearing a bracelet made of flowers. Near her are
two butterflies, perhaps one of the most feminine symbols.
Figure 18. Feminine Form Shown in Nature.105
There are two illustrations that feature a female wearing full battle attire or
wielding a weapon. The first illustration is just after the table of contents. It features a
104
105
TSR Inc., Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition, 36.
118
group of adventurers that includes two females. One is wearing a short shirt and skin-
tight leggings. She is a ranger and has her bow loosely in her hand. The second female
in this illustration is a paladin or a warrior. She is wearing some armor and has the sword
in the ground and is leaning on it. Unlike other females in this edition, neither of the
women shown here are beautiful, stereotypically. They lack the grace, physical body,
exaggerated physical features, and flowing hair that is illustrated in other photos.
Figure 19. Illustration Showing Group of Adventures, Featuring Two Females.106
There is one other illustration that features a female in full armor with a weapon.
However, in this illustration she is simply holding her sword while she lays on a table
because she is dead. It is a strong message when there are no active females wearing
battle armor or wielding weapons. It is also a strong message when the only illustrations
of females wearing armor or bearing weapons require them to either be a part of a group
of others who are visibly stronger or be dead.
106
119
Figure 20. Female Shown in Armor and Holding Weapon on Her Funeral Altar.107
Although the illustrations featured in the 1989 edition of Advanced Dungeons and
Dragons are not as gender inclusive and do not feature more females that are not
stereotypical or idealized, it is crucial to realize that the inclusion of some females is
better than a text that is void of them. Just 11 years prior to this edition, two editions
feature few to no female illustrations whatsoever. Although the illustrations are not as
complete of those of early editions such as the 1981 and 1983 basic editions which
incorporated more females in general and less sexualized ones, those featured in this
1989 edition help to demonstrate a slow trend towards the inclusivity of other genders in
the game.
107
120
Dungeons and Dragons Basic -1991 (Black Box)
Released in 1991 as the first of two revisions to Basic D&D, Dungeons and
Dragons Basic Black Box was an attempt to reintroduce the game to players in the form
of a boxed collection, similar to a boxed board game. The system was supposedly much
easier to learn since it featured “dragon cards” that listed powers, class characteristics,
etc. Because the game is based in the imagination, it was difficult for some players to
grasp what was happening during gameplay. Because of this, the 1991 revision featured
paintable-plastic miniatures, stand-up paper markers with illustrations of characters and
creatures, and large fold-out maps that came with the base game to make the game more
appealing to players, especially those who had never played the game before.
Throughout the year, Dungeons and Dragons has been and continues to be “revised” and
“re-released” as different editions of versions both to help keep the fan base rooted in the
game, but to also attempt to appeal to new initiates. The second of the two revisions
came in 1993 as a rules compendium that combined all game rules from the first four
boxed editions and the original 1974 edition.
While revision and marketing changes did render the 1991 Black Box of D&D
Basic much more like a board game, it still retained the same basic setup and gameplay
as other editions of D&D released, although, because in the shift from handbook-based
role-playing game to one that looked and felt like a board game, the player’s handbooks
and rule books were significantly shorter and more information was packed into one
place for players. This, however, does not mean a lack of content.
121
Carrying over from previous editions, the 1991 black box does the same, in terms
of semiotics and rhetoric. It does not begin with a statement declaring the use of only
masculine pronouns, such as was done earlier. More so, this edition starts off strongly
using mainly second and third-person pronouns. This is a subtle maneuver, as it makes
the reader the focus, regardless of gender or sex. When reading the rule book or player’s
handbook, the reader’s gender is not important as it is not specifically noted. While this
works and is inclusive, it is not something that is carried on throughout the text.
In the player’s handbook, all character class examples are given as males or
described in terms of masculine pronouns or features. This has proven to be common
throughout the previous handbooks also. There is only one change in this routine within
the cleric class. Here, there is not solely masculine reference, but rather, the word
“herself.”108 This use of “herself” here is conspicuous as in the game clerics are known
to have limited weapons.
This may appear at first to be a minor word change, but as has been proven
multiple times already, these small changes are not silent. Stereotypically, females who
play tend to either choose to play or be steered towards playing very specific classes. Of
course, this is not true across the board of all Dungeons and Dragons players. By
“stereotypically” I mean, if you examine popular culture references to D&D as well as
player’s handbooks and illustrations, in many cases, women are portrayed as clerics,
druids, and sometimes magic users. These are perhaps some of the most “docile” of the
108
TSR Inc., Dungeons and Dragons Game: Rule Book, Ed. Timothy B. Brown, (Lake Geneva:
Tactical Studies Rules, 1991: 29).
122
classes but also those closest to nature. They do not tend to use as many physical
weapons, if any. It is important to note however, that this is not the case in every D&D
game. There are females who play paladins, warriors, berserkers, fighters, rogues,
assassins, etc.
This is crucial to think about in terms of the inclusion of the world “herself” only
with the cleric class in the 1991 black box revision of Dungeons and Dragons because it
is the only class in this rule book that does so. Perhaps covertly, this player’s handbook
or rule book is perpetuating the idea of females playing clerics because they are healers.
In our traditional culture today, women are often seen as the healers in society. We
herald them as nurses, midwives, and mothers who take care of us. Being from the
South, in the United States, also filters into this conception, as women within this region
have long been regarded and viewed as those responsible for healing over the years.
Where in the game, clerics rely on divine power and inspiration to literally draw power
from to heal others, traditionally women of the South have relied on years of practice,
knowledge, and wisdom passed down from generation to generation.109 Often, when we
think of traditional healers outside of a medical practice such as an infirmary or hospital,
females are what comes to mind. Perhaps when we think of a group of adventurers
coming upon a traditional healer, we see a female D&D character. In fact, this edition
only gives one in-text character example for readers; a female cleric named Aleene. It is
somewhat curious that for this edition, the example character is female and there is a
small switch up with textual rhetoric that also invites the idea of females playing clerics.
In terms of semiotics, this more than likely says more than what can be assumed at first
Molly C. Dougherty, “Healers, Women,” The New Encyclopedia or Southern Culture, Volume
109
13: Gender, (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009).
123
glance, as it confirms some ideas related to gender of specific character classes, as well as
helps to perpetuate some cultural ideas based on gendered professions.
Although this one small example is prominent in the text, it does not shake away
the overall feeling of the missing female aspect from the game. The only other mentions
of females are for two monsters that are generally always female, the harpy and medusa.
There is also no space for gender on the provided character sheet at the end of the rule
book. As we will see next, this same dearth of females occurs in the artwork for this
edition of Dungeons and Dragons.
Examining the numbers also, it is obvious that the male presence in the 1991
Basic revision of Dungeons and Dragons is heavily felt. Of the total 30 illustrations
provided, a whopping 80% (n=24) of those were males while females were 20% (n=6) of
the total illustrations. That means for every four male illustrations, there was only one
female illustration, or a 4:1 ratio of males to females. Of course, this is not rare. As we
have seen, these proportions are actually quite generous, as there have been player’s
handbooks in the past with zero illustrations of females provided.
To go even more in depth, the majority of male illustrations featured a male in
some active stance or pose. This could include actions such as a male wizard performing
a spell or incantation, a male fighter swinging his battle axe, or a male rogue actively
disarming a trap in a wall. The minority of male illustrations (42% or n=10) feature
males in a passive stance or performing no action. This can include a man lying down
waiting to be healed, a man holding up the dragon he just killed, or a male looking at a
treasure chest full of jewels he has just stolen. On the other hand, women and females,
124
although they are not as equally represented as males, are split half-and-half between
active and passive poses.

24 14 10 80%
6 3 3 20%
Basic Black Box Revision Player’s Handbook.110
The cover art for this 1991 black box revision of Dungeons and Dragons features
a lone male fighting a red dragon. He is poised in an active stance at the edge of a
crevice, readying to swing his axe, at an enormous grimacing red dragon. This
illustration is not only the cover for the rule book or player’s handbook, but also the
entire boxed set. When Dungeons and Dragons began issuing boxed sets for game
editions, the box cover tended to be the same as the player’s handbooks or rule books.
The most enticing art and images would be placed on the front of player’s handbooks as
to grab the attention of those playing the games or those considering doing so. This has
been discussed in detail in the previous examples. Because the 1991 revision came in a
box, does not mean that it was exempt from this tradition.
110
125
Figure 21. Cover Art of 1991 Revision of Basic Dungeons and Dragons.111
Other than the plethora of male illustrations throughout the handbook, as well as
the cover art, females when illustrated here are often exaggerated, sexualized, or just
drawn in a non-realistic fashion. In this edition, there are no illustrated females that are
not exaggerated in physical form, sexualized, bustier than reality would allow, or placed
in extremely form-fitting clothing including armor. This is played out in the first
illustration of a female in the handbook. In this illustration (Image 22), the female is in
some sort of active pose while wielding a morningstar-like weapon. While she is ready
for a fight, she still possesses the stereotypical feminine beauty and grace. Few people
can stand for any amount of time in that pose, yet this woman can, all while lifting her
heavy weapon into the air and holding her shield which is probably not too light either.
Along with this, we see her thin and lithe body full of muscles, the long mane of thick
111
126
dark hair, ample breasts, and the full and slightly pouty lips. Just as with previous
examples, she seems to have acquired all the traits typically thought of as beautiful for
females. She almost become a spectacle because of the way the stereotypical feminine is
juxtaposed with a shield and such a brutal weapon. Although this does shout “power” or
“strength,” it also cues readers in on what is still expected of the female body regardless
of character class or current objectives.
Figure 22. Female Warrior with Exaggerated Physical Form.112
This phenomenon is not limited to only this illustration, but out of the 6 total
female illustrations, it occurs in at least 2 other illustrations. In these (Images 23 and 24),
the females shown are highly non-proportional and highly unrealistic compared to
actuality. Image 23 does a better job at picturing a female body that is not as
exaggerated, but even here we still have a female that is in a full suit and showing little
skin, but still has the same stereotypically beautiful face and body. She may be even
112
127
more so than the first because she is likely an elf, considering the shape of her ears.
Elves in many cases are considered some of the most beautiful and aloof creatures in the
D&D worlds. This would nearly automatically place her as an object of desire. Along
with this detail, she still possesses the long mane of flowing blonde hair, high
cheekbones, thin lithe body, prominent breasts, and pouty lips. Her sword is brandished,
but it takes second stage as her body and face seem to be the most important aspects
about her at first glance. She is poised in action and holds a weapon for killing, but still
maintains the beauty and grace expected of females.
Figure 23. Illustration Showing Two Males and One Female.113
Image 24 is similar in a sense to the previous two illustrations provided. Here, we
see a seated female cleric helping to heal a fallen dwarf male. This illustration ties back
to a point discussed earlier in the textual semantic analysis. Here, a female healer takes
center stage. At first, the downed man is not even noticed. Rather, what is central in this
illustration is the female on the left. Interestingly, this is the same figure shown in Image
22. She still maintains the same physical figure and exaggeration all while performing
113
128
her role to take care of the fallen male. Once again, it is visible that character class
and/or occupation really do not matter much in terms of what one looks like. Regardless,
the viewer still glimpses what is required, once again, of the female body.
Figure 24. Dungeons and Dragons Illustration Showing Hurt Male and a Female Healing
Him.114
The final illustration included in this section for the 1991 black box revision of
Dungeons and Dragons features a female fighting. This is perhaps one of the rarest
illustrations in this handbook, as well as others before it because normally females and
women are not illustrated fighting. Males are usually shown as the characters fighting or
engaging in battle. Here, however, a female is actively engaging in a fight with a
creature.
While this is a move towards active female characters, it also could be considered
a misguided move. While she is fighting in this illustration, it is important to realize two
114
129
other details about this illustration that could easily be overlooked. First, she is fighting
with another male. A similar example such as this cropped up in an earlier D&D edition
where the female in the illustration was fighting a creature with another male. This is
slightly demeaning as the viewer could consider this illustration to be saying that the
female could not fight the creature on her own and requires the assistance of a strong
male. In this illustration, the male is in the most active stance of the two; his sword is
drawn back and he is getting ready to swing at the creature. The female, on the other
hand, only has her sword out but does not appear to be attempting any maneuver with it.
Her most active part is holding the shield. Even in this, she is not doing active damage to
the foe, but rather just helping. The second detail to not overlook is that fact that we
cannot see her face. As she engages, she has her back to the viewer. This, in the end,
renders her faceless and possibly even not real. Without a face to humanize her and
make her similar to the viewer, she become cut off and eventually cut out of the
illustration. Dehumanizing her make it much easier to do this and in the end, make her
forgettable. A viewer would turn the page and not take notice of the female in the
illustration. While she is fighting in this illustration, she is eventually lost.
Figure 25. Illustration Showing Female Fighting Creature with Another Male.115
115
130
The lack of female illustrations or what they may covertly or overtly say to
viewers is not the best in the 1991 black box revision of Dungeons and Dragons, but it is
somewhat important to recognize the inclusion of female forms in handbook illustrations
and the attempts of these illustrations to picture females in strong roles or as strong
characters. Since its conception in 1974, 17 years prior to the release of this edition, the
lack of females in handbooks was crippling. Just as other editions of Dungeons and
Dragons have done between those 17 years, all continue to move forward and create a
more gender-inclusive space for players to create characters, complete quests and
adventures, and play within. While it does take time to usher in changes and
advancements, this should not be taken as an evolutionary or linear progression of less
inclusive to more inclusive. Rather, what is fundamentally more important here to realize
is that the game and its many forms seems to adapt and comment upon the larger cultural
and social movements and changes. Even if it does seem that the Dungeons and Dragons
game does progress towards an end-product that is more inclusive and representative of a
larger portion of the population, it does experience a number of setbacks and changes to
the game and the way it is viewed that would not feel as progressive as the series of
overall changes would make it feel. The heart of the matter here is that, while the
changes in gender and sexuality representation within the game do tend to ebb and flow
throughout the years, there does seem to be a general trend with the game materials that
seeks to challenge and question gender and sexuality representations throughout, but also
serve as a cultural and social tool upon which to build more intricate and inclusive
narratives for players and their characters.
131
Classic Dungeons and Dragons -1994 (Tan Box)
Released in 1994, Dungeons and Dragons Basic Tan Box was an attempt to
reboot the previous Black Box and lessen the amount of materials needed for gameplay.
This included getting rid of the tutorial cards that the Black Box featured and
incorporating play rules and material into sidebars throughout the player’s handbook.
Where the Black Box was known for its “dragon cards” and the supposed ease of playing
the game because of this addition, the Tan Box harkened back to the original version and
older playing styles that were based on, nearly exclusively, the player’s handbook.
The Tan Box did not cut out all additions from the Black Box. It kept the plastic
miniatures, stand-up paper markers with illustrations, a large fold out poster map, and a
set of dice. Essentially, the bulky and not-so-needed parts were edited out of the package
to make room for the more useful elements. While revision and marketing change did
render the 1994 Tan Box of D&D Basic more like the original, player’s handbook based
games as opposed to the board game feel of the previous edition, it still retained the same
basic setup and gameplay as the Black Box and other editions of D&D. The player’s
handbook for the Tan Box set is significantly longer and more detailed than the Black
Box, due to the reincorporation of player materials and game rules back into the player’s
handbook.
Carrying over from previous editions, the 1994 Tan Box does similar things, in
terms of semiotics and rhetoric. Significant changes in this do not occur until the 2000s
when the third edition was released. Unlike an earlier edition, there is no special note on
132
pronoun usage throughout the text. More so, this edition does give a slight air of being a
bit more gender inclusive than previous texts. This edition is very similar to the Black
Box edition from 1991 in that it begins heavily using second-person pronouns but instead
of relying on third-person pronouns, it opts for a more neutral position there. Just as
before, the reader becomes the primary target for the text and the issues of sex and gender
are not openly discussed. They almost become a part of background details that are not
necessary for gameplay, but only help enhance the experience.
Noticing the subtle shift is key, as it mimics or reflects what is also occurring in
the intellectualization of the game through the years. While the first editions set out that
gender and sex are important features by either excluding them completely, creating
enemies and foes that were female, or stating that females had disadvantages in strength
and gameplay because of their gender, the later editions such as the 1994 Tan Box work
to re-center the ideas of gender and sexuality in the game, in turn allowing players to re-
evaluate their ideas. It is highly noticeable that throughout this text, gender is not as
important to game play and a more neutral and inclusive stance is taken. This does not
mean that all examples in the text are gender neutral or completely inclusive. As with the
tradition of the player’s handbooks, not all examples given in text are gender neutral.
What is more important to understand here is the general movement towards a more
inclusive and neutral game text, as well as the forethought to create a more equal playing
ground for anyone wanting to be a part of it.
In the player’s handbook for the 1994 Tan Box edition, all character class
examples given are either one of two things: male and described in terms of masculine
pronouns and features or they are completely neutral third-person pronoun-based
133
descriptions. This has proven to be common throughout the previous handbooks also.
To be even more specific, the only class example given that is not neutral is for the thief,
who is described with masculine pronouns several times.116 To be general however, the
text for this edition is almost verbatim as the 1991 Black Box text. Interestingly, the only
major change is the neutralization of character classes from all male to neutral (except the
thief class) and the neutralization of the cleric class117 from feminine to neutral.
Another small, but powerful detail in this edition is the inclusion of in-text
character and player examples and how those can shape the view of readers and future
players. In this edition, the first in-text example given is a male.118 Instead of using
various examples and incorporating a plethora of views into the player’s handbook, the
same male example is used throughout the text. It is not until later that a female example,
Aleena, is finally given119. However, this example is a cleric, which tends to be a
historically female role given its healer role and subconscious connection to nature and
the feminine.
Along with this late inclusion of a female in the player’s handbook is the
representation of females in the game, as monsters. At the end of the player’s handbook
is a section on monsters and creatures one could encounter in gameplay. Since the first
edition in 1974, this was a very common section to add into the player’s handbooks.
Even in the earlier editions, representation of females in the game in this section
116
TSR Inc., Dungeons and Dragons Game: Rules and Adventure Book, Ed. Doug Steward,
(Lake Geneva: Tactical Studies Rules, 1994: 17).
117
TSR Inc., Dungeons and Dragons Game, 13.
118
Ibid, 5.
119
Ibid, 52.
134
specifically was very common. In the 1994 Tan Box edition, 20 years after its birth, the
game still puts women more prominently here with Medusa and harpies being the
standard and common examples.
Just as in the 1991 Black Box edition, the one puny example of a female cleric in
this text, along with female monsters does not lend an air of gender inclusivity and
openness as one would expect out of a game that is supposedly marketed and playable by
everyone. The neutral stance of the text, in terms of pronouns and examples, is a
markedly important feature that helps the image and feeling, but it can be difficult to look
over the lack of females in the text and believe that it isn’t a symptom of a larger issue at
the time. For a positive though, realizing the changes and shifts that are featured in this
player’s handbook edition versus earlier pieces is crucial. It is through these smaller
changes and shifts that larger ones will take center stage in the later editions. Of course,
this is not only readable through the text alone; the art and illustrations littering the pages
of this player’s handbook also speak volumes about the ideas of gender and gender
inclusivity in the game and amongst its players.
From the raw data and numbers, it is obvious that the male presence in the 1994
Tan Box Basic revision of Dungeons and Dragons has a weight beyond the female
presence. Of the total 54 illustrations provided, a whopping 87% (n=47) of those were
males while females were 13% (n=7) of the total illustrations. Of course, this illustration
inequality and underrepresentation is not rare. As we have seen, these proportions are
relatively generous, as there have been player’s handbooks in the past with zero
illustrations of females provided.
135
To go even more in depth, most male illustrations featured a male in some active
stance or pose. This could include actions such as a male wizard performing a spell or
incantation, a male barbarian swinging his battle axe, or a male thief actively disarming a
trap in a wall or pickpocketing. The minority of male illustrations (26% or n=12) feature
males in a passive stance or performing no action. This often includes a man lying down
waiting to be healed, a man holding up the dragon he just killed, a male looking at a
treasure chest full of jewels he has just stolen, or general illustrations demonstrating
classes or races. On the other hand, women and females, although they are not as equally
represented as males, are only shown in active stances. This is quite rare amongst
player’s handbooks because normally in the past, there are disproportionally more
females in passive stances than active. In fact, of the past player’s handbooks, active
female illustrations have never been more than 5 in each player’s handbook. It is
important to note also that some other editions in the past featured no female illustrations
whatsoever.

47 35 12 87%
7 7 0 13%
Table 8. Numbers of Male and Female Illustrations in 1994 Classic Dungeons and
Dragons Tan Box Player’s Handbook120
The cover art for this 1994 Tan Box revision of Dungeons and Dragons features
three male figures fighting a red dragon. Each of these figures are highly stylized
120
TSR Inc., Dungeons and Dragons Game: Rules and Adventure Book, Ed. Doug Steward, (Lake
136
masculine forms; one has a long beard and the other two have thick muscles and
exaggerated masculine forms. Just as some other earlier edition player’s handbooks, the
1994 edition is not exempt from the tradition of featuring men on the cover. As will be
discussed later, this trend does change in time.
Figure 26. Cover Art for the 1994 Tan Box Revision of Dungeons and Dragons.121
While there is a plethora of men illustrated and pictured all throughout this
player’s handbook, there are a select few illustrations of females, specifically 7. Just as
in other edition’s illustrations of females, the forms and physical bodies are exaggerated
to draw attention to specific parts of the body. Perhaps this is done on purpose for
attention or maybe it is to visually differentiate male from female forms; the answer is
not really clear from the illustrations alone.
121
(Lake Geneva: Tactical Studies Rules, 1994).
137
Another small detail that is prevalent amongst female illustrations versus male
illustrations is the direction females are facing and their gaze. This is something that was
previously mentioned in another player’s handbook and appears to be similar, if not same
phenomenon. In this, male figures are usually facing the action of the illustration. For
example, they are looking at treasure or picking a lock, or facing a foe. On the other
hand, females are usually looking at the reader versus anything else. There are examples
in the player’s handbook where this is not the case, such as a female trying to heal a
downed friend.122 Interestingly, this illustration is also included in the 1991 Black Box
revision of Dungeons and Dragons.
One illustration of a female, from the beginning section of the player’s handbook
and general discussion of elves, shows a female figure bent halfway, wielding a bow with
an arrow nocked. What is unique about this illustration is that the female form is not
exaggerated, as others are in the text and her clothing is practical for her profession. In
other words, she is normal and even is well armed with a bow and a type of sword on her
hip.
Figure 27. Illustration Showing What Appears to be a Normal Female Figure.123
122
(Lake Geneva: Tactical Studies Rules, 1994: 54).
123
TSR Inc., Dungeons and Dragons Game, 20.
138
While there are several illustrations included in the 1994 Tan Box revision of
Dungeons and Dragons, a slim percentage of those illustrations are females. As
compared to male illustrations, they outnumber the female almost 7 to 1. For brevity and
to spare repetition of what has already been discussed in the visual analysis for the 1991
Black Box revision, I have omitted discussion of most of the individual illustrations since
the same illustrations were used.
While there are not as many to examine and discuss, it is still crucial to mention
that females were used in the text, one as an example of a cleric and then again, several as
illustrations. There may be few females represented, but they are still there. Even with
the illustrations, all females used were in active stance. In the past player's handbooks,
active stance could be seen as the better between itself and passive, especially since
women and females could be seen as passive figures throughout time and history. The
fact that women and females in this player’s handbook were represented in active forms
speaks loudly about changes in ideas and representation at the time. These changes and
subtle shifts will continue throughout the rest of the player’s handbooks and game
editions, especially in the early 2000s and later.
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition - 1995 (Revision)
One year after the 1994 revision was released, TSR worked to revise yet another
previous player’s handbook edition, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. TSR states in
the foreword that this edition is not Advanced D&D (AD&D) 3rd edition, but just an
update to a previous product. The foreword goes on to state that the revision mainly
includes some game rule clarifications and minor corrections. Along with this is a list of
139
cosmetic updates, including new cover art, 25% more pages, bigger illustrations, more
color, and easier to read fonts. It appears that this revision is more for the aesthetic of the
game versus the rules and mechanics of the game; the text itself does not differ much
from the first 2nd edition of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons from 1989.
Perhaps the most striking and telling aspect of the text for this player’s handbook
is what you read within the first few pages, regarding how the book is set up and the
language used. Just as the first version of the 2nd edition of Advanced Dungeons and
Dragons from 1989, there is a specific note in the front material regarding usage of
pronouns throughout the text. Once again, this note states that
“the male pronoun (he, him, his) is used exclusively

throughout the AD&D game rules. We hope this won’t be
construed by anyone to be an attempt to exclude females
from the game or imply their exclusion. Centuries of use
have neutered the male pronoun. In written material it is
clear, concise, and familiar. Nothing else is.”124
We have already encountered this note before, in the first version of the second
edition of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons. Very little has changed, mainly a few
words were taken out. Interestingly, the words that were taken out made this note
specific for only the first version of the second edition of Advanced Dungeons and
Dragons. In the 1995 revision, words were omitted to make it read as if the male
pronoun was used across the board for all D&D game manuals. This also extends the
124
TSR Inc., Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook for the AD&D Game, Ed.
Doug Steward, (Lake Geneva: Tactical Studies Rules, 1995: 9).
140
hope of not excluding or giving the impression of excluding females from the game
across all versions also.
This is a nice sentiment and could be taken at face value; however, the deeper
implications of that statement are obvious. Perhaps there had been issues in the past with
the exclusion of females throughout the game and in gameplay. This idea is reflected
quite heavily in past player’s handbooks both textually and visually with the utter lack of
females in either form. Females and women are not illustrated as equally as men are and
they are not added into the text of the handbooks like men are.
Throughout the text, 8 examples of characters and gameplay are given. Of the
total, 7 of those examples are males or masculine. The other example is not clear
whether it is a female or male—it is never clearly stated—but there is an assumption that
it is a female solely by the name given, Delsenora. This trend continues with the race
examples. In the text, all race examples given are male or masculine, except for humans
where the gender or sex is not given. What is upsetting with this minute detail is that the
text clearly stated in the front material that masculine pronouns would be used because
those are what is apparently the most clear, concise, and neutral. However, the writers
chose to exclude the masculine pronoun here in exchange for something truly neutral. If
choices can be made where the masculine pronoun is elected to be omitted, how much
trouble would it have been to use both masculine and feminine pronouns and adjectives
in the entire text even if the player’s handbook clearly states that the sex of characters is
up to the player.125
125
TSR Inc., Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook for the AD&D Game, Ed. Doug
Steward, (Lake Geneva: Tactical Studies Rules, 1995: 32).
141
In conjunction with this, the player’s handbook later—on the next page—shows
that there are physical differences between males and females and goes on to give
different sets of statistics for characters of both sexes. The text automatically creates a
strong dichotomy between male and female in the game, making females the weaker of
the two. With this, the female character becomes the lesser of characters because it is
impossible for her to do work, fight, or complete tasks as well or as much as a male
could. In this case, why would you want to play a female character if your chances of
succeeding, winning, or living are greatly lessened only because of your gender?
Coupling this idea with the specific note at the beginning of the player’s handbook about
how the masculine and male are the most clear and concise identifiers for character in
this handbook, it becomes apparent that perhaps the exclusion of both female players and
female characters is in fact what was happening in the game.
To add another line of evidence for this exclusion of the female or feminine in the
game and game play is the descriptions of character class types given in the player’s
handbook. With each class all are given as males. Unlike the race types where one
example may have been female, none of the character class types were female. Each
character class type also gives a list of examples from literature, history, and mythology
that one could use as inspiration or a base for their character creation. In all of the class
examples, only the ranger class and the wizard class give female examples. What is
frustrating about this is that the lists could have easily included females. While taking
notes on this section, I easily comprised a list of females for each class that would have
served as perfect examples here. For example, the warrior class lists men such as
Hercules, Sir Galahad, and Robin Hood. These lists of examples could have easily
142
included Queen Boudica, Joan of Arc, Artemis, or Nakano Takeko. This trend occurs
with all the class types, except for the ranger which lists Diana and the wizard which lists
Circe and Medea.126 It seems as if even here, male history and figures from culture are
the only clear and concise examples to give.
The drastic lack of the female and feminine forms in the player’s handbook for
the 2nd edition of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons from 1989 does not end with text
from the handbook. As will be discussed next, this void is also noted in the visual
representation throughout the player’s handbook in the 1995 revision.
In the 1995 revision of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, there was a total of 77
illustrations that showed either a male or a female. Of these, 90%, or 69 were of males
where the remaining 10%, or 8 images were females. As noticed in previous editions,
there has been a distinct lack in the visual representation of females, as opposed to males,
in Dungeons and Dragons. When the numbers are this skewed it is difficult to deny this.
To discuss males and females specifically in terms of active or passive stances shown in
the player’s handbook illustrations, the slight majority of male illustrations are shown in
passive stance (n=39) and the same amount of female illustrations are shown in active
stance (n=5) as passive stance. This has been a common trend in a few of the player’s
handbooks prior to this release.
126
143
69 30 39 90%
8 4 4 10%
Dragons Revision Player’s Handbook.127
A very common comment that has been raised in this chapter is the obvious lack
of the female form from illustrations found throughout the player’s handbooks. While
other manuals and guides for each of the game editions, revisions, and releases may
feature more female figures or better illustrations and representation, it is crucial to
remind readers that the scope of this project only covers the first handbook for each
edition or revision rather than all the handbooks for each version. If this was not the
case, this project would be nearly impossible to finish, as there are perhaps hundreds of
different manuals and handbooks for each setting, environment, world, etc. The first
player’s handbook, for me, is the most important to study because it often represents the
first glimpse into the Dungeons and Dragons world. This is especially true since there
are a multitude of different manuals and texts that serve as supplements; the first player’s
handbook is almost always the starting point for any of the other texts.
Once again, and not to repeat what has already been said for every other player’s
handbook examined thus far, there is a significant lack of female forms in this player’s
handbook. As if the stark lack was not bad enough, the female forms that are illustrated
throughout the text are usually conforming to some stereotypical idea of female
127
Steward, (Lake Geneva: Tactical Studies Rules, 1995)
144
appearance or body coverings. To begin, most female illustrations in this player’s
handbook are either villains, children, or highly stylized in their body shape, dress, or
hairstyles. It is often obvious at first glance who is female and who is not because of
those stereotypical gender-based ideas of body form, shape, and decoration. This is made
even more clear when viewing males in this player’s handbook, as most of those pictured
are exaggerated forms as well. For example, in the cover art the three males shown are
very obviously male as is the case with other examples of cover art. The front most male
figure on the cover and featured as the focus art for the back cover, has nearly impossibly
thick legs and arms ripping with muscles. He brandishes a huge battle axe and his
posture is one to show off his power and dominance in the situation. Cover art is
important because it is the first glance you get of the game and often helps drive your
purchase of the game or not. In this case, the first glimpse of the game is one that is
male-driven and based in violence and male dominance.
Figure 28. Cover Art for the Player’s Handbook Featuring Males.128
128
Steward, (Lake Geneva: Tactical Studies Rules, 1995).
145
Moving through the player’s handbook illustrations and images do not greatly
improve as one would hope. On the contrary, we end up seeing mostly males. In all
character class and race example illustrations given, each one is male. In total, female
illustrations make up very little of what is there. Of the 8 total females shown in this
player’s handbook, 1 is a female child, 3 are female villains, and two are possibly
recognizable females only by the style of clothing shown. For these two possible
females, the illustrations are from a distance making the figures themselves very small
and difficult to see in detail (See Image 29). The remaining 2 female figures are
positively female.
Figure 29. Possible Female in Illustration for Player’s Handbook.129
Perhaps a positive feature relating to the females shown in this player’s handbook
is that they are not exaggerated in form or highly sexualized as has been prone to occur in
previous handbooks. Here, females are noticeable for their characteristics and body
shape, but these things do not seem to be unnatural or played up. In no case are the
females shown in this player’s handbook seemingly sexualized for the viewing audience;
129
Steward, (Lake Geneva: Tactical Studies Rules, 1995: 149)
146
as noted previously, several of the females are very small and from a distance so that
adding sexualized details is nearly impossible. The only case where this may not fully be
so is with the three female villains seen in Image 30, but even with this example, the
females do not seem to be drawn with sexualization in mind. They are rather shapeless
and unappealing. It is only with closer inspection that you realize that they are in what
should be quite scandalous dress as they are only wearing a very skimpy bikini-type
clothing choice. The illustration does not call attention to that or females in general, but
more so the male at the forefront of the illustration getting ready to vanquish the female
villains.
Figure 30. Three Female Villains in Player’s Handbook Art.130
The 1995 revision of the 2nd edition of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons
marked the end of an era for the game. While some major changes took place in
130
147
gameplay mechanics and accessibility, there was still a blatant lack of females and
women in both gameplay and game materials themselves. Like previous editions and
player’s handbooks before, there are always places where females could have been used,
just as easily as males, to represent rules and make gameplay mechanical points. After
the 1995 revision of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons, TSR sold the company to a much
larger entity who ended up making substantial changes to the game and helped push it to
a more inclusive platform for cooperative gaming.
Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition – 2000
The year 2000 marked a number of changes in culture in the United States,
especially when thinking about social customs and the onslaught of the post Y2K world.
The gaming world was not exempt from the whirlwinds of change that were ushered
through the Dungeons and Dragons universe. These changes began in 1997, when TSR
finally decided to sell the game to up-and-coming gaming giant Wizards of the Coast.
This sale was not a surprise to members of TSR or game creators and contributors.
Rather, TSR had collected mounds of debt by the end of 1996. This debt totaled over 30
million dollars131 and kept costing the company more the longer they stayed as a whole.
Prior to this, TSR had a number of other run-ins with debt and financial instability. As
more games and platforms were released, TSR’s materials were ever decreasing in sales
and popularity. By 1997, they could not keep afloat and had little to no choice but to sell
TSR assets, including Dungeons and Dragons. While agreeing to print backlog copies of
game settings and player’s manuals, Wizards of the Coast (WOTC) also decided to end
131
Shannon Appelcline, Designers & Dragons: A History of the Roleplaying Game Industry 90-
99, (Silver Spring: Evil Hat Productions, 2014: 142).
148
Advanced Dungeons and Dragons in order to re-create and re-brand the game under one
title to make it easier for people learning the game as well as easier for players in general
since it worked on a new gameplay system based on the twenty-sided die.132 133
The third edition of Dungeons and Dragons truly marks a paradigm shift in the
RPG and gaming industries. As noted previously, the game was transferred to one that
was statistics based and used some die for mechanics to one that was based around the
twenty-sided die or d20. Other improvements were added to this edition, including the
standardization of monsters and creatures so that they too could be improved or “leveled-
up” as the game progressed. Magic items were also revamped in that they have more
standardized use systems and specialized places where they could be worn. Tactical
combat was also revisited in this edition, becoming similar to what the game was in the
first 1974 edition of Dungeons and Dragons. In general, the game became more fluid
and alive, changing with each gaming session and becoming something that would keep
players coming back to play. Along similar lines, the importance of the gaming
community became a key point in Dungeons and Dragons as well as future creations and
installations for the game. The third edition opened the world of D20 based gaming, as
well as the open licensing of d20 game mechanics. The creative license for both D&D
and the d20 game base were opened so that nearly anyone could create supplements to
132
It is not mentioned here, but in 1999, gaming giant Hasbro finalized a deal in which they
purchased Wizards of the Coast for a hefty $325 million. Although technical ownership changed hands
again, Hasbro did not interfere with Wizards of the Coast’ initial thoughts for changing the game and
rewriting rules of gameplay which had already been started before Hasbro’s purchase.
133
149
the Dungeons and Dragons world. Game designers believe that “D&D could never be
imprisoned again as it had been before its near death at TSR in 1997.”134
While the third edition of Dungeons and Dragons represented an exciting turn in
RPG gaming and brought with it several substantial changes, it also heralds some major
changes in the inclusiveness of the game itself as well as in representation. Where the
game was no longer going to be trapped in old-fashioned and outdated gaming mechanics
and scoring systems, it was also no longer going to be chained to the male-dominated and
female-absent heritage of its past. Game editions after 2000 all move towards a more
inclusive image of the game and its players and characters.
At first glance, the text begins with an air of general inclusiveness in terms of
both players and characters. The player’s handbook uses both “he” and “she”
interchangeably as pronouns and directly tells the player to choose the sex of their
character. This then morphs into the 2nd person pronoun (your and you) throughout the
remainder of the text. Also, there are no tables delineating the statistical differences
between males and females or the lack of skills or lessened maximum ability points due
to sex or gender. This system also adds the player character sheet to the gaming system.
This sheet is often photocopied out of the book and is used to keep track of character
details and statistics as the game progresses (see image 31).
134
150
Figure 31. Player Character Sheet Front and Back from Dungeons and Dragons 3rd
Edition.135
This edition does a very good job at re-writing the game as something that is
dynamic and easier to understand for people who have perhaps never played before or
maybe have not played for a period. While doing this, it opens the gaming world to
males and females by making sure that both are well represented throughout the text. For
example, in this edition clear physiological differences between males and females are
described for different races available to play. Not only does this make sure that the
game is more life-like and detailed, but also makes sure to let players know that playing
as either gender is a valid choice since game designers took the time to add these details.
While it is not actually stated in the text, it alludes to the fact that everyone is welcome,
and those under-represented figures add to the gameplay and help create a fluid and fun
game. Being a female and playing a female character, in some cases, needs to be open
135
Monte Cook, Jonathan Tweet, and Skip Williams, Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook:
Core Rulebook I 3rd Edition, (Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2000).
151
and welcoming into a game that was based –for so long—on non-female characters and
players.
This sense of inclusion continues throughout the text with various examples. For
starters, each race description given makes sure to list both male and female names for
examples. This not only creates some dynamism in the game rules, but also sets up a
system in which both genders are included and encouraged. The in-text character
examples also mirror this same change in the player’s handbooks, as both male and
female examples are given. Of the 7 total character examples, 3 are female and the
remaining 4 are male. In terms of character classes and in-text examples given of those,
the same phenomenon occurs. Both males and females are represented. Of the eleven
total class types, 5 are female and 6 are male.
Another small and perhaps overlooked detail in this D&D edition is the clear
statement of playing either male or female136, without any problems or changes to
gameplay or game rules. While this is a very short sentence in the player’s handbook, it
still can speak volumes about the political and social climate and what made the writers
decide to include it. Having something like this statement, that was not something often
added to past player’s handbooks, says more than not having it in the text at all. Of
course, in past editions and revisions of Dungeons and Dragons some female characters
were given, and there was some inclusion, but in the overall feel of the edition or
revisions of the past, Dungeons and Dragons 3e gives a much completer and more
inclusive feel. It is this edition that truly begins some major changes in the game and
representation within its handbooks and manuals.
136
Core Rulebook I 3rd Edition, (Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2000: 91).
152
These major game changes were not felt only through the text, but also seen
through the art and illustrations used. While no formal preface is given in this player’s
handbook, it is obvious through first flip-through that most, if not all of the previous art,
which was cycled through and reused throughout several editions and revisions, was
revamped and replaced with art that was more up-to-date and seemingly higher quality.
Of course, the raw numbers of males and females represented in the player’s handbook is
not completely equal. This has been the case since the original D&D in 1974. What is of
note though, is the changes in the number of males versus females and what that says
about the “new” D&D.

45 12 33 68%
Active
Female Femal Passive Female
Illustrations e Female Percentage
22 5 17 32%
Table 10. Numbers of Male and Female Illustrations in 2000 Dungeons and Dragons 3e
Of the total 67 illustrations of figures found in this player’s handbook, 22 of these
were females and the remaining 45 were male; 32% of the figures found in this player’s
handbook are females. These numbers are drastically different from other earlier editions
and revisions. The only previous edition that comes close to this is the second revision of
basic D&D from 1981, where 24% of the illustrations were female. Although this
137
153
number is higher than others, it was still from a pool of 19 total figures, whereas the 2000
3rd edition of D&D is based on a pool of 67 total figures. Regardless, this percentage of
females in the text’s illustrations is still the highest noted thus far. Of those 22 total
female images, 5 (or 22%) were pictured in an active stance while the remaining 17 (or
78%) were passive. This trend of more passive to active stance continues with the males
as well, where 12 figures, or 26% of the male illustrations were active and the remaining
33 or 74% were passively pictured. What is key to remember here is the drastic jump in
females pictured in text and what that says to viewers and readers. Images can
sometimes speak much louder than words can.
Perhaps one of those most visible changes mentioned before—at first glance—is
the lack of traditional cover art. While all other editions and revisions featured a scene or
a print on their covers that showed either armored character(s), fighting and battle, or as
in the first Advanced Dungeons and Dragons cover a multitude of activities performed
by men, the cover art for the 3rd edition shows nothing. Rather, it is designed to look
like a mysterious and ancient tome (Image 32). It is covered with what appears to be a
sort of dark brown hide, is encrusted with cut and tumbled jewels, and is laden with gold
metal work embossed with sigils and signs. It is a completely different design than
anything that had been done before.
154
Figure 32. Cover Art Design for the 3rd Edition of Dungeons and Dragons.138
Once again, this change seems subtle, almost as if it does not really say anything
major or important about the update and changes to the game. Just as previously
discussed however, such a small change can say a lot about the thoughts of those
designing the game and the period of time it was done to adhere to. It seems almost as if,
after the near death of the game, its new owners wanted to revive the guts of the game
into something that was easily adaptable and intriguing to people. In doing so, they
sought to create a game text that was inclusive for most players of any sex and that still
carried an air of intrigue or mystery. By getting rid of the traditional style of cover art
and using something that was genderless it gave the game the much needed facelift as
well as reintroducing it to the world as a game that did not care about old ideas and
138
155
traditional sense of game mechanics and one that genuinely exists for the players to
create, play, and get lost in other worlds and universes.
While the cover art seen in Image 32, or lack thereof, sends a strong message, the
art almost immediately inside the book is perhaps even stronger. The first two pieces of
art you encounter in this player’s handbook are a male drawn in an anatomical way and
then a series of heads representing different races. Both of these pieces are male centric,
however; the next two-page spread of art is some of the most important I have seen in all
of the player’s handbooks from previous editions and revisions, thus far. In this
illustration, an example for both a male and a female is given for each race type that a
player can choose to create. What is unique about this piece is that it is not just a
smattering of race examples given without much thought, but rather it is a curated
collection of illustrations representing each race in one place. The setup of this
illustration is so that a viewer can directly compare the male and female form for each
race since each side of the illustration correlates to the opposite. It is the perfect compare
and contrast situation between male and female. Not only does this piece allow for some
standard in imagination, but it gives both females and males equal footing when it comes
to character creations and conceptualization. Readers are left trying to confirm their
character ideas to examples given in the book, perhaps sacrificing the way they see their
character or even themselves, in the world of gameplay. This illustration adds an exciting
dimension to character creation and representation in Dungeons and Dragons.
156
Figure 33. Two-page Spread of Art Featuring a Male and Female Example from each
Race Type.139
139
Core Rulebook I 3rd Edition, (Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2000: 12-13).
157
Another aspect of the art and illustrations, or visual representations within this
player’s handbook and the 3rd edition of Dungeons and Dragons in general is the way in
which females are portrayed. Within its pages, the female illustrations given generally
seem to be fully dressed and not highly sexualized. As we have seen, this has been a very
common issue with female figures since the original D&D edition in 1974. Here though,
women’s clothing and costumes seem to be practical for their profession or character
class. This applies for Image 33, where both male and female examples for each class are
given. In this illustration spread, males and females of a variety of races and/or classes
seem to be on similar footing. In this example, not only are females highly sexualized
and their forms prominent but the males are also shown in exaggerated forms. As
another example, the female monk140 illustration (Image 34) is fully dressed in things that
would be practical for martial arts, which the Monk class is proficient in. The armor and
clothing choices given to the Paladin female example (Image 35) given in this player’s
handbook141 are also fitting for her role as a fighter in D&D as well as someone who
would require heavy amounts of armor as daily wear. In these two examples, it would
have been easy to conform these females to standardized and stereotypical ideas of
female dress and appearance, sacrificing their character class type in general and needs of
those classes, such as amour and loose clothing for martial arts practice.
140
141
Cook, Tweet, and Williams, Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook, 41.
158
Figure 34. Female Monk Illustration Showing Sensible Clothing Choice for Character
Class.142
Figure 35. Female Paladin Illustration Showing Sensible Clothing Choice for Character
Class.143
142
143
Cook, Tweet, and Williams, Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook, 41.
159
All in all, the representation of both females and males in the player’s handbook
for the 3rd edition of Dungeons and Dragons seems to be somewhat on par or equalized
with each other. With the revisualization of the game and basically re-writing it from the
ground up, many changes were incorporated into both the physical text of the game and
the illustrations and art that accompany it. Both of these aspects have a strong disposition
towards a more equal view of both males and females in the game as characters as well as
outside of the game as players. We will see with the next edition, 2003 Dungeons and
Dragons 3.5, similar changes in the game text as well as the illustrations used.
Dungeons and Dragons Edition 3.5 - 2003
After three years of intense playtesting, customer service surveys, and interviews
Wizards of the Coast decided to release an updated revision to the 3rd edition in 2003.
This new addition to the Dungeons and Dragons collection was aptly named Edition 3.5
because the writers and designers did not want it to be a direct copy of the third edition,
but also did not want a fourth edition. Within the first few pages, the writers discuss the
reason for the revision, including what was added or changed to make it different from
the 3rd edition. Essentially, the only things that truly changed were some rules which
were clarified, new feats and spells for some character class types, and some of the art
and graphics of the text were polished and updated. Other than the obvious edition
change and the cover art, there appears to be no real difference between the 3rd edition
and the 3.5 revision. The changes are subtle enough however, to require close inspection
and gameplay to see.
160
Due to the minute degree of changes to the physical text, there are not many
changes or details to note that are different from the 3rd edition. For this reason, the
textual semiotic analysis for this revision will be significantly shorter and less detailed
than the previous editions examined. In general, the changes that were read and felt
throughout the 3rd edition from 2000 are also seen throughout this revision.
To begin, the 3.5 revision of Dungeons and Dragons starts with and uses the
second person pronouns you/your throughout. There are some places in the text where
the writers have referred to “he or she”, but you/your are the most common. This mimics
what was put forth in the 3rd edition, where a sense of general inclusivity is felt from the
beginning with the use of both “he or she” and the second person pronouns you/your. As
the text continues, the character sheet given in the text also has a space for gender in the
character description area. This continues to speak volumes about both as it actively
gives a space for players to create characters to their liking. Rather than just saying you
can choose your gender, which this revision also does very clearly,144 there is a physical
space on their character page that requires you to choose or at least think about what that
means for your character.
Just as in the 3rd edition, the 3.5 revision also discusses sexual dimorphism
between the sexes but does not do so to diminish or make stronger one or the other. On
the contrary, this revision demonstrates that it is possible to play whatever character a
player wants while not losing or gaining anything due to gender-specific qualities or
144
Core Rulebook I Version 3.5, (Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2003: 109).
161
shortcomings. This is important to note as some previous editions have used sex as a
marker for lack or gain of specific qualities for characters. Creating a game that seeks to
include more people and a variety of character types and genders requires an open view
of gender and not one that limits the female gender specifically, making it weaker. When
a character type is weaker, it is played by fewer players because in a game where skill
and ability is key why would you want to play a character who is weak?
When it comes to character classes and the gender inclusivity used in this
revision, it is similar—actually entirely identical—to the 3rd edition. Here, for a total of
11 different character class types, 5 of those are female while the remaining 6 are male.
On the same hand, the number of distributions of in-text examples is also similar to the
3rd edition. Differently, the 3.5 revision has included 6 more in-text examples than
previously used. These examples are both still female and male; there is a total of 5
female and 8 male examples.
While the text was not drastically different from the 3rd edition, it did still
incorporate a general feeling of gender inclusivity and belonging in the game. Where
gender was not included and examples were generally given as males in previous editions
and revision, this text seemed to—along with is predecessor—open up an awareness for
diversity in both players and characters with its varied use of gender and different types
of characters as well as its definite attention to character attributes and awareness of
differences. The similarities between the 3rd edition and this 3.5 revision continues from
the text itself to the visual representation and artwork found within it.
162
Imbedded within the 3.5 revision of Dungeons and Dragons there are a total of 66
illustrations of figures or characters. Markedly, this is only one different from the
previous edition. Of the total, females account for 33% (n=22) of the illustrations while
males represent the remaining 67% (n=44) illustrations. Of the 22 total female
illustrations, 31% (n=5) of the illustrations are shown in active stances and the remaining
69% (n=17) are passive-stance illustrations. For the male illustrations, the majority are
shown in passive stance (75% or n=33) and the remainder are active stances (25% or
n=11). In the larger picture of illustrations for this revision, from the 3rd edition
published 3 years prior, there is one fewer active male illustration, two fewer passive
female illustrations, and two more active female illustrations. Although the numbers and
percentages do seem to be changing and improving to include more females, they are still
non-proportional between the two genders. In a perfect world, there would be a 50-50
split between illustration figures and by proxy representation throughout the text. That
perfect division is still far from what the actual statistics show.

44 11 33 67%
22 7 15 33%
Version 3.5 Player’s Handbook.145
145
Core Rulebook I Version 3.5, (Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2003).
163
As far as specifics regarding illustrations and figures in this revision, just as was
the case for the text, the details are actually similar to the 3rd edition published
previously. When discussing the cover art, it is also very similar to the previous edition.
It does not feature any cover art, as other editions and revisions have, but rather the same
sort of “book cover” style employed by the 3rd edition. Although, the cover art for the
3.5 revision is slightly different. It is still styled to look like an ancient and mystical
tome. It is covered in a dark leather or hide and is adorned with heavy and bulky gold
and silver-colored metal accoutrements. It is inlaid with orange and red gems; gone are
the sigil and other colored stones and gems.
Figure 36. Cover Art of the 3.5 Revision of Dungeons and Dragons.146
For this revision we also still find the two-page spread of art featuring both male
and female example illustrations for each race found within the game. This is still a key
146
Core Rulebook I Version 3.5, (Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2003).
164
feature as it is still found within the first few pages of the text and still demonstrates both
diversity within the game and the possibility of creating a character that is female or
male. Drawing the male and female equivalent of each race helps to further players to
create characters as they see fit, since there is a physical representation to take inspiration
from but also an underlying idea that the creators and writers of this game found it fit and
necessary to include both sexes. These illustrations speak to the sex and gender
inclusivity found with the text.
As for the illustrations that changed between this revision and the previous
edition, the differences are slightly difficult to ascertain. This revision incorporates one
figure specifically, Lidda a rogue, more often than others. There are at least 3 different
illustrations of her doing different activities. This revision does add an illustration of a
female villain; something that the previous edition did not feature. Interestingly, the
female villain is the most sexualized and exaggerated figure in the entire text. The other
females featured are not highly sexualized and their bodies are not exaggerated in female
form.
Figure 37. Female Villain Shown in the 3.5 Revision of Dungeons and Dragons.147
147
Core Rulebook I Version 3.5, (Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2003: 240).
165
While the text and art featured throughout this revision published in 2000 appear
to be quite inclusive and welcoming to all players, the last two editions released of
Dungeons and Dragons will really take those ideas even further. The 3.5 revision served
as a solid core rulebook of D&D for five years while a second major overhaul of the
game was planned and a new 4th edition was released to the world.
Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition – 2008
The early 2000s were a crucial year for game giant Wizards of the Coast. During
the first fourteen years since 2000, the game saw three major editions, one revision, and
one re-release of basic rules. As we have seen, the 3rd edition and its 3.5 revision from
2000 and 2003 respectively, marked a shift in the tabletop role-playing game world.
Gone were the days of gendered and difficult to follow rules for gameplay and combat
that were all set in stagnant worlds and adventure settings. The d20-based system that
was ushered in with the 3rd edition in 2000, truly changed the way the game was played,
created a more equal footing for players and their characters, and allowed a plethora of
new worlds and adventure settings to be created for gameplay. This also led to a spark in
other d20-based role-playing games developed by smaller creative companies that were
similar to D&D in their creative and imaginative aspects but were otherwise completely
different games. This was also the period, just before the 4th edition of D&D was
published, that Paizo Publishing released the news that they would be publishing their
own tabletop role-playing game, Pathfinder Roleplaying Game that would serve as a
continuation of the gameplay rules put forth in the 3.5 revision of D&D.148 Paizo and
148
166
Pathfinder instantly became a contender to the Dungeons and Dragons line of games.
Today, it still stands as one of the biggest mass-market competitors of D&D.149
The 4th edition itself posed several problems to the gaming community, Wizards
of the Coast, and the Dungeons and Dragons line. First, it set off a series of issues and
problems dealing with the open gaming license (OGL) that was set into motion with the
3rd edition and the use of the d20-based game system. It took years to get these issues
straight and ended up hurting the game line. Along with this, supporters and fans refused
to buy a new edition of the game to replace one that was already played and loved. The
player’s handbooks are not cheap; coming in at nearly $50, the price to play the game
adds up quickly. The problems with game licenses, rising cost in game materials, and the
upswing of Paizo’s Pathfinder series added up to a setting that was not ideal for a new
edition of D&D. The first few years of the 4th edition of D&D seemed to be successful;
however, the problems ran deep for players. The 4th edition took away some specifics
for magic users, focused more on combat, and got rid of some character races and
cosmology.150 Some players just yearned for what they had known and loved in the older
149
Currently, there are not physical statistics on the number of Pathfinder players online. However,
there are plenty of references, game and gamer community chat boards and message boards that either
reference playing the game or that discuss the switch over from D&D to Pathfinder. Pathfinder was a crucial
stepping stone in the roleplaying game world as it continued on with gameplay rules that many people
enjoyed, kept with the open d20- based system, allowed room for a plethora of settings and new creations
when it came to game and story building for adventure campaigns. Not to mention, D&D manuals are quite
expensive. For a gamer on a budget, the lesser prices of the Pathfinder game materials were a better option.
Even gaming authority Geek and Sundry posted an article in 2016 that detailed the differences between D&D
and Pathfinder but also advocated for a possible switch to the game if it was something one was looking for
in a gaming system. Comments on that article trend towards the same positive view and reaction to the game
instead of others like Dungeons and Dragons. (James Haeck, “Everything You Need to know About
Pathfinder, https://geekandsundry.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-pathfinder/ (accessed January
30, 2019).
150
167
editions. Eventually, Wizards of the Coast faced with issues in game sales and reception,
sacrificed some lead game designers and was left with hard decisions on what to do for
the game.
Where the fate of the game system and its reception amongst players and fans
were not the most positive during the release and several years after the 4th edition, the
text of the player’s handbook itself does not lack where others of previous editions have.
In a general sense, this edition does come off as gender inclusive, perhaps on the same if
not slightly more than the previous 3rd edition and 3.5 revision. Like those before, it
begins with the 2nd person pronouns you/your and uses “he or she” throughout. The text
also makes clear that “these decisions have no real impact on the game…”151 when
referencing character gender in the character creation descriptions. Along the same lines,
there is still a section for gender on the character sheet. It’s odd that for several editions
and revisions prior to 2000, gender was never included as a descriptive marker for
player’s characters. This was especially the case in some earlier editions that use gender
as a marker for weakness; female characters always and automatically had lesser strength
attributes assigned because of their gender. The race or class of the character did not
affect this if it was a female. Having a delineated physical space on the character sheet
forced players consider the possibility of gender for their character, regardless if they
chose one or not. It is difficult to completely not see a specified area on the character
sheet when it is there, versus when it is not. Unlike other editions where the gender and
151
Rob Heinsoo, Andy Collins, and James Wyatt, Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook:
Arcane, Divine, and Martial Heroes, (Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2008: 24).
168
character data and information found on the back of the character sheet, the 4th edition’s
character sheet given at the end of the player’s handbook places character demographics,
such as gender, at the very front and head of the character sheet. It became even more
difficult to overlook or ignore.
Deep within the text itself are several overt examples of both males and females
in gameplay. For the examples themselves, one female and three males are given. The
female here is a paladin and specifically relates to healing. In most past editions, females
who are generally seen as healers in the game. Perhaps there is some closer cultural
connection with females are caregivers, nurturers, and closer to nature152 and therefore
the figures who would be healers in the game versus other female representations.
Like in past editions, each character race and class are generally discussed with
gender in mind. Some of these past editions were equal between the two in their
descriptions while others omitted females from the discussion. The 4th edition tends to
follow more equalized norm for discussing character races. Each character race type
utilizes both males and females in their descriptions, although between each the numbers
vary. Some, like the half-elf has two male and one female example whereas others, like
the eladrin153 has two female and one male. Each of the examples are two to one, usually
in favor of the males more than females. As for character classes, this is quite different.
In these examples, all class types are gender neutral. In the descriptions for them given in
152
Sherry Ortner, “Is Female to Male as Nature is to Culture?” In Woman, Culture, and Society,
eds. M.Z. Rosaldo and L. Lamphere, (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. 1974), 68-87.
153
A type of high elf added into this edition but quickly done away with in the 5th edition. This race
type came as a distinctly different elf type from elves and half-elves. They tended to be taller and superior
to other races and were seen as arrogant beings highly capable of using magic much more easily than others.
169
the player’s handbook, no gendered pronouns are used rendering them completely
neutral.
Besides the neutral character classes, and the use of females and males in
character race descriptions, there are not any huge changes or major shifts in thinking that
are apparent in the 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons. More so, it does not negate the
shifts in thinking and inclusivity that came with some previous editions and revisions. It
works to include those changes a bit more and perhaps seeks to normalize those ideas of
both females and males in the game as both players and characters. As we will see in the
following section on the visual semiotics for this edition, similar equality appears to be
present in the illustrations throughout.
The 3rd edition and the 3.5 revision of Dungeons and Dragons really helped set
the scene for including females and males into the illustrations and art for the player’s
handbooks, as well as setting an apparent precedent for the lack of sexualization of
figures as was seen in many earlier editions and revisions of the game.
For the total of 104 images and illustrations of figures used throughout the 4th
edition of D&D, a total of 71 of those images were males. Males represented 69% of
figures shown throughout where females represented 31% (n=33) of the figures shown
throughout, including the cover art. While, just as with previous editions and revision,
the number are not split evenly between males and females, there is still a growing trend
of including more females on the text’s pages as art examples for both players and
characters. This is a crucial change and trend to note as it helps support the hypothesis
that inclusivity and equality are shifting and changing as the game is rewritten and
170
reinvented through the years. The most recent edition, released in 2014 will help
demonstrate that idea even stronger, later in this chapter.

71 44 27 69%
33 17 16 31%
Table 12. Numbers of Male and Female Illustrations in 2008 Dungeons and Dragons 4th
Edition Player’s Handbook.154
To begin, the cover art for the 4th edition is much different from what has been
used in the last edition and its subsequent revision. Where the designer of those player’s
handbooks decided to forgo art similar to what had always been featured for D&D covers
and use a likeness of an ancient tome of knowledge or lore, creators and designers of the
4th edition completely went back to the older style of cover art. The 4th edition features
a scene with two characters, a male and a female. At first glance I was upset because the
female, while she appears to be a magic user and does not require heavy armor or
weapons, is shown rather clandestinely dressed. Her body form is exaggerated; the art
itself feels like a throwback to the buxom ladies pictured in earlier editions. One, if not
her most prominent feature, are her breasts, which seem to be popping out of her top in
an exaggerated sense. Sex sells, especially when the audience are tabletop role-playing
game players and often young and teen-aged males. Demographically speaking, the
game has been aimed at those audiences for years, or since its conception in 1974.
154
Arcane, Divine, and Martial Heroes, (Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2008).
171
While the cover art is not what I would hope for a new edition of D&D, especially
after reading its text and the text of the previous two renditions of the game, the actual
composition of the cover art piece itself is interesting. While we can recognize the
female as a human, we cannot recognize the male featured in the piece. D&D players
will know him as a dragonborn, but as a complete outsider who has never played the
game, the cover features one human who is female and one unknown creature. It is
important to note that, upon closer inspection there is clearly a male (probably human) in
the background. He blends into the background shapes and colors and is not visible at
first glance.155 Rather, what you see at first glance is a female.
Figure 38. Cover Image for 4th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons.
While there are some issues with the representation of the woman on the cover, its
composition is similar to that of the Magenta Box Basic revision of the first edition of
155
Arcane, Divine, and Martial Heroes, (Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2008).
172
Dungeons and Dragons from 1981 where the cover feature two figures, an armored male
fighting and a female elf magic user in action. On this cover, the male seems to blend
into the setting and the first image you see is the female.156 She too was represented not
as well as she could have been, but that she is the primary figure on the cover perhaps
makes up for that. The same is true for the 4th edition; while the female is not shown in
the best light, that she is the first figure your eyes are drawn to on the cover and she is
featured with a creature that is not human and other figures who are also difficult to see,
lends an empowering feeling of being female in the game. It sets up an initial response of
inclusivity in the game for any players interested.
For even more gender inclusivity and representation throughout the 4th edition of
D&D, we should examine the art and illustrations used for each character race type.
Here, both a female and a male illustration is given. While not in a full 2-page spread
like the 3rd edition and its 3.5 revision, the 4th edition keeps with the tradition of
showing both a male and female for each. Perhaps this is because different races of
creatures may be the most difficult to imagine or visualize. Regardless, it still helps
create an inclusive feel and leaves players confronting both a female and a male version
for their character. As a player of D&D, I learned the game through the 4th edition. I
can vividly recall flipping through the player’s handbook trying to figure out which race I
wanted my character to be and using the artwork for each to do this. Having a female
vision to look at for each was a crucial part for my own character development. I have
faith that I am not the only D&D player who did this or found the gendered illustrations
to be entirely helpful in character creation.
156
173
In the illustrations throughout, although this is not the case for the cover art,
females are generally shown as not highly sexualized. They do not have exaggerated
forms and their clothing and costume seem to be manageable and reasonable for their
character class. Females are shown in full armor, as well as in several active stances
including fighting in battle and actively wielding weapons. As a miscellaneous
illustration that is not included in the figure count for this study, there is an illustration of
different types of armor near the back of the book. In this illustration, one of the armor
types is shown for females, and includes a breast area. There are not specific types of
clothing or armor that are designed for females specifically and those are not noted in the
text itself. This is rather curious as no other player’s handbook from other editions or
revisions did the same. It is a very minute detail that would generally be looked over but
speaks volumes about both the inclusion of females in the game and the possibility of
those females to be fighters who would require advanced armor. This is certainly the
case for Images 39 and 40 where females represented in a range of armor and battle gear.
Image 41 shows a collection of types of armor for characters to acquire and wear in
game. Notice that in this image, at least two of the armor examples are given as female
forms indicating that in this edition females are not pushed aside and given nothing
substantial to wear but are treated as valuable characters. When giving examples such as
armor and making sure to include female examples, this creates a ‘mindspace’ for
females in the game and gives players something with which to connection and imagine
their own characters as they play.
174
Figure 39. Female Fighting in Battle in the 4th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons.157
Figure 40. Female Actively Wielding Weapon in the 4th Edition of Dungeons and
Dragons.158
157
Arcane, Divine, and Martial Heroes, (Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2008: 190-191).
158
Heinsoo, Collins, and Wyatt, Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook, 103.
175
Figure 41. Armor Illustration Showing a Female Form.159
While the 3rd edition and its 3.5 revision helped escort in some larger changes
when it came to females and their representation both in the game text and the game
illustrations, these shifts were not only invented in the 2000s. In some of the earliest
editions of Dungeons and Dragons we see several smaller movements and changes in
both game text and art. These minute details and subtle variations are where the larger
pieces such as those featured in the 4th edition emanated from. It is safe to say that these
do not end with the 4th edition. As we will see in the text section of this chapter, the 5th
edition—the most recent edition—helps to make some of these changes more prominent
in the gaming community and within the D&D texts. Where D&D suffered some major
problems and near death in the beginning of 2008, the 5th edition helps bring in some
bigger and better changes for the game.
159
Arcane, Divine, and Martial Heroes, (Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2008: 213).
176
Dungeons and Dragons Essentials – 2010
Since the release of the 4th edition in 2008, Wizards decided to release new rules
in the games largest update since the major 2008 overhaul. In 2010, Dungeons and
Dragons Essential, was entered to offer an entry point into the game rules of the 4th
edition, without being too bogged down or hard to follow. Enticingly, the Essentials
Starter Set came in a box and looked eerily similar to the first Red Box D&D Set from
1983. Dungeons and Dragons Essentials was ‘essential’ to the game because it provided
a more affordable way to play the game, since the base box and purchased extras were
significantly less expensive than the larger 4th edition player’s handbooks. Essentials
also took into account some of the issues players had with the 4th edition and rolled back
some of the rules while taking out fighter’s daily powers and adding in significant
differences between the playstyle and character class types of fighters and magic users.160
While Essentials played a crucial role in D&D and the progression of the game
from its beginnings in 1974, it did encounter some problems. First, Wizards of the Coast
could never fully articulate what the game was. They denied that it was a revision of the
4th edition, essentially D&D 4.5, but it was also not its own standalone edition. It was
more like an abbreviated version of the game on a budget. No one wanted to call it
Budget D&D, because it implied a lesser quality and therefore gaming experience.
Because it was never fully classified, it basically died out in 2011. At this point in the
industry, reports suggested that Paizo’s Pathfinder Roleplaying Game was outselling
Dungeons and Dragons, although the reports were not as solid as they seemed. They did
160
177
not take into account the shaky production of D&D manuals and expansions.161 As of
this point, in 2011, the game of Dungeons and Dragons was dead.162
The analysis for this player’s handbook is rather short; the book itself is 32 pages
long—including the back cover—and does not go into as much detail as other editions
and revisions do. A lot of the text in Essentials is practically the same as what is in the
4th edition, just in an abbreviated form. In this version, there is one detail that pertains to
this study: it is a fully gender-neutral text; only the 2nd person pronouns you/your are
used throughout. Even the in-text rules and gameplay examples are neutral. This helps
make the game rulebooks and guidelines not only engaging to the readers but opens them
up to their own interpretations versus what a game designer or writer thought was
important. Making the game your own is a crucial step to D&D as it helps create a game
that players want to be an active part of, as well as helping facilitate what D&D is
supposed to be; a cooperative and imaginative game.
The player’s handbook for Dungeons and Dragons Essentials does make
reference to a character sheet. Unlike previous editions and revision, Essentials does not
include the character sheet inside of the player’s handbook, so I have omitted it from this
discussion. Although, it is important to note that the character sheet is referenced several
times and is shown in illustrations. There, it does have a spot for character gender, just as
the previous editions and revision do. While it technically is not part of the player’s
161
162
Appelcline, Designers & Dragons: A History of the Roleplaying Game Industry 90-99, 198.
178
handbook, it is shown in the player’s handbook and therefore can be represented. Just as
before, having a physically designated space for a character’s gender helps create a
discussion about gender in the game. This discussion can be mental and personal or one
that is talked about amongst other players. Regardless, it still is something that cannot
just be passed over and was an important enough detail to be added to the character sheet
by game designers.
While short, overall this player’s handbook still carries on the gender inclusive
feel of previous editions, while making sure to be completely neutral when dealing with
gender of either players or characters.
In this small player’s handbook, there were a total of 17 illustrations of figures
throughout. Of that total, 65% or 11 were males and the remaining 35% or 6 were
females. Although the number of illustrations is small to begin with, the overall
proportion of males to females improved in this version from those in the past. Of all
D&D editions and versions, including the latest edition from 2014, the percentage of
female to male in this player’s handbook is the highest.
In terms of active and passive stances shown for each figure, this version also
leads with significantly more active illustrations than passive. Although Essentials is
short, it still intends to pack a punch; nearly every page has an illustration and of the total
17, only three of those are not active-stance figures. Gone are stagnant illustrations of
passive figures and are more active pieces, mostly taken from the 4th edition handbook.
179
11 9 2 65%
6 5 1 35%
Essentials Player’s Handbook163
Unlike the 3rd edition and 3.5 revision, but like the 4th edition, D&D Essentials
also uses the traditional style cover art for the player’s handbook. As mentioned earlier,
the actual cover art and style of cover is analogous to the earlier 1983 Red Box edition of
the game. The cover art for the entire box itself is the same illustration used on the 1983
box. This step possibly was a hope for game designers and writers to harken back to the
glory days of D&D and hopefully rebuild their fan base. For the actual player’s
handbook for the Essentials set, the cover art is similar in that it features a figure fighting
the infamous red dragon. What is surprising about the cover art is that, while it does
show a man fighting the dragon, he is not a hyper-masculine figure. On the contrary, we
do not see any muscles on the man whatsoever. He is not buff or brawny, or perhaps
even attractive as we do not even see his full face. Rather than his gender and the
outward expression and representation of that, what seems to be more important here is
his bravery in facing a red dragon alone. Besides him, there are no other figures in this
illustration. Also, this illustration is new; it has been designed for this cover alone and
not borrowed from another edition of revision of the game.
163
James Wyatt, Jeremy Crawford, Mike Mearls, Bill Slavicsek, and Rodney Thompson, Dungeons
and Dragons Player’s Book, (Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2010).
180
Figure 42. Cover Art for Dungeons and Dragons Essentials.164
As for details of the art and illustrations used throughout, the female illustrations
are well representative. They are not provocatively dressed, and they seem reasonable or
practical for the character class they represent. Since the illustrations from this version of
D&D are from the 4th edition, details on the forms and subjects of the illustrations have
been discussed more in detail there. What is of note is that the art chosen for this version
seems to be the best of the 4th edition. With that being said, the females used in this
version do not seem to perpetuate the gender-driven stereotypes of female and male.
They seem to be more progressive and open about who and what they are representing.
While this version of the game was a very short addition to the D&D franchise, it
still carried on with the gender inclusive feel with this completely gender-neutral text as
well as nicely curated collection of illustrations that do not play into stereotypical norms.
Of importance is the cover art since it does not show a brawny brute male as others have
in the past. The glory of this version did not last long for the D&D franchise, but it did
164
James Wyatt, Jeremy Crawford, Mike Mearls, Bill Slavicsek, and Rodney Thompson, Dungeons
and Dragons Player’s Book, (Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2010).
181
set the stage for the most recent edition and the use of gender appropriate terminology
and artwork, just as other editions and revisions since the 3rd have been doing.
Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition – 2014
Since the year 2000, Wizards of the Coast have been churning out game editions
and revisions that seemed to usher in new eras of tabletop role-playing games. With each
new addition to the D&D franchise new rules were brought in, changes to gameplay and
combat were added, character enhancements were incorporated, and gameplay mechanics
shifted from what they were when the game began in 1974. While some thought that the
3rd and 4th editions were complete game changers for D&D, what the 5th edition
brought to the game was on a seemingly different level.
While facing the death of the game in 2011, Wizards of the Coast game designers
began to plan something larger for D&D. In 2012 the design team for the newest 5th
edition of Dungeons and Dragons was released, confirming fan theories of a new
overhaul to the game since previous editions were just not cutting it anymore. The vision
for the game included making it easy for players to transition from other editions and
revisions into the new 5th edition, but also to incorporate all the possible playing styles
and important game mechanics and rules from the D&D franchise.165 As part of their
publication release prior to the full player’s handbook being published, Wizards of the
Coast created a free PDF that highlighted all the core game components and rules so that
players could try the new version for free before they purchased the full version, which is
expensive.
165
182
Currently, the 5th edition is still the newest addition to the game. There are some
rumors within the online communities about a new 6th edition coming in the near future
since, according to their previous timeline of game releases a new update or revision is
due, but Wizards of the Coast and its representatives have not alluded to a newer edition
or changes in a revision form yet. This is perhaps because of the apparent success of the
5th edition. While the price of rule books and adventure modules still are expensive —
the player’s handbook for the 5th edition retails at $49.95— some are still opting to try
the new system.
Whereas the 5th edition of D&D did bring in some new game rules and mix up
the play mechanics to venture to incorporate key elements from the past editions and
versions of the game, perhaps one of the most significant things that the 5th edition did
was in terms of gender and gameplay. As we have seen, some past editions and revisions
did make a special note about gender within the game, whether it be a note about how the
male gender in text description is used because it is the most clear and concise or a line in
a player’s handbook about how choosing your character’s gender is up to you and does
not have any effect on the game. However, in the 5th edition there are two very clear and
particular paragraphs about gender and sexuality in the game for both players and
characters. These paragraphs, while they may appear short at first glance, speak volumes
about the game, its past notions, the future audience for the game, and the cultural and
social awareness of the creators of the game as well as D&D as a whole. They hold a lot
of information that is crucial to unpack.
183
“You can play a male or female character without gaining any special benefits or
hindrances. Think about how your character does or does not conform to the broader
culture’s expectations of sex, gender, and sexual behavior.”166
Part of this passage has been included in some previous editions and revisions of
D&D, but none have gone into the details of this passage to spell out exactly what the
writers are trying to say. Instead of hinting at or making it okay to play whatever
character you want, this passage directly confronts the reader with the endless
possibilities, as well as thinking of the character they want to create as an extension of the
self. In most cases, in order to consider a culture’s expectations of sex, gender, and
sexual behavior as the passage suggests, requires a sort of self-actualization enough so
that we can place ourselves within our own culture’s expectations in order to create
another character in another culture. Here, cultural relativity is key; although those
created in the D&D world are not “real” per se, they still exist to someone or an
imaginative community. To put it in simpler terms, you must see your own culture and
expectations before you can create another.
On similar terms, cultures and worlds will bleed into one another with general
contact. This has been studied in gaming communities and is a known occurrence
between the real-world self and the gaming self. Called ‘bleed,’ roleplaying game and
LARP scholar Sarah Bowman has written extensively on this phenomenon in her own
research and interests. She puts it simply in her seminal text as the bleed over of real life
Mike Mearls and Jeremy Crawford, Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook, 5 ed., (Renton,
166
WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2014: 121).
184
into game life and vice versa.167 From the way that this passage in the 5th edition is
written, as well as the ways in which it could be read, it seems to imply that bleed does in
fact occur often between players and characters and that it is okay to let that happen, as
long as consideration is given. Wizards of the Coast and its D&D writers and creators
seem to be giving readers and players the green light to both question their culture’s
expectations of gender and sexual behavior, as well as question what they may or may
not see in games.
The second paragraph of this same section starts with a simple sentence:
“You can play a male or female without gaining any

special benefits or hindrances. Think about how your
character does or does not conform to the broader
culture’s expectations of sex, gender, and sexual
behavior. You don’t need to be confined to binary notions
of sex and gender.”168
The writers of the 5th manual were on a roll when they constructed this section
for the character creation chapter. This sentence, while similar to the entire paragraph
before, still asks the readers and players to keep questioning what they have been told to
believe. Here, the binary system that is present in our current culture is called out
directly. There is no idea that this may be another culture that the reader is not part of or
one that is made up; rather, this is a call to the actual person reading the sentence and
where they fit it. It is fairly clear what binary system this sentence is referring to, but it
still causes the reader a moment of pause to consider what the statement is truly saying.
When I first read this entire passage, my eyes lit up. I was so impressed with the audacity
167
Sarah L. Bowman, The Functions of Role-Playing Games: How Participants Create Community,
Solve Problems, and Explore Identity, (Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Company Inc, 2010).
168
185
of telling readers and players that they should think about how they do or do not conform
to cultural expectations and then stating that the binary does not need to confine them. It
would be difficult to read this section and not see the larger message here. Game writers
and designers obviously know something about bleed as well, as it would be difficult to
create a character which you aligned with and liked playing that did not have these ideas
taken into consideration at the time of creation. This would likely lead to some form of
bleed between character and player.
These are such crucial passages to have in a substantial book and gaming system
like Dungeons and Dragons that their mere implications trump the other mentions of sex
and gender or the overall feeling of gender inclusivity this player’s handbook has.
Because of the current rebooting of gaming culture, the game Dungeons and Dragons in
so many popular culture references and television series, it is vital that these sorts of
positive and progressive messages be placed within the text for young and new players.
The world of D&D has taken popular culture by storm and has become a hip thing to do
again, so why not use it as a vehicle for cultural changes and ignite a paradigm shift
amongst its readers and followers? D&D, especially the 5th edition serves as a form of
grassroots-initiated change. Wizards of the Coast has given tools for change and it is up
to the smaller masses who play the game to share those tools and begin to question what
their culture has been telling them for so long.
While the player’s handbook starts out with these two powerful statements
relating to both gender and sexuality as well as culture, it does still include other smaller
details that help lend it a stronger overall feel of both gender inclusivity and acceptance.
The player’s handbook itself opens using the 2nd person pronouns you/your. Just as with
186
some earlier edition and revision examples, this helps draw the reader in and makes it
much more engaging. It also makes the text gender neutral; the gender of the reader does
not matter. Along similar lines, the opening examples of gameplay given feature both
males and females in crucial roles.
When describing characters specifically, this text makes sure to use both females
and males, especially in regard to character class. Each class has at least one male and
one female given. When describing the character races, it also gives specific details
about both males and females, such as facial hair and height. There seems to be no
favoring of one gender over the other and generally, the text is gender equal and
inclusive. Also, there is a specific note on elves and how they can often appear to be
androgynous. In all the player’s handbooks I have read from the previous editions and
revisions, a note on androgyny and elves has never been made. Normally, if female elves
are shown, they have the stereotypical elf look, are very attractive, and very tall and
slender. If male elves are shown, which is rare, they only thing that is noticeable are their
cheekbones and sometimes their height. They still have a strongly male body shape and
appearance and are very masculine, never truly androgynous. While this note is even
more brief than the previous, it still speaks to the binary notions of male and female, and
the possibility of existing outside of that binary.
Another aspect of the 5th edition of Dungeons and Dragons that is somewhat
different and unexpected is the non-existence of a physical space on the character sheet
for gender or sex. Instead, what is given is an ample amount of spaces to write about the
character’s sex or gender, rather than simple putting one word. While they did get rid of
that physical space at the character sheet header for gender, they also included a place to
187
consider that gender binary and write where your character (or maybe even yourself)
exists with all the words that will fit.
Although the physical text of the 5th edition of Dungeons and Dragons does seem
to fill some large shoes when it comes to cultural expectations and norms of gender and
sexuality, it is not the only crucial place where this happens. The visual representation of
genders and characters within this player’s handbook also serve a purpose for the game
and the players involved.
Tucked within the pages of the 5th edition of Dungeons and Dragons is a total of
149 figure illustrations. Of those 149, 70% or 104 are males and the remaining 30% or
45 are females. While the text would lead to an expectation of the proportion of males to
females to be more equal, the 30% female illustrations is not the worst that has been
recorded. In terms of male and female illustrations, the majority of males are shown in a
passive stance whereas the majority of females are shown in an active stance. Take note
that the majority of females is only higher by one, whereas in males the difference
between the two is much different. It would almost be fairer to say that the females are
shown in both passive and active stances equally while males have a more distinct
difference between passive and active.
188
104 42 62 70%
45 23 22 30%
Table 14. Numbers of Male and Female Illustrations in 2014 Dungeons and Dragons 5th
Edition Player’s Handbook169
The cover art for the 5th edition of D&D is drastically different from other
editions, especially those published from 2000 up until this one. First, the cover art takes
up the entire front cover of the player’s handbook. What is most striking is that the art on
the cover is itself a larger piece of art. Where the focus on other editions and revision
were generally the figures found on the cover, for this one the feeling is different. Here,
the focus is the piece as a whole, then you can break it down into pieces and figures.
The cover art also features something that was not done in many editions or
revisions of D&D, the main hero is a female.170 There is a second figure, but this one
does not stand out. It too could be another female, but the gender is difficult to tell.
Perhaps this is one of the androgynous elves the handbook mentions. The key figure here
is most definitely female, according to the facial characteristics, the body shape, and
breasts. Hair and clothing are not true markers of gender in D&D since females can wear
male’s clothing and vice versa, and males and females often share long hair. This is what
169
WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2014).
170
Mearls and Crawford, Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook, 5 ed.
189
makes the gender of the second figure difficult to assess. What we can see for a fact,
though, is the distinct lack of brawny and buff men flexing muscles.
Figure 43. Cover Art of the 5th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons.171
Another particular aspect about the art for the 5th edition that is that some females
are not shown as stereotypically beautiful or attractive. One illustration, Image 44, shows
a female warlock who would perhaps not fit into conventional or stereotypical ideas or
standards of feminine beauty. It is refreshing to have a player’s handbook that is not
chock full of hyper masculine male and ultra-feminine and beautiful females. Although
set in a fantasy realm, it could perhaps represent more of what we would see in the real
world.
171
WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2014).
190
Figure 44. Image of a Non-Stereotypically Beautiful Female in the Player’s Handbook
for D&D 5e.172
This is something that has occurred in most player’s handbooks from the
beginning. Most of the time, females are shown as attractive or beautiful. They often
have beautiful bodies, exaggerated features, long flowing hair, and good-looking faces.
Rarely, if ever, are females ugly or not stereotypically beautiful in some sense. This is
even true for female villains, as they are almost always the most attractive and alluring of
the females shown in player’s handbooks. In the 5th edition artists did not only include
those beautiful females, but also made sure to tuck into the page some that would not be
thought of as stereotypically beautiful or attractive.
Along with this, females are not as heavily sexualized or exaggerated as they have
been in previous editions and revisions. There are several examples, perhaps even the
majority of female illustrations from the player's handbook for the 5th edition of D&D
172
191
where nothing about the female has been sexualized. This is seen in Figures 45 and 46,
as both figures are females as suggested by their body shape and breasts.
Figure 45. Illustration of Female Elf Ranger in the 5th Edition Player’s Handbook for
Dungeons and Dragons.173
Figure 46. Illustration of Female Half-Orc in the 5th Edition Player’s Handbook for
Dungeons and Dragons.174
173
174
Mearls and Crawford, Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook, 5 ed., 40.
192
In a more general sense, more female illustrations are included in this player’s
handbook versus other editions and revisions. As you flip through the pages, it almost
seems as if there are an equal number of males to females, even though that is hardly the
case. Along with stand-alone female figures on a page, females are also more readily
drawn into larger illustrations that show groups of adventurers fighting or in battle. Also,
females often have some sort of weapon implement and are shown with power and
strength. Not only does this help represent the female more in the visual aspects of the
player’s handbook, it also draws the attention of readers to the presence of females
throughout the book. When comparing this edition to one of the earliest ones where
females were all but absent, it would lead to questions regarding why females were not
included in the game.
The art in the 5th edition of Dungeons and Dragons clearly works to reflect what
the text was saying. The game is a game for all sexes and genders; like real life, the
game should not be expected to conform to cultural expectations of either or even fit into
a neat binary of male and female at all. On the contrary, the game should be expected to
fill those voids and embrace anyone who ventures forth to play. The 5th edition of D&D
serves as not just a game or a platform for imaginative play, but as a vehicle for cultural
introspection and social change. It forces us to look a little deeper when we create
characters to play and understand what those characters and our choices behind them may
really say about us.
193
CHAPTER 4:
IMPLICATIONS AND FINDINGS
Since its birth in 1974, much has changed with Dungeons and Dragons. As we
have seen in the previous chapter, each new edition and revision of the game brought
something new and different with it. In some cases, this was a positive change and in some
it was the opposite. This chapter seeks to synthesize the findings of the previous chapter
and to condense the overall changes in the game and what that may reflect about the culture
of the time. To do this, I have divided up the 45 years that Dungeons and Dragons has
been alive into five time periods: 1974-1981, 1982-1989, 1990-1994, 1995-2003, and
2004-2014. Each of these divisions occur along lines where I found distinct differences
and changes in the game.
1974 to 1981
While the artwork and illustrations are significant and do speak volumes, the
physical text of the player’s handbooks over the years seemingly speak even louder. Just
looking at the physical text of the first edition of Dungeons and Dragons player’s
handbook from 1974 makes it quite obvious that much has changed in those 45 years.
The first player’s handbook did not mention females in the text whatsoever and all the
pronouns used were masculine. In a sense, this was a game created by men and boys
exclusively for men and boys. Thinking back to 1974, this was a difficult period for
women as up until that time, women still could be discriminated against in terms of
194
credit. In 1974, the United States Senate passed the Equal Credit Opportunity Act which
made it illegal to discriminate against someone based on gender, race, national origin, or
religion when it came to credit and obtaining lines of credit.175 The year 1974 also is
when we see housing discrimination against women banned by congress, court decisions
declaring it illegal to force a women to take a maternity leave on assumption of their
physical condition, multiple entities including AT&T, and the Justice and Labor
Departments banning discriminatory practices against women and minorities, and the
introduction of the Women’s Educational Equity Act.176 We begin to see in the 1970s a
push for more equality for women and this becomes clearly evident in cultural aspects
like tabletop role-playing games of the time.
As the years go by, change does occur slowly in the player’s handbooks. From
the initial 1974 edition and its blatant lack of women or females, except for 2
illustrations, the 1978 basic and advanced editions seem like major turns in both the
writing of the game materials and the minds behind the work. Within that period of four
year, the text became practically gender neutral and in some cases the rules state that
characters can be male or female. What is interesting is that, while there does seem to be
a move to make the game more inclusive and neutral, there are still some small details
that seem to cling to antiquated ideas of gender and gameplay.
It is in the 1978 advanced edition where we see that a character’ strength depends
on their gender. This idea leads people to believe that females will never be as strong as
175
Rose Eveleth, “Forty Years Ago, Women Had a Hard Time Getting Credit Cards,” Smithsonian
Magazine, January 28, 2014, https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/forty-years-ago-women-had-a-
hard-time-getting-credit-cards-180949289/
176
National Women’s History Alliance, “Detailed Timeline of Legal History of Women in the
United States,” https://nationalwomenshistoryalliance.org/resources/womens-rights-movement/detailed-
timeline/
195
males, since in the stats there is never a point where a female will be equal to or surpass a
male. While this is stated in the game and is for gameplay, that idea does not just end
there. This gameplay rule on strength and gender distribution helps to restate the fact that
males are in the dominant role and always will be, no matter what rules may be written.
This slight backlash comes at a time where many new rules and regulations were being
written and introduced in which females and women were granted more equality and
power, but with little leeway since males and men would always be on top. This idea
continues today in many sectors of our culture and society.
This edition also only includes males and masculine figures in the artwork and
illustrations throughout. Just as with the first, 1974 edition females are nowhere to be
seen, lending to their missing status in the game and adding to the social and cultural
ideas about women in games, especially Dungeons and Dragons.
As we continue on in this span of 7 years, the female perspective becomes more
and more prominent in the player’s handbooks and it almost feels as if the game is
becoming more accepting and inclusive towards female players and characters. Along
similar lines, more female forms are incorporated into the text and included on the
covers. In 1981, the Dungeons and Dragons Basic Magenta Box was released. This
edition includes specific details about female characters and seems to encourage female
players. This edition also features a female on the cover fighting a dragon. Thinking
back to the 1980s in United States history, this was a period of much change and
exhibition of gender. It was in 1981 that Sandra Day O’Conner was appointed to serve as
196
the first woman on the Supreme Court,177 Sally Ride became the first American woman
in space, there was a strong influx of women in the workforce, and several strong women
were at the forefront of Popular Culture. Much of the 1980s also saw the US second-
wave feminist movement and the fight for women’s equality and power on multiple
fronts inside and outside of the home.178 However, it is believed that the early 1980s in
the United States marked the period where many of the gender stereotypes that still exist
today were brought back to life and reified within culture with the backlash of the 1060s
and 1970s.179 In fact, the large portion of those gendered stereotypes were versions of
much older tropes of stereotypes that proliferated culture.
1982 to 1989
Situated in the heart of the 1980s, the Dungeons and Dragons Basic Red Box and
one of the last versions of Advanced Dungeons and Dragons encompass the bright colors
and busy lives of the 1980s in the United States. These editions do not backtrack on their
gender inclusivity, but add to it, encouraging girls, women, and females to become more
active in the gaming community and to join the adventures. In the Red Box edition, there
is a special note in the beginning of the text that says that it does not matter to the game
play if you are male or female. It continues by using female examples throughout. The
1989 Advanced Dungeons and Dragons attempts to continue this upward trend of gender
177
National Women’s History Alliance, “Detailed Timeline of Legal History of Women in the
United States,” https://nationalwomenshistoryalliance.org/resources/womens-rights-movement/detailed-
timeline/
178
Rory C. Dicker, A History of US Feminisms, Berkeley CA: Seal Press, 2016.
Elisabeth Nolan Brown, “Gender Stereotypes Have Budged Little Since the Early ‘80s,”
179
Reason, March 10, 2016, https://reason.com/2016/03/10/gender-stereotypes-never-say-die/
197
inclusivity but states in the beginning that only male pronouns are to be used. As many
pieces of that time did, the assumption was that using gendered language such as
gendered nouns—like actor and actress—and making points about using gendered
language was completely fine and was how one could be sensitive to gender issues and
inequality. While perhaps the sentiment was genuine at the time, writers of that period
did not understand that they were in fact making marked categories and that instead of
drawing attention away from gender and inequality issues, they were bring the focus back
to those issues. Instead of using a term like actor and giving it a purely gender-neutral
idealization, it still has the attached male signifier. This is true of many gendered and
marked categories. Making a different word to denote a different gender does not fix the
issue, it exacerbates it and continues the problems. In terms of art, the 1989 edition
attempts to use more females in the illustrations throughout, but often times this fails with
sexualized renditions of female bodies and women who are not fighters but just elves
with no armor.
1990 to 1994
Often seen as the beginning of the third-wave feminist movement in the United
States and the period of modernization, the 1990s can also be seen as to a time where
gender equality had stalled180. It was during this time where much backlash and
negativity was developed towards gender equality and females and more restrictive
policies and regulations were put into play. In retrospect, this time period seemed much
less open and willing to change than the late ‘70s and the ‘80s. In the text of player’s
180
Allison Yarrow, “How the ‘90s Tricked Women Into Thinking They’d Gained Gender
Equality,” Time, June 13, 2018, https://time.com/5310256/90s-gender-equality-progress/
198
handbooks from this period, any true backlash or negativity does not seem to be reflected
here except in terms of the artwork and illustrations used. In both the 1991 and 1994
edition’s covers, only males are shown and throughout the text, women and females are
not prevalent. The game text seems to continue its inclusive trend making use of gender-
neutral pronouns and female examples throughout. The two editions released during this
time, the Black basic box and the Tan basic box were both revisions and re-releases of
previous basic editions with no new added rules or gameplay mechanics.
1995 to 2003
In 1995, the late revision to the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons was released
and seemed to harken back to older times with its use of exclusively male pronouns and
the inclusion of the “note on pronouns” that was also found in the first version in 1989.
This also tends to be true with the art and illustrations as the cover features only men, and
throughout the text few to no females are shown. In fact, the only females shown are
either villains, helpless female children, or partial shots of women’s bodies. These
images speak volumes as women are either criminals, helpless kids who need someone to
take care of them, or only bodies to be looked at and used. Either editors missed revising
this edition, or someone genuinely thought it still applied to use only male pronouns, use
gendered and marked categories, exclude women and females from the text completely,
and avoid females in positive and powerful roles in the artwork because this revision is
both textually and visually almost identical to its 1989 predecessor. This revision feels
like it was directly influenced by the mid-1990s backlash and staunch conservative
199
movement. It seems as if Dungeons and Dragons had its own slight backlash and
conservative moment.
From then on, the 2000s seem to change and revolutionize the game and its
mechanics in new ways. In 2000, the 3rd edition was released and then later, in 2003, its
sister Edition 3.5 was released. These two editions shook the tabletop role-playing game
world and changed Dungeons and Dragons significantly by incorporating a new set of
core rules and gaming mechanics. These two editions also ushered in new perspectives
when it comes to who plays the game. Dungeons and Dragons in its text and art came to
truly be an inclusive game that was open to any and all players. Instead of having placed
neutral pronouns or using a few female examples in the text, the 2000 and 2003 3rd and
3.5 editions felt more open, lively and modern and like a game for everyone. Women
and female figures in the art and illustrations in these editions tend to be sensibility
dressed for combat and adventure and appear to be quite normal physically speaking and
generally tend to not have overly sexualized characteristics.
While the 1990s represented a cultural and social backlash to the changes of the
1970s and 1980s, the 2000s became a more ‘neutral time’ with the identification and
lessening of gender stereotypes and a slightly more inclusive culture that sought to
incorporate women and females more and perhaps listen to their narratives. While this
may sound like a tidy wrap up for the 2000s, culturally speaking, it should go without
saying that the view of women and females as well as their treatment was not fine and
dandy once the year 2000 rolled around. Since then, the overall view of women and
females and the ideas of sexual and gender-based stereotypes, norms, and tropes have
taken huge hits and withstood major changes. What is more prominent and important
200
about this period in time is the acknowledgement of women and females and the ways in
which they may or may not be disproportionally treated or viewed. It is during this time
that major gender stereotypes and ideas –dating years back as previously mentioned—
were finally challenged and brought to discussion. People began to open their minds to
the disproportionate treatment of genders other than male, and blatantly sexist ideas that
proliferated culture in the United States. These changes, while monumental in their
stride, are still taking place today as we have witnessed massive movements in culture
such as the #MeToo movement which sought to bring attention to cases of sexism and
sexual violence that is often buried or hidden in the mainstream culture. Movements like
these bring sexual and gender-based discrepancies to the attention of the masses while
providing a platform to help acknowledge and represent not only women and female, but
gender and sexuality-based discrimination.
2004 to 2014
The final division marks some of the biggest changes within the Dungeons and
Dragons enterprise. While the 2000s packed quite a punch with change and tested the
adaptability of fans and players, the final ten years saw three editions released. Starting
in 2008, the 4th edition of the game was released. Fans were not pleased with this version
when compared with the 3rd edition and its follow up edition 3.5. 2008 was an important
year in United States history; more women came to power in that period and were given
influential places and roles. In 2008, The United States Military named its first four-star
general, Ann Dunwoody,181 and Hilary Clinton became the first woman to win a major
181
CBS News, “U.S. Names First Female 4-Star General,” November 14, 2008,
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-names-first-female-4-star-general/
201
party’s presidential primary. Culture and society at this point moved in a different
direction from the past; women would do more now even though “equality” still was not
truly realized. These years in the 2000s are when we also saw a rise in Popular Culture
figures who were women and pushing the limits. Lady Gaga reigned during this time and
knew exactly how to push the norms and gain sway over the masses. Her
nonconventional fashion and strange choices set the stage for the coming sexual and
gender revolutions of the mid to late twenty-teens.
The 4th edition of Dungeons and Dragons mimics this sort of opening for women
and females in gameplay. The text of this edition is one of the first to truly be equal in
terms of pronoun usage and using both males and females in the text at an almost equal
rate. When reading this edition, it does not feel as though females were placed in as an
afterthought but as if they were always written in where they were meant to be. As for
the art and illustrations, there are more women shown in active stances or wielding a
weapon than any other prior edition. Female characters genuinely seem to be as powerful
as male, and just as ready and willing to fight and explore as males. The shift in the
illustrations is one of the most visible changes to this edition and really causes it to stand
out.
In 2010, Wizards of the Coast decided to release a revision to the rules that was
branded as Dungeons and Dragons Essentials. This very short rulebook was meant to
serve as a condensed version of the large rulebooks for players and only uses the
you/your pronouns; there are very few places in this rulebook where gender and/or
sexuality seem to play an important role. Just as with the text, the art and illustrations in
202
this edition are generally quite vague. The cover features an androgynous figure and
figures throughout tend to be more gender-fluid or androgynous figures.
Finally, in 2014 after several years of waiting, the 5th Edition of Dungeons and
Dragons was released. Throughout the early to mid-twenty-teens, up until 2019 as this is
written, a multitude of changes to culture and society that deal with gender and/or
sexuality have taken place. While the 1990s through the 2000s seemed like large periods
of change, the current twenty-teens have seen huge ruptures in the political climate and
the social fabric of the United States. It is during this time where ideas of gender and
sexuality have been turned on their heads and concepts such as trans and queer take
shape. Currently, there are significantly more than two genders and the conventional
three sexualities. In 2014, Facebook listed 58 gender options alone.182 In 2017, Time
Magazine ran a cover story on the shift from two genders to a multitude and how gender
was being redefined.183
The 5th and most current edition of Dungeons and Dragons also seemed to get
onto the bandwagon of more fluid gender identity and expression. In the player’s
handbook for this edition there is the longest section to date, about sexuality and gender
and how to create a character. This section states that these characteristics do not matter
for gameplay and whatever you decide, because you choose for yourself, will not matter
in the end. The art and illustrations in this edition are also some of the most inclusive as
they show a plethora of females and women with weapons and in active stances. This
182
Russel Goldman, “Here’s a list of 58 Gender Options for Facebook Users,” ABC News,
February 12, 2014, https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2014/02/heres-a-list-of-58-gender-options-for-
facebook-users/
183
Katy Steinmetz, “Beyond He or She: How a New Generation is Redefining the Meaning of
Gender,” Time Magazine, March 27, 2017, 48-54.
203
edition also shows the most males in passive stances versus actives. Art for this edition
shows women who are not stereotypically beautiful, who do not have perfect bodies and
curves; clothing and armor shown is not just for looks but is practical. By far, this is the
most inclusive edition to date; it is flooded with perhaps not completely equal but verging
on equal representation and acceptance in terms of gender and sexuality expressions. It
genuinely feels like an inclusive text that was written for players regardless of their
gender or sexual preference. Obviously, this edition reflects the social and culture
changes that are occurring and is set up to be a place of acceptance and identity
exploration.
When comparing the first edition from 1974 and the most current from 2014, it is
amazing how different the two are. While the first edition was written for men and
males, the fifth edition was clearly written and illustrated for players. There is such a
distinct difference between the two both within their written text and the messages
demonstrated throughout the images and art; the evolution of the Dungeons and Dragons
player’s handbooks through the years demonstrates this marked difference and the
marked cultural and social shifts that took place around their creation and release.
204
CHAPTER 5:
CONCLUSION
In 1974, a new type of gaming system and platform style was introduced to the
world and has since then grown into a massive enterprise and culture. At the time of its
conception and later debut, it is difficult to know whether its creators knew or understood
what Dungeons and Dragons would mean to the gaming world. Since then, so much has
changed and evolved not just with the game and its revisions and multiple editions, but
also with the world surrounding the game and those who play.
Within this research, my goal was to examine the past forms of the games in their
most physical and artifactual existence but also to investigate alongside the physical, the
latent and even semiotic messages and ideas that were being expressed and interpreted.
In doing so, I critically examined the initial player’s handbook for each of the 14 major
versions, editions, or revisions released by the game creators. Each player’s handbook
was examined first textually by combing through the full text in order to locate examples
where gender and/or sexuality were at play and to extrapolate how those were handled at
the time. In this case, the exact textual usage was recorded. I then combed through each
manual a second time, but in this instance focusing only on art and illustrations. Just as
with the textual examination, the visual analysis was to discover and isolate specific
examples of where gender and/or sexuality were at play and to record that for inspection
later. Because these game manuals and this game, in general, is so heavily influenced by
culture and vice versa, each examination through a player’s handbook not only brought to
205
light usage in gameplay but also the ways in which these sorts of concepts were being
handled by the culture writ large at the time.
I have posited that while the history and earliest versions of the game materials
available for the Dungeons and Dragons tabletop role-playing game do exhibit both
textual and pictorial affirmations and re-affirmations of sexism and misogyny, there is a
current and trending movement towards a more inclusive and representative game
system. That game system, being a part of our popular culture, has ingrained values,
ideas, mores, and motifs that are both reflective and reflexive of not just our current ideas
but also those linked to the past. In effect, those underlying messages and ideas are part
of the heritage directly related to concepts such as gender and (in)equality, sexuality,
representation, and acceptance. At first glance, these issues may not seem to be as
important as others, but we cannot fail to see how individual representation and treatment
of individuals matters on both the micro and macro levels. The ways in which we treat
and understand others go beyond the individual and factor into how we learn to treat and
understand things on an even broader scope.
My research has brought about several things and added significantly to the
current pool of scholarship dealing with not only Game Studies, RPG studies, and
Heritage Studies but also fields related to gender, sexuality, representation, Cultural
Studies, and Performance Theory. First, we are now able to look at a game like
Dungeons and Dragons and see it as a culturally rich and diverse activity or even an art
form, in which anyone can participate. For a while, games have been seen as mere
entertainment, with some being educational when applied in specific settings. Now, with
my research and findings, it seems as if that antiquated notion of games should be cast
206
aside to make room for a new conceptualization in which games and game forms are
given their proper place in Culture and to highlight the work that games and gaming do.
There is a thick stigma that surrounds the words “gaming,” “game,” and “roleplaying
game.” This stigma wafts off these words like a miasma that pushes people away and
creates strong prejudices and stereotypes against both the games and the game players.
This was the case in the 1980s when Dungeons and Dragons, and a variety of other
stigmatized cultural expressions were at the heart of the Satanic Panic,184 which ran
through the entire nation. My research demonstrates that games are more than just play.
In fact, they have an innate power to influence and sway cultural groups, bring together
people from a multitude of backgrounds and groups, and project their own ideas written
within the gaming text and symbolically projected into the game’s art. This is clear when
examining the changes over time within the Dungeons and Dragons text and noting how
as time continued on and the game system was adapted and updated, the most current
edition of the game is significantly more inclusive towards all genders and/or sexualities,
and incredibly more progressive in the idea of identity formation and substantiation of
one’s self with culturally defined and regulated terms.
In fact, the most recent edition of the game downplays the importance of gender
and sexuality for the game and specifically notes how these individualized aspects of
identity do not make a difference in the quality of the game, gameplay, or individual
characters. This downplay is not meant to carry over into the real world, but actually do
the same since the game encourages and fosters the growth and exploration of ideas
184
J. Patrick Williams and Jonas Heidi Smith, "Introduction: From Moral Panic to Mature Game
Research in Action." In The Player's Realm: Studies on the Culture of Video Games and Gaming, Edited
by J. Patrick Williams and Jonas Heidi Smith, (Jefferson, NC: McFarland Press, 2007).
207
directly related to gender and sexuality and almost gives the reader a platform which to
work from when negotiating not just their character’s gender and sexuality, but also their
own in their real life. When I say ‘downplay’ here, I simply mean that gender and
sexuality are not used as definitive markers of a character’s ability or worth, as has been
done in older editions of Dungeons and Dragons. This is something that I have
experienced in my time playing the game and how I have both opened my ideas on
personal identity and created a niche within which I can negotiate those things for myself.
As a queer female who is well read and aware of the cultures surrounding me, coming
into this game gave me a space to not just perform social and cultural work with the help
of the game as a tool, but also literally craft a space in which I could create a character
the represented who I see myself as and then apply the layers of gender and sex
expectations and tropes in order to either dispute them, discuss the, or subvert them. In
this instance, play was crucial on so many levels both literally and figuratively.
I would venture to say that the Dungeons and Dragons game writers and creators
in no way want to show a decreased importance in the ideas of gender and sexuality, and
to face the facts getting outside of those ideals would be highly unlikely since they are
embedded, negotiated, and reified by culture. Since we can never be outside of a culture
or be ‘cultureless,’ that seems a highly unlikely possibility. Because characters are often
reflections of their players on some level, this blatant statement can be read even deeper
to mean that anyone’s sexuality and/or gender has no effect on their quality as a human
being. Those identity markers—in this case gender and sexuality—are both individually
and culturally based and do make a difference on both macro and micro scales of human
experience. These ideals are often individually and culturally negotiated whereas they
208
can be challenged and changed collectively through group and community mediated
problem solving. On an individual basis, these categories of identification related to
gender and/or sexuality may be much more difficult to change on a grander scale of
culture, but not so much for the micro and individual scales. Games like Dungeons and
Dragons not only give individuals and groups a place to play and explore, but also groups
within which cultural and social ideas can be negotiated, challenged, and perhaps even
changed. This seems to be the case when we examine earlier editions of the Dungeons
and Dragons game and compare those with the most current in which the gender and
sexuality norms and stereotypes are being directly challenged in a blatant and specific
way. In this case, Dungeons and Dragons offers players, either as themselves or as
characters, a safe space to both explore and negotiate identity in both individual and
group-based settings.
Studying a dynamic topic like Dungeons and Dragons and tabletop role-playing
games through the lens of Heritage Studies has not only changed my own perspectives
about both subjects but has also shifted the ways in which we can define and understand
what “heritage” is. Heritage is dynamic; the past is in play with the present. Perhaps
now the staunch idea of heritage as being something that is only historic, nearly-
forgotten, idyllic, or static can allow for room to include those aspects of culture and
society that are not historic in nature, not based on an idyllic countryside or cultural
remnant, dynamic in their form and function, and still being created and used (and
played) today. My research, in a way, drives out the idea of old and musty and helps to
usher in something that is brightly-colored and imagination-based, while allowing us to
gaze deeper into not only what we decide is heritage but also what the current and
209
everyday parts of Culture say about who and what we are. Things speak; Culture has a
prominent voice that is demonstrated through our artifacts as well as our lifeways and the
ways we play. To be able to examine something so basic, such as a game, and
understand that there is not a solitary voice contained within it, but a multitude of voices
that speak of cultural ideas and beliefs that go back in history is a fundamental point of
this research and my progression through it. As a scholar and researcher, I have learned
that games are not just games, but rather they are fundamental tools for the progression
and movement of ideas over time. Games, just like Dungeons and Dragons have work
that they perform on deeper levels. One would expect those ideas be related to society
and culture and are layered and buried. Just as with the revelation on gender and
sexuality, and how it does not affect quality, found in the most recent edition previously
discussed, this idea was embedded within the game and must be excavated and adapted
for application of a real life and a real person.
The subject of tabletop role-playing games and specifically Dungeons and
Dragons includes so much leeway and space for future researchers. Little scholarship
has been produced on either of these subjects; however, scholarship within the past 5-7
years has increased substantially. When I began my research in 2015 there were only a
handful of scholars who had even considered gaming as their study subject. Of those
few, even fewer were had written solely on Dungeons and Dragons. When I began my
research and up until when I completed it in 2019, there was an overwhelmingly large
hole in this scholarship when it came to subjects like sexuality and gender. As of
concluding this project in the Fall of 2019, that gaping hole is still there. Gender and
sexuality studies, and the ways in which they work with or against Culture and cultural
210
ideas through media such as games and gameplay is an area that is ripe with potential.
There is so much there that future researchers could dig up and play around with.
On a similar note, there is much potential for the progression of this sort of study
for any game system in general. In fact, games can and have been studied through a
variety of scholarly lenses in the past, but recently that has declined. Games are a huge
part of our culture and society; gamers represent a large portion of our population, yet
little research has been done. More attention and appreciation have been given in recent
years to these subgroups with their increased visibility within Popular Culture. Since we
have taken the geek, nerd, and gamer out of the basement and placed them on a pedestal
for entertainment, why not give them their due justice? Now is the time to help those
subgroups of society be represented in a more flattering light, and not just on the
television screen for our laughs. These subgroups are still cast in a negative light and
seen as strange or weird. We should support their endeavors, reassure them that it is okay
to be different, and celebrate what they do.
Since currently, ideas of gender and sexuality are changing and being non-
conforming or fluid is more acceptable, now is the time to break into that discussion and
tease it apart. One could examine gender and sexuality from a plethora of standpoints
and disciplines and because these ideas are so overarching for humanity in general, there
is so much potential for future study, especially that which deals with cultural artifacts. It
would be fascinating to read work that is contemporaneous to the current gender and
sexuality movements, and those that work to examine what these shifts in consciousness
mean and how that is reflected or seen in cultural objects and practices. Dungeons and
Dragons fits within this niche of study since it came on the heels of gender and sexuality
211
revolutions in the United States in the early 2000s and has continued on with that forward
motion today. I urge researchers to move beyond the study of the conforming and static
and to gradually shift towards the grittier or not-so-conventional aspects of life around us.
It is there.
It is my hope that my research and ideas contained here will help further the
scholarly discussion of lowbrow art and Popular Culture, as well as the inclusion of the
everyday and ordinary within the purview of scholars. It is crucial to see how the things
we do, such as playing games, and how we decipher and incorporate their messages, play
into our lives. Like Dungeons and Dragons there are so many things and practices that
we often overlook as being mere entertainment or not having as much substance as they
truly do. I hope that this can change. Dungeons and Dragons came to me at such an
integral and liminal point in my life; it helped me accept a lot of things about myself—to
just proudly be me even if I want to play a controlling wizard who stands in the back of
the group and only uses magic missile—and taught me valuable life lessons. It was not
until I sat down to read the 5th edition of Dungeons and Dragons—just after it was
published—and found that fundamentally life-changing passage about sexuality, gender,
and acceptance that I realized how integral those overlooked and undervalued parts of our
Culture truly are and how they speak beyond their physical words. It is almost
unbelievable for me to realize the family I found with and within Dungeons and
Dragons, the connections between other people, acceptance, deep-rooted messages of
individuality, and overall love, packed into a game based on imaginary worlds and shared
fantasies.
212
APPENDIX:
TEXTUAL AND VISUAL ANALYSIS SUMMARY
D&D
Edition
Textual Analysis Visual Analysis
1974 Only male pronouns, no female in- Generally, males are depicted,
Basic text characters or examples images of females are not general
OD&D but highly sexualized
1978 Text is gender neutral, uses Male cover, no images or
Holmes gendered nouns, female characters illustrations of females
Basic are weaker in stats
1978 Text states the characters can be All male cover, few female images
AD&D male or female, attempts to be or illustrations
gender neutral
1981 Text uses female examples more Cover features male and female,
Basic equally, gender neutral pronouns incorporates more females
(pink) throughout, gendered illustrations
for male and female
players/characters, more inclusive
of females
1983 Text specifically notes that gender Cover features male, few female
Basic (red) does not matter, example characters images or illustrations, no
conform to stereotypes sexualized females
1989 Text states that masculine pronouns Cover features two males in battle
Advanced will be used; masculine pronouns armor. Few female illustrations.
2e are clear, concise, and familiar. No Females are highly sexualized.
class examples are female.
1991 Text uses masculine examples for Cover features one male fighting a
Basic all classes except for red dragon. Few female
(Black) cleric. Generally, 3 and 2 person
rd nd
illustrations. Females are
pronouns are used throughout. One exaggerated, idealized, and/or
class example is given, it is a sexualized.
female cleric. No place on
character sheet for gender.
1994 Text uses neutral examples for all Cover art features three males
Basic classes except for thief fighting a red dragon. The
(Tan) (masculine). Generally, 3 and 2
rd nd
proportion of males to females in
person pronouns are used active stance versus passive stance
throughout. Two examples are is higher than past handbooks. In
given, one male is used throughout illustrations, women generally look
and one female cleric example is directly at the viewer/reader where
given. No place on character sheet males do not.
for gender.
213
1995 Text uses male pronouns Cover art features three males
Advanced exclusively. Where it is possible, ready for battle; these males are
2e there are few to no examples of exaggerated male forms. All
(revision) women given, especially historical character classes and race
examples. Most examples given examples given are male. Females
throughout text are males. Not as are mostly pictured as villains or
inclusive for players at it sets out to
children. Most female illustrations
be. are most visible from their hair
rather than bodily form.
2000 Text includes both males and No cover art. Handbook features
D&D 3e females throughout. Both males 2-page spread of both females and
and females tend to be generally males completely equal. Females
normalized in the game. Text are not sexualized; their clothing
examples include both males and and costumes are highly
females. This appears to be the first functional. Males and females
glimpse of an equalized rulebook. appear to be on a similar footing in
terms of illustrations.
2003 Text is very similar to the 3 edition Art is generally the same as 3
rd rd
D&D 3.5e published previously. Text includes edition. Handbook does not have
both male and females throughout, traditional cover art; it is designed
including the in-text examples to look like an ancient
given for gameplay and the tome. Handbook includes a 2-page
character class types. The second spread of both males and females
personal pronoun is used, along completely equal. Females are not
with “he or she.” highly sexualized, and manner of
dress is functional. Both males and
females, despite the obvious
discrepancies between pure
numbers, seem to be equal
throughout the text.
2008 Text begins with and tends to use Cover art shows one female and at
D&D 4e the 2 person pronoun which
nd
least two males; the female is the
engages the reader and renders most obvious figure at first
gender secondary. There seems to glance. Females are not highly
be a generally equal feeling sexualized and clothing choices
between males and females in terms seem to be very practical for the
of representation and inclusivity in character class type. Each
the text. character race type has an
illustration of both a male and a
female.
214
2010 Text is very short but completely Cover art features a male fighting a
D&D gender neutral red dragon; the male is not highly
Essentials throughout. Character sheet is not masculine. Within the text,
included in the text but is females are not highly sexualized,
referenced and illustrated several and their clothing and costume
times; it does have an area for seem practical for their character
character gender. class type. Most art is taken from
the 4 edition manual.
th
2014 Text seems to be the most open in Cover art features a female and an
D&D 5e terms of gender and sexuality. It androgynous other figure fighting a
opens with 2 person pronouns and
nd
fire giant. Females throughout are
continues to use both males and not highly sexualized or
females in descriptions and exaggerated; females are often
examples throughout. shown fighting and having
power. Illustrations include some
non-stereotypically beautiful
females and does not rely on buff
and hypermasculine
males. Females and males appear
to be equalized throughout the art.
215
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Appelcline, Shannon. Designers & Dragons: A History of the Roleplaying Game
Industry. Vol. 1. Silver Spring, MD: Evil Hat Productions, 2014.



Arc Games. “Neverwinter.” Accessed November 20, 2016.

http://www.arcgames.com/en/games/neverwinter
Barrowcliffe, Mark. The Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons, and Growing Up Strange: A
Memoir. New York: Soho Press, 2007.
Barthes, Roland. Mythologies. Hill and Wang: New York, 2012.
Bateman, Chris. Imaginary Games. Alresford, Hants, UK: Zero Books, 2010.
Bordo, Susan. “The Body and the Reproduction of Femininity.” In Writing on the Body,
edited by Conroy, et al., 90-112. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
Bowman, Sarah Lynne. The Functions of Role-Playing Games: How Participants

Create Community, Solve Problems and Explore Identity. Jefferson, NC:
McFarland and Company, 2010.
Brown, Elizabeth Nolan. “Gender Stereotypes Have Budged Little Since the Early ‘80s.”
Reason, March 10, 2016. Elisabeth Nolan Brown, “Gender Stereotypes Have
Budged Little Since the Early ‘80s,” Reason, March 10, 2016,
https://reason.com/2016/03/10/gender-stereotypes-never-say-die/
Bryce, Jo and Jason Rutter. “Gendered Gaming in Gendered Space.” In Handbook of

Computer Game Studies, eds. Joost Raessens and Jeffrey Goldstein, 301-310.
Cambridge: MIT Press, 2005.
216
Butler, Judith. “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in
Phenomenology and Feminist Theory.” In Writing on the Body: Female
Embodiment and Feminist Theory, edited by Katie Conroy, Nadia Medina, and
Sarah Stanbury, 401-418. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997.
Butler, Judith. Undoing Gender. New York: Routledge, 2004.
Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York:
Routledge, 2007.
Byers, Andres and Francesco Crocco. “Introduction.” In The Role-Playing Society:

Essays on the Cultural Influence of RPGs, edited by Andrew Byers and Francesco
Crocco, 1-18. Jefferson, NC: McFarland Press, 2016.
Byers, Andrew. “The Satanic Panic and Dungeons and Dragons: A 25-year
Retrospective.” In The Role-Playing Society: Essays on the Cultural Influence of
RPGs, edited by Andrew Byers and Francesco Crocco, 22-45. Jefferson, NC:
McFarland Press, 2016.
Caillois, Roger. Man, Play and Games. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1961.
Carbonell, Curtis. “Tabletop Role-Playing Games, The Modern Fantastic, and Analog
‘Realized’ Worlds,” Analog Game Studies Role-Playing Games Special Issue,
(Fall 2016). http://analoggamestudies.org/2016/11/tabletop-role-playing-games-
the-modern-fantastic-and-analog-realized-worlds/
CBS News. “U.S. Names First Female 4-Star General. November 14, 2008. CBS News,
“U.S. Names First Female 4-Star General,” November 14, 2008,
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/us-names-first-female-4-star-general/
Chang, Edmond Y. “Love is in the Air: Queer (Im)Possibility and Straight Washing in
Frontierville and World of Warcraft.” QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking
20, no. 2. (Summer 2015): 6-31.
Chow, Nicole. “Females Role-Playing as Males: Exploring Gender Identity and Gender
Roles Through Online Role-Play.” PhD diss., The California School of
Professional Psychology, 2014. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.
Cobley, Paul and Litza Jansz. Introducing Semiotics: A Graphic Guide. London: Icon
Books, LTD., 2014.
Connel, Raewyn and Rebecca Pearse. Gender in World Perspective. Malden, MA: Polity
Press, 2002.
Corbin, Juliet and Anselm Strauss. Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and
Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. 5th ed. Los Angeles, SAGE, 2015.
217
Cover, Jennifer Growling. The Creation of Narrative in Tabletop Role-Playing Games.
Jefferson, NC: McFarland Press, 2010.
Crawford, Jeremy. Player’s Handbook. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2014.
Cross, Katherine Angel. “The New Laboratory of Dreams: Role Playing Game as
Resistance.” WSQ: Women’s Studies Quarterly 40, no. 3 & 4 (Fall/ Winter
2012): 70-88.
Culler, Jonathan. Barthes: A Very Short Introduction. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1983.
Dicker, Rory C. A History of US Feminisms. Berkeley CA: Seal Press, 2016.
Doepke, Matthais, and Fabrizio Zilibotti. “Boys versus Girls: The Transformation of
Gender Roles.” In Love, Money, and Parenting: How Economics Explains the
Way We Raise Our Kids, 185-215. Princeton; Oxford: Princeton University
Press, 2019.
Dormins, Joris. “On the Roll of the Die: A Brief Ludologic Study of Pen-and-Paper
Roleplaying Games and Their Rule.” The International Journal of Computer
Game Research 6 no. 1. (Dec 2006).
http://gamestudies.org/0601/articles/dormans.
Dougherty, Molly C. “Healers, Women.” The New Encyclopedia or Southern Culture.
Volume 13: Gender. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2009.
Ehrett, Carl and Sarah Worth. “What Dungeons and Dragons is and Why We Do It.”
From Dungeons and Dragons and Philosophy: Raiding the Temple of Wisdom,
edited by Cogburn and Silcox. Chicago: Carus Publishing, 2012.
Epstein, Linda B. “What Is a Gender Norm and Why Should We Care? Implementing a
New Theory in Sexual Harassment Law.” Stanford Law Review 51, no. 1 (1998):
161-82.
Ewalt, David M. Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons and Dragons and the People
Who Play It. New York: Scribner, 2013.
Eveleth, Rose. “Forty Years Ago, Women Had a Hard Time Getting Credit Cards.”
Smithsonian Magazine, January 8, 2014.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/forty-years-ago-women-had-a-
hard-time-getting-credit-cards-180949289/
Evslin, Bernard. Gods, Demigods, and Demons: An Encyclopedia of Greek Mythology.
(New York: Open Road Integrated Media, 1975). OverDrive Ebook.
Fine, Gary Alan. Shared Fantasy: Role-Playing Games as Social Worlds. Chicago:
The University of Chicago Press, 1983.
218
Fish, Stanley. Is There a Text in this Class? The Authority of Interpretive Communities.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1982.
Fleischer, Stephanie K. “Playing with Identity: Literacy, Discourse, and Identity in Role-
Playing Gaming.” PhD diss., University of Louisville, 2007. ProQuest
Dissertations and Theses Global.
Fry, Paul H. “Semiotics and Structuralism.” In Theory of Literature, 95-107. Yale
University Press, 2012.
Fry, Paul H. “Queer Theory and Gender Performativity.” In Theory of Literature, 299-
311. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2012.
Galloway, Alexandra. Gaming: Essays on Algorithmic Culture. Electronic Meditation
18. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2006.
Genoshko, Gary. Critical Semiotics: Theory from Information to Affect. New York:
Bloomsbury, 2016.
Giang, Vivian. “Feminism 101: What is Tokenism.” Femme Magazine, 20 November
2016. Accessed 2 May 2017. https://femmagazine.com/feminism-101-what-is-
tokenism/.
Gilsdorf, Ethan. Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among
Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms.
Guilford, CT: The Lyons Press, 2009.
Gilsdorf, Ethan. “Players Roll the Dice for Dungeons and Dragons Remake. The New
York Times, 9 January 2012. Accessed June 13, 2017.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/10/arts/video-games/dungeons-dragons-
remake-uses-players-input.html.
Glaser, Barney G. and Anselm L. Strauss. The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies
for Qualitative Research. New York: Routledge, 1995.
Goldman, Russell. “Here’s a List of 58 Gender Options for Facebook Users. ABC News,
February 12, 2014. https://abcnews.go.com/blogs/headlines/2014/02/heres-a-list-
of-58-gender-options-for-facebook-users/
Gygax, Gary and Dave Arneson. Dungeons and Dragons: Rules for Fantastic Medieval
Role Playing Adventure Game Campaigns Playable with Paper and Pencil and
Miniature Figures, edited by Eric Holmes. Lake Geneva: TSR Hobbies, 1978.
Gygax, Gary and Dave Arneson. Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Manual, edited by
Frank Mentzer. Lake Geneva: TSR Hobbies, 1983.
Gygax, Gary. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook. Lake Geneva: TSR
Games, 1978.
219
Halberstam, J. Jack. Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender, and the End of Normal. Boston:
Beacon Press, 2012.
Hall, Sean. This Means This, This Means That: A User’s Guide to Semiotics. London:
Lawrence King Publishing, 2012.
Harrison, Andrew. “Rise of the New Geeks: How the Outsiders Won.” The Guardian.
September 2, 2013. Accessed November 1, 2016.
https://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2013/sep/02/rise-geeks-outsiders-
superhero-movies-dork.
Holms, J. Eric. Fantasy Role Playing Games. New York: Hippocrene Books, Inc, 1981.
Huizinga, Johan. Homo ludens: A Study of the Play Element in Culture. Boston:
Beacon Press, 1950.
Hunt, Stephen J. “But We're Men Aren't We!: Living History as a Site of Masculine
Identity Construction.” Men and Masculinity 10 no. 4 (2008): 460-483.
Jenson, Jennifer and Suzanne de Castell. “Theorizing Gender and Digital Gameplay:
Oversight, Accidents, and Surprises.” Eludamos 2, no. 1. (2008): 15-25.
Accessed September 18, 2016.
http://www.eludamos.org/index.php/eludamos/article/viewArticle/26/49.
Jones, Katherine Castiello. “Gary Alan Fine Revisited: RPG Research in the 21st
Century.” In Immersive Gameplay: Essays on Participatory Media and Role-
Playing, 87-107. Jefferson, NC: McFarland Press, 2012.
Kanterman, Leonard M.D. “My Life and Roleplaying” In Different Worlds: The
Magazine of Game Role-Playing No. 1, The Chaosium. 1979.
Kay, Paul and Willett Kempton. “What is the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis?” American
Anthropologist 86, no. 1. (March 1984): 65-79.
Lacy, Ken Nozaki. “Narrative and Identity in Fantasy Role-Playing Games.” PhD diss.,
New York University, New York, 2006. ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.
Laurendeau, Jason and Nancy Sharara. “Women Could be Every Bit as Good as Guys!:
Reproductive and Resistant Agency in Two 'Action' Sports.” Journal of Sport and
Social Issues 32 no. 1 (2008): 24-47.
Lorenzi, Rossella. “Oldest Gaming Tokens Found in Turkey.” Seeker. August 14, 2013.
Accessed November 26, 2016. www.seeker.com/oldest-gaming-tokens-found-in-
turkey-1767702348.html?slide=zqqtXK.
Mackay, Daniel. The Fantasy Role-Playing Game: A New Performing Art. Jefferson,
NC: McFarland and Company, 2001.
220
Mayer, Lauryn S. “Promises of Monsters: The Rethinking of Gender in MMORPGs.” In
Studies in Medievalism XVI: Medievalism in Technology Old and New, edited by
Fugelso Karl and Robinson Carol L., 184-204. Boydell and Brewer, 2008.
http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.astate.edu/stable/10.7722/j.ctt9qdj23.15
Mazzanoble, Shelly. Confessions of a Part-Time Sorceress: A Girl's Guide to the

Dungeons and Dragons Game. Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2007.
Mazzanoble, Shelly. Everything I Need to Know I Learned from Dungeons and Dragons:
One Woman's Quest to Turn Self-Help into Elf-Help. Renton, WA: Wizards of
the Coast, 2011.
Mizer, Nicholas J. “The Greatest Unreality: Tabletop Role-Playing Games and The
Experience of Imagined Worlds.” PhD diss., Texas A&M University, 2015.
Mona, Erik. “From the Basement to the Basic Set: The Early Year of Dungeons and
Dragons.” In Second Person: Role-Playing and Story in Games and Playable
Media, edited by Pat Harrington and Noah Wardrip-Fruin, 27-35. Cambridge:
MIT Press, 2007.
Montola, Markus. “The Invisible Rules of Role-Playing: The Social Framework of the
Role-Playing Process.” The International Journal of Role-Playing 1 no. 1.
(2009): 22-36. http://www.ijrp.subcultures.nl/wp-
content/uploads/2009/01/montola_the_invisible_rules_of_role_playing.pdf
National Women’s History Alliance. “Detailed Timeline of Legal History of Women in
the United States.” https://nationalwomenshistoryalliance.org/resources/womens-
rights-movement/detailed-timeline/
Nephew, Michelle. “Playing with Identity: Unconscious Desire and Role-Playing
Games.” In Gaming as Culture: Essays on Reality, Identity, and Experience in
Fantasy Games, 120-139. Jefferson, NC: McFarland Press, 2006.
Nephew, Michelle Andromeda Brown. “Playing with Power: The Authorial
Consequences of Roleplay Games.” PhD diss., The University of Wisconsin-
Madison, 2003. ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.
Nuwear, Rachel. “The Scientific Reason Complementary Colors Look Good Together.”
Smithsonian.com, last modified November 8, 2010. Accessed July 17, 2017.
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-scientific-reason-
complementary-colors-look-good-together-114030051/.
Omi, Michael and Howard Winant. Racial Formation in the United States: From the
1960s to the 1980s. New York: Routledge, 1986.
O'Neal, Rhiannon. “Gender, Identity, and Tabletop Roleplay Games.” Master’s thesis,
Southern Illinois University Carbondale, 2011. ProQuest Dissertations and
Theses Global.
221
PAX. “What is Pax.” Accessed November 20, 2016. http://west.paxsite.com/what-is-pax.
Pelak, Cynthia Fabrizio. “Women's Collective Identity Formation in Sports: A Case
Study from Women's Ice Hockey.” In Gender and Society 16 no. 1 (Feb 2002):
93-114.
Peterson, Jon. Playing at the World: A History of Simulating Wars, People and
Fantastic Adventures from Chess to Role-Playing Games. San Diego: Unreason
Press, 2012.
Peterson, Jon. “The First Female Gamers.” Medium. October 5, 2014.
https://medium.com/@increment/the-first-female-gamers-c784fbe3ff37.
Roof, Judith. “Gender Is as Gender Does: On the Rebound.” In What Gender Is, What
Gender Does, 222-234. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2016.
Saldaña, Joey. The Coding Manual for Qualitative Researchers. 3rd ed. Los Angeles:
SAGE, 2016.
Save or Die. “Episode 122: Save Vs. Chris Holmes.” Podcast Audio, May 11, 2016.
http://saveordie.info/?p=1449
Schechner, Richard. “Playing.” In The Future of Ritual: Writings on Culture and
Performance, 24-44. New York: Routledge, 1995.
Schick, Lawrence. Heroic Worlds: A History and Guide to Role-Playing Games. New
York: Prometheus Books, 1991.
Schut, Kevin. “Desktop Conquistadors: Negotiating American Manhood in the Digital
Fantasy Role-Playing Game.” In Gaming as Culture: Essays on Reality, Identity,
and Experience in Fantasy Games, 100-119. Jefferson, NC: McFarland Press,
2006.
Shaw, Adrienne. Gaming at the Edge: Sexuality and Gender at the Margins of Gamer
Culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2014.
Shaw, Adrienne. “Circles, Charmed, & Magic: Queering Game Studies.” QED: A
Journal for GLBTQ Worldmaking 2. No 2 (Summer 2015): 64-97.
Soubevrand, Catherine. “The Game of Senet.” The Game Cabinet. Accessed November
26, 2016. www.gamecabinet.com/history/Senet.html
Steinmetz, Katy. “Beyond He or She: How a New Generation is Redefining the Meaning
of Gender.” Time Magazine, March 27, 2017, 48-54.
Stenros, Jaako and Tanja Sihvonen, “Out of the Dungeons: Representations of Queer
Sexuality in RPG Source Books,” Analog Game Studies 2, no. 5 (Summer 2015).
http://analoggamestudies.org/2015/07/out-of-the-dungeons-representations-of-
queer-sexuality-in-rpg-source-books/
222
The Escapist. “As BADD as it Gets: An Anti-Dungeons and Dragons Propaganda
Booklet.” Accessed April 4, 2019. http://www.theescapist.com/BADDbook.htm
Toles, Patkin, Terri. “Rational Coordination in the Dungeon.” The Journal of Popular
Culture 20, no. 1 (Summer 1986): 1-14.
Toles-Patkin, Terri. “Rational Coordination in the Dungeon.” The Journal of Popular

Culture 20 no. 1, (Summer 1986): 1-14.
Torner, Evan and William J. White. “Introduction.” In Immersive Gameplay: Essays on

Participatory Media and Role-Playing, 3-11. Jefferson, NC: McFarland Press,
2012.
Trammel, Aaron. “Misogyny and the Female Body in Dungeons and Dragons.” Analog
Game Studies 1 no. 3 (2014). http://analoggamestudies.org/2014/10/constructing-
the-female-body-in-role-playing-games/
Tresca, Michael, J. The Evolution of Fantasy Role-Playing Games. Jefferson, NC:

McFarland and Company, 2011.
TSR Hobbies. Dungeons and Dragons: Fantasy Adventure Game, edited by Tom
Moldvay. Lake Geneva: TSR Hobbies, 1981.
TSR Hobbies. Dungeons and Dragons: Fantasy Adventure Game Basic Rulebook, edited
by Frank Mentzer. Lake Geneva: Tactical Studies Rules, 1983.
TSR Inc. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition: Player’s Handbook, edited by
David “Zeb” Cook and Mike Breault. Lake Geneva: Tactical Studies Rules,
1989.
TSR Inc. Dungeons and Dragons Game: Rule Book, edited by Timothy B. Brown.
Lake Geneva: Tactical Studies Rules, 1991.
TSR Inc. The Classic Dungeons and Dragons Game: Rules and Adventures Book,
edited by Doug Stewart. Lake Geneva: Tactical Studies Rules, 1994
TSR Inc. Advanced Dungeons and Dragons: Worlds of Adventure Player’s Handbook
for the AD&D Game. Lake Geneva: Tactical Studies Rules, 1995.
Turner, Victor. The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti-Structure. London: Routledge
and Kegan Paul, 1969.
Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: A User-Friendly Guide. New York: Routledge,
2015.
223
Waskul, Dennis D. “The Role-Playing Game and the Game of Role-Playing.” In Gaming
as Culture: Essays on Reality, Identity, and Experience in Fantasy Games, 19-38.
Jefferson, NC: McFarland Press, 2006.
West, Candace and Don H. Zimmerman. “Doing Gender.” Gender and Society 1, no. 2.
(June 1987): 125-151.
White, William J., J. Tuorras Harviainen, and Emily Care Boss. “Role-playing
Communities, Cultures of Play and the Discourse of Immersion.” In Immersive
Gameplay: Essays on Participatory Media and Role-Playing, 71-86. Jefferson,
NC: McFarland Press, 2012.
Williams, J. Patrick, Sean Q. Hendricks, and W. Keith Winkler. “Introduction: Fantasy

Games, Gaming Cultures, and Social Life.” In Gaming as Culture: Essays on
Reality, Identity, and Experience in Fantasy Games, 1-13. Jefferson, NC:
McFarland Press, 2006.
Williams, J. Patrick and Jonas Heidi Smith. “Introduction: From Moral Panic to Mature
Game Research in Action.” In The Player's Realm: Studies on the Culture of
Video Games and Gaming, Edited by J. Patrick Williams and Jonas Heidi Smith,
1-15. Jefferson, NC: McFarland Press, 2007.
Williams, J. Patrick. “Consumption and Authenticity in the Collectable Strategy Game

Subculture.” In Gaming as Culture: Essays of Reality, Identity, and Experience
in Fantasy Games. Jefferson, NC: McFarland Press, 2006.
Witwer, Michael. Empire of Imagination: Gary Gygax and the Birth of Dungeons and
Dragons. New York: Bloomsbury, 2015.
Witwer, Michael, Kyle Newman, Jon Peterson, and Sam Witwer. Dungeons and Dragons
Art & Arcana A Visual History: A Compiled Volume of Information and Imagery
for Lovers of Dungeons and Dragons, Including Art, Advertising, Ephemera, and
More. New York: Ten Speed Press, 2018.
Wizards of the Coast. “Dice, Camera, Action with Dungeons and Dragons.” February 17,
2016. Accessed November 20, 2016. dnd.wizards.com/articles/news/new-weekly-
dd-stream-chris-perkins.
Wizards of the Coast. Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbook Core Rulebook 3.0.
Renton, WA: Wizards of the Coast, 2000.
Wizards of the Coast. Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Book. Renton, WA: Wizards of
the Coast, 2010.
Yarrow, Allison. “How the ‘90s Tricked Women into Thinking They’d Gained Gender
Equality.” Time, June 13, 2018. https://time.com/5310256/90s-gender-equality-
progress/
224
Young, Katherine Galloway. Taleworlds and Storyrealms: The Phenomenology of
Narrative. Boston: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1987.
Zalewski, Marysia. “'I Don't Even Know What Gender Is': A Discussion of the
Connections between Gender, Gender Mainstreaming and Feminist Theory.”
Review of International Studies 36, no. 1 (January 2010): 3-27.
http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.library.astate.edu/stable/40588102.
225

Pinkston Acceptance TTRPG Representation

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Pinkston Acceptance TTRPG Representation

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

COOPERATIVE ACCEPTANCE AND TABLETOP REPRESENTATION:

GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN THE FANTASY TABLETOP ROLE-PLAYING

GAME DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS

A Dissertation presented to the faculty of Arkansas State University in partial fulfillment

ARKANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY

All rights reserved

INFORMATION TO ALL USERS

All Rights Reserved.

COOPERATIVE ACCEPTANCE AND TABLETOP REPRESENTATION:

GENDER AND SEXUALITY IN THE FANTASY TABLETOP ROLE-PLAYING

GAME DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS

To all the weirdos, gamers, readers, and introverts.

would not have been possible. Thank you.

My father, my sister, my stepmother, and my extended family have been truly

dissertation because truly it was because of you that I kept going.

glory days as grand adventurers.

On a side note, because I use a number of illustrations and examples from

Dungeons and Dragons handbooks, I am required to say that this dissertation,

“Cooperative Acceptance and Tabletop Representation: Gender and Sexuality In the

LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................. xi

LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................. xii

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................1

Heritage Studies and Games ........................................................................7

Games, Play, and Us .................................................................................10

Game Typology .............................................................................11

CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE ........................................................19

Literature Review Themes .........................................................................31

CHAPTER 3: VISUAL AND TEXTUAL SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF DUNGEONS

AND DRAGONS PLAYER’S HANDBOOKS ......................................................64

Brief History of Dungeons and Dragons Player’s Handbooks .................69

Men & Magic, 1974 ...................................................................................71

Dungeons and Dragons Basic – 1977 Holmes Revision ...........................76

Dungeons and Dragons Basic – 1981 (Pink/Magenta Box) ......................89

Dungeons and Dragons Basic - 1983 (Red Box) ......................................99

Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2 Edition -1989 ...............................108

Dungeons and Dragons Basic -1991 (Black Box) ..................................121

Classic Dungeons and Dragons -1994 (Tan Box) ...................................132

Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2 Edition - 1995 (Revision) ............139

Dungeons and Dragons 3 Edition – 2000 ..............................................148

Dungeons and Dragons Edition 3.5 – 2003.............................................160

Dungeons and Dragons 4 Edition – 2008 ..............................................166

Dungeons and Dragons Essentials – 2010 ..............................................177

Dungeons and Dragons 5 Edition – 2014 ..............................................182

CHAPTER 4: IMPLICATIONS AND FINDINGS ...........................................194

1974 to 1981 ............................................................................................194

1982 to 1989 ............................................................................................197

1990 to 1994 ............................................................................................198

1995 to 2003 ............................................................................................189

2004 to 2014 ............................................................................................201

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION ...........................................................................205

APPENDIX: TEXTUAL AND VISUAL ANALYSIS SUMMARY .................213

2. Numbers of Male and Female Illustrations in 1977 Dungeons and ..........83

3. Numbers of Male and Female Illustrations in 1978 Advanced ..................87

4. Numbers of Male and Female Illustrations in 1981 Dungeons .................98

5. Numbers of Male and Female Illustrations in 1983 Dungeons ...............104

6. Numbers of Male and Female Illustrations in 1989 Advanced ................113

7. Numbers of Male and Female Illustrations in 1991 Dungeons ...............125

8. Numbers of Male and Female Illustrations in 1994.................................136

9. Numbers of Male and Female Illustrations in..........................................144

10. Numbers of Male and Female Illustrations in .........................................153

11. Numbers of Male and Female Illustrations in..........................................163

12. Numbers of Male and Female Illustrations in .........................................171

13. Numbers of Male and Female Illustrations in .........................................180