TTRPG Research Notes

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

This text records the source base behind the current tabletop role-playing games module so future revisions can start from a stable corpus instead of repeating web searches. It is a working research map, not a finished essay.

Foundational academic sources

These sources are strong starting points for almost any TTRPG page in this module.

Gary Alan Fine, Shared Fantasy: Role Playing Games as Social Worlds. Useful for the social-world account of role-playing and for understanding table norms as institutions. https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/S/bo5949823.html
Jennifer Grouling Cover, Tabletop Role-Playing Games: Perspectives from Narrative, Game, and Rhetorical Theory. Useful for medium distinction, rhetoric, and the difference between tabletop and software-limited RPGs. https://repository.lib.ncsu.edu/items/32caa2a7-55fa-496f-b9e4-8c8a252f03c2
Jose P. Zagal and Sebastian Deterding, eds., The Routledge Handbook of Role-Playing Game Studies. Best broad academic anchor for the field as of 2024. https://www.routledge.com/The-Routledge-Handbook-of-Role-Playing-Game-Studies/Zagal-Deterding/p/book/9781032277783
Analog Game Studies, “Analog Game Studies 101.” Strong open bibliography for finding adjacent scholarship fast. https://analoggamestudies.org/about/analog-game-studies-101/
Premeet Sidhu, Marcus Carter, and Jose P. Zagal, eds., Fifty Years of Dungeons & Dragons. Useful when the module needs to address D and D critically rather than treating it as the default form. https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262547604/fifty-years-of-dungeons-and-dragons/

Materials and artifact design

These sources are the best fit for the module’s current work on scenario, handout, reference sheet, and campaign documents.

OpenCulture on emsenn.net

TTRPG Research Notes

Foundational academic sources

Materials and artifact design