Andre Tarleton

This project focuses on the paradoxical space of the indie tabletop roleplay game (TTRPG) scene, which fosters white supremacist/eugenicist speculative worlds alongside decolonial utopias. It critiques the playbooks of far-right designers as naturalizing whiteness and promoting neo-traditionalist futures and crafts TTRPGs in conversation with Black and Indigenous decolonial feminist thought. Through an approach to ethnographic research blending auto-, digital, multimodal and traditional methods, the project explores the lived experiences of marginalized TTRPG designers and players. The dissertation project situates the playful co-creation of narratives within the realm of theoretical production, sheds light on the utilization of seemingly apolitical hobby spaces by the far right and explores the ways people are responding through counternarratives and play practices. The project will culminate in a set of TTRPGs and a dissertation manuscript blending narrativized tabletop gameplay with traditional ethnographic writing.