D&D Research

There's a lot of information about Dungeons and Dragons. However, I chose the topic of "Diversity within Dungeons and Dragons" to look into further into. 

When I naturally think of Dungeon and Dragons, I think of fantasy-related content. Stories and tales of heroes in another land filled with magic and evil, intertwined in the plot to help majestically save the town or something similar. I believe the repetition could get pretty boring at times so I was curious as to how diverse the content could be. Though what I discovered was that it's whatever the players want it to be. Sure, there are pre-built stories to help guide new players, but it ultimately comes down to what the Dungeon Masters and players want their world to look like. It's theirs to discover and create. Sure, the base of the game can be built on characters with magic spells or powers, but depending on the people playing it, it can be turned into strengths and weaknesses... or rules changed around to a new style of play. It's not concrete. It's whatever the minds of the players or DM want it to be. DnD encourages their player base to have fun and be creative with the content they've inspired and created, and I find that pretty great.

On the other hand, I've found some information regarding diversity within the player base, storytelling, and history behind DnD, . DnD themselves have been transparent and voiced that in the past, people in the game were characterized as something it shouldn't have been. They've realized this and find strength in the diversity within the game. from all representations, feeling the need to be inclusive to make anyone and everyone playing feel welcome and a part of it. On the other hand, I've seen players complain about the lack of diversity within the people playing, with the stereotype being the average white geeky male, so to speak. With this being the case, that doesn't depend on DnD in itself, but the people playing. It's not racist or exclusive in the least, simply an issue behind who wants to play. At that point it depends on spreading the game farther out, or even the exposure that a specific person may be getting.  It's encouraged for players to be creative and make characters with TONS of different character design and backgrounds. Case point, I wouldn't define it as much of an issue.

While lastly, an issue for many DMs would be inclusion while creating the world around them. During improvisation, one may naturally on the fly make a character without much effort to speed things along and accidentally get in the habit of making people uniform, stereotypical, or basic. This solely depends on the effort of the Dungeon Master behind the making of the game and their willingness to get out of their comfort zone. Expand their mind a little. Do some research maybe. However, it all comes down to time and how much people are willing to put in to make the campaign truly memorable to whoever decides to play.

Another table-top role-playing game that I found that was relatively similar to Dungeons and Dragons was Bubblegumshoe. It was published in June of 2016 by Evil Hat Productions and takes on more of a typical high-schooler local mystery to solve, think Nancy Drew. The game isn't based on a rule-set system where one usually is required to roll to spot clues or take certain actions. However, there is a statistical system with abilities with the main three stats being Investigative, Interpersonal, and General. Each are pretty self explanatory with skills pertaining to each, analytical ability, the ability to sway others, or general skills like first-aid or computer skills. Then there's Cool, also being a statistic the players have to watch out for. It can sway where the characters may go or how they may act depending on what they're usually comfortable with. Say you're a Jock, you'd typically be found playing football in the stadium, but not near the Arts kids clique, if you catch my drift. I find it to be an interesting game with it's realistic base in society with stereotypes, modern overall character backgrounds and motivations, its system with relationships with others, typical normal issues that may happen, and how the players may solve them, even in extravagant ways considering on the character you're taking on. 

I like it's light-hearted nature, grounded in a practical teenager type society with common issues that high-schoolers may have scattered from clique to clique, friend to enemy, defining each character based off of their likes, dislikes, strengths, weaknesses, and how one may get along with others within the story. It was created with teenagers in mind so it isn't an overly complicated game, though it's made difficult enough for adults to enjoy too! I appreciate its straightforward-ness and awareness to not make the game overly complicated but still very enjoyable to play. 

It's made public digitally on the Evil Hat Productions website for $12.50 with many different sleuth / character creation templates.  Found here: https://evilhat.com/product/bubblegumshoe/ .