Timeframe:
8 Weeks
Year:
Summer 2019
Role:
Lead Interviewer &
Lead Graphic Designer
D&D
Ethnographic
Report
To begin:
What is ethnography?
Ethnography is the study and recording of peoples and their cultures. It is used to understand a culture in its natural context in order to create an accurate understanding of it. Ethnographic research is also known as qualitative research.
Introduction:
D&D, or Dungeons and Dragons, is a tabletop role-playing game known by most for its interjections in popular visual media. Usually, people will get together once a week for a couple of hours and immerse themselves into a universe entirely different from our own. Recently D&D has found itself in a revival. More and more people are beginning to set up their own dungeons and their own parties of friends to meet up and destroy the big bad evil in the end. With this revival of the tabletop role-playing game comes an entire revival in its culture as well. What happens during these sessions? More importantly, what has happened outside of these sessions that have given D&D a second wind in current culture and media?
Executive Summary
This report focuses on the culture and happenings within D&D and its weekly sessions. We wished to explore how D&D has evolved both within itself but also throughout pop culture in “normal” society. Through our research, we discovered that the sudden increase in popularity is probably due to the increase of positive representation of D&D in digital and visual media. The culture within D&D groups has also grown and now includes its own rituals and insights. This report explores both the internal and external D&D culture and its influence on a group of D&D players.