Analog Game Studies

This essay examines a recent adventure module for Dungeons & Dragons Fifth Edition, which employs older game mechanics and who also espouse fascist or GamerGate-like rhetoric. This adventure, Tomb of Annihilation, takes mechanical, narrative, and setting inspiration from earlier D&D adventures, presenting players with an adventure that is both challenging and player driven. This essay contributes to scholarship that identifies gameplay mechanics as constructs and vital contributors to storytelling in game worlds. Contrary to popular discourse which often ascribes game mechanics a moral or political neutrality, this essay argues game mechanics are often co-constructive with games' narratives, settings, and aesthetics.