I noticed some new papers on role-playing games:
On the Role of the Die: A brief ludologic study of pen-and-paper roleplaying games and their rules. Game Studies 6(1).
by Joris Dormans
Pen-and-paper roleplaying games, like computer games, are in their essence rule-based simulation “engines” that facilitate playful interaction. These similarities make it possible to take some theoretical concepts and notions developed for computer games and use them to study roleplaying games.
Communication in Multi-Player Role Playing Games The Effect of Medium in Technologies for Interactive Digital Storytelling and Entertainment
(version available: http://jonassmith.dk/weblog/wp-content/effectofmedium.pdf)
by Tychsen, Anders & Smith, Jonas Heide & Hitchens, Michael & Tosca, Susana
The Pen-and-Paper role-playing game is a successful example of collaborative interactive narrative. Meanwhile, computer-based role-playing games, while structurally similar, offer quite different narrative experiences. Here results are presented of an experimental study of role-playing gamers in Pen-and-Paper and computer-supported settings. Communication patterns are shown to vary significantly on measures such as the share of in-character statements and the share of dramatically motivated statements. These results are discussed in the light of differences between the two gaming forms and finally some design implications are discussed.
Petri Lankoski 