Written by Chris Danielson, the paper was presented at the Popular Culture Association national convention years ago and I just read it... and I find myself going "Yeah, that tracks."
This paper expands upon Gary Alan Fine’s study of fantasy-role gaming (FRPG) groups and examines gamer and game misogyny, specifically in the Dungeons and Dragons(D&D) games formerly published by TSR, Inc. TSR reinforced the male homosocial world of FRPGs, and the net effect of this culture was the marginalization of women gamers and designers, despite TSR’s public statements to the contrary. This paper analyzes the height of the game’s popularity in the late 1970s and 1980s, specifically the relationships between among sexism and the corporate culture and artistic representations of the company’s early years.
Games designers Gary Gygax, Jeff Perren, and Dave Arneson created Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) and founded Tactical Studies Rules in 1974, later TSR Hobbies. The company published formal rules in 1977 for D&D and later a more detailed version, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (AD&D), as well as the trade publication Dragon magazine. The game’s success,which had reached several million players by the early 1980s, rapidly created a new gaming subculture, the fantasy role-playing group,which operated as a highly sexually segregated world with men predominated both in private gaming groups and gaming conventions. Women made up between five to fifteen percent of gamers in the late1970s, with less than five percent at conventions, numbers so low that Gygax felt it was “worth noting” that there was a woman among eight finalists in an AD&D tournament in Great Britain in1982. Despite recent and rapid changes in sex roles in the U.S. due to second-wave feminism, gaming groups developed as male homosocial worlds that reinforced male chauvinism.i
Men in private gaming groups often expressed an explicit and violent male chauvinism. Fine detailed the violent actions verbally role-played by gamers through their fictional characters but says that violent role-playing does not indicate violent real-world behavior and may even have therapeutic value by providing an outlet for aggression. This type of role-playing meant that sexual violence and misogyny often (but not always) became integral to the gaming, and Fine himself observed the frequent use of rape and violence against female nonplayer characters encountered during gaming sessions, as well as sexist jokes. FRPG groups recruited women players differently, with a woman usually joining because of a romantic involvement with a male player. Male players sometimes expressed discomfort at female involvement, and women often bore the brunt of teasing and sexual comments.ii
Women gamers often challenged this behavior. When women spoke out against misogyny in gaming groups,such behavior often stopped. Some also saw a connection between such misogyny and TSR products. Women often wrote letters to Dragon complaining of sexist attitudes in male spaces like gaming groups and hobby shops, as well as in gaming rules, which prompted responses from the editors, who were already attracting negative publicity from parents and religious groups.iii
In July 1980, The Dragon ran an editorial written by Kim Mohan, the male assistant editor of the magazine, and Jean Wells, the first female games designer employed by TSR. They directly addressed complaints from women about their player characters being degraded as sex objects, but they gave no real advice and avoided more controversial issues like sexual violence. They only commented on games rules that limited the strength of female characters and the eroticized way that women were depicted in tabletop miniatures. The authors conceded the latter issue, agreeing that women were “understandably appalled” and said such depictions “did not reflect the reality of the game.” With no apparent irony, they also upheld the validity of the strength restrictions on the basis of “reality” in a fantasy game, and said the limitations “cannot logically be argued against.” An accompanying editorial by a woman gamer severely criticized the inclusion of strength restrictions.
It was not until January 1982when Roger Moore, a contributing editor to Dragon, wrote an editorial that criticized the use of rape in FRP sessions. He connected it more broadly to issues that discouraged women from gaming, and indicated that a male referee should “examining his own feelings about women players in the game.”i
Despite the editorials condemning gamer misogyny, sexism did permeate the staff of Dragon. Male editors often trivialized complaints made by women. In May 1980, Kathleen McCauslin complained about Dragon’s lack of female authors and women’s secondary roles in the articles and fiction. Jake Jaquet,the editor, took “a small amount of offense” at the suggestion of sexism, and said that since men submitted ninety-eight percent of the material, the fault lay with women for not submitting their own fiction or articles for publication. Jaquet declared that theeditors were “not about to start some sort of quota system to insure some artificial and arbitrary mix of gender of authors.” Another reader, Theresa Reed, claimed that Dragon ignored female gamers, which led Kim Mohan to cite the inclusion of women in fantasy artwork as an example of the magazine’s egalitarianism. He said he wrote a reply “at the risk of devoting more words to thisoft-debated subject than it warrants.”ii
The complaints of McCauslin and Reed about the lack of female input were linked to the questions over representations of women in fantasy artwork and miniatures. Many visual and written depictions in fantasy heavily sexualized women, often showing them in scanty, impractical outfits such as chainmail bikinis or engaged in activities with erotic innuendo. Such depictions went back to the early years of fantasy, such as the Conan stories of Robert Howard in the 1930s, and TSR continued the trend with artwork in its AD&D rulebooks.iii
The depictions of women courted more controversy when they appeared on the cover of Dragon, which gave the artwork more visibility than interior art in a rulebook. Artists like Clyde Caldwell produced covers for the magazine, often with women in revealing outfits. A male gamer commented on the different standards for male and female depictions on the covers. Scott Devine said that his wife said that “when there is a female on the cover she is generally scantily clad and well proportioned, but when there is a guy on the cover he is covered from head to toe and looks like a jerk.”iv
Perhaps the greatest uproar concerned the October 1986 cover, which depicted a work by a male artist, David Martin. The painting, Spirit of the Night, showed a nude woman inprofile, crouched atop a statue. Martin described the painting in language laced with sexual undertones: “In a shower of moonlight, alone figure kneels in supplication to the image of a god worshiped long ago. Aroused, the elemental nightwind rises up, phoenix-like, from the ashes of the dead city. It carries the smells of the forest, invisible, yet potent as a prayer in the silence.”v
One reader, John Maxstadt, called the cover “soft-core pornography” and said that he was glad his magazine came in a brown wrapper.” He linked sexualized artwork to the game’s poor reputation. He commented that Dragon magazine’s“preoccupation with flesh” did not help TSR’s reputation for misogyny. He also complained that many products like lead miniatures often “look like porno or heavy-metal queens.”vi
Maxstadt’s letter drew a number of responses that defended the cover. Dan Tejes said that “swords and sorcery and fantasy role-playing games both, for whatever reason, appeal almost exclusively to males” and claimed that “there are almost no traditional female swords and sorcery characters.” Another reader went further, asking “when was the last time you saw a magnificent painting of a woman dressed up like a tin can?” “Women,” he said, “look better in outfits that enhance or emphasize their beauty.” These responses in turn drew their own criticisms from male and female readers. Roger Moore, who had recently taken over as editor of Dragon, said that the painting“crossed the line on how much should be shown,” and that line“will be more closely watched in the future.”i
All of these factors, from game restrictions to recruitment and behavior reinforced the homosocial world of FRPG gaming, and TSR gave sanction to such misogynistic attitudes. A patriarchical culture permeated the early years of its existence, indicating that sexism of gaming culture existed beyond private gaming groups. In 1979 Gary Gygax hired Jean Wells, the first woman designer at TSR, “in order to give the game material with a feminine viewpoint.” This appeared to be merely a marketing move by Gygax, who once remarked that “women’s brains are wired differently . . . the reason they don’t play [FRPGs] is that they aren’t interested in playing.”ii
Wells, who arrived at the time second-wave feminists were raising awareness of sexual harassment in the workplace, broke a glass ceiling in the company and industry. Despite or because of that, her TSR design career did not last beyond her first assignment, the module Palace of the Silver Princess. Wells complained about interference from male editors, so Gygax ordered them to do only minimal editing.iii
Wells’ project did not remain her original work for long. Objections over sexually risqué artwork led TSR executives to order Tom Moldvay, a male designer, to rewrite Wells’ module. Moldvay went beyond the artwork and significantly rewrote the text of the module, which led to him being listed as co-author with Wells on the final, official publication. TSR employee Frank Mentzer said that executives ordered the rewrite due to Wells’ “mediocre” work and “meager” talents. He called her “large, insecure, brashly outgoing and outspoken.” After the Palace fiasco, she was given secretarial duties, and did not design another module at TSR.iv
Mentzer’s critique suggests that the problems with Wells went beyond disagreements over her creative abilities, but instead because she broke into a male-dominated field. Mentzer criticized her personality and appearance, and it is difficult to imagine that a male designer would be criticized over such factors, especially appearance. Also, the artwork in question contained no nudity, unlike other TSR products, and self-censorship also apparently did not apply to the covers of Dragon throughout the1980s.v
TSR did slowly increase the role of women in product design and creation in the 1980s, with the biggest shift in 1986, when Lorraine Williams ousted Gary Gygax and became the first woman president of TSR. The company’s decline in the1990s, leading to its sale to Wizards of the Coast in 1997, came about largely because of changes in the gaming industry and consumer tastes. The new FRPG games such, Vampire: The Masquerade, as well as online gaming, undercut TSR’s dominance, but issues of sexism and objectification continued in these new mediums, even if participation by women increased.vi The chauvinism of the male homosocial world of gaming groups, it seems, continues to exist as an inherent part of present-day gaming culture.
i David F. Godwin to the Forum, Dragon, Vol. 9, No. 8 (January 1987), 6; Dan Tejes to the Forum, Dragon, Vol. 9, No. 8 (January 1987), 6; Carl Forhan to the Forum, Dragon, Vol. 9, No. 8 (January 1987), 6; Kristin Marquardt to the Forum, Dragon, Vol. 9, No. 11 (April 1987), 6; Randy A. Donohue to the Forum, Dragon, Vol. 9, No. 11 (April 1987), 6; Roger E. Moore in Letters, Dragon, Vol. 9, No. 6 (November 1986), 3; Roger E. Moore in the Forum, Dragon, Vol. 9, No. 8 (January 1987), 8.
ii Gary Gygax, “The Melee in D&D,” The Dragon, Vol. 3, No. 10 (April 1979), 19; John D. Rateliff, “B3. Palace of the Silver Princess,” Wizards of the Coast (accessed 7/25/2008); Paul La Farge, “Destroy All Monsters,” The Believer, Vol. 4, No. 7 (September 2006).
iii John D. Rateliff , “B3. Palace of the Silver Princess,” Wizards of the Coast (accessed 7/25/2008); Evan Robinson quoted in “B3 Palace of the Silver Princess,” B3.
Wells was not the first woman games designer, however. In 1979, Daystar West Media published Rahasia, written by Laura Hickman. TSR later published a revised version of Rahasia as an adventure module in 1983, but gave Tracy Hickman credit as co-author. One of the earlier adventures co-written by a woman, Quest for the Fazzlewood by John and Laurie Van De Graaf (Metro Detroit Gamers, 1978), was also revised and published by TSR in 1983 as the module The Gem and the Staff. “RPGnet d20 RPG Game Index: Rahasia,” Rahasia - RPGnet RPG Game Index (accessed 7/25/2008). For background on second-wave feminism and changes to the U.S. workplace in the 1970s, see Ruth Rosen, The World Split Open: How the Modern Women’s Movement Changed America (New York: Penguin Books, 2000), 186-87. For an example of late 1970s feminist scholarship on sexual harassment, see Catherine MacKinnon, The Sexual Harassment of Working Women (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979).
iv John D. Rateliff, “B3. Palace of the Silver Princess,” Wizards of the Coast (accessed 7/25/2008).
v TSR did practice some self-censorship later on, however, such as the editorial response to the Spirit of the Night controversy. The second edition of AD&D hardcover rulebooks, released in the late 1980s, featured tamer interior artwork without any nudity. Also, in a highly controversial decision, references to the occult were downplayed with the omission of demons and devils from the second edition, a move the publisher of Dragon, James Ward, said TSR took to satisfy concerned parents. See James M. Ward, “The Game Wizards: Angry Mothers from Heck (and what we do about them),” Dragon, Vol. 14, No. 9 (February 1990), 9.
vi For examples of women authors and designers in TSR in the 1980s, see Tracy and Laura Hickman, Ravenloft (Lake Geneva, Wis.: TSR, 1983); “Katharine Kerr,” in Contemporary Authors New Revision Series, Vol. 123, 268-69; Tim Unsworth, “The TSR Story: How the Games Empire Expanded, ”Publishers’ Weekly, Vol. 233 (Feb. 12, 1988), 66. Beginning in 1981, Dragon began publishing articles written by Kerr. See Katharine Brahtin Kerr, “Giants in the Earth: Classic Heroes from Fiction & Literature,” Vol. 5, No. 9 (March 1981), 22. By 2000, women made up approximately 42 percent of the market for Vampire: The Masquerade. David Waldon, “Role-Playing Games and the Christian Right.” For examples of the sexualization of women in computer gaming, see one of the games made from the White Wolf role-playing game, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines (Activision: Troika Games, 2004).
Chris Danielson also wrote other papers on the topic of TTRPGs (Or FRPGs as he calls them) including “Censorship Controversies in the Constitution State: A Case Study of Moral Panic over Dungeons & Dragons” and “Odalisques, Orientals, and Orcs: Racism and Racial Stereotyping in Dungeons and Dragons.” if you'd like to view more of his work.
This paper expands upon Gary Alan Fine’s study of fantasy-role gaming (FRPG) groups and examines gamer and game misogyny, specifically in the Dungeons and Dragons(D&D) games formerly published by TSR, Inc. TSR reinforced the male homosocial world of FRPGs, and the net effect of this culture was the marginalization of women gamers and designers, despite TSR’s public statements to the contrary. This paper analyzes the height of the game’s popularity in the late 1970s and 1980s, specifically the relationships between among sexism and the corporate culture and artistic representations of the company’s early years.
Games designers Gary Gygax, Jeff Perren, and Dave Arneson created Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) and founded Tactical Studies Rules in 1974, later TSR Hobbies. The company published formal rules in 1977 for D&D and later a more detailed version, Advanced Dungeons and Dragons (AD&D), as well as the trade publication Dragon magazine. The game’s success,which had reached several million players by the early 1980s, rapidly created a new gaming subculture, the fantasy role-playing group,which operated as a highly sexually segregated world with men predominated both in private gaming groups and gaming conventions. Women made up between five to fifteen percent of gamers in the late1970s, with less than five percent at conventions, numbers so low that Gygax felt it was “worth noting” that there was a woman among eight finalists in an AD&D tournament in Great Britain in1982. Despite recent and rapid changes in sex roles in the U.S. due to second-wave feminism, gaming groups developed as male homosocial worlds that reinforced male chauvinism.i
Men in private gaming groups often expressed an explicit and violent male chauvinism. Fine detailed the violent actions verbally role-played by gamers through their fictional characters but says that violent role-playing does not indicate violent real-world behavior and may even have therapeutic value by providing an outlet for aggression. This type of role-playing meant that sexual violence and misogyny often (but not always) became integral to the gaming, and Fine himself observed the frequent use of rape and violence against female nonplayer characters encountered during gaming sessions, as well as sexist jokes. FRPG groups recruited women players differently, with a woman usually joining because of a romantic involvement with a male player. Male players sometimes expressed discomfort at female involvement, and women often bore the brunt of teasing and sexual comments.ii
Women gamers often challenged this behavior. When women spoke out against misogyny in gaming groups,such behavior often stopped. Some also saw a connection between such misogyny and TSR products. Women often wrote letters to Dragon complaining of sexist attitudes in male spaces like gaming groups and hobby shops, as well as in gaming rules, which prompted responses from the editors, who were already attracting negative publicity from parents and religious groups.iii
In July 1980, The Dragon ran an editorial written by Kim Mohan, the male assistant editor of the magazine, and Jean Wells, the first female games designer employed by TSR. They directly addressed complaints from women about their player characters being degraded as sex objects, but they gave no real advice and avoided more controversial issues like sexual violence. They only commented on games rules that limited the strength of female characters and the eroticized way that women were depicted in tabletop miniatures. The authors conceded the latter issue, agreeing that women were “understandably appalled” and said such depictions “did not reflect the reality of the game.” With no apparent irony, they also upheld the validity of the strength restrictions on the basis of “reality” in a fantasy game, and said the limitations “cannot logically be argued against.” An accompanying editorial by a woman gamer severely criticized the inclusion of strength restrictions.
It was not until January 1982when Roger Moore, a contributing editor to Dragon, wrote an editorial that criticized the use of rape in FRP sessions. He connected it more broadly to issues that discouraged women from gaming, and indicated that a male referee should “examining his own feelings about women players in the game.”i
Despite the editorials condemning gamer misogyny, sexism did permeate the staff of Dragon. Male editors often trivialized complaints made by women. In May 1980, Kathleen McCauslin complained about Dragon’s lack of female authors and women’s secondary roles in the articles and fiction. Jake Jaquet,the editor, took “a small amount of offense” at the suggestion of sexism, and said that since men submitted ninety-eight percent of the material, the fault lay with women for not submitting their own fiction or articles for publication. Jaquet declared that theeditors were “not about to start some sort of quota system to insure some artificial and arbitrary mix of gender of authors.” Another reader, Theresa Reed, claimed that Dragon ignored female gamers, which led Kim Mohan to cite the inclusion of women in fantasy artwork as an example of the magazine’s egalitarianism. He said he wrote a reply “at the risk of devoting more words to thisoft-debated subject than it warrants.”ii
The complaints of McCauslin and Reed about the lack of female input were linked to the questions over representations of women in fantasy artwork and miniatures. Many visual and written depictions in fantasy heavily sexualized women, often showing them in scanty, impractical outfits such as chainmail bikinis or engaged in activities with erotic innuendo. Such depictions went back to the early years of fantasy, such as the Conan stories of Robert Howard in the 1930s, and TSR continued the trend with artwork in its AD&D rulebooks.iii
The depictions of women courted more controversy when they appeared on the cover of Dragon, which gave the artwork more visibility than interior art in a rulebook. Artists like Clyde Caldwell produced covers for the magazine, often with women in revealing outfits. A male gamer commented on the different standards for male and female depictions on the covers. Scott Devine said that his wife said that “when there is a female on the cover she is generally scantily clad and well proportioned, but when there is a guy on the cover he is covered from head to toe and looks like a jerk.”iv
Perhaps the greatest uproar concerned the October 1986 cover, which depicted a work by a male artist, David Martin. The painting, Spirit of the Night, showed a nude woman inprofile, crouched atop a statue. Martin described the painting in language laced with sexual undertones: “In a shower of moonlight, alone figure kneels in supplication to the image of a god worshiped long ago. Aroused, the elemental nightwind rises up, phoenix-like, from the ashes of the dead city. It carries the smells of the forest, invisible, yet potent as a prayer in the silence.”v
One reader, John Maxstadt, called the cover “soft-core pornography” and said that he was glad his magazine came in a brown wrapper.” He linked sexualized artwork to the game’s poor reputation. He commented that Dragon magazine’s“preoccupation with flesh” did not help TSR’s reputation for misogyny. He also complained that many products like lead miniatures often “look like porno or heavy-metal queens.”vi
Maxstadt’s letter drew a number of responses that defended the cover. Dan Tejes said that “swords and sorcery and fantasy role-playing games both, for whatever reason, appeal almost exclusively to males” and claimed that “there are almost no traditional female swords and sorcery characters.” Another reader went further, asking “when was the last time you saw a magnificent painting of a woman dressed up like a tin can?” “Women,” he said, “look better in outfits that enhance or emphasize their beauty.” These responses in turn drew their own criticisms from male and female readers. Roger Moore, who had recently taken over as editor of Dragon, said that the painting“crossed the line on how much should be shown,” and that line“will be more closely watched in the future.”i
All of these factors, from game restrictions to recruitment and behavior reinforced the homosocial world of FRPG gaming, and TSR gave sanction to such misogynistic attitudes. A patriarchical culture permeated the early years of its existence, indicating that sexism of gaming culture existed beyond private gaming groups. In 1979 Gary Gygax hired Jean Wells, the first woman designer at TSR, “in order to give the game material with a feminine viewpoint.” This appeared to be merely a marketing move by Gygax, who once remarked that “women’s brains are wired differently . . . the reason they don’t play [FRPGs] is that they aren’t interested in playing.”ii
Wells, who arrived at the time second-wave feminists were raising awareness of sexual harassment in the workplace, broke a glass ceiling in the company and industry. Despite or because of that, her TSR design career did not last beyond her first assignment, the module Palace of the Silver Princess. Wells complained about interference from male editors, so Gygax ordered them to do only minimal editing.iii
Wells’ project did not remain her original work for long. Objections over sexually risqué artwork led TSR executives to order Tom Moldvay, a male designer, to rewrite Wells’ module. Moldvay went beyond the artwork and significantly rewrote the text of the module, which led to him being listed as co-author with Wells on the final, official publication. TSR employee Frank Mentzer said that executives ordered the rewrite due to Wells’ “mediocre” work and “meager” talents. He called her “large, insecure, brashly outgoing and outspoken.” After the Palace fiasco, she was given secretarial duties, and did not design another module at TSR.iv
Mentzer’s critique suggests that the problems with Wells went beyond disagreements over her creative abilities, but instead because she broke into a male-dominated field. Mentzer criticized her personality and appearance, and it is difficult to imagine that a male designer would be criticized over such factors, especially appearance. Also, the artwork in question contained no nudity, unlike other TSR products, and self-censorship also apparently did not apply to the covers of Dragon throughout the1980s.v
TSR did slowly increase the role of women in product design and creation in the 1980s, with the biggest shift in 1986, when Lorraine Williams ousted Gary Gygax and became the first woman president of TSR. The company’s decline in the1990s, leading to its sale to Wizards of the Coast in 1997, came about largely because of changes in the gaming industry and consumer tastes. The new FRPG games such, Vampire: The Masquerade, as well as online gaming, undercut TSR’s dominance, but issues of sexism and objectification continued in these new mediums, even if participation by women increased.vi The chauvinism of the male homosocial world of gaming groups, it seems, continues to exist as an inherent part of present-day gaming culture.
i David F. Godwin to the Forum, Dragon, Vol. 9, No. 8 (January 1987), 6; Dan Tejes to the Forum, Dragon, Vol. 9, No. 8 (January 1987), 6; Carl Forhan to the Forum, Dragon, Vol. 9, No. 8 (January 1987), 6; Kristin Marquardt to the Forum, Dragon, Vol. 9, No. 11 (April 1987), 6; Randy A. Donohue to the Forum, Dragon, Vol. 9, No. 11 (April 1987), 6; Roger E. Moore in Letters, Dragon, Vol. 9, No. 6 (November 1986), 3; Roger E. Moore in the Forum, Dragon, Vol. 9, No. 8 (January 1987), 8.
ii Gary Gygax, “The Melee in D&D,” The Dragon, Vol. 3, No. 10 (April 1979), 19; John D. Rateliff, “B3. Palace of the Silver Princess,” Wizards of the Coast (accessed 7/25/2008); Paul La Farge, “Destroy All Monsters,” The Believer, Vol. 4, No. 7 (September 2006).
iii John D. Rateliff , “B3. Palace of the Silver Princess,” Wizards of the Coast (accessed 7/25/2008); Evan Robinson quoted in “B3 Palace of the Silver Princess,” B3.
Wells was not the first woman games designer, however. In 1979, Daystar West Media published Rahasia, written by Laura Hickman. TSR later published a revised version of Rahasia as an adventure module in 1983, but gave Tracy Hickman credit as co-author. One of the earlier adventures co-written by a woman, Quest for the Fazzlewood by John and Laurie Van De Graaf (Metro Detroit Gamers, 1978), was also revised and published by TSR in 1983 as the module The Gem and the Staff. “RPGnet d20 RPG Game Index: Rahasia,” Rahasia - RPGnet RPG Game Index (accessed 7/25/2008). For background on second-wave feminism and changes to the U.S. workplace in the 1970s, see Ruth Rosen, The World Split Open: How the Modern Women’s Movement Changed America (New York: Penguin Books, 2000), 186-87. For an example of late 1970s feminist scholarship on sexual harassment, see Catherine MacKinnon, The Sexual Harassment of Working Women (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1979).
iv John D. Rateliff, “B3. Palace of the Silver Princess,” Wizards of the Coast (accessed 7/25/2008).
v TSR did practice some self-censorship later on, however, such as the editorial response to the Spirit of the Night controversy. The second edition of AD&D hardcover rulebooks, released in the late 1980s, featured tamer interior artwork without any nudity. Also, in a highly controversial decision, references to the occult were downplayed with the omission of demons and devils from the second edition, a move the publisher of Dragon, James Ward, said TSR took to satisfy concerned parents. See James M. Ward, “The Game Wizards: Angry Mothers from Heck (and what we do about them),” Dragon, Vol. 14, No. 9 (February 1990), 9.
vi For examples of women authors and designers in TSR in the 1980s, see Tracy and Laura Hickman, Ravenloft (Lake Geneva, Wis.: TSR, 1983); “Katharine Kerr,” in Contemporary Authors New Revision Series, Vol. 123, 268-69; Tim Unsworth, “The TSR Story: How the Games Empire Expanded, ”Publishers’ Weekly, Vol. 233 (Feb. 12, 1988), 66. Beginning in 1981, Dragon began publishing articles written by Kerr. See Katharine Brahtin Kerr, “Giants in the Earth: Classic Heroes from Fiction & Literature,” Vol. 5, No. 9 (March 1981), 22. By 2000, women made up approximately 42 percent of the market for Vampire: The Masquerade. David Waldon, “Role-Playing Games and the Christian Right.” For examples of the sexualization of women in computer gaming, see one of the games made from the White Wolf role-playing game, Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines (Activision: Troika Games, 2004).
Chris Danielson also wrote other papers on the topic of TTRPGs (Or FRPGs as he calls them) including “Censorship Controversies in the Constitution State: A Case Study of Moral Panic over Dungeons & Dragons” and “Odalisques, Orientals, and Orcs: Racism and Racial Stereotyping in Dungeons and Dragons.” if you'd like to view more of his work.
