ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on three key areas of interest: sexual and erotic themes and imagery in role-playing games, erotic role-play and player interactions, and sexual and erotic role-play outside of game contexts. It focuses on how sex, sexuality, and the erotic have been represented in role-playing games. The chapter deals with both rules in games that allow for the playing out of sexual acts as well as the representation of character sexuality. It looks at erotic role-play and player interactions, examining studies of how role-players incorporate sex into their games and at sexual and erotic role-play behaviors in non-game contexts. The chapter encompasses activities that can be argued to be playful but do not revolve around a set game. By using these three key themes to discuss sexuality and erotic role-play, it provides a good introduction to contemporary research on the topic.
