ABSTRACT

Role-playing games offer a chance to pretend, make believe, and share fantasy. They often invoke heavy themes into their game play: morality, violence, politics, spirituality, or sexuality. Although interesting moral debates perennially appear in the media and academia concerning the appropriateness of games’ ability to deal with such adult concepts, very little is known about the intersection between games, playfulness, and sexuality and what this might mean for players.

This book offers an in-depth, ethnographic look into the phenomenon of erotic role-play through the experiences of players in multiplayer and tabletop role-playing games. Brown explores why participants engage in erotic role-play; discusses the rules involved in erotic role-play; and uncovers what playing with sexuality in ludic environments means for players, their partners, and their everyday lives. Taken together, this book provides a rich, nuanced, and detailed account of a provocative topic.

chapter |10 pages

Finding the Erotic in Role-Play

chapter |18 pages

Sex, Games, and Sex Games

chapter |26 pages

Erotic Role-Players

chapter |25 pages

Multiple Frames

chapter |26 pages

The Role of Rules

chapter |22 pages

ERP IRL

chapter |9 pages

The Future of Erotic Role-Play