Actual play is a movement within role-playing gaming in which players livestream their gameplay for others to watch and enjoy. This new medium has allowed the playing of games to become a digestible, consumable text for individuals to watch, enjoy, learn from, and analyze. Bridging the gap between the analog and the digital, actual play is changing and challenging our expectations of tabletop role-playing and providing a space for new scholarship. This edited collection of essays focuses on Dungeons and Dragons actual play and examines this phenomenon from a variety of different disciplinary approaches. Authors explore how to define actual play, how fans interact with and affect the narrative and gameplay of actual play, the diversity of gamers (or lack thereof) within actual play media, and how audiences can use actual play media for more than mere entertainment.

“The research is well done…remarkably readable…recommended”—Choice
“A valuable addition to the academic literature on roleplaying games” — Doug Maynard, professor of psychology, State University of New York at New Paltz
“Shelly Jones’s Watch Us Roll is a natural 20. Filled with insight and engaging discussion of Actual Play shows like Critical Role, The Adventure Zone, and Acquisitions Incorporated, the essays in this volume explore the history, sociology, psychology, and cultural background of these experienced and fun Dungeons and Dragons players. Whether an actual player or an actual play watcher, prepare to create your character and roll for initiative with Watch Us Roll.”—Paul Booth, DePaul University, author of Board Games as Media

Shelly Jones is an associate professor of English at the State University of New York at Delhi and an editor for Analog Game Studies. Her research examines analog, digital, and role-playing games through the lens of intersectional feminism and disability studies. Series editor Matthew Wilhelm Kapell teaches American studies, anthropology, and writing at Pace University in New York.