Jess Wind (they/them) is an Assistant Professor of Arts and Integrated Studies at UFV, and is currently working toward their doctorate at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Previously, Wind was a freelance writer and helped produce a local arts publication, Raspberry Magazine, from 2017 to 2021. Wind recently took time to share their PhD research with ***The Cascade.*
Wind’s research looks at how racism and resistance affect Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) communities, with a focus on the challenges of creating content in a capitalist, Eurocentric, and colonial society. They explained how the focus for their PhD has to do with gender and calling unnamed whiteness out within that community.
“I argue the practice of developing homebrew content positions creators as active labourers in D&D’s political economy, with the power to subvert dominant hegemonic discourses about race, gender, sexuality, and ability in gaming cultures.”
Developed in the 70s by Ernest Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, D&D is a game that can be played in person or online and requires multiple players to help tell a story. Players create fantasy characters they portray in the game and the Game Master is in charge of the imagined world, all the non-player characters and they create the setting, giving the players encounters, situations, and problems to solve. The story’s direction changes based on the choices the players make. The first version of the game closely resembled tactical war games with a fantasy theme, while the current model emphasizes storytelling and provides more rule flexibility.
Wind explained that, in D&D, the term homebrew refers to players modifying or expanding the rules and content published by the current owners of the franchise. It can include creating new rules, characters, items, monsters, or entire ready-to-play modules and settings.
When asked why they picked D&D as a research topic, Wind said it all began in 2015 when they started playing D&D to relax and take a break from researching for their masters.
Wind reflected on what they were thinking when they were looking into getting a PhD in 2020.
“I was really thinking about the kinds of community and relationship building and storytelling opportunities that D&D affords.”
When asked to expand on this dramatic landscape shift, Wind had this to say:
“[Various discourses] in the media and our landscapes [started showing the] need for diversity and equity in labour environments.”
Wind added that companies were firing their top executives and saying they would do better. At this point, D&D was also becoming more widely known, leading to D&D owners having a similar conversation regarding diversity. Wind also mentioned that a press release from Wizards of the Coast regarding diversity was issued in 2020, acknowledging its medieval colonialist legacy. The article has since been removed.
“They were recognizing the legacy of racialized logic in the game and the lack of diversity in the people creating the game.”
Wind added that from then on, people started talking about how they changed the game’s rules to make it more diverse. According to Wind, homebrew creators or players started making meaning from D&D and the intersections of how society impacts the game; people were finally looking at the need for equity, diversity, and inclusion in gaming communities.
Wind chose D&D because it displayed how culture and tensions in the real world mirror themselves in the media they consume and the games they play. During this time, while people and organizations were trying to be more diverse and inclusive, D&D players also tried to make more diverse worlds that represented them.
“My findings point to a shared logic of resistance among those who create homebrew content. By examining homebrew content as a legitimate extension of D&D’s transmediated franchise, and by framing homebrew content creation as a form of transformational media engagement, we are better able to examine discourses surrounding inclusion and diversity in the D&D player community.”
Wind recommends Dungeons and Dragons as a platform for anyone interested in forging relationships, making memories, and telling their stories.
“If you have ideas and you need to put them somewhere, D&D is a really great place.”
