Conclusions
Over the past ten years, the weird white guy D&D stereotype has been effectively chipped away at by changing the visual perceptions of who plays D&D. The revamping of visual art and lore in the Fifth Edition handbook as well as the notable rule and gameplay changes created space within the structure and function of D&D as a storytelling medium for a variety of players beyond die-hard high fantasy gatekeepers. While this space was created and ready for new players, the community of D&D still remained relatively homogenous and resistant to new demographics of players. What worked to dismantle community perceptions of who was “allowed” to play D&D was the timeline of shows I laid out from Critical Role to The Adventure Zone to Dimension 20. Critical Role’s inclusion of diverse characters in-game and women in their cast showed that minorities in gaming can have a spot at the table and be represented in the genre. The Adventure Zone took that thought a step further and posited that D&D can have interesting narratives with explicitly diverse characters where their identities play a role in the story. Finally, Dimension 20 exemplified the natural end of this progression where the narrative can have both diverse creators and characters where their identity plays a central role in their stories, both impacting the universe and their journeys as heroes.
By shifting the visual makeup of who plays D&D in the public sphere and what kinds of characters are popular and heroic in the community, the fundamental makeup of D&D has shifted drastically. Now more than ever, people who were typically turned away from gaming tables are finding a home in the D&D community. D&D has become more popular with people of color, queer people, disabled people, and other demographics outside of the weird, white guy stereotype. Additionally, as one of the more accessible and popular RPG’s, D&D serves as an introduction to the world of tabletop gaming and many of the other insular communities around Pathfinder and other RPG systems have been changed by the influx of new RPG enthusiasts brought into the fold by D&D’s radical community shift. D&D’s successful formula of creating space and then shifting public perception has huge implications for other bastions of stereotypical nerd-dom that have resisted allowing minorities into their communities. What could happen if MMORPGs started highlighting more women and POC eSports players? Could the high fantasy book genre shift its core fanbase if writers adjusted the Tolkien canon to scrub it of its quietly insidious xenophobia?
Other hugely nerdy subcultures have already undergone similar shifts such as the new movement in comics and superhero movies to depict more women, more queer characters, and more people of color as heroes. I posit that not only does D&D serve as an important template for change and inclusion in nerdy spaces, it’s also just one of many currently shifting subcultures where creators are campaigning for community change. As a community that has begun it’s shift relatively early and fairly well, it will be interesting to see where D&D’s demographic landscape and depictions go from here. As a community historically fraught with culture wars over things as silly as rule changes, whether D&D can stay on the right path and continue to be a welcoming space to gamers of all backgrounds and identities will be an important indicator for the overall culture of nerdiness into the future.