Course Schedule

PAH 332 – Tabletop Games: Play, Culture, and Design of Board and Role-Playing Games

This course explores how tabletop and board games both reflect and influence the cultures they arise from. We begin the course by examining some of the earliest tabletop games and how they relate to the cultures from which they emerged. From this foundation, we then explore how modern tabletop games employ aesthetics, rules and mechanics to represent and shape relationships between players, as well as allowing players to take on different identities and master new skills. Throughout the course, we pay close attention to how game design choices communicate cultural values, histories, and beliefs and how we might redesign games to create new possibilities for players.