Mellon Research Fellow: Azrael Anderson
Tabletop Roleplaying Games Mechanisms and Their Interplay: A Decision Tree Showing Some of the Potential Choices In Mechanism Design for Tabletop Roleplaying Games
College: Brightpoint Community College
Faculty mentor: Carrie Humphrey
Project summary: This paper explores how game designers build Tabletop Roleplaying Games (TTRPGs) by treating mechanic design as a structured series of choices and "decision trees." It breaks down how different rules—like rolling dice or narrating actions—interact to shape the unique social and storytelling experience of a game.