Analog Role-Playing Game Studies: A Brazilian Overview

Abstract

This paper aims to present an overview of analog role-playing games in Brazil.For this, it uses a mixed method that includes bibliographic research and document analysis in an autoethnographic perspective. The results from these different methodological approaches, which are evocative rather than exhaustive, are divided into two aspects: first, they present a briefhistory ofboth publications and the idiosyncrasies of the practice oflarps and tabletop role-playing games in Brazil; second, they seek to synthesize the academic perspectives observed in the field of analog role-playing game studies, privileging the main disciplines of study, as well as themes, addressed by Brazilianresearch. Thus, this paper seeks to serve as a summary of the Brazilian framework, to facilitate future dialogues. In this sense, it is more of a signal for international dialogue than an exhaustive mapping of Brazilian intellectual production regarding studies of analog role-playing games. This survey shows that several of the issues that permeate the Brazilian scene are common to other parts of the world and that, sometimes, because our intellectual production is available in Portuguese, we isolate ourselves from broader discussions. There are also problematic, endogenous patterns regarding the practice of analog role-playing games: there is a lack of documentation, which makes the sources for research scarce. Regarding the research itself, it is inferred that there is a lack of articulation among Brazilian researchers who, isolated, do not exchange knowledge among themselves.