Nowadays, non-digital role-playing games – such as table-top RPGs and live-action role-plays – are experiencing a second boom worldwide and are increasingly gaining scholarly attention. In “Role-Playing Games of Japan: Transcultural Dynamics and Orderings,” Björn-Ole Kamm brings into focus RPG practices in and from Japan and sketches their fluid trajectories across the globe. In particular, he traces the transcultural entanglements of RPGs by mapping four arenas of conflict: the tension between reality and fiction; stereotypes of escapism; mediation across national borders; and the role of scholars in the making of role-playing game practices.
Regarding RPG practices two aspects can be emphasized: they require players to take on a role, and they engage with a variety of different media. While the author concentrates on Japan, he does not emphasize any unique “Japanese characteristics,” for the practice of embodying a RPG character is always contextually determined. Rather, he highlights what kind of agents, human and non-human alike, function as mediators between groups of role-players, bridging or strengthening borders/boundaries of political or other nature.
The book issued by Palgrave Macmillan is available as hardcover and ebook.
Dr. Björn-Ole Kamm is associate professor at the Graduate School of Letters (GSL) of Kyoto University, where he coordinates the joint degree master program in Transcultural Studies in partnership with the Master’s in Transcultural Studies located at the HCTS. Before that, he was a graduate program lecturer at the former Cluster of Excellence “Asia and Europe.” He is currently working on the possibilities of live-action role-play in Japanese educational contexts.