“Can I Make It Gay?” A thematic analysis on identity exploration and queerness within the game system of Dungeons and Dragons through different mediums.

In the last decade, Dungeons & Dragons has seen a steady rise in popularity through increased access to the system, as well as video games, Dungeons & Dragons airing on Twitch and consistent updates to the game’s rules and supplements. The system gives players the opportunity to play characters that can differ completely from their own identity in real life, and online discourse suggests that this is a popular facet of the game for many. The aim of this research is to examine Dungeons & Dragons and Baldur’s Gate 3’s capacity to provide a safe and transformative container of play within which players can explore queer identity, gender and romance and determine any trends that may arise between players surrounding these topics. Employing queer theory and gender theory, we collected player experiences through semi-structured interviews, and analysed their responses with relation to the concepts of bleed, alibi, and transformative containers of play. Through our findings, we discovered that the most significant element to facilitating this queer exploration was the need for safety within the game or at the game table. We conclude by positing that the medium is the definitive factor in influencing a player’s experience and that the system, in all its malleable glory, is the only constant.