Big Bad Academy: Dice, Deviance, & Dragons

This panel is intended to be a conversation: a discussion of monsters, humanity, BIPOC, trans, and queer shit. Monster theory (yes, that's an academic field!) has argued that "the monster" must always return; because society needs monsters to serve as scapegoats for their own fears and anxieties. Unsurprisingly, this plays out in the monsterization of marginalized populations, and, particular to game design, the marginalization of monsters. As academics who come from these oft-monsterized communities, we are eager to discuss monstrosity with our respondents. To that end, our goal is to present two theoretical concepts related to monstrosity and queerness with current TTRPG practices and approaches:  trans rage and survivance. In introducing academic terms and discussions to our respondents and audience, we want to create a common set of terms applicable and useful to TTRPGs and monster-focused (or monster-peripheral) games. We hope that, by sharing and learning knowledge, these terms and our resulting conversation can provide a conceptual toolkit for creating a more nuanced approach to minoritization and monstrosity, for designers, players, performers, and academics alike.