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Where Be Witches?: The Role of Adventure Maps in Building a Game World
Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (starting 2013), Department of Language, Literature and Intercultural Studies (from 2013).ORCID iD: 0000-0003-0902-5637
2025 (English)In: Navigating Imaginary Worlds: Wayfinding and Subcreation, Taylor & Francis, 2025, p. 132-150Chapter in book (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

This chapter examines how maps contribute to the building, understanding, and navigation of a tabletop role-playing game world. It begins by distinguishing between a role-playing game's source world and game world, the former being materials that inform the latter. A game world develops incrementally as the group agrees on its content. The chapter then examines the case of the 13 maps in the Dungeons & Dragons adventure The Wild Beyond the Witchlight (2021), chosen because they illustrate various ways in which maps contribute to building the game world. All maps share the implicit proposition that what they show exists and are thus powerful world-building tools. By analyzing the maps in terms of “props” – actual things that generate fictional truths – they reveal varying levels of authority in relation to the game world. They range from a map with nearly complete authority over the game world, through those that argue for authority in conjunction with the adventure's verbal text, those that undermine their own authority but highlight source world possibilities for the game master, to a map designed and introduced in a way that gives it minimal world authority. 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Taylor & Francis, 2025. p. 132-150
Keywords [en]
MapReduce, Game masters, In-buildings, Role-playing game, Buildings
National Category
Languages and Literature
Research subject
Comparative Literature
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-106597DOI: 10.4324/9781003502210-11Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105012460319ISBN: 9781040380871 (print)ISBN: 9781032819549 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kau-106597DiVA, id: diva2:1989714
Available from: 2025-08-18 Created: 2025-08-18 Last updated: 2026-02-12Bibliographically approved

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Ekman, Stefan

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CiteExportLink to record
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Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
  • vancouver
  • apa.csl
  • Other style
More styles
Language
  • de-DE
  • en-GB
  • en-US
  • fi-FI
  • nn-NO
  • nn-NB
  • sv-SE
  • Other locale
More languages
Output format
  • html
  • text
  • asciidoc
  • rtf