Playtest Material is a not-for-profit critical journal dedicated to roleplaying games. We publish essays, reviews, interviews, and experimental writing on all aspects of tabletop roleplaying.
Our aim is not to define a single canon or theory, but to support an ongoing conversation about how games are understood and to enrich how they are critically discussed. With this in mind, we curate themed issues each quarter, working with guest editors and contributors to produce carefully selected collections of work.
From theorising the tactile experience of rolling dice, to local histories of conventions, to comparative critique between war games and war films, to overviews of the tabletop industry, we are interested in thoughtful and ambitious writing in all its forms.
We welcome submissions from game designers, players, scholars, critics, and first-time writers alike. While we publish scholarly work, we are not a strictly academic journal. We value multiple forms of writing that engage seriously with games as a cultural medium.
We believe that roleplaying games benefit from sustained critical attention. Bringing together diverse perspectives enriches both how games are designed and how they are played.
Issue One: An RPG Is Like…
Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
- RPG design theory informed by methodologies from other disciplines, such as film theory, literary criticism, theatre studies, architecture, anthropology, art history, journalism, sociology, musicology, or game studies.
- Comparative criticism examining how roleplaying games function differently from other media forms.
- Reviews or critical essays on RPGs which consciously draw upon multiple media forms and aesthetics.
- Analysis of adaptation and remediation: what happens when RPGs become podcasts, streamed performances, novels, videogames, films, or vice versa.
- Reflections on explaining roleplaying games through analogy to other artistic forms or cultural practices.
- Accounts of where such comparisons succeed or distort the medium.
- Experimental or hybrid critical forms which themselves blur boundaries between criticism, play, fiction, and design documentation.
Sponsorship & Support
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Editorial Queries
Questions about submissions or have a more complex pitch for us?