Rolling Together: Intergenerational Dungeons & Dragons, Onboarding, and Infrastructures of Care

This study examines how intergenerational Dungeons & Dragons groups produce and distribute pleasure, arguing that enjoyment at the table is not an automatic result of good game design but a socially constructed and unevenly shared process. Drawing on an exploratory online survey of 178 consenting players in intergenerational tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG) play, the authors propose "infrastructures of pleasurable inclusion" as an analytic lens for understanding how groups structure access to enjoyment, while acknowledging that these supports can falter when their benefits are not shared equitably.

The principal findings center on motivation, onboarding, and access. Bonding is the most commonly cited reason for play, followed by creative storytelling and introducing newcomers to the hobby. Onboarding flows in multiple directions across age and role rather than moving only from older to younger players. The dominant teaching approach is progressive disclosure, with rules explained as needed (90 of 101 respondents), supported by visual aids, quick-reference sheets, and session-zero conversations. Explicit renegotiation of rules or pacing for comfort occurs far less frequently, with only 22 of 100 reporting it happens always or most of the time. Accessibility supports such as scheduled breaks (47 of 79) and turn trackers (37 of 79), along with safety norms like session zero (50 of 78) and check-ins (37 of 78), were widespread yet uneven. Scheduling, rules complexity, and fatigue emerged as the most frequent challenges.

The sample is self-selected and concentrated in English-language North American contexts and among white respondents, so the authors treat the counts as orienting evidence rather than population rates and caution against broad intersectional claims. The study's theoretical grounding draws on game studies, research on LGBTQ representation, and family play scholarship, positioning inclusion infrastructures as central rather than peripheral to intergenerational play.