Game-ifying the Middle Ages
MDVL-382J-1
Binghamton University
- Semester
- Summer 2026
- Instructor
- Kiernán Sullivan
- Start Date
- 05-26-0026
- Total Credits
- 4
- Call to Register
- 607-777-6088
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You will learn the same curriculum as our on-campus students
TTRPGs have become the next iteration of oral storytelling for the modern era. Games like Dungeons and Dragons and the Dark Ages series from World of Darkness are playgrounds for the imagination of what the medieval world could be – but not always what it was. In this course, we will read these games against texts from the Middle Ages that may have inspired them. What was a paladin? What was a cleric? What significance did these roles have in the Middle Ages? What are the Hermetic texts inspiring so many stock mage characters? We will question whether “historical accuracy” is achievable when history itself is turned into a set of rules, and whether or not historical accuracy even mattered to those living in the medieval period anyway. What modern biases slip through interpretations of the past? What harmful stereotypes or misrepresentations might be perpetuated through these games? All of these questions and more will be answered as we discover how we contribute to a long line of ephemeral story telling: those told with our voices rather than our pens.
Course Area: Humanities
Level: Upper Level Undergraduate
Dates: 05-26-0026 - 06-29-0026
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- Instructor: Kiernán Sullivan
- Local Course ID: 26SU_BIN_MDVL382J_1
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