Abstract
Dream Askew, Dream Apart, Avery Alder and Benjamin Rosenbaum’s twin 2018 roleplaying games, explore religious and communal identities in two politically precarious spaces. Alder’s game, Askew, tells the tale of a queer enclave in the post-apocalypse, Rosenbaum’s Apart that of an 18th century shtetl and the Jews who live there. These stories are separated by time and space, but also tied together—by structure, ruleset, and the importance of a home-cooked meal. Through these similarities and differences, Dream Askew, Dream Apart invites a comparison between the shtetl and the enclave. Through the medium of a roleplaying game, they invite players to make these spaces their own. In this paper, I examine the ways in which Dream Askew, Dream Apart invites readers to “play at” queer and Jewish communities, in turn structuring a third, more ephemeral space: that of the players themselves. Through play in which you inhabit the lives of the vulnerable, but also make them your own—in which you “ask questions and provide gentle correction”—Dream Askew and Dream Apart do more than teach the historical facts of Jewish and queer marginalizations. They give players a new understanding of what it means to be vulnerable, and nonetheless in community. This vulnerability goes beyond religious and political marginalization, and into players’ own kitchens and living rooms. Through it, they teach players to “belong outside belonging.”
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Religious Community and Socialization
KEYWORDS
Queer, Jewish, Game, Belonging
