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In “Bi the Player’s Handbook: Representations and Receptions of Bisexuality in Critical Role Campaigns”, Khirsten Doolan takes a critical look at the representation and reception of bisexuality within the tabletop roleplaying community, both within the Critical Role fanbase and within wider Tabletop Roleplaying Group (TTRPG) networks, exploring what these mean for broader conceptions of bisexuality in popular culture. Doolan argues that, through their various campaigns, Critical Role has introduced plenty of bisexual player characters and non-player characters alike, from across the gender spectrum. Each of these characters in turn allow for lenses through which to look at the evolution of representations of bisexuality in arguably the most popular Actual Play in the TTRPG space. By looking at the narrative engagement with the characters’ bisexuality, as well as the audience reception to the characters’ bisexuality, Doolan aims to trace how representations of bisexuality through the last ten years of Critical Role help to both reflect and shape bisexual identity not just in its fanbase but within broader TTRPG and popular culture contexts. The focus of Doolan’s chapter is on Critical Role’s imagistic representations of bisexuality and the intersecting, multiplicity of ways it has been reproduced, discoursed, and (mis)understood through both character representation and audience reception to those representations. Doolan takes as their specific focus a popular character in Critical Role’s second campaign, The Mighty Nein, Caleb Widogast, one of whose major narrative arcs centres on a past bisexual, polyamorous relationship. Doolan argues that Widogast’s bisexuality becomes one of the driving narrative factors for much of the character’s development; and that he also becomes a representation of bisexuality through which audience reception is more easily identifiable. Doolan’s chapter at large explores several player characters throughout Critical Role’s 10 years in the Actual Play scene to explore the cultural relevance and impact bisexuality has had and is having on and through Critical Role’s Actual Plays.

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Bi the Player’s Handbook: Representations and Receptions of Bisexuality in Critical Role Campaigns

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年

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  • Khirsten Doolan

摘要

In “Bi the Player’s Handbook: Representations and Receptions of Bisexuality in Critical Role Campaigns”, Khirsten Doolan takes a critical look at the representation and reception of bisexuality within the tabletop roleplaying community, both within the Critical Role fanbase and within wider Tabletop Roleplaying Group (TTRPG) networks, exploring what these mean for broader conceptions of bisexuality in popular culture. Doolan argues that, through their various campaigns, Critical Role has introduced plenty of bisexual player characters and non-player characters alike, from across the gender spectrum. Each of these characters in turn allow for lenses through which to look at the evolution of representations of bisexuality in arguably the most popular Actual Play in the TTRPG space. By looking at the narrative engagement with the characters’ bisexuality, as well as the audience reception to the characters’ bisexuality, Doolan aims to trace how representations of bisexuality through the last ten years of Critical Role help to both reflect and shape bisexual identity not just in its fanbase but within broader TTRPG and popular culture contexts. The focus of Doolan’s chapter is on Critical Role’s imagistic representations of bisexuality and the intersecting, multiplicity of ways it has been reproduced, discoursed, and (mis)understood through both character representation and audience reception to those representations. Doolan takes as their specific focus a popular character in Critical Role’s second campaign, The Mighty Nein, Caleb Widogast, one of whose major narrative arcs centres on a past bisexual, polyamorous relationship. Doolan argues that Widogast’s bisexuality becomes one of the driving narrative factors for much of the character’s development; and that he also becomes a representation of bisexuality through which audience reception is more easily identifiable. Doolan’s chapter at large explores several player characters throughout Critical Role’s 10 years in the Actual Play scene to explore the cultural relevance and impact bisexuality has had and is having on and through Critical Role’s Actual Plays.