In "The Writing Consultation as Fantasy Role-playing Game," I consider how academic writing and the writing center consultation are both forms of fantasy role-playing. Applying the social scientific study of role-playing games to the writing center helps us understand the pressures acting on student writers who often have to perform an identity that may not be authentic to them. Approaching student writing as an attentive Dungeon Master can reveal how the writing consultation itself is a game bounded by its own rules and help writers perform productive selves rather than imposing identities on them.