The Intersection of Play and History: Integrating Historical Content in Tabletop Role-Playing Games for Education

Tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) are a highly entertaining activity, offering players the opportunity to immerse themselves in imaginary worlds and engage in collaborative storytelling.Beyond their recreational value, they have also emerged as a potentially powerful tool for education.By providing a hands-on, experiential approach to learning, TTRPGs can foster critical thinking, problemsolving, and a deeper understanding of historical events and contexts.This paper explores their potential as a once-off time limited activity for history education, focusing on how historical information can be integrated into gameplay.We conducted a study with 16 adult players across four groups, using a TTRPG adventure prototype set in the Archaic Era of Ancient Greece.The sessions aimed to assess learning outcomes and gather feedback on participants' preferences for the inclusion of historical information and the right balance between facts and fiction.The results reveal implications for the design of in-game mechanics as well as supporting, physical and digital, content, to promote learning objectives, offering insights for both educators and game designers.Understanding players' interaction with historical content in a role-playing context can help create more engaging and effective TTRPG-based educational experiences.