(Un)Becoming the Museum Visitor: the Value of Playing an (un)Serious Game in a Museum

This paper describes and evaluates the use of a tabletop roleplaying game (TTRPG) in a museum, and its impact on the visitor experience. We developed LORE, a bespoke Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) module, in collaboration with the Hellenic Museum. Through interviews with players, game masters, and museum staff we found that the game reconfigured the sociality of the museum; that the museum’s historical content was valued, but flexible; and that designing for collaborative dynamics gives rise to a type of play that does not otherwise occur for adults in museum settings. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of the potential of TTRPGs (and RPGs more broadly) in museums, connecting to conceptualisations of museums as liminal or heterotypic spaces with the capacity to emotionally move or transform visitors.