Dungeons for Science: Mapping Belief Places and Spaces

TL;DR

This paper explores how tabletop role-playing games can be used as a tool for mapping belief environments and ethical perspectives through collaborative, online data collection.

Contribution

It introduces a novel methodology using TFRPGs to generate and analyze data about belief spaces and ethical issues in a scientific context.

Findings

TFRPGs enable targeted, repeatable data collection online.

The method captures nuanced ethical perspectives.

Maps of belief environments can be generated from game data.

Abstract

Tabletop fantasy role-playing games (TFRPGs) have existed in offline and online contexts for many decades, yet are rarely featured in scientific literature. This paper presents a case study where TFRPGs were used to generate and collect data for maps of belief environments using fiction co-created by multiple small groups of online tabletop gamers. The affordances of TFRPGs allowed us to collect repeatable, targeted data in online field conditions. These data not only included terms that allowed us to build our maps, but also to explore nuanced ethical problems from a situated, collaborative perspective.