Tell-A-Dyrham-Tale: A Storytelling Board Game

Tell-A-Dyrham-Tale is a card-based storytelling board game designed to explore whether games can serve as a practical tool for co-creating historical narratives about Dyrham Park, a late 17th-century National Trust country house near Bristol and Bath. The project was developed as groundwork for an Augmented Reality visitor experience centred on Blathwayt's bookcase, with the goal of involving ordinary visitors in shaping the stories told about the site rather than relying solely on curatorial selection. The game draws on established storytelling games such as Once Upon a Time and Tell-a-Tale, and it was built on the premise that card games can encourage coherent and creative narrative construction.

The game unfolds in three phases: an auction in which players buy cards using silver and gold coins, a tale phase in which players weave their purchased cards into a story, and a voting phase in which players award a winning tile to the best narrative. The deck comprises 32 cards, each presenting historically grounded material about the bookcase and its owner, William Blathwayt, through a portrait or illustration on one side and a textual description on the other. Players were free to tell either accurate or fictional stories, provided they incorporated the cards as plot elements, which allowed the researchers to observe which information visitors found most engaging.

The game was tested with random visitors to Dyrham Park and with museum professionals. These sessions revealed visitor preferences for particular historical details and story types, and this material is informing the narrative design of the forthcoming AR experience. The authors also note that the presentation of the game activity was a strong motivator for participants, and they plan to seek feedback from game designers and games researchers on the game as an experience in its own right. The work was funded by the UK EPSRC and the National Trust as part of a broader investigation into next-generation cultural heritage visitor experiences.