What happens when you mix historical artefacts, collaborative storytelling and a twenty-sided die? Here at Reading Museum, we set out to answer just that, through a unique Dungeons and Dragons project that explores new ways of engaging with our collections and bringing the museum to life. Whether you are a seasoned adventurer or new to the world of tabletop roleplaying, read on to learn how we combined history and fantasy using museum objects.
Our Dungeons and Dragons programme is supported by Eclectic Games in Reading, a local award-winning games shop, and Arts Council funded Museums Partnership Reading. Dungeons and Dragons (DnD) is a fantasy role-playing game, created by Wizards of the Coast, that lets you embark on adventures with your fellow players, guided by a Dungeon Master who acts as the game's referee and storyteller.
DnD is particularly popular with neurodivergent young people, who can sometimes struggle to engage with museums in more traditional ways. DnD has been shown to play a part in addressing social anxiety and building confidence, and it also presents an innovative way of engaging. Therefore, our hope is that this project will offer improved opportunities for the neurodivergent community to interact with our museum and its collections.
Games Days
Inspired by our popular Monsters and Myths Games Day in February 2024 we decided use DnD to create new ways for audiences to interact with the museum and its collections.
Alongside staff from Eclectic Games, we picked out six objects from our galleries to inspire the creation of magical items. We wanted these items to have special abilities that could be used in gameplay during a real DnD campaign. These varied from an infinite replenishing biscuit tin to a mysterious oil lamp with ghostly powers, and even a taxidermy mole.
Museum objects that inspired magical items.
Then in February 2025, the museum ran a DnD games day. Participants took part in a museum-themed adventure which incorporated objects from our collection in the story! After using the magical items in game, they were able to get a closer look at the objects themselves, supervised by museum staff. With the support of experienced Dungeon Masters from Eclectic Games we ran these game sessions for beginners and experienced players.
Our aim was to engage harder to reach audiences, focusing on bringing teenagers and young adults into the museum. We wanted to showcase different, fresh ways for our visitors to experience the galleries, looking at our collections under a new light.
Magical items created from museum objects. Drawn by Dell.
The feedback comments we received were really positive with encouragement to continue our work with DnD. Participants wanted further DnD resources inspired by museum objects, and more games sessions in the museum galleries.
Community consultation
Magical items produced by participants
The next step in the project is to release the magical items already developed. We also came up with the idea to help the public create their own magical items.
To test this out we decided to offer a ‘create your own magical item’ workshop to members of our Youth Panel. We had a fantastic turnout, and the feedback we received was very encouraging. The members created really imaginative usable items. Our favourites included a necklace of protection, a broken belt buckle of strength and a mysterious model that seemed to wield an uncanny influence on the real world around it!
We also held a community consultation to test our ‘make your own magical item’ toolkit. With the aim of reaching out to communities that may struggle to interact with our collections. The session included an introduction to the project and a tour around our galleries. Participants chose their favourite museum object and turned them into magical items, following the toolkit’s instructions.
Resources
Reading Museum. Drawn by Richard.
Here is the bit you've been waiting for ...
As a result of this project, we have created a series of six magical item cards that can be used during any DnD game. These can be downloaded below on our Resources page and are also available at Itch.io.
Future ...
This is not the end of our adventures:
- Keep an eye out for further resources from the museum
- Join us for our upcoming Games Day: Adventures & Artefacts!
- Look out for exciting future DnD activity from The MERL
We hope that this project will help us to improve engagement with our local communities and show our visitors new and diverse ways to connect with their local museum, while also promoting looking after your mental health.
Acknowledgements
We just want to thank everyone that has taken part so far and shared their feedback, especially those who came along to the Games Days and the consultation sessions.
We particularly want to thank Eclectic Games for lending us some of their amazing game masters who supported us. We look forward to future collaborations.
Thank you to wonderful artists Dell and Richard for their illustrations adorning our magical artefacts resources.
The project has been supported using public funding by Arts Council England.
