ABSTRACT
The use of role-playing studies should raise no eyebrows, as historical reenactment (RH)+live-action role-playing (LARP)+tabletop role-playing games (TRPG). are all based on a playful physical performance of temporarily adopted roles. Heritage studies, in turn, is justified by the thematic scope: history/heritage-themed settings. In the lens of heritage studies, history-themed RH+TRPG+LARP are genres of heritage next to historical/heritage feature film, miniature wargaming, historical novel, Renaissance Faire, historical music/dance festival, and so on. TRPG+LARP with historical settings fall within the scope of historical game studies: “the study of those games that in some way represent the past or relate to discourses about it”. Heritage is a process of social meaning-making. Heritage is a process of personal experience: “an embodied cultural performance of meaning-making” which is grounded in the social and political, but experienced individually. The performative turn in culture and in culture/social studies has had a profound impact on tourism, heritage and heritage studies.
