For the next two weeks, Sunday and Tuesday evenings are game night at the Neve Schechter gallery in Tel Aviv, where the latest exhibit, “Roll of Destiny,” explores how Jewish knowledge engages with the world in role-playing games.
“It’s part of our ongoing research of trying to understand how the Jewish body of knowledge can interact with the world in new and evolutionary ways,” said Bar Yerushalmi, director and curator of the gallery. “Role-playing games allow people to participate in ways that we can’t in other forms; it’s mutual storytelling.”
The “Roll of Destiny” exhibit includes six original games, five of which are for four players, while one, “EnGolement” — to become a golem — engages 12 players.
Instead of classic role-playing games like “Dungeons & Dragons” or “Magic: The Gathering,” think “The Days of the Messiah.”
The premise in “The Days of the Messiah” is that the savior has arrived; the game revolves around the different qualities of the messiah and deciding what he or she will do and how.
In “Carry On,” players are at an imaginary security checkpoint where they have to check one another, much like the security questions at the airport, while highlighting narratives about immigration, banishment, and the communities that settled in Israel.
“Role-playing games allow people to interact with one another in ways that they can’t in other forms,” said Yerushalmi, who had a group of artists operating in different disciplines work with game designers to come up with the various games. “We asked, ‘Can we think about RPG as a form of art, and can we create games that are works of art, interacting with the Jewish body of knowledge?”
Some of Yerushalmi’s participating artists had participated in role-playing games before, while others had little to no experience at all, which made it more challenging to introduce and process the concept.
There was another, overarching concept in making the exhibit, said Yerushalmi, who wanted to bring imagination back to the proverbial table.
“We’re in a time when we are drastically lacking imagination, and we’re affected by forces around us telling us what to imagine, being affected by fear, racism, so this is kind of a rescue effort,” he said.
The exhibit has become an opportunity for all kinds of people to sit and play together, added Yerushalmi.
“People who would never speak to one another in regular life do so in a game,” he said.
The exhibit and its game-playing opportunities have been so popular that the gallery will continue with game evenings after the exhibition closes.
“Roll of Destiny” is on display at the Neve Schechter Gallery through January 16.
While visitors can visit the gallery Sunday through Thursday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., they must register at the Neve Schechter website in order to participate in a game.
Most game nights are already sold out, although there will be an option to watch the games being played live on January 13.
