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What Defines a Dystolarp Scenario?

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In our previous post we defined dystopia as: “a fictional society in which social, political or environmental systems have failed or become oppressive.” Deepening into the dystopia genre, you will find that it leans heavily on some common themes, tropes, and narratives. 

Common themes 

  • Strict social control:

Governments, corporations, or technologies exert excessive control over citizens’ lives. 

  • Erasure of individuality:

Conformity is forced, and individual expression is suppressed. 

  • Propaganda:

Information is manipulated and false information is widely spread. 

  • Censorship:

Truth and dissenting opinions are suppressed.  

  • Technology:

Technological breakthroughs are used as a tool by the oppressors and not for progress or the good of the majority.  

  • Social stratification:

Rigid social and class systems enhance inequality and assert control.  

  • Environmental destruction:

Nature and natural resources are often damaged or depleted. 

Common tropes 

  • The protagonist rebels:

The main character questions the status quo and challenges the oppressive system.   

  • History is erased and hidden: 

The oppressors erase the past in order to control the present. 

  • Memory: 

Archiving and preserving memory become acts of resistance. 

  • The power of language:

When you control language, you control thought. False narratives and newspeak.  

  • The Big Brother surveillance state: 

Citizens’ lives are under constant surveillance. People watch each other and turn others into oppressors.  

  • Dehumanization:

People are treated as numbers, objects, or case files. Individuality is suppressed and erased. 

Common narratives 

  • The dystopia is prevented through a pre-emptive victory.  
  • The dystopian system is challenged and defeated. 
  • The dystopia is challenged and defeated, but the victory is pyrrhic. 
  • The dystopian system is challenged but is not defeated. 
  • The dystopian system completely crushes any resistance.  

Dystolarp’s approach

In Dystolarp’s stated objective, we can read: “By engaging participants in interactive dystopian scenarios where they must navigate societal challenges, we aim to enhance soft skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving through ethical dilemmas, promote active citizenship and encourage sustainable practices in non-formal education.” As a short form for “interactive dystopian scenarios” we use dystopian larp, and from the objective we can understand that how we define this term is crucial for how the Dystolarp project unfolds. 

From the offset, one might think that defining dystopian larp is simply a question of extending the definition of dystopia from traditional media, and adding the layers, mechanics, and specificities of larp to them. While this might be true in principle, in the Dystolarp project, we also have to make sure that we keep our focus on the other part of the above cited objective. By this, we mean that we have to be intentional in our definition, making sure that we create scenarios that contain the traditional hallmarks of dystopia, while also engaging the players in skill-learning and inspiring them to take action also after the game has ended. 

How do we design based on these criteria? 

Returning to the lists of common themes, tropes, and narratives, we can say that in general, all the themes and tropes can work well in a Dystolarp scenario, while we will have to be more selective regarding narratives. In short, it is hard to imagine that players will be inspired to engage with real life challenges if the narrative does not allow them to challenge, and at least to some degree achieve victory against the dystopia. For example, some Dystolarp scenarios may focus on narratives of pre-emptive victory and dystopia being defeated through collective efforts. 

Pre-emptive victory narratives are created to warn of what might come if we do not take action against it. The protagonist understands what is about to happen or gets a glimpse of the future in one way or another. Individual or collective efforts then lead to a pre-emptive victory against those who want to build dystopia. Stories about defeating the system revolve around how the protagonist is able to rally people into resisting, fighting, and ultimately achieving victory. 

In short, a Dystolarp scenario leverages narratives of pre-emptive and collective victory against the system, in order aims to enhance soft skills such as critical thinking and problem-solving through ethical dilemmas, promote active citizenship and encourage sustainable practices in non-formal education.

Stay tuned for future updates!

References

  • Claeys, Gregory. 2016. Dystopia: a natural history: a study of modern despotism, its antecedents, and its literary diffractions. Oxford University Press.
  • Encyclopedia[.]com. 2026. “Dystopia”. Encyclopedia[.]com. April 8.2026. https://www.encyclopedia.com/literature-and-arts/literature-english/english-literature-20th-cent-present/dystopia
  • Bowman, Sarah Lynne, Simon Brind, and Kjell Hedgard Hugaas, eds. In press. Implementing Transformative Role-playing Games. Transformative Play Research 2. Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis, Uppsala University Press.

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Why dysto? Why larp? How dystopian larp can enhance civic engagement and environmental responsibility of EU youth

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Dystopian stories and role-playing practices have been part of culture for centuries across the world. Beyond entertainment, they offer powerful educational potential by creating immersive fictional spaces where complex issues can be explored safely. The DystoLarp project builds on this potential by combining dystopian narratives with live action role-playing (larp) to help youth develop necessary social and soft skills, along with a deeper understanding of civic engagement, environmental awareness and democratic values.

Why dystopia serves civic learning and environmental awareness 

A dystopian fiction “explores societies in which social and political systems have gone wrong” (Moylan, 2000). As such, dystopian settings represent and highlight real-world issues, such as climate crisis, political abuse, injustice or loss of essential rights, universalising marginalised groups’ struggles through fiction to make them more accessible and tangible, thus encouraging participants to confront the consequences of ecological, social and political decisions.

In education, dystopia functions as a mirror: it reflects familiar or realistic dynamics engaging with complex themes through fictional characters that provide enough distance to allow discussion without direct personal confrontation. As such, young participants can more readily ask difficult societal questions and experience their meaning: 

  • Who holds power and shapes laws and norms? 
  • Is the system fair and honest? 
  • What is the impact of voting, fact-checking and speaking up? 
  • How can we navigate misinformation, surveillance and inequalities? 

In asking these questions, ideally, they can recognise democratic responsibilities and rights in real life without feeling that their safety, beliefs or identities are under attack. 

Why larp is a uniquely powerful learning strategy

Live action role-playing (larp) is a form of role-play in which participants physically and socially embody fictional characters, interacting and making decisions with diverse consequences within a structured scenario. Educational larp (commonly called edu-larp) thus naturally fits experiential learning principles, in which the learner literally plays an active role in their education: they explore, act, reflect, form insights, test new approaches and grow. 

Most larp experiences are designed to be highly social, with complex social dynamics emerging organically through play. Civic engagement is rarely an individual activity; it is shaped by trust, leadership, peer pressure, cooperation and conflict. Through dystopian larp, participants practise empathy, communication, negotiation, problem-solving, emotional awareness, self-regulation, ethical decision-making and critical thinking, all skills that are essential for democratic participation but often difficult to teach through traditional methods.

Better futures start with empowered citizens

The DystoLarp project was born from this simple premise: if we want young people to understand civic engagement, EU citizenship and sustainability, we should let them experience these topics in safer, controlled and collective settings with intentional structures and settings that facilitate reflection on their role and decisions and explore how these lessons translate into real-life actions and mindsets.

To reach this goal, we aim to provide a variety of resources, such as ready-to-use scenarios, practical guides and detailed tutorials for youth workers to implement, facilitate and create engaging and educational dystopian larp experiences which touch on a wide range of social, civic and environmental matters. 

Through these immersive activities, young people can more safely rehearse civic and democratic dilemmas, and enhance their ability to analyse current issues, contribute to better systems and make a real change. Thus, by acting and playing through potential futures or alternate pasts or presents, whether grounded in our own world or set in a fantastical one, young people can learn, reflect and evolve into a generation of empowered, aware and active citizens.

Stay tuned through our project website to discover our upcoming resources soon!

References