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. 
• Dehumanisation: 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.