Daydreaming the Dystopia: TTRPG Design and Revolutionary Politics -- Johan Eriksson

This presentation was delivered on June 13, 2025 at the Transformative Play Initiative Seminar 2025: Games, Conflict, and Education. Description: In autumn 2024, the dystopian tabletop role-playing game (White, 2018) Oceania 2084 - Surplus Edition (Eriksson, 2024) was released. Heavily inspired by George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), this game aims not to directly translate Orwell's work but to capture its tone and meaning through a complex game system. During its production, Oceania 2084 (Eriksson, 2024) was also the subject of a master’s thesis (Eriksson, 2023) on expressing an author's voice—an intended and pre-existing aesthetic experience (Niedenthal, 2009) —through a rule system (Sellers, 2017). However, the game’s political philosophy and the underlying meaning expressed through its rule system were only briefly mentioned in the thesis (Eriksson, 2023). These aspects deserve discussion in their own right. How does a game express complex political ideas through interactions? How can we help each other find hope for a better future through gameplay? What structures allow us to understand our role as humans in a world where anti-authoritarian (Newman, 2001) change seems increasingly elusive? How do we inspire resistance against oppressive forces through role-playing? These questions can be explored through the lens of Oceania 2084 (Eriksson, 2024) and were central to its creation. The author, Johan Eriksson, has a solid background in political activism, with over 20 years of both theoretical and practical experience in anarchist philosophy (Bakunin, 1882; Bookchin, 1995; Black, 1986; Gelderloos, 2007, 2010; Graeber, 2009; Milstein, 2010; Proudhon, 2005). His experiences and perspectives have significantly shaped Oceania 2084 (Eriksson, 2024). Bio: Johan Eriksson is an award-winning game designer and educator with a passion for exploring complex ideas through game mechanics. He teaches at Uppsala University’s Department of Game Design, working with both bachelor’s and master’s students. Johan holds a master’s degree in game design, focusing on aesthetic adaptation and political expression in tabletop roleplaying games. *** This hybrid outreach event was co-funded by the Erasmus+ ROCKET project; the Uppsala Forum on Democracy, Peace and Justice; and Region Gotland. The seminar is hosted by the Transformative Play Initiative in the Games & Society Lab at the Department of Game Design, Uppsala University Campus Gotland. The Transformative Play Initiative explores the use of analog role-playing games as vehicles for lasting personal and social change. See the complete program: https://gamesandsociety.speldesign.uu... Learn more about Transformative Play at Uppsala and join the TPI mailing list: https://www.speldesign.uu.se/research... Learn more about the Games & Society Lab at the Department of Game Design: https://www.speldesign.uu.se/research... Like Transformative Play Initiative on FB:   / transformativeplay   Like the Games and Society Lab on FB:   / gamesandsocietylab   Graphic design by Liliia Chorna. Music by Elias Faltin. Video editing by Kjell Hedgard Hugaas.