Dangers and Dwellers: design and playtest of a semi-collaborative boardgame on sustainable management of geohazards

Educating people to safe behaviors and raising risk awareness are activities that are often considered among the most cost-effective measures to face geohazards. At the same time, game-based learning is an effective means to convey messages that persist in the mind of people and to reach different age groups.In this work we explain the game mechanics, and the reasons behind them, that we adopted to create a semi-competitive strategy boardgame named Dangers and Dwellers, where the players interpret up to 8 characters, each playing a different role in the disaster risk management of a fictional island frequently struck by floods, earthquakes and landslides.The game lasts for 6 turns, during which the island and its inhabitants must not go beyond a certain level of physical, economical and psychological damage. Each turn is divided into two phases: during the first phase the players must collectively debate on how and which of their unique abilities should be implemented. The players must manage a shared pool of resources to invest in risk prediction, mitigation or response. During the second phase, a geohazard hits the island and the damages are calculated according to the actions played during the first phase. Other than preserving the island and its people, each player has an individual goal, that under some circumstances may go against the general interest.We have spent a four-month period carrying out several playtests that were necessary to calibrate the difficulty and the duration of the game.  In the ever-challenging task of transmitting knowledge while at the same time being entertaining and engaging, we leaned toward the latter, by drawing from the mechanics of boardgames popular in the gamers’ community. Surprisingly, despite the game being initially targeted at adults and high-school students, we witnessed a marked interest in the game also by primary school students. The presence of a game master at every session ensured smooth gameplay, even among casual gamers and large groups.The playtest showed that the game mechanics successfully reproduce the dynamics of actual societies in front of natural hazards, and players must continuously make hard choices and face contradictions. In this way we aim to deliver important messages on disaster risk management both explicitly and implicitly.