How to create a role-playing experience about a historical fact or period? Mauro is a renowned Italian game designer, author, archeologist and journalist. He lead us through a workshop going down the rabbit hole of historical settings and role-playing games..

This workshop and talk presented practices of role-playing as practices of activism, resistance and survival. Starting from the statement that role-playing is inherently critical and political (regardless of exploring explicitly political themes or not), the talk touches upon past initiatives and associations from Utopian Socialist movements, to Illegal Scouting, to role-playing traditions operating under authoritarian regimes. Further exploring modes of societal engagement (transgressive, autonomous, porous) on the intersections of play, art and politics we hope to end on some conversation-starting provocations about escapism, authority and authorship and 'radical' world-building.