BiodiverCity — Dahoon Lee

In a future biodiversity dead zone, can players prevent collapse? Our group designed a LARP experience that uses roleplay to explore a specific issue, embedding London’s biodiversity context into game rules and storyline.

A City After Biodiversity

We aimed to design an operable game structure by concretising the player scenario and rules within a limited timeframe. By grounding the experience in London’s biodiversity context, we also sought to raise participants’ awareness through play.

Freedom, Held by Rules

Through a No Words LARP test and roleplay trials, we explored core LARP principles such as rules, immersion, and collaboration. We researched London’s biodiversity context and organised insights through an idea board. We also drew on references such as the Seed Vault and Noah’s Ark to establish a narrative basis for player goals.

LARP requires a balance: preserving player freedom while setting clear, operable rules and goals. Designing narrative and mechanics together is essential.

Opening the Seed Vault

A biodiversity LARP where four tribes solve riddles to open the ‘Seed Vault’.

We borrowed elements from board games and roleplay to design manageable mechanics such as resource cards, then tested them through iteration. We set rules that differentiate each tribe’s speaking style and movement to strengthen role immersion. By designing stage-based riddles alongside guiding audio and text cues, we created an operational structure that keeps the experience on track while maintaining a sense of freedom.

If We Had One More Run

With ten team members collaborating, we initially struggled to converge because there were many ideas in play. Over time, we found a rhythm for expanding and narrowing ideas at the right moments through tools such as an idea board and clear role division.

My role included proposing theme-level concepts such as the Seed Vault, creating an illustration-based riddle built around the animal food chain, acting as the on-site audio technician, and filming video documentation for archiving.

One limitation was that we only gained access to the space on the day, which meant we could not run an on-site rehearsal. If we had the opportunity to run it again, I believe a full scenario run-through and technical rehearsal would support a more polished and reliable experience.