Seize the Power, the Board Game
A board game about inequality and power dynamics to initiate and address difficult conversations through a fictional alien society.
2019 | London, UK
Seize the Power has been co-designed in collaboration with game designer Bonnie-Beth Shahriari from Stuff by Bez.
A board game about inequality and power dynamics to initiate and address difficult conversations through a fictional alien society.
Players are aliens in a society where discriminatory rules can be enforced, a place where aliens join together to create a revolution, attempting to overtake the hegemonic power. Aliens have different numbers of eyes, arms, and eye stalks, which affect how you can play the game. Seize the Power is a game about unfair rules, negotiation, and bribery, designed to explore themes of discrimination and social inequality, ultimately initiating and addressing difficult conversations through the lens of an alien society.
A game about privilege, bigotry, negotiation, and subjugation of power.
3-4 players, 45 - 60 minutes.
Go to school to be educated. Get a job. Get money. Buy food and shelter. Meanwhile, money is also used to gain power. Players are free to make threats or demand bribes in exchange for preferential treatment. Some characters will be discriminated against. Life is just harder for some.
Those with fewer arms, fewer eyes, or no eye stalks will be discriminated against. Their starting position will usually be worse, with less money and fewer educational opportunities, and the in-game rules will also disadvantage them.
Presentations:
2025 Games and Social Justice, London, UK.
2025 UK Games Expo (UKGE), Academic Track, Birmingham, UK.
2024 Games Transformed, London, UK.
2022 Now Play This!, London, UK.
2020 Fastaval, Educational Games, Hobro, Denmark.
