Year: 2026
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Island Istanbul (Working Title) is a system-agnostic setting sourcebook for "tabletop role-playing games (TRPGs)", currently under development as part of the Speculative Games research project at the University for the Creative Arts.This practice-based research project aims to present a playable possible future for Istanbul, informed by global urban climate adaptation imaginaries (Loroño-Leturiondo, 2025) and by the ongoing tensions between Istanbul's authoritarian neoliberal urban renewal and the city's urban palimpsest (Oktem, 2019).It seeks to give players a sense of agency by positioning them as participants in this imagined future.In this regard, Island Istanbul is thematically inspired by video games like Saltsea Chronicles (Die Gute Fabrik, 2023) and TRPGs like Utopia (Markiwsky, 2021) and SolaRPG (Aleotti et al., 2025).The project builds on the critical capacity of imagined spaces in role playing games to act as interrogations of power structures of legal, political, religious, and financial authorities (Giappone and Vella, 2021).In this regard, this study investigates how worldbuilding for TRPGs can encourage critical reflection on the ecological, socioeconomic, and political uncertainties, risks, and opportunities of underrepresented non-Western urban futures.In its early stages, the project currently focuses on how to combine structured constraints with generative openness for "game masters" (GMs).While recognizing that game systems may direct game characters, player actions, and narrative expectations towards certain directions regardless of the setting (Albom 2021), the system-agnostic approach aims to provide a broad space for players to explore and change Istanbul's speculative future despite the mechanics they play with (Baur 2012).In this regard, we are developing not only organizational tools such as maps, timelines, and encyclopedic data, but also generative worldbuilding frameworks (Baker 2017), such as roll tables utilized to provide further
Authors: Tonguc Ibrahim Sezen, Digdem Sezen
Institution: University for the Creative Arts
Language: English
Topic: Digital Games and Media
Subfield: Sociology and Political Science
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: gold
OpenAlex ID: W7203748907