design justice! the card game! is an empathy tabletop role-playing game (trpg) pulling references from traditional role-playing games such as dungeons and dragons. it aims to get higher education staff and faculty to embody the lived experiences of diverse learner profiles, particularly marginalized learners, to inform their design decisions and ensure they are accounting for these groups when doing their work. through gameplay, it highlights the insidious nature of infrastructure and how oppression can be coded into structures whether in the built environment or existing processes. 

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in the agentic imagination: tabletop role-playing games as a cultural tool, fuist (2012) discusses how trpgs provide a safe space for players to explore worlds, develop collective identity, negotiate culture, and step into the experience of the other. design justice! the card game! capitalizes on these aspects of trpgs in its design, aligning with the assertion that gameplay can shape individuals and influence their actions and social roles beyond the game itself (fuist, 2012). players of design justice! the card game! can incorporate insights from marginalized learners' experiences gleaned through gameplay within higher education institutions' design processes. the inclusion of design justice principles as a resource bank may also cause players to favor design processes and designs that uplift and empower marginalized communities.

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trpgs provide multiple layers of interaction that design justice! the card game! is pulling from, specifically, the magic circle layer which allows players to enter a “shared imagined space” that provides an opportunity for players to not just learn of others' experiences but also project onto them, see themselves in their player characters and learn to be (fuist, 2012; johnson, 2019). in their article on using empathy games in the social sciences, johnson (2019), emphasizes that empathy games are valuable when players can embody the experiences of the other. through gameplay, the players of design justice! the card game! should have an experience where they view their player-characters as a surrogate second self which allows them to foster a stronger connection to the experiences of these learner groups and take on perspectives of learners for whom they have no lived experience (chesler, 2022; johnson, 2019). the gameplay should allow them to become better designers who not only say they value diversity, equity, accessibility, and justice but embody that in their work.  

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another game design element that design justice! the card game! capitalizes on is the opportunity for players to engage with concepts and narratives larger than themselves within the game's framework. in the article by fuist (2012), participants expressed that tabletop role-playing games (trpgs) enabled them to explore societal issues, with some intentionally embodying characters with perspectives and motivations different from their own, such as divergent religious beliefs or contrasting family dynamics. design justice! the card game! takes this concept further by deliberately immersing players in roles that require them to adopt the viewpoints and experiences of individuals unlike themselves, aiming not only to foster understanding but also to simulate the challenges of navigating oppressive systems. the objective is to place players directly in the shoes of marginalized learners, allowing them to confront and grapple with the realities of problem-solving within such contexts. a key feature of empathy games is making players feel the real-life experience of the subject matter, aiming to change their viewpoints and shed light on the insidious nature of privilege and oppression (chesler, 2022; johnson, 2019). typically, these games cannot be won and regular game mechanics that ease gameplay or resolve conflict may be subverted to underscore the game's message (johnson, 2019). for instance, the game that dragon, cancer lacks mechanics to soothe the sick child, while lim, which explores a trans experience, increases distress as players try to use the "blend" option (johnson, 2019). design justice! the card game! employs similar techniques by implementing mechanics in modifiers. for instance, when a student of color tries to "roll for advocate" when interacting with an unkind professor, they may have negative advocate points, resulting in a failed roll majority of the time. this mechanic underscores the challenges of self-advocacy when institutional policies do not consider the needs of marginalized learners.

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the game's format is an intentional choice to leverage the sense of community, connection, and envisioning of new futures observed when players engage in tabletop role-playing games (trpgs). according to fuist (2012), the act of playing trpgs blurs the lines between players, their characters, the imagined space, broader societal structures, and fellow participants. this blending of boundaries fosters a collective identity among players and enables them to situate themselves within their social contexts.  furthermore, fuist (2012) highlights how the imaginative aspects of trpgs afford players the opportunity to explore new meanings, experiment with alternative possibilities, and envision new futures. design justice! the card game! builds upon these principles, inviting players to participate in speculative design. through gameplay, they can experiment with new solutions and reimagine higher education institutions through a justice-oriented lens, drawing from principles of design justice. players are prompted to imagine out by envisioning how these strategies could be implemented in their work and contribute to real-world impact (fuist, 2012).

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the current iteration of design justice! the card game! isn't perfect, and the aim for the future of the game is to collaborate with students whose experiences it seeks to simulate, in line with the design justice principle of "nothing about us without us". reflecting on johnson's (2019) assertion that the power of empathy games lies in the fact that they are typically designed by game designers intimately familiar with the experiences they aim to convey, creating a fully immersive gaming experience. presently, much of the game content is generated with the assistance of ai, which can perpetuate biases and stereotypes, potentially exacerbating the very issues the game seeks to address. moving forward, the objective is to generate content in collaboration with the communities of interest to ensure an authentic gaming experience (lapensée, 2022).

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another potential pitfall is that games like this are best played in a structured environment because much of the gameplay learning can be lost without reflection (johnson, 2019). currently, the gameplay incorporates a debrief section to emphasize to players that the game isn't solely for entertainment but it's an opportunity to reflect on their learning and identify connections between gameplay and real-life experiences. importantly, the game is designed so the learning is intentionally carried beyond the "magic circle" and into players' actual work. by collaborating with represented communities, addressing ai biases, and fostering structured reflection, design justice! the card game! can more effectively immerse players in exploring equity issues within higher education while envisioning and working towards more just solutions.