Magic: The Gathering – The Eco Hack is a 3-hour hands-on workshop that uses the concept of ‘franchise hacking’ developed by game design researchers Dr Stefan Werning (Utrecht University), Professor Paul Wake and Dr Chloé Germaine (Manchester Metropolitan University). In this session you will join these researchers to design and playtest your own custom cards and decks for Magic: The Gathering, exploring its potential environmental themes and stories.  All materials will be provided.

This workshop features in the series of events taking place at the UK Games Expo, the UK’s largest hobby game convention. The convention takes place at the Birmingham NEC Fri 30 May to Sun 1 June, 2025.

Drawing on previous work by Chloé Germaine and Paul Wake on ‘hacking’ board games to support climate action, here we turn attention to hacking one of gaming’s most popular franchises. Magic: The Gathering has masterfully incorporated narratives from multiple franchises, creating a vast multiverse of story worlds enjoyed by fans across the globe. Our workshop will tap into this universe to explore the real-world issues of sustainable futures and interspecies relations. 

The hacking session is very much a celebration of MtG, encouraging you to enjoy its core mechanics and gameplay. By hijacking these mechanics, however, and making new powers and characters for the game, we hope you will find your own, new narratives and play experiences, focused on environmental preservation and imagining positive climate futures.