Rock, Paper, Pigeon (RoPPi)

What is RoPPi?

Rock, Paper, Pigeon (RoPPi) is a Natureculture Heritage (NCH) Game, evolving from a board game to a future digital platform, that fosters deep engagement with Madeira’s natureculture heritage. As demonstrated in the research publications listed at the end of this page, play tests have revealed the game’s ability to enhance participation, inclusivity, and speculative storytelling through mechanics such as character embodiment, multi-perspective narration, and Hero’s Journey structuring. RoPPi thus contributes to HCI and heritage research by demonstrating how digital storytelling games can support sustainable heritage engagement.

Figure 1: RoPPi and its components: (A) Map board; (B) Storytelling writing sheets; (C) Story prompt cards; (D) Character cards; (E)
Character tokens.

Set against Madeira’s striking volcanic landscapes and biodiversity, RoPPi encourages players to craft narratives guided by the hero’s journey structure while navigating scenarios inspired by real-world ecological and geological processes. The game serves as both a creative and critical tool, prompting players to reflect on natureculture entanglements through play.

Findings from user studies reveal distinct approaches to MtH storytelling (referenced below), with biologists tending toward ecologically grounded narratives and interdisciplinary participants embracing imaginative, emotionally driven storytelling. By positioning play as a participatory method, RoPPi contributes to posthumanist discourse in HCI, demonstrating how role-based gamification can cultivate empathy, critical reflection, and multispecies awareness in heritage interpretation.

RoPPi in Case Study 3

RoPPi aligns closely with the objectives of the LoGaCulture project by expanding the scope of heritage engagement beyond human-centered narratives. The project explores how games and digital storytelling can serve as speculative tools for engaging with cultural and natural heritage, emphasizing the importance of participatory and community-driven approaches. In this context, RoPPi functions as an innovative intervention that leverages board game mechanics to foster more-than-human (MtH) storytelling. By inviting players to embody nonhuman entities — such as birds, marine mammals, water, and volcanic rocks — RoPPi introduces an alternative mode of heritage interpretation that challenges anthropocentric perspectives. This aligns with LoGaCulture’s broader mission of integrating digital and gamified experiences into heritage discourse, ensuring that engagement with natural and cultural heritage is dynamic, inclusive, and reflective of the entangled histories of both human and nonhuman agents.

Furthermore, RoPPi contributes to LoGaCulture’s methodological exploration of game-based heritage interpretation by demonstrating the potential of speculative play as a tool for fostering ecological awareness and multi-species storytelling. While much of heritage gaming research has centered on historical reenactment or factual storytelling, RoPPi embraces an alternative approach that foregrounds immersion, reflection, and posthuman engagement with natureculture heritage. The game’s structure — rooted in the Hero’s Journey — encourages participants to navigate shifting relationships between humans, animals, landscapes, and environmental forces, generating emergent narratives that reshape traditional understandings of heritage.

By blending interactive storytelling with embodied play, RoPPi exemplifies how LoGaCulture’s framework can support novel, participatory encounters with heritage, ultimately broadening the ways in which players engage with the complex, multispecies histories of natural and cultural landscapes.

RoPPi has been submitted to the following research publications:

• Nisi, Valentina et al. (2025; ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION) Playing and Authoring Natureculture Heritage: Designing a Storytelling Game for Engaging with Natureculture Landscapes. C&C ’25: Proceedings of the 17th Conference on Creativity & Cognition.
• Galvão-Ferreira, Pedro et al. (2025; SUBMITTED: UNDER REVIEW) Rock, Paper, Pigeon: Playing with Posthuman Narratives for Natureculture Storytelling. Games and Culture, 23 pages.

Design of RoPPi

The design of RoPPi is rooted in fostering engagement with the rich natural and cultural heritage of the Madeira Archipelago, a biodiversity hotspot. Inspired by the island’s unique natureculture landscape — ranging from the ancient Laurisilva forest to the centuries-old Levada water channels — each design choice was carefully crafted to encourage exploration, learning, and reflection.

The development process followed an iterative approach, incorporating playtesting and Research through Design (RtD), allowing designers to “drift” in response to emerging insights and player feedback.

First version

The game’s first version focused on collecting personal stories and memories of firsthand experiences with Levadas walks, a key element of Madeira’s NCH. It provided researchers with rich datasets on players’ experiences and speculative perspectives on inclusive and more-than-human paradigms. Designed as an engaging way to recall and share local heritage, the game could be played solo or in a group. Players embodied a character with specific needs and challenges, reimagining their story from this new perspective.

Figure 2: First version of RoPPi, focused on collecting personal stories and memories of firsthand experiences with Levadas walks.

Use the button below to download the files of RoPPi, version 1.

Intermediate version

The intermediate version of RoPPi led to a board that now instead provided a structured guide to Madeira’s history, landmarks, and natural heritage. Color-coded heritage encounters enhanced thematic understanding, with the storytelling process following the Hero’s Journey, with players starting at a coastal location and progressing through their narrative as they explore the islands’ real locations. The game concluded for all players simultaneously when they reach their eighth and final writing step.

Figure 3: Intermediate version of RoPPi, now providing a structured guide to Madeira’s history, landmarks, and natural heritage.

Use the button below to download the files of RoPPi, version 2.

RoPPi Final Version and Mechanics

The final version of RoPPi is still structured around a storytelling framework inspired by the Hero’s Journey (with each player beginning by drawing a card that assigns them the role of a specific nonhuman entity, co-developed with natural scientists to represent a diverse selection of Madeiran fauna and geological elements), but here with a set of pre-determined exclusively more-than-human (MtH) characters spanning the terrestrial, aerial, and marine habitats of Madeira — including a monk seal, a frog, various bird species, as well as water and volcanic rocks. Players embark on their journey from real-world coastal locations in Madeira, marked by red flags on the board, and write a short introduction situating their character within an imagined adventure.

Figure 4: Photo of fieldwork in the Madeira landscape (left) in which the final version of RoPPi is inspired (right).

RoPPi play mechanics

Progressing through the game, players take turns rolling two — one determining movement across the board and the other setting a timed writing challenge. The narrative unfolds in six structured stages, corresponding to a simplified version of the Hero’s Journey: (1) Call to Adventure, (2) Crossing the Threshold, (3) Meeting the Mentor, (4) Trials and Growth, (5) “Death” and Transformation, and (6) Change and Return. The game concludes with all players simultaneously completing their final narrative segment, followed by a post-story reflection on how their character’s journey resonates with the rhythms of nature.

Figure 5: RoPPi play test sessions with a group of cross-disciplinary professionals (generalist) and biologists.

The board itself serves as both a guide and inspiration, integrating Madeira’s history, landmarks, and natural heritage into the storytelling experience. Throughout the game, players encounter color-coded thematic — grouped into four categories: Nature, Sensory Experiences, Actions, and Existential Considerations — designed to deepen engagement with natureculture entanglements. By weaving these elements into play, RoPPi transforms into an interactive exploration of more-than-human perspectives, challenging players to rethink traditional, anthropocentric approaches to heritage interpretation.

Use the button below to download the files of RoPPi, version 2.

RoPPi Digital Version

The digital adaptation builds on the final physical board game version, offering solo and multiplayer modes. Solo play is a story-authoring tool that guides players through structured steps until their story is complete. In multiplayer mode, players progress together, seeing each other’s movements across the digital board as they explore the island.

Figure 6: Mockup of the digital version of the RoPPi Natureculture Heritage Game.

Players begin by selecting a character from predefined options or designing their own; they assign a name and additional traits to the character’s card. The screen featuring the digital board is made of a central map of the Madeira archipelago, a dice button, a character token, and an icon for accessing the writing sheet. After choosing a starting point from a selection of coastal points, the game automatically rolls the dice for all players. Nodes on the map pulse to indicate movement options matching the dice roll, allowing players to advance or move backwards.

A navigation tool provides an overview of the zoomed-in section of the map. Upon selecting a new position, players access their writing sheet, receiving a location-based prompt and a corresponding Hero’s Journey step. This combination serves as inspiration for writing a short story fragment. The writing field limits input to a predetermined character count. Once submitted, the dice roll again, and the cycle continues until players reach the journey’s end and conclude with a reflection on their adventure. At the end of the game, players’ stories can be saved on a local database or deleted.

The digital game is developed using SvelteKit with Svelte 5 as the primary frontend framework, ensuring a reactive and efficient user experience. The UI is built with Tailwind CSS, providing a structured and responsive design, while Lucide Svelte icons and Tailwind Variants enhance visual elements and state transitions. The game features a dynamic game board that updates in real time, leveraging Svelte’s reactivity for smooth animations and state management. On the backend, Supabase handles authentication, database interactions, and real-time data synchronisation, supporting multiplayer functionality. The project is managed with Vite, optimising performance and build speed, while Playwright is used for automated testing. The overall architecture follows a serverless approach, with Supabase providing backend services while the front end operates independently, ensuring scalability and lightweight deployment.

The RoPPi Team is:

Prof Valentina Nisi – Principal Investigator
Prof Nuno Nunes – Academic Investigator
Dr Pedro Galvão Ferreira – Senior Post-doc
Dr Marta Ferreira – Post-doc Researcher and Designer
Dr Teresa Paulino – Post-doc Researcher
Mathilde Gouin – PhD Student
Beste Syobilge – Researcher
Vadym Volkovinskyy – Researcher