Risk Unseen
Description: Risk Unseen explores how experience of past disasters can skew our perception of risk and determine how prepared we may be for future events. Its aim is to introduce a discussion about how to enhance preparedness to unseen risks. Risk Unseen is a dice game with a narrative that can be modified for different hazards and preparedness actions.
Learning objectives:
- To open a discussion about why we choose to prepare for extreme events, and what motivates our decisions and trade-offs.
- To illustrate the concept of a sitting duck: a place that has a high risk of an extreme event, but where people might underestimate their risk because they have not had recent experience of an extreme event.
- Discuss how recent experience shapes our willingness to prepare for disaster. Discuss where sitting ducks might be in the real world and how to enhance preparedness to unseen or unprecedented events.
Target audience: Disaster managers and communities.
Play set-up: No specific space requirements. Between 5-100 players (and ideally above 15). Materials list attached.
Acknowledgements: Pablo Suarez envisioned this game, many of the gameplay elements, and initiated game design before his passing. He is dearly missed. Dorothy Heinrich and Erin Coughlan de Perez gratefully acknowledge support from the Norwegian Red Cross, NASA, and the US National Institutes of Health.
