Magic: The Gathering - Franchise Hacking Toolkit

The MTG Hacking Toolkit provides the necessary files and documentation to implement 'franchise hacking', i.e. modding game franchises for climate communication and -education, in a workshop, class or other similar format, using Magic: The Gathering (MTG) as a sample game franchise. Rather than creating bespoke 'serious games' about climate threats and sustainable futures, the workflow describes how ecomodding (Werning 2021) existing game franchises - that are deeply meaningful to millions of players world-wide - can leverage their cultural status as 'affinity spaces' (James Paul Gee) as well as 'communities of practice' (Lave/Wenger, Bogost) to enable equitable and engaged discussions about climate futures through the procedural 'language' of the game franchise, inside and outside of the classroom. 

Starting as a grassroots activity, 'franchise hacking' can be extended to other (analogue) game franchises like Pokémon TCG, Monopoly, Pandemic and more as well as other societally relevant topics. As it is based on games that are already part of students' media routines, offering this toolkit to facilitate creative expression may ideally foster informal learning and engagement. The sample deck provided alongside the toolkit files was created with/by students and explores the synergistic logic of petro-capitalism through a playable 60-card MTG deck that is intended as material for exploratory hacking activities, e.g. by adding alternative versions of existing or entirely new cards as well as altering the deck composition.   

The toolkit and corresponding workflow require a Google Sheet to collaboratively create the contents of the card deck and the free Windows tool nanDECK, created by Andrea Nini, to format and export the cards, either as a printable PDF or as images that can be imported into a digital prototyping tool like Virtualtabletop.io.  

The toolkit and underlying 'franchise hacking' concept are part of a broader game hacking methodology (Germaine and Wake, 2024; Germaine and Wake, 2026) further developed within the Horizon Europe project STRATEGIES. More detailed information on how to set up and start using the toolkit can be found on the STRATEGIES website.

Works Cited

(c) for the MTG game system, card layout and visual card elements lies with Wizards of the Coast, a subsidiary of Hasbro. 

The sample deck includes one existing MTG card (Over the Top) as proof of concept on how to incorporate custom decks with existing MTG cards; the card art was created by Cristi Balanescu and the (c)/tm lies with Wizards of the Coast. Moreover, the images for card backgrounds and visual card elements were obtained from Magic Set Editor (http://magicseteditor.boards.net/page/downloads).