APA WA Supports Planning Black Mirror Game Testing

The American Planning Association’s Technology Division created “Planning Through the Black Mirror,” a scenario-based card game designed to help planners collaboratively explore how emerging technologies and unpredictable “Black Swan” events can reshape communities. Built from real-world–inspired case scenarios and informed by foresight thinking (and the speculative tone of Black Mirror), the game gives participants a structured, low-stakes way to identify drivers of change, define desirable outcomes, and propose creative, agile responses to disruption. Midway through the article’s account of how the game is being tested and refined, it notes that a session was facilitated at WA APA’s 2025 conference when David Wasserman, AICP (the Technology Division Chair) and Bianca Popescu, AICP, ran a play test during a conference session. The game has been piloted at national conferences, happy hours, and local beta tests, and continues to evolve through ongoing feedback, with prototype decks printed and plans underway to expand access for more chapters and APA events.

You can find the APA blog post here: Planning Through the Black Mirror.

You can find other data and technology resources on the APA Technology Division GitHub: https://github.com/APA-Technology-Division/urban-and-regional-planning-resources

And rules for the game are also on their GitHub: https://github.com/APA-Technology-Division/planning-black-mirror-assets/blob/main/Planning%20with%20Black%20Mirror%20Instructions.pdf