In order to use critical, participatory or co-design to open up ideas that challenge assumptions about important social issues that may otherwise go un-discussed, designers, researchers and participants might first want to, ‘create or occupy play environments or activities' (Flanagan, 2009) in such a manner as to reveal and challenge their own assumptions, in order to counter the adverse effects of expertise, privilege and entitlement in socially-motivated design research that may result in false claims of empathy.

Passwords is a modular and generative card-based tool designed in response to what the author has identified as the need for facilitating and mediating creative and political discussion, deliberation and debate. The objective of play in this activity is healthy dialogue through creative phrase making.