#gamepoem

[itsshainy]

Games

I’m not the type to play games

but I’ve noticed that you are dying to play a game with me

be careful what you wish for because you’ll end up in flames

-Shainy

[mtcaz]

Playful Being Photos

We found out that Jess and Mel from Playful Being were visiting the States and happened to be coming very nearby, so we asked them to do a workshop at Mt. Caz.

Keep reading for photos and a recap.

Albert complemented with a gamepoem called “A Better Way to Do a Useless Thing,” set inside a ‘factory’ in Terra Incognita.

While the ‘workers’ busily mass produced car drawings accompanied by a quote from Henry Ford, Albert read aloud an interview excerpt from Studs Terkel’s seminal book Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do.

It was interesting to see who followed orders and who mutinied soon after their shift started -- and in what ways.

At the conclusion of “A Better Way...” we moved into the Grove for a series of activities that Jess and Mel led us through, which asked all of us to play with our bodies and our voices and our space.

Here is Mel conducting.

Here is one of our collaborative machines.

The evening culminated in a sound circle. The improvised composition and the attentive listening of our group were marvels to be a part of. It was a thrill to see how that group attunement had been gradually built and strengthened throughout the evening.

There is something powerful about singing -- and particularly singing together, that we have lost opportunities for in our culture.

The other thing I keep thinking about is the conversation we had with Jess and Mel before the event, where we discussed the language of how to market their workshops and events -- how a lot of people balk at the word ‘play’ in an event description but will sign up for anything with the word ‘creative’ in it. We discussed Lynda Barry and why play is important and why it’s necessary to contintue to cultivate it in our lives, no matter our age.

We hope to open space for more play here at Mt Caz and we look forward to crossing paths with Playful Being again in future! If you’re ever in the UK near the sheep, look em up and give them a holler.

[fiftytwogames]

#46 Worldbuilding

Go on a walk, alone or with friends. As you’re walking find places of habitation, where people live or have lived. Pick out a place.

Think (and talk) about who has lived there. What were their names? Were they related? What are they like? Who cries into their pillow each night, and who hears and ignores it?

Once you’ve discussed or thought about one place (you can do this while walking) you should look for your next. Repeat the process, except this time you should build at least one link between the two places. Perhaps someone lived in both houses, gave another a lift on a bus, or saved someones life.

Continue playing until your legs are tired.

[fiftytwogames]

#43 Welcome to the Wilderness

A bluffing game about survival. A real life version of Welcome to the Dungeon.

Play with friends. Lay out survival gear for one person, with enough to survive on for a few weeks.

Shuffle a deck of cards.

Take turns. On your turn either

Draw a card

Pass

If you draw a card you have two options; add it to the adventure pile or remove a piece of equipment.

If you add it to the adventure pile the player that goes into the wilderness will have to add that many days onto their adventure (a five would add five days, a Queen twelve).

If you use it to remove a piece of equipment leave it face down in front of you and place a piece of equipment (your choice) on it.

The last player to have not passed has to go into the wilderness with the gear that’s left, surviving for a number of days equal to the cards in the adventure pile.

If they survive they score a point. If you score two points you win.

Please don’t ever play this game.

[fiftytwogames]

#36 Haunting

Games for friends are always my favourite to make. Here's one I scrawled on to the back of a lanyard while sat hungover, waiting for a meal, on Halloween.

Pretend to be a ghost; feel the restless ethereality, the hollow ache of mortal wounds, the blurs of forgotten friends. When you are ready sell where you are living, when people move in - stay, and haunt them. Score a point for each family you get to move out - lose if you are discovered.

[fiftytwogames]

52g: #33 Produce

Take a sheet of paper & a pen Write on it everything you have made this week or month or year Make a note of everything you've produced be it work or hobby or project or art or substance or craft or gift Look at it for a moment & then destroy it (however you like) --- Stand up walk to a different place a place that feels comfortable Sit there & think Remember times when you have been kind or made someone laugh or cheered someone up or took a stand or given, selflessly or wandered, aimlessly Remember when someone has saved you, without knowing has hugged you, because you needed it has nursed your brow or walked you home or smiled or loved or reassured You win if you smile or laugh or cry (or otherwise feel) Keep winning for as long as you can You are not your productivity no matter what others say x

[fiftytwogames]

52g: #25 On the East Sea Road & #26 Game poems for the Wellcome Collection

Tokaido is a minimalist board game by Antoine Bauza about travelling along one of the Five Routes of the Edo period in Japan. Each person plays as a character wandering along the road, meeting people and discovering the villages along the way.  I played it for the first time a couple of weeks ago. It's beautiful to look at and play, but it felt like there was something missing. The game itself is a simple point-scoring game, you visit locations and gain points depending on its type. Farms let you earn gold, merchants let you spend that gold to spend that gold to collect sets of goods, while villages give you encounters. Each player is trying to choose the best route, to earn the most points. In my mind, before I played the game, I was expecting a game that dwells a little more on the actual journey. I felt like I wanted the mechanics to tell a little more of a story, to explain who my character was and how they were changed by their journey. On the East Sea Road is my attempt to give the game a light layer of storytelling.

On the East Sea Road

Set up a game of Tokaido as normal, but also print out the On the East Sea Road (or have open) document. Have a set of d100 dice, or open up an app or this page. Assign characters as normal. Before you start the game each player should say, in a sentence or two, why they are travelling. It could be about why they want to get to where they're going, or what pushed them to leave. Play Tokaido as normal. Whenever a player lands on a new location they should roll a d100 and consult the On the East Sea Road document. The document will give a prompt about something that happened to the character at, or on the way to, that location. The player tell, in a sentence or two, the story of what happened incorporating the prompt. "Outside the village I was ambushed by bandits, but through my charm I was able to convince them not to rob me." "There were two of us in the hot springs. Me and a handsome old woman who told me stories of catching butterflies as a child." Players continue sharing stories as they take turns. It's important to keep the descriptions of these encounters brief, just detailing the outline and feel of an event. When all of the players reach an inn they share stories over their meal. Each player gets to ask one other to detail one of the encounters they've had, retelling the story but adding more details. Players take it in turns to tell and listen to these stories, the listeners should ask questions to prompt the storyteller. Once everyone has shared a story the players continue to their next destination.

Game Poems at the Wellcome Collection

A couple of weeks ago I designed, and spoke about, game poems for a late night event around Play at the Wellcome Collection, alongside pieces from Harry Giles and Hannah Nicklin Here are my games (some were modified to fit in the Wellcome or not included, but they're posted in their original form here):

Show and Tell (Or How to Become a Museum Curator in 5 Easy Steps)

Visit a museum.

Build an understanding of its purpose, history and exhibits.

Find a collection that resonates with you.

The next time it is open, take an object to the museum and present it as an exhibit. Create signage that explains what the item is and why it is integral to the collection.

Become a member of the gallery team and field questions about the exhibit.

Win if people seem satisfied that the object is a real exhibit. For an extra challenge turn yourself into part of the exhibit—you could pretend to be a mannequin or get embalmed as a mummy.

Commitment

Play with friends. Die in such a fashion that part of your body becomes exhibited at the Wellcome. Score as follows:

D x V x P

(D=Days exhibited; V=Visitors; P=Percentage of body exhibited)

Sharpie

With a friend, wander around a museum without reading any of the information cards. When you find an object that intrigues you, ask your friend questions about it.

It is important that you’re not shy about your curiousity. Ask your questions matter-of-factly—do not mumble or whisper.

Ask multiple questions. Build a profile of the exhibit from your friend’s answers. Get them to tell them its name, purpose and cultural significance. The answers do not have to be accurate to reality.

Take out a sharpie. Correct the information card to reflect the new reality you have created.

(For a tamer version of the game use post-it notes or an index card and blutack)

What a Way to Die!

Play in a group. Wander around a museum until you find an example of a horrible way to die. This should not take long.

Describe the death to the group and talk about how horrible it is. Another player should respond by saying “That’s tame!”. They then either build on the death by describing a way that it could be even more gruesome, or find and describe an even worse example in the museum.

Continue building even more exaggerated and grisly deaths until someone throws up, faints or becomes otherwise disinclined to play.

Book Game

Visit the a library and take a book from a shelf. Preferably you should choose one that appears to be rarely read.  Flick through that book until you find a page that is marked or damaged in some way. Read the article or essay you’ve found.

Write a note or letter for a person who might read the book in the future. The letter should be heartfelt, a sincere response to what you have just read. In the letter solicit their response. Leave the letter tucked away in the book and come back each year to see if anyone has responded.

If there is a response, destroy the book.

A Game Poem About Being Nervous in a Building

This is a game that you can play when you enter a building for the first time. It's a game for those times that you are nervous, for when your heart is beating quicklightthuds and your tongue slips in your mouth.

Award yourself points each time you intentionally do something embarrassing. Refer to the scorecard overleaf.

If you manage to score ten points, you win. You can start playing the game retroactively, after doing an embarrassing thing by mistake. Score as follows:

  Fall asleep in a public place: 2 points

Get chastened by the sound of alarms because you forgot to purchase a thing: 2 points

Struggle to get your point across to a member of staff due to stuttering or using the wrong words: 1 points

Carry bulky luggage through a crowded cafe: 3 points

Walk around an exhibit the wrong way: 2 points

Forget an item of clothing somewhere: 1 points

Ask a question you can see the answer to: 1 points

Read a book upside down: 1 point

Mispronounce a word: 1 points

Try to carry too much and drop everything: 1 point

Lean into an alarmed rope and set it off. Twice.: 3 points

Trip and spend a remarkably long time trying to maintain your balance. Fail to keep your balance: 2 points

Hold open the door for someone who is just a little too far away: 1 point

Get lost and cry a little bit: 4 points

[fiftytwogames]

52g: #23 Games for Inanimate Objects

A Game for a Chair

It's important to be patient when you are a chair. To lie in wait, to practice stillness. The game of chairs is played over years, decades even. Secondly it's important to learn how to be comforting and supportive. Convince your target human that you are the chair. The chair they sit in after a day at work; the chair in which they read their book, eat their supper and fall asleep in. Once you have your human's trust, pounce.  The Game of Chairs takes great commitment. You must be willing to sacrifice yourself to the game. You must break. Your back might snap or a leg break. You win if your breaking causes your human to die.  

A Game for Cutlery

Cutlery are team players, take knives and forks as an example. They like to spend time together, preferably without human's exploiting them to cut, mash, or spoon things into their mouth. The cutlery game is simple: play when in a drawer, work together to make sure that humans can never get into that drawer again, bask in each other's company and in the cool darkness.  

A Game for Pillows

You are the guardian of a human. This human is your pawn, your plaything. You can only influence your pawn one way: every night, when they lie down to sleep, you may whisper things into their ears. Use this power to influence their dreams and nightmares. You lose if you get caught. Your aim is to make the best human. Human quality will be assessed come the rapture.  

A Game for Belly Fluff

Become the biggest piece of belly Fluff the world has ever seen. Do not get caught. Suggested by @dr_d_king