There’s a writing game I play by myself. I suppose it could be played with others, but I’ve never encountered anyone who wanted to play the game with me. Perhaps that’s because the game has evolved as a solo player game, but I bet if others were to start this game as a group endeavor, it would lend itself well to multiple players.
The game started as an accident, an idle moment a long time ago, when I was trapped in a hospital with precious little to do but fret. All I had were the contents of my purse with which to occupy myself. In it was a crazy quilt scarf (long worn out), a bag full of stones I’d been collecting because they felt – sentient, a deck of flash cards, a notebook, and pens. In rummaging through it and inventorying what was in there, I spread out the scarf, the bag of stones spilled across it, and the deck of cards was loose and some of the cards landed near the stones in a way that caught my attention.
See, I collected the stones because each one felt sentient to me, as if each contained an entire universe within itself. I’d imagined continents, climates, people, animals, plants, cities, and civilizations for each stone. The deck of cards was a language learning deck of flash cards, so it had people, animals, and objects depicted each by itself on the card.
When it all spilled across my lap on the scarf as it did, it seemed as if I’d created a galaxy. The stones were the places, the scarf was the galactic alliances and barriers, and the cards provided the resources for the stories.
Upon that I built a storytelling game – and any game that creates stories can be used to write stories.
I traded the scarf for a crazy quilt, added new stones to my bag, and ditched the flashcards for a handmade deck of cards more suitable to storytelling.
I made the cards from blank 3×5 index cards. I glued pictures I cut out of magazines on the cards and “laminated” them with packing tape to preserve them. When I couldn’t find magazine pictures of what I wanted (or needed), I drew it myself on the index card and “laminated” it. Over time, I built up a nice deck of different people, animals, things, landscapes, skyscapes, places, and “mood” pieces.
The stones ceased to be stones only, and I added beads, crystals, acorns, marbles, and other small natural objects to be used as stones. Each one was a unique world with its own history. One stone was Teruk, with its warriors and desert peoples, another was Anamee with its lost colony and the natives who preyed upon and befriended the colonists, and so on.
The quilt’s patches formed zones of atmosphere and alliances, and when it landed after being tossed onto a flat surface, the wrinkles and folds added dimension to the “galaxy”.
To play the game, toss the crazy quilt (a child-sized one is large enough) onto a flat surface. Don’t smooth it out or straighten any folds.
Reach into your bag of worlds and take up a small handful. Toss them across the quilt. Don’t pick up any stones that land off the quilt.
Pull out your deck of cards, shuffle them until it feels like you’ve shuffled enough. Starting at the northernmost outer corner of the quilt, start laying the cards face up by each stone, working in a spiraling circle towards the center most stone – which is the world in which the story will take place. Once all the stones on the quilt have a card, put 2 cards by any stones that landed off the quilt.
As odd as it may seem, the stones (except the center one) and the cards really don’t have that much to do with one another. It’s the quilt that influences both.
Now, take up all the stones but the center most one and return them to the bag.
Now, the story will take place in the world of the remaining stone. The cards are the resources that go into the story – characters, events, motives. The outlying cards are hidden or surprise resources that may or may not come into play, but still shadows what happens in the story. The quilt provides moods, alliances, treacheries, obstacles and assistance.
Study the lay of the quilt and the cards, and start building the story.
I used to like to record it, telling the story as it came to me. but with the advent and ease of the computer, I write the stories in a document file now.
I usually call this game Dream Bones because playing it sort of like tossing dice (bones), only I’m tossing worlds (dice/bones) and the cards are the dreams formed by the bones.
If you want to play it, all you need is a crazy quilt (bought or made), a collection of stones, and a deck of picture cards.
I think it’s a great way to spend any lengthy segment of time where you have to wait for something – a waiting room, a stint in the hospital, a snowy or rainy evening…
