Trickster Ritual - Format, and Interpersonal Games

[Raymond Arnold]

This post is more stream-of-consciousy than last one.

Format Issues

Right now, the basic format of the Trickster Ritual is "take turns reading Trickster mythology stories, with trickster related games and interactions thrown in every so often."

I feel like there's a better format out there somewhere. My main problem with it is that Trickster stories feel like they should be organic than "just read from a page." But Trickster stories are less well known, and in particular not well known enough 

Tutorials for Tricksteriness

One thing I realized, running it last week, is that there are some skills that go into experiencing a Trickster ritual. And just like Solstice needs to be a gradual tutorial on how to sing (i.e. "sing loud!", "sing harmonies!", "improvise!", "practice singing more complex things you haven't sung before")...

...Trickster Ritual may need to gradually teach people things including (not limited to):

• Improv/consenus-reality - how to roleplay in a fashion that builds on each other's work and creates something cool, rather than just random chaos
• How to be Trickstery
• How to interpret stories and metaphors.
• How to be subversive
• What the *right kinds of subversive are* and how to employ them in real life.

It also needs to include "get to know each other as people" in some sense.

So, possible games/interactions:

• Tell a story of a prank you pulled 
  
• What was the first lie you ever told?
  
• Two Truths and a Lie about yourself (people who guess right get candy)
  
  
• Make up a trickster story together (maybe each person creates one sentence, possibly vaguely influenced by their Role?)
  
  
• Darmok and Jalad: Communicate an idea you think is important using only cultural references (+1 candy per person that understands your point)
  
  
• Think about the worst lie you ever told. Then, share the worst lie you've told that you're comfortable sharing. (Might be the wrong kind of intense, or require some kind of built in aftercare)
  
  
• What is something you wish you could do, or say, but are afraid to because of how people you respect would perceive you. 
  
  
• What is something you wish other people would do, but you think they're afraid to? (I have hard to articulate concerns about this, which maybe stem directly from the same reason I think it's valuable in the first place)

Does anyone have ideas for other interactions/games? Concerns or ideas about the ones listed above?

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[Raymond Arnold]

A sub-issue here is "do these games give The Devil enough to do?" (right now, feels like "no" to me)

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[Zvi Mowshowitz]

Devil should be trying to stop other players, I'd guess?

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[Raymond Arnold]

Devil needs some combo of 'have something meaningful to subvert', 'have fun while doing so', 'other people have fun in the process of getting messed with, while still motivated to stop the Devil'. 

[Melanie Heisey]

The Devil I see as a trickster that rebels against the very nature of the game being played because it isn't in their favor. In the bible the established order is "God's will" and/or "goodness". Steelmans of the devil's position usually have their basis in individual empowerment and self-acceptance. Trying to naively overturning the nature of a game of subversion just brings you back to order.

The sense of the game I'm getting:

"take turns reading Trickster mythology stories, with trickster related games and interactions thrown in every so often."

... In a fashion that successfully builds on each other's work and creates something cool.

... and establishes metaphors and mythology

... and teaches you how to be usefully subversive

What if the devil's goal were to short-cut the ritual nonsense and just skip to socializing and eating candy? Justice and the Emperor want their own kind of orders that encompass and utilize the tricksterness of the ritual. The hacker explores how the game works so they can personally exploit it. The devil, though, could want to *break* the game of playing games and telling stories. It's sort of the exact opposite of the fool: you understand how to be a competent trickster but you *don't want to be one* at all. They might state the obvious, or poke holes in everything like the cynic (I think you deleted that one?), in an attempt to short-circuit people from going off into grand lies or stupid extended metaphors. They might push the games to extreme and ridiculous ends to get them over with faster.

If you want to get the malicious, spiteful flavor of the christian devil, make 'em lose a candy for every five minutes the ritual is still going on.

[Raymond Arnold]

(Cynic is still there, was basically renamed "The Hanged Man")

I think that makes sense as a potential goal for Devil (although I can see other possible goals that may be interesting, so it might make sense to leave it vague enough that different Devils can operate differently).

Another possible role for the Devil is "tempt everyone else into malicious trickery, such that people end up acting in the spirit of the negative tricksters rather than ones that ultimately learn something or benefit society".  (i.e. cause the game to end up going the way the first Beta Test went, where everyone is so focused on being silly and lying that the entire point of the ritual is lost. Maybe this is actually similar to what Melanie is suggesting, but coming from a slightly different direction)

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