Current mood:	geeky
Current music:	ray manzarek (carl orff), "carmina burana"
Entry tags:	alternate reality game, game theory, i ching, ifa, interact, interactive, media, paradigm shift, rpg

Synergetic Nirvana


Donohue's Law:
Anything worth doing...
is worth doing for money

or at least it's worth doing for the sake of doing it...
or, if we are fortunate, perhaps we will create ubiquitous post-rtf media?

::: transforming everyday life ::: and all that in some absurd way resembles it :::

according to the ancient ways:
"SOME MUST DIE SO OTHERS MAY LIVE!"

Don't let THEM immanentize the eschaton!
...we have the technology...
let's participate in a paradigm shift
which, through the integration of chiasms
still manages to honor all the ancestors with tribute.

8""""8 8""""8 8"""8  8""""8 8""""   8""""8 8  8"""" 8""8""8 
8    " 8    8 8   8  8    8 8       8    8 8  8     8  8  8 
8e     8eeee8 8eee8e 8eeee8 8eeee   8e   8 8e 8eeee 8e 8  8 
88     88   8 88   8 88     88      88   8 88 88    88 8  8 
88   e 88   8 88   8 88     88      88   8 88 88    88 8  8 
88eee8 88   8 88   8 88     88eee   88eee8 88 88eee 88 8  8

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Why RPGs?

I realize that other folks have had different experiences than I have had playing RPGs -- and I'm not talking about fighting rats & bats in the Steam Tunnels beneath your college or high school -- but the quality of the game depends upon the gamemaster's ability to meet the needs and motivations of the players, as well as the players excitement and devotion to the game.

I have always preferred more mature (!) systems, such as RuneQuest/Glorantha/HeroQuest, Call of Cthulhu, Tekumel: Empire of the Petal Throne, Harn, and Skyrealms of Jorune, (Hell, even White Wolf's W. o' D.), to anything TSR has ever produced (yes, even D20/3rd Ed. although I have been known to play D&D for the kitsch value ...anyone for a game of Hackmaster? Or maybe we'd better play Paranoia or Toon?). Besides worshipping practically everything that Chaosium ever produced, I grew up with TSR, Metagaming's Fantasy Trip, MERP, Traveller, Twilight: 2000, Bushido, Space Opera, and all of the Superhero RPGs. Shadowrun & White Wolf came along mostly after I had given up all of my worldly possessions. Since regaining my collecting habit, I have wanted to do campaigns of Castle Falkenstein, Nephilim, Ars Magica, Over the Edge, Deadlands, and Heavy Gear, to name a few others. But, recently... I have only managed to do a Call of Cthulhu campaign based on _The King In Yellow_ and a Gloranthan campaign based on _Griffin Mountain._ Perhaps I should mention, as an example, that my current Glorantha campaign is heavily based on Upton Sinclair's, _The Jungle_ (again, aimed at the heart, not the stomach).

MindSet, Setting, & Dosage are as crucial for an RPG as they are for any other Psychedelic Experience (I'm talking about transformation of mind, body, emotion, spirit, what have you).

And y'know... a fairly perceptive Fundamentalist Christian (No, that's not an oxymoron) that I know once echoed a favorite thesis of mine, that RPG's are an introduction to the Occult! Somehow, I am reminded of what George Lucas said in his interview with Bill Moyers about how the Star Wars movies are an introduction to Spirituality.

RPGs have proven their effectiveness to me in a way that no other form of ritual has been able to evidence. I generally describe my RPG methods as related to Shamanic Vision Quests, which could also be intepreted as Astral Travelling, Pathworking, OBE, Possession Trance, Channelling Egregores, etc.

Although I could recommend any number of methods for attaining complete willfull control over your consciousness, there are few that I have found which are as enjoyable as RPGs. Most often, I use live-action improvisational dramatic techniques, as well as the traditional Pyrthagorean meditation foci (polyhedral dice), Tarot cards, Runes, Feng Shui, I Ching, IFA, and other froms of geomancy, as well as a good dose of the ol' wetware...

Of course, all RPGs utilize some forms of comparative mythology/religion/spirituality/magick (which I tend to approach from an Anthropological perspective, and often utilizing comparison tables whenever convenient) -- and they can also utilize any number of other systems of classification, such as: Linguistics, Gnosticism, Kundalini/Chakras, Neoplatonic Philosophy, Qabballah (Sephiroth & Qlippoth), Goetia, Enochian, Alchemy, Scrying, Gestalt Psychology, MBTI profiles, Astrology, the Enneagram, Chaos Magick, etc...

But perhaps the more *extreme* vision quests would require other methods...
Guided Psychedelic Experiences, Tattoos, Scarification, other Body Modifications, various forms of Yoga & Martial Arts, Dance, Chanting, Pranayama/QiGong/Holotropic Breathwork, Trance, Mountain Climbing, Wilderness Survival, Fasting, Sleep Deprivation, Lucid/Conscious Dreaming, Sun Dancing, you name it... we all have our *peak experiences* of choice, right?

We are finally developing games in which all players have as much control in guiding the story as a traditional gamemaster does. For instance, there are the New Style RPGs, published by Hogshead, which utilize eclectic systems like the Polish system of Psychodrama employed in De Profundis, or the wager/boast rules of Baron Munchausen... or the cutting edge of LARP in Europe, in general.

And I know that the best performances are shared with equal participation by all present... a situation i have found to most reliably manifest around the hearth. But I must say, although I also have thoroughly enjoyed ritual theatre with the audience beyond a "fourth wall," I still prefer to work in more intimate environments, where everyone is a participant, and there are no spectators. Burning Man is supposed to provide this kind of atmosphere; but I tend to tire of the excess of bacchanalia involved in large festivals. Besides, private situations can generally provide for more interactive and emotive relationships! I have developed a method in which I request that all of the participants in my gaming sessions "bring a date," which insures the developmnent of a balance in gender roles and etiquette not usually associated with RPGs. I tend to treat my games like ritual, and most gamers think I'm too serious -- but most ritualists think i'm not taking ritual seriously enough. I will continue to tread the middle path and enjoy playing games with those who will accompany me... insuring the survival of the species through Shared Dreams.

Even though I enjoy my hermetic practice, I know that I must assist with the convergence of technology, building towards a paradigm shift into post-rtf media in which multi-user interaction becomes commonplace. And the model of the IFA has presented itself to me as the most eligible model for that purpose -- I trust that, through my writing, I will be able to convey some of the fanaticism with which I pursue this cause.


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so, here is my (rather lengthy) suggestion for implementation of these ideas on a larger scale:



--

I have been working on this game design for a while now... and one exciting application of this model would enable people to travel from room to room of a physical &/or virtual space, with the option to participate in multi-media "dj-battles" where, for instance, the audio-visual setlist is determined through a simple diplomatic conflict resolution mechanic!!! Anything from RFID tags, to Flash memory sticks, to SMS/HTML by cellphones, to regular computer terminals could be used for the interface with a Decentralized / Peer-To-Peer Network...

I have shared sketches of this idea with a few people already; but at this point, I would like to find a few people with whom to collaborate in co-producing/directing an experiment. I keep thinking that people must have already conducted fairly large-scale experiments of something similar to this idea somewhere; but I haven't seen any record of them, really...

--

I have generally been hesitant to post about this, because I sorta get on my soapbox about it; but I figured, what the hell... as long as we remember to keep a sense of humor about these things, everything should work out just fine! Have I warned y'all lately that i need an editor?

I would like to contribute to the creation of methods whereby characters from many different games can travel over to play in each other's systems... just like the old conversion tables of yore!

--

I recently came across one of those magickal purity tests, which actually included jokes about the serious level of geekiness involved in developing a MMORPG based on the 30 Enochian Aethyrs, as depicted in Crowley's "The Vision and The Voice," or correspondingly, using any "magic/divination/speculative-fictional system" from a role-playing game or science/fantasy novels as a basis or aid in developing one's own understanding of the cosmos...

this is even more amusing considering that I am also guilty on both counts, essentially.

I didn't used to talk about it much, unless everyone was sworn to secrecy, and had signed non-disclosure agreements, but I weary of such formalities... if anyone wanted to develop such ideas, I can only hope that they would enjoy consulting with me concerning my perspectives, for what it's worth.

--

The divination system I personally prefer to use is known as Geomancy -- although, throughout the African Diaspora, it is most often called the IFA (it is literally a type of the eight-bit binary system) -- so, it is similar to the I Ching (a type of the six-bit binary system). I say that these are each "a type" of the six & eight bit systems, respectively; because, in the case of the I Ching, in order for the first hexagram to provide the data necessary to effect changes which produce the second hexagram, in each of the "bits" there are actually four values for the first casting (which has been compared to the structure of DNA), while the final results of both hexagrams are interpreted as binary values. Concerning the I Ching, you may also be familiar with Terrence McKenna's _Invisible Landscapes,_ and his "Timewave Zero" theory (as well as pkd's use of the I Ching in _Man in the High Castle / incl. The Grasshopper Lies Heavy_). While there is a great deal of information about the I Ching on the web, there is not that much information published about the IFA. I was heavily inspired by IFA FA, by Tony Smith. On livejournal, I wrote an 'ethnographic study' about the IFA.

One of the easiest ways to explain the IFA is through it's similarities to the I Ching. The I Ching has a two part structure, in which each part is represented by one of the eight elemental trigrams, or BaGua: Earth, Sky, Water, Mountain, Wind/Wood, Fire, Lake (there are many different, but similar attributions depending on whose translation/interpretation you wish to use). However, the IFA has sixteen elemental tetragrams, which can be represented by the Orishas of the Yoruba pantheon or the Loa of the Vodun traditons (somewhat like Deities, Ancestor Spirits, or other archetypes) ; but since the IFA is based on oral traditions, attributions vary wildly from one area to another, with a particular practitioner's system of correspondencies usually being considered as tantamount to trade secrets.

One of the facets of this game is to use the IFA as a system of archetypes/personalities, similar to using two values of the "Myers-Briggs Type Indicator" or "Kiersey Temperments" (...speaking of copyright, trade secrets & other issues of "Intellectual Property") to represent archetypes for the Macrocosmic & Microcosmic aspects of a character. If we wanted to be really wacky, the user could generate skins for an avatar in virtual space (or even led clothing for people to wear in real space) by categorizing files in MBTI/Kiersey categories (which can be shown in the game through displaying montage sequences from the files playing on the characters' texture maps), while interacting in a 3D virtual environment with similar characteristics. The game will involve users in chat-room style communication between player-player and player-AI, as well as requiring problem solving and conflict resolution.

--

Much of the text in this post has been slightly updated and clarified from previous examples (mostly from 1999 & 2004), but they still give a decent idea of the ideas with which I have been working for a while now. The title of one of these original sources was "Synergetic Nirvana," which was at least in part inspired by the essential idea that one may often find a serendipitous sort of serenity in any combination of forces, some of which may seem or actually be in a natural state of conflict &/or cooperation from one perspective or another. There is an excellent book called, _Precision Nirvana,_ by Deane Shapiro, which was written with a particular buddhist philosophical analysis of the capabilities & limitations of rational thought & the scientific method. In a similar fashion, I had originally conceived of the I Ching as a conflict resolution mechanic, before I had discovered the IFA. In the IFA, I discovered an additional recognition of the unpredictability &/or incoherence of the cosmos. Often, a practitioner of IFA is confronted with the answer: "What is to happen, the diviner will not know," or "Even the deity of diviners (Orunmila) cannot perceive it (essentailly because of the disruptive actions of the deity who embodies entropy, Eshu)." This acknowledgement of the uncertainty principle has always reminded me of the technical definition of synergy: "behavior of whole systems unpredicted by the behavior of their parts taken separately."


I originally referred to my I Ching based system by the working title, NIRVANA: A Game of Post-Apocalyptic Arena Combat & Elemental Transformations (Copyright 1999 Shanta Stevens). Here's a re-edited version of the promo:

This game was to be of similar complexity to Settlers of Catan (although it's perhaps also reminiscent of chinese checkers & Warhammer 40K), so entire families will be able to enjoy it together. The mechanics can be presented as a 'conflict resolution' system, rather than a combat system, in order to appeal to the sensitivities of those who complain about the level of graphic violence in contemporary gaming.

My original idea for character generation was accomplished through consulting the I Ching to produce two, six-digit binary numbers (hexagrams) used to represent the character's two Transformations (Microcosm & Macrocosm, which in an exoteric sense, can be used to control Audio & video, but in an esoteric sense, there can be more of a revelatory quality to this relationship, not unlike a gnostic experience of contact with the divine). Thus, there were 4,096 possible combinations of two hexagrams, providing a virtually inexhaustable variety of archetypes, or if a more manageable number of archetypes is desired, one could settle for 64. I had originally considered a five element game of rock-paper-scissors-spock-lizard but using the five asian elements: wood, water, fire, metal, earth; but i wasn't entirely satisfied with that system -- even if it employed the different sequences of destruction, creation, and evolution for attack, defense, and metamorphosis actions between characters (although I did eventually use it as the basis for the conflict resolution mechanic underlying The Cthulhu Devival).

One octagram of the IFA provides 256 character types (and two octagrams would produce 65,536 results). Of course, if the game were based on the traditional process of the IFA, with one octagram and 256 results, then an MBTI/Kiersey quiz (the same format as a tetragram) could be used to determine the character archetype for each of two players (and i'm sure that we're all painfully aware of how popular quizzes are these days!).

--

Here's another way I have imagined that the conflicts could be resolved diplomatically, (turns could be resolved simultaneously, similar to the game of Diplomacy)...

* whoever has the highest total of hybrid units in support of their decision will be allowed to "tell the story,"

* a hybrid unit would be composed of two archetypes matching in opposition

* so, to win turns in the game, players would be required to recruit other archetypes matching in opposition who will both agree to support a hybrid union of their causes (by resolving a dialogue of thesis & antithesis, a synthesis is created).

Originally, I had suggested that players could utilize graphic representations of these hybrid units as creatures similar in theory to the alchemical beasts of legend: Chimera, Manticore, Cockatrice, Griffon, Minotaur, & other Homonculi (which were so excellently rendered by the Symbolist school of Art in the late 19th & early 20th century). However, more contemporary archetypes could be used: pirate/zombie, punk/hippie, viking/ninja, clown/mime, furry/robot, etc.

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All of these concepts can be communicated in language that synthesizes the structure of ledgendary creatures of myth & fantasy with technological terminology, to represent a surreal aesthetic. And the environments and landscapes can be suitably abstract... I seem to always envision something like Steve Ditko's art in Marvel Comics' Silver Age Strange Tales... with characters like Dr. Strange & Thor travelling through the Astral & Ethereal Planes, Limbo, Heaven, Hell, Asgard, etc...

The "tournament" level of the game would basically be composed of a gladiatorial combat between two individual characters, two groups of characters, or two entire camps at festival, for instance (similar in complexity to a tabletop format wargame/boardgame system, or an rpg labyrinth/dungeoncrawl). The "dynasty" level of the game would involve a quest to resolve conflicts between all of the different archetypes (similar in complexity to a traditional pen & paper storytelling-based rpg campaign, or a season of larp games culminating at a national convention).

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Among other sources for my inspirations are the correlations explored by Dr. Thomas Palaima & Bill Broyles in the UT plan II symposium "How War Changes Lives," and the Plan II/Classics Dept. course, "Myths of Violence & War in Ancient & Modern Culture," which compared the Iliad & the Oddysey to Vietnam-era protest songs (lyrical explorations of the duty of citizens to voice their conscience concerning ethics in war) and the corresponding difficulty of the warrior returning home to civilian life. Although the American Civil War is perhaps a better direct comparison to the Trojan War, wherever&whenever a conflict is set, the basic theme are similar: how can we all experience the camraderie shared between warriors, which is so rarely paralleled in civilian life (how many of your co-workers would throw themselves on a grenade to save your life?) -- in war, we find a true expression of an equation proving that the "superior person" is one whose individual action meets the need of the collective (as above, so below) and vice-versa.

I feel a certain amount of fascination & devotion when I contemplate the idea of a MMORPG that utilizes the same mathematical system upon which the MBTI is based -- if the MBTI system could assist WWII veterans in re-entering civilian occupations, then what better basis could one find for a MMORPG hero-quest?

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Keep up The Great Work!

Minister of Free Inquiry,

aethyrflux/agemo chenoi/khephra samvara/mushika metamorphose/david joseph shanta stevens

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PS

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"We are here to remove a primary weapon from the hands of disputant religions.
That weapon--the claim to possession of the one and only revelation."
- The Sign of Profound Accord