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Magic Mail: The most imaginative subscription boxes and letter writing.

by kenzie

There is something magical about the postman. They come to your door bringing unpredictable goodwill and gifts. We discount it because so often it is unasked for advertisement – but mail can be magical. The nostalgia for the letters of notable people and love letters wouldn’t be so strong if it wasn’t.

When you create and send something, or know something is coming your way you have a delicious period of waiting and then you get or give an physical object that has been touched and marked by someone you know and love. It is a connection across time and space, a bridge between two people – sender and receiver.

I fell down a deep rabbit hole today of subscription boxes. There are some amazing things that can be sent to you every month – for a price of course – but sometimes it is worth it for a little excitement on the doorstep. I’ve chosen the ones that give you something to learn or experience.


Magic Mail: The Most Imagination Inspiring Subscription Boxes

These are the best boxes for kids and adults that inspire imaginative experiences and learning.

Little Passports

When I was about 10 – before the internet – I wrote to all the embassies in Washington and got back packets of information from all over the world. It was a real thrill, and this box replicates that learning and discovery, but with more age appropriate games and activities!

Groovy Lab in a Box

There are several ‘science project’ subscription boxes, but I liked this one for its styling, cool projects and endorsement from Popular Mechanics.

Tinker Crate from Kiwi Crate

This company actually has four crates that all look great for different age groups. I’m only featuring two here because they both have fairly unique niches. They are appropriate for older kids and this one takes on engineering concepts.

Doodle Crate by Kiwi Crate

The second crate from Kiwi Crate that I’m featuring is about serious art projects. Having a whole closet of unused supplies myself I appreciate the motivation and just right amount of supplies that they send you.

Artmazing

Another cool art box that I like the look of. But I couldn’t find the main site for it, so I couldn’t find any more details and I’m not sure if it is ongoing? It looks like it is.

Bramble Box

I LOVE the focus on imagination games (obviously). But I also like that it isn’t too heavily branded and the props are relatively simple. Really depending on you and your kids to provide the magic.

Green Kid Crafts

A box of fun eco friendly art/science projects? Um, sign me up please.

Cooper and Kid Box

I can’t seem to get the photo to load from this site. BUT, it is unique because the boxes are meant to be done with a dad. Pretty cool idea and the projects look fun too.

Finer Things Box

This one is for adults…time travel and history loving adults. They’ve only just started so hopefully they find success and keep it up because I’m really interested in what themes, eras, and products they’ll come up with!

Try the World

There are many food subscription boxes so I’ve only picked one. I like that there is a good variety and actual recipes to try. Plus I’m won over by their fancy website.

Turntable Kitchen

If you’re into music and eating …so everybody. This box might be for you. You get a playlist, vinyl, recipes and couple of the more rare ingredients. Way to be classy.

the Mysterious Package Company

I’m not entirely sure how this one works….but I love it any way!


Or maybe just regular ‘ole letter writing is your style? This society is delightful and the idea of creating art for my friends is intriguing. Here’s a helpful guide if you forgot how to write a letter.

But who to write to? Well here are some good ideas:

  • Yourself
  • A Refugee cause, this.
  • The Editor
  • Random People Who Need Love
  • A Solider, or Two
  • A Prisoner – though that can be quite intense.
  • Human Rights
  • An Elder
  • Sick Children
  • Really Sick Children
  • Or Your Mother! jeez.

So, no excuses – it’s good for your soul, your heart and the world.

Mail-akazam!

Play to Win – No one said which Game

by kenzie

“Your identity is not your successes and failures” 1

bunny-on-a-benchThen what is it? I believe this to be true broadly – but when thinking of myself I tend to list things I’m good at – or was good at once. As an adult, without grades or trophies as victory points, the ways to objectively judge your ‘goodness’ have shrunk to your relative income (cause everyone envies someone).

I wish it was more than that – that the world took into account the way you take care of yourself, your home, the earth, the kindness you show other people, the books you read and wild thoughts you have, the things you create – but it doesn’t. And really it isn’t society that oppresses you – we celebrate people who have dedicated their lives to unprofitable ventures like social work, art or parenthood – the person that censors your thoughts, dreams, voice and actions everyday is you. So many people feel like they’re loosing at a game where the rules are unwritten in stone, without considering that there are no rules. 

Wining Condition

“Imma keep running, cause a winner don’t quite on themselves.” – Lemonade

It is the hardest thing emotionally and psychologically to consider playing a different game.

Changing your winning condition and sticking to it takes conviction and confidence in who you are. Society may celebrate and gawk at you, but they will also react and question your every move because they don’t realize you’re not playing on the same board.

Prince played a different game, Bowie did, George Clinton and Beyonce do. Almost any person from history, business, or art that did anything amazing, did not play the game of school, good job, two car garage. They created their own criteria for what was good, then stuck with those despite doubts from outside. They are notable in that they succeeded publicly – there are many people who did not, but are just as brave for living by their own rules.

A Little Game

1. Take a piece of paper and pencil
2. Write your name
3. Write all the names, nouns and adjectives that could be applied to you – or what you want to be
4. What are the rules that you hold in your head about those things?
5. Write new rules
6. Game on

What does this mean for people who aren’t Prince (aka everyone). Well it could mean that you change up your answer to the ever present “what do you do” and maybe have some more fun with it like Andy Kehoe or it could just mean that you re-evaluate your winning condition. In the finite amount of time you have – what does it mean to win? Are you doing that? Better keep running.

1 from a lighting talk by Helin Shiah at the ACT-W conference in Portland

The Complete Newb’s Guide to Analog Games.
5 Reasons You Should Be Playing!

by kenzie

Imagine a group of people playing Dungeons & Dragons, or playing board games, or larping.

Now – take what you pictured and burn it … because unless you’re already in the club, you really don’t know a thing about games.

The Game library and game lab at GameStorm18
There were 10-15 rooms filled with people playing all kinds of games for four days!

Please don’t take offense – I am very new to games myself and still crushing hard on them.
But, when I’m excited about a topic, I tend to go all in: I read all the books, find the blogs and podcasts to follow, and basically just learn as much as I can until I feel confident enough to claim my interest publicly. I suppose that I officially came out as a gamer this past weekend as I attended my first game convention – GameStorm of Portland, Oregon. From Thursday to Sunday I larped, played and told stories with new friends – so I’m filled with ideas, excitement, and a growing list of games I want to play.

I’ll shout it from the mountain tops that the best thing you can do to improve your communication, empathy, and confidence is to play analog games.

Basic Game Dictionary

First, some simple definitions. At its most basic, an analog game is an event where a group of people take turns taking actions towards a goal – though even the goal is negotiable and the players usually don’t all have the same one.

A board or card game is played with dice, cards, a board, miniature figures, and all sorts of apparatus from cranes worn on headbands to 3D trains to chopsticks. They can tell abstract stories like chess, or involve detailed backstories, history, economies, maps and game mechanics that reinforce the feeling of the game. They also do not need to be competitive, for instance a game where you fight to stop a pandemic, or explore a haunted house.

"Scapegoats" a larp run by Theatre Arcanos at GameStorm18
During the larp. ScapeGoats run by Theatre Arcanos the game ended with a simultaneous bomb explosion and FBI shoot out.

Dungeons & Dragons is a role-playing game or RPG – and it is just one of many in this genre of game where a group of people are building a world, creating characters, and telling a story collaboratively. The game master plays all the non-player characters and presents challenges that the players try to solve in whatever way they want! Each character usually has strengths and weaknesses that are defined numerically and when they propose doing an action they roll a dice or use some other way to randomly generate a number to see if they beat the threshold for success (set by the game master). That is about it. You can tell any type of story with those basics: epic fantasy yes – but it can also be a fantasy system based on fighting for your personal beliefs, or it can be about: urban fantasy, female fighter pilots, the verse, the effects of technology , horror, being punk rock stars, vampires, vampires spies, vampires at prom, tribal warriors, maids, rabbits … literally anything you can imagine.

Live action role-playing, or larp, often uses the same concepts as RPG to structure play, but everyone is moving around, fully embodying characters and interacting. You can participate in a fantasy larp – but also a zombie, post apocalypse, Hogwarts, caveman, or a vampire cocktail party larp. Then there are indie and nordic larps that are really art performances and explorations of human emotion – they can have themes like getting older, dealing with death, the fear of cancer in your family.


Are you intrigued? I hope so – here are five more reasons you should make analog games your newest hobby.

  1. It’s easy to get started with Analog Gaming.

Games are not always easy to understand at first – but the best games allow you to scaffold your way to more complicated play or learn more about the world and playing as you go along. There is usually not a lot of cost or complicated machinery needed to play games.

For RPGs, you literally just need pen and paper (and an online random number generator if you don’t have dice). You don’t need to be in the same room – or even the same time zone! I play DnD every week with my brother across the country. Playing virtually isn’t ideal, but it is nice to be able to play with him every week, and online tools like roll20 help you both play online and find people to play with! Also – check meetup.com, or your friendly local game store to see if they have any groups that you could join for that in person experience.

Board games require – the game – which may be costly, but are the same as the cost of a movie date with 10x the hours of fun to be had. Also many bars and game stores (and game stores that have bars in them) offer game libraries so you can try out games.

Costuming for larps can be as simple or extensive as you want – what is more important is that you really try to play your character and participate to make sure the game develops in a fun way for all.

Mostly what analog games take are time and a willingness to be vulnerable – putting your ideas out there, asking people to play with you and taking risks.

  1. You can learn. A lot.

If you followed any of the links above you saw the wide variety of themes that analog games cover – these are not always exactly accurate (the primary focus is often fun over fact) but they do allow you to see and experience things outside your norm. However the deeper things that analog games teach are the most valuable.

During RPGs and larps one of the first things you learn is how to work together – both in the story and as players. People have different things they want out of a game, and in order for it to continue you have to talk thru issues, agree on rules and generally support each other through the story. Working through problems with others improve your critical thinking and problem solving because you are truly getting the chance to view the problem through the multiple lenses of your fellow players and your own characters.

Playing RPGs or larps you also improve as a storyteller, which is good for your brain. Playing as another character helps improve your empathy – particularly in indie RPG systems like Burning wheel or Apocalypse World where you are asked to really work with your characters beliefs and emotions. Two things I overheard at GameStorm pretty well exemplify this.

“I spend all year waiting for the con so I can be different people.”

“For me it’s (playing) the mayor – its the one time people listen to me. I have people deferring to me who had no reason to out of game.”

Personal growth is not limited to RPGs however – board games also have a lot to teach as Geek and Sundry point out with gems like these: being behind doesn’t always mean that you’re losing, taking a different path sometimes gives you the best results, and the dice can roll either way, don’t blame yourself. Larps and particularly nordic larp are pushing the boundaries by incorporating ways to play romance, sex, and physical touch – this not only keeps larps innovative – but also allows them to address some very serious topics safely and respectfully. Often larps are actually trying to create ‘bleed’ or experiences that stay with you and effect your life.

  1. There are new and exciting things coming out all the time.

As you can tell from the examples I gave above, the field of what is out there is wide and diverse. No matter what your interest we can find a game that tickles your fancy. One of the premier sources of information is Board Game Geek – though it is a little overwhelming at first – I normally go right for the video reviews that they list because then you can actually see the game and how it is played. There is a growing field of reviewers, both on podcast and youtube so you can get a taste of anything before you commit to buying it or playing it for a few hours! In particular, Will Wheaton’s tabletop is a popular video show.

  1. There is room for everyone in the community.

At GameStorm, there were people of ages, genders and abilities. I felt very comfortable there and I appreciated their forethought by offering both approachability bracelets and pronoun stickers for name tags! While the community is still dominated by men – in my forays into gaming I have never felt discouraged or alienated because of my gender. If you’re worried watch these ladies kick butt in dnd or read about all the reasons that tabletop games are great for everyone.

The X is there for people to touch if they are uncomfortable with where the RPG is going - though we didn't need it in the relaxing description of our gardens game that is part of Playing Nature's Year series of mini games.
The X is there for people to touch if they are uncomfortable with where the RPG is going – though we didn’t need it in the relaxing description of our gardens game that is part of Playing Nature’s Year series of mini games.

Particularly in the indie RPG community people are working to be inclusive of all people and types of play, it definitely isn’t all macho hack and slash. The community is working to establish structures that allow people to safely push the envelop – with hand signals to help make sure everyone gets a chance to speak and table signs that people can tap if they are ok or getting uncomfortable with a topic. At Game storm I played Night Witches as a member of the real life female bombing regiment of the soviet army in WWII. I also played a relaxing and gentle game where we stated our personal intention for spring and then rolled and stacked dice taking turns describing what we would add to our own imaginary garden or how nature was affecting it depending on our roll. Maybe that sounds boring to you, but everyone at my table left with such a pleasant and relaxed feeling.

  1. People!

There are a lot of people interested in analog games “ICv2, a consulting firm, reckons it is worth $880 million a year in America and Canada alone.” The video above is from the largest game convention in the world that is held every year in Germany.

This is a hobby with a growing and diverse community that you can’t participate in alone. You need to get out there, talk with and meet new people. And as I mentioned above the community is diverse – what I like best about analog gaming is that you can’t predict beforehand who will enrich the game the most. The shy person may be able to do the best accent and never break character, elevating the experience for everyone – or that loud mouth guy you were worried about may surprise you with his concern for the party’s well fare and helpfulness in telling other people’s stories. The whole experience is dependent on acts of social kindness from individuals to the group – the sort of ‘yes and’ mentality that makes an improv skit work. You’re building something together that you couldn’t alone.

And as I said I’m really excited about games and their possibilities – so much so that I’m also planning to make some of my own! When the cost of developing a board game or RPG is just time and your willingness to get people to play-test it because all you need is pen and paper – barriers to entry are really low.

So even if you can’t find the game for you – make it!

This article was originally posted on the Everyday Ambassador blog on March 25, 2016.

ARGs are for kids

by kenzie

calliope1Alternate reality games (ARGs) are immersive stories that offer a different and secret worldview. Through books, websites, personal messages and other types of media the gamemaker creates an another reality that is not, but could be. Many ARGs have been based on conspiracy theories and filled with suspense and danger – accessible only by adults of a certain mindset. Wildly popular games like “The Beast” which promoted the movie AI or “I Love Bees” which promoted the video game Halo have certain things in common, they were sponsored by corporations and meant to promote a certain product, they rely heavily on electronic media such as text messages, websites and message boards, they were too difficult to solve on your own and they centered around dark and paranoid story lines that pushed the line between game and reality.

Acadia Moon’s approach to games

At Acadia Moon we have a slightly different view of what ARGs could be. For children the possibility of another world is always real, around every hedge and behind every wardrobe. They only need the barest of suggestions and direction in order to build worlds in their minds greater than any construction of a gamemaker. Alternate reality games – on a smaller scale, supplemented by physical objects and with adults acting as characters/facilitators could bring all sorts of fantasy worlds to life.

Slightly organized chaos

A wonderfully chaotic example of how easily children create whole worlds from the smallest suggestion is the tale of the Troll Queen. As a counselor at a summer camp we organized a day of games fashioned around fairytales. Children were allowed to wander around the camp from game to game, completing quests. I had the role of jail keeper. When sent to me I had some fun tasks like finding life savers in powder sugar etc and was supposed to keep them for a time before letting them free. After an hour or so this was a little boring because not many kids were earning jail time, so I started hamming it up a bit and calling myself the Troll Queen. I asked all my prisoners if they’d like to join my kingdom before I released them – painting the Troll tattoo on their face or hands, three lines connected in a ‘V’ like a bird foot. I didn’t have any plans for my kingdom – I just told them that they needed to come when I called.

It was amazing how quickly this side game rolled out of control. Kids started bringing other recruits to me and even kidnapping kids to become converts (I quickly made it known that I only wanted willing recruits). It was fascinating from my perspective to see how the lore and traditions developed with no direction or help from me, battle calls, salutes and officers. Other counselors stopped by to see if I knew what was going on as the whole camp started splitting into factions of Troll and non Troll. Things could have actually gotten nasty if we hadn’t been about to take a break for lunch. All the kids were spread out across the soccer field eating and I decided that I needed to bring an end to the Troll game before we continued in the day. Taking a deep breath I started making a loud bird like call. I had never told the kids what the call would be, but somehow they all knew and 150 kids were sprinting joyfully across the field towards me echoing the call. We danced around in a circle, whooping and shouting, then I gestured regally for them all to kneel and announced that they had served me well but that I was releasing them from my army and that they should do me honor by being kind to all those who had not heeded my call. Thus the Troll Army dissipated easily. But I could not forget the powerful creativity and community spirit that a simple suggestion had created.

My favorite game

When I was younger our favorite game was ‘Tales of the Crystals’. It was a board game in name only – truly it was one of the most creative imagination games I’ve ever played. You played with 4 others and each chose a plastic amulet gem to wear that represented a ‘power’ for the player, a certain talent to help their team through the game like healing, true seeing, or protection. There were 4-5 locations that you set around the house before the game – the castle, the glen, the village etc. Then you listened to a tape and the story unfolded. You were given missions that went along with the story and often a side quest given randomly from secret message cards. Then the rest was up to you – with your fellow players you went to the location, imagining your own monsters and perils based on what had been described in the tape and completed the quest however you wanted. Similar to role playing games like Dungeons and Dragons the players were responsible for creating half the game.

This is the type of ARG or imagination game that Acadia Moon creates. Beautiful artifacts and storylines that inspire players to create their own and require them to get outside and work together in small groups. But these types of games are expensive and intense to create and run, too difficult for small groups to make. Acadia Moon will create games that can be adapted and used over and over so that groups of all kinds can benefit from ARGs.

Easy Puzzle Hunt Party

by kenzie

This game is for adults and is great for a group night out or other special occasion. The primary equipment is just your phone. It was play tested with a 4 teams of 5, ages 25 to 50.

Time: 2 hrs

* Phone

* printed clue letters

Optional – gold necklaces, gold decorations and prizes

How do you host a fool proof puzzle party hunt for marginally committed, slightly lazy and definitely distracted grown-ups? Something complicated and creative enough to hold their interest, but easy enough to set up so that you don’t feel too upset if they don’t ‘get it’. On March 16, 2015 I ran a game for a group of friends in Washington DC and I wanted to share how I put this together because it is easy replicable. The basic mechanic was ‘visit all the places’, but I added in some chaotic competitive elements and as much mystery as possible.

Playing

The game was presented as an initiation for the illustrious and mysterious “Aurum Society” (no relation to the Ponzi scheme of the same name, really not sure how I missed that in my research). Aurum is latin for gold and the game centered around collecting gold, virtual and real, by following clues.

The Invitation

Players were invited by email (Paperless Post to make it more fancy and official) to join the “Aurum Society” and go through the “Trial” to prove their mettle. I actually might have been too mysterious in my invitation because several people thought it was a scam of some kind! It is a fine line between scam and mystery. I sent a follow up email with only vital information about the time period to plan for, appropriate clothing suggestions and everything else I could tell them to make sure they would be comfortable. If there was anything I didn’t have to tell them, even small harmless details, I didn’t – because it always fun to guess rather than know.

The First Clue

On the day of the game, I sent an email with two numbers in it and instructions to “Be polite to the sprite”. These were the latitude and longitude for the starting location, which was a pocket park near where all the players worked in DC (Connecticut and M St NW, if you know the area).

When players found their way to the park during the specified time range, there was a little girl dressed as a fairy. I had enlisted the help of a coworker and her adorable 4 year old daughter to be my “sprite”. My sprite gave them a gold paper carnation to pin in their lapel to identify them to other players, a gold necklace (their first bit of booty) and a fancy letter. I tried to stay out of sight, but did end up coming out to help facilitate the start of the game.Golden Necklaces and a mysterious invitation

The Letter

In the top left you can see what the letter looked like folded. The first thing you see upon opening it is a quote from Christopher Columbus about how great gold is. Then you open it up further to see a letter with instructions on the left and list of rules on the right. Unfolding one level further to reveals 5 clues.

The instructions tell the players to find at least 4 team mates and to send a picture of their team with their team name to the Gamekeeper – me. Whoever sends this picture is the designated contact and will be sending all the clue solutions and receiving any additional clues. This is how the Gamekeeper keeps track of how the game is progressing and controls information – through texts with the various official team contacts. The next step is for the teams to decipher the clues in the letter – they can take whatever approach they want. They are explicitly told they are allowed to Google.goldinstructions

Each of the clues would lead to a statue within a 10 or 20 minute walk of the starting point, but I did not specify that they should be looking for statues. The clues are dictated by the history of the statue but I think the type of the puzzles could be easily adapted to any statue.

The Clues

Clue 1: A part of a poem by Henry Longfellow – could be anything, a quote or piece of writing by the statue person. It just needs to be unique enough that it couldn’t be attributed to anyone else. Make sure by Googling it yourself.

Clue 2: A picture of golden retriever doing a warrior yoga position – Picture puzzles can come in many forms, this clue was referring to a statue called the Golden Warrior outside the Kazakhstan Embassy. A more complicated statue could be represented by several pictures.

Clue 3: A matching puzzle of sickness and their funny cures – the lines cross through letters spelling a name. A matching puzzle could be made with any theme depending on the statue and then have the letters spell the name of the statue.

Clue 4: Two truths and a lie about a person. By researching the facts they learn some interesting facts and figure out the statue.

Clue 5: An anagram of a name created using this website. 

Putting it all together

goldcluesAt first, I used the open source ARIS game system – but as the date drew nearer I was worried about the recently updated system’s performance and didn’t want my friends stranded by tech, so I opted for a much simpler – but I think much more flexible and reusable format based on sending and receiving pictures with my phone.

When teams had solved a clue, they had to go to the statue’s location and take a picture with the statue to prove they found it. The official team contact sends the picture to the Gamekeeper by text and then the Gamekeeper sends back a picture clue for the final party location. Once the team has found all the statues and received all the picture clues they should be able to figure out the final location. I also added two none final location clues that directed people to two bars along the way where they needed to take a picture of at least one person drinking to get another final location clue. At the final location I had a bunch gold necklaces, a couple gold decorations on the table and a poster where I had been keeping track of the ‘gold’ earned by each team.

Overall, it worked really well, was fairly easy to set up and run.

The Final Puzzle

The final location picture clues are below in no particular order – can you figure it out?

On Rabbit Holes…

by kenzie

There are certain people, and all children, that are more able to see secret doors. Alice, Narnia children, secret garden girl, Harry Potter, great stories start with a choice to believe, accept an invitation, open a door – these children followed the chance of adventure and possibility into new worlds. The power of games depend on this choice to believe, the leap of faith to open book, use the key, start the ritual. The game can not begin if the players do not accept the invitation – so the form and strength of this invitation matter greatly to its success.

These are some of the ways players can be asked to enter the game:

Invitation

Depending on the theme of the game this invitation could be a beautiful royal scroll wrapped in ribbon, a cryptic email, or a simple postcard. This invitation is not to play a game, but rather is an introduction to the story, an invitation to enter a new world and participate in some event that is left unexplained. The rules and game mechanics come later once the invitation has been accepted. The wording of the invitation should be short and leave the player wanting to know more.

Secret Door

Physically passing through a portal of some kind is a powerful way to start a story. A rabbit hole, a flash of light, a dark cave, some disorienting or strange experience that allows the player to believe they had passed from one world to another. An edge of threat or danger – having the door forbidden or warned against entering only adds to the authenticity.

Gate Keeper

The Gate Keeper is a person, a foreign character who invites curiosity and once the player engages they are invited or entreated to join the game. They could dramatically interrupt, rapidly intruding on the everyday with demands for aid, or they could skulk mysteriously at the edges until someone notices the person who doesn’t fit and goes to investigate. They could seek out certain players and entrust them with pieces of the puzzle. They could be friendly riddle askers or dark mysterious strangers.

Official Announcement

If the game is meant to closely align with reality, an official announcement from the normal authorities can lend immediate weight and reality to the game. Perhaps if the game involves a threat or need to solve a problem the normal authorities could make a strange request to stay out of the forest or report any strange encounters to an adult. Children are used to adults hiding the truth from them, so any mysterious statements invite curiosity and investigation.

Something is Off

Perhaps the game starts as a game, all the rules established and teams sent off – but then something seems wrong or off and gradually the game becomes more and more real. This requires walking a fine line because there is a danger that kids will think the game real. This is closest to the way that normal ARGs invite players, there is no invitation or indication that a game has started. The player is simply meant to notice that something is off. It blurs the line between real and game more than any other so it is more important than ever for facilitators to carefully monitor the boundaries of the game and behavior of the players.

Can you think of any others?

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