I listen to a lot of podcasts during my work day, but the latest episode of The Art of Storytelling with Children demands particular notice. You should listen to it. You should really, really listen to it.
I originally wrote this for the Fifth World Design Diary in April, but its combination of anthropological topics, oral tradition, and practical storyjamming techniques means that it probably has a lot of interest to readers of this blog, as well. This piece originally introduced a series; I present it here with links to the rest of the series on the Fifth World Design Diary.
Arnold van Gennep worked as an ethnographer and folklorist at the turn of the last century in France. He gets credit for founding folklore as a field in that country, but most today remember him for his 1909 work, Rites of Passage. In it, van Gennep described three phases to any rite of passage:
As I write this, Mouse Guard: Winter 1152 occupies the #9 slot on The New York Times‘ list of best-selling hardcover graphic books, where it has now spent the past four weeks. The comic portrays the adventures of “mice with swords”—what Variety called “a mix of Lord of the Rings and Stuart Little.” The Mouse Guard books don’t present a very detailed or intricate plot, or even terribly complex characters (though the Winter series has certainly done more on that account than the preceding Fall series); still, it has attracted a devoted following because it evokes, in its setting and in David Petersen’s gorgeous art, such a captivating world.
Last time, I wrote about the unexpected richness of roleplaying games—or more specifically, storyjamming—as part of rewilding, as a crucial, long-term survival skill. I found something else interesting at that unusual intersection: other people. Yes, other people, besides me, have an interest in both rewilding and roleplaying games, and even how roleplaying games can deepen, improve, and help our rewilding!