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A Posthumanist Ritual: Allies Emerging
The roleplay ritual Allies Emerging asks an important question: Are our perceptions of reality constrained, causing us to overlook an immense potential around us?
The 1-hour roleplay ritual Allies Emerging invites players to challenge common perceptions about human abilities and the intrinsic nature of objects. Designed to function as a divination tool, the game allows players to embody the roles of Seers, characters with the unique ability to communicate with objects considered allies.
Targeted at adults looking for innovative ways to gain clarity or guidance, this experience unfolds as a divination ritual/ceremony, set in the confines of the player’s screens. The Seers, equipped with archetypal skills resembling those of magicians, embark on a quest to resolve a real-world question from one of the players. As players interact with physical objects seen in one player's background, the question gets resolved.
The game motivates players to see and treat themselves as skillful beyond the ordinary and objects as partners, challenging limitations of human perception and the human-centered ranking that places humans above non-living things.
Immersion; Structured Debriefing; Safety Mechanics
After an introductory pre game workshop, participants create their characters, followed by a ritual opening that sets the tone and intention for the experience. The game then unfolds through a sequence of guided meditations, music, and ritual steps that allow players to act from their character’s capacities and support the resolution of the problem at hand.
Each session includes interactions with objects, moments for individual reflection, and group sharing, allowing insights to surface both individually and collectively. To ensure psychological safety, players receive a safety briefing before the game, including simple techniques such as the “lookdown” gesture — a way to step back and disengage at any time if the experience feels overwhelming.
Throughout the process, participants are encouraged to stay aware of their own responses and to share reflections during and after the game.
Ritual, Immersion
The game draws on multiple theoretical frameworks and concepts. Ritual theory is central, using Van Gennep and Turner's ideas of rituals creating liminal spaces for transformation. Magical realism blends supernatural elements with realism, while Barad’s agential realism suggests objects and non-human agents possess relational agency, shifting perceptions of objects as active participants. Immersion concepts from Pohjola and Bowman are applied, requiring players to fully believe in their characters, supported by guided meditations and sensory engagement (e.g., names, appearances, and scents). Crookall’s debriefing framework highlights emotional and intellectual reflection post-game. All playtests followed Zimmerman & Forlizzi’s research-through design model, including problem identification, game design, playtesting, evaluation, and iteration.
Results: Immersion Enhanced by Guided Meditation
The game was played from September 2023 to February 2024, in a series of playtests for the "Transformative Game Design 1" and “Introduction to Transformative Game Design” courses at Uppsala University.
Playtest outcomes highlight the clear potential of enhancing players’ capacity for divination work as well as working communication and relationships with inanimate objects through roleplay. Furthermore, the guided meditations were reported to have enhanced players' immersion into their Seer characters and abilities. Nonetheless, players expressed a desire for a fuller (longer and physical) game experience. This feedback highlights the potential for future iterations to deepen the transformative aspects of the game through extended and physically immersive gameplay.
Sources:
Barad, Karen. 2007. “Meeting the Universe Halfway: Quantum Physics and the Entanglement of Matter and Meaning”, 214. Duke University Press.
Bowman, Sarah Bowman. 2022, January 2. “Transformative Game Design: A Theoretical Framework” --Sarah Lynne Bowman [Video]. YouTube. Transformative Play Initiative, January 2. [accessed 16th October 2023]
Bowman, Sarah Lynne. 2017. “.” First Person Scholar, March 8.
Coulton, Paul, and Alan Hook 2017. “” In Game Research: Theory and Practice, edited by Petri Lankowski and Jussi Holopainen, 97-116. Carnegie Mellon University: ETC Press.
Crookall, David. 2014. "." Simulation & Gaming, 45, no. 4-5: 416-27.
Holkar, Mo. 2015. “” In The Knudepunkt 2015 Companion Book, edited by Charles Bo Nielsen, 150-155. Copenhagen, Denmark: Rollespils Akademiet.
Rusch, Doris C., and Andrew M. Phelps. 2020. “.” Frontiers in Psychology (November 4).
TeachThought Staff. 2022. “." TeachThought University.
Zimmerman, J. & Forlizzi, J. (2014). Research Through Design in HCI. In J.S. Olson & W. A. Kellogg (Eds.), Ways of Knowing HCI (pp. 167-189). Springer.
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