The Ground Itself is a one-session storytelling game for 2-5 players, played with household materials (a coin, a six-sided die, and a deck of cards).

Focusing on place- one specific place, chosen by the group – The Ground Itself unfolds over radically disparate time periods that may range from 4 days to 18,000 years. By casting wildly into time, it considers how places both change and remember themselves.

Think about places that have been important to you; your childhood fort under the rosebush; your first apartment, the one with the view; the town where your grandmother spent her last few years. Or, think about places that have been or will be important to others; a city-state in revolt; an ant colony; a generation ship 400 centuries into its voyage towards another star. The story we are building is about this place, this field, this star, this city, this tree, this crossroads. Remember that places have memory— that what has happened here is always, in some small or big way, written into the walls, the stones, or the future of the people who continue to live here. Fundamentally, The Ground Itself is about the echoes and traces we leave for others after we are gone.

COMPONENTS AND STYLE