HOW TO PLAY WORDTRAILS
Games create new worlds for people to enter and explore where we all agree to play by new rules.
While the word “game” may have become synonymous with winning and losing, children remind us that games have a long and beautiful history of offering worlds of imagination and pretend.
This game offers the chance to imagine and explore a world where there is no such thing as explanation.
View and/or Download the Trail Guide below
The game can be played alone or in a group.
There is a specific example of a way to play offered below and in the Trail Guide. The truth is, the game has an infinite number of ways to play. It seems like everyone who plays ends up figuring out something new. So – do whatever makes you comfortable. Use one of the suggested paths, or jump right in and forge your own. Just remember the one rule:
No explanations. You may not explain, and you will not be called on to explain. Everyone is equally safe from the world of explanation.
Are you playing alone?
This may be a scouting expedition on your own. If you want to get a feel for the territory, try starting with a solo exploration. Grab some random chips and play with the elements. There are several suggestions at the bottom of this page as to things you might try, whether you are playing alone or with others. Either way, it’s great to begin by getting a sense of what how free it can be to be drawn to different chips, colors and patterns. Begin to trust the game.
Are you playing with others?
As with the solo play, the idea is to relax and get into the flow of conversation, using the chips and cards to make a journey together.
Here are a few ways you might enter a game:
- Pick one chip from each color, either randomly with absolutely no thought or intention, or with varying degrees of intention. Bring those chips to the working space and begin messing with them. Put them in patterns, move them around. The game will begin to guide you. Add chips, add cards, follow the energy. See what happens.
- Use the spinner to help you choose colors. Choose the chip from the color indicated either randomly or with intention, and begin messing with them.
- Once in awhile, pull an action card either at random or with intention, and see where it fits.
- Start with an action card, then start picking up chips as they call to you, and see where they take you.
- Sit still with the game before you do anything, and see what it invites you to do.
- Pause occasionally while you’re playing, and just be still for a bit. See what happens.
- Draw an action card and actually do what the card tells you to do.
- Start with one chip, random or intentional, and go from there.
You’ve got this! Let the game lead you on a journey, see where you go!
Specifics of Play
WHAT’S IN YOUR PACK?
All the questions, possibilities, and choices of action are here on the table, freely allowed to be present and used as you like.
The single exception: Explanation. In this game space there is no such thing as explanation.
This is non-negotiable. You may not explain, and you will not be called upon to explain. It isn’t about not talking. Speak to connect if you like, but allow the communication to be on the table.
Within these parameters, you are free to choose, move about, try things, share and respond. See where the game takes you. There is no ‘right way’ to play.
The Pieces
CHIPS. The chips are collections of possibilities.
QUESTIONS. The possibilities are colored to match a unifying, organizing question.
CARDS. The cards remind players of potential actions that might be taken.
SPINNER. The spinner can be used as you desire to invite even greater randomness or uncertainty.
TRINKETS. The trinkets are used to highlight points of common ground or resonance. The “me TOO!” moments.
FRIENDLY REMINDER CARD. This is a simple laminated card that says, “Remember, No Explanations.” Anyone can point to this, touch it or pick it up as a reminder to themself or others.
BLANK CHIPS are available if you need a word that’s not present. Try to play the game through at least once before adding new chips.
Struggling to start?
You may feel uncomfortable or out of place, unsure how to begin*. Look around you and see what is true: no one here knows what will happen. Past a certain point, your questions can only be answered by playing the game. Trust the trail.
Step in. Give it a try. You really can’t get it wrong. It’ll be OK!
Even if you forget and offer an explanation, there’s a card any one of you can use to kindly and gently remind one another what has been agreed to: No explanations.
*Fwigging: The fine art of postponing or avoiding through F*ing With Gear.
Here is one very specific way to get a group started.
TIME TO PLAY!
At the Trailhead
Chips: Lay the chips out on the table with their associated questions. Leave a clear working space on the table for building the Wordtrails™ (see photos).
Trinkets: Distribute 8 to12 trinkets between players, i.e. 2 players get 5 each; 3 players get 4, 4 players get 3.
The Expedition
Lay a chip or action card, randomly selected, in the center of the working space, and begin play. The spinner can be used to help choose.
Play:
As the game commences, each person takes a turn laying down a chip touching the initial word, or touching another player’s chip. This process will naturally start to form wordtrails, which will take shape and grow organically.
Wander and Flow:
After an initial period of taking turns, you may notice that you are moving at varying paces, and it no longer works as well to take specific turns. Now move more and more at your own pace. This may mean you add a few chips at a time. It may mean that you stand back and consider things as others move ahead.
An invitation: Notice yourself noticing. What are other people playing? Respond as feels right. Add chips where they seem to fit for you. You may want to rearrange something on the table. You may find yourself following the group flow; you may stay more on your own course.
Trinket Placement:
These are your treasures. Feel for the points of connection, the “Me TOO” moments, where something another player put down feels especially resonant. When you feel this, place a trinket on that chip or card.
Nearing the end:
On every journey there comes a time at which a person begins to pull out of the group energy, coming back into their own personal day to day experience. And…things will have changed. The trinkets help put words to the essence of what might have changed for this group, on this journey.
The beginning of the end.
The expedition begins to wrap up when every player has used all their trinkets. Consult one another, come to a consensus that the journey of adding chips feels complete. There may be a bit of sharing of how things felt, what was noticed – still free of explanation.
People often take a picture of the chip pattern at this point. Pictures are encouraged.
THE CAMPFIRE
Distilling the essence.
As a group, pull together all the pieces that received Trinkets, and move the others aside.
With each person taking a turn, consider this small group of chips or cards. Move them around, play with them, put them into a pattern or structure that feels right to you. Share the story, if you like, of the pattern you have created.
Continue in this phase until each player has had their own personal time with this group of chips or cards.
Again, people often take pictures of their own and others’ personal chip patterns.
Wrapping it up
The game is complete at this point. Time for hugs and selfies together.
The conversation can continue and deepen around the campfire as the group or individuals choose.
