This Podcast is a Ritual

From friendly potion peddlers to mysterious wizards, games abound with non-playable characters, or NPCs. But behind every dialogue menu is a real writer, carefully weighing the words to better help the player understand their own character. Charlene Putney is such a writer, having crafted dialogue for games like Divinity: Original Sin 2 and Baldur’s Gate 3 before creating her own micro-studio NEON AURELIUS, and she joins the ritual for a branching dialogue tree all about the magic of conversing with these distinctly other entities.Tune into Charlene Putney's vibrations at: https://alphachar.com/Join the ritual: www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual

Since America's #1 Wizard recently relocated to the Netherlands, this very important position in the United States' magical landscape is currently open, raising the question everyone's been asking, "Who will be America's NEXT #1 wizard?" And this is precisely the question our resident expert in such matters, the former "America's #1 Wizard" Devin Person, addresses in this supremely superlative episode exploring the heights of achievement and the depths of wizardry with his well known and award-winning clarity, wisdom, and wit...Which is available exclusively for the winners' circle of Patreon supporters, where for just $4.20 you too can become a champion and not only gain access to this episode, but even more elite tier bonus content where the secrets of the winningest wizards are revealed.Listen to Who Will Be America's Next #1 Wizard?: https://www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual/posts/who-will-be-next-174351705Join the ritual: www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual

From d20-powered fireballs to point-and-click quests, magic is an essential ingredient in many games, while games themselves offer some intriguing ideas about the practice of actual magic. Thankfully, Dr. Jeff Howard is a scholar of games and occulture—as well as the author of "Quests: Design, Theory, and History in Games and Narratives" and "Game Magic: A Designer’s Guide to Magic Systems in Theory and Practice"—so he's well equipped to patiently explain the rules and help us find the wisdom within these magical systems.Tune into Dr. Jeff Howard's vibrations at: https://www.falmouth.ac.uk/staff/dr-jeff-howardJoin the ritual: www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual

From Q to the Great Gazoo, the Wizard calls upon a variety of extra-dimensional imps and tricky ideas to illustrate this meta-archetype, laying the groundwork for even more magic to come. Featuring Batman's biggest fan, hot-rodding teenagers from Dimension X, and even more delightful (and somewhat irritating) invoked entities.So come along dum-dum and join the Patreon where you can hear this full bonus episode and plenty of other tricksterish, whimsical, wizardly bonus episodes.Listen to How to Summon an Interdimensional Trickster:https://www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual/posts/how-to-summon-172975539Join the ritual: www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual

If you've been feeling lately like life is an unfair game, you're not alone. And game designer, author, and anti-fascist scholar Max Haiven knows why. In his latest book, The Player and the Played: From Gamed Capitalism to Twenty-First Century Fascism, Haiven uses games to explain how financialized capitalism recruits us into our own exploitation, seeing ourselves as "players," rather than people, who would be winning and succeeding... if only someone wasn't cheating us!—and how fascist politics takes that justified anger and directs it away from precisely the people and institutions who are rigging the game and reaping the rewards.Tune into Max Haiven's vibrations at: https://maxhaiven.com/And get the book (available as a free download!) at: https://maxhaiven.com/player/Join the ritual: www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual

Using chance to make choices has a long magical history, from complex divination systems to mythologies that imagine the gods gambling and throwing dice to determine human affairs. By taking a simple coin toss as our starting practice, we can learn to let go of the heavy burden of contemplation and let the fates take a more collaborative role in our decision making process.So flip a coin and learn whether you should join the Patreon where you'll find the full bonus episode where I share the rules to Coin Night, a fun simple group game that implements these magical ideas in a rather charming way.Listen to How to Flip a Coin:https://www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual/posts/how-to-flip-coin-171675635Join the ritual: www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual

In the tiny fishing village of Rif, out on the coast of the Snæfellsnes Peninsula in western Iceland, you'll find an unlikely cultural hub: The Freezer. Built in a former fish freezer, this hostel / performing arts venue is the work of Kàri Viđarsson, a local Icelander who left his village and returned having changed... only to change the cultural landscape of his community in the process.Tune into the Freezer's magic (or book a stay!) at: https://www.thefreezerhostel.com/The Freezer also provided a home to the Wizard and 50 other artists this summer as part of the Portal residency. You can hear all about that in the This Portal is a Ritual miniseries: https://www.patreon.com/c/thispodcastisaritual/posts?filters%5Btag%5D=This+Portal+is+a+RitualJoin the ritual: www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual

Sometimes things suck. Sometimes we feel bad, can't get what we want, or just plain don't know what to do. And that's hard. But there's a cultural narrative that often makes it way worse, the insidious idea that "it shouldn't be like this." That somehow, feeling this way is a personal failure. That's why the Wizard is here to remind you that sometimes things really do suck! And it's okay to feel bad! And you don't even gotta feel bad about feeling bad. And sometimes, remembering that can help us feel better......and if you'd like to really be reminded of that, you can do so with the full length bonus episode available exclusively on our Patreon! Or you can just listen to this preview version and get the gist of it.Listen to How to Feel Bad:https://www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual/posts/how-to-feel-bad-170369117Join the ritual: www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual

Magic can be a lot of work. But does it have to be? What if there was a way to use magic, not to bend the world to one's will, but to transform reality into an open field of possibility? Thus, life's stage becomes a board on which we can enjoy a myriad of complex and fascinating games, all experienced through the strange and delightful mode of being known as "Play.This episode builds on the metaphysics laid out in What's the Point? (theory), What is a Person? (theory), and What is Power? (theory) but it can absolutely be listened to on its own. And these ideas will all return in The Avengers: Doomsday... I'm sorry, I mean What is Play? (practice)For more on the ideas explored in this episode, check out What's the Point? (theory) - https://www.patreon.com/posts/whats-point-147660543What is a Person? (theory) - https://www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual/posts/what-is-person-159310290What is Power? (theory) - https://www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual/posts/what-is-power-161898774The Invocation - https://www.patreon.com/posts/invocation-144989332Join the ritual: www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual

The Wizard has arrived in the Netherlands and is ready to embark on his quest to become "Amsterdam's #1 Wizard," but first, he has to figure out what the heck is going on in a strange land where everything feels odd and unfamiliar. Thankfully, these are the moments magic was made for so he's putting himself in places of possibility and letting divination lead the way to the "slightly better" reality that awaits just on the other side of that "oh no, what am I even doing here?!" overwhelm that greets every traveler when they step out of the familiar and into life's great adventure......and oh what an adventure it is! So if you want to hear the actual episode, you too will need to embark on the epic quest that is joining our Patreon!Listen to Stranger in a Strange Land:https://www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual/posts/168890113/Join the ritual: www.patreon.com/thispodcastisaritual