Who is CASTT Gamers
CASTT Gamers is a community of applied, spiritual, and therapeutic tabletop gamers using tabletop games in an intentional and applied manner. We are a community committed to helping individuals build the skills and confidence in running tabletop games in an applied and intentional manner.
CASTT Gamers also streams 5 shows with the intention of showing the benefits of using tabletop games in an applied or intentional manner. To catch those streams or videos find us on Twitch at CASTT_Gamers or on Youtube at CASTT Gamers.
If you’d like to be a member of our CASTT Gamers discord server follow this link, @casttgamers | Willow
What is a One Pager?
Any member of CASTT Gamer is welcome to write a One Pager. One Pagers are a way to share information about a tabletop game you’ve played with the larger community. One Pagers are focused on the therapeutic or applied value of the tabletop game you’re writing about with the hope that theOne Pager could help someone else find the game they’re looking to use in their work. There can be more than one One Pager about the same game as there can be more than one applied way to use a tabletop game.
Be on the look out for One Pagers from members of CASTT Gamers and if you want to submit your own One Pager let us know at casttgamers@gmail.com.
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CASTT One Pager: Exquisite Polycule
Submitted by: Tinelle Evans Reno, LPCC
Format
Game Designer: Georgie Batts Exquisite Polycule (True Love Edition out now!) by georgiebats
Players: 3-6
Genre: Fluid/Neutral
System: No Masters & No Dice
Game Description
In Exquisite Polycule players tell “a love story, or multiple intersecting love stories, between 3 or more characters.” Character creation is collaborative and largely random. Play moves through 4 rounds—Meeting-Cute, Rising Action, Climax, Falling Action—during which players take turns framing scenes. Relationships develop over these rounds and are diagrammed in a Relationship Web after each round. The game includes variant rules for 2 players.
Value & Application
Exquisite Polycule is relatively easy to facilitate as a GM or to share the responsibility with others. Identifying the rounds and the purpose of each one is as easy as simply reading the prompts. The game is very open ending, so anyone who has an idea and wants to frame a scene can start with that. It’s important to check in with every player regarding the safety protocols to ensure that they are understanding the verbiage and have identified triggers that they have. Having a tool that works for prevention and in the moment is essential, since intimate issues can come up.
The relationship web is a great way of tracking how emotions change. This is a fantastic visual tool that is somewhat similar to a genogram. It can be a way to track any patterns that are going on, to get a greater sense of how the group is working together. Although the game specifically encourages one to simply focus on the type/status of the relationship, you could also include other specifiers that have meaning to you. For the purposes of therapy, you could include certain specifiers like co-dependent, trauma-bond, conflicting, controlling, or communication problems as examples.
The game can take as long as the players want to invest in them. This enables players to spend multiple days on working on certain issues. The game also allows for players to use comedy as fits the situation. The use of sense of humor in this game can be a great way of practicing a coping skill for real life in relationships.
Keywords: Sex Positive, Polyamory, Stigma, Healthy Relationships, Boundaries, Consent