Remnants is a dream right now. It’s the name of a game — the full name being “Remnants: A World Without Churches” — that several of us have come together to try and design. We are dreaming of it, based in part on the experience of a game that debuted in 2007, World Without Oil. We are convinced that “serious play for social good” is worthy of our attention and time. (Mary Hess has written a paper about this, if you want more lengthy background.)
Right now we have a storyline, a brief set of rules, and a couple of scenarios to play with (#1, #2, #3). But so far we’re mostly a group of folk with deep connections to churches and other faith communities. So we’re eager to reach out to people who are not in those contexts, to help us think through how to make this a fun space in which to play.
Ultimately we hope that we can design an interdependent, or at least interwoven, set of game play spaces that will contribute a more light-hearted and creative voice to the concerns being raised all over about the “decline” of churches.