Game Ephemera

A text message conversation coordinating a game.

Game prep scribbled in a notebook.

A doodle in the margin of a character sheet.

Forgotten in the thread, tossed in the recycling, left on the shelf, these artifacts rarely take focus, rarely get a post. There’s a pleasure in these ephemera.

A joy in the invitation, the speech act manifesting the game, summoning play if the recipient is a willing site of abduction by the game.

A plan scribbled in a notebook, a situation through which a spirit of the upcoming game will haunt: dungeon on grid paper, scribbled swords, a list of descriptive words, of character names, encounters, rumors, problems through which characters will reveal themselves in the shared imagination of tabletop play. 

Marginalia, note to yourself future you or the you that never uses this character sheet again, contiguous or not, leaving a doodle or reminder or theory or criticism. There’s a pleasure in not remembering what you’re referring to or intentionally miss remembering.