I’ve been developing the concept for a storytelling game called Conspiracy for several years. Actually, if you go back to 1984 when 12-year-old me first started thinking about how this might work – you would find me sitting in my room wishing there was a more efficient way to program my brand new Commodore-64 while surrounded by Choose Your Own Adventure books and the Illuminatus Trilogy by Robert Shea and Robert Anton Wilson. I was mostly in my room (which was a camp trailer connected to the main trailer by an extension cord) by myself because we lived deep out in the country so my Dungeons and Dragons Second Edition game and rule books were something I spent time rolling characters with and wishing I could connect with other geeks who wanted to tell stories, share imaginary adventures, and create worlds together. Obviously, 1984 was a long time ago.
The modern version of this idea started forming just three years ago when I began playing with crypto and NFTs as a method of publishing and collaboratively telling stories.
Meet – The Illuminati.
You can see them all on my OS featured page here: https://opensea.io/cdmag.eth/featured or you can see and purchase them (many are sold out already) on my Cent page at https://vagobond.cent.co/
I’m still working out many of the rules, whether there will be prizes (beyond the joy of collaboratively telling stories – there most likely will be), and some other fun incentives that I’m not ready to talk about yet – but to start – I want to reach out to gauge interest through action and a low level ‘show interest with your wallet’ component ($1). Read on – for details.
Part of the fun and part of the mechanics are a result of my having used CENT to launch the art, only those who own the individual cards (digital collectibles) can comment on the Cent page for that card. So, if you own a Kissinger and you want to have him take an action – all you have to do is post that action on the Kissinger page on Cent. Here’s the catch though – there are 100 Kissinger’s available and anyone who holds one of them can also take Kissinger actions. This compared to Taylor Swift where there are only 2 or Oprah where there are only 3. Bill Gates has a 10k supply. AI will play a big component in this collaborative storytelling game.
Many of the cards have already sold out – even before I announced that this will be a game. I find that really cool but I don’t really expect that all of the owners will pay attention when I announce the game beginning on the card chats.
There are still many new cards that will be introduced over time. That will also be something that the holders will have a hand in.
So what is next?
The game will begin with a meeting of the Illuminati. The meeting will be run by Central Control Systems – and all of the current cards will be in attendance. This is a game of global dominance – you can form alliances, you can use your cards in any way you see fit – one caveat you should know – I hold one of each card, so technically I can undo any action that I feel is not in the service of playing a fun game. Technically, one other player could also hold all the cards – but that would be exceedingly difficult and require buying the most expensive card in the game – the 2nd Taylor Swift. But – it is possible that someone else could take control of the game.
We will be collaboratively telling stories – and a big part of that is going to be the creative and focused use of AI. Certain cards have certain powers – for example (this is Alpha) – Illuminati #3 (Control Systems) with William S. Burroughs on it has a unique ability born of a literary method that Burroughs pioneered – the Control Systems card can demand a ‘cut up’ in which the last part of the narrative is copied and pasted with new prompts into an AI such as ChatGPT. Each card has different abilities – some of them even have the power to change other cards or create new ones!
I look forward to hearing your thoughts, ideas, and hopefully your enthusiastic entrance into the world of the Illuminati by purchasing one or more of the available Illuminati cards – most of which are between $1 and $5 USD. https://vagobond.cent.co/
Stay tuned because the initial meeting is coming soon…