Accidental Gods - The Thrutopian Podcast

What happens if we stop playing games that laud violence and give us brief dopamine hits for acts of destruction, and instead create, play and share games that build regenerative futures that help to rewire our brains and give us a feel for how community works? With Andrew Navaro of Earthborne Games. More at https://accidentalgods.life

Show Notes

The average child in the western world attends 10,000 hours of school - and plays 20,000 hours of games.  In the 'adult' world, many of us spend hours devoted to levelling up our characters and exploring imaginary worlds.  If the Tech-bros get their way, we'll soon live entirely in the Metaverse and have minimal contact with the real world beyond the walls of our concrete hutches.  

But imagine a different world: where the people of earth have come together to solve the multi-polar traps of the climate, ecological, sociological, economic and political crisis of our times. How might the world look in a couple of thousand years if we've made it through to the flourishing future we want for our descendants?  That's the premise of Earthborne Rangers, a tabletop card game that's the brainchild of Andrew Navaro, Founder and Creative Director of Earthborne Games, a company that 'creates breathtaking tabletop games that prioritize environmental sustainability in every aspect of their creation – from manufacturing to fulfillment. Every Earthborne product is made as sustainably as possible, with unparalleled transparency throughout the process. There’s a hopeful future on the horizon, one that reimagines our relationship with the Earth and the stories we tell on the gaming table, and we’re going to create it together. 


In this week's inspiring episode, we talk to Andrew about the game's genesis, about how where we set our energy defines where we go, and why it was important to him to create a game that fostered cohesion and community, sharing and exploring while still being fun and exciting to play.   As the game nears completion and launch, we talk about the Kickstarter campaign that funded it and the design challenges, as well as the deeply thought-through ethos of the world Andrew and his team have created.

As we head into the holidays, join us for a world of new ideas.


Order the game here https://earthbornegames.com/
The Rulebook https://earthbornegames.com/wp-content/uploads/EBR001_Rulebook_web.pdf
Reality is Broken by Jane McGonigal https://uk.bookshop.org/books/reality-is-broken-why-games-make-us-better-and-how-they-can-change-the-world/9780099540281

What is Accidental Gods - The Thrutopian Podcast?

Another World IS still Possible. The old system was never fit for purpose - and now it's collapsing around us. So how do we co-create a Thrutopian future that we'd all be proud to leave as our legacy?

What stories can we weave of possibility? Of transformation? What happens if we commit to a world based on generative values: compassion, courage, integrity?

What happens if we let go of the race for meaningless money and commit instead to the things that really matter: clean air, clean water, clean soil - and clean, clear, courageous connections between all parts of ourselves, between ourselves and each other, between ourselves and the Web of Life - so that we can reclaim our birthright as self-conscious nodes in the web of life?

We can do this. Some of us already are. Every week on Accidental Gods we speak with the people who are living this world into being, courageous pathfinders who are exploring the emergent edge of inter-becoming.

As a species, we have all the answers, we just haven't yet crafted all the new stories and woven them into a future that works. We have the choice now - we can choose to transform…or we can face the chaos of a failing system.

Our Choice. Our Chance. Our Future.

Accidental Gods is a podcast and membership program devoted to exploring the ways we can create a future that we would be proud to leave to the generations yet to come.

Find the membership and the podcast pages here: https://accidentalgods.life
Find Manda's Thrutopian novel, Any Human Power here: https://mandascott.co.uk
Find Manda on BlueSky @mandascott.bsky.social
On LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/mandascottauthor/
On FaceBook https://www.facebook.com/MandaScottAuthor