Pocket Change

Pocket Change is a riffing game of unexpected ripple effects. Play as an ecosystem in flux while speculating on and adapting to the chaos and consequence of being interconnected.

Pocket Change was created in the style of tabletop roleplaying games, and was made during the Summer 2024 sessions of Worlds in Conversation. It was inspired by Ursula K. Le Guin and her Taoism-informed narratives (the Earthsea cycle, The Lathe of Heaven), Donella H. Meadows and systems thinking, and lessons from watching city coyotes (and watching them watch me). Many thanks to my instructors Everest Pipkin and Caro Asercion, my Wednesday section classmates, and everyone who playtested and reviewed earlier iterations of this piece.

Pocket Change can be downloaded as a 1-page PDF or print-at-home mini-zine here.

Below are some fragments from Worlds in Conversation assignments: excerpts of gameplay with Caro Asercion’s Exquisite Biome, a satchel mechanic for a crepuscular wildlife observer, and a lyric game in the form of instructions for a divinatory walk.