No one may ever have this knowledge again, or before, or even now
Posted by Mike Sugarbaker at 2:06 am on 5/14/2004
Those who read my postings in other venues may have seen me talk about Lexicon, a role-playing game of sorts for n players, an alphabet, and a Wiki.
The basic idea is that each player takes on the role of a scholar, from before scholarly pursuits became professionalized (or possibly after they ceased to be). You are cranky, opinionated, prejudiced and eccentric. You are also collaborating with a number of your peers — the other players — on the construction of an encyclopedia describing some historical period (possibly of a fantastic world). [...] On the first turn, each player writes an entry for the letter ‘A’. You come up with the name of the entry, and you write 100-200 words on the subject. At the end of the article, you sign your name, and make two citations to other entries in the encyclopedia. These citations will be phantoms — their names exist, but their content will get filled in only on the appropriate turn.
A friend and I are ourselves working on putting together a calmingly paced, loosely played Lexicon game. Those who are interested in seeing what happens when you strip D&D of its rules, dice, dragons, and dungeons, and add healthy measures of Khazars and Borges, are invited to participate.