I don't have an idea yet but I'd like to contribute something. A discussion might help!

Good thinking! I'm quite interested in the relationship between carnival and insurrection that Graeber identifies, so I'm currently thinking that through. My work kind of drifts between games and essays, so not sure which pole the final product is going to go more towards... But that's the point of this jam! Very flexible with respect to format! Really anything engaging with the topics listed is welcome. What others thoughts are folks having?

Have you seen Barbara Ehrenreich's Dancing in the Street? It is a book about the history of public joy and resistance. It talks about Carnival a lot.

Nothing about Graeber work feels game-y to me so I like that the jam has space for pretty much anything inspired by him. Though I definitely do want to make a game, heh.

Oh fantastic! No, I haven't read this, but that looks like a great connection. Might not be able to get it into this project, but a valuable resource and on my list of reading for sure!

And yes, precisely! I loved that sense of a connection there, with Graeber, but also that there is so much open space to explore!

Well, obviously, I did this: https://blackskyredvisitor.com/2020/06/14/pbta-ifying-debt-the-first-5000-years/

I'd like to get that laid out and illustrated. Perhaps add onto it? If anyone wants to partner with me to do that, we can certainly work out some sort of profit-sharing agreement or I can pay upfront if it's not too much money, or something along those lines. 

I could also add content onto that if people think that anything more should be added, I'd love that feedback. 

As for his other work... 

Well, his two books on the subject of kingship could be read and composed into a guide for how to analogize his ideas into fantasy worldbuilding, and mechanics for them could even be invented. This feels like it might best be done with an OSR orientation? 

He wrote an immense amount about imagination, creativity, and magical traditions, any of which could be grafted into one or more magic systems to be made into a universal supplement for fantasy games. 

The full list (as near as I can tell) is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Graeber_bibliography

Of these, and thus far both unread by and unmentioned by me in this missive, is "the false coin of our own dreams", which David always considered to be his unappreciated magnum opus. No idea how to make it into anything. 

Perhaps as a supplement with rules for playing traders in a weird fantasy setting? 

Hello, Black Cat.

I like your debt moves. I think they're interesting. There's a neat loop there thats really well-formulated  I don't really have much constructive to say because I think I have different tastes. There's some tension between making something realistic and making a game. The choices you made were probably not the ones I would've made. 

I like your idea of turning On Kings into something gameable. I haven't read the book but seems like something that could be done.

I was thinking about Graeber's anarchism more than his anthropology (I realise they blend). I'm sometimes a bit queasy about using real-world anthropology to inspire the fantastical because I still don't fully grasp where erasure and appropriation begin. I'm sure there's a way to do it but not for me right now. That said, I think you're right that there's so much wonderful anthropological work that could be injected into our understanding of the medieval part of medieval fantasy. And it's definitely more gameable than the anarchism, haha.

I mean, I absolutely think that you *could* game out his anarchism. Just read through Direct Action + the Democracy Project and take notes in the form of mechanics.

If it helps, do it like this: https://blackskyredvisitor.com/2020/06/29/alignment-world-a-dungeon-world-hack-a...

Anarchism is like a three stage rocket. The first stage is a set of moral commitments. The second stage is a series of desperate actions. The third stage is a network of interlocking understandings. Ultimately, the anarchism and the anthropology aren't separable -- they converge.