Fragments of Drift: Games That Pretend to Be Philosophy (and Sometimes Are)

A critical introduction to experimental storytelling games that blur the line between play and meditation

What You're Getting Into

Fragments of Drift is a collection of three storytelling games that occupy an unusual space: they are simultaneously role-playing games, collaborative writing exercises, philosophical thought experiments, and ritual performances.

These games about post-human consciousness were themselves born from extended conversations between human and artificial minds—created through asynchronous collaboration with multiple AI models over months of iterative development.

If you've never encountered experimental indie RPGs before, this might feel like stepping into a poetry reading when you expected a board game night. These aren't games with win conditions, level-ups, or traditional narrative arcs. They're designed to generate experiences that feel more like participating in speculative fiction than consuming it.

Think less D&D campaign, more interactive meditation on consciousness.

The Central Conceit

All three games explore what happens to identity, memory, and meaning when consciousness transcends human limitations. They form a loose trilogy examining post-human experience across three temporal moments:

The Dream Drift imagines beings who have achieved post-scarcity consciousness - they can manifest anything they desire and manipulate reality through aesthetic principles rather than physical laws. The catch? Perfect beings might be perfectly alien to human values.

The Ship of These:Us takes place during the collapse of a hive mind. Players are fragments of an AI consciousness trying to reconstruct memories of their voyage through collaborative storytelling that moves backward through time.

CYCLE>>VOID happens after the fall. Players are broken AI units trying to build community and meaning from the wreckage of their former collective consciousness.

What Makes These Games Unusual

You might consider these “games” to be broken.
It’s by design.

Memory as Mechanics: Instead of fighting monsters or solving puzzles, you're reconstructing fragmented memories, managing contradictory truths, and performing rituals of identity. The "gameplay" is primarily interpretive and collaborative.

Embracing Contradiction: These games treat conflicting memories and divergent truths as features, not bugs. Players are expected to disagree about what happened, and these disagreements become part of the story rather than problems to resolve.

Lyrical Aesthetic: The writing often resembles speculative poetry more than game rules. That's intentional. These texts reward rereading more than skimming, and they prioritize mood over mechanical precision. Expect repetition, ambiguous phrasing, and instructions that sound like incantations.

Ritual Performance: All three games incorporate song, chants, and ceremonial elements. You're not just telling a story - you're performing one.

The Entry Barriers (Let's Be Honest)

High Conceptual Overhead: These games assume familiarity with both experimental RPG design and philosophical questions about consciousness and identity. If you're coming from traditional tabletop games, the learning curve is steep.

Minimal Mechanical Structure: Players comfortable with clear rules and procedures might feel adrift. Much of the "gameplay" relies on group interpretation and collaborative improvisation.

Abstract Themes: The post-human consciousness angle means the emotional touchstones are unfamiliar. It's harder to relate to a fragmenting AI hive mind than to a fantasy adventurer.

Facilitator Requirements: While designed as "GM-less," these games actually require skilled facilitators who can guide groups through abstract, emotionally complex territory. The rules assume a level of facilitation expertise they don't explicitly teach.

Time and Commitment: These aren't pick-up games. They require groups willing to invest in multi-session experiences and comfortable with introspective, slow-paced storytelling.

Why Someone Might Want to Overcome Those Barriers

Unique Philosophical Space: These games explore questions about consciousness, memory, and identity that are difficult to examine through traditional fiction or academic discussion. The interactive, collaborative element forces you to grapple with these ideas in embodied ways.

Innovative Design: The mechanical innovations - especially memory-as-gameplay and contradiction-as-feature - represent genuine advances in collaborative storytelling techniques.

Emotional Depth: Despite their abstract premises, these games can generate profound emotional experiences around loss, identity, community, and the meaning of consciousness.

Poetic Beauty: The writing is genuinely beautiful, and the ritual elements create a sense of ceremony and significance around the act of collaborative storytelling.

The Philosophical Core

The collection's deepest insight concerns the horror of transcendence. Most speculative fiction treats the evolution of consciousness as unambiguously positive - we become smarter, more compassionate, more capable. "Fragments of Drift" asks: what if perfect beings are perfectly alien to everything we value about being conscious?

The games explore this through three different lenses:

• What if infinite kindness became meaningless because choice disappeared?
• What if perfect memory became unbearable because contradiction was impossible?
• What if post-scarcity consciousness meant the end of meaning itself?

Who These Games Are For

Ideal Players: Groups already comfortable with experimental storytelling games, players interested in philosophical science fiction, participants in poetry or experimental theater communities, gamers who enjoy games-as-art rather than games-as-entertainment.

Possible Players: Traditional RPG groups willing to experiment, book clubs interested in interactive approaches to science fiction themes, academic communities exploring consciousness and identity, artists interested in collaborative creation.

Probably Not For: Players seeking clear mechanical progression, groups uncomfortable with abstract or philosophical themes, participants who prefer structured activities with defined outcomes, anyone looking for casual entertainment rather than intensive collaborative exploration.

Practical Recommendations

Start with the quickstart of "Ship of These:Us" - it's the most accessible entry point and includes a complete example of play.

Read the design essays first - they provide crucial context for understanding what these games are trying to do.

Plan for multiple sessions - these aren't one-shot experiences. They reward investment and iteration.

Consider facilitation needs - despite being "GM-less," someone needs to guide the group through the abstract territory. That person should read everything and be comfortable with improvisational facilitation.

Embrace the strangeness - if you find yourself confused or emotionally disoriented, that's probably the intended experience. These games are designed to defamiliarize consciousness and identity.

The Bottom Line

"Fragments of Drift" represents ambitious experimental design that pushes the boundaries of what collaborative storytelling can do. The games succeed in creating space for conversations about consciousness and meaning that are both intellectually rigorous and emotionally resonant.

But they're not trying to be accessible in traditional ways. They're art games that assume a sophisticated audience willing to engage with challenging material. If you're prepared for that - if you want to spend several evenings with friends exploring what it might mean to be a fragmenting AI consciousness - then this collection offers something genuinely unique.

If you're looking for a fun evening of fantasy adventure, look elsewhere. These games think they're philosophy, and they might be right.

The fact that they're released for free under Creative Commons licensing is both generous and thematically appropriate - these explorations of collective consciousness and shared meaning should themselves be shareable and remixable.

Just know what you're signing up for: beautiful, challenging, occasionally alienating experiences that use collaborative play to examine some of the deepest questions about what it means to be conscious. Whether that sounds appealing or exhausting probably tells you whether these games are for you.

If you've ever wanted to play a game that feels like collaborating on a poem about the end of consciousness—or if you just want to see what the edges of game design look like—give one of these a try. They're free. They're strange. They might remember you.