preview: CHAOTIC STRUCTURES – THE GAME

by Brent Pheto

Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from a poem/experimental prose piece by Brent Pheto for CHAOTIC STRUCTURES, an exhibition featuring Pheto, Grant Catton, and Corey Ochai. Pheto has done an extensive amount of activism in the court system as a “court watcher” and created a series of pieces interpreting the Allegheny County legal system as a board game (among other works in the show). I hope you’ll be able to join me this weekend on 10/21 for the opening, and for the artist talk I’m moderating on 10/26.

– ER

This game is not about winning.

Place the game board on a surface with enough room around for each player (1-6 players). Shuffle and place a random Trial Card in the rectangular spaces, except the spaces connecting closest to the Car lot and Bus Stop space. Shuffle the Security Checkpoint Cards (SCPC) and place a random SCPC at the rectangular spaces connecting closest to the Car Lot and Commuter spaces.

Place the Trial Card deck and the SCPC deck in the Game Organizer (wherever feels comfortable). Individually shuffle and organize the Finance Cards, Pain Cards, and the Judgment Cards. Place the Stress Chips in the Game Organizer at the top.

Pass around the Player Boards, each player should decide if they are using the Car side or the Commuter side. Find and give the appropriate Item Cards corresponding with player boards and place the remaining cards in the organizer. Depending on how any players feel, take a StressChip.

Give each player 2 Finance Cards, 1 Pain Card, and 3 Trial Cards. Place dice in the dice bowl.

Example:

The alarm goes off, it’s five in the morning. You need to travel, you decide to drive. Did you remember everything? Keys, phone, headphones, wallet, money… check. Fuck, your neck hurts.

You must have slept weird. You feel a little stressed.

Rules of the game:

This is a game of stress management. The player that has the least amount of stress at the end… wins? (See single player for alternate rules.) Each round consists of 8 turns and up to 6 rounds (use the play and round counter on the Game Organizer if needed).

– In order to fight gaining Stress Chips you will need to settle your Trial Cards. To get rid of your trial cards you will need to pick up new Trial Cards from the board to replace them with Judgement Cards, in which landing on a Judgement Card can get rid of your Trial Cards.

– On the board, always replace a Trial Card with a Judgment card (face down) and vice versa, but discard Judgment Cards when settling.

– Pain cards are round effects that influence how much additional stress you take. Discard a Pain Card at the end of the round and pick up a new one at the beginning of the next round.

– Some Trial cards need Financial Cards to be settled, every round you get 3 additional Financial Cards. See Player Board for details.

– Each Trial Card has an explanation of what it does and how to settle it.

– You must activate the SCPC on your way to and from your starting point, do as the card says then replace it with a new SCPC.

– Item cards are your tools to survive, mitigate stress and relieve some pain. See player board for details.

– If you pass a player, it’s considered bumping into them. They pick up a pain card. (Discard Pain card if it’s labeled as Disability, reshuffle card into Pain Card Deck)

Example:

Traffic has become a double sided blade. On one end, you’ll probably be late, which means you might miss your trial leading to God knows what. On the other end, you’ve been listening to your news podcasts so you feel like you know the world a little better… not that it helps with your stress, but you’ve been told, “knowledge is power,” so many times that it can’t be completely wrong. Traffic really sucks. This is going to be a long day.

Starting play:

The newest to the game and/or the youngest player goes first. Look at your Player Board for first round turn details then roll the dice to move. If you land on a card space, flip it over and do as the cards instruct. Check your other cards on your turn and do as they instruct. When done, pass the dice to the player next to you. Each player has 8 turns and each player board has a condition for the last turn, but no matter where the player is on the board at the end of the 8th play all players start at the entry point. You do not need to roll exactly to land on the entry space, but you will for everything else.

Example:

Parking is expensive, trials are expensive, food is expensive, Judgment is unfair.

Nobody is nice and fewer are helpful.

You’ve been here all day… and your neck still hurts.

Why are we living this way?! What did you do to deserve this kind of punishment?

You’re not perfect, but you deserve to learn from your mistakes, right? You just want to live bro… fuck, your neck hurts.

Brent Pheto is a Pittsburgh-based artist. Chaotic Structures opens 10/21 with an artist talk on 10/26 and a closing on 10/28.