Bio: Chance J. Feldstein (they/them) is a queer, autistic narrative artist, working primarily in the media of game design, fiction writing, and transformative roleplay. A lifelong student of psychology, mythology, religion, and the occult, they have practiced energy work and chaos magic since the late 1990s. eclectic paganism and Taoist, and have enjoyed writing occasional games about it. Chance is currently working on a romantic modern fantasy / mystery novel with a close friend, and usually has at least one new game in the pipeline. Their first Kickstarter game, The Monsters’ Tea Party, will be released on Kickstarter in late 2023.
Chance’s orientation toward both chaos magic and live-action role-playing (LARP or larp) began with, and still specializes in, the evolution and refinement of the self, using narrative and paradigm-shifting as the primary tools. Their father ran a private dental practice for ~40 years, until retiring. Chance’s mother was a school counselor, and before that she was a special education teacher. Their sister is a hospital administrator overseeing nurses, and used to be a nurse herself. While “Chance” is a personally chosen name, the middle name “Jason” was given at birth. It means “healer” in Greek. Healing is a family tradition that Chance is proud co carry on, in their own particular way.
Several years ago, Chance learned that the men in their father’s family were rabbis, before they came to the United States in the early part of the 20th century. Today, that side of the family mainly has Jews who meditate, and Buddhists who are culturally Jewish. Their mother is a strong intuitive and (in Chance’s opinion) also a natural kitchen witch. Chance shares some of her intuition, which has proven to be a veritable “Swiss army knife”, applicable to a wide variety of situations. While they remain culturally Jewish, their religious, spiritual, and philosophical views are eclectic, and include agnosticism, polytheism, Taoism, and Discordianism. (If some of these seem mutually exclusive, remember that alchemy is largely about the union of apparent opposites.)
Writing and Design Experience: Chance co-written eight tabletop game books as a freelance writer, mainly for Vampire: the Masquerade and Mind’s Eye Theatre. Their most recent professional work was a short, somewhat political section on the enslavement of the djinn for the Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition book Gods & Monsters. Some of Chance’s previous RPG writing appears under the names “Chance J. Kallisti”, “Jason Louis Feldstein” or “Travis-Jason Feldstein”.
Lately, their focus is more on writing freeform larps and fiction, both of which are hopefully transformative for some people. Chance’s freeform game “Garden of Pathos” received an Honorable Mention in 2019’s Golden Cobra Challenge, and they continue to strive to improve and refine their games. In 2023, they completed a one-year graduate certificate program in Transformative Game Design from Uppsala University. At the time of this writing, it is the only program of its kind anywhere in the world.
Chance’s articles for the now-defunct news / counterculture website Disinfo can be found here. Their personal blog is The Temple of Zenarchy. They also have old Livejournal that will be provided (to some people) on request.
Healing Philosophy and Background: Chance can’t “fix” you… but that’s because they don’t assume you’re “broken”. In theory, every mind has the ability to heal itself and find a new equilibrium, if given the right kind of tools and support. What most people seem to need, to get started, is a kind ear to listen to whatever life circumstances are difficult. Someone to be in the moment with them, and help get their immediate needs met. Friends have been coming to Chance, on their own, for advice about how to find meaning in their lives
Chance has trained in peer support with Trans Lifeline, and will be doing a second peer support training with the Zendo Project in the future. How to handle sudden emotional release was also something their Reiki teacher spent significant time on. Their academic and personal development work have covered toxic stress and resilience (the ACEs study), the neurodiversity paradigm, assertiveness (including consent negotiation), active listening, and how to frame intense experiences using strategic questions and embodiment.
To reach Chance with questions, comments, suggestions, concerns, requests, or attempts to inspire or conspire, please send an email.