RITUAL : A New Experience from TSD

There are moments when you can feel a room is ready for something deeper, even if no one knows how to name it yet.

About four years ago, I was preparing a birthday dinner for my wife. Nothing extravagant. Just a long table, good food, dim light, and a mix of people from different chapters of her life. Family. Old friends. New friends. People who cared about her, but didn’t yet know one another.

She asked for one simple thing, “Can you bring some conversation cards to help everyone integrate?”

I could have grabbed a deck of {THE AND} cards. They were right there. Familiar. Easy. But something in me paused.

What I started thinking about wasn’t just conversation. It was the moment. That space after dessert, when everyone’s full, a little softer, a little more open. I kept picturing someone placing something on the table—something with weight and presence and the immediate reaction being,“Ohhh… what is that?”

Not because it was flashy. But because it invited people to lean in.

I knew right away it couldn’t be lightweight. It had to be hearty. Something intentional. Something that shifted the energy of the room before a single word was spoken.

That night, the first version of RITUAL came to life.

From the beginning, I knew the object itself mattered just as much as what it held. I wanted it to feel ancient, mystical, and alive. That’s when my friend and incredible artist and tattooist, Carmine Gortez, became essential to the process.

One of the defining qualities of Carmine’s work, other than the fact that her aesthetic was perfect for Ritual (Primal, Mystical, Ehtereal), is that she never repeats herself. Every design she creates is a one-off. And we carried that principle directly into RITUAL.

Each of the 49 engraved designs you see on these panels has never existed before—and will never exist again. No repeats. No variations. Each one is singular.

To bring the vision into physical form, we collaborated with Patricio Mastache, whose carpentry skills made it possible to execute this entirely by hand. American Walnut. Cedar. Rosa Madera Wood. Materials chosen not for aesthetics alone, but for how they feel when held, passed, and lived with.

There’s another layer to this object that’s harder to see, but easy to feel once you’ve played. RITUAL was built with the idea that it accumulates energy. Every time it’s opened, every time people gather around it, every time a moment is named or revealed, the box carries that forward. Its mana grows through use. Over years, through repetition and care, its presence deepens. It doesn’t reset. It remembers.

This first release is intentionally small. There are only four boxes.

Over the course of this year, each one will be shared within our community. Whoever receives one isn’t just getting a game. They’re becoming the steward of a unique vortex creator, something designed to tap into the underbelly of a moment and reveal the magic that’s already present.

RITUAL isn’t really about questions.

Some prompts are questions, yes. But others are invitations to act. To toast. To share. To create something together in real time. Each prompt is less about extracting an answer and more about exploring what’s possible right now. What’s being asked to be revealed in this specific moment, with these specific people.

One of the things that still amazes me every time we play is the pause.

That space after a prompt is read aloud…before anyone responds…before anything becomes real.

That pause is pregnant with possibility. There are many ways the moment could unfold. And then someone speaks. Or moves. Or raises a glass. And one possibility collapses into reality.

Almost without fail, what emerges is connective. Revealing. Unexpected. It brings people together in a way that feels natural, not forced.

And the quiet realization that follows is always the same: we’re already closer than we think. And remembering that feels really good.

That’s what RITUAL is.

It’s an object. An invitation. A way of honoring the fact that when people gather, something unique is always available, something that will never exist in quite the same way again.

This first run is small by design. Four boxes. Four stewards. Many moments.

That’s the intention behind RITUAL.

I hope you get to experience it someday soon.

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