Prospero's game

In Shakespeare's The Tempest, we see Europe on the cusp of a new era: the shift from the dark Ages and its attendant belief in magic and the supernatural to the Enlightenment, a period that saw the rise of scientific growth. 

We meet Prospero the magician at just such a stage in his life.  We see him about to perform one final act of magic before giving it up forever. But why does Prospero give up magic?  And what makes it so difficult?

Prospero is a man with enemies.  He is also a man with a beautiful young daughter.  The temptation to dispatch the former with well-chosen curses and to protect the latter with arcane incantations must be overwhelming.
But...he knows that magic isn't real.  You cannot really curse your enemies, and as much as any father would have it otherwise, you cannot truly protect your daughter.

And so we see him both wanting to face reality and scientific truth, and not wanting to give up the illusion magic has to offer.

The game:
Each player has the following cards describing powers:
 

You are immortal

You command the spirit world

You have the ability to fly and defy gravity

You have a deep knowledge of magic

You have the ability to cast spells to help and to curse

They describe to each other what they would do with these powers. 
Then the players begin to lose their powers one by one. 
Each player must draw a card from the following deck (shuffled and placed face-down before them):

You are mortal

You are alone

You must obey the laws of physics and the natural world

You have a deep understanding of scientific truths

You have the ability to set a good example for others

When they draw a card, they must discard the corresponding card in their hand.  With each draw, their magical powers diminish.  Each player then tries to force the other to admit he is no longer truly a magician.  The loser is whomever admits defeat first.

In this game, the players experience what it feels like, not only to lose one's magical powers, but also the desperation with which Prospero wanted to hold onto them.

"Star Trek: the next generation" has an episode called Hide and Q in which one of the characters is offered omnipotence.  He attempts to use his powers to give his friends what he believes they want: for the android to become human, for the boy to become a man, for the blind man to see.  But they refuse, because they know these not to be real.  "This above all else: to thine own self be true" says the android, quoting Shakespeare.

And so the parallel can be made between a magician giving up his powers and a teenager giving up the perceived powers of adolescence for the more mundane, yet infinitely more satifying life of the adult.  The game is similar with the "adolescent" cards being:

You believe death happens to other people, mostly the old and the stupid

You are popular and have a big group of friends

You live for speed, excitement and danger

All the  information  you need is contained in your cellphone  so you don’t need school

You rebel and “fight the system”

and the "adult" cards being:

You have faced your own mortality

You have your family

You carefully weigh the risks and benefits of each action

You understand that knowledge, experience and wisdom, which cannot be “googled” is trae power

You recognise your rights and responsabilities