I’m not familiar with For the Queen, so I’m not sure how much of this game is a hack of that game, or uses its SRD, etc. However, I really like what you have here. The idea of being alone (or with others) in a maze with no memory or even knowledge of time, where you are, etc. is really intriguing. It also lends itself to a mood of its own: certainly curious, but it can be as frightening or exploratory as you want. I can even see different players trying to pull it in different ways, like the colorful door depicting a beautiful garden, but then the music one hears being something out of a horror movie. I could even see some little “hidden mechanic” where each player is getting glimpses of life prior to the maze as they explore. Maybe each time someone describes something, all players roll a d20 and if anyone gets a 20, this answer sparks something in their memory somehow.
I also really love how even the game-end prompt has you ALL explain why you can’t leave, even though this exit has been your goal for the entire game. It’s very metaphorical of life: we’re in this slog, day after day, often not even remembering why we’re doing it or who we are in a given moment as we act for other people and put on hats at our jobs, schools, etc. that come with personas.
Honestly, I’m really struggling to come up with anything to critique here lol, it’s incredibly solid, and I love how the prompts are equally good at guiding players while leaving ALL the room for interpretation in any specific setting. And the X-Card use is great; I often have players remove the Jokers in my games, and never even considered using one as an X-Card!
PS: If you remove the images, take out the page breaks, and change the fonts to one they include in the jam, you could easily enter this into Minimalist TTRPG Jam 4 too!
- ✨Beth