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Good question! So first and foremost, cards serve as a “spark table” that can be interpreted in many different ways (think tarot reading). One of the three characters you are tasked as playing is “The Road” whose goal is to connect the story. Like a tarot reading, some cards have obvious meanings, and some are completely recontextualized by the next drawn card. Do not feel pressured to stick with your decisions, the beauty of solo games is that you can retcon.

So for example, drawing a support card featuring a named human. If the card right after is an item card, then maybe they are an old friend who gifted you an item. If the card right after is a Pokémon, then maybe they are a trainer who is challenging you to a battle (you cannot catch their Pokémon). And I should note that just because you draw Pokémon doesn’t mean it has to be a battle. If it’s the next stage of one of your Pokémon, maybe the booster pack is telling you that your Pokémon evolved!

Long story short, the cards can be interpreted in any way you like. If I you’re having trouble interpreting a card, consider drawing again to add context, or maybe ignore the subject of the card entirely and focus on the background in the art.

Sounds good!

What room size would constitute a submission to be “too large” ?

Also, what is the defining line between “one room with a partition” and “two rooms with a dividing wall” ?

(For the record: I’m ok if there are no defined limits, and it’s judged off of vibes and consensus)

10/10 —This adventure reminds me of The Legend Of Zelda: The Minish Cap for the Game Boy Advance

The art is fantastic. The layout is easy to follow and spatially efficient. The room descriptions are elegant and evocative. The map and NPC portraits speak loudly without using words

Like the best fairytales, the theme rides the edge between family friendly whimsy and a nightmarish fever dream: the game could run very differently depending if the GM last saw the movie Labyrinth or Nightmare On Elm Street (I would probably binge Infinity Train before running it)

Personally, I struggle to interpret rewritten adventures—but this one reminded me of the old Nintendo players guides. I’m genuinely excited to run this

thank you. That’s a note I’ve gotten from a few people over on Bluesky, so I’ve been workshopping a better explainer that I hope to post here soon. I think I was relying too much on implied rules to fit it all on one page

What I will say here is that the core mechanic is a pun: “picking locks by picking numbers”

You roll one D20 and pick one of the five rows to slot it into. Then you roll another D20 and if it’s a number higher than the first roll, then you are limited to the slots above the first roll; and it it’s a number lower than the first roll, then you are limited to the slots below the first roll.  Once you pick a slot for the second roll and lock it in, you roll a third D20. Slot the third roll into one of the remaining three rows. If the slotted numbers are ever out of descending order then the pick breaks. Now a fourth roll, then a fifth roll—basically you are rolling five d20, one d20 at a time, and ranking it before knowing what number is coming next

The example I used on the original was a pick which had already unlocked two locks, and failed the third lock before it could be retired. I was told this was confusing and looked like Dice Checks where you were rolling against a number—that was my bad. You are never rolling against a number. The whole game is just rolling up a random number and picking a row to slot it into

😊