🌘 Lost Shadow — Solo Card-Based Journaling RPG (Quick Rules)

Premise: You are a lost dream. You don’t remember who dreamed you. You wander through other people’s dreams and nightmares to survive and discover your original dreamer.

🎯 Objective

• Journal through a chain of dream-cards to gather clues.

• When the same dreamer’s name surfaces 3 times across your entries in a single run, you’ve found your origin. End with an epilogue from the moment you reunite with your dreamer.

🎴 What You Need

• A device with the Lost Shadow interface (the ➕ plus spawner and image deck).

• A notebook or doc for journaling.

• Optional: a 10–20 minute timer.

🧠 Core Concepts (Glossary)

• Card: A dream scene containing a random image.

• Grid: The invisible orthogonal layout where cards attach N / E / S / W.

• Active Card: The most recently created card. Only this card shows valid ➕ options.

• ➕ (Plus): A placement control that spawns a new card in the chosen direction.

• Fragment: Any symbol, phrase, or motif that feels like a clue to your origin.

• Dreamer Name: A specific name/identity that appears in your journaling (e.g., Mina, The Archivist, Mother). Track counts per name.

🧩 Setup

1. Open the experience. You’ll see one ➕ in the center.

2. Click the center ➕ to spawn the first card with a random image.

3. The center ➕ disappears. You now have 0–4 side ➕ around the Active Card.

🔁 Turn Loop (Step-by-Step)

1. Observe the Active Card

   • Breathe, look, and let the image “set the weather.”

2. Journal (5–10 min)

   • Write as the lost dream: What do you sense? Who’s here? What changes?

   • Capture Fragments (symbols, phrases, feelings).

   • If a Dreamer Name surfaces naturally, record it for this card.

3. Choose a Direction

   • Click one visible ➕: N / E / S / W of the Active Card.

4. Spawn Next Card

   • A new card with a random image appears in that direction.

   • That new card becomes the Active Card.

5. Repeat the loop.

🧭 Placement & ➕ Rules (Precise)

• Only the Active Card shows ➕.

• Up to 4 ➕ can appear: top, right, bottom, left of the Active Card.

• No diagonal placement.

• No overlap / no in-between ➕:

  • If the adjacent space already has a card, hide that ➕.

  • Never show a ➕ on an edge already touching another card.

• Row/Column restriction: ➕ exist only orthogonally from the Active Card (same row/column).

• Dead-end: If all four sides are blocked, the dream cannot expand. Write a closing line for this run (see Endings), then either end or start a new run (fresh center ➕).

✍️ How to Journal (Fast Scaffold)

Use this 5-prompt micro-frame; answer in 2–3 sentences each:

• Where am I? (space, texture, light, sound)

• What wants something? (entity, object, force)

• What changes? (shift, discovery, threat)

• What do I give up to proceed? (memory, belief, token)

• What Fragment remains? (symbol, word, image)

Tip: You can also journal across multiple cards (“combo journaling”) if a thread spans scenes.

🪪 Dreamer Name Rule (Win Condition)

• When a specific name/identity clearly appears in your writing for a card, log it.

• When the same name appears on three different cards in one run, you’ve found your original dreamer.

• Multiple names? Track counts for each. The first to 3 wins. If tied, choose the name tied to the stronger Fragment in your gut.

🧱 Endings

• Origin Found: Write a 1–3 paragraph epilogue as the lost dream meeting your dreamer.

• Dead-end Grid: No valid ➕ remain. Write one closing sentence: “The dream folds here because ____.” Optionally start a new run.
  
  
  

  Checklist each turn:
  
  • Only Active Card has ➕? ✅
  • No ➕ where occupied? ✅
  • Orthogonal only? ✅
  • Logged Fragment & Name? ✅