A Fool's Errand 💡✨
A solo-journaling game about the futile effort of trying to warn a king about their inevitable destruction.
Title: A Fool's Errand
Creator: Mike Free
Publication date: December 2021
Price: PWYW, $2 suggested
System/Genre: Original, historical
This 1-page solo TTRPG uses a deck of cards and whatever journaling method you prefer. You play a court jester who has discovered a conspiracy against your king — which is going to succeed; that part is built into the game. You play to discover who's in the conspiracy and what else is going on in the kingdom.
After establishing a few details about the king and the purpose of the conspiracy, the game is spent listening to petitioners in the court. You draw cards to determine each petitioner's identity and their connection, if any, to the conspiracy. You are directed to consider how they appear and act, and how you react - what kind of mockery do you use? How do you drop hints about the conspiracy you have uncovered?
In the end, it is futile. The first time you draw a jester, you reveal the conspiracy, but you are not believed. The second time, the conspiracy succeeds, and the game ends.
The built-in bleakness of the ending doesn't detract from the game. You build a story about the petitioners, their relationships each other, the factions of "conspirators" vs "loyal to the King." You find connections not in the text: A smuggler who appears immediately after the general may have been captured with the enemy troops; a smuggler who appears immediately after a farmer may have stashed his goods on the farm.
The joy in this game is not in finding out "what happens" (you already know what will happen) but "who are these people, and how are they working together, and what's going on in the kingdom that has inspired this conspiracy?" And every time you play, the answers will be different.