Seven games, the one-card game first, and the paper for the two that want it
All seven Artful Safari solo journaling games in one download, plus the Folklore Forest and Crimson Parlour printables packs: 76 junk journal papers and 18 sheets of ephemera, all 11 x 8.5 in, printing edge to edge on US Letter. The other five games are written to be played from the stash you already own. These two have a world of their own to dress, and the packs are what dress it.
Each game has a different number of turns on purpose. Start with the one-card game, find out whether this kind of play suits you, and keep the fifty-two-card one for when you already know it does.
England, 1913. A letter arrives, addressed in a hand you either knew at once or have never seen. One card decides who wrote and what they want. You write their letter first, then your reply, and then you decide whether it is sent, burned, or folded into the page unsent. Two facing pages, from a single card.
Christmas Eve, 1887. Edmund Ashgrove is dead and the household would quietly prefer that it was you. Turn one card at a time: the suit sends you into a room, the rank shows you what you found. Keep the Register, clear the suspects one by one, and after the thirteenth card write a single name for the inquest.
The supply boat has not come, and there is a light burning where the chart shows open water. Roll two ordinary dice. One points to the sea, one to the night. Doubles move the story of the light forward. Every fifth watch ends in a sealed paper pocket you do not open until later.
Mara Venn left her almanac unfinished and you are the one filling it in. Take one growing thing (a houseplant, a weed in the path, a sprig of rosemary from the kitchen), turn a card, and make its page. The suit gives you the lore, the rank tells you how to compose the plate. No plant knowledge needed and none claimed; this is invention, not identification.
A wood behind the house is forgetting itself. Draw cards to discover your keeper, the twelve Folk, the four Reaches, and what is going wrong out there. One card and one page at a time, through the four seasons of the wood.
One page for every book you actually finish. Turn a card when you close the cover: it decides what goes on the page, and it decides which book you hunt down next. Nine spread ideas for the ones you want to make more of.
Catch a line somebody actually said before it is gone by the weekend, then turn one card. The suit decides how the line goes on the page, the rank sends you looking for the next one. Add a word in the margin, build the index at the back, and let the subjects of your book emerge from what you kept.
The two printables packs
Folklore Forest Printables
36 junk journal papers (misty forest, fern and firefly, gold botanical) and 9 sheets of ephemera: journal spots, twig frames, moss circles, tags and light collage tape. Everything the Folklore Forest pages ask you to cut and mount, printed from your own printer.
The Crimson Parlour Printables
40 junk journal papers (damask, aged burgundy, candlelit parlour textures) and 9 sheets of ephemera: watercolour hellebores and holly, gilt frames, ornaments and the Victorian trimmings the Register wants around it.
Both packs are 11 x 8.5 in landscape and print edge to edge on US Letter. Print them landscape, borderless if your printer allows it.
What is in the download
- 7 complete illustrated game books, 248 pages in total
- 40 component sheets to print and cut: registers, keeper sheets, a house plan, a map, hand-designed portraits, action cards, quick reference cards
- 76 junk journal papers, 11 x 8.5 in
- 18 sheets of ephemera, 11 x 8.5 in, with printer-friendly copies
- A printer-friendly copy of every game book and component file, with the decorative page wash removed
- A two-page-per-sheet copy of every game book, sized for an A5 journal
- 382 printable pages in all, as nine clearly named downloads
What you need
- One ordinary deck of playing cards. Six of the seven games run on it
- Two ordinary six-sided dice, for The Keeper’s Log
- A journal, or loose pages you will bind later
- Something to write with
- A printer, scissors and glue for the papers and ephemera
One player, one pen, played at the table on paper. Nothing is scored, and no previous role-playing experience is assumed.
Never played one of these?
A solo journaling game gives you a situation and a deck. You draw, the card tells you what happened, and you write it down in your own journal as the person it happened to. That is the whole thing. Put it down for as long as you like and pick it up on the page where you left off.
Start with The Unanswered Letter. One page of rules and worked examples, and it is done after one card.
What is not in here
The 12 x 12 in scrapbook papers, clipping masks, titles and frames from the full Folklore Forest and Crimson Parlour kits stay in their own listings. This is the seven games plus the Letter-size papers and ephemera, and nothing from the wider scrapbook catalogue.
File format
- High-resolution PDF, 300 DPI. Game books and components are US Letter portrait, A4 compatible; papers and ephemera are 11 x 8.5 in landscape
- Print at 100 per cent. For an A5 journal use the two-up copy rather than your printer’s booklet setting
- Delivered as one PDF with nine labelled download buttons, one per game and one per pack
- Instant download, yours to print as often as you like for your own personal journaling
- For personal and small-business use. Please don’t share, redistribute or resell the files themselves
