You keep the light. The supply boat has not come.

You keep a light on a coast that is off the shipping lanes. The supply boat was due on the first of the month and it has not come. The keeper before you left in a way nobody on shore will explain, and there is a light burning out on a bearing where the chart shows open water.

The premise of The Keeper's Log: you keep a light on a coast that is off the shipping lanes

How one turn works

The two dice: the lighter one is the sea, the darker one is the night, and doubles reads the light

1 · Roll the sea and the night

Two ordinary dice you can tell apart. The lighter one is the sea and the darker one is the night. You read what the sea brought in and what the night took away, and inside a watch you never read the same entry twice.

A real turn from The Keeper's Log: what the dice gave her and what she wrote

2 · Write your half page

Write about the two entries. Then make the one small thing the entry asks for: a tag, a ruled line, a bearing inked in the margin.

Eight watches of five rolls, and the eight sealed paper pockets you finish with

3 · Seal a pocket every fifth roll

Fold a pocket out of any paper in the house, slide that watch’s five pages into it, and write one line on the front: the thing you did not put in the log. You do not open it again.

The light: eleven entries read in order, the only list in The Keeper's Log that remembers

Doubles move the story on

Roll doubles and both lists shut. You read the next entry of the light instead, and the story of the coast moves one step further along.

The light is eleven entries read in order, and it is the only list in the book that remembers what came before. How far you get decides which of the four endings you read.

The forty rolls run as eight watches of five, and the end of a watch is where you stop. Leave it as long as you like and pick it up at the next watch. The pockets you sealed are already a finished object on the shelf.

What you download

22-page book

The premise, every rule on one page, eight watch pages holding 96 entries, the eleven entries of the light, three turns written out in full, and the four endings.

The Keeper’s Card

One printable sheet: tick the light, name each watch, note each pocket. It lives in the front of the journal and ends up being the contents page.

Printer-friendly copies

Both files again with the paper wash taken out, so your printer is not spending its ink on decoration.

No papers, on purpose

Every make leads with something ordinary: a pocket folded from an envelope out of the recycling, a tag off the back of a bill, thread, a pencil.

Four print-ready PDFs · US Letter, prints on A4 · 300 DPI · print as often as you like for your own journaling. Please do not share or resell the files.

Keeper’s Log

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