I have never played a journaling game. Can I do this?

This is the one written for you. There is one page of rules, and you are drawing your card by page three. Three worked examples show finished entries from start to end.

What do I need to play?

A deck of playing cards, a journal, a pen and two pieces of paper from the drawer, one for their letter and one for your reply. No dice.

Can I play it more than once?

Yes. Four suits and thirteen ranks mean fifty-two different letters could arrive, and you only ever draw one.

Do I have to be able to draw?

No. This one is writing and paper. Nothing in it depends on drawing.

Will it use up my supplies?

No. The card you draw goes straight back in the deck, and both letters are written on paper you already have.

What do I receive, and how do I print it?

Four PDFs straight after payment: the 11-page book, the printable card and a printer-friendly copy of each. Nothing is posted. Pages are US Letter and print on A4 at 100 per cent. For an A5 journal, print 2 pages per sheet.

What if it is not for me?

Email helene@artfulsafari.com before you download the files and you get your money back.

Journaling RPG for Beginners: One Card, One Letter

Name: The Unanswered Letter — A Solo Journaling Game You Finish in One Evening
Brand: Artful Safari
SKU: 885
Price: 5.79 USD
Availability: InStock

A letter came. The reply goes out in the morning.

England, 1913. A letter has come for you, addressed in a hand you either knew at once or have never seen before, and it has been carried further than the postmark suggests.

Before the morning post you decide what you actually want to say, and once the reply goes you cannot call it back. One card, one letter, one answer.

The premise of The Unanswered Letter: a letter has come for you, and the reply goes out with the morning post

How one card becomes two finished pages

The four suits of The Unanswered Letter and who each one means the letter is from

1 · Turn one card

The suit says who wrote: someone who loved you, someone you wronged, a stranger with a claim on you, or someone who is dead and whose letter was simply delayed.

Seven of the thirteen demands a letter can make of you in The Unanswered Letter

2 · Write their letter first

The rank says what they want. You write the letter you received, in their hand, before you write a word of your own: what arrived, what they left out, how badly they wrote it.

A real sample entry from The Unanswered Letter, a letter written in the sender's hand

3 · Then answer it

Only once their letter exists do you find out what you want to say back. The book shows you three worked examples first.

The three endings of The Unanswered Letter: sent, burned, or kept unsent in a pocket

You decide what becomes of the reply

Seal it and send it. Burn it and mount what is left. Or fold it into a pocket on the page and leave it unsent. Each one leaves a different mark on the spread.

If you have never played a solo journaling game, this is the one to start with. The rules fit on one page, and you are drawing your card by page three. Nothing is scored, and if you stop halfway the half you made is still a finished page.

What you download

11-page book

The premise, both tables, how to write in somebody else’s hand, three worked examples, the three endings, and how to lay out the spread.

1 printable card

Both tables on a single sheet, so you can play with the book shut. Print it once and keep it with your deck.

Printer-friendly copies

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

No papers, on purpose

Written for the stash you already have. Every instruction leads with something ordinary: torn paper, a pencil, thread, a stamp off an envelope.

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.

A letter came. The reply goes out in the morning.