HOUSE of cards

1/17/25 UPDATE: I've done it! I've made a fancy looking version that tried to emulate the LAYOUT of the inspirational text. Check it out in HOUSE of cards 2.0.

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I read this really odd book a while back and loved it. House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski does things with fiction that I had never before seen. I've toyed with the idea of making a TTRPG that simulates that in some way. I don't think I've even come close to actually doing that, but I am happy with the result.

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Concept: You are in a house. The house has a door. When opened, the hallway in front of you is black. The floors, the walls, the ceiling. Touching it is too warm, or maybe too cold. You cannot tell. It looks like it moves and pulses until you get close enough to see just how rigid and unchanging it is.

You decide to walk down this hallway and see where it leads.

You will not come back, at least not the same.

Materials: Deck of 52 playing cards, black paint, red paint, 5 tea candles, matches, walkie-talkies, writing utensils and paper

Player count: 2-players

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Future plans: I would love to make a format of this some time that mimics some of the more interesting layouts in House of Leaves. I'll have to learn a lot more about layout before I will be able to do that. UPDATE 1/17/25: THIS HAS BEEN DONE. Check out HOUSE of card 2.0 below.

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"With a little luck, you’ll dismiss this labor, react as

Zampanô had hoped, call it needlessly complicated, pointlessly

obtuse, prolix—your word—, ridiculously conceived, and you’ll

believe all you’ve said, and then you’ll put it aside—though

even here, just that one word, “aside”, makes me shudder, for

what is ever really just put aside?—and you’ll carry on, eat,

drink, be merry and most of all you’ll sleep well.

Then again there’s a good chance you won’t." - House of Leaves, Mark Z. Danielewski

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Notes on the versions:

HOUSE of cards 2.0: This is the fully laid out version meant to look kind of like House of Leaves in some capacity. It is not very accessible (by design), and it is not printer friendly (Like at all).

HOUSE of cards 2.0 - Text Only: This is the version in the screenshots at the top. It is the original text version of the game, but with some slight edits.