A solo journaling game by S. Kaiya J.

Her Odyssey
A Caltrop Core x Aspire Game
by S. Kaiya J. (@mirror_lock)

A solo journaling RPG about a wanderer trying to

return home... or find a new home.

You Will Need:

X At least one d4
(for the base game, five are recommended)
X A standard deck of 54 playing cards
(including jokers)

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Creating Your
Wanderer
You have eleven stat points to distribute as you like
between these three stats. Assign numbers
between 1 and 5 to each.
X Vitality: A principle of fire. Bodily strength,
the force of one’s presence. Roughly maps to
Strength and Charisma.
X Quickness: A principle of air. A cunning wit, a
deft and dexterous body. Roughly maps to
Dexterity and Intelligence.
X Fortitude: A principle of earth. Calm,
steadfastness, self-belief. Roughly maps to
Constitution and Wisdom.
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Who Is Your
Wanderer?
Take some time to answer the following questions
before playing:
X What is your wanderer’s name?
X What are her pronouns?
(While this text uses she/her, a wanderer may
use any pronouns.)
X What does your wanderer seek?
X What has your wanderer left behind?
X Was your wanderer well prepared to set off on
the road?
X There is someone or something that your
wanderer loves and has lost. What is it?
X There is a shadow that follows your wanderer
and haunts her steps. What is it?
Gameplay
Overview
Gameplay consists of drawing cards from the deck,
determining what Hazard lies before your
wanderer, using your stats to meet the challenges
presented, and writing about the experience. You
may choose to write in a first-person journal
format or a third-person narrative. After you have
written about what your wanderer has faced and
suffered — or overcome — place the card in the
discard pile and prepare to draw again.

Ideally, you should draw a Hazard Card from the

deck each morning, spend the day considering
your wanderer’s journey and letting the story
passively develop in your mind, then return to the
game in the evening to make your stat checks and
record the results.

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Drawing
HAZARD CARDS
When you draw a card, the numerical value of the
card, or the Omen Score, determines how difficult
the day ahead will be. (A = 1, J = 11, Q = 12, K = 13.)
The suit determines what kind of Hazard your
wanderer faces; choose one or more from the
following prompts:
DIAMONDS Diamonds: Villages, towns, cities.
An illness. An abandoned dwelling.
A false friend. A mirage or illusion. Mistrust.
Rumors and lies. An accident. A revelation.
Hearts: Farmland, meadows, moors. A key.
HEARTS Curiosity. Delayed consequences. An army.
A trap. An accusation. A malfunction.
A reflection of the wanderer’s lost love.
Spades: Forests, cliffs, deserts. A sudden
SPADES change in weather. Ruins. An ambush. An
oath. A misunderstanding. Doubts and
despair. A strange beast. A confrontation
with the wanderer’s shadow.
Clubs: Wastelands, mountains, the sea.
CLUBS A curse. A sudden change in terrain.
A crime. A threshold. Greed. A stranger in
need. An unknown language. A natural
disaster.
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Making Stat
Checks
In order to overcome the Hazard, your wanderer Absolute failure. You don’t get what
needs to use a stat appropriate to the method by D4
1_ON_ you want and things get a lot worse.
which she wants to address the problem. To make a
Partial failure. You don’t get what you
Stat Check, roll a number of d4s equal to the
value of the stat you’re using, and take the highest
D4
2_ON_ want.
roll (discard the other rolls).
Partial success. You get what you want,
This value will determine whether the wanderer
D4
3_ON_ but things get complicated.
succeeds at what she was trying to do, per the
Absolute success. You get what you
Caltrop Core base rules: D4
4_ON_ want - and more.

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Based on the outcome of your first stat check,
determine what kinds of new complications and
developments might arise related to the day’s
Hazard. Your wanderer may want to use her other
stats to address these story developments. You may
choose to make a stat check with one, two, or all
of your stats each day, but each stat may only be
used for one stat check per day.
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At the end of the day, total up the stat checks your
wanderer made for the day’s Hazard, and compare
the sum against the Omen Score. If your wanderer
meets or exceeds the Omen Score, it is an
Auspicious day: she is able to overcome the
Hazard and pass through on favorable terms,
refreshed, under her own power, and possibly with
new friends. If your wanderer does not exceed the
Omen Score, it is an Inauspicious day: she may
be chased away, suffer indignities, be injured, or
escape the Hazard only at the cost of something
important to her. Keep a tally of the number of
Auspicious and Inauspicious days your wanderer
has encountered.
Some Omen Scores are not attainable under the
base system at the beginning of the game. This is
intentional.
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Your Wanderer’s
Limits
No wanderer is in full possession of her own fate.
It is possible to roll a success for each individual
stat check but fail to meet the Omen Score. It is
also possible to fail each stat check but have an
Auspicious day overall. This represents elements of
chance, fate, or the world intervening. Take note of
these outside elements, and develop them– they
may become intriguing recurring elements of the
story in their own right.
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Travel is tiring, and exhaustion easily catches
wanderers on the road. When you attain an
Auspicious day, each stat that was used to
contribute towards stat checks decreases by one.
Conversely, failure provides opportunity for
learning and growth, and rest is restorative. When
you attain an Inauspicious day, each stat that was
not used for stat checks that day increases by one.
Stats cannot exceed 5 or fall below 1.
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False & TRUE
Homecomings
The first joker drawn is a False Homecoming.
Your wanderer reaches a place that she believes is
her lost home - or can be a new home - but she is
thwarted in some way. She may find she is a
stranger here, her home may no longer be what
she remembers, or her needs and self-
understanding may have changed beyond
recognition.
Reflect on what your wanderer has been through
so far and how her experiences have shaped what
she desires. Has her journey been mostly
Auspicious or Inauspicious so far? How does she
feel about her travels?
Then count the number of Auspicious days that
your wanderer has had.
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This is now your fourth stat, Hope. From now
onward, at any time you may subtract 1 from
your Hope stat and add 1 to the result of an
individual stat check. However, if your Hope stat
ever reaches 0, your wanderer loses all hope and
abandons her journey.
After the False Homecoming, continue to keep
track of Auspicious and Inauspicious days, but they
will not affect your Hope stat [or your Doom stat;
see variation on page 19]. The second joker is the
True Homecoming. Your wanderer’s journey
comes to an end. Take time to write about all she
has seen and done, and the joys and scars her
experiences have given her.
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Example
of play
My wanderer’s stats are currently Vitality 3,
Quickness 1, and Fortitude 4.
I draw the five of clubs, and determine that the
Hazard is a stranger in need: a young man is
trapped under a fallen boulder. My wanderer rolls
Vitality to try to push the boulder away, and rolls
3 d4. The highest of these is a 3 - she manages to
push the boulder off with a great heave, but there’s
a complication; the man’s leg is broken, and he
cannot go anywhere on his own.
My wanderer decides to try to roll Quickness to
see if she can remember how to splint his leg. She
rolls a 1; not only does she not succeed in treating
him, but the pain of the attempt has caused him to
pass out.
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At this point she decides to carry him and look for
a settlement, and she rolls Fortitude to see if she
can endure the burden long enough to find other
people. Rolling 4 d4s, she finds a 4 as her highest
roll. Not only does she succeed in coming across a
settlement before she grows too weary, but it
happens to be the village that the young man is
from, and everyone is overjoyed to see him
returned. They readily believe that the wanderer
was trying to help him, and give her food and
lodging for free.
The total of the day’s rolls was 8, far more than
the Omen Score of 5. It has been an Auspicious
day, and each of the stats used goes down by 1.
Vitality is now 2, Quickness remains at 1, and
Fortitude is now 3.
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ADDITIONAL
Variations
You may add any combination of these variations
to your game to customize your experience!
The Heroic Journey
When you roll a stat check, instead of rolling a
number of d4s equal to the stat, roll just one d4
and add the value of your stat to the result. The
outcome of individual stat checks still depends on
the value on the d4, but this variant makes it easier
to meet the day’s Omen Score.
The Uncertain Road
Each day after making your daily Hazard draw,
instead of placing the card in the discard pile,
return the card to the deck and shuffle the deck.
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The Hour of Doom
When you reach the False Homecoming, in addition
to gaining the Hope stat based on Auspicious days,
you also gain a Doom stat equal to the number of
Inauspicious days your wanderer has had. On
Auspicious days, no Doom is expended. On
Inauspicious days, automatically lose as much
Doom as you would need to meet the Omen Score
exactly. If the Doom stat reaches 0, your wanderer
dies.
The Measured Path
Remove the jokers from the deck. The False
Homecoming occurs after you have drawn 25
cards; the True Homecoming occurs after you have
drawn 40 cards.
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CREDITS & ETC
Writer/Designer:
S. Kaiya J. (@mirror_lock)
https://mirror-lock.com
Art/Layout: AYolland
Produced by Knave of Cups
https://knaveofcups.com
Created on un-ceded Chinook land.
Caltrop Core by: @titanomachyRPG,
@aghostofeli, @n_quests
Playtesters:
@Antharal, @CountessCassi, @ElfSy1,
@LordPaido, @Weirdman3214
Fonts:
Headline: TheNightWatch by obys
Body: Alvarado by Hector Torres
Pips: Dicier by SpeaktheSky
Credits: Fira Sans Extra Condensed by
Carrois Apostrophe
Ambient Music Playlist:
Curated by Knave of Cups for good
vibes to enhance play:
TERFs, Nazis, and bigots: piss off.

Aspire is a toolkit to build solo or multiplayer games that tell complex stories
with narrative turning points that change the rules of the game.
https://mirror-lock.itch.io/aspire-srd

May lantern-light
ever illuminate your way.

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