The Cartographer's Apprentice

Your master is dying. She has one last commission — a map of a country no one has surveyed. She cannot go herself. So she hands you a blank sheet of paper, a compass, and thirty days, and she trusts you. You will go in her place.                                                                                                                             

The Cartographer's Apprentice is a solo journaling roleplaying game for one player, a standard deck of playing cards, and a sheet of good paper.  Over thirty days — ten to fifteen minutes each — you cross four regions (the Lowlands, the Waters, the Uplands, and the Interior), meet strangers, draw what you see, and decide what to leave off the map.                                                                                               

  At the end, you have made a country only you have seen. One of six endings resolves based on the choices you made along the way. No ending is failure. All six can be earned.

  ## What makes this game different                         

  - You draw a real, physical map as you play. The book teaches you how, one small mark at a time.                                                  

  - Silences matter. Some of what you see, the apprentice knows to leave off the map. The game counts these — and one of the endings depends on

  them.                                                                                                                                                 

  - A quiet ritual, not a heavy commitment. Ten to fifteen minutes a day. If you miss a day, the country waits.

  - Six mechanical endings. Wonders, Silences, Weight, and Drift each track a different way of being an apprentice.                                 

                                                                                                                                                        

  ## What you need to play                                                                                                                              

  - A standard deck of 52 playing cards.                    

  - A pen you like the feel of.

  - One sheet of good paper (letter-sized, or larger — ivory or cream if you can) for the map.                                                          

  - A quiet ten to fifteen minutes each day, for thirty days.                                                                                           

                                                                                                                                                        

  ## What you get                                                                                                                                       

                                                            

  - 84-page atmospheric PDF with cover art, four region opener plates, and six ending illustrations.                                                

  - Full daily prompts for all 30 days across 4 regions.

  - A blank map template with printed compass rose and scale bar.                                                                                   

  - A tally sheet and a names appendix for when your inventiveness is on holiday.                                                               

                                                                                                                                                        

  Written for the reader who has ever looked at a blank page and believed the world would show them what to draw.                                       

Run well. Run brave.