The Walden Paradox

A transcendental solo journaling game about Henry David Thoreau, Walden Pond, and time travel

You are Henry David Thoreau.

You came to the woods because you wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if you could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when you came to die, discover that you had not lived.

The Walden Paradox is a solo journaling game about Thoreau’s final months at Walden Pond from May 1846 to September 1847.

Each month, a new visitor will call upon you. Converse with them. Keep a keen eye for both peculiarities and signs of time anomalies and time paradoxes. Record everything in your journal. The game ends either at the 6th time paradox or when your time at Walden ends in September — whichever comes first.

Then, you will write a final letter to your friend, Ralph Waldo Emerson.

Includes:

• All the rules and instructions for how to play
• Paradox Risk Values
• Walden Tasks
• Visitor Names, Locations, and Topics
• Peculiarities
• Time Anomalies
• Time Paradoxes
• Epilogue

All that is required to play is a notebook, pen or pencil, a standard deck of playing cards, and two six-sided dice (2d6). It plays in an hour or two with options for a long or short game.

36 pages, 8.25 x 5.75 inches, black and white RPG Zine