A Small Atlas — A Free One-Evening Solo Journaling Game

A very small game about a single place that isn't there anymore. A SMALL ATLAS is a free ten-page solo journaling roleplaying game. You draw four cards from a standard deck and answer four questions in a notebook, in the voice of a wandering scholar who records places the maps have already forgotten. When you are done — half an hour or so from now — you will have one entry in a very small atlas. WHAT YOU NEED → One standard deck of 52 playing cards (any deck — the kitchen-drawer one is fine) → One notebook, or a single blank page → A pen or a pencil → Half an hour WHAT'S INSIDE (10 pages) → Setup and instructions → Four draws — WHO was here, WHAT they made, WHAT remains, HOW it ended — with a full prompt table for each suit and rank → The Fog Tally — five closing tones, from warm blessing (zero spades drawn) to words carved on a stone (four spades) → A worked sample entry with the cards face up, so you can see the shape before you play → Reflection prompts for when you are done → A one-page quick reference to keep beside the deck IF YOU LIKE THIS A Small Atlas uses a stripped-down version of the engine from two longer solo journaling books from Hearth & Quill Press: → THE VANISHED ATLAS — a full solo journaling RPG of places that aren't there anymore. Thirteen commissions instead of one. Fifty-two prompts. Escalation tiers. Six endings. comatador.itch.io/the-vanished-atlas → KINDRED — the same engine, turned toward the sanctuaries queer folk built for each other. Bakeries. Groves. Chapels. Thirteen sanctuaries, an Erasure Tally, six endings. comatador.itch.io/kindred-queer-solo-journaling-rpg HONEST DISCLOSUR The text was drafted with the assistance of a large language model and edited by a human author. The cover image was generated with AI and hand-composited with a title overlay. If you prefer games made entirely without AI, the solo journaling community has many — we recommend the work of Sealed Library, Mousehole Press, Spring Villager, and Exeunt Press. FROM HEARTH & QUILL PRESS We make small, slow games for people who would rather play than prep. Everything we publish can be played with a deck of cards, a notebook, and one quiet evening. You may share this pamphlet freely with a friend who journals, or a friend who used to play tabletop games and stopped, or a friend who has been meaning to write and has not yet found the door. Draw slowly. The places were real, once. You will be too.