Ice-In: The Last Ferry on Lake Vellmere

Every winter, Lake Vellmere freezes. Until then, someone has to run the boat. Ice-In is a solo journaling game for one player. You pilot the Patience , a small car-and-passenger ferry between the lakeside town of Hask and Orrin Island, through the last weeks of autumn. Each turn is one day's crossing: roll for the lake, roll for who's aboard, roll for what happens at the buoy halfway across, and write about it. The ice creeps in a little every day. When the whole lake goes still, the island is cut off until spring, and the season is over. And some autumns, there's a passenger on the stern bench who never seems to get off. What you need Two six-sided dice (or one die rolled twice) A notebook and pen, or a keyboard, or a voice recorder About an hour to ninety minutes per season, depending on how much you write No cards needed. What's inside Simple rules with two tracks, Ice and Boat , and a "thin water" zone where every crossing is a risk and you can choose to stop The Lake: an 11-result 2d6 weather-and-ice table Who's Aboard: a d66 table with 30 passengers (islanders going home, islanders leaving, cargo, visitors, animals, and empty runs) The Quiet Fare : a four-step mystery passenger who appears on doubles, plus a d6 table of answers about who they were Mid-Lake: a d6 table for the halfway buoy Character setup tables: why you pilot the ferry, the boat's quirk, and who waits for you on the island dock Four ending tables: Ice-In, Hauled Out, Beset, and Laid Up. No ending is a death; this is a game about the last boat of the year, not about drowning An optional epilogue, Walking the Ice, plus rules for playing another season A full example of play Accessibility notes: ways to play without writing, with a dice app, in large print, or with a screen reader, plus a short-season variant A one-page quick reference (setup, each crossing, thin water and Beset, and endings) A printable season sheet with tracks and a crossing log Content notes and guidance for setting your own limits Format A self-contained HTML file (open it in any web browser, or print it with its built-in US Letter print layout) and a PDF. No internet connection, fonts, or apps needed. Tone Quiet, wintry, a little eerie, often warm. You decide how cold it gets. Content notes: isolation and loneliness; cold weather and being stuck in ice (no one has to be hurt); grief, a funeral, and people who have died or left; illness (one passenger travels for an operation); people leaving home; an uncanny passenger. AI disclosure: The text of this game was drafted with generative AI and checked so every table is complete and playable. The cover art is an SVG drawing that was also written by AI. The setting, characters, rules, and prompts are original to this game. Lake Vellmere, Hask, and Orrin Island are fictional. Printing for your own personal play is welcome. Please don't redistribute the file; point friends here instead. Published by Jarvis Ross. Questions: jarviss.ross@gmail.com