The Fix

A Solo Game About Why Getting Out Is So Hard Solo Play · 15-30 Minutes · Ages 12+ Recommended · Free Print & Play Your bowl is You . Everything toxic, unstable, or unresolved you're carrying lives there. Every month, you draw from it and place a cube on your timeline. Every year is another chance to get yourself out of the mud. Content note: This game explores themes of emotional overwhelm, coping mechanisms, burnout, and the cycle of trying to escape difficult life circumstances. The system trends toward chaos through complacency and toward escape through persistence. The key variable is time. It's designed to be reflective, not prescriptive, but if these themes hit close to home, play with care. This is the first public rules release — feedback and playtest reports are welcome. What you need 45 coloured cubes (16 Red, 8 Orange, 8 Yellow, 16 Green, 5 Black) representing what you're carrying 3 bowls (what you are, what's coming, what holds you up) 12 coins or tokens as Capacity markers Everything else you need is in the PDF: setup, actions, crash conditions, year-end scoring, and the variants. Objective Shift your life from toxic Red to stable Green. Until then, you persist . You get out when your Capacity is high enough, your stability outweighs your toxicity, and you've stopped relying on coping mechanisms to get through the final stretch. How It Plays Each month you choose one action. Grind through the day. Build toward something better. Cope when you have to. Sacrifice what you can't afford to keep. Three Red cubes in a row and you Crash . Your year resets, your progress scatters, and you face the real choice: battle on , or walk away. Bonus Content The rules include three variant setups: The Bankruptcy Spiral , The Sole Provider , The Headwind . And a section called Play Your Own Life , where you translate your actual situation into a game state and play it. Download the rules, grab some cubes and bowls, and discover what persistence actually looks like when the system pushes back. AI disclosure: This project uses generative AI only for minor text‑clarity editing and a camera image title; all rules, design, and examples are human‑created.