So like the true ADHD kid I am, I heard a song on the radio and have started YET ANOTHER game.
In this one instead of journaling you draw a map which I think is pretty cool. (I mean technically you could totally still journal if you wanted to, but, you know, I thought something different would be fun.)
It's called If the World Was Ending You'd Come Over Right? and it's about how the world is literally going to end in a few days and when you were young/younger you made a pact with your best friend/crush/lover about how if the world ever ended you'd spend your last day together, in that jokey way people do, and you decided to honor that. So you go to their last known address and get into their apartment.
And I was thinking, maybe two-player? Or you spend your last days with them as an NPC? But then I thought — no, you get there and they're gone. And the game is you and your friend's apartment and all their stuff at the end of the world. So the game is you remembering the times you had and what could have been (if things hadn't gone wrong between you and/or if the world wasn't ending) and going through their stuff and smelling their clothes and pillow because who cares the world is ending.
The tower represents the air quality going to shit and you suffocating. The Kings are going to be random things like another bomb going off, the building collapsing, idk I'll think of a few more. I'm going to write the Aces like the Kings, where if you draw all four, your friend comes home, and the last Ace you draw determines how they react to you!!! I'm really excited about that idea.
I definitely want to balance out the existential crisis impending doom feeling of this game with the feeling of being on a sort of treasure hunt, discovering things about your friend you never knew, and things that have happened to them since you parted ways. And part of that will be labeling stuff on the map, like the lock box you found under the bed, the violin in the corner ("do they play now?"), the tuna sandwich in the fridge ("but they hate tuna???"), stuff like that.
The hearts suite is going to be an optional NSFW portion of the game that you can remove if you don't want to use it. So if you're in a safe environment and feel comfortable, you can turn it into a very sexy game of pretending to be in your ex-lover's bed pretending they're there with you (and maybe drawing the Ace of Hearts if you're REALLY lucky). (;
UPDATE: I've decided to do TWO Hearts tables! One NSFW and one SFW, so removing cards from the deck isn't necessary, and people who don't want to engage in sexual content can still experience the fun of questions like "what do they smell like?" and "did you ever crawl into their bed to be comforted during a thunderstorm?" Also I couldn't think of a fourth topic so both Spades AND Clubs are "Stuff." HUZZAH.