I'm trying Her Odyssey as my first foray into solo/journalling RPGs, and so far I'm just enjoying the character creation part. I did have a question, however: you mention once in the guide of putting a drawn card into a discard pile after use. Given that the game is intended to be played over the course of many days/sessions, how "required" or "recommended" is it to actually use a discard pile? I'd rather not risk misplacing some of my deck over the course of a long playthrough. I was originally planning on just re-shuffling every time I played...
That’s a reasonable concern! You can just place the cards at the bottom of your deck rather than using a discard pile.
(While you could certainly shuffle the deck between every draw, it’s a variant rule for a reason - I find it changes the feel of the game a slight but significant amount. It’s great if that extra layer of uncertainty is what you want to opt in for, but placing the cards at the bottom of the deck is a better way to get the standard experience if that’s what you want!)