CORRIDORS

The maze

Corridors is a solo game of 72 cards. The deck is the maze: you draw the top card, face what it shows you, and choose one of its lanes — A, B, or C. Somewhere far below waits the Heart of the Living Labyrinth, and the game is won by answering it. The deck arrives in factory order — the maze as it was built, winnable by a careful hand. Every door has a price. The maze gives nothing free.

A turn

Draw the top card. The first time a card is ever revealed, its Compass fires — the maze turns you toward the door, or away. Some cards strike before you may choose (an AMBUSH bites, a THIEF takes). Then pick any one lane you can afford. You may never choose what you cannot pay for — and every card always offers at least one lane that costs nothing.

Open the card anatomy — every part of a card, explained on a real specimen

What you carry

Health — 10 at most. At zero, the maze keeps you. Thread — the spool, 12 at most. Thread pays for sight, for the fire, and for the Heart's toll. Compass — from −5 to +5. Below zero you are LOST.

Answering the Heart

The Heart opens only for a wanderer carrying 3 Seals and 2 Relics, who has FED the Maze, and who can pay the 3 Thread toll at the door. Arrive lacking any of these and the Heart names what you lack, wounds you, and sinks away.

The laws, abridged

Sight costs Thread — nothing reduces it. A blind transformation (Reverse, Rotate, Fold, Bury) moves cards by count, not identity — the Heart rides with the rest. The fire reveals what it eats, and its ashes can be recalled. Declined Seals fester. Wagers name the next card — and reveal it, win or lose. And notes are always legal: the maze taxes labor, not information. Position 1 of your notes means the first card beneath the one you face.

Modes

Standard — the maze as it is meant to be first met. Deep Dark — sight costs double; thin margins, honest teeth. Chaos — everything shuffled, the Heart included. Sometimes the maze deals a dead end. Such is life and labyrinths.

The reference cards