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.
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.
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, hazards bite twice as hard, and wagers lock.
Peeking at the cards ahead is the heart of the game's economy: sight costs Thread, and nothing reduces it. What you see, you may write down — the maze taxes labor, not information. Notes are always legal. Position 1 of your notes means the first card beneath the one you face.
Some lanes let you name something about the next card — its type, its glyph, or its exact name — before it is revealed. Right: the printed reward. Wrong: the printed Health penalty. Either way, the wager reveals the card. A wager backed by paid sight is a certainty; a blind wager is a donation.
Burn lanes let the fire eat cards off the top of the deck at 1 Thread per card, revealing each as it goes. Burned cards lie face up in the ash pile — and some lanes can recall them, placing a named ash back on top of the deck.
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. Arrive LOST and you cannot find the door at all.
Standard — the maze as it is meant to be first met; sight costs 1 Thread. Deep Dark — sight costs 2; thin margins, honest teeth. Chaos — everything shuffled, the Heart included; solvability is explicitly not promised. Sometimes the maze deals a dead end. Such is life and labyrinths.
Play Corridors free in your browser — no download, no signup. Study the full card compendium, or read the designer's notes.