GM book · 1.0.0 · 120-minute plan · 4 players
A room absent from the museum plan opens overnight. Its objects have no labels, and two curators disagree about who is allowed to name them.
Content notice: Erasure of credit and institutional conflict; no real-world culture is imitated.
Curator Yara removed anonymous makers from the catalogue to simplify an exhibition. The museum’s memory made a room for those omissions. Reconnecting each object to an honest provisional record integrates it; closing the room preserves objects but leaves the exhibition incomplete.
Use your own rules or play without dice. State the goal, choose an approach, explain a reasonable cost and let the players decide. Plausible careful actions succeed; uncertain actions can succeed with delay, spent supplies or a favour owed. Evidence is always available through its described action. Each player creates an ordinary person with a useful skill, a reason to help, and an item. No character sheet, monster statistics or proprietary rulebook is needed.
Take 10 minutes to introduce characters, read the premise and discuss the content notice. Anyone may say “pause”, pass on a description, or ask to move an uncomfortable moment offstage. Agree on no combat and on treating consequences as delay or repair, not permanent harm. Give one player the route map and another the time sheet.
Follow both investigations; take the break before the immediate problem.
Total: 120 minutes.
Place: Museum hall
A new doorway stands between two paintings. Rem’s floor plan shows only a wall.
The room preserves omissions from the records. Closing safely buys time but does not restore the exhibition. Begin with the concrete request in the premise. Ask each character why they care and give them one ordinary useful item. Read both public observations without requiring a roll. Explain that the marked routes are safe to investigate, and offer a choice of the records or the visible trail. Let the group appoint a map reader; do not use hidden travel rolls to block the first lead.
If conversation or a test fails, give the public card anyway. A clear sign points to Unwritten room. A missing method can be found again at Display gallery; no character skill is required.
Rem: Keep visitors from wandering into an unlabelled room Offers directions and ordinary transport for news of the outcome. Voice: Patient, concrete sentences; ask one practical question.
Timeline record: Deleted catalogue numbers reappear as shadows beneath the objects.
Give it: Inspect the visible labelled object. Give its full text automatically; a check affects time or extra colour only.
GM inference: The room preserves omissions from the records.
Fallback instruction: The room may be sealed with a preservation notice; its objects remain intact.
Give it: Inspect the visible labelled object. Give its full text automatically; a check affects time or extra colour only.
GM inference: Closing safely buys time but does not restore the exhibition.
Continue: Records and tools or An independent trail
Place: Catalogue desk
Tali sorts blank cards from cards marked “unknown maker.” She refuses to let anyone fill them with guesses.
Honest provisional records integrate the objects. The curator is inside the new room. Put the method card and destination note on the table. Ask what the two objects suggest, then answer direct practical questions from their wording. The maker can trade tools for help carrying or recording them, but refusal never removes these public documents. The trail remains another route. A check, if your rules use one, changes the time or tidiness of the work rather than whether this evidence exists.
If conversation or a test fails, give the public card anyway. A clear sign points to Unwritten room. A missing method can be found again at Display gallery; no character skill is required.
Tali: Restore uncertain records without inventing names Lends supplies if a character helps carry or catalogue them. Public instructions remain available. Voice: Quick, exact words; point at tools while speaking.
Method diagram: Match workshop marks to receipts; label uncertain identities UNKNOWN MAKER rather than inventing them.
Give it: Inspect the visible labelled object. Give its full text automatically; a check affects time or extra colour only.
GM inference: Honest provisional records integrate the objects.
Destination note: Yara’s appointment card says UNWRITTEN ROOM, after closing.
Give it: Inspect the visible labelled object. Give its full text automatically; a check affects time or extra colour only.
GM inference: The curator is inside the new room.
Continue: An independent trail or The immediate problem
Place: Loading court
Bex’s crate carries a workshop mark but no signature. The delivery receipt has been crossed out once.
The objects themselves guide entry. A witness independently establishes the destination. Describe the physical trail before asking for a decision. The witness tells what they actually observed and admits what they did not see. If the group refuses conversation, the physical route supplies the destination. Let a character compare the timeline and another trace the map. For a divided group, take one short turn per side, then reunite at the meeting; do not add another travel encounter.
If conversation or a test fails, give the public card anyway. A clear sign points to Unwritten room. A missing method can be found again at Display gallery; no character skill is required.
Bex: Return a crate whose maker was omitted Guides the party if they share a plan. If refused, points to the visible trail. Voice: Cautious, distinguish observation from assumption.
Physical trail: Blank label shadows point through the unplanned doorway.
Give it: Inspect the visible labelled object. Give its full text automatically; a check affects time or extra colour only.
GM inference: The objects themselves guide entry.
Witness statement: Bex saw Yara carry deleted cards into the new room.
Give it: Ask any direct question, or read the witness’s signed statement if conversation is refused.
GM inference: A witness independently establishes the destination.
Continue: Records and tools or The immediate problem
Place: Unwritten room
Yara stands among objects that cast label-shaped shadows. Each shadow points back toward the catalogue desk.
Curator Yara removed anonymous makers from the catalogue to simplify an exhibition. The museum’s memory made a room for those omissions. Reconnecting each object to an honest provisional record integrates it; closing the room preserves objects but leaves the exhibition incomplete. State the immediate stakes and offer both listed approaches. Before resolving action, ask who observes, who acts and who helps. Make any cost visible before a player accepts it. Avoid demanding a special ability or spell. When a plan fails, use the slower listed route and mark its time cost; people remain recoverable. Once the goal is safe, mark the immediate goal safe and continue. A refusal by the keeper cannot hide the marked safety instructions.
Preserve contested objects separately with a dated research notice. Explain a five-minute delay before they accept it; mark the immediate goal safe when the people or resource are secured.
Yara: Admit the catalogue’s gaps and preserve the objects Explains both solutions when the party agrees to protect the immediate goal; the marked instructions are available regardless. Voice: Calm under pressure; admit the decision and its cost.
Safety marks: A record may name what is known: place, material, delivery date. A maker name needs evidence.
Give it: Inspect the visible labelled object. Give its full text automatically; a check affects time or extra colour only.
GM inference: Resolve the conflict through transparent uncertainty.
A delay leaves less time for the final repair or decision. Explain costs before resolving an action.
Approach A: Let each player choose one supported fact and write a provisional label.
Approach B: Preserve contested objects separately with a dated research notice.
4 players: Two pairs take observation and action tasks. Resolve them in two short alternating turns.
Mark the immediate goal safe after either safe approach; a setback costs time, not access to the next scene.
Continue: The final choice
Place: Display gallery
Empty mounts wait in the gallery. A visitor asks whether an unknown maker made nothing at all.
Honest provisional records integrate the objects. Resolve the conflict through transparent uncertainty. Reveal the method and fallback together. Ask the group which tradeoff it accepts and give every character a small contribution. Mark the complete method for the first choice or the fallback method for the second. A risky improvisation should inherit one of these outcomes after its cost is explained, rather than create a third unprepared lock. Keep the immediate goal safe. Return by the known marked route; no new location needs to be invented.
Seal the room with a preservation notice and leave space in the catalogue. Mark the fallback method, keep the immediate goal safe and read the cost ending. Do not repeat a failed test.
Tali: Restore uncertain records without inventing names Lends supplies if a character helps carry or catalogue them. Public instructions remain available. Voice: Quick, exact words; point at tools while speaking.
Yara: Admit the catalogue’s gaps and preserve the objects Explains both solutions when the party agrees to protect the immediate goal; the marked instructions are available regardless. Voice: Calm under pressure; admit the decision and its cost.
Method diagram: Match workshop marks to receipts; label uncertain identities UNKNOWN MAKER rather than inventing them.
Give it: Inspect the visible labelled object. Give its full text automatically; a check affects time or extra colour only.
GM inference: Honest provisional records integrate the objects.
Fallback instruction: The room may be sealed with a preservation notice; its objects remain intact.
Give it: Inspect the visible labelled object. Give its full text automatically; a check affects time or extra colour only.
GM inference: Closing safely buys time but does not restore the exhibition.
The complete method preserves the planned service; the fallback preserves the immediate goal at a visible cost.
Approach A: Reconnect the supported records and open the integrated gallery.
Approach B: Seal the room with a preservation notice and leave space in the catalogue.
4 players: Work in two pairs, one following the method and the other preparing a fallback or record.
Mark the complete method for the first approach or the fallback method for the second. Both allow return and an ending.
Continue: Home and aftermath
Place: Museum hall
The museum’s new plan has room for a question mark. Rem pins it beside the ticket desk where everybody can see it.
Choose a complete resolution or a resolution with a cost, then ask the group what happens next. Read the ending matching the selected outcome. Invite each character to add one ordinary detail to the aftermath, then ask the keeper for a concrete next action. Record who accepted the cost and which clues went unused. Spend the last few minutes on one enjoyable moment and one thing to change next time. Characters need not solve every optional inference to earn a resolved ending.
If no method was chosen, first confirm the immediate goal is safe, use the final fallback method and then read the cost ending. Record the unresolved work and give every character an epilogue.
Rem: Keep visitors from wandering into an unlabelled room Offers directions and ordinary transport for news of the outcome. Voice: Patient, concrete sentences; ask one practical question.
Yara: Admit the catalogue’s gaps and preserve the objects Explains both solutions when the party agrees to protect the immediate goal; the marked instructions are available regardless. Voice: Calm under pressure; admit the decision and its cost.
No new evidence required.
Continue: Read an ending and close the session.
Shadows settle beneath honest labels. The room appears on every map, and the unknown makers occupy a visible place in the museum.
First secure the immediate goal at Unwritten room. Choose this ending only after final method A is used at Display gallery.
A preservation notice covers the doorway. The objects are safe, but the gallery opens with empty mounts and a public explanation of the unfinished work.
First secure the immediate goal at Unwritten room. Choose this ending only after final method B is used at Display gallery.
The room preserves omissions from the records.
Timeline record
Proceed to Unwritten room
Destination note OR Physical trail OR Witness statement
Resolve the conflict through transparent uncertainty.
Safety marks · the marked safety instructions supply a fallback.
Decide the room’s place in the museum.
Method diagram OR Fallback instruction
h-order: The room preserves omissions from the records.
h-fallback: Closing safely buys time but does not restore the exhibition.
h-method: Honest provisional records integrate the objects.
h-note: The curator is inside the new room.
h-trail: The objects themselves guide entry.
h-witness: A witness independently establishes the destination.
h-safe: Resolve the conflict through transparent uncertainty.
Record the ending, one memorable choice, and any unresolved work. Ask what was enjoyable and what needs to change. The time plan is a starting point; adapt it to your group.
Start at Museum hall. Catalogue desk and Loading court are independent investigation routes; both connect to Unwritten room, which leads to Display gallery. All marked connections are bidirectional. Return uses the known route to Museum hall.
At Unwritten room, the marked entrance reaches the immediate problem. Approach A: Let each player choose one supported fact and write a provisional label. Approach B: Preserve contested objects separately with a dated research notice. Both reach the onward route. Layout is schematic, with no combat grid or movement scale.
Original AI-assisted fiction. Use and adapt at your own table. Public redistribution and publication terms are to be set by the owner. This package includes no proprietary game rules.