The Sealed Library

“How DARE you and the rest of your barbarians set fire to my library? Play conqueror all you want, Mighty Caesar! Rape, murder, pillage thousands, even millions of human beings! But neither you nor any other barbarian has the right to destroy one human thought!” ― Sidney Buchman

The Sealed Library is a solo journaling RPG played with a deck of cards, a tumbling block tower and a notebook/scroll.

You are the sole surviving librarian of the greatest library in history. It sits in the centre of culture for an ancient land, now fallen to invaders. They pillage and raze.

The library has been barricaded and you are under siege. What important texts can you move down into the vaults and seal away forever before the barricade breaks?

What will future generations discover inside the Sealed Library?

You are hungry, you are scared, you are desperate. The fate of the combined knowledge of generations is in your hands. You know the chances you will see the outside world again are slim, but this is bigger than you.

~ ~ ~

The Sealed Library is a game about the preservation of knowledge and the lengths we will go to in order to preserve things that are bigger than us.

You play the only person capable of saving the collective knowledge and culture of your civilisation. You believe you can save it, some of it. The questions are what will you save and how much of it will you save? You even think you might be able to escape afterwards, but that remains to be seen.

~ ~ ~

If you’re new to solo RPGs and still have no idea what this game is really like we suggest you listen to the actual play on Game Play Radio. They went into it as a new idea and really embraced what the game is about. Be prepared for spoilers, there is content in the game that will no longer come as a surprise if you listen to this.

https://podtail.com/no/podcast/game-play-radio/the-sealed-library/

We’d love to see more actual plays or pictures of your journals. Post them in the comments if you have one.

The Sealed Library ships as a zine, a Sealed Library sticker and a bookmark.