Get The Walden Paradox (Print + PDF) at the shop! Exeunt Omnes readers can use code PARADOX1846 for 5% off your order. Offer expires September 25, 2026.
You are Henry David Thoreau.
You came to the woods to live deliberately, in solitude — a mile from any neighbor. And yet there are more visitors each day. Each peculiar. Each obsessed with the details of your life.
Something is very wrong.
The Walden Paradox is a transcendental solo journaling game. Roll dice and draw cards for each new visitor. Watch for strange anomalies and time paradoxes. Record it all in your journal.
All you need to play is a notebook, pencil, two six-sided dice, a deck of cards, and about an hour in a quiet place.
A transcendental journaling game expanded
I’m not sure I recall how The Walden Paradox began. A friend and I somehow started throwing around game ideas that involved Henry David Thoreau. Not simply living in his cabin on Walden Pond, but being pursued by a time-travelling killer. The game was going to be a suspense-horror thriller.
After a few attempts, that idea never quite came together. Out of those notes, however, came a much more interesting game — one in which Thoreau is pursued not by a murderer, but instead by overly curious time tourists.
As I worked on the idea, I realized that this was potentially an even more unsettling concept. Thoreau has unknowingly become an attraction in a zoo, albeit one without cages. Visitors, perhaps admirers, pay to see him in his natural habitat.
That idea became The Walden Paradox and an entry in this year’s One-Page RPG Jam.
So much had to be cut, however, to fit into the tight space of an A4 trifold. Now, with more room, it’s the game I wanted it to become!
Expanded into a 36-page A5 zine, it now includes:
A new Live Simply step with historically inspired activities
Improved visitor system with names, locations, and topics of conversation
So many more Peculiarities!
More prompts to spark your imagination
New (less severe) Time Anomalies in addition to Time Paradoxes
Epilogue and concluding prompts
Long and short game options
Art throughout
There’s a lot that’s new, but the same core concept of the game remains.
Print + PDF included
When you order The Walden Paradox at the Exeunt Press Shop, you’ll get both the print version (staple-bound, A5, approx. 36 pages) and the digital PDF. Your order will include a printed slip when it ships containing a download key redeemable at itch.io.
If you’d prefer to get just the PDF by itself, that is also available.
A more subtle kind of horror
Thoreau has unknowingly become an attraction in a zoo, albeit one without cages. Visitors, perhaps admirers, pay to see him in his natural habitat. They probe, ask personal questions, and sometimes know things they shouldn’t.
He is left wondering why they care so much about a solitary man.
My hope is that The Walden Paradox evokes the same feeling as watching an old episode of The Twilight Zone or reading a story in Weird Tales: the slow realization of a more subtle kind of horror.
Get it now at the Exeunt Press Shop. Use code PARADOX1846 for 5% off your order.
- E.P. 💀
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