Open House

Open House

Cards for attics, basements, and letting some air in. A deck for two — now with a second floor.

The only rules

Pick a room together — go where the interest is, or where the flinch is. Both are good compasses. Take turns drawing. Answer to your partner, not at the ceiling. Let there be pauses.

Pass anytime, no reasons given. A plain pass is its own kind of rep. Nothing gets fixed, advised, or scored — you’re visiting each other’s houses, not renovating them. You can always answer with the category instead of the thing.

The ground floor is about contents — shame, wants, worries, regrets. The second floor is about how you hold them: how you question, accompany, release agendas, keep yourself company. Downstairs first changes how upstairs plays, and the reverse.

Every card is marked for spice — how much it exposes, not how much it matters:

mild medium spicy
Ground floor contents
Second floor how you hold them

The Keys

Four wildcards found in a drawer. Either partner may play one, gently, after any answer in any room — at most one per turn. Invitations, never demands. The pass rule applies to keys too.

Open House
tap to turn
A key is an invitation. Read one aloud, gently — then pass it back.
One house, many rooms — a deck can always discover it has more.
Notice the joke that arrives before the feeling.