Route Nine

# Route Nine

*A solo journaling game for the character the story cast as the villain.*

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You have been reincarnated as **Adelheid von Ravensmark**, the villainess of a light novel called *The Prince's Sunlit Path*. In the original story, you are engaged to the crown prince. You are cruel to the protagonist. You bully her at balls, poison her tea, sabotage her friendships — and on the ninetieth day after your betrothal is announced, you are executed at the palace gate for your crimes against the crown.                                                                               

You know this. You have read the novel.

You have Adelheid's face. Her wealth. Her tutors. Her fiancé. Her enemies. And — for the moment — her role.

You have ninety days.

You may follow the script. You may quietly rewrite it. You may burn the palace to the ground.  The story does not know what you know.                                                                                       

                                                            

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## What you need to play

- A standard **52-card deck** (no jokers)

- A **physical notebook** — the villainess's diary

- A pen (ideally, ink that isn't red)                                                                                        

- **One book from your shelf** — see below

- A cup of tea, if you like                                                                                                  

                                                            

## How it plays

Draw one card per in-story day. Journal an entry as Adelheid. Every prompt adjusts one of two tallies: **Canon** (the story you were given) and **Divergence** (the story you make).

**The Novel** — a rule specific to this game. Before you begin, choose one book from your shelf. Any book. When a prompt tells you to *consult the Novel*, open it to a random page and take the first sentence you see. That sentence becomes canon from the original novel you have been reincarnated into. **Different book = different game.**                                

                                                            

## Three endings

- **The Canon Ending** — the plane arrives, and you write a letter to the protagonist that will never be sent                

- **The Broken Route** — you survive past the story. Write the chapter the author did not know how to write

- **The Erasure** — the story overwhelms your rewriting. You are quietly overwritten                                         

Sessions are 15–30 minutes. The full game takes 3–6 sittings.                                                                 

## What's inside (26 pages, PDF)                                                                                             

- 52 card prompts, one per in-story day

- The *Novel* mechanic — original to this game

- Two-tally system: **Canon** vs **Divergence**                                                                              

- Three fully-written endings + epilogue

- A content note and safety framework                                                                                        

- Six original interior photographs, editorial still-life style

- Premium book layout: pull-quote pages, chapter openers, two-column prompt spreads                                          

   

## Content note                                                                                                              

This is a game about being reincarnated as the villain of a romance novel and having ninety days to decide what to do with a script you didn't write. It touches on: dislocated identity, doomed romance, small cruelties, aristocratic manners, and the quiet weight of knowing how a story ends.                                                                                    

There is no explicit violence, no gore, no sexual content. The stakes are social and emotional.                                                                                                                              

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  *If you play, we would like to know what book you chose as the Novel — and what your Adelheid did with her ninety days.*     

  ## Before you begin                                                                                                          

1. **Print the PDF** if you can — the book was designed for print but reads well on-screen too. Any letter-size printer works. Landscape or portrait binding both work.       

2. **Choose your Novel now.** Walk to your bookshelf. Pick one book — the first that catches your eye is often the right one.

It becomes your Original Novel. You will draw sentences from it throughout the game.                                        

3. **Prepare your diary.** A fresh notebook is best. Any size. Draw the two columns on the first page: **Canon** (left) and **Divergence** (right).                                                                                                      

4. **Prepare the deck.** Remove ♥K from a standard 52-card deck. Shuffle the remaining 51. Deal 26 to the top pile, 25 to the bottom. Add ♥K to the bottom, shuffle that, place under the top pile.                                                        

5. **Read the front matter** (pages 1–13) once through before your first session. Take your time.                          

                                                                                                                               

## Playing                                                                                                                   

- **One card per in-story day**, one diary entry.                                                                            

- Sessions are 15–30 minutes. The full game takes 3–6 sittings.                                                            

- The game is designed to be **put down**. Do not play more than seven days in one sitting.                                  

- Some prompts ask you to *consult the Novel* — that means opening your chosen book to a random page.                      

                                                                                                                             

## When you finish                                                                                                           

Whichever ending you reach, do **The First Day After** — one final entry, in your own voice, about what you carry out of Adelheid's life into yours.                                                                                                  

Then, if you want:              

- Come back to the itch page and leave a comment. Tell us what book you chose and what your Adelheid did.                    

- Follow Wrong Route Games for the paid expansion *Route Nine: The Extended Endings* (coming January 2027). 

 Play softly. Play strangely. Rewrite what deserves rewriting.                                                                 

  — *Wrong Route Games*