Writing the kids

The point of the abilities is that your cards have opinions. A kid isn't a tool you aim — it's a monster child you're responsible for, and sometimes it goes off in your face. Aim for interesting, not balanced.

• Scares — send kids running. Where they go is printed on the running kid, not chosen by whoever scared them. That's what keeps the board readable.
• Ambush — a seat for a seat, plus a commotion. This is the premium trait. It is the only way into a full room.
• Wild arrows — the kid rolls a d4 for its direction every time it runs or is shoved. Great next to your own kids, terrible next to the door, and you don't get to pick which.
• Lockdown — adjacent seats can't be taken, or this kid can't be moved.
• Hand interference — force a discard, skip a turn, change turn order.
• Card draw — a pick from the lobby, for you or for everyone. It is a choice and it is public, and every pick eats the roster, so more draws is a shorter game.
• Backfires — effects that hurt whoever played the card. These give the game its character. Don't make them all downside; make them situationally terrible.
• Destruction (rare) — a face-down event. Whoever lands there, and everyone next to them, is out of the game. Nobody scores them and every holder involved is out for the day. The table saw the card go down; the tension is in who steps on it.
• Shy — runs whenever a kid is seated next to it, before that kid's ability. Board control that the other players trigger for you, or against you.
• Bolting — runs on every seating anywhere. Pure chaos; give it a wild arrow and it is a spoiler for a hand with nothing good in it.
• Eating — whatever is shoved into this kid goes out the door, and it never moves. A wall with teeth.
• Spoiling — if this kid is made to leave early, nobody graduates today. A hostage: whoever seats it dares everyone else to bump it.
• Play another card — the turn does not pass. Four names for one mechanic (the shy bugs) gives the deck board control without four copies of a card.
• Homesick — graduates only if made to leave early; at the bell it goes back on the roster. A kid you want thrown out.
• Traps — face down on an empty seat, sprung by whoever lands there, seated or shoved. Any effect works on a trap, aimed at the kid that sprang it and its owner: stuck facing one way, held fast, discard a card. Good, bad or neutral is your call.

On the table

Edge cases only. What a card does is on the card; these are the places where two cards meet, or where the table has to pick an order. Change your mind and the engine changes with you; they are all one line each.

• A kid belongs to whoever seated it, wherever it ends up.
• Order when a kid is seated: a trap under it springs first, then the ambush commotion, then shy and bolting kids run in reading order, then the newcomer's own ability. A shy kid flinches at a seating, not at a kid shoved next to it.
• A scare hits each target once, in reading order (A1 to C3), from wherever that kid is by then.
• "Toward" and "away" on a diagonal move along the longer axis; on a tie, vertically.
• A line that loops all the way back to the first seat rotates every kid in it one seat. A line that folds back on itself partway (two kids shoving each other's way) jams, and nobody moves.
• A kid that has been stuck facing one way has an arrow for as long as it stays, even if it printed none. A line that runs into an eater feeds it the first kid and the rest of the line still moves.
• A homesick kid made to leave early graduates on the way out; at the bell it goes back on the roster. A spoiler that leaves the board early means nobody graduates that day: at the bell every kid goes back on the roster, nobody's.
• A holder is out until the bell whatever route its kid took off the board: stolen, eaten, destroyed, or a homesick kid graduating early. Your own kid shoved off by your own play comes back to your hand and still costs the holder. Traps do not sit in holders.
• The ambush commotion only happens when a kid was actually thrown out. An ambusher on an empty seat is just a kid.
• An ambush throws the kid out through the door, whatever the door dial says. Destruction is out of the game whatever the door says, and deletes even a homesick kid. A spoiler spoils the day by any exit, destruction included.
• Inside a trap's effects, "this kid" is the kid that landed and the player it hits is that kid's owner. A trapped seat is still an empty seat for kids and for shove lines.
• "Play another card" with nothing left in hand just passes the turn. Under an actions cap the action is refunded.
• Wild arrows roll on the table's seeded dice and the roll is logged, so a game with the same seed replays the same.
• A skipped turn is not a pass. A player with nothing playable passes automatically, and that counts toward the bell. A pass does not end your day: if anyone else plays on, your turn comes round again; if everyone passes in a row, the bell rings.
• A kid's lock (Gate Troll's two blocked seats, Clingy Slime's hold) belongs to the kid, not the seat: it lasts while the kid sits there and lifts the moment it leaves, by any route.
• The day on which the lobby cannot be refilled to five is the last day; whatever is still in the lobby gets played out. With the sweep, if sweeping empties the roster, tomorrow is the last day.
• The morning draft skips anyone whose hand is already full, stolen kids included, and ends early if the lobby empties.

Dials

• Seats — 3 × 3 is nine seats for fifteen kids at three players. Sixteen seats is a much gentler room.
• Hand size, currently 3, matching the holder count.
• Holders per player, currently 3, so three players exactly fill the room if nobody is shoved. 0 turns them off, and then the only cap on seating is the room.
• Lobby size, currently 5. The sweep at the bell: off by default; on, unclaimed kids leave the game and the game is shorter.
• The door: stolen (standard), back on the roster, out of the game, or wall.
• Actions per day (0 is no limit). With a cap every seating is heavier, but scares have fewer targets; measured in HANDOFF.
• How many ambushers and how many draws are in the pool.

What the first session is for

Test 1 — one day. Two or three players, nine seats, a dozen kids dealt straight into hands, three or four strongly different types. Play a single day. No morning, no second round. You're only asking whether the board did something you didn't expect, and whether you had a hard choice on half your turns. Rewrite abilities mid-session — that's the point.

Test 2 — add the lobby and the days. Same room, now with the morning draft, stealing and holders, over three or four days. Now you're asking whether the morning drags, whether the lobby goes stale, and whether stealing feels like daycare or like theft.

Still open

• Do the scares make interesting boards, or just noise? Everything else is downstream of this.
• Is ambush too good? It is a guaranteed seat swing plus a commotion. Watch how many are in the pool.
• Do traps ever spring? With nine seats and six kids, a trapped seat may just be a seat nobody uses. Watch whether shove lines find them.
• Does denial turn into kingmaking? Destruction gains the user nothing, so the target is the leader and the winner is whoever's second. Fine at three players. Watch it at five.
• Is stealing too strong? The victim loses the card for good and a seat for the day; the thief gains a card. It holds only while scares stay printed on kids and go where arrows point.
• Does the morning drag? Up to nine picks at three players before anyone plays. If so, the hand goes to two, not the lobby.
• Does the lobby go stale? Five kids nobody wants is a jammed game. The sweep is the fix if it happens; don't turn it on before it does.
• What happened to the two-sided cards? Either the idea comes back with a job, or it's gone. Don't leave it half-in.
• Variable classrooms are a later problem. Get the plain grid stable first.