Infinite, ever-shifting, and sometimes dangerous, the Library exists in the space between worlds and times. Among the many who call it home are the Librarians, and only those who truly understand it may join their ranks. I seek to do so.

The path of a Librarian’s apprentice is a long one. My current task is designed to test my skills at traversing the Library and finding information. If I retrieve the six documents requested by my Librarian before the day is out, I will have completed one more step on my journey.

I think I’ll be okay. After all, I stumbled into the Library on my own and survived in the stacks for a while, dodging all manner of dangerous tomes and trespassers. Now I actually have training as an apprentice and the help of my familiar. the tumblefluff Dog ear, a library spirit who helps me navigate the stacks. That doesn’t mean it’ll be an easy task; after all, as the library itself once whispered to me, there are more things twisted here than plots.

1: Navigation: Darkness 

King of Clubs Added To Map

Of course, no sooner than had I left the Librarian’s office I was swarmed by, well, a swarm of hungry books. Dog ear had done their best to help, but to be honest me and ‘successfully navigated the stacks’ just don’t end up in the same sentence very often.

I was gasping for breath after the initial mad scramble to avoid their ambush, but after that it wasn’t too difficult to handle them; always keep a stack of bookmarks for hungry books. Then I was able to get a proper look around. This was a dark section of the library focused on plays, and littered with musical instruments propped up on the ends of the stacks to go with the musicals. As if to balance out my bad luck into running into that swarm. the first document I’m looking for was here as well, inscribed in the texture of leaves growing on a vine winding its way between books: musical notes for Beethoven’s 10th symphony. The real one, not that AI garbage.

Fatigue: 1, Documents 1/6

2: Navigation, Darkness

Jack of Clubs Added To Map

My next stop was a geology section; appropriately enough this was a rather organic section of the Library, with the stacks carved from the living rock. Pretty standard swords-in-the-stones style features to the place, which wasn’t going to help me with the Keeper of the Forbidden who happened to be there at the same time. They were an opulent figure, who spontaneously began interrogating me about plays that incorporate blacksmithing techniques and forbidden practices.

It definitely had the energy of a psyche-threatening challenge, and by the time I was done talking about The Heartsblood Hammer there was a river of nervous sweat going down my back, but eventually the Keeper nodded and handed my something as a ‘reward’. The second document! Granted, ‘handed’ isn’t exactly how to describe being given carvings on a constellation that detail how to forge starmetal, but the sentiment was the same.

3: Research, Shadow

Somewhat tired after what had been a very stressful start to the day’s task, I decided to spend a little bit of time reading said carvings. It wasn’t the most peaceful – the Keeper was still lurking about – but I was soothed enough to ask Dog ear to try and get us further along.

Fatigue: 2, Documents 2/6

4: Navigation, Shadow

6 of Clubs Added to Map

I was climbing up a narrow staircase when I spotted a patron lifting up one of the stones and rooting around in the hidden compartment underneath; potentially none of my business, except I happened to know that my Librarian hides letters there for the UA Librarian to find whenever they swing through. I chased after them to get the letters back, and I managed it, but they got away without my getting a good look at them. I put the letters back and told Dog ear to remind me to tell my Librarian.

5: Navigation, Light

6 of Hearts Added to Map, 5 of Hearts Traded in for -1 Fatigue

Relatively easy-going through a dilapidated section of never-read books and dusty rugs. There were signs of a gnosiphage around, one of those poor souls from the burned section of the library, having lapped up some of the knowledge here. Normally that would have me worried, but there were also signs of a group of hunters trying to track it, so I left them to each other.

Fatigue: 1

6: Navigation, Shadow

King of Spades Added to Map

I needed Dog ear’s help to unlatch this medicine section – probably best not to think too much about why it was chained up in the first place. The orrery at the top of the room was where the next document was stashed, hidden in the shape of the moon: different varieties of lycanthropy, and the symptoms and potential cures thereof.

Only after recovering the document did I think to check that the chains were indeed silver, and so I made to sure to lock it all back up. Just in case.

Fatigue: 1, Documents 3/6

7: Navigation, Shadow

King of Diamonds Added to Map

In a particularly labyrinthine area. full of racks of potions with an alarming lack of labels, I stumbled into a 24/7 drag story hour,  Kind of an odd place for it, they were in a fashion-dedicated area of the library the last time I ran into them, but a bit of entertainment while on the job was welcome. Being a 24/7 affair, the queens had arranged for some catering, and I was sampling some hors d’oeuvres when it turned out that document #4 had gotten mixed in with the cucumber sandwiches. A treatise on garden party etiquette  had been coded into the taste. Luckily there was more than one copy of the document, as I ate the first one and wouldn’t have liked to have to recover it.

8: Research, Light

I grabbed a few promising-looking potion vials before heading out. I’m reasonably certain they’re not poisonous or likely to cause a body horror episode.

Fatigue 1, Resources 2, Documents 4/6

9: Navigation, Light

+1 Resources , 8 of Spades Added to Map

On an upper level high above the story hour, I came across another one of the Library’s patrons: good ol’ Blance Henbury. Blance still thinks they’re in that quaint used bookshop around the corner from the deli. Never mind that they’ve been here about as long as I have. They were taking a nap in one of the armchairs up there, and someone had kindly put a handwritten Do  Not Disturb sign above them. I happened to have grabbed a scone from the story hour, and left it for them; Blance lives on the things and is always asking for them.

Fatigue 1, Resources 3, 4/6 Documents

10: Navigation, Darkness

Queen of Clubs Added to Map

The terrain in the next section, an arboreal area  cataloguing smells with plenty of skylights, was particularly difficult. I tried one of the potions out and lucky me it was for spider-climbing, which made things a bit easier, but not easy. Upside, along the way I found another document, sparks from a skull perched on the end of a branch that told the tale of a successful resistance against colonizers.

11: Research, Darkness: I was still feeling pretty exhausted by the time I started to reach the end of the trees, so I decided to stop and try to find something useful. Unfortunately, all I found was the forest floor dropping out beneath me as The Thing Below ripped it open. One of my remaining potions tumbled into its maw, and there were some flashes of fire and lightning (oops, good thing I hadn’t swallowed those). Dog ear plucked the last one off of my belt and tossed it in and for a moment up was left, everything tasted of combinatorics, and I swear for a moment I was made up of bees (… oops?).

Fatigue 4 (+Dog ear Fatigue 1), Resources 0, 5/6 Documents

By the time I was relatively sure I was not made of bees, the floor was back if a bit messed up and The Thing Below was gone, leaving behind what it always does: a polite note detailing everything it just ate. At this point Dog ear was exhausted and I was done; I had to head back to the the Office. Well, like they say, “a library card is the start of a lifelong adventure”. Document #6 would just have to wait for another day.

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The Librarian’s Apprentice from Almost Bedtime Theater uses the Guided by Firelights SRD, created by the apparently-addicted-to-creating-new-SRDs René-Pier Deshaies-Gélinas (who we last saw around here as the creator of the Breathless SRD used in The Facility). As with the OG Firelights, this game takes on the form of a trifold brochure… but Firelights isn’t the only game design that writer Daniel Bronson-Lowe is pulling from, which means we instead get three such brochures in a trench coat single package.

Any given action involves drawing two cards and then rolling 2d6 + the relevant skill, and there are three possible results depending on your total vs the value of the cards. Your result might be higher than the value of both cards (Light), exceeding the value of just one card (Shadow), or equal to or less than both cards (Darkness).

There are then three Actions you’ll be using those skills for. Play starts by dealing out a non-face card, which is the Librarian’s Office. When you want to Travel to any other location, you roll plus Navigation. Getting a Light result means you can place one of those cards and move to it, while the other gets traded in (more on that in a bit). Shadow means you place one card and discard the other. Darkness means you place a card, discard the other, and discover a Complication at your new location.

Trading cards in lets you gain Resources if you trade in a Club or Spade (which can be spent for bonuses, healing Fatigue that you’ll pick up when dealing with Complications, or finding Documents) or clearing Fatigue if you trade in a Heart or Diamond (and you can save that for later use if you don’t have any Fatigue). The Conduct Research action centers this by using, well, the Research skill. A Light Result lets you trade in both cards, a Shadow one lets you trade in one and discard the other, and Darkness makes you discard both and discover a Complication instead.

Now, as for those Complications. Each one is going to have a certain rating, and you Address a Complication using the Lore skill and by creating a stack of cards. Light adds both cards from the Lore check to the stack, Shadow adds one and you have to mark 1 Fatigue, and Darkness forces you to discard both cards and mark 1 Fatigue. If the card you add to the stack matches the suit of your current location, it counts as two cards, and the Complication is dealt with once your stack has a number of cards equal to or exceeding the Complication’s rating.

If you fill your Fatigue track (4), you’re too tired to continue your work, and you’ll have to try again some other day. Luckily, you have a little bit of help. You have a familiar (and there are more options than a tumblefluff) that grants you a +1 to a single skill, and it can also take a Fatigue for you, although you lose its skill bonus until it’s cleared. Then, there are those Resources up above. To be more specific, 1 Resource can be spent for +1 to a roll (you have to decide before rolling, but you can spend as many as you have). 3 Resources can clear all Fatigue at once. 5 resources can help you find one of the six documents you’re looking for!

Each face card is one of those documents (the Resource method involves searching the deck or discard pile for one an immediately putting it on the map), and no check is required to retrieve one. All you need to do is move to it (although, depending on how that Navigation check went, you may have a Complication in your hands before you can move any farther).

Most of this is right out of the Firelights playbook and is in Volume I, and it would work just fine, but what makes The Librarian’s Apprentice really stand out are the ideas it gets from yet more games, and the contents of its other two brochures. Jason Cordova’s labyrinth move for Dungeon World gets the inspiration nod for Resources, and Ironsworn by Shawn Tomkin was the inspiration for Truths about your character and the Library that get chosen at the start of the game (like having stumbled into it on your own, and the Library itself being sentient and whispering to you).

Volume II contains a lot of 2d6-based tables for helping you populate the Library with interesting things! One includes descriptions, features, and categories for each section of the Library you enter. Another provides information on the decidedly strange documents you’re trying to find, of which very few involve any writing. There’s a table for the Complications you’ll run into, from difficult terrain and intruders to Acolytes of the Sriptwyrm and a Librarian who wants to test you (plus a little description-only Bestiary for some of the results and your familiars). Finally, there’s a table for Events & Secrets (inspired by the Hints and Hijacks System from Pandion Games), which I found particularly useful for making those times where I didn’t run into a Complication interesting. The Secrets, brought up by rolling doubles, offer a particularly interesting prompt as to how you discovered them.

Oh, one more thing on the Action side of things is that you can Ask A Question and get a “Yes, and…” (Light), “Yes, but..” (Shadow), or “No, and…” (Darkness) answer by rolling your 2d6. You add +2 if the answer is likely yes, +0 if it’s unlikely, and +1 otherwise. This is how I handled my pursuit of the patron trying to steal something, for one example.

Volume III is the Dramatis Personae for the Library, providing several ready-made patrons and inhabitants for you to encounter and four more tables so you can drum up your own: their descriptions, their quirks, their interests, and their position in the Library (when relevant). There is no table of names for these self-made characters, although the brochure helpfully points you to several resources that help you create some, so no points deducted there!

The Librarian’s Apprentice is like a good library, providing material from a wide variety of sources that come together to create a thriving whole. I never felt stymied by a roll or a prompt, never felt stuck and wondering ‘what do I do here?” I felt rewarded for my Lore +2 playstyle while seeing how you could have a different but equally interesting experience by taking a different tack. Small wonder that it won Best Solo TTRPG at the 2024 CRIT Awards.

You can get digital copies at DriveThruRPG and itch.io for ~$5.00 and physical ones for ~$18.00 at IPR and Tabletop Bookshelf (spring for the physical version if you can, it’s very, very neat). A mystery game that can serve as a sequel is also on BackerKit!

Good luck Apprentice! Try not to get eaten by The Thing Below.