The desire to explore strange locations is universal. So universal that numerous films, from the Indiana Jones franchise to Howl’s Moving Castle, have built massive chunks of their plot around it, earning critical acclaim as they do. Athana’s Automatic Palace takes this to the next level, dropping TTRPG fans into an ever-shifting steampunk fortress that is packed with adventure, drama, and intrigue.
Athana’s Automatic Palace is a steampunk solo-TTRPG by Paper Nautilus. Built on the Carta system, the player steps into the shoes of an engineer who has been given the chance interview for a job under Athana, a legendary but eccentric horologist and automata creator. Alas, there is a major roadblock between the engineer and their dream job. In recent years, Athana has become a recluse, spending the vast majority of her time within her sprawling Automatic Palace.
A Venture Into The Clockwork Unknown
Thus, the engineer has to enter the Automatic Palace and locate Athana. Thankfully, Athana has left a series of clues that will guide any visitors to her. Unfortunately, the Automatic Palace is constantly shifting, meaning even travelling from one room to another is a massive undertaking.
The game follows the traditional Carta setup. At the start of the game, the player removes the Queen and the Ace of Diamonds from a standard deck of cards and puts all but the Queen of Diamonds and the Ace to one side. After this, the remaining deck is shuffled, and the player draws 22 cards from the deck and forms them into a face-down four-by-six grid. Then, the Ace of Diamonds is placed in the lower-left corner of the grid, and the Queen is placed somewhere on the fourth row.
The player will also need a sand timer (or an egg timer) to act as their player token. At the start of the game, this timer is placed on the face-up Ace. The aim of the game is simple: the player needs to move from room to room and collect 4 letter clues before making their way to Athana’s study (the Queen of Diamonds).
The game’s flow is straightforward. Each turn, the player moves their timer to any card that is touching the one they are currently on. The player turns over the card and inverts their timer. The player then reads the prompt associated with the card and writes a response to it in their journal, and makes a note of any items they acquire.
However, the player has to keep their wits about them. Whenever the timer expires, the turn ends and the Automatic Palace shifts. The player has to pick a card adjacent to the one they are currently on and return it to the deck before replacing it with a new card, meaning that new obstacles are always forming around them.
Plus, whenever a Jack is revealed, another character arrives at the Automatic Palace. When this happens, a token is placed on the Ace. Every turn, this token moves closer to the player. If one of these Jacks lands on a card the player is occupying, the player loses one of their collected letters, and the Jack’s token is removed from play. If the player ever has no items or letters in their inventory, they get returned to the Ace of Diamonds and must restart their mission.
If the player can collect four letters and reach the Queen of Diamonds, the player will encounter Athana, who offers them a special choice.
A TTRPG With A Wonderful Steampunk Atmosphere
Athana’s Automatic Palace does a fantastic job of establishing atmosphere. The game’s prompts are fantastically written, doing a wonderful job of drawing the player into the setting and making Athana feel like an interesting and well-rounded character (which is quite the feat considering the player doesn’t get to directly interact with her until the very end). However, they are ambiguous enough to allow the player to put their own spin on them and come to their own conclusions about what they mean, meaning that players don’t feel railroaded, and the game retains plenty of replay value.
The prompt for the Ace of Diamonds is a great example of how well-thought-out Athana’s Automatic Palace is. As the player is forced to return to this card whenever they lose their inventory, the book includes several different prompts for it, many of which factor in the idea that the player will have been forced to return by an unforeseen issue, meaning that failure is just as much of a storytelling tool as success.
The sand timer token is also a great touch. Not only is it a wonderfully thematic visual, but having a ticking timer really helps enhance the game’s atmosphere. Having only a few minutes to read the prompt and make your notes really captures the feeling of frantically dashing from room to room, trying to gather what you need before the house shifts around you. Similarly, this timer also makes the Jack cards feel like actual pursuing threats, rather than simple tokens, further enhancing the game’s atmosphere.
I found this timer so much fun that, in my later playthroughs, I added a house rule where if I failed to move before the timer expired, I automatically skipped my next turn (meaning the Jacks got closer and the building shifted more while I was stuck in place), which led to an excitingly frantic game as my character charged around the Automatic Palace like Indiana Jones attempting to escape a crumbling tomb, leading to one of the most unique game journals I’ve ever written (including several scrawls where I tried to sketch something my character saw in the room, only to realize the timer was running out, forcing me to lunge forward and make my move).
Athana’s Automatic Palace is a wonderful solo TTRPG that is sure to delight players who enjoy Steampunk, mystery, and exploration. The game is dripping with atmosphere and intrigue, meaning that, while it is a solo experience, it feels like it would be perfect for a group activity where everyone meets up to share their journals and discuss the story they experienced during their playthrough.
