The Unclaimed Things

There is a place that appears on no map.

Trains arrive from directions no compass knows. They carry lost objects: keys without locks, photographs without faces, mismatched shoes, letters never sent. Every object holds the story of whoever once owned it.

This place is called TERMINUS. You are its Night Shift Keeper — and you are a psychometrist.

When you touch an object, you see scenes from the past. You cannot speak to the people in the vision. You cannot change what happened. You only watch, and write.

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What is this game?

The Unclaimed Things is a solo journaling TTRPG for one player, a journal, and a standard deck of 52 playing cards. No dice. No GM. No other players.

Each session — roughly 30 minutes — is a complete story. A train deposits a new object on the counter. You draw a card to discover what it is. You touch it. And the history opens.

The game uses kishōtenketsu, a Japanese narrative structure built not on conflict but on a shift in meaning. Five phases guide each session:

• CONTACT — A non-visual sensation opens the psychometric portal.
• KI — The vision begins: a place, a person, an action.
• SHŌ — Tension. What moves beneath the surface.
• TEN — The turn. Something changes meaning — subtly, inevitably.
• KETSU — The echo. What the loss reveals.

After KI, SHŌ, and TEN you draw a card and answer an Insight prompt from a table of 13 questions, each one pushing your writing deeper into the scene.

At the end of every session, you make one choice: Archive the object in the Register of Lost Things, or Burn it. Both are acts of care.

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The Object Deck

The 52-card deck is your entire oracle. Each card maps to a lost object across four suits:

• ♥ Hearts — Personal objects (rings, watches, wallets, bracelets)
• ♦ Diamonds — Tools and instruments (wrenches, cameras, thermoses, violins)
• ♠ Spades — Documents and writings (notebooks, postcards, passports, diaries)
• ♣ Clubs — Garments and fabrics (scarves, gloves, aprons, masks)

Face cards are different:

• J (Jack) — Pick up a real object from your world and hold it while you write. The story you see is not yours.
• Q (Queen) — Relics: precious or ancient objects, heavy with dense emotion.
• K (King) — Anomalies: dangerous or strange objects hiding a dark secret.

Every object description is precise, worn, and weighted — designed to open a story, not close one.

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Writing to find, not to invent

The game does not ask you to plot. It asks you questions. You answer them, and the story finds you.

The best answers are the ones that surprise you. A man you thought was waiting for someone was actually saying goodbye. A couple who seemed angry was holding back tears of relief. The smallest shift — the TEN — is often the most powerful.

The stories in The Unclaimed Things are small. No heroes, no monsters. A man repairing a bicycle. A woman at a bus stop. A child dropping a marble. The power is in the detail, not the scale.

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Resonances (optional)

After many sessions, the Resonances system lets you track patterns across your Register without interrupting the flow of play: a keyword, an echo, a break. A portrait of who wrote the stories, not just the stories themselves.

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What's inside

• 10 chapters of rules, tips, and guidance
• 52 fully written object descriptions (4 suits × 13 cards)
• 3 Insight tables (13 prompts each, for KI, SHŌ, and TEN)
• Writing advice tuned specifically to psychometric fiction
• The Resonances system for multi-session play

Available in English, Italian, French, German, and Spanish

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Also: the web app

theunclaimedthings.com is an advanced version of the same game. New objects every day. The five phases and fixed questions stay the same — but after each answer, an AI reads what you wrote and asks a follow-up question written specifically for your story.

If you choose to archive, an AI Scribe turns your session into a short illustrated story: a page of the Book of Unclaimed Things you can keep, print, or share.

The first five nights are free.

The structure is identical. The experience is deeper. The story remains yours.

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How to play

You need:

• This PDF (print it or keep it open on a device)
• A journal or notebook — paper or digital
• A standard 52-card deck, without jokers
• A quiet place, preferably at night

One session. One object. One story. Then decide what remains.

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Keepers' Community

The Register is never full. This is where Keepers of the Night Shift leave their stories, find new objects to investigate, and hear what arrives next from Terminus. Share what you archived. Share what you burned. News, supplements, and updates live here too.

Join the Discord server

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THE UNCLAIMED THINGS TTRPG v1.0

A game by Roberto Gilli aka dialobot · 2026

Available in English · Italiano · Français · Deutsch · Español