Some adventures don't just wait for you to choose what to play next. The world acts on you: you open the Journey and something has happened. A supplier doubled their price, a client wants a meeting tomorrow, the fridge died two hours before service. These are encounters, and they arrive as a card draw.
Encounters only exist in adventures that use Energy Points. If yours doesn't, nothing on this page will happen to you.
The Draw
When something is due, the next time you open the Journey the screen flashes and a hand of face-down cards is dealt, usually eight. The heading reads "Something just happened." The line under it hints at what's in the hand: "None of them are good" if every card is a crisis, "Not all of them are bad" if there's an opportunity in there somewhere.
Pick one. It flips over to show what you drew:
- Crisis — something went wrong and needs dealing with.
- Opportunity — a chance you can take, usually at a price.
The hand is fixed the moment it appears. Reloading the page shows the same cards again, so there's no reshuffling until you like the look of one. The cards you didn't pick go back into the deck untouched and may come round another time.
Locked In Until You Finish
Every card leads to a milestone, and turning it over takes you straight there. As the draw screen warns: "Whatever you turn over, you will face it before the journey opens again." Until you finish that milestone, opening the Journey brings you back to it.
Only the Journey is locked. The Garden, your Tasks and the Item Shop stay open the whole time, which matters, because that's where you recover what an encounter costs. And the milestone always opens for you, even if a setback has dropped you below the level it would normally need.
The Choice
Inside the milestone, the story plays out like any other until you reach the decision: an Encounter Choice step. It shows what you have ("You have 1320 BLOO and 45 Energy") and lists your options, each with its price up front:
- -200 BLOO or +900 BLOO — what the option costs, or what it pays.
- -20 Energy or No energy — the energy it takes.
A choice can do more than move money. It can also add or take away XP (that part isn't shown on the option itself), grant you an achievement that opens a follow-up milestone, or trigger a message about what happened next.
Once you pick, the step shows "You decided" with your choice, and that's final. You're only ever charged once for an encounter, even if you fail the milestone and play it again.
When You Can't Afford It
Energy is a hard limit. An option that needs more energy than you have is greyed out and marked "Not enough energy". Encounters are designed to always include at least one option that costs no energy. If you ever find nothing you can pick, the step says "You are out of energy" and offers a Go and recover button that takes you to your Tasks. Complete a Task that pays energy, come back, and the encounter will still be waiting.
Money isn't. An option that costs more BLOO than you have is still available, marked with how far under it would put you ("This puts you 180 under"). Choosing it puts you in debt. Understanding XP, BLOO & EP explains what that means. In short, the Item Shop won't sell to you until you've earned your way back.
How Often They Happen
Your Game Master decides. Encounters come in groups, and each group has its own rules for when you're ready for it (reaching a certain level, say, or finishing a particular chapter) and how often it comes round. Some come round every few days. Some only happen on particular days of the week, and if you don't visit on that day, that one passes you by.
You only ever face one hand at a time, and a new one can't arrive until you've finished the encounter you picked. Most encounters happen to each player once; a few recurring pressures can come round again.
Keeping Track
In the Garden, the Business panel in the dock shows your coins (BLOO), your energy against its ceiling, and how many crises and opportunities are still out there for you. When you're in debt it tells you how far under you are, and the dock button shows a !.