The Tower of Earnest Folly

Your stat	Approach	Roll needed	If you pass	If you fail
8	Strength	—	—	—
2	Intellect	—	—	—
5	Dexterity	—	—	—

Abandon current assessment? Your score will not be recorded.

The mechanism notes this happens more than you'd think.

The tower changes those who climb it

Warrior

↓

Rogue

↓

Mage

↓

Barbarian

↓

Shaman

↓

Enchanter

↓

Mystic

Completing an ascent issues a code for the next form. A code carries three attempts. It may be shared, gifted, or hoarded. It burns on the third failure or the first success. The tower does not do refunds.

The tower has noticed

Use the same approach three or more times in a row and its difficulty rises ▲ — +1 per repeat, up to +4. Switching approaches resets it. Floors do not. The tower's memory is long.

Collapse works the other way: Wounded or Broken aspirants are assessed at ▼ reduced difficulty on the affected approaches for that floor. The tower is not heartless. The tower is merely thorough. Both marks on the same approach net out in the paperwork.

The Barbarian is exempt from pattern notice. Nobody at the Office wanted to be the one to tell him.

COLLAPSE

Tribute

The tower is free. The tower will remain free. Should you nevertheless wish to leave tribute to its deceased architect, note that the god is imaginary, and imaginary beings accept imaginary currency only. Tribute paid in real currency cannot be imagined back. The Office of Divine Assessment has tested this.

If you do not hold imaginary currency: good. Do not acquire any on the tower's account. Spend your real currency where it is real — the people around you, in the rooms around you. The god will consider it tribute in kind. The god keeps generous records.

The dead god made other things before it died.
View more of the dead god's creations →
might-work.today

BITCOIN

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ETHEREUM

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How to Play

Stamina

Your physical endurance. Lost on physical challenges. Hitting zero mid-floor triggers a collapse (see below) with Stamina refilled to half its (item-adjusted) maximum.

Collapse (either pool): the tower retains half your gold and one random equipped item, and sends you back to the previous floor's altar with the emptied pool refilled to half. The tower takes pity: all checks are easier (▼) while you re-climb the floor where you fell.

If Stamina hits zero on Floor 1 (no shop): your run ends immediately.

If both Stamina and Sanity hit zero at the same time: your run ends with no score recorded.

Against the Warden: either stat reaching zero ends your run immediately.

Sanity

Your mental fortitude. Lost on psychological challenges. Hitting zero mid-floor triggers a collapse (rules above) with Sanity refilled to half its (item-adjusted) maximum.

If Sanity hits zero on Floor 1 (no shop): your run ends immediately.

Fate Tokens 🎲

Spend 1 Fate to reroll any die — once per roll, keep the new result. Fate tokens also let you reroll item modifiers at the Tinkerer.

How Rolls Work

Each room offers three approaches: Strength, Intellect, or Dexterity. You roll a d20, add your stat, and compare to the difficulty. Every room favours one approach (lowest difficulty, modest gold), tolerates one, and resents one (highest difficulty, best gold — and failing the resented approach hurts double). A natural 20 doubles your gold. A natural 1 always fails, no matter your total. You always pass through rooms — failing just costs you resources.

Some penalties are shared between Stamina and Sanity (the Warden deals these; the Shaman shares every setback this way). A shared penalty splits in half — and when it's odd, whichever pool is currently larger absorbs the extra point.

The tower notices patterns. Use the same approach three times in a row and its difficulty starts climbing (▲, +1 per repeat, up to +4) until you use a different one. Floors do not reset this. The tower's memory is long. The Barbarian is exempt; the tower elected not to raise it with him.

Score

Final score = Gold + (Stamina remaining × 2) + (Sanity remaining × 3). Conserving Sanity is especially valuable.

Stamina & Sanity

Stamina — physical endurance. Sanity — mental fortitude.

Either pool hitting zero mid-floor (floor 2+) is a collapse: half your gold and one random item retained by the tower, back to the previous floor's altar with the emptied pool refilled to half, and all checks easier (▼) while you re-climb the floor you fell on. Zero on floor 1: run ends.

Both hit zero at once: run over, no score.

Either hits zero against the Warden: run over.