You are Henry David Thoreau.

You came to the woods because you wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if you could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when you came to die, discover that you had not lived. 

The Walden Paradox is a solo journaling game about Thoreau’s final months at Walden Pond from May 1846 to September 1847. 

Each month, a new visitor will call upon you. Converse with them. Keep a keen eye for both peculiarities and signs of time paradoxes. Record everything in your journal. The game ends either at the 6th time paradox or when your time at Walden ends in September — whichever comes first.

Then, you will write a final letter to your friend, Ralph Waldo Emerson.

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Written, augmented, purged, and published by Exeunt Press. The Walden Paradox is copyright 2026 Exeunt Press. Subscribe to Exeunt Omnes for designer's notes and behind the scenes.

Exeunt Press is an ENNIE-nominated independent tabletop game design company creating innovative games that blend storytelling with structured mechanisms. Explore a dark and corrupting forest, sell cursed items to unsuspecting customers, or become a stale muffin. Weird and wonderful games await. Learn more at shop.exeunt.press.