Loot the Loop

You are the dashing adventurer Maxx Delver, currently exploring the long-hidden Temple of the Sun. The temple is filled to the brim with trinkets and traps, but you're most interested in the four royal jewels said to lie within.

The temple you’re raiding is shaped like a closed loop (i.e., a donut), and the top card represents your physical location within it. On each turn, you "move" through the temple, always forward, by moving cards from the top to the bottom of the deck. You can choose to explore (use a number card in either the top of the deck or second-from-the-top to move as many cards as its value from the top of the deck to the bottom), look around (turn over two top cards IF the top card is currently not revealed), mark a path (place the top card from the deck in a reserve pile, IF it is a number card), or return to a marked path (return a card from the reserve pile to the top of the deck). Exploring and landing on a treasure makes you LOOT it, both adding to your score and thinning the deck to increase the density of traps (face-up court cards)! If exploration ever results in wandering into a trap, it's game over. You win once you get all four jewels and land on the exit.

Loot the Loop is a solo adventure game playable in-hand with a deck of regular playing cards, inspired by other in-hand games such as Maiden's Quest and Palm Island, with rules created by Wil Su and made available free online as part of his "Isaludo" series.