Most wizards die in towers. You get to choose how.
You are an Apprentice Wizard, inexperienced, curious, slightly out of your depth and newly assigned to a Tower full of rooms and secrets. Perhaps you seek arcane mastery and Apotheosis. Perhaps you just want to afford your rent.
Apprentice Ascending is a single-player, real-time card game played on a virtual tabletop. Every part of your life is a card: your health, your mood, your money, your problems. Drag cards to interact, combine them to act, and watch the timers tick down. Outcomes resolve. The table gets slowly, interestingly worse.
Balance ambition with survival
The Chapel pays you to pray for the townsfolk (though sometimes they ask for more than prayer). Meanwhile, the Clocktower ticks in real time, eats your Silver, and changes the weather. It is never on your side. There is no pause between bad decisions; there is only the next card, and the shrinking space on the table.
Unravel arcane mysteries through discovery
Meditate on books and reagents in the Study to learn spells across six schools of magic. Recipes, rituals, and hidden combos are found by experiment, and by the marks they leave behind.
Ascend the Tower
The Stairwell goes up, which is the direction problems come from. Explore floor by floor to uncover loot, traps, escalating encounters, bosses, and things best left undescribed. Perform rituals in the Chamber to craft, transmute, and rank yourself up from Apprentice to something the markets point at.
Outwit the Hunters
Cards age. Hunger grows. And somewhere below, someone has started asking questions about you, specifically. The Gate appears when the Hunters catch your scent. Three clues and they find you. They always find you.
Transcend your inevitable demise
Every ending is earned, and most are regrettable. Your runs will end when you:
Be slain
Go broke
Get hunted
Lose your mind
Drown in gold
Or climb all six floors and earn the Apotheosis your school deserves
But death is not a game-over. Each run records your knowledge in a permanent Journal, unlocking new starting backgrounds, bonuses, and curses for the apprentices to come.
Dare to try?