Ways to play
A card on its own is a nudge. A rule about when you draw, what you owe the card, and who else is holding one turns the deck into a game. Five games, tested against real deadlocks. The only rule they share: the deck doesn't negotiate.
Ten Minutes solo
The basic ritual. When the work stalls, draw one card and obey it — literally, not approximately — for ten minutes. No second draw, no interpreting your way back to what you were already doing. If the card seems to make no sense for your medium, that gap is the exercise: a drummer holding “Mute the loudest layer” has more to decide than a mixer does. After ten minutes you may keep what happened or throw it away, but you have to look at it first.
Three Straws solo
A spread, for when you don't know why you're stuck. Deal three cards face down. Turn them one at a time: the first names what is actually wrong — read it as a diagnosis, not an instruction. The second is how to work on it. The third is your stopping rule: the condition under which the piece is finished whether you agree or not. Write the third one down where you can see it. Most deadlocks are a finishing problem wearing a starting problem's clothes.
First & Last solo, one session
Draw a card before you begin and let it set the session's terms. Work as long as you like. When you believe you're done, draw exactly one more and let it edit the ending — it may cost you the last hour or save the whole day. You agreed to this before you started; that's why it works. The first card opens the session, the last one closes it, and neither is your taste.
Blind Jury 3 or more
One card, read aloud, for everyone. No one says how they intend to read it. Twenty minutes of work in whatever medium each person brought, then show the results side by side and only then say what you each thought the card meant. The game is the divergence: the same sentence sent five people five directions, and at least one of those directions is better than yours. Steal it. Rotate who draws.
Exquisite Relay 2, over days or weeks
Two artists, one piece, passed back and forth. Each time the piece changes hands, the receiver draws a card in secret and works under it; the sender must not know which instruction shaped the pass. Keep the drawn cards in order, face down, like a growing spine. When the piece is finished, reveal the sequence and read it as the piece's secret history. Title the work with one of the cards.
House rules
These five are openings, not the whole book. The deck is grouped into five suits —the contents of the box lists them — and any of these games can be played inside a single suit when the deadlock has a known shape. If you invent a game worth keeping, it's yours: the deck is the instrument, not the score.