Disasters: Through the Looking Glass is a 3-D board game about how disasters reveal
and deepen social inequality. Six chess pieces. Five card decks. One story you carry
to the end. Play solo against AI, or invite up to five friends online.
2–6players
8×8board
11envelopes
88cards
5decks
~30maverage game
The board has three vertical zones. Row 1 is where everyone places
their piece. Rows 2–4 are the hazard zone
(24 cells, 14 of which are hazard draws) — landing on a hazard cell draws a Hazard card.
Rows 5–8 are the DRM zone
(32 cells, 16 of which are DRM draws) — landing on a DRM cell draws a Disaster
Risk Management card. Reach Row 8 to finish. When everyone finishes,
the game switches to storytelling. There is no winner — there's only what each
body carried through.
From the welcome page, type your display name, then choose:
Play solo · with AI — instant solo room. Fill empty seats with up to 5 AI players.
Create multiplayer room — generates a shareable URL. Friends join with the room code.
Once in the lobby, set how many AI to add (so total players = 2–6), then click Start game. The host (you) can copy an invite link at any time.
tipAdd at least 1 AI to start — the engine needs ≥ 2 players.
determinism
The board layout, envelope order, and deck shuffles are all seeded by the room ID. Everyone in the same room sees the exact same hazard/DRM cells and draws cards in the same order. Multiplayer stays in sync.
1
Title — game name lives top-left only.
2
Player roster — see everyone's piece, hand size, and finished status.
3
Card decks — see how many cards remain in each deck.
4
Lobby bar — set AI count, copy invite, start the game.
Lobby · hover the numbered dots to learn the panels
step 2
Roll for rank
Every player rolls two six-sided dice. Highest sum
picks an envelope first. Ties break by join order.
Click the dice below to feel the animation — it's the same physics you'll see in-game.
—
Order matters even though envelope contents are hidden — you still want first pick, because rolling high feels good and you get the freshest pool.
In-game rank-roll modal · every player rolls in turn
step 3
Open your envelope
Eleven envelopes are shuffled. In rank order, each player picks one.
Contents stay hidden until you click — then your envelope reveals:
Your piece (Queen, King, Rook, Knight, or Pawn)
A starting hand of 6 cards (mix of good and bad fortune)
The envelope pool is fixed but shuffled: 1 Queen · 1 King · 2 Rooks · 3 Knights · 4 Pawns.
With fewer players, some envelopes go untouched. Bishop is intentionally excluded from the pool.
How the starting hand is dealt: when you open your envelope, the engine pulls cards from the three setup decks (Structural → Policy → Socio, in that priority order). It draws good cards first to fill your piece's good-card quota, then bad cards for the rest. If a sentiment runs out of cards in those decks, it falls back to drawing from DRM and finally Hazard. Hand size is always 6; only the good/bad ratio changes per piece.
Why this matters: the piece you get determines how you move and what trade power you wield. The starting hand seeds your story — Queen wakes up with 5 advantages and 1 disadvantage; Pawn wakes up with 4 disadvantages and 2 advantages. Same disaster, different bodies.
Opened envelopes reveal the piece and add cards to your hand
step 4
Take your seat
Click any empty cell on Row 1 to place your piece. Choose your column carefully — pawns can only move forward, so they're committed to one file.
The board zones
Row 1
Character zone · place your piece here. No card draws.
Rows 2–4
Hazard zone · landing on a hazard cell draws a Hazard card. 14 hazard cells, 10 empty.
Rows 5–8
DRM zone · landing on a DRM cell draws a Disaster Risk Management card. 16 DRM cells, 16 empty.
Row 8
Finish line · reach any column on row 8 to be marked finished.
Click a piece to see exactly where it can move. Toggle the dice total to see how movement scales for sliding pieces.
Empty-board preview — in the real game, occupied squares block sliding pieces.
Bishop is shown for reference: it is not in the envelope pool, so no player is ever dealt a Bishop. The other five (Queen, King, Rook, Knight, Pawn) are the only pieces you can actually play.
Your hand grows. Cards stay with you for the storytelling phase.
06
Next player
Turn passes in rank order, skipping anyone who's already finished.
Step 2 · the turn-roll modal
Step 3 · legal cells glow gold
step 7
The five decks
Click any card below to flip it. Three decks (Policy, Structural, Socio-Cultural) seed your hand. The other two (Hazard, DRM) are drawn during play when you land on a matching cell.
Warnings, shelters, aid, planning. 12 cards · 6 good · 6 bad. Drawn on Rows 5–8. Good DRM cards trigger your trade power.
Sentiment
Every card has a sentiment: ● good fortune or ● hardship. Your starting hand mix depends on the piece you drew — the Queen gets 5 good + 1 bad, the Pawn gets 2 good + 4 bad. That asymmetry is the point: not all disasters land the same way on all bodies.
Drawing a hazard card · everyone sees the moment
Your hand stays pinned at the bottom · hover to lift a card
step 8
Trade powers
Good DRM cards trigger your trade power. All 6 "good fortune" cards in the DRM deck (early warnings, working shelters, timely relief) fire your piece's one-time power on draw. A Trade panel appears — pick a target, or skip to bank it. "Hardship" DRM cards (broken systems, denied claims) do not trigger trades. Each player can use their power once per game.
♛
Queen
Force Swap
Force any two players to swap their entire hands. Powerful late-game equalizer.
implemented
♚
King
Gift & Draw
Give one card to any player, then draw one bonus card from a deck of your choice.
implemented
♜
Rook
Steal
Take one card of your choice from any other player's hand.
implemented
♝
Bishop
Blind Swap
Swap one random card with another player. Bishop is excluded from the normal envelope pool.
coming soon
♞
Knight
Team Up
Team up with a Pawn — share hands for the rest of the game.
coming soon
♟
Pawn
Pool
Pool cards with up to two other Pawns — all hold the same set.
coming soon
act iii
The story you carry
When every player reaches Row 8, the board fades and a storytelling page opens. Every player's full hand is laid out as a grid of cards. You can type a written story in the textarea, or simply tell it out loud while everyone reads the cards together.
There's no scoring. There's no "winner". The cards are evidence; the story is the point. Each piece reached the finish — but they reached it carrying different weight.
What you'll see: tags by deck, sentiment colors (good fortune in moss, hardship in rust), and the full card text on each tile.
Storytelling · all 6 hands laid out side by side
closing notes
Tips & strategy
🎯
Aim for DRM cells
The DRM zone (rows 5–8) has cards that can flip your story — and some trigger your trade power.
📐
Mind your piece
A Pawn can't pass anyone in its file. A Knight can leap clutter. Choose your starting column accordingly.
⏳
Save your power
Trade powers fire on a DRM trigger. You can skip the first one and wait for a juicier target.
📷
Pan the camera
Four presets in the top nav: Study (close, intimate), Hero (default), Plan (top-down), Cinema (sweeping). The ↻ button toggles slow auto-rotation.
↔️
Collapse the side panels
Hit ◀ players or decks ▶ in the top nav to hide either panel. A thin tab on the edge brings it back. Use this for a maximum-board view.
🎒
Watch your hand
Your hand sits pinned to the bottom and shows good / bad totals. Hover any card to lift it. Click the chip to collapse / expand the fan.
🏁
Game ends together
The game switches to storytelling only when every player has reached Row 8. Finished pieces stop blocking — so you can't get permanently stuck behind one.
🤝
Multiplayer flow
Online games auto-sync via Supabase Realtime. Solo + AI runs entirely in your browser — no setup. AI cards auto-progress after a brief reveal so you never have to babysit them.
📖
The "? guide" button
Need a refresher mid-game? Hit the ? guide chip in the top nav (this page opens in a new tab so your game state isn't lost).
ready
Step into the looking glass
Start a solo game with AI, or invite up to 5 friends online. Your story begins on Row 1.
