“I shall not spare myself in this

journey...”
A Journey to the West inspired solo RPG
from Cave of Monsters Games
Credits
Written and laid out by Sam Kusek

Illustrations used in the cover art, backgrounds and playmat are by

Niou Mizushima from a Japanese edition of ‘Journey to the West’
published in 1950 by Toppan. These illustrations were sourced from
the National Diet Library Digital Collection and are assumed to be
in the public domain, as it has been more than 70 years since the
artist has passed away (Niou Mizushima passed away in 1958)
and the publisher has not republished the work .

This work is based off of the classical Chinese novel, Journey to the
West. It was published in the 16th century during the Ming dynas-
ty and attributed to Wu Cheng’en. It is one of the Four Great Clas-
sical Novels of Chinese literature. It has been described as argu-
ably the most popular literary work in East Asia, spanning many
many adaptations in China, Japan and America like Saiyuki, A
Chinese Odyssey and Dragonball.

This work is based on the Carta system (found at https://peach-

gardengames.itch.io/carta-srd), from Cat McDonald and Peach
Garden Games, and licensed for use under the Creative Commons
Attribution 3.0 Unported license (http:// creativecommons.org/li-
censes/by/3.0/).

Dedicated to Mike Martone, my childhood best friend and the time

we spent together playing the Saiyuki PS1 game.

Cave of Monsters Games LLC 2022

Definitions
The Deck is a standard deck of 52 playing cards including both Jok-
ers.

The Marker, in this case a Coin, is a small object that the player
uses to track their movement.

The Starting Point, represented by a Joker, is the card where the

player’s marker is placed at the beginning.

The Goal Card, represented by a Joker, is the card whose prompt

ends the game.

The Board is a 5x6 grid of playing cards.

Prompts are story scenes associated with a particular card.

Fights are combat scenarios associated with a particular card.

The Pray Die is a d4 used by the Monk to pray and gain prayers.

Prayers are d6 that can be used by the Demons to roll against the
prompts to resolve them.

The Monk, represented by the Ace of Spades,

The Demons are: Monkey, represented by the Ace of Clubs. Pigsy,

represented by the Ace of Diamonds and Sandy, represented by
the Ace of Hearts.

Scriptures, represented by all four of the Kings, are the pieces that
the Monk and the Demons need to deliver to the Goal.
Setup
The game is played with a deck of standard playing cards, with the
jokers removed, 1 d4, 9 d6 dice, the play-mat and a coin to represent
the party.

The Player starts play by going through the deck and retrieving the
Starting Point, Goal Card, 4 Scripture Cards and 2 Recruitment
Cards (see story breakdown for more information.)

First the player separates out the 2 Jokers, All Four Aces and All
Four Kings and puts them to the side.

Next, the player shuffles the deck and draws 24 more cards into an-
other smaller deck. Then add the 4 Scripture Cards (All Four Kings)
and 2 Recruitment Cards (Ace of Diamonds and Ace of Hearts) to
this new deck, totaling 30 cards, and shuffle again.

Once this new card pile is shuffled, the player deals out the cards
face-down in a 5x6 grid. Once the grid has been completed, place
the Goal Card the furthest card away at the top of the grid, and the
Starting Card closest to you face-up. Additionally, place the Ace of
Spades and Clubs on playmat for the Monk and Monkey respec-
tively, with a 1 d4 on the Monk and plenty of d6 nearby.

The game is played by moving the marker from one card to an ad-
jacent card, turning the card you land on face-up, reading it aloud
and following the prompt on the card to either walk through a story,
resolve a fight with creatures or other demons, gain a new demon
or find a scripture.

Your party will start out with just the Monk and Monkey and you
can add two more demons by finding the recruitment cards in the
grid. Demons will help you defeat the creatures you come across
more easily and solve specific prompts.

The game ends when you reach the goal card, with all four scrip-
tures.
The Monk’s Journey
You are a Monk, chosen by the Buddha and his disciples, to travel
across the countryside in hopes of finding and delivering four piec-
es of his ancient scripture. The road is long and treacherous, filled
with monsters and demons who are looking to trick you and eat you
up, in hopes of absorbing your enlightenment.

In fact, you’ve already run into one of them…the former Great Sage
Equal to Heaven, Monkey, who was kicked out of heaven for de-
stroying the eternal peach garden! Using the power of your prayer,
you are able to persuade the Demon to accompany you along the
journey, allowing him to use some of his power to trick or fight any
other demons you come across or help those in need.

With this added primate protection, you are ready to journey off,
further and further into the west…
Gameplay
Using a coin as a marker to represent the party, the player will
move the marker from card to card, reading each card prompt
as they land on them, attempting to resolve any challenges they
might run into. The marker can only be moved to the North, South,
East and West of whatever card you are on.

When you start, make sure the Start Card is visible and both the
Monk (Ace of Spades) and Monkey (Ace of Clubs)

When you land on a card, read the prompt outloud and noting the
costs needed to clear it. You can go through the following steps to
resolve the prompt:

Prayer
At the beginning of the turn, you can roll 1 d4 prayer dice, to gain
prayers that will help you persuade your demonsto help you. What-
ever result you get, distribute that between the demon’s that you
currently have in your party and their dice pools. Demons can only
hold up to 3 dice at one time so if they already have 3 dice, they can-
not exceed that amount. For example, if you have two demons one
with 2 dice and one with 3 dice and you roll a 2, you can only give
one of those dice, losing the other.

Demons
Based on the situation the prompt presents you with, you’ll need to
choose a demon and a skill (Fight, Trick or Help) to roll with.

A few things to know about demons and their skills:

Each demon has a prayer cost from 1 to 3 for each skill needed
to activate it. This can be done using the prayers the Monk rolled
earlier. Once paid, the cost will be the dice you use to make the roll,
your base roll.
Any additional dice, if the player would like to use them, can be
added to the base roll once the cost is met. This can take an already
powerful base roll (Monkey’s possible 12 from 2 d6) and make it
even stronger by 6. The downside is that, the more dice you use, the
harder it’ll be to fill your pool back up again. Looking for a low cost
skill when the time strikes can be advantageous.

Finally before choosing a Skill, pay attention to the Score on the

card you flipped. The card will tell you whether or not it’s a Fight
card, which has one value you can meet or a Scenario card, which
can have one or two values you’ll need to meet. Occasionally, you’ll
run across a card that asks for a specific skill roll from a specific De-
mon or in some cases.

Ace of Clubs Ace of Spades Ace of Hearts

Summary Born from a A former rival Slow and clum-
magical rock, of Monkey’s, sy but powerful,
Monkey is a Pigsy is con- Sandy is look-
mischievous stantly getting ing for a way to
trickster, pay- into trouble by lead a peaceful
ing for his being lazy and life.
crimes. lustful.
Fight Cost 2 1 3
Trick Cost 1 3 2
Help Cost 3 2 1
Trick or Fight to join: 12 14

As mentioned in the setup of the game, you start out with the
Monk and Monkey as your primary demon and there are two other
demons that you need to find throughout your journey, Pigsy and
Sandy.

Both have a Trick or Fight score that needs to be met for them to
join the party. Otherwise, you’ll lose the opportunity to add them to
your party.
What happens if I can’t make a skill cost?
You can spend one of the demons’ dice to have the monk pray
again one more time, to try and gather the dice you need or you can
accept failure.

Guiding your demons

Once you’ve chosen a demon and skill, pay the dice cost + whatever
other dice the player wants to include. Then roll!

The total from all rolled dice is used to try and meet the card’s cost.
Used dice are discarded and can only be replenished through
prayer.

Resolving
A card prompt is resolved when you meet the requirement on
the card. There are two types of cards, Fight and Story, each with
unique requirements. For example:

Fight

A Wind Spirit appears! Roll 4 or better using your Fight skill to fight them off!

Story

An abbot wants to steal the Monk’s cassock! What can you do to make him
forget? To Trick, roll 2 or higher. To Help, roll 6 or higher.

Once a card has been resolved, you can move onto the next card,
in whatever North, South, East and West paths are available. You
cannot willingly move back to a previously flipped card.
What happens if you fail to clear the prompt?
You’ll move the marker back to the space you were before and
remove the failed prompt from play. You must then choose a dif-
ferent direction to go. If you have to move backward along past
prompts to get to a new path, spend a prayer die for every card you
move across. If you don’t have any prayer dice to spend, that’s ok.

You can only pray again when you get to an unflipped card. If you
are stuck with nowhere to go, you lose the game.

Gaining the Scriptures

When you find a scripture card, take it off the board and over to the
side. When this happens, you can make a free pray roll, to gain ad-
ditional prayers.

Returning the Scriptures

The game is over once you reach the Goal Card with all four pieces
of the scripture in hand and if possible, with all three demons in
your possession.
 Card Deck Breakdown

Start Card Goal Card

Joker Joker
Five Elements Mountain The Great Buddha’s Temple

Recruitment Cards

Ace of Diamonds for Pigsy Ace of Hearts for Sandy

Roll 6 using Trick or Fight to gain. Roll 7 using Trick or Fight to gain.

Scripture Cards
King of Diamonds King of Hearts

King of Clubs King of Spades

The next four pages detail Fight and Story scenarios for each suit,
along with the scores needed to resolve the card.
 Suit of Diamonds
Card Type Description
2 Story You enter the home of the Great White Heron, which is under
attack! He may be able to help you move forward if you can help
him defend it!

To Help, roll 7 or higher! You cannot Trick.

3 Fight A Spider demon appears!

Roll 4 or better using your Fight skill to fight them off!

4 Story Your journey is stopped by a wall of flames and only a fan held by
Lady Iron fan can blow it away! But she refuses to give it to you as
she’s upset about her missing son! Do you trick her and take the
fan or help her find her son?

To Trick, roll 7 or higher. To Help, roll 6 or higher.

5 Fight The Gold Horned King appears!

Roll 9 or better using your Fight skill to fight them off!

6 Story Monkey’s old friend, Lady Iron Fan has gone mad and is terrorizing
a village! The only thing that will calm her down is seeing her son,
Red Boy, whose been lost for days! Can you trick her into thinking
he’s here or help the village?

To Trick, roll 8 or higher. To Help, roll 10 or higher.

7 Fight The Silver Horned King appears!

Roll 9 or better using your Fight skill to fight them off!

8 Story You fall into a trap laid by a gang of Soccer Playing Spider Fiends!
What wily way will you trick your way out of this?

To Trick, roll 5 or higher! You cannot Help

9 Fight The White Deer Spriit appears!

Roll 6 or better using your Fight skill to fight them off!

10 Story Monkey’s old friend, Lady Iron Fan is trying to find her lost son, Red
Boy! Do you stop in your journey to help her or trick her into think-
ing he’s returned?

To Trick, roll 4 or higher. To Help, roll 2 or higher.

Jack Fight A Wind Spirit appears!

Roll 3 or better using your Fight skill to fight them off!

Queen Story The Demon King of Confusion has taken over a town! How can
you help the townspeople out?

To Help, roll 6 or higher! You cannot Trick.

 Suit of Clubs
Card Type Description
2 Story Red Boy, the precocious child of Iron Bull and Lady Iron Fan,
claims to be the master of fire magic and challenges the party to a
contest to prove it. How do you meet his challenge?

To Trick, roll 7 or higher. You cannot Help.

3 Fight A Fire Spirit appears!

Roll 5 or better using your Fight skill to fight them off!

4 Story Red Boy, the precocious child of Iron Bull and Lady Iron Fan, cre-
ates a fiery circle around the party, in an attempt to capture the
Monk. What do you do?

To Trick, roll 6 or higher. To Help, roll 7 or higher.

5 Fight The Immortal of Elk Power appears!

Roll 8 or better using your Fight skill to fight them off!

6 Story A turtle is helping to ferry you across a river and asks the Monk to
ask the Buddha to make him human again. How do you respond
to his request? Are you going to help him or trick him?

To Trick, 7 roll or higher. To Help, roll 5 or higher.

7 Fight A Spider Demon appears!

Roll 4 or better using your Fight skill to fight them off!

8 Story Suddely falling ill, from eating some bad rice, one of you dies. The
rest of the party has to try and convince the Lord of the Under-
world to let them go!

To Trick, roll 6 or higher. To Help, roll 4 or higher.

9 Fight The Golden Winged Great Peng appears!

Roll 6 or better using your Fight skill to fight them off!

10 Story You come across a scared child, Red Boy, whose got separated
from his parent when he made the mountain erurpt. Will you help
him find his family?

To Help, roll 7 or higher. You cannot Trick.

Jack Fight Immortal of Tiger Power appears!

Roll 8 or better using your Fight skill to fight them off!

Queen Story You wake up on morning to find that there are two Monks, both
claiming to be the real one! What kind of trick or help can you
implement to help determine the real one?

To Trick, roll 6 or higher. To Help, roll 5 or higher.

 Suit of Spades
Card Type Description
2 Story An abbot wants to steal the Monk’s cassock! What can you do to
make him forget?

To Trick, roll 6 or higher. To Help, roll 4 or higher.

3 Fight The Immortal of Antelope Power appears!

Roll 8 or better using your Fight skill to fight them off!

4 Story Iron Bull , an old rival of Monkey’s, has fallen into his own volcano
keep! He calls out to Monkey for help! Are you willing to take the
call?

To Help, roll 7 or higher! You cannot Trick.

5 Fight A Spider Demon appears!

Roll 6 or better using your Fight skill to fight them off!

6 Story Iron Bull, an old rival of Monkey’s is refusing to let you past his
mountain keep because he wants to prove once and for all he’s
better than Monkey! What tricks will you play to slip by?

To Trick, roll 5 or higher. You cannot Help.

7 Fight A Tree Spirit appears!

Roll 4 or better using your Fight skill to fight them off!

8 Story You come across a group of tree sprits who need help defending
thier forest against a White Bone Demon who is looking to petriy
all the trees. How do you convince them things are going to be ok?

To Trick, roll 7 or higher. To Help, roll 5 or higher.

9 Fight The Yellow Toothed Elephant appears!

Roll 8 or better using your Fight skill to fight them off!

10 Story Iron Bull has lost his son, Red Boy and is desparately afriad of
what will happen if his wife finds out! Will to put the past away, he
asks the party for help finding him! What do y’all do?

To Trick, roll 8 or higher. To Help, roll 6 or higher.

Jack Fight The White Bone Demon appears!

Roll 9 or better using your Fight skill to fight them off!

Queen Story You become impromptu babysitters for a Dragon Monkey used to
know who needs to call in a favor. How do you help?

To Help, roll 6 or higher! You cannot Trick.

 Suit of Hearts
Card Type Description
2 Story Yulong, a White Dragon Spirit, is rampaging through the streets,
consuming travelers horses and carraiges. If might be of use to
you if you can trick or help it come to its sense...

To Trick, roll 8 or higher. To Help, roll 5 or higher.

3 Fight An Ice Spirit appears!

Roll 6 or better using your Fight skill to fight them off!

4 Story You come across a band of theives who are looking to pull off one
last heist before committing to a life of religious practice. Do you
trick them into failing or help them pull it off?

To Trick, roll 5 or higher. To Help, roll 7 or higher.

5 Fight The Single Horned Rhinoceros King appears!

Roll 7 or better using your Fight skill to fight them off!

6 Story You come across a White Dragon Spirit in the form of a Horse,
named Yulong, whose trapped under the force of a mighty river.
Can you help them be free?

To Help, roll 4 or higher. You cannot Trick.

7 Fight The Yellow Robe Demon appears!

Roll 8 or better using your Fight skill to fight them off!

8 Story Brothel seduces one of your party members in, locking him in.
What tricks will you play to get him back?

To Trick, roll 6 or higher. You cannot Help.

9 Fight A Spider Demon appears!

Roll 5 or better using your Fight skill to fight them off!

10 Story Come across Yulong, a White Dragon spirit, whose about to be
executed for burning a sacred pearl. What do you do?

To Trick, roll 5 or higher. To Help, roll 4 or higher.

Jack Fight An Azure Lion appears!

Roll 7 or better using your Fight skill to fight them off!

Queen Story A Jade rabbit spirit asks you for help in enacting revenge against
a princess who killed her family. Do you help her or trick her and
move on?

To Trick, roll 5 or higher. To Help, roll 7or higher.