Household field guide

Read a room across time.

Parlorfold is a free household history game for players, families, and learners interested in material culture. This guide explains how to read each object's material, power source, and use, place nine objects across three eras, read the room to check your choices, and follow the sourced stories of hidden labour, fuel, and household change.

How do I unfold a room?

1. Read the short line under each object name. It describes the material, the power source, and who does the work, and it never states a date.
2. Select one of the nine objects on the table.
3. Choose the era panel where its materials, power source, and use make the most sense. Each era panel takes three objects in the end, but the panels do not show how many places are left until the room is read, so the last cards are yours to reason about rather than fill in.
4. Compare two objects at any time. Choosing Compare on two cards puts their readings side by side under the heading that matters: what powers it, and who tends it. Comparing is free and costs no points.
5. Place all nine, then choose Read the room. The room announces when the ninth object lands. Incorrect placements remain movable.
6. Complete the sort to unlock nine researched object notes and an original three-era Rowan House scene.

Can I undo a placement or resume later?

Yes. Undo restores up to 20 earlier arrangements while preserving honest move scoring. An unfinished room is also kept as a separate local draft. The house index lets you continue or discard it. Invalid draft data is ignored without affecting completed rooms or notebook entries.

What is researched and what is fictional?

Object dates, materials, uses, and research trails are sourced. The Rowan House, its papers, and its household scenes are original composite fiction used to connect those object histories. The boundary is stated in the game and every reveal.

What does the object notebook do?

Completing rooms unlocks searchable records. You can filter by room, bookmark objects, and write private notes or memories up to 600 characters each. These notes stay in this browser unless you export them.

How does daily play differ?

Each Eastern Time date pairs a deterministic room layout with a research lens about labour, energy, repair, or access. Twenty-eight dated folds remain replayable and keep separate best scores.

Keyboard shortcuts

• 1, 2, and 3 place the selected object in the first, second, or third era.
• R returns the selected object to the table; U undoes the last arrangement.
• K asks for the next clue; Enter reads the room once all nine are placed.
• Escape returns to the house index and holds the fold open; ? opens the shortcut list.

Shortcuts are ignored while you are typing in a search box or a note. The browser back button also returns to the house index rather than leaving the site.

What is on the reveal and the house index?

A finished room shows the score, its mastery marks, the deduction breakdown, the par of 4,800 for a clean fold, one suggestion drawn from your largest deduction, a line naming what the room taught, whether it beat your previous best for that room or date, and your archive streak. Every one of the nine objects carries its own verdict, saying whether it landed in the right era on your first read or where you first placed it and why it belongs elsewhere, with its research note inline. Share without spoilers opens a panel with the exact text, a Copy button, and a Copied confirmation, and falls back to on-screen text when the clipboard is blocked. The house index carries a visit record: rooms completed, object notes unlocked, best and average room scores, archive dates folded, streak, bookmarks, and personal notes written.

A first walkthrough

The first campaign room shows a three-step walkthrough that explains readings, placement, and checking. It can be skipped, it disappears as soon as you place an object, and it is never shown twice.

What if this browser cannot save?

If local storage is full or blocked, a banner appears at the top of the page and the room stays playable. Use Export notebook and scores to keep a copy. An import that is not a Parlorfold export is reported inside the preferences dialog with the next step.

What accessibility and privacy options exist?

Keyboard and touch use the same controls, and every link and control has a 44 pixel target. Preferences list reduce motion, high contrast marks, and larger text, then the game-specific simplified wallpaper patterns, then export, import, and reset. One polite live region announces every game event once, including each placement and the moment all nine are placed. The daily archive marks every date you have folded with a filled dot and your best score. Scores, settings, notes, bookmarks, and unfinished-room data use local browser storage; no account is required. This site counts page visits through Cloudflare: it sets no cookie, it cannot follow you from here to another site, and nothing from your play is part of the count.

Enter Parlorfold · Follow the research trail · Read privacy details