The Most Dangerous Games: The Yellow Pen And White Paper Game

Previously: How To Experience Your Inner World.

Looking for yet another ritual game to take you out of reality? One that will (supposedly) teach you how to go to another world? Here’s one. I call it the Yellow Pen And White Paper Game, because… well, that’s primarily what you use to play it: A yellow pen, and a piece of white paper.

Like quite a few of the “how to go to another world”-type ritual games that have spread via the internet in recent years (and, at this point, decades), the Yellow Pen And White Paper Game originated in Japan. The oldest version I’ve found so far is dated 2014, although that doesn’t necessarily mean it isn’t older than that; indeed, I’ d be willing to bet that it is. These kinds of games usually are; most of them began circulating in 2008 and 2009.

[Like what you read? Check out Dangerous Games To Play In The Dark, available from Chronicle Books now!]

Interestingly, this game isn’t always referred to solely as just a method for going to “another world.” It’s often discussed specifically as a way to go a “2D world” — that is, the world of a particular anime or manga. There’s actually as whole subgenre of “how to go to another world” games geared towards this goal of visiting an anime or manga world. The Paper Ring Game, which we’ve previously looked at here at TGIMM, is probably the most widely-shared game of this variety — but although the Yellow Pen And White Paper Game might not be quite as well-known, it’s also been passed around with some degree of frequency over the years.

The implications of this specific terminology are interesting; it seems to suggest that the anime or manga world to which the player wishes to go exists only in two dimensions — that is, when we watch or read a piece of this kind of media, we’re not watching or reading a two-dimensional representation of a three-dimensional world full of three-dimensional characters; we’re watching or reading it in the number of dimensions natural to the world and characters themselves: Two, not three.

Some versions of this game only require that you have some kind of other world you wish to go to in order to play, however; they don’t always state specifically that you should have the world of a particular anime or manga in mind. So, you can choose your own adventure here, so to speak—although that’s also assuming that the game “works” in any realistic way in the first place. (I look it, as I look at most of these kinds of games and legends, as a story only — a kind of magical thinking, wish-fulfilment tale — rather than anything that can actually be “done.”)

One thing to keep in mind, though: Most versions of the Yellow Pen And White Paper Game state that there is no way to return to your original world, if you achieve success with it.

So, as always: Play at your own risk.

Players:

• One principal.

Requirements:

• A pen or marker with yellow ink.
• A piece of white paper, ideally square-shaped.
• Adhesive tape.
• A door. (See: Additional Notes.)
• A place to rest. (See: Additional Notes.)

Instructions:

Setting Your Course:

1. Wait until night has fallen.
2. Using the yellow pen, write down the name of the world you wish to go to on the piece of paper. If the world does not have a “name,” per se, describe it in a few words or sentences.
3. If the door you have chosen to use is open, close it. Then, using the tape, fasten the piece of paper securely to the door.
   • Make sure that the paper is hidden — that no one else will see it besides you yourself. Additionally, from this point onward, do NOT allow yourself to be seen by anyone else.
   • If either the paper or you yourself are seen, DO NOT proceed. Remove the paper from the door and destroy it. You may try again another time, if you wish.
4. If you are not already in or at it, go to the place you have chosen to rest.
5. Go to bed. Sleep, if you can.

Opening The Door:

1. In the morning, rise and go to the door.
2. Do NOT allow yourself to be seen.
3. Check the door. If it has been opened by anyone else, do not proceed. You MUST be the first person to open the door that morning in order to proceed.
4. Check the paper. If the paper has been disturbed, do not proceed. The paper CANNOT have been seen or tampered with by anyone else in order to proceed.
5. If you have not been seen, if the door has not been touched, and if the paper has not been disturbed, you may proceed.
6. Put your hand on the doorknob.
7. Close your eyes.
8. Now: Think about the world you wish to visit — the world you wrote about on the piece of paper the night before. Hold that world in your mind.
9. When you are ready, open the door, and open your eyes.

Entering The World:

1. Look through the open door. What do you see?
   • If nothing has changed: The ritual has failed. Remove the paper from the door and destroy it. You may try again another time, if you wish.
   • If everything has changed: The ritual has succeeded. You may proceed.
2. If the ritual has succeeded, you may now step through the door, if you like.
3. Be warned, though: If you do — there is no coming back.
4. I hope you like your new world.
5. You’ll be here for… quite some time.

Additional Notes:

Concerning the door, and the place to rest:

• Due to the logistics involved, this game is perhaps best played in your own bedroom. If played in your own room, the door to the room may be used as the door to which the paper is fastened, and the place to rest is your own bed. Once you begin the game, you may stay in the same place—your room — until the game has reached its conclusion. 
• However, note that you may NOT open or otherwise use the door to which you have fastened the paper after Step 3 of Setting Your Course until Step 9 of Opening The Door. If the only door in your bedroom — and, therefore, the door to which you have fastened the paper — is the door through the room is accessed from the rest of the home, you may not leave your room until the game is over.

You MUST use a pen or marker with yellow ink. Do not use colored pencils, crayons, paint, or any other kind of writing implement. It must use ink. The ink must be yellow.

The game must be played with one player, and one player alone. It may not be played with two or more players. It may not be played with bystanders observing. This journey is for one person, and only one person.

On Difficulty Level And Achieving Best Results:

Due to the stipulations that neither the player nor the paper may be seen or witnessed by anyone else following Step 3 of Setting Your Course, and that the player must be the first person to open the door to which the paper has been fastened the next morning, this ritual is substantially easier to carry out if the building or playing space has been cleared of all other people before beginning. If you do not live with anyone else, and you play this game alone in your own home, the required conditions are easily met.

However, it is also said that, the more difficult the game is to play — the more complicated the circumstances under which it is carried out, and the cleverer the player must be in order to achieve the required conditions — the more likely the game is to achieve success.

How challenging are you willing to make it for yourself?

How much do you want — really want — to leave?

You can set yourself up for success… or set yourself up for failure.

Whatever you choose — it may tell you something about yourself.

Maybe you do want to go.

Or maybe you don’t really want to go at all.

Just… something to consider.

***

Follow The Ghost In My Machine on Bluesky @GhostMachine13.bsky.social, Twitter @GhostMachine13, and Facebook @TheGhostInMyMachine. And for more games, don’t forget to check out Dangerous Games To Play In The Dark, available now from Chronicle Books!

[Photos via congerdesign, suicazuki, AnnaD/Pixabay (all remixed by Lucia Peters)]