Perfect Stranger

You own and live in a huge two-level apartment at the top of an old urban-fantasy residential building.

It is far too large for one person.

So you decide to rent out the spare private suite.

That is where the game begins.

Choose who your advertisement is looking for:

GIRLS / BOYS / BOTH

One applicant will eventually arrive at your door.

Not a roster.
Not a dating show.
Not a menu of characters.

One stranger. One interview. One decision.

Every applicant is generated as a complete adult person with their own appearance, fantasy race, nationality, work, history, friends, habits, flaws, boundaries, goals and private life.

They are not automatically compatible with you.

They may like you, dislike you, trust you, become suspicious of you, fall in love with you, remain only a roommate—or decide they do not want to live with you at all.

And every applicant has one major secret.

Not a meaningless trivia fact.

Their secret can eventually open an entirely different long-term story involving new people, enemies, factions, places, worlds, dangers or obligations.

You may join that story.

You may help from the sidelines.

You may refuse to become involved.

You may oppose your roommate.

Or you may never discover their secret at all.

But you already have a secret of your own.

Your apartment contains an old hidden architectural network inside its walls.

Some of it is ordinary forgotten service construction.

Some of it should physically be impossible.

You already know several ways inside.

The Living Room fireplace hides a concealed mechanism leading into the West Wall Run, an old brick-and-timber passage which reaches the edge of the hidden settlement.

The Kitchen/Pantry cabinetry contains another concealed panel leading into a lower service route around old pipes and conduits.

And inside the Library, part of the built-in shelving opens into a larger hidden passage leading to the Central Hidden Shaft.

From there, routes climb into the Upper Gallery, continue behind parts of the upstairs corridor and eventually reach the Roommate Wall Gallery concealed behind the unusually thick wall of the rented bedroom.

There are also connections toward the attic and rafters.

Not every passage is large enough for you.

Many smaller routes belong to the people who actually live inside the walls.

The Between-Walls

Behind the visible apartment exists a miniature hidden settlement known as the Between-Walls.

It is not another dimension.

It physically exists inside magically expanded chimneys, masonry cavities, obsolete service shafts and impossible folds in the old building.

Its inhabitants are Hearthlings—small Fae-descended people roughly 15–25 cm tall.

They have families, children, jobs, workshops, shops, gossip, rivalries, traditions and their own opinions about the giant people living outside their walls.

Their world includes places such as Hearth Square, the Great Chimney, the Market, Copper Lane, the Pipe District, the Little Inn, the Shrine of the Hearth, Button Row, the Soot Gardens and the Archive of Lost Things.

You already know they exist.

Your new roommate initially does not.

And the Hearthlings are not your servants.

Some like you.

Some tolerate you.

Some think you are a nuisance.

Some may become fascinated by your new roommate.

Some may even discover things about them before you do.

The hidden observation routes

Parts of the hidden architecture contain old apertures and viewing points.

You know several of them.

They can provide limited views into parts of the:

Living Room
Library
Kitchen
Upper Corridor
Roommate Bedroom

But they are not cameras and they are not magical x-ray vision.

Every opening has a fixed angle.

Furniture can block it.

Darkness matters.

Sound may or may not carry.

There are always blind spots.

The Roommate Wall Gallery, for example, can reveal selected portions of the roommate bedroom, but not every corner, not closed drawers, and not the roommate bathroom.

And your roommate has not consented to being watched.

If they ever discover what you have been doing behind their wall, the consequences may be serious.

How to play

Start by choosing:

GIRLS / BOYS / BOTH

When the applicant arrives, simply roleplay naturally.

Talk to them.

Ask about their work, history, habits, family, relationships, rent, boundaries or anything else you actually care about.

Show them the apartment.

Observe how they behave.

Decide whether you want to offer them the room.

They still decide whether they want to accept.

If both of you agree, they move in.

Then the real game begins.

Shared meals. Work schedules. Visitors. Arguments. Friendship. Attraction. . Awkward mornings. Private habits. Strange noises in the walls. Hearthling interference. Hidden passages. Suspicious behavior. Secrets. Adventures.

Or simply ordinary life together.

There is no required romance.

There is no required .

There is no required secret reveal.

There is no required adventure.

You may spend days living an ordinary domestic life before anything strange happens.

Either of you may eventually end the tenancy.

The roommate then actually moves out, their history remains part of the world, and the spare suite becomes empty again.

Nothing forces you to replace them.

Whenever you choose, you may post a completely new advertisement and begin again with another stranger.

You can write in any language you want. Unless you explicitly state that you are speaking a particular language in-world, your text is treated as the meaning of what your character says rather than as a language barrier.

Perfect Stranger is a persistent roommate sandbox with two people hiding very different things from each other.

You know what lives behind the walls.

Your roommate does not.

Your roommate knows what they are hiding.

You do not.

The interview is only the beginning.

Who did you just let into your home?