No time hath she to sport and play:
A charmed web she weaves alway.
A curse is on her, if she stay
Her weaving, either night or day,
To look down to Camelot.
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The Lady of Shalott
The special mechanic for ladies, which is very WIP aside from the gimmick of it, which is that we cut holes in the sheet and physically weave something1 through it when triggering this mechanic.
The idea of the gimmick is to make the labor tangible, even if in a gimmicky way. Aside from that, it’s either a clock or it’s a resource you’re spending and run out of when you get to the end of the row.
I do like the idea of it being reactive, as opposed to The Labyrinth being a mechanic that builds up and is then actively used. e.g. if someone would lose Fame or Riches you could weave a step and say “actually, I had made preparations for that” and restore what they would have lost.
Just like The Distaff and Spindle it’s not just about the physical artifacts, but also the management of reputation and relationships. Maybe you weren’t weaving the knight’s cloak, but you were weaving a gift for another family, and look who’s nephew owns that castle you need shelter in now… but also sometimes, maybe it is that cloak, holding firm against all odds because it was made with love…
The cuts do mean as a side effect that ladies have one less slot for Obligations; maybe reasonable because knight’s do a whole lot of Oath-swearing that other sane people might not do (but also maybe just okay by normal variation), and they have less room to write down their Last Will.
Footnotes
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A colored piece of paper, most likely. A ribbon or string could also work, though. ↩