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 quote:For a long time, we were at war with The Jackals. Now, finally, we've driven them off, and we're left with this: a year of relative peace. One quiet year, with which to build our community up and learn again how to work together. Come Autumn, the Mist Shepherds will arrive and we might not survive the encounter. This is when it will end. But we don't know about that yet. What we know is that right now, in this moment, there is an opportunity to build something. The Quiet Year is a minimalist, introspective map-making game of mystery and discovery in a harsh, yet beautiful post-collapse world, designed by Avery Mcdaldno. We'll use it tell the story of a small community struggling to survive and thrive after the collapse of civilisation. We'll follow them as they explore a world of familiar strangeness of modern-day objects and places stripped of meaning and reinterpreted by new eyes. We'll help and hinder them as they go about their business, fracture, reform, and try to build something new in a year of relative peace. However, whatever may come, the story will end with the inevitable arrival of the mysterious Mist Shepherds some time in Autumn. That's why it's 'The Quiet Year'. At its core, this is a game about asking and answering questions about our community and their world. Who are they? What or who is out there? How should we deal with our problems and one another? What lines will or won't we draw or cross for the sake of our people? Appropriately, the game takes a bird's-eye view. We'll collectively play the zeitgeist of these people a fractious mix of beliefs, attitudes and traditions that are often at odds with one another rather than separately playing individual characters. That's not to say individuals are unimportant far from it, they help endear us to the community and its struggles but we're working on a larger scale. As for the wider world and the collapse, we'll learn about both as the game goes on, but we're not playing to write a historical record (as we might in Microscope). We're telling a community's story and building a psychological map; when it comes to the collapse, our main focus is how its causes and consequences shape the community and its world. Note: If you've played this game before, you've probably spotted the difference here we're starting in Winter, not Spring, and ending with the Mist Shepherds, not Frost Shepherds. The Frost Shepherds card will be swapped with a card from Autumn. Other than that, the rules are as normal. For those who haven't played before, this is an experimental variation on the original game. How do you play it? TQY is a turn-based game for 3-4 players (you can go smaller or larger, but they lead to less diverse or less coherent creative input respectively). Each turn represents a week, 13 weeks form a season, and 4 seasons form the eponymous year. Each season has a mini-deck of cards with written prompts that introduce people, events and other things in a semi-random way these mini-decks are separately shuffled and then stacked from Winter to Autumn to form the Oracle. Different seasons have different themes, with Spring being devoted mainly to fleshing out the world and helping people get on roughly the same page. Here's an example prompt from Spring: quote:Someone new arrives. Who? During the game proper, we take turns drawing a card from the Oracle and following its instructions, then taking a standard action of our own:
At the end of their turn, the player fills in a round-up of running projects, current Abundances and Scarcities, and each player's Contempt level. Any players whose projects just finished describe how they ended (which might not be how things were planned), and play passes to the next person in order. This cycle continues until some time in Autumn, when someone will draw the card announcing that the Mist Shepherds have arrived and that the game is over. When that happens, the game ends immediately no fanfare, no grand finale, no denouement. The game ends with a question unanswered. Here's an example turn from a previous game: quote:Spring Week 1 Where can I get the rules? If you wan to pick up the game yourself, you can find it at Mcdaldno's website/online storefront, Buried Without Ceremony. I'll be sending out proper summaries to anyone who needs one, but TQY is a well-designed departure from what most people are used to playing, so you may want to get the rules anyway. There's also a macro and deck of cards for playing the game on Roll20, though we'll be using some fancier cards that forums user Kestral commissioned (I think) for the first game on SA. He gave me the files on the condition that I didn't share them out, so I won't be handing them out, but I will set up the tabletop(s) with them. The base game uses regular playing cards and a list of prompts for the oracle, so these custom cards are much more convenient (and pretty did I mention that?). What expectations should I have? Here are the three successful PbP games of TQY on these forums, that I'm aware of: The Heart's Cartography Bleeds the Sky Drowns the Sky There's about 3 times as many games that never finished, so on the bright side we can start to piece together what works and what doesn't, which I have and will continue to incorporate into how I facilitate these games. Overall, TQY could be described as the introspective mirror of a 4X game. Our community will definitely explore, probably expand, possibly exploit and maybe exterminate, but there's no element of strategy or resource management here. Instead, most of the mechanics help the players signal what's important to the community (or parts of it), then put hard questions about them to the community and the players. For example, one of the most powerful games I've played started with 'mercy' as an Abundance and 'children' as a Scarcity (it's The Heart's Cartography, if you want to find out what happened next). Here are some more specific points:
How do I sign up? Post here with the following info:
Warmup: Take one of the three standard actions (start a project, hold a discussion, discover something new) and describe it as if you were playing the game. Be brief. Include images, music or video if you like. After a few days I'll close recruitment and we'll split into separate groups of 3-4 players. Sometimes these groups set up their games in the same thread, other times they split out into their own setup threads. Either way, they start a game thread whenever they're ready. Some images to start us off:    As for music, here are some pieces that I think work well with this game, one way or another: Amreik Eluvium House by the Sea Moddi When These Mountains Were the Seashore Hawksley Workman Finally, a poem: Horace Smith posted:In Egypt's sandy silence, all alone,
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May 20, 2016 18:18
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| # ? May 11, 2024 01:26 |
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I'm interested in this. I tried to play one game on here once before but it fell apart basically before it began. I"m on the east coast. I'll pm you my email address.
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May 22, 2016 00:17
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I'm always up for TQR.
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May 22, 2016 03:36
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Tyrannosaurus posted:I'm interested in this. I tried to play one game on here once before but it fell apart basically before it began. Current players: UnCO3 Tyrannosaurus ibntumart UnCO3 fucked around with this message at 15:52 on May 22, 2016 |
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May 22, 2016 15:24
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Ah, may as well make it 3 for 3 on TQY!
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May 23, 2016 22:20
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Okay, I think we'll go with this group of 4 (me, Tyrannosaurus, ibntumart, Josef) for now, though if there's a sudden rush of people, they can still use this thread for setup for further groups. Speaking of which, here's how setup works (though we've all done this at least once before): First thing to do is discuss the community's general environs. Are they a river plain? A forest? Is there a swamp nearby, or mountains, or a coast? What's the climate like? We're talking map-wide features here, so feel free to make broad real-world references such as 'like a Mediterranean island' or 'like the Scandinavian coast'. The facilitator will then collate that and write a brief, coherent description of the community's surroundings, climate etc., likely with images of typical sights. If everyone's happy, the facilitator makes the basic map (I'll be using the whiteboard app RealtimeBoard for this). Second, everyone adds a specific feature to the map. It could be an old construction, a natural formation, a notable plant or an animal's territory, or something else. After you describe your feature, add it to the map (as an image, drawing or icon RTB has a decent library of those). Third, everyone creates a Resource something important to the community that they start with a lot more or less of than they need. Materials like wood, food or water are good to start with. More esoteric 'Resources' like children, mercy or charity can be thematically powerful in moderation, but don't go overboard. Clarify your Resource if necessary (e.g. is the Resource 'metal' scrap or ore?), then add it to the map. When we have one from each player, we'll vote on which should start in Abundance the rest are Scarcities. Fourth and finally, anyone can set Lines or Veils around particular subjects, e.g. violence against children, if they'd rather not deal with that in-game. Lines are hard limits - nobody can raise those subjects - while Veils are softer - you can bring them up, but not 'on-screen'. In my experience these aren't that influential in-game, but they're here (and can be updated mid-game) if anyone would like to use them. So, for the first step... I recently learnt about Ani, the once-glorious, now-abandoned Armenian city (also the place in the title image). Personally I'd like to see one or more elements of that place in the game world - wild plains, mountains, lonely ruins both enduring and broken under the weight of centuries, that sort of thing.
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May 23, 2016 23:57
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UnCO3 posted:So, for the first step... I recently learnt about Ani, the once-glorious, now-abandoned Armenian city (also the place in the title image). Personally I'd like to see one or more elements of that place in the game world - wild plains, mountains, lonely ruins both enduring and broken under the weight of centuries, that sort of thing. I like that. I think a world kind of like Shadow of Colossus could be fun. Have this huge amount of just... empty space. Occasionally interspersed with ancient ruins from a time long past. Perhaps so old people don't know/can't even imagine their original purpose.   I'm thinking the Mongolian steppes might be a good bit of inspiration?
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May 24, 2016 00:20
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Sounds good - we could do a mix of vast, sparsely-detailed spaces and rougher terrain (I think too much empty space could be bad - too limiting, by virtue of preventing us from putting things there). Putative player order: UnCO3 Josef bugman Tyrannosaurus ibntumart
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May 24, 2016 01:31
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Sure, yeah, that sounds good.
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May 24, 2016 02:32
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The order works for me. As for general environs, perhaps there are ruddy marshlands, curving around one edge of the map, the bog speckled with flowers white and crimson, and shards of straight green grass?  
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May 25, 2016 08:23
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Okay, I'm going to do the basic map tonight, but here's the plan: Mountain ridges, followed by hills, followed by open steppe and thick grassy plains giving way to marshes. Sparse, looming ruins will be implicitly present through much of the map. Josef, if you have any further input on the map, I can incorporate that too, but I think we should start on the second and third steps now - doing both at once for the sake of speed.UnCO3 posted:Second, everyone adds a specific feature to the map. It could be an old construction, a natural formation, a notable plant or an animal's territory, or something else. After you describe your feature, add it to the map (as an image, drawing or icon – RTB has a decent library of those).  For my Resource, I'm going with Grazing Land. If a Scarcity, we'll have little space for our cattle and could suffer food shortages in the future. If an Abundance, we'll have ample room and all the products our livestock make, but that will make us the envy of bandits and other tribes. Note that this resource could be a matter of the physical quality of the land, of grazing rights negotiated with other groups, of something else entirely, or a combination of these.  Josef and ibntumart, could you PM me an email address I can use to invite you to the RealtimeBoard for the map?
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May 26, 2016 12:42
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Here's the base map, plus my features: (We can tighten stuff up if need be to make more empty space) Mountains above, a pass that widens onto the steppe, then rougher ground and marshland on the southwest. I've added my feature and Resource, too. I figure our community lives on the eastern side of the map, bordered by mountains, the Line, and the marshes, and perhaps less hospitable territories to the south and further east (but who knows - maybe we were chased up to the mountains by the Jackals, and have just come back). The idea with the mountains is that that's what our community sees - they don't know well what actually lies behind. Tyrannosaurus and ibntumart, I've invited you to the RTB. IIRC we're all already registered, but I don't know whether Tyrannosaurus used it much in their last game, so here are a couple of tips for pretty much everything useful to us: Click the gear icon that appears when you select something to see the shortcuts (particularly ctrl+d, duplicate; ctrl+l, lock/unlock; and pgup/pgdn, move forward or back) and other options Shift-click to select multiple objects The insert tab lets you add images (direct upload, from url, etc.) or use their 'iconfinder' stock icon library, which can be handy The button to the right of the map name lets you export a selected area, including as .jpg The speech bubble in the lower right lets you chat
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May 26, 2016 23:10
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My resource is horses. The world is a large, dangerous place and our people are safer when they can traverse it quickly. In abundance, they provide an important source of food, travel, safety, and companionship. In scarcity... well... the world quite literally shrinks.  My feature is The Colossus. Deep in the swamps is a towering metal monstrosity. It stands higher than any tree. In fact, the only things that seem to dwarf the massive structure are the mountains themselves. It's feet are buried knee deep in the mud and while it is mostly rust these days it has been known to turn towards approaching travelers. 
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May 27, 2016 04:29
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Good stuff. Everyone's now invited to the map and roll20 tabletop. Tyrannosaurus, if you need a summary of the rules, let me know - otherwise, we're all sorted other than setup. On a small note about the tabletop, it's got the standard 4 decks for TQY with a few differences. Firstly, I've reordered the decks so they go from Winter to Autumn. Secondly, I've swapped the Frost Shepherds card from Winter with the Parish/marauders card from Autumn, but I can't change the backgrounds, so don't worry if you draw that Autumn-themed card in Winter, it's supposed to be there. I'll remind everyone about the Frost Shepherds card again when we get to the end of Summer.
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May 27, 2016 14:20
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I don't know how to grab a picture of the map but I added my things to it.
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May 27, 2016 16:28
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May 28, 2016 14:01
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My Resource will be Laws. Our community was formed on certain precepts and rules, and for as long as anyone remembers, they have been handed down orally in memorized couplets and triplets of verse. My Feature is the Flame-Kissed Sky. The vibrant colors used to come only in the winter, so the tales go, but they come every month now for days or even a week at a time.  Added to Realtime: 
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May 29, 2016 05:50
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Current features: The Line The Colossus The Flame-Kissed Sky Current Resources: Grazing Land Horses Laws We just need ones from Josef and then we're almost ready to start the game. In the meantime, if anyone wants to add any Lines or Veils, go ahead. EDIT: Also I really like that are three possible starting situations with agriculture are: loads of land, but too few animals to use it; loads of animals, not enough land to feed them; or few animals and little land. UnCO3 fucked around with this message at 11:23 on May 30, 2016 |
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May 30, 2016 11:21
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No Lines or Veils on my end.
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Jun 3, 2016 10:52
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ibntumart posted:No Lines or Veils on my end.
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Jun 3, 2016 11:57
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Okay, Josef's dropping out due to technical difficulties, so we're bringing in another player Tyrannosaurus knows. I think the basic map works fine, so they could start on the same step as us - creating a feature and a Resource (and adding Lines or Veils if need be). Once they've done that we'll all vote on our starting Abundance, and then I'll start the game.
Likewise, none here.
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Jun 3, 2016 12:09
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I haven't heard anything back so I say we just move on My abundance vote is for horses. If I'm not allowed to vote for myself, it's for grazing fields.
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Jun 4, 2016 16:43
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You can vote for your own suggestion. For example, I'm voting for Grazing Land  That leaves ibntumart as the tiebreaker.
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Jun 4, 2016 18:36
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Unless I vote for Laws.  But I'm voting on Horses. I want to see how we deal with not having enough to keep our stables fed.
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Jun 5, 2016 01:19
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Horses it is. Game thread will go up tomorrow morning. ibntumart, please check that you're on the roll20 tabletop - I PMed links to everyone, but I'm not sure you're there.
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Jun 5, 2016 01:24
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I tried to join just now, but I'm getting an "Not Authorized (Incorrect Game ID or Access Token)" error.
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Jun 5, 2016 01:57
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Game thread is up here. ibntumart, I've sent you an email invite to the roll20, which might work better. Tyrannosaurus, let me know if you need a summary of the rules.
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Jun 5, 2016 15:44
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Do I need to wait until the discussion has finished to post my next turn?
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Jun 5, 2016 20:29
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Yeah, everyone contributes before we move on. This shouldn't cause too many delays given that we've only got 3 players.
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Jun 5, 2016 20:38
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UnCO3 posted:Game thread is up here. ibntumart, I've sent you an email invite to the roll20, which might work better. Tyrannosaurus, let me know if you need a summary of the rules. That did the trick! Tyrannosaurus posted:Do I need to wait until the discussion has finished to post my next turn? I just added my two cents, so we can move on.
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Jun 6, 2016 00:16
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ibntumart posted:That did the trick! UnC03, do you add one last line of discussion or is it my turn?
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Jun 6, 2016 00:22
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If you start a Discussion with a statement, you don't get one at the end - only if you start with a question.
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Jun 6, 2016 01:54
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UnCO3 posted:If you start a Discussion with a statement, you don't get one at the end - only if you start with a question. Gotcha. Thanks for the clarification.
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Jun 6, 2016 02:04
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edit: nvm
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Jun 9, 2016 21:19
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Sorry for the edit---I forgot to put the red dot for a discussion and had to upload a revised map.
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Jun 14, 2016 12:32
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Just a note: I made horses a scarcity here and I think that got missed in the subsequent posts.
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Jun 16, 2016 15:43
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Ah, whoops! Though they're not necessarily a scarcity right now. We have a divided community, but we still play both parts. Abundances and Scarcities can apply for all parts, or just some. I've edited my post here to reflect that. I've given the Ziyarites an abundance of laws and the traditionalists a scarcity of horses, though the latter's up to you.
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Jun 16, 2016 16:01
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I don't feel like there would be a scarcity for either group, to be honest. Unless the Ziyarites took more than their share, shouldn't the number of horses remain proportionate to the people in each group?
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Jun 16, 2016 16:39
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Yeah, that's what it comes down to - what definition of 'fair' they used when they left.
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Jun 16, 2016 16:53
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I'll let ibntumart make the call and edit my posts accordingly. This might have changed what I did on my turns, though.
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Jun 16, 2016 17:08
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