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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 Winter, the Frost 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 Alder. 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 Frost Shepherds some time in Winter. 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 a game like 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. How do you play it? TQY is a turn-based game for 3-4 players. Each turn represents 1 week, 13 weeks form 1 season, and 4 seasons form the eponymous year. Before the game begins, we set up the basic details of the community’s world (e.g. is it a tundra, an island, a river valley?) then each add a single more specific feature (e.g. a place, a creature, a phenomenon), and then create a starting Resource – something the community needs, materially or psychologically, like wood, cattle, or hope. A community’s Resources say a lot about itself. Resources are split into Abundances or Scarcities – things the community has a lot more or less than they need, though things aren’t always black and white (e.g. an Abundance of cattle may make the community a target for raiders). Finally, we vote on which starting Resource is Abundant – the rest are Scarcities. All of this gets added to the map. During the game proper, we take turns drawing cards from an ‘oracle’, a special deck filled with story prompts and instructions split into the four seasons. Here’s an example from Summer: quote:Someone new arrives. Who? Why are they in distress?
At the end of your turn you do a roundup of Projects, Resources, and Contempt, and add images, icons, or drawings to the map to show how the world has changed. If any Projects finish on your turn, whoever started them says how they end. Then we move on to the next player. For example posts, see the finished games linked below. During the game we'll use roll20 for the oracle decks (custom cards uploaded to a tabletop there, courtesy of forums user Kestrel) and the digital whiteboard RealtimeBoard for making the map. What expectations should I have? Here are all the finished TQY games run in TG, to my knowledge: The Heart's Cartography Bleeds the Sky Drowns the Sky Asks the Earth (winter start) Aches the Earth 2 Overall, TQY is like an introspective mirror of a 4X game. Our community will definitely explore, probably expand, possibly exploit and maybe exterminate, but the game isn't about strategy or resource management. 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 the following info:
Post pics, music, etc. that gets across the style/genre/atmosphere you’re looking for. After a couple of days we'll start setup. If there are more than 3-4 people (including me) then we'll split into groups of 3-4 as best we can. Some images to start us off:    Likewise, music: Eluvium – New Animals From the Air The Shins – The Rifle Spiral Thomas Dvorak - Lesik
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Apr 25, 2018 00:32
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US Pacific Time Zone dakkasight@gmail.com I have not played before
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Apr 25, 2018 00:42
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Just stopping in to give this props. The Quiet Year is a good game, and works really well in play-by-post.
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Apr 25, 2018 11:47
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Eastern Time, sabo.nicolas@gmail.com I have not played before, but I'm terribly curious about it based on previous games. edit: Reading through Bleeds the Sky to get a sense for the game flow and what I'll be expected to write - how fascinating. It's a really cool game idea. edit2: adding images   
Dog Kisser fucked around with this message at 17:43 on Apr 25, 2018 |
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Apr 25, 2018 12:48
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UTC or thereabouts. AJ_Impy@yahoo.com Played once before.
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Apr 25, 2018 13:14
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Hell yeah I'm in. GMT+1 fathismunk@gmail.com Played twice before
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Apr 25, 2018 13:26
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EST Yes Tyrannosaurus fucked around with this message at 06:03 on May 22, 2018 |
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Apr 25, 2018 13:59
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EST comrade.gorbash@gmail.com Played once before
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Apr 25, 2018 16:14
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quote not edit, i have never done this before
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Apr 25, 2018 17:42
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Current players: UnCO3 chin up everything sucks Dog Kisser AJ_Impy Fathis Munk Tyrannosaurus Comrade Gorbash I think we'll wait for one more person and then I'll split us up into 2 groups of 4.
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Apr 25, 2018 18:06
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This looks pretty great. Sure, I'm in. CST yokomeshi@gmail.com Never played before.
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Apr 25, 2018 18:19
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Okay, entry is closed and our groups (in playing order) are: Group 1 UnCO3 Tyrannosaurus megane Dog Kisser Group 2 Fathis Munk chin up everything sucks AJ_Impy Comrade Gorbash I'll start sending out rules summaries to those who haven't played before, then begin setup. Let me know ASAP if you don't have a copy of the rules handy even if you have played before and I'll send one to you too.
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Apr 25, 2018 18:30
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As a quick note I will be out of town but with internet access from Friday to Sunday. So I'll be able to keep up with the posting schedule but my timing might be a bit odd for those three days.
Comrade Gorbash fucked around with this message at 18:40 on Apr 25, 2018 |
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Apr 25, 2018 18:37
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Neat!
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Apr 25, 2018 18:40
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Okay, I've set up both roll20 boards and invited everyone to their group's, and set up group 1's realtimeboard for our map. Let me know if the email invite for one/both didn't come through. Fathis, are you alright facilitating group 2, seeing as you have the most experience? All you'll need to do is set up the initial map using realtimeboard, guide setup, and post the game thread. Setup First thing we need to decide on is the general environment. The biome, the climate, the development, etc.. Feel free to come up with partial suggestions or real-world/fictional references too, e.g. that you want the world around our community to have dense forests or to be like the Siberian tundra. At this point we don't even have a map. Once everyone's contributed, I/the facilitator will make the base map and we'll move onto the rest of setup - coming up with specific features and starting Resources, and finally voting on which Resource starts as an Abundance. I'll explain more as we come to each new step. For my part, I think I'd like the world around our community to have aggressive weather.
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Apr 25, 2018 19:32
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The landscape should be shattered - ravines and uplifted outcroppings all around the place
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Apr 25, 2018 19:35
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I think lots of water - floods and dramatic tides and submerged relics. edit: and bleached coral as I posted earlier
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Apr 25, 2018 19:53
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I'm thinking beaches, too... ... with lots of dramatic, dangerous weather swings...  ... and dead, irradiated places...  ... a tropical home where the green is green...  ... and the blue is blue...  ... and there's only about 10,000 ways to die.
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Apr 25, 2018 20:05
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Fathis Munk fucked around with this message at 20:33 on Apr 25, 2018 |
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Apr 25, 2018 20:15
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Group 2chin up everything sucks posted:The landscape should be shattered - ravines and uplifted outcroppings all around the place Hmm I can dig that, what kinda landscape are we talking about here, like this shattered clay except on a macro scale  Or more reasonable like what you can find in China?     (In general it is best if you can provide a picture, drawing or whatever visual medium to give others an idea what you have in mind.) I propose that our people mostly live on some sheltered edges of the outcroppings or on sheltered slopes, the plateaus and some major ravines being exposed to intense winds. Maybe always blowing from the north (or whichever direction you find most poetic), sometimes carrying strange smells. Our village could be built into one of the big outcroppings, in the wind's shadow like this troglodyte village  Maybe the top of the outcroppings present old; wind-battered structures of unknown purpose that might or might not be haunted. 
Fathis Munk fucked around with this message at 21:07 on Apr 25, 2018 |
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Apr 25, 2018 21:03
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Fathis Munk posted:Or more reasonable like what you can find in China? This one
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Apr 25, 2018 21:06
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Yeah I added some more pics to my post just before you answered and I'm in for that idea.
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Apr 25, 2018 21:09
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e: yes, indeed I am 
megane fucked around with this message at 21:17 on Apr 25, 2018 |
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Apr 25, 2018 21:12
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You're in group 1 UnCO3, I am looking at realtimeboard and the free plan is for 3 members only, am I reading something wrong?
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Apr 25, 2018 21:14
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Digging through some of my pictures for more inspiration   
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Apr 25, 2018 21:41
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Fathis Munk posted:You're in group 1
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Apr 25, 2018 21:42
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Okay, I've found an alternative: 'aww' or 'a web whiteboard', at https://awwapp.com/ . It's not as good as RTB, but it does allow any number of participants to join a board on a free account. I've set up a board for group 1 and sent out invites.
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Apr 25, 2018 21:59
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I've been looking at that too but am unclear whether or not you can save a board without an account ?
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Apr 25, 2018 22:02
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Here's a thought: make an admin account for you and a secondary account for us to share. Email the username and password.
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Apr 25, 2018 22:05
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I did consider that, but it's possible someone will stay logged in and keep other people from accessing the board. We could give it a go, though.
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Apr 25, 2018 22:23
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Deekit looks like it allows unlimited users even with its free version. Also, should group 2 move to a new thread, since we're already crossing the streams with setup?
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Apr 26, 2018 03:04
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Group 1 Though I'd throw in some concept pictures too while we're figuring things out.     
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Apr 26, 2018 03:14
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I love the coral
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Apr 26, 2018 03:16
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I'm thinking diving is a very important part of our community. Shellfish, coral, sunken treasures... the Beneath is a place of riotous color and plenty, but don't stray too deep or you might find more than you looked for.
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Apr 26, 2018 03:54
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Group 2 My thought was that there's a lot of shallow sea with occasional deeper channels - sort of if the oceans had risen but were now receding but hadn't quite come down enough to dry out most of the land. So the outcropping are islands, but you can walk between them. Like a flooded salt pan or a mangrove swamp, so the water is still mostly clear. There are also vast intertidal zones, as well as large beaches and shoals, with some areas being essentially big meadows or even prairies of beach grass. There'd also be lots of salt marshes.        
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Apr 26, 2018 05:10
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Group 1 Our community lives on a ragged tropical shore that's intermittently buffeted by gales and smashed by vicious waves, and in between sees beautiful, eerie calm of cloudless sky and white sun. The water closer to land is pleasantly shallow, but further out drops off into black depths filled with - so they say - ancient treasures. Brilliant coral and fish exist beneath the waves in spots of vivid life, but much of the sea is a near-dead wasteland, forested with bleached, bone-white coral and inhabited by hardy survivors. This land is beautiful and deadly in equal measure, but our people survive. A few notes about the map - firstly, let's say our community lives roughly centrally, and secondly, although the map is this size right now, we can expand it later if need be. The next steps are coming up with one specific feature each and one Resource each. The feature could be something man-made or natural, something immobile or alive, something large or small. I'll just quote myself on Resources: quote:something the community needs, materially or psychologically, like wood, cattle, or hope. A community’s Resources say a lot about itself. Resources are split into Abundances or Scarcities – things the community has a lot more or less than they need, though things aren’t always black and white (e.g. an Abundance of cattle may make the community a target for raiders).  My Resource is potable water.  Comrade Gorbash posted:Deekit looks like it allows unlimited users even with its free version. Group 2 could spin out to another thread, but I think it should be fine once we set the initial maps
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Apr 26, 2018 13:20
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Group 2 I’m thinking that our region could have a chaotic, broken landscape in one corner, giving way to the vast flat shore zone to the other. The transition is not sharp, so there’s an intermediate region with lots of more isolated outcrops. The wind comes in from the shore zone, picking up a lot of speed, and as it filters into the chaotic region it howls and whines. North seems like a good direction for the wind to come from, which would put the chaotic region in the south and the shore zone north of it. Also big storms could come in from that dir croon periodically. Maybe not hurricanes but nor’easter type storms? I’m seeing this as a colder region, like Cape Cod writ large. EDIT: Might be a cool flavor thing if our community used windward and leeward as major directions, instead of north and south (or whichever directions depending on the orientation of the wind). Don’t have good ideas for the perpendicular directions though. Comrade Gorbash fucked around with this message at 15:52 on Apr 26, 2018 |
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Apr 26, 2018 15:48
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Group 2 That sounds pretty cool yeah, West and East might have names in relation with the sun rising/setting, like Orient/Occident, levant/couchant. Dawnward/duskward ?
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Apr 26, 2018 16:52
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Group 2 Riseward and Setward. I’m thinking there’s a very viny, tendrily feel to the vegetation. Mangroves, creepers, perhaps a network of natural zip lines between mesas.
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Apr 26, 2018 18:22
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AJ_Impy posted:Group 2 Riseward and Lost - in this terrain, darkness is lethal if you are moving around. The sun falling isn't just a thing that happens, it's a thing that inspires fear as people need to rush home before the light fades. There should be heavy mist that sweeps in when darkness falls (I grew up on California's coast - this is a thing that happens frequently).
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Apr 26, 2018 18:26
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