The Quiet Year: Communal Map Drawing Game pt 1

Most of my gaming these days is restricted to roleplaying games. In the age of infants and covid it's just so much less overhead to meet up on the internet by voice and crack out a couple hours of gaming while still able to respond to child 'events'.  We failed to get quorum the other night so a trio of us tried out "The Quiet Year". It's a communal game where the players (2-4) are driven to create a map and story with the use of a deck of cards and the emergent properties of their decisions. 

 

You each take a turn, representing a week, to draw a card/event/question, resolve it and then choose an action (Start a project, discover something new, hold a discussion). Interestingly player discussion is very limited....you need to use an action to "hold a discussion" (call a council/moot/poll/whatever) to hear what the other players (representing voices of the community) think. But each only gets to have about 2 sentence statements. This means each player really gets a lot of autonomy about where the game/community is trending. I don't want to suggest this is a silent game, there is still chatting, laughter, gasps of surprise. It's just the other players need to hold themselves back from offering suggestions from the active player. 

 

The game was fun enough that I thought I'd do a writeup. We only made it about half way through, but I'm very much looking forward to the conclusion.....things have just really gone sideways. We started off with each making a statement about the map: It was an island, in an archipelago, riddled with tunnels. We each decided on one important resources: food, sunlight, and archeotech (ancient technology/materiel/metal resource/knowledge). In a group we decided which one would be in abundance (archeotech) while the others are in scarcity. Then off we went flipping cards and spinning the weeks by....

 

SPRING: Card events are often questions about the community used to flesh out the details of the setting

Week 1: families are holds/halls. 5-8 of them. relations must be within a hold. no true genetics trees within hold. Holds need to accept new people for them to join. Brendon of Alabaster hold starts a project to try and capture fish in the tidal bay on the East of the Island (to deal with the scarce food) (Start a project)

Week 2: There is a rich archeotech horde on lee side of the island. A nearby island (of the archipelago) is even better. An expedition went there and ate each other. Something terrible holds domain over that isle. Some ramshackle sailing vessels are seen approaching the north end of the island. This is unheard of by the people of the Island. (Discover a new things)

Week 3: We are short of tools that allow us to work the archeotech. We are rich in things that we cannot modify. An isle moot is called! "What shall we do about the foreigners? How do we interact with these people?" (Hold a discussion)

James of Dwimmermount: 'We should steal their boat/technology when they come ashore'. 

Janice of Grizzen Phoenix hold: "We do not believe these rumours, it is nonsense of ne're do wells"

Burt of the Red Valley "The prophecy is here and these people will save us as told in the ancient writings of Dan Brown'

Week 4: The most beautiful thing on the island is a glade on the northwest corner. Regular beams of sunlight allow for verdant growth and fruit. A garden of eden.

James of Dwimmermount assembles a war party to capture an isolated new comer to learn more about them and their techonolgy.(Start a project)

The fish pens in the tidal bay are completed by the High Hat Hold. Food is no longer scarce (Project completes)

 

Week 5: Ships from the flotilla to the North have been visiting various archipelagos. One ship lands near the glade. A creature of human size, but green copper tinge to their skin and exaggerated features attempts to communicate. It is not understood by the people of the Island.

Dwimmermount takes this visitor captive! (The project to capture an isolated new comer finishes)

An isle mount convenes. "How do we communicate with this Visitor?" (Hold a discussion)

HighHat hold: "We have proved our skill. Let them go so that they trouble us now more and are not a useless mouth" Burt of the Red Valley: "speaks in tongues We must be one with the soul kings!"

Ragged children of the 'Dusty Spire' draw in the ochre and rust pictograms to try and communicate (answer by doing)

 

Week 6: The Dusty spire is the most regimented of the holds. They have a childs creche (a type of orphanage). Structured by age and has very firm directives based on age. No flexibility. Age is power. Dusty spire are deeply unhappy with the other holds and that their principles are best.

Burt, of Red Valley, is speaking in tongues to the visitor. The visitor seems to understand and says: SOUL KING (discover a new things)

Week 7: Lenora, the charismatic young spawn of Burt, convinces the Isle that they must summon and communicate with the Soul King. Archeotech must be sifted and a grand shrine/comm station/temple built. (event started project)

Lenora discovers that there used to be rich electricity everywhere, when light fell upon the beehive sheets. We must discover a source of power or the temple will not work. (Discover a new thing)

 

Week 8: The oldest members of the community are in their 50's. They begin to waste away in the 40's (loss of teeth and wasting). As they get older then need to have their food pre-chewed and are resented (and can only support so many this way). Legend tells of much longer lifespans.

A survey of the sun resources begins. All hold haul around condensors of various sizes to discover when and where the sun shines most brightly and what is needed to get most of the power. Many ants die in this project. (Start a new project)

 

 

Week 9: Upon arrival of the green man, a fog horn tone was heard from one of the underground tidal bores. Out from that hole came pale red/translucent pink people anatomically similar to the green man. They too speak in tongues that are the same as Burt and the Visitors. (event)

An Isle moot is called: "Should we release the green man and detain Dwayne of dwimmermount for treating the soulking so poorly?" (Hold a discussion)

Janice GrizzenPhoenix Hold: "You are crazy and have attached meaning to that which is meaningless. We support Dwayne".

Aged toothless elder of the dusty spire (the Dustiest). "The pictograms are clear to communicate with. We should release the Visitor but Dwayne does not need to be punished. We must move forward and parley"

Burt and the Red Valley hold agree with the Dustiest, smiling and nodding in agreement

 

SUMMER: We are playing with a reduced deck to save time (less weeks per season). Summer has events that begin to change and push the community to respond.

 

Week 10 Another vessels lands, with 8 more green men. They move in trios (one trio missing a member). The people are divided, some (dusty spire, red valley) attempt to greet and parley. Others (dwimmer mount, grizzled phoenix) declare resistance and hostility

dwimmermount arms! They being to fortify and create weaponry to arm the people (Start new project)

Week 11: Lenora convinces many youngsters to follow her. They steal a visitors vessel and head to the eastern island known for it's rich archeotech where the previous expedition ate one another. They search for archeotech to accelerate the rejuvenation of the energy grid. (event)

A terrible storm lashes the island. A polar flare with giant hail, deep cold, all in the depth of summer. The sun disappears for a couple of days. (Discover a new thing)

Week 12: The Dustiest, soon after his statement to the moot, keels over apparently dead. He has perished from the polar flare, a deep chill taking away the oldest 50 year old of the people. His body is laid in the meadow for nature to do as it will.

The next eldest of the spire is promoted to Dustiest. A woman in her late 40's who dislikes Burt. (Discover a new thing)

 

Week 13: Lenora discovers a microwave energy receptor tower. It receives energy from elsewhere and can beam electricity across the island. ELECTRICTY IS ABUNDANT (event)

Lenora returns by herself. She looks healthy and well fed, but will not speak of what happens. She tells the others of the electricity and notes that "at last I know what must be done at the temple" (discover something new)

Dwimmermount is ARMED! (project completes)

The Temple/Communication centre to communicate with the SOUL KING is finished (project complete)

 

Week 14: In the last few weeks communication has been created between the green folk and the people. The visitor was released and told of far away people from the island. Dwimmermount has been deeply unhappy and , supported by Janice of Grizzlephoenix, they attack the newcomers. All green men on the island are killed, with 3 dying when one is killed.

The solar survey project is complete. Sun is no longer scarce (project completes)

People are no longer coming back from the tidal bores. Previously easy to transit no one has come back since electricity has come to the Isle. (Discover something new)

Week 15:  People are excited and feeling the potential of summer, the new power, and the temple. It is lit up like a giant beacon. Many apply themselves to communicate with whoever or whatever is the soul king. (event started project)

With the advent of electricity all the fish in the tidal bay are dead and floating. The stink comes later (Discover a new thing)

Week 16: A project finishes early and the Soul King is contacted. A hysterical local summons the people to the temple. All walls within the temple are covered in fine printing of blood in the pictograms used to communicate with the visitors. Lenora lies in the centre of the floor broken as though fallen from a great height and exsanguinated. The red men are placed around her, ritually dissected with internal organs placed in an exact, inscruptable, pattern. (event)

Armed Dwimmermount warriors plumb the depths of the tidal bores to discover what is happening to those who go missing.(start a project)

So here pauses our tale. While the people are materially in a better state (no scarcities) the tensions continue to rise. Approaches differ, and there are more and more missing and dead. Summer should be a time of plenty and production. Autumn approaches with an inevitable decline. Unknown by our people with the coming of Winter the Frost Shepards will arrive and render everything they accomplish moot. 

Quiet year is a fun game and easily worth the 10$ CAD for the Pdf. https://buriedwithoutceremony.com/the-quiet-year