The Quiet Year is a collaborative map-drawing RPG where players rebuild a post-apocalyptic community. Using a deck of 52 cards, each representing a week, the game ends when the Frost Shepherds arrive, concluding the quiet year. Available as a PDF, it offers a unique storytelling experience.
Overview and Background
The Quiet Year, created by Avery Alder, is a post-apocalyptic map-drawing RPG where players collaboratively define a community’s struggles and aspirations. Set in a world after civilization’s collapse, the game emphasizes storytelling, resource management, and collective decision-making, culminating in the arrival of the Frost Shepherds, ending the quiet year.
Gameplay Mechanics
The Quiet Year features a card-based system where players manage resources, draw maps, and make decisions impacting the community. The Frost Shepherds signal the game’s end.
Core Components and Rules
The Quiet Year involves a deck of 52 cards, each representing a week, and a map drawn collaboratively. Players use dice, contempt tokens, and pencils to manage resources and resolve events. The game requires strategic planning and collaborative storytelling, with clear rules for card draws, resource allocation, and community decision-making to ensure a balanced experience.
The Role of the Map
The map serves as a visual narrative of the community’s journey, documenting progress, challenges, and discoveries. It is a collaborative tool for storytelling and strategic planning, essential to the game’s core experience.
Importance in Gameplay
The map is central to The Quiet Year, serving as a visual narrative of the community’s journey. It tracks progress, documents discoveries, and reflects the consequences of decisions. As the game evolves, the map becomes a dynamic record of struggles and successes, deeply tying the players’ actions to the world they create together.
The Card Deck
The Quiet Year features a 52-card deck, each representing a week. These cards trigger events, delays, or omens, shaping the community’s journey. The King of Spades signals the Frost Shepherds’ arrival, ending the game. Available in the PDF, the deck is essential for gameplay.
Structure and Function
The deck consists of 52 cards, each representing a week in the quiet year. Cards trigger events, delays, or omens, guiding the community’s journey. The King of Spades signals the Frost Shepherds’ arrival, ending the game. This structure ensures dynamic storytelling and unpredictable outcomes, central to the game’s narrative flow and strategic depth.
The Frost Shepherds
The Frost Shepherds arrive at the end of the quiet year, triggered by the King of Spades. Their coming signals the game’s conclusion and determines the community’s survival, adding tension and finality to the narrative.
Role and Impact
The Frost Shepherds serve as the game’s climactic endpoint, arriving at Winter’s end. Their presence signals the quiet year’s conclusion, forcing players to confront their community’s survival. Their role adds tension, driving the story toward its final resolution and shaping the narrative’s outcome, leaving a lasting impact on the players’ experience.
Required Materials
Required materials include paper for the map, pencils, index cards, six small dice, 20 contempt tokens, and a deck of Quiet Year cards. The PDF version is available for download.
What You Need to Play
To play, you’ll need paper for the map and notes, pencils or pens, index cards, six small dice, 20 contempt tokens, and the Quiet Year card deck. The game supports 2-4 players and takes 3-4 hours. A PDF version of the game is available for download, providing all necessary materials and rules.
The Community Aspect
The Quiet Year fosters collaborative storytelling, where players collectively rebuild a post-apocalyptic community. Decisions shape their shared narrative, emphasizing teamwork and shared responsibility.
Collaborative Storytelling
In The Quiet Year, players engage in shared storytelling, defining their community’s struggles and hopes post-collapse. Through map-drawing and card-based narrative prompts, the group collaborates to shape their world, fostering a unique and immersive collective experience that reflects their decisions and values.
The Oracle System
The Oracle System in The Quiet Year provides narrative prompts divided into seasonal sections, guiding players through key events and challenges, enhancing the game’s storytelling depth and unpredictability.
Purpose and Usage
The Oracle System in The Quiet Year serves as a narrative guide, offering prompts divided into seasonal sections. It provides players with key events and challenges, enhancing the game’s storytelling and unpredictability while guiding the community’s journey through the quiet year.
Digital Availability
The Quiet Year PDF is available for purchase at $9 or more, downloadable after purchase, with community copies supported via platforms like Itch.io.
Downloading the PDF
The Quiet Year PDF is available for purchase and immediate download. Players can purchase it for $9 or more via platforms like Itch.io, with options to pay more in support of the developer. Once purchased, the PDF is accessible for download, containing all necessary rules, cards, and guidelines for gameplay.
Setup and Preparation
Setup begins with gathering materials: paper for the map, pencils, index cards, six dice, 20 Contempt Tokens, and the Quiet Year deck. Players (2-4) then create the map and prepare for the collaborative storytelling experience, ensuring all components are ready before starting the game.
A Step-by-Step Guide
Gather materials: paper, pencils, index cards, six dice, 20 Contempt Tokens, and the Quiet Year deck. 2. Draw the map on the paper. 3. Shuffle the deck and draw the first card (Spring 1). 4. Each player receives an index card for notes. 5. Begin collaborative storytelling, following the card prompts to guide the narrative.
Advanced Strategies
Mastering The Quiet Year involves balancing short-term survival with long-term goals, strategically managing resources, and interpreting card events to guide the narrative toward a meaningful conclusion.
Mastering the Game
Advanced strategies in The Quiet Year involve balancing resource management with narrative interpretation. Players must anticipate seasonal shifts, prioritize community goals, and adapt to card events. Experienced players master the art of storytelling while ensuring survival, making each decision count as the Frost Shepherds approach, ending the quiet year.
The Quiet Year offers a profound, narrative-driven experience, blending post-apocalyptic survival with collaborative storytelling. Its unique mechanics and emotional depth make it a must-play for fans of immersive tabletop gaming.
Final Thoughts
The Quiet Year is a deeply emotional and strategic game that challenges players to rebuild a shattered world. Its unique blend of storytelling, community collaboration, and the looming threat of the Frost Shepherds creates a memorable experience. Available as a PDF, it’s a must-play for fans of immersive tabletop adventures.
The Quiet Year is a collaborative map-drawing RPG where players guide a post-apocalyptic community through a year of challenges and hope. Available as a PDF, it combines storytelling and strategy, ending with the arrival of the Frost Shepherds.
Overview
The Quiet Year is a post-apocalyptic map-drawing RPG where players collaboratively guide a community through one year of survival and rebuilding. Using a deck of 52 cards, each representing a week, the game explores challenges, hope, and decisions. It ends with the arrival of the Frost Shepherds, concluding the story.
Gameplay
The Quiet Year is a map-drawing RPG where players guide a post-apocalyptic community through one year of survival and rebuilding using a 52-card deck, each representing a week.
Mechanics
Mechanics
The Quiet Year uses a 52-card deck, each representing a week, to trigger events like project delays or luck changes. Players draw cards, resolving challenges and shaping the community’s fate. Contempt tokens track progress, while dice and index cards aid decision-making. The game’s mechanics emphasize collaborative storytelling and strategic planning within a time-sensitive framework, ending with the Frost Shepherds’ arrival.
Map
The Quiet Year centers around a collaborative map, defining the community’s struggles and progress. Players draw and explore territories, marking resources, challenges, and key decisions, visually representing their journey and scarce resources.
Importance
The map serves as the core narrative tool, visually representing the community’s journey, resources, and challenges. It tracks progress, scarcity, and decisions, enabling collaborative storytelling and strategic planning, making it essential for the game’s emotional and mechanical depth.
Card Deck
Structure
The Quiet Year deck consists of 52 cards, each representing a week, divided into four seasonal suits. Cards trigger events, omens, and project delays, shaping the narrative.
The Quiet Year deck contains 52 cards, each representing a week in the quiet year. Divided into four seasonal suits, these cards trigger events, omens, or project delays, influencing the community’s journey. The King of Spades signals the end, bringing the Frost Shepherds and concluding the game. Each card shapes the narrative uniquely.
Frost Shepherds
The Frost Shepherds signal the end of the quiet year, arriving when the King of Spades is drawn. Their presence concludes the game, testing the community’s survival and legacy.
Role
The Frost Shepherds serve as the game’s climax, arriving at the end of the quiet year. They represent an external threat, forcing the community to confront their preparedness and decisions. Their arrival is triggered by drawing the King of Spades, ending the game and testing the community’s survival and legacy.
Materials
Required materials include a blank paper for the map, pencils, index cards, six small dice, 20 contempt tokens, and a deck of The Quiet Year cards.
Required
To play The Quiet Year, you need a blank paper for the map, pencils, index cards, six small dice, 20 contempt tokens, and a deck of The Quiet Year cards. The PDF includes the necessary rules and card deck. Designed for 2-4 players, the game typically lasts 3-4 hours.
Community
The Quiet Year fosters collaborative storytelling, as players collectively define their community’s struggles and shape its future. Shared decisions and narratives create a strong bond among participants.
Aspect
The Quiet Year emphasizes collaborative storytelling, where players collectively shape their community’s narrative. The game’s design fosters teamwork, creativity, and emotional investment, making the community aspect central to its immersive and meaningful experience.
Oracle
The Oracle System provides narrative prompts divided into seasonal sections, guiding the story and decisions throughout the game. Available in the PDF, it shapes the community’s journey and challenges.
System
The Oracle System in The Quiet Year PDF provides a structured narrative tool, offering seasonal prompts that guide decisions and shape the community’s journey. Each prompt is designed to spark meaningful storytelling, ensuring the game remains dynamic and engaging. The system is integral to the game’s progression, helping players navigate challenges and build their post-apocalyptic world collaboratively.
Digital
The Quiet Year PDF is available for $9.00 USD, offering the full game rules, oracle system, and resources. It supports digital play and community engagement.
Availability
The Quiet Year PDF is accessible via digital platforms like Itch.io and Roll20. Players can purchase it for $9.00 USD or more, with community copies available for those unable to pay the full price, ensuring inclusivity and accessibility for all interested players globally.
Setup
The Quiet Year setup involves gathering materials like paper, pencils, dice, and tokens. Players draw a map and distribute contempt tokens, preparing for the collaborative storytelling experience that unfolds over a quiet year.
Guide
Setting up The Quiet Year begins with preparing materials: a large map paper, pencils, dice, and tokens. Players collectively draw the map, defining the community’s landscape and resources. The deck is shuffled, and each player receives contempt tokens. The first card is drawn, initiating the quiet year’s narrative journey, guiding the group through weekly challenges and decisions that shape their post-apocalyptic world.
Strategies
Mastering The Quiet Year involves balancing resource management, strategic decision-making, and collaborative storytelling. Anticipate the Frost Shepherds’ arrival by prioritizing community goals and adapting to card-driven challenges.
Advanced
Advanced strategies in The Quiet Year focus on optimizing resource allocation and narrative depth. Players should anticipate seasonal shifts, manage contempt tokens wisely, and align community goals with card events. Experienced players can introduce house rules or additional challenges to enhance gameplay complexity and storytelling richness.
The Quiet Year offers a profound, collaborative storytelling experience, blending strategic planning with emotional depth. Its unique map-drawing mechanics and card-driven narrative provide endless opportunities for creativity and reflection. Available as a PDF, it remains a timeless choice for those seeking immersive tabletop gaming.