The Quiet Year

Draw a place with room to change

Use the published booklet and Oracle for the actual weekly event text. Agree on a small fictional community rebuilding after a difficult period, and keep the depiction non-graphic. Each player draws one geographical detail, leaving most of the paper open. Each names an important resource; agree which single resource is abundant and list the others as scarcities on a separate sheet.

Remove jokers. Shuffle each suit separately and stack hearts for spring above diamonds for summer, then clubs for autumn and spades for winter. Do not remove the king of spades: it is the ending. Put project dice and tokens beside the map. The map uses rough symbols; nobody needs drawing skill.

Screen Oracle choices before play for the group’s agreed content. If both choices on an event are unsuitable, use this house replacement: describe a weather-related complication affecting an existing place, with no extra mechanical effect, then continue the ordinary week. Keep every card in the deck so the seasonal timing remains intact.

One week, three steps

On your turn, draw the next card and consult its Oracle entry. Choose one of its alternatives when offered, read the chosen event and resolve its instructions, adding or changing map details. Then reduce every previously existing project die by one unless the event says otherwise. A project started by this event does not also advance immediately.

A project reaching zero completes successfully. Its initiating player explains the outcome and updates the map; an event that ends one early gives the active player that narration instead. Update abundance and scarcity notes when the fiction changes them. Finally take one regular action, in addition to any action the event specifically granted.

To discover, introduce and draw a new opportunity, problem or feature. To discuss, pose a question or statement about an existing issue; each person gets a brief contribution clockwise, with the questioner answering last or a statement-maker using their opening as their contribution. End without a collective decision. To start a project, declare a community effort and agree how many weeks it requires, from one to six; place a die at that value by its site.

Outside a discussion, respect the active player’s decision rather than turning every turn into a committee meeting. You can take a contempt token when the fictional community’s priorities leave a perspective unheard. Tokens carry no points or veto. Return one when someone acts in a way that eases that tension, or as you portray a selfish action on your own turn. They describe the community’s friction, not a grievance against another player.

Let the year end with unanswered questions

Pass turns clockwise through the seasons. When the king of spades appears, the Frost Shepherds arrive and play stops immediately, before any project adjustment or regular action. Their meaning can remain mysterious. Do not finish every project or add a victory score.

Afterward, look over the map together. Describe what the community accomplished, what it neglected and which unresolved issue stays with you. Keep this reflection outside the fiction rather than secretly extending the year. Allow roughly three to four hours for a full session, with a break between seasons if wanted.

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