The gameplay is based on Avery Alder’s The Quiet Year, with some specific alterations
David Blandy
Creator of
Recent community posts
Hi Mc! Thank you so much for picking up the game and taking time with it! And I apologise for the errors in the text- I made revisions recently to layout, but failed to update all the rules text. I also see your frustrations with it in terms of clarity.
This is how those paragraphs should read-
THE ORACLE
After each journey, take two Spades and two Clubs, a Heart and two Diamonds. The first Spade is the location you discover and first Club is the Being you encounter there. Read the remaining Spade and Club as Twists (p.15) to describe the location. Interpret freely. The Heart and Diamonds are Twists to describe the being/s. Write in your journal about your first encounter. Now reinterpret the Heart as an Event that changes the situation. What happens? Now reread the first Diamond is a Thing that is there with you. Can you find it? The second is a thing that belongs to the Being. Will they let you have it? A table of names (p.16) is there to help.
THE END
As you travel, you seek Insights, and fear Doom. The Insights are the Four Aces. When they come up in play, after the action you receive a vision: roll your highest Skill against the World. If you Succeed, keep the card and roll for a World Event (p. 14). If you fail the vision remains indistinct and the card returns to the deck. Doom is the Four Kings, a terrible omen. What portent do you see in the clouds or hear in the wind? When a King comes up in play, after the action, roll your highest Skill against the World. If you Fail, keep the card and take harm. Once you have four Insight or Doom cards the game ends. Insight ends well, and you live on to share knowledge. Doom, and the journey ends badly; in lonely misery; taken by the CryOrg; or death.
Hi Massm, thank you so much for playing! And thank you for your question. Every Test is rolling a combination of your Soul (d6) and Skill (d4 or higher), taking the higher result. So roll both dice, then roll 2d8 for the World. You can use whichever stat you feel is most appropriate for the moment in your story- maybe you’ve just fought a ravenous beast, so roll Endure, or find yourself lost and Roll Search. Personally I’d probably roll my highest stat, as your character plays to their strengths to try to resolve the situation.
Hi Mely, thanks for downloading the game! I hope you’re having fun with it. The next edition is very close- just waiting for the last couple of pictures from the artist. So print later maybe?
As for journeying, on reflection I found the time mechanic too cumbersome for a solo game, maybe a fun procedure for group play? Undecided right now haha. So I devised a simpler procedure that you can find on p. 9 of the downloadable edition-
THE JOURNEY
As you travel, roll a d6.
On a 5,6, take a Diamond. You find a thing. Proceed to the next Location.
On a 3,4, take a Heart. An Event occurs. Proceed to the next Location.
On a 1,2, Take a Club, Heart and 2 Diamonds. You meet a Being. Describe your encounter and then roll to travel.
So it can create an infinite loop of you were astronomically unlucky, but that’s just how it goes sometimes. Hope that helps?
Hello! Thank you very much for reading through the game, hopefully you’ll get a chance to take it to a table.
The Items you’re referring to are all Armour I believe. The number is the amount of Armour that item gives- Armour acts like a form of Health, reducing to protect Resilience, which itself protects the Wounded conditions. So Armour of 4 can absorb 4 Damage before it breaks. Armour can be repaired by certain Talents, using the Hacking skill.
Fragile and Sturdy are really narrative descriptions, which can be interpreted by the GM at their table, but like the idea that Fragile items are impossible to repair if broken completely, whereas Sturdy items are easy to repair (step the repairer’s dice up one, so d8 to d10 etc).
And yes, the modifiers are exactly as you described- -1 skill means a Skill reduces by one dice, from d8 to d6 etc. The Skill reduced is agreed by GM and player through negotiation.
Hope that all helps!
Hi there, yes it’s entirely solo-focused. Among other things it gives you a procedure with a deck of cards that define your adventure as you progress, coming across rumors that introduce some of the lore of the setting. The character creation is duplicated from Lost Eons, but the whole book will have new art and a very different feel once artist Daniel Locke has completed the work funded by Zine Month, which of course you’ll have access to as soon as it’s released if you’ve already purchased.