snazel's review
5.0
Okay so this is the first of two map-making games about community, and I read them both in one sitting, so this review is going to be for both.
The Quiet Year is about a community who's been living through war and disaster, and they finally have a chance to rebuild. Over the course of a year, projects are embarked on, scarcity and abundance are reckoned with, mishap and tragedy strike, the community knits together or breaks apart— until finally the game ends with the coming of the Frost Shepherds, which the community may or may not survive. As all these things happen little pictograms are drawn on a map by all the players, and at the end of it there's a record of the year and this community you built together, whether or not it made it in the end.
Okay so first of all, this is innovative as hell. This is the "your mind op, your mind" meme writ large. It's designed to illuminate the actions a whole settlement takes, including a mechanism for members of the community to feel slighted and disrespected which physically builds up on the table. It's also designed to be dotted with tragedy and not have an answer about whether your community makes it or not. I do not know whether I'd play this and walk away from the table in a good state, but I'd definitely walk away with thoughts provoked. It's 100% on the "play this" list.
The Deep Forest has the same mechanical premise as the above (it's a map-making game played over a year with a deck of cards), but instead of being a human community rebuilding after war, you play as monsters recovering from human occupation. It's explicitly post-colonial. And the ending is not the coming of the Frost Shepherds, but the coming of a band of heroes. Many of the mechanics change to reflect the difference in this premise.
I am not 100% sure on if I want to play this. Not because the premise doesn't rock, but because it was designed as an indigenous response to some of the relationships with the land and what it's used for in The Quiet Year (often colonialist), but there's no mention that the expanded design team has anyone indigenous on it? And as a white person, I'm not sure about playing as a (literal, the examples include trolls) monster who's a metaphor for native people. Or possibly the answer here is just that I really shouldn't be playing this at a table of all white people. I don't know! Probably I'm overthinking this! Probably I'm overthinking this!
Anyways: both games are mechanically brilliant and innovative and thought provoking.
The Quiet Year is about a community who's been living through war and disaster, and they finally have a chance to rebuild. Over the course of a year, projects are embarked on, scarcity and abundance are reckoned with, mishap and tragedy strike, the community knits together or breaks apart— until finally the game ends with the coming of the Frost Shepherds, which the community may or may not survive. As all these things happen little pictograms are drawn on a map by all the players, and at the end of it there's a record of the year and this community you built together, whether or not it made it in the end.
Okay so first of all, this is innovative as hell. This is the "your mind op, your mind" meme writ large. It's designed to illuminate the actions a whole settlement takes, including a mechanism for members of the community to feel slighted and disrespected which physically builds up on the table. It's also designed to be dotted with tragedy and not have an answer about whether your community makes it or not. I do not know whether I'd play this and walk away from the table in a good state, but I'd definitely walk away with thoughts provoked. It's 100% on the "play this" list.
The Deep Forest has the same mechanical premise as the above (it's a map-making game played over a year with a deck of cards), but instead of being a human community rebuilding after war, you play as monsters recovering from human occupation. It's explicitly post-colonial. And the ending is not the coming of the Frost Shepherds, but the coming of a band of heroes. Many of the mechanics change to reflect the difference in this premise.
I am not 100% sure on if I want to play this. Not because the premise doesn't rock, but because it was designed as an indigenous response to some of the relationships with the land and what it's used for in The Quiet Year (often colonialist), but there's no mention that the expanded design team has anyone indigenous on it? And as a white person, I'm not sure about playing as a (literal, the examples include trolls) monster who's a metaphor for native people. Or possibly the answer here is just that I really shouldn't be playing this at a table of all white people. I don't know! Probably I'm overthinking this! Probably I'm overthinking this!
Anyways: both games are mechanically brilliant and innovative and thought provoking.
declaired's review
5.0
This is the first of two variations of a post-apoc world/map/community-building tabletop RPG. It's a succinct thing, about 15 pages, and most of it is explicit teaching instructions, designed to be read aloud to your group of 2-4 players, who should all be settling in for a 3-4 hour game. It is centered around cartography and a birds-eye view of a community, facing a quiet year, ready to rebuild.
The second variation, called "The Deep Forest," comes with this PDF if you purchase through the author's website ( https://buriedwithoutceremony.com/the-quiet-year ), and is written as an explicit reaction to "The Quiet Year"
Anyway I would like to play this game with friends; I think it would be a delightful experience.
The second variation, called "The Deep Forest," comes with this PDF if you purchase through the author's website ( https://buriedwithoutceremony.com/the-quiet-year ), and is written as an explicit reaction to "The Quiet Year"
Spoiler
It's about a group of monsters decolonizing an abandoned/devastated human settlement that was once the world of those monsters. It's functionally the same game, but the setting and the word choices transform the context in which the game is set up, and I find that fascinating. This isn't so much a "spoiler" as it is something I'd like to be able to separate, so that you can see each version of the game as it stands; what it means that it evolves.Anyway I would like to play this game with friends; I think it would be a delightful experience.
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