The Quiet Year

a map-drawing game

Designed and written by Avery Alder.

Illustrations by Ariel Norris.
First released 2013. This iteration 2019.
Buried Without Ceremony.

Design insights from Jackson Tegu.

Special thanks to Cheryl Trooskin Zoller,

Roe Nix, Andy Moore, and Stephen Scapicchio.
 What This Is
This is a map-drawing game. Together, you play as a
community rebuilding after the collapse of civilization.
Your decisions will define the values and future of this
community, and these decisions will get added to a map
which is constantly evolving. This map blends literal
cartography with symbols, creating a rich visual record
of land and people. Players collaborate to steer the fate
of the community, while also introducing problems and
tensions along the way.

Supplies
The Quiet Year requires 2-4 players and 3-4 hours.
In addition, it requires:
• A blank piece of paper to draw the map
• A few pencils or pens
• A couple index cards
• Six small dice
• 20 Contempt Tokens
• A deck of The Quiet Year cards
• The Turn Summary card
(located at the end of this document)

If you don’t have a deck of Quiet Year cards, pair a deck

Chapter One: Gather of standard playing cards with The Oracle, located at
the end of this document or available at:
As the facilitator, read this entire book ahead of time. Com- buriedwithoutceremony.com/the-quiet-year
plete the tasks outlined in this chapter before others arrive at
the table.
Preparing Your Space
Clear your table or play space of any unnecessary
objects. Aim for a minimal environment.

Separate the deck into the four suits, each in its own
stack. Place the blank piece of paper in the centre of
the table - it will become the map of your area. Around
it, array the remaining supplies: pencils and pens, dice,
Contempt Tokens, and the Turn Summary card.

Divide an index card into two columns and label them

“Abundances” and “Scarcities”. Leave another one
handy for recording names.

A Fleeting Year
A full-length game of The Quiet Year can take up to
4 hours. If you’d prefer to play a shorter game, try this
simple adjustment: before play, remove 5 cards from
each suit. Make sure to remove the King of Diamonds
(Summer), and make sure to keep the King of Spades
(Winter) in the cards you play with.
 The Opening Story
Read aloud.

For a long time, we were at war with The Jackals. Now,

finally, we’ve driven them off, and we’re left with this:
a year of relative peace. One quiet year, with which to
build our community up and learn again how to work
together. Come Winter, the Frost Shepherds will arrive
and we might not survive the encounter. This is when
the game will end. But we don’t know about that yet.
What we know is that right now, in this moment, there
is an opportunity to build something.

Introducing Our Tools

Let’s go over our game components.

Point to the blank page. This is our map. Before playing,

we’ll establish some of the landscape. As we play, we’ll
update the map to reflect new discoveries, conflicts, and
decisions. The map will blend literal cartography with
symbols. We won’t write words on it, though common
symbols are fine.

We’ll all take turns drawing on this map. You don’t have
Chapter Two: Survey to worry about drawing well; every drawing is good
enough.
As the facilitator, read the regular text of this chapter aloud
to the group, following the instructions written in italics as Point to the Turn Summary card. This card explains how
you go. play works from week to week. We’ll go over it soon.

Point to the dice. These are project dice. When our

community starts a project, we’ll place one on the map
to note how many weeks it will take to finish. Each
week, the dice tick down by one. When a die reaches
zero, the project is complete.

Point to the Contempt Tokens. These are Contempt

Tokens. They represent simmering tensions in the
community.

Point to the deck. This deck of cards represents our quiet

year. Each suit is a season. At some point in Winter,
we’ll draw the King of Spades. That’s when the Frost
Shepherds will arrive, and the game will immediately
end.

Shuffle the Spades (Winter), and place it face down on

the table. Shuffle the Clubs (Autumn), and place it on top.
Repeat for Diamonds (Summer) and Hearts (Spring).
Our Role Starting Resources
When we play The Quiet Year, we don’t control specific Next, we each name an important resources for the
characters or act out scenes. Instead, we all act as community, something we might have in either
abstract social forces within the community. At any Abundance or Scarcity. Don’t draw it right away.
point, we might be representing a single person or a
great many. This is a story about social forces and their Some examples include:
impact on the land, rather than being about specific • clean drinking water
individuals. • adequate shelter
• fish
At the same time that we’re playing as the community,
we’re also looking for opportunities to introduce new Choosing a resource makes it important, if it wasn’t
and interesting challenges into the story. It’s our job to already. If you pick ‘gasoline’ it becomes something our
make sure that there are always difficult decisions to be community wants and needs.
made and uncertainties to be explored. As we introduce
interesting challenges for the community and then Have everyone name a resource before proceeding.
figure out how to address them, tensions will emerge
that ultimately reveal the character and future of our Now we choose one of those resources to be in
community. Abundance. Whoever named that resource draws its
abundance on the map. The rest are in Scarcity, and the
Sketching Terrain remaining players figure out how to draw a lack of these
resources on the map. Remember, common symbols
Before the first week of play, we establish a general are fine. We also keep track of our Abundances and
landscape for our map. This begins with a brief Scarcities on an index card.
discussion (taking two minutes at the most) about the
general terrain and habitat. This can be as simple as Choose which resource is in Abundance. Add all of the
someone saying, “how about a community in a rocky Abundances and Scarcities to the map and index card before
desert?” and everyone else nodding in agreement. Once proceeding.
we agree, each of us introduces one detail about the
local terrain and then sketches it onto the map. These
sketches should be rough and simple, leaving lots of
blank space for additions during play. The community Example Resources
itself should be fairly large on the map, perhaps taking The group is playing in an abandoned mining village
up one third of the sheet. Usually, the community has nestled in thick woods. They name several resources:
around 60-80 members. running water, transportation, and scrap metal.
Decide on the general terrain. Have each person introduce a They all agree that scrap metal is by far the most
detail and draw it on the map before proceeding. interesting Abundance, so it gets drawn on the map.
Scarcities of running water and transportation are both
drawn in as well.
 The Week
Each week in our year is a turn taken by one player,
with play moving clockwise around the table. The
other players are quiet audience members, unless
prompted otherwise. Weeks take an average of 2-3
minutes to complete.

Each week follows these three phases in order:

Play a Card. The active player draws a card, reads the

relevant text aloud, and resolves it. Bold text indicates
that the card has specific rules.

Adjust the Dice. The active player reduces each project

die by 1, and any finished projects are updated.

Take an Action. The active player chooses and takes an

action: Discover Something New, Hold a Discussion, or
Start a Project.

Play a Card
As there are 52 cards, so there are 52 weeks. We won’t
necessarily get to play them all - the Frost Shepherds
could arrive any time during Winter.
Chapter Three: Play
Most cards have two options to choose from, with an
Pass the book around the table, letting people take turns “or…” divider in between. Pick the option that you find
reading a section aloud to the group. Once we’ve finished the the most interesting and fitting, and read the text aloud.
chapter, it’s time to play. The card might ask you a question, bring bad news, or
create an opportunity. If you drew the card, it’s up to
you to make all of the decisions.

Many cards have bold text, which indicates specific rules

to follow. These don’t affect the other phases of the week.

Whenever it makes sense for a situation, add new

drawings and symbols to the map to reflect what
has changed.
Adjust the Dice Start a Project
Unless your card specifically told you otherwise (in The last of the three action types is Start a Project. You
bold text), the next phase of the week is adjusting choose a situation and declare what the community will
the dice. Reduce each project die on the map by 1. If do to resolve it. There is no agreeing or disagreeing - the
a project reaches zero, the die gets removed and the community simply begins work.
project is completed. Whoever started the project gets
to tell everyone how it turns out, and update the map As a group, quickly decide how many weeks the project
to reflect its completion. If the project finished early would take to complete, from 1-6. Remember you are a
because of a card, instead the active player will tell small community. It isn’t easy or quick to build a house
everyone how it turns out. or repair a waterwheel. If a project would reasonably
take longer than six weeks to complete, it will need to
If a project die was just put on the board a moment ago, be completed in stages.
as a result of a card, don’t adjust it this week. It’s just
getting underway. Place a project die on the map, with the number
showing how many weeks it will take to complete.
A completed project is usually successful. This doesn’t
always mean that the whole community is happy
with the results, but it generally goes as planned. An
exploration project will always find something. Example Situations
• There’s a dried-up well at the edge of town.
Discover Something New • Mangy wolves have been slinking around in the woods at
night.
• A self-declared prophet arrives.
One of the three action types is Discover Something
New. Introduce a new situation. It might be a problem, Example Discussions
an opportunity, or a bit of both. Draw that situation
Some possible discussions:
onto the map. Drawings should be small and simple:
• Should we strike back against the bikers?
smaller than an inch, finished in under thirty seconds. • We could use the old school bus as a sleeping area for the
children.
Whenever things seem too controlled and easy, we can • I think we need to stop wasting our energy trying to build
use this action to introduce new issues and dilemmas. fences, and focus on building actual homes!
When individual characters get named, we can record
those names on an index card. Example Projects
• We’re converting the abandoned mineshaft into a cold food
Hold a Discussion storage.
• We’re going to send a search party to the city on the horizon
to search for food and survivors.
Another of the three action types is Hold A Discussion. • We’re killing those wolves.
You can choose to open with a question or a statement. • We will sacrifice a newborn on the night of the full moon, to
Starting from you and going clockwise, each player gets appease the Windmakers.
to weigh in once, with a single statement of 1-2 sentenc-
es. If you opened with a question, you get to weigh in
last. If you opened with a statement, that’s it for you.

A discussion never results in a decision being made.

Everyone weighs in, and then it’s over. This is how
conversations work in communities: they are untidy and
inconclusive affairs.

It’s important to stick to 1-2 sentences. If any of us feel

like we have more to say on a topic, we can always hold
another discussion about it on another week.

Each discussion is tied to a situation on the map. When

the discussion ends, mark the situation with a small dot.
Contempt Tokens
If ever you feel like you weren’t consulted or honoured
in a decision-making process, you can take a piece of
Contempt and place it in front of you. This is how we
express disagreement or tension. If someone makes a
statement or starts a project that you don’t agree with,
you don’t get to speak out of turn. You are instead
invited to take a piece of Contempt.

Contempt will generally remain in front of players until

the end of the game. It will act as a reminder of past
tensions.

If someone else does something that you greatly

support, that would mend relationships and rebuild
trust, you can discard a Contempt Token to show that
they have healed past tensions.

Abundance and Scarcity

At the start of the game, we’ll have one resource in
Abundance and at least that many in Scarcity. These lists
are guides for interpreting the health of the community.
We can add or subtract things from these lists whenever
it feels appropriate to do so. Maybe the completion of
a project alleviates a Scarcity or creates an Abundance.
Some weekly cards will alter the lists as well.

Pacing
Spring will ask us a lot of questions, and we will learn
more about our community’s inner workings and
surrounding landscape. In Summer, larger threats
and greater progress will both emerge. Autumn will
challenge us with more serious dangers and losses. In
Winter, the community will continue its work and
preparations, while we as players will contend with the
dramatic irony that at any moment the Frost Shepherds
could arrive.

If ever the community seems to have it too easy, we can

introduce new dilemmas. What happens when a child
murders his mother? What happens when someone
screws up and ruins a food supply?

Decide who will play the first week. Begin.

 Restraint
When we play The Quiet Year, we must refrain from
free-wheeling conversations about what to do next.
There are specific mechanics in the game for discussing
community issues and demonstrating our displeasure.
When we play, we must avoid speaking out of turn.
These rules reflect how difficult it is to engage an entire
community in conversation, how disagreements tend to
linger across weeks or even months.

We must also avoid fixating on the story of any single

character or set of characters. While interesting figures
will emerge throughout our year, these game rules
are not built to tell stories about any one of those
individuals. Instead, this is a game about a community
- its wants and needs, and how decisions get made
about those wants and needs. We should use named
characters to support the larger birds-eye view, and not
the other way around.

A Divided Community
Sometimes, factions arise within the community that
actual lead to a fracture, with two separate camps
emerging. If ever the community splits apart, the rules
Chapter Four: Beyond function exactly the same, but player voices might now
represent members of neighbouring communities.
As the facilitator, read through this chapter. It contains Contempt can arise both within and between the two
elaborations and additional resources. communities. Discussions can be held about mutual
issues or issues specific to a single camp.

Living Underground
If your game is set in an underground or indoor
environment, some creative interpretations may be
necessary for certain cards. For example, ‘weather’ might
refer to air circulation and ground tremors.

The Shepherds Arrive

During play, it’s best to leave the Frost Shepherds an
elusive mystery - perhaps hinting at what they are, but
never giving direct answers. The game ends abruptly
when the King of Spades is drawn. The card is read
aloud, and the game immediately concludes.

Once the game is over, it’s fine to share theories. Who

or what were the Frost Shepherds? What did their
arrival mean for the community? Now that the game is
over, you can wonder together.
The Deep Forest
I first released The Quiet Year in 2013. Since then, I’ve
learned a lot about settler-colonialism, and my place
within it. Looking back at the game with a critical eye
revealed a concerning truth: The Quiet Year was entirely
silent on issues of cultural recovery and indigenous
resurgence. In a game about community and land, those
are hugely important topics.

Having made that realization, I felt like it was

important to rethink some of the structure and
assumptions of the game. I partnered with Mark Diaz
Truman to design The Deep Forest, a sister game to
The Quiet Year. It’s a post-colonial weird fantasy game
about monsters rebuilding their community after
driving out human occupiers. Abundance and Scarcity
are replaced by Adoptions and Taboos, representing
how decolonization is not a going back, but a creative
pathway forward toward healing and resurgence.

The Deep Forest engages questions of cultural

continuity, adaptation, and the looming worry
of re-occupation. It’s available for free at:
buriedwithoutceremony.com/the-deep-forest

Charted Areas Chapter Five: Examples

Designed by fantasy cartographer Tony Dowler, These two examples are designed to illustrate how the game
Charted Areas are a series of three quickstart maps for works. Read on if you’d like to learn more about how the
The Quiet Year. They allow you to get started playing game works in action.
right away, perfect for a demo or a fast game.

They complete the prep stages of the game for you

(sketching the terrain, determining starting resources).
Simply pick the map you’d like to use, and begin.

If you’re playing with two players, cross out one of the

Scarcities before you start (and cross off its symbolic
representation on the map). If you’re playing with four
players, add a final Scarcity before you start.

To download the Charted Areas, visit:

buriedwithoutceremony.com/the-quiet-year
Setting Up Lisa: Alright, that leaves me. I want the area just inland
of the lighthouse to be swampy and full of tall grasses.
Lisa, Raj, and Kate sit down to play The Quiet Year That’s where the inlet leads.
together. Lisa is facilitating the game, and has already
prepared the supplies as instructed in Chapter 1. She invites Lisa draws some wavy lines and light shading to indicate
Raj and Kate to sit down with her. bog, and draws a couple grass clumps. Having finished
sketching the initial landscape, she moves on to read the
Lisa: Alright. Thanks for agreeing to play this game Starting Resources section.
with me. I’m excited! I’m going to start with reading
some text to you, and then we’ll collaborate on a few Lisa: Remember that these resources we name might be
setup activities. in Scarcity or in Abundance.

Lisa reads The Opening Story aloud, and then pauses for Raj: I choose fish.
a moment to let it sink in. She then moves through the
Introducing Our Tools section, following the italicized Lisa: I’m going with drinkable water as mine.
instructions and reading the regular text aloud. She reads
aloud Our Role, and then Sketching Terrain (including the Kate: And I’ll go with textiles, if that’s good with both
examples). Lisa simply reads these sections verbatim. of you.

Lisa: Alright, so where are we situated? What ideas do Lisa: That’s great. Fish, drinkable water, and textiles. Of
you two have? those three, which one do we have in Abundance?

Raj: My first thought is that it’d be interesting to put The players all agree that it’d be most interesting to have
ourselves next to the coast. Somewhere wet and windy. an Abundance of textiles, and a Scarcity of both fish and
drinkable water. What a peculiar situation for a coastal
Lisa: I think that’s great. I’d also be into setting it in a community! The three choices get recorded on the index
thick wooded area, like a mountain forest. card. Kate draws a little cross-hatched blanket next to
the storehouse, to indicate an Abundance of textiles. Lisa
Kate: I’m into the coast. Let’s go with that. For details: draws an empty water glass next to the inlet, to represent a
maybe our community is built right next to a wide inlet. Scarcity of drinkable water. Raj draws a fish skeleton in the
water, to indicate a Scarcity of fish.
Kate quickly sketches an inlet, and draws some crude waves
to indicate which part is water. Lisa: Alright! We’ve established our community. We’re
living on the coast, rich in textiles, but without fish
Raj: I’d like to add a lighthouse, with a small storehouse or drinkable water. Now, to learn how to play out the
attached to it. weeks of our year, we’re going to take turns reading
pages aloud from this book. The we can start! Who
Raj sketches a three-quarter view of a lighthouse, and puts wants to read first?
a small rectangle next to it, depicting the storehouse.
Three Weeks of Play Lisa knocks the remaining die from 2 to 1. The boat repair
will be finished next week.
It’s the middle of Summer, and Raj is now the active player.
He begins by drawing a card from the top of the deck. Lisa: Okay. For my weekly action, I’m going to Start a
It’s the 7 of Diamonds (Summer). There are two options Project. We’ve been afraid of these marauding pirates
written on it. He chooses one to read aloud. for a while now, and some defences would be good. So
we’ll train some sentries and arm them with whatever
Raj: “Introduce a mystery at the edge of the map.” we found in that army jeep.
Alright, a young boy is out searching around in the bog, How long will this take?
and discovers a weird skeleton. He pulls it out of the
mud with the help of his friends. It’s sort of like an alli- The players quickly agree that this seems like it’d logically
gator, except its limbs are articulated in too many places be a 2 week project. Lisa places a die marked “2” next to the
and it’s got too many eye sockets. A mutant, maybe? jeep icon, because that seems like a fitting place to ‘anchor’
the project. Once again, there is no room to protest the
Raj spends about 25 seconds drawing a weird animal spine launch of this project, though Raj and Kate both have the
over by the bogs. His picture is less than half an inch wide. opportunity to take Contempt. Neither do so.

He glances at The Summary card for a moment. The next Finally, it’s Kate’s turn. She draws the 2 of Diamonds
step is to reduce project dice. There are two dice sitting on the (Summer), and chooses one of the two options.
map, set to 3 and 2. Each of those dice is linked to a project
that the community is working on. Raj knocks them both Kate: Alright: “Someone new arrives. Who? Why are
down by 1. they in distress?” I think a lone man washes up on the
shore, starving and delirious. He’d been held captive on
Raj: For my action, I’m going to Hold a Discussion. I’ll one of the pirate ships, and managed to escape only by
lead with a question: “When we’ve finished the boat diving overboard and swimming toward the shore. We
repair project, will we resume our scouting endeavors? greet him with what little food we can spare.
Or is that too dangerous now?”
Kate draws a little stick figure man. The next step is to reduce
Everyone gets to weigh in once, with a single response. the project dice on the board. The boat repair project finishes
and the sentries project has 1 week remaining.
Lisa: I think that recon will keep us safe in the long
run, so it’s worth a bit of short-term risk. Lisa: Alright, I started that boat project, a month ago
now. How does it turn out? Well, we managed to patch
Kate: No. If we incite the wrath of another pirate fleet, the crack in its hull, and furthermore seal the whole
it could spell ruin for our community. underside. It’s seaworthy again.

Raj: I think we should focus energy on establishing Lisa updates the map by drawing a pristine boat picture,
coastal sentries, but keep our boats in safer waters. next to the previously-crossed-out boat picture.

Raj marks the docks with a dot, to indicate the discussion. Kate: And now my action. I’m going to Discover
That concludes the week. It’s Lisa’s week next, and she draws Something New. Once we get the boat out into the
the 9. She chooses one of the two options to read aloud. water again, we discover that a strange sea plant is in
bloom, submerged just below the water’s surface. It is
Lisa: Uh oh, guys. “A project fails. Which one? Why?” spiny and fuchsia. Nobody’s sure what to do with it yet.
The boat is more important in the long run, I think.
So the ‘sun shrine’ project gets nixed. Several people She draws a few squiggles in the water to represent this
decide that we can’t spare the heavy canvas or the wood mysterious new plant. This concludes her turn. Each of these
that we were using to build it, so they disassemble turns took 2-3 minutes to complete. This entire example
whats been done. spans 7-8 minutes of play.

Lisa removes one of the dice from the map. Raj and Kate
don’t get to talk about Lisa’s decision, because it isn’t their
turn and this isn’t a discussion. They do have the option of
taking Contempt, though, which Kate does. She doesn’t feel
honoured by the actions of those community members.
 The Oracle: Spring
A♥ 8♥
What group has the highest status in the community? An old piece of machinery is discovered,
What must people do to gain inclusion in this group? broken but perhaps repairable. What is it?
or... What would it be useful for?
Are there distinct family units in the community? If so, or...
what family structures are common? An old piece of machinery is discovered, cursed and
dangerous. How does the community destroy it?
2♥
There’s a large body of water on the map. Where is it? 9♥
What does it look like? A charismatic young girl convinces many to help her
or... with an elaborate scheme. What is it? Who joins her
There’s a giant man-made structure on the map. Where endeavors? Start a project to reflect.
is it? Why is it abandoned? or...
A charismatic young girl tries to tempt many into sinful
3♥ or dangerous activity. Why does she do this?
How does the community respond?
Someone new arrives. Who?
or...
Two of the community’s younger members get into a 10♥
fight. What provoked them? There’s another community somewhere on the map.
Where are they? What sets them apart from you?
4♥ or...
What belief or practice helps to unify your community?
What important and basic tools does the community
lack?
or... J♥
Where are you storing your food? You see a good omen. What is it?
Why is this a risky place to store things? or...
You see a bad omen. What is it?
5♥
There is a disquieting legend about this place. Q♥
What is it? What’s the most beautiful thing in this area?
or... or...
Alarming weather patterns destroy something. What’s the most hideous thing in this area?
How and what?
K♥
6♥ A young boy starts digging in the ground,
Are there children in the community? and discovers something unexpected. What is it?
If there are, what is their role in the community? or...
or... An old man confesses to past crimes and atrocities.
How old are the eldest members of the community? What has he done?
What unique needs do they have?

7♥
Where does everyone sleep?
Who is unhappy with this arrangement, and why?
or...
What natural predators roam this area? Are you safe?
 The Oracle: Summer
A♦ 8♦
A contingent within the community demand to be Someone tries to take control of the community by
heard. Who are they? What are they asking for? force. Do they succeed? Why do they do this?
or... or...
A contingent within the community have acted on their A headstrong community member decides to put one of
frustrations. What have they damaged, and why did they their ideas in motion. Start a foolish project.
damage it? Is it permanent?
9♦
2♦ A project fails. Which one? Why?
Someone new arrives. Who? Why are they in distress? or...
or... Something goes foul and supplies are ruined.
Someone leaves the community. Who? Add a new Scarcity.
What are they looking for?
10♦
3♦ You discover a cache of supplies or resources.
Summer is a time for production and tending to the Add a new Abundance.
earth. Start a project related to food production. or...
or... A Scarcity has gone unaddressed for too long!
Summer is a time for conquest and the gathering of might. Start a project that will alleviate that Scarcity.
Start a project related to military readiness and conquest.
J♦
4♦ Predators and bad omens are afoot. You are
The eldest among you dies. What caused the death? careless, and someone goes missing under ominous
or... circumstances. Who?
The eldest among you is very sick. Caring for them or...
and searching for a cure requires the help of the entire Predators and bad omens are afoot. What measures do
community. Do not reduce project dice this week. you take to keep everyone safe and under surveillance?
Do not reduce project dice this week.
5♦
A project finishes early. Q♦
What led to its early completion? A project finishes early. Which one? Why?
or...
The weather is nice and people can feel the potential all If there are no projects underway, boredom leads to a
around them. Start a new project. quarrel. A fight breaks out between two people.
What is it about?
6♦
Outsiders arrive in the area. Why are they a threat? K♦
How are they vulnerable? Summer is fleeting.
or...
Outsiders arrive in the area. How many? Discard the top two cards off the top of the deck and
How are they greeted? take two actions this week.

7♦
Introduce a mystery at the edge of the map.
or...
An unattended situation becomes problematic and scary.
What is it? How does it go awry?
 The Oracle: Autumn
A♣ 7♣
The community becomes obsessed with a single project. A project just isn’t working out as expected. Radically
Which one? Why? Choose one: change the nature of this project (don’t modify the
• They decide to take more time to ensure that it is project die). When it resolves, you’ll be responsible for
perfect. Add 3 weeks to the project die. telling the community how it went.
• They drop everything else to work on it. or...
All other projects fail. Something goes foul and supplies are ruined.
Add a new Scarcity.
If there are no projects underway,
add a Scarcity born of idleness. 8♣
Someone sabotages a project, and the project fails as a
2♣ result. Who did this? Why?
Someone returns to the community. Who? or...
Where were they? Someone is caught trying to sabotage the efforts of the
or... community. How does the community respond?
You find a body. Do people recognize who it is?
What happened? 9♣
The community works constantly, and as a result a
3♣ project finishes early.
Someone leaves the community after issuing a dire or...
warning. Who? What is the warning? A group goes out to explore the map more thoroughly,
or... and finds something that had been previously overlooked.
Someone issues a dire warning, and the community
leaps into action to avoid disaster. What is the warning?
Start a contentious project that relates to it.
10♣
Harvest is here and plentiful. Add an Abundance.
or...
4♣ Cold autumn winds drive out your enemies. Remove a
The strongest among you dies. What caused the death? threatening force from the map and the area.
or...
The weakest among you dies.
Who’s to blame for their death?
J♣
A project finishes early. Which one? Why?

5♣ If there are no projects underway, restlessness creates

The Parish arrives. Who are they? Why have they animosity, which leads to violence. Who gets hurt?
chosen your community, and for what?
or...
A small gang of marauders is making its way through
Q♣
Disease spreads through the community. Choose one:
local terrain. How many are there? What weapons do • You spend the week quarantining and treating the
they carry? disease. Project dice are not reduced this week.
• Nobody knows what to do about it. Add “Health and
6♣ Fertility” as a Scarcity.
Introduce a dark mystery among the members of the
community.
or...
K♣
A natural disaster strikes the area. Choose one:
Conflict flares up among community members, and as a • You focus on getting everyone to safety. Remove an
result, a project fails. Abundance and a project fails.
• You focus on protecting your supplies and hard work at
any cost. Several people die as a result.
 The Oracle: Winter
A♠ 7♠
Now is the time to conserve energy and resources. What is winter like in this area? How do community
A project fails, but gain an Abundance. members react to the weather?
or...
Now is the time for hurried labour and final efforts.
A project finishes early, but gain a Scarcity.
8♠
Winter is harsh, and desperation gives rise to fear
mongering. Choose one:
2♠ • Spend the week calming the masses and dispelling
A headstrong community member takes charge of the their violent sentiments. The week ends immediately.
community’s work efforts. A project fails, and then a •Declare war on someone or something. This counts as
different project finishes early. starting a project.
or...
A headstrong community member tries to take
control of the community. How are they prevented
9♠
Someone goes missing. They’re alone in the winter
from doing this? Due to the conflict, elements. Choose one:
project dice are not reduced this week. • The community organizes constant search parties and
eventually the person is found. Project dice are
3♠ not reduced this week.
Someone comes up with an ingenious solution to a big • No one ever hears from that person again.
problem, and as a result a project finishes early.
What was their idea?
or...
10♠
In preparation for the coming year, the community
Someone comes up with a plan to ensure safety begins a huge undertaking. Start a project that will take
and comfort during the coldest months. at least 5 weeks to complete.
Start a project related to this.

4♠ J♠
An infected outsider arrives, seeking amnesty. They have
All the animals and young children are crying and won’t some much-needed resources with them. Choose one:
stop. Hold a discussion about this, in addition • Welcome them into the community. Remove a Scarcity,
to your regular action for this week. but also introduce an infection into the community.
or... • Bar them from entry. What Scarcity could they have
A great atrocity is revealed. What is it? addressed? How does its need become more dire this
Who uncovers it? week?

5♠ Q♠
Winter elements destroy a food source. If this was your You see a good omen. What is it?
only food source, add a Scarcity.
or...
Winter elements leave everyone cold, tired, and K♠
miserable. Project dice are not reduced this week. The Frost Shepherds arrive.
The game is over.
6♠
The time has come to consolidate your efforts and your
borders. Projects located outside the settlement fail,
and all remaining projects are reduced by 2 this week.
or...
Someone finds a curious opportunity on the edge of the
map. Start a project related to this discovery.
Turn Summary Turn Summary
1. Play a Card 1. Play a Card
2. Adjust the Dice 2. Adjust the Dice
3. Take an Action 3. Take an Action
Discover Something New Discover Something New
Hold a Discussion Hold a Discussion
Start a Project Start a Project