Team Members: Emily, Austin, Katherine, Dingqi, Chloe
We begin…
While meeting with our group for the first time, we settled on playtesting The Quiet Year, intrigued by the fact that it boasted being a DM/GM-less TTRPG. The simplicity of the game was enjoyable, allowing us to collaborate effectively and, when confused, define the games by our own terms. As we played through the game, we shaped our map while under the impression that The Frost Shepherd’s card would bring a violent end to our community. Appropriately, we spent many of our decisions fortifying our community.
The background story of The Quiet Year is read by the DM, who then continues to read the rules in a themed context. This helped establish an atmosphere within the game, ensuring that all players had a “narrator” of sorts to turn to when asking rules, helping bridge the gap between the rulebook and the game itself.
As the players engaged with the world-building of The Quiet Year, each card within The Quiet Year actually provided two possible favorite taste options of how the story goes on. For example, there is a card saying either the oldest resident in the village goes to die or the oldest resident in the village is sick. Even though both effects seem to be similar, they will drive two different story directions of the game. As a player draws these cards, they get to choose what they want to suit the present situation.
Towards the end, however, the game just shut down quickly without any perspective due to the Frost Shepherd card.
The Initial Idea…
Bouncing off of The Quiet Year, we knew we wanted to push our limits by sticking solely to games focused on cards. Through this method, it would allow us to 1). Focus on telling a compelling narrative only through hidden prompts and 2). Cut down significantly on the time it would take us to polish everything, meaning we would have more time to create, iterate, break, and repeat.
With this in mind, we presented what each member wanted to get out of this game. The common shared sentiment was that we wanted to create an experience, as all of us were inspired by the fluidity and creativity that The Quiet Year fostered. However, we wanted more concrete development in the story itself, and we didn’t want to utilize any “resource” mechanics, as we found them to be disregarded as we progressed throughout the game. While many themes were suggested, ranging from steampunk-esque landscapes to dating simulations, Emily suggested a fantastic framework that we all quickly took to: regency era courting.
While excited about the concept of the game, our team struggled with physically drafting ideas. Over the course of two meetings we presented dozens of ideas. First we wanted a singular ball and rumor mechanics, similar to the card styles of Cards Against Humanity. Then we moved to a multitude of balls and downtime, each facilitated by a different player. We experimented with ideas from Fiasco, envisioning using object and relationship cards to help foster communication and tie players together. After multiple hours of ideating, we all went home exhausted and no further than we had started. Some members got sick, we moved to an online format, and we continued throwing things out to see if anything would stick. Still, we struggled with drafting one idea that we all felt really passionate about.
Our idea began with a Cards Against Humanity style rumor mechanic, that would then evolve over the course of multiple balls. The objective was to earn “tokens of affection”, signifying that suitors were pursuing your family’s heir. Within periods of downtime, the story was suposed to take shape, but we couldn’t properly format what that was supposed to look like.
While it felt like a fun game, it proved very restrictive for RPG-style playing. It also didn’t meet our expectations we drew from The Quiet Year. The Quiet Year had the epic feel of a chronicle record. Also, the players can draw and write their ideas and thoughts on a piece of blank paper, giving the satisfaction of making a community together. However, the regency era courting game revolves around themes of competition between players.
Reshifting and Redesigning…
Understanding that we were struggling, we shifted our idea to focus on the player agency given when told that players could physically contribute to a larger whole when it was their turn. Along those lines, we debated taking our regency theme, and instead expanding it through the narrative lens of family trees. Our “Aha!” moment suddenly appeared when we looked back to Dingqi’s suggestion about the game spanning a lifetime. Turning to Life tiles for inspiration, we decided to craft a story encapsulating generations.
New idea in mind, we created our first iteration of the game. The length of the game would be modified according to how many players were present around the table. The game itself would be one massive family tree, each being crafted by the personalities of the players. After choosing a name for your family, you would roll for the amount of in-town relatives. To progress the game, each individual would get to choose from three piles of cards, respectively titled “Development”, “Event”, or “Introduction”. These cards would then provide prompts to the players to shape the lineage as they see fit, altering the family tree accordingly. This serves as the entire structure for the game, ending when 2 of the card piles run out. While we still hope to develop the game out further, either experimenting with broader event cards or a set end condition, we are satisfied with the simple, DM-less nature of the game, and hope that by observing others play it, will gain a better understanding of how to build upon a solid foundation.
Moving Forward…
Our group feels confident since we have changed our direction! With our new idea in mind, we have had a lot of fun helping write prompts that guide the player and serve to be interactive, while also ensuring they create something unique at the end of their experience. We are looking to ad more interactivity as we push further into the week, but we feel our drafted cards hold promise.
