The Quiet Year — Solo Playthrough and Journal Part 1

The Quiet Year defines itself as a "map game". In it, you narrate a year in the life of a post apocalyptic community of people — the twist being, you do it entirely with cartography. Their struggles, achievements, successes, everything; whatever happens to these people, it is represented, and ONLY represented, on a map.

I absolutely love the idea, a while it doesn't work perfectly as a solo game, I figured it would be a pretty great creative exercise to have a go at on a weekend.

I'm keeping a journal of choices and decisions as I go, and you, dear reader, can see the community rise and fall as I did.

Set Up And Prep

I like the idea of a coastal community, scratching out an existence after some end-of-the-world scenario. So, we have a land mass and a sea.

We then list the communities "Abundances" and "Scarcities"; 1 of the former, 3 of the latter, and represent each of them.

I'm into them having loads of fuel/energy/etc. but no real application of it, so I listed our Abundance as "energy". How? Coastal wind turbines. I drew some wind turbines in the sea, and a little power management/control station on the coast.

What is our community lacking? Proper housing and healthy food, for sure. They live in hollowed out machines of war — tanks, armoured vehicles, that sort of thing. And forage for what food they can. I added some bushes with flecks of colour to represent the berries, mushrooms, etc. they live off.

Hey, maybe some of the miscellaneous machines of war are futuristic? Like giant, dead mechs, jutting out of the landscape. I had a sudden flash of a sky scraper sized robot, stood completely still by the coast, seagulls flocking around it. Shit, I'm into that.

I draw a dead mech by the coast, and some armoured vehicles further inland. I add ropes, tarpaulins, details to make it feel like each has become a sort of broken campsite. I like the idea of the people naming the giant dead mech based on something they don't understand. A chipped serial code on the back of the mech reads "83-N" — so they call it Ben.

Last scarcity? I wanted something a bit different, abstract. Ooh; immunity. Idea — these people have literally been altered in some way that they easily give each other diseases. (Accidentally topical here, guys). What happened to them? Some kind of bio-weapon, stripping them of white blood cells or something? No idea. Guess we'll find out.

I represented immunity by moving the house/vehicles apart. They need each other, but they can't risk living near each other.

And that's the setup complete! We've got a community of people living inside hollowed-out tanks, armoured vehicles and a giant combat mech. They have all the energy they could ever need, but are stuck eating berries, fruit, and whatever they can forage for. What will happen to them next?

Season 1 — Spring

Week 1: Eight

And we're off! So, the community discovers an old piece of machinery, and it can be good or bad. I'm going to go with good — lets give these guys a bit of hope, shall we?

I draw an abandoned hospital towards the south of the map. Maybe they can use something here if one of their community gets hurt? Or maybe even discover why their immune systems have broken down? I added a colourful little truck to represent a ruined ambulance.

First action? Well, let's start a project — people from the community travel to the hospital and begin to inhabit it.

Week 2: Ace

Who has the highest status in the community? Hmm, perhaps the children, generally? Perhaps their immune systems aren't be affected by whatever happened to the adults? And therefore they are a ray of hope. I add a fenced area near a bronze statue to some forgotten hero, where the children are watched during the day. The adults take great care to watch over the children— they can't risk a single accident or injury.

I reduce the hospital project by 1, and take my action: something new is discovered. By the coast, below the cliffs — something large and metal has washed up…

Week 3 & 4: Four and Seven

Moving a little quicker, I do 2 weeks in 1.

Hmm, where IS the food kept? Well, its all stuff that perishes super quickly. Berries, mushrooms, bits of fruit. It's also all really sweet. I'm thinking it's just kept under the open sky, on some kind of platform, in a giant vat. But rats, seagulls, and other wildlife are always getting to it. I figure our community has repurposed a water storage structure and is keeping food in it.

My action? Let's get that food storage covered up. The community is spending a week adding tarpaulins over the vat.

And seven — natural predators roaming the area sounds just about right — that's why is so dangerous to travel to the hospital. What's worse — no one knows what these predators are. People are killed during the night, or when alone, and their bodies are never discovered…

I add this to the map by adding dotted lines between the areas our community visits, and adding crude red-triangle warning symbols to represent danger.

PLUS our projects get completed! The food storage gets covered up, finally — and people move into the hospital.

I think occupying the hospital is an achievement worth celebrating, so I decide to name the leader of the hospital group. Let's go with Alice.

To be continued…

Thanks so much for reading! I'm going to be continuing this, so be sure to check back or follow for updates.

Part 2 is up!

This was written and (badly) drawn entirely by me, @tombola.bsky.social.