The Quiet Year — Solo Playthrough and Journal Part 2

Following on from the first part, let's keep going through Spring.

Week 5: Three

Someone new arrives in the community… interesting.

I'm liking the idea of a complete outsider who knows something that the community doesn't. Hmm, maybe they were drawn by the object that washed up in Week 2.

I'm going to add a moored boat. Someone has arrived who knows what that metal is, and is doing experiments on it. I ended up drawing it kinda like an oil tanker, which I'm into as well. Who the hell are these guys? Guess we'll find out soon!

I'm going to skip my action this week: 2 new projects completed and random boats turning up is enough action for a while.

Week 6: Five

How old are the oldest members? Hmm, good question… Well, the natural answer is "not that old" because, well — everyone has a broken immune system and no food? Plus that's why the children are so important and need to be so strongly protected.

If people die young, through famine and disease, I'm going to say they can't even risk burying the bodies. The likelihood of infection is simply too high. I'm going to add burnt out funeral pyres to the top of the map. The closest this community gets to a tangible memorial.

For an action, I'm re-thinking of how important the children are again. I'm going to have the community discover a new, grounded mech and have the community refurbish it's gun turret. It would at least help defend against whatever the hell is killing people at night… I add a grounded mech with a gun turret near the nursery.

Week 7: Ten

There's another community on the map somewhere. Oh boy, it's perfect — more boats arrive. Who the hell are these lot? What do they want with the object that appeared on the shore?

A new project too — let's get some crops going. Our people are starving, and some workable crops would be so much better than having to manually forage across the whole land for scraps of fruit. I add some fields towards the north of the nursery, and mark it as 6. It's going to take a while to cultivate seeds, prepare the soil, etc.

Week 8: Jack

OK, a bit of good news, finally — a good omen. What could it be though? Maybe a break though at the hospital? I like the thought that the people living their, led by Alice, have been working on a cure for the immunity deficiencies. And their experiments are showing promising results! I add a little medical tent-thing near the hospital. Science!

I'll skip an action this week, and decrease our crop project by 1.

Week 9: Queen

And rounding out Spring, what is the most hideous in this area? I'm thinking we need more of a representation of death, to be honest. This is a group of people who don't have immune systems. AND they get stalked by unknown creatures at night who don't leave behind bodies.

Ooh, wait! That! They find a body. Oh man, and it's something horrific. They find a corpse in the ocean, strapped to a buoy. It's bloody, mangled, half eaten. How did it get out there? Why did the predator leave some of it behind? Questions questions questions!

Something new that our community discovers? I'm thinking some kind of hint of the night time predators. Maybe a den, or a nest? I add a sort of burrow to the East, near the cliff.

Spring Wrap-Up

And that's it for Spring! Wow, I can't believe how much you get from The Quiet Year prompts.

To summarise;

We've got a group of survivors living near each other after some unexplained, apocalyptic scenario took place. They live by the coast, and have a functioning system of coastal wind turbines for energy. Not that they have a lot of use for it…

Whatever happened left our survivors without immune systems, so they stay separated to avoid risk of cross-infection. They live inside hollowed out tanks and combat mechs. They live off foraging for berries, mushrooms and fruit.

A group of survivors found a hospital, and moved in. They've been working on a cure for whatever it is that's afflicting them, as best they can.

Then, out of nowhere, something washed up on the shore. Quickly followed by a series of ships and vessels. What is it, who are these people, and what do they want?

All of this, AND the survivors are dealing with some unknown threat that kills and eats them at night. They usually don't find bodies, but one has just been found… tied to a buoy out at sea. What!?

Thanks for reading! I'm having a ton of fun with this, The Quiet Year is proving to be as great as I thought it'd be.

Summer next! I'm genuinely curious as to whats in store for our community as we head further into the year…

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