The Quiet Year: Crayfish

YOU CAN'T CUT FUNDING: YOU WILL REGRET THISThe Quiet Year is not exactly a role playing game, but after I saw its great IndieGoGo promotional video, I knew I had to give the game a shot. Recently the stars finally aligned so that we could give the game a try. As you will hear, we created a fairly unique narrative for a small village struggling to survive in a post-apocalyptic world, after an event called “The Great Separation.” Since the game only allows for up to four players, we’ll have to do at least one more game with the other members of the RPPR crew.

Since the map is a central element of the game, I’ve created a PDF of it that you can download. Check it out!

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29 Comments

  1. Stoked to hear this game playthrough. Thanks RPPR!

  2. Oh wow, that was amazing. Just picked this game up last week, so I can’t wait to get to play it myself.

    Hope you end up running an RPG session or more based on this madness.

  3. Welp, guess I’m going to be buying a new game.

  4. What was the book that Caleb said this reminded him i think it was called the deep

  5. Why must David and Bill sound so awesome!
    But never be in games together.
    And why do I always mix them up!

  6. @fade: I think Caleb was referring to The Descent by Jeff Long, but I could be mistaken. There’s a pretty fucked-up film based on it.

  7. Scratch that, the film is not based on the book, but they share similar elements.

  8. Yeah, it was the descent. The sequel ( also horrifying) is called the deep. Jeff Long is the bomb for creepy genre thrillers.

  9. This was a great session. Your GMless games are always fantastic listening.

  10. cool! I bet this is one of those games like Fiasco that just gets better the more time you spend with it. and it wouldn’t be too hard to generate your own questionsets, either: just have each player gen three choices for each season, and one extra for one season. could keep it fresh forever! I was a little unclear on what the Contempt Tokens were doing, though.

  11. Same here crawkill. I didn’t know if u could use them for something.

  12. The contempt tokens are there merely to show how past contentions and displeasure is represented in the community. If you feel you weren’t consulted or honoured in the decision making process, you can take a piece of content, and same goes if someone starts a project you disagree with (for example; you want to find out what fruits are in the forest, but another player says that the forest is cursed and starts a project to cut it down).

    They don’t have a real numerical value one might be used to when playing RPGs and boardgames. They just serve to show the tensions in the community. As the game ends, maybe there’s so much contempt in the community that they tear each other apart just as much as the Frost Shepherds will? It’s up to you.

  13. This is the first Actual Play I’ve listened to. I’ve never played a tabletop RPG before but I really liked how this game worked out. I keep looking at the store page and the “Add to Cart” button. I hope you’ll revisit it at a later date, I’d like to see how things go differently a second time.

  14. I listened to the first half of this podcast and bought the PDF. I ran a game for some friends tonight (I held onto the mythical Tome of Knowledge while the 4 of them tried it out) and just ordered the print version with the cards. An excellent find!

  15. it’s so cool to hear products proliferate thanks to RPPR, even if only a little.

  16. I’ve always believed that the point of playing a game is to have fun. Winning or losing isn’t as important as enjoying the play from start to finish.

    This was fun. I don’t know if the fun came from the game or from the three wonderful gentlemen I shared the table with, or if it’s the combination of both. Either way, though, I’m glad to see that the fun’s there for those who listen to us, too. 🙂

    @crawlkill, I agree wholeheartedly.

  17. Another person who bought the game due to you guys here!

    Did anyone else feel like discussions should do something more mechanically, or there should be more of an incentive to use them? I can see what they’re supposed to do and how they can be interesting, but discovering things and starting projects seem like they do a lot more overall.

  18. Just throwing this out there, but what if the follow up game that you guys talked about was done in A Dirty World? I don’t know why, but for some reason my mind went to that system when the follow up game was suggested.

    Also bought the PDF after listening to this game.

  19. This is like dwarf fortresswith 4 players great!!!!

  20. Loved the crayfish. And Caleb’s line:

    “They’re coming…And they’re cray-cray.”

  21. After listening to this session, i knew i had to have this game, so i just finished buying it, and plan to play a session with some people later tonight using the pdf i got with it.

  22. Just bought the game based on the playthrough and I will be running it for my group this week.

  23. I’d really like to see you guys do what was suggested in the podcast and play a game of this followed by a roleplaying game within the world you made

  24. I’m not sure which of these would have been out sooner, but this REALLY firmly reminds me of the Indie computer game, The Yawgh. In that game, you pick 2-4 characters in a medieval kingdom. From there, you have 6 weeks of activity, with each player getting a turn each week. With that time, you can have your characters go all over town to do various things which build up stats. At the end of the six weeks, The Yawgh shows up and without explaining anything, your players awaken to a destroyed home. Your players then use what they learned to help the other survivors rebuild – or they fail in the task.

    This game has a lot of heavy parallels to The Yawgh, which appeals to me. I would love to see the group play this game some more to see what different towns come to.

  25. This was a really cool, really unusual session. I think I’ll also be picking up a copy for a low-prep night with my group.

    I’d likewise love to see it used as a campaign (or at least session) generator for another game. Maybe the PCs are the Frost Shepherds? Maybe they just have to rebuild afterwards. I could see the follow-up being run in Apocalypse World, of course, but it could be equally interestingly in Hillfolk/DramaSystem or Dirty World like Review Cutlist said.

    It was awesome seeing everyone collaborate even as the story wound up going in odd directions. And the map is just lovely as a relic of the game.

  26. Anyone know where I can get my hands on the playing cards? ( I am in Australia)

    Thanks!

  27. Aargh…. Someone was playing with a counter/token of some kind, tapping and spinning it on a hard noisy surface, for at least the second half of the session – incredibly irritating and distracting, couldn’t ever make myself listen to that again.

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