Kol Noth: The Quiet Year of Turris, pt 1
A Solo Playthrough of The Quiet Year, Spring to Summer
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Last time, I played Microscope to detail the rise and fall of the empire of Ledera:
Now, I turn my attention to a different area of Kol Noth. At the end of the First Era, Turris was a thriving trading settlement on the southern coast of the northern continent, Shamal. The lower class had recently overthrown the ruling class, rising up and casting out the nobility and the wealthy.
Here is where we will play The Quiet Year. The opening story of The Quiet Year begins like this:
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.
So, how do we reconcile this opening with what we know of Turris? Here’s what I think.
After the revolution, the nobles and the merchants did not go quietly. They hired a mercenary force known as The Jackals and went to war to take back the city. We were at war for a long time, but eventually, they’ve been driven off. The bounty not worth continuing to fight.
We have a year. A year before the prophesied Frost Shepherds arrive. The prophesy is so old, nobody alive knows who wrote it or why, only that it is supposed to come to pass this Winter. Many don’t believe it. Regardless, we have a year to rebuild.
Generally, TQY is a gm-less game played with a group. You take turns establishing things on the map, addressing prompts from the cards, beginning and advancing projects, discovering new things on the land, and holding community discussions.
To start, you each draw something on the map. Considering I’m playing solo and using a semi-established land already, I’m going to draw in the mountains, the lake, the river, the ocean and the initial town community.
Then, as a group, you each name a resource that could either be an abundance or a scarcity. I’m going to go with three.
-Trade: This was once a thriving trading port-town and can be again.
-Food: With the river and ocean, I could see fish being an abundance.
-Safety: After the war, I could see safety being an important issue.
You then choose one resource as an abundance, while the others are scarcities. I choose Food to be abdundant.
I then have to draw something to show each of these. Here is the starting map after all that:
(I’m using the roll20 module for The Quiet Year)
You can see an abundance of fish, the X by the boat means a lack of trade because other communities are wary of trading with us after our war with The Jackals. There are two wolves by the community to represent a scarcity of safety.
Now, I begin taking turns by drawing the Spring (Heart) cards, addressing the prompt, and making a choice of either: Discover Something New, Start a Project, or Have a Discussion.
(I’m going to play by the shorter rules, which takes 4 cards out of each season.)
Turn 1 → 10 of Hearts
After the revolution and the war, there is a belief in Turris that no one member should own much more than any other member. In practice, this means when one member has more, they share it with others.
Start a Project: Build Walls (6 turns)
The community decides we need to repair, rebuild and reinforce our walls for protection from dangerous animals.
Turn 2 → King of Hearts
An old man, Nekun, confesses to the community that he had passed information to The Jackals leading to the deaths of many during the war.
Advance Projects. Build Walls (5)
Have a Discussion
The Community meets. “What should be done with Nekun?”
“Kill him and be done with it! He got many of us killed!”
“We don’t do that here. This place has got to be different than it was before.”
“Banish him. He can’t be allowed to stay.”
“Let the past be the past. He has suffered for his crime already.”
Importantly, there is no cross-talk during a discussion. Each player says their piece and there is no final decision. Players can then take the information when they take their turns if they wish to.
Turn 3 → 9 of Hearts
A bright young woman, Tessa, has an idea and gets many to support it. She wants to go to the mountains and see if there’s a way through, and what’s on the other side. Some in the community think it is a foolish waste of resources (Contempt).
When playing as a group, taking Contempt is a way to show you disagree with what a current player is doing with their turn. I’ll just use it to show when the community disagrees about a course of action.
Start a project: Scout the nearby mountains (6)
Advance Projects: Build Walls(4)
Discover Something New
Reports come from a scouting party from north of the lake, where a great black tomb sits, ancient and foreboding. Anyone who goes near gets a bad feeling.
Turn 4 → 6 of Hearts
The children of the community are raised and taken care of by a group of those who volunteer, but it’s expected that any adult will care for any child when in need. All pitch in. The children play, learn and do work that’s appropriate for their age and skills.
Advance Projects: Walls(3), Scout Mountains(5)
Start a Project: Build boats(4)
The community agrees to build boats in order to set up connections with other societies across the water to try to build up trade.
Turn 5 → 8 of Hearts
A black, metallic piece of some kind of machine is found. Rumors spread that it must have been from the dark sorcerer and his people who long ago passed through here and who built the dark tomb beyond the lake. The community burns it in a big bonfire. Some of the flames are black and the smell is wrong. The piece melts into a black ooze that is eventually buried underneath soil.
Advance Projects
Hold a Discussion
The community holds a meeting.
“We should explore the dark tomb. There may be riches and treasure there, things we can use for trade.”
“Are you mad? There is dark magic there. We should stay away.”
“Those who built it have been dead for centuries. We should at least take a look.”
“We will bring doom upon us all should we meddle there.”
Turn 6 → 5 of Hearts
The legend some of the community speaks of is that of a dark sorcerer of Saiwa, an ancient empire that used dark magic. It fell in a war against Ledera. The dark sorcerers fled north, some establishing the community of Hiesten, at the northern tip of the eastern continent, but one sorcerer, the most powerful of them, took his worshippers further north, across the water, to the northern continent, when the north was still frozen. It is said he conducted dark rituals to make himself immortal and his believers built him a great tomb.
Advance Projects
Discover Something New
There is a deep, dark forest to the north.
Turn 7 → Ace of Hearts
The Rengen have the highest status of any group in the community. They hunt, scout, and protect. It is difficult to become one, having to train many months, even years and prove your capabilities to the other Rengen.
Advance Projects: Walls finish!
When a project finishes, the player(me) who started it describes what happens.
With the wooden walls complete, the community feels safer than before.
Safety is no longer a scarcity, but not an abundance.
Start a Project: Scout around the Tomb (4)
Enough members of the community become convinced it is worth scouting out the tomb to the north of the lake. The first step is to scout the area.
Turn 8 → Q of Hearts
The most hideous thing in this area is the tomb. It’s huge, the size of a hill, pyramid in shape with a flat top. Black blocks of stone stacked up, a blemish upon the landscape. Grass does not grow around it. Most animals stay away from it.
Advance Projects: Building Boats completes
The community finishes building boats, so it can now send them out to renew relationships with other communities.
Start a Project: Make Contact with other communities (3)
The community sends ships out to make contact.
Turn 9 → 7 of Hearts
The natural predators in the area are wolves, coyotes and bears. Sometimes, people claim to see larger versions of these, such as dire wolves, but they’ve never been proven. Same with those who claim there are darker versions of these creatures, with black fur and red eyes. The community is mostly safe, however, with its walls, as the creatures tend to stay away.
Advance Projects: Scouting the mountain completes
Tessa returns from her scouting expedition with news she’s found a mountain pass that leads through the mountains.
Discover Something New
Tessa reports beyond the mountains it the ruins of a large city, of an ancient civilization.
Members of the community notice it’s gotten hotter of late, with longer days.
Spring is over. Summer has arrived.
Turn 10 → Ace of Diamonds
A group within Turris reveal themselves as having magical abilities, descendants from the worshippers who came long before. They demand to have equal rights and protection as any other citizens and claim to have no dark intentions or anything to do with the ancient sorcerer from the legend.
Projects Advance
Hold a Discussion: How do we respond to these people with magical abilities, these descendants of worshippers?
“They are right. The dark sorcerer is from centuries ago. These people have no connection and deserve to be treated with respect.”
“What if they’re lying? They only revealed themselves now, which means they’ve been lying to us this whole time. How can we trust them?”
“Burn them at the stake. You know what the empire of Ledera does to magic users? They do it for a reason.”
“Magic could help our community and these are our friends, our loved ones.”
Turn 11 → 2 of Diamonds
Tessa leaves the community, unwilling to wait any longer, heading for the ruined city to explore on her own. She promises to return with knowledge and treasure.
Projects Advance: Scout the Tomb + Contact communities finish
A group of Rengen return from scouting the area around the tomb. As far as they could tell, it is abandoned, with nobody around. The air around the tomb smells foul and beast nor bird goes near, save for dark creatures with red eyes. They say entering the tomb is possible, but dangerous.
Ships return from seeking out other communities including Hiesten, New Rivera, and even Witu. They are open to developing trade, if the seas are safe from The Jackals.
Start a Project: Explore the tomb (6)
The community, despite some disagreements, sends a party of Rengen to explore the Tomb to see what they can find.
Turn 12 → 8 of Diamonds
An old hunter named Rhodri decides the forest to the north needs to be cleared of the dangerous animals and begins a foolish Project to gather hunters and go clear it.
Projects Advance
Discover Something New
A Rengen who ventured far north returns with word of a frozen tundra stretching out across the horizon.
Turn 13 → Jack of Diamonds
There are sightings of black wolves with red eyes near the town, and young man, Alban, goes missing. Nobody knows where he is.
Projects Advance
Start a project: Search Party for Alban (2)
The community assembles a search party to look for Alban.
Turn 14 → 3 of Diamonds
Concerned with the over-reliance on fish for food, a group of community members begin farming the land. Project: Farms(4)
Projects Advance
Start a Project: Develop Trade With Other Communities (6)
Now that contact has been established with other places, it is time to develop trade agreements and establish strong connections to these places.
Turn 15 → 9 of Diamonds
Either a Project Fails, or there’s a new Scarcity…
Rhodri is forced to abandon his Project to clear the forests of dangerous beasts. There are too many, and the community loses lives in the foolish attempt.
Projects Advance. The search party for Alban ends.
At this point, I’m going to introduce an element of randomness to the outcome of a Project. In the game, it’s up to the player who started it to decide if it’s successful or not, but, playing solo, I’d like to introduce some outside input. I also just like rolling dice! I’ll go with BITD rules, 2d6, + or - depending on context, 7-9 = Partial Success, 10+ = Full Success. Not sure if I’ll care about Partial or Full, but we’ll see what happens.
Search Party: 2d6 + 1 = 8
Alban is found, barely alive. He got into a scrape with one of the creatures, wounded but alive. He’s brought back to the community and welcomed home.
Hold a Discussion: What to do about these dangerous creatures?
“We need to be able to expand and these creatures are making it difficult.”
“We need weapons and armor, not to mention fighters.”
“We should send a group to the ruined city Tessa spoke of. Could be supplies there we could use.”
“We could use magic…There are still those in our community with that ability.”
Turn 16 → 7 of Diamonds
There is a mystery in the frozen north. The Rengen who go that far come back with strange tales. A darkness on the horizon, even on the brightest of days. A black cloud, or smudge. Sometimes it grows in size. Sometimes it moves.
Projects Advance
Start a Project: Train Magic Users (4)
Those in the community who can do magic decide to work together to grow their power, their skills, in order to help protect the community. Some grumble this is a bad idea, and the empire of Ledera would not like it, but the empire of Ledera is far away.
Turn 17 → 5 of Diamonds
The magic users find a connection to the land, quickly growing skillful and capable with their powers, the project finishing incredibly quickly. They call themselves the Deru.
Projects Advance. Exploring the tomb completes.
2d6-1 = 7
The Rengen return from the Tomb with mixed results. They entered and scouted what they could, but lost members in the process. They return with strange, dark artifacts and a good amount of treasure.
Start a Project: Expedition to the Ruined City beyond the mountains(6)
A group is assembled to range beyond the mountains to the ruined city. It is hoped they will find supplies, weapons, armor, and Tess, who has yet to return.
A cold wind blows, making people shiver.
Summer is over. Autumn has arrived.
The current map of Turris and the surrounding area. I’m happy with how it’s going, though I probably would’ve introduced the dice rolling mechanic from the start, if I was going to play this solo again. It’s probably hard to decipher which drawings match which events, best of luck in figuring it out! That can be a fun little puzzle.
It’s fun to use what I’ve already created in previous games (Foundation, Microscope), to inform some of the decisions, lore, etc. in this one. I’m building more and more lore in this world, which is very satisfying. Not sure what I’ll do with it all but the process is fun and that’s what matters.
Thanks for reading. Let me know your thoughts.
Next week will be part 2, Autumn and Winter. We will see how Turris fares when the Frost Giants arrive…
I quite enjoyed watching this come alive, it’s quite intriguing and fun to see how it develops!