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[The Quiet Year] Autumn Clubbing
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Despite what my original rules posting said, I'm declaring now that turn order will only matter for me drawing cards. It isn't necessary for Holding a Discussion or deciding a project duration, it only matters that everyone gets a say, or at minimum, hits an agree on a statement/idea they support. When I see that everyone has done one of those two things, regardless of the order, I'll move us on. This should hopefully be a bit friendlier to people contributing when they can, not at a 'specific time'.
Edit: Except if the player who intiated asked a question rather than issued a statement, then they go First and Last in a discussion
Maybe just tag everyone when a discussion is up so they know they can contribute.
PSN: TheBrayster_92
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
PSN: TheBrayster_92
We should bring the brewing under the auspices of the Overseers and establish a more formal method of King Fu training that purifies mind and body. And gives the kids something else to do.
Resources:
Wrecking Yard Expedition: 2
Contempt:
None
@Endless_Serpents , you draw Nine of Hearts! Your choice is as follows:
A charismatic young girl convinces many to help her
with an elaborate scheme. What is it? Who joins her
endeavors? Start a project to reflect.
OR
A charismatic young girl tries to tempt many into
sinful or dangerous activity. Why does she do this?
How does the community respond?
PSN: TheBrayster_92
Why does she do this?
How does the community respond?
Twig, daughter of a craftsman of little renown, feels that those not associated with the Overseers or kung fu are second class citizens. Without influence or protection they can be preyed upon.
She has invented a fighting style based on the movements of river birds, Closing Wing, and held lessons in secret at night, mainly for women and men ‘too weak’ for the community’s style (Salt Fist).
The community responds with a duel. The loser submits to the other, becoming their student, with the superior style taking what is useful from the other and discarding what is not. Twig versus Master Diesel.
Action: Discussion.
Who wins?
PSN: TheBrayster_92
Her charge is taking those without purpose and training them.
If she loses, she proves what is worst in us all, and if she manages to stand her ground, then both our morals and our Kung Fu are weak.
The third time, she lasts longer against the master before, yet again, being thrown. And she sets up for a fourth attempt.
The crowd, which had begun to disperse after the second fall, begins to reform.
Some in the crowd begin to grumble about not knowing when one is beaten and refusing to accept their defeat. Salt Fist is clearly the superior style.
Others in the crowd begin to murmur excitedly about refusing to accept defeat and persevering. Closing Wing is clearly the superior style.
The duel lasts from sunrise to sunset, with Twig returning to the center of the ring after each fall.
As the sun falls below the horizon, she throws Master Diesel.
The crowd argues about who the winner is.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
PSN: TheBrayster_92
Resources:
Projects:
Wrecking Yard Expedition: 1
Contempt:
None
@Nips , you draw the Queen of Hearts! Your choice is as follows:
What’s the most beautiful thing in this area?
OR
What’s the most hideous thing in this area?
PSN: TheBrayster_92
PSN: TheBrayster_92
Perhaps we might need to start a long-term, multi-stage Project to do so.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
East across the river, about a half-day's walk, a field of sharp and irregular metal rods rises from the crust of the salt desert. Like the back of some spiny ground animal its footprint is rounded and its silhouette rises in a gentle dome of ever-denser and taller protrusions toward its center. Its shape, at a distance, is not itself entirely unpleasant. As a traveler gets closer, however, their unease will begin to set in for impaled on those innumerable spines are the corpses of the long-dead; some travelers, some former residents of nearby failed settlements, many of unknown providence. Their ragged bones and sun-baked flesh-leather hang in droves from the spines of this visible sepulcher.
Worse still, is the smell. No one is sure how or why, but the odor even a few hundred feet from the grisly display becomes noxious. On days where the wind blows just right a faint scent of death can be detected as far as our settlement. The Overseers had previously declared this place off limits, but whispers among curious youths say they've seen motion in the metal brambles; the Overseers, of course, attribute this to too much numaize beer.
Action: Start a Project
With the victory of Twig invigorating the townsfolk, those young and old pitch in to establish a new dojo. A space is cleared at the edge of the settlement, the crusty earth beaten into smooth and uniform submission. The plan forms for an open-framed roofed walkway surrounding the center square, giving observant pupils shade while the masters demonstrate techniques under the clear sight of the sky. Future disciples begin to haul materials from the wreck yard, and tools bang on steel to straighten it into the forms required.
I propose this project will take three weeks, and then after will allow for further projects to train the settlement to address our Kung-Fu Scarcity.
Also, the aesthetics of this image are probably all wrong, given that we're in a desert and working with wreck steel and probably aren't in a strictly Asian setting, but who knows? I sure don't. We got a weird blend of aesthetics going on here so far.
We could probably move faster if we repurposed someone's house, or some other building.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
PSN: TheBrayster_92
(Is that at Twig's house, or at a/the new location?)
Removed icon for completed wrecking yard project.
Added icon for 'Hideous Monument' (Again, forgive the liberty, I picked the closest thing to represent).
Added Dojo outline, and flag icon for associated project.
Resources:
Projects:
Wrecking Yard Expedition: Complete!
Dojo Construction: 3
Contempt:
None
@Elvenshae , you draw the Eight of Hearts! Your choice is as follows:
An old piece of machinery is discovered, broken but perhaps repairable.
What is it?
What would it be useful for?
OR
An old piece of machinery is discovered, cursed and dangerous.
How does the community destroy it?
PSN: TheBrayster_92
A child, digging alone in the saltsands to the northwest of the village after having wandered off from her playgroup, uncovers something unusual, and runs to fetch one of the Overseers. The Overseer humors the lass, and returns shortly thereafter to gather a team with digging tools. Working quickly, they uncover a boxy metallic shape, not unlike those found in the Wrecking Yard. It is the first one found this close to the village!
The vehicle is completely (?) useless, but inside is a wheeled bed that can raise or lower. A small silver and white box is strapped to the wall near it, with strange cables and patches dangling from it, many rotted from the drying effects of the saltsands. It pops from the wall when a latch is pressed, and several lights on it dimly, and briefly, glow before sputtering out. The actual use of the new device is uncertain, but it carries markings similar to those on the outside of the vehicle: an upturned or forward facing moon, resting symbolically on top of a short handle with a crossguard - possibly a glyph of some religious significance from the beforetimes.
A careful study of the artefact will be necessary if its full uses are to be determined.
Later in the week, the expedition to the Wrecking Yard returns carrying a full load of scavenged equipment. The raiders that sometimes plague the journey were nowhere to be seen, and the worst that happened was a twisted ankle scrabbling across the broken ground. Although the leader of the expedition was tempted to stay longer and venture deeper into the Wrecking Yard, she instead decided to take advantage of the team's good luck and bring everyone home safely.
The game seems a little intentionally thin on the mechanics, and I've never played before, so can I just declare that the results of the Expedition were that we now have a Scant resource of "bits, bobs, screws, and other assorted materiel"? Or is that updating our Technology resource to "Somewhat Abundant"? Is that a thing that exists? Do I need to put it to a vote? Do I just declare it and anyone who doesn't like it takes Contempt? Don't want to mess anything up.
Also, I Discover Something New: A collection of small, rodentlike animals has been seen making a colony in the walls of a small defile, to the south, across the arroyo. Although they tend to skittishly flee from any villager that gets too close, they can be observed from a distance as they range out from their holes and return with food. Their cavorting and chirruping noises have been declared "cute" by several of the children of the village. It remains to be seen if they will be a threat to the numaize fields.
Also, I'm having kind of a shit day for various reasons. Apologies.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
The answer to the vast majority of what you've asked is: If that's what you want to do.
You are in 100% control of the narrative on your turn, so what you say, goes. As you say, that is what Contempt is there for - a way for players to show that 'their' side of the community isn't happy with what 'your' side is doing, or feel they've been ignored (like saying 'yes' in a discussion but then you declare 'no').
In the specific case of a project clearing on your turn - it's easiest just to declare it. You found a thing - the disapproval of the rest of the community won't change the nature of the thing nor the fact that, well, you found it, for example. When it comes to resources, you have a choice; You can either flip a resource from scarce to abundant (or vice versa), or else create a new resource to add to the list. In this particular case I myself would proabably just flip Technology to 'Abundant', but I'm not going to tell you what you found, if you decide you want to take it another direction, like say introducing 'Components/Tools' as a new resource.
PSN: TheBrayster_92
As we use up the tools and supplies and spare wires, it'll degrade back to scarce.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
Added 'dot' marker for new machinery
Added X marker for 'Rodents'.
Resources:
Projects:
Dojo Construction: 2
Contempt:
None
@discrider , you draw the Three of Hearts! Your choice is as follows:
Someone new arrives.
Who?
OR
Two of the community’s younger members get into a fight.
What provoked them?
PSN: TheBrayster_92
Ah
I missed where the rodents came from, as they came under the bar in the post, and I blanked them out somehow.
Sorry Elvenshae
Also, it's worth quoting from the rules here: under Updating Resources it says "Maybe the completion of a project alleviates a Scarcity or creates an Abundance." (Emphasis mine) Which to me reads that you can remove the hinderance of a Scarcity in the span of one project, or you can elevate a resource to the level of a widespread boon in Abundance, but not necessarily both. Again, I think this depends on the particular Resource and its narrative breadth and impact and the length of Project(s) put into it.
In my mind, it's also worth considering that anything we haven't expressly listed as a resource is just available, in the background, at a level that neither widely hinders nor helps our community at large. For instance, in our case, Water seems like it would be important in the desert! But we've listed it neither as Scarce or Abundant, so I believe for our community everyone gets enough to drink and do the laundry, maybe going out of the way a bit to do so, but otherwise not have to think about it at every moment.
If this doesn't change anyone's minds about the current choice of flipping Technology from Scarcity to Abundance in one four-week project, and it stays this way, then I will take CONTEMPT. I don't think our community has done the work yet fully to consider it this drastic a change in state.
Or just introducing Componentry as a resource as Abundant
I had originally thought Technology represented usable tech and the knowledge behind it, rather than just, bits.
Still a broad resource though.
We can mess it up and run out and start casting blame later.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
With the resource mechanic, you do bring up a fair point. I've always treated it as 'Have enough not to worry/have so little as to worry' but there is merit in doing it in a three stage system, so we'll do that from now on.
With regards to the introduction of resources, I'm very well aware that the community isn't just going by with no food or water, for example. As you say, the resources listed are what the community explicitly worries about on the day-to-day. With my suggestion of introducing a new resource, I'm not just saying list it because the community previously didn't have it. I mean to list it because it might have become clear from context that, actually, the community does consciously care about this resource - there's an implication that the community has made more than one expedition to these wrecking yards - they clearly need whatever they find to make the effort!
If you still want a Contempt though, I can certainly update that.
PSN: TheBrayster_92
Who?
The weathered man is hauled before council.
He is not much to look at.
Thin and spindly, all too much dirt everywhere.
And discovered taking cuttings of the NuMaize uninvited.
"Please, you must let me study your crops!", he pleads, in front of the gathered elders and Overseers.
He introduces himself as Driscoll Shufflebottom, a geneticist?, farmer from before the fall.
He claims to have originally cultivated NuMaize, and from there it spread, eliminating hunger across the world.
He is clearly deranged.
Regardless, he claims to have an outpost some two weeks trek away, containing many artefacts from before the fall, and he is willing to lead us there in exchange for lodging within the village.
I propose to send a party out with Driscoll to retrieve whatever he may have found from the before-times.
This should take about 5 weeks, and should help our Historical Knowledge or perhaps our Farming Tech, if any of his wild NuMaize claims are true.
@Nips
@Endless_Serpents
@Elvenshae
Contempt for this project!!!