The Quiet Year
The Quiet Year is Avery Alder's GM-less map game for 2-4 players. Over 52 card-driven weeks, players draw a post-collapse community onto a shared map, discover new things, start projects and hold tightly structured discussions, while Contempt Tokens show discord, until the Frost Shepherds arrive. Winner of Most Innovative Game at the 2013 Indie RPG Awards.
Post-apocalyptic map game • GM-less • 2-4 players • Card-driven seasons • Rules-lite • No prep • One 3-4h session
The Quiet Year is one of the best-known GM-less map games: two to four players draw a post-collapse community onto a shared map, week by week, and tell the story of the year before the Frost Shepherds arrive. It is ideal for a single evening of thoughtful, collaborative worldbuilding, as an icebreaker, or as a way to build a setting for a longer campaign in another game.
It is not for groups who want to play individual characters, win, fight or follow a plot. There are no character sheets, no GM and no victory condition, and the rules deliberately restrict discussion, which some players find fascinating and others find frustrating.
What the game is
The Quiet Year is a map game designed and written by Avery Alder, published by Buried Without Ceremony, with design insights from Jackson Tegu and illustrations by Ariel Norris. The publisher describes it as "part roleplaying game, part cartographic poetry". Players do not portray characters; together they voice a community of roughly 80 people living after the collapse of civilization, and they make decisions as that community under dwindling time and rising concern.
Publication history and editions
The game was first released in 2013. The current iteration dates from 2019 and comes in a small kraft box with a 32-page booklet, a deck of game cards, a turn summary card, six small dice and sixteen skull-shaped Contempt Tokens, plus the PDF. The PDF is also sold on its own with everything you need to print and play, and the card text is available online through the publisher's Oracle. Earlier editions could be played with a standard deck of playing cards and the printed oracle.
What you need to play
You need the booklet and deck (or the PDF and a standard 52-card deck), a large sheet of paper, pencils, a few six-sided dice to track projects, and tokens for contempt. A full game takes three to four hours; the rules include a shorter variant that cuts the deck in half. The publisher rates it for ages 12 and up.
Supplements and related games
Charted Areas, made with cartographer Tony Dowler, gives pre-drawn starting areas that are especially useful in short convention games. The Deep Forest, a free re-imagining of The Quiet Year by the same publisher, is a post-colonial weird fantasy map game centered on monstrosity and decolonization. The Quiet Year's structure has also inspired many fan hacks and other map-drawing games.
Core rules and play structure
Setup is quick. Each player draws one feature onto the map, then everyone names one resource, such as drinking water, weapons, children or joy. All but one are marked scarce; the last is abundant.
Play is strictly turn-based. Each card is one week of the year, and the deck is divided by season: Spring asks questions about the community, Summer adds nuance, Autumn brings decay and strife, and Winter is the most unpredictable. On your turn you draw a card and answer its prompt, which often offers a choice between two outcomes. Then you take one action:
- Discover something new: add a new place, group or resource to the map.
- Hold a discussion: raise an issue, and each other player says one thing in turn, with no back-and-forth replies.
- Start a project: the community builds or repairs something, and a die on the map counts down the one to six weeks it takes.
The game ends when the King of Spades is drawn and the Frost Shepherds arrive, which can happen at any point in Winter.
Signature mechanics
Contempt Tokens are the game's most discussed idea. When a decision goes a way you dislike, you take a token and place it in front of you; you can spend one to act selfishly, and you can discard tokens when you feel better about things. They have no other mechanical effect, but they make tension in the community, and at the table, visible.
The tightly structured discussions, where nobody can reply directly, simulate how frustrating community decision-making can be. The rule against writing on the map keeps it a shared picture rather than a list of labels. Seasons give the year a four-act shape without anyone acting as GM.
What play feels like
A game feels reflective and slow-burning. Early weeks are full of small, hopeful details, such as a garden, a lookout tower or a leadership council. By Autumn, shortages, strangers and rivalries pile up, projects stall, and contempt tokens appear. The map ends up covered in symbols that each carry a story. Many groups remember particular moments, such as a community deciding what role its children should play.
Running the game
There is no GM. Someone should read the booklet beforehand and explain the turn structure, and the group should agree to keep discussions to the strict format. Because the rules leave a lot of interpretation to players, such as what counts as a discovery, it helps to agree on tone before you start: grounded and bittersweet, or strange and dark.
Campaign fit
The Quiet Year is a complete one-session game. It is also widely used to build a setting before a longer campaign in another system: the finished map, factions and history make a ready-made starting point for D&D, Apocalypse World or any post-apocalyptic game.
Reception and awards
The Quiet Year won Most Innovative Game at the 2013 Indie RPG Awards and was runner-up for Best Production. Gita Jackson at Kotaku wrote that "this game where you describe a small community made a small community out of us". Shut Up & Sit Down was more divided: Leigh Alexander admired a community-focused game in a usually individualistic medium, while both reviewers found the restricted discussion and abstract map tiring over repeated plays. That split is typical; players either love the quiet, constrained structure or find it too hands-off.
Where it is strongest
- GM-less collaborative worldbuilding that needs no prep
- Telling the story of a place and a community rather than individual heroes
- Building a setting map and history for another campaign
- Easy to teach, including to people who have never played an RPG
Where it can frustrate groups
- No characters to play and no way to win
- Strict discussion rules can feel stifling
- The map and story can sprawl if players pull in different directions
- A full game is long; attention can fade by Winter
Content and safety notes
Expect scarcity, conflict, betrayal and loss, and cards that ask hard questions about a community's choices. The tone is usually melancholy rather than graphic, but stories can turn dark quickly, so discuss lines before play.
Best starting path
Buy the boxed game or PDF, grab a big sheet of paper, and play the short variant with three players on your first try. If your group enjoys it, try The Deep Forest next or use your finished map to start a campaign.
Research notes
Last checked October 28, 2026. Contents, credits and edition from Buried Without Ceremony; award from the Indie RPG Awards; rules from the Shut Up & Sit Down review.