Based on the fantastic system by Avery Alder called The Quiet Year. I loved the mechanics, but wanted to ground it in something more personal. It’s one of the first systems I tried to make.
Chapter 1: Getting Ready
Read this chapter to prepare the game.
What is it?
‘A Year Together’ is a game about relationships. What kind? Up to you. Romantic, platonic, mentorly, parental, all for you to decide. Ultimately, you and your fellow player(s) will be collectively telling the story of how your relationship comes to be and the subsequent magical year. Sadly, this is only half the truth. This game is also about the end of relationships. By the end of the game, this wonderful thing will fall apart. But, the fact that the journey ends can never rob you of what it has given you. Grow together, learn together, and see where you land.
What Will You Need?
- A deck of cards with the Jokers removed
- A six-sided die
- Something to play music with (optional)
What Comes First?
I recommend getting comfy, you’re about to go on a whole-ass journey. In terms of prepping the deck, all you need to do is remove the aces and separate the deck into its suits. Shuffle the suits individually, place the aces at the very top of each, then place them – from top to bottom – in the order of hearts, diamonds, clubs, spades.
Chapter 2: Creation
Read this chapter to set the stage for the game.
How Did This Happen?
The game begins with beginnings. It’s usually a good idea to come up with something new which your characters are each doing. New school? New club? New town? There’s a context to every relationship, what’s yours?
What’s Going to Happen?
Each card in the deck represents a week in your year together. You’ll take turns drawing cards and dealing with whatever comes up that week. The suits represent the seasons. Hearts – Spring, Diamonds – Summer, Clubs – Autumn, Spades – Winter. When the King of Spades is drawn, the game ends. This can happen at any time during the winter.
Who Are You?
That’s a big question. Don’t worry, though, you’ll have a little help along the way. First things first, each character has 2 scores. These are modifiers which get added to any rolls you make, prompted by the cards:
- Me: This stat is about the self. Self-love, self-care, self-actualisation. After all, it’s hard helping others if you can’t help yourself, first.
- Them: This stat is about others. How easily you can connect to them, how good you are at maintaining your relationships.
Then, there’s the collective scores between the two players. When the game ends, these determine what the end of your relationship looks like:
- Love: It can mean very different things from person-to-person. To some, it’s just a chemical reaction. To others, it’s the most important thing in the world. As a society, we’ve decided it can really mean fucking anything and I think there’s something beautiful about that.
- Resentment: You don’t always mean it. You don’t always want it to be there. It happens, though. It can fester, if unaddressed.
All stats begin at 0.
Now, you can make your character. What are they like? Hobbies? Looks? Tastes? You’ll learn just as much about them as you play as the other player will, but it’s always good to have a vague idea of what they’re like.
Chapter 3: Playing
Read this chapter to play the game
What Happens Now?
Turn order can be determined however you like. Each week, one player will be active. To begin a turn, you roll your die and pick a card.
The card will give you a description of a situation, action or event and it’s up to you to resolve it. Your roll determines how well the action described by the card plays out. To succeed, it must be ≥4. Discuss it with the other player(s) and figure out what happens.
Once a week goes by, the card will tell you how to adjust your stats based on your success/failure.
What Should I Be Doing?
In the end, the game is about relationships falling apart as much as it is about them forming. You should care about these relationships and bonds that you form, building trust and connections. Yet, you should also be sowing seeds of conflict along the way. It’s not always easy but you’re trying.
What Are We Listening to? (Optional)
This is a totally optional rule but could be fun, who knows? Each turn should take roughly around the amount of time that a song does. As such, at the end of your turn, the other player summarises the feeling of that week/the state of your relationship at the time in one word. Then, you will play the first song that pops into your head from that word. This song will act as the soundtrack for their turn.
♥ Spring
| A | The beginning. How do you meet? What brings you together? What things do you immediately notice about one another/draws you to each other? Spend some time discussing this to start. | |
| 2 | What is an obscure hobby you share? How do you decide to do it together? This could be a time of elation; you finally find someone to share this with! Or perhaps it was best done alone.Or… | Success: +1 Love or +1 ThemFailure: -1 Me |
| 3 | Success: Failure: | |
| 4 | Success: Failure: | |
| 5 | Success: Failure: | |
| 6 | Success: Failure: | |
| 7 | Success: Failure: | |
| 8 | Success: Failure: | |
| 9 | Success: Failure: | |
| 10 | Success: Failure: | |
| J | Success: Failure: | |
| Q | Success: Failure: | |
| K | Success: Failure: | |
Spring builds love and hurts personally
Summer builds personally and also resentment
Autumn builds personally and hurts love
Winter builds love and also resentment
The Lethe 
Leave a comment