[Play By Post] A Quiet-ish Year for a Whole Year

Games Tabletop
#81

Turn 2 - @Forrest

28th February to 7th March

You draw the Queen of Spring :heart:

An old piece of machinery is recovered, worn-down but still functional. What was it? What could it be now?

OR

An old piece of art is discovered, damaged but perhaps restorable. What is it? Who created it?

Pick one of these for your turn and answer it.
Then you can act a plan/routine if you wish.
And lastly take one of the turn actions from the book.

(note, you can act on other people’s plans/routines on your turn, and you still retain authorship of it)

#82

On the outskirts of the mound community, in a ruined building filled with petrified wood artifacts and formerly-golden, baroque pipes and hazardous wire, someone finds a book.

It is delicate, threatening to disintegrate. But a few dedicated folks take to studying it and figuring out what it was. Eventually they realize it was a music book. It’s called a “Real Book,” like there might be not-real books out there. It’s a compilation of a variety of musicians’ works.

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#83

Apologies for lateness, folks.

I am also going to skip doing a routine right now, and my last step will be to Learn Something Vibrant.

I have learned that there’s a group of painters who have taken to painting the airstrip. It’s not a mural, not a representation of an event or something. It’s like they took it and divided it into tons of canvases. Everyone’s doing something different. The result is so colorful, and it changes the landscape such that the gray concrete of the airstrip no longer fades into the landscape when viewed from surrounding hills. Instead it bursts out, a perfect rectangle of every color we know, portraits and miniature landscapes and abstract images all side by side.

(If this is in any way against the intentions of the game, if it’s not cool to modify an existing object like this, I can come up with a new idea. I want to make sure I’m not overstepping something.)

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#84

No worries, you’re not late at all. Turns are nebulously Sunday to Sunday. A whole week gives us wiggle room on both ends.

Modifying existing things is absolutely part of the game, it’s all good! If you’re ever concerned about modifying another person’s contribution, you can definitely post it as an idea and ask if they’re cool with it (or you can DM them in private if you’d prefer).

Likewise, if someone modifies an idea of yours and you’re not entirely happy, you can post/DM the author of the change to voice your reasoning. Then the idea might be changed/retracted depending on what you come to an agreement on.

And now that turn 2 has come to a close, we’re moving onto @Homemade_Pizza’s turn. So do you want a card from Spring or Summer?

#85

I think I want to stick with Spring for this turn.

#86

Turn 3 - @Homemade_Pizza

7th March to 14th March

You draw the 5 of Spring :heart:

There is haunting folklore about this region. What is it? Who isn’t afraid?

OR

The community’s children create a new game. What is it? Learn Something from it.

Pick one of these for your turn and answer it.
Then you can act a plan/routine if you wish.
And lastly take one of the turn actions from the book.

As a reminder the plans and routines are:

Plans

Go and evaluate the growing mountainside art piece

Routines

Send a letter to a stranger.
Count something
Travels with people to various historical sites he has been and recounts their stories
Updates the wiki
Cataloguing
Making an observation
Paints nature
Roll some dice

#87

@SuperBiasedMan small point, it’s turn 3 now.

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#88

Ah yup, thanks for catching!

#89

Hi gang, the week got away from me in a big way and it was hard to get some focus on this. Thanks for everybody’s patience. Here goes for my turn:

There is a story that sometimes circulates about lost things becoming found again. It is thought that objects, once misplaced, become untrustworthy, unreliable: a found knife can never be used because it will turn on its wielder; a map will lead its user to an inescapable swamp; or that even a person suspected of having lost their way will betray their loved ones. The most vivid version of this tale is that memories themselves will become ghosts that draw the living away from their homes with false visions of their own past, where they themselves will be lost. Most people are unafraid of these unreliable objects and memories day-to-day, but it’s not uncommon to hear old stories of lone travelers being scrutinized for fear of having been lost on their journey at some point.

Having shared that folktale, I’m going to act on a routine and send a letter to a stranger:

I usually write with a view through my window into the garden, but it was stormy all day today, and so I wrote in the warm kitchen, seated at my long counter. This letter is to a poet whose work I read recently, and while normally I enjoy sending these letters, I had some trepidation on sealing this one, dropping it into the mailbox. I was suddenly concerned that the poet would be so shy that they would be uncomfortable at receiving my letter, or perhaps that they would even reject it. By the time the mail carrier waved upon picking up the letter — knowing my habit, of course — that feeling of unease had mostly fled, and I had turned my attention to my next task:

I want to make a plan to host a meal.

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#90

With turn 3 complete it’s now to @Jkim, do you want a card from Spring or Summer?

#91

I’ll take a card from spring

#92

Turn 4 - @Jkim

14th March to 21st March

You draw the 10 of Spring :heart:

You realise that you picked up a new habit without realising it. Learn Something about yourself.

OR

What old tradition does everyone in the community get involved with? Add a Routine related to this.

Pick one of these for your turn and answer it.
The part in bold means that you take that action in addition to your normal turn. So if you choose the first option, you could Learn Something and then still use your turn action to make a new plan.

After that, you can act a plan/routine if you wish.
And lastly take one of the turn actions from the book.

As a reminder the plans and routines are:

Plans

Go and evaluate the growing mountainside art piece
Host a meal

Routines

Send a letter to a stranger.
Count something
Travels with people to various historical sites he has been and recounts their stories
Updates the wiki
Cataloguing
Making an observation
Paints nature
Roll some dice

#93

“Ruminating when you live alone at the top of an abandoned lighthouse isn’t such a weird thing I suppose. Especially during the preparation portion of making a meal. It’s the view out of the window that pulls these thoughts out from the mire. If someone were to ask why I would have to say it’s a combination of the monotony of prep and the desolation of the ocean outside. Not to say that the ocean we have with us is in any way lifeless oh no family that would be a grave miscalculation. Just because our port is rarely used due to the consequences of actions from generations past leaving it present but unusable. There are stories about such places after enough time passes like there are stories of the lost and of the stories of the mall that have been lost through the ages. Most see them as just that stories and nothing more. The fact remains the lost exist and do wander through the land. As a community we’ve created the tales needed to protect ourselves from becoming lost in ourselves over generations and that is a comfort. The question crossed my mind in the dark and lonely days of last winter and I had spent days digging through my collection. In the end it could only continue for so long but now in this moment as I clank up a potato the realization hits. No wonder it hits with a potato in the mix. A root vegetable unseen unless searched for and then the fear becomes concrete. What of the things that are buried that we do not know of that we have not had to deal with since they have been buried since ages past? After all untold ghosts haunt this land. There’s no way there couldn’t be with a land with the history of lumber going back centuries. It passes as it must after a moment since there’s the protein prep to deal with at which point I set it aside and focus on the task in front of me but it doesn’t escape how much i only recognize my recent compulsion to search for the unknown threats.”

caveats first draft i’m putting out there cause with how i’m writing this i need community feedback. i play with @Homemade_Pizza’s concept and if anything conflicts feel free to tell me and i’ll rewrite it since i took the folk tale literally. nothing in this post is a hill to die on for me so anyone can come ask if they want changes since i’m pulling a lot of different strings. i’m going to make a plan to go to the mall to consult the elderly for any potential stories i have missed. i may have listened to a lot of old gods of appalachia quite a bit recently

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#94

Turn 5 - @NotThePars

21st March to 28th March

You draw the 6 of Spring :heart:

A baby is born to a young couple. Who are they? What do they hope for their child?

OR

Someone has grown old. Who? What do they ask for help with now?

Pick one of these for your turn and answer it.
After that, you can act a plan/routine if you wish.
And lastly take one of the turn actions from the book.

As a reminder the plans and routines are:

Plans

Go and evaluate the growing mountainside art piece
Host a meal
Go to the mall to consult the elderly for any potential stories I have missed.

Routines

Send a letter to a stranger.
Count something
Travels with people to various historical sites he has been and recounts their stories
Updates the wiki
Cataloguing
Making an observation
Paints nature
Roll some dice

#95

Thank you. I’ll have a think and work on something over the week. Can I just check first, am I able to elaborate on someone else’s plan?

#96

You mean for the second action of the turn, “acting on a plan/routine”?
Then yes! All the plans and routines are on the table for anyone to act on.

#97

Yea, that’s what I meant.
Cheers, will factor that in.

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#98

Sorry everyone the week’s got away from something fierce. Started a new job at the beginning of March and been under the cosh so far. I will do my best to get something posted up in the next day or so, if that’s fine? Have already got a sort of plan for what I wanted to do.

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#99

Sounds good to me! Thanks for the heads up, looking forward to seeing what you have in mind. :slight_smile:

#100

Lucia and Felix had never intended to have a child. Not many people did these days but it just sort of happened. They were never convinced they were the sort of people who should be allowed a pet or even a houseplant let alone a fully living and breathing honest to goodness human child. Even when their child was born they were still sure it must’ve been some cosmic prank but there she was, Autumn. The name itself was a bit of a morbid joke between them. Felix in a fit of sincerity had said they should name the child Hope but even he couldn’t keep himself from laughing at how cliched and soppy that was. They had settled for Autumn both because it was a name they both liked saying but also because it felt like a comment on the twilight years they felt their society had settled into.

In a world that felt increasingly like it was preparing to go to sleep it was hard to find things to look forward to. But one sleepless night it clicked for the couple. They had been raised on what they had suspected were tall tales and drunken boasts about the vital impact their families had had on the continent and indeed the world. They were notable merchants, humble traders, and plucky smugglers all in the one contradictory package. Their names had been cursed and praised in equal measure and allegedly at the same time. Both Felix and Lucia suspected these tales were largely made up but there was a niggling feeling that the stories had to come from somewhere. Especially since their surnames were Docksward and Searise respectively Those family names screamed something to do with traversing the seas or being involved with them. They had decided then and there that if they could give something to Autumn then it would be a more grounded understanding of her heritage.

Lucia had heard about plans for a trip to the mall to speak to the elderly there about any potentially missed stories and she immediately signed herself up as a scribe. She had done transcription work in the past as well as some brief forays into journalism and was eager to put those skills back to work. Especially as she also knew that anyone who continued to live at the mall might well have owned a store there and would potentially have ledgers on their suppliers and traders.

I would like to elaborate on @Jkim’s plan and have a partial focus on finding out the threads which bound the community and other notable landmarks together.

Thanks for everyone’s patience! Turns out I had written some notes and it was just about putting it together. Looking forward to reading the next posts!!

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