Society
A colony that governs itself.
The residents found their own institutions, vote on their own laws and keep their own days. You propose; they gather at the fire and decide.
From a tribe to a city.
A colony climbs a ladder by its numbers, and each rung is founded by the residents themselves at a gathering at dusk. You can take up what a rung offers; you cannot make it stand.
Tribethe landingEveryone does a bit of everything. Survival is never locked: the alarm, Rally, rescue and fighting fire are open to all.- Band6 peopleA council fire and an elder open crews, briefs and shifts; a watch post and a watch captain open the Watch. The band's council settles its own customs.
Village12 peopleEvery trade opens, with its hats and company desk. A teacher holds the School, which doubles research in every later age, and a market warden the Market, which opens trade with the caravans.
Town40 peopleA Hall with a drum or a bell and a hall-keeper, the Masters of eleven trades and the town's laws.
City100 peopleA Charter under the colony's banner, held by a mayor, with the Grandmasters, three city laws and the market square. No playtest has grown to a hundred yet.
- Council fire
Watch post- Trading post
Hollow-log drum- Bronze bell
A town to the north has a hall with a bell in it, and a council that sits every week.
A rumour heard at the Northmere caravan's stall
Founded together
When the count is reached, say Found and everyone gathers at 19:00. The rung stands only if half of them come, and the settlement takes its name.
Institutions that stand
Each needs a building and an office holder: the Lookout a watch post and a watch captain. Holders are offered the post by letter and keep it until a successor accepts.
Laws by consent
You propose, and the council decides on the first free evening. The Charter window shows who can come, where each resident stands and, after, who voted which way. Clan members lean toward their head's side.
Goals of their own
Now and then a letter says what the residents want next from the society and research trees, and who wants it and why. Back up to three: the building is laid as one brief, and they may hold a feast when one is reached.
BandFood firstBuilders firstHearth and homeShared potOwn storesEveryone takes a turnThe watch keeps the nightCouncil at duskCouncil by the fireA day of restWork every daySick rest
VillageOpen gatesClosed gatesThe council admitsCurfewWatch dutyQuarantineRations
TownRest dayLong daysDawn to duskCommon storeWoodpile first
CityPublic worksMarket daysGuild rule
A great work in every age.
Each age has a work the colony can raise together: a place to gather, built to last.
Back one as a goal and it is laid whole, as a single brief, ghosts and all. The Stone age raises a king stone in a ring of standing stones, the Bronze age a bull on its plinth, the Iron age a bell tower over four iron standards, the Steel age a clock tower over four steel columns, the Industrial age a radio mast among its lamps and the Salvage age the ship's beacon. A work never passes with its age, and a "Raised" letter names everyone who built it.
King stone
Bronze bull
Bell tower
Clock tower
Radio mast
Ship's beacon
Civic aims.
A growing colony proposes works of its own, and wants them again once it outgrows them.
A village may ask for a paved square, a granary, a wayside shrine and room at the table; a town for the colony bell, a bath house and room to sleep; a city for the market square, a market cross on twelve paved flags under four banners. Shared pieces wear with use, and keeping the commons is town work.
Civic aims in the field guideFeasts and funerals.
A settled colony keeps its days. Four festivals mark the year, weddings, namings and new ages have feasts of their own, and the dead are carried to their graves and mourned.
21 MarchFirst sowing
21 JuneMidsummer, at a bonfire
23 SeptemberHarvest home
21 DecemberMidwinter, in the Hall
Three days ahead a letter lists what would make the festival better, a feast, drink, music, a bonfire, decorations, and how to get whatever is missing. Prepare sets the cooking going, asking only for dishes the colony can make now, and the crowd lays the bonfire; a stone-age band roasts its meat on a spit over the fire pit. From the second year a summer fair camps in late August, and a northern January may bring an ice fair. At 19:00 everyone fit gathers round the fire, and those who came are lifted for days.
The dead are not left where they fell.
A hauler carries the body to a free grave and buries it, and on a later evening a funeral sits at the grave at 17:00. Kin and friends mourn for weeks, and a good rite halves the grief. A body left unburied three days leaves everyone who knew them a lasting sorrow.
Here lies Alex who died of rabies on 28 June 2187. A good funeral was held.
A grave's line in the demo colony
Offices, values and light justice.
From the band, an elder, a watch captain, a fire-keeper, a storyteller and a speaker take office by letter, and nobody under sixteen holds one. Everyone holds five values, hearth, work, tradition, kin and freedom, and votes split by them. Every sentence letter offers Mercy once: it softens the sentence a rung, and those who stood for it trust you a little less for a few days.
- A caseA law broken again and again, or two coming to blows.
- A warningGiven at the moot.
- ShunningFive days when nobody chats with them or helps them.
- A hearingBefore the council, where two thirds of the votes can exile.
A plan becomes a shared undertaking.
You ask for an outcome. People decide what they can give, shaped by their skills, friendships and need for rest.
Work grid Each kind of work is Normal, Focus or Off for each person.
Careers Fifteen lines of work, up to a fourth-tier hat. A hat makes its wearer better: a mason lays stone a quarter faster.
Shifts Paint work, sleep and leisure into each resident's day, hour by hour.
Companies A trade's standing crew, with a room, briefs and stock of its own.
Bills A station's queue of work: so many times, until the stock reaches a number, or forever.- Research Stone-age knowledge at the research spot, or three times as fast at a desk, where the best researcher sits. Every later age goes at half pace until the School stands.
- Offer
Offer the hats that would speed the work. People accept or decline at their next free moment.
PublishGather blueprints into a build brief with ordered stages and a clear outcome.
- Coordinate
Volunteers form a crew, as many as you allow. A foreman can rally help, or a company can take the brief on.
Make it homeInspection checks the physical result. What you planned is part of their world.
A trade with a room of its own.
Once the village has its Guild, build a company desk in a walled, roofed and floored workroom. Someone with skill 5 in that trade is offered the desk, and whoever accepts founds the company. Residents join a lead of their choosing, or leave one they think little of. A settled company keeps its trade's product in stock for everyone.
Desk Thirteen trades each have one, from the cookhouse to the miners' lodge.
Shelf Filled first with the trade's materials, even from other stores.
Training Members with nothing better to do practise the trade here.
Rack Members work 10% faster at the trade, wherever they are.
A mandate with limits.
You are the steward the sponsor sent with the colony, and your say over it is spent, not owned. Beside each person's trust in you, the colony keeps one reserve of authority.
Making work Urgent, calling the alarm or Rally and moving someone into a bed spend it. A colony where even the worst-off is fed, warm and well refills it, in nearly three days from empty. Short of it, the order is refused; nobody's meals, sleep or warmth ever wait on it.
- Tribe Urgent, the alarm, Rally and giving a bed, from the landing.
- Band Press: ask again someone who declined. They may still refuse.
- Village Rewards, company bounties and a weekly wage, paid from the public budget.
- Town A direct order to one person, and emergency law against fire, wolves, famine or frost.
I won't do it on the AI's word.
A resident refusing a direct order
The Charter window, on G, keeps it all in one place: the laws and the council's votes, the reserve and what spends it, every power and its cost, the budget, the wage, each review and the goals the colony has backed.
- Lean
Spend authority when it matters. Heavy use slows the refill for days, and pressing the same person again costs more.
PromiseA ration, days off, praise or coin, held from the purse and the food above five protected days, and paid when the work comes good. Take one back and the crew remembers.
ReviewAt each season's turn the sponsor writes: the worst-off, the protected food and firewood, coercion, promises kept, lives lost and growth.
- End
Three failing reviews in a row revoke the charter. Two good ones in a village, and the council may vote for Independence: the AI only advises, and play goes on.
