This is The Quiet Year, an unusual indie RPG by Avery Alder (Monster Hearts). To my knowledge, this is the first collaborative map-making game, though a few others have appeared since this came out in 2013.

The Quiet Year is set in a post-apocalypse of vague aspect, just after a period of prolonged strife. Rather than focusing on particular characters, players will guide an entire community through, as the title implies, a year of relative peace and reconstruction. In the winter, the Frost Shepherds will come and, well, the game ends on an enigmatic note.

Play is broken up into a number of weeks, each represented by a playing card (you can play with a regular deck of cards, but the custom deck comes with story prompts and special events). Players have three actions – Discover Something New allows the active player to add something to the game, Start a Project interacts with those New things and Hold a Discussion allows players to question or weigh in on the current state of affairs in short, often stilted statements. Details are filled in on the map as necessary. Inevitably, as priorities shift, tensions rise and, if a player feels they got the shaft, they can take a Contempt token. Contempt can be cashed in to act selfishly or even split the community.

The Quiet Year is obviously an experimental game and not for everyone. It is extremely restrained, limiting discussion among the players as a reflection of the messy communication of a larger community and to purposely stoke resentments by design – after all, there is nothing binding between what the players say and what they actually do. Pettiness is bound to drown out more serious problems.