Setup & How to Play

Gather the table

What You Need

• A deck of TWWY cards, sorted into three Tone piles: Bright Twilight Bleak
  Don’t have a deck? The print-and-play is free.
• A group of friends. 2 to 6 players; 4 to 6 tends to be the sweet spot.
• A surface to draw a map on. Large-format paper is a good choice, although anything that can hold a mark will work.
• Something to draw with.

Before the first card

Set the Table

First, we need to create a beginning map. The shapes you’ll draw will depend on what kind of map you’re making. If you’re creating a world, you’ll draw some continents on your surface. If it’s a city, you’ll draw the city’s outline and maybe some divisions. If it’s a galaxy, you’ll draw some planets, asteroid belts, or black holes. You get the idea. These don’t have to be pretty or precise; hastily drawn, random shapes are perfectly acceptable. Put your newly drawn map in the middle of the table along with the writing utensil(s).

Next, all players should discuss what kind of world they want to build. This is when expectations are set for things like genre, off-limits topics, and general safety. As with any shared-imagination game, talking and listening to the other players is very important. It might be helpful to make notes about these decisions so that you can refer to them later.

While we’re on the subject of talking, we sometimes find it helpful to institute a “no suggestions unless asked for” rule. Especially when everyone is throwing out ideas at the same time. The active player gets final say for everything on their turn.

Now, decide who goes first. We recommend the person who talked everyone into playing the game.

Deck building

Build the Age Decks

The deck we’re going to build in this setup uses specific Tones to follow a build-up, tear-down, then rebuild flow. It’s an opinionated way to set up your first game; once you’ve played a game, try different combinations of Tones to create different worlds.

Initial Setup

1. Remove every card with a Seed Verb from each of the three Tone decks.
2. Set aside a number of these Seed cards equal to twice the number of players. Half of these should have the Bright Tone, the other half should be a mixture of Twilight and Bleak Tones. (With 4 players, you’ll select 8 cards: 4 Bright, 2 Twilight, 2 Bleak.)
3. Shuffle these cards and create 2 equal facedown piles. These will be used when you build the deck for Age 1.
4. Return the unused Seed cards to their appropriate Tone Deck.
5. Shuffle each Tone Deck.
6. Place each Age marker card faceup in front of you.

Age I

Ends on a Bleak End of Age

1. Create a facedown pile equal to the number of players. Half of these cards should come from the Bright Tone deck. The second half should be equally divided between Twilight and Bleak. (With 4 players: 2 Bright, 1 Twilight, 1 Bleak.)
2. Shuffle a Seed card pile into these cards, then create 2 equal facedown piles; one of these will become the bottom of the Age 1 deck, and the other will be the middle of the Age 1 deck. It doesn’t matter which is which.
3. Randomly choose one of the 3 End of Age cards with a Bleak Tone and shuffle it into the bottom pile you just created. Place the bottom pile onto the Age 1 marker card.
4. Place the middle pile onto the Age 1 deck.
5. Finally, place your remaining Seed pile on top of the Age 1 deck.

Age II

Ends on a Twilight End of Age

1. Create a facedown pile equal to 3 times the number of players. Half of these cards should come from the Bleak Tone deck. The second half should be equally divided between Twilight and Bright. (With 4 players, you’ll have 6 Bleak, 3 Twilight, 3 Bright.)
2. Shuffle these cards.
3. Using these cards, create two piles: one equal to twice the number of players and one equal to the number of players.
4. Randomly choose one of the 3 End of Age cards with a Twilight Tone and shuffle it into the larger pile.
5. Place this larger pile onto the Age 2 deck marker card. This is the bottom of the Age 2 deck.
6. Place the smaller pile onto the Age 2 deck.

Age III

Ends on a Bright End of Age

1. Create a facedown pile equal to 3 times the number of players. It should be equally divided between all 3 Tones. (With 4 players, you’ll have 4 Bleak, 4 Twilight, 4 Bright.)
2. Shuffle these cards.
3. Using these cards, create two piles: one equal to twice the number of players and one equal to the number of players.
4. Randomly choose one of the 3 End of Age cards with a Bright Tone and shuffle it into the larger pile.
5. Place this larger pile onto the Age 3 deck marker card. This is the bottom of the Age 3 deck.
6. Place the smaller pile onto the Age 3 deck.

Setup Reference

Convention: each Age deck totals 3 times the player count, plus one End of Age card. Round in favor of the Age’s dominant Tone; split remainders freely.

End of Age Tones for the first-game arc: Age I Bleak, Age II Twilight, Age III Bright (choose the Tone, draw one of its three cards at random). “Split between” cells: divide between the two named Tones as evenly as possible; the extra card goes wherever the table likes.

The loop

On Your Turn

1. Draw a card from the current Age deck.
2. Read the type of card (Tone and Verb) out loud. For example, “Bright, Awaken.” This tells everyone at the table what they can expect this card to do.
3. Read the prompt aloud. It’s the text at the top of the card, such as: Mark the revival of an abandoned tradition, fair, or festival.
4. Mark the map. Mark always means draw something on the map and give it a name. If your answer changes something already on the map, don’t erase anything. Instead, create a new Mark to represent the change.
5. Answer one question from the bottom of the card. It’s tempting to answer more than one, but choose just one.

If the card you draw has End of Age on it, it’s a special card that guides you through how the current Age ends:

1. Read the Tone and Verb like normal.
2. Then read the sentence at the top of the card. That’s the Vibe for the end of the Age. Feel free to do it in a dramatic voice if you want.
3. Finally, you’ll Mark three different things instead of just one, one for each prompt on the card.

The arc

Ending an Age

Whenever a player completes an End of Age card in the first or second Age, the players discuss how much time has passed since the end of this Age and the start of the next. If they can’t come to a consensus, the player who drew the End of Age card decides. The next player begins the next Age by drawing their card from the subsequent Age deck.

When the End of Age card is completed in Age 3, the game is over. The world your table built is the artifact: a map full of names, a history across three Ages, and a setting ready for your next campaign.

Report your playtest

Go further

After Your First Game

The first-game setup above is one arc among many. The system is straightforward: each Age deck totals 3 times the player count plus one End of Age card, the Tone mix sets the emotional arc, and where you shuffle the End of Age card determines how many turns an Age is guaranteed to run. Once your table is comfortable, build any arc you want. For a post-apocalyptic world, try mostly Bleak cards. Or a Twilight-heavy age of mystery. Or a full-random shuffle. Choose each Age’s End of Age by Tone to fit whatever beat you’d like to see.