TEXT: Playtesting & comments: Anders Nygaard, Karina Graj,  
  Ole Peder Giæver, Monica Holter, Peder Benjamin Holter,  
  Oda Jeanette Holter
  Comments & support: Øivind Stengrundet
  Illustrations: Ole Peder Giæver, Anders Nygaard,  
  Matthijs Holter
  Translation: Anders Nygaard
  Proofreading: Mikael Dahl
  Design: Anders Bohlin
  Matthijs Holter
  A thousand years  
  under the sun
  
  A thousand years under the sun
  
  Here are the steppes; open, fertile. In a few places, people 
  live, not in any numbers, not in any great edifices. Yet. There 
  are landscape features; mountain, river, forest. There are 
  undiscovered things above and below the earth.
  Time will pass.
  Start
  A big, blank sheet of paper. Draw a little on it – stalks of 
  grass, rocks, little stick figures. The steppes are almost empty 
  in the beginning. Then the game starts.
  Growth arcs
  All things which can grow, reach their apex and die have 
  a growth arc. Some are small, for things that will probably 
  disappear after a century or two. Some are great, for things 
  that may persist even after a thousand years. 
  This is what a medium growth arc looks like:
  This growth arc has three squares before and after the star 
  on the top. The first three squares indicate growth, the latter 
  ones a fall. The star at the top indicates the time when this 
  element has reached its highest point; a golden age, where all 
  is greatest, best, most beautiful and powerful.
  As you tell the story of the steppes, you will fill the squares 
  of the growth arc with your initials. You should not have more 
  than one initial on either side - in other words, once you’ve 
  contributed to the growth of something, you’ll have to wait 
  until the others have done so, too, before you can continue 
  on that arc.
  Available arcs
  At the beginning of the game, these arcs are available:
  One square on each side: 2
  Two squares on each side: 1
  Five squares on each side: 1
  As soon as one of these arcs are filled in – the element 
  has died – these additional arcs become available:
  Two squares on each side: 2
  Three squares on each side: 2
  Four squares on each side: 1
  Five squares on each side: 1
  ◆
  ◆
  ◆
  ◆
  ◆
  ◆
  ◆
  Growth
  Apex
  Death
  A
  B
  C
  A
  B
  B
  C
  
  A thousand years under the sun
  
  Your turn
  During your turn you can:
  Sow the seed of something new
  Watch something grow
  Watch something which has reached its apex
  Watch something die
  A hundred years pass as all the players take their turns. 
  Each time you start a new turn, you can write a new century 
  on the sheet – “0”, “100”, “200”.
  The game is over when you have played out the year 1000, 
  or when there is nothing left alive on the steppes.
  Sow a seed
  Draw something on the map, something small. This is 
  the seed of something big. Maybe a gold mine. Maybe 
  a tribe. Maybe a village. Maybe unknown people from 
  somewhere else. It is not much, and it is not big.
  Draw a growth arc next to it. Pick one of  
  the available ones.
  Write your initial in the first square.
  Watch something grow
  Pick something on the map. Anything that still has 
  empty spaces in the first squares of the arc, and which 
  you have not put your initials on.
  Add a little to the drawing. Describe the growth. Take 
  your time, explain what is going on.
  Tell us about one person who lives during this growth. 
  Maybe they are experiencing it, causing it, or even  
  trying to stop it.
  Write your initial in the next available square on  
  the growth arc.
  Watch something reaching its apex
  Pick something on the map which has all its growth 
  squares filled in, and has not started to die yet.
  Draw on it. Describe it as it reaches its highest point  
  of growth.
  Write your initial in the star on the top.
  Watch something die
  Pick anything on the sheet which you have not yet 
  helped to die.
  You can even choose something that has not finished 
  growing! Black out the remaining growth squares and 
  the apex. Fill in enough squares on the right side as 
  well, to make an equal number of available squares on 
  each side of the arc.
  Change the drawing. Erase, strike out, draw decay or 
  replacement. Explain, describe.
  Tell us about one person living during these events.
  Write your letter in the next square on the arc.
  ◆
  ◆
  ◆
  ◆
  ◆
  ◆
  ◆
  ◆
  ◆
  ◆
  ◆
  ◆
  ◆
  ◆
  ◆
  ◆
  ◆
  ◆
  ◆
  Watching it die
  Sowing a seed
  Watching it grow
  Seeing its apex
  A
  B
  C
  Example drawings:
  
  A thousand years under the sun
  
  All things end
  The game could go on forever, but it won’t. Sooner or later, 
  we will leave the people of the steppes to themselves, and not 
  follow them any further.
  When all the arcs are spent, you can no longer sow any 
  seeds. Now there is only growth - and death.
  The last round is the one starting in the year 1000.
  Playing with fewer players
  If you are not that many people, use 
  an extra rule: You can contribute to 
  a growth arc even if you already did 
  once before, if all the other players 
  have already contributed.
  Diasporas
  Sometimes, a tribe will go in search 
  of new lands, and start a new tribe. 
  You can make a growth arc for the 
  new tribe.
  Pace
  How much happens during a single 
  round? This depends on the players, 
  but different civilizations growing at 
  different paces is fine. In one round, 
  someone might discover fire, while 
  others made themselves wings and 
  colonized most of the map.
  Appendix
  
SOURCE: textdata/thevault/Collections/Duet/RPGS/Indie & Odd Themes/A Thousand Years in the Sun.pdf