Gunslinger Gear

Guns, gloves, boots.

Cityslicker Duds

Coats and clothes for every occasion.

Talismans

Relics, charms, tokens of authority.

Currency

Spendables of all sorts.

Reputation

Your standing in the community.

Dollars

NorteAmericano dollars. Not the only currency in Amarillo, but certainly the preferred one.

Revolver Bullet

Useful for many things. Shooting monsters is only one.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

Consumables

A Bottle of Hoffenstader Honey Wheat

"Brewed right here in Amarillo by Dougie and Carmine Hoffenstader, your hometown hopsmasters!"

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Sermon on the Mount

Sermon on the Mount. Community organizer. Runner of Missions. A warm imposing figure.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Version

Game version number.

Man in Black

Your ethical Orientation. Your concerns are self-empowerment and getting things done.

Seer of Rabbits

You have seen rabbits and struggle to un-see them.

Hallowed Ground

You've been taken in by the strange beautiful kindnesses of the Mission.

The Harvestmen

You're following the trail of the Harvestmen

Helping the Brothers Skunk

The Skunk brothers' farm is a local institution; you've lent a hand to keep it running.

Connections: The Mission

You're working with Sermon on the Mount at the Mission.

Time of Day

The time of day.

Date

Today's date.

White Noise

The unnatural world is becoming all too real.

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Doc

Mental Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

Chasing Down Chickens

Surely all the Mission's chickens come from somewhere.

20th Century Penny

An old but well-polished US penny. Minted in 1960. Just the thing to throw into the fountain at St. Francis's.

The Door

A Tarot card. It shows a door in a meadow and a man in front doing a handstand, one leg crossed over the other.


Retire Your Character

The time has come to rest your weary head.

This will allow you to delete your character and restart with a new one.

WARNING: THIS CAN'T BE UNDONE. BE VERY, VERY SURE BEFORE YOU CLICK THROUGH THIS CARD.

Pinned

Pinned

Erase Your Character

All things are cyclical. Opportunities come around again.

WE'RE SERIOUS: only click here if you want to delete your character PERMANENTLY and start a new one.


Small-Town Cityslicker

Compared to the big cities up norte, Amarillo is a smear in the desert. But over the Wall, Amarillo is the center of civilization. Nowhere rivals it in size or style. And being this close to Corpus Christi, Amarillo's social scene always carries an exciting hint of danger.

This is one of Zero Summer's "grind" cards. "Grind" cards can be replayed as often as you like. And most of their branches have a chance to produce a Rare Success, which will significantly increase one of your Styles and yield certain other benefits as well.

Opportunities

Draw cards from here to raise your Styles, meet your Allies, and risk your Antagonists.

Black Jack

Cityslicker

Social Style.

A modest challenge

Cards are one of those things worked into Texas's own personal identity. Spades. Poker -- of course. And black jack. You hear a rumor that a mercurial socialite called Tall Saul -- that's his gambling name -- runs a floating table out of a small airless room in the Wall Market proper. If you got yourself a seat, it could be lucrative, and not just financially.

            7
            You need Cityslicker 7 (you have 8)

            7
            Unlocked with Cityslicker 7 - you have 8

A Cherished Thing in Common

Cityslicker

Social Style.

A straightforward challenge

The sound of shouting from two blocks down draws you to a small crowd surrounding local gunsmith Hammond Traeger and a portly middle-aged man in a green waistcoat and bristly mustache. It only takes a few moments to figure out that they're arguing over a woman who it turns out is both of their lovers. The particulars are unclear except that they're struggling with this new information -- and are both carrying heavy-caliber revolvers.

The Roughriders haven't turned up yet, meaning somebody else needs to get involved before the Rule of One is resoundingly broken and at least one beloved local icon is disappeared into the grim blackness under the governor's mansion.

            5
            You need Cityslicker 5 (you have 8)

            5
            Unlocked with Cityslicker 5 - you have 8

Fires in the Desert

Cityslicker

Social Style.

A straightforward challenge

Even here in the desert in ninety degree weather under a cloudless sky that promises an afternoon heat so thick you could chew it, people keep the drumfires lit outside the Highrise Hotel. Partly it's practical; the smoke keeps the flies away, and they're hard to get started once they go out, and anyway how else are you going to make breakfast? And then again it's partly emotional. One woman in a patchwork coat -- clearly a resident -- tells you that the Deacon of St. Francis's told her that fire is purely human, and monsters hate the sight of it, and if she kept it lit all the time they wouldn't ever get near her, even the ones that swarm and boil overhead most nights.

And then suddenly the dozen-ish people around the Highrise drumfires are looking at you, thinking -- surely they're thinking! -- that you're an outsider, and a stranger, and why shouldn't we hustle him out of here right now? All it could take is a word either way. Figuring out which word is the trick.

            4
            You need Cityslicker 4 (you have 8)

            4
            Unlocked with Cityslicker 4 - you have 8

High Noon Saloon

Cityslicker

Social Style.

A straightforward challenge

One of the largest, best-known saloons in Amarillo is the High Noon. "Padre" Charlie explains it was built before the Longest Day as an old-timey theme restaurant. Now an actual frontier saloon, it boasts Hoffenstader on tap and salty/fried fingerfood and a dim cheerful gloom every hour of the day, plus a real actual pianist and full-time muscle to keep everybody civil.

There's nowhere better to make new friends -- this also from "Padre" Charlie, whose nose is red and veiny from a lifetime of dedicated social drinking. He slips a quarter into your breast pocket and pats your hand with fatherly affection. For a warm mug, he says. Can't get any other kind out here.

            3
            You need Cityslicker 3 (you have 8)

            3
            Unlocked with Cityslicker 3 - you have 8

What The Boys Said

Cityslicker

Social Style.

A straightforward challenge

The sand and crowds and sweat of Amarillo are new to you, but to the children born here after the Longest Day it's all they've ever known. And to the animals -- cats and dogs and rats and every conceivable urban creature, constantly barking and hissing and underfoot.

A romping yipping puppy streaks past you on the street with a throng of stick-thin boys close behind. If you collar one of the boys, you might be able to talk a little local flavor out of him.

            1
            You need Cityslicker 1 (you have 8)

            1
            Unlocked with Cityslicker 1 - you have 8


Click Through

And please reassure us that you're sure.

Are you REALLY SURE you want to delete your character?


Gunslinger Gear

Guns, gloves, boots.

Cityslicker Duds

Coats and clothes for every occasion.

Doc Toppers

Bowlers, stetsons, the occasional eyewear.

Talismans

Relics, charms, tokens of authority.

Currency

Spendables of all sorts.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

Consumables

Nostrums, drinkables, tobaccos and other treatlets.

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

A Grim Bargain

You and "Padre" Charlie understand each other all too well.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Version

Game version number.

Game version number.
Thanks for playing Zero Summer!

Paladin

Your ethical Orientation. Your concerns are mercy, compassion and justice.

Man in Black

Your ethical Orientation. Your concerns are self-empowerment and getting things done.

Hallowed Ground

You've been taken in by the strange beautiful kindnesses of the Mission.

The Harvestmen

You're following the trail of the Harvestmen

Really Delete Your Character?

Are you SURE?

Avatar

Your avatar.

Time of Day

The time of day.

Date

Today's date.

White Noise

The unnatural world is becoming all too real.

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Doc

Mental Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

The Ministry of Black Powder

You're helping "Padre" Charlie with his good works.

20th Century Penny

An old but well-polished US penny. Minted in 1960. Just the thing to throw into the fountain at St. Francis's.

The Door

A Tarot card. It shows a door in a meadow and a man in front doing a handstand, one leg crossed over the other.


Back to Their Corners

A Cherished Thing in Common

Cityslicker

Social Style.

A straightforward challenge

Small-Town Cityslicker

Compared to the big cities up norte, Amarillo is a smear in the desert. But over the Wall, Amarillo is the center of civilization. Nowhere rivals it in size or style. And being this close to Corpus Christi, Amarillo's social scene always carries an exciting hint of danger.

This is one of Zero Summer's "grind" cards. "Grind" cards can be replayed as often as you like. And most of their branches have a chance to produce a Rare Success, which will significantly increase one of your Styles and yield certain other benefits as well.

The sound of shouting from two blocks down draws you to a small crowd surrounding local gunsmith Hammond Traeger and a portly middle-aged man in a green waistcoat and bristly mustache. It only takes a few moments to figure out that they're arguing over a woman who it turns out is both of their lovers. The particulars are unclear except that they're struggling with this new information -- and are both carrying heavy-caliber revolvers.

The Roughriders haven't turned up yet, meaning somebody else needs to get involved before the Rule of One is resoundingly broken and at least one beloved local icon is disappeared into the grim blackness under the governor's mansion.

You insert yourself between Traeger and the other man. Both make symbolic pawing-motions over your shoulders -- Traeger's are a little more serious than the portly man's -- before backing off. Traeger scuffs his boot in the dirt and kneads his forehead with powerful fingertips; the portly man "remembers" a meeting and bustles off, though not before giving Traeger a dirty look from behind his wire-rimmed glasses.

Crisis averted. The crowd disperses -- not without a certain disappointment. And Traeger shakes your hand in appreciation for your cool head. He explains there was a little disagreement about a woman. Of what nature? "That little butterball thought he was involved with somebody he wasn't."

Ah. That explains it.

8 change points, 1 more needed to reach level 9.

Cityslicker is increasing...

You succeeded in a Cityslicker challenge! (Simple challenges mean you don't learn so much.)

You've gained 1 x Reputation (new total 40).


Gunslinger Gear

Guns, gloves, boots.

Cityslicker Duds

Coats and clothes for every occasion.

Talismans

Relics, charms, tokens of authority.

Currency

Spendables of all sorts.

Reputation

Your standing in the community.

Dollars

NorteAmericano dollars. Not the only currency in Amarillo, but certainly the preferred one.

Revolver Bullet

Useful for many things. Shooting monsters is only one.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

Consumables

Nostrums, drinkables, tobaccos and other treatlets.

A Bottle of Hoffenstader Honey Wheat

1 x A Bottle of Hoffenstader Honey Wheat

"Brewed right here in Amarillo by Dougie and Carmine Hoffenstader, your hometown hopsmasters!"

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Sermon on the Mount

Sermon on the Mount. Community organizer. Runner of Missions. A warm imposing figure.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Version

Game version number.

Man in Black

Your ethical Orientation. Your concerns are self-empowerment and getting things done.

Seer of Rabbits

You have seen rabbits and struggle to un-see them.

Hallowed Ground

You've been taken in by the strange beautiful kindnesses of the Mission.

The Harvestmen

You're following the trail of the Harvestmen

Helping the Brothers Skunk

The Skunk brothers' farm is a local institution; you've lent a hand to keep it running.

Connections: The Mission

You're working with Sermon on the Mount at the Mission.

Time of Day

The time of day.

Date

Today's date.

White Noise

The unnatural world is becoming all too real.

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Doc

Mental Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

Chasing Down Chickens

Surely all the Mission's chickens come from somewhere.

20th Century Penny

An old but well-polished US penny. Minted in 1960. Just the thing to throw into the fountain at St. Francis's.

The Door

A Tarot card. It shows a door in a meadow and a man in front doing a handstand, one leg crossed over the other.


Are You Really Sure?

THIS WILL DELETE YOUR CHARACTER IF YOU CLICK THROUGH.

Pinned

Pinned

Please Make Sure

BECAUSE THERE IS NO GOING BACK.

No! I Don't Want To!

This option will NOT delete your character.


Opportunities

Draw cards from here to raise your Styles, meet your Allies, and risk your Antagonists.

Chasing Down Chickens

Unlocked with Hallowed Ground 4 - you have 4

After her brief intense hello, Sermon leaves you to your own devices...

Travel Around Town

Amarillo was once a largeish city; even now it covers a lot of ground...

Pinned

Pinned

A Country Doc

Unlocked with Doc 1 - you have 7; Unlocked when Date is:

May 21, 2026 - Morning (you have this)

May 21, 2026 - Afternoon

May 21, 2026 - Evening

Amarillo is bracketed by stone, sand and sky...

A Gunslinger in Amarillo

Unlocked with Gunslinger 1 - you have 10; Unlocked when Date is:

May 21, 2026 - Morning (you have this)

May 21, 2026 - Afternoon

May 21, 2026 - Evening

There are endless opportunities here for you to brush up on all the things a gunslinger needs to know...


Sleep Now

Please Make Sure

BECAUSE THERE IS NO GOING BACK.

And then awake.


Gunslinger Gear

Guns, gloves, boots.

Cityslicker Duds

Coats and clothes for every occasion.

Doc Toppers

Bowlers, stetsons, the occasional eyewear.

Talismans

Relics, charms, tokens of authority.

Currency

Spendables of all sorts.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

Consumables

Nostrums, drinkables, tobaccos and other treatlets.

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

A Grim Bargain

You and "Padre" Charlie understand each other all too well.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Version

Game version number.

Game version number.
Thanks for playing Zero Summer!

Paladin

Your ethical Orientation. Your concerns are mercy, compassion and justice.

Man in Black

Your ethical Orientation. Your concerns are self-empowerment and getting things done.

Hallowed Ground

You've been taken in by the strange beautiful kindnesses of the Mission.

The Harvestmen

You're following the trail of the Harvestmen

Really Delete Your Character?

Are you SURE?

Avatar

Your avatar.

Time of Day

The time of day.

Date

Today's date.

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Doc

Mental Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

The Ministry of Black Powder

You're helping "Padre" Charlie with his good works.


A Gunslinger in Amarillo

There are endless opportunities here for you to brush up on all the things a gunslinger needs to know.

This is one of Zero Summer's "grind" cards. "Grind" cards can be replayed as often as you like. And most of their branches have a chance to produce a Rare Success, which will significantly increase one of your Styles and yield certain other benefits as well.

Hammer and Tongs

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

A modest challenge

Hammond Traeger is short-staffed and needs a hand pouring bullets. His usual apprentice is out with a case of forge-lung. He brushes off questions about whether it's contagious; the doctor, he explains, assured him it was neither viral nor bacterial.

            9
            You need Gunslinger 9 (you have 10)

            9
            Unlocked with Gunslinger 9 - you have 10

Operational Support

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

A low-risk challenge

The Roughriders periodically sweep the city for gun caches. They're looking for a spotter to help them clear the neighborhood around the Highrise Hotel. Gangs with loose interpretations of the Rule of One often squirrel away guns, bullets and heavier ordnance. Everywhere is a potential hiding place: abandoned buildings, converted stretches of sewer, even dead trees with false knot-holes.

            7
            You need Gunslinger 7 (you have 10)

            7
            Unlocked with Gunslinger 7 - you have 10

Cleaning House for the Pony Express

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

A straightforward challenge

Word is that that a Pony Express carrier is due in tomorrow, and Governor Berkshire will show his appreciation to anyone who clears out the Pony Express office beforehand. Abandoned buildings tend to attract varmints, pests and squatters -- especially in Amarillo, and even the Pony Express office. Carriers tend to be particular about their spaces being clear. And given how much Amarillo depends on them, it's no surprise the governor is taking extra precautions.

            5
            You need Gunslinger 5 (you have 10)

            5
            Unlocked with Gunslinger 5 - you have 10

Bullets for Little Japan

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

A straightforward challenge

Traeger the gunsmith on Short Vine is looking for someone to deliver a package to Little Japan, an apartment building on the west side of town where every unit is owned by one large Japanese-American family. According to Traeger, they're secretive, stand-offish, and endlessly thirsty for bullets. No one but him will do business with them.

            4
            You need Gunslinger 4 (you have 10)

            4
            Unlocked with Gunslinger 4 - you have 10

Keeping the Peace

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

A straightforward challenge

The beating heart of Amarillo's commercial district is the Wall Market, a sprawling parking lot bazaar and former supermarket where you can buy or barter anything you desire. Petty theft is obviously a problem.

A doughman for Butterloaf Bakery is looking for warm bodies to fill the morning security shift. A bad case of food poisoning from the salmon jerky stall has the regular crew doing the Texas two-step. The way the doughman tells it, they're having a graphic morning. Borderline tragic.

            3
            You need Gunslinger 3 (you have 10)

            3
            Unlocked with Gunslinger 3 - you have 10

Getting to Know the Roughriders

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

A straightforward challenge

The local police -- the Roughriders -- have exactly two jobs: keeping the Rule of One and handling the local unnatural fauna. The chief of police is fiercely-mustached Nicco Carfora. He's asked for a civilian volunteer to take one of the Roughriders' aging motorcycles out for a loop around the nearby farms and snoop for unnatural activity.

            1
            You need Gunslinger 1 (you have 10)

            1
            Unlocked with Gunslinger 1 - you have 10


The Art of Bulletmaking

Hammer and Tongs

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

A modest challenge

Traeger explains the process: molten lead is poured into a silicon mold he got from up norte in exchange for a tainted saguaro Darren Skunk dug out of his corn field and threw thoughtlessly away to be scavenged. The lead sets and somebody, meaning you, packs it with a light metal case the size of a thimble and a fingernail of black powder.

Each mold makes twelve bullets. You pack half a dozen molds before Traeger waves you off. Looks good, he says. If he ever has paying work, et cetera.

8 change points, 3 more needed to reach level 11.

Gunslinger is increasing...

You succeeded in a Gunslinger challenge!

You've gained 1 x Reputation (new total 41).


Gunslinger Gear

Guns, gloves, boots.

Cityslicker Duds

Coats and clothes for every occasion.

Doc Toppers

Bowlers, stetsons, the occasional eyewear.

Talismans

Relics, charms, tokens of authority.

Currency

Spendables of all sorts.

Reputation

Your standing in the community.

Dollars

NorteAmericano dollars. Not the only currency in Amarillo, but certainly the preferred one.

Revolver Bullet

Useful for many things. Shooting monsters is only one.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

Consumables

Nostrums, drinkables, tobaccos and other treatlets.

A Bottle of Hoffenstader Honey Wheat

"Brewed right here in Amarillo by Dougie and Carmine Hoffenstader, your hometown hopsmasters!"

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Sermon on the Mount

Sermon on the Mount. Community organizer. Runner of Missions. A warm imposing figure.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Version

Game version number.

Man in Black

Your ethical Orientation. Your concerns are self-empowerment and getting things done.

Seer of Rabbits

You have seen rabbits and struggle to un-see them.

Hallowed Ground

You've been taken in by the strange beautiful kindnesses of the Mission.

The Harvestmen

You're following the trail of the Harvestmen

Helping the Brothers Skunk

The Skunk brothers' farm is a local institution; you've lent a hand to keep it running.

Connections: The Mission

You're working with Sermon on the Mount at the Mission.

Time of Day

The time of day.

Date

Today's date.

White Noise

The unnatural world is becoming all too real.

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Doc

Mental Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

Chasing Down Chickens

Surely all the Mission's chickens come from somewhere.

20th Century Penny

An old but well-polished US penny. Minted in 1960. Just the thing to throw into the fountain at St. Francis's.

The Door

A Tarot card. It shows a door in a meadow and a man in front doing a handstand, one leg crossed over the other.


A Savage Land (CLICK ME!)

Unlocked with ; Unlocked with a stranger 1 - you have 1

The sky is blue and cloudless and filled with dust...

Pinned

Pinned


Version

Game version number.

Game version number.
Thanks for playing Zero Summer!

a stranger

A past yet to be revealed


A Savage Land (CLICK ME!)

Platform #1

The train platform in Amarillo. The number is a dry local joke; there's hardly enough traffic for one platform, let alone several.

The sky is blue and cloudless and filled with dust.

It's the first thing you notice: how billowing and unbroken it is, how it stings your eyes after the warm blackness behind your eyelids.

There must be a hundred boots kicking up sand. The platform square is filled with people, faces baked brown and chapped by the wind, all of them wearing white cotton shirts and dresses and leather vests and silk ties dusted brown and stained and carefully cleaned of forgotten mud from brief sweet rains. All of their hands rough from the rough country.

The town -- place and people -- is alive.

Pinned

Pinned

You Know This Place

This dry sea of faces is familiar. You know this place. But your memory is fogged over, a vast blank dusty plain, and even remembering its name is a struggle.


Opportunities

Draw cards from here to raise your Styles, meet your Allies, and risk your Antagonists.

Pinned

Pinned


Sweet Home Amarillo

Sunny old Amarillo! A dusty frontier boom-town they used to call the Yellow Rose of Texas. A hundred miles in every direction is sand and worse; a thousand miles west of the Wall. Literally the last stop on the Rio Sur line. Population a few thousand or fewer, all of them armed. Although -- a memory twinges -- not all of them with guns. Not many guns in this gunslinger town. Not a place for soft or idle hands. Nor one for the slow or sweet.

But still it lives, and thrives, and struggles sweating in the dust and sun.

Zero Summer is a story-driven game about identity and choice. The game is played with cards (also called Storylets). Each card is a cycle of events: something happens, you choose how to act or react, your choice determines the outcome.

This card came from the Pinned deck. All the available Pinned cards are always laid out face-up. Soon you'll have access to the Opportunity deck, which you pick from blindly in sets of three.

Drawing a hand from the Opportunity deck costs an Action. So does playing a Pinned card. You can never have more than 30 Actions at once -- so be sure to use them when you hit the cap!

You have moved to a new area: Platform #1: In the Beginning

You moved to a new setting: Amarillo: in the Beginning.

You're in Amarillo -- but who exactly are you?

Far, Far From Home is increasing!

You've upgraded to Zero Summer version 1.1!


Version

Game version number.

a stranger

A past yet to be revealed

Far, Far From Home

You're in Amarillo -- but who exactly are you?


Gunslinger Gear

Guns, gloves, boots.

Cityslicker Duds

Coats and clothes for every occasion.

Doc Toppers

Bowlers, stetsons, the occasional eyewear.

Talismans

Relics, charms, tokens of authority.

Currency

Spendables of all sorts.

Reputation

Your standing in the community.

Dollars

NorteAmericano dollars. Not the only currency in Amarillo, but certainly the preferred one.

Revolver Bullet

Useful for many things. Shooting monsters is only one.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

Consumables

Nostrums, drinkables, tobaccos and other treatlets.

A Bottle of Hoffenstader Honey Wheat

"Brewed right here in Amarillo by Dougie and Carmine Hoffenstader, your hometown hopsmasters!"

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Sermon on the Mount

Sermon on the Mount. Community organizer. Runner of Missions. A warm imposing figure.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Version

Game version number.

Man in Black

Your ethical Orientation. Your concerns are self-empowerment and getting things done.

Seer of Rabbits

You have seen rabbits and struggle to un-see them.

Hallowed Ground

You've been taken in by the strange beautiful kindnesses of the Mission.

The Harvestmen

You're following the trail of the Harvestmen

Helping the Brothers Skunk

The Skunk brothers' farm is a local institution; you've lent a hand to keep it running.

Connections: The Mission

You're working with Sermon on the Mount at the Mission.

Time of Day

The time of day.

Date

Today's date.

White Noise

The unnatural world is becoming all too real.

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Doc

Mental Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

Chasing Down Chickens

Surely all the Mission's chickens come from somewhere.

20th Century Penny

An old but well-polished US penny. Minted in 1960. Just the thing to throw into the fountain at St. Francis's.

The Door

A Tarot card. It shows a door in a meadow and a man in front doing a handstand, one leg crossed over the other.


From a Certain Perspective

Unlocked with Far, Far From Home 1 - you have 1

A woman just off the platform -- she's wearing an apron; it reads Butterloaf Bakery -- cries: fresh hot bread from the oven!—

Pinned

Pinned


The Skunk Brothers Farm

Long brick buildings and ordered greenery and verdant climbing hops! In the distance purple mountains; in the foreground amber waves of grain! And everywhere the scent of yeast and its vast gassy microscopic hunger, and the buzzing of bees by the gated clover, and the low humming churn and splash of beer and whiskey being made as fast as Darren and Lloyd and the whole Skunk family can make it.

Increase your Helping the Skunk Brothers Quality to open up new branches!

Opportunities

Draw cards from here to raise your Styles, meet your Allies, and risk your Antagonists.

Water for the Vats

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

A straightforward challenge

The call goes out through Amarillo: the Skunk well's gone dry! Suddenly every idle hand is laid on jars and jugs and even glasses of water. There's no money in it, you're told, but no one can imagine the Skunk Brothers vats going unwatered. Perhaps you should lend a hand.

Making the Rounds

Cityslicker

Social Style.

A straightforward challenge

Demand for Cornskunk sour mash bourbon has climbed over the last few months. Theories abound; production volume has exploded; the brothers Skunk are being tightlipped about the whole thing.

To handle logistics, Lloyd Skunk is looking for a few good drinkers to hit all their distributors and come back with orders. It's not glamorous and it doesn't pay, but it will keep the whiskey flowing.

That Cornskunk Taste

Doc

Mental Style.

A straightforward challenge

Darren Skunk -- quiet thoughtful alchemist! brewmaster, taste-maker! -- needs taste-testers for a new batch of bourbon. He's taking anybody, no special training required. Which means you could get involved. For charitable reasons, of course.

Perhaps Not

Your plate is already full.


From a Certain Perspective

A woman just off the platform -- she's wearing an apron; it reads Butterloaf Bakery -- cries: fresh hot bread from the oven! Beside her a man is banging a ladle on a wooden bucket almost slopping over with water. Water a nickel apiece! Three ladles for a dime!

You realize gradually that you're sitting on a long wooden bench. It creaks slightly in the hot breeze; you shift and its fat legs crunch and shift in the gravel. The platform overhang is the only shade for fifty yards in any direction. The train is long gone. You can't remember any details.

The horizon is about a thousand miles away. Spotless, uninhabited. The sky is incredibly wide.

Pinned

Pinned

Absence

You can catalog all the things in sight -- the dust and the watercarriers and the bakers and buskers with cracked voices and the cattails growing in the still persistent water under the parched gasping boards of Platform #1; the silk ties worn thin by frontier life and the absence of silkworms anywhere this side of the Wall, the rough cotton fibers that make up every dress and shirt and pair of trousers worn by the tanned chapped people of Amarillo --

And still, at the end of your list, you'll find you've left a place unviewed because your own personal lens is unidirectional, unreflective.

The only thing missing here is you.


Opportunities

Perhaps Not

Your plate is already full.

Opportunities always come around again.


Gunslinger Gear

Guns, gloves, boots.

Cityslicker Duds

Coats and clothes for every occasion.

Doc Toppers

Bowlers, stetsons, the occasional eyewear.

Talismans

Relics, charms, tokens of authority.

Currency

Spendables of all sorts.

Reputation

Your standing in the community.

Dollars

NorteAmericano dollars. Not the only currency in Amarillo, but certainly the preferred one.

Revolver Bullet

Useful for many things. Shooting monsters is only one.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

Consumables

Nostrums, drinkables, tobaccos and other treatlets.

A Bottle of Hoffenstader Honey Wheat

"Brewed right here in Amarillo by Dougie and Carmine Hoffenstader, your hometown hopsmasters!"

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Sermon on the Mount

Sermon on the Mount. Community organizer. Runner of Missions. A warm imposing figure.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Version

Game version number.

Man in Black

Your ethical Orientation. Your concerns are self-empowerment and getting things done.

Seer of Rabbits

You have seen rabbits and struggle to un-see them.

Hallowed Ground

You've been taken in by the strange beautiful kindnesses of the Mission.

The Harvestmen

You're following the trail of the Harvestmen

Helping the Brothers Skunk

The Skunk brothers' farm is a local institution; you've lent a hand to keep it running.

Connections: The Mission

You're working with Sermon on the Mount at the Mission.

Time of Day

The time of day.

Date

Today's date.

White Noise

The unnatural world is becoming all too real.

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Doc

Mental Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

Chasing Down Chickens

Surely all the Mission's chickens come from somewhere.

20th Century Penny

An old but well-polished US penny. Minted in 1960. Just the thing to throw into the fountain at St. Francis's.

The Door

A Tarot card. It shows a door in a meadow and a man in front doing a handstand, one leg crossed over the other.


The View from Inside

Absence

From a Certain Perspective

A woman just off the platform -- she's wearing an apron; it reads Butterloaf Bakery -- cries: fresh hot bread from the oven! Beside her a man is banging a ladle on a wooden bucket almost slopping over with water. Water a nickel apiece! Three ladles for a dime!

You realize gradually that you're sitting on a long wooden bench. It creaks slightly in the hot breeze; you shift and its fat legs crunch and shift in the gravel. The platform overhang is the only shade for fifty yards in any direction. The train is long gone. You can't remember any details.

The horizon is about a thousand miles away. Spotless, uninhabited. The sky is incredibly wide.

You can catalog all the things in sight -- the dust and the watercarriers and the bakers and buskers with cracked voices and the cattails growing in the still persistent water under the parched gasping boards of Platform #1; the silk ties worn thin by frontier life and the absence of silkworms anywhere this side of the Wall, the rough cotton fibers that make up every dress and shirt and pair of trousers worn by the tanned chapped people of Amarillo --

And still, at the end of your list, you'll find you've left a place unviewed because your own personal lens is unidirectional, unreflective.

The only thing missing here is you.

Amarillo swirls around you. From your elevated place on the long wooden bench at Platform #1 you can look down on most of the city: its hard dusty people and broad streets and red brick buildings. There are worse places in the desert. Distantly, you think you might have been to some.

Then the realization: you know Amarillo but not yourself. Not your face. Not the pattern of stubble on your chin or the muscles and skin and bones under the shirt you don't recall buttoning up.

Not your name.

Cold sweat pricks everywhere on your unfamiliar skin.

Your character in Zero Summer is A MAN WITH NO NAME: the Protagonist. A lot of Zero Summer is choosing how to define him -- in relation to his forgotten past and uncertain future, navigating by your own bright moral stars.

You won't have much to work with at first: just the clothes on his back and a sense, maybe vague, maybe growing, of the person you want him to be.

But stick with it and we promise, you'll find the Protagonist looking more and more like his own living, breathing self again.

You're in Amarillo -- but who exactly are you?

Far, Far From Home is increasing!


Version

Game version number.

Game version number.
Thanks for playing Zero Summer!

a stranger

A past yet to be revealed

Far, Far From Home

You're in Amarillo -- but who exactly are you?


Opportunities

Draw cards from here to raise your Styles, meet your Allies, and risk your Antagonists.

Pinned

Pinned

Small-Town Cityslicker

Unlocked with Cityslicker 1 - you have 8; Unlocked when Date is:

May 21, 2026 - Morning (you have this)

May 21, 2026 - Afternoon

May 21, 2026 - Evening

Compared to the big cities up norte, Amarillo is a smear in the desert...


Lost in Amarillo

Unlocked with Far, Far From Home 2 - you have 2; Unlocked with  - you have 1

Parched streams of people flow around you, over the platform and through the square and up the avenues leading into the city...

Pinned

Pinned


Chasing Down Chickens

The Mission

TBD

After her brief intense hello, Sermon leaves you to your own devices. Like a forest after a brief violent storm, the Mission seems livelier now that she's back. Not every broken person in Amarillo is here -- the Highrise Hotel has its derelicts, the Wall Market is home to orphan gangs -- but most of them are. And it should be a dysfunctional carousel, throwing people off at crazed tilting intervals, but somehow it all just works.

And still there's this: even the chickens are uneaten. How to explain it?

Increase your Chasing Down Chickens Quality to open up new branches!

Pinned

Pinned

Follow Their Tracks

Cityslicker

Social Style.

A straightforward challenge

Chasing Down Chickens

The Mission

TBD

People are taller and easier to spot than chickens. If you want to know about the latter, follow the former.

Following Them Home

Doc

Mental Style.

A straightforward challenge

Chasing Down Chickens

The Mission

TBD

These are not plump white pastoral bantams. The Mission's chickens are rangy and tufted and brown and half-wild. And they're clannish, almost viciously insular. Which must mean they're stashing their eggs somewhere. Presumably that place is chicken HQ.

            5
            You need Doc 5 (you have 7)

            5
            Unlocked with Doc 5 - you have 7

View from the Roost

A very chancy challenge

Chasing Down Chickens

The Mission

TBD

As you study the roost in the bell-tower, you see one of the orphans clambering up for eggs. It seems a simple matter once you give the route some thought, and the perspective from higher up is often a good one. At least novel, perhaps even enlightening.

            4
            You need Chasing Down Chickens 4 (you have 3)

            4
            Unlocked with Chasing Down Chickens 4 - you have 3


Version

Game version number.

a stranger

A past yet to be revealed


Theriomancy

Following Them Home

Doc

Mental Style.

A straightforward challenge

Chasing Down Chickens

The Mission

TBD

One rooster has a particularly distinctive wattle, making him easy to pick out of a crowd. Rather than analyze a crowd of birds, you simply follow him through an hour of rooster-time.

One elderly man takes a swipe at the rooster, the gleam of a stew pot in his eyes, but the wily bird escapes, crowing madly. The bird rushes away, running with surprising grace. He heads for the door, but then leaps! Up, up, and though chickens can't do much in the way of flying, the rooster makes it to the rafters. In rows like feathered saints, the broodies and the bantams and roosters rest. Eggs are safely tucked up here in the bell tower -- only the boldest climbers can reach them.

5 change points, 3 more needed to reach level 8.

Doc is increasing...

You succeeded in a Doc challenge! (Simple challenges mean you don't learn so much.)

1 change point, 3 more needed to reach level 4.

Chasing Down Chickens is increasing...


Gunslinger Gear

Guns, gloves, boots.

Cityslicker Duds

Coats and clothes for every occasion.

Doc Toppers

Bowlers, stetsons, the occasional eyewear.

Talismans

Relics, charms, tokens of authority.

Currency

Spendables of all sorts.

Reputation

Your standing in the community.

Dollars

NorteAmericano dollars. Not the only currency in Amarillo, but certainly the preferred one.

Revolver Bullet

Useful for many things. Shooting monsters is only one.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

Consumables

Nostrums, drinkables, tobaccos and other treatlets.

A Bottle of Hoffenstader Honey Wheat

"Brewed right here in Amarillo by Dougie and Carmine Hoffenstader, your hometown hopsmasters!"

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Sermon on the Mount

Sermon on the Mount. Community organizer. Runner of Missions. A warm imposing figure.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Version

Game version number.

Man in Black

Your ethical Orientation. Your concerns are self-empowerment and getting things done.

Seer of Rabbits

You have seen rabbits and struggle to un-see them.

Hallowed Ground

You've been taken in by the strange beautiful kindnesses of the Mission.

The Harvestmen

You're following the trail of the Harvestmen

Helping the Brothers Skunk

The Skunk brothers' farm is a local institution; you've lent a hand to keep it running.

Connections: The Mission

You're working with Sermon on the Mount at the Mission.

Time of Day

The time of day.

Date

Today's date.

White Noise

The unnatural world is becoming all too real.

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Doc

Mental Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

Chasing Down Chickens

Surely all the Mission's chickens come from somewhere.

20th Century Penny

An old but well-polished US penny. Minted in 1960. Just the thing to throw into the fountain at St. Francis's.

The Door

A Tarot card. It shows a door in a meadow and a man in front doing a handstand, one leg crossed over the other.


Your Real Actual Pockets

The trousers you're wearing are rugged indigo twill, faded on the insides of the legs from -- what?

A memory stirs: a rich sweaty animal smell; a sense of acceleration and control.

Horseback riding. Your pants are worn from the saddle. And there's this: your left pocket bulges slightly, inviting attention.

Opportunities

Draw cards from here to raise your Styles, meet your Allies, and risk your Antagonists.

Rummage Around

Whatever's in your pocket isn't very large. And it's warm to the touch, even through the fabric of your jeans, even warmer than your own personal skin. Metal, then?


Pinned

Pinned


The Breadcrumbs of Memory

In your pocket is a hollow metal cylinder half the length of your thumb, warmed and pliable from soaking up the sun and your own personal heat. The cylinder is capped on one end and smells like the Fourth of July.

In Zero Summer, your progress is controlled by your Qualities. Think of them as a cross between statistics in a traditional role-playing game and road signs to show where you are in the story.

The most important Qualities in Zero Summer are your three Styles, which together represent how talented and practiced the Protagonist is.

You've just gained 1 point in Gunslinger. Gunslinger represents your physical capacity: how far you can run, jump, swim -- and, of course, how well you handle a gun.

0 change points, 2 more needed to reach level 2.

An occurrence! Your 'Gunslinger' Quality is now 1!

You started with a quality called "A Stranger", which has just changed to level 2. This will unlock more stories.


Version

Game version number.

Game version number.
Thanks for playing Zero Summer!

a stranger

A past yet to be revealed

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

Far, Far From Home

You're in Amarillo -- but who exactly are you?


Gunslinger Gear

Guns, gloves, boots.

Cityslicker Duds

Coats and clothes for every occasion.

Doc Toppers

Bowlers, stetsons, the occasional eyewear.

Talismans

Relics, charms, tokens of authority.

Currency

Spendables of all sorts.

Reputation

Your standing in the community.

Dollars

NorteAmericano dollars. Not the only currency in Amarillo, but certainly the preferred one.

Revolver Bullet

Useful for many things. Shooting monsters is only one.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

Consumables

Nostrums, drinkables, tobaccos and other treatlets.

A Bottle of Hoffenstader Honey Wheat

"Brewed right here in Amarillo by Dougie and Carmine Hoffenstader, your hometown hopsmasters!"

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Sermon on the Mount

Sermon on the Mount. Community organizer. Runner of Missions. A warm imposing figure.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Version

Game version number.

Man in Black

Your ethical Orientation. Your concerns are self-empowerment and getting things done.

Seer of Rabbits

You have seen rabbits and struggle to un-see them.

Hallowed Ground

You've been taken in by the strange beautiful kindnesses of the Mission.

The Harvestmen

You're following the trail of the Harvestmen

Helping the Brothers Skunk

The Skunk brothers' farm is a local institution; you've lent a hand to keep it running.

Connections: The Mission

You're working with Sermon on the Mount at the Mission.

Time of Day

The time of day.

Date

Today's date.

White Noise

The unnatural world is becoming all too real.

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Doc

Mental Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

Chasing Down Chickens

Surely all the Mission's chickens come from somewhere.

20th Century Penny

An old but well-polished US penny. Minted in 1960. Just the thing to throw into the fountain at St. Francis's.

The Door

A Tarot card. It shows a door in a meadow and a man in front doing a handstand, one leg crossed over the other.


Opportunities

Draw cards from here to raise your Styles, meet your Allies, and risk your Antagonists.

Lost in Amarillo

Unlocked with Far, Far From Home 2 - you have 2; Unlocked with  - you have 2

Pinned

Pinned

The Love Song of Amarillo, Texas

A woman is sweeping the dusty thirsty boards of Platform #1...

Rough and Tumble

Your shirt is bleached white cotton, rough to the touch and stiff in the collar...


Small-Town Cityslicker

Compared to the big cities up norte, Amarillo is a smear in the desert. But over the Wall, Amarillo is the center of civilization. Nowhere rivals it in size or style. And being this close to Corpus Christi, Amarillo's social scene always carries an exciting hint of danger.

This is one of Zero Summer's "grind" cards. "Grind" cards can be replayed as often as you like. And most of their branches have a chance to produce a Rare Success, which will significantly increase one of your Styles and yield certain other benefits as well.

Black Jack

Cityslicker

Social Style.

A modest challenge

Cards are one of those things worked into Texas's own personal identity. Spades. Poker -- of course. And black jack. You hear a rumor that a mercurial socialite called Tall Saul -- that's his gambling name -- runs a floating table out of a small airless room in the Wall Market proper. If you got yourself a seat, it could be lucrative, and not just financially.

A Cherished Thing in Common

Cityslicker

Social Style.

A straightforward challenge

The sound of shouting from two blocks down draws you to a small crowd surrounding local gunsmith Hammond Traeger and a portly middle-aged man in a green waistcoat and bristly mustache. It only takes a few moments to figure out that they're arguing over a woman who it turns out is both of their lovers. The particulars are unclear except that they're struggling with this new information -- and are both carrying heavy-caliber revolvers.

The Roughriders haven't turned up yet, meaning somebody else needs to get involved before the Rule of One is resoundingly broken and at least one beloved local icon is disappeared into the grim blackness under the governor's mansion.

Fires in the Desert

Cityslicker

Social Style.

A straightforward challenge

Even here in the desert in ninety degree weather under a cloudless sky that promises an afternoon heat so thick you could chew it, people keep the drumfires lit outside the Highrise Hotel. Partly it's practical; the smoke keeps the flies away, and they're hard to get started once they go out, and anyway how else are you going to make breakfast? And then again it's partly emotional. One woman in a patchwork coat -- clearly a resident -- tells you that the Deacon of St. Francis's told her that fire is purely human, and monsters hate the sight of it, and if she kept it lit all the time they wouldn't ever get near her, even the ones that swarm and boil overhead most nights.

And then suddenly the dozen-ish people around the Highrise drumfires are looking at you, thinking -- surely they're thinking! -- that you're an outsider, and a stranger, and why shouldn't we hustle him out of here right now? All it could take is a word either way. Figuring out which word is the trick.

High Noon Saloon

Cityslicker

Social Style.

A straightforward challenge

One of the largest, best-known saloons in Amarillo is the High Noon. "Padre" Charlie explains it was built before the Longest Day as an old-timey theme restaurant. Now an actual frontier saloon, it boasts Hoffenstader on tap and salty/fried fingerfood and a dim cheerful gloom every hour of the day, plus a real actual pianist and full-time muscle to keep everybody civil.

There's nowhere better to make new friends -- this also from "Padre" Charlie, whose nose is red and veiny from a lifetime of dedicated social drinking. He slips a quarter into your breast pocket and pats your hand with fatherly affection. For a warm mug, he says. Can't get any other kind out here.

What The Boys Said

Cityslicker

Social Style.

A straightforward challenge

The sand and crowds and sweat of Amarillo are new to you, but to the children born here after the Longest Day it's all they've ever known. And to the animals -- cats and dogs and rats and every conceivable urban creature, constantly barking and hissing and underfoot.

A romping yipping puppy streaks past you on the street with a throng of stick-thin boys close behind. If you collar one of the boys, you might be able to talk a little local flavor out of him.


Version

Game version number.

Game version number.
Thanks for playing Zero Summer!

a stranger

A past yet to be revealed

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

Far, Far From Home

You're in Amarillo -- but who exactly are you?


Pinned

Pinned


Rough and Tumble

Your shirt is bleached white cotton, rough to the touch and stiff in the collar. The shirt of somebody who in a pinch wouldn't mind getting sweaty or rolling in the dust if that's what was needed.

In Your Breast Pocket

And in your breast pocket is buttoned something flat and broad. A folded sheet of paper?


Travel Around Town

Amarillo was once a largeish city; even now it covers a lot of ground. It takes time to move from one place to another.

Pinned

Pinned

Move to Burrow and Briar

Both an intersection and the tumble-down hideout of the Jackrabbits, Burrow and Briar represents a significant chunk of suburban Amarillo.

Move to Platform #1

The last stop on the Rio Sur line, located right here in Amarillo. A bustling place! Hub of commerce and social interaction! Mind the gap.

Move to St. Francis's

This tiny church near the heart of Amarillo is nevertheless a social hub -- for the worshipful few, the devotees of Santo Guerrero, and the better sort of criminal, the latter flocking like peacocks to the public fountain just outside.

Move to The Highrise Hotel

The tallest building in Amarillo was once public housing. Now its lower floors serve as flophouses for the indigent. And its upper floors? Rumors abound; no one can say for sure.

Move to the Wall Market

Beating heart of Amarillo's commercial district! Once a supermarket, now a sprawling swap meet where dollars and goods are bought and sold and bartered by hands both filthy and clean.

Move to the Scrublands

Step lightly through the lonely grass and sweeping sands north of Amarillo, where homesteaders and farmers and more unnatural things compete for water and precious black soil.

Move to the Mission

All brick and broken statues of angels. Here live the homeless and hopeless of Amarillo. The smell of chickens and the sound of singing will let you know you've arrived.

Move to Little Japan

On the west side, a forbidding place of blacked-out windows, steel doors and standoffish Japanese-Americans. Very few people are seen going in and out.

Move to Downtown Amarillo

A latter-day suburban sprawl! Choked with dust and the bright energy of commerce! Even now the wheels turn in Amarillo's rusted heart.

Move to Amarillo Academy

The former local college has been converted into an ivory fortress. Few students are accepted; none seem to leave. The masthead over the iron gate reads "Amarillo Academy of Arts and Speculative Sciences." Security is said to shoot on sight. It seems more credible than not.

A colored flyer on the gate announces a lecture series starting Friday, May 22nd on the subject of "Actuating Transposition in a Biplanar Society." The presenter will be Prof. M. J. Freiburg. The flyer promises light snacks and a Q&A.

            1
            You need An Invitation to Amarillo Academy 1

            1
            Unlocked with An Invitation to Amarillo Academy 1

Move to the Pony Express

The heart of Amarillo: its living breathing center. Its distributor of mail. Its carrier of justice. Only open when a postal rider is in town.

            Unlocked when Date is:

May 22, 2026 - Morning

May 22, 2026 - Afternoon

May 22, 2026 - Evening

May 23, 2026


Practical and Clear-Eyed

In fact it's a letter -- a fragment of a letter. Most of the ink's by a deep red stain that smells dry and sharp and stirs a memory. Someone spilled wine on your shirt; you had to change into the one you're wearing now. The spill wasn't that long ago; the letter's still a little wet.

Not much of the text was spared. An early sentence reads, "New York is a wet stinking place I've learned to hate..." And another near the end: "Practical and clear-eyed: wasn't that always what you liked best? But not it seems when it comes to Arnie."

In Zero Summer, your progress is controlled by your Qualities. Think of them as a cross between statistics in a traditional role-playing game and road signs to show where you are in the story.

The most important Qualities in Zero Summer are your three Styles, which together represent how talented and practiced the Protagonist is.

You've just gained 1 point in Cityslicker. Cityslicker represents your social capacity: how well you can charm, chatter, fast-talk and double-deal your way through the new American frontier.

You started with a quality called "A Stranger", which has just changed to level 3. This will unlock more stories.

0 change points, 2 more needed to reach level 2.

An occurrence! Your 'Cityslicker' Quality is now 1!


Version

Game version number.

a stranger

A past yet to be revealed

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.


The Asian Enclave

Most locals keep far away from Little Japan. At best they think it's cursed; at worst -- well, it's impolite. Perhaps there's a reason Amarillo's Japanese-Americans keep to themselves.

You have moved to a new area: Little Japan


Gunslinger Gear

Guns, gloves, boots.

Cityslicker Duds

Coats and clothes for every occasion.

Doc Toppers

Bowlers, stetsons, the occasional eyewear.

Talismans

Relics, charms, tokens of authority.

Currency

Spendables of all sorts.

Reputation

Your standing in the community.

Dollars

NorteAmericano dollars. Not the only currency in Amarillo, but certainly the preferred one.

Revolver Bullet

Useful for many things. Shooting monsters is only one.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

Consumables

Nostrums, drinkables, tobaccos and other treatlets.

A Bottle of Hoffenstader Honey Wheat

"Brewed right here in Amarillo by Dougie and Carmine Hoffenstader, your hometown hopsmasters!"

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Sermon on the Mount

Sermon on the Mount. Community organizer. Runner of Missions. A warm imposing figure.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Version

Game version number.

Man in Black

Your ethical Orientation. Your concerns are self-empowerment and getting things done.

Seer of Rabbits

You have seen rabbits and struggle to un-see them.

Hallowed Ground

You've been taken in by the strange beautiful kindnesses of the Mission.

The Harvestmen

You're following the trail of the Harvestmen

Helping the Brothers Skunk

The Skunk brothers' farm is a local institution; you've lent a hand to keep it running.

Connections: The Mission

You're working with Sermon on the Mount at the Mission.

Time of Day

The time of day.

Date

Today's date.

White Noise

The unnatural world is becoming all too real.

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Doc

Mental Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

Chasing Down Chickens

Surely all the Mission's chickens come from somewhere.

20th Century Penny

An old but well-polished US penny. Minted in 1960. Just the thing to throw into the fountain at St. Francis's.

The Door

A Tarot card. It shows a door in a meadow and a man in front doing a handstand, one leg crossed over the other.


Opportunities

Draw cards from here to raise your Styles, meet your Allies, and risk your Antagonists.

Lost in Amarillo

Unlocked with Far, Far From Home 2 - you have 2; Unlocked with  - you have 3

Pinned

Pinned


Finding Calo

Unlocked with The Harvestmen 4 - you have 4

The streets around Little Japan are narrow and hard to navigate...

Pinned

Pinned


Version

Game version number.

Game version number.
Thanks for playing Zero Summer!

a stranger

A past yet to be revealed

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

Far, Far From Home

You're in Amarillo -- but who exactly are you?


A Friend of Little Japan

Little Japan

A forbidding apartment building with blacked-out windows and steel doors. All the rooms are owned by Japanese-Americans, who under the gentle pressures of xenophobia have become secretive and withdrawn.

Unfriendly? Standoffish? Of course. Wouldn't you be? Nevertheless Little Japan can't be an island unto itself, and so it must cultivate friendships with certain outsiders -- men and women of taste and discretion.

Pinned

Pinned

One Single Bullet

The doorman -- always polite, usually silent -- will, in exchange for a handful of revolver bullets, bestow upon you a slight bow. At least you think it's a bow. His body and most of his face remain hidden behind the solid steel door at all times.

            3
            You need 3 x Revolver Bullet  (you have 2)

            3
            Unlocked with 3 x Revolver Bullet  - you have 2

Come to the Door

A young Asian boy approaches you with a folded slip of paper. Inside is a line of elegant calligraphy: come to the door.

This will reduce your Connections: Little Japan!

            5
            You need Connections: Little Japan 5

            5
            Unlocked with Connections: Little Japan 5


Version

Game version number.

a stranger

A past yet to be revealed

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.


Pinned

Pinned


Version

Game version number.

a stranger

A past yet to be revealed

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.


Finding Calo

The streets around Little Japan are narrow and hard to navigate. At best they're badly labeled, changing names without warning. At worst they're graffitied over -- e.g. west of Hamilton, Sixth becomes Sakura. For an outsider it's a nightmare to navigate. Probably by design.

Pinned

Pinned

Worth the Effort

It might be a pain and a half to follow, but this is where the trail of the Harvestmen leads. And you can't imagine Ms. Pettle steering you wrong. The thought is somehow deeply un-librarianish.

            7
            You need Cityslicker 7 (you have 8)

            7
            Unlocked with Cityslicker 7 - you have 8


Version

Game version number.

a stranger

A past yet to be revealed

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.


Questions for Calo

It's not long before the tangled claustrophic name-changing alleyways start to look the same, all of them dirty trash-strewn and alive with a patient unseen jungleish hostility. And then all of a sudden you turn a corner and there's Calo. It must be her: the only person you've seen since you turned onto Sakura. Skinny, hostile. A hand trailing behind a trashcan, holding -- what? Something menacing. That's Calo all over: menacing, a skinny whipcrack girl with dirty black hair and eyes like a feral cat.

Your eyes meet. She looks you up and down. Eventually there's a subtle shift; her body relaxes like a finger coming off a trigger. "El hombre has questions for Calo?"

 Cautious. Not unfriendly -- but neither warm, is Calo. Not a friend to strangers and strays.

The Harvestmen is increasing!


Gunslinger Gear

Guns, gloves, boots.

Cityslicker Duds

Coats and clothes for every occasion.

Doc Toppers

Bowlers, stetsons, the occasional eyewear.

Talismans

Relics, charms, tokens of authority.

Currency

Spendables of all sorts.

Reputation

Your standing in the community.

Dollars

NorteAmericano dollars. Not the only currency in Amarillo, but certainly the preferred one.

Revolver Bullet

Useful for many things. Shooting monsters is only one.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

Consumables

Nostrums, drinkables, tobaccos and other treatlets.

A Bottle of Hoffenstader Honey Wheat

"Brewed right here in Amarillo by Dougie and Carmine Hoffenstader, your hometown hopsmasters!"

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Sermon on the Mount

Sermon on the Mount. Community organizer. Runner of Missions. A warm imposing figure.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Version

Game version number.

Man in Black

Your ethical Orientation. Your concerns are self-empowerment and getting things done.

Seer of Rabbits

You have seen rabbits and struggle to un-see them.

Hallowed Ground

You've been taken in by the strange beautiful kindnesses of the Mission.

The Harvestmen

You're following the trail of the Harvestmen

Helping the Brothers Skunk

The Skunk brothers' farm is a local institution; you've lent a hand to keep it running.

Connections: The Mission

You're working with Sermon on the Mount at the Mission.

Time of Day

The time of day.

Date

Today's date.

White Noise

The unnatural world is becoming all too real.

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Doc

Mental Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

Chasing Down Chickens

Surely all the Mission's chickens come from somewhere.

20th Century Penny

An old but well-polished US penny. Minted in 1960. Just the thing to throw into the fountain at St. Francis's.

The Door

A Tarot card. It shows a door in a meadow and a man in front doing a handstand, one leg crossed over the other.


The Love Song of Amarillo, Texas

A woman is sweeping the dusty thirsty boards of Platform #1. She looks maybe fifty years old, blonde hair going gray, hands crooked with a lifetime of work in the bone-dry desert. She's humming a song.

Opportunities

Draw cards from here to raise your Styles, meet your Allies, and risk your Antagonists.

Knowing and Unknowing

The tune flutters at the edge of your recall like a moth at a kerosene lamp. You could reach out and take it, that fluttering unknown, if only you stretch a little.


A Chat with Calo

Little Japan

A forbidding apartment building with blacked-out windows and steel doors. All the rooms are owned by Japanese-Americans, who under the gentle pressures of xenophobia have become secretive and withdrawn.

A stray cat jumps up beside Calo; she runs her fingers through its fur. Another winds through her legs. Both have fleas jumping and falling like tiny black raindrops on their backs. Are they her pets? Or just starved for human contact? Calo clicks her tongue at them. They purr audibly in response. Nevertheless her eyes never leave you. Springloaded is Calo, ready to fight or flight. Best talk quickly before something snaps.

Pinned

Pinned

Regarding the Harvestmen

This is the time for brevity. Explain you're here about the Harvestmen. That Ms. Pettle sent you. And that you aren't staying long.


An Older, Harsher Voice

You close your eyes and concentrate. Out of the black past floats a memory: a blonde woman, young and pretty with a voice like a clear high bell, standing on a stage and singing the same song the sweeper-woman is humming. The song wasn't hers originally, the blonde's; she'd cribbed it from an older, harsher voice. The name of the song comes to you: Come On Up to the House. Tom Waits wrote it.

The sweeper-woman looks up briefly; your eyes meet. You realize she's mouthing the lyrics, making little subvocal sounds; you strain your ears and just make out a part of the chorus -- there's nothing in the world that you can do. Suddenly all the hairs on the back of your neck stand up and prickle. The lonely desert air no longer seems quite so warm.

In Zero Summer, your progress is controlled by your Qualities. Think of them as a cross between statistics in a traditional role-playing game and road signs to show where you are in the story.

The most important Qualities in Zero Summer are your three Styles, which together represent how talented and practiced the Protagonist is.

You've just gained 1 point in Doc. Doc represents your mental capacity: how well you can think, learn, and research your way out of trouble.

0 change points, 2 more needed to reach level 2.

An occurrence! Your 'Doc' Quality is now 1!

You started with a quality called "A Stranger", which has just changed to level 4. This will unlock more stories.


Version

Game version number.

Game version number.
Thanks for playing Zero Summer!

a stranger

A past yet to be revealed

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Doc

Mental Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

Far, Far From Home

You're in Amarillo -- but who exactly are you?


Skinny Crazy

When Calo hears Harvestmen her face goes dark like before a storm. Then she starts talking in a quick pattering gumbo of English, Spanish and Japanese. You catch maybe three words in five but the gist is clear.

Yes, the Harvestmen are a gang. No, they don't have turf or goals or whatever. They come down like rain from a clear sky and they're gone just as quick. Everybody's got a friend of a friend who saw them one night after a little light drinking. Nobody can settle on a description. They're tall or really tall and masked or bare-faced and wear trench coats or dusters and smell like week-old trash or Armani cologne or sour lilacs or blood.

Then all of a sudden she's smiling. "Calo is done," she says. "Dumb little brother for sticking his nose, sure. But he need more, he come back here. Flaca Loca tell him everything. Make it all better."

A memory stirs: a little Spanish picked up in the smoky shifting past. Flaca Loca. As in Calo. Meaning "skinny crazy." Tu comprendes.

The Harvestmen is increasing!

Calo. As in Flaca Loca. As in crazy-skinny.

Calo is now your Ally!


Gunslinger Gear

Guns, gloves, boots.

Cityslicker Duds

Coats and clothes for every occasion.

Doc Toppers

Bowlers, stetsons, the occasional eyewear.

Talismans

Relics, charms, tokens of authority.

Currency

Spendables of all sorts.

Reputation

Your standing in the community.

Dollars

NorteAmericano dollars. Not the only currency in Amarillo, but certainly the preferred one.

Revolver Bullet

Useful for many things. Shooting monsters is only one.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

Consumables

Nostrums, drinkables, tobaccos and other treatlets.

A Bottle of Hoffenstader Honey Wheat

"Brewed right here in Amarillo by Dougie and Carmine Hoffenstader, your hometown hopsmasters!"

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Sermon on the Mount

Sermon on the Mount. Community organizer. Runner of Missions. A warm imposing figure.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Version

Game version number.

Man in Black

Your ethical Orientation. Your concerns are self-empowerment and getting things done.

Seer of Rabbits

You have seen rabbits and struggle to un-see them.

Hallowed Ground

You've been taken in by the strange beautiful kindnesses of the Mission.

The Harvestmen

You're following the trail of the Harvestmen

Helping the Brothers Skunk

The Skunk brothers' farm is a local institution; you've lent a hand to keep it running.

Ally: Calo

Calo. As in Flaca Loca. As in crazy-skinny.

Connections: The Mission

You're working with Sermon on the Mount at the Mission.

Time of Day

The time of day.

Date

Today's date.

White Noise

The unnatural world is becoming all too real.

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Doc

Mental Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

Chasing Down Chickens

Surely all the Mission's chickens come from somewhere.

20th Century Penny

An old but well-polished US penny. Minted in 1960. Just the thing to throw into the fountain at St. Francis's.

The Door

A Tarot card. It shows a door in a meadow and a man in front doing a handstand, one leg crossed over the other.


Lost in Amarillo

Unlocked with Far, Far From Home 2 - you have 2; Unlocked with a stranger 4 - you have 4

Parched streams of people flow around you, over the platform proper and through the square and up the avenues leading into Amarillo proper...

Pinned

Pinned


Opportunities

Draw cards from here to raise your Styles, meet your Allies, and risk your Antagonists.

Pinned

Pinned


Lost in Amarillo

Parched streams of people flow around you, over the platform proper and through the square and up the avenues leading into Amarillo proper. Not one person notices you -- not a single one, not a single glance. A quick motion just off the platform draws your eye: a stick-thin boy has just snatched a roll out of the Butterloaf basket and taken off running.

Before anyone can react, the boy trips over a loose stone -- and then the Butterloaf woman is on him, dragging him out of the dust and shaking him until the stolen roll drops to the ground. The boy shakes free and runs off, rubbing his neck as he goes, while the Butterloaf woman picks up the roll, wipes it with her sleeve and goes back to hawking to the crowd.

Pinned

The Miserable Ones

Look at the boy! Forty pounds if he's an ounce, and glassy-eyed from hunger. And the Butterloaf woman's forearms: muscles like boa constrictors from kneading dough! Surely the boy didn't deserve what he got. Not over a fistful of bread. Not with his stomach indrawn like the hollow of a dead tree.

            4
            You need a stranger 4 (you have 4)

            4
            Unlocked with a stranger 4 - you have 4

Seems About Right

It seems about right, what happened to the boy. The Butterloaf woman probably has a family to feed, and if everyone just helped themselves, she and her children would starve. And there's this:  her face does have a certain kindness to it. The boy could have asked for the roll, and who knows what would have happened?


A Friend of Little Japan

Little Japan

A forbidding apartment building with blacked-out windows and steel doors. All the rooms are owned by Japanese-Americans, who under the gentle pressures of xenophobia have become secretive and withdrawn.

Unfriendly? Standoffish? Of course. Wouldn't you be? Nevertheless Little Japan can't be an island unto itself, and so it must cultivate friendships with certain outsiders -- men and women of taste and discretion.

Pinned

Pinned

One Single Bullet

The doorman -- always polite, usually silent -- will, in exchange for a handful of revolver bullets, bestow upon you a slight bow. At least you think it's a bow. His body and most of his face remain hidden behind the solid steel door at all times.

Come to the Door

A young Asian boy approaches you with a folded slip of paper. Inside is a line of elegant calligraphy: come to the door.

This will reduce your Connections: Little Japan!


Man in Black

Seems About Right

            4
            You need a stranger 4

            4
            Unlocked with a stranger 4

In your heart you know that justice was done. The boy learned a lesson and the Butterloaf woman got her bread back. It's a hard world, but all anyone can do is live in it. Perhaps next time things will be different.

Zero Summer tracks the Protagonist's moral compass with two Qualities: Paladin and Man in Black.

You've just gained your first point in Man in Black, which represents efficiency and results.

When you gain points in Paladin or Man in Black, you'll lose an equal number of points from the opposing Quality. It's possible to have both Qualities, but you probably won't have them in equal amounts.

0 change points, 2 more needed to reach level 2.

A twist in your tale! You are now Man in Black.

You're in Amarillo -- but who exactly are you?

Far, Far From Home is increasing!

Your "A Stranger" quality has gone. Welcome to the world!


Version

Game version number.

Game version number.
Thanks for playing Zero Summer!

Man in Black

Your ethical Orientation. Your concerns are self-empowerment and getting things done.

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Doc

Mental Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

Far, Far From Home

You're in Amarillo -- but who exactly are you?


Pinned

Pinned


The Man in the Stetson

Unlocked with Far, Far From Home 3 - you have 3

Pinned

Pinned


A Friend of Little Japan

Pinned


The Man in the Stetson

Someone coughs politely.

Only now does it become clear that you aren't alone on the bench and haven't been for -- how long? A little while. Maybe longer.

Sitting next to you is a man in a brown leather vest and dusty white Stetson. He's cleaning his nails with a knife.

"You were out for awhile there," the man says. "Looks like somebody caught you upside the head with a gun. And you were snoring. Think of that. Haven't slept like that in years."

He smiles. It doesn't reach his eyes.

Pinned

Pinned

The Friendly Approach

Yes, it's a strange way to say hello, and yes, you don't know him from Adam, but the Man in the Stetson is about the only person in Amarillo so far who's even noticed you.

A Thousand Things

You don't know this man. You don't know his name, or what he's about. And you don't know what he's doing here at the station. He might have been the one who hit you. He might a grifter or a thousand other things, none of them good.


Pinned

Pinned


Smart or Cunning

You give the Man in the Stetson a long once-over. He's tanned and dressed like a local: dusty clothes, rough hands. But not as sticky-sweaty -- he's been in the shade awhile. Knows how to smile without smiling. Smart or cunning or both, meaning dangerous. But a potential ally if he's friendly.

Without warning, the Man in the Stetson grabs your right hand and pumps it up and down, extra-hard, as if saying: look, it's fine -- alright?

"You're thinking I don't like or trust you," he says. "Or maybe you don't like or trust me. But that lump on your head says maybe you don't know your own name. Yes?"

You don't have a good reply. His smile widens: confidence, and a real spark of warmth.

"Then you can have mine. Warren Castillo. From the Jackrabbits. At the Burrow and Briar?" A short pause. "Don't worry about it. You'll get it all back, name and all. Just give it time."

Far, Far From Home is increasing!


Version

Game version number.

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Doc

Mental Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.


A Country Doc

Amarillo is bracketed by stone, sand and sky. There are things to see and explore beyond the Roughriders' barricades. And unexpected dangers. Which nearly anyone will tell you can add spice to an otherwise humdrum life.

This is one of Zero Summer's "grind" cards. "Grind" cards can be replayed as often as you like. And most of their branches have a chance to produce a Rare Success, which will significantly increase one of your Styles and yield certain other benefits as well.

Where There's a Will

Doc

Mental Style.

A chancy challenge

Miz Nils suggests you spend a little while in the canyon area east of the city -- a place, she claims, with both aesthetic and tactical value.

There you find a sheer expanse of rock drops downward at your feet, neatly exposing layer after layer of rock. Strong gusts of wind play through the deep canyon, whistling a tune that is unfamiliar. Lights reflects off of something at the bottom of the canyon. It's difficult to make out what it is from here. The climb looks treacherous but well within your capacity.

            7
            You need Doc 7 (you have 7)

            7
            Unlocked with Doc 7 - you have 7

The Quick-Witted Ornithologist

Doc

Mental Style.

A low-risk challenge

In the scrub you spy the Quick-Witted Ornithologist, the woman previously so concerned with owls. As she sees you, an eager smile cracks her dusty wind-chapped face.

"I don't usually see anyone else out here, especially not more than once," she says, and holds up a dog-eared notebook. "I'm gathering data on migratory patterns. Could you help?"

Bird-Watching

Doc

Mental Style.

A straightforward challenge

Out in the Scrublands you find yourself under an unmistakable human shadow. You look up and shade your eyes: there in the dry scraggly tree just off to your side is a small woman in khakis with binoculars in hand. "A burrowing owl!" she calls quietly to you. Her binoculars are pointed at an unremarkable patch of ground. What's this, then?

            4
            You need Doc 4 (you have 7)

            4
            Unlocked with Doc 4 - you have 7

A Walled Garden

Doc

Mental Style.

A straightforward challenge

Sometimes nature is best seen from a distance. On the east side of Amarillo is a quiet wealthy neighborhood full of two-story houses with front porches and sweeping views of the desert. The Heywoods' porch is a notorious hang-out/salon for retirees, mostly old men and the widow Heywood herself; they spend their days playing rubbers of bridge, smoking cigars and emptying bottle after bottle of Cornskunk's best.

Rumor has it that the widow Heywood is also a first-class birdwatcher and liberal with her binoculars. If you can talk your way onto her porch, you could get all the nature you want without risking an unfriendly few moments with a rattlesnake.

            3
            You need Doc 3 (you have 7)

            3
            Unlocked with Doc 3 - you have 7

A Walk in the Scrublands

Doc

Mental Style.

A straightforward challenge

Miz Nils turns out to be the Jackrabbits' resident naturalist. She recommends a walk through the Scrublands north of Amarillo to get a feel for what grows around here. It might look hot and dry and dead, she says, but keep an eye: the scrub is teeming, alive, and way better at surviving in the desert than any person.

            1
            You need Doc 1 (you have 7)

            1
            Unlocked with Doc 1 - you have 7


Going Home

Unlocked with Far, Far From Home 4 - you have 4

The morning crowd at Platform #1 has started to thin; the watercarriers are gone to their wells, the bankers to the Wall Market, the laborers to their fields...

Pinned

Pinned


There's a Way

Where There's a Will

Doc

Mental Style.

A modest challenge

            7
            You need Doc 7 (you have 8)

            7
            Unlocked with Doc 7 - you have 8

Half-way down the canyon, your fingers find a crevice, then another and another running in deliberately carved rungs down the canyon wall. From that point the descent is a matter of patience instead of a gamble. At the bottom is a smooth bed of fine sand and dust. The canyon extends a ways in either direction, perhaps wide enough for a donkey to pass, but not to ride. There's no sign at the bottom of what was reflecting light. Perhaps it's something that has moved on.

0 change points, 9 more needed to reach level 9.

Doc has increased to 8!

You succeeded in a Doc challenge! (Risky challenges mean you learn more.)

You've gained 1 x Reputation (new total 42).


Gunslinger Gear

Guns, gloves, boots.

Cityslicker Duds

Coats and clothes for every occasion.

Doc Toppers

Bowlers, stetsons, the occasional eyewear.

Talismans

Relics, charms, tokens of authority.

Currency

Spendables of all sorts.

Reputation

Your standing in the community.

Dollars

NorteAmericano dollars. Not the only currency in Amarillo, but certainly the preferred one.

Revolver Bullet

Useful for many things. Shooting monsters is only one.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

Consumables

Nostrums, drinkables, tobaccos and other treatlets.

A Bottle of Hoffenstader Honey Wheat

"Brewed right here in Amarillo by Dougie and Carmine Hoffenstader, your hometown hopsmasters!"

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Sermon on the Mount

Sermon on the Mount. Community organizer. Runner of Missions. A warm imposing figure.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Version

Game version number.

Man in Black

Your ethical Orientation. Your concerns are self-empowerment and getting things done.

Seer of Rabbits

You have seen rabbits and struggle to un-see them.

Hallowed Ground

You've been taken in by the strange beautiful kindnesses of the Mission.

The Harvestmen

You're following the trail of the Harvestmen

Helping the Brothers Skunk

The Skunk brothers' farm is a local institution; you've lent a hand to keep it running.

Ally: Calo

Calo. As in Flaca Loca. As in crazy-skinny.

Connections: The Mission

You're working with Sermon on the Mount at the Mission.

Time of Day

The time of day.

Date

Today's date.

White Noise

The unnatural world is becoming all too real.

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Doc

Mental Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

Chasing Down Chickens

Surely all the Mission's chickens come from somewhere.

20th Century Penny

An old but well-polished US penny. Minted in 1960. Just the thing to throw into the fountain at St. Francis's.

The Door

A Tarot card. It shows a door in a meadow and a man in front doing a handstand, one leg crossed over the other.


Going Home

The morning crowd at Platform #1 has started to thin; the watercarriers are gone to their wells, the bankers to the Wall Market, the laborers to their fields.

Warren gives your hand a final pump, stands and stretches. "Partner, the smart money says you don't have anywhere to go. I'm headed home to the Burrow. You're welcome if you like."

Pinned

Pinned

No Way but Forward

You don't have a whole lot of options. And Warren seems decent. This doesn't have to be forever, but it's a good start for now.

Your Way in the World

It's a tempting offer given it's the only one on the table, but you can make your own way in the world. You don't know Warren, and there's got to be other doors open to you here somewhere. All you need is time to find them.


Opportunities

Draw cards from here to raise your Styles, meet your Allies, and risk your Antagonists.

Pinned

Pinned


Odysseus and Diomedes

Another memory stirs: the smell of apple trees in June, and perfume, and dark sun-warmed hair falling in curled waves on an open book; though you can't see it, the cover reads Odysseus and Diomedes at the Gates of Troy. You explain to Warren that you've got to strike out on your own, but thanks and all. He shrugs easily.

"Suit yourself. The offer stands, though. Look us up if you find yourself."

You can't help but wonder: who, exactly, is us?

You're in Amarillo -- but who exactly are you?

Far, Far From Home is increasing!


Version

Game version number.

Game version number.
Thanks for playing Zero Summer!

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Doc

Mental Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

Far, Far From Home

You're in Amarillo -- but who exactly are you?


Gunslinger Gear

Guns, gloves, boots.

Cityslicker Duds

Coats and clothes for every occasion.

Doc Toppers

Bowlers, stetsons, the occasional eyewear.

Talismans

Relics, charms, tokens of authority.

Currency

Spendables of all sorts.

Reputation

Your standing in the community.

Dollars

NorteAmericano dollars. Not the only currency in Amarillo, but certainly the preferred one.

Revolver Bullet

Useful for many things. Shooting monsters is only one.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

Consumables

Nostrums, drinkables, tobaccos and other treatlets.

A Bottle of Hoffenstader Honey Wheat

"Brewed right here in Amarillo by Dougie and Carmine Hoffenstader, your hometown hopsmasters!"

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Sermon on the Mount

Sermon on the Mount. Community organizer. Runner of Missions. A warm imposing figure.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Version

Game version number.

Man in Black

Your ethical Orientation. Your concerns are self-empowerment and getting things done.

Seer of Rabbits

You have seen rabbits and struggle to un-see them.

Hallowed Ground

You've been taken in by the strange beautiful kindnesses of the Mission.

The Harvestmen

You're following the trail of the Harvestmen

Helping the Brothers Skunk

The Skunk brothers' farm is a local institution; you've lent a hand to keep it running.

Ally: Calo

Calo. As in Flaca Loca. As in crazy-skinny.

Connections: The Mission

You're working with Sermon on the Mount at the Mission.

Time of Day

The time of day.

Date

Today's date.

White Noise

The unnatural world is becoming all too real.

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Doc

Mental Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

Chasing Down Chickens

Surely all the Mission's chickens come from somewhere.

20th Century Penny

An old but well-polished US penny. Minted in 1960. Just the thing to throw into the fountain at St. Francis's.

The Door

A Tarot card. It shows a door in a meadow and a man in front doing a handstand, one leg crossed over the other.


The View from Platform #1

Unlocked with Far, Far From Home 5 - you have 5; Unlocked with

The sky over Amarillo is clear as a bell; the sun shines down in full force on the ramshackle town and its rough hardy people...

One Friendly Face

There's a certain beauty to Amarillo: its dryness, its resilience...

Ashling the Witch

The flame-haired witch of Amarillo can be found rain or shine among the cobbles and crowds of Platform #1 with a wicked pack of cards...

Takers Among the Wheat

Unlocked with  - you have 1; Unlocked with Far, Far From Home 5 - you have 5

"What I heard is they come at night to those they got the smell of in the field and find the parts of them that look like the things they grow during the day and -- <i>schkkk!—

Pinned

Pinned


Sermon on the Mount

You've still heard more from the others at the Mission about Sermon that from the woman herself. She is at once engaging and charismatic, but inclined to be stand-offish on the specific subject of herself. "I'm not here to be a celebrity or a name. It's not me that important, not really any one of us."

Opportunities

Draw cards from here to raise your Styles, meet your Allies, and risk your Antagonists.

Sincere Forms of Flattery

Luck

Watch for the fall of a card.

A matter of luck: the odds are strongly against you here.

There is a different relationship between you and Sermon from most of her -- what do you call them, congregation, family, adherents, charity cases? Though they're not directly worshipful, watching Sermon move through the Mission is like watching a magnet dragged through iron filings. She's highly regarded, highly sought out by them. What are you to her?

Perhaps Not

Your plate is already full.

A Charitable Donation

The Mission can seem to operated on luck and goodwill, but like any group of people it needs flour and soap, and it wants a few fine things like shoes and sugar. Those need cash and Sermon herself isn't above accepting charity, especially the lead kind.

            1
            You need 1 x Revolver Bullet  (you have 2)

            1
            Unlocked with 1 x Revolver Bullet  - you have 2


The View from Platform #1

The sky over Amarillo is clear as a bell; the sun shines down in full force on the ramshackle town and its rough hardy people.

Pinned

Pinned

Pattern Recognition

From the crowd, certain patterns start to form. Most people wear jeans and leather and cotton shirts and move in family units.

(Here your memory twinges: families here are much larger than up norte. Someone once told you Amarillo is an all-hands-on-deck situation. You remember well-rounded vowels and the late afternoon bite of sour mash...)

But not everyone wears simple clothes and moves in duckish lines. A few men -- mostly they're men; a handful are women, strong-featured with sharp hard eyes -- are wandering alone, purposeful and not, wearing different and sometimes nicer clothes. One or two are carrying clubs.

Who are they? you wonder.


Opportunities

Perhaps Not

Your plate is already full.

Opportunities always come around again.


Gunslinger Gear

Guns, gloves, boots.

Cityslicker Duds

Coats and clothes for every occasion.

Doc Toppers

Bowlers, stetsons, the occasional eyewear.

Talismans

Relics, charms, tokens of authority.

Currency

Spendables of all sorts.

Reputation

Your standing in the community.

Dollars

NorteAmericano dollars. Not the only currency in Amarillo, but certainly the preferred one.

Revolver Bullet

Useful for many things. Shooting monsters is only one.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

Consumables

Nostrums, drinkables, tobaccos and other treatlets.

A Bottle of Hoffenstader Honey Wheat

"Brewed right here in Amarillo by Dougie and Carmine Hoffenstader, your hometown hopsmasters!"

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Sermon on the Mount

Sermon on the Mount. Community organizer. Runner of Missions. A warm imposing figure.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Version

Game version number.

Game version number.
Thanks for playing Zero Summer!

Man in Black

Your ethical Orientation. Your concerns are self-empowerment and getting things done.

Seer of Rabbits

You have seen rabbits and struggle to un-see them.

Hallowed Ground

You've been taken in by the strange beautiful kindnesses of the Mission.

The Harvestmen

You're following the trail of the Harvestmen

Helping the Brothers Skunk

The Skunk brothers' farm is a local institution; you've lent a hand to keep it running.

Ally: Calo

Calo. As in Flaca Loca. As in crazy-skinny.

Connections: The Mission

You're working with Sermon on the Mount at the Mission.

Time of Day

The time of day.

Date

Today's date.

White Noise

The unnatural world is becoming all too real.

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Doc

Mental Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

Chasing Down Chickens

Surely all the Mission's chickens come from somewhere.

20th Century Penny

An old but well-polished US penny. Minted in 1960. Just the thing to throw into the fountain at St. Francis's.

The Door

A Tarot card. It shows a door in a meadow and a man in front doing a handstand, one leg crossed over the other.


Rough Hands, Silk Sleeves

Pattern Recognition

The View from Platform #1

The sky over Amarillo is clear as a bell; the sun shines down in full force on the ramshackle town and its rough hardy people.

From the crowd, certain patterns start to form. Most people wear jeans and leather and cotton shirts and move in family units.

(Here your memory twinges: families here are much larger than up norte. Someone once told you Amarillo is an all-hands-on-deck situation. You remember well-rounded vowels and the late afternoon bite of sour mash...)

But not everyone wears simple clothes and moves in duckish lines. A few men -- mostly they're men; a handful are women, strong-featured with sharp hard eyes -- are wandering alone, purposeful and not, wearing different and sometimes nicer clothes. One or two are carrying clubs.

Who are they? you wonder.

Eventually you're able to pick out two distinct groups apart from the families and buskers and water-carriers.

One group is just as roughly dressed as everyone else but more heavily armed. Over the course of half an hour, you spot three or four of them. All men. Two carrying battered nightsticks, one with a baseball bat and one with his hand stuck into a pocket bulging with brass knuckles.

Another group is very well-dressed indeed: silk and cotton shirts, collars, silk ties, vests with pinstripes, shoes recently-polished, watches uncracked and shining in the sun. You see a group of them pass by, mostly men, a few women, all of them laughing and flirting and having -- a memory stirs -- a Grand Old Time.

Their eyes, though. Hard and sharp as German steel.

You're so intent on the better-dressed group that you don't spot the one next to you until he's on top of you. He pushes a coin into your unprotesting hand. "Noticed you noticing," he says. Cautious, not unfriendly. His breath smells like peppermint. "Show us a little charity at St. Francis and we'll find you."

He pats your cheek and moves swiftly off. There's cologne on his wrist. It lingers for several long minutes after he's gone.

You now have 1 x 20th Century Penny.


Version

Game version number.

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Doc

Mental Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

Far, Far From Home

You're in Amarillo -- but who exactly are you?


Opportunities

Draw cards from here to raise your Styles, meet your Allies, and risk your Antagonists.

Pinned

Pinned


Pinned


Gunslinger Gear

Guns, gloves, boots.

Cityslicker Duds

Coats and clothes for every occasion.

Doc Toppers

Bowlers, stetsons, the occasional eyewear.

Talismans

Relics, charms, tokens of authority.

Currency

Spendables of all sorts.

Reputation

Your standing in the community.

Dollars

NorteAmericano dollars. Not the only currency in Amarillo, but certainly the preferred one.

Revolver Bullet

Useful for many things. Shooting monsters is only one.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

Consumables

Nostrums, drinkables, tobaccos and other treatlets.

A Bottle of Hoffenstader Honey Wheat

"Brewed right here in Amarillo by Dougie and Carmine Hoffenstader, your hometown hopsmasters!"

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Sermon on the Mount

Sermon on the Mount. Community organizer. Runner of Missions. A warm imposing figure.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Version

Game version number.

Game version number.
Thanks for playing Zero Summer!

Man in Black

Your ethical Orientation. Your concerns are self-empowerment and getting things done.

Seer of Rabbits

You have seen rabbits and struggle to un-see them.

Hallowed Ground

You've been taken in by the strange beautiful kindnesses of the Mission.

The Harvestmen

You're following the trail of the Harvestmen

Helping the Brothers Skunk

The Skunk brothers' farm is a local institution; you've lent a hand to keep it running.

Ally: Calo

Calo. As in Flaca Loca. As in crazy-skinny.

Connections: The Mission

You're working with Sermon on the Mount at the Mission.

Time of Day

The time of day.

Date

Today's date.

White Noise

The unnatural world is becoming all too real.

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Doc

Mental Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

Chasing Down Chickens

Surely all the Mission's chickens come from somewhere.

20th Century Penny

An old but well-polished US penny. Minted in 1960. Just the thing to throw into the fountain at St. Francis's.

The Door

A Tarot card. It shows a door in a meadow and a man in front doing a handstand, one leg crossed over the other.


Takers Among the Wheat

"What I heard is they come at night to those they got the smell of in the field and find the parts of them that look like the things they grow during the day and -- schkkk! -- uncobbed corn, unhulled peas."

"What I heard is the governor hired a bunch of rough types a few years back to be scarecrows because the straw ones weren't doing it, and that's where they came from, the dried-out strawmen, only now who're they scaring?"

"You're both wrong, let me tell you a thing, let me set you all straight..."

Pinned

Pinned

Scarecrow Men, Scythemen

And so on. On the lips it seems of half the people left at Platform #1, the midmorning ladlers and hawkers and barflies coming or going from their liquid breakfasts -- on their lips are these nameless horrors, scarecrow men, scythemen.