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.

Operational Support

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

A chancy 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 7)

            7
            Unlocked with Gunslinger 7 - you have 7

Cleaning House for the Pony Express

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

A low-risk 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 7)

            5
            Unlocked with Gunslinger 5 - you have 7

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 7)

            4
            Unlocked with Gunslinger 4 - you have 7

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 7)

            3
            Unlocked with Gunslinger 3 - you have 7

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.


We're All In It Together

Operational Support

Gunslinger

Physical Style.

A modest challenge

            7
            You need Gunslinger 7 (you have 8)

            7
            Unlocked with Gunslinger 7 - you have 8

You and a pair of Roughriders comb the west side for guns. People scatter before your belching roaring motorcycles.  At every stop, different faces watch you from a distance: cultured pale blonde ones at the rifle cache by the pond in Thompson Memorial Park, tanned stubbled ones atop brown leather lapels by the grenade hideaway in the old maple tree by the playground at Highrise. One of the Roughriders waves at them. When asked, he cheerfully explains: we're all in it together, yeah?

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

Gunslinger has increased to 8!

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

You've gained 1 x Reputation (new total 5).


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.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

1 x A Wrapped Package from Absolom the Tinker

Not to be opened until you've finished reading New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Consumables

Nostrums, drinkables, tobaccos and other treatlets.

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

A Reader of New England and Lexington

You have read New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Version

Game version number.

Game version number.
Thanks for playing Zero Summer!

Paladin

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

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.

Burning Burning Burning Burning

Fire reflecting in a watery mirror.

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.


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.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Version

Game version number.

Burning Burning Burning Burning

Fire reflecting in a watery mirror.

Time of Day

The time of day.

Date

Today's date.

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.

Opportunities

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

The Quick-Witted Ornithologist

Doc

Mental Style.

A chancy 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?"

            5
            You need Doc 5 (you have 5)

            5
            Unlocked with Doc 5 - you have 5

Bird-Watching

Doc

Mental Style.

A very modest 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 5)

            4
            Unlocked with Doc 4 - you have 5

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 5)

            3
            Unlocked with Doc 3 - you have 5

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 5)

            1
            Unlocked with Doc 1 - you have 5


A Blue-Footed What?!

The Quick-Witted Ornithologist

Doc

Mental Style.

A chancy challenge

"Well, I suppose you can at least carry this for me," the Quick-Witted Ornithologist says with a sigh after your dismal efforts to help catalogue species. Her pack is a large olive drab affair slung on an aluminum frame. The weight suggests that either she plans to use it as ballast on a ship or that it's packed full of books.

1 change point, 5 more needed to reach level 6.

Doc is increasing...

Doc 5 failed in a challenge! (When you try a challenge that's difficult for you, you learn more even when you fail.)


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.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

Not to be opened until you've finished reading New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Consumables

Nostrums, drinkables, tobaccos and other treatlets.

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

A Reader of New England and Lexington

You have read New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Version

Game version number.

Game version number.
Thanks for playing Zero Summer!

Paladin

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

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.

Burning Burning Burning Burning

Fire reflecting in a watery mirror.

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.


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.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Version

Game version number.

Burning Burning Burning Burning

Fire reflecting in a watery mirror.

Time of Day

The time of day.

Date

Today's date.

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Doc

Mental Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.


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.

A Cherished Thing in Common

Cityslicker

Social Style.

A chancy 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 5)

            5
            Unlocked with Cityslicker 5 - you have 5

Fires in the Desert

Cityslicker

Social Style.

A very modest 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 5)

            4
            Unlocked with Cityslicker 4 - you have 5

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 5)

            3
            Unlocked with Cityslicker 3 - you have 5

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 5)

            1
            Unlocked with Cityslicker 1 - you have 5


Yes It's Warm

High Noon Saloon

Cityslicker

Social Style.

A straightforward challenge

            3
            You need Cityslicker 3 (you have 6)

            3
            Unlocked with Cityslicker 3 - you have 6

Is it warm today? Yes it's warm. Not warmer than last year. O yes it is. O yes the heat is sweltering. Even the cows lie down and pant. Like dogs with their tongues out, panting. With their fur can you imagine? Have you seen my arms? Yes I can imagine very well! Bet the wife likes it though. She does. And the chest as well. Though she's lately been after me for a shave. Not there but on the face. And I said to her but who would recognize me? You'll look chinless. Yes chinless. From beard to beardless that's how it ends. For a week nobody recognizing me. Yes it's hot. I'd be better-ventilated. In the face you would. Yes that would be swell.

...and so on for over your head and around you and even eventually with you included. The morning barflies and the farmhands and weavers and bootmakers and layabouts and all the other regulars make this a morning routine, this banter, and while you're not included you aren't excluded, either. One of them slaps you on the back on his way out, at least.

0 change points, 7 more needed to reach level 7.

Cityslicker has increased to 6!

You succeeded in a Cityslicker challenge!

You've gained 1 x Reputation (new total 6).


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.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

Not to be opened until you've finished reading New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Consumables

Nostrums, drinkables, tobaccos and other treatlets.

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

A Reader of New England and Lexington

You have read New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Version

Game version number.

Game version number.
Thanks for playing Zero Summer!

Paladin

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

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.

Burning Burning Burning Burning

Fire reflecting in a watery mirror.

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.


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.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Version

Game version number.

Burning Burning Burning Burning

Fire reflecting in a watery mirror.

Time of Day

The time of day.

Date

Today's date.

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Doc

Mental Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.


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


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.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

Not to be opened until you've finished reading New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Consumables

Nostrums, drinkables, tobaccos and other treatlets.

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

A Reader of New England and Lexington

You have read New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Version

Game version number.

Game version number.
Thanks for playing Zero Summer!

Paladin

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

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.

Burning Burning Burning Burning

Fire reflecting in a watery mirror.

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.


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 0)

            3
            Unlocked with 3 x Revolver Bullet

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


Opportunities

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

Advice from a Stranger

Unlocked with The Harvestmen 3 - you have 3

Third Street is close enough to the Highrise Hotel that sometimes on hot mornings the destitutes there walk from the drumfires to the Wall Market in a raggedy procession...

Travel Around Town

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

Pinned

Pinned

Jack Ishiguro

Always smiling is Jack Ishiguro, resident fast-talker, quick on the draw with a high pitched giggle...

A Country Doc

Unlocked with Doc 1 - you have 5; 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...

The Skunk Brothers Farm

Unlocked when The Skunk Brothers Farm is:

; Unlocked when Date is:

May 21, 2026 - Morning (you have this)

May 21, 2026 - Afternoon

May 21, 2026 - Evening

Long brick buildings and ordered greenery and verdant climbing hops!—


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.

The Quick-Witted Ornithologist

Doc

Mental Style.

A chancy 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 very modest 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?

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.

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.


Pardon, a What?

Bird-Watching

Doc

Mental Style.

A very modest challenge

Shouldn't owls only come out at night? Why would one be out in the day time? The woman in the tree points with utter certainty at something you can't see at all.

2 change points, 4 more needed to reach level 6.

Doc is increasing...

Doc 5 failed in a challenge!


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.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

Not to be opened until you've finished reading New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Consumables

Nostrums, drinkables, tobaccos and other treatlets.

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

A Reader of New England and Lexington

You have read New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Version

Game version number.

Game version number.
Thanks for playing Zero Summer!

Paladin

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

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.

Burning Burning Burning Burning

Fire reflecting in a watery mirror.

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.


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.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Version

Game version number.

Burning Burning Burning Burning

Fire reflecting in a watery mirror.

Time of Day

The time of day.

Date

Today's date.

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Doc

Mental Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.


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.


Opportunities

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.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

Not to be opened until you've finished reading New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Consumables

Nostrums, drinkables, tobaccos and other treatlets.

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

A Reader of New England and Lexington

You have read New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Version

Game version number.

Paladin

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

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.

Burning Burning Burning Burning

Fire reflecting in a watery mirror.

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.


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.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Version

Game version number.

Burning Burning Burning Burning

Fire reflecting in a watery mirror.

Time of Day

The time of day.

Date

Today's date.

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Doc

Mental Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.


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.

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.


Once This Was a Place

Street musicians and bakers and the everpresent watercarriers brush shoulders and elbows with bankers and businessmen and the occasional functionary from the Hexagon, easily spotted by the earbug and black sunglasses and perpetual worried expression. Don't mind them darling -- this you often hear from a mother to her children. Keep your eyes on the architecture. See the charming old brickwork? Once this was a place that lived and grew.

You have moved to a new area: Downtown Amarillo


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.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

Not to be opened until you've finished reading New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Consumables

Nostrums, drinkables, tobaccos and other treatlets.

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

A Reader of New England and Lexington

You have read New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Version

Game version number.

Game version number.
Thanks for playing Zero Summer!

Paladin

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

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.

Burning Burning Burning Burning

Fire reflecting in a watery mirror.

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.


The Ballad of Squiddy Sally

A whispered tale in dark corners! The bane of riverfishers and paddyfarmers: a terror swum up from the Gulf itself before crawling slowly to brackish land. A woman's body, either sleek as a seal and bare as your cousin or oldish with wrinkled dugs -- and the limbs of an octopus, all squiddy and chitinous. Seductive and wilesome is the creature. But cold-blooded and cunning. As the story goes, it stalks the waterways south of Amarillo, hunting the wet with its slurping limbs.

Pinned

Pinned

The Menace of the Minor Key

A Killer in the Flesh, the wanted poster reads. Wanted Dead: the Octopus-Woman of Brightside Springs, Squiddy Sally. Those who would help, inquire at the High Noon Saloon.

Asking around about this Squiddy Sally yields folk-tales and hearthwhispers. Strange tracks on the ground all around the springs. A goat, no a donkey ripped clean in half. Missing people, all presumed to be dead by her ripping beak. Zero hard info.

Playing this branch will start The Ballad of Squiddy Sally, a tale of everyday suffering in the time of monsters.

This branch costs 25 Reputation to play.

            25
            You need 25 x Reputation  (you have 6)

            25
            Unlocked with 25 x Reputation  - you have 6


Opportunities

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

The Ballad of Squiddy Sally

Unlocked with ; Unlocked when Truth in the Tanglewood is:

The Richmond-Weisz

Like spreading buttercream frosting on fudge or slurping Italian ice in the desert in June: sinfully decadent...

Pinned

Pinned

A Gunslinger in Amarillo

Unlocked with Gunslinger 1 - you have 8; 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...

Small-Town Cityslicker

Unlocked with Cityslicker 1 - you have 6; 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...


The Richmond-Weisz

Like spreading buttercream frosting on fudge or slurping Italian ice in the desert in June: sinfully decadent. Deliciously indulgent. And prohibitively expensive unless you know someone. Or <i>are</i> someone. It doesn't tower, does the Richmond-Weisz. Rather it holds its fine chin above the crowds in downtown Amarillo. A handful of rooms? O yes. Occupied? O yes. The finest of hotels? Doubt discredits the doubtor. Step briskly along.

Pinned

Pinned

A Room at the Richmond-Weisz

A room for the day? Non, monsieur -- the expense alone! And also they are booked. Overbooked! See the unmoored businessmen sulking by the fountain in the lobby?

But what is that on the gentleman's lapel? The star of the Pony Express? Well! What modesty and dignity not to speak of it!

No, we are assuredly overbooked for the day -- but for a few precious moments? Perhaps something could be arranged.

This will buy you a few precious moments at the Richmond-Weisz at a cost of 200 Reputation.

            200
            You need 200 x Reputation  (you have 6)

            Unlocked when Pony Express is:

Greenhorn

Messenger

Rider

Old Hand

Cowboy

            200
            Unlocked with 200 x Reputation  - you have 6

            Unlocked when Pony Express is:

Greenhorn

Messenger

Rider

Old Hand

Cowboy


Pinned

Pinned


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.

A Cherished Thing in Common

Cityslicker

Social Style.

A very modest 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 6)

            5
            Unlocked with Cityslicker 5 - you have 6

Fires in the Desert

Cityslicker

Social Style.

A low-risk 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 6)

            4
            Unlocked with Cityslicker 4 - you have 6

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.

            1
            You need Cityslicker 1 (you have 6)

            1
            Unlocked with Cityslicker 1 - you have 6


Yes It's Warm

High Noon Saloon

Cityslicker

Social Style.

A straightforward challenge

Is it warm today? Yes it's warm. Not warmer than last year. O yes it is. O yes the heat is sweltering. Even the cows lie down and pant. Like dogs with their tongues out, panting. With their fur can you imagine? Have you seen my arms? Yes I can imagine very well! Bet the wife likes it though. She does. And the chest as well. Though she's lately been after me for a shave. Not there but on the face. And I said to her but who would recognize me? You'll look chinless. Yes chinless. From beard to beardless that's how it ends. For a week nobody recognizing me. Yes it's hot. I'd be better-ventilated. In the face you would. Yes that would be swell.

...and so on for over your head and around you and even eventually with you included. The morning barflies and the farmhands and weavers and bootmakers and layabouts and all the other regulars make this a morning routine, this banter, and while you're not included you aren't excluded, either. One of them slaps you on the back on his way out, at least.

1 change point, 6 more needed to reach level 7.

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 7).


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.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

Not to be opened until you've finished reading New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Consumables

Nostrums, drinkables, tobaccos and other treatlets.

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

A Reader of New England and Lexington

You have read New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Version

Game version number.

Game version number.
Thanks for playing Zero Summer!

Paladin

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

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.

Burning Burning Burning Burning

Fire reflecting in a watery mirror.

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.


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.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Version

Game version number.

Burning Burning Burning Burning

Fire reflecting in a watery mirror.

Time of Day

The time of day.

Date

Today's date.

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Doc

Mental Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.


Jack Ishiguro

Always smiling is Jack Ishiguro, resident fast-talker, quick on the draw with a high pitched giggle. The life of the party. One odd Jackrabbit. But very little escapes his tiny cheerful eyes.

Opportunities

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

Perhaps Not

Your plate is already full.

The Power of Confidence

Seeing Jack Ishiguro move through a crowd -- sliding unimpeded, shoulder slouching, confidence glowing off him like heat from a lamp -- is quite the thing. People smile and swoon and flutter when he bumps into them. And not just women. A friend to all, is Jack Ishiguro, and universally charming. You could learn a thing or two.

You Scratch My Back

A recurring theme in Jack Ishiguro's many upbeat rambling conversations is how he's lean on cash. Liquid assets. Valoota. He never quite explains what he needs the money for, but you get the impression that his life would be somehow even cheerfuller if he had it.

And not empty-handed is Jack Ishiguro, no beggar at the door: he's made clear -- and not just once -- that he's sitting on a box of bullets he doesn't have any plans for, and would be happy to come to an arrangement involving bullets and dollars and a quiet exchange.

            1
            You need 1 x Dollars  (you have 2)

            1
            Unlocked with 1 x Dollars  - you have 2


I'll Scratch Yours

            1
            You need 1 x Dollars  (you have 1)

            1
            Unlocked with 1 x Dollars  - you have 1

The dollar is hardly out of your wallet before it disappears into Jack Ishiguro's pocket and is replaced by a single bullet delivered flipped and spinning down through the air to land smack in the middle of your palm.

"Much appreciated," Jack Ishiguro says, and grins toothily. "Pleasure doing business. And if you ever need more -- just holler!"

You've lost 1 x Dollars (new total 1).

Useful for many things. Shooting monsters is only one.

You now have 1 x Revolver Bullet.


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.

Not to be opened until you've finished reading New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Consumables

Nostrums, drinkables, tobaccos and other treatlets.

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

A Reader of New England and Lexington

You have read New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Version

Game version number.

Game version number.
Thanks for playing Zero Summer!

Paladin

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

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.

Burning Burning Burning Burning

Fire reflecting in a watery mirror.

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.


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.

Revolver Bullet

Useful for many things. Shooting monsters is only one.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Version

Game version number.

Burning Burning Burning Burning

Fire reflecting in a watery mirror.

Time of Day

The time of day.

Date

Today's date.

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.

Opportunities

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

The Quick-Witted Ornithologist

Doc

Mental Style.

A chancy 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?"

            5
            You need Doc 5 (you have 5)

            5
            Unlocked with Doc 5 - you have 5

Bird-Watching

Doc

Mental Style.

A very modest 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 5)

            4
            Unlocked with Doc 4 - you have 5

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 5)

            3
            Unlocked with Doc 3 - you have 5

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 5)

            1
            Unlocked with Doc 1 - you have 5


Flocking Patterns

The Quick-Witted Ornithologist

Doc

Mental Style.

A chancy challenge

Your deft identification of some different species of hummingbird earns her respect, and your willingness to carry her huge field bag earns her regard. The walk outside is far more pleasant with company. She mostly discusses birds, habitat encroachment, and predation patterns. Her theories are above your head, but her enthusiasm is infectious.

5 change points, 1 more needed to reach level 6.

Doc is increasing...

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

You've gained 1 x Reputation (new total 8).


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.

Not to be opened until you've finished reading New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Consumables

Nostrums, drinkables, tobaccos and other treatlets.

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

A Reader of New England and Lexington

You have read New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Version

Game version number.

Game version number.
Thanks for playing Zero Summer!

Paladin

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

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.

Burning Burning Burning Burning

Fire reflecting in a watery mirror.

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.


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.

Revolver Bullet

Useful for many things. Shooting monsters is only one.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Version

Game version number.

Burning Burning Burning Burning

Fire reflecting in a watery mirror.

Time of Day

The time of day.

Date

Today's date.

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Doc

Mental Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.


Advice from a Stranger

Third Street is close enough to the Highrise Hotel that sometimes on hot mornings the destitutes there walk from the drumfires to the Wall Market in a raggedy procession. Third is also the fastest way from the Wall Market to half the city. And midmorning is a busy time of day for foot traffic. People from different classes rub elbows, sometimes literally, all up an down Third from the Wall Market to the far west side.

You're accosted, almost literally held up by a man in a stained shirt who breaks off from a pack of Highrise probables and says to you, a little too loudly, "Hey! Friend! I heard you wanted to know about the Harvestmen!" Others nearby glance over, startled, then away.

Pinned

Pinned

Something About Gift-Horses

Okay, yes: the man doesn't smell great or look great, and he's definitely making too much noise about the subject of our inquiry.

But you haven't exactly been loudmouthed about your investigation. If this guy's heard about it, it could mean he's a friend, or at least employed by a friend -- someone else interested in the Harvestmen for similar reasons. Or he could be an operative of the Harvestmen -- even a Harvestman himself! -- sent to derail you in a permanent and violent way.

Either way, you'd do well to hear him out. Right here. In broad daylight. With a street full of witnesses.

            7
            You need Cityslicker 7 (you have 6)

            7
            Unlocked with Cityslicker 7 - you have 6


Opportunities

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

Pinned

Pinned


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.

The Quick-Witted Ornithologist

Doc

Mental Style.

A chancy 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 very modest 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?

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.

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.


Flocking Patterns

The Quick-Witted Ornithologist

Doc

Mental Style.

A very modest challenge

            5
            You need Doc 5 (you have 6)

            5
            Unlocked with Doc 5 - you have 6

Your deft identification of some different species of hummingbird earns her respect, and your willingness to carry her huge field bag earns her regard. The walk outside is far more pleasant with company. She mostly discusses birds, habitat encroachment, and predation patterns. Her theories are above your head, but her enthusiasm is infectious.

2 change points, 5 more needed to reach level 7.

Doc has increased to 6!

You've gained 1 x Reputation (new total 9).


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.

Not to be opened until you've finished reading New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Consumables

Nostrums, drinkables, tobaccos and other treatlets.

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

A Reader of New England and Lexington

You have read New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Version

Game version number.

Game version number.
Thanks for playing Zero Summer!

Paladin

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

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.

Burning Burning Burning Burning

Fire reflecting in a watery mirror.

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.


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.

Revolver Bullet

Useful for many things. Shooting monsters is only one.

Usables

Treasures, mementos, relics.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Version

Game version number.

Burning Burning Burning Burning

Fire reflecting in a watery mirror.

Time of Day

The time of day.

Date

Today's date.

Cityslicker

Social Style.

Doc

Mental Style.

Gunslinger

Physical Style.


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


Back Home

You make your way back to Burrow and Briar, the one place in town that's always hopping.

You have moved to a new area: Burrow and Briar


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.

Not to be opened until you've finished reading New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Consumables

Nostrums, drinkables, tobaccos and other treatlets.

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

A Reader of New England and Lexington

You have read New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Version

Game version number.

Game version number.
Thanks for playing Zero Summer!

Paladin

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

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.

Burning Burning Burning Burning

Fire reflecting in a watery mirror.

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.


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.

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.


All Aboard!

You pick your way through town to Platform #1, where at all times of day many people and places and things to see can be found.

You have moved to a new area: Amarillo: Platform #1


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.

Not to be opened until you've finished reading New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Consumables

Nostrums, drinkables, tobaccos and other treatlets.

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

A Reader of New England and Lexington

You have read New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Version

Game version number.

Game version number.
Thanks for playing Zero Summer!

Paladin

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

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.

Burning Burning Burning Burning

Fire reflecting in a watery mirror.

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.


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.

A Cherished Thing in Common

Cityslicker

Social Style.

A very modest 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 low-risk 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.

            3
            You need Cityslicker 3 (you have 6)

            3
            Unlocked with Cityslicker 3 - you have 6

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.


The Right Word

Fires in the Desert

Cityslicker

Social Style.

A low-risk challenge

It turns out the right word is stranger -- as in you're a stranger, and don't know anybody around here, and don't even know your own name, and could use to stay a spell among the drumfires.

The broken men and women are solicitous. Surprisingly so; they don't have much, but three separate people try to share their breakfasts. You take a mouthful of baked beans from a surplus tin marked as from 2013. The man who offered it smiles; most of his teeth are missing, but in that moment his face is a thing of incredible sweetness.

3 change points, 4 more needed to reach level 7.

Cityslicker is increasing...

You've gained 1 x Reputation (new total 10).


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.

Not to be opened until you've finished reading New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Consumables

Nostrums, drinkables, tobaccos and other treatlets.

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

A Reader of New England and Lexington

You have read New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Version

Game version number.

Game version number.
Thanks for playing Zero Summer!

Paladin

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

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.

Burning Burning Burning Burning

Fire reflecting in a watery mirror.

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.


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.

Not to be opened until you've finished reading New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Consumables

Nostrums, drinkables, tobaccos and other treatlets.

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

A Reader of New England and Lexington

You have read New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Version

Game version number.

Game version number.
Thanks for playing Zero Summer!

Paladin

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

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.

Burning Burning Burning Burning

Fire reflecting in a watery mirror.

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.


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.

Opportunities

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

The Quick-Witted Ornithologist

Doc

Mental Style.

A very modest 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 low-risk 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 6)

            4
            Unlocked with Doc 4 - you have 6

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 6)

            3
            Unlocked with Doc 3 - you have 6

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 6)

            1
            Unlocked with Doc 1 - you have 6


Flocking Patterns

The Quick-Witted Ornithologist

Doc

Mental Style.

A very modest challenge

Your deft identification of some different species of hummingbird earns her respect, and your willingness to carry her huge field bag earns her regard. The walk outside is far more pleasant with company. She mostly discusses birds, habitat encroachment, and predation patterns. Her theories are above your head, but her enthusiasm is infectious.

4 change points, 3 more needed to reach level 7.

Doc is increasing...

You succeeded in a Doc challenge!

You've gained 1 x Reputation (new total 11).


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.

Not to be opened until you've finished reading New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Consumables

Nostrums, drinkables, tobaccos and other treatlets.

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

A Reader of New England and Lexington

You have read New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Version

Game version number.

Game version number.
Thanks for playing Zero Summer!

Paladin

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

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.

Burning Burning Burning Burning

Fire reflecting in a watery mirror.

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.


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.

Not to be opened until you've finished reading New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Consumables

Nostrums, drinkables, tobaccos and other treatlets.

Ally: Warren Castillo

Warren Castillo of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Jack Ishiguro

Jack Ishiguro of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

Ally: Miz Nils

Miz Nils of the Amarillo Jackrabbits.

A Reader of New England and Lexington

You have read New England in November and Fifty Miles South of Lexington.

Version

Game version number.

Game version number.
Thanks for playing Zero Summer!

Paladin

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

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.

Burning Burning Burning Burning

Fire reflecting in a watery mirror.

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.