The Shadow of Yesterday

Infobox RPG
title= The Shadow of Yesterday


caption=
designer= Clinton R. Nixon
publisher= CRN Games
date= 2004
genre= postapocalyptic fantasy
system= "Solar System"
footnotes=

The Shadow of Yesterday (also TSoY) is a fantasy narrativist indie role-playing game, designed by Clinton R. Nixon and published by CRN Games. It is notable due to large portion of the game content and its core mechanics, the Solar System [http://files.crngames.com/cc/tsoy2/solar_system.html] , being released under a Creative Commons license, as well as being published using only Open Source tools. TSoY won Best Free Game of the Year at the 2004 Indie RPG Awards, and was a runner-up for the 2004 Indie Game of the Year.

The Shadow of Yesterday has been translated into serveral languages: Finnish (2006), Spanish (2007), German (2007). An Italian translation is in the works.

In 2008, Eero Tuovinen, translator of the finnish version, republishes an edited and slightly revised version of the core rules of The Shadow of Yesterday under the Solar System moniker.

etting

The Shadow of Yesterday takes place on the world of Near, a sort of post-apocalyptic fantasy world where civilization has been destroyed three hundred years ago and is presently undergoing a rebirth. Because of this, the races in TSOY (elves, goblins, and ratkin) are not seen as genetically separate races at all, but rather an evolution/devolution from humans, and each of them can inclusively become "human" if they give up what makes them different.

There are some notable differences between the Settings as presented in the various releases. The finnish version has greatly expanded the setting by adding minor cultures and other details to the existing stuff, and also has a slightly different map than the original. The spanish setting is faithful in regards to the text, but does have a completely different map. The german setting has some additions inspired by online discussions, but not to the extent of the finnish version.

History

As of 2006, the game has been through two revisions. The second edition has different cover art and more game detail, but its primary observable difference is Nixon's move to using FUDGE dice.

External links

* [http://www.crngames.com/the_shadow_of_yesterday/index TSoY page at CRN Games]
* [http://tsoy.crngames.com/ The Shadow of Yesterday wiki with Creative Commons text]
* [http://games.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/09/163218&tid=209 Slashdot article on TSoY]
* [http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/8098 Interview with Clinton R. Nixon at Linux Journal]
* [http://http://www.arkkikivi.net/menneisyydenvarjot/ Menneisyyden Varjot, the finish version]
* [http://lsda.scribblewiki.com/Main_Page La Sombra del Ayer, the spanish version]
* [http://www.tsoy.de/tsoy.html The german version, also called The Shadow of Yesterday]
* [http://isabout.wordpress.com/tsoy/ Documentation about the new release by Eero Tuovinen]