Quill & Compass is a framework designed for epistolary RPG play for a GM and ideally 5 or more players. That is to say, it’s designed for games of high latency, where multiple players will need to communicate at intervals with a GM, who will then process the player’s actions, and likely spend significant amounts of time doing so. Players may also write communiqués to other players, with the understanding that these will take some time to reach the other players.
Being a framework, certain details are left for the GM to fill in. These include setting, characters, but also things like what stats to use, which are left to the GM’s discretion in order to better align with the desired gameplay (e.g. A space opera game would be unlikely to get much use out of a survival stat).