''Durance'' is a

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

role-playing game A role-playing game (sometimes spelled roleplaying game, RPG) is a game in which players assume the roles of player character, characters in a fictional Setting (narrative), setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within ...

Jason Morningstar Jason Morningstar is an American indie role-playing game designer, publishing mostly through Bully Pulpit Games. Morningstar's games often lack a Game Master and are often set in situations that quickly go unfortunately for the player characters. G ...

, independently published by

Bully Pulpit Games Bully Pulpit Games, based in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, is a small publisher of indie role-playing games. History Their games include ''Fiasco (role-playing game), Fiasco'' and ''Star Crossed (game), Star Crossed''. The publisher is named fo ...

, who also released

Fiasco Fiasco may refer to: * a failure or humiliating situation * Fiasco (bottle), a traditional Italian straw-covered wine bottle often associated with Chianti wine Media * ''Fiasco'' (novel), a 1987 science-fiction novel by Stanisław Lem * ''F ...

. The game was a 2011 entry on the annual

Game Chef Game Chef was an annual American contest for role-playing game designers. History Jason Morningstar Jason Morningstar is an American indie role-playing game designer, publishing mostly through Bully Pulpit Games. Morningstar's games often lack ...

game design competition, and went on to raise $27,458 (639 backers) of its $5000 goal on kickstarter in June 2012.

Description

''Durance'' is a narrative style game for 3-5 players, played without preparation or a Game Master (GM) as is often the tradition in roleplaying games. Each player takes his or her turn coming up with a question to be resolved in a scene and the other players work out who should be part of the scene and then plays out that scene according to some very simple guidelines. The setting takes place on a distant colony with convicts working under the oversight of a governor and his or her marines. Society and power is split between the criminal society and those working for the government, named Authority. Each side depends on the other and the balance of power may shift in either direction, but since every player has one character on each side of the divide this is meant to create conflict and an interesting setting rather than player competition. This is depicted as a split triangle with the Governor at the top on the Authority side, and the Dimber Damber on the convict side. There are a total of five rungs on the ladder on each side, and the players must pick characters from different rungs and sides, with the rest being filled with minor character that may be taken over if a player's character dies. The game has many innovative mechanics and ideas, but focuses on the narrative and roleplaying more than the game mechanics.

Publication history

wrote ''Durance'' for the

2011 competition, the theme of which was William Shakespeare and its ingredients were "daughter," "exile," "forsworn," and "nature". These chosen elements caused Morningstar to reflect on the

Colonization of Australia Colonization, or colonisation, constitutes large-scale population movements wherein migrants maintain strong links with their, or their ancestors', former country – by such links, gain advantage over other inhabitants of the territory. When ...

in the 1780s and 1790s, so he set the game in a penal colony on a remote planet. Morningstar like the version that he created for Game Chef, so in July 2011 he started preparing it in hopes of publishing it through Bully Pulpit. About a year later, Bully Pulpit used ''Durance'' as their first

Kickstarter Kickstarter is an American public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative projects to life". As of July 2021, ...

and successfully raised $27,458 from 639 backers. ''Durance'' (2012) was released months later in both softcover and limited-edition hardcover as the first hard-bound publication from the company.

References

{{reflist

External links

Official homepage
of Durance
Review
at rpg.net
RPG Systems entryRPG Geek entry
Indie role-playing games Role-playing games introduced in 2012