Dura-Lande - An Ecopunk RPG

Today we talk about Dura-Lande RPG. Do you know what we are talking about?
Dura-Lande is a role-playing game that will be published by the Milan-based publishing house Editions asterisk.

But let's leave the word to immediately Martu Palvarini to make us explain what this role-playing game is!

Dura-Lande was born two years ago, as a challenge against ourselves.
We started from the assumption of overcoming the numbering of the bodies involved. That is the numerical factor that indicates in many games our characteristics, skills, abilities, inventory, etc ...

The setting is Ecopunks, specifically it is a post-apocalyptic Cyberpunk. 300 years after a semi-total annihilation, civilizations, economic and political systems have been reborn, totally modified. Ecopunk is not just ecology, or rather not in the traditional sense of the term.

Ecopunk is first and foremost economy, and the setting focuses precisely onanalysis of a strange and dystopian post capitalism, which mixes the Flemish trade corporations of the 1400s with the current delivery Corp.

The premises seem more than good and to deepen our knowledge a bit we asked other questions.

Some of us, I am among them, have been role players for years. Reading what you filtered I felt a doubt in my head. How difficult is the creation of the character?

Very very little.

Who plays (players) can shape their character as they see fit during one session 0 background.

They leave with Basic labels random, which make it easier on the basis of lore to understand the situation of the PC at his birth. Chi Narrator (Narrator, Master) must guide the Player in the setting, and his job is simply to understand the setting. It is aided, in generating Labels, by a long list of specific Labels for various Background data.

Each part of the Background is narrated, and there is luck in the drawing of cards that determine the success or failure of a narrated action.
Our Customers play tested with a dozen or so players who were in their second RPG, or even their first, and had no problems. Those who narrate, on the other hand, have to try a little more, especially for the part relating to the "lore" which is definitely multifaceted.
A little more but less than a D&D, for example, as the rules system is MUCH simpler.

It is not as simple as a PBTA extension, and above all the setting is not as simple as that of a PBTA.

Where did the idea of ​​a post cyberpunk apocalypse come from in Dura-Lande? A collapse following what? Is it explained in the manual?

We wanted to experience a What If ?, imagining an advanced, hyper-fast, augmented, post-post-capitalist society that collapses due to large-scale corporate wars. We were fascinated by the idea of ​​simulating every event following this collapse, until the rebirth of civilization, or rather, of more civilizations.

Imagine how they can react to an apocalypse, which in the setting is called "Polyiorcese", people
cyber-augmented or bio-augmented. Imagine how hordes of tourists in Venice can react. Imagine how an economic and political superpower like the Vatican can react. It fascinated us
this idea, and the idea of ​​setting all this in Italy and in a small part of the Balkans (for now, at least, even if the setting is already planned for the whole Mediterranean).

Nothing is explained in both the Demo and the Final Manual, but there are traces, easter eggs, and clues about what happened in the various places. Some Seekings, the adventures of Dura-Lande, delve into the past and let “Chi Gioca” led by “Chi Narra” discover the secrets of the “Pre-Orcesi”.

And what about apps for Dura-Lande, what about?

Apps, i tools, are two programs developed in html. I wrote the contents of the Tools, all the data necessary for the creation, initially for the very first playtests we had created them with Excel (a classic of the
self-produced things).

Then our Art Director took over the development of the Tools, Clare Resnati.

There are two tools. The Tools 1 for the creation of the PG it calculates randomly the basic data of the PG, its Basic Labels. Social Class, Economic Status, Name, Sex at Birth, any Mutations, Physical aspect, composition of the family (if any), Clade (the "Post-Orcetic" social group we mentioned earlier), Region and Birth Settlement. It serves as a starting point for Background Session 0.

Il Tools 2 generates the NPCs, starting from a selection of Clade and Role of the NPC, useful in terms of fiction. NPCs are exactly like PCs, a set of physical, mental, social, technical, equipment labels.

Creating a NPC in this way determines the spill from stereotypes. Who Narra finds himself having to roam without knowing what kind of NPCs the PCs will encounter. A nice challenge, but also a lot of fun.

Obviously you can build ad hoc NPCs, as in any other game, and there will also be pre-generated NPCs presented in the Seeks.

Conflict, oppression, and everything in between. Basically what are the strong themes? Immigration? Discrimination? Are gender identities covered?

Dura-Lande it is about our society, which evolved into a cyberpunk society, and then collapsed.

Capitalism and anticapitalism in Dura-Lande

Dura-Lande it's a game anticapitalist. He talks about capitalism and its reorganization in an era in which it is forced to take ancient forms of exploitation from the past and integrate them with new forms of
exploitation. Corp., technique for profit, GMOs, imperialist system, rapacious economy, "business" is everything in the Dura-Landes.

Some oppose this clade, groups, organizations that are actively anti-capitalist, build mutual aid on territories, self-manage spaces, favor the idea of ​​"living without bosses" and without Corp. They are the Solar Teppa, the Solar Punks, and they too are not without contradictions, such as a centralization of decision-making powers on a "politburo" of the Clade Officina 52 or the extreme anarcho-raver disorganization of the Clade Dégagé.

Feminism, inclusion and oppression in Dura-Lande

The Demo, no spoiler, also talks about Great Events, and their dystopian evolution. Dura-Lande is a game feminist.

Il patriarchy in post-apocalyptic societies it is obviously present. Societies based on turbo-capitalism tend to put it aside, and to appropriate “inclusive” imaginaries for the benefit of profit. But other societies, closed and subsistence, tend instead to emphasize it, to recreate the system of care necessary for their self-sufficient livelihood.

Not to mention regions like the Vatican or organizations like the Catholic Church. They are already dystopian now, you can imagine in the post-apocalyptic future ...

Obviously all of this is opposed by Clade like the Sanakee Enclave, one queer company totally isolated, a happy island and a refuge for those who are victims of oppression. And even "ugly" people like the Marauders, in reality, have long since gone beyond the patriarchal perspective for gender equality and an openness to sexuality typical of piracy as a historical phenomenon (see Pirates and Sodomy, Eleuthera editions).

Le gender identity and unregulated sexuality are present in the Dura-Lande exactly as they are in cyberpunk. In some neo-societies they are discriminated against, in others they can fully live their identities.

It is always a dystopian world, and I want to spoiler that there is one of the many Clades that focuses on the bio-increase of bodies, in full perspective transhuman. Many trans people join it, attracted by the technological possibilities of a hormonal transition, only to become entangled in a criminal organization.

Quite obvious question. How is the world of Dura-Lande?

It's a dark world, and the game mechanics have to mirror it.

Oppression labels

There are Special Labels: the Oppression labels. They are generated only in certain social conditions during the background.
For example, being a lesbian woman in a hyper-patriarchal society based on the idea of ​​the "traditional family" (reminds me of something) could result in a life marked by social exclusion for a lesbian PC.

An Oppression Label: Lesbophobia could then be generated, which can be used by opponents to discriminate in a Social conflict, and usable by the PG to claim his identity.

When the Oppression Label is claimed often, for a good number of game sessions, aSurplus label.

Surplus labels

The Excess Label develops only if the PC becomes aware that his oppression also involves other people, and that it is necessary to do common front.

In the example above, the lesbian female PG, by dint of claiming her identity, finds herself possessing the Excess Label: LGBITQ + Pride. This makes it able to connect and make a common front with other discriminated LGBITQ + subjects.

The Excess Label can NEVER be used by opponents. It would be like insulting someone by saying “Ah! You're proud to be a fag! ”, The answer is“ Yes! ”, And it can't cause any problems for the PC.

There are oppression and excess labels for many areas of social sphere. They are also described in detail in the Demo. It is up to the player to choose the gender and sexual identity of his or her PC. While for NPCs, Tool 2 randomly generates this too, calculating percentage possibilities based on the culture of origin of the NPC.

Conclusions on Dura-Lande

A river interview of which we can only thank our friends of Asterisco Edizioni! We can't wait to get our hands on the Manual Demo which, we want to remember, will be released on October 15th.