DURF

 

 

A few weeks ago, it might even be months now, I was looking at a range of SRDs with Erin. We've both been trying to see what else is out there in the way of gaming, what ways people might be innovating, what patterns might be common in the current gaming scene. It's led to some interesting discussions. She's been participating in Game Jams over on Itch, and I've been watching the stuff that she's been producing and occasionally giving a little advice here and there. She's been making a few different games based on those SRDs when she gets inspired, and I've thought about doing the same because it feels like a good way to expand design skills by refining the output to something that works within someone else's framework.

A game jam for the little game DURF has arisen, and we've decided to collaborate on an idea that's been percolating for a while. The entries for the jam won't be posted until October, so that gives a fortnight to consider the project. 

DURF seems like an interesting little system, but the free release feels incomplete. I can see at the time of writing that there's a Kickstarter for an expanded version coming out, it has a range of 13 translations available, and has plenty of supplements developed by a community of interested parties, so there's something to it, even if the essence of the product is pretty bare bones. I guess if you're familiar with the source material, Knave, Troika, and Into the Odd! it makes sense and it's at least as solid as many of the OSR products I've looked at over the years, but it still feels like the type of game that is designed to have the players and GM bring more to the table than the rules do... it feels like a "rulings not rules" product, a toy you can pay with rather than a self contained game in it's own right. I guess that's one of the reasons so many people have built up a community to design for it. Lots of folks see the incompleteness and work to fill in their own gaps with a supplement or two. I can see a lot of cool stuff happening from the community that supports the game, but there are a few gaps that I'd fill in differently. I know that everyone has different gaming preferences, so the idea of a modular smorgasbord to build a game from is a useful idea, yet I just want to tweak some of the fundamentals of the game because there are a few bits that push my buttons... It's an interesting ecosystem to be working within, to change enough to make me satisfied while trying to generally remain compatible with the other bits of the community.

We'll see where this goes.