Review – Durance RPG Surveyor Cards

As part of the Kickstarter project, the Durance roleplaying game that arrived last week (reading post here) also included these Durance Surveyor Cards. If you have not yet read my post about the Durance roleplaying game then I suggest reading that and then coming back here for a look at this deck of cards.

Created by the Durance publisher, Bully Pulpit Games, this deck of cards expands the game without being a required tool. The deck includes four different types of cards:

• Survey Factor Cards – These twelve cards take the place of the “Planetary Survey” and “Colony Record” forms where instead of crossing out and circling world options the players simply flip cards over, selecting one card to stay positive and one to flip to negative. This is a more visual approach and (I suspect) more satisfying for everyone at the table; the action is on the center of the table and not hidden on a piece of paper.
  
• Planetary Survey Cards – In the Durance RPG book there are twenty different pre-designed worlds for the players to explore; this deck presents twenty more. These are selected based on the planetary codes chosen during the world creation phase of the game and it’s kinda cool that the Kickstarter project allowed for this much expansion to the game without adding more pages to the book.

• Colonial Record Cards – Twenty more colonies for Durance games. Everything I said about the “Planetary Survey Cards” applies to this deck. And what I find especially neat is that if the Durance RPG sells well I could see Bully Pulpit Games publishing a new deck in a year or so.
  
• Special Settings Cards – The one completely new concept introduced in the deck, these are pairs of cards that take the place of the “Planetary Survey” and “Colonial Record” cards, allowing players to play in pre-constructed worlds. No longer do players take the time to make choices as a group to select a planet and colony. With these cards all of the work is done and you can dive right into creating characters and playing the game.

Closing Thoughts

The Durance Surveyor Cards are a simple concept executed wonderfully. This one deck of cards more than doubles the world options in the game and the “Survey Factor Cards” give the game an even easier way for players to make choices during the world design stage of the game. This is the perfect type of add-on product for a roleplaying game: Not at all necessary, but if you own it the deck will extend your options without adding complications.

Philip Reed used to spend his days writing roleplaying game material. He kinda misses those days.