Sometimes a game idea or collaboration sneaks out of nowhere to steal all free design time. This happened to me a couple weeks ago when a casual geek out with Jason Morningstar turned into a focused design session followed by some very quick iterations on rules and handouts.

Our game explores honor culture and toxic masculinity through the lens of an old fashioned duel. Play starts just after the challenge is issued and follows the duelists, seconds, doctor, and judge as they struggle to de-escalate a fraught situation in a society that values reputation above all else.

Jason ran the first playtest last weekend and I ran the second yesterday. Both went very well! Play was fun, tense, and occasionally agonizing (in the best way). Players felt trapped by the norms of the setting and their characters were unable to de-escalate despite neither duelist wanting to go through with it. That’s exactly what we wanted the design to do!

We’re heading into another round of iteration but I hope we’ll share a polished version soon. Then – back to getting Behind the Magic ready to ship!

As always, I’ll post updates here on the blog but if you want early access, it will likely hit Patreon and Jason’s Drip first.

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