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Welcome to Duskara Collaborative Worldbuilding Duskara is published under CC BY-SA 4.0 (Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike). You're invited to expand this world by creating settlements, characters, creatures, and cultural practices that fit within the es...

Duskaran emerged over eight centuries from the linguistic necessity of survival. When the Stellar Horizon's crew—drawn primarily from African and Asian populations—crashed on this tidally locked world, their diverse languages faced immediate pressure to merge....

Duskara is a tabletop role-playing game for two or more players that focuses on essential and intuitive rules, enriched by clear examples and insights into the philosophy that inspires its mechanics. This game is based on Ensemble, an evolution of Freeform Uni...

What is role-playing? Role-playing is like stepping into a book or a movie, where you and your friends are the protagonists. Together, by talking, listening, and taking cues from each other, you build an imaginary world where extraordinary adventures take plac...

A World Between Light and Dark In the year 2187, the colony ship Stellar Horizon departed Earth bound for Kepler-442b. After a critical malfunction during a solar storm, the ship drifted off course for decades while its passengers slept in cryogenic stasis. Wh...

Creating a character in Duskara involves defining who they are through a series of Tags that capture their essence, abilities, and relationships. These Tags will guide your role-playing and influence your dice rolls throughout the game. Step 1: Concept Your ch...

Duskara does not use mechanical advancement. There are no experience points, no level-ups, no skill trees. Instead, characters evolve through the fiction itself. When you survive a crisis, overcome a Frailty, achieve a Goal, or fundamentally change as a charac...

On Duskara, people die. Sometimes it's meaningful. Sometimes it's not. Either way, it's part of the story. When Death Occurs A character dies when the fiction calls for it. There are no special conditions, no dramatic requirements, no exceptions for plot armor...

The Basic Roll When the outcome of a character's action is uncertain or risky, the game uses a simple dice mechanic to determine what happens. Step 1: Frame the Action as a Closed Question Before rolling, frame the action as a question that can be answered wit...

The harsh environment and unknown radiations of Duskara awakened latent psychic abilities in its human inhabitants. These aren't supernatural powers, but evolutionary adaptations—humanity's communion with the planet that has become their home. How Psychic Abil...

Duskara's three zones—the Day Side, the Twilight Belt, and the Night Side—are more than scenery. They actively shape gameplay by modifying dice pools and creating narrative constraints. Zone-Based Dice Modifiers Whenever a character takes action in a specific ...

Duskara's native life has adapted to extreme conditions over centuries of evolution, creating unique organisms that range from harmless to catastrophically dangerous. Most are not inherently hostile, but conflicts arise when territories overlap, creatures defe...

While Duskara focuses on emergent narrative, resource scarcity is central to the setting. This system keeps resources present without turning the game into a spreadsheet. Core Resources Three resources matter on Duskara: Water: Precious, carefully recycled, ne...

The eternal wind is more than scenery—it's a living presence that shapes every moment on Duskara. This section provides mechanical structure for wind's influence on play. Wind Intensity Levels Wind conditions are represented by Scene Tags that apply modifiers ...

The Deep Roads are a vast network of tunnels begun by early human settlers to connect twilight belt settlements to night-side geothermal zones. During the consolidation period of Duskaran civilization, many sections were abandoned due to resource constraints a...

Duskara is not a combat-focused game, but conflicts—physical, social, or environmental—are inevitable. This section provides structure for resolving meaningful confrontations. Conflict Types Physical Confrontation Direct action between characters or against ho...

As the Game Master (or "Facilitator" in GM-less play), your role is to voice the world—its settlements, dangers, mysteries, and inhabitants. You're not the author imposing a predetermined narrative. You're the steward of a living world that responds to player ...

This extended example demonstrates how Duskara plays at the table, showcasing the interplay of fiction, mechanics, and collaborative storytelling. The Setup GM: "You're standing on the observation platform at the top of Aetherion' central spire. The wind is st...