Characters:

*Governor: Sela Calton (Alex). Oath: I will never kill
Judge Advocate: Percia Calton (Alex). Oath: I will never see goodness or value in any of this
Planter: Gidner Waycox (NPC)
Marine: Sgt. Dalker Pilver (Matt). Oath: I will never miss an opportunity to eat well
Emancipist: Keecham Fowderhop (Jess). Oath: I will never tolerate incompetence

Dimber Damber: Rustis Wrigham (Matt). Oath: I will never step out of line
Abbot: Mitty Sheppert (Jess). Oath: I will never allow an innocent to go hungry
*Bolter: Alben Robbes (Matt). Oath: I will never tolerate insolence or disrespect
Lag: Ollis Fowderhop (Alex). Oath: I will never keep a profitable secret
Crawler: Nance Larley (NPC)

*Character not a PC at the beginning of the game.

Secrets abound. There's a power vacuum at the top of both ladders: Sela Calton is dying of cancer, so her wife Percia rules with an iron fist (literally; it's a mech gauntlet from which she can monitor and explode all prisoners' GPS implants). Rustis Wrigham got busted for tax evasion--only, despite his hard reputation, that's all he ever did. His much tougher Abbot likes having a puppet, but is hiding that she uses her cut of the profits to feed the colony's starving kids. Plus, there's the affair that she's having with the Judge Advocate...

Ollis Fowderhop has his fingers in too many pies. He wants to worm his way up the criminal ladder, so tries to use his knowledge to blackmail the power players, but oversteps when he tries to put the squeeze on Percia. She overheats his GPS chip and has her marines cart him off to the burn pit.

Ollis' more competent brother, Keecham, thought he was out of it for good, but wants the corrupt Sgt. Pilver off his case, so goes to the Abbot with a proposition: he can deliver the poison, if she'll take care of the cleanup. Unfortunately for him, Pilver kicks the bucket in the ailing Governor's bedroom, while ranting about her secret.

When Mitty's cleanup crew bursts in moments later, it seems obvious to Percia that Mitty set this whole thing up to mess with Sela. There's a standoff in a safe house. Percia brings a gauntlet to a knife fight, but backs down and the two lovers make things up.

Mitty gets into a cab, only to find Sela--who's followed her wife to the tryst. Sela makes a bad call in choosing to rail at Mitty about her part in the corruption of the colony. She doesn't know that Mitty's done more than she ever has to help people. So Mitty decides she needs to find out what the life of a Crawler is really like, and leaves the sick Governor mutilated and bleeding in the city. Nobody will believe the rantings of a madwoman. And, yep, that definitely counts as breaking Mitty's oath.

***

This was my first time playing Durance, let alone facilitating it, so thanks to Alex and Matt for their patience. We didn't do a bad job at all!

I think I would have liked to choose some slightly different oaths that might have made it easier to push on our PCs' weak spots. We barely used most of the game's mechanics after set-up; there were only three or four dice rolls, the game went on a loooong while before anyone died or broke an oath, and most of the Planet/Colony details we chose fell by the wayside. However, most of that was because we were just so involved in making these tense, juicy scenes between characters. They were all so vivid to me, especially the weaselly Ollis, the self-serving Pilver, the authoritarian Percia, and the brutal Mitty.

Seriously, I'm a nice person in real life guys. Promise.

This one of the reasons I play this game: so I can explore my inner asshole without ever really hurting anyone.