Image: Darebee

By now, about 80 percent of people have already given up on their New Year’s resolutions. Luckily, resolutions don’t mean crap and you can try to reach your goal again whenever the hell you want. For those who’ve been wanting to work on their physical health, Darebee has released its highly-anticipated space opera fitness role-playing game, Carbon and Dust, which by the way is totally free.




The Darebee Resource, a non-profit fitness site that features a lot of nerd-based workouts, has come out with its latest role-playing game that mixes storytelling and fitness. The futuristic space opera story is set in a world where humanity has colonized space and corporations basically run everything. It takes place over 30 days, or chapters, with body-resistance exercise moves designed to match what’s happening in each chapter. I’ve started the first day and things are already off at breakneck space. Here’s a non - spoilery peek at part of the first chapter:

It wasn’t as painful as I expected. In fact, it ended with a quick “Zap” and an almost pleasant sensation of burning at the back of my neck. And just like that, all the weight of my past was gone. At some considerable cost of course. “All the biometrics are still the same but it won’t flag it up,” the tech is an older woman, bony with a full head of grey hair streaked with purple highlights. She runs through the code one more time, appraisingly. “This is good work. As far as second chances go this is as good as it gets. I wouldn’t stick around here for long however.” She is right. The whole point of a new bio ID is the option to start over, be someone else - somewhere else. I thank her, grab my gear and bolt. I have to be careful and fly under the radar until I get off this rock. There are still people here who don’t need a bio reader to recognize exactly who I am. I am keen to avoid such encounters. The moment I am out of the workshop, I throw my bag over my shoulder and start to run.


Carbon and Dust is a follow-up to Darebee’s previous fitness RPGs like Hero’s Journey, which is a traditional Dungeons & Dragons-type story, and Age of Pandora, a post-apocalyptic tale akin to Mad Max: Fury Road. I’ve been following their RPG programs for years and I love them. It definitely reminds me of Zombie Run!, another awesome program that mixes exercise and storytelling.

As someone who gets incredibly bored cycling through an Elliptical for 30 minutes, I love when exercise includes a cool story. And seriously, there’s nothing cooler than working out in space. Well, except kittens wielding lightsabers.