Radiation Storms are Here!
We've had half a season of Hot Zones and Radiation messing with our Crop Tending. As a group of Scientists begin to better understand the problem (and to fix it) a series of Radiation Storms have been hitting the area.
If you hear the air raid siren we encourage you to get inside a building - not a tent, not a four-person air cabin with near-zero protection from the wind, but an actual building with four walls and a roof that is relatively well insulated from the radioactive particulate outside.
Radiation storms will be phys-repped with artificial fog and smoke, which will stay outside. If smoke presents a problem for you, please seek shelter inside.
Radiation Storms will use Zone Effect: Outside mechanics. If you hear the call, and are outside, you will be targeted. (We are not using By My Voice because we don't want to target players inside who happen to hear the call).
If you're outside and don't hear the call, good for you, you're far enough away. If you are outside and do hear it, then please note the mechanics.
Zone Effects will generally do two things:
1. Increase your Radiation Poisoning. (Retrogrades can ignore this).
2. Deal Radiation Damage. (Retrogrades halve this damage)
Its worth noting that Zone Effects ignore Armor. RIP Your Swamp Runner meta.
This Month's Story
This month's story will focus on the effort to fix the radiation problem. Fixing the environment is not necessarily easy and part of the theme for this weekend will be about making sub-optimal choices. Sometimes there isn't a perfect solution, just a solution. Expect some fallout (pun intended), even if characters are successful in mitigating the problem. Also expect some chance of failure. Personally I'm rooting for you all but one of the things we hear regularly is that players want to know that their choices matter, and that they could fail, so that victory tastes even sweeter.
Radiation Poisoning and You!
Most characters will start this event with Radiation Poisoning (Active) simply from being in Bravo over a prolonged period of time. (Travelers and New Players won't deal with this).
Active Radiation Poisoning means your character will not refresh MP on the twelves unless they are healed for 10 HP when already at full HP. The cure is Med Genius & Cure Toxins at 30 MP and 30 Min.
If your character progresses to Severe and it is untreated for three months, they will die, which will be great fun.
If your character has Severe and progresses (by going into a Radiation Storm for instance) then come to Logistics. There we are going to give a little slip of paper that will say...
Hello fellow survivor! You have been bathed in radiation. Over the course of the Twelves your character is going to die. Their body will slowly start to lose function as their digestive tract grinds to a halt, red blood cells die, hair and skin slough off, and eventually they pass on. The time and place is up to you. This degeneration process can last as long or as little as you like and there is no set start time for it. We encourage you to have fun and tell a story about what your character might do knowing that they have limited time before their body begins to lose the ability to function and eventually dies.
Will you say things you have not said before? Will you make a sacrificial play knowing that you will die anyway? Will you enjoy the functionality you have, before it goes away and you feel trapped by your own body?
There is no right answer, but these are questions worth asking.
Have fun.
-Ryan
If you want to experience a character death like the one above.. then do it! Probably nobody even knows how much radiation poisoning you have anyway, so it doesn't matter. Tell a great story about an end. Or at least a change, because its not really an ending, its a change. Then come see us in Logistics for high-fives and a death scene.
Block Report
We're going to steal Block Reports from DR:NY. This is a behind-the-desk process for Ops Marshals to better communicate between them. We're hoping this will help make the game and setting feel more responsive to player actions in the same event.
Post Office Hours
Last month we scheduled the Post Office to open at 10am instead of 9am. We did this to close a gap in the schedule. However, we didn't tell players and subsequently it was both a source of confusion and frustration. That's on us.
We adjusted the schedule to close the previous scheduling gap AND to open the PO at 9am again. We're sorry for the confusion.
Boot Hill
In anticipation of April, the forms for Boot Hill are up already. If you want to use that form, or just read more about what Boot Hill is, you can find the direct link under Contact Us or by clicking here. If you want to close out your (dead) character's story or engage in some background roleplay with a dead NPC, then we encourage you to fill it out.