Hello friendaroos. We’re sharing our May update a little early. We want to tell a story with you. In the spirit of that, we’re going to share a little about our hopes and expectations for the event (and some logistics too). We also want to lean into your ideas as well. If there’s something big and bold you want to do before we close the season and this version of Bravo, let us know! This blog post is a conversation starter, not an end point.
Sunless Garden
There will be a Sunless Garden at Boot Hill. We won’t be running it round-the-clock like last month, but we will happily take you through the Garden if your character has a death or sunsets.
Victory Condition
The stampede is coming. This isn’t a thing that can be stopped. There is no solution to this because (real talk) we’re wiping away the old setting to build something that will look very different for 3.0. The stampede is a mechanism for that change.
That means we might have to adjust our normal expectation of what victory looks like. For some characters victory might be fleeing and surviving. For others it might mean helping some group or another to survive. And for others still it might mean avenging the town and killing Rob. That’s going to be different for each character, but we definitely encourage you to think about it.
More importantly, we encourage you to think of this less as winning a game and more like telling a narrative. Bitter-sweet endings tend to make for poor games, but probably the most amazing and powerful stories. We encourage you to have a story and not a game.
The Plan
We don’t know what your plan is. We would like to though!
Probably it will involve a big bomb because.. you like building bombs and so far its the only thing we’ve heard. So we’re going to lean into that and bring out the bomb prop and some sound effects. And if we need to scrap that plan for another over the course of the event, we’ll do that too. This is a story we want to tell with you.
War Table Intel
The War Table will have new information and intelligence coming in over the weekend. This is something missing from our last event. Some of that was because we wanted the world to feel like it was closing in and the threat is now at the doorstep. Some of that is because we have finite resources and the Sunless Garden took a lot of energy. You said wanted this back, so we’re going to bring back intel and missions from the broken lines courtesy of your newest ally - the Guild. (yay?)
We will also have the broken remains of some factions who can either be used on the War Table or included in the Evacuation (by expending limited resources). Those factions will live on in 3.0. They will look different, they will change as the years pass, but they will at least survive.
War Missions
We’re blatantly stealing an idea from Downfall 2017 with some NPC Land war missions. Missions might include runs for supplies, a rescue mission, or an attempt on a hard target (like Sharkface).
One or more of these will be Terminal Runs. A Terminal Run will be a one-way trip. The only way back into play is through the Sunless Garden after your character is overrun by enemy forces.
Evacuation
Prior to the Stampede there will be an evacuation that takes characters through Zuni and to the old horse corral field. If you want your character to play in 3.0, then you should be on the evacuation module. Characters that evacuate Bravo can then choose to:
Roleplay with one another to close out open threads in their story.
Join the Stampede as an Extra (NPC). We will have brawlers and make-up nearby.
Decompress in the Saloon which will be an out-of-character space.
Watch the Stampede as a non-interactable character for maximum angst.
Stampede
The Stampede will be our final content for the event. This is a send-off for every character that wants to sunset. As such, it is our goal to make it as big and loud and fast and awesome as we can, an epic good bye for characters who give all and give their last. We want this scene to be the stuff of nightmares and legends, where a few stand against an ocean, and get to do one last thing before the waves crash ashore.
Characters who sunset in the Stampede will lose all their infection. Those characters will be marked in the database as retired. Players can take advantage of the full XP on that character when making a NEW character in 3.0.