Item Cards & Blueprints

It’s Jonathan here again with another Rules Ramble! Each week, I’ll introduce a topic that will be important in an upcoming game, explain some new mechanic or system for DR:TX, or discuss a particular rule from the DR Corebook. In each ramble, I’ll focus on explaining that topic in more detail than the book alone can provide and help provide one place to reference all the various errata or rulings that might be relevant. Sometimes I’ll even drop a few Story Teasers or provide a summary of the last game in a Game Recap.

As we get ready for our next event, IMPRINT BY DESIGN, I'm going to be covering a bit more of the classic Rules Ramble topics - actual RULES. We just released a bunch of new blueprints this last weekend, so I wanted to talk about some of my favorite parts of the economy game in Dystopia Rising — Expiration Dates, Item Cards, and Blueprints!

Charlie Dales, the Lighthouse Keeper of Brownstone Island, a doomsday cultist recently escaped from captivity at Killhouse during the PYROCLASM.

Tickets are on sale for IMPRINT BY DESIGN right noW! DON’t miss out on the next DR:TX event!

Photos used in this post are a sneak peek at the photos from our National Event, PYROCLASM, and these few were shot by Lainey Weiss. The rest of the photos will be out soon, and our photography team got some amazing moments captured!

EXPIRATION DATES

Almost every Item Card in Dystopia Rising is designed to EXPIRE, save for Blueprints, Currency, Scrap, and a few other unique exceptions. Things like Meals expire at the end of the event, while Brews and Gizmos can last from 6 months to a year. More permanent items like Weapons or Armor might last for a year or more, and Vehicles can be extended for up to FIVE years. But, in the end, many of your items in game will need to be replaced — eventually.

Items have expiration dates to prevent participants from creating stockpile gluts while simultaneously representing the decay of resources over time. While some objects have expiration dates that are notably shorter than comparable real-world objects, and other items are given expiration dates that are longer than comparable real-world objects, the mechanical design of expiration dates ensures that participants have a need for investing materials into production instead of allowing the materials to simply sit around (thereby not fulfilling their purpose of causing players to engage with each other). (DR Corebook, p. 166)

There are a few basic rules about Expiration Dates:

  • Once an item card passes the Expiration Date on the card, it is no longer a usable item in game, unless a rule specifically allows you to use expired items. Most folks simply throw away the card, unless they keep it for sentimental value.

  • Expiration dates written on a card count the game they are crafted in. So, if you made an item with a 3-month duration during our upcoming November event, IMPRINT BY DESIGN, it would have an expiration date of January 2023 (Nov + Dec + Jan), and NOT February.

    • This also means that crafting items with a short duration on Sunday is rarely a good idea. You will have already basically wasted a month on the item. Get that crafting done early on Friday and get to use the item for the whole weekend!

  • We normally write expiration dates on a card by month and not date. If an item has a particular date listed, it was meant to expire at the end of the event. Some items even expire after only a few HOURS!

  • Our staff will not change or modify the date written on a card. Items that make a card usable after it expires will generally add a word “EXTENDED” on the card instead but leave the original expiration date. If an item was written wrong or it is an item like a Vehicle that adds to the expiration date when upgraded, we will issue a new card rather than change the date on the old card.

  • Herbs found with the Foraging skill and Produce made with Hunting have a 3-month expiration, while those Herbs and Produce gathered with Agricultural will have a 6-month expiration.

  • Local Plot Cards normally last 1-3 months, but never more than 6 months. This includes any items that the LPC would generate. If you had a Local item that made scrap, those scrap made by the item would ALSO be on Local Plot Cards and limited to 6 months. (p. 170)

  • Not all item cards expire, but most do. Notable exceptions are Blueprints, Currency, and most Scrap cards. There were some blueprints in 2.0 that expired, and it would be easy to see that mechanic return to 3.0. I can also see a world where scrap cards eventually get an expiration date, but I for one enjoy being able to trade in non-expiring scrap for the moment, especially now that we can Smelt & Weld!

Once an item is expired, it is basically just a dead card in your pocket and can be discarded. There are very few ways to take advantage of expired cards at the moment, but the Extended Warranty item purchased with Master Trade Connections remains a limited way to add one more month to a recently expired item. In DR:TX, the Lovelace Family can also offer contractors a San Saba Sundry called “Waste Not” that allows you to temporarily use recently expired Produce and Herbs.

It’s still a monologue if you are only listening to avoid being murdered…

The Impermanence of things

So why did I start with Expiration Dates today? This might seem like a weird rules topic to begin a discussion about item cards and blueprints, but we’ve finally hit an important date.

We have finally hit the day where ALL crafted items in the live game have a relevant expiration date.

Back in December 2021, Kyle and the National Team created some extended expiration dates for items that had been written BEFORE the Covid-19 pandemic. This was a great way to make sure that folks didn’t lose progress on items they made in the few months at the start of 3.0 and the pandemic, but it created a bit of a weird situation.

If you made an item with a 6-month expiration date in October of 2019, and it would expire in 3/2020, then that item got extended for almost TWO YEARS longer. This meant that nice gizmos like Merchant’s Monocles, useful augments, anti-Larceny Supply Bags, and more stayed in the game for much longer than originally anticipated.

Of note, LIT items remain a bit of an exception to this rule, but they still are removed with an expiration date starting from January 2022. There were also several Buy Lists items like Lock Poppers that gained the LEGACY tag that will expire very soon, by 12/2022.

Some of these pieces that gained months to their usefulness were designed with a shorter expiration on purpose, and it made people that quickly built gear in 3.0 have a strong economic advantage versus those that didn’t. If you didn’t have to spend extra scrap every few months replacing that augment for your Toothpiq Chopper, you could spend that time and resources on making different items to sell or trade. The return on your investment for items built in the early parts of 2019 was very, very, good.

But now, everything is going to finally expire.

Our PYROCLASM event in October 2022 was the LAST event for the 22-month extensions on those original carded items, and barring a few items being saved from expiring like I mentioned above, most of that stuff is now just dust in the wind…

However, it will be okay.

In my humble opinion, The economy game of Dystopia Rising can be described with the philosophy of “mono no aware”.

This is a Japanese philosophy that means, literally "the pathos of things", and is also translated as "an empathy toward things", or "a sensitivity to ephemera". It is a Japanese idiom for the awareness of impermanence (無常, mujō), or transience of things, and both a transient gentle sadness (or wistfulness) at their passing as well as a longer, deeper gentle sadness about this state being the reality of life. (Wikipedia)

For me, this idea helps reinforce that the wastelands of the zombie apocalypse are cruel and uncaring places to exist. Radiation, disease, rot, and ruin permeate the setting, and it makes keeping things a challenge. Even the idea that your character may not be permanent, as each death takes you closer to a final end can be tied into this philosophy.

For the last few years, Artisan crafting has been somewhat lackluster. There were a few new blueprints here and there to be sure, but we have yet to really see what I would describe as a “replacement cycle” happen. We are finally approaching a moment when a player needs to replace their key gear and items once they expire, and that means there will be a need for scrap, blueprints, and crafters once more. Couple this new list of expiring items with the recent Augment blueprint release, and we have a BRAND-NEW WORLD where you really need to consider if that item is worth building and maintaining. Like the coyote chasing the roadrunner, it is a cycle that continues to give those crafters something to work towards in game.

Dystopia Rising is designed in a way that items are meant to be very expensive to maintain and equip (p. 166). While most folks can invest in a weapon or two, armor and a few brews, having too many Augments or short expiration date gizmos can be prohibitively expensive to upkeep. Multiply this cost by all the people in your crew, and it’s become more important than ever to really decide what is important to your character and crew. I know for my crew, the Road Royals, we already started to have these discussions about how to best spend our hard-earned scrap and herb. You gotta really hustle if you want to keep building new augments and useful gear, especially for a big team.

And that’s really, really neat, to me.

Now, I have MORE reasons to seek out another crafter to help us make some new Augments. I have MORE reasons to see out a farmer to make some herb. I have MORE reasons to borrow that blueprint for a Gizmo from a printer. Each time I do, I’ll get another chance to practice the 10-Foot Rule and have another reason to engage with the part of the game I enjoy most.

I have MORE reasons to engage with the economy and interact with the other players in the game.

Expiration dates are a GOOD thing, in my mind, and I’m glad that they are once again more relevant. They give us a reason to keep building, keep crafting, keep trading, and keep interacting with our friends and rivals.

Next, let’s continue the discussion about Item Cards and Blueprints with a few references I’ve made to help out our local players on the website.

It’s about to be a real bad time for this poor duster…

Item Cards

YOU can find the mostly complete rules for item cards in the DR Corebook starting on page 165-175.

A big part of keeping the Dystopia Rising game fairly rules-light is the use of ITEM CARDS to represent mechanical effects past what your character sheet and Skills can cover.

Item Cards you find in game will be approximately the size of a standard business card. If you lose the Item Card (or accidentally wash it after a game), you lose the item too — so keep them safe! Many players will have elaborate card boxes or binders to organize their cards, but some will just shove them into a pocket of their costume, attach them to a phys rep, or put them into their Supply Bag.

Item Card Rules - The Basics

Item Cards have a few simple rules.

  • Item Cards are broken into general categories of resources, blueprints, currency, and item cards. (p. 166)

  • Item Cards require having a physical representation for all items involved to use and are not intended to replace the goal of “what you see is what you get”.

    • You can find some examples of Basic Starting Props in the DR Corebook (p. 28). This covers things like brews, injectables, weapons, armor, and supply bags.

    • We also have several sections on our website with picture suggestions for props for common items your character might need in game, as well as crafting suggestions.

  • Any item with a game mechanical effect should have a corresponding item card. (p. 29)

  • Any item card that is NOT represented by a physical prop should be kept in your Supply Bag, not your pockets. (p. 29, 171)

  • Item cards that represent resources like scrap, herb, and salvage must be kept in your Supply Bag when not in use. Players are encouraged to carry some props (like plants or bits of scrap) with their Supply Bags to assist in representing these item cards. (p. 168)

“You ‘steaders are talking an awful lot of shit for someone in stabbin’ range…”

Other Item Card Rules

Item Cards are purposefully pretty basic, but there are a few other inferred rules scattered in the book that I’ve collected into one place:

  • You can get new Item Cards largely from the Public Works, or Post Office, after using an appropriate skill or blueprint. This is the primary way item cards enter the game. (p. 174)

  • You can also find new Item Cards in the world with various gathering skills like Foraging or Salvaging, during modules, or in the pockets of defeated enemies after you search their corpse. However, looting the bodies is never going to be the primary way to find new items or currency. The economy of DR is designed with the players generating the lion’s share of the cards in the game. If you want new cards you gotta do it yourself!

  • You don’t need an Item Card to sell minor items in game like food, drinks, services, jewelry, trinkets, or other inconsequential items that have no mechanics. (p. 171)

  • Weapons, Shields, Firearms, and other lightest-touch combat items should be TAGGED by our Safety Guides. These tags let a player know at a glance what level of an item that prop represents. This also helps us identify who the prop belongs to in the case the item is stolen or misplaced, as the tags will be marked with your player number, and the guide who approved the item for safe boffer combat.

    • Starter weapons are tagged with a WHITE TAG.

    • Basic crafted items are marked with a GREEN TAG.

    • Proficient crafted items are marked with a YELLOW TAG.

    • Master crafted items are marked with a RED TAG.

  • Starter Items are not required to have an Item Card but DO require a physical prop. While these items can be stolen, you can simply get a new one at any time from the Post Office. (p. 100)

  • Item Cards have common KEYWORDS. These are found in the rulebook on p. 175 and additional Keywords are found on our Local Rules site and on the National Lexicon page.

  • Room Augments (blueprint items in player made spaces that have specific rules) and Crafting Zones (open areas where items can be built with Artisan, Agricultural, and Culinary) should have physical props, be obvious at a glance that they are a purposeful set of props to do that task and require the space to be approved by the Gamerunners.

    • In DR:TX, we have open crafting zones that any player can access, in both Wasteland and non-Wasteland areas. There are Artisan Crafting Zones in the Depot and Delvedown Camp, Agricultural Crafting Zones outside the Depot and in the Meadows, and Culinary Crafting Zones in the Dive and the Depot.

    • You can also request special Crafting Zones or Augments with CAPS.

  • Item cards can be taken from you when someone SEARCHES your body while you are in Bleed Out or otherwise Subdued and can be stolen from within another player’s Supply Bag with the Larceny skill. (p. 118).

    • I’ve covered many of the common Theft interactions in my Thick as Thieves article, available on our website.

sample item cards

Item Cards will be pretty obvious in game, but so you know what to look for we’ve included some examples below. Many of the cards will even have a few of the relevant rules printed on them for easy reference later. These were designed for the entire DR National Network by our very own Aesa Garcia.

There are several types of Item Cards you will see in game:

  • Scrap - These represent bits of metal and useful materials for weapons and engineered items. These items normally don’t expire and are used in most Artisan Blueprints. You can acquire these items via the skills Salvaging, Foraging, Trailblazing, and Trade Connections.

  • Herb & Produce- These are plants, vegetables, and seasonal herbs used in a variety of Culinary Blueprints and even some Artisan Blueprints. You can acquire these items via the skills Foraging, Hunting, and Agricultural.

  • Armor - These are items that provide additional Body to protect you from threats. Once they run out of Body points, they must be repaired by a character with the Artisan skill. These are made with the Artisan skill.

  • Brews - These are single-use items that provide a variety of effects from healing, Mind restoration, or temporary buffs. These are made with the Culinary skill.

  • Injectables - These are Brews that can be used by a character already in Bleed Out. They are expensive, and cost Resolve to use, but are one of the only ways to save yourself if you are dying alone. These are made with the Culinary skill.

  • Meals - These are short-term items made in small batches. These allow for efficient healing and Mind restoration, but expire at the end of the event. There are procedures that can add to their effects or even extend them past the end of the game. These are made with the Culinary skill.

  • Room Augments - These are expensive and powerful augments to buildings in the game. Generally they improve a 10’x10’ area, and you must provide the appropriate props to decorate the space. These are made with the Artisan skill.

  • Gizmos - This is the most versatile card type, as it covers everything from small handheld engineered items, single use items like smoke bombs or disguise kits, and more. These are made with the Artisan skill.

  • Augments - These are new types of items that upgrade and enhance existing items. They can add new abilities to an item or Skill use, but each item can only have ONE augment added to it. These are made with the Artisan skill, but anyone can attach an Augment once it is crafted. (These are currently written on GIZMO item cards but are NOT Gizmos.)

  • Non-Mechanical Items - These are items that have no in-game effect, but are often used as components of larger and more expensive items. These can also represent a way for you to provide a card for a neat prop or real-life item you’d like to sell to other players. These are made with both the Artisan and Culinary skills.

  • Shield - These are protective items used to block attacks in combat. Crafted shields also provide additional abilities for those that have higher tiers of the Shield skill. These are made with the Artisan skill.

  • Trap - These items can make opening a box or crate that doesn’t belong to you the last thing you do. Traps can be placed on containers, stretched across areas as a trip line, or even concealed under a pressure plate. Traps must be represented by a physical prop of some kind, but should never be actually dangerous gadgets in real life — use the card instead! These are made with the Artisan skill.

  • Weapon - These are one of the first items most characters acquire in game, as it is a boffer LARP after all. Crafted weapons also provide additional abilities for those that have higher tiers of the various weapon skills. These are made with the Artisan skill.

  • Vehicle - These are very expensive items that will require most characters spending several games gathering resources to make them. They never enter play directly but have several powerful effects that represent their influence on the game space. These are made with the Artisan skill.

There are two other types of items cards you’ll encounter in game, each represented by their own unique physical representations:

  • Blueprints - These are recipes and schematics for how to build another item in the game. You must have an appropriate Blueprint to build 95% of the items in the game.

    • Culinary Blueprints allow you to craft items with the Culinary skill, including brews, injectables, and meals.

    • Artisan Blueprints allow you to craft items with the Artisan skill, including weapons, armor, shields, gizmos, room augments, vehicles, traps, and more.

    • Procedure and Benediction Blueprints allow you use Skills in new ways, often requiring additional resources to activate the new uses. These can enhance existing items, allow you to restore lost Infection, or even give new uses of Faith skills.

    • Augment Blueprints allow you to craft items that enhance other crafted items like weapons, armor, or gizmos. Each item can only have one Augment.

    • Seasonal Blueprints are periodically released and have an expiration date of generally one year. These prints are used as ways to test powerful or thematic items that may or may not become full blueprints after the year of testing is concluded.

    • Local Blueprints are unique blueprints ONLY usable at that local game. These items often have a local flair and may use resources only available at those chapters

Currency - These valuable cards are one of the primary sources of barter and trade in the game, and a type of resource item card. These are printed on thick plastic cards and represent the in-game money used by characters and organizations in the world. Each chapter has it’s own local currency, and many players collect the various different types of currency in the game.

  • Brass (฿) - The currency of the San Saba Territories is the Brass Note. This comes in three varieties, the single currency Brass Note, the five currency Lead Note, or the ten currency Tin Note. These can be generated by the Financial Influence skill, the Elitariat Strain advantage, or by simply trading goods and services with other players.

  • Trade Notes - The humble Trade Note is a universal currency used by the merchant guilds of the wastes. It comes in 1-, 5-, and 33- notes, and can usually be traded with travelers at any branch in the network. These can be acquired using the Master Financial Influence Skill or by trading with merchants that come into town.

  • Trade Notes are generally accepted at any game in the network, if you choose to travel, but players at other games may prefer to purchase items with their own local currencies. A player with Master Financial Influence can even swap Trade Notes they bring with them to a travel game for the local currency of whatever chapter they visit.

blueprints

Now that we’ve covered the basic types of item cards, let’s dig a bit deeper in one of my favorite types of items - BLUEPRINTS.

I also did a few website updates recently, and if you are a Blueprint hound like me, I added a great resource to our website: The Blueprint Checklist. This page collects the names of ALL currently released blueprints in game in one place and provides a handy way to keep track of your collection. I hope you find it useful!

You can also find a list of all of the CHANGES that have happened to Blueprints since they have released. I eventually plan on including a simpler list on our Texas website, but for now you can find the Blueprint Changelog on the national website, and you can find a listing of most blueprint mechanics in the Item Database:

Blueprints are simply LARGER item cards that allow you to turn resources like herb and scrap into other item cards. These recipes and schematics are the primary way that new items are added to the game.

The DR Corebook really doesn’t cover how integral these items are to the game of Dystopia Rising.

Blueprints are a big part of every pillar of the game, from economy, combat, CVC, and roleplay. There are items that enhance and support each of these aspects of play, and it can be fun to try to collect them all. It’s the main reason I want to dive a bit deeper here, as it’s a frequently misunderstood set of rules.

There are almost THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY (350!) different blueprints currently in game, and each National & Premiere event could add a few more. That’s a lot to keep track of, so it’s no wonder that they can cause a lot of misunderstandings. That’s basically a whole second book of rules to learn about Dystopia Rising!

Blueprints Rules - the Basics

  • Blueprints and procedures are full-page item cards that carry instructions for how to craft in-character items or outline how to in-character processes that involve using resources, workspaces, specific sorts of roleplay, certain skills, and certain play areas to create a mechanical effect. (p. 172)

  • Blueprints include the majority of the rules of how they work on the blueprint itself. It’s pretty easy, once you see one in person. I’ve included an image of a blueprint below, because this information isn’t readily available in the rulebook.

  • Each blueprint lists the Skills to craft, the crafting zone it must be crafted in, any phys reps required for that item, the keywords and item type of the card made, the Skill needed to use the item, the expiration date, and even a bit of flavor text or descriptions.

  • There is a list of all the Keywords currently in use on blueprints in the DR Lexicon. All prints will have at least one keyword to define them, most will have two (counting the company name) and a minority will have more.

  • Each blueprint can be duplicated by following the instructions on the bottom of the print. Normally this requires some amount of Basic Herb to use as inks, time, and Mind points to craft, but some prints use rarer resources, Skills, Lores, or Resolve. At the end of this time, you can receive an additional copy of that blueprint from the Post Office that you can trade or sell.

    • You must have the Blueprint you are duplicating with you the ENTIRE time, and the process of copying a Blueprint is Full Engagement Active Roleplay, so it can be interrupted if you get knocked into bleed out or use a different Skill.

  • Most blueprints (but not all) have three levels of items that can be made: Basic, Proficient, and Master. Once an Artisan item has been crafted at the Master level, it unlocks the abilities in the Master Achievement section. (p. 174)

    • Artisan blueprint items can often be UPGRADED. You can spend the additional time, mind, and resources to trade in an existing item card for the new item, but it keeps the expiration date that was formerly on the card. You can also choose just to craft the item to a higher level by paying the costs of each successive level of the print.

    • Culinary prints are effectively three different prints on one page. Each level is made separately, and you cannot upgrade the items once they are made. You either make a Basic brew, a Proficient brew, or a Master brew when you start to craft the item.

Blueprints - The fine Print

There are a few weird conditions that happen with Blueprints, and I’ll try to cover most of them.

  • According to the book, Blueprints are “not unto themselves their own physical representation” (p. 166). However, in the same page it also suggests that you draw schematics on the back of the page to help make them into better props, so it can be confusing. Just remember that blueprints are item cards and should be stored in a Supply Bag when not in use.

  • Blueprints will list a “Skill Tree to Craft” on the print. This Skill is required to make the item listed on the blueprint. Some rarer blueprints can even require more than one Skill! This is DIFFERENT than the “Skill Tree to Use”, as some prints can require drastically different skills to craft versus what it takes to use the item.

  • Some powerful blueprints will even require certain national Society Memberships (p. 106) like Murder, Inc. or the Red Ledger to craft. In Texas, local blueprints can even require Society Memberships with our local Factions.

  • Some (but not all) blueprints will have a Master Achievement (p. 143) listed on the print. This unlocks a special power for that item when used by someone with the matching Profession Focus Achievement (PFA). Culinary blueprints normally don’t have a PFA ability.

  • There are two blueprints that can ONLY be used in Online modules - the Temple Room Checker, and High Adventure Beyond Compare.

  • Some rarer prints and most Augment prints will require certain Lores to copy the print (p. 141). Right now, it takes EIGHT different Lores and TWO skills (including a Master Skill!) to copy every blueprint in the game, and I fully expect this to continue to increase.

    • Lore: Wasteland Science, Lore: Medical, Lore: Mortis Amaranthine, Lore: Animals, Lore: Raiders, Lore: Undead, Lore: Aberrants, Lore: Faith, Master Education, and Basic Criminal Influence are required to copy every print in the game as of October 2022.

Types of blueprints

There are several different types of blueprints in play. You can find most of these rules starting on p. 172-173 in the DR Corebook, but I’ve included the new types of blueprints released since the book was released here as well - Augments, Start Ups, Seasonal, and Benedictions. Some of these types of blueprints like Start Ups have been in play since the very first digital editions of the book and the first release of 3.0 blueprints but were never added into the descriptions during the many editions since. Others were added recently, like Benedictions. I’ve also included these rules into my Blueprint Checklist.

Let’s discuss the various types below.

Artisan Blueprints

An Artisan Blueprint is a full-page item card that provides instructions for the crafting of materials related to the Artisan skill tree. Items such as weapons, armor, gizmos, augments, and engineered materials fall under this category. Artisan blueprints are available for use across all branches and require resources that are available to be produced at all branches. Blueprints can require certain Skills or Lores to use or to reproduce, and the item cards they produce may require certain physical props or have specific mechanics for having different levels of a Skill linked to that item. Crafting an Artisan item from a blueprint requires the roleplay to be done in an Artisan Crafting Zone. (DR Corebook, p. 172)

Culinary Blueprints (Recipes)

Culinary Blueprints cover all brewed, distilled, cooked, or chemically refined processes related to the Culinary Skill tree, such as brews, meals, poisons, injectibles, and other primarily single-use resources that provide Mind, Body, or mechanical effects. For an item created by a Culinary blueprint to be used there must be a reasonable physical representation that ensures at a glance anyone observing an individual using the item can easily identify what they are doing. Meals require either a real meal or at least genre-appropriate packaging that an individual is eating, and brews required the appropriate type of container (injectable or brew bottle) for them to be used. Crafting an item from a Culinary blueprint requires the roleplay to be done in a Culinary Crafting Zone. (DR Corebook, p. 172)

Augment Blueprints

Augment Blueprints are a new type of Artisan Blueprint. These use the same rules as the Artisan Blueprints found on p. 172 but allow for a unique type of item to be crafted — Augments. Augments are a special type of item that “attaches” to an existing item and enhances it in a particular way. These items typically last 3 months and can only be attached once. Removing it from the attached item destroys the augment, though the larger item remains intact. It takes 2 minutes of roleplay and a trip to the Post Office to attach an Augment to an item. An item can only have one augment attached to it at a time.

Augment Blueprints often require advanced Skills and Lores to reproduce, and two of the Augments were first released as Seasonal Blueprints.

ProceduRE BLUEPRINTS

A Procedure Blueprint is a series of instructions to cause a specific mechanical effect based on the user having the required skills, resources, time, and environment. Procedures are often linked directly to Ranks of Achievement (PFAs) and have specific requirements for causing the effect outlined. As with crafting, the fact that an individual is performing a procedure should be apparent at a glance by someone passing by, and when an individual is the Target or performing a procedure, they can use no other skills or engage in other activities that detract from the procedure itself. (DR Corebook, p. 173)

Start Up Blueprints

Start Up Blueprints are designed for players to use with the local Settings team to create immersive role-playing spaces that allow players to engage with a type of role-play regardless of experience points or skills. These prints often require specific tangible mechanical aspects of roleplay to determine success or failure in creation of the Startup space. Zero resources are required for the production of these spaces and at least 10 players must engage in 30 minutes of active role-play building these spaces in the appropriate Crafting Zone. (from the Blueprint text)

Benediction Blueprints

Benediction Blueprints are new types of blueprints designed for use with Faithful Anomaly skills, like Faithful Patterns, Faithful Miracles, etc. These items often require the participants to have certain Anomaly skills, be baptized into a similar faith, and require unique mechanics or conditions to perform. The instructions for how to use these blueprints are included on the blueprint themselves, and they can differ between Benedictions.

Seasonal Blueprints

Seasonal Blueprints are temporary blueprints, usable in play for a set amount of time. These prints will be generally released for a single year with an expiration date. After a year, the mechanics and themes will be reviewed and adjusted as needed before being applied as a more accessible print. Each of the batches of blueprints below were released at a National Event before being distributed through the network.

Currently, all Seasonal Blueprints are marked as “Season 0” as a result of the virtual events during the pandemic. These blueprints are currently under review by the National Blueprint Team and will likely experience changes from their current forms before becoming national blueprints.

Regional & Local Blueprints

Regional Blueprints are Artisan, Culinary, and other procedures specific to a certain game’s story arc. Items created by regional blueprints may be traded and used in any branch, but the crafting and use of the blueprints and procedures themselves are limited to the game they are assigned to. A regional blueprint has a specific branch’s name on it, and it can only be used at that branch or at cross-network events. There are currently NO Regional Blueprints in play, and these rules may change in the future. (DR Corebook, p. 173)

Local Blueprints are a new type of blueprint that has been released by a local chapter for their game. Notably, DR: Arkansas, DR: Connecticut, DR: New York, and DR: Texas all have various versions of these types of blueprints, and I’m sure I missed a few. While these can be copied and used as a normal blueprint within that Chapter, they may not be used outside of that game without the approval of your local game runners. These items often have a local flair and may use resources only available at those chapters. I’ve included these here for completion’s sake, but these are not official national blueprints and cannot be found in the Item Database.

Wrap Up

That’s it for this week, Vados! I hope you enjoyed this look into some of the key mechanics of our game, and a return to form for our Rules Rambles.

I didn’t realize how much research goes into one of these posts until writing this one, and I’ve realized I’ve had it a bit easy since my last month of posts has been national event related. I hope you appreciate the labor, and make sure to tell your friends to read my stuff!

Next week, we will talk a bit about the upcoming story of IMPRINT BY DESIGN, and I hope to have a STORY RECAP for our first two games up very soon.

See you in the wastes, Vados!