It’s Jonathan here with our first weekly blog post for the upcoming event, IMPRINT BY DESIGN. This is our November DR:TX event written by our Overarc ST, Brett Pittman. Today we will talk a bit about some story teasers, some core mechanics and concepts for the event, and a reminder of some of the benefits of pre-registration for one of our events. This will be especially important this month, as our pre-reg form has some juicy RP questions to kick off the story, and an option for a permanent STRAIN CHANGE!
We’ve had some heavy combat and intense stories so far this season, so IMPRINT BY DESIGN is going to be a bit of a change of pace. This is going to give us all time to delve deep into one of the pillars of the Dystopia Rising experience - ROLEPLAY. This post will discuss a few light STORY SPOILERS for our next event, so we hope you enjoy what we have in store!
Photo credits in this post are from Max Pohlmeier, Lainey Weiss, Crystal Louise Remy, and Noah Goodman.
Let’s talk a little bit about the story of the next event…
The Premise of Imprint by Design
Grandfather Nichols has breathed his last, and that black heart pumped out the last of his ichor-like vitality upon the shores of Lake Bravado. But in the wake of his final death, the impact of his Grand Finale is still being felt across the San Saba. Dr. I.E. Esgrove, a visitor to Bravado that was shocked by the ravages of the Necrophage, has been spurred to pursue funding from one Felicity Redfield regarding a new revelation. Esgrove has found the waste of the Necrophage and its cure clinging to the Infection of individuals across the San Saba, and realized the new potential it can offer for change and restoration.
With the new blessing of the RRC, Dr. Esgrove has been working around the clock delving deep into the Facility underneath Bravado to fuel their machine, a device he calls the T.I.T.A.N Processor. Esgrove has declared the next trade to be the great unveiling of his creation, and there is a call out to the wastes for the brightest, driven, and best – gearheads, scientists, and tinkerers alike to come and join in the culmination. Miss Felicity Redfield has even graciously volunteered to display her trust in Bravado and Esgrove by being the first test subject.
The T.I.T.A.N. Processor has been set up on the edge of the Facility, just a short trek from Downtown Bravado, for all to come see the flash of great brilliance when the switches are thrown. Come one, come all, to witness a new miracle of science!
If you were outside of Kiva on Sunday of our last event, you might have even met the titular Dr. I.E. Esgrove, played by Brett Pittman as a kind of Sunday Spoiler. He is sure to be an important character during this event, so if you paid attention, you might have an inkling of his plans and the miracles he is bringing to Bravado.
WHERE CAN I BUY TICKETS?
Right here, of course.
PRE-REGISTRATION: WHAT DO I GET?
Once you’ve bought your ticket (or if you are still on the fence), let’s talk about what you get.
If you can, we hope you can get your tickets early and help our team with some advanced ideas of how many players to prepare for, what kinds of NPC shifts we can expect to have for big fights, and help craft our plans for cabins and tenting. Pre-registration helps us with all of these things and more, but it even offers some nice advantages for you as well..
SAVE TIME ON SITE!
While you can still purchase a ticket for IMPRINT BY DESIGN on site, the BEST advantage to getting a ticket early is that we will have your Character Sheet pre-printed and ready to go so you can save time in line. Spend that time claiming a bunk, setting up your tent, plot out your item builds for the weekend, grabbing dinner with your friends from all over, or just use it to take your time getting into that neat upgrade to your costume.
OPT IN TO THE STORY
In the pre-registration questionnaire, you will have your FIRST opportunity to OPT IN to the Imprint by Design plot kit in person. Opting into this story will give us lots of time to put thought and care into the story we want to tell involving YOUR character and desires as a player.
Folks that purchase a ticket and opt-in by Wednesday, October 26th will have additional time to make preparations and digest the information packet that will be going out shortly after. This will give you time to gathering costuming or make plans for character changes, as we will be able to have this information out about two weeks before game.
Folks who pre-reg AFTER today or at the door can still participate in this plot, but you will be fast-tracked into a simpler plot track to account for the lack of prep time. You will still be able to participate in the Strain Change shenanigans!
CONTENT LIST
As with every game in DR:TX, you can find a list of the content you can expect to encounter in one of our games, in the Nordic tradition of innehållsförteckning, or “ingredients list”, which was first created by Nordic game designer Karin Edman.
The themes of Dystopia Rising often touch close to our real world in ways we cannot always avoid. The DR:TX team believes that we can still tell these stories about challenging topics, but we also believe we need to be transparent about our intentions and allow folks to opt-out of any mechanics from those stories. In our tradition of radical trust, we want to also trust in each player that attends our game to know their own limits and be able to choose to avoid topics and situations that make them uncomfortable.
Some particular elements from our Content List to consider for this game:
Mutated and hostile fauna, including spiders, snakes, deer, bears, and clowns.
Intense emotional situations, where characters may be pushed to their emotional limits.
Disease, infection, and consequences of diseases
Simulated psychological role play
The story of Imprint by Design will provide some great roleplaying prompts to really DELVE deep into what is important to your character and their role in the wastelands. If you choose to dig into this plot, you’ll have some chances to make some important choices for your character, even one that can change some integral parts of who they are.
Don’t worry, there will still be zombies and other threats this weekend, lots of opportunities for building new augments, being hunted in the woods by the strange things in the dark, and lots of chances for ROLEPLAY.
Let’s talk about the important specifics…
Permanent Strain change
This next game will offer a unique opportunity for characters that opt-in to the key plot of the weekend. This will be a key theme of the weekend, and you might see folks experiencing an unforeseen change because of these decisions in game.
If you participate in the story and complete a series of tasks, you will have an opportunity to permanently change the Strain of your character.
That’s right.
A permanent Strain Change.
Doing something like this normally costs 1000 CAPS to change your character permanently as part of a Character Rewrite, but during this event you will be able to achieve this change for (mostly) FREE.
Strain changes are certainly not a guaranteed or required outcome to this plot, but it WILL be an option if you engage with the unique mechanics of this event. If you get impacted by IMPRINT DISSONANCE, you’ll still have an option to keep your original Strain, too.
This means if you’ve always been jealous of your friend’s ability to make money as an Elitariat, or to ignore Mangle Limbs as an Unstable, you could have a chance to make a big change for your character. This can be a great way to add some life back into a character that you’ve had for a while, and it sure to be a great source of role play regarding the changes. We had a similar option like this back at the start of 3.0, so this is your second chance if you missed the changeover from 2.0.
NOTE: There could be an in-character COST to this effect, involving a Roleplay Burden that persists past this event, but I’ll cover that mechanic below. Past this, there are some slight changes to the Body/Mind/Resolve/Infection XP costs that might come from this change, but in general you will stay at the same level of core Stats and Skills you have now, and if there is some weirdness there like an XP debt or lowering your Infection stat too low, we will address that case-by-case. The Character Database can be kinda weird sometimes about this sort of thing, but I know we will be able to handle any weird quirks of a Strain Change after the event as this is no different than any other limited rewrite.
So, let’s talk about the key mechanics of the weekend, as a teaser of what to expect during Imprint by Design.
Custom Mechanics: Roleplay Burdens
One key aspect of this ability to change your Strain will be a new form of ROLEPLAY BURDEN. This was a mechanic we premiered during our first event this season, but I’ve included the rules from our Local Mechanics below:
ROLEPLAY BURDEN
Keyword. A character can have one Roleplay Burden at a time. A Roleplay Burden must be fulfilled once per 12s, or else it will turn into a Fracture. Roleplay Burdens can be soothed or cured as if they were a Fracture, but does not count as a Fracture for preventing use of certain Skills. Players can opt-out of a particular RP behavior at any time, but must fulfill any required mechanical cost or effects. Roleplay Burdens expire at the end of an event, unless the player chooses to keep them longer.
During Imprint by Design, your characters may acquire a new version of this mechanic. The Necrophage has had some lasting impacts, and for some this manifests as an IMPRINT DISSONANCE. This condition will be something that can be fixed by engaging with the key elements of this overarc plot.
Imprint Dissonance (Roleplay Burden)
Keyword. While a character is affected by IMPRINT DISSONANCE, they are caught in a state of flux and mutability between two different Strain imprints.
The affected character must either obviously Roleplay as the new Strain or use obvious costuming and makeup to represent the new Strain at least once per 12s. If you do not fulfill this burden by costuming or roleplay once per 12s, you lose 1 Resolve. If you cannot spend Resolve in this way, you gain a FRACTURE each time instead.
While affected by Imprint Dissonance, this character counts as a member of the NEW Strain for purposes of Strain meals, brews, and effects that target that Strain. They temporarily lose their former Lineage Advantage and gain the Lineage Advantage of the new Strain while affected by this Roleplay Burden. This Roleplay Burden effect cannot be cured or soothed as normal until specific conditions are met.
This is an important trait of the weekend, but this condition will ONLY be acquired by opting into the plot of Imprint by Design. This ability will allow your character to functionally BE the new Strain as long as you meet some minor roleplay requirements. That includes handy things like being able to drink a Mind Restoring brew that matches your new Strain, but it also means stuff like BANE DAMAGE targeting your new Strain will affect you as well.
Costuming changes aren’t required for this, but it is encouraged. If you don’t want to spend money on new costuming, that’s completely fine. You can either do the roleplay, or simply spend a Resolve instead.
Clever folks will realize this is just the Strain costuming rules from page 181 in the DR Corebook, but as a Roleplay Burden.
This is one reason why we want to let you know about this mechanic in advance, so you can plan some neat changes for your kit if you choose and why we included a roleplay aspect option instead of costuming. We want to give you the opportunity for some neat roleplay prompts, and we hope you will be excited about all the fun stories and possibilities this can offer.
Wrap UP
That’s it for today Vados!
We hope you are interested by the unique opportunities that IMPRINT BY DESIGN will offer your characters. How important is your Strain to your character? Have you wanted to be a different Strain this whole time but couldn’t afford the CAPS? What will your character do if something like their Strain changes for them unexpectedly?
Next week, I’ll talk a bit about the RULES of Strains and Lineages. If you get a chance to try out some new Lineage advantages, it might help to appreciate some of the nuances and rules to remember!
See you soon!