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 about Lineages & Strains. We have also finished sending out the emails for the folks that filled out the survey for the special plot event during this next game. This special plot will include an option for a permanent STRAIN CHANGE, and you’ll still be able to opt-in at the door if you missed the chance for the survey.
TICKETS ARE ON SALE FOR IMPRINT BY DESIGN until friday, november 4th! DON’T MISS OUT ON THE NEXT DR:TX EVENT!
Photo credits in this post are from Max Pohlmeier, Lainey Weiss, Crystal Louise Remy, and Noah Goodman.
lineages vs Strains
One of the key concepts of IMPRINT BY DESIGN will exploring the importance of Lineages & Strains to your characters, especially as the imprint becomes… mutable. So, let’s take a look at some of the rules on the topic in our traditional Rules Ramble manner.
The world of Dystopia Rising is set long after the fall of humanity from zombies, plague, and radiation. It has been generations since the fall and while most of humanity was wiped out, some hardy survivors managed to eke out an existence in the world that remained. The survivors of the fall EVOLVED (get it? DR: Evolved?) into the Lineages & Strains we use in game today, based largely on “how” they survived this new irradiated wasteland. Some banded together into communities of their peers, others mutated and evolved to survive the harsh conditions, some adapted to their unique environments or upbringings, and some even took to a nomadic life to avoid the roaming packs of the undead. As the generations passed, these survival traits became something more - the adapted and evolved Strains of Humanity.
Lineages are one aspect of your character you choose at creation and sets how much Body, Mind, Infection, and Resolve you start play with. They also come with distinct Lineage Advantages, which are a type of Skill that doesn’t cost XP to add to your sheet. Each Lineage features some broad, overarching cultural and and genetic characteristics that are present in each of its Strains, while the Strains branch into hyper-defined traits (p. 34).
Strain is similar to a Race in D&D or World of Warcraft, a Clan in Vampire: the Masquerade, or an Archetype in Blades in the Dark. Strains are simply the physical way the zombie Infection adapted and changed your family over the generations, and provide only a few mechanical considerations. While each Strain shares the same Lineage Advantage, they each have different Strain Role Play Traits to help define your Strain further. These can be things as simple as role play expectations, but can include makeup, prosthetics, or even glow effects.
Ultimately, STRAIN is the key identifying outward element of your character that most people recognize and provides the most information for costuming and role play, but Lineages are where the mechanics and interaction with most items come in.
Lineage Rules: The Basics
Let’s look at a few basic rules from the Lineages, starting on page 34 in the DR Corebook:
Local games can restrict certain Lineages & Strains based on a need for a background or story that matches the local game (p. 25). You can view our DR:TX list of Lineages & Strain Requirements on our website.
There are EIGHT (8) unique Lineages, each containing THREE (3) related Strains. That means there are TWENTY-FOUR (24) different options for your character when you start!
Fun Fact: Even though the book wrongly suggests there are only SEVEN lineages on p. 34, the error probably comes from the fact that 3.0 added three new playable Strains to the game (Quiet Folk, Tainted, Unstable) and introduced the concept of Lineages for the first time. In earlier editions of Dystopia Rising, there were only Strains!
Lineages are a THREAT TYPE. This is the “creature type” of most Face NPC characters, LCs and SCs in game. There are four major classes of Threats in the game - Lineages, Undead, Raiders, and Critters (though a few things like Longwalkers and Archons defy classification). Many items and Skills will mention “Lineage-threats” or “non-Lineage threats” accordingly. If something specifically states “Lineage threats” that includes your character too!
Lineages & Strain names are also KEYWORDS. Keywords are useful bits of shorthand rules that quickly tell you if you qualify for an ability, item, or skill. If something targets you by Keyword, then that effect works on you if you match the Keyword. That means by simply making a character you will have at least TWO keywords right off the bat — your Lineage & Strain!
Each Lineage has an mechanical Lineage Advantage that counts as a SKILL. This means it follows the all the rules for Skills, so things like being in Bleed Out (p. 103), being Stunned (p. 107) or Subdued (p. 107) prevent you from using the Advantage. However, you can still use these powers while under the effect of Blinding (p. 112), because you didn’t pay experience for your Lineage.
Each Lineage has TWENTY (20) points split between starting Body and Mind. This means that no character really has a significant characteristic or XP advantage over another based solely on Lineage, since each point of Body and Mind costs 1 XP to raise until you get to 20.
Each Lineage has EIGHT (8) points split between starting Resolve and Infection. Like above, since each point of these stats costs 10 XP to buy later, there’s no real advantage here for XP costs. It’s really a personal preference if you value more Resolve over Infection when you start or vice versa. For me, I think that starting with more Resolve is more immediately useful though it can be much more difficult to gain Infection later in game.
That’s about all the major lineage rules, so let’s look at the list of Lineages & Strains and consider how each Lineage changes the rules a bit more from this baseline.
The list of lineages & Strains
Mutant (p. 52)
Remnant
Retrograde
Tainted
Landsman (p. 56)
Merican
Natural One
Quiet Folk
Devoted (p. 60)
Accensorite
Red Star
Unborn
Evolved (p. 64)
Irons
Reclaimers
Unstable
Elitariat (p. 35)
Digitarian
Pure Blood
Solestros
Townie (p. 39)
Baywalker
Yorker
Vegasian
Nomad (p. 43)
Diesel Jock
Rover
Saltwise
Gorger (p. 47)
Full Dead
Semper Mort
Lascarian
Lineage Advantages
Let’s look at the advantages of each Lineage, all in one place. You can find the specifics in the book on the pages listed above, but here’s my quick summary. I’m definitely a Gamist, so I’ve included a few of Jonathan’s POWER GAMER TIPS™ on the Lineages below:
Regardless of my opinions, There are truly no wrong choices when it comes to choosing a Lineage or Strain. Pick the one that will be to fun to role play.
Elitariat - Once per event, characters with this Lineage can generate Brass by using Financial Influence. This is the only Lineage Advantages that requires another Skill to use, but it generates more currency as you invest in the Skill levels, though Financial Influence is a subpar skill over all. You can get up to 16 currency each game if you take all three levels in Financial Influence, though it takes a lot of Mind. This is the ONLY way to regularly generate Currency in the game. It’s a game changer, especially if you can take advantage of the money generation when you first start play.
Townie - These characters can spend 20 minutes role-playing with at least FIVE New Players (players with less than 50 XP) or Travelers (players that aren’t from your local chapter) to regain 5 Mind. This ability has no limit to the number of times you can use it, but it does require you to actual wrangle 5 other players into one place so it can be challenging to regularly use. I’d consider this one of the weaker advantages, unless you put the work into making these kinds of role play scenes happen. Fun Fact: This is also the first place in the book that declares exactly what a “New Player” is mechanically in game.
Nomad - My personal favorite but mechanically average, this Lineage actually has TWO advantages but each has a very narrow application. The first Advantage lets you ignore any mechanic that affects “traveling to a game”, unless it specifically targets your Lineage. And, if it does target you, you can still spend 1 Resolve to ignore it. If you plan on traveling a lot, this can be occasionally useful but it rarely comes up if you only play at your home game. The second Advantage allows you to spend 10 minutes to regain 5 Mind while role playing in a “vehicle” mod. In DR:TX, we always have at least one Sailing mod each game that would classify as this, but this advantage is rarely useful in a lot of situations.
Gorger - This is one of the more powerful active Advantages. Gorgers can spend 2 minutes to “feed” on an incapacitated or dying Lineage or Raider to regain 1 Body (sorry, no feeding on yourself, Undead or Critters!). However, it counts as a Killing Blow, so this isn’t really a power you use on friends. It can be used FIVE (5) times on a single target if they aren’t in Bleed Out (since it counts as a Killing Blow), for a maximum of 5 Body regained and 10 minutes spent eating. Unlike most Skills, this can be stacked with up to 6 Gorgers, and it’s one of the few Skills that can be used while Stabilized (p. 107).
Mutant - Mutants also have two distinct Advantages, but they are very narrow in use. First, Mutants cannot die from a disease. They can still suffer the negative effects, but they won’t die unless the disease specifically ignores this advantage (like Necrophage). However, it doesn’t protect you from being turned into a Raider by the Bad Brain Disease. Secondly, they can spend 1 Resolve to ignore an instance of being inflicted with a disease. One important note is this can stop you from CATCHING the disease, but not it advancing once you’ve caught it. Once you get infected, this power can’t be used anymore. This is useful for doctors and graveheads that like to play in areas rife with disease. Or really just anyone that lives in Bravado.
Landsman - This advantage allows you and at least FOUR (4) other Landsman (5 total) to regain 5 Mind after spending 20 minutes in some specific role play. This is one of the two Lineage Advantages that mentions Active Role-Play (p. 102) as a keyword, so you can’t do this while walking/fighting/sleeping or using other Skills. Like the Townie advantage, this can be useful if you can wrangle a group of 5 Landsmen together in one place and has no limit to the number of times you can use it, as long as you are all obviously being Landsmen during the role play. However, if you build a crew of all Landsmen (or just get a lot of Landsmen friends) so you can easily meet the requirement of 5 folks, this can be a easy advantage to use regularly.
Devoted - This advantage allows you to spend 30 minutes of role play to regain 5 Mind. This Skill can be VERY powerful, but has some non-obvious limitations. This is a Skill that is VERY useful when you first start out but becomes less useful as you gain XP or better access to brews and meals. For instance, a Basic Mind Refreshing Meal can restore 5 Mind for only 10 minutes of roleplay and you could eat three meals in the same time frame, so this is a slower, but dependable access to Mind restoration. This is the other Active Role-Play advantage, so you can’t use other Skills while meditating or praying, and you CAN be Interrupted (p. 104) if you enter Bleed Out.
Evolved - This is one of the more powerful advantages, as you can spend 1 Resolve to ignore the effects of a Mangle Limb ability. You can use this a number of times per event as you have Resolve, so it’s possible to ignore up to SIX instances of a Mangle with this advantage. This can be a lifesaver, but it is reliant on encountering monsters or other players with this ability. This can be VERY useful in CvC as well, as Mangle is a powerful skill to limit a player’s ability to escape a trap. However, as you gain more ability to use Resolve on items and Skills, this advantage can become less useful, but there are very few items or Skills that can duplicate this effect entirely.
Lineages are truly where the mechanical effects of the character come into play. Let’s look next at the Strain requirements, and I’ll call out a few noteworthy entries.
Strain Rules: The Basics
Strains have very few actual rules involved. While there are some items and Skills that interact with Strains, their main interactions for rules are covered in Lineages instead. The main rule for Strains comes in the form of a role play requirement.
Each Strain has a Role Play Trait, which if not followed can cost you a point of Resolve. This is rarely enforced in my experience in game as a “gottcha!”, as the goal is to simply make sure you cover some of the most obvious parts of a Strain in your role play and appearance. For most folks, this is a key element of their costuming and part of the recognizable traits You’ll also see something similar to this mechanic in our Roleplay Burdens for IMPRINT BY DESIGN.
Most Role Play Traits are just that, but a few have costuming requirements or some kind of mechanical interaction. If a Strain has a Mechanic listed in the Role Play Trait, it must be followed and cannot be ignored. If you don’t follow the costuming or role play requirements in a gratuitous way, you could have a Guide cause you to lose a Resolve.
I’ve listed the few Strains of note with unique mechanics below. If you want the specific descriptions of costuming or roleplay, read the book (it’s free!).
Digitarian - Roleplay requirements
Pure Blood - Costuming requirement (three color minimum)
Solestros - Roleplay requirements
Baywalker - Costuming requirement - tattoos
Yorker - Roleplay requirement, light costuming (a symbol of your group)
Vegasian - Roleplay requirements
Diesel Jock - Costuming requirement - dirt & grease
Rover - Roleplay requirements
Saltwise - Costuming requirement (gills on the neck), roleplay requirement
Full Dead - Heavy costuming requirement (undead makeup, etc).
MECHANIC: Must eat the flesh of the living once per event, per the Gorger Lineage advantage. They also treated as if they had the UNDEAD keyword for effects.
Semper Mort - Heavy costuming requirements (claws & fangs), roleplay requirement
MECHANIC: Must consume the blood of a living Raider or Lineage once per event, per the Gorger Lineage advantage.
Lascarian - Costuming requirement (covered skin during daylight), roleplay requirement
Remnant - Heavy costuming requirements (outward physical mutation)
MECHANIC: Must fulfill a role play “obsession” once per event. Must submit an Action Request to get mutation approved by staff.
Retrograde - Heavy costuming requirement (rotted, decayed skin & masks)
Tainted - Roleplay requirements related to Bad Brain
MECHANIC: Always has Stage Two Bad Brain (p. 206) that can never progress, be cured, or spread from them.
Merican - Costuming requirement (a hat!)
MECHANIC: Always come back as a Shambler after losing the last Infection.
Natural One - Roleplay requirements
Quiet Folk - Roleplay requirements
Accensorite - Heavy costuming requirement (Physical mutation of “ascension”)
MECHANIC: Every 100 XP gain a new mutation representative of their faith, must submit an Action Request.
Red Star - Roleplay requirements
MECHANIC: Cannot be Baptized and cannot use “Faithful” Anomaly skills on anyone that is Baptized. Can replace (Faith) with a (Society Membership) instead.
Unborn - Heavy costuming requirements (green skin, white eyes), roleplay requirements
MECHANIC: Cannot cry out for help while dying.
Irons - Costuming requirements (red glow at ankles, neck, and wrists)
Reclaimers - Costuming requirements (leathery exposed muscles on arms and legs)
Unstable - Costuming requirements (blue glow at ankles, neck, and wrists)
MECHANIC: Cannot run from a horde of undead
Notable LINEAGE Brews & equipment
There are only a few items in the game that interact in a notable way with the Lineages and Strains. You find the specific mechanics for these items below on the Character Database, and I’ve built a complete Blueprint List on our website.
Let’s take a look:
Brews & Meals - This is the most common item interaction that uses Keywords for Lineages.
Healing & Refreshing Meals, Healing & Recovery Brews, Healing Injections - The Lineage version of these blueprints have improved amounts of Body & Mind regained if that Lineage consumes them, but do nothing if you are not the right keyword. These can be VERY efficient to craft and give the best yields for gaining Mind and Body.
Death Brews, Hallucinogens, Intoxicants - These brews often have longer duration and improved effects for the affected Lineage. Like the meals, these do nothing if you are not the correct Strain. Note: There is no universal Death Brew — you must use the Lineage specific brew to use these effects.
Lineage Poisons - These brews deal heavy Body damage to a particular Lineage that consumes them over 1 minute. Unlike the Arsenic or Caustic Poisons, these only deal damage to the specific Lineage listed.
Little Drop of Poison - This particularly foul brew DOUBLES the impact of a Lineage poison when used in the creation of that brew, at the cost of narrowing the effect to a single Strain within that Lineage. This means a poison modified by this blueprint could deal SIXTY (60) Body Damage upon drinking! OUCH!
Luminescence Liquor - A new item we introduced during the NECROPHAGE, this item lets Irons and Unstable change the color of their glow.
Green Light Frying Pan - When made, this item makes a single type of Lineage meal chosen at creation take half the time to prepare. This is amazing item for making Lineage meals faster.
The Queens Cup - This item DOUBLES the yield of a lineage brew when consumed, but only for the person who is on the card. However, this item takes a national scrap called Imprint Crystals to make, so it can be very difficult to make until an updated blueprint is eventually released.
Toothpiq Chopper & The Big Hate - These weapons offer the only source of Lineage Bane in the game available to players. The Big Hate even offers Strain Bane. These weapons deal DOUBLE damage to characters that match that keyword and can be very effective in CvC.
Crystalline Biological Enhancer - This item is something that specifically mentions “non-Lineage undead”. This wording is specifically so that Full Dead are not impacted by the Telepathy abilities of this item.
Hunter’s Secret, Crystal Candy Nucleation, & That Cursed Pitchfork - Each of these items offers some reward for completing a Killing Blow or is only usable on a Lineage target. Of special note, the PFA ability of the Pitchfork can target Full Dead, as it is not limited to "non-Lineage Undead”.
As you can see, there are several items that can help or hurt a Lineage, but it’s still very few items overall. We’ve yet to see true Strain- and Lineage- specific equipment return to 3.0, but I’m hopeful that the Blueprint team has some neat stuff in store in the future. Send in that feedback and cross your fingers!
Wrap up
That’s it for today Vados! We are weeks away from our next event IMPRINT BY DESIGN! Brett Pittman has poured his heart and soul into this event, so I hope you enjoy the story he is telling during this game. Each of STs will have some mods that build on this story, so you will get to see several different takes on the theme. I hope you take advantage of the role play opportunities this event offers, and I hope it serves as a nice break before we ramp back into the action of THE EMERALD GALA.
Next week, we will cover some RULES YOU SHOULD KNOW for the event, as well as any last minute logistics reminders. See you soon Vados!
