Hello! Aesa here. If you were present at our last game you were given a few Sunday Spoilers! This is the official announcement of the things we told you in person:
Dystopia Rising: New Mexico Announced!
First of all, we are thrilled to announce that Shan Lindley of Dystopia Rising: Texas is heading up the team that is resurrecting Dystopia Rising: New Mexico! Along with Seth Peck of Dystopia Rising: Colorado, they are building a team to run this hybrid online/live event chapter in 2023! Currently Alex Morlan is tapped for Logistics Director, Heather Boemler will be the Storytelling Director for Online Events and Ed Sampson will be the Storytelling Director for Live Events! Many of these names and faces are ones that are familiar to the DR: Texas player base and we’re so excited to see them move into these exciting roles! The New Mexico chapter was greatly loved when it was running and we’re excited to see it return. Look for the first online events to appear in early spring 2023!
And now I want to talk a bit about creative cycles and the lifespan of the player experience…
The Future of Dystopia Rising: Texas
Forgive me in advance, as this is a bit of a long topic.
Part of the lifecycle of a LARP is that new players come in, gain experience, move into leadership roles, and, as veteran players, provide the same experiences to their community in turn. We believe it’s important that guides, storytellers, and gamerunners be allowed to step back before they reach the point of burnout, and this is part of the reason that we fire/rehire our Guides at the end of every season, because giving people that ability to step back and recharge is healthy and essential.
At the point that a LARP no longer has this cycle occurring in a healthy way, the same people get stuck at the top indefinitely and striation occurs where disproportionately the older players are burnt out and unhappy but feel emotionally obligated to continue to stay in their roles. Generations of players stagnate and the LARP loses that spark. My perspective is, if we ever get to a point where Dystopia Rising: Texas no longer has individuals willing to step into those leadership roles, then the chapter probably is at the end of its lifespan. And that would be sad! Thankfully we’re not at that point!
But you can’t beat burnout by working harder - the only real ways to combat it are through switching something up, finding a new role or project that sparks that same joy, or through intentional, restful, recharging. Running a game takes a lot of work! It’s also incredibly rewarding emotionally if you’re the sort of person who enjoys being embedded in a community of passionate and creative people doing something they love. There are so many happy memories of our successes - the big events we ran, often when no one else was doing what we were doing. We’ve done some iconic things! We pivoted in the pandemic to use the Bravado Bones ruleset by Sam Mars to adapt to the unique challenges of online events. Dead Man’s Hand was a triumph as our first online National Event run by DR:TX. We recently ran the best attended live event since the start of 3.0, The Necrophage: Pyroclasm. We have put out a variety of blueprints, plot kits, and national faction content, as well as a wide cast of vibrant local factions, buylists, and storylines. We created the San Saba trade network that now includes DR:NY and DR:MI.
But probably the thing that Shan and I have prided ourselves most on is that we’re good at recognizing talent and putting it in positions where people can shine. We’ve built a culture of mentorship and support that encourages people to explore their possibilities and let us buy in to their ideas. That also means that at some point, we want to step back and allow others to try their hand at what we do as well. Last seasons’ applications showed us that most of our playerbase is interested in some form of giving back, whether they’re our settings team getting all our immersive spaces perfect for game, or our groundskeepers helping to guide you through those intense scenes at the end of your character’s life, and the folks who write your cards at the Post Office, or make props. You are the future of this LARP and the skills each of you brings to your community is what helps us to shine!
So why am I telling you all this?
When Shan approached me to be their Logistics Coordinator in 2018, I told them that I was willing to do so for about 3 years. At the end of this season (May 2023), it will have been 4.5 years since I made that promise. A lot has happened in the last 4 years that we didn’t expect! A whole pandemic certainly threw a wrench into some of our plans (although I would argue that exploring the settlements of the San Saba through the Lonestar Skies events really played a vital role in developing the offscreen setting of our game). My time as Logistics Director has not been exactly what I dreamed it would be when I accepted. Even still, I think I accomplished my goals! I helped to provide continuity and stewardship to the game and hobby I loved for the friends and players I loved, and I have tried to set it up for as much success as I can moving forward, in the same way this chapter was handed to Shan and I by Ryan & Sara, the previous owners.
But there are other things I want to do with my time and energy now! I would like to write more, work out more, focus on my gardening and my homelife and my wonderful partners. And on a more serious and vulnerable level, I have spoken a little about the health struggles I’ve faced in the last few years, but what I haven’t specifically mentioned is that a lot of them are directly tied to what I give to this game. When we returned to live games in September 2021, my blood pressure went from normal to high. My husband and I have been trying to get pregnant since September 2020, and unfortunately last month, after many specialists and medical procedures, we discovered that the primary reason we have been unsuccessful is because my immune system is in a high stress-mode that is actively preventing that from happening. Long story short, I need to relax and focus on my health, and being in the role I am now is making it impossible to achieve the other things I want to make a priority.
A New Administrative team
At the end of this season, my goal is to no longer be involved in the day-to-day running of this LARP. It’s a hard decision, and there are a lot of emotions wrapped up in it, but a lot of relief too! I want to be able to play again, to focus on my own stories, and get to spend more time with my friends. I would like to know that after providing these experiences for you all for several years, I can now also enjoy this thing I have helped to build! And I think it’s important that Gamerunners be allowed to lay down their mantles when they have done enough, and know that someone else will step into their place.
For their part, Shan wants to focus on helping mentor other chapters and is stepping into more of an oversight role to help keep both DR: Texas and DR: New Mexico (and maybe other projects!) moving forward. And while you’ll likely see us both around as players (and even face NPCs), we are going to start deferring some of our current workload onto the team of helpers we’ve built thus far to work on other things!
So, Starting in Season 5 (September 2023) you will see some new faces as your Administrative team!
Thank you for sticking with me so far! Now on to the exciting part!
Our extremely capable Operational Storyteller, Jonathan Loyd, will be stepping into Shan’s position as Storytelling Director! Jonathan should already be very familiar to you as the guy who writes 99% of our blog posts and rules rambles! He also does a lot of the website updates and has been a storyteller for many many years. As a Season 1, DR 1.0 player, Jonathan also knows the long history of the stories we have told and has been an important part of our transition to our current 3.0 setting. We are very excited to see what new stories he tells with his Storytelling Senate!
On the Logistics side, we have been training several people to assist with both onsite event management and also the back-end management of the business, marketing, and administrative work. You might know some of those folks, but we are still working on identifying who will fill out the rest of the admin team in Season 5!
So if you are someone who might be interested in helping with Logistics, Business Management, Marketing, or any other aspect of running this chapter, now is the time to express that interest to Shan, to me, or to Jonathan, so we can start that dialogue early before we do our normal Guide restructuring in the summer.
It’s an exciting time to be a part of this community! And I am looking forward to continue to get to play and create in these spaces with you, albeit in new and exciting hats, for many years to come! In the meantime, tickets are on sale for our December Premiere event, The Emerald Gala! We hope to see you there!