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, CRISIS OF FAITH, I'm going to be covering a bit about the Benediction of the Reborn, a tool that will be used violently against the townsfolk in Bravado during our next event. The Cult of the Reborn isn’t worried about the sincerity of your faith in their cause, just that they can count you for the census.
TICKETS ARE ON SALE FOR CRISIS OF FAITH UNTIL FRIDAY, February 3rD! DON’T MISS OUT ON THE NEXT chapter in our DR:TX season 4 story!
We also released an excellent video put together from our last event, THE EMERALD GALA, on both our YouTube channel and our Facebook. There’s even a few easter eggs from Barogue in there for those that pay attention!
Photo credits in this post are from Max Pohlmeier, Lainey Weiss, Sydney Betzina, and Noah Goodman.
The Benediction of the Reborn
During our upcoming event CRISIS OF FAITH, your characters will be dealing with the antagonistic Cult of the Reborn. We will be covering a bit more of the lore about the Cult next week, but for now let’s talk about a key Threat Skill we want to share with you in advance - The Benediction of the Reborn. This is a new Skill that Cultist NPCs will be able to use against your characters.
These rules will be posted on our website as of today and in game at the General Store in case you forget what it does, but this is probably the biggest new mechanic of the weekend.
tl;dr, this skill is similar in use to the CANNIBALIZE skill used by Zombies and raiders. you get knocked down and a bad effect happens.
Let’s look at the specific mechanics of this Threat Skill:
BENEDICTION OF THE REBORN (Threat Skill)
The NPC spends 10 seconds roleplaying the ritual conversion and then gives a Subdued or willing target the REBORN or HERETIC keyword. Call “Benediction of the Reborn: Inflict [REBORN/HERETIC] Keyword, Red Star Immune”.
Characters Baptized into a Faith may spend 1 Resolve to declare “No Effect!”
If a character is Faithless or cannot spend Resolve, they cannot resist.
Characters of the Red Star Strain are IMMUNE to this Skill and it has no effect.
Keywords remain on the victim until specifically removed by another plot effect.
So let’s break this attack down, Rules Ramble style:
The skill takes some time to use. The NPC will be spending time roleplaying the conversion, and it’ll be similar to the Cannibalize skill. It will be telegraphed what is happening, and it’s not something that can really happen as a “gottcha!”. You’ll know exactly what is about to happen. Since it takes 10 seconds to use, your friends will have time to use Enhanced Movement to rescue you, or to simply fight off the cultists.
You get a new Keyword, whether you like it or not. Keywords are outlined in the Lexicon on the DR National website. We also have a list of DR:TX specific keywords listed on our Local Rules page. These are simply a single word or phrase that makes you targetable by certain Skills and abilities. Keywords are things like “Diesel Jock”, or “Aberrant”, or “Undead”.
Keywords normally do nothing by themselves. This attack doesn’t deal damage, but it does make you vulnerable to other abilities. However, these particular Keywords of REBORN and HERETIC have some additional effects we will discuss below. Monsters in this game might say something like “All REBORN, Heal 10 Body!” If you have the matching keyword, the effect will work on you. Not all the effects will be helpful, and some of them WILL inflict damage. But you gotta get the Keyword FIRST!
The Skill requires you to be helpless or SUBDUED to be affected. If you are knocked into Bleed Out, Unconscious, tied up, or otherwise Subdued (p. 107), you will be vulnerable to this skill. That means if you don’t let them capture you or surround you while you are in Bleed Out, they can’t use this Skill on you. Using an Injectable would be a good idea if you don’t want to be force-converted.
You can volunteer to get this effect. It’s a bit weird, but you can purposefully CHOOSE to gain these Keywords. You don’t have to spend a Resolve to resist the skill, and you can even volunteer to be chosen by the Cult of the Reborn. I can’t really say this is a GOOD choice and it will likely involve CVC, but I’ve been an ST long enough to recognize that our players will often choose the unexpected path. You know who you are.
The Skill can be RESISTED, except by Faithless. Any character that is Baptized (Lexicon) with the Anomaly Skill Basic Faithful Patterns can spend 1 Resolve to resist this effect. This means that those characters that have not been inducted into an in-game Faith are particularly vulnerable to this skill. However, if you ever hit ZERO Resolve during a game, you can longer spend Resolve for anything, including resisting this Threat Skill. Eventually, the Cult can wear down even the most Faithful. Don’t give them that many opportunities to convert you, cause eventually they will win. Be warned!
Red Star are completely IMMUNE. Members of this Strain are curiously unaffected by the Cult of the Reborn. The same ability that makes them unable to be Baptized also protects them from the Benediction of the Reborn. This does mean that Red Star will not be able to interact with anything that requires the REBORN or HERETIC keywords, like Zones of Mechanics, Research, or other effects.
Keywords don’t go away. This ability gives you a new Keyword that functions like others in the game, like your <Lineage> or the <Aberrant> keyword. You can only remove this Keyword tag in a very specific way. This will be uncovered during the CRISIS OF FAITH, so that will need to be something you discover during the event.
Remember, you can also use the OK Check-In System to opt out of this mechanic as well.
Now, the skill is pretty straight forward. Let’s talk about what the new Keywords do:
New Keyword - Reborn
Like I mentioned above, Keywords normally don’t do anything by themselves, but there are some exceptions. Let’s talk about what each Keyword does for the CRISIS OF FAITH event.
REBORN (Keyword Effect)
Character is now a converted member of the Cult of the Reborn and part of their Great Miracle. Phys Rep: Marked by a Bloody Thumbprint on forehead.
Characters are now Baptized into the <Cult of the Reborn>. Characters with this Keyword cannot be Baptized into any other faith. Any call or ability that targets Reborn now applies and cannot be resisted.
During this event, the Cult of the Reborn will be trying to convert AS MANY people as they can. They WANT you to have the REBORN keyword. What happens if they convert the whole town? Probably something bad. Let’s find out together.
So this mechanics on this one is pretty easy:
If you are REBORN, you are vulnerable to any effect that targets the Cult of the Reborn. Some of the Cultists might have some mostly helpful things for their allies, like a healing word or even an Upsurge. Regardless of the effect, you won’t be able to resist the abilities because you’ve been marked as one of the flock.
However, you CANNOT be Baptized into another faith. As long as you have this Keyword, you can’t return to your old Faith, or choose to be Faithless. You’ve chosen a side, whether you like it or not. This means that the nefarious plans of the Cult of the Reborn will probably involve you and that’s probably bad for Bravado.
The Reborn keyword is initially visible thanks to a thumbprint mark. The NPCs that give out this Keyword will have a bit of makeup you can apply to your forehead to represent the ubiquitous thumbprint of the Tiny God cult, and you can always stop by Ops to reapply the makeup, or you can even decline the physical mark if you are allergic or don’t want the makeup phys rep. However, if you want to wipe it off or hide the mark that you’ve been converted you are free to do so.
But who would hide something terrible that risks turning you into an enemy, like a zombie bite? What is this, some kind of zombie movie? I’m sure none of you will do that. probably.
New Keyword - HERETIC
Let’s talk about the more dangerous of the Keyword Effects during CRISIS OF FAITH — the Mark of the HERETIC. If you’ve been identified as an ENEMY of the Cult of the Reborn, they have a different fate in mind for you. This is an effect that might be given to particularly important Faithful leaders, opposition fighters, or even just those pesky folks that keep resisting their attempts to bring them into the REBORN.
The frightening potency of their faith in their crusade is capable of a dangerous effect. You see, the Cult of the Reborn believes SO much in their cause that when they decide you are no longer worthy of their faith, they will make sure you can’t have ANY faith.
Faith is powerful in the Dystopia Rising universe. It can literally change reality, and when you believe strongly enough, your faith can bless your allies, strike down your enemies, or bring back the dead. Remember the words of the Prince Undying, that Imprint is Matter, and Matter is Imprint. We’ve shown time and time again that if you believe in something enough it can change the world.
If you oppose the Cult (and they catch you to use the Benediction of the Reborn), you could be marked as a HERETIC.
And that has a cost.
HERETIC (Keyword Effect)
Character has denied the blessings of the Cult of the Reborn and cannot access their own faithful gifts. Phys Rep: Marked by an Ashen Thumbprint on forehead.
Characters lose any existing Baptism and cannot be Baptized into another faith, cannot use ANY Anomaly Skills, and cannot use any Psionic or Faithful Items while they have this keyword. They can still be targeted and affected by Anomaly skills used by others. Any call or ability that targets Heretics now applies and cannot be resisted.
That’s right.
If you get marked as a HERETIC, you are completely cut off from faith and psionics. Ouch.
Let’s break that down a bit more.
You lose your Baptism. If you were formerly Baptized into the Light of Hedon, you are now Faithless. This means that you will no longer be targetable by Faithful Skills like Faithful Patterns, Faithful Miracles, or the like, since you won’t be a King’s Court, or a Final Knight anymore (mechanically, at least).
You can’t regain your Baptism. The Cult has cut you off from your faith and branded you a heretic. You can’t simply get a different priest to induct you again. You’ll need to deal with the Cult of the Reborn before you can regain your faith. But, if you were wanting a chance to try a different faith, this might give you a chance at a fresh start. You’ll need to get rid of this Keyword first, though!
You cannot use ANY Anomaly Skills. Period. That means you can’t use Biogenetics, Pyrokinetics, Faithful Spirit, nothing. The Cult of the Reborn has completely separated you from your faith, and you lack the ability to summon your powers. This is a terrifying ability, but you will be able to overcome this effect during the event. But it won’t be easy.
You can still be affected by Anomaly skills used by others. While you can’t muster the psionic energy to use Necrokinetics or the like, others can still step in to save you. You can still be healed by positive effects like Biogen as long as someone else uses it on you, and you can still be targeted by dangerous psionic effects from folks like the Cult of the Reborn.
You can’t use Psionic or Faithful items. This means you can’t use that Crystalline Biological Enhancer to control that Raider, you can’t use that Incineration Engine to burn your enemies, and you can’t save your friend from the Grave Mind with that O Faithful Bulwark. You can’t use Benedictions of your own, like the Ritual of Consecration.
Clearly, this is something you will want to fix. The Cult of the Reborn is a dangerous threat to Bravado and the San Saba, and it’ll be up to your characters to decide how they deal with the Benediction of the Reborn during their CRISIS OF FAITH in February!
WRAP UP
That’s it for today Vados!
We will be taking a detour next week to explore a bit of the history of the Cult of the Reborn and some interesting backstory on the Characters of Note and the specific events that led to the rise of the Cult and their machinations for CRISIS OF FAITH.
Tickets are ON SALE now for CRISIS OF FAITH! Get your ticket today!
Don’t miss out on your character to test what your character believes and how faith can affect reality in the world of Dystopia Rising. See you soon Vados!