Can you conquer a four hour battle for survival?
Locked in together, defending the only building safe from the toxic Wake blanketing Bravado from the Falling City. Join us in May for an epic battle to send you off into the Burning Season with only the best stories to tell!
PLOT TWIST! It’s HEATHER here with our first weekly blog post for the upcoming event, VOX POPULI! Don’t worry. Jonathan will return soon to a blog post near you.
This is the leadup for our May DR:TX event written by yours truly, Heather Halstead, Overarc ST for our Season Closer, and Operational Storyteller for Season 5. Today we will talk a bit about some story teasers, content warnings, some core mechanics and concepts for the event, and a reminder of some of the benefits of pre-registration! We have a lot in store for the finale of Season 4!
Our Feedback Form is up for our last event! Did something really amazing, exciting, or tragic happen at game? Was there a person who helped make your time better and welcomed you to the community? Perhaps nominate them for a Community Achievement! Tell us what you loved about game so we can make more of the content that you love and enjoy. Conversely, if there is something you did not enjoy, or something which needs to be addressed, we would really like to hear about that too.
We’ve added some new ways to spend your hard-earned CAPS from the last event. Check out the new items you can purchase with your Community Action Points!
TICKETS FOR VOX POPULI are on sale now! don’t miss OUT!!!
THIS POST WILL DISCUSS A FEW LIGHT STORY SPOILERS FOR OUR NEXT EVENT, SO WE HOPE YOU ENJOY WHAT WE HAVE IN STORE!
Our photos for this post were taken from previous DR:TX events by our talented Photo Team.
Let’s talk a little bit about the story of the next event that your ST Senate is so hyped about:
The Premise for “VOX POPULI”
Waking is falling. Not even the Board can deny the truth now - the land is coated in the Capital’s toxic runoff, and debris falls regularly from the sky in a deadly rain. Strange, new zed spill from its twisted underbelly in scores. Something MUST be done. And in the midst of the chaos caused by the impending disaster, many agendas are at play.
Most prominently, The Rook screams her fury at the falling city from the rooftops. She will not stand by and wait for her people to be dragged out of their homes and murdered, or worse. The fear of someone’s brief attempt to remake the Resonant Choir has settled deeply into the hearts of the aberrants of the San Saba, and her support has ballooned rapidly. But she is hardly the only person in the wastes with motivation, drive, and a plan.
People are desperate. The citizens of Waking seek escape. The people of the San Saba, already ravaged by drought, now suffer from Waking’s pollution, and an influx of the city’s people they don’t have resources to feed. Waking’s trajectory has it aimed at Widow's Peak, and the Lovelaces may suffer yet another catastrophic violence upon their people. Even the elite are in a state of panic as the City falls.
Amid the desperation and despair, such an imminent disaster means refugees. It means evacuation efforts and resource management. It means opportunities. It means destruction. And ultimately, the fate of the Capital of the San Saba, and City in the Sky, lies in the hands of the people of Bravado. The town that has been called small, backwater, uncivilized, now holds all the power to shape the future of the entire region.
And the San Saba Board knows it.
The Rook’s burgeoning support is made manifest in the device she has created. A massive weapon capable of one, single shot. A weapon constructed of recovered Juggernaut artillery, generational trauma, and pure fury that could, if pointed in the right direction, blow Waking Prime from the sky for good. And she’s handing the trigger to Bravado.
Sounds like it’s time to really let the Board know how you feel…
POLITICAL CHOICES AND CVC
The plot of the weekend will be highly reactive to player choices. We want to give you the chance to make a big impact of what the landscape of the San Saba looks like for Season 5 and beyond. The ultimate choice on what happens to Waking will fall to you, the players.
But big choices for our setting means people will have differing opinions, and that can provoke conflict.
If you get involved with the story of The Big Choices™®©, be prepared for that conflict.
That might look like in characters issuing threats, yelling, and other big emotions. It might include implied or actual CVC violence, or in-character consequences if you choose against the popular opinion. If this sort of role-play doesn’t sound fun for you, that’s okay! There will be plenty of other ways to interact with story of the falling city that are less likely to engage in this type of CVC. But the large choice points might be something for you to avoid.
Remember, we always have the OK Check in System to calibrate an intense scene in the moment to either ramp it down, or up, if that’s your jam, and you can check our Conflict Warning lists on our website. Conflict drives story, and CVC can be a great way to have memorable and intense scenes with your fellow players, but we want everyone going in to understand CVC is possible in this scenario.
Jonathan has written excellent posts about CVC, how to keep it fun, and how to get the most out of the experience. Check them out!
So… what do these big choices look like? Well, we can tell you that it will greatly affect the off-screen existences of large groups of NPCs, and the land they live in, forever altering our setting in very real ways.
Choice points of this magnitude will be made by groups of LCs, not individuals. Some will be timed to represent the very chaotic nature of the ongoing crisis situation Waking finds itself in. Failing to make a call in the moment will lead to repercussions.
Okay but what ARE the choices?
A central theme in any zombie post-apocalypse, to Dystopia Rising, and to our setting in Texas is “the best of bad options.” You will rarely find a solution to a problem that is perfect. Complication drives story. Our world is deeply flawed, and that is what makes these stories exciting and impactful. At Dystopia Rising: Texas we want to encourage you to explore roleplay about making difficult choices and then living with the consequences of those actions. What does that look like for your character? How do you grow from that? Or how does your sense of personal ethics slowly degrade in a world that constantly asks the worst of you? Can you feel like a hero while knowing saving those people meant dooming others?
In that vein, we’ve spent the last two months gathering all your ideas for the Fate of Waking. Both in research, letters, form submissions, and interactions with NPCs. Through this, we are creating a story to let you enact some of these plans. But there is no “perfect” solution. And many of your ideas will have consequences you did not foresee. But the choices boil down to three:
Emergency Land Waking near an established settlement
With the right choices, you may be able to “land” Waking in a (mostly) controlled fashion somewhere in the San Saba.
This choice will still cause immense chaos, ecological damage, and will greatly impact the power and numbers of the people or faction that location represents. The proximity to Waking will tie that area or faction deeply to the politics of the Board and will reshape them in significant ways for Season 5.
The Board will be unhappy, but not actively antagonistic to the town’s choice.
Keep Waking in the air, no matter the cost
Great sacrifices may have to be made to achieve this, but it will be possible to keep the floating skyship-city in the air, despite the failure of the Capacity Engine.
Waking will continue to leak pollution and runoff on the area it sits over, causing ecological damage wherever it passes, but the Board’s Seat of Power will be maintained. No faction or location will be specifically removed or heavily reduced.
This Choice represents the Status Quo, and allows the San Saba Board to continue business as usual.
Shoot Waking from the Sky
The Rook has a plan to end the threat of Waking once and for all and intends to remove the Board’s seat of power with extreme violence.
A skyship of this magnitude will crash land with the force of a high yield bomb and will annihilate the faction and the area for miles in every direction, resulting in untold lives lost and ecological devastation that the area has not experienced since the Hiway War. The area the destroyed skyship-city crashes into will be decimated, and the faction and Waking will be largely wiped out.
The LCs will have to choose where the husk of the destroyed city falls, and which faction is impacted by the destruction.
This is an open act of aggression against the Board and will have long-term consequences for the story and Bravado heading into Season 5.
The time for new ideas is over.
There will be no Option D.
Now, we go with the options before us, make the best of bad choices, and figure out how to live with ourselves in the Aftermath.
These are merely some of the ramifications of these choices. But in the interest of transparency, we want to give you the broad strokes so that you understand the potential outcomes you might be angling for. Further, less wide sweeping repercussions will be discoverable in game.
SURVIVING THE WAKE
One of the major set pieces of this event will be a four hour long assault on the Depot we have dubbed Surviving the Wake. From 10pm - 2am Saturday Night, the town of Bravado is rendered unlivable as Waking, no matter the choice that was made, passes over, raining down smog, radioactive waste, zed, and other calamities.
During this time, you will not be able to leave the Depot unless specifically instructed (or to use the restroom).
This fight will be long, hard, and completely exhilarating. A protracted fight with Zombies, including some old returning 2.0 favorites that the ST Senate decided we just couldn’t live without anymore. But this means you should plan for that in advance. Get those brews brewed, meals cooked and herbs farmed before 10pm Saturday night.
What about the Post Office?
Expect to have limited or no access to the PO from 10pm - 2am. There will be an option for LCs to secure limited PO access during the assault depending on your choices, but you should assume you will have no access to farming, crafting, or econ during this time. Plan ahead, and make sure you have all the supplies you will need to survive.
What If I die?
Death happens! And is an extremely important part of our setting. But it can be a bummer to die early on in a long fight and feel like you missed out on the rest of the experience. We will have mechanics in play that will keep the fight interactive for anyone who might take an early, untimely death. Hell, dying might even provide some assistance you can bring back with you.
What if I’m not a fighter?
That’s okay! A huge assault has need for many roles, including for non-com LCs. Equipment repair, healing, building reinforcement, and there will be small strike team missions running during the conflict for things like supply runs, distractions, stealth missions, and rescue operations. There will be plenty to do while the phalanx holds the door.
Opportunity for Extra NPC time
We will also be taking a LIMITED number of NPC volunteers for additional time during the assault for perks. Our goal is to fill out a shift to give NPCs time to breathe while maintaining a constant pressure. We do not want to have most of the town on the NPC side of the conflict, so these extra hours will be limited.
THE CRISIS CENTER
This will be the key set piece in choosing the Fate of Waking.
Waking’s fall represents a huge humanitarian crisis, and in order to assist in the efforts, the Railroad Conglomerate, spearheaded by Felicity Redfield, has set up a CRISIS CENTER in the Depot to manage the many, MANY moving pieces of such an operation.
The Crisis Center will have active and passive content. You will be able to select actions from the Crisis Center to complete in order to move the needle on the Fate of Waking. Sometimes, this might be requesting specific, pre-written mods to be performed with a group. Sometimes, this might mean interacting with passive content such as completing a ZOM or building a piece of needed equipment.
Sometimes, it might mean making very hard choices on who escapes, and who doesn’t.
Not all of these actions will be altruistic. Some actions will represent taking advantage of the crisis, rather than assisting with it. Every catastrophe has its opportunists.
The goal of the Crisis Center is to have a very low threshold of entry. Anyone can complete an Action from the Center- interact with the plot and have things to do that MATTER. But the Center will also provide large benefits to digging deeper into the mechanics to be strategic with your choices. We will get more into the mechanics of this Center in later blog posts.
Artwork by Beau Lee
THE STAKEHOLDERS MEETING
The Law of San Saba will be written, revised, and unwritten by a majority vote of The Board.
Suggestions for new Laws or amendments to the Charter will be presented to the assembled Stakeholders of the San Saba each year during the annual Stakeholder’s Meeting, for a period of consideration no shorter than 3 days.
Amidst of this calamity, politics continue to roll ever upward, ever onward, yes?
The annual Stakeholders Meeting is how laws of the San Saba, and the San Saba Charter itself, can be changed. Have a pesky law you don’t like? Vote to change it. Want a new law established? Petition the Board.
Currently, there is an open seat on The Board due to the untimely destruction of The Scientist by the Archons. Surely that won’t be an important chess piece in anyone’s political machinations.
Several laws will be suggested by the San Saba Board for a general vote of the stakeholders of the San Saba. These laws will offer various changes to the Charter or Laws as we progress the story into Season 5. But these are not the only changes to the laws that can enter play.
How do I petition to add or change a law?
If you want to submit your own change to the Law or the Charter of the Board, you can put the wording of your change in front of The Board for immediate review, via an application.
You must have a Trustee (someone with Master Society Membership), 100 Brass, and the signatures of 50 different LCs. So start planning now!
This effort does not guarantee the change will be enacted. The Board will review all petitions and vote during the Burning Season.
The sooner you can submit your proposed change, the sooner we can include it into the politics of the weekend. You can submit your intended change early, via a Personal Plot Request.
Your Society Membership Matters
The Board will be suggesting several new laws for vote by Society Members, and you will have a direct voice in how these votes resolve. Each attending character may cast a ballot, and you receive a number of votes equal to your level of Society Membership with a San Saba Faction.
Basic Membership (Contractor): 1 vote
Proficient Membership (Stakeholder): 2 votes
Master Membership (Trustee): 5 votes.
Remember, if you don’t currently have a Society Membership, you can earn one quickly with a San Saba Work Order. If you have multiple faction contracts, you must Pick ONE faction to vote under. The faction you choose to represent for your vote will also impact how powerful that Board member’s voice is in future politics of the San Saba Board.
an Air of Legitimacy
The final action you can take during the Stakeholder’s meeting is to formally recognize your in-game player group as a political power in the San Saba. This is the way that we recognize player factions by the San Saba Board, and it can even allow you to vote as your player group on the ballots instead of representing a San Saba faction.
Any LC-led faction that completes a series of tasks on a Zone of Mechanics can earn the support of the San Saba Board. These tasks will require you to politic with the Board members, spend Brass and resources, and earn your way into the halls of power. If you succeed, you will gain a unique Player-Led Faction Bonus and custom ZOM for next season for your player group. These Player abilities can offer powerful activated abilities for your faction each game, and you might have seen some of these abilities in play over this season!
Currently recognized groups (the Road Royals, Shields of the Lonestar, and Ramguard) must re-up their applications at this time as well to maintain their Board recognition.
ZIP LINE MOD AND POOL CONTENT!
We’ve covered a lot today, but we have a few more cool events to share:
Anyone ever zip lined off a falling airship before? Soon, we will be releasing more details on a special Zip Line Mod for this event. Because use of the zip line incurs an extra cost, we will be selling a ticket add on soon for using the zip line.
And don’t worry. This mod will not be restricted to those who want to do the zip line and purchase that pass. There will be content for those who would like to go on the mod but don’t want to, or can’t, ride the zip line. Details to come! Stay Tuned!
Lastly, we will once again have access to the Camp Kachina Swimming Pool for our May event! Make sure to pack your swimsuit for some summer fun by the pool!
Waking’s fate is in your hands. And the San Saba will never look the same. TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW!
Pre-register and get your choice of NPC shift to maximize your experience!
See you soon Vados!