It’s Jonathan here with a bit of a BREAK from the usual Wednesday blog posts and Rules Rambles! A Summer Break, if you will!
We just wrapped up VOX POPULI, our season closer event ran by Heather Halstead, and it was awesome. However, with the end of Season 4, we get a bit of a hard-earned break before we start back again for Season 5. We have a LOT to write and get ready over the summer, but it also means the cadence of my blog posts will change a bit, so let’s cover the details today!
From this point forward, I’m going to plan on releasing bi-monthly blog posts over the summer. The Admin team doesn’t get much of a break from the prep for Season 5, so I’m going to give myself a treat and have two less blog posts to complete in my long Summer to-do list.
Don’t worry, we will still have some regular content coming your way, just not as frequently as you see during the live game season!
Our photos for this post were taken from our VOX POPULI event by our talented Photo Team.
Save the Date!
We have a few important events happening over the Summer involving DR:TX:
SEASON 5 TEAM APPLICATIONS - May 29
Applications are due by May 29th!
Each year, we hire new Storytellers, Coord Guides, Rules Guides, and our entire support team of Medics, Settings & Props, Truck Team, and Photographers.
We are looking for new AND experienced folks to apply!
APPLY TODAY!
If you apply as a Storyteller, make sure you plan on being available for on July 14-16 for our Storyteller Retreat!
CAMP CLEAN UP WEEKEND - June 2-3
Earn CAPS for your attendance and get a chance to hang out with your friends out-of-character at Camp Kachina while doing a good deed for the Girl Scouts!
Each year, we help out the Girl Scouts prepare Camp Kachina for new visitors by helping the rangers with tasks around the site. This will include some manual labor, so come prepared!
Friday, June 2nd - Filming, Hangouts, Community Potlucks
Saturday, June 3rd - Camp Work Project, DR:TX will provide Lunch!
SUMMER DR:TX ONLINE EVENT! - August 4-6
We announced this at the closing announcements of VOX POPULI — We will be running our first DR:TX ONLINE event since Dead Man’s Hand!
Mark your calendars and join us as we explore the mysteries of BAROGUE, THE LOST CITY! What lies beneath the sands, and how has Barogue changed since we visited during the THE LOST CITY?
This event will include CRAFTING! Get a head start on your Burning Season econ projects for September!
This will be our first event of the Season 5 storyline before we start live games again in September. Don’t miss out on the introduction to our story for the season!
SEASON 5 LIVE EVENT - September 15-17
The end of the long Summer at last! Our live games begin in September!
QUICK RECAP - VOX POPULI
We had some BIG choices and some BIG consequences during this event! I’ll recap the basics of the big events here in case you missed the last game, but these are some things to be thinking about over the summer.
Thank you so much to Heather, our entire DR:TX staff, and all the players and NPCs that helped make this one of the best events we’ve ever run!
The Fall of Waking
We held three votes over the course of the event to determine WHERE the city of Waking would end up in the descent. We had a handy map of the San Saba Territories to guide their choices during these STEERING EVENTS. Each time this happened, there was a vote to Steer West, Steer East, or they could Slow the Descent once, and once only. Each time they made a popular vote with the folks present in the Depot, and the results changed which Factions would be impacted by the fall of Waking.
During the Friday night vote, it was almost a tie! The final vote was to Steer West towards Widow’s peak, removing KILLHOUSE as an option for the landing.
During the Saturday morning vote, the town voted to Slow the Descent by a solid majority, keeping Waking mostly in place, and removing ESSEX and THE CLUTCH as options. A LOT of favors were promised by the Board to keep Essex out of the line of fire, though many of the town wanted to land Waking into the Clutch.
A crucial confrontation during the Widow’s Tea that afternoon changed many minds before the final vote, and revealed some powerful secrets for the first time, including the true identity of THE CHAIR!
During the final Saturday evening vote, the town voted in with a small majority to Steer East, and remove WIDOW’S PEAK as an option for the landing.
Fun Fact: the town made this final choice even though they didn’t know what the final result of the Crisis Center would be. Over half of the town was willing to risk Infection loss and destruction of ALL of their items to make this choice. Talk about bravado!
The final destination of Waking ended up over BRAVADO, much to our Storyteller’s surprise.
This was a close vote every time, and player actions made a BIG difference in protecting the various factions of the San Saba. Players that supported Killhouse made a big play on Friday night to remove Killhouse as an option right away, and it was their early moves that had a huge impact on the final resolution.
The Crisis Center
We had a massive board with over 85 different tasks to complete to determine HOW the landing of Waking would happen, either in a CRASH, a mostly “controlled” LANDING, or if against all odds they could keep it in the sky by completing REPAIRS! Players could complete a task, with the color of the task determining which result it would support. Some of the tasks even counted for more points than others, so a determined group of players could have a BIG impact on the final decision.
Waking was EMERGENCY LANDED near Bravado.
The final tally was:
27 points towards Destroyed. This was the leader up until Saturday afternoon when it was clear that Bravado was very much still an option.
75 points towards Landed. This was the final winning tally, with almost every single supporting task on the Crisis Center board completed.
41 points towards Repaired. A last-minute push on Saturday made folks worry about the final results, as this jumped almost 30 points in a few hours.
These tasks involved all manners of activities, from convincing NPCS to sign a contract to accept refugees, performing CVC actions on other players, spending vast amounts of scrap and metal to craft new Airships, stealing (or protecting) air lifted supplies, and even requesting chances to board Waking and rescue (or liberate) valuable supplies and citizens.
The Groundskeeper Gauntlet
Saturday afternoon, a Gauntlet was held for several of the Groundskeepers in Bravado for breach of contract with the Grave Council. Each of the Groundskeepers was found guilty by the Justices of Sin and stripped of their titles and ability to perform Graverobber duties for 1 year. At the end, General Rampart declared that the town of Bravado was under AUDIT and QUARANTINE and removed the assistance of the Grave Council from Bravado. This means Bravado might be on their own from Grave Mind related crises in the future! Players worked to help the Groundskeepers find new employment and appealed for mercy on their behalf during the Gauntlet but were unable to sway the leader of the Reckoners.
The Stakeholder’s Meeting
In the midst of the chaos of Waking falling, most of the San Saba Board was in town on Saturday to make deals and listen to the people during the Stakeholder’s Meeting. The town got to see Boss Debs, Reckoner General Rampart, Tabitha St. Mercy, Felicity Redfield, Grand Admiral Sinker Swim, and The Chair’s Representative, a mysterious well-dressed man in a striped suit that spoke with the voice of the Chair himself. Even Clauthia Lovelace was seen in town for the Widow’s Tea, meaning players had a chance to interact in person with many of the most powerful NPCs in the setting.
Players could research where the Board stood on these votes, and politic with those NPCs during their appearance in town. Characters with higher levels of Society Membership had more influence on the votes than those that were simply Contractors, and some important deals were struck.
There were three votes for consideration during the Stakeholder’s Meeting, and all PASSED.
The proposal to form a San Saba Militia narrowly PASSED, providing the Board an option to increase their military to fight threats abroad and internal. One can hope they intend to use this new martial might to focus on their enemies, and not pesky rebellions from a tiny town on the Oxline. This vote resolved based on player decisions.
The proposal to allow the Board to choose new members PASSED, reducing the power of several Board members through the stalemate. This vote was heavily favored to pass by the Board and would only fail with significant opposition from the players. The town had a narrow majority vote against this law but did not acquire enough “nay” votes to change the Board’s decision.
The proposal to separate the Justices of Sin was PASSED by an overwhelming majority of votes. Tabitha St. Mercy loses a key part of her power, and the Justices will introduce new faithful members for Gauntlets next season. This vote resolved based on player decisions.
Four player-led groups were recognized by the San Saba Board, via The Air of Legitimacy ZOM. These groups will receive a custom Zone of Mechanics for their group for Season 5.
Ramguard, The Shields of the Lonestar, the Blood & Bone, and the Road Royals completed the required ZOM in time.
This ZOM will be available once more for other player-led factions to complete in Season 5 if you missed out!
TWO new laws were suggested by Trustees, along with 50 signatures from players (and a modest application fee, of course)
These new laws will be voted on by the Board over the summer, and we will reveal the outcome of these votes during our summer Storyteller prep. We always strive to include these proposals into our story, unless they create an unfun experience for other players.
The results of these new laws will be one of our settings reveals we cover before the next season, so stay tuned!
Player Proposed Law #1: A new proposal to separate the Law Dog Union from their Board Contract and make them an independent entity. This could have big impacts on the Law Dogs in Season 5!
Player Proposed Law #2: An amendment to require the new head of the new San Saba Militia to be chosen by the people in a popular vote, instead of being chosen by the Chair. This means that we will likely start out Season 5 with a vote on who should lead the new San Saba military force!
The Siege of the Depot
As the flying city of Waking begin it’s final descent, clouds of radioactive smog, debris, and hordes of undead poured from the city onto Bravado. The town took shelter inside the Terminal Station Depot and weathered the rad storm against the waves of zombies and environmental challenges.
Thousands of Zombies poured into the Depot and crashed onto the shield wall. Countless brews were consumed, and the doctors were kept busy. Countless Quick Events were survived, several Siege Challenges were completed, and multiple successful Away Missions were finished during the course of the 4 hours. Our NPCs kept up the pressure for FOUR almost non-stop hours of combat, and it was intense!
For the Away Missions, players literally had to break through a Drywall sheet to escape the Depot, and had to defend the new hole in the defenses from the incoming zed, and some of the Siege Challenges had players drawing our intricate ritual markings around a grave protrusion, propping up massive pieces of the building that fell on them, and racing against the clock and the deadly radiation outside to repair leaks in the windows.
Four characters permed and their zed were seen either during the siege or shortly before and after. Rumble, Tim, Ryssa, and Varis all met their final ends during VOX POPULI.
New Zed were seen and defeated including some classic threats like Bone Heads, Hates, 13th Story Ghasts, Golgos, Mercies, and Mortis Champions. Now that Waking has landed nearby, you can be sure to face these threats during Season 5!
The Voice of Killhouse
Somehow, the Voice of Killhouse, a mysterious Grave Mind connection with Prudence Penitentiary made at the start of the season was finally silenced. You might have encountered a mysterious voice during a Grave Dive or a death during this season, and the source of this problem was finally resolved. The exact details are a mystery, but something happened Saturday night after the siege that helped settle the morgue under Prudence Penitentiary and silence the voice under the Prison for good. This plotline wrapped up thanks to player actions, and the decision not to crash land Waking into Killhouse.
The potential Consequences of the fall of waking
Each of the potential landing sites for Waking could be Researched during the game for an idea about the potential consequences of this important choice. Here’s the information we revealed about the FINAL DESTINATION within Bravado:
The Railroad Conglomerate will be heavily impacted by the damaging landing, seriously impacting their political and financial standing.
The Junkerpunks will be impacted by the landing, as Drywater is harmed. This will have a minor impact on their political and financial standing.
It’s feasible that Lake Bravado will assist in lowering casualty rates, at the expense of polluting the water supply.
Radiation levels will rise and be an issue in the coming year.
The Waking Morgue could become an issue with Bravado’s own Morgue System and might envelope it without extensive intervention.
Ecological impacts will affect surrounding water sources and farmland.
There will be mass casualties in the surrounding areas of farmland and in the town.
After everything settles, Bravado and Drywater will have access to what’s left of Waking Prime, which will represent a large political and material gain for the area, but also put the seat of the San Saba Board in their backyard.
Now, not all of this will come to pass (and there could be some other unrevealed consequences as well!). There were several actions completed by the players to lessen and reduce the damage done by the fall of Waking, particularly with insulating the Bravado Morgue (and the Eightfold Mother) from damage. We will have some more details over the summer, as many of these specifics haven’t been written yet!
Once we’ve selected our new Storytelling Senate for Season 5, we will be hard at work on incorporating your choices into our Season 5 plots!
Wrap Up
That’s it for today, Vados! Short and sweet, but still full of useful content!
Summer Break is a great time to update your costumes, take a well needed break from DR, craft a new boffer, or just spend time with the people behind the characters you enjoy so much. Plan a board game day, or meetup with some of your new friends you met playing, and stay tuned for some awesome summer content!
I’ll leave you with some of my favorite pics from the first round of photos by the very talented Lainey Weiss that will be uploaded to our Flickr page soon! See you soon Vados!
