Off the Rails
Howdy Vados!
It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to next Dystopia Rising Live event OFF THE RAILS! This game will be led by Stephanie Patrick-Munoz. Each week, I’ll discuss in detail an aspect of the upcoming event, compiling the rules and lore into one easy place to read! This week, we are covering the premise of our event, some content warnings, and some themes of our upcoming event!
TICKETS FOR OUR march EVENT ARE ON SALE NOW! are you prepared for an ALL-OUT raider assault?
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Our photos for this post were taken from previous DR:TX events by our talented Photo Team, including Lily-Jay Jones, Miranda Farmer, Noah Goodman, and Max Pohlmeier.
THE PREMISE - off the rails
History has forgotten the names of settlements that could not compete; whole families, ways of life and traditions wiped from the records by the endless horde or ingloriously absorbed by their more successful neighbors. These days Bravado struggles to remain on the map, seemingly dropped out of waking Memory to all but those with a strong connection to the town. For a place on the fringes of everything, the open sky looms large and oppressive; its stars staring down like so many eyes in the cold night, and its emptiness a sobering reminder of just how alone we really are.
But there are those who wheel beneath that same sky in rides of scrapped steel, for whom the cold, distant watchers are witness to their bold feats and unabashed freedom. As long as they tear through the Wastes together, they shall never be consumed by obscurity. For the nomads that declare the Wasteland their home, staying in motion in tantamount to survival. Threats can’t kill what threats can’t catch — usually.
Outriders of the Sweetwater Caravan careen through the Fog of Memory, bringing the promises of both weal and woe to Bravado. A warband of Pitstop Raiders has disrupted their normal routes, leaving the caravan in need of skilled artisans to soup up their rides. In their wake hunt other tribes of Raiders, subsisting on what remains as they rampage through the wastes. It is a tall order to meet the town’s own needs in addition to the Caravan, but if Bravado can endure their rowdy recklessness there’s a chance for continued custom in the future, a chance to forfend obscurity a bit longer.
But did they really arrive just by happenstance? Or is there a reason why they roam so close to our home? A reason beyond the Nomads’ inherent love for the open road under an All-Seeing Sky… And when all is said and done, will they carry stories of Bravado out to the wider world, or wipe us off the map?
INSPIRATION & TROPES
This season in Bravado we have focused on bringing some new elements of Survival Horror to the forefront of the story. In our tradition of Radical Trust, we want to share some of the inspirational bits of media and movie magic that we feel help capture the themes and feelings of our upcoming event. If you are looking for a movie or show to inspire your role play for this event, here’s a list of our favorites to get ready for OFF THE RAILS!
Mad Max series
Army of the Dead
Mortal Engines
In the apocalypse of the Mad Max series, there are many people who search for resources in a place that was hit with a disaster. The fleeing Sweetwater clan has been hit by a disaster and will have rides that need to be built and maintained. Resources used for that may ultimately take away from resources needed to build other items and put the town in conflict with nearby settlements like Bastion for what they claim as ‘theirs’.
In the Army of the Dead movie, we have morally gray characters who ask for trust from their would-be-allies, but survival sometimes asks a hard question. At the end of the day, do you honor your bonds to others, or do you pick self-enrichment? The Sweetwaters are desperate and need valuable scrap and supplies from the town. Will you be the one that exploits that desperation or will you help those that assisted Bravado during the War of Antlers?
In the wasteland of Mortal Engines, movement is life. For the Sweetwater Clan and any that attempt to survive in the wastes outside of settlements, the ability to outrun threats like zombies and raiders is how you stay alive. If they can’t catch you, then you live to ride another day. With the volume of raiders following in the wake of the Sweetwaters, the ability to keep moving will determine if they survive the assault.
CONTENT WARNINGS
The themes of Dystopia Rising often touch close to our real world in ways we cannot always avoid. The DR:TX team believes that we can still tell these stories about challenging topics, but we also believe we need to be transparent about our intentions and set proper expectations for our content. In our tradition of radical trust, we want to also trust in each player that attends our game to know their own limits and be able to choose to avoid topics and situations that make them uncomfortable.
It’s important to watch for descriptions, situations, or events that you might want to avoid. You may find new limits that are unknown to you because the matter never came up. We encourage you to take the necessary steps for your own emotional safety. We want you to be comfortable with the types of horror in our events so you can enjoy the thrill of the zombie apocalypse and the nightmare creatures we introduce into the game space.
It’s one reason we take our OK Check-In system so seriously! We understand that these may not be stories you want to participate in, and that’s okay! Remember, you can always use the OK Check-In System to choose to leave a scene, even CVC!
You can always find a list of our Content Warnings on our website, but let’s talk about some of the specific things you might want to be prepared for during this December premiere event.
Raiders and Extremely Deadly, intelligent Enemies
In the new world of DR Live, Raiders have had a major glow up. Even basic Raiders are closer to Rank 2 threats of other types. They have many abilities to ignore common attacks when they use Raider Rage, and they are capable of using tactics and their own cleverness to kill their foes. Raiders have a number of nasty tricks in the new edition and they aren’t quite the push overs that you might have faced in previous games.
Every single Raider is “killing blow active”. This means if you fall into bleed out against a Raider horde and you have no friends nearby, you are likely to die. They offer no quarter and many are cannibals, taking flesh and meat from the survivors to fuel their blood lust. The only time Raiders are not killing blow active is when they are purposefully taking prisoners to convert into new Raiders via disease.
Raiders are clever and capable of using tactics. They are not just scavengers or bandits. They are organized, ruthless, and often driven by a complex primal hierarchy of power and brutality. Within the ranks of Raider there are three subgroups, there are those who have evolved naturally, those who have become aberrations through partial infection, and those who were once Lineages but have fallen victim to the disease known as Bad Brain. Each requires a different approach, but they are all dangerous foes that can be more than a match for many survivors.
Disease, infection, and consequences of diseases
While the primary danger during the March event will be Raiders, some carry an insidious threat. It’s worth mentioning that some Raider threats can also use the “Inflict Disease” ability. This powerful threat skill is normally used on survivors that are bleeding to death, but can infect them with the same disease that runs rampant in the Infected Raider clans.
The disease Bad Brain can be incredibly deadly. It is a sinister disease that erodes both the mind and brain tissue, leaving victims in a state of violent delirium before they succumb to cerebral ulceration. This disease causes Lineages to become Infection type Raiders, which they cannot recover from. If you succumb to this disease, you don’t die but become a Raider instead. For many, this is a fate worse than death.
Tainted can be vulnerable to certain Raider abilities through their own disease. Most Tainted carry a strain of Bad Brain in them that never fully evolves. Like Full Dead can be influenced by the dead, Tainted can be influenced by Raider threats through the Tainted Bond ability. We’ll cover this in more detail next week, but you should be prepared to possibly turn on your friends, or lose a bit of your agency in making decisions if you play a Tainted. However, Tainted are completely IMMUNE to the Bad Brain disease, so that part they have to worry less about.
Resource scarcity, and the struggle to provide for yourself in the apocalypse
The DR Live economy is brand new. With the major change of Impact Skills, the Mind economy you are used to in the 3.0 system doesn’t really exist in this brave new world. It’s one thing to look at a proposed break down of blueprints and mind points and try to anticipate how it will function in a live space, and it’s an entirely different thing to actually do it live. Part of this event will include learning a new cadence to the flow of economy and crafting, and it WILL be different than the previous edition.
Items are less necessary in DR Live, and you may have less gear than you are used to in 3.0. Many of the tricks you needed items for in 3.0 are now included into the various Impact and Development skills. Other items only really function for Professions. Healing is significantly improved, and your combat skills don’t need a steady supply of Mind brews to stay ready. While cool items can be nice, they certainly aren’t a requirement for surviving in this new apocalypse. Many of the blueprints have very niche applications that won’t necessarily come up during every event, so don’t worry about trying to build out a perfect set of gear!
Expect a scarcity of some resources. One lesson we saw during Downfall was that certain items (like Herbs) were scarcer than folks imagined they would be. Now, while some of that was due to the nature of the one-shot event and fewer people taking the Agriculture skill, there’s still going to be a LOT of folks building new equipment and items that is brand new to the DR Live system. Crews will likely be focused on copying new blueprints, making items for their team, and harvesting resources for their personal use. There may not be as many people selling the goods you need, so plan ahead!
The Sweetwaters are in trouble and need help. You can expect the Diesel Jocks of the San Saba Republic to need valuable resources like scrap and herb, and this could come into conflict with your own needs for your character or crew. Will you part will valuable items to help your allies, or will you force them to fend for themselves? There is often not enough to go around in the wasteland.
Wrap Up
That’s it for today, Vados.
We hope that you will come join us for our next event, our first DR:TX event using the new rules for Dystopia Rising Live. We hope you are ready for the intense threat that is Raiders in the world of Dystopia Rising Live. Will you survive the deadly Raider assault? Will you help the Sweetwaters survive the wasteland as they escape worse threats? Will you survive what comes next?
Next week we will cover some more of the specific mechanics behind the danger RAIDER threat! See you soon, Vados!
