Blueprints, Temporary Augments, and Crafting

Good afternoon! It’s time for another Wednesday Rules Ramble from your pal Jonathan.

This week, we are going to be discussing Blueprints & Augments!! This weekend we will be playtesting some new Temporary Augments and Blueprints that are early versions of some new blueprints you might eventually see in the game. You might also have heard that our 3.0 Blueprints are in the process of being updated!

You can find the specific details on temporary augments HERE…

Go ahead and check out what we’ve posted there, but I’ll take a moment here to explain the process we will use this weekend.

Kyle and team are hard at work at updating the Blueprints, but they aren’t quite ready yet for live play. In the meantime, we are going to use these Temporary Augments as a neat playtest until these are officially released. Don’t worry, you’ll hear a lot more once we get ready for the big Blueprint update to roll out.

Let’s look at an example of one of the Temporary Augments you’ll see this weekend:

Slappi Lead Knuckleplate (Brawling Augment)

• Nothing says ‘get out of my face’ more than a fistful of lead in the gut. Allows the wielder of this weapon to call “KNOCKBACK, 3 STEPS” once per every other flurry, or 10 seconds (whichever comes first) for 1 Mind per knockback.

Augments can be added to an appropriate item to increase it’s abilities. This one can be attached to any Brawling weapon card to allow you a super cool Knockback effect that you can use over and over during a fight. You can only have one augment per item, and this includes existing augments in game like the Shredzilla Grind Gears.

When you are at Check-In, you will have an opportunity to select ONE of the new Temporary Augments or Blueprints of your choice for free. You will get this on a strip of paper as a temporary “item card”, and it can be used in game much like any other item card. It can be traded, sold, taken, etc.

Once you’re in game, you’ll be able to craft additional Temporary Augments and Blueprints at a crafting station in the Terminal Station Depot (the Dining Hall at Kachina). There will be a yellow sheet of paper near one of the workbenches with all the details once you get to game, but I’ve also posted the rules in the link above.

We’ve also introduced a very efficient Culinary blueprint that restores Mind, and the first of new Procedure prints that are specifically for those with Faith-based Anomaly skills, called Benedictions. This is the first example of some new blueprints that open up new ways to use Skills, and you’ll see some more neat options in the future!

All of these new items expire at the end of the event, so we encourage you to try them out and let us know what you think. Your feedback is important!

Crafting in September

Since Blueprints will be updating soon, we will have a slightly different procedure for Crafting and Item Cards for our September event.

If you had virtual Blueprints and crafted items, instead of writing out cards we’d have to rewrite in the next month or so, we have given you your LIT inventory sheet along with your character sheet in your pre-registration packet. If you are buying a ticket at the door, we’ll print out the LIT inventory for you then.

For all intents and purposes, these items in your LIT inventory act as cards, and can be marked off at the Post Office for crafting. When you create a new item, it will likewise go into your virtual inventory and you get it marked off on a LIT transfer sheet. If you trade or give an item on your sheet to another player, write it on that sheet as well, and turn it in with you character sheet at the end of game.

Once those new blueprints come out, we’ll proceed with cashing out the rest of your virtual inventory items and converting item cards that have changed. Until then, we’re using RADICAL TRUST to just get on with playing in the meantime.

If you have any questions about this crafting policy, or basically anything Logistics related, you can find our wonderful Aesa at the Post Office throughout the weekend.

Only a few more short days until we are home again in Bravado. I can’t wait to see you there!

Fractures and you!

Database updates will now allow for the tracking of fractures on your character sheet.

If you are confused about how fractures work, here is the basic rundown. You can also read more about these rules in Chapter 8 of the Rulebook (pg. 180).

Here’s what you might already know, or just need a refresher on, regarding Fractures:

• A fracture is a mechanical and roleplay effect of emotional and psychological damage your character takes. Players get to decide how to roleplay their own fractures, but can use roleplay suggestions from Guides and Groundskeepers (death scene runners) as desired.

• You gain a fracture by dying, or hitting 0 Resolve. Note: Once you hit 0 resolve, you cannot use items or skills that cost resolve for the rest of the game (pg. 95).

• Resolve is available at the start the game on your character sheet, and it does not refresh until the next game. Tier 3 anomaly skills and other skills use Resolve, as do addictive substances with side effects. Rarely, you can also lose Resolve if your character doesn’t meet the roleplay and costuming standards for their lineage across multiple events. Characters with Master Social Influence can give you +1 Resolve from their own Resolve pool.

• Hitting 0 Resolve gives you +1 fracture and +1 Resolve.

• When you receive a fracture it goes on your character sheet. Resolved fractures should be signed off by the character using social influence. Unresolved fractures stay on your character sheet.

• A fracture cannot be suppressed or resolved for 2 hours after fracturing.

• You cannot use most skills that require Resolve while fractured.

• Unresolved fractures sap your mind pool by 5 mind for the first fracture and 10 mind for each additional fracture.

• Fractures are resolved by interacting with a character with Social Influence or Master Necrokinetics. They don’t go away otherwise!

• It is the discretion of the character being treated whether the effect of Social Influence is able to resolve their fracture. For story reasons, if you want to require multiple sessions, or say your fracture cannot be resolved, that is your prerogative.

• Even when a fracture is resolved mechanically, there can still be roleplay ramifications for being fractured. It is up to the player to decide how their character processes this experience.

If you have questions, please feel free to ask your Gamerunners for clarification or read Chapter 8 in the book!

Faction Buy Lists

HOW-DY Vados!

Jonathan here with a time-honored tradition of Bravado - “Sunday Spoilers”. (Ok ok, I know it isn’t Sunday when you’ll see this, but I’m writing this on Sunday at least) Today, we are going to preview a new feature of our Society Memberships in Bravado: the Faction Buy Lists! You’ll be able to access these starting this next weekend!!!

Check it out HERE, but we’ll also have a copy posted in the Public Works and on our nifty Post Office Bulletin Board near Kiva if you want to check it out in game.

If you have a contract with one of the eight factions of our game, you can gain access to a special set of buy lists that reward you for your connection to the NPC group.

Each month, you can buy ONE item from each level of the Faction Buy Lists you hold a contract with. If you have Master Society Membership, you can buy an item from the Basic, Proficient, and Master lists. This also means that even if you have a contract with every faction (you know who you are..), you need to make a choice of which faction reward you will select that month.

We’ll be paying attention to which factions you support as we move through our season, and this could have an impact on certain NPCs, how prevalent Work Orders and ZOMs are for that faction, and how they rate for the skill Financial Influence. If you have a favorite faction, let us know by spending your hard earned Brass. :D

Bonus fun -

You can pay for the Faction Buy Lists with either our local currency Brass (฿) OR the universal currency Trade Notes, so even our travelers can take part of the fun.

Basic Society Membership: 

• Buy one item or service from any one faction’s Basic list for 1฿ 

Proficient Society Membership: 

• Buy one item or service from any one faction’s Proficient list for 5฿ 

Master Society Membership: 

• Buy one item or service from any one faction’s Master list for 10฿

On Wednesday, we’ll discuss a bit more about how we are handling Blueprints, Augments, and crafting for our game this weekend. See you then!

Quick Rules Update!

Quick update on the rules for our September event!

We’ve updated the Bravado website with a slight variation on the new MURDER skill call. This update brings our version more in line with the eventual National update to the threat guides.

TL;DR: A call for this ability will now sound like “10 Body, MURDER”. When you hear this call, it means “NO BLEEDOUT”.

We’ve basically decoupled the Murder affix from the amount of damage so that it’s a modifier to the call, not damage. If you use Avoid, you not only stop the damage, you stop the Murder affix. If the attack goes through, you can still use abilities that prevent a Killing Blow from killing you (Striker’s Coat, Master Biogenetics, Proficient Faithful Spirit). If the damage done is still enough to put you into Bleedout, you still take the damage just not the Murder.

This also means you might hear bigger damage calls too, probably from things that have “Murder” in their name. ;)

Check it out, it’s posted here.

Site Updates, Ticket Sales, and More!

SITE UPDATES

It’s been two years (!!!) since we first started our post-timeskip 3.0 setting. At that time, it was very important to us to make the new setting of Bravado feel distinct from the prior Bravo-township of 2.0, while still taking advantage of the lovely site and relationship we have with Camp Kachina.

Now, two years on, we feel that we have sucessfully managed to imprint the new setting into our player’s zeitgeist, and as such we are ready to make some additional site adjustments to best make use of our campsite’s buildings. You can see those summed up by clicking on the link below, but here are the highlights!

Living in Bravado

Highlights:

• The Breach/Zuni is now open for player residence.

• The Maw/Treehouse and the obstacle course behind it, the area past Tent City (Widow’s Walk to the Lake), and the area past The Breach/Zuni to the Horse Corral are now our primary NPC Lands. Unless the area is cordoned off, you can move through these spaces, but you may not set up in-character areas in them or sleep in them.

• Ops/Logistics is moving back to Hopi Lodge, and we are now calling it the Grave Bureau Annex. The area around this building is now out-of-character, including the parking lot behind it.

• The Post Office will remain in the side room of The General Store/Kiva, and this is also where we will handle pre-game player check-in at the side window.

• The Depot, “Terminal Station”, in the Dining Hall is now once again playable space, and is meant to be used as a in-character shopping/crafting area where you can set up a genre corner in this building for your own services. There are tables available, but please bring your own decor! Reminder, a food handler’s license is still required to use anything besides the microwave and fridge in the Dining Hall kitchen.

• The Dogrun/Wigwam is our non-combat sleeping and med-sleep area, and you do not need a medical note to sleep there unless the space becomes overcrowded.

• The Morgue Altar space is now in The Hallows/Zuni Pavilion, and while this is in the Wastelands, there are heavy in-character penalties for breaking the Grave Council’s peace here. Gravemind scenes will be held in a separate area between The Hallows and the Grave Bureau Annex. Characters should report to the Grave Bureau Annex | Logistics when they die. We will still ring the Death Bell after character deaths.

• There will be additional areas for crafting and gathering throughout the camp, both in the Wasteland AND outside of the Wasteland. The Terminal Station player area will have a new Culinary and Artisan crafting area space, for instance, space for farming, and there will be a new fishing area that won’t require a walk all the way down to the lake!

• Opening Announcements will be held an hour before game-on (9pm Fri) in front of the General Store. Closing Announcements will be held at game-off (12pm Sun) at the Crossroads/Death Bell. You can see a rundown of the weekend itinerary here Weekend Schedule.

New Bravado Map - See the section of our website called Living in Bravado for more updates!

The Wastelands

As you may have observed from the new map above, most of our campsite is now in the wastelands. This is in line with the sort of experiences we want to encourage and make part of Bravado Culture in our setting. The Wastelands now engulfs all but the area around the General Store/Kiva (up to the treeline), the Dogrun/Wigwam and the paths to it, and the corner of the campsite to the northeast of the crossroads.

What does that mean? Wastelands?

More information about the Wastelands is available in the section CvC in the Wastelands on page 162 of the Rulebook. We will have this perimeter marked at the crossroads and in other ways as well.

In short, when someone enters this area, it's assumed that they've opted into CvC. A person cannot be forced to enter this area either socially or physically. If you enter this zone with the intent of taking Infection from other characters, you should try to make sure that a Guide is present for ease of potential conflict. Having a Guide is not required but you will need to present your character sheet and all item cards used post-combat to a Guide.

We suggest if you have further questions about CvC and how it, and consent to CvC works in our game, that you read the section called Conflict Between Leading Characters starting on page 159 in the rulebook.

What if I don’t want to go into the Wastelands?

Technically you do not have to! Within the ‘safe’ area of our town there are bunks, showers, bathrooms, food services, crafting zones (both Artisan and Culinary), agricultural areas, and more. You will be able to use every economy skill without entering the Wasteland. There will still be mob attacks and NPC-interactions as well. Non-wasteland does not mean exempt from NPC-attack and interaction, horror, or survival themes. It does mean consent to CvC between leading characters must be explicit. Out in the wastelands this requirement is waived. We do still encourage you to find a guide if at all possible before initiating CvC, but technically it is not required.

We do want to encourage people to approach 3.0 CvC mechanics with an open mind. We know many people have had troublesome interactions in other LARPs, or in 2.0 in our game, but we would challenge everyone to come in with a fresh mindset and consider that many problematic attitudes and personalities have changed in the years since.

Additonally, if you are very interested in CvC overall, you should consider signing up for the SES at check-in. Read more about the Survival Ethos System and its in-character faction The Red Ledger here.

What is the reason it’s more safe in-character?

The relative safety of the General Store, Terminal Station, and the Dogrun, is due to the heavy Law Dog and Railroad Conglomerate employee presence in those areas, particularly during the day, which also results in a slightly lower chance of aggressive NPC attacks as well, though in character ‘safety’ is relative and never truly guaranteed!

Tickets for September’s game!

Tickets for our Season Opener (Sept 24-26) will go on sale at 1pm on Monday, August 30th, here. There will be an option when you register to request to cash out some of your Virtual Inventory items as well.

Covid policy

At this point, unless Texas’ legislation changes, you can read our current Covid-19 Screening Policy here. Please note, it is required to submit either a negative Covid-screening test OR proof of completed course of vaccination to attend our event, to protect our community.

If you would like to send your proof of vaccination in ahead of time, you should email the Logistics Director at aesa@dystopiarisingtx.com.

You can read more about our Covid precautions here: Larping in a Pandemic.