Hells of the San Saba: Rules You Should Know

It’s Jonathan here with our last weekly blog post for the upcoming event, HELLS OF THE SAN SABA! This is final post in the leadup for our April DR:TX event written by our Overarc STs, Ash Sexton, Ren Lewis and Andrew Harper. Today we will talk about about some Rules You Should Know, including a reminder about Water Rations, the danger of Sinkholes, and some Threat Skills of Note like Psionic Vampire, Fear, and Raider Rage!

• Did you hear? We are running a Returning Player Campaign through the end of the season. If you have friends that have been away from DR for a bit, not only can you earn some CAPs for inviting them back, but they can also get a head start with some free items and benefits for coming back home to Bravado.

• Blueprints were updated a few weeks ago, and another round of updates hit shortly after. I’ve catalogued most of these changes on my Blueprint Checklist, but I have written a blog post on the topic as well.

  • TL;DR: You need to replace the cards for your Murder Inc gear immediately, but you can update the blueprints and other item cards through the Post Office in game when convenient. You probably didn’t have any of the items that were removed from play.

• DR National updated their main website with some neat graphics, but more importantly posted about the next stage of the LIT 1.0 to 2.0 Conversion. This won’t have much impact on you if you only attend live events, but if you do online play you should check out the blog post they just released: Dystopia Rising News

  • TL;DR: Any herbs, brews, meals, and other single-use consumables without expiration dates will be expired as of July 1st.

Our photos for this post were taken from previous DR:TX events by our talented Photo Team.

Let’s get into the main topic, Rules You Should Know!

Water Rations, art by Shan Lind.

Water shortages & YOU!

I covered these full mechanics of our new Illustrated Item Cards, WATER RATIONS, in our first post, Welcome to the Hells of the San Saba. I’ve also added these mechanics to the Temporary Local Mechanics, found on our website. The theme of this even is on RESOURCE SCARCITY, so this is a big part of the challenge of the weekend.

Let’s sum up the basics once more:

New Item Cards: WATER RATIONS

• These Illustrated Item Cards will be given out at check in and will be used throughout the event as a resource for clean, potable water. These are Local Plot Cards and may be traded, bought, lost, or stolen.

• You can get three Water Rations during check-in or choose to take less if you like a challenge.

New Roleplay Burdens - Parched & Dehydrated

• You must drink at least one carded Brew or Water Ration each 12s.

• If you don’t stay hydrated, you become PARCHED. While Parched you don’t refresh your Mind points at the 12s. Any Brew or Water Ration fixes this condition but doesn’t restore your lost Mind points.

• If you go another 12s without any water, you become DEHYDRATED. Once at this stage, only Water Rations will fix your condition. While Dehydrated you must spend BODY as well as Mind points to activate a Skill. Ouch!

• If you stay Dehydrated at the next 12s, you die. Try to drink some water, okay?

• You can GAIN the Parched or Dehydrated keyword immediately through certain actions this weekend, but it will be telegraphed in advance if this is possible during a mod or Zone of Mechanics.

How do you get more Water Rations?

• NPCs and certain mods will offer Water Rations as rewards throughout the weekend.

• Players with Foraging, Trailblazing, and Hunting will be able to gather new Water Ration cards from the Post Office.

• You can purchase these from other players, and trade them for Brass, favors, or in exchange for goods and services.

Drought Burdened Crafting

• Any use of Agricultural must spend 1 Water Ration per trip to the Post Office for Agricultural (up to 60 minutes/30 mind).

• Any use of Culinary recipes require 1 Water Ration in addition to the normal resources.

We will cover this once again during Opening Announcements, but the basic cycle of this mechanic is pretty simple — Drink water rations regularly, or else you take a penalty. If you need to do certain crafting, you’ll need to spend Water Rations to perform the skill.

Remember, you can Opt Out of potential death at any time by consuming at least one Water Ration!

Sinkholes

The drought has caused a bit of instability in the San Saba. The ground is as cracked and parched as your characters, and the environmental stress has aggravated the SINKHOLE problem that was created during the IMPRINT BY DESIGN event.

During this event, you will periodically encounter a SINKHOLE, marked with a yellow Zone of Mechanics instructions. Here’s how it will work:

• While within 10 feet of a Red Glowstick (or otherwise marked area) if there are more than 10 Individuals (LC’s, NPC’s, etc.) gathered in this area, the ground beneath begins to crumble underfoot, and all Individuals in the area are affected.

• Any Individual may call “SINKHOLE, AOE TAKEDOWN 10 SECONDS” every 30 seconds until the number of Individuals is reduced to 5 Individuals or Less.

  • This AoE call may be countered by Balance.

• Any Individual may use Basic Enhanced Movement, Proficient Telekinetics, or Master Malicious to traverse through this area unharmed, regardless of the number of Individuals within the space.

Hope you don’t run into anything dangerous while having to deal with a Sinkhole!

Headhunter Raiders

Threat Skills of Note - Raider Clans

Most of the threats you will encounter this weekend will be various types of RAIDERS. Raiders are generally former Strains that succumbed to the deadly disease known as BAD BRAIN. Once the disease rewrites their brain, they lose whatever spark of humanity that they had left and become killing machines bent on feeding and killing. Over time, these infected Strains evolve and mutate into something worse, and band together with others like them into loose tribes and clans.

This means that most of the Threat Skills will be pretty basic during THE HELLS OF THE SAN SABA. You might see some variations of player skills like Break, Mangle, Takedown, or Choking Blow used by Raiders, and many can swing for higher amounts of damage with a single swing. But most of their skills are ones that you might have as a player, save for the few we will cover below.

The real danger of Raiders is that they are intelligent foes, if a bit single-minded.

Raiders are clever and cunning, but they are still terrible, deadly foes to all Strains across the Wasteland. They can use equipment, operate doors, set ambushes, and sometimes even perform first aid to keep their prey from bleeding to death. Very few people can hope to talk or reason with a Raider, save for perhaps the Tainted Strain. They are capable of using basic tools and strategy, but are still predatory creatures driven by the basic instinct to hunt, kill, and feed on the flesh of their victims. Raiders tend to not play nice with each other, and often follow the biggest and meanest of their kind on raids into survivor settlements.

Let’s cover some of the unique skills possessed by most Raiders.

RAIDER RAGE (Basic Anger Mutation)

• Allows a Raider to call “Raider Rage” to heal their Body to full and fix all limbs instantly. This skill cannot be called while in bleed out, and instead is used mid fight. This berserker rage makes even a common raider into a tough, deadly foe.

RAIDER RUSH (Proficient Anger Mutation)

• Allows a Raider to call “Raider Rush” to become immune to all paralysis, knock out, or mangle effects for 5 minutes. When struck with these effects call “No Effect, Raider Rush.” At the end of the 5 minutes these effect calls are dropped as if they had been canceled. Skill cannot be initially used as a counter or during bleed out.

RAIDER FRENZY (Master Anger Mutation)

• Allows a Raider to call “Raider Frenzy” to become immune to all Anomaly skills for 5 minutes. When struck with anomaly skills call “No effect, Raider Frenzy.” At the end of the 5 minutes these effect calls are dropped as if they had been canceled. Skill cannot be used as an initial counter or during bleed out.

Infectious (Bad Brain)

• All Raiders are infected with the Bad Brain disease (p. 206, DR Corebook). This means if you do something silly like devour a Raider corpse or drink their blood, you’ll probably contract the disease. Even working on some medical procedures on a Raider is ill-advised without the appropriate protection!

Raiders of all types will generally have access to some variation of these abilities. One thing to remember is that ALL of these Raider abilities (Rage, Rush, Frenzy) have to be used while the Raider is still standing. Once they hit Bleed Out, they can’t use these abilities to heal or gain a buff.

An additional Threat Skill worth mentioning is an oldie, but a goldie…

fear (p. 103)

• Many Raiders this weekend will use varieties of the FEAR ability from the DR Corebook. (p. 103). When called, they will declare “Fear, Cannot attack me for 5 minutes!”.

• The Fear effect is broken if you are attacked by another foe, if a threat uses an ability on you, or you are forced to attack by some other effect. As long as the threat avoids hitting you, you are locked out of combat by this effect.

• You don’t have to leave the battlefield, and you can still fight other enemies that did not use Fear on you. There are few resistances to this ability other than some brews and equipment.

• Fear can be a surprisingly deadly ability when used well. If you are in a small group and the Raiders prevent you from attacking, you may not be able to save your friend and have to watch while they are eaten and killed!

Lastly, most Raiders carry equipment that can be LOOTED!

Raiders represent a solid source of items as they tend to collect bits and pieces from their victims, and their weapons can be broken down for valuable scrap. Let’s talk a bit about how this works:

• Raiders will have SALVAGE CARDS, which can be gathered by any player by searching the corpse over 30 seconds. You do not need to have a particular skill to collect these cards as loot. However, these cards have all the rules to use them printed on the card and are marked with a type of Raider Equipment on the front.

• In order to turn these cards into useful resources like Scrap and Herb, you must have the appropriate Salvaging skill listed on the card. You can spend the Mind points listed on the card and turn in the Salvage Card to the Post Office to receive your prize.

• Salvage Cards are still an item card, and can be traded, bought, or stolen like any other Scrap but cannot be used in blueprints without first converting them to scrap. If you don’t have Salvaging, this item may not be very useful, and you might need to trade these to another character or find someone to help you convert the salvaging card.

Resonant Raiders and You!

One last enemy is one we talked about during my blog post on The Resonant, remnants of the sin and decadence of the people of Barogue. To wrap this blog post up, let’s talk about a few important Threat Skills you should know about before facing these mysterious psionic Raiders. These skills have been up on our website for some time, on our Local Threat Skills page, but I’ll summarize a bit here.

Resonant can feed on the emotional turmoil and aberrant energies of lineages as they are dying. This potent ability is represented by the skill call of Psionic Cannibalism. For all intents and purposes, this is treated as a use of the Cannibalism skill and has the same effects.

Psionic Cannibalism

• This skill is resisted by Basic Mental Endurance but remember — you CAN use this skill to defend while in Bleed Out. In fact, it’s one of very few skills that you can use while bleeding!

• If uninterrupted for the full 30 seconds of the roleplay, the Resonant calls “Psionic Cannibalism: Reduce Bleed Out to 1 minute”. Roleplay for this should still be loud and dramatic but the Resonant will roleplay getting close to the target in order to bask and soak in their energies with cries of glee and hunger. The Resonant feasts on the mental energies of the victim instead of physically tearing apart and consuming the target. It is still an agonizing process to the target and they should be encouraged to roleplay appropriately if needed.

Some powerful members of a Resonant Raider clan can even take this emotion leeching ability to the next level and turn it into a potent weapon. Many dangerous creatures can react to the unnatural Anomaly skills of psions with a power called “Anomaly Response”, and the Resonant Raiders are no different.

anomaly response (Basic)

• Whenever you use an Anomaly skill within eyesight of most Resonant Raiders, they will leech some power off of these skills and gain a buff.

• The Resonant will generally call some variation of “Anomaly Response!” and gain an Upsurge effect. This can range from gaining Body, gaining Armor, or worse. If a Resonant Raider notices you are using an Anomaly skill, they can call these reactions. Watch out!

Psionic Vampire (anomaly Response)

• When an Anomaly skill is used within Line of Sight of the Resonant, it can drain the psionic potential from the target. The creature will call “Anomaly Response: Psionic Vampire! Line of Sight, 10 Mind damage, no Anomaly Skill use for 1 Minute!”

• This skill cannot be resisted. Luckily, most Resonant can only complete this attack a few times before exhaustion, and they can only make this attack once per minute on the same target.

• Mind damage causes you to lose Mind points instead of Body. If you cannot lose Mind because you are at 0, this damage has no effect.

• When targeted with this ability, the psion cannot use Anomaly skills for the duration and loses some of their precious Mind points. It might be a good idea to stop using psionic powers near the Resonant so it cannot feed on your psionic energy.

Lastly, some survivors of the Resonant reported that in the presence of some of the raiders, their blood turned to ice and they were frozen in place, fear overwhelming every part of their being. This assault on the senses temporarily blinds and stuns the victims while the Resonant drink in their fear and terror. This ability is represented by the following Threat abilities:

Psionic Assault

• Resisted by Basic Mental Endurance. The Resonant will call “Psionic Assault: Line of Sight, Blinding, Stun, 10 body!”.

• The victim of this power is overwhelmed and left helpless to the fear inducing powers of the Resonant. The only recourse to survive this attack is to steel your nerves and resist the effect entirely. If you use Mental Endurance, you can resist the entire attack!

The final ability of Resonant Raiders is one that is only experienced by those lucky enough to actually kill one of the creatures. In their dying gasps, the agonizing mental energies of the dying Resonant creates a painful void of emotion and psionic energy.

Last Laugh

• Resisted by Basic Mental Endurance. After 10 seconds of maniacal laughter while in Bleed Out, call “Psionic: Last Laugh, Area of Effect 10 Mind damage!”. Instant kill mechanics such as Murder or Double Tap can deny the use of Last Laugh.

wrap up

That’s it for today, Vados! Will your characters have what it takes to survive the calamity of drought, Raiders, sinkholes, and more during THE HELLS OF THE SAN SABA? Are you a survivor that can manage the Water Rations for their crew, or will you rely on force or trickery to obtain the much-needed water you need? Let’s find out together this weekend!

TICKETS ARE STILL AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR! SEE YOU THIS WEEKEND AT CAMP KACHINA!

See you soon, Vados!

March Blueprint Update

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. This week, I have a special edition concerning the new March Blueprint Update, particularly discussing some of the notable changes and errata. I’ll also try to cover how we will be handling this change with DR:TX.

Blueprints are one of my favorite things about our game. I love the Blueprint collecting mini game within Dystopia Rising (as you may know), and any time there is an update there’s a lot of theory crafting and planning before that next event to prepare for the changes. The March Update is one of the more significant updates to the Blueprint system in 3.0 since the Augment releases last year.

You can check out a complete list of changes in the Blueprint Changelog. I’ve also catalogued some of the updates in my Blueprint Checklist that I maintain on our DR:TX website, and once these new prints are finally added to the database, you’ll be able to check the individual items for yourself on the Character Database.

This is a long post, and if you don’t care about Blueprints you might find some of this boring. I’m always happy to chat about this aspect of DR anytime, so I’d love to hear your feedback.

The former design of the Seasonal Blueprints. You’ll notice each was marked as a “2021 Season Print”.

A summary of the Changes

Let’s cover the basics of what changed in the March Update. A total of 36 blueprints were updated during this change.

• Seasonal Blueprints no longer exist. This was a category of temporary blueprints released before the pandemic that were supposed to expire after 6 months, but that expiration kept getting extended for the next several years. This is a big change that has been a long time coming, so it’s no surprise to see these changes.

• Six blueprints were removed from play. I’ll go into more detail on each below, but most of these were either online prints, items that used problematic mechanics, or ones that were rarely used.

  • Grave Diver’s Remedy

  • High Adventure Beyond Compare

  • High Roller’s Unfair Advantage

  • Imprint Harvested Avonturr Map

  • Smoke and Mirrors Parlor

  • Temple Room Checker

• The remaining Seasonal Blueprints are now normal blueprints instead. The prints formerly-known-as Seasonal Blueprints were mostly changed to full National Blueprints or “Open Use” Blueprints like the majority of blueprints in the game.

• Most of these Blueprints were edited and changed. While all have a new template and layout, a few got new material costs, some have edited abilities, and some have simply been cleaned up to be easier to understand. Many of these changes were simply updating formatting, fixing typos, and correcting a lot of rules disputes.

• All “Cheat” Mechanics are gone. As the person who wrote most of these prints, these were beset by a lot of problems and were way too wordy. These will need a big reworking if they are ever to be reintroduced, but these were a product of a time before Keywords. For now, enjoy your poker games and games of chance free from (mechanical) cheating!

• Most of the Murder Inc. Blueprints were updated. These prints were first released during the Dead Water event with the introduction of the shadowy assassin guild. These were updated for some mechanics changes, material costs, and now most require the Society Membership in Murder Inc. to use and craft.

A lot of these items are still very popular or iconic items that many, many players have built in game. While most of the major changes have been listed on the Blueprint Changelog, I’d instead like to talk about how we will be handling this change within DR:TX.

How will DR:TX handle this change?

We will be taking the same stance as our friends at DR:NY to handle this change over. Here’s how you can prepare for this change to item cards and blueprints:

• Destroy your “Removed From Play” Blueprints & Items. If you have an item card or blueprint that has been removed from play, go ahead and discard it. You probably didn’t have any of these items anyways. You can find a list in this blog post, or in our Blueprint Checklist.

• Any existing Item Cards that were changed stay in play until they expire, but may not be extended. If you have an item card made from a seasonal blueprint, you can continue to use it as a "Legacy” item until the card expires. You may not extend the expiration date in any way — once it’s gone, it’s gone. Most of these items had short life spans, so these items will be out of play by time we start Season 5.

• All Murder Inc. items must be replaced with a new card. If you have an item card made from a Murder Inc. blueprint, you must have the item re-carded before you can use it. You cannot use old versions of the card. Please turn in your old item card to the Post Office at a DR:TX event and we will issue a corrected version.

• The Post Office can reprint updated Blueprints. Simply turn in your old blueprints at the Post Office during a DR:TX event, and we’ll replace them with new ones. As a courtesy, please limit yourself to five such blueprints at a time if there is a line.

Pretty simple! Please be courteous of our Post Office guides, as this is a big change to implement in play and it might lead to some delays.

Jonathan’s Unofficial Commentary

DIRECTOR’S NOTE: The following part is just my interpretation of the changes to some of these prints, and should be taken as nothing more than hot takes and opinions. I’ve love to hear your opinions and hot takes too!

The original Seasonal Blueprints were first introduced at the National Event “Dr. Ottoman’s Lab”. These were the first Augment prints, and introduced a number of very powerful and very needed updates to some key aspects of play (particularly HEALING!). The original intention for many of these blueprints was to be temporary items as a way of play-testing new blueprints, but they were meant to phase out within 6 months. The pandemic changed all that, both delaying the planned expiration and introducing new online-only Seasonal prints.

These Seasonal prints also introduced two new National resource items, Mortis Fern and Imprint Crystals. The ability to get these items was limited to National events and Premiere games, so many of these items were very difficult to craft unless you traveled to big events, if you could even find a way to harvest these items. Some of the other blueprints had extremely expensive materials and it limited their use to characters with lots of scrap and currency. Overall, something had to change.

The March Update to these prints not only removes these National scrap and herb from play, deletes a few problematic or unnecessary prints from play, but it balances out several very powerful meta-defining items.

This has been a change in the works for a while, and most of these changes were to be expected. Many of these Seasonal Blueprints were simply TOO GOOD. As new Augments were released, many of these items were still superior choices to new blueprints and this change levels the playing field a bit. Some of the changes are just common sense updates to wording, changes to material costs and such, but a few were significantly reduced in power.

I’ve included some of my notes on the blueprint changes below. I’ve tried to clarify some of the changes that were not clearly reflected in the Blueprint Changelog or in the Item Database unless you are ADHD like me and compared the differences. Enjoy!

SEASONAL BLUEPRINT UPDATEs

NOTE: The notes in Italics are from the national Blueprint Changelog. The normal text portions are my comments and notes.

• Abyssal Stitch Procedure

  • No updates listed in the Changelog.

  • Outside of minor formatting issues, the big unlisted change here is that it no longer requires any Necroinfluencer to use, just Resolve. If you enjoyed using this procedure, you’ll appreciate the savings.

• Blue Hue Goo

  • No updates listed in the Changelog.

  • This print didn’t really change much. The wording on the effect is much clearer now and should prevent a lot of the confusion with this item. It’s a subtle change, but much appreciated.

• Brain Disorientah

  • Brain Disorientah is now a trap that cannot be augmented.

  • Previously, this item was a Gizmo that needed Exotic Weapons to use. Changing it to a trap just makes sense to me — it always felt like a trap item. The new version is a bit cheaper, as it no longer needs a Fuel System to build, but stays mostly the same. Because it’s a trap, it will take a bit longer to set up, but it’s a Container Trap so you can keep it as a portable bomb. The ability to shut down “Never Here” simply by opening a box means this item can dramatically affect big bad guys as well. Storytellers and CvC-inclined folks need to be aware of this change and consider it for mods and CvC fights. Be careful of anyone lugging around a big box into a fight!

• Crystodyne Regalia

  • Crystodyne Regalia now restores 10 Mind and may only be used on a Target once every 30 minutes.

  • This was a pretty big change, but closes an exploit that some folks were abusing. The 30 minute cool-down fixes that issue pretty nicely. Some of the unlisted changes - the Mind cost to make this went down to 15, from 30. This is a nice change, as it makes it easier for a new player to build. The damage you take from the feedback increased to 5 (from 2), and the PFA ability changed slightly. To self heal a mangled limb on yourself you can now either spend Resolve or 20 mind. The heal on another player stayed the same. It also no longer requires a Psionic Crystal to make a copy.

• Crystal Candy Nucleation

  • Crystal Candy Nucleation now removes the Target’s ability to use Anomaly skills until the next 12s or 4 hours, whichever is longer and may only be Targeted once per 12s.

  • In addition to the change above, the effects changed in a small, but significant way. If you don’t spend a Resolve to stay alive, the procedure now inflicts 20 Body on the target instead, but it is no longer a Killing Blow. This means you are less likely to accidentally kill a patient, especially since you can’t harvest Candy from them over and over. The added penalty of losing access to all of your Anomaly skills means you probably won’t be using this on a friend to make cheap crystal candy.

• Dead and Luvin’ It Lenses

  • No updates listed in the Changelog.

  • This was a weird pseudo-augment before, and it is now officially an Armor Augment. It no longer requires Imprint Crystals to make, and there’s a slight change to the wording of the ability to let it work on ANY target. This is an important change, as it can now target Archons (who have their own sub-type that is not Lineage, Undead, etc.).

• The Dead Man’s Hand

  • The Dead Man’s Hand the basic ability was removed from play and the PFA ability became the basic ability.

  • This was formerly a Cheat item, but the PFA was my favorite part. It is now officially an Augment and the material cost on this item significantly decreased. It only needs one Basic Culinary Crafting Component (a Simple Adhesive) to make versus three. The Mind cost to craft decreased to 5 mind, and it now requires Proficient Larceny to use. This is a great improvement overall for an iconic item, and I’m really happy about this change.

• Doc Ottoman’s Disease Control Kit

  • Dr. Ottoman Disease Kit had its proficient mechanics updated.

  • There are a few slight wording changes here, but the main change is listed above. This mechanic now deals only with understanding the Vectors of the disease. This is a significant change as it leaves the “ask a question about the disease” function to the basic research mechanic in the Disease section in the DR Corebook. The previous version was probably TOO fast at uncovering facts about a disease and this change should allow some more time for disease plots to unravel. I don’t think many people will really build this anymore unless it’s needed for a plot.

  • While the overall cost remained the same, this no longer requires a Proficient Artisan Crafting Component to make. This means that a brand-new character with Basic Artisan can fully construct these items. All of the Doctor’s items now require Lore Medical to duplicate the blueprints.

• Doc Ottoman’s Doctor’s Kit

  • No updates listed in the Changelog.

  • While the overall cost remained the same, this no longer requires a Proficient Artisan Crafting Component to make. This means that a brand-new character with Basic Artisan can fully construct these items. All of the Doctor’s items now require Lore Medical to duplicate the blueprints.

• Doc Ottoman’s Sawbones Kit

  • No updates listed in the Changelog.

  • While the overall cost remained the same, this no longer requires a Proficient Artisan Crafting Component to make. This means that a brand-new character with Basic Artisan can fully construct these items. All of the Doctor’s items now require Lore Medical to duplicate the blueprints.

• Essex Entertainer’s Kit

  • Essex Entertainer’s Kit reworded for clarity and brevity.

  • No longer requires Lore Faith to copy, and the text is much improved. It is no longer a Container though, and can’t be trapped. Solid changes here, and it’s much more clear how it interacts with the Dive Bar, instead of that effect being listed on the Room Augment.

• Focus Overload Crystal

  • Focus Overload Crystal has had the fracture removed and no longer Targets anyone other than the user and Raiders/Undead Targets.

  • Only minor changes here, but most of this is simply changed wording. The part above about fractures was on the original print, but it’s much more clear how it works. The biggest impact you’ll see is that it improves the blast radius to an Area of Effect range instead of the 3 Steps in the Master Pyro skill. Slightly more expensive to craft and still a nasty tool to use against Full Dead.

• Mechanical Crafting Area

  • Clarified that the proficient ability only works for the person activating.

  • This was updated on 3/22 based on a National clarification on Discord, but changes how the Proficient ability functions pretty severely. The Proficient ability was confusing and many players assumed it was not limited to just one target. Now, it is clear that a person can spend Resolve to speed up crafting for just themselves, and not everyone at the Crafting Area. I’ll definitely miss the previous edition, as I liked the interpretation that let you buff a crowd of crafters rather than make one person a super repair bot.

• OOPH Bullet Plates

  • OOPH Bullet Plates now only blocks base damage from firearms and exotic firearms.

  • This is a painful change for one of my favorite Augments, but it means it’s no longer immune to a skilled Marksman with better attacks and it resolves most of the rules questions about Line of Sight attacks. The Augment is slightly cheaper to make, but it’s overall power is much closer to the other Shield Augments. I don’t know if I’ll rebuild one of these for the future, but it still should be very useful versus NPCs with Firearms.

• Queen’s Cup

  • No updates listed in the Changelog.

  • This no longer requires Imprint Crystals to make! Hooray! This buff item gives an alternative to the AA Mess Kit for regaining Mind points, and now more clearly allows you to double Hallucinogen brews as well as Recovery brews. Great change here and I think you’ll see more folks using these in the future.

• Shredzilla Grind Gears

  • Shredzilla Grindgears can now be used with any melee standard and only works on the Proficient Activation.

  • Another painful change. Now the difference between this and the Superior Weapon Balancing is only the speed of the damage being dealt, and not the efficiency. You can deal 15 damage in three swings for 5 mind, versus 25 damage over 5 flurries with the other augment. While it got considerably cheaper to make, I think you’ll see folks choosing other Augments than this one in the future.

• Street Noble’s Cap

  • Street Nobles Cap is 5 Mind, 5 damage, No Avoid.

  • This is a little cheaper to make, but it’s a big step down from the previous version. Previously, this did “5 Damage, No Avoid” for 10 Mind, but had no other restrictions. The new version now has limits the effect to once per minute instead. This is now on par with other similar effects, and no longer a superior Brawling tool.

• Striker’s Coat

  • Striker’s Coat’s basic ability makes the wearer immune to the murder call.

  • This is a dramatic change, though it may seem subtle at first. The protection from ALL Killing Blows is gone, replaced by immunity to Murder. This means that a counted out Killing Blow will still kill you and brings a use back to Proficient Faithful Spirit for the former protective effect. The Striker’s Coat is still very good, but no longer the best Armor choice, in my opinion. If you expect to run into a lot of Murder effects this will be amazing, but if CvC and criminal activity isn’t your normal experience you might find other armors to be a better investment for scrap.

• The Dive Bar

  • The Dive Bar can now be placed away from the Shipyard.

  • This is a positive change for game sites that don’t have immediate access to water. Previously, you’d have to build both Room Augments and it would need to be “near water”. This is now a full Room Augment by itself, and no longer requires a second expensive item to use. I love this change, and I think you will see this Augment used in a lot more low places, where the whiskey drowns and the beer chases...

• The Royal Flush

  • No updates listed in the Changelog.

  • This item now has a big disadvantage that isn’t listed in the changelog. When you use the Killing Blow effect, you now add a “Self: No Escape for 10 minutes”. Ouch. This means you’ll need to stick around after causing that guaranteed Infection loss and you might end up with consequences of your own. It’s slightly cheaper to build though, and now requires Master Projectile to use.

• The Moulen Rude

  • The Moulen Rude the No Escape call is now only 10 minutes.

  • The materials to make this changed slightly, but the big change is the No Escape call went down from 1 Hour to only 10 minutes. It is still a very powerful poison, but a much needed change in my mind. The previous effect was probably a little too good.

Next, we will cover the changes to the Murder Inc. items first released during the Dead Waters event ran by DR: Connecticut…

Murder Inc Blueprints

Most of these blueprints gained Murder Incorporated Society Membership requirements to use, per the national changelog. The material costs changed on a few, but most had a significant change to how it functions in game. We will be replacing all of these items in game, so make sure to get these cards replaced as soon as you can at our next event.

• Al Buquerue’s Left Turn

  • Al Buquerue’s Left Turn now [only] does damage to non-living Targets.

  • This is a big change to how this item previously worked. Now, the Body damage can only be dealt to non-Living targets, so it’s far less useful in CvC or against non-zombie foes. “Non-Living” target is also a weird exclusion, as it is not as clear as using the Undead keyword instead. According to National, this new type of target will be added to the Lexicon soon. This item remains the only MI item you can use without the membership and no longer needs Criminal Influence to use, just Exotic Weapons.

• Brain Shudder Blade

  • Brain Shudder Blade, the PFA added No Avoid to the call.

  • The main change here is the requirement to have a MI Society Membership to use this item. This remains either the best Melee Small in the game or the worst, depending on how much of your site is covered by the Wasteland. The buff to the PFA ability is very nice, but it’s still very expensive to use since it requires Festering Crystals.

• Little Drop of Poison

  • Little Drop of Poison now requires Silenced Knell Society membership to make.

  • The main change here is the requirement to have a MI Society Membership to use this item. This change also means each of the three factions of Murder Inc. each have a unique item that only they can build, so it’s a nice fix for a sub-faction that was missed in the first release. This remains one of the best poisons, particularly with the PFA.

• Living Autopsy Procedure

  • Lore: Medical, Lore: Mortis Amaranthine/Infection, and Lore: Raider [uses] have been updated.

  • This procedure mainly seemed to move away from learning hard out of game facts to learning more in-game versions on the same topics, in addition to requiring MI membership to use. Lore Raider now lets you know how long someone has had Bad Brain as well as if they are infected, but still cures 1 level. Lore Medical no longer lets you know how much mind and Resolve they have left, but rather the last time they had a medical procedure in the past 6 months. Lore Mortis no longer tells you how much Infection they have left, but rather when the last time they gained or lost Infection was. Overall, I like the change to this procedure as an ST, as it helps tell a better story with a plot or villain than telling you concrete out of game information. Since it still uses a Festering Crystal, it’s still very expensive to use.

• Miss Anthrope’s Blade

  • Miss Anthrope’s Blade basic ability After using Double Tap makes your next Double Tap free. The proficient ability allows the mangled limb to only be healed by Medical.

  • The main change here is the requirement to have a MI Society Membership to use this item, but Basic and Proficient levels have significant changes. Previously, the Basic level had things around an augmented Double tap, but it’s much more clear how this ability works. All around a good change, in my mind. The proficient level changed the Mangle ability from being “unfixable” to “medical only”. This is a strange new phrase for the ability that hasn’t been in play before this, but it’s kind of nice that you can seek out a doctor to help you with the limb if you don’t want to wait an hour. These changes prevent a lot of rules clarifications, but don’t really change the utility of this weapon for me. If you have Florentine and MI membership and love the Wasteland, this is a solid choice.

• Murder Dive Procedure

  • No updates listed in the Changelog.

  • No changes at all. This already needed MI membership to use, so it didn’t need to be updated with the other MI Prints. There’s a slight cosmetic change to the print appearance, but nothing mechanical. This would be a low priority to replace a copy of the print for me, unless you are a completionist like me that needs to have a shiny new copy with the updated change date.

• That Cursed Pitchfork

  • That Cursed Pitchfork’s proficient ability now produces 5 basic or uncommon herb and they are considered wild for their expiration date.

  • This item now requires MI membership to use like the rest, but the Proficient ability produces much less total herb than before. Previously, this would create a named item “Bloodroot” that would count as 10 basic/uncommon herb. This new version produces 5 less total herb, but it makes the actual herb instead of an item you have to expend all at once. There were very few prints that needed 10 basic in one print, and since it was a giant stack, you might get 3-5 herb of use from the item while the rest went to waste. Great change on this one, as it reduces brand new custom gizmo/items created by prints and just makes the process more efficient overall.

• The Big Hate

  • The Big Hate’s basic ability now does 5 Aberrant Bane instead of 10. No Defend was added to the PFA.

  • The changelog covers all the major changes here, and this is only usable by MI membership now like the rest. It’s a minor change overall, and the PFA ability is slightly better and maybe worth risking a Festering Crystal for a single shot since it comes with evasion for common NPC defenses. Just be careful to make sure your target can’t use the Avoid skill.

• The Hunter’s Secret

  • The Hunter’s Secret no longer makes long-pig, just Meat.

  • This item also needs MI membership to use now, and had a slight change to the Basic ability. If you make a Face Trophy from a target, they no longer come back with an extra Fracture after dying. Like the Pitchfork change above, this change really just reduces making new ‘counts as’ items rather than just giving you the raw produce. Solid change, and I like reducing the item card bloat. Now, if only there was a better use for Meat…

    • One note I’ve submitted as feedback - the Long Pig item formerly made by this item is also referenced on the Room Augment “A Collection of Heads”. I’d expect an update to this print soon as well.

• The Many Faced Mask

  • No updates listed in the Changelog.

  • The only change here is the need for MI membership to use. This is a great change, as it was previously an amazing Disguise item that could be used by non-MI folks. This might prevent some weird false attacks where MI was blamed for a kill they don’t want to claim credit for. It’s still a very neat item, and well worth the investment of scrap.

Now, let’s cover the Blueprints that are no more…

REMOVED BLUEPRINTS

These blueprints were removed from play during the removal of the Seasonal Blueprint Update in March 2023. These items no longer exist and any remaining item cards or blueprints should be discarded.

Losing six blueprints from play seems like it would have a greater effect, but the reality is that most of these blueprints were not used. A few only had specific uses in online games, which led to weird rules clarifications when someone tried to use it in a live game, and others involved the dreaded Cheat mechanic. I don’t think anyone will miss these blueprints, but I’ve included a bit of my unofficial commentary below.

• Grave Diver's Remedy

  • This item was introduced during the Green House online National event, and cured a specific disease that was only used during that event called “Grave Diver’s Disease”. As far as I’m aware, no other event was using this disease, and this is an item that no longer had a use outside of filling a spot on a list of blueprints.

• High Adventure Beyond Compare

  • This item improved your combat abilities in a online mod space, but was one of two “Online Only” blueprints. It also required “Mortis Fern” to make, and since this was limited to National and Premiere games, it was very expensive if not impossible to regularly craft.

• High Roller’s Unfair Advantage

  • This was one of the few Cheat items. It was originally envisioned as a one-item Cheat item like loaded dice, but since we had to include all the mechanics for the Cheat ability on the card, it was WAY too wordy. I’m sorry for any Guide that had to write one of these. Had the rules been something simple like “Spend 5 mind, call Cheat!”, it would have been better. I think the concept was nice, but it was a product of a time before National created the Lexicon for additional rules in game. I do hope these items eventually see a return, but it’ll need a Keyword or something similar to make it work.

• Imprint Harvested Avonturr Map

  • This was probably one of the few items that I saw in game from the listed of removed blueprints. This item was one of the items that needed an Imprint Crystal, but I think the main reason it went away is that it needed a specific type of Action Request. Many games only have an online system for a few types of Action Requests, so this item needed advanced notice to use and the game would have to write a special mod just for you. Since it was an item that could expire, this could lead to some weird interactions. I’m a little sad to see this one go, but I hope we see more delve-focused items in the future that don’t need as much work from the local games.

• Smoke and Mirrors Parlor

  • This was one of the Cheat items, but the original vision was an ‘anti-Cheat’ item to balance out the others similar to an item in 2.0. Like the rest, the wording was too much, and this item created some negative experiences rather than telling a better story. Players would build this item specifically to suppress the use of Cheat items, or require any games of chance to take place within one. I’m personally glad to see this one go, and hope that the next incarnation of this item tries to focus on better ways to interact with this concept.

• Temple Room Checker

  • This was the second Online-Only blueprint, but it was a surprisingly effective item to deal with foes that could escape easily. Had this been an item usable in a live game, I think you would have seen many people build these as portable bombs to clear a room. This function is now solidly covered by the new updates to the Brain Disorientah, and the confusion of online-only items is probably the main reason this goes away.

wrap up

That’s it for today! Hope you enjoyed my rambling about Blueprints as much as I did while writing this. Jeff and the National team should have the full text of these changes up on the Item Database soon, but it may take a bit. I hope you appreciate the work I put into this review! If you have any questions on these changes, hit me up at the next event or check with me on Facebook.

See you soon Vados!

Welcome to Hells of the San Saba

It’s Jonathan here with our first weekly blog post for the upcoming event, HELLS OF THE SAN SABA! This is leadup for our April DR:TX event written by our Overarc STs, Ash Sexton, Ren Lewis and Andrew Harper. Today we will talk a bit about some story teasers, some core mechanics and concepts for the event, and a reminder of some of the benefits of pre-registration for one of our events. We will also talk a bit about the scarcity of resources, our new illustrated item card WATER RATIONS, and the mechanical effects of Dehydration.

• 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. 

• There was a large March Blueprint Update that occurred this week, and 35 different prints saw some changes and 6 prints were removed from play. You can find more details at the Blueprint Changelog on the National website, but I’ll have a post on this soon.

TICKETS FOR HELLS OF THE SAN SABA 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…

the Premise for HELLS OF SAN SABA

Let’s talk about our upcoming event, as we deal with some of the things that make surviving the apocalypse in the San Saba a living hell…

As Waking falls closer to the ground each day, the effects of its near-unchecked noxious byproducts begin to show more drastic changes than anticipated.  Water is contaminated, sinkholes are forming everywhere, and once reliable water sources have since dried up. Drought has plagued Bravado and is bound to spread to the surrounding areas. If left unchecked the parched wasteland will grow and expand to join the Dune Sea, encompassing Bravado and threatening to spread on towards the greater San Saba.

Making matters worse, reports are building of raiders disrupting those attempting to bring much needed relief and supplies. Most alarming are sightings of the crystal encrusted Resonant Raiders.  While reports of attacks vary on what raider tribe was involved, all have noted the anomaly of seeing Resonant Raiders mixed in with the tribe that formed the bulk of the raiding party.  

With this looming threat in the sky, the earth turning to hell below them, and raiders making things worse, a sense of Despair seems to settle upon the people. What can be done in the face of these ecological disasters?  All the while the Grave Council announces that regardless, Collection Day is upon us. 

Time is ticking, and with each second Waking is closer to all those who look up to the sky. Can this community, town, and republic handle the heat and outlast this trial by fire?

Raiders AND Collection Day? Sounds like the Burning Season is here early!

resource scarcity

One of the primary themes and Content Warnings of our next event is RESOURCE SCARCITY. The zombie apocalypse is filled with stories that involve this theme, from the struggle to find usable ammo, finding food and water, or even just a safe place to sleep.

Classic zombie stories like Dawn of the Dead, games like The Last of Us and Resident Evil, and even movies like The Book of Eli or The Road deal with the strife and despair that comes from struggling to acquire basic necessities. This concept is deeply tied to the post-apocalyptic world of Dystopia Rising, and we will be focusing in on what this means for you characters during our next event.

This scarcity of resources is aggravated by a few different things during HELLS OF THE SAN SABA:

The Threat of Raiders

Resource scarcity and rampaging raiders are exactly the kind of threat an organized society in the Wasteland is supposed to band together to deal with.  This will be the major threat you can expect to face during the weekend, but in the stress of the moment is that societal protection applied justly and evenly?  Do individuals take advantage of the chaos to advance their own interests at others expense? Do they protect only their crew, or does that protection extend to others? Raiders also need resources like water and are more than capable of violently taking them from their victims. How will the defenseless survive in a violent and cruel world?

The Threat of the Environment

Radiation falling from Waking Prime is causing major ecological effects and turning the world it passes over into hell. Once focused on the areas far away from Bravado and the Dune Sea, humanity must deal with this major change in environment. Can they nurse the environment to support them again or continue to fall back on temporary patch jobs? When pollution threats your reliable water sources, how can you survive on what’s left?

The Threat of other Survivors

Will this town and republic band together to help each other survive this drought, or horde it for themselves? Will people capitalizing on this opportunity for scarcity result in larger damage, or will we band together to survive? Patch jobs or long-term solutions are at hand here, which will we choose and why? When water is at a premium, who will provide for those that have no Brass or ability to gather their own supplies? Can you look that farmer in the eye while they use more water than ever to farm their herb, while you are dying of thirst? When you are about to die of thirst is there anything you wouldn’t do to quench that need?

The threat of cvc

Obviously, these other stresses will be the main themes of the event, but one persistent theme of Resource Scarcity that can also impact play is via CVC. When there’s only so many resources to go around, some players will look to acquire those resources from others. Do you give that precious water to the NPC farmer that comes into town, or do they meet an unfortunate end out on the lake road? Larceny suddenly seems interesting when the most valuable item on you is your WATER. To prepare for this eventuality, it’s important to understand the rules for character vs character behaviors and the ways you need to STEER your roleplay to keep this fun for everyone involved!

I've written a lot about Steering & CVC over the years, and we have some excellent resources on our website if you want to know more:

• Introduction to CVC

• Steering & the 10 Foot Rule

Great stories involve all sorts of CONFLICT and we are excited to see how your characters adapt to a world where even your next drink of water isn’t certain…

Water Rations & Dehydration

While Bravado has never been entirely certain of the state of drinking water from Lake Bravado, recent events have aggravated this crisis further. Between the pollution coming from Waking as it draws nearer and the massive lead-lined oil tanker we just sunk with the defeat of Joanna Waves, the resources are drying up faster than anyone expected.

Coupled with this new pollution, the Dune Sea seems to be expanding earlier than expected and the oppressive heat of the early Burning Season is starting to take a toll. Summer in the San Saba is deadly and brutal as it, much less without enough water. With the heat rising, acid rain falling from the sky, and clean water in question, fights have already begun to break out over finding sources of fresh water amid the worst Drought seen in a lifetime in the San Saba.

What does that mean for you?

During this next game, water will be in short supply, and a scarce resource.

In fact, we will have a new Illustrated Item Card to represent the portion of water you’ve managed to secure in the form of a WATER RATION, pictured below. This item card will be more akin to our Amaranthite Ore or a piece of scrap than a true Local Plot Item, but it will be very important to this event’s story.

Water Rations, art by Shan Lind.

Water Rations

This is a new Illustrated Item Card in play for our April event. If you’ve paid attention to our friends in DR New Mexico, you might recognize some of these concepts here.

• Each player will receive up to THREE (3) Water Ration cards at the start of the event during Check-In. You can choose to receive LESS than your allotted supply if you like a challenge or want to try true SURVIVAL MODE.

• Each 12s during our April event, you must consume at least one WATER RATION for your character, or else you do not refresh your Mind Points as normal.

• Since there are only three 12s during each event, if you take the three Water Rations provided at check-in, you can effectively OPT OUT of this plot line and simply enjoy the mind refresh at the 12s as normal.

Why do you need a Water Ration?

The main mechanic for Water Rations will be the need to drink water every 12s, but it also comes with a few more risks:

• Failing to drink water regularly and missing your Water Ration or other carded Brew at the 12s will apply the PARCHED Roleplay Burden to your character. You can choose to come in with this Roleplay Burden at game on if you want a harder challenge.

• Carded Brews like Generic Brew, Hooch or even Uncle Todd’s can stave off basic effects of the Parched condition but cannot stop the later stages of the Dehydrated Roleplay Burden.

• Dehydration can quickly turn deadly if not addressed before the next 12s.

What else do you use Water Rations for?

Water is the source of life, but it’s often used in other places in the wasteland. The resource scarcity during this event will be particularly felt by our Cooks and Farmers. Each trip to the Post Office will stress your water supply further.

• All Culinary recipes require 1 Water Ration in addition to the normal resources to craft.

• You must spend 1 Water Ration per use of Agricultural (up to 60 minutes/30 mind).

• Some ZOMs or mods will require you to spend Water Rations to complete tasks. These tasks will often require Amaranthite as well.

How do you get more Water Rations?

There is some agency for characters to find more Water Rations during this event, but it will be in short supply overall.

• LCs with Proficient Foraging may spend 10 mind and 30 minutes of active roleplay to find 1 Water Ration.  You may only create 1 Water Ration per trip to the Post Office.

• LCs with Basic Hunting may spend 5 mind and 15 minutes of active roleplay to find 1 Water Ration.  You may only create 1 Water Ration per trip to the Post Office.

• If the Post Office ever runs out of their limited supply of Water Ration cards each 12s, you can no longer gather Water Rations until the supply is replenished.

• There will be additional potential to obtain Water Rations through Mods, ZOMs, or NPCs throughout the event.

parched & Dehydrated (Roleplay Burden)

Lastly, let’s talk about what happens if you don’t drink enough water during the drought.

• A player becomes PARCHED during a 12s if they fail to consume a Water Ration. You can choose to start with this condition.

• PARCHED:  LCs must consume either a Water Ration or a carded Brew at the next 12s.  While Parched, LCs do not regain Mind Points at the next 12s.  Consuming a Water Ration or a carded brew removes Parched but does not return any Mind not refreshed from the 12s previously missed.

• DEHYDRATED: If a LC with the Parched keyword has not consumed a Water Ration or carded brew to remove it, at the next 12s they also gain the Dehydrated keyword.  While Dehydrated LCs must spend body equal to the normal mind points to use skills.  Consuming a single Water Ration while Dehydrated removes Dehydrated but not Parched.  Consuming a carded brew does not remove Dehydrated.

• A LC who is DEHYDRATED at the next 12s dies, loses an Infection, and this Infection loss cannot be prevented. Dying of thirst is a real danger in April!

So, let’s break down the process of what will happen if you don’t use Water Rations:

If a character fails to use a Water Ration at the 12s at Midnight on Friday, they gain the Parched keyword. If they miss the next Water Ration on Saturday at Noon, they become Dehydrated. And if you fail to drink a Water Ration at Midnight on Saturday, they DIE. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200.

This is one part of the risk this weekend, and one that that will make finding new sources of water a priority for the weekend. When you are this thirsty, it might even be tempting to take the water you need from other survivors.

Wrap Up

That’s it for today, Vados!

• Next week, we will discuss a bit more about the Raider Threat and the strange Resonant Raiders. These unique DR:TX threats were first introduced during our Barogue online event and have been seen in the live game for the past few events. I’ll dive into some lore and common knowledge your characters might have before you enter play.

• After that, we will cover the lore and details of Collection Day, an annual Grave Council tradition of settling debts incurred by dying in the San Saba and earning a Grave Tax. Reckoner General Rampart and other faces of the Grave Council are sure to be in play during this event, so we will cover a bit more about them.

• Lastly, we will cover some Rules You Should Know, and a few details of some common Raider abilities. The threats this weekend will be primarily ones you’ve seen before, but we will cover some common abilities like Raider Rage, Raider Rush, and the powers of the dreaded Resonant Raiders.

Make sure you get your tickets for HELLS OF THE SAN SABA so you can brave the heat of the Burning Season, the debts of Collection Day, and the threats of Raiders coming to take your water!

TICKETS FOR HELLS OF THE SAN SABA are on sale now! don’t miss OUT!!!

See you soon Vados!

Crisis of Faith: Rules You Should Know

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 this weekend, CRISIS OF FAITH, I'm going to be covering a bit about Rules You Should Know. We have a number of special things happening during this game, and we want to make sure you have a head start on any particular mechanics to watch out for. This week, we are going to cover some Characters of Note you will see in play, some recent local Rules Changes (including a change to LIT Inventory for live events), and some key Threat mechanics like the Benediction of the Reborn, Faithful Strike, and Test of Faith.

TICKETS ARE still on sale at the door starting at 5pm on Friday! DON’T MISS OUT ON THE NEXT DR:TX EVENT!

We’ve shared some interesting teasers this week, including a few announcements of note:

• The Girl Scouts of Central Texas will be present at our February event to sell cookies! You’ll find our favorite cookie raiders by the Depot on Friday from 4p-7p and on Sunday 12p-2p. This is a great way to support Camp Kachina and the scouts who use it. You can pre-order here (or place an order for delivery if you aren’t able to make it to game):

  • Cookie Preorders!

• Heather Halstead and Stephanie Patrick-Munoz did an excellent teaser video highlighting one of the villains we will talk about today. You can find the video below:

  • Pfilomena’s Return

• We had a Wastelander article release this week, with a bit of news from Essex!

  • Essex in Lockdown!

Photo credits in this post are from Max Pohlmeier, Lainey Weiss, Sydney Betzina, and Noah Goodman.

Notable Rules Changes and errata

There’s been a few updates at the National level since the last time we had a live event. Let’s cover a few of the notable changes:

LIT Inventory 2.0

DR National has updated the rules for how you can interact with your LIT inventory at a live event. This breaks down into three big changes, and all took effect as of January 1st, 2023. That means this will be the first live event under these new changes. The link above will take you to the blog post they released on December 20th, 2022.

Here’s the specifics:

• All items that were expired were removed from LIT inventory. This was mostly stuff like Meals or Legacy Buy List items (Lock Poppers, and stuff that changed last year) that were still out there. Most of y’all weren’t affected by this.

• All items that didn’t have an expiration date in LIT (like Herbs, equipment, etc) will now be entered with a proper expiration date, and will automatically expire if left in your inventory past that expiration date. This just means those herbs sitting in your LIT for three years will finally expire.

• Chapters should no longer be adding items to LIT at live events, barring extenuating circumstances.

What does that mean for our next game?

You can WITHDRAW items from your LIT, but we can’t ADD new items into your LIT inventory.

This change means we will no longer be issuing the LIT Trade Sheets for character to character transfers during check in. If you need to trade with someone, you’ll need to first remove the items from your LIT inventory, then physically give them the item card for that item.

You’ll still have limited access to remove items from your LIT inventory at the Post Office, but you should not be removing more than 10 total item cards each event. If you still have a large amount of items past this, send us an email at info@dystopiarisingtx.com so we can work out a way to get your cards to you.

If you have questions on this policy, please let either Shan or I know. We want to make the transition away from LIT as seamless as possible, but we want to let you have a reasonable amount of time to withdraw these items while we comply with National’s new changes.

National Blueprint Change log

Periodically, National updates certain Blueprints with changes. We had an update on 1/4/23 with a change to stop an exploit with a popular cooking blueprint. I also keep a list of all the Updated Blueprints on our DR:TX page, in case you want to makes you have all the latest updated dates on your collection of blueprints.

• “Glitter Gulch Prep Station: A character utilizing the Culinary skill in the area this augment has been set up in to create a meal may be assisted by another character who has at least Basic Culinary. The time required for crafting is reduced to half, and the Mind and Resolve costs of creating the meal can be split between the two characters however they wish. Both characters must abide by the rules regarding crafting. Any PFA benefits utilized during crafting must be provided by the primary crafter.”

National Errata & FAQ

You can browse a list of major changes to the Corebook at the link above. One common sense change was added here since our last game:

• “Blueprints: Copying a blueprint requires Active Roleplay and Full-Engagement.”

• This just means you can’t use other Skills while copying a Blueprint, and you can be interrupted while duplicating a blueprint. This has been how most folks have already done this, but now it’s officially on the FAQ page.

San Saba Socials

We had one minor update to one of the custom Proficient Society Membership items in DR:TX. The San Saba Republic has had to place a limit on their Open Market, thanks to some clever interactions from our players.

• The Open Market San Saba Social now has a limit of 25 Herb or Produce traded per character.

You’ll still be able to trade Herb for Brass at a decent rate, but you’ll be limited to numbers that are attainable in a live event.

characters of Note: CRISIS OF FAITH

This weekend, you’ll encounter several new faces in town, probably trying to convert you to the Cult of the Reborn one way or another. Each of these Face NPC characters will be in town this weekend and they will have more information about their respective causes during the CRISIS OF FAITH. We’ve mentioned a few of these folks in previous blogs, but let’s make sure you have the basics of what to expect:

Sister Greywand, the Prophet Reborn

Sister Greywand is a Full Dead whose body has become more mummified rather than freshly decaying. She still wears the ragged clothes that she “woke up” in, patched and repaired through the years and she wears a veil across her face to conceal the worst parts of the decay. Through her new title as the Prophet Reborn, she leads the recently renamed Cult of the Reborn. While she is not much of a physical threat in her own right, she is always surrounded by an entourage of fanatical devotees to whom she is psionically linked.

It was shortly after the violence surrounding the Dead Man’s Hand Tournament that Sister Greywand first showed up in Essex security reports. She was frequently spotted in the House of Books, pouring over religious tracts and collecting as many accounts of the life and teachings of Pfilomena as possible. While her contributions to organizing the varying apocrypha of the cult into a cohesive history were appreciated, initially her position within leadership was minimal and other scholars noted her to be kind but distant, often lost in the intense thoughts and the echoed memories that are known to plague her Strain. 

Ever since the Monolith erupted forth over one year ago, the cult, ever seeking signs from their Lost Prophet, started looking closer at Bravado. A schism began to form in the leadership of the cult, with a growing number of fanatical devotees stating that the events in Bravado were a sign from Pfilomena of the long-awaited end-times, while the main body of faithful, cleaving still to Pfilomena’s surviving son, Caleb Lovelace, took a more tempered approach to understanding the message being sent. Greywand kept sequestered in the House of Books, however she sent some of her protege’s out with Caleb, seeking knowledge about the events that had unfolded in the past and were anticipated to come.

The tipping point came in the lead up to the Archon’s anticipated return. As events unfolded just as the Midnight Orrery foretold, Sister Greywand presented an ambitious claim; she now knew the hour and the form that the Great Miracle would take. According to her new revelation, within the myriad echoes of her mind rests the imprint of Pfilomena Lovelace, and through her the Prophet is Reborn. When the ensuing power struggle settled down Caleb, initially opposed to the claim, was in agreement with her claim and Greywand now had the reins.

Sister Greywand seeks to create a unified chorus of Faithful voices heralding their singular intent for the Fountainhead’s second coming- rather than the cacophony of desires that greeted it at its birth. To achieve this, discordant voices of any person who acts counter to the "true faith" must be brought in tune, or made silent.

Caleb, the Mad Prophet of Cutthroat Alley

Caleb Lovelace is the son of Pfilomena Lovelace, the deceased leader of the Church of the Tiny God and, until recently, her reluctant, de facto successor. A gangly teenager with lank red hair that wears rags wrapped around his entire body save for the crown of his head and his hands.

The bandages on his face hide a disfiguring crystalline growth that hampers his vision and make him sensitive to radio waves and other signals. He claims to hear screams through the crystal and is a potent psion. Caleb is known to brave the most dangerous corners of Essex looking for people that he can help, and wanders Cutthroat Alley rambling about the dead voices of the Fountainhead, through lips the color of poison.

While initially disenchanted with the faith following his mother’s death, his kinship to her drew her despondent faithful to seek his comfort and guidance. His first forays into Bravado were out of curiosity at the similarities between the events of the Monolith and that of the Fountainhead, seeking the patterns and signs Pfilomena always spoke of, but he was opposed to the radical new faction within the church claiming that the Monolith was a portent of Pfilomena's return. His general personality is peaceful, kind and likable, but he has shown he is also capable of great passion and even violence, particularly where faith and the plight of Psions is involved.

Caleb’s sudden support of Sister Greywand has been instrumental in the Cult of the Reborn solidifying their message and reaching new voices in Essex, and he is as equally fervent about the prophecies and faith of the Cult as the new Prophet Reborn.

Gabriel, THE INQUISITOR

In a response to the recent unrest caused by the Cult of the Reborn, the RRC and the San Saba Board has opened a new contract with the Red Ledger to deal with the threat. The Red Ledger is something of an expert on the Cult, as they first gained prominence during the Dead Man’s Hand Tournament and defended Essex against the zealots. Gustav Glasseyes, the leader of the Red Ledger, has personally assigned one of his best Strikers to deal with these cultists in the way they know best — showing them the power of incredible violence.

The man known as Gabriel is a member of the Fallow Hope who has married his position in the church to his business with the Red Ledger. He claims the title of Inquisitor and is a master of a firearm and wielding his faith as a weapon. The Inquisitor is skilled at interrogation and hunting the Reborn cultists, no matter where they may hide or who they pretend to be. The Red Ledger attracts warrior monks and ascetics to their zealous cause of constant self-improvement and readiness, and Gabriel is no different. Seeing himself as one of the last Watchers of the Crossroad, he believes he is the last line of defense from another Fall.

Gabriel was at the fall of Temple Station during the Hiway War and is known to be fierce in his protection of the faithful and a former colleague of Reckoner-General Rampart of the Grave Council. With the disappearance of Colonel Sabbath Jacinto from Essex, the Inquisitor of the Red Ledger has taken the new Board contract as a personal crusade to root out the heresy of the Cult of the Reborn and rip it out at its roots. The cultists have been marked for their sins, and Gabriel and those that follow him will not rest until the sun can rise upon a wasteland safe from their machinations and misery.

Threat Skills of Note: CRISIS OF FAITH

The Cult of the Reborn will be a major threat of the weekend, and they are bringing a few new tools of the trade with them to aid them in their war of faith.

We covered the Benediction of the Reborn in our first blog post, but it’s worth repeating here:

• 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.

Like I mentioned in my blog post, this is functionally just a new version of attack monsters will use on you when you get taken down in combat. If you get knocked into Bleed Out or otherwise Subdued, they will use this Skill to give you a new Keyword. Make sure you save an Injectable to get yourself out of a tough situation!

Most of the Cultists you’ll encounter this weekend will have some ability to perform Faithful Anomaly Skills (and will also be vulnerable to Aberrant Bane!). This means there are a few particular common Faithful Skills worth mentioning here:

• proficient faithful patterns

  Countered by Basic Mental Endurance. This skill is delivered via a Psionic Attack, and the NPC this weekend will call out “Psionic: Suggestion, Declare your Faith and Devotion: Are you Heretic or Reborn?” The Cult of the Reborn will use this to question if you have the HERETIC or REBORN keywords with this Skill, so it might be a good idea to save some Mind to resist the attack if you are trying to keep a certain allegiance a secret…

• Basic Faithful Spirit & Faithful Vessel

  These Skills are normally used to buff a member of your faith. Faithful Spirit makes a target immune to next Mangle or Blinding, while Faithful Vessel will make the target immune to next Break Armor. If you throw an attack against a Cultist that is protected by one of these effects, the power of their faith will let them resist the FIRST use of these Skills. The Cultist will answer with “No Effect!” to let you know the attack failed.

• Proficient Biogenetics

  Countered by Basic Mental Endurance. By engaging in a Psionic Attack, the user can cause the target to be knocked Unconscious (p. 108). They will call “Psionic: Unconscious” after using this skill, but it does not work on zombies and most forms of Undead. Remember, while you are Unconscious you cannot use any skills, you are unable to move on your own, and can’t resist attacks like the Benediction of the Reborn. You can awaken someone from this state by spending 30 seconds of Active Role Play waking them, otherwise they are out for 10 minutes!

• Proficient Faithful Vessel

  Countered by Basic Mental Endurance. By engaging in a Psionic Attack, the user can cause the target to become inundated with a debilitating volume of hallucinations centered around the themes of a crisis of faith (get it?) and otherworldly wrath for 1 minute, making the Target incapable of using ANY Anomaly skills. To use this skill, the NPC will call “Psionic: 1 minute no Anomalies!”

Next, let’s consider a few unique Threat Skills that you might hear from our white-robed Cultists this weekend:

• Terror (Threat Skill)

  Countered by Basic Mental Endurance. Often delivered as an area or Line of Sight effect, those affected by Terror are overcome by an urge to flee from the source of it. For 30 seconds, they must attempt to flee from the presence of the source of Terror, regardless of (IG) safety. If they cannot for some reason escape, they will cower as best as possible. The target may still defend themselves, but fleeing will always be a priority when possible. Effects and items that give immunity to Fear do not give immunity to Terror unless noted otherwise.

• Faithful Strike (New Threat Skill)

  Countered by Avoid. This is the basic offensive attack the Cultists will use against their enemies. This is a Strike, so it can be Avoided, or simply blocked with a shield. The NPC will call “10 damage, Heretic Bane!” after a successful hit. If you have the HERETIC keyword, you will take DOUBLE damage from this attack.

• Test of Faith (New Threat Skill)

  Countered by Basic Mental Endurance. A powerful attack used by the leaders of the Cult of the Reborn, this will allow the Cult to quickly identify their enemies in the midst of a crowd. The Cultist will call “Area of Effect: All Heretics, Agony!”. Agony is an ability that causes intense physical and/or mental pain in the character affected, making it difficult if not impossible to act through the torment. This effect normally lasts 10 seconds if not otherwise specified, and during that time, the character cannot use Skills or items but can move at a slow pace and defend themselves. Agony Interrupts skills being used when it is called. 

• Reborn Strike (New Threat Skill)

  Countered by Basic Mental Endurance. The Cult of the Reborn can wear down their foes and weaken their ability to resist the powerful Benediction of the Reborn. This dangerous attack will be delivered by a Psionic Attack or touch, and the NPC will call “Psionic: Heretics lose 1 Resolve! Red Star Immune!”. If you do not resist this ability, you immediately lose 1 Resolve, which could cause a Fracture if you hit zero. Since you need to spend Resolve to resist their conversion, this pushes you one step closer to being marked as part of the Cult. Watch out!

• Shield of Faith (New Threat Skill)

  Certain powerful members of the Cult of the Reborn can force their way through a crowd by sheer force of will. When this skill is used, anyone nearby will be repulsed away from them with a Knockback effect similar to the effects of Master Biogenetics. The NPC will call “AOE: Shield of Faith, None May Approach!”. If you are near the NPC, you must leave their immediate area and you may not re-enter as long as they keep their hand raised in a fist. There may be ways to overcome this protection, but you’ll have to find out more in game.

Wrap Up

That’s it for today Vados! We still have a few more surprises in store this week, and we can’t wait to see you this weekend! Steph and Chase have put a lot of hard work into crafting the story this weekend, and I hope you find a way to survive your CRISIS OF FAITH!

See you soon Vados!

Lonestar Skies: In the Woods

Good morning Vados!

The last sun has set over the San Saba Territories, and the night ahead looms large and long. Our upcoming vignette event, ”In The Woods” is four (1.5 hour) mods long and lasts from 11am to about 8pm on Saturday January 21st 2023.

Check out the mod descriptions below for each act of this event. Each module has 5 seats, and each attendee may register for a seat on 2 of the 4 mods overall. During the 2 mods that you’re not a featured character in, your LC may still influence the resolution of the module by participating in the b-plot.

Tickets for ”In The Woods” go live January 1st 2023 at 1pm on the DR:TX Website https://www.idratherbeinbravo.com/register