Rules Ramble

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San Saba Update

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Howdy Vados!

It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to our September live event BENEATH THE CORPSE OF WAKING! Each week, I’ll discuss in detail an aspect of the upcoming event, compiling the rules and lore into one easy place to read! This week, we are covering some of the in-game changes to the setting, faction changes, and a few important RULES updates your characters should know!

  • Our Admin team and some other DR:TX volunteers had a great time at ColossalCon in Round Rock this past weekend! It was a blast to spend time talking about our game with new players, so expect to see more of these con appearances in our future! Can’t wait to see some new faces at our first event!

Let’s get started!

The San Saba Territories, circa PHW ‘07, by Aesa Garcia. What’s that red spot in the north?

important Story events from last season

We covered a few out-of-game changes in last week’s blog post, but let’s cover a few changes that have happened in the San Saba since last season. This is information a returning character might know, and you can always choose to follow along or instead learn this info in game if you prefer.

Last season, we had a LOT of big events:

  • During VALLEY OF FEAR, Bravado shut down a dangerous crystal candy operation near the town. They dealt with dangerous diseased mutants and stopped Juliet Butcher from helping Killhouse spread poison into the town. Deadly variant Crystal Candy blends were stopped from being spread through the San Saba, though Juliet Butcher escaped.

  • During our National Event PYROCLASM, the San Saba successfully defeated a deadly disease known as the Necrophage. In doing so, most of the Lifer population of Prudence Penitentiary was killed, as was the titular villain behind the plot, Grandfather Nichols. The only real survivor within Killhouse was Tabitha St. Mercy and a few of her most trusted allies.

  • During IMPRINT BY DESIGN, the town experienced a means to change a person’s Strain to something else entirely. While the technology was ultimately lost with the death of its creator, Dr. Esgrove, several characters in town experienced some dramatic shifts in Strain, including revealing that CEO of the Railroad Conglomerate, Felicity Redfield, had been a Remnant all along.

  • During THE EMERALD GALA, Bravado survived an incursion from the mysterious entities known as Archons. The town developed new technology known as the Emerald Arsenal to combat the threat of outsiders, helping Bravado successfully repel the Archon threat for a final time. However, that destructive technology is now loose in the world for other uses, for better or for worse.

  • During CRISIS OF FAITH, the Red Ledger helped Bravado defeat a doomsday cult known as the Cult of the Tiny God. The Cult attempted a conversion by the sword of any that opposed them but were stopped by the combined faith of the town. Without the demogogue leader of the Cult, the cultists were scattered by the might of the Red Ledger and Bravado.

  • During THE RAGE THAT FILLS HER SAILS, the town defeated the undead fleets of Joanna Waves, the Strainscourge of the Seas. They survived the deadly Black Spot and broke the Amaranthine Armada with a desperate attack on Joanna’s flagship. The Junkerpunks and Bravado defended the town and recovered a massive cannon from the Juggernaut after it sunk.

  • During HELLS OF THE SAN SABA, the town dealt with deadly Resonance Raiders, the lethal heat of the San Saba, and a water crisis. Building a new water filter system for the town helped protect the town from the worst of disease and shortages, but the town uncovered that someone had been attempting to recreate the nightmarish Resonant first found in Barogue. With the strange laboratory shut down, the Resonant ceased their attacks on the town.

  • During VOX POPULI, the flying city of Waking was crashed near the town of Bravado. During the Waking crisis, the terrorist known as the Rook fired a shot from a massive cannon at the floating city. The town narrowly decided to land the massive city on their own heads, sparing Widow’s Peak at the last moment. While the emergency landing kept most of Waking intact and avoided the worst outcome, the devastation has forever changed the town of Bravado, bringing deadly radiation and new undead threats from within the wreckage of the city. The decisions made during the fall of Waking will have a BIG impact on the future of the San Saba.

  • During THE UNDYING PRINCE, mysterious Obelisks awoke across the San Saba, leading survivors to the Lost City. During our summer online event, players took shelter within Barogue during an Oxkiller attack, and awoke the Prince Undying, the last ruler of the Lost City of Barogue. With his help, they used the Shards of the Red Crown to silence the obelisk within Barogue and escape from a horde of Resonant Raiders, but were nearly trapped in a nightmarish realm beyond death. At the end, it was as if everything they had experienced was just a dream, and the Prince Undying was nowhere to be found.

Text: Declaration of War! A State of War exists between the San Saba Territories and the people and government of the Oxkiller Alliance. The San Saba Board is hereby authorized and directed to employ the entire military force of the San Saba and the resources of the Territories to carry on war against the Oxkiller Alliance and bring the conflict to a successful termination. Levying war against the San Saba, adhering to the enemies of the San Saba Territories, or giving them aid and comfort is an act of treason. The Charter nor Law of the San Saba shall levy punishment against those that spill the blood or bone, steal the Infection of the body or work of the hands of those that have committed treason.

Big story changes for Season 5

We told a year of exciting stories last season, but there’s some important consequences from last season that will matter for this upcoming event and Season 5.

  • The War of Antlers has begun. The San Saba Territories are now at WAR. The enemy forces of the Oxkiller Alliance, the remnants of the Okiller and Antler Tribes that left after the death of Queen Jasper, have claimed the territory of Star City and Fort Worthless as part of a new OXKILLER TERRITORY. This new faction is at war with the San Saba, and plans on using their superior military might to undermine the San Saba Board. Thankfully, the town elected to fund a new militia to match this threat, and the Board has named anyone that helps the Oxkiller Alliance a traitor in an emergency wartime change to the San Saba Charter.

    • During this season, you can freely kill Oxkiller Alliance enemies without worrying about being sentenced to a Gauntlet for murder or theft.

  • The Lovelace Family has withdrawn to Widow’s Peak. After nearly losing their family to a Bravado-based threat three times over two years, the Lovelace are through with risking their kin in Bravado. While they were spared from a death beneath the crushing weight of the skyship city of Waking, it was only in the last moments that the town redirected their efforts to avoid the Quiet Folk settlement. The Widows of the Lone Star have been granted ultimate influence over legal decisions, leaving the orphanage and charitable organization to manage their interests in town during their absence.

    • The Lovelace Family will no longer be an eligible Society Membership, and any characters with this membership will gain Widows of the Lone Star membership instead. However, all of the items on the Lovelace Family Faction Buy Lists remain available for players with Widows membership.

  • General Rampart and the Grave Council placed Bravado under a Quarantine and Audit. After risking the balance of the morgues to an entity known as the Voice Below and the reckless behavior involving Grave Mind Shards and more, the Grave Council has “quarantined” our community from the danger they represent. They will not offer official services in town as a faction, have fired all the groundskeepers, and the Reckoners will be performing an audit on any actions that impact the Grave Mind over the next year. Heavy fines and penalties will be placed on those that choose to use unlicensed graverobbers, particularly for life binding services, and Bravado is on their own should a morgue crisis ensue. Yikes!

    • Characters may not increase their Society Membership with the Grave Council past Basic without a specific plot request.

    • Any character that uses Master Faithful Will will incur a 100 Brass fine from the Grave Council during the duration of the Audit. This amount will be added to your Grave Tax, and could come due in April.

    • The Morgue will have additional mechanics for maintenance that must be completed by players during each game. If this is not completed, serious consequences could occur in the town.

  • The Railroad Conglomerate has been seriously impacted by the fall of Waking. The loss of their capital as a shining beacon of their power was a massive hit to the financial faction. In retaliation for Felicity’s role in the catastrophic crash, the Families of Waking Prime have claimed the second Board seat once reserved for the Railroad Conglomerate. This has served to weaken the influence of the RRC during Board votes, as the Families are much more likely to favor the Chair.

    • The RRC will experience several penalties to their financial and political influence during Season 5 based on the decision to land Waking Prime on Bravado.

    • The second RRC seat on the Board is now held collectively by the Families of Waking Prime, powerful allies of the Chairman that were introduced during the Emerald Gala.

  • The Red Ledger is focused on the war to the north. Their Strikers have been sent to aid the war effort alongside the San Saba Republic, and they have their hands full. Expect to see less of a Red Ledger presence in Bravado as the season continues, as they chase bigger prey in the war to the north.

    • The Red Ledger is no longer an eligible Society Membership. The Red Ledger Buylist will be added into the various Faction Buy Lists instead, and your Marks are still eligible to be earned and spent on SES-related items.

    • We will have some more information on this in the weeks ahead!

Text: Strikers of the Red Ledger should regroup on the northern fronts. Mercenaries and militias don’t mix. There’s no glory in small quarry and the Oxkiller War has plenty to go around. Let the San Saba folks handle the small stuff and let’s answer the call. Iron sharpens iron, Strikers. — Gustav Glasseyes

  • The Charter of the San Saba has been updated, giving new autonomy to the Law Dogs and the Justices of Sin. Thanks to a clever submission during the Stakeholder’s Meeting, the contract the Law Dogs signed with the Board has been renegotiated. Additionally, the Justices of Sin have become an entity of their own, gaining new freedoms from Tabitha and Killhouse Prison. However, the conflict between these three factions is sure to cause issues for justice in the San Saba during Season 5.

    • The Faction Buy Lists for Prudence Penitentiary and the Law Dogs have been updated. Several items once limited to one faction are now available to players of BOTH factions.

    • Players will have an opportunity to decide the final fate of these three Justice factions during our Season 5 events: Prudence Penitentiary, the Law Dogs, and the Justices of Sin.

  • The Bravado Morgue was successfully defended, and the Voice Below was silenced. Near the end of our May event, players successfully dealt with the Grave Mind entity known as the Voice Below, and the catastrophic consequences that might have occurred had Waking landed with the link still intact were prevented thanks to player sacrifice. However, while players successfully dealt with this threat, the Shard of the Grave Mind formerly known as the Eightfold Mother is still a growing problem within the Bravado morgues.

    • The Local Blueprint “Rite of the Indulgence” has been removed from play.

    • The Bravado Morgue has been moved to the Treehouse. Returning safely from death will no longer be as certain within Bravado. If you are not careful, you could lose multiple Infection when you die!

  • The mysterious Obelisks have quieted for now, but Lake Bravo is still boiling. Folks did something in Barogue to slow down the crisis of these strange monoliths that awoke over the summer all around the San Saba, but it didn’t fix everything. There’s something different about the strange white obelisk in the center of the lake, and its still wrecking havoc on Drywater, the Junkerpunks and anything that lives near or on the water. Plus, the Prince Undying is still missing after the nightmarish escape from Barogue. Where did he go, and what is he up to now?

    • Sailing mods this season will involve new threats, new enemies, and the Junkerpunk faction will have several penalties to their financial influence during the season.

    • Shards of the Red Crown are a new limited currency item introduced for this season. This item is an Illustrated Item Card, and will have several different uses over the season.

    • A new keyword “Attuned to Nightmares” has been added to our Local Rules.

  • The radioactive husk of Waking is on Bravado’s doorstep. The once mighty skyship was crash landed near the city, causing massive ecological devastation in the process. While the surface city is mostly intact, the interior decks of the ship remain dangerously irradiated. The town has cordoned off the radioactive approach to the airship into the new Waking Exclusion Zone. The seat of the San Saba Board is now directly involved in the future of Bravado.

    • Zuni has become our new NPC land. The entire area is severely radioactive and should be avoided in-character. Players may not enter this area unless on a mod, as they will quickly die from lethal exposure to radiation.

Text: To our Lovelace Family in Bravado. At the request of our Matriarch, Immacula Lovelace, and the town council of Widow’s Peak, it has become time to protect our values politely but proactively. The Lovelace Family has chosen to focus our public assets with the charitable organization of the Widows of the Lone Star. Our family will not grace the lands of Bravado until restitution for sins committed has been met. Rebuilding a community starts from the ground up, but our patience tells us when to prune the weeds from the blossom. Your deeds for the Family will not be forgotten and all the respect and honor of our family will be met by our siblings within the Widows. Live Quiet, Peaceful, and Connected Lives, Clauthia Lovelace.

A sneak peek at the future

We have a lot in store this season, but I’ll wrap up today’s post with a teaser into our season story. Here are the episode titles and Storytellers of the upcoming games of the season:

  • September 15-17 - BENEATH THE CORPSE OF WAKING

    • Overarc Storytellers: Heather & Jonathan

  • October 13-15 - CIRQUE DE DREAD

    • Overarc Storyteller: Matt Hoadley

  • November 10-12 - EMERGENCE

    • Overarc Storyteller: Maenad Wilder

  • December 8-10 - THE RED DEATH (Premiere Event!)

    • Overarc Storytellers: Heather & Jonathan

  • February 9-11 - THE BREAKER OF CROWNS

    • Overarc Storytellers: Heather & Jonathan

  • March 8-10 - GIFTS OF SUFFERING

    • Overarc Storyteller: Andrew Harper

  • April 12-14 - WHISPERS FROM THE DEEP

    • Overarc Storyteller: Brett Moulton

  • May 10-12 - THE ATROCITY

    • Overarc Storytellers: Heather & Jonathan

What could it all mean? Oh man, I’m so excited to tell the next chapter of the San Saba story. We have a lot in store for this season, and I hope you are as excited as we are.

Remember, tickets are still on sale for our September event. Skip the line at pre-reg!

See you soon Vados!

Text: Life Binding: Class 3 Offense. The Grave Council will enforce a 100 Brass bounty on each use of Life Binding to upset the balance of the Mortis. Robbing the Mortis Amaranthine in this way threatens our work in Waking and the San Saba and will not be tolerated under the Bravado Quarantine & Audit.

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Beneath the Corpse of Waking

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Howdy Vados!

It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to our September live event BENEATH THE CORPSE OF WAKING! Each week, I’ll discuss in detail an aspect of the upcoming event, compiling the rules and lore into one easy place to read! This week, we are covering the premise of our event, some content warnings, and a few logistics changes for Season 5!

  • Our Admin team and some other DR:TX volunteers will be at ColossalCon this weekend! Stop by our booth in the Dealer’s Room for a chance at some sweet swag and a raffle for a cool prop!

Our photos for this post were taken from previous DR:TX events by our talented Photo Team. The art pieces for this post are some new sticker concepts featuring art designed by Shan Lind.

The original obelisk, within the boiling waters of Lake Bravo, by Shan Lind.

Beneath the Corpse of Waking

Here’s the premise and summary of our first event of the season:

The San Saba Board has been bloodied with the fall of Waking.  Never before has the San Saba Board’s power been challenged so successfully as the fall of Waking Prime.  Despite the threat of strange Obelisks and the impending struggle against the dangerous Oxkiller Alliance, the Board is focused instead on containing the crisis that is the barely landed wreck of Waking Prime.

The wreckage of Waking Prime lays burning with fire and radiation on the doorstep of Bravado, leaching into the water, the soil, the Gravemind and the hearts of people who rely on the land for survival. The devastation is immense, and the clean up efforts will need to be just as extensive to restore the land to its previous state.

But beneath the corpse of the once mighty flying city is a brewing problem.  The morgues are churning forth the undead in larger numbers than before, bringing back creatures that have been unseen since the Hiway War alongside the threat of radiation sickness.  Somewhere within the underbelly of the city is the answer to stop the horde of undead, but the radioactive husk of Waking is lethal to even Retrogrades.  

To fix the problem, the Railroad Conglomerate has contracted a series of Liquidation Runs into the corpse of the city for any brave enough to risk the delve.  Brave the deadly radiation, get out alive, and you will be handsomely rewarded.   However, the deadly threat of radiation kills more surely than the claws of a zombie or the cruel ax of a raider.  

A certain and insidious death awaits those runners that tarry too long on their mission, get trapped by the undead, or get lost in the maze-like pathways inside the city.  Stay too long on a liquidation run, and no amount of medical assistance or meals will save you.  If you survive the lethal radiation, you’ll still have to contend with the raiding parties of the Oxkiller Alliance trying to stop any from saving the monument of the Board’s failure.

Can you survive beneath the corpse of Waking?  Can you stem the tide of radiation and undead before it is too late?

Zombies! by Shan Lind.

A Radioactive Season Opener

Oh my. Radiation and undead sounds like a lethal combination, but that’s probably not all the dangers that are in store for your characters during our Season Opener.

If you attended our online event, THE UNDYING PRINCE, we will be continuing our saga of the San Saba Territories into a brand new season with new mysteries, new dangers, new nightmares, and new stories. We have new threats, new allies, new zombies, and more! We even have a brand new currency item this season to join Amaranthite, the Shards of the Red Crown.

Over the next few weeks, we will be covering more about this season opener event during our regular Wednesday Blog Posts, including an update on some important story changes for the season, new NPCs to watch out for like the Oxkiller Alliance and the Families of Waking Prime, some more traditional Rules Rambles on the dangers of Radiation, and more!

Content Warnings

The themes of Dystopia Rising often touch close to our real world in ways we cannot always avoid. The DR:TX team believes that we can still tell these stories about challenging topics, but we also believe we need to be transparent about our intentions, and allow folks to opt-out of any mechanics from those stories. In our tradition of radical trust, we want to also trust in each player that attends our game to know their own limits and be able to choose to avoid topics and situations that make them uncomfortable.

Its one reason we take our OK Check-In system so seriously! We understand that these may not be stories you want to participate in, and that’s okay!

You can always find a list of our Content Warnings on our website, but let’s talk about some of the specific things you might want to be prepared for during this first event of the season.

Disease & Radiation

  • Disease, infection, and consequences of diseases

One of the themes of this upcoming event is the consequence of crashing a giant airship powered by a nuclear reactor right next to Bravado. The choices made during our last event in May left a lasting effect on our tiny town, and many of the events of the weekend will deal with the insidious danger of Radiation. It’s a threat you can’t defeat with a boffer, it’s invisible to the naked eye, and it can be quickly lethal. One aspect of this threat will be in the form of RADIATION POISONING, a common disease associated with the dangers of irradiated threats in Dystopia Rising.

During the September event, you might encounter ways to contract this disease for your character, particularly if you purposefully enter irradiated Hot Zones, like the WAKING EXCLUSION ZONE, or encounter certain Radioactive Zombies. These areas will be clearly posted, so you’ll be able to see how to avoid most of these mechanics if you want, and we will have the mechanics and roleplay guidance for this disease posted near the Post Office.

This is a dangerous disease that can lead to character death if untreated, but this is a well-known malady. Any doctor with Basic Medical can treat and cure this disease, and the treatment is well known through the wastes. Next to Bad Brain, this is probably one of the most common diseases in the world of Dystopia Rising. It’s a pretty slow to progress disease if you avoid irradiated areas, so you’ll have many opportunities to seek out a cure before it spells an untimely end for your LC.

Liquidation Runs & Timed Events

  • Physically demanding activities, intense emotional situations, where characters may be pushed to their emotional limits.

During the September event we will be debuting LIQUIDATION RUNS. I’ll cover more about these in detail in a later post, but these will be high risk, high reward events during the game that you can participate in at set times during the weekend. These events will deal with delving into the corpse of Waking, the crashed airship outside the city limits, braving the deadly radiation in search of stemming the tide of undead flowing from the wreck. One of the intensely scare things about radiation is that when a person dies of exposure, they literally start to melt as the cellular bonds decay. It’s like you are being liquified!

These Liquidation Runs will involve potentially character deadly events that will be timed, repeatable mods, similar to the supply runs we ran last season during our closer. If you stay too long in the mod area, your character will DIE from lethal exposure to radiation. Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect 200 Brass. This risk will be telegraphed in advance, and these events will be entirely optional. You don’t have to enter the radioactive belly of the beast if you don’t want to.

Additionally, during these events you’ll have to complete a series of stressful challenges while dealing with undead and other threats of Waking. Many of these challenges will involve physically demanding activity (running, simulated fighting, etc.) or kinetic puzzle events. Similar to the quick events we used during the 4-hour Siege last season, these events won’t be so much about how many Mind points you can spend, but rather how clever, coordinated, or quick you are as a player. This makes these events perfect for characters of any tier of play, as it won’t be a matter of how much XP you have, but how well you can communicate and coordinate with your team and react to the dangerous events we throw your way.

Heather and I have some devious challenges in store for you, and we hope you decide to take the risk! Just don’t take too long, or you’ll be LIQUIDATED!

Another bit of obelisk art by Shan Lind.

logistics Changes for Season 5

We have a lot in store for the story this next season, but let’s make sure we cover a few big out-of-character changes that you’ll need to be ready for during our next season:

Zuni is now NPC Land!

The area of Camp Kachina known as Zuni (formerly The Breach) will be reclaimed as an NPC only space during Season 5. During our live games, this area will be off-limits unless you are participating in an away mod in the space, as it will now represent the heavily radioactive area known as the WAKING EXCLUSION ZONE.

We apologize if you had your hopes set on staying in the open-air cabins there, but we have a lot of cool events in store that will benefit from having a dedicated mod space. We appreciate your understanding and your grace as we make this adjustment for Season 5. We still have plenty of beds and cabins available elsewhere on site, including several climate-controlled spaces like Kiva, Wigwam, and Wikiup! You are always welcome to set up a tent in most areas on the site too, and there are many open-air cabins in Hopi and Yuma!

The Morgue is Moving! (again!)

Based on player and ST feedback, we will be moving the Morgue to a new location during Season 5. Last season, we experimented with the area behind the kitchen in the breezeway, but we found it to be easily disrupted by noise from players in the Depot despite the cool ambiance it offered. This year, we will be housing the entrance to the Mortis Amaranthine in….

The Treehouse (aka The Maw)!

This space is an exciting area that can be easily set up for a black box experience, and we have a lot of neat death scenes planned for this year with our new Specialized Storytellers. It is far enough away from the major population centers to be remote, but still close enough to Ops to allow us to include it into our stories for the season. The Treehouse will give us a space where you can experience the deathly quiet of the Grave Mind, and delve into the mysteries of what happens when we die and are reclaimed by the insidious forces beyond death itself.

ticket prices have been updated for season 5

We posted about this last week, but in case you missed the announcement from National, you can read up on how we are implementing these changes in our blog.

Saturday NPC Shifts & the Siesta

Based on player feedback and operating with a slimmer ST team this year, we are making a slight adjustment to our NPC schedule. Players appreciated having a low-threat time during the afternoon for our Siesta, but we had repeated feedback about how it disrupted the flow of the event and led to some boring afternoons. To fix this, we’ve changed up the schedule:

  • Our first NPC shift on Saturday will now start at 10:00 am, and run until 2:00 pm. That’s right, you can stay up late without worrying about a zed attack right at 8:00 am.

  • Our Siesta will run from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm. This is a time where we will have little to no dangerous NPCs in the world, making this a perfect time to get lunch, take a shower or get a quick nap, or plan those fun player-led events. The Post Office will still be opened for all your crafting and econ needs!

  • Our second NPC shift on Saturday will begin at 4:00 pm, same as last season.

We appreciate all of your feedback, and we will continue to work tirelessly towards improving and iterating on our processes as we go. We are excited to try some new things this season and we hope that you will appreciate all the hard work!

Wrap Up

That’s it for today Vados!

Thanks for sticking around after a long, hot summer, and we can’t wait to get back into our favorite zombie game. Next week, we will be right back at it with some of the in-character changes you can expect for Season 5, including some monumental changes to the San Saba…

Remember, tickets are on sale now, so don’t miss out on your chance to return home to Bravado!

See you soon Vados!

This is a cool sticker we will be handing out at our booth at ColossalCon!

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The Obelisks of the San Saba

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Howdy Vados!

It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to our August online event THE UNDYING PRINCE! Each week, I’ll discuss in detail an aspect of the upcoming event, compiling the rules and lore into one easy place to read! This week, we are covering a few last topics before the event this weeekend, including some lore about the mysterious OBELISKS!

Over the last two weeks, we have covered a bit of the premise of the event and why your characters might end up in the Lost City of Barogue, and how crafting works in online in our blog posts.

Remember, unlike a live event, you can buy your tickets up until the end of the online event!

Logistics for the Weekend

We have a few last minute reminders to cover!

You can head on over to the Lonestar Skies Discord server to get set up for the weekend event. We will have some early-bird activities starting soon, so don’t miss out on your chance to get a head start and earn a few Barogue Bucks while you are at it.

If you want to get a head start on the Econ game, you can begin to work on your “Do Work, Get Paid” spreadsheet. Remember, this is an optional way to access traditional crafting, gathering, and econ skills.

The Schedule of Events:

  • 6:00 PM, Friday night before the event: We will have folks ready to help you convert your character to Bravado Bones in advance of the event. If you need assistance with any rules questions, I’ll be available around 6:00 PM CST to answer any questions you might have.

  • Our Opening Announcements will take place at 7:30 PM CST.

  • Our first Mod Series for Act 1 “New Barogue” starts at 8:00 PM

  • Our second Mod Series for Act 2 “The Obelisk” starts at 12:00 AM.

  • Saturday morning, we start our first Mod Series of the day, Act 3 “The Prince” at 10:00 AM.

  • We continue our fourth Mod Series for Act 4, “The Shards of the Red Crown” at 2:00 PM.

  • We reach our penultimate Mod Series for Act 5, “The Path Beyond” at 6:00 PM.

  • Our final Mod Series for Act 6, “The Way Out” begins at 10:00 PM.

  • We will have a final text adventure wrapping up the story of the weekend for y’all in proper DR:TX Lonestar Skies online tradition starting at 12:00 AM on Saturday night.

  • Your “Do Work, Get Paid” spreadsheets will be due by Saturday night at midnight!

  • Sunday will be left open for soft roleplay and last minute Barogue Buck behaviors before we close down the server at 12:00 PM.

  • We will have our Closing Announcements at 12:00 PM on Sunday, and then I’ll be off with our Admin team to write some cards for our Grab Bag folks so we can get stuff in the mail as soon as possible.

We will have lots to do on the server through out the weekend, several trans-media events planned, some puzzles and challenges to participate in and more as the game progresses. Even if you don’t have a Mod planned, there will still be plenty to be involved in during THE UNDYING PRINCE!

Lastly, as a sneak peek at the rewards we have in our GRAB BAG, take a look at the new SHARD OF THE RED CROWN, a currency-style card we will be using during Season 5 and beyond.

Here’s a sneak peak at the new currency item, a “Shard of the Red Crown”. You can get your very own by purchasing the Grab Bag for this event!

The Obelisks of the San Saba

First, lets cover a bit of lore pertaining to an important part of the weekend event - the Obelisks of the San Saba. You might even find these are important through out Season 5, so let’s first talk about what you might know already.

  • From our very first story of 3.0, one of the primary reasons people traveled to Bravado was the mystery of a strange white obelisk that protruded from the lake nearby. It hinted at a strange facility under the ground that became the source of delving and fabulous resources for those willing to risk Bloodghasts and worse.

  • During our Essex Trilogy, a three-game arc during our online season, we dealt with the Fountainhead Incident, where a mysterious monolith called the Fountainhead grew in the center of the City of Light and Sound and caused all sorts of havoc. It was eventually stopped, leaving the city covered in trees and greenery, full of brand new life.

  • In the halls of Waking Prime, in the museum known as the Hall of Inventions, a plinth of unknown stone stands as a central exhibit, featuring the lost language of a people thought dead for generations. From here, Felicity Redfield was able to translate an ancient map found during the Dead Man’s Hand Tournament, and lead survivors to reclaim the Lost City two years ago.

  • During the race to find Barogue, survivors used a lone obelisk in the desert as a waypoint to find the Lost City, but any psions that drew near reports a strange sensation of nausea and sickness that kept them from lingering nearby.

  • During our December 2021 event, The Long Night, a blackened monolith grew in Bravado and trapped an Archon within. With hordes of undead swarming through Bravado, teams of survivors found a way to fight back against the Abyssal threat, silencing the threat of the monolith.

And when we started our lead up for the online event, we gave y’all this part of our teaser for THE UNDYING PRINCE:

Lake Bravo boils.  

A lone white Obelisk stands undisturbed in the lake, the beacon that first drew delvers to the ruins underneath Bravado.  A blackened monolith in the Dune Sea, once used as a waypoint through the desert begins to hum.  A tree, formed of flowing stone in the center of Essex, begins to corrode.  Unborn throughout the San Saba wander into the desert, mindlessly following the ‘music of the spheres’, a song unheard by any other strain.  The melody seems to call them all to one place. 

Towards the West. Towards the lost city of Barogue.

So, you see, these obelisks aren’t exactly NEW.

We’ve been hinting at them for a while now.

And now they are a BIG problem.

So let’s cover some current events, and explore what is happening throughout the San Saba.

A New Crisis

As of a few weeks ago, strange events started happening in the San Saba. It started out in just a few places, but it’s becoming a bigger problem by the day. Something must have happened, because now these ancient monoliths, stone pillars at least a hundred years old seem to be reacting to some new signal.

Even the hard-working reporters of The Wastelander, the finest newspaper office in Essex, find the timing a little too convenient:

Extra, Extra, Read all About It!

Well that sounds bad.

Why should your characters go to Barogue?

Well, the simplest answer is that shit is going wrong EVERYWHERE. Every character in the San Saba is being impacted by this event, whether they like it or not.

In Bravado, the lake itself is BOILING. It’s hurt the Junkerpunk port of Drywater and it is preventing most river traffic from reaching Bravado. The boiling lake is causing massive damage to the wildlife of the area, including the local Leviathan population. The heat is intense, and it shows no signs of stopping. Coupled with the radiation from the nearby wreck of Waking Prime, the environment is taking a beating.

Longwalkers, terrible entities that normally emerge during the Winter Lights festival of December are being reported throughout the regions around Widow’s Peak. These strange creatures are a nuisance during the Long Night, but they have normally been somewhat helpful as long as you followed a few simple rules. Now, it’s as if they are called to roam by something else entirely.

Throughout the San Saba, people have been going missing. Some of them have been sighted walking into the deserts of the Dune Sea, chasing some sound that only they can hear. If they are lucky, they simply die of thirst and heat exposure. If they aren’t lucky, the sand leviathans and Firebrand raiders get them first. Those that are asked only say they can hear “the music of the spheres” and try to walk west, towards Barogue.

In Essex, the Fountainheart seems to be waking up again. The last time this happened, the entire city was nearly wiped out as a faceless undead took over the city, and Archons escaped from within. Doomsday cultists are gathering at the feet of the strange stone tree, waiting for the end, and a strange decay seems to be spreading from the center of Essex. Anywhere there is scrap, metal, or any bits of industry, the metal itself seems to be rotting and rusting faster than should be possible. The Oxlines are taking damage from the spread of corrosion, and the RRC has had to limit train traffic to the largest city in the San Saba. If they aren’t careful, even the mighty Ox could be impacted by the strange decay.

Storms along the Spoiled Coast near the Clutch seem to be worsening, and terrible lightning, rain, and hurricanes are building on the coast. Even worse, the Cicatrix, the tentacled Grave Mind of the region, seems to be attacking ships that draw close the Lighthouse, the beacon that leads ship safely to shore. Those that get dragged to the murky depths of the ocean can’t seem to find their way back from death. Travel from abroad has slowed to a crawl, and ships bound for Gatorland and beyond won’t attempt the journey for fear of dying a final death in the bottomless grasp of the sea.

If something isn’t done soon, this seems like it’s going to be problem for Bravado and the entire San Saba Territories. However, there are some pretty smart people in the San Saba. It’s clear that these events must be related, and it’s clear that something is happening in Barogue. Someone has to stop this, and the Railroad Conglomerate is hiring survivors throughout the region to head to Barogue to help their teams find an answer to the problem.

But the answer seems to be these strange Obelisks. According to a report intercepted by the Wastelander, the Railroad Conglomerate uncovered a NEW obelisk, locked behind psi-tech doors within the city of Barogue. If you can find a way inside, perhaps you can find a way to silence this strange music, or discover someway to control or shut down these Obelisks.

HOW do you get there? Traveling to Barogue

Getting to the Lost City is a feat in and of itself.  The Dune Sea is an unforgiving environment and it makes simply reaching the city an endeavor few can afford or are willing to risk.  There are only a few reliable ways to reach Barogue, chief among them the momentous accomplishment of using the rail lines.  The act of laying a new rail line to the Lost City by the RRC over the last two years is a vital connection to the greater San Saba and beyond.

  • By Rail - The only truly secure way to travel to Barogue is via the Oxline.  Even so, the travel is slow as a “sweeper engines” must travel in front of the mighty locomotives to clear the tracks of sand and debris that gathers daily across the stretch of railway that runs towards the Broken Coast.  These smaller locomotives push giant plows through the sand, keeping the rail clear for the engines that follow in their wake.  The Oxline travel is expensive, but offers a mostly smooth journey to the Lost City.  However, your personal finances determine if you get to ride in luxury in an ice-cooled luxury car, or suffer with the laborers and less fortunate travelers in the blistering heat of the passenger cars.  Many travelers don’t make the trip to travel solely to Barogue, instead opting for passage to Oasis and beyond as the Oxline continues its journey west.

  • By Land - The second most dangerous journey to Barogue is braving the treacherous sands and the many threats of the Dune Sea by land.  Desert tribes of the Cali*co Caravan and the DJs of the Sweetwaters offer protected passage through the desert, following the trail set by the map-bearers and Felicity Redfield on their first journey to the Lost City.  Few travel on foot, but even vehicles need to be specially outfitted to survive the journey across the inhospitable sands.  Those that journey across the Dune Sea tend to use the only major landmarks that remain, starting from the oilfield camps of the RRC to the west of Essex before leaving major trade routes.  Two major points remain to reference on the journey – one a strange black Monolith that rises from the desert, and the massive metal behemoth known as the Frigate, a known raider stronghold within the Dune Sea.  Many that attempt the journey westward never make it to Barogue, as they are killed and eaten by Firebrands, dangerous Roughnecks, or even massive Leviathans.

  • By Air - The most dangerous way to attempt the journey to Barogue is attempting the passage by airship.  The bone-scouring sandstorms and superheated winds tend to combine for a lethal combination for those that try to travel by air.  The heat causes the air bladder-technology of most airships to expand out of control and burst, and the winds make straight navigation impossible.  Even in a ship rigged for the journey, travelers must make frequent stops to refit and repair, leaving them exposed to the same dangers of traveling by land, but with less ability to evade the threats.  Only the truly foolhardy attempt the journey to Barogue by air, and it is most often some DJ with a deathwish that is trying to make a name for themselves on the most dangerous stretch of the Dune Sea imaginable.

No matter the route, those that are lucky enough to survive the journey to Barogue soon find that getting inside the superstructure of the titan city is not as easy as it might appear. Hopefully, you will find assistance in the work camp outside the Lost City, commonly known as “New Barogue”.

What awaits you in NEW Barogue?

There is a saying among the work crews in New Barogue: “If the heat doesn’t kill you first, the desert, raiders, or leviathans will get you in the end.”  Simply surviving in the heat of the Dune Sea is a task not for the faint hearted or unprepared.  While the threat  of zombies and the undead is fairly low in the desert (but not unheard of), the other denizens of the dunes are more than enough for the camp to handle.

There are several major dangers to contend with while in Barogue:

  • The Heat - The temperatures in the desert can soar into the 120s at midday, so much of the work done at Barogue is done at night or in the cooler parts of the morning and evening.   Even still, it’s hard to sleep drenched in sweat and there are no real modern amenities at the camp.  Water must be carefully rationed, and only the access to regular shipments from Essex makes the camp even possible.  The few wellsprings the RRC have found are jealously guarded and sold as rations to their workers.  Heat exhaustion and heat stroke remain the number one killer of RRC teams, and daily safety briefs are given to the workers to keep the very real danger of the weather in mind.

  • Sandstorms - In addition to the heat, the very desert itself threatens to reclaim the Lost City if not constantly battled.  Periodically, the superheated winds of the Dune Sea carry enough force to scour flesh from bone in blistering sandstorms that wash over the titan city.  The only hope of survival when a coriolis sandstorm arrives, or “Aranae Ramleh” in the language of the Anneh Yaba desert tribes, is to take shelter within the superstructure of Barogue.  The mighty metal barricades allow for the survivors to withstand the biting sands and melting temperatures, though they must contend with the threats within the city.

  • Firebrand Raiders - A primary danger of the camp are the various clans of Raiders that make the Dune Sea their own.  The psionic Firebrand Raiders make their homes in the carcasses of Leviathans and seem to worship those of their kind that develop the spark of pyrokinesis that marks the leaders of the clan.  They can be a threat, but they seem to be largely spooked by the Lost City for some reason.  While some brave bands of Raiders periodically test the perimeter, the majority of the clan leaves the camp alone for the most part.

  • Resonant Raiders - The crystal-encrusted raiders first discovered two years ago remain a major threat from within Barogue.  There are several hibernation chambers that have been uncovered within the belly of the titan city that contain thousands of vessels where the unfortunate were kept as living batteries in the Resonant Choir.   Each of these victims is a potential Resonant, and early estimates suggest that there are still dozens of more chambers that are unopened.  From these strange hives and nests, the Resonant Raiders strike out into the world to drink in fear, terror, and anguish as the psychic vampires they are.  Anyone that braves the interior of Barogue must be ready to deal with the eerily quiet threats within.  Some ghost stories suggest that there are other predators within Barogue, but the Resonants are the true masters of the dead city.

  • Leviathans - The true natural predators of the dune sea, these giant mutated critters resemble nothing more than massive sand worms with bifurcated jaws.  Some stretch thousands of feet in length, and the most dangerous of their kind are called Elder Leviathans.  These mighty beasts are nigh-unkillable, and are a force of nature that must be contended with rather than overcome.  There are Leviathan nests that surround the perimeter of the Lost City, offering some protection from raiders and scavengers that would plunder the work camp.  The RRC has provided maps that mark out most of the major known nests, but they remain a regular threat to continued operation of the Oxline and the settlement of New Barogue.  The massive Leviathan that once protected the Lost City has been sighted in the desert nearby and it seems reluctant to return to the former nest, but it remains an ever-present threat in the minds of the laborers in the salvage camp.

  • The Oxkiller Alliance - The technophobic crusade of the new Oxkiller Alliance has threatened Barogue, strangely enough.  The soldiers of the Antler Tribe and Oxkillers strike out into the desert to deal with the “profane monument of man’s hubris” that to them is the Lost City.  In their traditions, the titan city is a sacred and forbidden territory that none must disturb, and the zealots are a constant threat to the Oxline and any that try to travel to the Lost City.  The few Oxkillers that have been willing to talk with the workers of Barogue have mentioned that they believe the city is cursed, and the RRC will doom the world if they are allowed to continue.

  • Roughnecks - Not quite Raider, but not quite civilized, the Roughneck clan is a tribe of DJs, Tainted, and other scavengers that have loosely allied themselves into a roving band of misfits.  From smoke billowing rides, they travel the Dune Sea as the nomads they are, seeking out travelers and raiders to salvage for scrap and resources.  They are bloodthirsty killers, and care nothing for the law and order of the San Saba.  They are known enemies of most San Saba DJ clans, including the Road Royals and the Sweetwaters.

  • Zombies - While zed are truly not much of a threat in the desert, the return of workers to New Barogue has awakened the Morgue within the city once more.  Most zombies that threaten Barogue tend to be shamblers and recently departed workers, but a few desiccated corpses have been encountered from within the dunes itself, victims of the treacherous journey to Barogue.

Life is tough in New Barogue, but the will of the Railroad Conglomerate is mightier.  The wheels of capitalism keep churning amazing amounts of resources into leveraging the treasures of the Lost City of Barogue.  No threat will truly slow the creeping expansion of the Oxline, and the continued successful salvage operations at Barogue are critical to the RRC’s plans of forging the future.

Wrap Up

That’s it for today, Vados!

We hope you will have fun this weekend during THE UNDYING PRINCE! We have some mysteries and nightmares to explore, some secrets to uncover, and some exciting stories told by our new team of Storytellers to start out Season 5 strong. We can’t wait to see you there!

See you this weekend!

 
 
 

The Last Words, continued.

Bravado Bones

Howdy Vados!

It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to our August online event THE UNDYING PRINCE! Each week, I’ll discuss in detail an aspect of the upcoming event, compiling the rules and lore into one easy place to read! This week, we are going to discuss how our online rules system, Bravado Bones, helps tell better stories!

Over the last two weeks, we have covered a bit of the premise of the event and why your characters might end up in the lost city of Barogue, and how crafting works in online in our blog posts. Check it out!

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

a Ruleset for Online Play

It might be a bit obvious, but it’s hard to swing a boffer and call damage on an enemy in an online space. A lot of the Dystopia Rising mechanics are really meant only for live events, and they don’t translate well to an online space. So, to overcome this hurdle we first faced during the pandemic, we came up with a solution — a ruleset specifically for online games.

One of our talented staff members at the time, Sam Mars, designed the first round of our Bravado Bones mechanics, creating a way to adapt your existing DR character sheet into a new form for online play.

BRAVADO BONES is a Powered By The Apocalypse skin, originally adapted by Sam to use during our pandemic virtual game play. It is not meant to be a replacement for the Dystopia Rising LARP system, nor is it meant to replace the tabletop system published by Onyx Path. We use this ruleset during our online events, which we call “Lonestar Skies Virtual Events”. I’ve recently updated this ruleset to our new 1.1 mechanics, incorporating a few new ideas that have evolved over the years since we first designed the system.

Bravado Bones sessions are led by a Guide and are played by a 4-5 of Leading Characters (LCs). During play, the Guide will act as a narrator, storyteller, and referee.  This is a rules-light, collaborative Storytelling system, focused on the stories we tell together and not the mechanics.

Character sheets for Bravado Bones are generated from your Dystopia Rising character sheet and use your progress in game to represent your abilities in the virtual space.

Why bravado bones?

We believe that Bravado Bones captures the BEST thing about Dystopia Rising — the story we tell with our friends. During a module online, you will tell a story together, using the principles of “yes, and…” to tell an exciting, engaging story of how your characters survived the challenges of the wasteland. In the online space we get to do things we can NEVER do in live events.

As an ST, I can’t really pour a thousand pounds of sand on Camp Kachina to simulate a desert, and I certainly don’t have the budget to build a haunted lost city on our game site. In Bravado Bones, we get to explore areas of the San Saba we could never visit in game.

As a player, I might not be able to sprint across the battlefield in game thanks to an old injury, but in the Bravado Bones system, my character can speed into a fight in a way that I’ll never achieve in real life. I can do feats of daring that my old body could never accomplish in game.

As a character, I might imagine my character as this master sniper, but I know that Nerf dart will never fly 50 meters across the field to hit accurately on my target. But in Bravado Bones, I can be a marksman that never misses, or I can summon fire from my hands without the need for pyrotechnics.

In short, you get to be the HERO. And that’s really, really cool.

So let’s cover some important differences of Bravado Bones from the live events, past the obvious:

  • The rules are simple. There’s no huge rulebook, and only about 3-4 pages of actual mechanics for Bravado Bones. It only takes a few minutes to make a character, and your character sheet is only a few lines long.

  • You roll dice to determine your success during a scene. We will cover a bit more about this below, but the system is very simple, and uses a 2d6 mechanic to determine random rolls.

  • The rules system is designed for you to SUCCEED. Failure is boring, and the system is very forgiving, no matter how much XP your character has.

  • You get to be a bad ass. When you succeed on a roll in Bravado Bones, you don’t just kill a single zombie, you hack through dozens and decimate that horde with your awesome sword skills.

  • You cannot die in Bravado Bones. Unless you want to. Death is such a cool part of Dystopia Rising, and we can never do it justice in the online space. We want to reserve that experience for the live space, so unless you purposefully choose to die, you won’t lose Infection during a Bravado Bones game.

Let’s talk a bit about how this all works.

Bravado Bones Rules

We’ve posted all of the rules for Bravado Bones on our website, completely FREE! I’ll cover a quick summary, but there’s only a few things to read so take a look:

In Bravado Bones, we use your existing Dystopia Rising Character Sheet to build out your characters. You can find the complete rules above for how to do this and we will have some time on Friday before the event to help folks convert their character sheets. For now, let’s stick to the basics.

Each character in Bravado Bones has four main STATS. These will range from a score of [-1] to [+3], depending on how many total skills your character has.

  • COMBAT - This is the combination of all of your Combat skills, like Avoid, Combat Tactics, or weapon skills like Melee Standard or Firearms. You might use this STAT to change a scene with your combat prowess or skill at surviving a fight.

    • Because every character starts with 8 weapon skills to start, EVERY character in Bravado Bones has at least a [+1] in this score.

  • WASTELAND -This is the combination of all of your Wasteland skills, like Stealth, Foraging, or Enhanced Movement. You might use this STAT to change a scene based on your skill at surviving in the harsh environment of the wastes, or your ability to move about a location.

  • CIVILIZED - This is the combination of all of your Civilized skills, like Agricultural, Education, or Medical. This STAT might be used to represent your impressive skills at medicine or other useful trained skills, or even your general charisma and social prowess.

  • ANOMALY - This is the combination of all of your aberrant Anomaly skills, like Biogenetics or Telepathy, or faithful skills like Faithful Miracles. If you didn’t choose to be a psion, you might have a [-1] in this roll. This STAT is used to change things with the power of psionics, or to resist the foul influence of the Grave Mind.

You also have two POOLS, that you can spend during the session. You don’t have as many points overall to track, as every 10 points of Body or Mind equals one point in Bravado Bones. This keeps the math way easier!

  • BODY - This determines how much damage you can take during a scene. If you hit 0, you enter Bleed Out and will need healing, just like a normal game.

  • MIND - You can spend your Mind points to change the outcome of a roll in your favor. If you have a related Achievement, it works even better!

  • RESOLVE - This stat is not used in Bravado Bones, but instead gives you Freebie Points to customize your character. Maybe you think your character would be a bit tougher and have more Body, or maybe you feel like they are better at Wasteland than their STAT would suggest.

To use your STATs during a Bravado Bones session, you will roll some dice using the /roll command. You only have to roll for important actions, where the results matter.

You might notice that the STATS are the same as the four groups of Skills. Your STATS are determined by counting the total number of skills you have, less any PFAs you’ve earned.

A Bravado Bones character sheet is MUCH simpler by comparison.

At the heart of the Bones system is the dice rolls that make up a “Challenge”.  This is a series of rolls by the players to hit a difficulty number set by the Guide.

The core dice mechanic of Bones, for reference, is:

  • 2d6 + STAT (+/- Modifiers)

So, if you had a [+2] in your Combat STAT and you wanted to show off your skills with a rifle, you would roll 2d6+2 and describe how you use your Skills to impact the Challenge. Pretty simple, right?

To make a roll, you simply describe what your character is doing, and then make a roll using the STAT that the Guide tells you to use. The goal is to describe what your character is doing in a BIG way. It’s not simply a roll to see if you swing a sword at a zombie, it’s a roll to see how you CHANGE THE SCENE. You don’t throw a white packet at that Raider, your Pyrokinetics ignites the air around you with a bone melting fury, obliterating any foe that stands in your way.

Feel free to embellish, exaggerate, and generally tell us how you are being a bad ass. Bravado Bones is about these moments where you feel like a rock star, not about you rolling a bunch of dice to deal damage to a foe. Be extraordinary and tell a story that everyone will remember!

When you make a roll in Bravado Bones, there’s only a few possible outcomes.

  • Total Failure (2-6): You do not succeed at your narrative action, and your LC gets a consequence or complication.

  • Mixed Success (7-9): You succeed, but you have a cost or downside to the action, like a penalty on a future roll or losing Mind or Body.

  • Total Success (10-11): Your character achieved exactly what they set out to do, and you had no consequences or costs.

  • Heroic Success (12+): Not only do you succeed, you get to change the scene, and narrate what happens next! This is your chance to be a big damn hero!

There’s a few ways to improve your rolls by spending Mind Points or using your Achievements, gaining temporary bonuses to the roll through Advantage [+1] or Disadvantage [-1], or using things like [Pips] and [Tags], but that’s all pretty easy to learn as you go. The dice roll is the main mechanic you have to learn. You can read more in the Core Rules, if you want to learn more.

It’s pretty simple and intuitive, and our Guides will help you during each session, so don’t worry.

Bravado Bones is a simple, easy system to help you experience the terrors and mysteries of the Lost City of Barogue, and we can’t wait to show you more!

Can’t think why I posted a picture of Resonant Raiders. Weird.

I’ve Played Bones Before, What’s actually New?

Great question! Let’s cover the few main differences for our 1.1 Rule Set.

  • We’ve added [Pips] and [Tags]. In fairness, we added this at the end of the online season, but you might have missed the change. These are ways to modify rolls in Bravado Bones in your favor, past Mind points. Pips are a temporary [+1] bonuses that can be expended on a single roll, while Tags work like another PFA and allow you even better use of your Mind points. Both of these rules help simulate item cards and equipment in the online rules.

  • You can now gain [Threats], which are negative conditions that the Guide can use to create some risk in a scene. During a mod, the Guide can offer to refresh 1 Mind Point in exchange for you failing the next roll for dramatic tension. What kind of new stories can you tell with a dramatic comeback?

  • We’ve added a new type of permanent [Threat] called EXHAUSTED and INJURED. Our good friends at DR: New Mexico first pioneered these mechanics, so we’ve adapted them in Texas. When you enter Bleed Out during a mod, you get the [Injured] Threat. If you run out of Mind points during a mod, you get the [Exhausted] Threat. Each of these Threats creates a penalty to your STATS, but they can be healed in the soft role play rooms.

  • We have a custom mechanic for this event - [NIGHTMARES]. This might be a bit of a spoiler so reader beware, but I’ve posted the complete rules in our Temporary Mechanics.

  • In general, I’ve tried to provide a few more examples of what can happen in a Challenge in the core rules, and provided some neat examples of sample rolls and scenes. Maybe you’ll see a character name you know!

The Prince Undying, by Shan Lind

Wrap up

That’s it for today Vados!

Remember, Mod Sign Ups go live next week, on Monday! Don’t miss out on your chance to experience the nightmares and horrors of the Lost City of Barogue!

Next week we will cover some last minute Logistics before the event, and share some of the Story that happens as your characters begin the event. Stay tuned!

,

The Undying Prince - Crafting & Econ

,

Howdy Vados!

It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to our August online event THE UNDYING PRINCE! Each week, I’ll discuss in detail an aspect of the upcoming event, compiling the rules and lore into one easy place to read! This week, we are going to discuss how Crafting and Economy skills will function in the online event!

Last week, we covered a bit of the premise of the event and why your characters might end up in the lost city of Barogue, in our blog post. Check it out!

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

Crafting in a DR:TX Online Event

Let’s face it. We all know the real reason you are here. It’s all about the shiny item cards you can earn for your character. New gear, new loot, new blueprints, it’s all about the economy! The Econ game is one of my favorite parts of Dystopia Rising. I’ve even written a blog post on how to get better, and we’ve included a number of resources on our website like my Blueprint Checklist, the Skill Buy Lists, and even a Scrap & Herb Guide.

But with that said, let’s talk about crafting during THE UNDYING PRINCE.

Now, an online event has a few different rules that your standard live event, and the stakes are a bit different.

In an online event, you don’t have to worry about random monsters crashing your workbench, you don’t have to wait in line at the Post Office, and you can interact with the Discord server from the comfort and safety of your home, in your pajamas with a cup of coffee. Because the stakes are lower, it’s hard to offer the same crafting experience as a live game, and it’s frankly a bit easier to maximize your output when you don’t have to worry about waiting in a line for the Post Office to open in the morning.

During THE UNDYING PRINCE, we will have three main ways to interact with the economy of Dystopia Rising:

  • “Do Work, Get Paid”, our version of the traditional online crafting spreadsheet system.

  • Barogue Bucks, a replacement of the old Cali*Co points, and a way to earn scrap and herb from participating in our online mods and Discord spaces.

  • The Grab Bag, a way to get some additional Barogue Bucks, some actual item cards, and a neat new collectible currency card. Plus, we will MAIL your cards to you after the event is over!

So let’s cover how each of those systems work, and I’ll even some of the potential outcomes you might see from our online crafting.

“Do Work, Get Paid”

Our primary way to access online crafting is the “Do Work, Get Paid” system. This is a motto that’s been a staple of Bravado and Bravo before it, but the scrappy, can-do attitude of survivors in the Lone Star lends them to a bit more capitalistic mindset. This is definitely inspired by our friends in DR: Oklahoma and DR: Florida, but it all comes down to filling out a traditional CRAFTING SPREADSHEET. If you take the time to fill out this spreadsheet, you get the reward! Do work, get paid!

The Rules™

  • Players will have access to a SIX-HOUR block of crafting time, and ONE 12s worth of Mind points they can spend on any crafting, gathering, or production Skills.

  • This crafting doesn’t interact with Mind used in mods. You’ll still start each mod series with all of the Mind points you would normally have on your Bravado Bones sheet.

  • Players must RP the time they spend crafting in the appropriate #channel on the Discord. This time, as well as what is being crafted, will be logged in #crafting on our Discord server for reference after the event. 

  • Anything that uses a Blueprint can be crafted this way, and we will assume you have access to that blueprint for the event. If you didn’t have the blueprint, that’s fine. We have plenty of folks in Bravado with a full collection of prints, and we will just assume you borrowed a copy from them.

  • Players do not refresh Mind used for crafting but MAY use brews or meals they have in their LIT inventory to recover Mind. The time to consume those brews and meals counts as part of the six-hour block of crafting time. Remember, most meals take 10 minutes to eat and brews take at least 1 minute to use.

  • You must submit your work in a spreadsheet that will be provided prior to the start of the online event, courtesy of our Admin wizards Amber and Ren.

This is entirely optional. If you do the work of filling out the spreadsheet, you can gain the resources of crafting.

But, if filling out a spreadsheet sounds like a version of your own particular hell, that’s fine. We have several other ways to get your hands on some sweet item cards.

Barogue Bucks

Barogue Bucks are an online-only currency that we will use to grant mod rewards, benefits for interacting with online Zones of Mechanics, and other behaviors on the Discord server. If you attended our last online event, Dead Man’s Hand, you might remember a similar system.

During THE UNDYING PRINCE, you have access to our Supply Bag Bot. This bot will enable you to trade, gather, and even gamble your online currency during the event.

Let’s cover the ways you can earn Barogue Bucks:

  • You can earn 100 Barogue Bucks for attending a mod session, up to your max of 3 mods. If you somehow get involved with more than 3 mods, you are still limited to a cap of 300 total.

  • You can earn up to 100 Barogue Bucks by completing several econ-related Zone of Mechanics on the Discord server.

  • You can earn up to 50 Barogue Bucks for simply completing our first Roleplay Challenge when the event starts. Interact with another player in the Soft RP channels to earn some online currency!

  • You can gain a few Barogue Bucks by using the #gamble command in our Discord channels. This will activate a portion of the bot where you can risk it all!

These Barogue Buck mechanics will be posted in certain channels during the event, and you will have a limited time to interact with them. These will be in a pinned post on various channels and will have all the instructions you need to complete. Once you’ve completed the ZOM or mod, one of our room stewards or STs will add this reward to your Supply Bag.

Let’s cover what you can obtain with your Barogue Bucks, and how much they cost:

You might notice that most of these items are things that will greatly help you get an early start on crafting during our first LIVE event in September. These are common materials that are usable in all kinds of Blueprints, and are the building blocks of most equipment, gizmos, weapons, and more. Plus, we’ve included several useful Brews and Gizmos that make survival in the zombie apocalypse a bit easier, especially if you are a New Player!

If you attend all three mods during THE UNDYING PRINCE, you can easily earn 300 Barogue Bucks. That means you could get copies of SIX different blueprints, or SIX Alloy Metal, or THIRTY Basic Scrap, or FIFTEEN Rare Herb. Even if you don’t like filling out spreadsheets, this is an easy and fun way to earn a few item cards for your character to use later.

We have one last way to earn some item cards that we covered last week:

Grab Bags

Grab Bags are a special online-only add on to your ticket. Purchasing this ticket not only helps us prepare for the upcoming season with new props and more, but it also has some tangible rewards for your character! For only $10, you can get the following benefits for your characters during our online event:

OUR GRAB BAG THIS MONTH INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING FOR $10!

You get a few unique items that are usable during the online event:

  • 1x “Explorer’s Kit!” - 3 themed [PIPS] that represent adventurous and useful tools for your excursion to Barogue! These are one-use online items that give you a +1 for a roll of your choice! You can see how to use these in our Bravado Bones online game ruleset!

  • 1x Tag [Well Prepared] - This is an online-only item that helps your Mind points change a roll heavily in your favor! You can see how to use these in our Bravado Bones online game ruleset!

  • 200 Barogue Bucks - This is an online-only currency that will let you obtain herbs, scrap, blueprints, and more, similar to the Cali*Co Point system we used before!

Plus, you get some physical carded items that will start you out strong for our live events starting in September! While every character can earn items for their LIT inventory, the GRAB BAG includes an option to get your items mailed to you!

  • 1x Basic Red Mist - A handy Injectable brew that can be self-administered in Bleed Out. Handy for surviving the wasteland!

  • 1x Weapon Augment of your choice! - Augments are a new type of item that can be attached to a crafted Weapon. They last for 3 months and tend to be a bit expensive to craft. You can start out Season 5 with a shiny new Augment of your own!

  • 1x ‘SHARD OF THE RED CROWN’ Currency Card - This will be a brand-new collectible currency-style card for Season 5, a physical trophy of your trip to the Lost City. This will have some in-game effects for our DR:TX events throughout this next season, as well as being highly collectable!

  • Item Cards by Mail! - Have all the carded items made in our “Do Work, Get Paid” virtual econ system, items purchased with Barogue Bucks, and GRAB BAG items mailed to straight you by USPS!

Grab bags are limited to one per player, so don’t miss out!

wrap up

That’s it for today Vados!

Next week, we will cover a primer on Bravado Bones, the unique system we use for our online events! See you soon!

Don’t wait — Get your tickets today!