Rules You Should Know - November

Howdy Vados!

It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to our November live event EMERGENCE! This is our next ST led overarc of the season, led by Maenad Wilder. 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 last-minute Rules You Should Know, featuring some Threat Skills that might be useful to prepare for, as a mechanic to extend your disease timer - the CONTAINMENT ZONE!

• TICKET SALES ARE CLOSED ONLINE, BUT YOU CAN STILL GET A TICKET AT THE GATE!

• We’ve updated our New Player Corner with a lot of great resources for new and returning players alike. Thanks to DR: Michigan and DR: New York for paving the way with excellent similar content!

• We’ve updated the SES Buy List, and we’ve allowed it to use your San Saba Society Memberships instead of requiring involvement with the Red Ledger. Check out what your Marks can earn you if you sign up for the Survival Ethos System last month!

• You might have missed it, but we updated our Local CAPS list last season. There are some brand new shiny rewards if you bought some items from our Wish List, or if you help our game with extra NPC shifts or spend time as a Guide. Check it out!

Our photos for this post were taken from previous DR:TX events by our talented Photo Team, by Max Pohlmeier, Lauren Guzaldo, and Maddeax Khole.

Let’s get started!

The containment zone

One last major mechanic of note this weekend will be the brand-new CONTAINMENT ZONE. Sometime Friday night, you can expect this custom Zone of Mechanics to enter play at the Depot. Let’s take a look at the specific rules, which are also conveniently posted on our Local Rules page:

Containment zone Mechanics

Once activated, the following mechanics apply to the entirety of the interior cafeteria building, the Terminal Station Depot:

Entering the Containment Zone causes an “Inflict Disease, Behemoth Parasites (Stage 1)”, unless already Infected. If you are already sick, this does not advance your illness to the next stage.

Characters with BASIC MEDICAL may spend 1 Mind for each 10 minutes within the containment zone to safely enter without being infected.

While in the zone, Strains cannot transmit Behemoth Parasites by touch.  Other Inflict Disease mechanics spread by Strike, Ranged Attack, or AOE still work with the Zone.  

Strains with Behemoth Parasites (Stage 3) have their timer paused for the duration they are in the zone.  Strains with the Symbiotic Parasites LPC do not have their timer paused.

This will be a powerful tool for controlling the spread of disease, but it will involve a bit of restriction to some common resources within the play space.

Here’s some points to consider:

• The primary theme for this role play zone is one of ISOLATION. The goal of these mechanics are to provide a space to perform medical role play to their hearts content, and to enable those that reach Stage 3 to pause their timers while a cure is being researched.

• There will still be a path to use the kitchen without interacting with this space. The main area impacted will the Depot space itself, not the kitchen, the bathrooms, or the covered sections outside.

• There will be additional advantages to using your Skills while inside the Containment Zone. While this is normally a convenient Crafting Zone, there will be rewards for players that actively engage with this mechanic within. You’ll have to wait until this area is posted in game to find out more!

Consequences of Radiation

For the last few games, you might have noticed some yellow sheets of paper throughout the camp detailing the impact of the radiation on the local wildlife. The crash of Waking has impacted all the flora and fauna in strange ways, but it’s continuing to get worse as it has still not been properly addressed. This is part of our Temporary Local Mechanics, but I’ve repeated it here.

Beginning this event, the following Consequence has been applied:

• Meat, Fish, and Shellfish may not be acquired with Hunting or Agricultural until the ZOM: Return to Nature has been completed.

This joins the other two Consequences that are still applied:

• Scrap acquired with Trade Connections, Salvaging, Foraging, or Trailblazing now has an expiration date of 6 months.

• Herb and Produce acquired through Agricultural is treated as Wild, with a 3-month Expiration, regardless of how it is made.

This ZOM will be posted at Game On at the entrance to the Waking Exclusion Zone if you’d like to be part of the team that addresses this growing problem.

There will be several Research opportunities to begin to address these Consequences, so stay on the lookout for NPCs and other in play mechanics that will allow you mitigate these penalties.

Rules You Should Know

Let’s cover some of the common Skills and mechanics you might run into this weekend:

Inflict Disease

A single Strike that causes an approved disease to be inflicted at Stage One. If you are already infected with Behemoth Parasites, this advances your disease by one Stage.

This is going to be one of the primary threats this weekend. This ability can be spread in several different ways, from melee Strikes, to Ranged Attacks, and in rare cases, Area of Effects. You’ll see this attack on a variety of threats as the parasites continue to spread. Generally, you’ll be able to use the skill Avoid to prevent the attack but remember you can’t Avoid if you are in BLEED OUT!

Let’s cover something you might see on a particular [REDACTED] threat:

Parasitic Feeding

As per Cannibalism skill on subdued target but does not reduce bleed out timer. Call “Parasitic Feeding” over a target instead of “Cannibalism”. Often Parasitic Feeding is linked with Inflict Disease. If Inflict Disease is taken with Parasitic Feeding, passing of diseases via Parasitic Feeding does not count towards the total uses of Inflict Disease.

This is a nasty ability that will be used on fallen foes to spread the Behemoth Parasites. Unlike Cannibalism, this doesn’t reduce your Bleed Out timer, but instead gives you the disease carried by the host. I’d save an injectable for a quick getaway!

Massive Infectious Strike

The [REDACTED] rears back with a mighty blow to strike down their prey. Call “20 damage, Inflict Disease (Parasites)”.  Can call Overpower versus any Defensive Call or use of Inoculation.

That’s a curious keyword there in that attack. 20 damage is a lot, but that’s what Avoid was made for. Wait, what’s Overpower? Let’s cover this specific Lexicon keyword that was added to the rules last year:

OVERPOWER

If an effect used by this item is defended against with a skill, the user may spend 1 Mind to have it repeat with a call of “Overpower”. If defended against a second time, Overpower may not be used again. This keyword ability cannot be used with PFA abilities.

This is a unique keyword included with most Two-Handed Weapons and represents the overwhelming force of their blows. For creatures, this is equally deadly, as it can punch through defenses and force you to spend for Avoid a second time. These types of massive strikes are virtually unstoppable and will wear you down in a fight!

Additionally, Overpower as part of the Infectious Strike can also be used against Inoculation, a method of preventing the disease from spreading to a new host. If you are only Inoculated, an Overpowered Inflict Disease will also overwhelm your biological defenses, so watch out!

FAQ for Behemoth Parasites

We published the full mechanics for this new disease a few weeks ago, but in the time since that post I’ve received a few questions about the disease:

• Q: Does using a Freeiron Dry Pack spread the disease to someone that uses Larceny against you?

• Generally yes. We recommend telling the Guide you involve for the theft about your current infected status, so they can relay that to the would be thief. We aren’t going to be enforcing every single touch that occurs, and this is largely left up to you, like I mentioned in my post on the disease. If it feels like you spent long enough in contact to get infected, you did!

• Q: How does Inoculation work versus the Parasites?

• This effect works against Parasites, provided the doctor takes proper precautions. This effect to temporarily render someone immune to a disease until the next 12s requires you to touch an infected target, then use that sample to make them immune. If you aren’t in the Containment Zone or using a Doc Ottoman’s Disease Control Kit, all you’ll actually do is spread the disease to yourself and your patient.

• Q: Can the use of the Master Disease Kit be overwhelmed by the Overpower mechanic?

• Nope. Overpower will only overwhelm the Basic use of Inoculation.

• Q: Will this infectious disease have an impact on the War of Antlers plot?

• Most certainly. You’ll have to found out the specifics at the event!

• Q: Will a Deep Fried Meal cure Stage 3 Behemoth Parasites?

• Nope. At game on, there is no cure for this Stage. You’ll have to work with the medics in town to understand the source of this disease and develop a Treatment Plan for this disease.

Keep your distance from the infected!

Wrap Up

That’s it for today Vados! The weather will be cool and chilly, the perfect temperatures to pick up a BUG or two if you aren’t careful. The threat of the Behemoth Parasites seems to be spreading quickly, and it’s up to you to keep it CONTAINED. Hope you saved some Mind to avoid that use of Inflict Disease!

Remember, you can still get tickets at the door, so don’t miss out on THE SQUICKS aND SQUIRMS!

See you soon Vados!

The War of Antlers

Howdy Vados!

It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to our November live event EMERGENCE! This is our next ST led overarc of the season, led by Maenad Wilder. 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 side mechanic you might have noticed on Sunday mornings called The War of Antlers!

• TICKETS FOR OUR NOVEMBER EVENT ARE ON SALE NOW! GET READY FOR A CREEPY CRAWLY GOOD TIME!

• We are running our first ever BUNDLE deal for event tickets! If you purchase your Standard Casting tickets for both the November and December events at once, you’ll get a great discount AND access to the unique new Blueprints we will release in December. Check it out on our Tickets page! You’ll still be able to purchase a Grab Bag for the December when tickets go on sale after the EMERGENCE event!

• Our Slime Promo is live! We have a new reward when you purchase the extra +2 XP for your ticket in November. If you get the additional XP, we will have a container of home-made SLIME ready for you at check-in! This slime may or may not contain bugs (don’t worry, they are fake!) and is guaranteed to be the perfect way to get into the right headspace for this event!

• We have a new CAPs offer for GLOWSTICKS! Scoop up some deals during the post-Halloween sales and earn some goodies for your characters! We are offer 3x CAPs for all glowstick purchases, so all you need to do is bring your receipt or email us a copy. We prefer the chunky glowsticks versus the bracelets, but any and all glowsticks are appreciated. The colors we need most are green, purple, orange, and red.

Our photos for this post were taken from previous DR:TX events by our talented Photo Team, by Max Pohlmeier, Lauren Guzaldo, and Maddeax Khole.

This blog post concerns a mostly OPTIONAL mechanic for this season.

If this seems like something you don’t want to be a part of, or you don’t want to learn a whole new system of rules, that’s fine. Feel free to skip this blog post, but I’m not going to get into the nitty gritty of the actual rules. This is meant only as a high-level overview of the War of Antlers. If you’d like to know more about the actual rules, send us an email at info@dystopiarisingtx.com, or reach out to our in-character General in game.

Content warnings - War

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

Our season-long story of THE WAR OF ANTLERS will touch on war, conflict between nations, war crimes, violence and all the terrors and horrors that war brings. While this is all taking place mostly “off-camera” in our setting and this is simply a fantasy world we play our zombie game in, we understand that this distinction may not be always clear cut. With some recent world events in the news like the terrible violence overseas, we also understand this topic might not be for everyone right now.

With this in mind, it’s one reason we take our OK Check-In System so seriously! We understand that these may not be stories you want to participate in, and that’s okay! We encourage you to take the necessary steps for your own emotional safety. Remember, you can always use the OK Check-In System to choose to leave a scene, even CVC, and even war plots.

However given the scope of this story, this may not be a topic you can always entirely avoid at DR:TX events this season, especially if you get involved with these War of Antlers mechanics. Some elements of the war plot will bleed into the regular game, even if you choose not to participate in this specific plot. You might have refugees coming into to town asking for help, wounded from battles that need healing, or even in-game consequences that effect the play space as the war progresses.

We will strive to be mindful of our players and respect your decision to leave a scene. Don’t worry, there will still be plenty of zombies and raiders to survive later if this doesn’t spark joy.

the War of Antlers

The war between the Oxkiller Alliance and the San Saba Territories has erupted into full-scale conflict.  The forces of the enemy Oxkillers have superior numbers, training, and are well supported from their new territory in the north, and will need to be opposed by the new forces of the San Saba Militia and its new General, Hargrave Moss-Iverspiit.  The LCs will need to decide a battleplan, gather supplies and reinforcements for their armies, and make hard decisions with limited resources.  The LCs will use dice to determine the outcome of battles but have several ways to mitigate the randomness and improve their odds of success.  The resolution of the war and the difficulties of the enemies at the end of the season will be determined by how successfully the war is prosecuted during the previous events of the season.

Theme - The Fog of War

The War of Antlers is a delicate dance of moving pieces, personalities, and a bit of luck.  Drama is driven by the unexpected, and one of the major themes of the conflicts to come is the “Fog of War”.  There are no satellite images or drone spies, limited long range communication, and no ways to really detect enemy troop movements or strengths without getting physical reports and intelligence gathered by people.  Players will not have access to all information during each stage of the war, and will need to react to danger and actions of the enemy in real time during the event, and trust to chance to help their troops survive in the battles that follow between the games.

Theme - Small Skirmishes, Not Battalions

For the War of Antlers, the scale of the battle is much more reduced than wars of the past.  In the zombie apocalypse, a powerful “army” will never be the massive force of before the fall, with forces of soldiers, artillery, support forces, troop transports, and more.  There simply aren’t enough survivors left.  While each individual survivor can be a powerful hero in their own right, gathering too many people in one place attracts the undead, raiders, and worse.  Battles are conducted between dozens and hundreds of soldiers, not thousands.  This war is prosecuted on a scale of technology similar to the Civil War, or the Revolutionary War, and involves much smaller armies than would have been found in the time before the fall.  When we say “army”, just keep in mind that the scale is much smaller.

Theme - Collaborative Storytelling

The War of the Antlers relies on the players to engage with the concept and take some calculated risks.  If the LCs have a cool idea for a new Combat Unit, or a neat way to earn the support of a powerful faction, we will strive to tell a better story together by saying “yes, and…”.   While there is some element of RNG to the combat system below, the goal is to provide many ways to mitigate this risk and tell a story together rather than simply rolling dice and determining a number.  Your decisions will matter, and your ideas are important.

rules Overview

Each month, the LCs will represent the leadership of the San Saba Militia, completing Zone of Mechanics, Work Orders, and Research in order to support the forces of the San Saba.  By the end of the event they will have to make a decision of where to deploy their forces during the time between games, and make battlefield decisions during the event for conflicts that occur during the game.

The Role of the General

The General will be the primary architect of strategy and decisions during the War of Antlers, but can involve other players as much as they prefer.  If the General decides to appoint a War Council, other LCs can be allowed to complete the War Report and make decisions for the Militia.  LCs can risk their items, health, and Infection to lead units into Battles as Commanders, or can complete ZOMs and Challenges during the game to earn advantages for the General and the Militia.  While this is very much a side plot run during Season 5, there will be other avenues for LCs to be involved in this story.  Risking your character during this plot kit is an “opt in” behavior, and should be considered before you accept this challenge.

There are a few major steps the General and his allies will face during the War of Antlers that the LCs will need to resolve each event:

• War Report - At the start of the game, the General will receive a War Report.  This will be a new in-character form similar to a Skill Challenge and will outline the decisions they will need to make as the General of the Militia.  This will outline the resources available to spend during the event in the form of War Supplies, the intelligence gathered by spies of upcoming conflicts and Battles, the available Troop Allotment and list of forces available to command in the field, and a list of Strategic Actions you can take during the event to change the outcome of the battles to come.  Lastly, the General will need to decide where to commit their forces and deploy them to the Battle Plan in preparation for the final conflict.

• The General will resolve this Challenge on Sunday morning at the Depot, with either Jonathan or Heather, so they will have the entire game to plan with their allies and prepare for the Battles to come.

• War Table - This will be a Room Augment in the game that will serve as a place to receive field reports, learn about new Work Orders and Challenges, and will be the home of your various mechanics sheets to consult during the event.  This area will have the Map Board, a visual representation of your forces in the field. This Room Augment was placed in the Depot during our October event.

• War Supplies - This is a new Local Plot Card that represents a quantity of valuable supplies for your troops, like water, food, medical supplies, and ammunition.  The General will receive a certain amount of these each game as the passive income of the San Saba, but you will have the opportunity to spend in-game resources and complete events to acquire more.  You will never have enough supplies to do everything, so you will need to make some careful decisions about how you use these resources.

  • You can acquire new War Supplies through the permanent work order ZOM “Bullets & Beans”.  This will allow any LC to collect items in game to construct a new War Supplies item.  This will be the primary way the General can acquire additional War Supplies, and this ZOM can be found at the War Table.

  • You can also obtain these items from NPCs by politicking and making deals, and completing other War Supply Orders that are encountered in game by the end of the event.

  • These are in-game ITEM CARDS, and can be lost, traded, stolen, or destroyed, and have a value of about 50 Brass.  You must have War Supplies ready to spend when asked, and if you do not have the item cards close by, you will not be able to use them.

• Combat Roll - At the end of the event, you will make several rolls of a d20 to represent the success of your forces in the Battle known as a Combat Roll.  This d20 roll will need to roll UNDER or EQUAL TO the Unit’s Combat Value (CV), a numerical score that determines how strong they are in the field.  If a unit has a Combat Value of 10, you will need to roll a 10 or less on the d20 in order to achieve a Success.  If you acquire enough Successes to complete the Battle, you will be victorious!  You will roll additional dice for each Unit deployed to the Battle Plan, so bigger armies will be more likely to win a fight.  You might also have an Enemy Difficulty of the fight that ADDS to your roll, making it harder to roll under your Combat Value.

The War Report

The War Report is an in-character item that is delivered at the start of the event and will have several basic decisions that the General and his allies will need to manage during the event:

• Troop Upkeep - During this step, the LCs will need to reinforce their units, repair and rearm troops, and maintain the supply lines for their forces in the field.  Each Unit will require an expenditure of War Supplies each event, so larger armies will require more War Supplies to maintain.  You will know the amount of your basic Upkeep at the start of the event via the War Report, but will not be required to pay for the Upkeep until the final resolution on Sunday.  If you fail to reserve enough War Supplies to provide needed resources to your troops it can have disastrous consequences in a Battle.  Don’t overspend your resources if you can!

• Troop Allotment - This will list out your available forces in the San Saba Militia, let you know the Combat Value (CV) of your troops, and let you evaluate the risk of deploying certain forces to the battlefront.  Each Troop will have a number of Keywords that can change a battle in their favor if deployed wisely.  The Combat Value of the troops can be increased by winning a conflict, completing a Zone of Mechanics or NPC action, upgrading the Unit with additional gear and equipment through a Strategic Action, or by spending War Supplies for the next Battle.

• Strategic Actions - The General can choose a limited number of actions to influence the upcoming battles.  You will have THREE (3) actions you can take each month, and you can purchase a single additional action with 10 War Supplies (for up to FOUR (4) total actions).  You will be able to perform Reconnaissance on enemy troop strengths through spying and reconnaissance, Upgrade your troops with gear and new weapons, Recruit new Units into the Militia from the population of the San Saba, Resupply damaged and Routed Units that need help, or ask for War Support from your allies.  You can even choose the same action more than once, but with limited total actions you’ll need to choose wisely.

• NOTE: Since there will be five or more different Strategic Actions you can take each month, you will NEVER be able to do everything.  

• Battle Plan - The General will need to deploy his reinforcements and shift troops on the battlelines to achieve victory.  However, the San Saba is vastly outnumbered by the Oxkiller Alliance forces so the General will need to be careful about overcommitting to a lost cause and pick their Battles wisely.  Other LCs can even be chosen to Command a Unit in the Battle, earning a powerful bonus by risking their personal equipment, Body & Mind, and even Infection to lead the fight.  You will be able to spend additional War Supplies to temporarily Bolster your forces, but this will be a one-time bonus for the next fight only.  You can also gain powerful bonuses if you commit your forces early but will have less flexibility to react to situations that occur during the game.

• Skirmish - During each event, the General will be required to respond in real time to conflicts happening over the weekend.  This attack could occur at any time during the event, day or night, and the General will have a limited window of 1 hour to respond.  If they do not act quickly or the NPC cannot find them, the Militia will be at a disadvantage on the upcoming Battles step.  This is functionally a Skill Challenge that can either be passed or failed.  This might require you spend War Supplies, commit one of your Units to a fight that you had planned on saving for a Battle later, make a hard decision, or win a Combat Roll.  You can complete Research during the event to have a heads up about what to expect from the Skirmish.

• Battles - The final step of the War will occur between events and take place “off camera”.  This is an approximation of several different fights that happen over the weeks between games and will impact the challenges the General will face during the next event.  There is a planned cadence of Battles, with roughly two happening between each event.  You will complete the Combat Rolls for these Battles on Sunday, so you will have time during the event to plan your strategy. 

The Troops of the Militia

The combat forces of the San Saba Militia were drawn from the populace of the San Saba at the order of the Board last season. Over the summer, they’ve mustered a decent force to oppose the mighty Oxkiller Alliance, but they are still heavily outnumbered. Here’s a look at the forces that were available to the Militia at the start of the October event:

• The Essex Protectorate - Funded by the Widows of the Lone Star, the Essex Protectorate is the elite defenders of Essex mobilized for war.

• Fallow Hope Militia - Funded by Prudence Penitentiary, the zealous forces of the Fallow Hope make up one of the stronger units within the Militia.

• Reckoner Legion Gamma - Funded by the Grave Council, the Reckoners are elite psionic shocktroopers that can employ psitech against their enemies.

• The Red Ledger Battalion - The strongest force within the Militia is a mercenary unit of the Red Ledger, sent to the front by Gustav Glasseyes. As long as the pay is right, they will be a valuable force to bolster the lines.

• The JaCintos Defense Force - Funded by the San Saba Republic and led into battle by Colonel Sabbath JaCinto, the Defense Force is a well-trained combat core of the Militia.

• Torchlight Tyrants - Funded by the San Saba Republic, the Torchlights are one of the few remaining combat forces available to the Republic, gathered from the Lascarian and Tainted clans of their house.

• The Veiled - Made up of the skilled operators of the Widows of the Lone Star, this unit of scouts are experts at reconnaissance and stealthy maneuvers.

• San Saba Militia Unit 101 - Fresh recruits from the San Saba Republic. Newly recruited units are especially vulnerable if they lose a fight until they gain valuable combat experience.

• San Saba Militia Unit 102 - Fresh recruits from the San Saba Republic.

• San Saba Militia Unit 103 - Fresh recruits from the Railroad Conglomerate.

• San Saba Militia Unit 104 - Fresh recruits from the Junkerpunks.

• The Diamondbacks - Funded by the Junkerpunks, the Diamondbacks are the mounted cavalry of the faction, piloting powerful DJ vehicles into combat.

Each combat unit can be deployed to a battle, and can be led into the fray by a Commander, an LC or NPC that offers a powerful advantage on the final dice roll, but can even lose their own Infection if the unit is destroyed during the battle. Talk about high risk, high reward!

Updates from the front!

Now that you understand a bit about the War of the Antlers basics, let’s cover what happened during our last event, based on the decisions of the players at the War Table and their fearless leader, General Hargrave.

• At the start of the event, the Militia was presented with three different Battlefronts to defend: a Conflict at the Sweetwater Camp, an Assault on New Barogue, and the Battle of Roy’s Rest. While each fight was important to the cause, the General chose to forsake the defense of Barogue, instead deploying his entire forces to Sweetwater and Roy’s Rest.

• The General used his limited Strategic Actions to scout the upcoming Skirmish and understand a bit more of the battlefields to come on Sunday. They also recruited two new combat units based on generous donations from the Road Royals and Ramguard.

• A Skirmish at New Barogue occurred late at night on Saturday, as they discovered the Oxkillers were using the Barogian language to hide their orders. The General declined to answer the ambush, leaving the remaining forces at Barogue defenseless and keeping his forces fresh for the fights to come.

• Due to the decision to not deploy any forces at the Assault on New Barogue, the remaining defenders of the RRC settlement in the shadow of the titan city were destroyed by the invading Oxkiller Alliance. This area is now firmly in the hands of the Oxkillers and has denied the RRC crucial resources in the months to come, and cost the Militia valuable War Supplies from their monthly income.

• The Battle of Roy’s Rest was won in a total victory, thanks to a heavy deployment of forces including the Essex Protectorate, the Road Royals, the Ramguard, and the fresh recruits of Unit 101, 102, 103, and 104. Thanks to their efforts, they drove back the Oxkillers from the eastern front and protected the Clutch from an enemy advance. However, the Protectorate and Unit 104 suffered heavy casualties.

• The Conflict at Sweetwater was won a minor victory, thanks to the remaining Militia forces including the JaCintos, the Reckoner Legion, the Fallow Hope Militia, and the Red Ledger mercenaries. Thanks to their efforts, valuable scrap yards were defended, enabling the Militia to deploy new Cavalry units in the months to come, including the newly recruited Road Royals. However, the JaCinto Defense Force suffered significant casualties in the fight.

There’s clearly a lot more to these rules you can learn about in game, but that’s a glimpse of what’s in store for our brave heroes in the Militia over this season, as well as what they’ve achieved so far. I’ve mentioned a few key locations here that you might not have heard of, so let’s put these locations in context to our hometown.

Let’s look about a really exciting new resource I’ve been working on, the WAR MAP!

The new Map of the San Saba

You’ve probably seen a few of the maps we’ve included online before this, but those have been focused on a general overview and not a detailed breakdown of the region. Back in 2.0, a map very similar to this one was printed in the book, Embers of the Irradiated West. That book is very much worth the purchase and is still available on DriveThru RPG and has a lot of the background details that you might hear about in game. You might even see some illustrations of some old familiar Bravo faces inside!

This map above is an new and updated version of that old map, drawn by yours truly, but it is heavily inspired by the original image in the book. The same basic “Texas in the Zombie Apocalypse” layout is there, with most of the cities and locations originally described in the tabletop book still in the same basic places. I’ve tried to achieve the same basic style of the former 2.0 map, as it was part of the book I especially loved. I hope this new map helps you better understand the world of our game, and inspires countless stories to come.

I’ve updated this new map for some new locations, some changes in the setting in 3.0, with a focus on a few major locations of interest during the War of Antlers. If you don’t see a certain player-created area on this map, that’s okay! If an area is listed on the map, it could end up as a target of the Oxkiller Alliance during the war, so we haven’t included every single location that exists in the world. There are many other places out in the San Saba that are still there, safe in the story of your background submissions and character histories.

WRAP UP

We have a few weeks left until our event EMERGENCE, and we are so excited to show you the danger of our new BEHEMOTH PARASITES. Mae and our team have cooked up some great events, some neat props, and some terrifying new villains. We can’t wait to challenge you with a new disease, and help your characters tell the story of survival against all odds.

Next week, I’ll cover some Rules You Should Know, including a useful tool you’ll be able to unlock during the event called the Containment Zone. Stay tuned for more!

TICKETS ARE ON SALE UNTIL FRIDAY, BUT YOU’LL STILL BE ABLE TO PURCHASE THEM ON SITE. SAVE YOURSELF A WAIT IN LINE, AND BUY THEM TODAY!

See you soon Vados!

October National Announcement

Howdy Survivors!

There was a significant announcement on the Dystopia Rising LARP National page, but in case you missed it, here’s a synopsis and some stuff to be prepared for.

Here’s the TL;DR:

• LIT Update: Starting from January 1st, 2024, we're changing how we use LIT. Chapters won't add new items digitally, but LIT remains active, and existing stored items are safe.

• Online Econ Play: Online events will still feature economic activities like crafting and farming. Instead of digital items, chapters will mail item cards to players.

• New Ruleset: We're diligently working on a new ruleset, though it's a year away from full implementation. No XP or full Econ reset is planned.

• Community Involvement: We're committed to transparency and community feedback throughout this process. Let's collaborate to make our game the best it can be.

What does this mean for our Texas player base?

At present, there won't be many immediate changes. The National team has released a statement to give the community a heads-up about upcoming changes that are over a year away from being put into action.

Following the National team's announcement on October 30, we are preparing to settle LIT inventories promptly over the next few months. Stay tuned for future updates!

For online games, the responsibility of mailing out cards in a timely manner will rest with the respective chapters. Online games will not have the ability to introduce new items into LIT. However, you can still utilize and remove items from your inventory as needed.

New DR LIVE Rule Set!

We are actively working on a new ruleset, and it's worth noting that there are no plans for an XP or full Econ reset during this implementation. The ruleset is expected to be rolled out in approximately a year or two, and more information will be shared as development progresses. While the development process appears to allow for feedback, the exact procedures for providing input are yet to be determined.

Our goal throughout is to continue our commitment to transparency and radical trust in the community. We are committed to maintaining open and frequent communication throughout this entire process to address any concerns y’all may have. For now, we are completely focused on our upcoming events: Emergence (Nov 10-12) and The Red Death, our Premiere event (Dec 8-10).  The Dystopia Rising: Texas Storytelling team has put in extensive effort to craft exciting and captivating stories, and we're thrilled to continue delivering them to you.

Behemoth Parasites

Howdy Vados!

It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to our November live event EMERGENCE! This is our next ST led overarc of the season, led by Maenad Wilder. 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 full reveal of our disease, BEHEMOTH PARASITES, and looking at a CVC challenge called Symbiotic Parasites!

• TICKETS FOR OUR November EVENT ARE ON SALE NOW! get ready for a creepy crawly good time!

• We are running our first ever BUNDLE deal for event tickets! If you purchase your Standard Casting tickets for both the November and December events at once, you’ll get a great discount AND access to the unique new Blueprints we will release in December. Check it out on our Tickets page! You’ll still be able to purchase a Grab Bag for the December when tickets go on sale after the EMERGENCE event!

• Our Slime Promo is live! We have a new reward when you purchase the extra +2 XP for your ticket in November. If you get the additional XP, we will have a container of home-made SLIME ready for you at check-in! This slime may or may not contain bugs (don’t worry, they are fake!) and is guaranteed to be the perfect way to get into the right headspace for this event!

• We have a new CAPs offer for GLOWSTICKS! Scoop up some deals during the post-Halloween sales and earn some goodies for your characters! We are offer 3x CAPs for all glowstick purchases, so all you need to do is bring your receipt or email us a copy. We prefer the chunky glowsticks versus the bracelets, but any and all glowsticks are appreciated. The colors we need most are green, purple, orange, and red.

Our photos for this post were taken from previous DR:TX events by our talented Photo Team, by Max Pohlmeier, Lauren Guzaldo, and Maddeax Khole.

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Fair warning, this post includes a bit of SPOILERS for the event. If you’d like to keep the mystery of our disease in game, feel free to skip the blog this week.

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Behemoth Parasites

Last week we covered some of the Content Warnings for our upcoming event, EMERGENCE, particularly when it comes to disease, bugs, and body horror. 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.

If you’d like to know more, you can start by checking out last week’s blog post below:

• Welcome to “Emergence”!

With that reminder covered, let’s talk about a new November disease called “Behemoth Parasites”.

One of the primary new mechanics you’ll need to deal with during this next event is a “disease” that is ravaging the population of the San Saba, and it offers some new challenges for your survivors. I use the term “disease” loosely, because unlike other maladies that are viral or blood borne like Bad Brain or Gutscourge, this disease is actually an infestation of internal parasites that invade a host.

It’s important to remember from my first post that this can be a very deadly disease, and it’s very easy to spread.

BEHEMOTH PARASITES can be deadly and your character can die from this disease.

It’s not a bacteria or virus that is spreading amongst the town, but rather actual tiny creatures burrowing in the skin and bodies of the infected, eating them from within. This is a terrifying disease, as it’s more akin to something like mutated tapeworms, fleas, or ticks. If you don’t get medical treatment quickly, you might die a painful and quick death at the hands of the things devouring you from within.

Additionally, this disease spreads VERY easily.

Behemoth Parasites is an insidious and quickly spreading disease, spread by the simplest of transmission vectors - TOUCH. It’s something so ubiquitous and common, and it’s the primary reason this disease has become so dangerous. A simple handshake, hug from a friend, or even life-saving medical procedure while bleeding out may end up spreading the parasites to a new host.

Mechanics: Any touch between you and another strain triggers “Inflict Disease (Parasites)”. This includes touching prompted by mechanical skill use, like Medical or Enhanced Movement.

However, just because this disease spreads via touch doesn’t remove your consideration of your fellow players. Remember, physically touching another player without their consent is prohibited in Dystopia Rising, so make sure you get the enthusiastic consent of the other person before engaging in physical contact.

The Mechanics of Behemoth Parasites

In our tradition of Radical Trust, we are revealing the basics of this disease to our players today. We still have a few surprises in store, so some parts will be kept redacted (like the Treatment Plan) until we get to the game. I’ve included the first page of the disease sheet above, but let’s talk about it in detail.

Transmission Vectors

• Touching a person who is infected with any stage of Behemoth Parasites. This is Infectious regardless of whether or not you are mechanically prompted to touch.

• Infected critters, zed, raiders, and Strains. These creatures will normally deliver this disease via the “Inflict Disease” skill call.

Let’s cover some questions you probably have about this part:

• First, the goal is to involve any significant skin-to-skin contact as a transmission vector. We aren’t going to put a real limit on exactly how many seconds of touching that it takes to transmit the disease, as we want to leave that part to YOU, the player. Simply brushing up against someone probably isn’t enough to transmit it, but we want you to buy into the danger. If you think it makes sense that you could have contracted the disease, you probably did!

  • This is largely going to be ran on the honor system. We trust you to decide when you got infected by the parasite.

• ** AS A REMINDER TOUCHING ANYONE REQUIRES VERBAL CONSENT **

  • If you do not get consent and must still use a skill or ability that would normally require touch, you are still considered to have been infected, even if a touch did not actually occur. You can still heal your friend and get infected even if they don’t want to involve touch into your medical role play.

Skill Use that requires Touch

In the Dystopia Rising Rulebook, there’s a few skills that might require touch to use on another player. Again, we leave the specifics of if this is enough contact to transfer the disease to you, but here’s a few examples from the book to consider:

• Unarmed Combat. Any attack onto an infected target could be dangerous. A punch is still contact!

• Interfere. You could Interfere someone else’s touch, if you need to save a friend from infection. The rules state you can take a negative effect, and Inflict Disease counts.

• Larceny. Provided you are only trying to steal from the Supply Bag, you’ll probably avoid infection. If you are trying to steal from a pocket, or remove a worn item, you’ll likely make contact. Additionally, using Larceny to remove manacles or bindings will likely involve contact.

• Medical. This is probably the most likely source of infection from a victim. Any level of Medical use requires prolonged physical contact. The Dr. Ottoman’s Disease Control Kit provides some protection when using this skill to a doctor, but it can be expensive to make.

• Basic Malicious. This skill states that you need to take at least 10 seconds tying up a victim. That’s plenty of time for the parasite to spread.

• Enhanced Movement. Using the “rescue” part of this skill to move a fallen ally away from enemies will require physical contact with the person you are saving. Taking 5 steps while holding someone is plenty of time for the critters to spread.

• Hunting. Interacting with infected game will likely cause infection, as dressing the meat, fish, and shellfish could be enough contact to spread the parasite. It’s possible that even eating food contaminated with the parasites could spread the disease.

• Proficient Stealth. Using this skill to apply a disguise to another player will be enough contact to spread the parasite, as it takes several minutes to complete.

• Basic Biogenetics (Basically any Psionic Attack skills). Any psionics delivered via touch will be enough to spread the disease. Packet-delivered Psionic Attacks will not spread the disease, so make sure you pack some extra white packets.

• Master Faithful Will. Interacting with the corpse of the recently dead requires a Psionic Attack, and probably requires some measure of connection to join them in the Grave Mind. Anyone that tries to follow the recently dead into the Grave Mind will likely get infected with Behemoth Parasites - be warned!

• Gorger Lineage Advantage. This should be a no-brainer, but eating an infected target like a Raider, Zombie, or a Strain WILL give you the disease. Watch what you eat!

Duration Between Stages

• Your Stage increases with each new exposure to a source of Behemoth Parasites via Inflict Disease.

• Untreated, the disease progresses one stage every four (4) Hours.

The primary way to advance this disease it to take a use of “Inflict Disease”, but even if you do nothing the disease still advances quickly. That means that if you get infected early Friday night, you’ll reach Stage 3 by Saturday morning. Yikes!

This also means that if you take three disease-laden swings from an infected Shambler, you could quickly hit Stage 3 in a single combat. Make sure you save Mind points for an Avoid or bring a shield!

Role play Notes

• You are able to speak and eat as normal, but discomfort is starting to rise in the back of your throat and creeping onto your tongue.  Whenever you ingest food or drink, the discomfort rises to a noticeable pain, but not enough to keep you from performing the action.

• A scuttling sensation at the back of your throat and the occasional sharp pain followed by a mouthful of blood.

That sounds uncomfortable. While the disease lists some horrifying descriptions of what is happening to your character during each stage, we leave the exact specifics of the role play up to you. If you don’t feel comfortable with extra makeup or prosthetics, that’s completely fine. This part is optional, so you can just keep to the mechanics instead.

Stages of the Disease

Behemoth Parasites is a quick and deadly disease, but it’s pretty simple mechanically. There’s only three different things to consider with this disease, though every stage of the disease has the same Infectious Touch condition.

• Stage 1 - Infectious touch

  • Any touch between you and another strain triggers “Inflict Disease (Parasites)”. This includes touching prompted by mechanical skill use, like Medical or Enhanced Movement.

• Stage 2 - internal bleeding

  • Any touch between you and another strain triggers “Inflict Disease (Parasites)”. This includes touching prompted by mechanical skill use, like Medical or Enhanced Movement.

  • Mechanics that heal Stage 1 diseases also cure Stage 2.

  • Reduce your maximum body points to HALF of its normal value, rounded down.

• Stage 3 - Larval Parasites

  • Any touch between you and another strain triggers “Inflict Disease (Parasites)”. This includes touching prompted by mechanical skill use, like Medical or Enhanced Movement.

  • Reduce your maximum body points to ONE.

  • If not cured within four (4) hours, the individual dies.

While this isn’t TOO complicated, it does present some interesting challenges to avoid spreading it to your friends. You won’t suffer an additional penalty until you reach Stage 2, but each successive level reduces your total Body, rounded down. With less total Body, you’ll be more vulnerable to entering Bleed Out, making you an ideal target to be fed on by infected zombies. This could easily advance your disease if you are not careful. If you hit Stage 3, a single hit will be enough to drop you to Bleed Out!

This disease is very easy to cure until you reach Stage 3, using existing mechanics in our game. The simplest way to deal with the parasites is to eat a crafted Meal that was prepared using the Deep Cholesterol Fry blueprint. There will be other ways to cure this disease with medicine and research, but the easiest way to avoid death via parasites is to get it cured quickly.

Unlike other diseases, this disease stays easily treatable up until the final third stage of the disease. While cures will be plentiful, the bigger strain of Behemoth Parasites will be on Mind points, healing, material resources like herb and produce, and the most dangerous threat of all — the inexorable advancement of time.

Once you have reached the final Stage 3 of the disease, your doctors and healthy meals will no longer be able to cure you, and DEATH may be certain. There will still be some ways to mitigate this timer that you’ll be able to discover in game, but it will be a very dangerous disease. Make sure you save time to say goodbye before the larval parasites erupt and kill you.

resolution & other mechanics

I know I said I would only spoil the front half of the disease sheet, but here’s some of the other frequently asked questions about the disease:

• Identifiable with Basic Medical skill for 0 Mind points

• Remission vs. Cure: Cure for Stage 1-2. Stage 3 disease Cure is unknown.

• Return from the Mortis Cures the Disease:  Yes?

• Mutant Lineage Advantage Works: Yes. Mutants can not die of Behemoth Parasites, but they can advance to Stage 3 and will stay there indefinitely unless cured.

• Deathmask Works: No, this is not an airborne disease.

Let’s cover the questions from this side:

• The disease is easy to recognize and any person with medical training can identify it. However, remember that physical contact with the victim is enough to spread the disease, so unless you have a Disease Kit, you’ll also be infected by checking for the disease.

• In my other essay on diseases, I mention a thing called “remission”. This disease is pretty simple, and we aren’t using these mechanics here. If you cure the disease, it’s cured. The only exception at game on is Stage 3, which has no known cure. If you manage to discover a remedy, that cure will also work on Stage 3 to complete remove the disease.

• At the start of game, no one that has died to these parasites have returned from the Grave. While this disease is probably cured by death, you’ll have another challenge to discover in game should you pass beyond death.

• Lastly, Mutants will get to endure a special hell because of the Parasites. Their unique biology makes them perfect hosts, as they cannot die to a disease. However, that doesn’t stop the Promethean-level pain and anguish as the creatures inside continue to devour your regenerating organs. Plus, allowing the larvae inside you to gestate that long will likely have some unintended consequences…

• Sorry Helscape Deathmask fans — this item specifically protects versus airborne diseases. You’ll need a Disease Control Kit instead. The Deathmask can stop AOE threat skills that would cause Inflict Disease at Proficient level, but this doesn’t stop the normal transmission of the disease.

All in all, this is an insidious take on disease in the zombie apocalypse, and we hope you have fun trying to avoid a deadly fate at the hands of tiny critters. Let’s talk about the last complication you should be prepared for with Behemoth Parasites — Symbiotic Parasites.

Symbiotic Parasites & the S.E.S.

As a special “hard mode” for November, players that use the Survival Ethos System (SES) will have a special opportunity to earn additional Marks during our event. This is a unique currency that can purchase powerful items from the Survival Ethos Buylist. This is a high risk, high reward option that WILL involve potentially deadly CVC behaviors.

If you accept this challenge, you will get a new Local Plot Card to represent a variation of the Behemoth Parasites that the rest of the town will be enduring. While most people seem horrified at the prospecting of the parasites infesting them, a few rare hosts seem to achieve a balance with the things devouring them from the inside. Some even report that they feel a sense of communion with the parasites and feel compelled to help them survive by finding them new hosts.

If you choose to commune with this swarm intelligence and enter into a symbiotic bond with the parasites, you will need to instead observe the following mechanics:

Symbiotic Parasites (DR:TX Local Plot Card)

You cannot be cured of Behemoth Parasites until this LPC is somehow destroyed. Replace the normal mechanics of Behemoth Parasites with the following. 

“Twelve (12) hours after initial infection you will enter a 1-minute Bleed Out and cannot be stabilized nor regain any body. Any touch, intentional or not, between you and another strain triggers “Inflict Disease (Parasites)” and ADDS three (3) hours onto your disease timer if the target was uninfected. This includes touching prompted by mechanical skill use. Death does not cure this disease, and Mutants can die from this effect.”

Talk about Patient Zero! With this Symbiotic Parasites affliction, you will need to PURPOSEFULLY spread the disease to others in order to survive. Let’s cover some specifics:

• Spreading the disease in this manner is a CVC action. You will need to get consent from your victims first, or use the Wasteland mechanics to engage with your victim. This is a hostile action and will start your CVC timer, so make sure you can stay in play for the next four hours to allow a response to your CVC action.

• You can’t be cured. This mechanic can only be lost through plot effects. Because your character has bonded with the parasites, normal disease cures aren’t enough to fix this. However, this version of the disease doesn’t impact your Body totals so cures aren’t as useful.

• You will need to infect the uninfected. You can’t just touch the same person over and over. You’ll need to help the parasites find new hosts. Bring your friends into the hive!

• Each spread of the disease adds three (3) hours to your timer. If you do nothing, you will die sometime on Saturday morning. You’ll need to infect at least 8 or more people in order to survive the entire weekend. However, you’ll be basically immune to “Inflict Disease” during the weekend, and if you extend your timer enough you’ll avoid death from the parasites.

• Expect in-character conflict. This is a purposeful hard mode. Willfully spreading this disease on purpose will likely spark some consequences for your character, and that could include item loss, character punishments, or even death, even if you manage to stave off the disease long enough to survive.

Will you take the challenge? Are you ready to infect your friends? Are you ready to become Patient Zero? Are you mad enough to try to survive the weekend and certain death with the Symbiotic Parasites? Let’s find out together!

Wrap Up

We hope that you are ready for the challenge of EMERGENCE. How can you save your friends when a touch can be deadly? What is underneath the ground, and how can you possibly stop it in time? Why are people not returning from the grave when they die? These are some fun and exciting challenges for your characters in the zombie apocalypse. But don’t worry, it’s not just all diseases, you’ll still need to deal with zombies, Oxkillers, and raiders and more.

Tickets are on sale now, and we have our special Winter Bundle deal running for a limited time.

See you next time Vados, when we talk the specifics of a little thing happening in the background of games called the WAR OF ANTLERS. Stay tuned!

Emergence

Howdy Vados!

It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to our November live event EMERGENCE! This is our next ST led overarc of the season, led by Maenad Wilder. Each week, I’ll discuss in detail an aspect of the upcoming event, compiling the rules and lore into one easy place to read! This week, we are covering the premise of our event, some content warnings, and some notes about our upcoming Disease & Death mechanics!

• TICKETS FOR OUR November EVENT ARE ON SALE NOW! get ready for a creepy crawly good time!

• We are running our first ever BUNDLE deal for event tickets! If you purchase your Standard Casting tickets for both the November and December events at once, you’ll get a great discount AND access to the unique new Blueprints we will release in December. Check it out on our Tickets page! You’ll still be able to purchase a Grab Bag for the December when tickets go on sale after the EMERGENCE event!

• Our Slime Promo is live! We have a new reward when you purchase the extra +2 XP for your ticket in November. If you get the additional XP, we will have a container of home-made SLIME ready for you at check-in! This slime may or may not contain bugs (don’t worry, they are fake!) and is guaranteed to be the perfect way to get into the right headspace for this event!

• If you had a great experience at our last event CIRQUE DE DREAD or had some suggestions for how we can improve, we’d love to hear from you! Did you enjoy surviving the nightmare of the Nemesis? Did you earn a shiny circus medallion? Did you have neat memories from the Eclipse? What did you like best? What memories did you make? How was your NPC shift? Did another player impress you?

  • Fill out our Feedback Form!

  • Nominate another player for a Community Achievement!

Our photos for this post were taken from previous DR:TX events by our talented Photo Team, by Max Pohlmeier, Lauren Guzaldo, and Maddeax Khole.

EMERGENCE

Here’s the premise for our next event, Emergence:

Bloody fissures around the mouth. Extreme fragility. Missing organs.

These were the symptoms of four sailors returning from a leviathan hunt on Lake Bravo. So severe was the internal damage, the sailors were unable to produce coherent sound and died before any medical diagnosis could be reached. Doctors attempting an autopsy before processing developed the same symptoms and succumbed to internal bleeding within 12 hours. Despite no indications of green veins amongst the afflicted, none have returned from the Grave.

Drywater was quick to cordon off the port and quarantine all who had come in contact with the afflicted. But right as it appeared the situation was under control, the Torchlight tribe sent for urgent medical aid as a new grotesque monstrosity began attacking their deepest settlement, spreading a plague of touch. Before anything else could be done, a massive earthquake struck Bravado and a horde of shamblers bearing the same scars and fissures poured from a crack in the Earth. Victims, who have since died of the affliction, reported the Earth bulging just before the quake, as if something was pressing against it from beneath.

The situation grows worse by the hour as more vectors of infection are revealed, more people die without returning, and something stirs in the depths of Lake Bravo. The Board has called an emergency meeting to discuss the disease brewing at the heart of its territory but, while bureaucracy turns with rusted wheels, your saloons fall empty, your friends go missing, and your neighborhoods are locked down, left to fend for themselves. When a touch is deadly, how can you save Bravado?

A threat is building under the surface and if left untreated, Bravado, Drywawter, and the Torchlight Clans will be locked away with the key tossed aside.

Sounds like something is spreading a new disease in Bravado…

Inspiration & Tropes

This season in Bravado we have focused on bringing some new elements of Survival Horror to the forefront of the story. In our tradition of Radical Trust, we want to share some of the inspirational bits of media and movie magic that we feel help capture the themes and feelings of our upcoming event. If you are looking for a movie to inspire your role play for this event, here’s a list of our favorites to get ready for EMERGENCE:

• The Blob (1988)

• Nope

• Slither

• The Strain (TV Series)

• The Faculty

Basically, if it’s creepy, crawly, and makes your skin crawl, that’s the feeling we are trying to capture. We plan a lot of fun prosthetics, makeup and slime effects to really capture the grotesque and terrifying themes of EMERGENCE! Disease plots also tend to have some elements of loneliness and isolation, as survivors huddle away from the infected and the ranks of the sick begin to outnumber the healthy.

With that in mind, let’s cover a few of the major ingredients we have in mind for this next game…

CONTENT WARNINGS

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

It’s important to watch for descriptions, situations, or events that you might want to avoid. You may find new limits that are unknown to you because the matter never came up. We encourage you to take the necessary steps for your own emotional safety. We want you to be comfortable with the types of horror in our events so you can enjoy the thrill of the zombie apocalypse and the nightmare creatures we introduce into the game space.

It’s one reason we take our OK Check-In system so seriously! We understand that these may not be stories you want to participate in, and that’s okay! Remember, you can always use the OK Check-In system to choose to leave a scene, even CVC!

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

body horror & Splatter mods

• Body Horror, grotesque or disturbing mutations, visceral costumes and props

• Splatter / Gore modules (forewarning will be provided, but these modules will cover players in liquid or debris that could stain costumes)

One major aspect of EMERGENCE will be the themes of Body Horror. Body horror is an important part of the zombie mythos. For example, while elements of mutilation similar to slasher films and monster movies may be present in body horror, it can differ in the zombie apocalypse. These themes might be generally marked by a loss of conscious control over the body through mutation, disease, or other tropes involving uncontrolled transformation. The genre can invoke intense feelings of physical and psychological disgust, or squick, and play upon anxieties of physical vulnerability, contagion, mutation, transformation, disease, mutilation, or other unnatural or violent distortions of the human body.

We have a lot of neat and disgusting props planned for this event, new creature effects, and special effects that will lean towards the gory and disturbing. We will even have a few SPLATTER MODS, events that could include liquid, slime, and debris that could damage your costumes or leave stains. We will warn you in advance of these situations where we can, but the visceral elements of our props and challenges may be something you want to avoid. Remember, you can always use the “thumbs down” symbol to leave a scene or avoid a mess!

disease

• Disease, infection, and consequences of diseases

The story of the zombie apocalypse is at its heart a story of disease. Zombie stories involve pandemics, viruses, and the deadly consequences of what that disease turns survivors into. You could argue that “fear of disease” is the key trope to any story that involves zombies and the undead. During our EMERGENCE event, we will be introducing a malady that functions as a new and dangerous Disease in the world of Dystopia Rising.

Given the state of the global pandemic and the impact Covid-19 has had on us all, we understand that this topic isn't for everyone. Each of our lives have been impacted by this crisis and each person is dealing with this trauma in different ways. Our goal is not to minimize the impact of this disease nor it’s effect on our community, and given that we have staff members who have lost a family member to Covid-19, we empathize with anyone that has suffered loss during this pandemic.

bugs & insects

• Mutated and hostile fauna, including spiders, bugs, maggots, worms, snakes, deer, bears, and more.

The last bit is part of our focus on the creepy and crawly. We will have a number of disturbing creatures in this game, and we plan on using bugs, maggots, and worms to represent the larvae of the parasites in the game. We will have some resin and latex props made from casted molds to represent the creatures that are infecting the players during this event. Some of the larger creatures will have headpieces, harnesses, and bigger elements of their costume to emphasize the insect and bugs theme of the story. It will be up to you if you want to use some of these costuming elements to represent the disease on your character, and we want you to be able to engage with the level of squick that you are comfortable with. If the props are too much, you can just stick to mechanics.

If you choose to opt out of these situations with the OK Check In System, don’t worry. There’s still plenty to do during the event, and we will have the usual threats of zombies and raiders, and the continuing story of the San Saba. There’s still a WAR going on, and there will be other mods and challenges during the event outside of the disease. You’ll still be able to complete Liquidation Runs, craft and gather resources, and spend time with your friends. If this is still a bit much for you, don’t worry, we have some more scary stories to share in December.

Death and disease

During our upcoming game, we will be using a brand new in-character disease known as BEHEMOTH PARASITES. This disease has the strong potential to be quick and deadly, especially in the later stages as it can kill your character within TWELVE (12) HOURS. I’ll be going over these specific mechanics in a later blog post in detail, but since death is a possibility I’d like to make sure everyone knows how to avoid this up front.

• BEHEMOTH PARASITES can be deadly and your character can die from this disease.

There will also be SCs, LCs, and NPCs that will be actively attempting to spread this disease in game. These villains will be trying to purposefully infect your character with this disease as part of our story, so there will be some potential danger of your character contracting this disease during the course of the event simply by playing the game.

I’ve covered some of the basic mechanics of how Disease works in Dystopia Rising in previous posts, and you can read a bit more here about how this will function mechanically during EMERGENCE.

• Anatomy of a Disease

With the basics out of the way, let’s cover some big themes of this disease:

The disease spreads by TOUCH

Behemoth Parasites is an insidious and quickly spreading disease, spread by the simplest of transmission vectors - TOUCH. It’s something so ubiquitous and common, and it’s the primary reason this disease has become so dangerous. A simple handshake, hug from a friend, or even life-saving medical procedure while bleeding out may end up spreading the parasites to a new host.

Mechanics: Any touch between you and another strain triggers “Inflict Disease (Parasites)”. This includes touching prompted by mechanical skill use, like Medical or Enhanced Movement.

However, just because this disease spreads via touch doesn’t remove your consideration of your fellow players. Remember, physically touching another player without their consent is prohibited in Dystopia Rising, so make sure you get the enthusiastic consent of the other person before engaging in physical contact.

Parasites, not an Infection

I’ve used the term “disease” for this upcoming mechanic, but this effect is actually brought about by internal parasites infesting a host. It’s not a bacteria or virus that is spreading amongst the town, but rather actual tiny creatures burrowing in the skin and bodies of the infected, eating them from within. This is a terrifying disease, as it’s more akin to something like mutated tapeworms, fleas, or ticks. If you don’t get medical treatment quickly, you might die a painful and quick death at the hands of the things devouring you from within.

Functionally though, this condition will be treated as a mechanical disease within our DR:TX event. Stuff that interacts with diseases will work against it, and items that help prevent the spread of the disease will still work to contain the infection.

Easy to Cure, Easy to Advance

This disease is very easy to cure, using existing mechanics in our game. The simplest way to deal with the parasites is to eat a crafted Meal that was prepared using the Deep Cholesterol Fry blueprint. There will be other ways to cure this disease with medicine and research, but the easiest way to avoid death via parasites is to get it cured quickly.

Unlike other diseases, this disease stays easily treatable up until the final third stage of the disease. While cures will be plentiful, the bigger strain of Behemoth Parasites will be on Mind points, healing, material resources like herb and produce, and the most dangerous threat of all — the inexorable advancement of time.

If untreated, after 12 hours your character will DIE. This is a three stage disease, and each stage advances after about 4 hours. If you do nothing, your character will meet their untimely end, lose an Infection, and enter the next step our story line after 12 hours.

However, since it’s so very transmissible, it’ll be easy to advance your character to the last stages of the disease. Anytime a ‘Inflict Disease’ mechanic is called, your disease will advanced to the next step. This means you can quickly end up at Stage 3, with a 4 hour timer until you die a bloody death at the tiny mouths of the parasites. Since it’s easy to be reinfected by the parasites, it’ll be important to discover some way to permanently cure the disease before its too late.

death is not the end

While the Behemoth Parasites can be very deadly, remember that Infection means your character can return again and again from death. Death is not the end for survivors in the apocalypse, and in fact it unlocks a new and fascinating side of the game - the Grave Mind Scene. Your character will get a personal scene with a Storyteller, and get a chance to experience the mysteries of the Mortis Amaranthine and the sinister Grave Mind, while getting new opportunities for story, character development, and deep role play opportunities.

However, one of the great mysteries of this event is what exactly is happening to the infected townsfolk when they die. According to the early reports, those that die have not yet returned from the Grave Mind. If your character dies during this event, you will experience a new challenge BEYOND DEATH.

This new experience is sure to provoke some interesting stories and we have a bunch more surprises that await you. Mae and our Gravemind STs have some fun stuff planned, and we can’t wait to show you the horrific fate that awaits your character should they let the parasites devour them alive!

Next week, I’ll reveal the full rules for this BEHEMOTH PARASITES disease so stay tuned!

Wrap Up

We hope that you are ready for the challenge of EMERGENCE. How can you save your friends when a touch can be deadly? What is underneath the ground, and how can you possibly stop it in time? Why are people not returning from the grave when they die? These are some fun and exciting challenges for your characters in the zombie apocalypse. But don’t worry, it’s not just all diseases, you’ll still need to deal with zombies, Oxkillers, and raiders and more.

Tickets are on sale now, and we have our special Winter Bundle deal running for a limited time.

See you next Vados, when we talk the specifics of our new disease, Behemoth Parasites!