The Nightmare Host

Howdy Vados!

It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to our May live event THE ATROCITY! This is our FINALE for Season 5, led by Heather Halstead and Jonathan Loyd. 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 unique threat you’ll face this weekend, the Mortis Nightmares, the truth behind the Nightmare Host keyword, as well as an update on the San Saba Rebellion!

• TICKETS FOR OUR MAY EVENT ARE ON SALE UNTIL FRIDAY! WILL YOU SURVIVE THE NIGHTMARE HOSTS OF THE PRINCE UNDYING?

• Bluebonnet Shores (formerly Camp Kachina) has updated their map and the names of locations around the site. Some of your favorite cabins have some new names, as part of an ongoing effort by the Girl Scouts to refresh our site. You can see some cool pictures of their 5-year plan for the campsite on our Facebook page, as well as pics from the recent ribbon-cutting ceremony and opening celebrations.

• CLEAN UP IS CHANGING! We will be continuing to experiment with a new process for Clean Up at the end of the event during our May games. Immediately after closing announcements, we will start with our Camp Cleanup first, and then complete our Personal Cleanup last! We had great success with this change during our April event, and we look to continue to improve!

• Our Post Office times will be changing! Starting in May, we will return to opening up the Post Office at 8:00 AM on Saturday! Crafters and Econ Junkies rejoice!

Our photos for this post were taken from our April 2023 DR:TX event by the talented Jason Dumas.

An Update from the Front

We are nearing the end of the War of Antlers and the San Saba Rebellion. With the forces of the San Saba Board is disarray, their only remaining stronghold is the city of Essex, a short train ride to the south of Bravado. The last days of the war are coming soon, so let’s cover what that means for the folks that have invested into this mini-game.

Last month, the brave soldiers of the Bravado Rebellion Army continued the fight against the Chairman’s forces abroad, winning several important victories as part of the battles of the weekend.

• In Widow’s Peak, the BRA defeated the last vestiges of Reckoner-Commander McClellan’s occupation force, freeing the civilians of the Lovelace Family and allowing several members of the Widows of the Lone Star to return to Bravado. Despite the threat of the terror troops deployed by the Reckoners that targeted medics and civilians alike, the Bravado forces easily defeated the opposition and allowed the Widows to relocate to Bravado proper for the seasons ahead.

• In the Clutch, the beleaguered Junkerpunks needed help escaping the overwhelming forces of Carina Astora and the Clearwater Accord. Desperate to deny the pirate lord any advantage, the Junkerpunks scuttled ships and took everything not nailed down as they retreated inland towards Drywater. With their main admirals located inland, the Junkerpunks will be based out of the nearby port of Drywater in the season to come.

• At a personal request of General Hargrave, the Rebellion laid siege to the former headquarters of the Militia, Prudence Penitentiary, aka Killhouse. Thanks to their knowledge of the fortifications, the Rebellion evaded withering artillery fire and managed to capture Tabitha St. Mercy and claim the fortress-prison once more. The Warden’s fate will be decided soon, and the Rebellion will need to decide how to use the fortress moving forward, as a prison without prisoners isn’t much good to anyone. Perhaps the Justices of Sin or the Grave Council have an idea on how you can repurpose Killhouse?

• Lastly, the brave Ramguard soldiers stood firm at Falken Castle, facing down the nightmarish undead legions of the Prince Undying. Despite a risk of no escape from the malevolent nightmares led by the Consort of Betrayal, the Rebellion mustered a successful defense of the castle at the last minute, pouring every last resource into turning the tide. With the successive victories against the undying Nightmare Host at Tremorsands and Falken Castle, their remaining strength is now turned towards our home in Bravado.

What is next, you ask? In the month ahead, the Rebellion will face the toughest month of battles yet, but your primary foe is an ancient enemy from the deserts of the Dune Sea, the Nightmare Host of the Prince Undying. During the next event, the BRA will need to defend five (5) different battles over the weekend each with their own challenges to overcome, with fights at Drywater, Prudence Penitentiary, and defending Bravado itself.

However, the final fight of the mini-game against the San Saba Board is here. As this portion of the war is winding down, you’ll have an opportunity to commit some of your units to a FINAL BATTLE, where failure will result in the destruction of your units entirely. You’ll have several opportunities to commit everything you have to the final battles of the war, and your sacrifices of War Supplies and Combat Units will make the difference at the end.

The last battle fought during the weekend will be the Battle of Essex. This will be a multi-part battle against the remaining soldiers loyal to the Chairman, and you will need to win BOTH battles in order to defeat the Chairman on the battlefields of the San Saba. If the BRA can successfully conquer Essex, they can demand a surrender from the remaining members of the San Saba Board and return the city to where it belongs under the leadership of the San Saba Republic.

Any remaining Combat Units will still have a last function you can use them for in September, but this month will mark the end of our year-long arc involving our custom war mechanics. Luckily, the Chairman will simply accept your terms of surrender if you defeat him during the Battle of Essex, and he definitely won’t be driven to a fit of madness in an all out attack on Bravado itself in September… right?

With the War Update out of the way, let’s cover the ancient enemy you’ll face during the upcoming event, THE ATROCITY…

+ + + SPOILERS AHEAD! + + +

THE Nightmare HOSTs of bravado

We’ve been coy about some of the specifics of these threats over the past year, but for our last event of the season we are going to pull back the curtain a bit and reveal some information you might not have been part of during this ongoing season. For months now, the Prince Undying has been influencing Bravado, but not just through the obvious MONOLITH at the crossroads, but through the friends and allies in your midst.

Back in our online event that started Season 5, THE UNDYING PRINCE, we first introduced the threat we call the Mortis Nightmares. During that event, players encountered the strangely liminal space of the Nightmare of the Prince Undying and fought the shadowy creatures that lurked within Barogue. These things were significant threats during the last beats of the weekend’s plot, culminating in an escape from Barogue and return to the sunny desert with no signs of the foe they had just faced.

However, a few people dug a bit deeper into the lore of Barogue during the online event, and made some interesting connections…

During this finale of this event, folks had to awaken their senses to the Nightmares of the Prince Undying by implanting shards of red psionic crystals into their bodies. Without this perception, the nightmares were functionally “out of phase” with the survivors, and couldn’t been seen or touched. As they dove deeper into the madness of the Nightmare, this connection to Barogue enabled them to interact with the deadly nightmares, and escape the Lost City.

A few of our intrepid adventurers decided that they would not give up that connection to the Nightmare after the event was over, and during the first few events of the season they had a strange new Keyword. A few folks even found a unique crystal shard, a Trapozohedron of dark crystal, with strangely acute angles that seemed to shine with an inner fire, and they brought it home to Bravado. You might have even seen hints to this item in various hype pieces and social media teasers throughout the season, and it was even a big part of the ritual at the crossroads during our December event, THE RED DEATH.

Over the next few months, an unlucky few even found strange Nightmare Altars erected around the site during the live events. Each month, the Altar shifted to a different location on camp, and if you explored the site enough you might have found the purple glow in the woods. If one took the time to attune themselves to the strange Altar, they gained new and more dangerous connections to the Nightmare and could perceive the strange enemies that were lurking in the darkness of Bravado. Each month, the depravity of these folks continued, resulting in strange sacrifices on the Nightmare Altars and endless hours of research.

During THE RED DEATH in December, this keyword connection to the Prince Undying changed. As Nightmares attacked the town, more and more people became attuned to the strange creatures that hid in the darkness. However, without the touch of the Nightmare keyword, a character couldn’t interact with the nightmares and could only watch helplessly as friends were torn limb from limb by invisible entities in the darkness. As folks were dragged to hell by the nightmares, a few of those that died were offered a CHOICE — Serve, or die.

Some of those that died came back with a secret.

While in the Mortis, some chose to make a deal with the Prince Undying for something more, but the details were a bit secretive. We’d love to say that no one took this deal with the devil. We’d love to say that no one was foolish enough to purposefully connect themselves to a virtual Sword of Damocles by accepting a deal with the last ruler of Barogue.

But I think you know what really happened, don’t you?

A few of these folks gained a new keyword, NIGHTMARE HOST. In exchange for loyalty and sometimes heretical acts of service, some of them were granted boons or even unlocked abilities that some might consider… unnatural. There’s a few more of these folks lurking in the town than you might think, and a some interesting choices have been made over the season.

During this next event, these few traitorous individuals will have an opportunity to settle the books, and use their connection with the Prince Undying for something more. During this next event, instead of folks with the Nightmare keyword being able to interact with the Mortis Nightmares, only those folks with the Nightmare Host keyword will be able to be seen (and hunted) by the dangerous creatures in the night. If they can stay quiet, they may be able to evade the Nightmares finding them and realizing that they can be seen even when cloaked in darkness.

This means that these folks that have chased this year-long story of connection with the Nightmare of the Prince Undying will be uniquely useful to the plot of the weekend. In addition, anyone with the usual Nightmare keywords will have an opportunity to permanently remove this keyword from their sheet and have a chance to atone for any sins they may have committed over the year.

We hope you are ready to survive THE ATROCITY!

mortis Nightmares

The titular foe of this weekend is one you’ve face before. These lurking shadows have been encountered throughout the season, and particularly during our Premiere event in December. But they’ve been testing the defenses of the town, and have been mostly held at bay by the strange Monolith that has been erected at the center of town.

The Mortis Nightmares are undead remnants of the Prince Undying’s nightmares within the Mortis Amaranthine, imprints made manifest during his slumber in Barogue.  Eternal denizens of this Mortis space known as the Nightmare of the Prince Undying, these creatures lurk within the shadows and tombs of the dead memories waiting for imprints to bleed through from the Mortis around them.  While they lack the true Undead keyword, they are still functionally creatures of the Mortis Amaranthine.

They are ethereal and incorporeal beings while within the Nightmare, wisps of black and green smoke and vapor moving idly through the air on some unseen current.  When they manifest in the our world, hiding within the inky darkness appears to be eyes watching with lidless gaze with a hunger of a predator.  Teeth and claws of shadow can manifest in a breath, slashing into survivors with a sudden physicality that seems impossible except as a biting wind.  Known as the Khibrath Murea in the language of Barogue, these foes are impossibly quick when they need to be, moving unseen in the darkness while in search of prey, but are at once impossibly slow, as if drifting through a dream of molasses.  They seem to exist within two states of motion and apathy, and can only be comprehended by those that have been properly attuned to the Mortis.

The Nightmares that escape from the dreams of the Prince Undying have no true ability to affect survivors until the MANIFEST into a physical form.  While these undead monsters technically are always there, their specific trick of hiding means that survivors simply pass them by, oblivious to their presence as if they were some common Hunter or Nightmare Lurker. When the Nightmares take a more permanent physical form, they have normally possessed a dead body or undead corpse to relay messages or attack the foes of the Prince Undying, and they can manifest their nightmarish abilities into the real world through their host. 

However, with the recent protections of the Obelisk of Salvation, Bravado has been mostly safe from the Mortis Nightmares that serve the Prince Undying. They cannot easily exist within the town, and they can no longer use their tricks of inhabiting a zombie as a temporary shell. While weakened, they still can be a threat, and during THE ATROCITY you’ll encounter a few more of these enemies that you’ve seen so far during the season.

During this next event, these deadly foes will hunt by SOUND, drawn to the presence of life itself. When a survivor speaks, their Imprint is made reality for a moment, and the Mortis Nightmares are drawn to this spark like a moth to flame. They need to destroy the living, and snuff out the sound that drives them mad in their eternal nightmare. Their hate will be made MANIFEST, and when they appear nearby you’ll need to keep the silence of the grave to survive until they disappear into shadow once more.

Let’s talk about how this will work from a mechanical perspective.

The Unique Skills of the Khibrath Murea

The deadly Mortis Nightmares have a few particular unique Threat Skills you’ll need to be prepared for this weekend. In our tradition of Radical Transparency, let’s cover each of these abilities below. I’ll also post these Skills on our Local Rules & Skills page, if you need to reference them before the event.

The Importance of Silence

In our first blog post, we mentioned the movie, THE QUIET PLACE, as an inspiration for this event. Similar to the strange creatures in this movie, you’ll need to be guard against making too much noise while the Mortis Nightmares are about. You can even join us on Sunday night, May 5th, for our traditional Discord movie night as we watch this film to get in the mood for the upcoming event.

The Mortis Nightmares will be hunting during this event by tracking down noise and sound made by survivors. The Nightmares will generally be forgiving for accidental noises and such, but any obvious, purposeful, or overt sounds or movement should quickly get their attention. This means that any sounds, including crafting, talking above a quiet whisper, banging on your shield, running away, or other loud skill uses like “By My Voice” or other verbal Faithful skills could risk attracting the deadly foes. 

Sense of Sound

Nightmares can only perceive the living when they make obvious, overt noises or movement.  If a player is not making noise and staying still, you should ignore them and pretend as if they do not exist. The Nightmares are effectively BLIND if players stay quiet.

Our standing instruction to our NPCs and STs is going to be to look for the behaviors around being quiet themselves. If you are making a good faith attempt at being quiet, our Mortis Nightmares will not punish you and should ignore you. They might still get close, sniff around, looking for things that recently made a noise, but if you stay quiet and still you might survive another day. But, if you can’t stay silent, you should expect a fight!

incorporeal (Mortis NIghtmare SKill)

The next ability is a function of the Nightmare’s unique ability of stealth, using the UNSEEN mechanic we first introduced with purple headbands last season.

Incorporeal

Mortis Nightmares cannot be seen, interact or be interacted with until the Nightmare Manifest skill is used.  While in this incorporeal state, they are immune to all damage, effects, and other abilities, but cannot affect other survivors with physical attacks. Only survivors with the “Nightmare Host” keyword can interact with the Nightmares while in this state. Declare “No Effect, Incorporeal”, or say “Clarify: Unseen!” if necessary. The NPC will use the STEALTH symbol to represent this ability.

This Skill means the Mortis Nightmares are mostly invulnerable when they are lurking around the town. Since only folks with the Nightmare Host keyword can interact with them, this means the Nightmares can open doors, bypass shield walls, and enter buildings without restriction while Incorporeal. Better hope you stay quiet!

• Remember, if you see a Purple Headband or a Purple Glow Stick, your character cannot perceive the Nightmares, unless you have the Nightmare Host keyword. You need to pretend as if they don’t exist, similar to the use of the skill Stealth. You can chalk up the strange behaviors to the wind or other superstitions, but you can’t actually “see” them until they strike.

• Folks with the Nightmare Host keyword need to be careful not to draw their attention. While in this state they can still attack, kill, and devour you, while your friends can do nothing to aid you against the Unseen enemy until they use the Nightmare Manifest skill.

Nightmare Manifest (Mortis NIghtmare SKill)

This ability is the primary way that you will be able to interact with the Mortis Nightmares throughout the weekend.

Nightmare Manifest

Call “Nightmare Manifest!” and hide your purple glow stick.  The Nightmare loses the Incorporeal ability above until at least 30 seconds of silence has occurred. This attack should only occur when the Nightmare has responded to a source of sound, shortly before they descend on their prey.  This will allow the Nightmare to attack and be attacked until enemies have stopped making noise nearby.

When you hear this call, you can expect a sudden surge of violence from the Nightmares as they become physically manifest into Bravado. During this short window, you’ll be able to attack the Nightmare with your boffers and blasters like normal, impact it with your various Combat Skills, or simply run away in fear. The effect won’t last long, so you’ll need to be quick and purposeful, and most importantly QUIET.

• This is the primary way you’ll be able to deal with the Nightmare threat. They will manifest, you will have a short time to fight them, and then they will fade back to shadows if they are not defeated.

• As long as SOUND is in the area, the Nightmares will stay on target and be a dangerous foe to deal with. If you can stay quiet and still for 30 seconds, you can FORCE the Nightmare back into its INCORPOREAL state, and this might mean the difference between life and death if you are not skilled at Combat.

• Nightmares can be dangerous enemies against individual targets, but they CAN be defeated while they are manifested. The sudden Nightmare attack will likely mean at least one person enters Bleed Out, but they can still be outnumbered. But, the Nightmares have a few other attacks and defenses at their disposal, so be ready for a fight!

• You can only interact with the Nightmares that have used the Nightmare Manifest skill recently, so you’ll need to be on guard for sneak attacks from behind and focus your fire quickly if you want to respond.

That’s the primary things you need to know to be prepared for THE ATROCITY! We hope that you are ready to stay quiet, and try to hide from the minions of the Prince Undying during our finale event!

wrap up

That’s it for today, Vados! We covered a lot in this blog post, and we will cover the main highlights once more during our Opening Announcements at game next week. While the Mortis Nightmares can be deadly enemies, there will still be other events throughout the weekend as we wrap up our season, so don’t worry. You’ll still face zombies, raiders, and other survivors as we contemplate THE ATROCITY of the Prince Undying.

Tickets are on sale until this weekend, but you’ll still be able to purchase your ticket at the door for our last event of the season.

Don’t miss out on your chance to experience the first part of our season finale! Next time, we will cover a few of the Rules You Should Know, and cover our last logistics announcements before the event.

See you next week, Vados!

What Has Happened Before...

Howdy Vados!

It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to our May live event THE ATROCITY! This is our FINALE for Season 5, led by Heather Halstead and Jonathan Loyd. 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 lore of a few characters you should know about during the finale, and what kind of danger the Prince Undying still represents..

• TICKETS FOR OUR MAY EVENT ARE ON SALE NOW! Will you survive the atrocity?

• If you had a great experience at our last event WHISPERS FROM THE DEEP or had some suggestions for how we can improve, we’d love to hear from you! Did you encounter the EVE-volved or EVE herself? Did you fight glowing green zombies by moonlight? Did you help the Rebellion continue to push back against the San Saba Board? Let us know!

  • Fill out our Feedback Form!

  • Nominate another player for a Community Achievement!

• CLEAN UP IS CHANGING! We will be continuing to experiment with a new process for Clean Up at the end of the event during our May games. Immediately after closing announcements, we will start with our Camp Cleanup first, and then complete our Personal Cleanup last! We had great success with this change during our April event, and we look to continue to improve!

• Our Post Office times will be changing! Starting in May, we will return to opening up the Post Office at 8:00 AM on Saturday! Crafters and Econ Junkies rejoice!

Our photos for this post were taken from our April 2023 DR:TX event by the talented Lauren Guzaldo.

The lore of “The atrocity”

Last week, we revealed the teaser for our event and we covered some important information that you might have missed or perhaps not had context for. If you haven’t read it yet, go back and read it! I’ll try to sum up the important bits so you can catch right up to the story of our finale.

The story of this finale will be focusing on wrapping up a few loose ends from our stories over the past few years, and really serves as a two-part story that prepares for a new chapter of our story of Bravado. This event will deal with the Obelisk, the Prince Undying, and the sins of the town of Bravado made manifest. In our September event, we will conclude the story with The Fall of the San Saba Board, with a chance to win the Rebellion once and for all in person. In a sense, if you consider the 1.0 and 2.0 story of Bravo by Ryan & Sara our “Book 1”, then the story of Bravado started by Aesa & Shan is effectively “Book 2”, with these two stories as our climax. We hope that our stories of DR Live and beyond will form a new chapter, a kind of “Book 3”, with Heather & I telling new stories more focused on Bravado proper.

With that in mind, here’s a few key points of interest in the teaser for THE ATROCITY that immediately come to mind:

• Felicity Redfield is dead, slain by a Golden Spike.

• The Chairman has brokered a deal, bargained in crystal

• An Atrocity happened before, and omens suggest it will happen again.

• The Obelisk is important to your defense, or is it?

• Everything that has happened, has happened before

Let’s start at the beginning, and explore each of these major concepts in a bit more detail. Like with all of our Lore posts, there may be some SPOILERS within, so you can always choose to learn more about these topics from other characters in game. While I feel this information is interesting and that’s why I’m writing more about it, it’s not entirely necessary to be able to enjoy the story of THE ATROCITY. There’ll still be plenty of battles, plenty of zombies, and plenty of other events happening during the event, even if you don’t read further.

+ + SPOILER WARNING + +

Felicity Redfield, CEO Of the RAILROAD CONGLOMERATE

Felicity Redfield is dead. 

After months of secret imprisonment on charges of treason, Felicity was found slain in her cell in Essex, a Golden Spike lodged in her chest, her flame red hair extinguished with drying blood. There are no suspects, and there will be no investigation. 

First, this event will see the end and final stories of Felicity Redfield, one of the first characters introduced back at the start of the Bravado live events of 3.0. Felicity was written and portrayed by Shan Lind, and you can read our first character summary of her for Season 5 on our Characters of Note page, if you want to catch up some information that is a bit outdated. While she may have died “off screen”, Felicity’s death will loom large on this event. Whether you liked this character or hated her, the only real truth that remains might be found in her journal, thought to have been sent to Bravado before she died.

Felicity was the original CEO of the Railroad Conglomerate, though she was not always a fan of the Chairman or the machinations of the San Saba Board. She was the founding father of the new Bravado settlement, following a trail of delvers seeking answers about the strange facility uncovered near the town after the bombing of Old Bravo. She was here at the beginning, seeking to understand the strange obelisk in the lake that would eventually cause it to boil. She held the deed, the mineral rights, and the undisputed claim to the land of the town, and graciously leased it to the residents of the town in return for service in exploring the dangerous tunnels below. While the fortunes of the RRC have waxed and waned with the success of the Oxline and the Board, Felicity’s interest was always on the town of Bravado.

Felicity was often a liar, hiding secrets time and again from the town and even her allies. She lied about her Strain, as she was a Remnant pretending to the airs of a noble Pureblood family. Only after the use of the Imprint machine designed by Dr. Esgrove back during our event, IMPRINT BY DESIGN, did Felicity choose to embrace her origins and claim her Remnant strain by choice. She hid the location of Barogue until she could be the one to lead the first explorers to the site and hid the research she had done into the Lost City from even her closest peers. She often lied about her authority over the town, which often brought her into conflict with her peers on the San Saba Board, with assassins that tried to end her life on multiple occasions, and even with other folks in the town. She was also complicit in a number of dangerous rulings by the San Saba Board, as were many of the Board Members, intent on the power the position offered to advance her own plans.

Felicity often brought danger to Bravado, though it was often unintentional. She oversaw the “Breach”, when Blood Ghasts poured from the tunnels below Bravado, and she helped lead a team to seal the holes before they could swarm the town. Felicity was at the heart of the Fountainhead Incident, leading to the near destruction of Essex. She crashed her personal airship and nearly killed dozens of people on the test flight after it was hijacked mid-air. She hosted the Emerald Gala, inviting the wrath of the Archons down onto Bravado, hoping to use prototype weapons of the Emerald Arsenal to drive them off once and for all. While the weapons were successful, their creation sparked an ethical concern about what the technological advances could inspire in the future, and it was their creation that led to the strange devices General Rampart used to lead zombies against the town during our February event, THE BREAKER OF CROWNS. Despite best intentions, Felicity often created lasting problems for the town.

Felicity was an explorer, focused on legends from the past. She was fascinated by the discoveries under the town of Bravado, within the flying City of Waking, and she was focused on expanding the reach of the RRC further across the San Saba. Felicity even offered a spectacular prize for the Dead Man’s Hand Tournament in Essex (our Online National Event, Dead Man’s Hand), which ended up being a piece of a map that led to the fabled city of Barogue, the Lost City. Felicity and the Map Holders were the first people to step foot on Barogue and she personally led the expedition to reclaim the city. She was one of the architects of discovering a cipher that could translate ancient Barogian script, using the Obelisk carvings on Waking to aid her search for the Roving City. One could easily blame Felicity for being the one that woke the Prince Undying, as it was her quest to find that Lost City that eventually stirred the undead terrors within.

Felicity was ALWAYS focused on Bravado, for unclear reasons. Despite her capitalistic motivations, Felicity always had a special interest in the town that went beyond mere profit. While she held the mineral rights to the town and even explored into the Facility below the town against the RRC’s orders, it was always unclear to exactly why she was so focused or what she was searching for. She made sure the town was the center of attention for the San Saba and empowered the townsfolk to have a greater impact on the affairs of the Board than would normally be allowed by most CEOs or landlords. The town of Bravado was important to Felicity in a way than simple economic gain or a thrill of adventure could explain, and it seems that secret of what she was looking for went to the grave, sealed with a Golden Spike.

Felicity was an outcast and had lost most of her wealth and power at the end. With the fall of Waking, the loss of the floating city was blamed on Felicity. After all, she had encouraged her town to make a decision to help the city or not. She failed to stop the town from helping the Rook fire a cannon that damaged the ship’s engines, and she was blamed for ruining the fortunes of the RRC as the radioactive fires of Waking Prime burned a hole into the land nearby Bravado. Despite hosting Liquidation Runs to delve and trying to find ways to fix what had gone wrong, a final assassination attempt drove Felicity into hiding, though it was assumed that the Waking Prime families had something to do with the attempt. It was always assumed she fled to the north, to Luxury and beyond, but she had been missing for months.

It was as if before the War of Antlers started, someone wanted to make sure she was no longer a threat to their plans…

The Golden Spike

The Golden Spike is a bit of a more obscure bit of lore. It is mentioned in the teaser as a bit of a Easter Egg for our eagle-eyed readers that have played since the start of our Bravado “Season 1”. If you attended that first game at the start of 3.0, you might remember that the title of the episode was called THE GOLDEN SPIKE. Back then, I wasn’t responsible for writing the blog posts and we didn’t really publicly write a bunch down for what was going to happen back then. As we end our Season 5 and get ready for a new beginning, we wanted to end with a bit of a callback to the first beginning of Bravado.

During “The Golden Spike”, Felicity Redfield invited the first run ever of the OX, the majestic locomotive designed by the RRC, to arrive in Bravado, heralding a “gold rush” of sorts for delvers and explorers seeking fame and fortune. The ceremony planting the last railroad spike joining the North line and South line, a spike made of solid gold, would honor the designer of the Ox, Dr. Sung and start up the official return of rail service to the San Saba. However, the morning of the ceremony, Dr. Sung was walked into town as a zombie, the titular Golden Spike plunged into his chest as a fatal message. While there was some investigation at the time, no one really understood who had killed the inventor, but it was his death and loss of the mind behind the Ox that eventually created the faction we know today as the Railroad Conglomerate. If Dr. Sung hadn’t been killed, the formation of the San Saba Board itself may not have even occurred.

While the murder weapon, the Golden Spike itself, was thought stolen by criminals and ruffians, it was the first mark of violence that really christened in the story of Bravado in the new world of 3.0. The Golden Spike’s return is a capstone to that story, returning once again to the unexplained murder and mystery that first started our new setting. Whoever had the Golden Spike was likely involved in the murder of Felicity Redfield, but with so many enemies, it’s hard to narrow it down to just one party that wanted her dead. It could even be a replica, meant as a calling card to suggest that the death should be left unresolved and unpunished, just like the death of Dr. Sung so many years ago…

The Deal & A Crystal

The Chairman has brokered a deal, a bargain wrought in blood, crystal, and fell promises.

Last month, the Chairman made a phone call to the town of Bravado. After the last battles of the Rebellion were fought, the General took a call from the Chair on a mysterious red phone that appeared in the Depot. The Chairman offered to accept the town’s surrender, confident in his cause despite overwhelming victory by the Bravado Rebellion. Of course, his offer was rejected but his promise of vengeance was clear. While the Chair may not have the military power to stand much longer against the Rebellion, he has always been a planner and a man with unexpected allies.

You might have noticed during a few teaser posts over the last few games a particular crystal that keeps coming up, again and again. First found in the return to Barogue, during our event THE UNDYING PRINCE, the stone known as the Shining Trapozohedron made its way back to Bravado. This was originally a unique item offered to the player (or players) that gathered the most “Barogue Bucks”, the online currency of the game to buy a plot item that may or may not be useful. It was a leap of faith, and one that was eagerly taken by some of our local players.

The Trapozohedron was a dull rock that boasted unusual and strange angles, and caused peculiar nightmares in all that possessed it. Some said they could hear whispers in the dark, if you listened closely enough, though the language was strange and ancient. It was capable of enhancing the psionic ability of anyone that wielded it, though it was thought to have some terrible price to pay for it’s use. The Trapozohedron was eventually crucial to a ritual during THE RED DEATH, seated into the base of the Obelisk at the cross roads of Bravado, used to drive the Prince Undying from Bravado and cleansing the Obelisk for a time.

The stone was thought to have some powerful connection to the Prince Undying, allowing those that held it to communicate with the last leader of Barogue. The stone was last known to be in the possession of a General Rampart, following his death in February. How it ended up in the General’s possession is unknown, but the Bravado papers reported that the General gave the Chairman a gift of a powerful psionic crystal liberated from Bravado. Rampart was also burdened with strange blackened veins during his Gauntlet in March, but the source of the corruption was unknown. Could this have been the work of the Trapozohedron? Are there others under its foul influence, perhaps even the Chairman? Who would have given the General this powerful relic, and what deal could the Chairman have struck with the Prince Undying?

The Atrocity

Whispers on the wind speak of ill tidings. The sun darkened to blackness. The rivers of the San Saba rendered still. Farmers clawing at their eyes in their sleep until blind. These dark omens resonate with the Music of the Spheres, a portent of impending and terrible violence. A prophecy of an ATROCITY foretold in ancient Barogian manuscripts, an echo of a crime committed in the past. 

When the first explorers to Barogue found the Lost City several years ago, they discovered a city untouched by time. The massive ruin was strangely intact, as if the residents of the city has just walked away, dinner left on tables undisturbed, beds left unmade, and no sign of the inhabitants of the city anywhere to be found. The city was a ghost town, buried empty and alone under the sands of the Dune Sea. As the Grave Mind was awakened by the presence of new imprint and survivors, the city seemed to decay in a moment, catching up from that timeless state and awakening the countless Resonant Raiders within the bowels of the city. It was only months later that the RRC would attempt to enter the city once more, to loot the treasures and material wealth within.

But the question of what happened to the people of Barogue was never really uncovered, despite a number of myths and legends to where they had gone. While the Resonant were clearly the byproducts of the foul psi-tech that powered the ancient city, the inhabitants of the city were never really found. When new and unknown Unborn began to emerge from the Grave Mind of the Lost City, they were considered to be Barogian Nobility, the last heirs to the city dead and buried by sand and time. While many of their kind settled into Oasis, a few even made their way to Bravado.

During the last expedition to Barogue over the summer, during the UNDYING PRINCE event, a strange music seemed to draw explorers once more to the dead city. This “music of the spheres” seemed tied to strange Obelisks that were found across the San Saba, and the source was somewhere within the city itself. When the Prince Undying was awoke, he expressed a desire to find his lost people, the missing inhabitants of ancient Barogue. Seemingly disoriented, even the Prince Undying could not answer what had happened to the people of Barogue.

As the survivors of the UNDYING PRINCE escaped the city and the strange Nightmare that seemed to engulf it, many reported strange nightmarish creatures within the haunted dreamscape of the Prince Undying, and some described strange monoliths, ancient cities, and temples trapped within the strange shared dream. The recent arrival of the Prince Undying has brought legions of the strange nightmares pouring from Barogue, intent on destroying the living and attempting to wash over the San Saba like a shadowy tendril of death.

According the mad ramblings of Sister Mammon in a series of religious writings known as the Canticles, it was suggested that the Prince Undying was responsible for a great upheaval before Mammon fled the city, as he sought continued power from the Scion Vossa, an psi-tech device of note that was destroyed in her escape from the city. Without the power of the crystal, it is said the Prince Undying turned to other ways to empower the lost city, eventually turning some of its people into the monstrous Resonant Raiders or worse.

Some that survived the escape from the second journey to Barogue reported that the Prince was responsible for killing the entire city of Barogue, in a single moment of psionic impulse from a strange RED CROWN that wiped out every resident in the city at once. Taken from dinner tables, beds, the streets and buildings of the city, every living being in the city was devoured by the Nightmare of the Prince Undying, drawn screaming into the nothingness of his dream, lost forever to the void of the Grave Mind. The Prince disappeared shortly after waking in Barogue, and has been sighted at virtually every Obelisk spread across the San Saba.

If the Prince Undying was once capable of extinguishing the life from every person in a city he ruled and theoretically loved, what could he do to a place that defied his attempts to control again and again, and erected a defense against his intrusion into the world? Could this be the Atrocity that dreams and omens fortell is coming be the same as this ancient crime? How could you even stop something of this magnitude, and how could you even avert the Prince Undying’s ability to snuff out life in a moment? Is the ancient doom of Barogue coming for Bravado next?

The Obelisk of Salvation

The Obelisk at the crossroads has repelled The Prince Undying once, but it is unclear if it can withstand a second onslaught, or if it was created for something else entirely. With the Obelisk bolstered, any Nightmares that force their way into Bravado are disoriented, relying on sound to hunt their prey. To speak is to invite death, as your very words solidify the imprint of the living. 

The Nightmare hosts of the Prince Undying have been weakened by the strange Obelisk at the center of the crossroads. Though it now glows a comforting blue, it has periodically bled with the blood-red corruption of the Prince Undying. Since it’s appearance during THE RED DEATH, the monolith has wavered between drawing the attention of the Prince Undying and repelling him. This balance of power has waxed and waned, but has bought safety for a time. As the light has turned crimson, attacks by the dangerous Nightmares have been prevalent. When it has glowed blue, they have been weakened.

At times, a strange phrase can even be read in the script of ancient Barogue. It is thought to be the name of the device, the high Barogian words that refer to an “Obelisk of Salvation”.

Tekhenu Masalat’ha khailass nodensala

However, as the legions of shadowy Nightmares bear down on Bravado led by the Prince’s dangerous Consorts, forced towards the town by their defeats at Castle Falken and Tremorsands Post, it is certain that a new confrontation with the Prince Undying is coming quickly. Even weakened by the monolith, the Nightmare legions may still be capable of overrunning the defenders of Bravado. While the renewed strength of the Bravado Rebellion Army is turned towards defense and the conquest of Essex, it may not be enough to turn the tide.

During the Red Death, many reported seeing a psionic manifestation of an Imprint tied to the Obelisk, the red-haired Sister Mammon, who brought with her a way to turn the massive crystal into a defense of the town. The memory of Mammon was potent, but seemed grounded in someway to the town of Bravado. With her help, the town drove back the Prince Undying, but it was only because of the Obelisk that they found SALVATION.

Some have suggested that the Obelisk in the center of the town was not constructed by the Prince Undying, unlike the other Obelisks found across the San Saba. Though similar in appearance and marked with Barogian glyphs, something is different about this structure. If it’s true Architect was the ancient Sister Mammon, the Final Knight priestess that scorned the Prince Undying so many years ago, what was the true purpose behind it’s construction? What purpose would need a different Obelisk constructed in opposition to the network of monoliths thought to be the work of the Prince Undying and ancient Barogue?

While the crystal has proven useful so far, the uncertain protection it has offered leads one to consider if this is even it’s intended purpose. What could Sister Mammon have built the Obelisk of Salvation for? Why is it in Bravado, and what is it protecting? Does the strange monolith have another purpose, and could it be the secret to stopping the Prince Undying once and for all?

The Cycle of Bravado

As I wrap up this rather long lore post, we will end on the strange cycles of Bravado, and Old Bravo before it. One of the first sayings to really take root and spoken time and again by Ryan and the old STs of 2.0, this was a story that has been at the heart of our setting since Day 1.

All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again.  The sins of the past are always revisited for judgment. The sins of Bravado and its residents will be uncovered, and the town will reap every sin and betrayal it has ever sown. 

Bravado has a strange fascination with repeating history.

From the first days of the town in its struggle between Hiway Robb and General Mustang, that culiminated in the deadly Hiway War and the destruction of Aggieland, the town has seem intent on destroying itself again and again. The town has been the site of multiple massive bombs, from the weapons that leveled the old Washbourne plantation during the first UPRISE, to the final bomb that stopped Hiway Robb and destroyed Old Bravo at the end of 2.0, hoping to erase the memory of the town from the Grave Mind, and end the war for good.

Heroes have risen, villains have emerged, and yet the threat to the town continues. But only some parts of the radioactive wastelands of the San Saba are truly an ancient as the fall of Man, thanks to this repeated desire to find an answer through destruction.

In the aftermath that followed the Hiway War, new powerful figures emerged, a new dawn of civility in the form of the San Saba Board, the railroads of the RRC, and the burgeoning power of the Chairman. But once again came calamity, from threatening the end of the world at the hands of Archons, to crashing the city of Waking Prime on their own heads, to declaring revolution against the forces of the Chairman, and finally the revelation that the Chairman was in fact Arthur Lovelace, a survivor of the Hiway War that betrayed his family for wealth and power. Now, a new war has erupted, a Rebellion against the Board, an echo of that war and the sins of the past once again tearing apart the San Saba.

In an eerie reminder of the Stampedes that ended the last war, now a new dangerous enemy descends down on the town, with unceasing hordes of nightmarish creatures threatening to kill the living. Despite the radioactive reminders of bomb after bomb, the future seems intent on repeating the sins of the past and continuing the same journey to a familiar story once again. Surely, the only way to stop the Nightmare legions is another powerful weapon of some sort, once that will likely cause untold devastation once more.

But, what if it didn’t?

If the Board can be defeated, and the Prince Undying stopped without destroying Bravado, there is a chance to break the cycle and start fresh. A brave new world awaits at the end of this conflict, and the story of Bravado is not yet done. As we prepare for a new chapter of our story of Bravado, there is a chance to end these threats and pave the path towards something different. So much of what has happened over these past five years has been trapped and controlled by history, and figures from the past. What if the town could focus on rebuilding, without needing to pick up the pieces yet again? What can happen when the town decides to craft a new future for itself, separate from its own explosive past, and something focused inwards on their own successes rather than being beholden to powerful figures from afar?

Let’s find out together, as we face THE ATROCITY.

Wrap Up

That’s it for today Vados!

We hope that you will come join us for our next event, our part one of the finale of the Season 5 story. We still have some fun surprises in store for you during this game, and we hope that you are ready to try and prevent the ATROCITY from happening. Will you be able to help to finally contain the danger of the Prince Undying? How will you protect those you love from the vengeance of a petty tyrant? Can you stay quiet while deadly Nightmares prowl around you?

Next week we will cover some updates from the last event, and a few major mechanics you can expect to see during our finale event! See you soon, Vados!

Tickets are on sale for our MAY event now! Don’t miss out!

The Atrocity

Howdy Vados!

It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to our May live event THE ATROCITY! This is our FINALE for Season 5, led by Heather Halstead and Jonathan Loyd. 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 teasers about our upcoming event!

• TICKETS FOR OUR MAY EVENT ARE ON SALE NOW! Will you survive the atrocity?

• If you had a great experience at our last event WHISPERS FROM THE DEEP or had some suggestions for how we can improve, we’d love to hear from you! Did you encounter the EVE-volved or EVE herself? Did you fight glowing green zombies by moonlight? Did you help the Rebellion continue to push back against the San Saba Board? Let us know!

  • Fill out our Feedback Form!

  • Nominate another player for a Community Achievement!

• CLEAN UP IS CHANGING! We will be continuing to experiment with a new process for Clean Up at the end of the event during our May games. Immediately after closing announcements, we will start with our Camp Cleanup first, and then complete our Personal Cleanup last! We had great success with this change during our April event, and we look to continue to improve!

• Our Post Office times will be changing! Starting in May, we will return to opening up the Post Office at 8:00 AM on Saturday! Crafters and Econ Junkies rejoice!

Our photos for this post were taken from our April 2023 DR:TX event by the talented Lauren Guzaldo.

The Premise

Felicity Redfield is dead. 

After months of secret imprisonment on charges of treason, Felicity was found slain in her cell in Essex, a Golden Spike lodged in her chest, her flame red hair extinguished with drying blood. There are no suspects, and there will be no investigation. 

In Bravado, the drums of rebellion have beat a fevered cadence. The Rebellion is poised to strike against Essex, a final blow against the power of the Board. Chastized and rebuked by the town, the Chairman's wrath now burns solely for Bravado, eschewing the rest of the San Saba for vengeance.

The Chairman has brokered a deal, a bargain wrought in blood, crystal, and fell promises. Whispers on the wind speak of ill tidings. The sun darkened to blackness. The rivers of the San Saba rendered still. Farmers clawing at their eyes in their sleep until blind. These dark omens resonate with the Music of the Spheres, a portent of impending and terrible violence. A prophecy of an ATROCITY foretold in ancient Barogian manuscripts, an echo of a crime committed in the past. 

And it is coming to Bravado.

The Obelisk at the crossroads has repelled The Prince Undying once, but it is unclear if it can withstand a second onslaught, or if it was created for something else entirely. With the Obelisk bolstered, any Nightmares that force their way into Bravado are disoriented, relying on sound to hunt their prey. To speak is to invite death, as your very words solidify the imprint of the living. 

But Felicity has not left Bravado to weather this hardship unaided. There is a duty to uphold, and contracts to keep that not even death can hinder.   There is none that rivaled her knowledge of the Lost City and its forgotten history, no architect of lore that matched her research.  Rumors fly that her journal was smuggled out of Essex, and that it holds her most powerful secrets of the past meant for her beloved Bravado. 

Everything that has happened before will happen again. 

But what if didn’t? 

Only if the prophecies can be unwritten, a Prince contained, and The Atrocity averted, can Bravado be poised to claim their destiny…

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 THE ATROCITY:

• The Quiet Place

• The Omen

• Butterfly Effect

Much like the creatures in the Quiet Place, one of the major tropes we will explore in May is the importance of SILENCE. Furtive whisperings in the dark, struggling to stay unnoticed as predators stalk nearby, and the reliance on body language and communication are going to be highlighted during the game. The Nightmares that have periodically plagued the town will return in force, but this time with a brutal intent to hunt the living. Survivors will need to stay quiet and avoid drawing the attention of deadly enemies, and find new ways to warn their friends of imminent danger other than a shout or cry of distress.

Prophecy and legend will also take center stage for the end of this story. Much like the stories of Damien in the Omen, strange tidings are on the air, with individuals experiencing strange waking nightmares, portents and omens foretelling a catastrophic event coming soon, and a focus on the stories of old. Prophecies are only real if they come true, but the history of Bravado has an unfortunate tendency to repeat itself, again and again. Once again the town faces a dangerous horde bearing down on the town, driven by war and vengeance, and leaving the town with an important choice — stand and fight, or die trying.

Everything is connected, much like the Butterfly Effect. But what impact will the choices you make during this weekend have on the future? May is also a time of endings for stories, characters, and arcs in our narrative. As we continue to scale down our scope of story, we will be closing out stories that have tied together back since Season 1 of Bravado. Important faces will be replaced by new characters, new alliances will be forged, new factions formed, and a new future crafted for the survivors of Bravado.

Concluding Stories & Finale Events

We’ve established a bit of tradition with our May events in DR:TX. At the end of the season, we tell BIG stories, and we make some BIG changes to our setting. Previous events have involved us passing new laws for the San Saba, fighting a four-hour SIEGE as the City of Waking crashed nearby, enacting a dangerous plan to cure the Plague of the Unfinished and seal away the Cantankerous Matrix, and defeating Archons in the city of Essex as the city threatened to be overwhelmed by the dead.

We also end our season by firing our staff of Storytellers and Guides, and giving folks permission to take a break from the important roles of supporting our game. We will hire new STs and Guides over the summer, so that means that some stories will need to come to a conclusion because the ST may elect to stay a player for our next season. With that in mind, the finale event is a great time for us to wrap up loose ends, say goodbye to some NPCs, and clean up some of the continuity and lost stories that might have been missed during the season.

In our tradition of Radical Transparency, we want to be clear about some of the content of this next event as the architects of this overarc story. When Heather and I were faced with the idea of wrapping up the major loose threads and events from the season and telling our BIG story, we reached that the conclusion to that the story was simply too big to try to cram into one event. With villains like the Prince Undying and the Chairman, Arthur Lovelace, we can’t really do them justice if we try to make them share the limelight. We’d have to cram way too much content into one event, and it wouldn’t really be the satisfying conclusion we want to see.

So, we won’t make them share the story, or the conclusion.

The May event is going to be PART 1 of the conclusion of these stories, and we will be finishing the story of the The Fall of the San Saba Board during our September opening event as a PART 2 in a few months, after the summer. Think of this as a series finale of your favorite TV show that ends on a cliffhanger, with more to come! In the fall, we will pick right back up, with the resolution of the events of this game as we launch into a new and exciting Season 6.

During the May event, we will be focusing on the story of the Prince Undying, Sister Mammon, and Felicity Redfield we started with the revelation of Barogue three years ago. Our story will deal with the Nightmares as the primary antagonist, though you’ll still see a bit of your favorite mustache-twirling San Saba Board villains. You’ll still need to commit your units to the final battles across the San Saba as we continue to narrow our scope to focus on Bravado itself, but the primary enemy to face is the Prince Undying. If the ATROCITY can be stopped, there will be a new future in store for Bravado, and a new chapter for our story.

In September, we will use PART 2 to tell the story of the War that finally reaches Bravado, and you’ll be able to personally see to the final end of Arthur Lovelace, the San Saba Board, and the final end to the Rebellion story. Instead of rolling dice and pinning item cards to a bulletin board, you’ll need to fight actual skirmishes against enemy troops, defeat dangerous commanders on the field, and challenge the power of the Board itself in a final conflict. You’ll need to fight against some intelligent foes that use tactics against you and defend points around the camp from dangerous attacks. We are very excited to let you face the Chairman in a way that feels worthy of this foe, and we want to allow it to be the entire focus of the story.

So please be patient as finish out this season with THE ATROCITY, as we have many more stories to come in Season 6!

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 May event.

Overall, this next event focuses heavily on the themes of SUDDEN VIOLENCE, BODY HORROR, and LOSS OF AGENCY. These can be some serious themes, so let’s talk about some content warnings of note for THE ATROCITY:

SUDDEN VIOLENCE, JUMP SCARES, DEADLY SURPRISES

• The Nightmare threats during this event will not be “visible” for most characters in the game, unless those characters have a specific Keyword, Nightmare Host. If you don’t have these keywords or see the purple glowsticks/headbands on the Threats, you’ll need to pretend you don’t see them approaching.

• These stealthy threats will hunt anyone that makes noise, so you can avoid the sudden violence by avoiding their attention. However, only when the creatures attack will you be able to interact with them briefly, so you’ll need to stay quiet and hope they find other prey elsewhere.

• When the Nightmares attack, these will be deadly, quick, and sudden attacks out of nowhere. They will primarily operate at nighttime, but they will also be active during the day as well. You’ll need to be prepared to suddenly stop a conversation, silence a musical instrument, or quickly shush a crowd to prevent an attack.

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

• Certain creatures this weekend will have disgusting and visceral costumes and props that might require you to interact with unnerving, or terrible looking things. These props will change the features and silhouettes of certain threats and should be repulsive and terrifying.

• If a module requires you to interact with chemicals or substances that might stain your clothing or costumes, we will announce these aspects as a “SPLATTER MOD”. We will try to give you a fair warning before engaging with these challenges, but we cannot guarantee clothing or items may not be affected by the disgusting goo in our mods.

LOSS OF AGENCY, UNSTOPPABLE THREATS, Consequences AFTER DEATH

• Some threats during this weekend will not be things you can easily fight. While you may be able to defeat them temporarily, these Nightmares will be difficult to encounter because they will be “out of phase” until they attack. You won’t have long after a Nightmare attack to react to their presence, so you may not be able to truly confront or kill some of these threats.

• The Prince Undying is not a Threat that can be truly killed but is something that must be stopped by other methods. When you seem the familiar ochre form of the Prince in play, just know that you are meant to survive and endure, not overcome.

• Many horror stories involve this concept of loss of agency, where you are powerless to stop a monster that is itself a metaphor for the relentless advance of time, death, or war.

LOOSE THREADS & PLOTLINES

With the changing of the guard at the end of the season, we also have many new opportunities to come for folks that want to take a shot at telling their own stories in the Dystopia Rising world, or folks that want to serve as Guides in the Post Office and in the field. We will have some applications going up after we finish our season for those interested, so please make sure you don’t miss out on your chance to join the team!

With that in mind, we would love to see some Plot Requests and emails from you our players as we prepare for this event. Is there a particular story that you enjoyed that didn’t feel quite finished? Did you have you a particular NPC you’d like to see again, or a particular ST-led story that you enjoyed? Is there an answer you were hoping to uncover before the end of the season? Ask away, and we will do our best to wrap up as many loose threads as possible!

Send us a message via our email, at Dystopia Rising Texas, or send in a Plot Request through our form on the website. Let us know what you’d like to see during the final story of the season, so we can do our best to bring those stories to a satisfying conclusion!

wrap up

That’s it for today, Vados!

We hope that you will come join us for our next event, our finale of the Season 5 story. We have some fun surprises in store for you during this game, and we hope that you are ready to try and prevent the ATROCITY from happening. Will you be able to help to finally contain the danger of the Prince Undying? How will you protect those you love from the vengeance of a petty tyrant? Can you stay quiet while deadly Nightmares prowl around you?

Next week we will recap some of the important events from our last game, and catch up to speed on all the story continuity you’ll need as we face THE ATROCITY! See you soon, Vados!

Tickets are on sale for our MAY event now! Don’t miss out!

Rules You Should Know - April

Howdy Vados!

It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to our April live event WHISPERS FROM THE DEEP! This is our next ST led over-arc game, led by Noah Goodman. 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 last minute rules you should be ready for this weekend!

• TICKETS FOR OUR APRIL EVENT ARE STILL ON SALE AT THE DOOR! MAKE SURE YOU DON’T MISS OUT ON CHANCE TO SURVIVE THE FORCED EVOLUTION!

• Our dates for Season 6 are posted on the website! If you need to ask over time in advance for your work, check it out!

• There are several new Local Blueprints available starting this weekend! You’ll be able to use the Redfield Exchange, CAPS, or SES Credits to obtain these prints from the Post Office, or find other players with these custom items in play!

  • The Gospel Truth

  • Mr. Napalm’s Spicy Surprise

  • Amaranthite Vein

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

Rules You Should Know - APRIL

When the things inside Waking Prime escape into Bravado this weekend, you’ll need to be ready for a few specific mechanics of note. Let’s cover the common stuff before we dive into the unique aspects of evolution during WHISPERS FROM THE DEEP.

We covered some of this during the first post of the cycle, but let’s start:

Rad Damage (P. 105)

This is a mechanical damage effect normally associated with radiation or irradiated creatures. Radiation damage cause an equal degree of lost Mind as it does Body.

This is a dangerous effect you might have seen before on Glow Boys and Toxic Terrors. When damaged by this type of attack you lose both Mind AND Body, so it’s particularly devastating. For example, if the threat calls “5 Rad!” on an attack that hits you, you lose 5 Body and 5 Mind from the wound.

• Radiation Damage by itself doesn’t inflict Radiation Sickness, the disease most commonly associated with irradiated creatures.

• These attacks can (and should!) be Avoided, and are generally delivered by a melee Strike or a Ranged Attack with a packet.

• If the attack is called by an AOE or Sound of My Voice call, these effects cannot be Avoided, and must be prevented by mechanics that stop AOE effects.

• Armor doesn’t stop Rad Damage. If your got hit by a “5 Rad!” hit while wearing 20 Armor, you would lose 5 Mind and have 15 Armor remaining.

Small attacks with Radiation Damage may not be worth using Avoid on, as spending the Mind on the defense may be more costly than the damage you’ll take. But, take enough of those small hits and you won’t have the remaining Mind to dodge the next big hit! Ouch!

LINGERING DAMAGE

Damage Augment. If a Threat hits you with this type of attack called as “Lingering Damage, 1 Minute!”, you will suffer repeated damage over time as the effect continues. This effect inflicts 2 Body damage for each STEP you take while affected by the Lingering Damage. This effect normally lasts for one (1) Minute, but can last longer in certain situations. This effect can be Avoided, and ends upon entering Bleed Out or when the duration elapses. If the victim does not move, they do not take damage. Forced movement, such as from a Knockback effect, still causes damage to the victim.

This is a new type of Damage that you’ll see on certain Blueprints starting this weekend. This is a bit of a teaser for some similar mechanics arriving in DR Live, but these represent damage over time that gets worse if you try to run away.

• If you hear the call “Lingering Damage, 1 Minute” as part of an attack, you’ll take damage if you try to move from one spot. You’ll take 2 Body damage for each step you take, even if the movement is forced by something like Telekinetics or a Knockback.

• This effect can be Avoided, and is generally delivered as a Ranged Attack.

• When you fall into Bleed Out or the duration elapses, the effect ends. The safest way to avoid this damage is to stay still, but that means staying in place while the [REDACTED] can circle you and attack from behind!

Remember, freeze in place and you can avoid the Lingering Damage!

ATTRACT

Countered by Basic Mental Endurance for a five-minute period. Attract is an ability that lures those creatures or people with a certain keyword towards the user. Those affected by it must move when possible in the direction of the call, although if attacked they can stop to defend themselves – if an assailant withdraws, the effect reasserts itself. While they are not required to attack the source of the effect, most zed and raiders will, and critters will if their natural instinct is to do so. Player characters affected can make their own decisions as to what to do once attracted.

This is a universal Keyword that was added to the DR Lexicon a few years back. It appears on a few blueprints and even a couple of common threats, but you’ll hear this from a particular threat during the weekend.

• You can resist this ability with Basic Mental Endurance, and once you do you can ignore any further uses for the next five minutes. This is probably one of the more efficient uses of Mental Endurance out there, so pay attention!

• This doesn’t mean you have to play nice with whatever attracts you to it, just that you get close enough to be in arm’s reach. However, getting this close to a threat is likely a dangerous prospect, especially something like [REDACTED].

Death Stalk (Master Malicious)

“This skill can be used if the user currently has a Fracture (subdued or active). After spending 1 Resolve and pointing at a Target while saying “Death Stalk”, an individual using [this] skill may ignore 20 seconds worth of strikes and effects while stalking toward the Target. They cannot deviate from walking toward the Target and cannot attack or swing at others while walking toward the Target, and the Target must be no more than 15 paces away. One they reach their Target, they must strike the Target and then will begin taking damage and skill effects as per normal.”

Let’s break down the important parts:

• This is one of only a few skills that need Resolve that can be used while Fractured. Even Scattershot can’t be used while fractured, but you can still Death Stalk!

• You declare a target, call “Death Stalk” and walk menacingly towards them. While nothing suggests this can’t be a brisk pace, the skill specifically mentions walking. This skill is based on an old skill from 2.0 that prevented you from running, so this is a common interpretation of the skill, but it does not mention running either.

• You can ignore 20 seconds of strikes and effects, or take 15 paces, whichever happens first. For this short moment, you are an unstoppable juggernaut, with bullets and swords alike glancing off your angry advance. Because you have to use it on a Target within 15 paces, once you reach them the effect ends.

• You end the skill use with a strike against your Target, but you can’t strike anyone until you reach the Target. While you are protected from others strikes, they also gain a measure of protection from you! Don’t wade into the fray, keep your eyes on the prize!

• You cannot deviate from walking towards the target. This is NOT an “out of character” teleport ability, and this is probably the single biggest confusion on Master Malicious. There was an ability back in 2.0 that worked differently that this, but this power specifically is in character. If you cannot reach the Target because of an obstruction like a door, wall, another LC, or something like a tightly packed shield wall, this effect fails after 20 seconds. Period. Make sure you have a clear path before you spend the Resolve!

unique Threat Skills

You’ll see a few repeated threats this weekend, including some old favorites from the strange facility beneath Bravado, the dangerous BLOOD GHASTS. These creatures are a particular strain of Undead that arises from contaminated cryo tubes that once housed Semper Mort below the town. Instead of becoming a Lineage, the body mutated again and again and again without being able to enter the Grave Mind. Generations of evolution have turned the Blood Ghast into a lean, mean killing machine. As such, let’s cover some of their particularly unique abilities:

cannibalism

Many types of threats possess the Cannibalism ability. This is distinct from the Gorger advantage, and works differently. If a target Lineage is unconscious, subdued, or in bleed out, this character can begin 30 seconds of brutal cannibalistic roleplay. While roleplaying ripping out pieces of meat and consuming the target Lineage, the target must roleplay being in incredible pain. If uninterrupted for the full 30 seconds of the roleplay, the user calls “Cannibalism: reduce bleed out time to 1 minute”. If the target is already under 1 minute left in bleed out, this has no effect. Multiple uses of Cannibalism by one or more zombies will not reduce the count further than one minute, but should be called anyway to alert players to the terrible thing occurring.

Bloody Healing

[REDACTED] can heal almost as fast as a Raider. This ability can be used to heal all wounds and fix all limbs instantly, similar to the Anger Mutations of more common raiders. This ability cannot be used in bleed out, but will be called during a fight. The NPC will call “Bloody Healing” loudly when this power is used. If you don’t quickly put a [REDACTED] down, they will regenerate their wounds and keep attacking.

Bloody EXPULSION

Bloodghasts have a highly mutable system that can undergo spontaneous mutation and evolution, particularly after feeding on a dying survivor. If a Bloodghast is allowed to complete a Cannibalism call (see above), then they will increase in potency and explode into a frenzy of blood and gore. If a Bloodghast uses this power, they will call “Bloody Expulsion” and experience a moment of body wracking agony as they mutate. After this is done, they will fully heal, refresh all of their skills, and call “Area of Effect, 10 Body, Self-Immune!”. Better stay away if you don’t want to become the next victim!

Blood Frenzy

Bloodghasts can be dangerous foes, particularly to psions. The most powerful of their kind can go into a Blood Frenzy, and become immune to ALL Anomaly skills for 5 minutes. They can shrug off psionic compulsions as easily as a Pyrokinetic blast. When struck by a white packet or psionic effect, they will call “No effect, Blood Frenzy”. At the end of the 5 minutes these effect calls are dropped as if they had been canceled. This skill cannot be initially used as a counter (like Mental Endurance) or during bleed out.

Most of these skills above will be used on you, but the main mechanics will be for the NPCs themselves. Just know that letting a friend get Cannibalized during this event will have additional consequences, especially if [REDACTED] finds you in Bleed Out.

forced evolution

If you are caught alone on the battlefield with certain threats, they may convert you to their cause by a spontaneous evolution before the Mortis Amaranthine takes you with a FORCED EVOLUTION.

Forced Evolution

Upon taking a “Forced Evolution” call, writhe in pain for 10 seconds before rising again and fighting for [REDACTED] with the following stats.

30 BODY, Strong Limbs (Immune to Mangle), Keywords: [REDACTED], Once per flurry/reload deal Radiation Damage. Radiation Damage inflicts both Mind and Body damage at once.

Upon death, report to Ops. Return from The Grave Mind with Radiation Sickness Stage One.

Similar to being devoured by zombies with Cannibalism, if this attack hits your character they will be D-E-A-D, slain by the [REDACTED]. After your death, instead of proceeding to Ops to get your death scene, you’ll first return to play as a NPC threat. You’ll join the horde of enemies, and try to kill your friends until you are stopped for good.

Let’s cover this attack in a bit more detail.

• This attack counts as a Killing Blow. It’ll only be used on bleeding, helpless, and dying characters, so it’s not really something that can take you down in a single hit.

• It’s not a Murder effect, so armor like the Striker’s Coat won’t prevent this effect. However, stuff that stops a Killing Blow can prevent this effect.

• You cannot use most Skills, Equipment, or Abilities during this Forced Evolution. You are just a reanimated corpse, so you can’t do much other than attack.

• You can use still use the basic damage of your weapons (even firearms!) during this brief return from death, but cannot use activated abilities of the item. Rad Bullets sound pretty scary to me! We will also have some white brawlers available for you should you fall to this effect without a weapon handy (or if your friends disarm you.)

• Since your body isn’t really YOU anymore and you aren’t really dead yet, certain skills like Faithful Will won’t be very useful on the creature you become. This means it may be hard for your friends to prevent an Infection loss if get up and wander away.

• Once this Forced Evolution has ended, you can collapse on the ground dead for a brief time before headed to Ops. Once this has happened will effects like Faithful Will or Necrokinetics be again useful on your corpse.

REBELLION WAR Mechanics - a Primer

If you’ve been participating in a game this season you might have seen some of the War Mechanics we’ve introduced over the season. As the Rebellion has reached a crescendo, we’ve updated a few of the mechanics to be a bit easier to approach. There is a Design Doc for the full rules if you like that sort of thing, but I’m primarily gonna focus on the basics for this brief guide.

small skirmishes, not battalions

First, for the Bravado Rebellion, 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” or “combat unit”, just keep in mind that the scale is much smaller.

war supplies

This is a unique Local Plot Card that can be generated by using a ZOM in the Depot, and there are copies of this that will be posted at the Post Office. There are a few different ways to generate this Resource, but upgrading your Combat Units, performing Strategic Actions, and interacting with the war will generally require you to spend these items. You can find details on how to make these, but there are three main ways to do so:

• Bullets & Beans - Crafters may spend spare resources assisting the war effort.  When completing an Artisan, Culinary, or Education project that generates an item card or blueprint, you may spend an additional 10 Mind or 1 Resolve to generate one (1) War Supplies, in addition to the items you create by crafting.  Write “Bullets & Beans” on the back of your character sheet.

• Outside Assistance - You may spend 20 minutes and 10 Mind writing a letter requesting aid from an ally or faction of your choice.  This can be a request for soldiers, resources, or even just helpful advice.  At the end of this time, turn in your letter at the Post Office and write “Outside Assistance” on the back of your character sheet.

• Smelted Brass - You can simply throw money at the problem of the war and generate one (1) War Supplies per 20 Brass you invest at the Post Office.  In the oldest tradition of old Bravo, you can turn your hard earned money into ammunition for the troops.  Write “Smelted Brass” on the back of your character sheet.

Combat Units

All of the ZOMs at the War Table really interact with the idea of a COMBAT UNIT. This is a unique Item card printed on a rectangle of yellow paper. You can get one of these through the Post Office, and you can RECRUIT these units at the War Table in the Depot.

These represent a force of mercenaries and allies that will face down the enemies of Bravado on the battlefronts across the San Saba. This is a small group of people, no more than 20-30 folks, that you’ve gathered to lead into the fray. Where these troops came from in a story sense is mostly up to you to decide. If you want to participate in the Rebellion, all you need to do is RECRUIT a Combat Unit of your own. In future games you’ll have to lead these Units physically in a fight against NPCs, but for now, the main action happens “off camera”.

• Each Unit will have a NAME of the unit chosen by the player that recruits the unit, and a COMBAT VALUE. The Combat Value is simply the bonus you get on a d20 roll during a BATTLE. In this case, the Essex Protectorate would need to roll a d20 and add +10 to their roll.

• Your Combat Value (CV) can be raised by spending War Supplies, but it gets more expensive as this number goes up, and you can’t really raise it above +10 without specific behaviors or matching Keywords.

• Units will have different Keywords that show up during a particular battle. In general, each matching Keyword your unit has will give a temporary +1 to your Combat Roll for the Battle. You can have up to five different Keywords on a Unit, plus a Faction Keyword.

• Your Unit can gain certain Negative Keywords during Battles that can affect their Combat Roll in dramatic ways. If you are ROUTED, you fight with 1/2 of your CV and cannot spend extra War Supplies to increase the roll with a Bolster, and if you are DEMORALIZED, you must roll two dice and choose the lowest.

• Each unit will also have a single Faction Keyword, but if it’s something rarer like a Player Faction, it may not come up as often as you like. Every battle will have a few Faction keywords involved that can give you a +1 to your Combat Roll, or even give you access to REROLLS!

• Each unit can do TWO (2) actions during an event. This is generally fighting during a battle, but each action normally costs War Supplies or Resolve to complete. Some Keywords or Items will let your Unit complete a ZOM without using an Action or spending Resources, but you generally get to do TWO different things with your forces during an event.

• Each Combat Unit must be COMMANDED by a player character. You’ll write your name at the bottom of the Combat Card, so the ST can understand who is responsible for that Unit.

combat dice

• The main way that you fight during a battle is to roll your Combat Dice, which is simply a d20 provided by the Guide. You’ll roll the dice and add all of your modifiers from your Combat Value (CV), any actions that gave you a bonus, or other plot effects listed on the Battle.

• Base Combat Value +/- Modifiers = Final Combat Roll

• If your modified roll is over the DIFFICULTY of the Battle, you will earn a Success for that fight. Each battle will need a certain number of total Successes to win the fight.

• If a unit has Advantage, they roll 2d20 and choose the highest.  If the Unit has Disadvantage, they roll 2d20 and choose the lowest.  This will normally be gained by plot effects or having certain Officer bonuses.

• If you roll a 20 or a 1 on your Combat Roll dice, additional effects can impact your Combat Unit.  If you get a Critical, your unit will gain a Lucky reroll for later use, while if you roll a 1, your Unit will get ROUTED.

• You can gain a REROLL through some items or a plot effects. A unit with the ability to reroll a Combat Die must accept the result of the second roll, regardless of success or failure.

The War Table

On the back wall of the Depot, you’ll find a poster board with the various mechanics that can be done for the Rebellion, as well as a list of the upcoming BATTLES that will be fought off camera during the event. These appear as a series of Zone of Mechanics, printed on yellow paper with the details of how you can interact with the war against the San Saba Board.

There are two main things you can do at the table:

• Universal Actions (DOESN’t COST AN ACTION):

  • These are ZOMs on the top most row of the bulletin board in the Depot.

  • These actions don’t require you to spend one of your limited actions, but can generally only be performed ONCE per event, per player.

  • RECRUIT - This is how you can make a new Combat Unit. Each two War Supplies you spend increases their Combat Value, and they get a free Keyword of your choice, along with a Faction Keyword. Your new Unit will be limited to CV 5 until you receive additional training, but you can get an additional CV for free if you choose certain Faction keywords each month.

  • UPGRADE - You can add a Keyword to an existing Combat Unit or increase the CV. Each of these things costs War Supplies and it gets more expensive the more you add. Generally, you are limited to CV 10 for a Unit. Additional CV have to be earned in Battle!

  • BOLSTER - You can spend War Supplies to give your Combat Unit a temporary buff of up to +3 for the entire event. This is a great way to add a bit of oomph to your favorite band of mercenaries before a fight, and it’s a great way to increase your dice roll above CV 10!

• Strategic Actions (Costs an ACtion):

  • These are the ZOMs on the middle row of the bulletin board in the Depot.

  • These actions require you to spend one of your TWO actions. Remember your Actions cost War Supplies or Resolve to use, so you’ll need at least two War Supplies to fully exploit your Combat Unit. Choose wisely!

  • Your Second Action is called a REDEPLOY. Cavalry and Airborne units can do their Second Action without paying War Supplies (but still have to pay a Resolve), and certain Battles will make deploying to a second Battle cheaper.

  • RECON - This action reveals how difficult an upcoming Battle will be and lets you know how many total Successes will be needed to win. This is vital for knowing where to coordinate your forces. Scouts and Stealthy units can do this for free.

  • RAID - This is the only Strategic Action that generates new War Supplies. By sending your Unit out pillaging, you can earn some War Supplies based on a dice roll, but this consumes one of your two actions for the event. Naval and Deadly units can do this for free.

  • DEPLOY - This is the primary action for a Combat Unit. This is simply assigning your Combat Unit to fight in an upcoming Battle. Simply pin the Combat Card nearby the Battle you want to fight, or show up at the time of the Battle to participate. Because each Unit only gets two actions, you won’t be able to fight in every Battle. Self-Sufficient and Veteran units can do this for free.

  • WAR SUPPORT - These are unique opportunities that come up during the event to give you unique items, custom benefits, or other ways to recruit help for the Rebellion. These will require you to roll a d20, and will be detailed on an ZOM.

  • RESUPPLY - If your troops get wounded in Battle, you can spend one of your Actions to send them for a bit of R&R. They will mend their wounds, take a break, and be ready for a future Battle. This action can remove negative Keywords or even give your Combat Unit a Reroll with some Combat Drugs. Medics and Logistics Specialists can do this for free.

Battles

Each month, the Rebellion will face a series of Battles across the San Saba. As the fighting gets closer to Bravado, the Rebellion will face off against the enemy forces of the San Saba Board, the Clearwater Pirates, and the nightmarish legions of the Prince Undying.

There will be 3 or more Battles fought over the weekend, and they will generally happen near the 12s. The first Battle will happen Friday night at 12 am, the second at noon on Saturday, and the final battle Saturday night at midnight. An ST will be present to conduct the dice rolls, and determine if the battle was won or lost, and answer any questions you may have.

Battles are simpler than it might appear, but you have a few bits of important info:

• Difficulty - This is the number a Combat Unit has to roll over on a d20. If a Battle has a Difficulty of 15 with a CV 10 Unit deployed, they would need to roll a 5 or better on the d20 to succeed on this roll (5+10 = 15).

• Success Threshold - This is the total number of Successes that the Rebellion will need to achieve to WIN the fight. If you achieve less than the needed total, the Rebellion will LOSE the fight. If you achieve equal to or more successes than needed, you’ll generally WIN the fight. After every Victory, one of the Rebellion units will get a free Keyword and CV for wining as the MVP.

• Narrative Description & Enemy Forces - These simply explain the who, what, where, and why of the Battles, and an idea of what your Combat Unit is facing on the battlefronts.

• Keywords - For each Keyword that matches one on your Combat Card, you gain a +1 to your Combat Roll. This is a great way to turn the tide of Battle in your favor by carefully picking the Battles you’ll fight over the weekend.

• Deployment Effects - These effects happen BEFORE the Battle starts and dice are rolled, and can have dramatic effects on your Units assigned. Read carefully or ask for help from the ST or friendly player to understand the risks you might take by fighting in a Battle.

• Rewards of Success or Consequences of Failure - Each battle will have clear outcomes listed here, detailing what happens if the Rebellion loses or wins the Battles. These will generally result in destroyed or damaged units if you lose, or gaining additional free upgrades for Units if you win. Each Battle will earn or lose Victory Points towards the total success of the Rebellion, and will determine when Bravado can force the San Saba Board into a surrender.

summary of the WAR MECHANICS

This is a completely OPTIONAL mechanic to interact with the game. You don’t need to collect War Supplies, or recruit a unit. There’ll still be plenty of zombies, an overarc story, and more to do during the event.

You don’t have to do this, and it’s purposefully designed to allow you to do all your actions and then turn in your card and go back to the game. While there can be cool roleplay around where and how you organize your forces, the only person that gets to decide what your Combat Unit does is you.

You’ll generally have a Combat Unit, get to perform up to TWO different actions for them over the weekend, from buffing and improving the Unit to fighting in different battles. Three or more Battles will happen over the weekend, detailing the story of the Rebellion’s fight against the Board and their other enemies. All of the mechanics really revolve around rolling a d20, adding your bonuses, and trying to roll above a certain difficulty, similar to many other tabletop games like D&D. It’s pretty intuitive, and we will be there to help you along the way.

You don’t have the Recruit a Combat Unit to fight for the Rebellion, but this can be a great way to be involved in the story of the end of the San Saba Board. I’ll be available at each of the Battles during this weekend to answer any questions you have, so you’ll generally be able to find me near the War Table at the 12s.

There’s a few other rules of the war mechanics I haven’t covered here, but this should be enough to get started during this weekend’s event. The easiest way to get involved is to recruit a Combat Unit and send them to fight a Battle!

wrap up

That’s it for today Vados!

This weekend, you’ll find yourselves on the precipice of a new dawn, as the glories of evolution rise triumphant from the wreckage of Waking Prime. Will you survive the forced evolution and join the ranks of what lies beneath? Will you be able to reactivate the Electric Shield or will you find something else inside Waking? What happens if the pinnacle of evolution is allowed to mutate the already dangerous Blood Ghasts into something worse?

Let’s find out together, as we listed for the WHISPERS FROM THE DEEP…

TICKETS ARE STILL ON SALE AT THE DOOR! SEE YOU THIS WEEKEND!

San Saba Update

Howdy Vados!

It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to our April live event WHISPERS FROM THE DEEP! This is our next ST led over-arc game, led by Noah Goodman. 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 recapping the story of our previous event and updating you on a few continuity updates and changes you should know about going into April.

• TICKETS FOR OUR APRIL EVENT ARE ON SALE NOW! CAN YOU SURVIVE WHAT EMERGES FROM WAKING?

• CLEAN UP IS CHANGING! We will be experimenting with a new process for Clean Up at the end of the event during our April and May games. Immediately after closing announcements, we will start with our Camp Cleanup first, and then complete our Personal Cleanup last! We will have some more details on this soon, but we appreciate your flexibility as we try some new ways to speed up how fast we can get off site after game and still keep our friends in the Girl Scouts happy!

Our photos for this post were taken from our March 2023 DR:TX event by the talented Heather Halstead.

Recap - Gifts of Suffering

You can read more about the Premise of our last event, Gifts of Suffering, if you’d like to catch up, but we’ll cover some of the highlights of what happened if you missed out!

At the start of the event, Brother Agony, a Final Knight holy man came to town bearing several RELICS of unholy power. Each of the relics was a powerful psionic artifact, each with an insidious geas that encouraged those that claimed the crown to blaspheme the faiths that they were designed to mock. In all, there were TEN crowns released into the wild during the March event.

• Crown of Stagnation (Church of Darwin)

• Crown of Anarchy (Cult of the Fallow Hope)

• Crown of the Hellwrought (Final Knights)

• Crown of Moderation (The Light of Hedon)

• Crown of Solitude (The Nuclear Family)

• Crown of the Lost Signal (The Telling Visionaries)

• Crown of the Extinguished (Sainthood of Ashes)

• Crown of the Broken Wheel (Tribe of Seasons)

• Crown of the Discordant (Virtues of the Kings & Queens Court)

• Crown of Fresh Blood - This last crown only functioned in the hands of a character with less than 50 XP, meaning it quickly fell into the hands of a new player!

Each of the crowns offered boons like damage reduction, the ability to use various skills for free, resist AOE effects, and even use Faith Bane against their enemies. But, if conflict was not created, often requiring the wearer to commit a sin against the faith tied to the crown, they would slowly bleed and kill the wearer until they died. But if this compulsion was completed, the Crowns gained new and impressive new abilities, but required the wearer to take the life of another every 12 hours to satiate their lust for blood.

However, the Crowns offered a potential boon for the town of Bravado. If the town would fully ascend and empower the Crowns of Suffering, Brother Agony offered to teach them a benediction that could reinforce and shield the town from the terrible Prince Undying. As the night continued, the comforting blue light of the monolith at the crossroads began to bleed crimson, as the attacks from the Grave Mind grew worse.

Coupled with these psychic attacks on Bravado was the very real challenge of a Reckoner Blockade and the damaged docks that were destroyed by the pirates of the Clearwater Accord after the February event. While folks worked to repair the damage done and ensure the town could reopen a connection with Drywater and other cities along the riverways of the San Saba, the forces of the San Saba Rebellion deployed against the mighty armies of the Reckoners and the Board.

Throughout the day on Saturday, various forces attempted to claim the Crowns for themselves, whether it was rogue Reckoners of the Grave Council, agents of the Waking Intelligence Service, or even simply victims of Brother Agony’s gifts that destroyed towns that were torn apart by the infighting created by the relics. Cassiopeia, a Mystagogue of the Grave Council, heir apparent to the seat held by Rampart offered to help the town understand more about the relics of power with the resources of the Grave Council.

Saturday afternoon, a Gauntlet was held for the villainous General Rampart, leader of the Reckoners, but his military forces were set to keep the Justices of Sin from reaching the trial in time to pass judgement. With the help of Justice Blayne, the town snuck past the Reckoner Legions to bring the Justice to the Gauntlet, where she pronounced the General guilty of the crime of Murder and executed him on the spot. While a few of the townsfolk pried into his brain for a few final questions before he was taken by the Grave Mind, they were all shocked with inky black nightmare tentacles instead drug the corpse to somewhere else.

As the evening grew near and the incursion from the nightmares continued to threaten the town, Brother Agony proved true to his word. He returned with a Benediction to seal the monolith with Seals of Faith, reinforcing and securing the monolith against the influence of the Prince Undying. For every priest they could get to perform their part of the ritual, they could reduce the impact of the nightmares that came to break the strange crystal at the heart of the town. With help from priests of the Hedon, the Seasons, the Sainthood, the Fallow, and the Final Knights, the ritual was enacted as the night fell on Bravado.

Hordes of strange nightmare creatures swarmed the center of Bravado, intent on disrupting the Monolith, but the Crown bearers used the influence of the crowns to sway the tide in their favor. While common attacks to deal with the dead were useless, the seals of faith were useful in driving back the shadowy horde. As the faith of the town held strong under the assault, the crimson light faded from the monolith as it returned to the pure blue light that marked the town under its protection.

While the Crowns of Suffering could have been kept by the bearers, each of the crowns was surrendered and destroyed, removing the threat of them forever. Only time will tell if this was a hasty decision, but the strange GIFTS OF SUFFERING are no more.

UPdates for bravado

Let’s cover the nitty gritty of what has changed since last month:

• First, the Blockade of Bravado has been lifted thanks to the efforts of the brave soldiers of the Rebellion. They broke the back of the Reckoner Legions outside the town and have lifted the immediately consequences that was affecting Trade Connections and other Skills at the PO.

• Anyport was repaired and access to the riverways was restored thanks to a monumental effort of scrap, resources, a trip to sail against the Blockade, and a fierce battle with the Clearwater Accord. The penalities against the Sailing skill have been removed.

• Despite the Blockade being lifted, the town is still being isolated by the San Saba Board. The Ox is forbidden from being sent to the town, telegraph lines need to be repaired, and connections to the greater Wastes are still limited under threat of treason and enemy forces of the Board. While the immediate danger of the Blockade is gone, work yet remains to gain access to the greater railways. You can expect to see ZOMs and other similar repair efforts continue as we end the season, and Battles will continue to fight against the Board.

• We’ve always referred to the “Ox” in a general sense of the RRC network around the area, but there’s more than one locomotive in use by the RRC. While a few “misplaced” locomotives from the lesser fleet of trains that the RRC and the Hackard Family manages can now return to Bravado, the crown jewel of the fleet, the jet-powered Ox, is much too valuable to send into contested territory. Players can once again arrive via the train, but it’s assumed to be a hijacked or mis-purposed train car, a handcart, or some other lesser form of rail access. Players will have an option to claim the Ox for the town of Bravado in the coming events.

• The new MORALE BOOST effect continues until the end of the season. The fire in the heart of the Rebellion is still strong and ready to claim a new future for Bravado! Yeehaw!

The NEw Bravado Charter

One of the important threads from this event that will show up again during April is the question of Law and Order in a town that has rebelled. During the March event, the Law Dogs met to consider a new Bravado Charter, a set of common-sense laws that the town could agree to enforce as a community. Much like the laws of the San Saba Board were created as part of a charter between the powerful factions of the area, the town of Bravado would instead draft their own charter as part of the rebellion.

The Law Dog agents worked to whip up support for their organization, but also to sell the need for some structure in the face of Anarchy. In the end, the town gathered an overwhelming majority of the town to consider the following laws. In April, the town will be able to sign the Bravado Charter, ushering in a new sense of justice in the wastes, and ensuring that the Law Dogs and Justices of Sin can help keep the worst excesses of anarchy and lawlessness at bay.

The laws suggested by the Law Dogs are as follows:

• The act of Murder is illegal, regardless of actual Infection loss.

• Theft of property, labor, or Infection is illegal.

• The possession, harvesting, distribution, and manufacture of Crystal Candy is illegal.

• Contracts between parties do not absolve of violations of these laws.

• The protected rights of assault, post, press, or radio shall not be infringed.

Most of these laws are similar to the ones that have been in place before now. You shouldn’t trade in Crystal Candy, kill, steal, or prevent the Post Office from delivering the mail. But, the Law Dogs have chosen to enshrine the right of a good old fashion brawl with Assault as a town tradition, and protect the nascent rights of the press and radio to bring news to town. Lastly, instead of saying that ‘contracts are the sum and whole of the law’, like in the San Saba Charter, they made sure to close a loophole to prevent contracts from being used as an excuse to escape the long arm of the law.

During the April event, you’ll have a chance to consider any final modifications to these laws before they are enshrined by the new Bravado Charter. As we reach the end of Season 5, we want you each to have a say in the laws of the town as we move towards Season 6. With law and order in sight, the Rebellion takes another step towards building a bright new future for the tiny town of Bravado.

rebellion updates

We introduced a few new updates to our Rebellion mechanics that you can read for yourself on our Discord, but the fight against the enemies of Bravado continued in the month of March. Several folks took the opportunity to draft and muster new Combat Units, and the forces of the Rebellion swelled as they set to defend their hard-earned freedom from the the forces of the San Saba Board and worse. The town defended far away locations by deploying their Units to various battlefronts near Bravado.

There were three battles that took place, with the brave soldiers of the Rebellion striking back to claim territory and break the back of the Reckoner Legions that had laid siege to the town for a month.

Regaining Control of the River

Eager to liberate Roy’s Rest, the Rebellion struck eastward against the forces of the Clearwater Accord and the treacherous pirates that follow Carina Astora. The enemy forces were made up of Clearwater Accord pirates, prowling the waterways trying to prevent reinforcements from reaching the Junkerpunk Port.

Fighting against D’arcy the Dark, the Rebellion reclaimed the riverport as part of their campaign to provide aid to the embattled Junkerpunks. D’arcy was a powerful psion and opportunist, and she turned on the Oxkillers after Carina offered a better paycheck and a disregard for her preference for cannibalism.  She claimed that eating the hearts of her victims let her steal their psionic potential for her own, and was prepared for a feast, but was instead met with an devastating loss.

With the town of Roy’s Rest firmly in the control of the Rebellion, they can now strike along the rivers to rescue ships and citizens that are under siege by the pirates of the Spoiled Coast, and will be able to provide aid to the Clutch during the April event.

Reinforcing Tremorsands

Before the Militia disbanded in February, General Hargrave made the sound decision to provide additional support to the oilfields of Tremorsands Post, one last stop at the edge of the Dune Sea. Thanks to the timely assistance, Tremorsands was prepared for a new and terrifying enemy as the forces of the Undying Empire moved out from Barogue, their undead hordes intent on destroying the living.

Through it was the hardest fought battle of the weekend, the forces of the Rebellion narrowly persevered against the terrible nightmarish legions of the Prince Undying.  A wave of foul blackness sweeps across the desert, resembling shadowy cavalry with skeletal features.  A shrieking chorus rose across the sands, breaking the nerve of even the most stalwart defenders.

The Rebellion overcame the terrible Maja’sulum Nabat, the Consort of the Tentacled Depths, the leader of the undead hordes, and stopped the advance from the desert. However, as the wave of nightmares rolls into the heart of the San Saba, the next bastion of defense will need to be the brave soldiers of the Ramguard as they attempt to defend Falken Castle from the Prince Undying.

The battle of bravado

The final battle of the weekend took place as the Rebellion mustered their forces against the Reckoner Legions, intent on breaking the siege of Bravado. The Battle of Bravado took place Saturday night, with the Rebellion breaking the back of the San Saba Board as they tried their next attempt to reclaim the town.

The enemy forces were made up of allegiant Reckoner Legion units wielding psi-tech weapons and leveraging the Undead hordes still riled up by the strange rituals they used to control the dead from afar, led by Commander Grant, one of the last followers of Rampart. While his forces had been battered during their defeat in February, they still presented a danger to the town and needed to be stopped.

The Rebellion was victorious, pushing the Reckoners back to Essex, and opening a path to reclaim the fortress-prison of Killhouse, a personal goal of General Hargrave. With Tabitha and her Board soldiers separated, it will be up to the combined forces of the Oxkiller Alliance and the Rebellion to break the fortress that has stood firm for the entirety of the War of Antlers.

Looking Forward

There will be FOUR (4) Battles during April, based on the outcomes of the Battles that were fought during the March event.

• Liberating Widow's Peak

• Evacuating the Clutch

• The Conquest of Killhouse

• Defending Falken Castle

Will you be able to claim a bright future for the Rebellion and break the San Saba Board once and for all? Can you hope to stop the Prince Undying, and can you provide aid to your allies in their hour of need? I hope you have your War Supplies ready!

Wrap Up

That’s it for today, Vados. We have a few weeks until our April event, WHISPERS FROM THE DEEP, and we still have a few surprises in store. While evolution may have run rampant in the depths of Waking, what will that mean for your characters as they discover the dangers of Project Eve? Will your be forced into a new evolution, or will you survive the evolutionary leap into the a bright new future for Bravado?

Let’s find out together! Next week, we cover some of the Rules You Should Know, and we will cover some of the important mechanics that might be useful to survive what emerges from Waking.

Tickets are on sale until Friday, but you’ll still be able to reserve your spot on site next week. Don’t miss out on the next chapter of our story!

See you soon Vados!