Rules Ramble

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Changes in Season 6

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Howdy Vados!

It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to the start of our new sixth Season and the first DR Live National Event! This week, I’ll be discussing some of the big changes you can expect in our game and story for Season 6!

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

The story for season six

Another deadly war has shook the foundations of Bravado, and the San Saba has settled into an uneasy and chaotic peace after the collapse of the San Saba Board.  Travel and communication across the area has grown more difficult, and towns turn their focus inward, towards their own fraught survival.  

It happened more quickly than many expected.  The outer rail lines that once reached as far as the Broken Coast and across the Dune Sea have been abandoned in favor of closer, safer routes between the immediate towns near Bravado and Essex.  Telegraph lines stripped for salvage and murdered postal runners mean that all but the most persistent communication between settlements has stopped, and the points of light at the edge of the map have dimmed.  Soldiers and mercenaries recruited for the war, now without a common cause, consider new allegiances, brutal banditry, or violent reckonings on rival settlements ill prepared for trained and well armed survivors at their gates.

In this new world, the implacable equilibrium of the wasteland churns onwards, reclaiming abandoned settlements in overgrowth, and damning once vibrant towns to destruction, returning the land once more to a lawless waste ruled only by what a survivor can claim for themselves.  Strange and dangerous raiders have overtaken the north, their war path marked by blood and the sounds of drum beats.  The dead have risen in even greater numbers, the Grave Mind turning the countless deaths of the War of Antlers into new and more deadly variants, bent on feasting on living flesh.

The factions of the San Saba have been broken and worn by the war, but each has consolidated what remains of their fortunes closer to the new heart of the San Saba, Bravado.  While it should be a new shining beacon on a hill, a pervasive sense of insignificance has rendered the town forgettable and alone, a ghost town tucked into a forgotten corner of the region.  A fog of memories, casting a shroud of forgetfulness and absence has settled over Bravado, perhaps a last dying gasp of an ancient terror trapped within or perhaps just the unfortunate reality of a world that has moved on after the fall of the Board.  As the town wanes in importance, new rivals flourish nearby, threatening to complete the fall into obscurity for our humble home.

Forgotten and left to decide their own future, our survivors face the harsh and horrific realities of survival in the wasteland.  Now, once easily secured resources like power, clean water, food, fuel, and scrap are in question, and the lean and hungry eyes of your fellow survivors seem not quite as friendly as before.  The future promised by the San Saba Board may be dead, but perhaps a new future can be forged from the ashes for the survivors that call Bravado home…

Changes, Changes, Changes..

Every season, we get together with our incoming Storyteller team to craft the overall story for the next year. We assign some of STs to be the “Overarch ST” for certain games, while others are led by Heather, myself, and the rest of the Admin team. As we build the narrative for the new season, we also try to include some updates to our setting, our rules, and our plans for the next games.

In our tradition of Radical Transparency, one big upcoming change we need to account for is the new license structure that we moved to at the start of the year. Our stories over Season 6 will need to adjust to a new scope of story, as we have less ability to impact the larger setting outside of our hometown in the new licenses. I first talked about this in a blog post from last season, so it shouldn’t be that big of a surprise if you’ve kept up with the blogs.

This means we need to collapse our story area down to adjust to the new scope, but luckily for us we started this back during Season 5. With the end of the War of Antlers, we’ve created the perfect story for these changes and a reason to explain some of our new focus. Many of the changes I’ll discuss below are ultimately in service of either meeting this new scope of license or preparing for the launch of the new edition, and I’m excited about getting to refocus our stories back to Bravado.

Over the next few weeks, you’ll see a lot of these changes reflected across the website, so keep checking back as we get closer to the first game of the season. I’m slowly updating all the pages on the website, but it’s a work in progress.

Here’s the main topics of change for this blog:

  • Wasteland Changes

  • Sunsetting Custom Mechanics

  • Updates to the Bravado Setting

  • The fog of memories

  • Faction Updates & Changes

Let’s get started!

Wasteland Changes

The new edition of DR Live updates the CVC Rules considerably, and we want to pave the way for this new world of character vs character conflict in advance of the transition. One of the changes you can expect to see this season is an expansion of the “Wasteland” area of Bravado. While this change will bring our CVC systems a bit closer to the ones used in the new edition, it will also help reinforce the major societal changes that have occurred in our story as we collapse our story back to our hometown.

With the absence of the San Saba Board, there’s a lot of questions in Bravado and the nearby towns about what law and order actually means. While Bravado signed a new charter with the Law Dogs and the Justices of Sin, not every town agreed to a need for laws. General anarchy and lawlessness in the areas beyond settled towns has led to a rise in bandits, raiders, and other threats outside of civilization. As this wasteland grows, so too does the wasteland in our town.

  • Effective starting in September, the Wasteland will cover the entire Camp Bluebonnet Site. This means that you will only need a Guide for CVC actions that involve Infection changes. We still recommend a Guide for general theft, but that cool in-character confrontation can result in a rowdy brawl without breaking character to grab a Guide.

  • The Civilized areas of the camp will include bathrooms, the Kitchen inside the Depot, and Oak Cabin, our medical sleep area. These areas should not include CVC for any reason without explicit consent, per the CVC rules in the core book.

In practice, this doesn’t change much for our game. We’ve had well over half of the campsite as Wasteland for a few years now, so this only adds a few more buildings to the mix. We have a great CVC culture established in Bravado, and this change will help us smooth out the rough spots in advance of our transition to DR Live. If you have any questions or concerns about this, feel free to give us a shout at info@dystopiarisingtx.com.

Sunsetting Custom Mechanics in DR:TX

With a big shift for the new edition coming, our big focus this season will be on reducing the mechanical complexity in our games. Over the years, we’ve introduced a lot of custom mechanics, custom threats, custom blueprints, and more, and it’s time we get back to the basics. One big part of the new edition change is that we will not be able to introduce new custom mechanics for about the first year of play as part of our new license. This change means we’d rather start to wean our players off these custom mechanics early, rather than adding to the culture shock of the new edition.

The following custom mechanics will be sunsetted during our upcoming season. As of the end of September 2024, the following mechanics will be removed:

We are planning one last hurrah for these custom mechanics during our September event, THE FALL OF THE SAN SABA BOARD, including new ways to spend your remaining SES credits, use and purchase Faction Items, and use your other cool custom items. Stay tuned as we start the lead up to our September event to learn more!

Any existing local item cards or blueprints obtained in September will still be usable through the end of the 2024 year, ending with our game in December. Since all Local Mechanic Cards normally have an expiration date of 3 months, this will mean that you can still use the items for all three remaining 3.0 games we have planned for 2024 (since our October National DR Live event won’t use 3.0 item cards). At the end of the year, these items will be fully removed from our game.

Our Work Orders and Research mechanics will continue through the end of the year, but you can expect a few updates to the Work Orders in the absence of the San Saba Board. We expect Work Orders to continue into DR Live, but the Research mechanics will be replaced with the rules in the Player’s Guide once the new edition launches. For now, you can still research your hearts out!

the scope of the Bravado Setting

Last season, we saw some tumultuous events take over the San Saba with the rebellion against the San Saba Board and the War of Antlers. Cities were attacked, settlements were scattered, rail lines were destroyed, major NPCs were killed, and big enemies faced down our plucky survivors. This general chaos will be the story element behind our changes to the scope of story for Bravado, and there’s been a few updates of note for our setting.

As a general rule, our scope of story only stretches to about 10-ish miles from our town of Bravado. We are making a few changes to the area around Bravado in a bit of a ‘timey wimey wibbly wobbly’ fashion, so some of the distances between certain places are… shifting a bit. Don’t worry, it’s always been that way, or so the Grave Mind told me. All those maps were just a bit off in the scale, that’s all…

This is real world map of the area near our fictional town of Bravado. The circle is a 10-mile radius and represents the new scope of the area our stories can include.

This means that far away areas like Barogue, Widow’s Peak, the Clutch, Star City, Fort Worthless, the Dune Sea, and even Essex will need to take a step back from our story as we continue. These places won’t necessarily stop existing in our story, but they will fade in priority as we shift our focus closer to Bravado. It also means some of our player story areas like Lucky Town and Falken Castle will likely remain in the background going forward. I’ll have a shiny new in-character map of the nearby areas to share with you soon, but for now let’s cover the major landmarks nearby our town in the updated setting.

  • Bravado

    • The home of our story and the center of our setting. Our season 6 story will detail the challenges of survival in the wastes, and the calamities that face our humble home. The Railroad Conglomerate keeps their primary maintenance yard for the Ox at the Bravado station and remains a powerful influence on the town while harvesting scrap and resources from the facility below the town.

  • Tremorsands Post

    • The last outpost before the Dune Sea is still a source of most of the Oxblood for the RRC’s remaining Oxlines. While the rail across the Dune Sea has been abandoned in favor of more reliable and defensible lines closer to Bravado, Tremorsands is a welcome oasis for travelers that brave the journey westward. The RRC outpost allows for an early warning against the dangerous raider tribes moving in from the north.

  • Morgan’s Folly

    • East of Bravado are the ruins of the area formerly considered Temple and Belton which is now a dangerous no-man’s land between the major settlements near our hometown. Home to bandits, critters, and the occasional raider war party, the area is mostly lawless and ignored. Stories of criminal gatherings and masked cultists are probably nothing more than rumors.

  • Essex, the City of Light & Sound

    • We’ve put a lot of stories over the years into Essex and didn’t want to leave this town to be forgotten, but it was a bit outside of 10-mile range. It’s always been a short train ride from Bravado in our story, so now it’s simply a bit closer to our hometown. During the last days of the war, Arthur Lovelace turned his artillery onto the town itself, so much of the city is in ruins and many of the former residents have been scattered. Boss Debs and the remaining members of the San Saba Republic have promised to rebuild the city, but it’s going to be several years before Essex recovers. Boss Wyatt has taken an office in the city, and dispatches members of the Law Dog Union to enforce the various town charters across the area.

  • Drywater

    • The nearby port and home to the remaining Junkerpunk fleets is a staunch ally of Bravado. However, the residents of Drywater have resisted the influence of the Grave Council and the Law Dog Union and has decided to forge their own path without the need for laws or oversight, or morgue maintenance. After years of trying to fit in with the other factions, the Junkerpunks have returned to their rebellious roots.

  • Bastion

    • A resurgent force and rival to Bravado, the nearby fortress is a looming presence on the entire San Saba countryside. The Mustang Loyalists have established a new stronghold atop the remains of the crashed airship formerly known as Waking and are hard at work establishing the Wells Society Initiative, a plan to deal with the radioactive exclusion zone that surrounds the city.

  • Killhouse

    • The headquarters of the new Bravado Militia, the prison turned fortress weathered the storm of the war thanks to the leadership of General Hargrave Moss-Iverspiit. The remaining soldiers loyal to the Militia have established a base of operations inside the fortress and have partnered with Reckoner-General Solomon and the Grave Council in establishing a new home for the Grave Bureau inside the former prison’s depths.

While our October National Event will take place inside the town of Bastion, most of these nearby settlements will remain off-camera for our season. You’ll probably interact with NPCs, faction leaders, away mods, and other threats that involve these locations, but the main focus of our story is on Bravado proper. While our story of survival is focused on Bravado, there’s still some allies and enemies of note nearby.

The Fog of Memories

One new story beat we’d like to introduce for Season 6 is the concept of the “Fog of Memories”. For our season of survival, we have added a new story effect to explain why the outside world no longer cares as much about Bravado as it did in seasons past.  This has no actual mechanical effect beyond what the players decide, but it is simply a cool narrative way to address continuity going forward.

Some suggest that the effects of capturing the Prince Undying within the Bravado Mortis appears to have created a strange phenomenon that is now impacting the residents of Bravado.  Others simply point out that without an organizing government like the San Saba Board, most folks tend to mind their own business. With travel being tougher across the San Saba, it’s easy for people not to want to risk a dangerous journey after all.

Regardless of the cause, it started small and sometime shortly after the Burning Season began. People began to forget Bravado unless they were actively living there or had some sympathetic tie to the town.  As it continues to worsen, people literally forget about the town unless they have a reason to remember it.  People with a strong connection or tie to the town like your characters are more resistant to the effect, but the effect increases the further you travel from Bravado. Every month, some new traveler arrives in town, surprised to find the town and even more surprised to find folks living there.

Much like something that is out of sight, or out of mind, it’s a subtle effect for most, and leads to small mistakes and forgetfulness that interrupts regular trade and commerce.  Repairmen forget to make the trip to check the rail lines leading into Bravado, and merchants accidentally miss the stop as they daydream about something else.  Important faction leaders focus on other settlements nearby, and don’t make it a priority to visit Bravado. For those that don’t live actively in the town, it’s as easy to forget as some small random town in another state could be in real life.  If someone brings it up, folks might have a spark of memory, but it quickly fades into obscurity when it fades from their attention.

  • There are no real mechanics for the Fog of Memories. This is simply a story element for how the town is being forgotten by the outside world. Think of elements like relationship decay, or nostalgia as a means to a story.  The themes here are not catastrophic, but just the distance that grows between ideas as time passes.

  • This is an optional story that your character can choose to have impact them, or simply choose to ignore it. If you don’t want it to affect your character, it doesn’t.  You get to decide if and how the Fog of Memories has affected your character. It’s entirely up to you, but this could be a great reason to update a back story, or wrap up some unfinished stories as you prepare for the new stories of DR Live. Maybe the amnesia you suffer can provoke some new character connections or let you start fresh as if you just arrived in town.

  • In general, this is not a problem that can be fixed. It’s simply a new part of life in Bravado, and it can have as much or as little impact as you want it to have on your character. It’s not something that research or a zone of mechanics will change.

  • You might encounter strange fog in Bravado from time to time, as we plan to use fog machines more in S6 as setting ephemera. The fog could have strange effects via certain zone of mechanics, but most of this effect is simply a background story.

I hope you are ready for some spooky stories in Season 6!

FACTION UPDATES & CHANGES

The War of Antlers had some big impacts on our story, and virtually every faction was impacted by the conflict in a pretty significant way. Our stories of season 6 will determine the fate of some of the factions, and even introduce some new characters to the story. In the same way this will be a bit of a season of transitions as we get ready for the launch of DR Live, this year’s story will continue with the aftermath of the war that nearly ended the town of Bravado.

We will be updating our Faction pages over the next few weeks, so here’s the major changes to expect:

  • The Factions of the San Saba have lost much of their influence in the region, and many of these groups have new NPC leadership, new headquarters, and new objectives. Money is tighter, and many have had to spend vast resources relocating or rebuilding after the events of the War of Antlers. This is one story reason the Faction Buy Lists will be sunsetted, but overall the ability of a faction to influence a wide area of the San Saba has been severely reduced following the war as part of our new license structure.

  • Two factions will be exiting our story, the Widows of the Lone Star and Prudence Penitentiary. These Society Memberships will be removed from character sheets going forward.

  • One new faction will be introduced, The Bravado Militia, representing the remaining soldiers and troops recruited during the War of Antlers. Players that served as commanders during the war can add this Society Membership to their sheets for free.

Here’s a bit of a story update on the various Factions, and we will expand on this on the website and during our Season 6 stories.

  • The Widows of the Lone Star have been driven out of Widow’s Peak and have now joined the Criminal Factions of Bravado. They are no longer a full faction, as their story really concludes in September with the final confrontation against Arthur Lovelace. While some stories will continue in the background, particularly for characters in Murder Inc, we won’t have regular events like Widow’s Tea and you won’t see characters like Clauthia Lovelace during our games.

  • Prudence Penitentiary has ceased to exist following the war. With the disappearance of Tabitha St. Mercy, taken into custody by the General during the last days of the war, the location once known as Killhouse has been well and truly finished. With no remaining function for the prison after the collapse of the San Saba Board, the fortress-prison has taken on new importance to the Militia and the Grave Council as a strategic fortification and not as a place of incarceration.

The remaining six factions of the San Saba have each experienced their own trials and tribulations following the War of Antlers.

  • The San Saba Republic has splintered further following the aftermath of civil war. The SSR is eager to return to a more peaceful life following war, the destruction at Essex, and the betrayals during the rebellion. With the Breaker of Crowns’ rage finally satiated with the collapse of the Board, many families that were broken and torn apart on the opposing sides of the rebellion are seeking reconciliation. With Boss Deb’s focus on rebuilding Essex, only a few of the Tribes remain in Essex, and many of their soldiers recruited during the war and their Houses have returned to their homes once more.

  • The RRC is in crisis, as most of their fortunes were tied to the success of Felicity Redfield and the Board. Forced to abandon the outer Oxlines, they have taken a more conservative approach to survival after the collapse of the Board. A new CEO will need to be named, but the Ox is safe in Bravado for now. However, the families of Waking Prime have splintered with the rise of Bastion - some have joined the Mustang Loyalists in their new fortress-city, while others have remained in Essex and Bravado.

  • The Law Dog Union has established their relevance through the creation of several town charters across the area around Bravado. These new social contracts empower Marshals and Sheriffs to find new paths of redemption for criminals with the help of the Justices of Sin, and they have their work cut out for them. While Boss Wyatt has established an office for the Union in Essex, their agents roam the wasteland offering their services as investigators and beacons of stability in a lawless wilderness.

  • Following the death of General Rampart, Cassiopeia Stargazer has emerged as the leader of the Grave Council. With the help of the new Reckoner-General Solomon, the faction has diverted their expertise in necrology and the Grave Mind towards establishing a new Vault of Reckoning inside the strong walls of the fortress-prison formerly known as Killhouse. The new town charters have also redefined the grave tax for a new post-Board era, but the faction has a lot of work to do to rebuild their reputation.

  • The Junkerpunks are licking their wounds after the war, after being forced to retreat inland towards their new home of Drywater. After years of trying to appease the kinder elements of the Muddy Water Accord, the faction is ready for a clean break from law and order. Drywater has refused to sign a charter with the Law Dogs or the Grave Council, choosing to forge a new path ahead on their own. Will complete anarchy be a viable method of survival in the new lawless wasteland?

  • The Militia stands as the strongest military organization in the region, and has claimed the fortress-prison of Killhouse as their headquarters. Under the leadership of General Hargrave, the Militia now has to grapple with the unfortunate realities of a post-war landscape, including dealing with their veterans and the threat trained soldiers represent. How do they lay down their arms and return to a normal life without the purpose of serving in the rebellion? Who pays the bills now that the rebellion has been won? While many of their soldiers returned home, some remained behind to stand guard against the Mustang Loyalists, and others worry that the Militia will just find a new excuse to plunge Bravado into a new war against Bastion.

There’s still a few unknowns for how Factions and Society Memberships will function in a new DR Live world, but for now there are still plenty of stories to tell as we begin Season 6.

wrap Up

That’s it for today, Vados!

Tickets will be on sale soon for our September event, THE FALL OF THE SAN SABA BOARD, and you can buy tickets right now for our National Event, DOWNFALL! Don’t miss out on your first chance to play a whole weekend with the new DR Live rules and explore the nearby rival town of Bastion during our National Event.

Next week, we will start our coverage of the September event and finish our two-part story we started in May. Find out more about what Arthur Lovelace has been up to over the Burning Season, and what his burning revenge will mean for Bravado next week!

See you soon, Vados!

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The Story of Downfall

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Howdy Vados!

It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to the start of our new sixth Season and the first DR Live National Event! This week, I’ll be introducing the story of our upcoming National Event and give some teasers about what to expect when you get to visit Bastion!

Our photos for this post were taken from previous DR:TX events by the talented Lauren Guzaldo.

Testing a new system and earning XP is a great reason to attend Downfall, but some folks want to know a bit more about the story and why their characters might make the trip to the San Saba region. Let’s cover the details below.

THE PREMISE

“Every settlement in the wastes has a similar story – a spark of hope amidst the irradiated wasteland, trying to survive in a hostile environment that is the product of too many nukes, too many raiders and undead, and too much conflict.  Now, a new hope for survival has arrived – a way to cure the threat of radiation.

The Wells Society, a group of Sainthood that survived the fall of the Trade Union, have emerged with a solution — a breed of mushroom that feeds on radiation itself.  With the help of the Grave Mind scholars known as the Servants of the Undying, they have developed the “Liberum Radicalis”, or Glow Shroom, and promise that they can “cure” irradiated areas across the wastes.  In a few short months, the Society claims they can return an area back to a state where crops can grow and new settlements can form, free from the plague of the green glow.

Their first test of the strange blue mushrooms on a large scale has happened at a Fallow Hope fortress called the Bastion of New Dawn.  Built atop the wreck of a massive crashed airship, Bastion has been surrounded by lethal radiation and massive ZOMBIE HORDES that continue to emerge from the destroyed generator at its core and has served as an impenetrable fortress during the recent wars in the area.  The soldiers of the Mustang Loyalists, loyal to the one and only GENERAL MUSTANG, have opened the fortress to new settlers and travelers, with a promise that the radioactive threat is no more.  

With the help of the Wells Society, the first proof of concept for their new mushroom is ready for others to visit, collect spores to take home with them, and see for themselves what the Sainthood have brought forward for the greater good.  Invitations have gone out to every major settlement across the wastes, to visit Bastion and see the revelations of the great work that has been completed, and how it can benefit their own communities.

But their opponents with the Temple of Evolution suggest that the radiation is itself a reason for the survival of so many settlements.  Without the mutation of the Infection, none of the Strains would exist.  What will happen to the Infection that runs in your veins when not constantly bombarded with radiation from the wastelands?  What will happen to the Mortis Amaranthine when the source of its creation is gone and it is allowed to expand unchecked?  Even if the Glow Shrooms are safe, who will control these new fertile lands and decide who will benefit from the homes that are created in the absence of radiation? 

Come and witness the birth of a new era of the wasteland, survive the zombie hordes, and gather the promise of salvation to bring home to your settlements, courtesy of the Wells Society and the Bastion of New Dawn.”

Radiation, Mushrooms, and Zombies? Sounds like a great Dystopia Rising event!

Inspiration & Tropes

For the Downfall story, 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 DOWNFALL 2024:

  • Horizon Zero Dawn

  • Westworld

  • Minority Report

  • Gremlins

In Horizon Zero Dawn, Aloy is given a choice to restore technology from the ancients, but has to contend with this tech becoming new and terrible weapons in the hands of her enemies. While the glow shrooms could be a powerful way to restore the wasteland, they could lead to dangerous mutations or worse if not properly used.

Similarly, Westworld and Minority Report explore unintended consequences of technology. As a new resource is introduced to the wasteland, so too does the power struggle around new technology. While the glow shrooms can be a powerful tool to help a settlement, new land and new resources means there could be a contest for who gets to claim these new advantages.

The Wells Society can be a valuable ally for your settlement, but the glow shrooms they offer need to be properly cared for, like the movie Gremlins. Just like you wouldn’t feed a strange creature after midnight, it will be important to really research and understand what is being offered. If the players follow the instructions for the glow shrooms it should work well, but we know that they don’t always listen to sound advice.

The Themes of Downfall

Every game in DR:TX has a few themes we want to reinforce in the story. Here’s a few to watch out for during the National Event.

Greater Good vs Individuality

  • While solving a problem of radiation can present a benefit for the greater good across the wastes, as the Mortis is strengthened so does the sense of self fade into nothingness.  The Wasteland is a balance of radiation and death, and picking one or the other could be catastrophic.

Radiation vs the Grave Mind

  • Radiation is a useful tool against raiders and zed alike, offering powerful weapons and a natural enemy to the Grave Mind.  As radiation wanes in danger and the Grave Mind gets stronger, so too does the threat of undead.  If the glow shrooms are truly an answer to radiation, could this even remove the protective elements of the Infection such as quick healing and beneficial mutations?

Faith vs Order

  • The opposing faiths of the Darwin and Fallow Hope are placed in conflict during this story.  Mustang has a solution to help their people with new farmland, new safety, and the ability to help their faction grow.  The radiation leaks from Bastion have been a bane on the nearby settlements, and even the Darwins have precepts against unchecked evolution.  But, the glow shrooms represent the anathema of the Darwin faith, and a way to remove their faith’s holy focus from being a force of survival.

Breaking down the premise

For those that haven’t attended a DR:TX event before, we normally introduce our events with a bit of player-facing content to understand a bit more about what is going on. In the narrative description above, I’ve highlighted a few key points, and I want to make sure you have some context. This premise will introduce a few key concepts, some of the themes of the event, and some of the proper nouns and characters you might need to know for the story.

During this event, we will be running a lot of material inspired by the wonderful DR Live Plot Kit, “Illusions of Civility”. If you want spoilers, you can read ahead on the DR Live website, but our event will still have some surprises in store, even if your own game chooses to run this plot kit.

We’ve put together a longer list of Frequently Asked Questions about Downfall over on our website, but here’s a few of the questions you might have about the story of Downfall.

TL;DR - What’s the story?

A group of Sainthood called the Wells Society wants to share a new resource to help settlements across the Wastes, a mushroom that eats radiation. They’ve invited you to the place called Bastion where they have tested the mushrooms and can show you how they work. If you attend, you can even take some of the glow shroom spores home to share with your home settlement.

When is the game taking place?

DOWNFALL, a four-day event, kicks off on the evening of Thursday, October 10, featuring workshops and social activities. The story begins the morning of Friday, October 11, through the afternoon of Sunday, October 13.

Where is the game being set?

Bastion, a rival settlement near Bravado. While the game will take place on our usual campsite at Bluebonnet Shores, the story is set in a nearby town run by the Fallow Hope soldiers that follow a demagogue leader named GENERAL MUSTANG. Bastion is built on the wreck of a massive airship, and there is plenty of mystery left to explore inside.

Who is General Mustang?

General Mustang was first introduced in the 2.0 book Embers of the Irradiated Wastes (p. 42). They’ve been a powerful NPC in the Lone Star area since the start of DR:TX, and have been tied to a number of machinations over the years. This will be the first time that you can interact with this character in live play!

who is the wells society?

The Wells Society is a new National-level faction that is part of the plotkit Illusions of Civility. They are mostly Sainthood folks that want to help build a better tomorrow for the wasteland through mutual aid and support.

The Wells Society emerged from the vacuum left by the Trade Union’s withdrawal and stands as a testament to the potential for collaboration across diverse factions, each bringing unique perspectives and resources to a shared vision. The Wells Society’s mission goes beyond just survival; it seeks to reclaim and rehabilitate the ravaged earth, fostering conditions where life can flourish anew. You’ve probably heard stories about the Trade Union from 2.0 - this is where the ubiquitous Trade Note comes from after all.

What is at stake?

There’s been a few too many nukes used during our DR events over the years. The Glow Shrooms are a powerful new resource that could help your settlement clean an area of radiation, helping with new farm-able land, clean water, and an area free of irradiated threats. Every town in the wastes could benefit from something like this, provided it works like the Wells Society says it does.

Who else is involved?

There are a few major NPC groups that have a stake in what is happening in Bastion.

  • The Mustang Loyalists are a DR:TX militant faction of the Fallow Hope that follow the leadership of a demagogue named General Mustang. They have claimed the city of Bastion as their own after a recent war, and have deployed a powerful military force into the settlement. They offer safety and security to those willing to swear allegiance to their rule, and have invited settlements across the wastes to their home as part of the Wells Society initiative.

  • The Servants of the Undying are a sect of mostly Natural Ones that worships the Mortis Amaranthine, the Infection, and the role the Mortis plays in the cycle of creation and destruction. In the eyes of the Servants of the Undying, the Mortis is an aspect of existence that should not only be respected and revered, but also propagated and expanded whenever possible. You might have first read about these faction in the 2.0 book, Overgrowth of the Undying (p. 26).

  • The Temple of Evolution sees radiation as the light of truth in a false world created by the Mortis. Under the guidance of Curie Pierre, the Temple of Evolution believes that the Mortis gives the wasteland strength to survive, and it will eventually turn all of creation into a single organism. Free will, individual exceptionalism, and evolution does not thrive in a single organism environment without reason to evolve. You might have first read about these guys in the 2.0 book, Overgrowth of the Undying (p. 96).

what will we be fighting?

It’s a zombie game, so you can expect to face a LOT of zombies. We want to show off as many of the DR Live threats as possible, so you can expect to run into basically any of the undead variants outlined in the Zombie Threat Guide. There will also be the usual array of raiders, cannibals, critters, and your fellow survivors to contend with as well. The primary enemy outside of zombie will probably be other Strain threats, like the Mustang Loyalists.

Why would a player want to attend Downfall?

The easiest answer to this one is that you want to play with the new DR Live rules during a full weekend event. This will be the first National Event to use the new rule set, and one of the first chances you will get to get new blueprints, a special new currency card, and the first chance to build new DR Live gear that you can keep for your characters.

  • Test run your character build. Because the launch of DR Live will also involve a complete character reset, anything you build for this event will be temporary. This is a great time to test out your killer build or try some skills you don’t usually grab. Try out something new like being a psion or try out a new profession before the official launch of the game.

  • You’ll be able to collect a brand new collectable currency - The Wells Society Membership! This unique, foiled currency card will be available at our National Event for the first time ever. If you collect rectangles, you won’t want to miss out!

  • You can buy up to 10 XP for each of your characters. If you have an Advanced Membership, you’ll get the XP boost on all of your characters. This will be a nice way to get a boost of power for your characters before DR Live launches officially.

  • You can keep your gear. Anything you can make, craft, loot, or steal is yours to keep after the event. It’ll be available to use once DR Live launches, but the expiration dates won’t start until then. Get a head start on the new edition and enter armed and prepared for survive the apocalypse!

  • Get a head start on the National Plot Kit. The Illusions of Civility plot kit has been released to every chapter in the network. Your character could be the reason for the glow shrooms to get back to your settlement, or help establish a great connection with the Wells Society in advance.

  • It’s risk free! Even if you lose all your infection, no permanent damage can happen to your character during this event, unless you chose otherwise. If you end up dying your last time or gaining too many fractures, you’ll simply be able to play your character again at the next live event, wounded but whole. If you are worried about losing a favorite PC in the first DR Live game, you’ll be able to test the new system with confidence.

Our storytellers are hard at work crafting fun mods, interesting NPCs, and unique experiences to enjoy while you attend Downfall, but we have three major in-game events that you might want to experience for yourself. We want to share a bit of the uniqueness of the DR:TX experience when you come to visit, and we have some fun events that we think you will enjoy:

The Siege of Bastion

One of our culminating events of the weekend will be a massive fight, in true DR:TX style. Our team loves boffer combat and we really want to test your mettle with the new DR Live rules. You’ll need to survive an intense meat grinder of a fight over several hours, using teamwork, leveraging and rationing your precious Impact Skills to the best of your ability. We want to create a fight that will leave you exhausted and accomplished, and let you make a name for yourself on the battlefield.

morgue collapses & Grave Dives

Do you want to dive into the Mortis to face dangerous undead and help the town avoid a catastrophic morgue collapse? Do you want to try out new Necrology items and procedures for the first time? You can experience the Grave Dives described in the Grave Divers plot kit and A Grave Place books in the live space, and face the terrifying denizens of the Mortis Amaranthine. Grave Heads rejoice, as you can dive in the depths to save the day.

Liquidation Runs

A unique DR:TX experience, you’ll be able to brave the deadly radiation of the Exclusion Zone around Bastion to forage for new scrap and herb, the important glow shrooms, and face challenges as a team against the clock. You’ll face off against several kinetic challenges that can’t be solved by throwing Mind points or Impact skills at the problem. You’ll need to be quick, organized, and efficient to make it out in one piece with your prize, lest the radiation end your run with certain death!

Man, that sounds like a blast!

Why would my character want to attend Downfall?

This is the real important question for quite a few folks. Sure, you can buy a ticket easily enough, but WHY would your character want to travel all this way to see a mushroom? What’s in in for you, after all?

Here’s a few prompts to consider for why your character would attend:

  • A new hope for your settlement. The glow shroom can fix a lot of problems that face most settlements. Simple survival is tough in the wasteland, and being able to clean up important resources like food and water from the threat of radiation would be useful for any settlement. The Wells Society has promised samples of the glow shroom spores for anyone that wants them, and the Sainthood group is a bunch of charitable sorts that don’t even want money.

  • You have an opinion on curing radiation and the Mortis. What the Wells Society has suggested is bound to have some side effects. The Mortis exists in a delicate balance with radiation, and these glow shrooms may stand to create unfortunate consequences that could eventually spread to your settlement. Better see the research for yourself, in a controlled environment, so you can put your unique academic background to the test.

  • It’s all about the rectangles, baby. A new settlement opening their doors means new money to be made for the canny traveler that can make the trip. New blueprints, new gear, new marks.. ahem, new trade partners, and lots of folks to trade currency with. Plus, if a few things go missing from the Fallow Hope’s pockets, who is going to notice?

  • You’ve heard of dangerous new threats in the wastes and want to make sure your town is ready. In the last few months, the Grave Mind has been churning forth more and more dangerous threats. You’ve heard of deadly raider clans acting with more organization than ever before. If the Mustang Loyalists have some useful tools to help combat this threat, your hometown would benefit from the training and the chance to understand more before it reaches your door.

  • The city of Bastion is a trove of old relics and scrap. The airship that was once known as Waking was powered by a massive steam engine, and the wreck might have some useful treasures hidden inside. Maybe you can find some useful scrap in the radioactive husk to upgrade your ride or help with your most recent science project. The Exclusion Zone is covered in bits of discarded crazy future metal, steel, and other important metals for those willing to brave a liquidation run into the dangerous irradiated wasteland.

  • It’s a matter of faith. For the Darwins, a group of Fallow Hope claiming to have a cure for radiation sounds suspicious at best. There’s no better person than you to make sure these folks don’t leave a bad name for your religion. For the Fallow Hope, curing radiation sounds like exactly what the Lord Commander inspired their followers to do. This could be a new weapon in your arsenal against the hated Hellfire. For everyone else, your faith might have an opinion on what the Wells Society has offered. New farmland sounds great for the Sainthood and Tribes, but reducing suffering in the wastes sounds like something a Final Knight needs to have a say on. Maybe you want to make sure the hospitality of a neighbor is respected as a Nuclear Family, or you just want to show those Fallow Hope a good time through song or sin. Regardless of your particular faith, there’s plenty of reason to want to travel to Bastion.

  • You have a score to settle. General Mustang and the Loyalists have been a threat to the Lone Star for quite some time. They have been an enemy of Bravado for years and have only really recently buried the hatchet with their nearby rival. Getting invited behind enemy lines is a great time to get a bit of reconnaissance done, find out more about how the Loyalists function, and get a first set of eyes on what has changed inside Bastion. Or if you don’t have a grudge against the Loyalists, maybe you are more concerned about the connections between the Wells Society and the Trade Union and need to understand more about where they came from.

There’s so many reasons and more to attend DOWNFALL, and we hope you will join us in October for the first chance to experience the story in person!

wrap up

That’s it for today Vados! We have a lot planned for the next few weeks as we lead up to the start of our new season and the first DR Live National Event. Next week, we will cover some changes you can expect to see in our upcoming Season 6, and we will be continuing our Downfall coverage up until the event in October on our Downfall Blog.

You can purchase tickets for our DOWNFALL event today! Will you outrun the dead, or join them?

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DRL: Where to Start

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Howdy Vados!

It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to the start of our new sixth Season! This week, I’ll be breaking down how and where you can get started on understanding the new edition of our game, DYSTOPIA RISING LIVE!

Our photos for this post were mostly taken from the DR Live website, with permission. You can find the artist accreditation for each of these pieces inside the front cover of the books.

A living Rule book

If you’ve had a chance to visit our Most Improbable partners at the Dystopia Rising Live website, you can find the complete listing of the available source books for the next edition, handy dandy download links, and a timeline of when to expect the next books in the series. Michael, Catie, and their whole team are hard at work building content for the new edition, and this is THE place to find the books. They’ve done an awesome job so far, and it’s a lot of neat material.

Unlike previous editions that you downloaded from places like DriveThruRPG or ordered physical copies of the book, this next edition is envisioned as a living rule book. The edition that you can read right now is the BETA version of the rules, and the next major update is due after July 15th. After that, we won’t see a major update until after our October event to allow the team to prepare the stuff we need to run DOWNFALL.

What does that mean?

Well, instead of needing an entire edition update to make changes to the rules, Michael and his team will be able to update the file on this website as those changes happen in real time. Once we launch DR Live, if some rule is found to be problematic or there’s some error we missed, they can just upload a changed book and fix the problem right then and there. No more typos staring you in the face years after the book was printed!

I’ll still strive to have some paper versions of the rules available for our October event, but digital is going to be the way to go for most folks, so you can make sure you always have the most updated version of DR Live.

These books have been updated fairly regularly so far, but as we approach the launch of DR Live those updates will slow a bit to be a bit more seasonal in nature. Once we’ve hosted our DOWNFALL event in October, we can expect to see some updates based on the feedback we provide from that event.

That’s a Lot of Books!

You can find the full list of the books for our new edition that can be downloaded on the Dystopia Rising Live website, found here: DR Live Books. However, that’s a LOT of books.

A common concern I’ve heard is being confused on where to begin, so the main focus of this blog is to help understand a bit about what is in each book, and how important it might be to your game play experience. Luckily, while Michael and the Most Improbable team have prepared a LOT of content for DR Live, you don’t have to read it all at once.

A quick reminder:

  • Pace yourself. This seems like a LOT of content, but it’s not necessary to try to read hundreds of pages at once. You don’t have to binge this content like some Netflix show, and we still have a LOT of time before the DR Live launch. If you don’t want to start into these books right away, that’s okay. No one is judging you.

  • This is the entire new system. Not everything is player side focused. A lot of these books are really meant for the staff so we can run games in the DR Live system, or are super narrow in focus. If it’s not something specific you are involved in, you can probably skip it and read it later.

  • There’s more resources coming. We will have some new guest micro blogs and my traditional Rules Rambles over the next few weeks, and our DR Live Workshops on the Thursday night of DOWNFALL will help you kick start learning the new rules. You’ll also be able to read over several of the blueprints as they are released over the next few months. There will be many more resources to come to help ease this process of learning a new system.

Start Here - The Player’s Guide

The Player’s Guide should be your first stop in your DR Live reading. This is a book you probably shouldn’t skip, but it’s only about 80 pages or so. That’s not nearly as long as core books have been in the past, and it’s a fraction of the size of rule books like D&D or Vampire.

Not only does this book have the full list of Impact Skills, Development Skills, Professions, and more, it also has a lot of the detailed rules for building a character in the new system, as well as the core rules for play.

NOTE: I’ve included some page numbers here, but they may be slightly off as the books are updated next week or in future updates. They should still get you close to where it will be in the book.

  • A lot of the material about experience points, mind, body, resolve, and the core stats of your character start on page 13.

  • There’s some good pages to bookmark - On page 8, you can find a quick reference to building a character and some short descriptions of the strains, lineages, and where to start with a brand new character. There’s also a great table on page 14 that details how much all the skills and professions cost in XP in the new system.

  • Lineages start on page 20. One thing to note is that Infection and Resolve are no longer tied to your Strain, and some of the Lineage abilities have changed. There is a lot of extra content about Strains that used to be in the core book that can now be found in the Strained Ancestry book that I’ll talk about below.

  • Skills start on page 31. These are broken into three categories - Default Skills are ones every starts with like weapon skills and basic lore, Impact Skills are active skills that refresh every 20 minutes out of combat, and Development Skills are most of the crafting and faith skills that use Mind points to fuel their use. I’ll be covering these in detail in a later blog post.

  • Professions start on page 52. These are advanced purchases that require you to meet a few prerequisite of Skills to unlock, but you can only learn three (3) total per character. These will require you to have a bit over 100 XP to unlock, so if you are just starting out you can probably leave this section until last. These are great things to work towards as you play the game, but you don’t have to take a Profession right away. Professions have two brand new Skills each, and don’t require item cards to function like the PFAs of 3.0.

    • There will also be some additional Professions arriving in future books, according to Michael’s posts on the Discord. When these release, you’ll have the chance to rebuild your characters entirely to take the new Professions if you want, but these won’t be coming soon. There’s a whole lot of other books to finish first.

  • The core Combat rules, CVC rules, and Item Card rules start on page 61. This is one of the must read sections in my mind, so don’t skip this part. That’s only 7-8 pages or so, but this is the stuff that you will use every single game.

  • Page 68 introduces the concepts of Fractures and Diseases, but the full rules for these mechanics are in the Guide’s Guide. This is a quick version of the rules, but you can save this part for later if you want.

  • The complete Lexicon is on page 70. This is a list of keywords, mechanics, and more that will come up regularly in the course of the game, now in the rule book instead of hosted on a webpage. This has rules for stuff like Agony, Knockback, Mangle, and even a few Threat Skills that you’ll probably be on the receiving end for. This is a really important section, and definitely one worth bookmarking. This will also continue to expand as the game evolves, so it’s a great place to find the quick reference for all those cool keywords.

I hope this quick breakdown makes it a bit less intimidating to read. You don’t have to read the whole thing in one sitting, and I recommend breaking it up into smaller sections as you go. This should be a book you read a few times if you really want to master the new mechanics, but it’s very streamlined and easy to understand.

Recommended, but Optional - Guide’s Guide

While it’s not entirely required to read this book as a new player, there are some useful parts I’m going to recommend below. A big chunk of this book is directed at your Storyteller and Guides and details a lot about designing stories for DR, building the world, and a lot of setting material.

If you are a staff member, I recommend reading this book entirely, but this can be mostly optional for others.

same page number note as above applies to this one.

Here’s the important stuff to consider if you want to skim the best parts:

  • The Genre and Technology summaries are on pages 7 and 8. This details a look at what to expect in the setting, and it’s a good reminder for your backstories and understanding the limits of the post-apocalyptic setting we share.

  • Anti-Aberrant Mechanics are on page 25. This details some of the disadvantages for being a psion in the world of DR Live, and if you take psionic skills this is worth reading. It’s only two pages, so it’s short and sweet. Psions - know what you are getting into!

  • Fractures are covered on page 52, and Necrology starts on page 54. These cover some common mechanics if you want to explore the Grave Mind, and are worth including in your reading. Grave Heads and Doctors should pay attention.

  • Diseases are covered on page 59, but I’d consider this section a SPOILER if you’d like to instead experience this in person. Doctor and researcher types will probably want to be familiar with this section.

  • Crafting begins on page 74, and this is a super important section if you want to use Development Skills like Artisan and Culinary. Notably, the Travel Buy List is on page 82, and the global Expiration Date list is on page 83. If you are at all interested in Econ in DR Live, you should definitely read this section.

As you can see, most of this book is aimed at the Storytellers. It’s still worth reading if you have a chance, but I only really recommend the whole thing to the members of staff, like Guides and Storytellers.

Recommended, but Not Quite Ready - Strained Ancestry

The released book on the DR Live website is only a Sample, and it covers the DEVOTED Lineage only. This book isn’t quite finished yet, but will be one of the next books to be released for DR Live. This might be ready for our October game, but probably not. There’s a good chance it may be delayed until later.

  • One neat thing about this sample is that it details two new variants of Strains, adding to the one in the Player’s Guide. Each Strain will have a Civilized and Wasteland variant in the future, along with the Common variant in the Player’s Guide.

  • While the Player’s Guide Common variant will be the standard for most players, this will allow you take on additional costuming and role play challenges for your character with a Strain Variant, in exchange for slightly different Strain Advantages. Some even have a mechanical disadvantage, similar to Strains back in 2.0. If you aren’t super interested in the Lineage Advantage for your character in the Player’s Guide, this could open up a LOT of new options to consider instead.

  • This book also includes your first details of the Fall of Man and what exactly started the zombie plague that wiped out the world. This is an AMAZING bit of lore, and I highly recommend reading this part. This is probably the single best bit of new lore that has been released, in my mind.

Save for later - A killer’s Mind

This isn’t actually new. Michael and the team released this one last year for their Dead Waters event, and it details the shadowy organization known as Murder, Inc. I’d consider this book SPOILERS if you aren’t part of this group.

If you are a member of this group, or want to join the murder game, this is a wonderful book to consider reading. If you don’t want anything to do with MI, then you can skip this one entirely. You can always read this one later, and a big part of this book is designed as a sandbox to inspire how each game runs their version of Murder Incorporated.

  • The Rules of Engagement start on page 27. This covers the creed of the masked killers and some important role play tips for your assassin.

  • The Hierarchy of Rank starts on page 30. This details how the organization chooses leaders and the internal hierarchy they use.

Mostly optional - Everything a Grave Head Could Want

The last few books of note that you might want to read concern the mysterious Grave Mind. These books can kind of reveal some of the mystery behind death and dying in the world of Dystopia Rising, so I’d consider them a bit of a SPOILER in general. Some of this stuff is fun to experience for the first time in game, so if you prefer that route, I’d consider these ones Optional.

  • A Grave Place isn’t new, as it was released several months ago. You might have already read this one, but of the two Grave Mind focused books, this is the one I recommend most for optional reading. One cool thing about this book is that it details the Timeline of the Apocalypse and exactly when the zombie plague first began. This is an important book to read if you like the lore of the world, and it details a LOT about the Grave Mind. If you plan on engaging with Necrology at all, this is a must read.

  • The Grave Divers is a organized mostly as a plot kit, and it details what happens when you encounter a Corrupted Morgue. Good thing that won’t happen in Bravado, right? Seriously though, this book should be considered SPOILERS for all but the most engaged with grave plots. If you are the Grave ST, this one is for you. Otherwise, this could be saved for later.

optional, except for staff - Behind the Scenes

These next few books are ones that I would consider SPOILERS, but matching our DR:TX tradition of Radical Transparency, have also been made available to everyone, including players and staff alike. These can provide an important glimpse behind the scenes of Ops and the NPC Shift, but these are entirely optional to read for most players. If you are on Staff, particularly as a Rules Guide or Storyteller, the Zombie and Raider guides should be recommended reading.

  • Zombie Guide - This covers all the Year 1 zombies you can expect to face off against, including new Impact Skills for the monsters, and brand new threats you’ve never seen before. There’s a few more monsters to come — including Aberrant threats and some of the Rank 3 zombies that aren’t included in here yet. If you want combat against zombies to be a bit of a surprise, I’d hold off digging into this one, but this is a great look at the common threats of the DR Live world and what to expect. If you appreciate boffer combat, it could be helpful to consider what the most common threats of the game look like. Zombies have gotten a LOT more dangerous!

  • Banners of Blood, the Raider Guide - This covers all the Year 1 raiders you can expect to face off against, including new Impact Skills, a hint of new raider types, and a LOT of history and lore about where raiders come from. Raiders have been stepped up considerably in difficulty and won’t be the common threat they were in 3.0. These threats are no longer push overs, and when raiders come to town it might be worth considering if you’ll run or hide instead of getting hunted by these fearsome new threats. The lore parts are really neat in this one if you don’t mind SPOILERS.

  • Illusions of Civility - Heavy SPOILERS. This is a Plot Kit that we are starting during our DOWNFALL event featuring a new resource in the wastelands, the Glow Shroom. You can read ahead if you like, but be warned that this covers a lot about the different factions you’ll get to interact with in person during our October Event. This is a bit of a sandbox style plot kit, so we’ll still have some secrets we can share during the national event, but I’d hold off of this one if you want to experience it for yourself. This is aimed primarily at Gamerunners and Storytellers, particularly our DR:TX team for DOWNFALL.

Coming Soon

The last line of books to consider are the easiest choice to exclude from your reading, because they haven’t been released yet! Michael still has several more books planned for the DR Live line up, including the three listed below. I’ve put a few of my guesses below, but these books are still being written so a lot can change.

  • Apocalyptic Control - This book will cover Factions that are national in scope, with organizations and subgroups across the wasteland. I’d expect we will see more about folks like the Trade Union, the Ottoman Institute, the ARK Society, the Red Ledger, and other similar large-scale factions. The exact list of what will be in this book is unknown, but you can probably expect to see groups like the Wells Society, the Servants of the Undying, and the Temple of Evolution from the Illusions of Civility plotkit in here as well.

  • Illicit Business - This is meant more as a companion to the Murder Inc. book released last year, and will delve more into the Criminal side of things, like the Dead Market and all the various organizations and materials needed to understand the shadier side of life in the wasteland. This will be a must read for Criminals once it releases.

  • Devotion & Faith - This is the book that will cover each of the various faiths of the wasteland, detailing their history, lore, tenets, subfactions, and all the various cults you might find in the world. This is probably going to be a much-anticipated book, as we have a lot of players that are super excited about Faith in our games.

    • If your character is a Priest or member of one of the many faiths of DR, this will be a must read. I’d consider this one as important as Strained Ancestry when it comes out, and I’ll probably be one of the 3 books I recommend to new players in the future.

    • The DR Live books don’t have a lot about faiths inside, unfortunately. To help out, I’ve created a list of the current documentation for faiths on our DR:TX website, that you can read for yourself. I’ve listed out the descriptions, tenets, and subfactions from the two most recent books, so this is a great stand-in resource until this book is published.

    • Read more about Choosing a Faith in DR Live

Wrap Up

That’s it for today, Vados!

I hope this has been a useful resource for your exploration of the DR Live mechanics. By next week, we should have the most recent update to the Player’s Guide and other DR Live materials, so I’ll be able to start into our blog series on the major parts of the new edition. I’ll be helping out with a deep dive into stuff like Impact Skills, Professions, and more.

Take a look at our Downfall website for more information, including a plot synopsis, an FAQ, site information, and more!

Don’t miss out on your chance to be one of the first to experience the DR Live rules in a weekend-long event during out October game, DOWNFALL! If you pre-register by August 30th, you’ll unlock some cool extra items and swag!

Recap - The Atrocity

Howdy Vados!

It’s Jonathan here with a final DR:TX Rules Ramble for the season, as we begin our summer break! This was our part one of the FINALE story for Season 5, led by Heather Halstead and Jonathan Loyd. In September, we will wrap up the story with THE FALL OF THE SAN SABA BOARD. This week, we are recapping the major plot points from the weekend and leaving you with a few spoilers to consider over the summer!

  • Our Bluebonnet Shores Work Day is on May 31-June 1. You can earn TEN (10) XP for helping our Girl Scout camp get ready for the summer season. Don’t miss out on your chance to give back and earn some tasty XP for your characters!

  • If you had a great experience at our last event THE ATROCITY or had some suggestions for how we can improve, we’d love to hear from you!

  • Our next quarterly Network Advisory Board meeting happens this Thursday, May 23. You can listen to the meeting once it’s uploaded at the Dystopia Rising Live website.

  • Dystopia Rising Texas will be at Anime Fest in Dallas, on July 25-28. We will have a community table near the Dealer Room, so stop by and say “Howdy!”

++ SPOILER WARNING ++

I’m going to detail the big secrets we revealed during this game, so if you’d rather learn about this in game, skip to the end!

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

The Atrocity - A RECAP

If you didn’t get to attend this event, we had some BIG revelations come from our finale. I’ll try to summarize the major plot points in this recap, but you can read about our teaser blog posts from the last few weeks:

The Premise of the Atrocity

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…

Let’s get started!

The First Night

Our event opened on Friday night with a MURDER. Our Dusters found themselves escaping from Essex with a blood-covered felon after the murder of Felicity Redfield, the CEO of the Railroad Conglomerate. Early reports suggested that she had been found with a GOLDEN SPIKE stabbed in her chest, a call back to the very first game of 3.0. A few even suggested that her body had simply stood up and walked out of Essex. Regardless of what actually happened, the Dusters had to escape guards in hot pursuit of a killer and had to deal with the shadowy monsters that hunted at the edge of their vision, the Nightmares of the Prince Undying.

Folks all over the San Saba were starting to disappear, drug away in the night by strange shadows or torn to shreds by something no one could see. The nightmares of the Prince Undying invaded the town as the sun set, intent on some grand design few could appreciate. A few loud victims made their way into town, and a few enterprising survivors picked up on a similarity between the folks being chased by nightmares. Every person that had disappeared had some kind of tie to Bravado, via family, past residence, or some loved one that lived downtown.

As the last rebel mail run from Essex made it to town, a few individuals found their way across a journal, lost in the mail and the pages scattered between survivors. These journal pages were written with a familiar scrawl, and a few of the survivors took it upon themselves to collect the pages. Within the journal, the last words of Felicity Redfield were recorded for those lucky enough to find a piece.

  • [SPOILER] If you would like to read the Journal and weren’t able to find all the pages in one place, you can find it on our website in its entirety. Heather did a great job on this cool story, and we want to make sure that anyone can read it if they like. However, it does contain story spoilers, so reader beware!

On the war front, the armies of the Prince Undying were quickly approaching Bravado. After being turned aside at Tremorsands Post and at Castle Falken, the horde of undead reached the walls of Killhouse to the north. As the brave defenders of the Bravado Revolutionary Army stood firm, more of the nightmares poured from the depths of Killhouse BEHIND the line of battle. It would seem the Nightmares could travel between the strange obelisks found across the San Saba, including the Obelisk of Betrayal deep in the XXX Wing at Killhouse. Despite the two-front attack, the armored defenders managed to withstand the overwhelming assault and blunted part of the Prince’s advance towards Bravado and Drywater.

The Return of Sister Mammon

Late into the night, a familar face arrived in Bravado. Clad in the desert robes of the Dune Sea, black and red makeup on their face and a golden spike buried in their chest, Sister Mammon, the Final Knight prophet came to the aid of Bravado in the darkest hour. Shockingly, the face she wore was of someone much more familiar.

Mammon wore the face of Felicity Redfield, late CEO of the Railroad Conglomerate. Her curly red hair was kept back and the eyes that shined in the darkness seemed strangely familiar, but somehow older and ancient. The true reason that Felicity couldn’t remember her past was that she was only a fragmented personality that shared the body of Mammon, the prophet of Barogue. With Felicity’s death, Mammon was awoken once more to claim the body that was rightfully hers.

Sister Mammon laid out a plan, once that had been waiting for years untold to come to fruition. The Prince Undying was set on recreating his great ATROCITY, a single night of terror where the entire people of Barogue were dragged screaming into the Grave Mind to serve as eternal servants of the Prince, his Khibrath Murea, the Nightmares of the Prince Undying. Using the connection and sympathetic bonds each person’s imprint had with their town, the Prince would erase every last person with a tie to Bravado, killing everyone before the sun could rise on Sunday.

This was the reason citizens were disappearing from the outskirts as the Prince drew closer. Anyone and everyone with a connection to Bravado was being targeted by the Nightmares, killed in the name of the Prince’s atrocity. Stopping or preventing the Atrocity would not be easy. Sister Mammon’s enemy, the Prince Undying, was functionally immortal. He was an imprint trapped in the Grave Mind, a sort of Mortis Shard that let him walk among the living, while not really existing in either realm. No weapon or bullet could really stop him, so Mammon had devised a plan to instead use his immortality against him. If he could not be killed, he could be contained.

The obelisk in the center of Bravado was not just a relic of ancient Barogue. It was an elaborate TRAP that was meant to contain the Prince Undying, a final weapon of Salvation, provided they could lure the undead horror into Bravado proper. Crafted without the Prince’s knowledge by Mammon, the Obelisk was connected to the same Network he used to protect himself. The network of Obelisks scattered around the San Saba were the source of the Prince Undying’s power, split across the entire region. The Obelisk of Salvation could contain the Prince, locking him into an eternal prison separated from his army of Nightmares, separated from Barogue, and contained in the final resting place of Mammon — the town of Bravado.

To do so, they would need to sever the connections of the Obelisk network of the San Saba through a foul Final Knight benediction, so that they could prevent the Prince from simply using the Grave Mind to escape. Each ritual would require the survivors to pour their fears and nightmares into the obelisk, to attune it to the strange realm of Nightmares. Using aspects of each of the other obelisks in the San Saba, they would sever the connection they had with Bravado, isolating the town from the greater San Saba and creating the perfect trap for the villain.

Severing the Obelisks

Each time a survivor poured their fears and nightmares into the Obelisk at the crossroads, a spark of prophecy escaped their lips, a strange puzzle of cryptic phrases and predictions that seemed to explain how the rituals would function.

Throughout the night and next morning, the townsfolk of Bravado worked to enact Mammon’s plan through various means. Roaming nightmares made this challenging at times, as they seemed to be drawn by sound and the essence of the living. Striking from the shadows, they would appear suddenly in a frenzy of violence, and if you weren’t silent they would attempt to tear you to pieces.

There were nine different Obelisk rites to complete, and each required an act that echoed the history of Sister Mammon, and her journey through the desert to escape Barogue.

  • The Obelisk of Knowledge, one of the artifacts kept in the crashed city of Waking required the Rite of the Sundered Mind. The obelisk that had once helped Felicity translate the Barogian script would be severed by making a mockery of the inspirations and aspirations of a scholar, beating them to near death and gouging out their eyes in a form of horrific torture, echoing the violence committed against Mammon in her escape from Barogue.

  • The Obelisk of Entropy, required a Binding of All Day’s End to sever the second obelisk in the heart of Waking that was taken from Aggieland. The rite required them to execute a forsaken martyr that was stripped of their gear and made to fight to the death with only a single dagger. The sacrifice would face the Grave Mind alone, forsaken in their death like Mammon, cut from their faith and civility and trampled under hoof and claw.

  • The Obelisk of Endless Sands, a lone monolith in the heart of the Dune Sea required the Rite of the Blind Wanderer to end its connection to Bravado. As part of the ritual, a blinded Nomad would be set to aimlessly wander, stalked by a wandering danger that burned away the path through pyrokinesis and violence, in an echo of Mammon’s lost wandering through the Dune Sea. They had to create a map through the endless sands, recreating her journey to find salvation outside of the desert.

  • The Obelisk of Betrayal, deep in the prison of Killhouse, required the Rite of the Black Hearted Betrayal to end its connection. The survivors had to find one that held the role of betrayer among them, binding them and cutting out their heart as they discerned truth from fiction. A game of questions and elimination, it required them to confront difficult truths, as Mammon had when she started the fall of Barogue.

  • The Obelisk of the Tentacled Depths, worked into the lighthouse in the Clutch, needed the Rite of the Drowned Shark to sever the bond. Lashing a survivor to the mast of the boat in Anyport, they had to be bled out while under the water, choking on their last breaths in a horror of asphyxiation. Invoking the ancient rites of the sea to forsake the wanderer’s purpose, the rite echoed the brutal exile and separation of Mammon from her people.

  • The Obelisk of the Open Path, standing tall in the heart of old Barogue, required the Rite of Unprisoned Time to end its threat. The gate of worlds had to be sealed away with the time of the sacrificed, giving up their ability to refresh Mind, and translating the ancient laws of punishment from high Barogian while under assault by Nightmares. An echo of Mammon’s sentencing, the rite recreated her final punishment before she fled Barogue, severed from the Scion Vossa.

  • The Obelisk of Creation, the source of the forests in the heart of Essex, had to be severed by the Rite of Poisoned Earth. By salting and poisoning the farmland of Bravado, working the bleeding bodies of the sacrificed Landsmen into the very earth itself, they could replicate how the Prince had punished Mammon by killing anyone and everyone they had known. Despite being recently restored to function, the Meadows will likely take some time to recover from the rite, sown with death and salted with poison blood.

  • The Obelisk of Memory, found in the quiet hamlet of Widow’s Peak, was severed by the Ritual of the Flock. Bonding themselves with bloody feet and hazy minds, they had to alter their very memories, replicating the blood of the covenant that was sworn when Mammon pursued her revenge against the Prince through the years, despite the fog of ages.

The last obelisk

In the afternoon, the defenders of Bravado and Drywater met the forces of the Prince Undying, now on the doorstep of our hometown, intent on committing his Atrocity against any that shared an imprint or connection with the tiny town. Despite nearly overwhelming forces, the defenders stood firm, breaking wave and wave of the undead terrors, and closing the gauntlet behind the Prince. There would be no escape from Bravado, as the Rebellion worked to make sure the Prince was drawn into Mammon’s trap.

Sometime in the afternoon before the final stages of the Prince’s defeat, Mammon presented the town with the last wishes of the host she was using as a body. On Felicity’s corpse was the prize she had protected with her life, her Last Will & Testament. Inside, a signed contract with the Chairman of the Board itself bequeathed the town of Bravado to its residents, a final spiteful act against the Board, bound by the same rules it claimed to uphold. The Will returned the town of Bravado, its surroundings, and the mineral rights to the people of Bravado, and is an iron clad testament to any of the great factions that would oppose the town in the aftermath.

Another group of survivors did the unthinkable and snuck into Essex to steal the prize of the RRC and the Board, the OX itself. Stopping the Board from airlifting the locomotive engine out of the besieged city, they had to defend the train from mercenaries of the Red Ledger intent on stopping the theft of the symbol of the Board’s remaining power. The survivors released the Ox from the wheel locks they immobilized it, fueled it with the black ichor of Oxblood, and defended their engineers as they escaped from the City of Light and Sound. With the Ox secured in Bravado, the forces of the Bravado rebellion could begin their offensive on the last capital controlled by the San Saba Board.

The final Obelisk, the Obelisk of Midnight, would need to be severed from within the grave itself. Erected within the strange Nightmare of the Prince Undying, a realm of strange angles and mind-bending physics, it was the last refuge that the Prince could use to escape Mammon’s trap. The last connection needed to be severed by cutting the right pieces of ephemera and gristle connecting the icon to the real world. By bodily entering the Mortis, they rushed to cut the right connections while evading the horrific Nightmares that pursued them. Inside they found the desiccated husk of General Rampart, his last twisted scream burned into his body by a faulty psi-tech relic, a sacrifice to the Prince Undying to seal the promise made by the Chairman. With the final obelisk separated (and Rampart’s hat in safe hands), they escaped back into Bravado with Nightmares on their heels.

The final confrontation was near, and the town needed but one last step to seal away the Prince Undying for good.

The Final Seal

With the town of Bravado isolated and disconnected from the various towns and strongholds across the San Saba, and the armies of the Prince Undying on their door, it was time to prepare the prison that would contain the undead horror that prowled the darkness in ochre robes. Mammon returned for a final time to outline her grand design, a series of archaic SEALS that would close the doors opened by the Prince Undying when he escaped his prison inside Barogue. Each of three Nightmare doors would need to be sealed, calling upon the true names of the Final Knight demons worshipped by the red-haired cultist. Mammon would teach them the goetic runes they could use to complete the seal, but they would need to defend the crafters while they attempted to seal the doors.

The first seal, the sign of Astaroth, was put into place at the Bravado Morgue. The strongest connection to death, and one of the places the Red Death had emerged from last December, the door was defended by the Prince Undying and his hordes of Nightmares and undead. The purple sickly glow illuminated the strange door that was now visible, and the agitated and disturbed Mortis Amaranthine seemed to growl in defiance to the process.

Each time a seal was finished, the agonizing ritual robbed the psionic potential of any that participated in the rite. The strange Barogian seals were effective, quelling the energy radiating from the strange portal to nowhere. The survivors quickly moved to the site of the next Nightmare door, the Depot. In the middle of the busiest building in Bravado, the town established a perimeter to defend young Dusters selected to place the Seal of Paimon under heavy assault. Each time the Prince appeared, he moved through the crowd with lethal intent, but seemed completely immune to most attacks that would try to stop him. The Vados created a physical wall of bodies to protect the crafters, holding the line of shields against the wave of undead.

When the second door was closed, the townsfolk moved to the last location, the Crossroads door, illuminated by the glow of the obelisk that stood nearby. The Prince returned with a fury, striking down his foes with a touch, and turning others to his command. Each time the Prince would command the loyalty of the defenders, and turn their own defenders against the living, the shield wall stood firm and protected the chosen that placed the Seal of Vassago on the Nightmare door that stood alone in the darkness. Each seal was more intricate than the last, and it took some time to recover each time the line broke under the nightmarish assault. Three doors of nightmare were opened, and three doors were sealed and closed, lest the Prince Undying enact his atrocity.

With a fierce battle cry, the town pushed back the undead horde, moving as one to the final part of Mammon’s trap. With the doors to his Nightmare realm closed, the Prince attempted to escape into the Grave Mind, using his network of obelisks to survive another day. When he did, the trap was sprung and the yellow robed horror was instead drawn inside the Obelisk of Salvation, a final tomb for the unstoppable nightmare. Thirteen psions were gathered, pouring their psionic energy into the Obelisk as they created the final seal, the Seal of the Betrayer, the seal of Mammon herself. It was a cage to contain, awake from the the nightmare, that would fade into the fog of memory as the Prince was sealed away for good.

With a resounding cheer, the Nightmares of the Prince Undying were vanquished, torn asunder like awaking from a bad dream, forced into retreat by the efforts of the brave citizens of Bravado, the final atrocity stopped at the last moment by the rites of Sister Mammon and their last stand at the crossroads.

The Battle of Essex

With the Prince Undying contained, the Rebellion turned its eyes toward Essex, the City of Light and Sound. The last bastion of the Chairman, the home of the Grave Council and the Fountainheart, and the beating heart of the San Saba, the city was the last resistance remaining. As the brave soldiers and mercenaries of the Rebellion approached the city for a final battle, they realized the desperation of the Chairman knew no limit.

The intimidating mercenaries of the Red Ledger had been contracted to the defense of Essex. Skilled killers and veterans, there was almost no greater military force in the San Saba Territories, save for the Bravado Revolutionary Army. Their enemy ranged from hired muscle and brutalists, to guttersnipes and assassins. Punchdrunks, redliners and zealots all signed their name in The Red Ledger, to the purpose of glory, gold or god respectively. Fanatic to the end, the Red Ledger was committed to a unifying truth that safeguards them against terror, trial and (often) common sense - death is an inconvenience, a moment to breathe and recover.

The Rebellion Army met their skilled foe and proved victorious, shattering the counter offensive by Gustav Glasseyes, and pushing towards the grand Spire in the center of the town, where the airship of Arthur Lovelace was docked. Pushing past the mercenary line, the Rebellion faced the final betrayal of the Chairman, when he did the unthinkable.

As the Rebellion forces approached, the Chairman turned the guns of his flagship onto the town itself, a withering cascade of artillery that fired on citizen and soldier alike. Countless people died from the indiscriminate bombardment, buildings and innocents caught in the crossfire of the war. Suffering devastating casualties from the salvoes, the Rebellion fought through the barrage to meet the last defense of the Chairman, his elite Praetorian Guard, led by Lawrence Graves, the right hand of the Chair. Despite the odds, despite the cowardly bombardment, the Rebellion pushed ahead, closing out the War of Antlers with a might victory over the last remnants of the Board’s might.

In the chaos of the final battle, the united forces of the Rebellion proved victorious, though the Chairman somehow escaped justice once more. When General Hargrave’s forces reached the pinnacle of the spire and prevented the escape of the Chair’s airship, the Quiet Folk leader was no where to be found. Despite his escape, the city was taken by early morning light and the capital of Essex was liberated once and for all from the tyrannical rule of the San Saba Board.

The Aftermath

At the end of the weekend, the exhausted survivors of Bravado contemplated the impossible. A bright new dawn, free of the Board’s influence, cheers and rallying cries of victory rising across the town as they celebrated their successes. They had stopped the Atrocity, and contained an undying threat, hopefully for good, and freed Essex. The Rebellion was successful, standing up to everything the Chair could throw at them, and thriving despite the challenge. It was a bright new day, full of possibility, underneath a Lonestar Sky…

There were a few threads of note that were left at the end of the event that are worth mentioning:

  • The Chairman escaped the Battle of Essex, but thankfully, he’ll simply comply with the rule of law and stop his vendetta against Bravado, right? If making a deal with the Prince Undying to wipe out Bravado wasn’t successful, there’s surely nothing left for him to try, especially as we contemplate the FALL OF THE SAN SABA BOARD…

  • The San Saba Territories are splintering, torn between various factions holding onto power in their respective strongholds, and the sudden loss of formal power across the region. Civilization is the veneer for man’s brutality, and the social contract that once bound the wastes of the Lone Star seems to be defunct. Each of the major factions are scrambling to adjust to this new paradigm, and the aftermath of this defeat is going to be felt long after the summer is over. How will the major factions change and adapt over the summer?

  • The binding of the Prince Undying and the strange rites performed by the town to sever their connection to the greater wastes appears to have worked as intended. However, Sister Mammon and the body of Felicity seem to have disappeared as well, and no one has seen her since the completion of the Seal of the Betrayer. Time will tell if there are any unintended consequences of isolating the town by psionic ritual and trapping a malevolent Grave Mind entity into a psi-tech prison in the center of town…

  • As the death tolls are counted, and the dust clears of battle, a suddenly victorious army presents an interesting dilemma — what purpose does the most powerful military force in the Lone Star serve in a post-Board society? Every power in the region has watched in rapt attention as the rightful government of the area was disposed by force, and many wonder if they are next. How do soldiers return to a humbler life free of the stress of the battlefield? Without a constant stream of war supplies and payment, who will stay loyal to Bravado, who will be disbanded and returned home, and who will decide to leverage their strength for their own personal profit?

  • A soldier clad in the colors of the Mustang Loyalists delivered a message to Bravado from the one and only GENERAL MUSTANG early on Sunday morning. The Loyalists have broken from the former Oxkiller Alliance, and ordered the Bravado Rebellion Army to respect their boundaries in the wake of the Battle of Essex. The inhabitants of the fortified wreck at the edge of town in the Exclusion Zone have declared their own independence, and renamed the radioactive city to the BASTION OF NEW DAWN, or more simply, Bastion. They have offered Bravado a truce, and chance at a new asset they call the Liberum Radicalis. Who are the Wells Society and the Servants of the Undying, and what might this mean for the future? I’m sure we will find out in October…

The future is bright and promising, but our story isn’t done yet. We hope you will join us in September as we start our next season, as we conclude our finale story with THE FALL OF THE SAN SABA BOARD, but we had a special announcement for October that might be a bit important too…

Downfall 2024

On Sunday of our last event, we revealed a project we’ve been working on for a few months now during our closing announcements. The next National event will be hosted by DR:TX!

We will be hosting the first ever Dystopia Rising Live full-weekend playtest, using the brand new rules of the 4th edition of our game system. While this won’t be the launch of the new edition of the rules across the network, this will be your first chance to experience the world of Dystopia Rising with the DR Live rules in person. This will be a FOUR-DAY National Event, featuring the new rule set, and we will be inviting the entire network to attend. You’ll be able to buy up to 10 XP for your characters, access new and exciting resources from the new edition, and help us stress test the new rules with new threats, new blueprints, new skills, and more.

Tickets will go on sale this summer, and we hope that you are excited for this BRAND-NEW experience!

We have SO much more information to come, so make sure you stay tuned through our social media channels on Facebook, Instagram, and Discord, and you can check out https://www.idratherbeinbravo.com/downfall to keep in touch with our mailing list.

The Summer Break and You!

As I wrap up this last blog post of the season, I want to say a final thank you to our team of Storytellers, Guides, Admins, and volunteers. Each summer, we lovingly fire our entire staff to give folks the permission to step away from the stress of helping us operate our game. It would be impossible to produce Dystopia Rising Texas without the assistance of our wonderful volunteers, and we are thankful that they were willing to give their time and energy to help make this something special.

It’s a lot of work to produce our content for DR:TX, and we take a SUMMER BREAK from the treadmill of content creation and blog posts to relax, recharge, and come back ready for new stories, new thrills, and a brand new season. I’m not going to be writing weekly blog posts over the summer, but I might occasionally pop back up with some cool content for our upcoming season. Please be patient with emails and such as we recharge, and we’ll be back before you know it.

We will have the staff applications up for our new Season 6 team on May 23rd, so pay attention to our Discord, Facebook, and social media pages for more information. Once we’ve had a few weeks to rest, we will start sifting through our applications to build the best damn team we can for Season 6, and you should hear more from us in June.

SEE YOU SOON VADOS! HAve a great summer!

Here’s a few photos I took behind the scenes from this last game as a treat!

Sister Mammon, aka Felicity Redfield, portrayed by the very talented Heather Halstead

Battle Shots with the Road Royals and Oxkillers!

The Nightmare Door at the Morgue, shortly before the final fight began.

The Seal of the Betrayer. Players had to replicate this design with painter’s tape while being attacked by Nightmares. Yikes!

The Prince Undying, portrayed by me!

Nightmare buddies!

Inside the Obelisk! We cut a hidden door into the Obelisk so the Prince Undying could be literally trapped inside… it was VERY warm inside, especially while wearing the many layers of the Prince Undying.

Rules You Should Know - May

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 some of the Rules You Should Know for the weekend, and a few last-minute logistics reminders.

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

  • 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 if you missed them in April! 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

  • 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 previous DR:TX events by Max Pohlmeier.

Camp Bluebonnet Shores Clean Up Event!

We have a special opportunity available for our players at the end of May!

We always strive to leave our campsite cleaner than we found it, and our relationship with the Girl Scouts of Central Texas has been crucial to our long-term success. Finding a site isn’t easy, so we want to do everything in our power to be good partners and give back when we can. The Girl Scouts do some amazing work and we want to support them! Rafiki and the Camp Bluebonnet team have asked for some help around our campsite, so we are going to have a special charity event:

  • When: Friday, May 31st - Saturday, June 1st

  • Where: Camp Bluebonnet Shores

  • What: Clean Up Day! During these events we pitch in with a bit of manual labor to help get the Girl Scout camp ready for the upcoming summer season.

  • Friday Night: You can arrive on site after 6 PM. We will have access to the campsite to come out and sleep in a cabin to be ready the night before. I’ll bring some board games and Magic cards, and we will plan some potluck food events and just hang out with folks outside of a normal DR event. You don’t have to come out on Friday night, but it can definitely help with the drive the next day.

  • Saturday: We will plan on starting about 9 AM, so we can try to beat the Texas heat. We will help paint benches, clear debris from trails and do general trail maintenance, clean up some dutch ovens, and help make some new signs for camp. We will have plenty of water and snacks available. Last year, we were done early afternoon. Plan to bring something for breakfast and lunch plans on Saturday.

  • Clean Up: After we are done with the camp tasks, we need to clean up our Cabin, pack our gear, and get off site. We will try to get some food with everyone after if folks are still interested.

  • What to Bring: Bring comfortable clothes for working in, gloves, and any snacks or such you might want. It may be muddy, so consider good shoes for the terrain. Bring your bedding for sleeping in a cot, food for Saturday and any potluck on Friday, plus your normal meds, spare socks, etc.

Now, this is just a great feel-good event to be involved with in general, but we have an EXTRA BONUS for folks that show up to help —

You can earn TEN (10) Experience Points for your character! FREE XP!

That’s a pretty sweet reward, plus, if you have an Advanced Membership, you’ll get the bonus XP on EVERY character you have on the database. There is no cost on this XP for you or us, so this is one of the easiest ways to prepare for a travel game over the summer, or just bank some XP for the next season, while giving back to the Girl Scouts.

Let’s cover some qualifiers for this bonus:

  • You got to help with the Clean Up tasks. Generally, we will give 2 XP per hour of work if you cannot stay for the entire event or just come for a portion of the day.

  • You can only benefit from ONE of these Charity Events. You are welcome to attend other nearby chapter’s similar charity events, but you can only benefit from the Bonus XP ONCE. This is functionally a new phantom National Event, so you can only be checked in once.

  • If you don’t have an Advanced Membership, you’ll need to tell us which character gets the XP. We will have a list with us at site to keep track!

We hope you will join us for this special charity event!

rules You should know - MAY

Let’s cover a few of the common basic mechanics that might be relevant this weekend.

AGONY

Countered by Basic Mental Endurance if delivered by an AOE or Sound of Voice call, or by Avoid if delivered by a Strike or Ranged Attack. Agony is an ability that causes intense physical and/or mental pain in the character affected, making it difficult if not impossible to act through the torment. This effect normally lasts 10 seconds if not otherwise specified, and during that time, the character cannot use Skills or items but can move at a slow pace and defend themselves. Agony Interrupts skills being used when it is called.

Pretty hard to stay quiet when you are screaming in AGONY. Probably won’t be that dangerous, unless you had things hunting by sound… oh wait.

Some important details to remember:

Agony is a versatile skill used by several different entities in Dystopia Rising. While affected by this ability, you may not use Skills (including weapon skills!) or items, but can move slowly and act defensively. This means no brews, no gizmos, no armor, no weapons, nothing!

  • This attack interrupts all Skills being used, including Crafting. Remember, if you start using a new Skill while working on that expensive Artisan project, you will also be Interrupted. If you use Mental Endurance to resist the effect, you will Interrupt yourself. Best be careful about crafting while [REDACTED] are about.

  • Agony is often a precursor to more dangerous attacks like Break and Mangle, so remember you can’t Avoid while under the effects of Agony. 10 seconds is a LONG time in the heat of combat!

  • The Candlepin Survival Pack can protect you from this attack, but remember this is a Supply Bag item and cannot be stacked with a Freeiron Dry Pack. You can use either or, but not both!

  • The Battle Hymn is probably the best single defense against Agony, as it gives you an Upsurge protect and simply makes you immune. This is the only way to avoid interruption from Agony, as the effect simply doesn’t happen. Remember, an Upsurge only lasts one hour, so make it worth it!

Be careful not to attract the attention of things in the night that use this skill. You may not like what happens after you start screaming in agony...

TERROR

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

This skill often gets confused with Fear, but the simple instruction for Terror is to RUN AWAY! If you don’t counter this with Mental Endurance or an item, you simply need to move away from the creature for at least 30 seconds. Pick and direction and move!

  • Terror is a separate ability than Fear. Many items that protect from Fear do not often the same protection from Terror, and often the two defenses are mutually exclusive.

  • Like Agony, the Battle Hymn is an excellent defense against this ability, and if the right Upsurge is chosen it protects from both Fear AND Terror.

  • One of the items purchased from the Master Sailing buy list can be used to defend against this ability, the Crew’s Cabin Flag.

  • The item Scales of Ezra makes the wearer immune to Fear and Terror, provided you can use a Faithful Anomaly skill and two baptized members of your faith are in line of sight.

Sounds terrifying! Definitely not something a Prince of Nightmares might use against you…

FEAR

Fear is a mechanical effect that prevents a Target from attacking the source of the Fear. Fear is broken if the Target is attacked by a foe, affected by other non-Fear mechanics with the aim of harming the Target, or forced to attack by another effect that comes after the use of Fear. Fear does not make you leave the battlefield, but it does prevent you from crossing the line from verbal and secondary support to engaging combatant. While under the effects of Fear, you can still attack others on the battlefield who were not the source of the Fear.

Fear is an insidious ability, as it can be used by intelligent threats to lock you out of a combat and there are not many ways to prevent it from affecting you. Be careful while walking in a pair, because if the predator is particularly cunning, you might have to just watch your friend die while you are stricken in fear and unable to help them.

  • Unlike Terror, you cannot use Mental Endurance against Fear. The only thing that really breaks Fear is that creature attacking you by mistake.

  • Remember, being an ‘engaging combatant’ is a bit vague, but if you try to use a Skill on a friend or otherwise involve yourself in the battle against that creature you may not be able to intervene. This means you can’t really use skills like Interfere or and you can’t make an attack on an enemy to prevent a Killing Blow. It doesn’t stop secondary support like healing through Biogenetics, but it does stop most active skills that could stop the enemy.

  • Like Agony, the Battle Hymn is an excellent defense against this ability, and if the right Upsurge is chosen it protects from both Fear AND Terror.

  • Sometimes, a big fucking gun can give you the courage to fight back against paralyzing fear, particularly if you have a Rebel’s Ridiculous Receiver. A solid shield like the Freeiron Guard can be handy in a pinch, and can be used on others. You can also rely on chemical stimulation with a Glitter Gulch Dartgun, if you have the right PFA. For everyone else, you can always use a Trophy Room too to resist fear, if you can get a bedtime story from an Avontuur.

  • A new blueprint from up north that’s handy against Nemesis works in a pinch versus fear, the Cullingwood Blade, if you are Bad Ass enough..

  • There are many items purchased from every level of the Sailing buy list can be used to defend against this ability, such as Grog, Crew’s Raiding Flag, Crew’s Cabin Flag, and Keg O’ Grog. This is one of the cheapest and easiest ways to get immunity to Fear.

Can you master your fear in face of living Nightmares?

FROZEN IN FEAR (Nightmare Threat Skill)

One last mechanical effect to watch out for this weekend is one you’ll hear a bunch as the Nightmares hunt your survivors by sound through the weekend. After you hear the “Nightmare Manifest” skill call, you’ll likely hear this next call:

“PSIONIC: Area of Effect, STUN!”

At its heart, it’s just an AOE STUN effect, but let’s make sure everyone is on the same page.

Area of Effect

The Area of Effect is a 10-foot radius for the mechanics for a skill or effect, centered on the user of the skill. No area of effect outside of plot mechanic zones reach more than 10 feet. Areas of Effect do not pass through structural walls, but they do bypass partial cover and non-permanent structures.

Stun

A character who is stunned cannot use any equipment (save for armor they are currently weaing or equipment that activates when the wearer is Stunned), cannot use any skills, crumples to the ground (or drop to a knee for safety needs), and is unable to move of their own volition for 5 seconds. Equipment may not be stripped off of a Stunned Target, but items in the hands of a Stunned Target may be removed.

Let’s cover some important notes to consider if you get targeted by this skill:

  • While STUNNED, you can’t use Skills, you can’t attack or defend, and you need to take a knee for 5 seconds. While you are Stunned, you can be disarmed by intelligent opponents and you are vulnerable to other powerful attacks like Mangle or Break, as you can’t use Avoid. This is often a precursor to more dangerous attacks, and it renders you unable to prevent the next big swing. In practice this renders you vulnerable for a bit longer than 5 seconds, as you’ll still need to stand up and that can leave you exposed.

  • AOE attacks bypass light cover and stuff like trees, obelisks, bushes, etc. You’ll need to be fully inside a building with a shut door to avoid the effect based on obstacles. If you are defending an open door, the effect will carry past your shield wall inside.

  • As this attack is a PSIONIC effect, the skill Mental Endurance can resist the AOE Stun effect. This also means rare brews like the Murky Black Byproduct and Gleaming Red Byproduct can be super useful.

  • AOE attacks cannot be stopped by the Avoid skill, but CAN be stopped with the Balance skill, as this is an AOE effect that would cause you to be Stunned.

  • The most common item defense to Stun effects is actually through the power of a good meal. With the Deep Cholesterol Fry procedure, a cook can add “Immune to the next Stun” effect until the next 12s after you eat the meal. Remember to say “No effect, Meal!” when you use this buff.

  • Like Agony, the Battle Hymn is an excellent defense against this ability, and if the right Upsurge is chosen it protects from the next Stun effect. However, given that the Stun protection is a one-use ability, and the protection from Agony, Fear or Terror can last up to an hour, this isn’t a mode chosen often for this benediction.

  • Certain rare effects, like the Phalanx Doyen PFA ability with the OOPH Barrier Shield can prevent the effect, provided you can stay in the shield wall formation. This renders you immune to area of effect calls, but not single target Stun effects.

  • Speaking of powerful shield abilities, the Wasteland Mentor effect of the Freeiron Guard can make your allies immune to Stun for 1 minute, and even break a Stun effect on someone else without needing a PFA skill.

Now you are armed to master your fear, and not be frozen in place when the Nightmares attack!

QUICK EVENTS

One last complication to the fighting will be experienced in the form of Quick Reaction Events, a returning concept for DR:TX that we used during our SIEGE event last year. These were inspired by some clever skill uses in DR: Oklahoma (Fore!!), and by our very own Reaction Events during the Submarine mods written by Ed Sampson. If you attended our VOX POPULI event, you had to react to these in person!

WHAT IS A QUICK EVENT?

During the final fights of THE ATROICITY, you will occasionally hear a Guide start a Quick Event:

  • The Guide will describe the effect with a exclamation - “Shockwave!” This is largely flavor and is meant to help you understand in-game what effect is happening. We don’t have a Hollywood budget, so sound effects will have to do.

  • The Guide will call the keyword, then start a slow 3-count. - “Hit the Deck, 3, 2, 1!” When you hear this countdown, it will be a clear sign to do something!

  • You will have only a brief time to REACT to the event. If you perform an obvious behavior to protect yourself, you will avoid the damage or negative effect. This might be something like taking cover, cover your ears, looking away from a blinding light, or falling to the ground.

  • If you do not react in time, the Guide will call a “Failed Reaction”. This call will be alongside a temporarily inconvenience, like Blinding, Agony, or Stun. This is an unavoidable effect, and no use of Avoid, Balance, Mental Endurance, or even a Phalanx will stop this.

  • A few of the events cannot be avoided at all. There is one effect that cannot be avoided by reacting to the event and will simply be a thing you need to deal with.

In practice, these attacks will be pretty intuitive. After you’ve seen it in action a few times, you’ll understand what you need to do to protect yourself, and you can simply listen for the Guide to call or point to you for the effects. The first time you experience these Quick Events, you’ll even have a longer count to help you realize what is about to happen.

WHAT IF YOU ARE A LITTLE LESS MOBILE?

Don’t worry! The goal of these events is not to punish people that may have a lack of mobility or be a bit slower. I know I’m not the fastest person out there, but what we are looking for is EFFORT.

IF YOU DO SOMETHING THAT A REASONABLE PERSON COULD INTERPRET AS REACTING TO THE EVENT, THE EFFECT WON’T HURT YOU.

This is largely a self-applied attack, so if you feel you avoided the attack our Guides will believe you! We want to have a fun, kinetic event to break up the monotony of a fight and to add a bit of tension to the boss fight, and this is not meant to force a strenuous physical activity.

WHAT KINDS OF QUICK EVENTS SHOULD I EXPECT?

In our DR:TX tradition of Radical Trust, here’s the list of the effects you can expect to see during the fight. This will also be posted in the Depot and the Post Office and we will have several NPCs to help telegraph these behaviors when they happen.

Pay attention, and you’ll survive the Atrocity!

  • All Will Tremble! HIT THE DECK!

    A Guide will call “Hit the Deck, 3, 2, 1!”.  If you do not obviously react and take cover, sit down, and/or fall to the ground (if able), you suffer an unavoidable “Failed Reaction: Stun, 10 seconds!” as you are disoriented by the collision of a shock wave.

  • The Grave Mind Hungers! GRASPING TENDRILS!

    A Guide will call “Grasping Tendrils, 3, 2, 1!”.  If you do not obviously dive for cover, move from your current position, or take obvious attempts to dodge the tendrils reaching from the Mortis, you suffer an unavoidable “Failed Reaction: 5 Body, Nail, 1 Minute!”. You may not move from your place for 1 minute following this damage, as you are pinned by grasping tendrils of the Grave Mind.

  • Wave of Darkness! LIGHTS OUT!

    A Guide will call “Lights Out, 3, 2, 1!”.  The lights of the Depot or other buildings will be extinguished, and LCs AND Threats may use Stealth effects indoors for the next 5 minutes.  You may use Awareness to counter Stealth effects as normal. You can’t react to avoid this event.

  • The Undead Wail! PSIONIC RUPTURE!

    A Guide will call “Psionic Rupture, 3, 2, 1!”.  If you do not obviously cover your ears, muffle your sense of hearing, or make some effort to meditate or mentally protect yourself, you suffer an unavoidable “Failed Reaction: Agony, 10 seconds!” as the haunting screams of the Mortis Amaranthine overcome your senses.

  • The Crown Shines Bright! BLINDING LIGHT!

    A Guide will call “Blinding Light, 3, 2, 1!”.  If you do not obviously cover your eyes, avert your vision from the Prince Undying, or make some effort to protect your eyes with goggles, masks, or scarves, you suffer an unavoidable “Failed Reaction: Blinding, 10 seconds!” as the blinding flash of the Prince Undying’s psionic crown overwhelms you.

  • None Shall Approach! KNOCKBACK!

    A Guide will call “Knockback, 3, 2, 1!”.  If you do not obviously react and brace yourself, take a knee, sit down, or make some obvious attempt to hold your ground, you suffer an unavoidable “Failed Reaction: Knockback, 20 Steps” from the telekinetic rage and force of the Prince Undying.

That’s it for the Quick Events. I think these will offer some fun ways to interact with the fight that isn’t swinging a boffer and it will be something that anyone can do during the siege. Remember, it’s all about the effort, so just try your best!

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 STILL BE ABLE TO PURCHASEd 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! See you this weekend, Vados!