Chasing Plot (Part 1)

Today I want to talk about CHASING PLOT. 

I love it. I live and breath to chase plot at LARP. My fun comes from figuring out the stories of the world I'm playing in. I’ve been doing it for a long time, and like to think I’m pretty good at it. But I see many people who also want to do that, but aren't sure how, or even where to start. 

An "in" to a story isn't always easy to see. Staff work very hard to provide opportunities for every player to access the plot. It's not always perfect, but that is the goal. So... how do you recognize and grab on to that opportunity when it arises?

I will be talking about this in two parts. Part I: What you can cultivate internally to you, your character, and your playstyle. And Part II: We’ll talk more about how to cultivate things externally - how you interface with others to maximize your plot chasing.

So first, what is plot? And why chase it? Chasing plot means you want to be involved in the story. Whether that is the story of the weekend, the season, or just one particular group or faction.  How do I get to help tell the story of the Grave Council? How do I get to affect how the Prison interacts with the town? How do I get to help defeat the Big Bad of the weekend? There are a ton of different plots of different sizes and complexities running all the time, and you want IN to make choices to drive more STORY!

And that’s pretty rad.

How is it some people always seem to know where to look for the plot? I'm glad you asked, hypothetical reader. Because I have some tips for you in your hunt to make big waves. 

Have Overarching, and Specific Goals that Engage the Setting. 

Having a specific and overarching goal for your character lets you continue to feel like you're making headway on a story even if there's no mods, ZOMS or NPCs being sent out about that particular plotline. It also gives your character a motivation to take the risks needed to advance the story-- to wander into the dark alone in pursuit of a goal, even if that isn't the "smart" decision a real survivor would make. 

For example, when I first started playing DR, I decided that my character goal was to find out as much as possible about a particular thing. I made it an obsession. It was one of my overarching goals. Then I did SOMETHING every game (specific goal) to move in that direction. Even during events where that thing I was obsessed with wasn't featured, I was still asking and learning about it. Doing research, asking NPCs pointed questions. I checked every morgue at the beginning of every event (we had three, at the time.) -- so I was more likely to notice when something was different, off, or "weird". Most games, it just meant getting more steps in on my FitBit. But occasionally... it paid off. But either way, I was telling a story. This did a couple things: A: Let the people around me (players and staff) know I was interested in that thing, and B: Meant that I was more likely to know when content including that thing was happening, because I always had my ear to the ground.

The goal of all plot content is to engage the people who want to be engaged in it. If you're constantly talking about taking down Killhouse, or going to every criminal meeting (even the ones at the wee hours of the morning when you’re bone tired), you are more likely to get tapped when that plot content appears in the playspace, for multiple reasons: the people around you know you’re interested, the staff probably know you’re interested, and you just are actively listening for it.  (disclaimer: some character goals might invite IG consequences if shouted about too loudly.. but consequences are story too! More on that later.)

In the same vein, choose one or two goals to focus on. Sometimes people feel they're not super involved on any plots because they're trying to be on all of them. Focus your enjoyment so your time isn't spread so thin, and you know what to prioritize. Min/Max your plot chasing. 

This also applies to skills, you can build your character, mechanically, to be a plot magnet. There are several skills that can help you be involved in plot by their nature. Any skill that has an aspect of requesting a mod can help you find plot, because these mods are often tied into whatever is going on for the weekend. Master Criminal, Master Sailing, Master Financial, Master Hunting. If you are a newer player, and know you won’t have the build for these for a long time, find folks who already have them, and let them know you’re interested in going on those adventures. Most master skill mods allow for those people to bring others who have lower levels of the appropriate skill. Find which aligns with your character goals, and move your XP in that direction. 

Recognize What Plot Looks Like

This is a big one... because often, what people are thinking of as plot is only the very tip of what plot can actually be. Plots build on themselves, and often the main parts that are visible are the BIG FLASHY moments. The big finale mod where the Big Bad is defeated (or isn’t). The moment people hit the ON switch on the terrifying and grotesque device. But what we don’t see as much is the multiple games of hustling the LCs did to GET to that moment, because it is, by its nature, not as obvious. But it is still essential to getting to those big cool moments, and can be very fulfilling in its own right.

Plot can look like:

• Sitting in the library brainstorming research.

• Running around town gathering resources.

• Building/crafting specific items/ tracking down people (LC or NPC) for information.

• Staying up way too late on the off chance an important NPC appears

• … and much more.

Don’t avoid these less glorious tasks if you want to be eyeballs deep in plot! They are the stepping stones. They are your “ins” to the story. The people who seem the most embroiled in plot are often the people who are hustling to get these less obvious aspects of plot completed. At the climax of the story, the people who are most likely to be involved in it are those who did the grunt work to make the climax happen. 

There is nothing wrong with not having interest in doing any one of these particular tasks. The staff try to include several modes of play in every plot to optimize engagement. Find the one you DO enjoy. Admittedly, not every plot can hit every mode. But that’s okay! Some will, and that’s where you can focus your energy. 

Be Bold!

Be willing to take risks with your character. Go meet with the shady NPC alone in the dark. Sure they might stab you, but they might also give you juicy information.. Then also stab you. But the stab was probably worth it. Confront the Big Bad and encourage people around you to jump in. Make a deal with someone that you KNOW will probably end badly for you. Let your character make “bad” (read: non-optimal) decisions. The more you put your character out there and take risks like these, the more plot you'll find yourself involved in. Consequences are there to drive story. Don't try to avoid them. Steer into them! Use them to make cool moments, and drive your own character’s internal development. 

All of these things will help you find those oft elusive plot cookies. And they are all things you can do with your character right now.

In Part II, we’ll talk more about the collaborative aspect of chasing down plot: How to chase plot with your other LARP buds and tell cool stories together, how to be in the right place at the right time, and what to do if the issue of plot gatekeeping arises. 

Happy Hunting!

What Happens When You Die? (Part 2)

It’s time for another Rules Ramble with Jonathan! This week, we are continuing the discussion on what happens to your character when they die during a game of Dystopia Rising. Last week, we talked about some of the mechanics of what happens to a character, so this week we are going to focus on the post-death experience. This is a bit longer, but it’s a complicated subject.

Characters in DR start with an Infection Rate depending on their Strain (p. 154, DR Corebook). In the post-apocalyptic world, this is the reason why characters can survive multiple gunshots, being eaten alive by zombies, or cut to pieces by a Raider. The Infection stat is effectively the number of times you can “come back” from death in one piece. This means that death is not the end for your character. However, the journey beyond death can be a strange experience, and coming back intact is never guaranteed. There are many stories of survivors not emerging from the Mortis Amaranthine even when they had Infection remaining.

Mono no aware

When you die, you lose one point of your Infection (unless you had an item or Skill used on you). You can gain back Infection through a few expensive and risky in-game procedures, but generally once this hits zero, your character is gone for good. Once all of your Infection is lost, the Grave Mind is no longer able to bring back that “spark” of what makes you a person and all that is left is the unthinking hungry zed.

However, losing Infection (or even your character) doesn’t have to be a bad thing. In fact, some folks think that Infection is a currency, and should be spent. We even have an entire faction in the game called the Red Ledger that dives into this idea, and the SES System allows you to sign up take risks as your characters on a out-of-character level. If you avoid dying, you miss out on a chance to experience what happens beyond death.

The idea that your character is impermanent is an important part of the story of Dystopia Rising, in the Japanese tradition of mono no aware. Awareness of the transience of all things heightens appreciation of their beauty, and evokes a gentle sadness at their passing. When your character dies, it gives you an opportunity to progress their story, experience change based on what happens during your Grave Mind scene, or even deepen your role play with your friends as they express sadness or emotions about your character’s final death.

Beyond Death

When a character is killed, their body is absorbed by the tendrils of the Mortis Amaranthine, sometimes called the Grave Mind. Their corporeal form is broken down, their Infection reclaimed, and their body is reformed within a place known as a Morgue, which is tended by the Groundskeepers (at least in DR:TX). The Groundskeepers help draw a person through the process of reforming and are the STs in charge of the Grave Mind Scene. The Groundskeepers are responsible for assessing the Grave Tax for the recently deceased. There are even places beyond the Mortis Amaranthine, entering into a state of being Beyond Death. Sometimes a Graverobber might conduct a Grave Robber Scene, restoring lost infection to a survivor.

That’s a lot of vocabulary words, so let’s take a brief look at what I consider the ‘cosmology’ of DR. You can also find more about this starting on page 209 in the DR Corebook. This is just one interpretation of these terms, and these are loosely summarized from materials in the book, tabletop materials, fiction novels, and plot kits.

• Infection - The infectious material that courses in your character’s veins is likely a blood-born fungal entity or virus, maybe even a mutation of the original zombie virus which broke the world. It is an organic, symbiotic host found both in Survivors, and the environment of the world itself. When you die, this Infection is reclaimed and absorbed by the Mortis Amaranthine. Eventually, when you have nothing left to be reclaimed you emerge as a zombie.

• The Mortis Amaranthine - This is not so much a place, as a concept. While it is true a rotting fungal mass exists under the ground, it is not as simple as that. When you die, your consciousness is temporarily stored within a psionic network of everyone and everything with the Infection running through it, including this fungal network. Collectively, this refers to the state of being that is responsible for the process of death and reconstruction that happens afterwards. Regardless of the source of your regeneration, the out-of-body experience of being rebuilt is maddening and is capable of fracturing mind and body.

• The Grave Mind - This is a bit of a urban legend, but many folks associate this term with a hungry intelligence within the Mortis Amaranthine. In fact, this could really just be considered the egoless space within the Mortis. There is no true sentience behind the Mortis and any voices heard within are simply fragments of their attempts to comprehend the experience. However, each settlement in the Wastes has different quirks and flavors of the death experience that seem to be unique to them so it’s easy to see how this legend has grown.

• Morgues - These are places where the dead return after dying. They are found in highly psionic areas or larger settlements and are often tended to by Graverobbers and other folks that are passionate about the Mortis Amaranthine. In Texas, there are several Morgues but the primary morgue we use is known as the Grave Annex, located within the Zuni pavilion behind our Logistics building.

• Groundskeepers - In the DR: TX setting, these are generally employees of the Grave Council, paid to maintain the morgues of Bravado and help the dead return intact. Out of game, these are the Grave Mind STs for our game, and are responsible for running the post-death experience.

• Grave Tax - In DR: TX, this is a fee paid to the Grave Council under the laws of the San Saba Territories after a person returns to the living. This generally starts at 25 brass, and can increase based on if the death was avoidable. This can be paid immediately or deferred until Collection Day (our April event). This is an entirely optional mechanic, and the Groundskeeper will explain your options for opting out of this if you choose.

• Grave Robber Scene - These are Action Requests generally created by a Graverobber LC that is attempting to “steal” lost Infection back from the Mortis Amaranthine. These are challenging mods set up in advance that allow players to risk their Resolve and future Infection for a chance at more time and new Infection. This is generally done via the Pallor Mortis procedure, a blueprint that can be found in game, and requires the player gaining Infection to spend 10 XP.

• Beyond Death - There are deeper ways to interact with the Mortis Amaranthine other than a Morgue, taking you into places and scenarios beyond the limits of what is normal.

  • Sunless Garden - These are areas of the Mortis where the skeletal remains of the consumed world of “the Fall” exists in a microcosm of reality. It is a physical space that functions almost like a stationary point in reality between the living world, the egoless space of the Grave Mind, and what lies beyond the Mortis. You will see these types of locations primarily at National events.

  • Abyssal Rifts - Several blueprints mention the concept of Abyssal Rifts and how to control them, including bodily entering into the Mortis. These were introduced during the online Green House event and these are effectively breaches into reality from beyond the Mortis Amaranthine. Threats like the “Archons” that nearly killed everyone in Essex during our online events are just one example of the threats that can emerge from beyond if these Rifts are not sealed quickly.

  • The Monolith - Other times, unique experiences can emerge from the Mortis like a foreign object stuck in a wound. The Mortis, or at least the rotting fungal mass below the ground, often exhibits medical-like scenarios akin to being infected or experiencing impacted foreign bodies or cysts. These can sometimes become an issue for a settlement, cause new diseases, or even exhibit strange new behaviors of the Mortis Amaranthine. One example was perhaps the Fountainhead during our online season in Essex.

Now that you understand the lingo, let’s talk about what happens for you, the player.

The Grave Mind Scene

Once you are ready, have had any Infection changes and Fractures recorded on your sheet, the STs on shift will summon the Groundskeeper, the local ST on call to handle Grave Mind Scenes. This person is our specialist in crafting a unique experience for a player after the death of their character and will work with you to craft a memorable scene.

First, the Groundskeeper will talk with you about how you died, how your character background or in-game actions might impact the scene, and help establish clear boundaries of what you will experience during the Grave Mind Scene. Consent is an important mechanic of DR, and we want to make sure you are able to have a great experience after death. If you have any questions, the Groundskeeper will make sure to help you understand your options going forward and this “interview” will help them personalize a scene to your character.

The Groundskeeper will also help you decide on a Fracture, since every person that experiences a Grave Mind Scene gains a Fracture as well as losing an Infection. Fractures cannot be soothed or cured for two hours after you gain them, so the shock of your psyche trying to understand what just happened will have an impact on your character after their death. The Groundskeeper will also explain your options for dealing with the Grave Tax, and ways to opt in or out of this mechanic.

Finally, the Groundskeeper will take you to a secluded location and run what we call a “black box” scene. This might be within our Morgue area in the Zuni Pavilion, or simply in a quiet area nearby. They will have you close your eyes, describe the last moments of your death, and then give a shared verbal (and sometimes visual) narration of the experience in the Mortis Amaranthine. After this, you will be allowed to return to play with full Body and 5 Mind points, unless you spend a Resolve (check out my blog post last week).

If you have a concern about where you emerge (say you are worried about an enemy trying to catch you emerging from the Mortis), the Groundskeeper can spawn you in another location if you like. However, the idea of trying to kill a person over and over again until they don’t come back is a terrible crime in EVERY settlement, and the Grave Council will violently respond to people trying to “camp” the Morgue. Murderers beware!

The Story of Death

Every one that dies has a different experience or story of what happens beyond, and what happens next is often dependent on how you died, how your mind attempts to comprehend the experience, memories of your past, or even a personification of your negative emotions. The Grave Mind Scene should be unique, but most of those that die describe some similar experiences.

Most describe a presence watching them or aware of them in the darkness, or disembodied voices talking to them. They might speak of a island in a vast sea, an empty wasteland with a lonely road stretching to the horizon, they might encounter people and places that they have seen before but are gone or dead, or feel a malevolent entity enticing them to stay within. Some settlements have unique experiences, such as people reporting that the Grave Mind demanding a single currency or else losing an important memory, or a hungering maw below that beckons them deeper.

Most describe a presence that “takes something” away from them, where it be a memory or an emotional connection. Sometimes as a survivor nears their last Infection, these cracks in their psyche manifest on their body when it reforms as greenish veins, scars, or skin discolorations where the Infection is visible. Ultimately, the experience after death is your mind’s attempt to comprehend and describe a completely alien and horrific experience, but you always emerged changed in some way.

The story of what happens next is up to you, but part of the “horror” of Dystopia Rising is the cosmic threat of how and why you return from the grave. How will your character react after being broken down to their very atoms and reformed again? Are they even the same person, or like the Ship of Theseus have they become something else entirely? Will this brush with death change in you some way, or force you to rethink the time you have left? Let’s find out together…

Next time, we will discuss some important rules you might want to brush up on before the game, particularly with some frostbitten zed lurking in the shadows. See you next week!

Free Trade and Mutual Aid

What To Expect at the DR:TX Premier Event

Good morning, Survivors!

Our upcoming premier event, The Long Night, is a game designed to be a little more than our standard faire. And, because I like putting all the information in front of you guys way before it becomes relevant to you, I’m going to preempt the weekend with some choice intel about the unique narrative elements you’ll be seeing. 

The Monolith, Exhumed 

From underneath New Bravado, erupted the black and towering obelisk that has only recently been dubbed The Monolith. Accompanying its liberation from the dark and loamy soil of downtown Bravado, a supermassive horde of zed slammed into the city’s eastern perimeter and, for the better part of a month, has attempted to break that line as if to siege the structure itself.

Ensconced in that same fell menhir, behind filmy walls of mucus and remembered steel, lies the corpus of a creature considered dead and dealt with, until now. 

---

The Monolith is a Mortis protrusion of...grave proportions. Shaped like an upended splinter, but three stories tall, this towering spire of old blood and coagulated osseum seems to be drawing zed with all the power of some arcane, malicious beacon. 

At its base, nearly crusted shut with slag and biomass, is a door. 

Survivors will, over the course of the weekend, descend into the Monolith (Or ascend, because it is technically a tower structure), in search of answers. This will look like solving puzzles, obtaining information and items from inside the ride, and interrogating long-dead scientists from an era where the Mortis was even more poorly understood than it is now. 

There will be an option internal to the Monolith story path that ends in a great sacrifice (this does not imply Infection loss) where you, the player, may zipline to safety from the depths of the Monolith. There is another, equally important to the success of the weekend, path for those who (for any reason whatsoever) do not want to opt into the zipline content. 

An Oncoming Icestorm 

The Long Night looms on the darkening horizon, too, and the wind grows frighteningly cold. Battling the fractured memories and suspended suffering of the everdead in the Mortis, and the threat of an ecological annihilation outside it - the people of New Bravado must find shelter from the oncoming icestorm, evacuate the city before the darkness descends, or find some way to outlast it in the roughshod and poorly insulated wooden housing provided by the RRC.

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The events of The Long Night preamble the arrival of the actual Long Night, a period of extended darkness in the San Saba Territories during which zed and worse stalk the blind and cold eternity for anyone foolish enough to step from the circle of their own firelight.

The scientists employed by the Railroad Conglomerate predict an unprecedented icestorm sometime after the fall of the Long Night. Frozen biomass cannot self-replicate, they say. And so if the town does not find some way to preserve its people, many citizens of the territory will not make it through the Long Night. 

A Free Trade Agreement with New Requiem

Felicity Redfield, CEO of the RRC has struck an agreement with Anton Anastasia of the Thirteen Families and The Fold. More than a thousand miles of Oxline between New Requiem and Bravado, and all the commerce and complication that accompanies it, looms ahead. Will the lack of oversight create opportunities for the criminally minded to push their goods far afield? Seems likely.

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This month a new mechanic will enter play Friday night, at the signing of the agreement below. Following the implementation of the Free Trade Agreement the Survivors at DR:TX and DR:NY games will be able to use Local Plot Cards from EITHER settlement at EITHER game.   The mechanic will last for one (1) year. 

The plaintext version of this document can be found here. 

Interested? Register for our event here! See you in the Greater Wastes!

What Happens When You Die?

It’s time for another Rules Ramble with Jonathan! Death and dying in the world of Dystopia Rising are tied heavily into the setting. The Zombie Apocalypse story means the concept of Death is always close by for our characters. In fact, when you character dies in Dystopia Rising, you actually get to enjoy an entirely different side of the game. So let’s talk about a side of the game that you may not know much about, particularly for those folks that are new to the game.

Life Cut short…

When your character finishes their Bleed Out count without getting healing, or gets a Killing Blow delivered to them while in Bleed Out, you are dead. D-E-A-D. But for characters with the Infection surging in their bodies, that’s not quite the end.

• If it is possible, you should remain in play as a corpse for no longer than 10 minutes to allow for opportunities to interact with the dead character. (DR Corebook, p. 208)

There are a few reasons to stay behind as a corpse:

First, there is actually a Skill in game that can resurrect a character that recently died, known as Master Faithful Will (DR Corebook, p. 140) — provided they can Target you as a corpse. This is a rarer skill in the game, as it requires a veteran player with at least 75 XP to be able to select this skill.

This skill allows someone of your same Faith that gets to you before that 10 minute timer is up to throw a white packet, spend 1 Resolve and stop you from losing an Infection. There are even items that let them use the Skill on people not of their same Faith. Better make buddies with that friendly priest! You still experience a Grave Mind Scene if this skill is used, so we’ll talk about that next.

Lastly, staying as a corpse allows enemies or other players to take things from your Supply Bag (which is a CvC action), allows Gorgers to cannibalize the corpse to gain Body, or even let your friends experience a role play opportunity as they react to finding your body.

You can choose to ‘sink’ into the Mortis Amaranthine when you are ready, going out of character and holding a hand to your head or wearing a green headband. Any items you still have on you are taken with you into the Mortis Amaranthine. You don’t have to wait the entire 10 minutes (especially if no one is around to find you), but you should give a reasonable amount of time for folks to react and respond to your death.

After Death: The Mortis Amaranthine

When your character dies in game, their body is claimed by the Grave Mind and absorbed into the Mortis Amaranthine. This normally appears to your character as if murky tendrils are dragging your body beneath the ground, but this is mainly a trope to explain why you disappear out of character. In the fiction books of Dystopia Rising, the decay of the corpse happens much differently but we don’t have the SFX budget of Hollywood!

Once you’ve spent your time as a corpse, you’ll proceed to the Logistics building. In DR:TX, this is known as the Grave Council Annex and is located in the building known as the Hopi Lodge. This is the same place you’ll come for your NPC shift, so it’ll be easy enough to find. The first thing we do is congratulate or console you on your death, and make sure you have water and space to decompress. Death isn’t really a “lose scenario”, but sometimes you need a few minutes so the adrenaline can wear off. It’s important to take care of the player too!

From there, our STs and Guides will make sure that the GRAVE BELL is rung, signaling to the other players and designated Groundskeepers (Guides that specialize in running Grave Mind scenes), that someone has recently died. This also lets players that want to use a Death Brew or the Necrokinetics Skill know they have an opportunity to do so. These powers allow another player to sit in and observe the Death scene by your side, provided you consent and give them permission to be there.

Once the Groundskeepers arrive, they will walk you through the next steps and mark on your character sheet the changes that happen. The Groundskeeper will also have a short discussion with you that will help them build a better Grave Mind scene by understanding how you died, working with you to choose an appropriate Fracture, and helping them tailor the scene to your character and their backstory. Once you are ready, the Groundskeeper will lead you through a Grave Mind Scene tailored to your character.

Now, this is a Rules Ramble, so let’s address the mechanical impact of death:

The Price of Death

A few things happen mechanically upon death:

• You lose 1 Infection. (p. 95, DR Corebook)

  • If this leaves you with zero Infection, your character is permanently dead and will return as a zombie instead. The ST will work with you to create a unique undead threat to plague the town for what is known as your “last walk”.

  • There are ways to regain lost Infection in game, including the Pallor Mortis procedure and the Candlepin Medical Kit. Gaining new Infection costs 10 XP per point and can only be done at your home game or a national cross-network event.

• You gain 1 Fracture. (p. 180, DR Corebook)

  • Remember, Fractures cannot be resolved for the first 2 hours after you gain one and they can prevent you from using certain Anomaly Skills and equipment while you have one.

• If the character is not permanently dead, when the character finishes the death scene they emerge with full Body and 5 Mind points remaining unless there is a plot or mechanic that changes this amount. They can choose to spend 1 Resolve to return to play with full Mind points.

  • If you do NOT lose an Infection (say, someone with Faithful Will was nearby), you may NOT spend an Resolve to return with full Mind Points.

• [DR:TX ONLY] The Groundskeeper will assess your Grave Tax. This is an optional story element, reinforcing one of the laws of the San Saba. When someone dies in our game, the Grave Council normally assigns them a tax based on how they died. This is meant as an avenue for story, not as a punishment, so the Groundskeeper will help you understand how to opt in or out of this experience.

• Dying also cures you of most diseases or psionic effects you might be suffering from, restores Mangled limbs and lost organs, and ends any other effects that do not persist after death.

One final oft overlooked rule is that if you want to OPT OUT of a Grave Mind Scene altogether, you can simply spend one Resolve and return to play with full Body, but only one Mind Point (p. 183, DR Corebook). You still lose Infection but you do NOT gain a Fracture as you did not have the traumatic post-death experience within the Mortis Amaranthine. (You also miss out on a neat personalized scene, but sometimes you gotta get back to your friends quick!)

Next week, we’ll talk a bit more about what happens during and after the Grave Mind Scene with the Groundskeeper. Stay tuned for Part 2!

Story Recap: Blood Feast

Good morning! It’s Jonathan here with a recap of the major Story events of our recent November Game: BLOOD FEAST. The goal of these Story Recap posts is to help fill in the blanks for those that might have missed an important mod, been at NPC camp or even sleeping, or simply were not able to attend the game. These are major points of continuity that might be important as our season continues, and I hope this will help with the FOMO feels.

There were a few major developments during the BLOOD FEAST event:

Gutscourge

Over the last few weeks, characters that live near Bravado or travel there regularly started to feel HUNGRIER than usual. These symptoms might have come on suddenly, or gradually, over the last 4 weeks. The symptoms were a bit innocuous at first and if a person was not particularly observant, they might not have even noticed the changes! But starting on the first night of game, it was increasingly clear that something was wrong. A large part of the population had been infected with a terrible new disease that was quickly identified as GUTSCOURGE.

Victims infected with Gutscourge were irritable, feverish, and experienced intense pangs of hunger that can only be sated by eating.  They were increasingly focused on eating any food available or even eating raw meat, as as the disease progressed it turned them into voracious cannibals capable of devouring blood and flesh in lieu of food. Each step of the disease compounded the last and once normal food no longer satiated their hunger, the infected could frenzy at the slightest provocation. For those that rode the edge of oblivion, the advanced stages of the disease deadened their nerves and turned them into unstoppable killing machines capable of shrugging off bullets and blades alike.

A literal puzzle the players had to solve as part of the Research Challenge

The town collectively poured their resources into researching and understanding the disease. The horrifying resolution of Gutscourge was discovered - if a cure was not found, the infected would progress and become terrible BLOOD GHASTS and be lost forever, no matter how many Infection they had left. However, no matter what treatment the town came up with or how much food they consumed, they could not permanently cure the disease but only send it into remission temporarily. Some other factor was making the disease incurable and resistant to medical treatment.

The town eventually discovered an old family recipe of the Lovelace Family to create BLOOD SOUP that helped them combat the disease. This “meal” not only served to satiate the hunger of the infected, it could even reduce and contain the disease that was ravaging their bodies. However, since the Blood Soup required the players to spend Body points to create the meal by bleeding into the concoction, it was costly to prepare.

In addition, three strange side effects of the disease emerged, each too specific to have been naturally occurring but rather aspects of the disease that had been purposefully advanced and WEAPONIZED. It was clear that this disease was an attack on the town by some nefarious villain.

Widow Clauthia, after her “tea”

• For Whom the Bell Tolls - Each and every time the GRAVE BELL sounded in town, anyone infected with Gutscourge was sent into a frenzy of violence and hunger AND their disease would advance one Stage. The Bell is normally sounded by the Groundskeeper EVERY time a person dies, so each death caused by frenzies ended up causing more and more chaos through the weekend. Somehow, the necrokinetic energy of the Bell was sustaining and advancing the disease.

• Object of Veneration - The most insidious side effect of Gutscourge is that it made the infected susceptible to coercion and control by someone they respected and looked up to. Whenever an NPC made a call of “Object of Veneration”, players infected with Gutscourge had to either spend Mind points to resist the compulsion or follow the commands. The Widow’s Tea on Saturday afternoon became particularly bloody as Widow Clauthia ordered her loyal Widows to bring her victims to consume.

• Infectious - Gutscourge was purposefully very, very transmissible. Every time an advanced Stage infected fed on a target, they would also spread the disease to them. If that person was already infected, BOTH players would increase their disease one Stage. Particularly advanced patients were so infectious that even players using Medical skills on them could risk infection if they were not careful. The disease even seemed to be even more infectious on Landsmen, particularly the Quiet Folk of the Lovelace Family.

Dr. Nichols’ Revenge

Last month, one of the most infamous Lifers known as Eyeless Jack was captured by the town. This month, his father came to town seeking revenge on both the town that captured his son and the Family that made him an outcast from his home of Widow’s Peak. Jack’s father is a Quiet Folk doctor named Dr. Hannibal Nichols-Lovelace. He operated a small free clinic on the outskirts of the Lovelace lands, and was sometimes called “Grandfather Nichols” by the locals. He was thought of as mostly harmless, but was kept at arm’s length by the Lovelace Family because of the crimes his son committed.

Dr. Nichols, Quiet Folk villain

Nichols was being brought to Bravado to answer for crimes that he had been recently implicated in. It appears that the “good” Doctor had more of a direct hand in teaching his son Eyeless Jack to be a serial killer than was first known, and gory trophies of travelers that disappeared on their way to Widow’s Peak were discovered in his clinic. Alongside Daniel the Quiet, one of the Lifers still at large, Dr. Nichols was being brought to a trial at the Gauntlet. Accompanying the accused was the majority of the Lovelace Family, including the matriarch of the family, Immacula Lovelace. The stage was set for Dr. Nichol’s plan and betrayal of his former Family.

The night of his arrival, the fanatic followers of his son known as the APOSTLES OF EYELESS JACK attacked the Law Dogs escorting him into town, and freed both him and Daniel the Quiet. Witnesses even reported that Immacula Lovelace gave her weapon to the doctor as if compelled before he escaped into the night. For the hours that followed, Dr. Nichols prowled the night, purposefully spreading the disease of Gutscourge while talking about “experiments” and ambushing travelers on the roads. It was quickly apparent that not only was Dr. Nichols the mastermind behind the plague, but that he had lured his family to the town on purpose to infect and destroy them. As the bell tolled from early deaths in the night, Lovelace Maniacs set themselves on the town in a cannibalistic frenzy. While nominally still people, they couldn’t help themselves from feasting on those they attacked and put into Bleed Out.

The Cure & Project Mutagen

The next day, Research plans continued and uncovered a bit more about the depth of Dr. Nichol’s plan to destroy his family. During the Indulgence, the Unstable genius known as the Butcher tasked the Lifers with gathering biomass from townsfolk as part of something called “PROJECT MUTAGEN”. It was quickly evident that Dr. Nichols was progressing the project forward and was actively involved. The weaponized disease of Gutscourge was the culmination of these efforts, combining aspects of the Bad Brain Disease with parts of the Bloodscouge disease spread by Blood Ghasts. With the ability to infect and create powerful super soldiers that would follow the orders of those in charge, the plague represented a major step forward towards calamity for the San Saba Territories.

After collecting water samples from around town, testing various meals cooked by the chefs of Bravado, harnessing blood samples from captured Blood Ghasts, the inhabitants of Bravado were able to create a cure for these disease and a treatment plan to mitigate the threat. However, no matter much they tried, each time the GRAVE BELL rang the disease surged again and spread. Something else was sustaining the disease.

After their hard work continuing the research, they realized that the disease had introduced tiny psionic crystals into the victims. These psionic crystals were reacting to the Grave Bell and sustaining the disease. Based on intel gathered by the town, it was discovered that a SECOND Grave Bell was being used by Dr. Nichols in the sleepy corner of Widow’s Walk that needed to be stopped in order to permanently cure Gutscourge. At the same time, Dr. Nichols was again out and about capturing residents as “guests of honor” for something he called FAMILY DINNER. If the town was to solve the crisis, they would have to deal with both the cannibal Lovelace Family and neutralize the second Grave Bell.

Family Dinner & the Death of the Lovelaces

Dr. Nichols final masterstroke took place in the candlelit dinner area constructed within Widow’s Walk, the traditional sanctum of the Widows of the Lone Star, another aspect of the Lovelace Family in the San Saba Territories. Joining him for dinner were his family members, Clauthia Lovelace, one of the leaders of the Widows, Immacula Lovelace, the matriarch, Abby Lovelace, her daughter, and Daniel the Quiet, the black sheep Lifer of the family. Alongside a throng of the Lovelace Maniacs, the family came together to celebrate their “guests of honor” that would be served as the MAIN COURSE of dinner.

When the town tried to interrupt the ritual, they discovered that not only was Dr. Nichols mind controlling each of the Lovelace family members to do his bidding, that he was functionally IMMORTAL. As soon as he was hurt, the wound would heal and his family would cry out in pain and anguish. He kept mocking the assembled heroes, saying that “My family sustains me. You cannot stop me” while attacking from the darkness. With an immortal enemy, waves of Lovelace Maniacs, and powerful Lovelace leaders, the Family Dinner was a scene of chaos and danger.

Eventually, the town concocted a plan to free the gathered Guests of Honor from their manacles securing them to the dinner table and survive the attacks of the Lovelaces while a second group worked to disable the second GRAVE BELL. With the help of some clutch uses of Master Biogenetics and a coordinated rush on the bell once the guests were freed, the insidious bell was silenced for good.

Frustrated by the plan being stopped, Dr. Nichols executed Immacula Lovelace at the dinner table and nearly escaped into the darkness. He was finally caught and captured outside of the General Store, but not before killing several other townsfolk. He was questioned and executed, but not before a chilling proclamation that Project Mutagen had been a success and had been shipped to his mysterious client that afternoon. Someone out in the wastes now has a tool to create dangerous super soldiers or the ability to sell that technology to the highest bidder.

The town had successfully stopped the evil Dr. Nichols and found a permanent cure for the disease of Gutscourge, but it came at a high price. The Lovelace Family has been decimated by the disease, and while several members of the Family were rescued and cured of the plague, the once powerful faction is now in shambles. It will take effort, money, and new blood in the ranks to rebuild after Dr. Nichol’s plot of revenge, but the Lovelace Family will endure.

EPILOGUE - The Monolith

At the end of the event, as the town was wearily gathering themselves for the last moments of printing, farming, and playing silly games, a dire warning came from the outskirts. Rising from the ground, a MONOLITH of flowing black stone has erupted from the Mortis Amaranthine at the edge of town. The tower of strange stone beckons exploration, and agents of the Grave Council have quickly moved to secure the perimeter of the structure. Whatever this Monolith may be, the similarity between it and the Fountainhead in Essex cannot be dismissed and you know that the next crisis facing Bravado is ahead, in our December Game - THE LONG NIGHT.