Supply Orders

Howdy y’all.  Andrew here with a blog post about Supply Orders which are a new mechanic for supporting Econ gameplay.  Similar to Work Orders, the intent of Supply Orders is to provide players with plot related engagement rewards that they can pursue independently and at their own pace for the Econ sphere of finding resources and creating items.

Supply Order Overview

Here is an example supply order from our test run at the March game to walk through the parts of:

Hiding within the legalese common to all of the San Saba Board documents is important information you need.  

Every supply order is going to come from one of the factions we’ve established in the San Saba and the items in the supply order will tie into the narrative of that faction.  For March at Queen’s Grace each of the supply orders was for one of the Tribes for supplies they were looking to stock up on while visiting Bravado.  As a preview for April, the RRC will have a supply order looking to stock up on things to make the Boatel of Drywater a success.

In the middle of the form is the actual list of what is desired to fill the supply order. Listed in the table are an item or resource, how many batches are wanted, and the payout per batch.  The desired items in the list may be a broader category so there are multiple options for how to fill the order, or it may be a specific resource or item.  If a single batch specifies multiple items, then for simplicity at the post office each batch will be a multiple of how many are created per crafting or gathering session.

Supply Orders in Play

Supply Orders can start the game posted in a public high traffic location such as the bulletin board at the post office or at the work areas in the depot.  Alternatively work orders can be brought out by an NPC to actively look for those willing to work on supplying it.  

Going out with the supply order will also be a corresponding set of supply chits with one supply chit for each item that the supply order is wanting filled.  Supply chits use the trade voucher template:

Each supply chit will be filled in with a single item from the supply order and also the price offered.  If a player wants to fill the supply order and be paid they take the specific supply chit for the item, not the supply order.  The supply order stays where it is posted or with the NPC who brought it in.

If a player already has a card for the item specified on the supply chit then it’s as simple as taking the card and the supply chit both to the post office and turning them in together to receive the listed reward.

If a player needs to use a skill to create or find the item specified on the supply chit then they first need to fulfill all the roleplay, time, and material requirements that the skill would normally require.  Once those requirements are complete, the supply chit can be taken to the post office where the skill use and materials will be verified as usual for creating a card.  But instead of creating a card for the skill use the player will receive the listed reward on the supply chit.

As a point of courtesy only take multiple supply chits if you already have the existing cards to fill all the orders without skill use.  If you intend to use a skill to fill the order then just take one supply chit at a time.  Once the skill use is complete and the supply chit has been turned in for its reward a player can return and take another supply chit if they are available.

In Summary

Supply Orders are designed to both promote independent econ gameplay and promote tying econ activities into the larger plot.

• Supply Orders can be posted in game or enter play with an NPC.

• Supply Orders will come with a set of Supply Chits for each item on the Supply Order.

• To work on filling an item off the Supply Order take the matching Supply Chit for the item.

• Take the Supply Chit to the post office along with either an existing item card or proof of your work to create the item.  Once verified by the post office you will receive the listed reward.

• Be courteous and only take more than one Supply Chit at a time if you have existing cards on hand to fill all of them.

I hope you give a Supply Order a try and get to put some Brass in your pocket.  With Collection Day almost here, earning some extra Brass might be important.  Do work, get paid, and see y’all soon.

Rules for Collection Day

Hey there Vados! It’s Jonathan here with another Rules Ramble! This week we are going to cover updates for our game this weekend - COLLECTION DAY. We are going to talk about some rules you should be aware of before game, and things you might see during our upcoming event. As always, the purpose of these Rules Rambles is to cover a topic in the DR rulebook or something that might show up in game in more detail than the book or ZOMs alone can provide.

While advanced ticket sales for the event are closed, you can still get tickets at the door!

Let’s get into a few topics that might be important for this upcoming game, the strange phenomenon of the NEAR DEATH, the mysterious CANTANKEROUS MATRIX, and a few THREAT SKILLS that you might want to brush up on before the event.

The NEAR DEATH

If you’ve been following along with Facebook or Discord, you probably saw some interesting hype posts, particularly from the GRAVE COUNCIL. I’ve included them here, just in case you missed them.

Click to embiggen!

So what is the NEAR DEATH?

We’ve talked a bit about the cosmology of DEATH in my series on What Happens When You Die? but I’ll cover a few basics of what most folks understand about what happens next::

• 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.

• 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.

The final location we will explore during this game is the NEAR DEATH.

This is something new.

Takheeta Firstborn has tapped into something powerful to create a new liminal space, as a way to ensure the morgues still work while she completes her GREAT WORK. This is an area not quite within the Mortis Amaranthine, but also not so deep as to pass Beyond Death. So, it’s kind of in between space, skimming the surface of the fungal growths underneath the ground but not quite Limbo either.

Imagine you peeled back a scab on a scar to see the fresh unhealed wound beneath. That tender area is the domain of the NEAR DEATH. While within this area, you will still be able to retrieve your friends after they die, enact a Gravemind Scene or use Necrokinetics, commit a heinous MURDER DIVE, or virtually anything else you might need the Gravemind for.

BUT, it will not be in the usual space. We will have a separate location for this NEAR DEATH Morgue during the event, and a different way of interacting with this new place underground. We hope that if you get the opportunity, you’ll get to see what we have planned for you…

the cantankerous matrix

Takheeta’s telegram mentions a proper noun that you might not have heard before: THE CANTANKEROUS MATRIX.

Ok, confession time. This one has been pretty subtle. There’s definitely a few characters in game that know WAY more about this topic because they asked the right questions early, but it’s been kind of an easter egg this whole season. If you haven’t been tapped into the San Saba Conspiracy, you’ve probably missed it. It’s ok if you haven’t paid attention or noticed it, but I’ll share a few teasers for those that missed out. I’m sure this will be important later.

Commander Rampart, Takheeta, Queen Jasper (doodles by Shan Lind)

Wait, this was in the Story Recap for the first game?

That’s not fair. That was during the online season!

Wait. It’s even in Shan’s stories about Final Knights?

I remember that from the first game…

That looks a bit familiar… almost like a crystalline matrix…

Sorry, not sorry. :)

I’m sure we will find out a bit more about the CANTANKEROUS MATRIX during COLLECTION DAY. It probably has nothing to do with those stories of the Scion Vossa, either. I’m also sure it has nothing to do with the Mortis Amaranthine. Nope. Definitely not.

Threat Skills of Note

I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that I’m describing these completely unrelated Threat abilities before the game. You probably won’t encounter monsters with these abilities. Probably.

ADRENALINE

While the majority of the walking dead move relatively slowly, some amongst them can initiate a sudden burst of vigor and energy that can enliven a horde. With a call of “Adrenaline - All Undead, Run!” they can allow all undead in hearing range to move at an occasional running pace. This means even those slow shamblers can suddenly be right on top of you!

ANOMALY HEAL

Some zombies - and even some other threats in the wasteland - can become revitalized by the use of aberrant abilities in their area. If any anomaly ability is used within earshot, this ability may be activated with a call of “Anomaly Response, Healing”. This restores all lost Body to the source of the call.  If you hear this call, you better get your friends to stop using Skills like BIOGENETICS, cause they will just keep that threat alive even longer.

Aberrant keyword

Some threats can specifically target those characters that have any Psionic or Faith Skills at all. When you select any Skill from the teal Anomaly Skill category, you become an ABERRANT. This keyword means any attack or effect that targets Aberrants directly targets you. If you aren’t an Aberrant, then the attack either has no effect or deals normal damage (in the case of Bane calls).

The most common source of this attack is through “Aberrant Bane” calls, which means you take DOUBLE damage from that attack. But some powerful undead can kill every Aberrant near them, and this might sound like “BY THE SOUND OF MY VOICE: ALL ABERRANTS 20 BODY!”. (Clearly this is just an example.. definitely NOT a very specific call that very specific types of undead will use this weekend…)

rad damage

This is a damage modifier normally associated with an area or mechanical item. Radiation damage in plot mechanic zones can be high (due to volume of radiation), but most items carried by individuals will cause much lower damage. Regardless of the source, Radiation damage causes an equal degree of lost Mind as it does lost Body. So, if a monster swings for “5 Rad!”, you would lose 5 Body AND 5 Mind!

Just a completely unrelated picture (art crudely drawn by Jonathan Loyd)

sound of my voice

This is an effect that targets EVERYONE within a 50-foot radius who can hear the call. Sound of my Voice ignores walls, doors, and all other barriers, and may represent gas, shrapnel, psionics, or other effects that ignore barriers. Sound of my Voice cannot be Avoided. The only effect that can prevent a Sound of my Voice call is the Phalanx Doyen PFA use of the OOPH Barrier. This is the largest range of most Threat abilities in the game. And remember, that’s 50-feet in every direction from the Threat, so that’s a HUGE area to impact.

SPIKE

The animating force of certain undead is linked closely with those created at the same time. When such an undead is dropped into bleed out, they can call “Spike! All Linked Undead Heal All!” - causing all undead that are linked with them to heal to full Body. Some undead can only use this ability once, while others have unlimited uses - forcing survivors to kill them one at a time.

Wrap Up

We learned a bit about the CANTANKEROUS MATRIX and the NEAR DEATH today. We also covered some of the THREAT SKILLS to be aware of. That’s a lot of weird UNDEAD abilities up there. Probably nothing to worry about. Y’all haven’t done anything recently to impact the Morgue like imprison an undead Queen for hours in a Rusted Cage, right? Right?

Ticket sales have closed for COLLECTION DAY, but you can still purchase them on site if you missed out on pre-reg. We hope to see you this weekend, and I hope you’ve paid your GRAVE TAX!

Writing a Better Backstory

It’s time for another Rules Ramble with Jonathan! Each week, I’ll introduce a topic in the DR rulebook in a deep dive that focuses on explaining it in more detail than the book alone can provide. Today’s blog post will touch on how to write a better BACKGROUND STORY for your characters in the world of Dystopia Rising. This is a useful trait to consider for new players and veterans alike, and the advice here can be useful for better Personal Plot Requests and Action Requests as well!

Tickets for our next event, COLLECTION DAY, are live now but registration ends at midnight on Friday! Don’t miss out on your chance to have your sheet printed in advance and ready to save you time in line. You can still buy tickets at the door, but buying your ticket in advance helps our STs plan out NPC shifts, know who is going to be present for Personal Plots, and just generally have a better idea of who to expect at game!

Why is a Background important?

Everyone knows the origins of super heroes or other characters in fiction, movies, and comic books. You know that Peter Parker suffered a loss of a family member that made him realize with great power comes great responsibility. Captain Kirk cheated at the Kobayashi Maru scenario and nearly got thrown out of Star Fleet. Luke Skywalker followed a droid in the desert and met a strange old hermit. Gideon Nav has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead bullshit. (Wait, you haven’t read Gideon the Ninth? Go ahead, go read it and come back to this…)

So, if you are about to spend 36 hours or so playing your character, it’s worth considering where they came from, and what happened to them BEFORE the game starts. Backgrounds are an often overlooked part of character creation, and that can really help provide direction, motivation, and make them feel alive.

Maybe you are brand new to the game and you want to flesh out your character, or a veteran that has decided to finally fill out your background to prevent your character from feeling stale. Any player can benefit from adding a background to their character, so let’s talk a bit about the rules in the book (this is a Rules Ramble after all!)

What do the Rules say?

You can find the rules for Character Backgrounds on pg. 25-26 in the DR Corebook. I’ll summarize some of the key points here, but this is a really good starting point to consider, especially if you haven’t done this kind of thing before. One of the most important rules on p.25 is very relevant to our discussion today:

Check with your local branch’s content page and restrictions to make sure your character fits the existing requirements and guidelines for your branch.

Each game is only allowed to approve backgrounds that exist within their play area. In DR:TX, we can approve backgrounds in the San Saba Territories and the Greater Lone Star, but we cannot approve a background from Old York, the Sequoia Wastes, or Hell Dorado, as those are reserved for those branches.

You can find our DR:TX restrictions here:

• Strain Restrictions

• Background Restrictions

The book also provides a few basic questions to consider, and these questions are excellent things to consider for any character, and really thinking about these can give you a first step into building a baseline for the story you want to tell.

• Where was your character born and raised? (Try to keep the location local!)

• How did you survive in the wastelands? How did you acquire food, water, rest, safety, medical supplies, or mental health help?

• How does your character fit into the Dystopia Rising mythology and genre?

• What motivates and drives your character to keep going forward?

• Do they have short term goals, philosophical beliefs, or a spiritual faith in a higher power?

• Remember to make sure to leave space for your story to move, grow, and adapt.

We will get into some best practices for how you answer some of these questions in a moment, but let’s go over the specifics of how you submit a background first.

how to submit a background

You can submit new or updated Character Backgrounds via our website.

Our website covers the basics of the character background, but past the obvious traits like Name and Strain, we look for a few basic things about your character:

• Background

• Background Ties

• Important NPCs

• Important Locations

We have a few basic reminders and restrictions for background submissions:

• Please be brief. We receive a lot of backgrounds, and those longer than two pages will have to be condensed.

• Submit in bullet points or key notation format. The longer and more flowery your document, the less likely that Staff will be able to use your content for reference and story.

• Stay local. Keeping your character background in the Lone Star gives us more options in what we can run for your character.

• Please keep any NPC Groups in your background as small as possible.

• Double check your submission, be patient, be willing to answer questions or adjust your background as needed. Be open to suggestions to change locations, names, and events to have more relevant links to our story.

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s talk about some BEST PRACTICES for submitting a more successful background story.

The trope of a tragic backstory

So we’ve all heard the story: You are a bitter veteran, a badass lone wolf chasing away the memories of your sordid past with a hooch or three at the Swaying Anker. Your parents are dead, your siblings are dead, your dog is dead, your friends are dead, your coworkers are dead, etc. It’s a sad tale, and the San Saba seems to have more orphans than an orphanage. You are destined to be alone, sulking in the corner over your sorrow, misery, and angst.

Cool.

Except, there’s nothing in this story to consider as an ST. This is a closed story. Everything is finished, and there’s no connections to the world or the people around you. It’s boring. A story like this is guaranteed to be ignored by the Storyteller staff when they are looking for inspiration for the next game.

• If there are no open-ended questions in your story, we can’t provide the answers.

I can’t write a story about your family being captured if they are all dead. I can’t bring in your lost sister with her favorite teddy bear as a Face NPC to cause emotional damage. I can’t bring up your connection as a former employee of Felicity Redfield and try to get you to leverage the secrets you learned. I can’t send out a telegram about your hometown being under attack by Raiders, or your father fighting off an advancing army that is aiming radioactive artillery at your ancestral home.

Help us help you by leaving some options open.

If we can’t look at your background and see a springboard for new story ideas, it’ll likely be skipped over. The STs are talented folks, but it still needs to spark a bit of their creativity before you can really get a background submission involved in the game. If they aren’t inspired, it’ll be a challenge to write a mod or story for you.

tips for writing better BACKGROUNDS

I’m going to cover some of my own tips for writing better backgrounds. I’ve sourced a lot of these ideas from some articles and videos that I’ve linked at the bottom of the article, but as always I’ll try to include my own interpretation and even a few of my own. It’s important to consider leaving a few things that make an engaging backstory that will make Personal Plot Requests more emotional and interesting, and those random encounters with NPCs more meaningful.

Keep it Simple

The first way to write a better background story is to keep it simple and keep it brief. Use a simple bulleted list of key points about your character instead of a long, multi-page narrative story. If it’s easy to access and read, it’ll be easier for our STs to include into their mods and planning. We’ve put this on our Background submission page for a reason!

Keep it relevant

Make sure your backstory details are relevant, and stick to the life changing moments that mattered most to your characters. We don’t need to know your shoe size, or what you like for breakfast. Focus on backstory that directly informs potential stories, and save the story of your camping trip with your parents or that poignant vignette about your best friend for a hype post instead. Relevant details help deepen the emotional stakes, as we can use them to create a connection to the story. If it doesn’t deal with your present emotional reality, it’s often not as useful for the ST team.

leave some unanswered questions

Don’t tie up every bit of conflict in your past with a neat bow. If there are no open-ended questions in your backgrounds, I don’t really have a way to provide you an answer. Instead of that family member being dead and gone, what if they were missing or kidnapped? Instead of having slain your rival in a duel over a gaping chasm, what if they escaped and you are worried they’ll find you again some day? What if someone else knows about the secret you stole from Tabitha’s office while Eyeless Jack wasn’t looking and you are just waiting for the blackmail letter to show up?

ground your character in the setting

Where are you from? Sure, you can come up with your own tiny town, but what if you included something we already wrote about or included in our online season? You are much more likely to have relevant plot if you are based locally and use a place we’ve already detailed. Essex has a lot of information we’ve released, but any of the San Saba Locations could be great starting points for a background. We also put a LOT of information on our website about Factions, history, traditions, and more that you could use in your backstory.

Build a timeline of your character’s life events

Where where they before they came to Bravado? What happened on your way into town? What did they do before? Plotting out the key events in your character’s past can help you better understand your character’s personality and point of view. Continue plotting out the major events that led you to our sleepy town of Bravado, and it will help you better understand your personality, quirks, and character’s thoughts. If you focus on those major stops in the formative events of your life, it can really give you a direction to follow in game.

keep connections in mind

Who does your character know? Maybe everyone in your past shouldn’t be dead. It’s great to include local groups, Factions, and crews you are affiliated with, or NPCs or characters that you have in-character ties with. Are there other Leading Characters that you know in town? Did you use to work in Essex with Governor Amberdraught? Did you serve time at Killhouse Prison? Did you join up with the Junkerpunks in the Clutch? What did you do during the Hiway War? These kind of specific details gives us a list of people to involve in the story, and often makes it MORE likely your story gets picked up as we often have to weight the desire to tell a story with how many players we can entertain with the same mod. Private, intense roleplaying scenes can still happen, but if we can find ways to include other players, it’ll be even better!

keep npc groups and plot impact small

Try to avoid casting or creating brand new elements of NPC groups, as they likely will never enter game. It can be tempting to make your character the “chosen one”, or to plot out an insidious plot about a new supervillain controlling the San Saba that only you can stop. However, we already have a panoply of casted characters, factions, and NPCs in our setting. Unless it’s a minor part, we are unlikely to use your Background character as our story arc in game. These are stories we’d rather tell on a larger scale, and stories we want to tell in game, not in a backstory that only a few people read. Give us the inspirations, but let us set the stage!

imbue the character with intense desire

What motivates your character to keep going? The wastelands are a cruel and harsh place to live, and you need a reason not to just curl up and let the zed eat you. Why do you wake up each day? What do you hope to accomplish? Do you have a long-term goal you want to see happen in game? It can be as easy as “I want to establish a new bar in town” or a harder challenge like “I want to collect every Blueprint that exists”. When you have these kinds of motivations, it makes finding story connections for plot requests MUCH easier. Pick a goal you can complete in game, and it’ll provide direction for those slow moments when the NPCs and zombies are elsewhere.

dig deep into the source of their strengths

What is unique about your character? What are they good at? It’s okay to be the hero of your story, so let us know what you want to be known for. Find the formative — what past events in life shaped their outlook, persona, goals, fears, and desires. Reveal the key drives that drive your character emotionally and psychologically. Are they best researcher in Waking on blood-borne disease in the San Saba? Are they the fastest driver in the Dune Sea, completing the Essex Classic in 12 parsecs… I mean, hours? Let us know what stories you want to see, and the ways you want to excel!

bedevil your character with conflict

Conflict makes for drama, and drama makes for a good story. Sure, you can live an idyllic life before coming to Bravado, but how can we push your buttons? What element of the past is unresolved? Do you have an old flame that you left long ago and you regret not telling them about you feelings before you left? Have you compromised yourself by signing a contract with a powerful villain? Give us some plot hooks we can use to create drama, and it’ll make the story that much better.

a character can be a joke, but a joke is never a character

This is based on some advice from Sam Mars, but it still rings true today. It can be tempting to make a funny character. Humor can be a great element of a story, and we have some really funny people that play our game. “Wouldn’t it be funny if?” is a common phrase we hear about new character concepts. However, while a character can be the laughing stock of the town, it can’t be the ONLY THING you know about them. If they only exist for a joke, it’s not a character — it’s an NPC. You can plan to be funny, and still include a realistic background for your character. You might be the sleazy Vegasian everyone loves to hate, but you still need motivations, hopes, and dreams. The more interesting and multi-dimensional your character is, the better the humor will be, I promise. A character needs to be more than a joke.

Draw inspiration from real life

Writing a believable character backstory can be difficult. That’s why it’s helpful to draw inspiration from real life. Think about the way you recount formative events in your own life. Pay attention to the way your friends and loved ones tell stories. Read biographies of celebrities, politicians, or historical figures to understand the important episodes that shaped their lives. Using details like this can make your character’s backstory seem all the more authentic and genuine.

Keep in mind Genre

While you can always take inspiration from your favorite movie or book, it’s important not to just make a carbon copy with your story. The HERO’S JOURNEY is iconic for a reason, but you don’t have to copy beat for beat the story of Luke Skywalker as a Telling Visionary, using a ‘psionic sword’ to defeat his foes. That Mad Max copy may be a neat inspiration for a place to start for a DJ, but maybe you can decide on a better name than “Immortan Joe”. That favorite D&D character, or Sci-Fi trooper doesn’t fit into our setting. If your concept doesn’t really work in the world of Dystopia Rising. we will work with you to change and mold your story into something more appropriate.

Be flexible

We get a LOT of background submissions and plot requests each game. Be patient, and we will strive to let our ST team know about your story request. However, if a part of your background story doesn’t work within our setting, we will reach out to you to workshop some changes to the story. If it’s been a few months since your Plot Request was submitted and you haven’t heard anything yet, feel free to submit it again or ask for help in making it better!

The Most important rule

The last piece of advice on a better backstory is probably the most important. The first step of getting a character background included in game is writing a backstory submission, sure. But the most important part is to make sure that YOU bring it up in game.

In writing, “show, don’t tell” is a writing technique in which a character’s personal history is revealed through actions, sensory details, or emotions. In other words, the author attempts to “show you” what happened rather than simply telling you what happened. In a live action roleplaying game, you are the single person with the most influence on SHOWING what your backstory is like through your actions. And you do that by talking about it.

TALK ABOUT YOUR BACK STORY IN GAME!

Tell stories about yourself in character.

Answer questions from other characters or NPCs about your past.

Talk to other characters about THEIR backstories.

Mention in a conversation that this weekend’s events remind you of that time back home. Ask a friend about their family. Ask the name of that new NPC that looks vaguely familiar. Write a letter to your long lost love and send it through the Post Office. But most importantly, BRING IT UP!

The way your story becomes real is through actions in game. If you never talk about your history, you might as well not have even bothered with writing down the details. Revealing your main character’s past life through tangible details and scenes in game can help other players gain insight into your character’s background without relying on the STs or a Plot Request.

And even if you don’t have the CAPs to submit a Personal Plot Request yet, you still have the power to make your story become a part of our setting by your in-game actions.

an example Backstory

Let’s look at an example of a better background submission, using my former character from 2.0 Doc Tolin Creed as an example. Doc Creed was one of the “Brave 21” that stayed behind to stop the stampede during the Hiway War, and was killed in the nuclear blast that stopped Hiway Robb.

A portrait I commissioned of this character from Anastasia Mars, that was featured in the DR sourcebook Embers of the Irradiated West.

• Character is named Doc Creed, and he is an Accensorite.

• Creed worked as doctor in small town in the San Saba called the Three Rivers, on the outskirts of Widow’s Peak where he once lived with his wife Rebecca and his daughter Hope. He is a master of the medical arts, and skilled at saving lives.

• A zombie horde overran their town, and he was separated from his wife and daughter. He’s traveling to Essex to find out if any survivors made it there. He doesn’t know if they made it out alive, but he is quickly losing hope and fears the worst.

• He blames a Red Star cell for what happened to his town, as a group traveled through shortly before the zombie horde arrived. He finds it challenging to trust any Red Star, even if they are unconnected with this tragedy. He always suspects a conspiracy of their involvement.

• The true agent that caused the zombie horde was an insane psion that was being tracked by a foul undead menace. Doc Creed unwittingly provided a place to stay over night before the attack for the psion and doesn’t realize that this villain was responsible.

• He made friends with a group of Texicans called the McBrides on the way to Essex, and helped save their leader, Stacey McBride. He agreed to help their group as a doctor as they made their way to the town of Bravado.

• He is a devout member of the Nuclear Family faith, and is a little overzealous at times — even inventing stories or adapting historical events about his time in the wastes to create convenient faith lessons. He fills the role of a Coach, and thinks of himself as a “Father” for his friends, and his town.

• He is now a contracted member of Patchwork Incorporated, and is looking to establish a new medical clinic in town using their resources.

• He believes strongly in the mantra of “do work, get paid”, and wants to help encourage people to compensate their medical professionals.

This is a pretty basic example, but even in this brief one-page summary I’ve answered a few questions about the character, while leaving many options still wide open. This is a simple, quick background that still gives a lot of story options for our STs.

For instance, we have a few dangling plot threads in what really happened to his family, a possible antagonist in a crazy psion that attracted the horde, and even some conflict with a Red Star cell that could create some intense roleplay opportunities. We know that he has joined a group of players, and has an in-game tie with Stacey McBride, and that he’s joined a medical society membership. We know he’s a doctor, a member of the Nuclear Family faith, and he’s working to establish a medical clinic. Each of these connections gives us a good place to start a story, or to create ways to submit a Personal Plot Request for this character.

So, try to apply the best practices I’ve mentioned above, and I’m eager to see what backstories you submit!

wrap up

That’s it for this week Vados! Remember, ticket sales end Friday at midnight so don’t miss out! Next time, we will discuss some specific rules that you might need to know before you start your COLLECTION DAY!

Here are a few of the links I reference during this article:

links:

• Building a Backstory - YouTube

• 5 Steps to Writing an RPG Character Backstory

• How to Write a Killer Backstory

• How to Write Compelling Character Backstories

DR:TX Sinker Summer Extra Special July event!

(this WAS OUR APRIL FOOLS JOKE FOR 2022. SORRY!)

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It’s a special Sinker Summer

For years the androgynous anchor of the Junkerpunk flotilla has been a mainstay of our maritime plot. From the weighty ballast of the Muddy Water Accords to the creaking construction of the Drywater docks, Admiral Sinker Swim’s tide has continually risen, and lifted with it those seaworthy Junkerpunks who have been willing to cast off the lines of societal obligation and live their lives wholly married to the sea.

It should be acknowledged though, that for every grog-soaked sailor who floats in their wake, there are equally as many jettisoned landsmen sunk by their acerbic tongue who litter the metaphorical shores of Bravado like so much flotsam swept up on shore. The citizens of the San Saba as a whole are woefully under-educated in the skills of swimming, sailing, and underwater salvage, and this disgusts our dear Admiral more than gull-poop in their rum (which at least has some brine-y character and flavor).

So now at the start of April, the teal-tressed terror of the waterways has come to Bravado with an offer! To celebrate the GRAND OPENING of the Redfield Boatel and Spa when the Burning Season descends, those who wish to improve their seafaring skills are invited to a special event we’re calling SINKER SUMMER.

This one day event will take place this summer through a partnership between DR:Texas and Schlitterbahn Waterparks and Resort in New Braunfels, Texas. Your Storytelling Senate is already coming up with a sensational list of custom content for this special event!

“Fuck yeah, look at my fish.”

Things you should know:

• To register, you must find Sinker Swim in character and utter the words “I wanna ride your slippery slide!” You will then be given additional information on what your character must do to attend. (NOTE: this may count as a CVC action depending on inflection. Tread carefully.)

• All ranged weapons must be water guns and you must maintain contact for at least one second to cause the usual 5 damage.

• The Lazy River counts as a trophy room and you regain mind for every 30 minutes roleplaying drifting along its comforting currents.

• Sailing Mods will be done hourly in the Kidzone Pirate Ship. If your character is a Bluejacket or has Master Sailing they are welcome to help run these mods. Contact info@dystopiarisingtx.com to indicate interest.

• Our very own Shan Lind will be doing a Cicatrix blackbox Grave Mind scene for anyone who dies during this event. It will be held at the bottom of the diving pool. Scuba equipment recommended but not required.

• We will give CAPs to anyone who creates and wears an in-character genre swimsuit.

• Because this is a shorter event, NPC shifts will be one hour only and will be spent standing in line holding places for your fellow players, fetching refreshments, applying sunscreen, and helping to push them down the water slides.

• Special GUEST STAR: Nemesis Davy Jones! It took a lot of wrangling, but we got one of the stunt doubles from the beloved Pirates of the Caribbean film series to stand in in full costume! While it won’t be Bill Nighy in person, we think you’ll still be impressed! If he catches you and says “part of the ship, part of the crew 1, part of the ship, part of the crew 2..” then you have to accompany him around attacking your friends.

  • Please do not shoot our guest star with water guns. The makeup and prosthetic budget is very expensive, and we want everyone to enjoy the show!

“That’s a big Leviathan…”

Dates are being finalized and will be announced soon!

Stay tuna-ed!

PFA Requests and Player Teachers

It’s Jonathan here with a quick DR:TX rules update for my Rules Ramble this week!

We are introducing some changes to how we handle PFA Requests at DR:TX, and we want to share them with you here. We will have two different ways of learning a Profession Focus Achievement (PFA) going forward — ST-Driven PFA Requests and Player-Driven PFA Requests. This means that you no longer have to wait for a ST to write a story for your next PFA, but can have another PLAYER teach you the PFA instead!

TL;DR: You can learn a PFA from a player teacher, with at least ONE HOUR of roleplay. yOU STILL GOTTA ENTER A Pfa REQUEST ON THE WEBSITE.

Let’s look at what that means for you.

Wait, what is a PFA?

PFAs, or Profession Focus Achievements are found on p. 143 in the DR Corebook. These are thematic “titles” that you add your character sheet once you have unlocked at least a Proficient-tier Skill. For instance, once you have Proficient Medical, you can qualify to buy the Graverobber PFA. While these titles do nothing by themselves, they unlock new abilities of Master-tier crafted items and procedures. PFAs are occasionally used in Research, Zones of Mechanics, and Faction Items in the DR:TX game.

If you have the right PFA, you can use certain equipment and procedures in some new and powerful ways, though these generally cost around 20 mind or 1 Resolve to use (or both!). That means you’ll be limited to how many times in a game or 12s you can use them, especially if you don’t have a lot of Mind. Not every piece of equipment has a PFA ability, and not every PFA ability is directly related to the Skill that is needed for that equipment. For instance, you might have a Firearm like the Slappi Revolver that has a PFA ability that uses Combat Tactics instead of the Projectile Skill.

when can I buy a PFA?

You can purchase your first PFA after you have spent 100 XP total on a character, but there is a 6-month “cool down” until you can buy your next PFA after that. This means you can effectively only get two PFAs a year, unless you have a National or Premiere event that allows more. Each PFA costs 10 XP to learn, but there is no limit to how many PFAs you can have as long as you have the qualifying Skills (I mean, I guess the limit is 40, since that’s the total number of PFAs…).

This means that most folks can earn their first PFA on your 13th home event played, even if you don’t buy extra XP. Bravado folks can expect to hit this point sometime during their second season, but if you purchase extra XP each game you can unlock this after only NINE home games.

PFAs are definitely something you have some time to decide on when you first start, so there’s no real rush for new players to worry about this right away. I’ve found it real helpful to read over various blueprints and talk with your friends in game about what PFA might be right for you. As additional blueprints come out, you might even see some different PFAs become more useful.

Why are we making this change?

First, this echoes a change we made to Personal Plot Requests a few months ago. We’ve had a lot of requests for PFAs recently, so we want to still make sure that our STs can help write a story that inspires them and sparks their creativity. This change allows us to make sure that everyone has a chance to get a ST-Driven PFA Request that wants one, while allowing those that want the benefits faster to have a different option.

Secondly, PFAs do nothing by themselves from a mechanical perspective and there’s no real reason to gatekeep them. You must build equipment in game for them to have any function, and that requires scrap, herb, blueprints, or Brass. That 10 XP you spent on a PFA could have been spent on Body, Mind, or another Skill. It’s a choice that’s just as balanced as any other when building a character.

Lastly, we’ve also had a lot of folks request PFA mods requesting specific characters with that PFA to be involved, so we’d like to lean into that a bit more. Since adding PFAs to your sheet functions much like Skills in practice, we’d like to use a resource that we already enjoy — the player interaction of in-character teaching.

what does the book actually require?

This new process for DR:TX will still comply with the DR Corebook, starting on p. 144. The book requires a few specific things:

• The player must enter a Plot Request with their local branch (that’s us!)

• They must have at least 100 XP spent on their character.

• They must have the related Skill at Proficient-tier or higher.

• They must have 10 XP to spend to learn the PFA.

• They must not have purchased a PFA within the last 6 months.

• The PFA scene takes place over a “number” of months (that number can be, and usually is 1).

That’s it.

PFA Requests are no longer like the Advanced Profession Trials of 2.0, and the impact they have on the game is much smaller. This doesn’t have to be a grueling process you can fail, or something that takes several months. There are no fancy Item Cards, and it’s not something that requires a Director to be in charge of controlling access to it. It’s about the story, not proving something.

This plot request is not intended to determine if a character is”worthy” of a Profession Focus Achievement; instead, it’s a way to provide story to make the adding of a Profession Focus Achievement more enjoyable. (p. 144, DR Corebook)

So let’s look at the two ways to learn a PFA during a DR:TX game.

Player-Driven PFA Requests

This new option will allow a character to LEARN the new PFA from an existing character with that PFA, much like learning a Skill. This does NOT replace the other method to request a PFA, but simply adds another option.

Let’s go through what this requires:

1. Find another player in game with that PFA, and let them know you want them as a teacher. Work together to decide on a story for the teaching process.

2. The player that wants to learn a PFA selects the “PFA from a fellow Player” on our Personal Plot Request page. The goal is to still involve staff in the request, both so we can make sure we follow the rulebook, but really so we can make sure it is scheduled in a timely manner (and that your player teacher will be at the next game, for instance).

   • You can also send an email to info@dystopiarisingtx.com!

3. The minimum time to “learn” this PFA is ONE HOUR in game. This process should be unique to both the PFA and the players involved in the teaching and learning process. This can be as exactly as involved or as minimalistic as you want.

4. This time can be broken up and does not need to happen at once, and you can use other Skills while learning (See the “Teaching a Character” rules on p. 98). It can take longer if you want, so we encourage you to lean into it. If you decide it should take three games to learn Graverobber, we won’t stop you!

5. After you are done, include the teacher’s Player Number in the column on the right hand side of your character sheet that you use for new Skills.

6. Once you’ve completed the story of your training, or that one hour, you’ll have access to the PFA for use immediately in game.

7. After the game, submit a comment about your experience in Event Feedback, and we will nominate your teacher for CAPS or a Community Achievement if they did a particularly great job.

The goal of the Player-Driven PFA Request is to make the experience feel special to the teacher AND student. You will have no ST resources or NPC help, so we want to make sure this a fun scene for everyone involved.

You do not need staff permission to plan your own scenes among friends or to say that something fun and exciting (or traumatic and dramatic!) happened off screen to your character.

ST-Driven PFA requests

So maybe a player teaching a PFA doesn’t appeal to you, or maybe you’ve picked that one PFA that NO ONE has in Bravado. Maybe you just don’t want the one player with that PFA to be the teacher, and there’s no other choices. Maybe you had your heart set on a personal mod. That’s perfectly fine.

An ST-Driven PFA Request will continue to function EXACTLY how it did previously. This is a great way to acquire an NPC teacher for a rare PFA, or capture the feeling of those old "Advanced Profession Trials” of 2.0. Remember, the goal of these requests is not to prove if you are “worthy”, but just to tell a good story.

1. Enter a Personal Plot Request, and choose the option for “PFA from an ST”.

2. This request will be normally fulfilled within the next 1-3 games, depending on our ST resources and availability.

3. This request itself will take place over ONE game as a mod run by an ST or Guide, and at the end of the mod you will earn access to the PFA.

4. The exact description and content of this mod will be determined by the ST that chooses to write the mod. It could be as simple as a Zone of Mechanics, or it could involve a face NPC with an elaborate scene, but we will strive to work with you to craft a cool, memorable story.

5. If your request is not picked after 3 games, you can resubmit your request. Your Gamerunners and STs can even work with you to help tailor the next request to make it more achievable.

Generally, when we are planning out our next game, the Storytelling Senate chooses from the list of plot requests those stories that speak to them and spark their creativity. We work our way down the list, so it may be a few games before we get to you. We’re looking for compelling stories that fit well into our setting and sometimes a story is just hard to translate to compelling mods and NPC interactions.

We reserve the right not to schedule personal plot for events where the requestee’s attendance is in question, so please pre-register, and contact us if you have a pending request and won’t be attending!

One final note — If a participant is given a corrective action beyond a verbal warning, they will lose access to all of their Profession Focus Achievements during the duration of that corrective action! (p. 144).

Wrap up

That’s it for today! We have two more Rules Rambles before our next game, so next week I’m going to talk a bit more about Personal Plot Requests. Since we’ve updated the process for PFAs, the advice I can offer will be useful on those requests as well!

Make sure you get your advanced tickets to our next event, COLLECTION DAY!!!! It’s going to be an event to remember!