Culinary 101

EDIT: When I first POSTED THIS BLOG, I MADE AN ASSUMPTION BASED ON THE RULES AS WRITTEN. I WAS WRONG. tHIS POST HAS BEEN CORRECTED.

PER Kyle, CULINARY is +20 MIN PER CRAFTING LEVEL. the blueprint overrules the rulebook in this case. I’m sorry for any confusion - Jonathan

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It’s time for our first Summer Break Edition of the Rules Ramble with Jonathan! Each month, 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 a bit of things concerning ONE particular skill: CULINARY, aka crafting BREWS and MEALS. This can be a particularly confusing skill, and I’ll try to clear up some of that confusion for you today.

I’m going to spend a bit explaining some context of major rules changes that happened last year, so that you can understand what I believe is the heart of the confusion for most folks. After this, I’ll continue my normal rules deep dive, but I think the history is important to the story here..

APPLICATIONS FOR DR:TX STAFF CLOSE TODAY, 6/15! GO DO THE THING AND APPLY TO JOIN OUR TEAM!

• DR:TX Team Application

• Types of Guides

Photo credits in this post are from Harlow Ulmer, Lainey Weiss, Sydney Betzina, and Earlena Soukup.

Culinary and the “Great Correction”

First, let’s talk about the Elephant in the Room for some of our older players. If you are a newer player, you can skip this section and go down to the CULINARY 101 part below.

You aren’t imagining things, Culinary really did work that way you thought it did.

For awhile, at least.

When 3.0 first started, CULINARY worked very similarly to how ARTISAN functions, in live play. Each level was ADDITIVE, and you could even increase the level of an existing Brew. We ran FIVE games of our 1st season in 3.0 using the rules in this way, before the pandemic stopped live games in Texas.

We even had rules in the Post Office for how you had to turn in the old cards to upgrade to a new level, and our Logistics Guides can tell you horror stories of writing dozens of new Brew cards when someone would upgrade a stack of Intoxication Brews.

(Sorry, I really needed that Hooch for my flamethrower…)

Funny thing is, that’s NOT how it was written in the book.

The CULINARY skill in the rulebook hasn’t changed much since the very first digital edition after the Kickstarter that began 3.0. (I may be the weirdo that saved every PDF update posted to DriveThruRPG in a separate file to track stealth changes between the various updates and editions…)

That’s right.

The book did NOT change at all on this skill. The only thing that changed was that the text gained a slightly darker color to make the contrast stand out more for printing. Check it out:

From an edition prior to the Blueprint Change, and the Current Edition that is in print now.

Unlike the Artisan skill, each instance of Culinary in the book never mentions anything at all about upgrading brews, or costing more Mind points per level. Compare this to the section on Proficient Artisan, on page 119:

Artisan clearly mentions the rules for upgrading an item within the DR Corebook. It details how to take an item from Basic to Proficient, and even includes rules for making an item from scratch by combining levels. But nothing like this is in the Culinary skill, and actually never has been.

The book never changed the rules for how Culinary worked.

BLUEPRINTS did.

When the Blueprint Catalog first came out at the start of 3.0 along with the first round of prints, Culinary prints were printed in the same way as Artisan prints. Each level was ADDITIVE, there were clearly plus signs by the mind costs, and most folks interpreted the skill this way. After all, the Culinary prints looked identical to the Artisan prints, so why would they not work the same way?

However, last year we released a big update to the Blueprints, on September 23, 2021.

This update was the one that changed base damage values of weapons, updated a bunch of Artisan prints, and effectively CHANGED how Culinary blueprints functioned to match what was listed in the book. You can see an example below:

The blueprints changed during the Blueprint Update at the restart of live play, in a release on 9/23/21.

You could probably blame a few things for this misunderstanding. I’ve got some theories, but that really isn’t relevant for this blog post. But it’s clear that at some point, someone assumed that Culinary items would work the same as Artisan items and never really checked the book.

Regardless, the actual physical blueprints of the first season of 3.0 worked differently than how the new blueprints work now, and I think this is the heart of most confusion regarding CULINARY.

In a sense we have a bunch of different culture clashes happening, and people remembering different things about how Culinary works:

• players from 2.0 remembering how Prepare Meal and Brewing worked

• a bunch of players that played our first season of 3.0 with ADDITIVE Culinary prints

• new players that came in after the Great Blueprint Change of September 2021

• Anyone that has attempted to decipher the newly changed Culinary blueprints

So, understanding that it’s easy to be confused when it comes to this skill, let’s get into the part you are actually here for: how the rules work.

Culinary 101

(for real this time)

Let’s start out with the obvious: CULINARY is one of two CRAFTING SKILLS in Dystopia Rising, alongside ARTISAN. Crafting skills use BLUEPRINTS to create new items in game, and are one of the primary economic skills in the game. Blueprints allow you to use your hard earned Scrap and Herb to make CRAFTED EQUIPMENT, such as weapons, armors, brews, gizmos, and more.

Without Blueprints, Crafting skills don’t have much use. We might have the occasional Zone of Mechanics or plot effect that needs these skills, but the primary way you use the Skill is with Blueprints.

So, if you pick one of these skills you’ll want to find access to the most addictive side of the Econ game in DR… the humble blue sheet of paper known as a Blueprint.

The Basics of the Culinary skill

Culinary allows you to make items in the game from Culinary Blueprints, sometimes called RECIPES (in two places in the book, at least). Culinary Blueprints can create items like BREWS and MEALS, and these are very useful one-use items that can restore Mind points, restore Body, create interesting Roleplay effects, or even let you see into the Mortis Amaranthine.

The rules for Culinary are in a few different places in the book. Let’s start with the Basic rules of the Skill itself, from page 117 of the DR Corebook.

Basic Culinary: With this skill, an individual may craft items from blueprints that require the [Basic Culinary] skill. By spending [5 Mind points] and 20 minutes of Active Role-Play and Full Engagement in a culinary area, an individual may follow the prerequisites on the blueprint and craft the item on it. They can then turn in materials to the Public Works to receive a card for that item.

I’ve included the text from the book above, and the areas in the brackets are the only changes between each instance of the skill in the book. The skill itself doesn’t really tell you a lot about what it does, and the only real difference between the levels is the Mind cost, and the level (Basic, Proficient, Master) of the items you can make:

• Basic Culinary (p. 117)

  • 5 mind, can make Basic Culinary Items

• Proficient Culinary (p. 120)

  • 10 mind, can make Proficient Culinary Items

• Master Culinary (p. 122)

  • 15 mind, can make Master Culinary Items

Most of the magic of how you use the Culinary skill is on the Blueprint itself. But, before we discuss Blueprints, let’s look at some of the related rules mentioned in the Skill.

The Culinary skill mentions a few KEYWORDS, so let’s define those now:

• Active Role-Play (p. 102) - When you use this skill you must roleplay doing an activity and it should be visible what you are doing. A lot of folks will use some collection of bottles, liquids, or even prop stills and chemistry sets during their roleplay. You can even do real life cooking if you like, and some characters with the Skill will use that same time to make lunch or dinner for themselves or their friends. Whatever the activity, it should be obvious to anyone nearby that you are using the CULINARY skill.

• Full Engagement (p. 103) - This skill requires both hands to use, so you can’t prepare a meal or brew an Uncle Todd’s while you are wielding a weapon for instance. In addition, if you are INTERRUPTED (p. 104) while using the Skill, you lose ALL the Mind and ALL the resources you were using to make that item. Several things can INTERRUPT the use of the Culinary skill, including:

  • Using another Skill

    • This even includes defensive Skills like Avoid or Mental Endurance

  • Leaving the Culinary Area

  • Engaging in Combat

    • Since you are technically using a Weapon Skill when you swing a boffer…

  • Dropping into Bleed Out (p. 103)

  In general, if you are going to be crafting an item, make sure you have some friends to guard you, especially if you are in the Wasteland! It’s expensive if you get interrupted!

• Culinary Area (p. 174) - Culinary items can only be made at a specific place on the site known as a CRAFTING ZONE. In Bravado, we have two main CULINARY CRAFTING ZONES — one in the Wasteland area of the Dive (Hopi Pavilion), and a safer one in the Terminal Station Depot (the Cafeteria). There can be additional Crafting Zones set up by spending CAPS, but that’s a discussion for another day.

• Public Works (p. 105) - Also known in Bravado as the Post Office. Once you have completed the requisite amount of time roleplaying with a Blueprint in a Crafting Zone, you can go to the Post Office to collect the item card for the skill. In Bravado, the Post Office is located at the General Store (Kiva).

The Culinary Crafting Zone in the DIVE (Hopi Pavilion)

So, the basic cycle of Culinary crafting involves:

• A player takes a CULINARY BLUEPRINT to a CULINARY CRAFTING ZONE.

• They spend Mind points, and spend 20 minutes per level of the Item (20-60 minutes) of time ACTIVE ROLE PLAYING the process of making a meal or brew.

• They complete the task without being interrupted, as a FULL ENGAGEMENT activity.

• They take the combined of each level RESOURCES like Herb and Produce required on the BLUEPRINT to the POST OFFICE to get a new card.

There’s a bit of travel time involved in the crafting process as you have to physically walk between the Post Office and the Crafting Zone, but if you are a Crafter in Dystopia Rising you’ll become VERY familiar with this routine. It is possible to craft more than one thing at a time, but I’ll cover that in my next blog post.

Next, let’s consider the Culinary Blueprint, so you can understand a bit more about the Skill itself.

culinary blueprints: a Visual example

I’m going to do my best to explain a CORE CONCEPT when it comes to Culinary and use a time honored tool to do so: Paint 3D. This is one of the biggest points of confusion for Culinary, and I’ve found using visual aids helps best illustrate my point.

Let’s look at a common blueprint example - UNCLE TODD’S HEALING BREW. This is a popular healing brew because it can be used by anyone, no matter your Lineage. It’s cheap enough to make, and it can save your friend who is dying when a doctor isn’t close by.

So this Blueprint has a number of similarities with other Artisan Blueprints. It tells you which Skill is needed to make the item, where you can make it, if the item has any special requirement like a physical bottle to represent the brew, tells you how long it lasts with an Expiration Date, and includes the important Keywords. It even tells you how to make a COPY of this blueprint at the bottom of the page.

Here’s the key difference:

Unlike Artisan Blueprints, which make items like weapons and gizmos that can be improved and upgraded after they’ve been created, Culinary Blueprints are actually THREE separate uses of the Skill on ONE page.

Imagine the Culinary Blueprint split into three different “mini-blueprints”:

You create EACH LEVEL of a Culinary Blueprint as a separate item.

You cannot currently upgrade a Brew or Meal that has already been created. Instead, you have to make it at the correct level when you START using the skill. So, if you want a Proficient Brew from the Blueprint, you have to make it as a Proficient Brew when you begin.

In this blueprint, when I sit down to craft a Brew I can choose one of THREE options:

• With Basic Culinary, I can make a single Uncle Todd’s Serum (Basic).

• With Proficient Culinary, I can instead make a single Uncle Todd’s Elixir (Proficient).

• With Master Culinary, I can instead make a single Uncle Todd’s Tincture (Master).

The next challenge and confusion on this comes from the MATERIAL COST and TIME. This part is a little confusing because ONLY TWO parts of the Culinary Blueprint use ADDITION. Like above, I’ll try to explain this concept visually, as it’s important to understand:

Time and Resources STACK at each level

When each item is crafted as a separate “mini-blueprint”, the cost of herbs and scrap in the RESOURCES section AND the TIME in the are ADDED together for each higher level of the item you are making.

In this Uncle Todd’s blueprint example, when I sit down to craft a Brew I can choose one of THREE options, and I’ll have to pay the following COSTS to make the item:

• With Basic Culinary, I can make a single Uncle Todd’s Serum (Basic).

  • Spend 5 mind, 20 minutes

  • Spend 2 Basic Herb

• With Proficient Culinary, I can instead make a single Uncle Todd’s Elixir (Proficient).

  • Spend 10 mind, 40 minutes

  • Spend 2 Basic Herb, 2 Uncommon Herb

• With Master Culinary, I can instead make a single Uncle Todd’s Tincture (Master).

  • Spend 15 mind, 60 minutes

  • Spend 4 Basic Herb, 3 Uncommon Herb, 2 Rare Herb.

Culinary items can be VERY efficient to make.

Unlike Artisan blueprints, each time you craft a Brew or Meal you are spending the same amount of Mind points to make an item, regardless of the level of the item you are making. The Mind cost stays the same — it’s based ONLY on the level of item you are making (5/10/15). That means a Master-tier Brew only costs 15 mind to make, while a Master-tier Artisan item costs 30 mind to create (5+10+15)!

In a perfect world, all of this would be much more obvious on the blueprint itself, but there are LOT of Culinary Blueprints to edit. Editing the blueprints in this way would be a phenomenal amount of effort, and unfortunately I’m not that skilled at Illustrator. Regardless, this skill continues to mystify and confuse people, and I believe it’s largely because the Blueprints can be challenging to read.

So, let’s next talk about the types of Blueprints and types of Culinary items.

types of Culinary Blueprints

Culinary Blueprints (p. 172) can make several different types of items. In fact, Culinary prints represent a large portion of all the available prints in the game, as there are so many different options to make.

Each type of Culinary Blueprint that makes a Brew or Meal generally has TWO types of prints you can find in game:

• A Generic version, that any character can use.

• A Lineage-specific version, that only a character of that particular Lineage can use.

That means most categories of Culinary items have NINE different blueprints! One generic Blueprint, and EIGHT Blueprints for each Lineage in the game. Each blueprint is still the same basic type of item, it just determines which character benefits most from using them.

Generally, Lineage-specific items will be a bit more expensive to make, but the item will have a much greater effect in game. It might heal more, restore more Mind, create more servings, or even last longer. Restorative Lineage items are also the most efficient to craft when it comes to resources, as they can even restore MORE Mind than you would spend making it!

Every Culinary Item is a SINGLE USE item. This means that once you’ve used the last serving, you can rip up the card and throw it away. Once it’s used, it’s gone!

There are also several Keywords that refer to how you use or consume an item. You can find a complete list of the Keywords starting on p. 175, and you can find additional item keywords on the DR Lexicon page.

There are several types of Culinary Blueprints you can find in game:

• Culinary Crafting components

  • These blueprints make items used in other Blueprints. By themselves, they have no real mechanical effect but they are often used as a MATERIAL COST in other Artisan blueprints or Procedures.

• Culinary Procedures

  • These are blueprints that can be used with the Culinary Skill or other Skills to modify other items or create unique effects. They can let you extend the duration of a Meal card, add additional effects to a Meal, enhance someone’s use of the Hunting Skill, or even pull Crystal Candy from the brain of an unfortunate psion!

• Non Mechanical Brews & Meals

  • These are items that have no mechanical effect like healing or mind restoration, but still count as a Brew or Meal for certain plot effects. You can also use these items to sell in-game food or drinks to other players.

• Brews

  • Health Brews - These brews will restore Body when consumed. Who needs a doctor when you got a liquid pick-me-up?

  • Mind Brews - These brews restore Mind points when consumed. Great for a long fight, or restoring enough Mind to use a few more Skills..

  • Hallucinogen Brews - These are primarily a ROLE PLAY brew, providing a mechanical Hallucinating effect. While higher levels can have other effects, the primary reason for these brews is to allow you to role play using a hallucinogenic drug.

  • Intoxication Brews - These are popular ROLE PLAY brews, giving you a mechanical Intoxicated effect. These are also used in most Artisan prints that need HOOCH or fuel of some kind, like vehicles, Doctor’s Bags or FLAMETHROWERS.

  • Injected Brews - These are expensive, but incredibly useful Brews that can even be used while in Bleed Out. Literally a LIFE SAVER.

  • Death Brews - These are unique brews that allow you to observe someone else’s Grave Mind scene, similar to the Skill Necrokinetics. However, unlike the skill, higher craft level brews can even let you interact with the scene (with the consent of the deceased). There are no Generic Death Brews — you gotta use a Lineage-specific one.

  • Poison Brews - There are two types of Poisons - Applied and Ingested. Ingested poisons have to be consumed by your victim, so you better have them Subdued or trick them. Applied poisons are normally coated on a weapon to deliver a powerful effect on your next swing.

• Meals

  • Health Meals - Meals that restore Body. There’s really not a lot to these. Simple, efficient healing in a pinch when you can’t find a doctor.

  • Mind Meals - Meals that restore Mind. This is probably one of the most efficient ways to regain Mind points in between the 12s.

That’s a LOT of blueprints to collect. That’s NINETY-EIGHT different Culinary Blueprints to find or trade with other characters. Gotta catch ‘em all!

Types of Culinary Item Cards

There are THREE main types of item cards that can be produced with a Culinary Blueprint: BREWS, MEALS, and INJECTIONS (p. 169). Culinary Crafting Component Blueprints are the one exception, as they make Single-Use Gizmos instead.

Brews

Brews are one of the most common types of Culinary Blueprints. They generally last 6 months, and have many different types of effects. Brews cannot be used when you are in Bleed Out unless someone else gives you the Brew. This means they are excellent for saving another character, but you’ll need help to survive that Raider attack if all you have is a Brew on you.

IMPORTANT NOTE: There are currently NO Brew items in play that require less than ONE MINUTE to use. The book mentions a minimum of 10 seconds to use a Brew, but there is no Blueprint in the game at the moment that activates that fast. Sorry!

Meals

Meals are very powerful items that provide some of the MOST efficient healing or Mind restoration in the game. Each time you make a Meal, you generally produce THREE different servings. For the single cost of Mind, Herb, and Produce, you can help out three of your friends (or save all three Meals for yourself). However, they come with a BIG drawback — each Meal only lasts until the END OF THE EVENT. There are some items and Procedures that can extend this expiration time, add effects, or create more servings, but I’ll cover that in my next blog post.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Meals USED to last longer than a single event before September 2021. It’s possible you might see a few of the “legacy” items that last longer in play but most of those will be expired by time we see our next live event in DR:TX.

Injections

Injections are essential and popular items, but often are very costly to make. These are a technically a type of Brew, but they always get written on a unique Injection card instead of a Brew/Meal card. Injections are healing brews that can be used EVEN WHEN IN BLEED OUT. That’s right, you can use the item to save yourself, even if you are stuck far from your friends or caught alone on the lake path by Hunters. However, Injections always cost RESOLVE to use, so they can cause Fractures or become unusable if you try to take one when you are already exhausted.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Since you cannot use Items that cost Resolve after you’ve expended your last point of Resolve, that means you can no longer gain a benefit from an Injection! Make sure to save that last point of Resolve to use your Injection!

The most important Non-Mechanical Brew is COFFEE!

wrap up

So that covers most of the basic interactions of the Culinary Skill you might see in game. I hope you’ve enjoyed this deep dive into a very confusing Skill. As you can see, it’s a unique Skill that has a bit of a complicated history. I hope my silly visual aids helped you better understand the important concepts, so let me know what you thought in the comments on Facebook or in our Discord.

I’ll have another installment on Culinary soon, as this post was getting a little too long. In my next post, I’ll talk about common Culinary items you should look out for, and some additional items and mechanics that change how Culinary works in game, and some best practices for using this Skill in the game. See you next time Vados!

The San Saba Snail Races - Part 1!

Don’t miss the LIVE RACE FOOTAGE starting around 5:40! (and the sound effects are pretty great too…)

Johnny Atom here! Standing in the pastoral fields of Widow’s Peak overlooking the holding pens where some of the finest, and largest, specimens of snail-kind are shuffling their pseudopods in excitement to take off! 

For those of you listening at home, I would like you to close your eyes and imagine the scene. Gleaming gastropods in every direction, each with their teams of drivers, feeders, medical support staff and guards, ready to brave the wastes in pursuit of the prestigious San Saba cup, and potentially, the Pentacle Crown!

This long-distance race is the first of its kind to be attempted in the San Saba, and while some of the elders of this Quiet Folk community are shaking their heads at the ruckus, I must say, some of these young people seem very keen indeed to get out and see the world atop the back of their shelled charges!

In a few minutes, the starting pistol will fire, and the first leg will begin! Each leg of this race awards its own trophy. Our team of titanic terrestrial mollusks will ooze their way around the San Saba Territories, from Widow’s Peak, to Waking, to Prudence Penitentiary, to the Clutch, then Essex, finally crossing the finish line in the town of Bravado! The racing team who comes in first in the most legs of the race will be awarded the shiny San Saba Cup. Should a single snail manage to sweep all five legs, (deeply ironic as they have no legs of their own), then we might even see someone walk away with the Pentacle Crown! 

Today begins the Longwalker Derby, the first leg of the Cup where our friends will glide their way from Widow’s Peak to the shining city of Waking to the northeast. Did you know that a properly fueled snail can move up to 10 miles a day? I didn’t! Did you know that many snails are carnivorous? I did. Found that out the hard way… let’s just say a racing snail is a hungry snail… anyways! some of these contenders look like they might just set some new records!

And now, let’s introduce the teams competing in this leg of the race!

First up we have SNAILLOW HOPE, sponsored by the Fallow Hope of Bravado! This handsome fellow is painted with the Fallow Hope symbol on his army drab shell, and I gotta say, that paint job is handsome! It’s a bit far to pick it up, but there are quite a few well-armed folks in Snaillow Hope’s pen, chanting “Snaillow, snaillow, snaillow. Here comes the Fallow!” and I heard they even gave their snail a proper Fallow Hopes baptism to ensure that, should they encounter any hellfire in the course of this race, he will be properly protected!

Next on the starting line, with a fetching bright red shell painted with a white Ram’s silhouette is JUBMO SLUSSY. Fun fact, snails don’t have horns, those things on top of their heads are tentacles that provide sensory information! I am sure Jubmo can hear the chanting of their team “Ram… Guard! Ram… Guard! Ram… Guard! RAMGUARD!” I certainly can! 

Moving down the line we have THUNDER TAI- er….. DOUBLE T! Sponsored by the Shields of the Lonestar and wearing a star emblazoned on its blue shell, this energetic specimen seems to be doing a last minute feeding on some infectious material. I can’t believe they eat that stuff, but apparently herds of giant snails have been known to take down zed, and even raiders when hungry. Their fans are chanting “OooooOOOOOoooo Thunder!” but if I have to watch this thing eat in front of me I might have to change that to “Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuugh Thunder!” That’s a LOT of teeth and slurping!

Moving along before I lose my lunch, we have a snail so emblazoned in corporate sponsorship that you can barely see its shell! Ms. Felicity Redfield may have lost some of her infection, but she certainly hasn’t lost access to her pocketbook! Either way, SLIM MARGINS looks ready to zoom to the profit… er finish line with a flush of speed! You can almost hear the investors chanting “Return on Investment!” in its wake. 

Next up is a rather sinister looking snail, draped in black bunting. This is the hometown hero, the Lovelace Family’s very own champion who has been sweeping local races for the last few weeks. The WIDOWMAKER is fed solely on a diet of rare herbs and raw murdergoatdeer meat. Absolutely the betting favorite behind the barn, Widowmaker is set to make his owners a pile of brass, and even more in stud fees in the next breeding season! I asked some of the local Lovelace race attendees if there was a cheer for Widowmaker but they just stared at me… quietly… terrifying!

Finally we have… oh my gutmother is that an ENGINE strapped onto that snail? That is. Vados and Gentleman there is a full mastercrafted V8 engine and a massive rifle mounted onto this mollusk! There’s only one crew this snail could be sponsored by… yes… it’s TURBO SNAIL. I understand this snail has been baptized with the music of the road and if the giant 6 painted on its side is any indication, it can probably break most landspeed records. As the Road Royals say, “Turbo Snail is the best, Turbo Snail can beat the rest!”

Well and now we’re getting down to it, the race is about to begin! Looks like the Town Council of Widow’s Peak will be doing the honors here… Immacula stepping to the starting line as the snails slime their way into position. Gotta say, I’m glad it’s her holding that pistol and not Clauthia Lovelace to her right, I start sweating any time I see one of those veiled folks holding a weapon… and… 

SHOT FIRES

They’re off!.... 

…

Our front runners are about 3 feet from the starting line now and based on the side-eye some of those jockeys are giving each other it looks to be a real tense race! 

…

It’s really heating up out there folks… Slim Margins has made some tentacle gestures at Widowmaker that, ( I don’t speak snail), but which seem to be offensive. The jockey riding Double T just took out a picnic basket and seems to be settling in for a pleasant lunch up there. I’ll.. uh… report back when they get a little closer to Waking… 

Johnny Atom, signing off!

Rules Rambles during Summer

Hey there Vados! It’s Jonathan here with another Rules Ramble! Kinda. We are entering our Summer Break, so I want to cover some expectations for the Burning Season and a bit of peace of mind for myself over the break. I enjoy writing these as much as I know you enjoy reading them, so I’ll probably be compelled to share a thought or two with you over the summer, but it’s also a BREAK, so let’s talk about what that means for your friend Jonathan.

• TL;DR — Rules Rambles won’t be as frequent, but I’ll probably still publish some content to keep you interested.

Before I get into the main story, I wanted to explore a bit of history of Rules Rambles from the last year.

The Humble Beginnings

We’ve just completed our first live season, and my first season as the Operational ST for DR:TX. This also means I did an entire first season of RULES RAMBLES. My very first blog post as the Operational ST was on September 3, 2021, prior to our first game of Season 3. (Technically, I did this on a FRIDAY, but I eventually got into the habit of posting on Wednesday.) It was the first time using the name for my posts, and my first foray into Squarespace and website editing.

These posts were originally an idea to cover major rules changes and stuff that we could show to our players in advance of game. I had been covering a few changes made in 3.0 as new material released over the last year on Facebook (before I was the OST), but I figured we could use our website to keep a better repository of the content I was writing. I made the pitch to Shan & Aesa to get access to the webpage, and the Rules Rambles quickly became a regular feature on our website and Facebook feed.

I’ve been releasing about FOUR rambles a month this entire season (save for a missed week in October 2021 — it’s the only thing breaking my record dammit…), and it’s been a fun experience to take a few deep dives into the rules with y’all. Each time, I attempt to explain the rules in a bit more detail than the rule book allows. I try to focus on providing context for the rules, track down all the weird related stuff in the book or blueprints, and help you wrap your brain around some complicated and scattered rules with some common sense language.

Every week, I try to improve my process, and I’ve gotten arguably better (if a bit more verbose at times) about how I present the concept. We added funny or interesting photos as the thumbnail for the posts starting in late September. I’ve thrown in a few easter eggs via links for those that like clicking on all the hyperlinks. We’ve had a few guest writers as well, and a couple of essays from Shan & Aesa to boot.

I’ve also kinda of adapted a good system that helps appeal to the ADHD brain, by using different fonts, different headers, and strategic use of bold text and CAPITALS. There’s a really good article you can read about the concept, found here: Responsive Web Design, by Laura Franz. We’ve also inspired regular blog posts or been inspired by other blog posts from sister chapters as well, including Arkansas, New York, Florida, and more. Our marketing has steadily improved over this last season, and our plans for the future keep getting brighter.

So bright you’ll need shades!

The Rules Rambles have gotten into a bit of a cadence since we started, too. We try to cover at least one post before each game to preview and cover any rules of note to be interested in (generally on the week of game), and starting after October 2021, I started writing a GAME RECAP each month to cover major story points from each game as well. While these aren’t technically a Rules Ramble, they still kinda count. I even covered some non-rules topics, like Steering or even complicated rules topics in multi-part series like Damage Calls, Death, Disease, or CvC.

Turns out, y’all really like regular communication. Rules Rambles have even been some of our most viewed posts on our DR:TX Facebook PAGE! :)

Each week (generally on Tuesday nights, like when I’m writing this..), I work on a Rules Ramble for the next day and I always have a few ideas burning in my head, or a rules topic that’s on my mind recently. While I try to keep them focused on some relatable content, I also want to make sure I address some of the common areas of the game that need clarification, or particularly convoluted or complicated rules in the book. A few topics I have in mind to cover in the future include Crafting with Artisan and Culinary, how Augments work, how to use Salvage and Forage cards, TRAPS!, an eventual longer series on Economy in DR, and more.

With that in mind, that gets us to the point.

Rules Rambles Over the Summer

Since I normally write a Game Recap after each game and a Last Minute Rules post leading up to game, it seems like I will have a bit less of those to do as we enter into the Burning Season. I’m hard at work on a Game Recap for our final event, THE CICATRIX, but I expect to have that ready sometime next week, once our photos have gone live (though I’ve added a few sneak peeks into this post, by the talented Sydney Betzina…).

I’ll try to publish a few Rules Rambles over this summer, but I’m aiming to keep it to about ONE a month.

I’ll probably fail in this and write more than intended, but that’s kinda what I do. I have other hobbies outside of DR, too, including some summer time trips with my partner, Riva, and of course time for a bunch of puppies. I also enjoy painting and assembling models, and I have more than a few Tyranids and Marvel Crisis Protocol models to paint on my workbench, and there’s always gonna be time made for some board games this summer. I’ll probably catch up on a few video games, or just play a lot of Sea of Thieves. I might even find a way to hit up a water park like Schlitterbahn… it’s summer break, after all!

On the DR-side of things, I’m going to be working on a few projects aimed at new players, so if I release some stuff over the summer, it’ll likely be targeted at some core concepts that may be more familiar to those veteran players. We also have a LOT of planning as the Admin Team for our upcoming season. We do a lot of planning for the next season over the summer, and I’ve got a few other DR-related projects on the side that we are excited to show off soon too.

We will still have a few things to explore over the summer, and ways to engage with DR:TX though.

• Every two weeks, you can join along LIVE with our joint ST Meetings for the upcoming NATIONAL EVENT in October, alongside the DR:CT team on Tuesdays, on the Most Improbable Discord. This is a neat experience to get to listen into to a behind the scenes look at how we plan out our events, and get to goob with the original creators of Dystopia Rising.

• We kinda just fired our ST team. Every year, at the end of the season we give everyone a break on the ST team, and we hire a brand new team to start out the next season. We will have the applications for the new team for our FOURTH SEASON up soon, so we hope that new and old faces alike will consider joining our team. We are also improving and reorganizing a bit of how we structure our writing and development for games, so we can continue to provide great content to our players next season.

• Summer stories are coming! We had some HUGE events happen at the last game, and we want to continue the storyline over the summer. Just because we don’t have games scheduled over the summer doesn’t mean the NPCs and storylines stop. We might even experiment with some puzzles or even a bit of fiction if we feel so inspired.

• I have an idea to release a FULL ISSUE of The Wastelander, our in-game newspaper in Essex, based on a old paper started by Merp Tastic’s character Milo. I want to include silly comics or opinion pieces I might be able to collect, but y’all will have to let me know if you have enough interest in seeing that happen. I’ve enjoyed sharing a few teasers about story this way, and we will continue to find new ways to engage and excite players about our game.

• New Augment Blueprints are coming soon! I’ll probably write a bit about these, but I’ve got the blue fever, and it won’t stop over the summer.

• Summer is a great time to try out other games in the network! Several folks are going to attend HONOR’S FALL, the premiere event up in New York in August, and there are plenty of online game options available during the summer if you can’t get your fix with live Texas games.

That’s it for today, so I hope you enjoy your summer break! Stay hydrated, wear some sun screen, and let us know how you are updating your costumes on Facebook, Discord, or other social media platforms!

See you soon, Vados!

Rules for The Cicatrix

Hey there Vados! It’s Jonathan here with another Rules Ramble! This week we are going to cover updates for our game this weekend - THE CICATRIX. 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, including Death During a Morgue Crisis, The Stakeholder’s Meeting, and a few THREAT SKILLS that you might want to brush up on before the event.

Premise for “THE CICATRIX”

Let’s first look at the premise for the next event, a sneak peek into what is in store for our characters during the game:

The morgues in Bravado have stopped working. The dead have not returned for the better part of a month. Small shrines to the missing dot the long roads between settlements and the aberrant population reports that the wails of the dead, so often cacophonous in the psionically demented mind, are silent. 

Takheeta Firstborn has been killed, cut low at the penultimate moment of her triumph, and transfigured into a Gravemind Shard; a kind of semi sentient intelligence that occupies a greater portion of the gestalt that is the local “Gravemind” itself. Her death has made way for General Rampart, new leader of the Grave Council, to impart policy. But, in evoking the Cantankerous Matrix to heal the Morgues across the San Saba, instead the Grave Council has metastasized a fatal threat to the Lonestar, and the Infectious Cycle itself. Over the past several weeks, tumorous protrusions have formed like a layer of scar tissue, cutting off the exit for the newly returned from the Grave. 

Now, General Rampart has formulated a scheme to re-open the morgues across the Lonestar Wastes, not by punching through the thick layer of cutaneous tissue that has formed like a plug over every morgue the entire municipality over, but instead by treating the aberrance from the inside; by delving into the abyssal depths of the Mortis, through layers of skin and skein, to where the heart of the cancer pulses in darkness and filth.

In the midst of this emerging crisis, the politics of the San Saba Board still looms. The annual Stakeholder’s Meeting is scheduled for May, despite the threat of the broken morgues. During the Meeting, each of the contracted members of the various factions get to weigh in on the upcoming changes to the San Saba Charter, though some chafe against the law and protest the carnival of capitalism. Surrounded by machinations and manipulations, conspiracy and chicanery, wheeling and dealing, politics and persuasion. the leaders of the Board and their many plots stirs something dark beneath the ground.

Deep below New Bravado, and deeper still than the thin layer of biomass where the Gravemind, The Eightfold Mother supposedly lurks. Against resonant and bloodghast, recollection and reaver, the denizens of Bravado will need to combat the lurking memories that have pooled beneath the morgues like so much sump dump, and press upwards towards the surface until the scab breaks, and the biomass and blood may cleanly osmote between reality, and the Grave.

Hype Recap

We also had a few articles released from THE WASTELANDER, the premier newspaper of Essex, as well as multiple, amazing vignettes written by some of our talented STs.

• Obstruction of Justice, by Beau Lee

• Empty Hands, by Ed Sampson

We also had a recently announced GAUNTLET, featuring a bit of a contentious defendant:

We will also be enforcing our Local Rule of modified ARMOR COVERAGE rules to account for the extreme temperatures we expect to see this weekend:

Sounds like we are going to have a bit to deal with during the Finale, so let’s talk a two of the major things to consider for this game.

Death During a Morgue Crisis

During our last event, COLLECTION DAY, the final actions of Takheeta Firstborn achieved the unthinkable: a cure for the Plague that has wrecked the morgues. But in doing so, she has caused the morgues of the San Saba to scab over, a “cicatrix” that has healed a little too well.

Currently, EVERY morgue in Bravado is sealed with a thick scar tissue, preventing an exit from the Mortis Amaranthine. This prevents people from returning to life, as they are trapped in the NEAR DEATH, unable to escape. We even wrote a story about one such unfortunate soul in our hype.

The side of Takheeta’s ritual performed in April, the CROSSROADS, in the dead center of Bravado, has been cordoned off as part of the Grave Council’s efforts to try to fix the morgue. For this event, this new “morgue” will be the location that characters can emerge from, if the conditions are right. If this is made possible by in-game actions, I can assure you the escape from the morgue will be… messy.

What does this mean for your characters?

Without spoiling too much, if you die during the May event coming back from the closed-over Grave Mind will be… impossible. Starting on Friday night (Friday the 13th, if you are a TV that celebrates!), if you die in game you will NOT be able to return to play until they are able to find a way to try to fix the morgues of Bravado.

That’s right. For the moment, death is pretty damn final.

Your character will be stuck in the Mortis, compressed and twisted in with all the imprints of our survivors, zed, raiders, and more that were unable to escape. It’s a hellish existence, and you better hope your friends are able to find some way into the Mortis Amaranthine to try to retrieve you. It’s a good thing ya’ll didn’t do something like trap a terrible monster in the Grave Mind to share that same space with you.

If you die early, you will be able to switch to a different character or spend some time earning CAPS for extra NPC time. Either way, we recommend bringing an extra set of NPC clothes with you to Ops should your character get “stuck”, as we have gone all out on some extra goop, slime, and terrible things for you to deal with inside this new proto-morgue. You’ll be able to opt of the splatter if you want, don’t worry. For everyone else, I’d recommend a change of clothes.

Here’s a copy of the Zone of Mechanics that will be in play at the Crossroads at the start of the game, though this will get updated periodically throughout the weekend as the condition either worsens or improves.

As the weekend progresses and certain actions are taken, the process of returning from the Near Death will be made possible, but it will still remain incredibly taxing and difficult and it will have some… consequences. It’s up to you to determine if we can resolve this crisis before the end of the weekend, but I’m sure our RESEARCH folks are already on the task!

I even hear our friends up in the Sequoia Wastes have already sent a bit of help our way…

The Stakeholder’s Meeting

One of the side events of the upcoming game that I’m particularly proud of is the STAKEHOLDER’S MEETING. This is an annual event that we never got to explore when live games ended. It was always intended for one of the last games of the season, so now we get a chance to revisit the concept in the live game.

While the San Saba Board is tasked with day-to-day decisions, each year the Stakeholders of the various factions are given a chance to voice their interests in the Stakeholder’s Meeting. During this event, new laws can be considered for addition to the charter, new factions may seek entry to the Board, and major decisions can be weighed by the populace. Only those that hold a Contract may participate.

Let’s explore a bit how this will happen. I released a bit of a teaser on Monday on this, but I want to clarify some of the questions and make it very clear how the process will work.

Starting at game on, STAKEHOLDER’S BALLOTS will be available to pick up at the Post Office at the General Store. The Ballot will allow you to case your vote towards THREE big changes to the Laws of the San Saba that have been proposed by the Board. This all will be on a Zone of Mechanics at the Post Office and listed on the Stakeholder Ballots as well.

This is part of the actual ballot you’ll see in game.

• Each character with SOCIETY MEMBERSHIP in one of the EIGHT San Saba Factions will be able to cast ONE vote. That means if you have an Advanced Membership, each of your alternate characters can vote!

• Each vote cast counts for an amount based on your level of Society Membership. Basic Membership is 1 vote, Proficient Membership is 2 votes, and Master Membership is 5 votes.

• Each character chooses a FACTION they will represent, and their HIGHEST Society Membership to vote with.

  • This means if you have Basic RRC Membership and Master Grave Council Membership you can choose either faction you like, but your final vote will count for FIVE votes!

• Based on player feedback, there will even be a way for PLAYER Factions like the Ramguard, Road Royals, Rev Resupply, Lucky 7 or others to be formally recognized by the Board so that your Membership in those factions can count as well!

  • You can use the blank on the Ballot form to “write in” your local faction, but only those factions that complete the Zone of Mechanics will be able to count their votes. Player Faction votes will count as Basic Society Membership

I’ll be tabulating votes after the SIESTA, so make sure your vote is in before 2:00PM Saturday!

Ok, so now that you understand how to fill out the Ballot, what exactly are you voting on? There are THREE amendments being considered during this year’s meeting.

• Each of these laws can be voted on either YAY or NAY. If you don’t want the law to pass, choose NAY! If you want the law to pass, choose YAY! ヽ(^o^)ノ

• These laws will change the world of our game for the next season in measurable ways, so this is way for your player agency to really matter!

• Each law has a certain amount of support from the Board, and a certain amount of opposition. YOUR votes will determine which way they lean, and you can do RESEARCH in game or simply talk with the Board members in person to ask about where they stand. Some votes will be harder to overcome than others, particularly if they are popular with the people of the San Saba.

• The surviving members of the San Saba Board (poor Felicity) will be in town at 10:00 AM on Saturday to meet their constituents. They will leave that afternoon to cast their final votes from the opulent towers of Waking Prime sometime later (after I’ve finished counting the player votes).

• There will be a way to possibly ADD a new Law or Amendment to vote on provided you can complete a very challenging Zone of Mechanics task, but you gotta have someone with a MASTER SOCIETY MEMBERSHIP in a San Saba Faction to do this. Make sure you find out from your friends if someone is trying to work on this task, and there’s already several players that have planned on trying to make this happen. It’s going to be VERY difficult to complete, but if you don’t succeed, you’ll have some chances to make this easier next season.

Lastly, let’s look at some of the Skill Calls you might hear this weekend:

Threat Skills of Note

I’ll cover these during the opening announcements as well, but there are a few skills you might see on monsters and enemies to keep in mind for this next event.

drowning & DEEP WATER

If an area is marked as a DEEP WATER area, you might have to contend with the Drowning mechanic. We first introduced this during BEYOND THE HORIZON, but you might encounter this effect during the event.

Effect. The Drowning effect immediately drops you to 0 Body, regardless of what you had left, and you immediately enter Bleed Out. This condition is normally inflicted by Aquatic enemies, included in DARK WATER zone of mechanic effects, or the threat skill Dark Water Strike. The Saltwise strain and Full Dead strain are immune to this effect.

Stampede

Given that the Morgues have been closed for a little over a month, many of the zombies that normally plague the Lone Star have dwindled. Creatures that FEED on the Undead like Murder Goat Deer are now looking for new food sources… like YOU! A skill you might see on a certain horned critter might be useful to understand before the game:

Skill. Generally found amongst herd critters, the call of “All <Critter Type> Stampede!” causes all such critters within sound of voice to all charge in a single direction for up to 10 large steps. During these 10 large steps the critters affected by Stampede have up to 10 uses of “Takedown” as a skill during the 10 steps that can be used on those in their way. If struck or affected by any damage or skills during Stampede all animals may call “No Effect: Stampede.” Stampede may not last for more than 10 seconds.

Ranged Reduction

Some [REDACTED] are especially hard to kill, particularly from weapons like guns. Ranged Reduction is a skill common to some of these threats, and makes them very difficult to deal with at range — Guns only deal 1 damage instead of 5! When they are also terrifying and lethal up close, this is an especially deadly combination. Special note here, if you can find [REDACTED] BANE ammunition, you can deal normal weapon damage to the threats with this ability:

Possessed by many zombie threats and some exceptionally armored critters, Ranged Reduction reduces the amount of damage taken from firearms, bows, and thrown weapons to the target. Ranged Reduction (Minimal) means that the target only takes 1 damage instead of 5 from a base Ranged Attack, which Ranged Reduction (Immune) means that the target does not take any damage from a base Ranged Attack. However, burst damage called would still have full effect on a target with either form of Ranged Reduction. Ranged BANE attacks do normal damage to the target, but do not double their damage.

Wrap Up

We have a great finale lined up for y’all and we can’t wait to see each of you for our last game of the season. Remember, you can still get tickets at the door if you didn’t pre-register!

Also, come prepared for the HEAT. It’s gonna be a hot one, so make sure you are hydrating early, wear a bit less armor, and try to be careful of overexerting yourself in the middle of the sunny day.

See you soon, Vados!

Obstruction of Justice; A Lawdog Vignette

Scraping, clawing, tugging, ripping, tearing him apart -

A scab, a seal, it’s sealed - no way out. But how can he - a man? a person? an imprint - dole out Justice if he cannot return? And if he should return, then she -

“Justice?” She laughs, screeches, bellows; voice like fingernails across his bones, if he had bones or she had fingernails to scratch them.

But there is no her, there is no him, there is nothing and no one and everything all at once and they are trapped. Suffocating. Imprint upon imprint upon imprint, pressurizing, compacting, building. Wrongness permeates the space, the space that does not exist, and it seeps, a mortal wound for an immortal imprint that would bleed the world dry. 

She roars, and he holds - a suture to stem the flow that is her, and she laughs, and he is torn-

---

“I’m just so grateful, I - sir?”

Wyatt blinks, ice blue eyes slowly refocusing onto the face before him as he is drawn back to the conversation. The Lawman’s thoughts had wandered after Nichols fell, mind reeling with the old man’s final words, the implications there, and who was..? Ah, right. The Lovelace girl - Faith, was it? Always pretty on-the-nose with their names, them Lovelaces.

He blinks again. The woman in front of him looks up expectantly, sweetly, eyes wet and red. He smiles - because what else can he do but smile? When the good people of the San Saba thank him for the work that he and the Union do to keep them safe, even when the upper echelons of what passes for Justice here is as rotten as the flesh of the Warden herself.

“No thanks necessary ma’am, really. We do what we can.” 

She seems dissatisfied with the answer and frets for a moment, fumbles the drink in her hands, then pushes it toward him with an earnest expression.

“I - at least have some hot brown. You seem tired.” 

Fair enough, he concedes. Wyatt can feel the fatigue fraying his edges as they speak. He’s so close, so close to having everything he needs to set his carefully laid plan into motion. It had cost so much, taken so long, and the weariness in his bones grows deeper by the day. But it was all in the name of Justice, and Justice would be served.

He sighs, defeated by the crocodile tears threatening to spill onto the woman’s cheeks again.

“Yeah, alright. I appreciate that, ma’am. Thank’ee.”

She smiles gratefully as he takes the drink, and says something else that he misses as his mind drifts again. There was so much to prepare, so many contingencies to consider. He had worked too hard and too long to get what he needed for this - everything must be accounted for. The Chairman would likely not be pleased, but Wyatt’s Union contract was airtight, and this fell well within the scope of protecting the citizens of the San Saba territories. There was proof to ensure it, now.

He absently sips the lukewarm liquid and makes a face; it’s bitter, entirely too bitter for his taste, but he downs the rest in a single pull regardless. The woman wanders away eventually, and others take her place before him. He nods as Deputy Jasper says something to his left, and tries to pull his focus once more to the present. His head swims slightly. Several of his men idle around their Boss now, speaking to him, asking of him - but his focus drifts further, his vision blurs at the edges.

Wyatt chokes, coughs, his mouth tastes of hot iron. The Reclaimer doubles over as acrid bile explodes up his throat, violently ejects itself from his body, splatters red across his boots - his father’s boots. The lawman’s blue eyes roll back as his sclera burst their vessels, a gloved hand goes to his throat as if to stem the tide of the inevitable death overtaking him, to no avail. 

Why now? Why now when he is so close to stopping -

His body hits the ground of the Crossroads with a soft thud, motionless.

---

-She tears at his back, the idea of his back, through the bars of their cage. A thousand hands with ten thousand claws that rake and pull and shred him eternal. He holds.

Furious, she screams - he screams, they scream - tries to scream, no sound from no throat, but he holds, and holds - he must hold. 

The imprint known sometimes as Wyatt Ulysses Nightengale is torn asunder and knitted again; a wound, a scab, a scar, an endless cycle of fleshless agony that has become his charge. The other imprints grow louder, roil around them, packing tightly, squeezing, brimming - the pressure builds, and builds, because there is no way out, he cannot get out, cannot let her out-

---

“Alright y’all, listen up,” The Deputy addresses the small assembly of Law Dogs. The few that are left. Most are in a pitiable state, stretched as thin as they will go and worn from fighting the losing battle of maintaining order in the absence of their leader and many of their peers. One of them looks to be actively bleeding. The Deputy winces, and clears their throat.

“The Boss is still stuck down in the shit, and none of the Morgues are lookin’ to open back up any time soon. The Grave Bureau ‘parently has their best on it, but it’s gonna be a while yet ‘fore things clear up again.” One of the gathered company cannot help the pained noise that escapes him, and the Deputy throws the man a sympathetic look before continuing. 

“I know y’all are tired, but listen - we have some relief comin’ from up north. The details is above my pay grade, but it’s s’posedly gonna help big time. We’re gonna contract a ‘Robber with the Bureau and send some of the local pack in ‘Vado down after the Boss at Ground Zero.” The group perks up a bit, renewed hope shining in several of their eyes in place of dull despair.

“I dunno what’s down in that scar or how it’s gonna go, but we’re gonna hope for the best and trust our people to get the job done. I mean, shit,” The Deputy exhales a hard laugh, raking a hand through unkempt hair and giving the scattered assembly a tired smile. 

“What’s the worst that could be down there?”