The Emerald Gala

It’s Jonathan here with our first weekly blog post for the upcoming event, THE EMERALD GALA. This is our December DR: TX Premiere Event written by Maenad Wilder and Shan Lind. Today we will talk a bit about some story teasers, some core mechanics and concepts for the event, and a reminder of some of the benefits of attending a Premiere Event. This month is going to also include a formal party, so we want to give you enough time to prepare for the social event of the season!

Our last event was a smaller, more intimate event and provided some amazing roleplay opportunities, but this event is going to really dig in the METAPLOT of the season, and some consequences from decisions and events last season. This post will discuss a few light STORY SPOILERS for our next event, so we hope you enjoy what we have in store!

Photo credits in this post are from Max Pohlmeier, Lainey Weiss, Crystal Louise Remy, and Noah Goodman.

PRemiere EVENt Tickets are on sale NOW!

First off, the EMERALD GALA is a DR:TX PREMIERE EVENT.

Premiere Events are special events run by chapters to give their players the Special Event feel in their own chapter and telling their own stories. These are heightened events meant to be used with unique mechanics, one of a kind plot items, and an opportunity to push the limits of the game to give the community something really big to experience. These events are perfect opportunities to involve National level plots, mechanics, and items, and are a way to “blow the roof off the joint and make people’s heads spin.”

What do they offer?

• MORE XP — Premiere Events off more bonus XP options! You can purchase up to FIVE (5) additional experience points for each of your characters during a Premiere Event. This is awesome for saving up for that point of Infection or a new PFA.

• NATIONAL CONTENT— National items like Festering Crystals, Imprint Crystals, and National-level currency can be distributed during these events. Premiere events give out less of these items than a National game, but they will still be available through mods and events.

• BIGGER PLOTS, BIGGER THREATS — During a Premiere Event, we can also use unique National-level threats like Archons! I’ll cover a bit more about these apocalyptic threats in a future blog post. In general you can expect a more intense threat than a normal DR:TX event during a Premiere game, including our very own breed of mysterious threat - the LONGWALKERS.

• SELF TEACH — You gain the ability to Self Teach ANY non-PFA Skill that you are able to learn, on each of your characters that are checked in. If you have an Advanced Membership, you can Self Teach a Skill for each of your three characters! This is a trick that normally costs 50-300 CAPS to get a teacher, so this is a great value. Have you been struggling to find a player that has that particular Skill you want? Look no further!

• These events can also be held over 4-days, but we’ve elected to keep our Premiere Events to our normal 3-day duration, both to save our own sanity and not stretch our team thin.

These events can be held once per season, and December is our chosen month! We have a lot of travelers planning on attending this event, so we hope to have a killer experience to share with y’all.

You can also check our Content List here, before you purchase a ticket.

Let’s talk a little bit about the story of the next event…

A personal invitation from Felicity Redfield for the Emerald Gala

The Premise of the Emerald Gala

The Inventor’s Ball, otherwise known as the Emerald Gala, takes place on Waking Prime every year in the lofty penthouse levels of Eureka Tower. Technocrats and debutants trade gossip and trade-secrets over thin flutes of Pre-Fall champagne as they soar above the San Saba, and all its rugged candor. But Waking is Falling, inch by inch. And as the megalithic blimp-city descends below the cloud layer, its streets will fill with the same noxious fumes that give the Lonestar Sky its vibrant, blood orange hues. 

Dispossessed, the Board turns to Felicity Redfield of the RRC. The owner of the lands Bravado has agreed to host the Emerald Gala here, in Bravado proper, in exchange for a very public favor.  Saving face for the San Saba Board and Waking Prime means drawing their wealth, resources, privilege, and knowledge to Bravado Station, all in the hopes to stop the the greatest threat known to the San Saba and perhaps, the Greater Wastes - the unnatural outsiders known as ARCHONS.

A year ago to the date of the Inventor’s Ball, Archons descended upon New Bravado through the throat of the Monolith and ravaged the town before being beaten back by the combined might of the San Saba Territories and a signal that rendered the normally untouchable beasts, temporarily capable of sustaining harm. On that fateful night, Reckoner-General Rampart proclaimed that the Archons would return, a year to the day, according to the arcane mathematics of the Midnight Orrery, which reads the currents of the Mortis Amaranthine as if it were a rotating sphere of constellations. 

And so, Felicity Redfield suggests a kind of exchange, not of gossip or trade-secrets, but of munitions capable of destroying the greatest threat known to the San Saba and perhaps, the Greater Wastes — the Emerald Arsenal. The greatest minds of the San Saba have been hard at work testing and creating new gizmos and machinery to meet this threat. These untested weapons must be capable of not only stopping this threat when it emerges but protecting all of the people in Bravado from this otherworldly incursion, lest the Archons rage through the Territories, unleashed in their predatory hunger. The Inventor’s Ball will be a premiere of their genius, on the one night that an incursion of the Archons can be predicted.

For, on the night of the Gala itself, the Archons will surely return dressed in their sharpest carapaces, wholly prepared to eviscerate the well-coiffed attendees of the Wasteland’s fanciest party, and the denizens of Bravado should be equally armed as they are prepared to meet this threat from beyond death itself, while ready to dance the night away in their finest Emerald Regalia. Gather your finest clothes, your deadliest arsenals, and prepare for a party at the end of the world.

So, there’s a few things mentioned there we need to talk about.

The emerald Gala

It wouldn’t be the party of the century if you didn’t come dressed in your very best. For this event on Saturday night of the game, we want to encourage you do something special with your costume. From 7PM to 12AM, we will be hosting the Emerald Gala during the event, and it will be a party with music, food, and fun. At the end of the Gala, it will culminate in a ballroom blitz when the ARCHONS arrive. How will you dress to impress?

What is your character’s idea of “ballroom formal”? Do you have a cute outfit you’ve been dying to wear? Have you been eyeing a costume update? We want to give you a heads up as soon as we can so you have time to prepare and decide on what formal wear means to your character. We are excited to see what you can come up with, and we hope you’ll buy in to the idea of a party in the zombie apocalypse.

We will also be introducing a new Local Blueprint, the Emerald Regalia, that allows you to benefit from the protection of Armor, while not having to give up a certain sense of style. Perfect for parties and Galas alike, this armor can even afford a certain bit of CHARISMA to the wearer, ideal for making friends or playing politics. And, since it adds a bit of armor, it can be useful if something… terrible decides to attend your party.

Nope. Nope. Nope.

The archon threat

During our last Premiere event in Season 3, THE LONG NIGHT, three terrible creatures emerged from the Monolith. These apocalyptic threats nearly defeated the town of Bravado until a signal from within the obelisk rendered them capable of being injured and repelled. However, in the wake of that event, the weapon they used to hurt the creatures was destroyed by the feedback, and now the town is unable to deal with the creatures should they return.

The Archons are a truly dangerous threat, with abilities capable of sapping your Resolve in one blow, strikes that can kill you where you stand, and even devouring your very imprint should you lay bleeding. I’ll be covering more about what to expect from these terrible monsters in a future blog post but know that THEY ARE COMING (to use the last words of the late Dr. Nichols).

I hope you are prepared but know that this will be a HIGH-RISK game.

The best way to survive an Archon is to run away, if you can. They are truly threats to be survived, not defeated. Until a weapon can be developed to face them, they are nigh-impossible to injure, much less kill. A big element of the story of this event will be trying to uncover and choose which weapons to bring to the Emerald Gala in the hopes of stopping these immortal terrors.

The Night is dark and full of terrors

Speaking of night terrors, we will be releasing a new global mechanic for this event, borrowed from our friends in DR: Virginia, originally designed by Phil Grau. This mechanic also saw use in DR: Michigan, and we will be including our own DR:TX take on the concept below:

ALONE IN THE DARK

At any time after the sun has set that a player finds themselves alone and without the ability to see another person, that person is considered to be Caught Alone.

That player must, at their next convenience, drop out of character and report to Ops.

Results for being Caught Alone vary wildly and could be a slight scare or a grievous consequence.

Players under the effect of Basic Stealth may move after dark as they wish, but should beware anything that would cause them to become seen.

If you are caught alone at night, one of the many things lurking in the shadows may find you first. You might wander through a weak part of the veil between the worlds or get too close to some early abyssal incursion. Maybe you just got caught alone by one of the Longwalkers or experienced some strange time dilation as you get lost in the woods. Perhaps some local terror like a Nemesis or Murder Goat Deer found you as prey in the darkness. Maybe it was nothing at all. Whatever the result, it’s best to walk in groups or be able to evade prying eyes in the darkness with Stealth during this event.

Better yet, the candlelights and altars of the Lovelace Family is said to protect you from the darkness, provided you can convince them to part with their lanterns to protect you.

Festive lights in the Dive for the holidays

Winter lights, a DR:TX Tradition

Winter traditions have been part of the human experience since we're clawed out of the primordial muck using thumbs and thought to ourselves "I ought to buy my child nine pairs of socks”. First thing we did with those dexterous extra digits was to throw up a pine tree in the den and shove some well smoked meats under it to give to people on a specific day but not before. We’ve been doing that for about thirty thousand years, give or take. So let’s try something a little different?

We started this tradition WAY back in 2019 as a way to be more inclusive on our holidays around this time of year, and we are pleased to once again share this tradition with our new players and guests.

The setting-specific holiday we focus on in Bravado is Winter Lights, a Quiet-Folk holiday focused on the notion of Ritual and Tradition, honoring the beliefs of the varied many across the Lonestar. The Lovelace Community celebrates this season every year not on a specific day, but as a kind of blanket period during which they assume and honor the traditions of their neighbors. What that looks like in the playspace, in terms of decoration, is a ton of tea lights all over the camp. So if you want to buy into this tradition and thusly the attentions of the Quiet Folk who celebrate the soft and quiet light of community, you should put tea lights all over your personal areas. 

In addition, the Nomads who travel the Long 360 out of Essex have their own tradition of decorating “Loop” trees along the highways. What was once a seemingly out-of-place garish display of garland and lights that has slowly become an important cultural touchstone of the Winter season in the Lonestar. We can’t wait to see how our players bring the trees of Bravado to life with festive in-genre decorations (that of course, can be easily cleaned up after game off).

Similarly, The Junkerpunks celebrate Cargo-Net Day, another “new/old” tradition based on holiday themes. This holiday and its rituals have been completely designed by our amazing players, and we are excited to support it by honoring the related plot requests they’ve put in to our writers. We love the tales of Nopalito Joe and Kelpie. 

We encourage you to put your brilliant minds to work to come up with amazing holiday traditions to fit within our shared story. Something from your character’s past? Something entirely new? Winter Lights is all about discovering and celebrating tradition, and we are excited to see the creativity our players bring to that.

We’re attaching a link here to a useful article that we hope will give you something to think about when designing holidays for the LARPspace that are clever and respectful. 

The long Night & Longwalkers

Every year the town of New Bravado experiences a period of total night. From sometimes late December to early February - the sky above the township goes utterly and oily black. Whether it is a result of the bombs of the Hiway War or smog and radiation buildup from Waking Prime, the result is the same — a time of darkness descends on the San Saba. And in that night lurks something… strange and foreboding.

LONGWALKERS, denizens of that Long Night, stalk the blackness between settlements and play wicked tricks on those foolish enough to wander into the blind eternity beyond the circle of their firelight.  This gallery of cryptids stalk the darkness of Widow’s Peak and beyond, even venturing as far south as Bravado. Shadowy, half-real entities that are considered folklore by much of the greater San Saba, nonetheless stalk the bleak between. Zed or creature, it is hard to tell. But the Longwalkers have been the subject of local legend for generations of Lovelaces before the Long Night came to New Bravado. 

Some in search of prey, others absolution, most - with opaque motives. Are they strains gone mad in the blind eternity of the Long Night? Are they expressions of our terror made manifest in the chaos of sensory deprivation? Are they the Gravemind itself dreaming in the siesta between seasons? It depends on who you ask. Some Longwalkers have strange tells that indicate they are present. Water running backwards, the scent of rotten fruit, the sound of tinkling chimes. These mysterious entities stalk the Long Night looking for something. The No-Face Man, the Midnight Jellyfish, the Behemoth, the Gardener, the Nite Owls, the Shadow People, the Lady of the Long Night, and The Click - these figures sometimes derive from folktale and myth - and others are the inspiration for the same.

Can you count all the Longwalkers in this picture of Widow’s Peak?

wrap up

That’s it for today Vados!

I hope you’re excited to play with us in December! This is a special time of year for DR:TX and we are excited to present our Premiere Event for this season with some of the biggest, baddest enemies seen in the world of Dystopia Rising.

Next week, I’ll dig a bit deeper into the Archon threat, with some more information on their particular abilities and a bit more into the lore you might want to know. See you soon!

---

“When the haunted Hallows moan,

And the Long Night looms so near,

Remember child, dog, and delver,

That the dead can smell your fear.


Remember always to carry a light,

To ward off the fearful zed,

To remind them that they have no business here,

And that it is you that they must dread.


So in these small and quiet days,

When the world beds itself down,

Protect those who would bear your light,

Through the tired streets of town.


Plant a torch and be the Light,

That leads your family home,

In the last and frigid nights,

Come home to Bravado.”

— A Lovelace Winter Carol, PHW 02’

Imprint by Design: Rules You Should Know

It’s Jonathan here again with another Rules Ramble! Each week, I’ll introduce a topic that will be important in an upcoming game, explain some new mechanic or system for DR:TX, or discuss a particular rule from the DR Corebook. In each ramble, I’ll focus on explaining that topic in more detail than the book alone can provide and help provide one place to reference all the various errata or rulings that might be relevant. Sometimes I’ll even drop a few Story Teasers or provide a summary of the last game in a Game Recap.

As we get ready for our next event this weekend, IMPRINT BY DESIGN, I'm going to be covering a bit about Rules You Should Know. We have a number of special things happening during this game, and we want to make sure you have a head start on any particular mechanics to watch out for. This week, we are going to cover a bit more about Imprint Dissonance and what that means for your character, and some dangerous threat skills like Bloody Evolution, Psionic Vampire, and Bloody Adaptation.

TICKETS ARE still on sale at the door! DON’T MISS OUT ON THE NEXT DR:TX EVENT!

Photo credits in this post are from Max Pohlmeier, Lainey Weiss, Crystal Louise Remy, and Noah Goodman.

Strain Changes & Imprint Dissonance

One of the first things to talk about today is STRAIN CHANGES. Last week, Brett assigned a bunch of folks a temporary Strain for this upcoming event as part of our pre-registration event. If you are still interested in this change, we will have an option for joining this plot at the door as well. We had a few questions on this, so I wanted to answer a few here.

I also wrote a bit about the requirements for Strains and Lineage Advantages, so it might be worth a read if you missed it.

Q: What exactly has happened to your character?

Leading up to IMPRINT BY DESIGN, your LC may have experienced some changes or differences in how they interact with the world. In the wake of the damage done by Nichol’s viral plague, people have reported strange genetic alterations. It appears that mutations have become more common after the Necrophage was released, a strange new side effect of the disease, and many people are experiencing unpredictable changes. Even those that were naturally immune might be susceptible to this new mutable imprint.

In fact, the affected LCs have been slowly manifesting the Strain Advantages and Role Play Burdens of a Strain that is NEW to them. A animal-like Remnant might suddenly lose the features they’ve had for years, as they shift into a Merican. That Elitariat might suddenly mutate into an Ascension, as they manifest the strange features of an Accensorite. Whatever the reason, folks seem to be fluctuating into entirely new Strains.

Q: When can I change my costume for the new Strain?

These changes have been slow and gradual for some, or drastic and rapid for others. But they have all been completed at least a week before game (in the nebulous time between trades). Feel free to roleplay how the change has manifested in that time for your LC, but it is an effect that is in play at game on so you can better plan a costume shift if necessarily.

TL;DR: all changes to Strains are in effect at game on and have been something your character has been dealing with for the last week.

Q: What are the mechanics for this change?

We talked a little about this in my first blog post for this event, but I’m including the rules below. Folks that are affected by the strange Strain change will be impacted by a new type of Role Play Burden. The mysterious Dr. Esgrove has offered a potential cure for this malady with his TITAN Process, but until that can be tested and refined in game here are the mechanics for this condition:

IMPRINT DISSONANCE (ROLEPLAY BURDEN)

Keyword. While a character is affected by IMPRINT DISSONANCE, they are caught in a state of flux and mutability between two different Strain imprints.

The affected character must either obviously Roleplay as the new Strain or use obvious costuming and makeup to represent the new Strain at least once per 12s. If you do not fulfill this burden by costuming or roleplay once per 12s, you lose 1 Resolve. If you cannot spend Resolve in this way, you gain a FRACTURE each time instead.

While affected by Imprint Dissonance, this character counts as a member of the NEW Strain for purposes of Strain meals, brews, and effects that target that Strain. They temporarily lose their former Lineage Advantage and gain the Lineage Advantage of the new Strain while affected by this Roleplay Burden. This Roleplay Burden effect cannot be cured or soothed as normal until specific conditions are met.

Q: Is this change permanent, and what does that mean for my character sheet?

This change is only permanent if you actively CHOOSE to keep the new Strain. During the event there will be an option to either KEEP your new strain, purposefully change to a DIFFERENT strain, or RETURN to your old Strain.

If you take the option to change your Strain, there will be some minor side effects that persist, but you will be allowed a permanent Strain Change without needing to spend the 1000 caps for a character rewrite. If there are some XP differences or weirdness with the rewrite, we will work with you to balance out the XP totals after the event. Note: like a normal rewrite, you will NOT be able to add new Infection as part of this process and you will keep the same Infection you had at the end of the event.

Player Factions & the Stakeholder’s Meeting

Last season, we had several player-led factions complete a series of tasks to gain an air of legitimacy with the San Saba Board. Several of these factions completed their application, paid the fees, and will now get to experience the rewards of being recognized by the various entities of the San Saba. While these player-led factions will never rival the eight main Stakeholder Factions, they do get to enjoy some new member benefits.

Three player-led factions were recognized during the Stakeholder’s Meeting, and will be recognized Society Memberships in the San Saba:

• The Shields of the Lonestar

• Ramguard

• The Road Royals

In addition to voting benefits in the upcoming Stakeholder’s Meeting in May 2023, these factions will gain access to a custom Zone of Mechanics tailored to their faction that can be activated during a game for their crew in the style of the San Saba Socials.

Each of these ZOMs will have an Active benefit and a Passive benefit. The Active benefit will give members the ability to activate an Upsurge effect that lasts one hour, while the Passive benefit will offer minor Mind efficiency on a Skill once per twelves alongside a thematic bonus for the group. These bonuses will need to be activated each event by either paying a sum of Brass to the Post Office, or by turning over some of the Mysterious Ore in trade.

What if you weren’t here last season, or missed out on your chance at registering your crew with the San Saba Board?

Don’t worry, there will be copies of the ZOM: An Air of Legitimacy available this weekend and for the rest of the season at the Post Office for enterprising new player-led groups. This ZOM can be completed over the remainder of the season, and might require a few games to complete. This will require a bit of organization on your part to complete, as well as wrangling a few face NPCs to help your cause but if you complete this challenge you too can also unlock new benefits for your crew.

Threat Skills of Note

The San Saba can be a dangerous place. All the recent excavation under Bravado and delves into the facility beneath the town have stirred up some familiar local menaces, as well as some frightening new ones. One of these undead threats, the BLOODGHASTS, were first encountered in Season One during the December 2019 event THE BREACH and have remained a unique threat of the region. Thought to be corrupted Semper Morts left in a cryostasis tube for too long, these creatures emerge from the catacombs and tunnels beneath Bravado in the dark of the night.

These creatures have a number of Threat Skills you should be prepared for:

Cannibalism

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

Bloody Healing

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

Bloody Evolution

Bloodghasts have a highly mutable system that can undergo spontaneous mutation and evolution, particularly after feeding on a dying survivor. If a Bloodghast is allowed to complete a Cannibalism call (see above), then they will increase in potency and danger instantaneously. If a Bloodghast uses this power, they will call “Bloody Evolution” and experience a moment of body wracking agony as they mutate. After this is done, they will fully heal, refresh all of their skills, and increase to the next Rank of their Threat Sheet. A Bloodghast Omega (Rank 1) will become a Bloodghast Beta (Rank 2), and will finally evolve into a Bloodghast Alpha (Rank 3). Scary!

Blood Frenzy

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

[REDACTED] Threat Skills

Now that we’ve talked about some known threats, let’s discuss the mechanics you might see on some of those UNKNOWN threats.

Bloody Adaptation

The [REDACTED] can quick adapt to their enemies by a spontaneous mutation. The [REDACTED] will call “Bloody Adaptation” when struck with a source of damage OR modifier and gain Damage Reduction to that source of damage. Any source of this resisted damage will be reduced to a minimum of 1 damage. Only one type of damage can be resisted in this way at at time. That means if you use something like HORDE BANE or simply BODY damage repeatedly, the creature can adapt to your attacks and become tougher to kill.

Anomaly REsponse: Psionic Vampire

Many creatures can react to the unnatural Anomaly skills of psions with a power called “Anomaly Response”. When a psionic power is used within Line of Sight of the [REDACTED], it can drain the psionic potential from the target. The creature will call “Anomaly Response: Psionic Vampire! Line of Sight, 10 Mind damage, no Anomaly Skill use for 1 Minute!” When targeted with this ability, the psion cannot use Anomaly skills for the duration and loses some of their precious Mind points. It might be a good idea to stop using psionic powers near the [REDACTED] so it cannot feed on your psionic energy.

psionic cannibalism

[REDACTED] can feed on the emotional turmoil and aberrant energies of lineages as they are dying. This is represented by the skill call of Psionic Cannibalism. For all intents and purposes, this is treated as a use of the Cannibalism skill above and has the same effects. If uninterrupted for the full 30 seconds of the roleplay, the [REDACTED] calls “Psionic Cannibalism: Reduce Bleed Out to 1 minute”. Roleplay for this should still be loud and dramatic but the [REDACTED] will roleplay getting close to the target in order to bask and soak in their energies with cries of glee and hunger. The [REDACTED] feasts on the mental energies of the victim instead of physically tearing apart and consuming the target. It is still an agonizing process to the target and they should be encouraged to roleplay appropriately if needed.

That’s it for today Vados! We have a cool event in store for you, and while this might be a smaller game than normal due to the proximity to the holidays, I think we will have some fun roleplay, some dangerous bumps in the night, and perhaps an answer to the strange Imprint Dissonance impacting the town.

See you in a few days, Vados!

Lineages & Strains

It’s Jonathan here again with another Rules Ramble! Each week, I’ll introduce a topic that will be important in an upcoming game, explain some new mechanic or system for DR:TX, or discuss a particular rule from the DR Corebook. In each ramble, I’ll focus on explaining that topic in more detail than the book alone can provide and help provide one place to reference all the various errata or rulings that might be relevant. Sometimes I’ll even drop a few Story Teasers or provide a summary of the last game in a Game Recap.

As we get ready for our next event, IMPRINT BY DESIGN, I'm going to be covering a bit about Lineages & Strains. We have also finished sending out the emails for the folks that filled out the survey for the special plot event during this next game. This special plot will include an option for a permanent STRAIN CHANGE, and you’ll still be able to opt-in at the door if you missed the chance for the survey.

TICKETS ARE ON SALE FOR IMPRINT BY DESIGN until friday, november 4th! DON’T MISS OUT ON THE NEXT DR:TX EVENT!

Photo credits in this post are from Max Pohlmeier, Lainey Weiss, Crystal Louise Remy, and Noah Goodman.

lineages vs Strains

One of the key concepts of IMPRINT BY DESIGN will exploring the importance of Lineages & Strains to your characters, especially as the imprint becomes… mutable. So, let’s take a look at some of the rules on the topic in our traditional Rules Ramble manner.

The world of Dystopia Rising is set long after the fall of humanity from zombies, plague, and radiation. It has been generations since the fall and while most of humanity was wiped out, some hardy survivors managed to eke out an existence in the world that remained. The survivors of the fall EVOLVED (get it? DR: Evolved?) into the Lineages & Strains we use in game today, based largely on “how” they survived this new irradiated wasteland. Some banded together into communities of their peers, others mutated and evolved to survive the harsh conditions, some adapted to their unique environments or upbringings, and some even took to a nomadic life to avoid the roaming packs of the undead. As the generations passed, these survival traits became something more - the adapted and evolved Strains of Humanity.

Lineages are one aspect of your character you choose at creation and sets how much Body, Mind, Infection, and Resolve you start play with. They also come with distinct Lineage Advantages, which are a type of Skill that doesn’t cost XP to add to your sheet. Each Lineage features some broad, overarching cultural and and genetic characteristics that are present in each of its Strains, while the Strains branch into hyper-defined traits (p. 34).

Strain is similar to a Race in D&D or World of Warcraft, a Clan in Vampire: the Masquerade, or an Archetype in Blades in the Dark. Strains are simply the physical way the zombie Infection adapted and changed your family over the generations, and provide only a few mechanical considerations. While each Strain shares the same Lineage Advantage, they each have different Strain Role Play Traits to help define your Strain further. These can be things as simple as role play expectations, but can include makeup, prosthetics, or even glow effects.

Ultimately, STRAIN is the key identifying outward element of your character that most people recognize and provides the most information for costuming and role play, but Lineages are where the mechanics and interaction with most items come in.

Lineage Rules: The Basics

Let’s look at a few basic rules from the Lineages, starting on page 34 in the DR Corebook:

• Local games can restrict certain Lineages & Strains based on a need for a background or story that matches the local game (p. 25). You can view our DR:TX list of Lineages & Strain Requirements on our website.

• There are EIGHT (8) unique Lineages, each containing THREE (3) related Strains. That means there are TWENTY-FOUR (24) different options for your character when you start!

  • Fun Fact: Even though the book wrongly suggests there are only SEVEN lineages on p. 34, the error probably comes from the fact that 3.0 added three new playable Strains to the game (Quiet Folk, Tainted, Unstable) and introduced the concept of Lineages for the first time. In earlier editions of Dystopia Rising, there were only Strains!

• Lineages are a THREAT TYPE. This is the “creature type” of most Face NPC characters, LCs and SCs in game. There are four major classes of Threats in the game - Lineages, Undead, Raiders, and Critters (though a few things like Longwalkers and Archons defy classification). Many items and Skills will mention “Lineage-threats” or “non-Lineage threats” accordingly. If something specifically states “Lineage threats” that includes your character too!

• Lineages & Strain names are also KEYWORDS. Keywords are useful bits of shorthand rules that quickly tell you if you qualify for an ability, item, or skill. If something targets you by Keyword, then that effect works on you if you match the Keyword. That means by simply making a character you will have at least TWO keywords right off the bat — your Lineage & Strain!

• Each Lineage has an mechanical Lineage Advantage that counts as a SKILL. This means it follows the all the rules for Skills, so things like being in Bleed Out (p. 103), being Stunned (p. 107) or Subdued (p. 107) prevent you from using the Advantage. However, you can still use these powers while under the effect of Blinding (p. 112), because you didn’t pay experience for your Lineage.

• Each Lineage has TWENTY (20) points split between starting Body and Mind. This means that no character really has a significant characteristic or XP advantage over another based solely on Lineage, since each point of Body and Mind costs 1 XP to raise until you get to 20.

• Each Lineage has EIGHT (8) points split between starting Resolve and Infection. Like above, since each point of these stats costs 10 XP to buy later, there’s no real advantage here for XP costs. It’s really a personal preference if you value more Resolve over Infection when you start or vice versa. For me, I think that starting with more Resolve is more immediately useful though it can be much more difficult to gain Infection later in game.

That’s about all the major lineage rules, so let’s look at the list of Lineages & Strains and consider how each Lineage changes the rules a bit more from this baseline.

The list of lineages & Strains

Mutant (p. 52)

• Remnant

• Retrograde

• Tainted

Landsman (p. 56)

• Merican

• Natural One

• Quiet Folk

Devoted (p. 60)

• Accensorite

• Red Star

• Unborn

Evolved (p. 64)

• Irons

• Reclaimers

• Unstable

Elitariat (p. 35)

• Digitarian

• Pure Blood

• Solestros

Townie (p. 39)

• Baywalker

• Yorker

• Vegasian

Nomad (p. 43)

• Diesel Jock

• Rover

• Saltwise

Gorger (p. 47)

• Full Dead

• Semper Mort

• Lascarian

Lineage Advantages

Let’s look at the advantages of each Lineage, all in one place. You can find the specifics in the book on the pages listed above, but here’s my quick summary. I’m definitely a Gamist, so I’ve included a few of Jonathan’s POWER GAMER TIPS™ on the Lineages below:

Regardless of my opinions, There are truly no wrong choices when it comes to choosing a Lineage or Strain. Pick the one that will be to fun to role play.

• Elitariat - Once per event, characters with this Lineage can generate Brass by using Financial Influence. This is the only Lineage Advantages that requires another Skill to use, but it generates more currency as you invest in the Skill levels, though Financial Influence is a subpar skill over all. You can get up to 16 currency each game if you take all three levels in Financial Influence, though it takes a lot of Mind. This is the ONLY way to regularly generate Currency in the game. It’s a game changer, especially if you can take advantage of the money generation when you first start play.

• Townie - These characters can spend 20 minutes role-playing with at least FIVE New Players (players with less than 50 XP) or Travelers (players that aren’t from your local chapter) to regain 5 Mind. This ability has no limit to the number of times you can use it, but it does require you to actual wrangle 5 other players into one place so it can be challenging to regularly use. I’d consider this one of the weaker advantages, unless you put the work into making these kinds of role play scenes happen. Fun Fact: This is also the first place in the book that declares exactly what a “New Player” is mechanically in game.

• Nomad - My personal favorite but mechanically average, this Lineage actually has TWO advantages but each has a very narrow application. The first Advantage lets you ignore any mechanic that affects “traveling to a game”, unless it specifically targets your Lineage. And, if it does target you, you can still spend 1 Resolve to ignore it. If you plan on traveling a lot, this can be occasionally useful but it rarely comes up if you only play at your home game. The second Advantage allows you to spend 10 minutes to regain 5 Mind while role playing in a “vehicle” mod. In DR:TX, we always have at least one Sailing mod each game that would classify as this, but this advantage is rarely useful in a lot of situations.

• Gorger - This is one of the more powerful active Advantages. Gorgers can spend 2 minutes to “feed” on an incapacitated or dying Lineage or Raider to regain 1 Body (sorry, no feeding on yourself, Undead or Critters!). However, it counts as a Killing Blow, so this isn’t really a power you use on friends. It can be used FIVE (5) times on a single target if they aren’t in Bleed Out (since it counts as a Killing Blow), for a maximum of 5 Body regained and 10 minutes spent eating. Unlike most Skills, this can be stacked with up to 6 Gorgers, and it’s one of the few Skills that can be used while Stabilized (p. 107).

• Mutant - Mutants also have two distinct Advantages, but they are very narrow in use. First, Mutants cannot die from a disease. They can still suffer the negative effects, but they won’t die unless the disease specifically ignores this advantage (like Necrophage). However, it doesn’t protect you from being turned into a Raider by the Bad Brain Disease. Secondly, they can spend 1 Resolve to ignore an instance of being inflicted with a disease. One important note is this can stop you from CATCHING the disease, but not it advancing once you’ve caught it. Once you get infected, this power can’t be used anymore. This is useful for doctors and graveheads that like to play in areas rife with disease. Or really just anyone that lives in Bravado.

• Landsman - This advantage allows you and at least FOUR (4) other Landsman (5 total) to regain 5 Mind after spending 20 minutes in some specific role play. This is one of the two Lineage Advantages that mentions Active Role-Play (p. 102) as a keyword, so you can’t do this while walking/fighting/sleeping or using other Skills. Like the Townie advantage, this can be useful if you can wrangle a group of 5 Landsmen together in one place and has no limit to the number of times you can use it, as long as you are all obviously being Landsmen during the role play. However, if you build a crew of all Landsmen (or just get a lot of Landsmen friends) so you can easily meet the requirement of 5 folks, this can be a easy advantage to use regularly.

• Devoted - This advantage allows you to spend 30 minutes of role play to regain 5 Mind. This Skill can be VERY powerful, but has some non-obvious limitations. This is a Skill that is VERY useful when you first start out but becomes less useful as you gain XP or better access to brews and meals. For instance, a Basic Mind Refreshing Meal can restore 5 Mind for only 10 minutes of roleplay and you could eat three meals in the same time frame, so this is a slower, but dependable access to Mind restoration. This is the other Active Role-Play advantage, so you can’t use other Skills while meditating or praying, and you CAN be Interrupted (p. 104) if you enter Bleed Out.

• Evolved - This is one of the more powerful advantages, as you can spend 1 Resolve to ignore the effects of a Mangle Limb ability. You can use this a number of times per event as you have Resolve, so it’s possible to ignore up to SIX instances of a Mangle with this advantage. This can be a lifesaver, but it is reliant on encountering monsters or other players with this ability. This can be VERY useful in CvC as well, as Mangle is a powerful skill to limit a player’s ability to escape a trap. However, as you gain more ability to use Resolve on items and Skills, this advantage can become less useful, but there are very few items or Skills that can duplicate this effect entirely.

Lineages are truly where the mechanical effects of the character come into play. Let’s look next at the Strain requirements, and I’ll call out a few noteworthy entries.

Strain Rules: The Basics

Strains have very few actual rules involved. While there are some items and Skills that interact with Strains, their main interactions for rules are covered in Lineages instead. The main rule for Strains comes in the form of a role play requirement.

• Each Strain has a Role Play Trait, which if not followed can cost you a point of Resolve. This is rarely enforced in my experience in game as a “gottcha!”, as the goal is to simply make sure you cover some of the most obvious parts of a Strain in your role play and appearance. For most folks, this is a key element of their costuming and part of the recognizable traits You’ll also see something similar to this mechanic in our Roleplay Burdens for IMPRINT BY DESIGN.

• Most Role Play Traits are just that, but a few have costuming requirements or some kind of mechanical interaction. If a Strain has a Mechanic listed in the Role Play Trait, it must be followed and cannot be ignored. If you don’t follow the costuming or role play requirements in a gratuitous way, you could have a Guide cause you to lose a Resolve.

• I’ve listed the few Strains of note with unique mechanics below. If you want the specific descriptions of costuming or roleplay, read the book (it’s free!).

  • Digitarian - Roleplay requirements

  • Pure Blood - Costuming requirement (three color minimum)

  • Solestros - Roleplay requirements

  • Baywalker - Costuming requirement - tattoos

  • Yorker - Roleplay requirement, light costuming (a symbol of your group)

  • Vegasian - Roleplay requirements

  • Diesel Jock - Costuming requirement - dirt & grease

  • Rover - Roleplay requirements

  • Saltwise - Costuming requirement (gills on the neck), roleplay requirement

  • Full Dead - Heavy costuming requirement (undead makeup, etc).

    • MECHANIC: Must eat the flesh of the living once per event, per the Gorger Lineage advantage. They also treated as if they had the UNDEAD keyword for effects.

  • Semper Mort - Heavy costuming requirements (claws & fangs), roleplay requirement

    • MECHANIC: Must consume the blood of a living Raider or Lineage once per event, per the Gorger Lineage advantage.

  • Lascarian - Costuming requirement (covered skin during daylight), roleplay requirement

  • Remnant - Heavy costuming requirements (outward physical mutation)

    • MECHANIC: Must fulfill a role play “obsession” once per event. Must submit an Action Request to get mutation approved by staff.

  • Retrograde - Heavy costuming requirement (rotted, decayed skin & masks)

  • Tainted - Roleplay requirements related to Bad Brain

    • MECHANIC: Always has Stage Two Bad Brain (p. 206) that can never progress, be cured, or spread from them.

  • Merican - Costuming requirement (a hat!)

    • MECHANIC: Always come back as a Shambler after losing the last Infection.

  • Natural One - Roleplay requirements

  • Quiet Folk - Roleplay requirements

  • Accensorite - Heavy costuming requirement (Physical mutation of “ascension”)

    • MECHANIC: Every 100 XP gain a new mutation representative of their faith, must submit an Action Request.

  • Red Star - Roleplay requirements

    • MECHANIC: Cannot be Baptized and cannot use “Faithful” Anomaly skills on anyone that is Baptized. Can replace (Faith) with a (Society Membership) instead.

  • Unborn - Heavy costuming requirements (green skin, white eyes), roleplay requirements

    • MECHANIC: Cannot cry out for help while dying.

  • Irons - Costuming requirements (red glow at ankles, neck, and wrists)

  • Reclaimers - Costuming requirements (leathery exposed muscles on arms and legs)

  • Unstable - Costuming requirements (blue glow at ankles, neck, and wrists)

    • MECHANIC: Cannot run from a horde of undead

Notable LINEAGE Brews & equipment

There are only a few items in the game that interact in a notable way with the Lineages and Strains. You find the specific mechanics for these items below on the Character Database, and I’ve built a complete Blueprint List on our website.

Let’s take a look:

• Brews & Meals - This is the most common item interaction that uses Keywords for Lineages.

  • Healing & Refreshing Meals, Healing & Recovery Brews, Healing Injections - The Lineage version of these blueprints have improved amounts of Body & Mind regained if that Lineage consumes them, but do nothing if you are not the right keyword. These can be VERY efficient to craft and give the best yields for gaining Mind and Body.

  • Death Brews, Hallucinogens, Intoxicants - These brews often have longer duration and improved effects for the affected Lineage. Like the meals, these do nothing if you are not the correct Strain. Note: There is no universal Death Brew — you must use the Lineage specific brew to use these effects.

  • Lineage Poisons - These brews deal heavy Body damage to a particular Lineage that consumes them over 1 minute. Unlike the Arsenic or Caustic Poisons, these only deal damage to the specific Lineage listed.

• Little Drop of Poison - This particularly foul brew DOUBLES the impact of a Lineage poison when used in the creation of that brew, at the cost of narrowing the effect to a single Strain within that Lineage. This means a poison modified by this blueprint could deal SIXTY (60) Body Damage upon drinking! OUCH!

• Luminescence Liquor - A new item we introduced during the NECROPHAGE, this item lets Irons and Unstable change the color of their glow.

• Green Light Frying Pan - When made, this item makes a single type of Lineage meal chosen at creation take half the time to prepare. This is amazing item for making Lineage meals faster.

• The Queens Cup - This item DOUBLES the yield of a lineage brew when consumed, but only for the person who is on the card. However, this item takes a national scrap called Imprint Crystals to make, so it can be very difficult to make until an updated blueprint is eventually released.

• Toothpiq Chopper & The Big Hate - These weapons offer the only source of Lineage Bane in the game available to players. The Big Hate even offers Strain Bane. These weapons deal DOUBLE damage to characters that match that keyword and can be very effective in CvC.

• Crystalline Biological Enhancer - This item is something that specifically mentions “non-Lineage undead”. This wording is specifically so that Full Dead are not impacted by the Telepathy abilities of this item.

• Hunter’s Secret, Crystal Candy Nucleation, & That Cursed Pitchfork - Each of these items offers some reward for completing a Killing Blow or is only usable on a Lineage target. Of special note, the PFA ability of the Pitchfork can target Full Dead, as it is not limited to "non-Lineage Undead”.

As you can see, there are several items that can help or hurt a Lineage, but it’s still very few items overall. We’ve yet to see true Strain- and Lineage- specific equipment return to 3.0, but I’m hopeful that the Blueprint team has some neat stuff in store in the future. Send in that feedback and cross your fingers!

Wrap up

That’s it for today Vados! We are weeks away from our next event IMPRINT BY DESIGN! Brett Pittman has poured his heart and soul into this event, so I hope you enjoy the story he is telling during this game. Each of STs will have some mods that build on this story, so you will get to see several different takes on the theme. I hope you take advantage of the role play opportunities this event offers, and I hope it serves as a nice break before we ramp back into the action of THE EMERALD GALA.

Next week, we will cover some RULES YOU SHOULD KNOW for the event, as well as any last minute logistics reminders. See you soon Vados!

Welcome to Imprint By Design

It’s Jonathan here with our first weekly blog post for the upcoming event, IMPRINT BY DESIGN. This is our November DR:TX event written by our Overarc ST, Brett Pittman. Today we will talk a bit about some story teasers, some core mechanics and concepts for the event, and a reminder of some of the benefits of pre-registration for one of our events. This will be especially important this month, as our pre-reg form has some juicy RP questions to kick off the story, and an option for a permanent STRAIN CHANGE!

We’ve had some heavy combat and intense stories so far this season, so IMPRINT BY DESIGN is going to be a bit of a change of pace. This is going to give us all time to delve deep into one of the pillars of the Dystopia Rising experience - ROLEPLAY. This post will discuss a few light STORY SPOILERS for our next event, so we hope you enjoy what we have in store!

Photo credits in this post are from Max Pohlmeier, Lainey Weiss, Crystal Louise Remy, and Noah Goodman.

Let’s talk a little bit about the story of the next event…

The Premise of Imprint by Design

Grandfather Nichols has breathed his last, and that black heart pumped out the last of his ichor-like vitality upon the shores of Lake Bravado.  But in the wake of his final death, the impact of his Grand Finale is still being felt across the San Saba.  Dr. I.E. Esgrove, a visitor to Bravado that was shocked by the ravages of the Necrophage, has been spurred to pursue funding from one Felicity Redfield regarding a new revelation.  Esgrove has found the waste of the Necrophage and its cure clinging to the Infection of individuals across the San Saba, and realized the new potential it can offer for change and restoration.

With the new blessing of the RRC, Dr. Esgrove has been working around the clock delving deep into the Facility underneath Bravado to fuel their machine, a device he calls the T.I.T.A.N Processor.  Esgrove has declared the next trade to be the great unveiling of his creation, and there is a call out to the wastes for the brightest, driven, and best – gearheads, scientists, and tinkerers alike to come and join in the culmination.  Miss Felicity Redfield has even graciously volunteered to display her trust in Bravado and Esgrove by being the first test subject.  

The T.I.T.A.N. Processor has been set up on the edge of the Facility, just a short trek from Downtown Bravado, for all to come see the flash of great brilliance when the switches are thrown. Come one, come all, to witness a new miracle of science!

If you were outside of Kiva on Sunday of our last event, you might have even met the titular Dr. I.E. Esgrove, played by Brett Pittman as a kind of Sunday Spoiler. He is sure to be an important character during this event, so if you paid attention, you might have an inkling of his plans and the miracles he is bringing to Bravado.

WHERE CAN I BUY TICKETS?

Right here, of course.

PRE-REGISTRATION: WHAT DO I GET?

Once you’ve bought your ticket (or if you are still on the fence), let’s talk about what you get.

If you can, we hope you can get your tickets early and help our team with some advanced ideas of how many players to prepare for, what kinds of NPC shifts we can expect to have for big fights, and help craft our plans for cabins and tenting. Pre-registration helps us with all of these things and more, but it even offers some nice advantages for you as well..

SAVE TIME ON SITE!

While you can still purchase a ticket for IMPRINT BY DESIGN on site, the BEST advantage to getting a ticket early is that we will have your Character Sheet pre-printed and ready to go so you can save time in line. Spend that time claiming a bunk, setting up your tent, plot out your item builds for the weekend, grabbing dinner with your friends from all over, or just use it to take your time getting into that neat upgrade to your costume.

OPT IN TO THE STORY

In the pre-registration questionnaire, you will have your FIRST opportunity to OPT IN to the Imprint by Design plot kit in person. Opting into this story will give us lots of time to put thought and care into the story we want to tell involving YOUR character and desires as a player.

• Folks that purchase a ticket and opt-in by Wednesday, October 26th will have additional time to make preparations and digest the information packet that will be going out shortly after. This will give you time to gathering costuming or make plans for character changes, as we will be able to have this information out about two weeks before game.

• Folks who pre-reg AFTER today or at the door can still participate in this plot, but you will be fast-tracked into a simpler plot track to account for the lack of prep time. You will still be able to participate in the Strain Change shenanigans!

CONTENT LIST

As with every game in DR:TX, you can find a list of the content you can expect to encounter in one of our games, in the Nordic tradition of innehållsförteckning, or “ingredients list”, which was first created by Nordic game designer Karin Edman.

The themes of Dystopia Rising often touch close to our real world in ways we cannot always avoid. The DR:TX team believes that we can still tell these stories about challenging topics, but we also believe we need to be transparent about our intentions and allow folks to opt-out of any mechanics from those stories. In our tradition of radical trust, we want to also trust in each player that attends our game to know their own limits and be able to choose to avoid topics and situations that make them uncomfortable.

Some particular elements from our Content List to consider for this game:

• Mutated and hostile fauna, including spiders, snakes, deer, bears, and clowns.

• Intense emotional situations, where characters may be pushed to their emotional limits.

• Disease, infection, and consequences of diseases

• Simulated psychological role play

The story of Imprint by Design will provide some great roleplaying prompts to really DELVE deep into what is important to your character and their role in the wastelands. If you choose to dig into this plot, you’ll have some chances to make some important choices for your character, even one that can change some integral parts of who they are.

Don’t worry, there will still be zombies and other threats this weekend, lots of opportunities for building new augments, being hunted in the woods by the strange things in the dark, and lots of chances for ROLEPLAY.

Let’s talk about the important specifics…

Permanent Strain change

This next game will offer a unique opportunity for characters that opt-in to the key plot of the weekend. This will be a key theme of the weekend, and you might see folks experiencing an unforeseen change because of these decisions in game.

If you participate in the story and complete a series of tasks, you will have an opportunity to permanently change the Strain of your character.

That’s right.

A permanent Strain Change.

Doing something like this normally costs 1000 CAPS to change your character permanently as part of a Character Rewrite, but during this event you will be able to achieve this change for (mostly) FREE.

Strain changes are certainly not a guaranteed or required outcome to this plot, but it WILL be an option if you engage with the unique mechanics of this event. If you get impacted by IMPRINT DISSONANCE, you’ll still have an option to keep your original Strain, too.

This means if you’ve always been jealous of your friend’s ability to make money as an Elitariat, or to ignore Mangle Limbs as an Unstable, you could have a chance to make a big change for your character. This can be a great way to add some life back into a character that you’ve had for a while, and it sure to be a great source of role play regarding the changes. We had a similar option like this back at the start of 3.0, so this is your second chance if you missed the changeover from 2.0.

• NOTE: There could be an in-character COST to this effect, involving a Roleplay Burden that persists past this event, but I’ll cover that mechanic below. Past this, there are some slight changes to the Body/Mind/Resolve/Infection XP costs that might come from this change, but in general you will stay at the same level of core Stats and Skills you have now, and if there is some weirdness there like an XP debt or lowering your Infection stat too low, we will address that case-by-case. The Character Database can be kinda weird sometimes about this sort of thing, but I know we will be able to handle any weird quirks of a Strain Change after the event as this is no different than any other limited rewrite.

So, let’s talk about the key mechanics of the weekend, as a teaser of what to expect during Imprint by Design.

Custom Mechanics: Roleplay Burdens

One key aspect of this ability to change your Strain will be a new form of ROLEPLAY BURDEN. This was a mechanic we premiered during our first event this season, but I’ve included the rules from our Local Mechanics below:

ROLEPLAY BURDEN

Keyword. A character can have one Roleplay Burden at a time. A Roleplay Burden must be fulfilled once per 12s, or else it will turn into a Fracture.  Roleplay Burdens can be soothed or cured as if they were a Fracture, but does not count as a Fracture for preventing use of certain Skills.  Players can opt-out of a particular RP behavior at any time, but must fulfill any required mechanical cost or effects. Roleplay Burdens expire at the end of an event, unless the player chooses to keep them longer.

During Imprint by Design, your characters may acquire a new version of this mechanic. The Necrophage has had some lasting impacts, and for some this manifests as an IMPRINT DISSONANCE. This condition will be something that can be fixed by engaging with the key elements of this overarc plot.

Imprint Dissonance (Roleplay Burden)

Keyword. While a character is affected by IMPRINT DISSONANCE, they are caught in a state of flux and mutability between two different Strain imprints.

The affected character must either obviously Roleplay as the new Strain or use obvious costuming and makeup to represent the new Strain at least once per 12s. If you do not fulfill this burden by costuming or roleplay once per 12s, you lose 1 Resolve. If you cannot spend Resolve in this way, you gain a FRACTURE each time instead.

While affected by Imprint Dissonance, this character counts as a member of the NEW Strain for purposes of Strain meals, brews, and effects that target that Strain. They temporarily lose their former Lineage Advantage and gain the Lineage Advantage of the new Strain while affected by this Roleplay Burden. This Roleplay Burden effect cannot be cured or soothed as normal until specific conditions are met.

This is an important trait of the weekend, but this condition will ONLY be acquired by opting into the plot of Imprint by Design. This ability will allow your character to functionally BE the new Strain as long as you meet some minor roleplay requirements. That includes handy things like being able to drink a Mind Restoring brew that matches your new Strain, but it also means stuff like BANE DAMAGE targeting your new Strain will affect you as well.

Costuming changes aren’t required for this, but it is encouraged. If you don’t want to spend money on new costuming, that’s completely fine. You can either do the roleplay, or simply spend a Resolve instead.

Clever folks will realize this is just the Strain costuming rules from page 181 in the DR Corebook, but as a Roleplay Burden.

This is one reason why we want to let you know about this mechanic in advance, so you can plan some neat changes for your kit if you choose and why we included a roleplay aspect option instead of costuming. We want to give you the opportunity for some neat roleplay prompts, and we hope you will be excited about all the fun stories and possibilities this can offer.

Wrap UP

That’s it for today Vados!

We hope you are interested by the unique opportunities that IMPRINT BY DESIGN will offer your characters. How important is your Strain to your character? Have you wanted to be a different Strain this whole time but couldn’t afford the CAPS? What will your character do if something like their Strain changes for them unexpectedly?

Next week, I’ll talk a bit about the RULES of Strains and Lineages. If you get a chance to try out some new Lineage advantages, it might help to appreciate some of the nuances and rules to remember!

See you soon!

Item Cards & Blueprints

It’s Jonathan here again with another Rules Ramble! Each week, I’ll introduce a topic that will be important in an upcoming game, explain some new mechanic or system for DR:TX, or discuss a particular rule from the DR Corebook. In each ramble, I’ll focus on explaining that topic in more detail than the book alone can provide and help provide one place to reference all the various errata or rulings that might be relevant. Sometimes I’ll even drop a few Story Teasers or provide a summary of the last game in a Game Recap.

As we get ready for our next event, IMPRINT BY DESIGN, I'm going to be covering a bit more of the classic Rules Ramble topics - actual RULES. We just released a bunch of new blueprints this last weekend, so I wanted to talk about some of my favorite parts of the economy game in Dystopia Rising — Expiration Dates, Item Cards, and Blueprints!

Charlie Dales, the Lighthouse Keeper of Brownstone Island, a doomsday cultist recently escaped from captivity at Killhouse during the PYROCLASM.

Tickets are on sale for IMPRINT BY DESIGN right noW! DON’t miss out on the next DR:TX event!

Photos used in this post are a sneak peek at the photos from our National Event, PYROCLASM, and these few were shot by Lainey Weiss. The rest of the photos will be out soon, and our photography team got some amazing moments captured!

EXPIRATION DATES

Almost every Item Card in Dystopia Rising is designed to EXPIRE, save for Blueprints, Currency, Scrap, and a few other unique exceptions. Things like Meals expire at the end of the event, while Brews and Gizmos can last from 6 months to a year. More permanent items like Weapons or Armor might last for a year or more, and Vehicles can be extended for up to FIVE years. But, in the end, many of your items in game will need to be replaced — eventually.

Items have expiration dates to prevent participants from creating stockpile gluts while simultaneously representing the decay of resources over time. While some objects have expiration dates that are notably shorter than comparable real-world objects, and other items are given expiration dates that are longer than comparable real-world objects, the mechanical design of expiration dates ensures that participants have a need for investing materials into production instead of allowing the materials to simply sit around (thereby not fulfilling their purpose of causing players to engage with each other). (DR Corebook, p. 166)

There are a few basic rules about Expiration Dates:

• Once an item card passes the Expiration Date on the card, it is no longer a usable item in game, unless a rule specifically allows you to use expired items. Most folks simply throw away the card, unless they keep it for sentimental value.

• Expiration dates written on a card count the game they are crafted in. So, if you made an item with a 3-month duration during our upcoming November event, IMPRINT BY DESIGN, it would have an expiration date of January 2023 (Nov + Dec + Jan), and NOT February.

  • This also means that crafting items with a short duration on Sunday is rarely a good idea. You will have already basically wasted a month on the item. Get that crafting done early on Friday and get to use the item for the whole weekend!

• We normally write expiration dates on a card by month and not date. If an item has a particular date listed, it was meant to expire at the end of the event. Some items even expire after only a few HOURS!

• Our staff will not change or modify the date written on a card. Items that make a card usable after it expires will generally add a word “EXTENDED” on the card instead but leave the original expiration date. If an item was written wrong or it is an item like a Vehicle that adds to the expiration date when upgraded, we will issue a new card rather than change the date on the old card.

• Herbs found with the Foraging skill and Produce made with Hunting have a 3-month expiration, while those Herbs and Produce gathered with Agricultural will have a 6-month expiration.

• Local Plot Cards normally last 1-3 months, but never more than 6 months. This includes any items that the LPC would generate. If you had a Local item that made scrap, those scrap made by the item would ALSO be on Local Plot Cards and limited to 6 months. (p. 170)

• Not all item cards expire, but most do. Notable exceptions are Blueprints, Currency, and most Scrap cards. There were some blueprints in 2.0 that expired, and it would be easy to see that mechanic return to 3.0. I can also see a world where scrap cards eventually get an expiration date, but I for one enjoy being able to trade in non-expiring scrap for the moment, especially now that we can Smelt & Weld!

Once an item is expired, it is basically just a dead card in your pocket and can be discarded. There are very few ways to take advantage of expired cards at the moment, but the Extended Warranty item purchased with Master Trade Connections remains a limited way to add one more month to a recently expired item. In DR:TX, the Lovelace Family can also offer contractors a San Saba Sundry called “Waste Not” that allows you to temporarily use recently expired Produce and Herbs.

It’s still a monologue if you are only listening to avoid being murdered…

The Impermanence of things

So why did I start with Expiration Dates today? This might seem like a weird rules topic to begin a discussion about item cards and blueprints, but we’ve finally hit an important date.

We have finally hit the day where ALL crafted items in the live game have a relevant expiration date.

Back in December 2021, Kyle and the National Team created some extended expiration dates for items that had been written BEFORE the Covid-19 pandemic. This was a great way to make sure that folks didn’t lose progress on items they made in the few months at the start of 3.0 and the pandemic, but it created a bit of a weird situation.

If you made an item with a 6-month expiration date in October of 2019, and it would expire in 3/2020, then that item got extended for almost TWO YEARS longer. This meant that nice gizmos like Merchant’s Monocles, useful augments, anti-Larceny Supply Bags, and more stayed in the game for much longer than originally anticipated.

Of note, LIT items remain a bit of an exception to this rule, but they still are removed with an expiration date starting from January 2022. There were also several Buy Lists items like Lock Poppers that gained the LEGACY tag that will expire very soon, by 12/2022.

Some of these pieces that gained months to their usefulness were designed with a shorter expiration on purpose, and it made people that quickly built gear in 3.0 have a strong economic advantage versus those that didn’t. If you didn’t have to spend extra scrap every few months replacing that augment for your Toothpiq Chopper, you could spend that time and resources on making different items to sell or trade. The return on your investment for items built in the early parts of 2019 was very, very, good.

But now, everything is going to finally expire.

Our PYROCLASM event in October 2022 was the LAST event for the 22-month extensions on those original carded items, and barring a few items being saved from expiring like I mentioned above, most of that stuff is now just dust in the wind…

However, it will be okay.

In my humble opinion, The economy game of Dystopia Rising can be described with the philosophy of “mono no aware”.

This is a Japanese philosophy that means, literally "the pathos of things", and is also translated as "an empathy toward things", or "a sensitivity to ephemera". It is a Japanese idiom for the awareness of impermanence (無常, mujō), or transience of things, and both a transient gentle sadness (or wistfulness) at their passing as well as a longer, deeper gentle sadness about this state being the reality of life. (Wikipedia)

For me, this idea helps reinforce that the wastelands of the zombie apocalypse are cruel and uncaring places to exist. Radiation, disease, rot, and ruin permeate the setting, and it makes keeping things a challenge. Even the idea that your character may not be permanent, as each death takes you closer to a final end can be tied into this philosophy.

For the last few years, Artisan crafting has been somewhat lackluster. There were a few new blueprints here and there to be sure, but we have yet to really see what I would describe as a “replacement cycle” happen. We are finally approaching a moment when a player needs to replace their key gear and items once they expire, and that means there will be a need for scrap, blueprints, and crafters once more. Couple this new list of expiring items with the recent Augment blueprint release, and we have a BRAND-NEW WORLD where you really need to consider if that item is worth building and maintaining. Like the coyote chasing the roadrunner, it is a cycle that continues to give those crafters something to work towards in game.

Dystopia Rising is designed in a way that items are meant to be very expensive to maintain and equip (p. 166). While most folks can invest in a weapon or two, armor and a few brews, having too many Augments or short expiration date gizmos can be prohibitively expensive to upkeep. Multiply this cost by all the people in your crew, and it’s become more important than ever to really decide what is important to your character and crew. I know for my crew, the Road Royals, we already started to have these discussions about how to best spend our hard-earned scrap and herb. You gotta really hustle if you want to keep building new augments and useful gear, especially for a big team.

And that’s really, really neat, to me.

Now, I have MORE reasons to seek out another crafter to help us make some new Augments. I have MORE reasons to see out a farmer to make some herb. I have MORE reasons to borrow that blueprint for a Gizmo from a printer. Each time I do, I’ll get another chance to practice the 10-Foot Rule and have another reason to engage with the part of the game I enjoy most.

I have MORE reasons to engage with the economy and interact with the other players in the game.

Expiration dates are a GOOD thing, in my mind, and I’m glad that they are once again more relevant. They give us a reason to keep building, keep crafting, keep trading, and keep interacting with our friends and rivals.

Next, let’s continue the discussion about Item Cards and Blueprints with a few references I’ve made to help out our local players on the website.

It’s about to be a real bad time for this poor duster…

Item Cards

YOU can find the mostly complete rules for item cards in the DR Corebook starting on page 165-175.

A big part of keeping the Dystopia Rising game fairly rules-light is the use of ITEM CARDS to represent mechanical effects past what your character sheet and Skills can cover.

Item Cards you find in game will be approximately the size of a standard business card. If you lose the Item Card (or accidentally wash it after a game), you lose the item too — so keep them safe! Many players will have elaborate card boxes or binders to organize their cards, but some will just shove them into a pocket of their costume, attach them to a phys rep, or put them into their Supply Bag.

Item Card Rules - The Basics

Item Cards have a few simple rules.

• Item Cards are broken into general categories of resources, blueprints, currency, and item cards. (p. 166)

• Item Cards require having a physical representation for all items involved to use and are not intended to replace the goal of “what you see is what you get”.

  • You can find some examples of Basic Starting Props in the DR Corebook (p. 28). This covers things like brews, injectables, weapons, armor, and supply bags.

  • We also have several sections on our website with picture suggestions for props for common items your character might need in game, as well as crafting suggestions.

• Any item with a game mechanical effect should have a corresponding item card. (p. 29)

• Any item card that is NOT represented by a physical prop should be kept in your Supply Bag, not your pockets. (p. 29, 171)

• Item cards that represent resources like scrap, herb, and salvage must be kept in your Supply Bag when not in use. Players are encouraged to carry some props (like plants or bits of scrap) with their Supply Bags to assist in representing these item cards. (p. 168)

“You ‘steaders are talking an awful lot of shit for someone in stabbin’ range…”

Other Item Card Rules

Item Cards are purposefully pretty basic, but there are a few other inferred rules scattered in the book that I’ve collected into one place:

• You can get new Item Cards largely from the Public Works, or Post Office, after using an appropriate skill or blueprint. This is the primary way item cards enter the game. (p. 174)

• You can also find new Item Cards in the world with various gathering skills like Foraging or Salvaging, during modules, or in the pockets of defeated enemies after you search their corpse. However, looting the bodies is never going to be the primary way to find new items or currency. The economy of DR is designed with the players generating the lion’s share of the cards in the game. If you want new cards you gotta do it yourself!

• You don’t need an Item Card to sell minor items in game like food, drinks, services, jewelry, trinkets, or other inconsequential items that have no mechanics. (p. 171)

• Weapons, Shields, Firearms, and other lightest-touch combat items should be TAGGED by our Safety Guides. These tags let a player know at a glance what level of an item that prop represents. This also helps us identify who the prop belongs to in the case the item is stolen or misplaced, as the tags will be marked with your player number, and the guide who approved the item for safe boffer combat.

  • Starter weapons are tagged with a WHITE TAG.

  • Basic crafted items are marked with a GREEN TAG.

  • Proficient crafted items are marked with a YELLOW TAG.

  • Master crafted items are marked with a RED TAG.

• Starter Items are not required to have an Item Card but DO require a physical prop. While these items can be stolen, you can simply get a new one at any time from the Post Office. (p. 100)

• Item Cards have common KEYWORDS. These are found in the rulebook on p. 175 and additional Keywords are found on our Local Rules site and on the National Lexicon page.

• Room Augments (blueprint items in player made spaces that have specific rules) and Crafting Zones (open areas where items can be built with Artisan, Agricultural, and Culinary) should have physical props, be obvious at a glance that they are a purposeful set of props to do that task and require the space to be approved by the Gamerunners.

  • In DR:TX, we have open crafting zones that any player can access, in both Wasteland and non-Wasteland areas. There are Artisan Crafting Zones in the Depot and Delvedown Camp, Agricultural Crafting Zones outside the Depot and in the Meadows, and Culinary Crafting Zones in the Dive and the Depot.

  • You can also request special Crafting Zones or Augments with CAPS.

• Item cards can be taken from you when someone SEARCHES your body while you are in Bleed Out or otherwise Subdued and can be stolen from within another player’s Supply Bag with the Larceny skill. (p. 118).

  • I’ve covered many of the common Theft interactions in my Thick as Thieves article, available on our website.

sample item cards

Item Cards will be pretty obvious in game, but so you know what to look for we’ve included some examples below. Many of the cards will even have a few of the relevant rules printed on them for easy reference later. These were designed for the entire DR National Network by our very own Aesa Garcia.

There are several types of Item Cards you will see in game:

• Scrap - These represent bits of metal and useful materials for weapons and engineered items. These items normally don’t expire and are used in most Artisan Blueprints. You can acquire these items via the skills Salvaging, Foraging, Trailblazing, and Trade Connections.

• Herb & Produce- These are plants, vegetables, and seasonal herbs used in a variety of Culinary Blueprints and even some Artisan Blueprints. You can acquire these items via the skills Foraging, Hunting, and Agricultural.

• Armor - These are items that provide additional Body to protect you from threats. Once they run out of Body points, they must be repaired by a character with the Artisan skill. These are made with the Artisan skill.

• Brews - These are single-use items that provide a variety of effects from healing, Mind restoration, or temporary buffs. These are made with the Culinary skill.

• Injectables - These are Brews that can be used by a character already in Bleed Out. They are expensive, and cost Resolve to use, but are one of the only ways to save yourself if you are dying alone. These are made with the Culinary skill.

• Meals - These are short-term items made in small batches. These allow for efficient healing and Mind restoration, but expire at the end of the event. There are procedures that can add to their effects or even extend them past the end of the game. These are made with the Culinary skill.

• Room Augments - These are expensive and powerful augments to buildings in the game. Generally they improve a 10’x10’ area, and you must provide the appropriate props to decorate the space. These are made with the Artisan skill.

• Gizmos - This is the most versatile card type, as it covers everything from small handheld engineered items, single use items like smoke bombs or disguise kits, and more. These are made with the Artisan skill.

• Augments - These are new types of items that upgrade and enhance existing items. They can add new abilities to an item or Skill use, but each item can only have ONE augment added to it. These are made with the Artisan skill, but anyone can attach an Augment once it is crafted. (These are currently written on GIZMO item cards but are NOT Gizmos.)

• Non-Mechanical Items - These are items that have no in-game effect, but are often used as components of larger and more expensive items. These can also represent a way for you to provide a card for a neat prop or real-life item you’d like to sell to other players. These are made with both the Artisan and Culinary skills.

• Shield - These are protective items used to block attacks in combat. Crafted shields also provide additional abilities for those that have higher tiers of the Shield skill. These are made with the Artisan skill.

• Trap - These items can make opening a box or crate that doesn’t belong to you the last thing you do. Traps can be placed on containers, stretched across areas as a trip line, or even concealed under a pressure plate. Traps must be represented by a physical prop of some kind, but should never be actually dangerous gadgets in real life — use the card instead! These are made with the Artisan skill.

• Weapon - These are one of the first items most characters acquire in game, as it is a boffer LARP after all. Crafted weapons also provide additional abilities for those that have higher tiers of the various weapon skills. These are made with the Artisan skill.

• Vehicle - These are very expensive items that will require most characters spending several games gathering resources to make them. They never enter play directly but have several powerful effects that represent their influence on the game space. These are made with the Artisan skill.

There are two other types of items cards you’ll encounter in game, each represented by their own unique physical representations:

• Blueprints - These are recipes and schematics for how to build another item in the game. You must have an appropriate Blueprint to build 95% of the items in the game.

  • Culinary Blueprints allow you to craft items with the Culinary skill, including brews, injectables, and meals.

  • Artisan Blueprints allow you to craft items with the Artisan skill, including weapons, armor, shields, gizmos, room augments, vehicles, traps, and more.

  • Procedure and Benediction Blueprints allow you use Skills in new ways, often requiring additional resources to activate the new uses. These can enhance existing items, allow you to restore lost Infection, or even give new uses of Faith skills.

  • Augment Blueprints allow you to craft items that enhance other crafted items like weapons, armor, or gizmos. Each item can only have one Augment.

  • Seasonal Blueprints are periodically released and have an expiration date of generally one year. These prints are used as ways to test powerful or thematic items that may or may not become full blueprints after the year of testing is concluded.

  • Local Blueprints are unique blueprints ONLY usable at that local game. These items often have a local flair and may use resources only available at those chapters

Currency - These valuable cards are one of the primary sources of barter and trade in the game, and a type of resource item card. These are printed on thick plastic cards and represent the in-game money used by characters and organizations in the world. Each chapter has it’s own local currency, and many players collect the various different types of currency in the game.

• Brass (฿) - The currency of the San Saba Territories is the Brass Note. This comes in three varieties, the single currency Brass Note, the five currency Lead Note, or the ten currency Tin Note. These can be generated by the Financial Influence skill, the Elitariat Strain advantage, or by simply trading goods and services with other players.

• Trade Notes - The humble Trade Note is a universal currency used by the merchant guilds of the wastes. It comes in 1-, 5-, and 33- notes, and can usually be traded with travelers at any branch in the network. These can be acquired using the Master Financial Influence Skill or by trading with merchants that come into town.

• Trade Notes are generally accepted at any game in the network, if you choose to travel, but players at other games may prefer to purchase items with their own local currencies. A player with Master Financial Influence can even swap Trade Notes they bring with them to a travel game for the local currency of whatever chapter they visit.

blueprints

Now that we’ve covered the basic types of item cards, let’s dig a bit deeper in one of my favorite types of items - BLUEPRINTS.

I also did a few website updates recently, and if you are a Blueprint hound like me, I added a great resource to our website: The Blueprint Checklist. This page collects the names of ALL currently released blueprints in game in one place and provides a handy way to keep track of your collection. I hope you find it useful!

You can also find a list of all of the CHANGES that have happened to Blueprints since they have released. I eventually plan on including a simpler list on our Texas website, but for now you can find the Blueprint Changelog on the national website, and you can find a listing of most blueprint mechanics in the Item Database:

• Blueprint Changelog — Dystopia Rising (dystopiarisinglarp.com)

• Item Database — Dystopia Rising: Evolved (dystopiarisingnetwork.com)

Blueprints are simply LARGER item cards that allow you to turn resources like herb and scrap into other item cards. These recipes and schematics are the primary way that new items are added to the game.

The DR Corebook really doesn’t cover how integral these items are to the game of Dystopia Rising.

Blueprints are a big part of every pillar of the game, from economy, combat, CVC, and roleplay. There are items that enhance and support each of these aspects of play, and it can be fun to try to collect them all. It’s the main reason I want to dive a bit deeper here, as it’s a frequently misunderstood set of rules.

There are almost THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY (350!) different blueprints currently in game, and each National & Premiere event could add a few more. That’s a lot to keep track of, so it’s no wonder that they can cause a lot of misunderstandings. That’s basically a whole second book of rules to learn about Dystopia Rising!

Blueprints Rules - the Basics

• Blueprints and procedures are full-page item cards that carry instructions for how to craft in-character items or outline how to in-character processes that involve using resources, workspaces, specific sorts of roleplay, certain skills, and certain play areas to create a mechanical effect. (p. 172)

• Blueprints include the majority of the rules of how they work on the blueprint itself. It’s pretty easy, once you see one in person. I’ve included an image of a blueprint below, because this information isn’t readily available in the rulebook.

• Each blueprint lists the Skills to craft, the crafting zone it must be crafted in, any phys reps required for that item, the keywords and item type of the card made, the Skill needed to use the item, the expiration date, and even a bit of flavor text or descriptions.

• There is a list of all the Keywords currently in use on blueprints in the DR Lexicon. All prints will have at least one keyword to define them, most will have two (counting the company name) and a minority will have more.

• Each blueprint can be duplicated by following the instructions on the bottom of the print. Normally this requires some amount of Basic Herb to use as inks, time, and Mind points to craft, but some prints use rarer resources, Skills, Lores, or Resolve. At the end of this time, you can receive an additional copy of that blueprint from the Post Office that you can trade or sell.

  • You must have the Blueprint you are duplicating with you the ENTIRE time, and the process of copying a Blueprint is Full Engagement Active Roleplay, so it can be interrupted if you get knocked into bleed out or use a different Skill.

• Most blueprints (but not all) have three levels of items that can be made: Basic, Proficient, and Master. Once an Artisan item has been crafted at the Master level, it unlocks the abilities in the Master Achievement section. (p. 174)

  • Artisan blueprint items can often be UPGRADED. You can spend the additional time, mind, and resources to trade in an existing item card for the new item, but it keeps the expiration date that was formerly on the card. You can also choose just to craft the item to a higher level by paying the costs of each successive level of the print.

  • Culinary prints are effectively three different prints on one page. Each level is made separately, and you cannot upgrade the items once they are made. You either make a Basic brew, a Proficient brew, or a Master brew when you start to craft the item.

Blueprints - The fine Print

There are a few weird conditions that happen with Blueprints, and I’ll try to cover most of them.

• According to the book, Blueprints are “not unto themselves their own physical representation” (p. 166). However, in the same page it also suggests that you draw schematics on the back of the page to help make them into better props, so it can be confusing. Just remember that blueprints are item cards and should be stored in a Supply Bag when not in use.

• Blueprints will list a “Skill Tree to Craft” on the print. This Skill is required to make the item listed on the blueprint. Some rarer blueprints can even require more than one Skill! This is DIFFERENT than the “Skill Tree to Use”, as some prints can require drastically different skills to craft versus what it takes to use the item.

• Some powerful blueprints will even require certain national Society Memberships (p. 106) like Murder, Inc. or the Red Ledger to craft. In Texas, local blueprints can even require Society Memberships with our local Factions.

• Some (but not all) blueprints will have a Master Achievement (p. 143) listed on the print. This unlocks a special power for that item when used by someone with the matching Profession Focus Achievement (PFA). Culinary blueprints normally don’t have a PFA ability.

• There are two blueprints that can ONLY be used in Online modules - the Temple Room Checker, and High Adventure Beyond Compare.

• Some rarer prints and most Augment prints will require certain Lores to copy the print (p. 141). Right now, it takes EIGHT different Lores and TWO skills (including a Master Skill!) to copy every blueprint in the game, and I fully expect this to continue to increase.

  • Lore: Wasteland Science, Lore: Medical, Lore: Mortis Amaranthine, Lore: Animals, Lore: Raiders, Lore: Undead, Lore: Aberrants, Lore: Faith, Master Education, and Basic Criminal Influence are required to copy every print in the game as of October 2022.

Types of blueprints

There are several different types of blueprints in play. You can find most of these rules starting on p. 172-173 in the DR Corebook, but I’ve included the new types of blueprints released since the book was released here as well - Augments, Start Ups, Seasonal, and Benedictions. Some of these types of blueprints like Start Ups have been in play since the very first digital editions of the book and the first release of 3.0 blueprints but were never added into the descriptions during the many editions since. Others were added recently, like Benedictions. I’ve also included these rules into my Blueprint Checklist.

Let’s discuss the various types below.

Artisan Blueprints

An Artisan Blueprint is a full-page item card that provides instructions for the crafting of materials related to the Artisan skill tree. Items such as weapons, armor, gizmos, augments, and engineered materials fall under this category. Artisan blueprints are available for use across all branches and require resources that are available to be produced at all branches. Blueprints can require certain Skills or Lores to use or to reproduce, and the item cards they produce may require certain physical props or have specific mechanics for having different levels of a Skill linked to that item. Crafting an Artisan item from a blueprint requires the roleplay to be done in an Artisan Crafting Zone. (DR Corebook, p. 172)

Culinary Blueprints (Recipes)

Culinary Blueprints cover all brewed, distilled, cooked, or chemically refined processes related to the Culinary Skill tree, such as brews, meals, poisons, injectibles, and other primarily single-use resources that provide Mind, Body, or mechanical effects. For an item created by a Culinary blueprint to be used there must be a reasonable physical representation that ensures at a glance anyone observing an individual using the item can easily identify what they are doing. Meals require either a real meal or at least genre-appropriate packaging that an individual is eating, and brews required the appropriate type of container (injectable or brew bottle) for them to be used. Crafting an item from a Culinary blueprint requires the roleplay to be done in a Culinary Crafting Zone. (DR Corebook, p. 172)

Augment Blueprints

Augment Blueprints are a new type of Artisan Blueprint. These use the same rules as the Artisan Blueprints found on p. 172 but allow for a unique type of item to be crafted — Augments. Augments are a special type of item that “attaches” to an existing item and enhances it in a particular way. These items typically last 3 months and can only be attached once. Removing it from the attached item destroys the augment, though the larger item remains intact. It takes 2 minutes of roleplay and a trip to the Post Office to attach an Augment to an item. An item can only have one augment attached to it at a time.

Augment Blueprints often require advanced Skills and Lores to reproduce, and two of the Augments were first released as Seasonal Blueprints.

ProceduRE BLUEPRINTS

A Procedure Blueprint is a series of instructions to cause a specific mechanical effect based on the user having the required skills, resources, time, and environment. Procedures are often linked directly to Ranks of Achievement (PFAs) and have specific requirements for causing the effect outlined. As with crafting, the fact that an individual is performing a procedure should be apparent at a glance by someone passing by, and when an individual is the Target or performing a procedure, they can use no other skills or engage in other activities that detract from the procedure itself. (DR Corebook, p. 173)

Start Up Blueprints

Start Up Blueprints are designed for players to use with the local Settings team to create immersive role-playing spaces that allow players to engage with a type of role-play regardless of experience points or skills. These prints often require specific tangible mechanical aspects of roleplay to determine success or failure in creation of the Startup space. Zero resources are required for the production of these spaces and at least 10 players must engage in 30 minutes of active role-play building these spaces in the appropriate Crafting Zone. (from the Blueprint text)

Benediction Blueprints

Benediction Blueprints are new types of blueprints designed for use with Faithful Anomaly skills, like Faithful Patterns, Faithful Miracles, etc. These items often require the participants to have certain Anomaly skills, be baptized into a similar faith, and require unique mechanics or conditions to perform. The instructions for how to use these blueprints are included on the blueprint themselves, and they can differ between Benedictions.

Seasonal Blueprints

Seasonal Blueprints are temporary blueprints, usable in play for a set amount of time. These prints will be generally released for a single year with an expiration date. After a year, the mechanics and themes will be reviewed and adjusted as needed before being applied as a more accessible print. Each of the batches of blueprints below were released at a National Event before being distributed through the network.

Currently, all Seasonal Blueprints are marked as “Season 0” as a result of the virtual events during the pandemic. These blueprints are currently under review by the National Blueprint Team and will likely experience changes from their current forms before becoming national blueprints.

Regional & Local Blueprints

Regional Blueprints are Artisan, Culinary, and other procedures specific to a certain game’s story arc. Items created by regional blueprints may be traded and used in any branch, but the crafting and use of the blueprints and procedures themselves are limited to the game they are assigned to. A regional blueprint has a specific branch’s name on it, and it can only be used at that branch or at cross-network events. There are currently NO Regional Blueprints in play, and these rules may change in the future. (DR Corebook, p. 173)

Local Blueprints are a new type of blueprint that has been released by a local chapter for their game. Notably, DR: Arkansas, DR: Connecticut, DR: New York, and DR: Texas all have various versions of these types of blueprints, and I’m sure I missed a few. While these can be copied and used as a normal blueprint within that Chapter, they may not be used outside of that game without the approval of your local game runners. These items often have a local flair and may use resources only available at those chapters. I’ve included these here for completion’s sake, but these are not official national blueprints and cannot be found in the Item Database.

Wrap Up

That’s it for this week, Vados! I hope you enjoyed this look into some of the key mechanics of our game, and a return to form for our Rules Rambles.

I didn’t realize how much research goes into one of these posts until writing this one, and I’ve realized I’ve had it a bit easy since my last month of posts has been national event related. I hope you appreciate the labor, and make sure to tell your friends to read my stuff!

Next week, we will talk a bit about the upcoming story of IMPRINT BY DESIGN, and I hope to have a STORY RECAP for our first two games up very soon.

See you in the wastes, Vados!