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The Crisis Center

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How will you decide the Fate of Waking?

Waking’s fall represents a huge humanitarian crisis, plus the chaos of the Rook’s rabble rousing… So how do you get involved?

THE CRISIS CENTER!

It’s Heather here with our weekly blog post for the upcoming event, VOX POPULI!

This is the leadup for our May DR:TX event written by me, Heather Halstead, Overarc ST for our Season Closer, and Operational Storyteller for Season 5. Today we will talk about how The Crisis Center Works, some CVC Best Practices, and more!

TICKETS FOR VOX POPULI are on sale now! don’t miss OUT!!!

THIS POST WILL DISCUSS A FEW LIGHT STORY SPOILERS FOR OUR NEXT EVENT, SO WE HOPE YOU ENJOY WHAT WE HAVE IN STORE!

Our photos for this post were taken from previous DR:TX events by our talented Photo Team.

“And how did you plan on paying your delinquent Grave Tax? Would you like to take advantage of our low-cost extended financing and payment deferral at a low APR of 320%?”

The Crisis Center

The Crisis Center will be set up for the majority of the game in the DEPOT (Cafeteria). Organized by Felicity Redfield, CEO of the Railroad Conglomerate, this is the place you will plan to rescue refugees, turn in needed supplies, or maybe sabotage efforts to keep Waking afloat. The Crisis Center is the primary place you will take ACTION to make one of Waking’s THREE OUTCOMES come to life. 

There is going to be A TON of things to do from this board. We are working hard to really represent how IMMENSE the efforts are to affect Waking’s Fate. 

This in character space will consist of:

  • A Map of Waking

  • Bulletin Boards full of ACTIONS any player can complete

  • A radio to facilitate occasional communication with Waking

  • A dropbox to drop your completed ACTION slips. 

Here’s the mockup of what we are planning, courtesy of Heather

The goal of the Crisis Center is to have a very low threshold of entry.

Anyone can complete an Action from the Center and interact with the plot and have things to do that MATTER. But the Center will also provide large benefits to digging deeper into the mechanics to be strategic with your choices. 

There will be over EIGHTY Total Actions available. NOT ALL OF THEM NEED TO BE COMPLETED. But I’d rather you guys have too many, rather than not enough. Hell, if you are like me and get overwhelmed by too many options.. Just pick one of the right color and go from there. Don’t worry about reading every Action on the board. 

Every Outcome will have a color. So for example, all the Actions that advance the Emergency Landing Outcome will be on the same color of paper (probably green, but subject to change when we go to print.)

Some actions may not be added to the board until later in the event due to other mods that occur, so you may not see all 80+ up at game on. 

There will be an equal number of actions for each outcome. And we are monitoring the total resource cost of each Outcome as well across all actions. 

The Outcome that has the most Actions completed by 7:00pm on Saturday will decide THE FATE OF WAKING. 

Just to highlight that again: Actions need to be completed by 7pm Saturday. 

We will be tallying the actions throughout the event and will work to provide a running score for players to reference. 

So, how do I use it?

The Basics

  • Walk up to the Bulletin Board

  • Choose an Action posted there that you want to complete

  • Use the provided slip to mark that Action “Pending”

  • Go complete the action!

  • Return to the Crisis Center, take down the Action from the board, sign it with your player number, get any guide to sign off on it and STAMP it COMPLETE!

  • Drop the action (and any relevant other materials) into the ACTION BOX.

BOOM.

You’ve just moved the needle on The Fate of Waking. 

Action claimed by a pending slip!

Completed Action! This goes in the Action Box.

Actions will vary. Some of these actions are mods that you can request from Ops! Most of these actions are roleplay, resource gathering, or ZOM behaviors that you can complete without NPCs or a staff presence. If you need to be given a prop to complete it, the slip will tell you where to get that prop.

Each Action will be COLOR CODED and labeled as to which OUTCOME it is associated with. So, if your character’s goal is to Emergency Land Waking, take a look at all the GREEN slips of paper on the board! Those will be the actions you’ll want to complete to advance your OUTCOME. 

Before we get into the more complex aspects of the Crisis Center, there are a few important rules I want to outline:

  • Each ACTION on the board can be completed ONCE. If there are actions that can be multiple times, there will be multiple copies of them on the board. But as a rule, one action slip = one instance of that action. 

  • If you find a duplicate Action, please leave it for someone else if you’ve already completed one of the same action. For example, there might be three Action Slips that read “Send 10 Recovered Electronics to Waking”. Complete one, and leave the other two for other players. Or get a group together of at least 3 LCs and do all three. But no one LC should turn in duplicate actions.

  • Once an Action is marked “Pending” no one else can claim it until the “Pending” tag is removed. Pending tags may be removed if any action stays in this status for too long without being completed.

  • If you mark an Action as PENDING, you should work to complete it as soon as possible. This is a huge one! If an action is left pending for too long, the staff will remove your pending tag, and the Action will be able to be claimed by others and you will either lose out on that Action, or have to go reclaim it. We want to avoid situations where someone claims an Action, then gets stuck going to 3 meetings and 2 gravemind scenes and forgets, leaving that Action, and that VOTE, in limbo. There is no set time an action can be pending, because actions vary in difficulty level. We’re all going to work to use our best judgment and we ask you do the same. 

  • You cannot mark Actions as pending that you do not intend to complete. The Bulletin Board itself should not factor into your strategy to beat out the competition at this event. The board is our way of helping players know what they can do to affect the setting, not a place where anything should be obscured, obfuscated, or tampered with. 

  • Please do not Remove Actions from the board unless you have completed them. You may need take attached ZOMs or other documents if you’re working on that Action. But please do not remove action slips themselves until you’ve completed them. Actions that are removed and aren’t accounted for in the Action Box will just be reposted. And it will make me cry to have to do that paperwork. Please don’t make me cry. My cry time is strictly scheduled for post-event only. 

  • Please do your best to avoid reading actions for the OUTCOMES you are NOT working towards. This will help everyone avoid unintentional meta-gaming. This isn’t a hard and fast rule, but it will help us keep competition and CVC more organic. If you SEE someone tampering with Waking circuit boards, by all means, call them out! Fight about it! But don’t camp the circuit boards because you read on the Bulletin Board that there was an option to sabotage them. 

We are quite literally putting all our cards on the table to help everyone get as involved as possible, but in order for it to work, we need you guys to help us, by being diligent with this mechanic so everyone can have a chance to enjoy it. 

Now, let’s look DEEPER.

This is for the folks who want more STRATEGY.

Districts and Threat Scores

Waking is going to be divided into 5 DISTRICTS. Actions will be evenly distributed between districts. Each District has a THREAT SCORE. This score represents how likely that District is to become inaccessible during the event. This is a crashing ship, after all. A district might fall off, or collapse, or be intentionally cut away by a group of n’er-do-wells in a desperate attempt to maintain altitude…. You know, the usual. 

So if District A has a THREAT SCORE of 5… you should probably focus on getting those Actions done first because that District has the highest CHANCE of being destroyed.. And if its destroyed, all Uncompleted Actions for it will be removed. 

So what might cause a District Collapse?

  • The primary way a District will be in danger is during one of our STEERING EVENTS. We covered these events in last week’s blog post.

  • These STEERING EVENTS are how you decide where on the San Saba Map that the city of Waking ends up. But moving such a massive ship causes heavy strain. So if at 12:30AM Friday night everyone wants to MOVE THE SHIP RIGHT, all the engines on the LEFT side of the ship will have to fire… and the Districts on that side of the city have a chance of being destroyed. So hold your breath when you radio Waking on where to steer.… and wait to hear what, if any, the damage is.

  • Out of game, this will be determined by rolling some dice by the ST. The higher the threat score, the higher the chance the dice say it collapses.

  • There are some Actions that might affect Districts if completed. Either by removing them from play, or by raising their THREAT SCORES.

Actions for each outcome will also be evenly spread across districts. We don’t want one Outcome to get fucked over just because of a couple unlucky dice rolls. 

Some Actions are marked “Duster Only”

This should be self-explanatory. If you aren’t a Duster, don’t claim these actions.

If a Duster asks you for help on an action they’ve already claimed, go ham. Hell, maybe enlist a few Dusters to join you on your quest to achieve an outcome, and get them involved proactively! If a Duster Only action is completed by someone who is not within their first three games, it will be excluded from the tally.

There will still be the normal, scheduled mods we all know and love, and some of these mods will have choice points that affect the Outcome as well. These choice points will be telegraphed so that you know what your choices in the mod are affecting. We will also keep these opportunities equal across the span of the event. 

WHEW! That’s a lot.

Thanks for sticking with me so far. We’re very excited to give you guys different avenues to affect this wide sweeping plot, and we hope you really dig into this mechanic. 

If there is a slow moment for you (which is…. doubtful, given how packed this schedule is that I’m eyeballin’ right now, but I guess could happen!), go to the Crisis Center, claim and action, and get to WORK. 

CVC Best Practices

We covered this previously, but its such an important topic, I want to cover it again. 

Jonathan has written excellent posts about CVC, how to keep it fun, and how to get the most out of the experience. Check them out!

In this event, there is more likelihood of CVC, especially Social CVC than in some of our previous events, because we have LCs vying for DIFFERENT OUTCOMES. And that’s awesome! Responsible CVC can lead to some truly amazing and impactful moments for everyone involved.

So what does ‘Responsible CVC’ mean, then? If you came out to the Live Q&A last week, you heard my request to everyone, and about My Best Practices for Successful CVC. 

Responsible CVC is largely about your GOAL and MINDSET.

As a PLAYER, your goal in a CVC encounter, whether it be social (maybe it’s a yelling match!) or physical (the conflict comes to blows!) should NOT be “to win”. If your PLAYER goal is to win, then if you don’t, you are just left feeling disappointed and frustrated. 

However, if you shift your GOAL from winning the encounter to “having a badass scene with another player” then the actual outcome of the CVC scene is way less important. Because regardless of if you convinced them to vote your way, or you didn’t, you had a cool, memorable, impactful scene… and that’s what it should be about. 

Some of my most memorable and fun CVC moments were ones where I got the shit beaten out of me (physically or emotionally/socially), because while my character’s goal was to win, my goal as a player was just to have a cool moment. 

That being said, it’s okay to calibrate a scene that is too intense.

This best practice takes.. Well.. practice.

We always have the OK Check in System to calibrate an intense scene in the moment to either ramp it down, or up, if that’s your jam. Also, you -are allowed to break character- to tell someone to scale it back. We like to preach about the OK Check In System because it keeps everyone immersed, but if you feel like you are getting overwhelmed, we would much rather you break a little immersion than suffer a scene that you aren’t into. 

If you are averse to this type of in game conflict, we recommend instead sticking to the Crisis Center Actions, and avoiding the big Steering Events. There are plenty of Actions that you can complete that don’t have CVC baked into them. 

Wrap Up

That’s it for this week! If you have any additional questions, please let us know! There will be instructions posted at game as well for everyone to reference. 

Waking’s fate is in your hands. And the San Saba will never look the same. Remember that tickets are on sale now.

Pre-register and get your choice of NPC shift to maximize your experience!

“See you soon Vados!”

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The Fall of Waking Prime

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It’s Jonathan here with our next weekly blog post for the upcoming event, VOX POPULI! This is the leadup for our May DR:TX event written by Heather Halstead, Overarc ST for our Season Closer, and Operational Storyteller for Season 5. Today we will talk a bit about the BIG CHOICES you will be able to make during our season closer as your characters can decide the final fate of the sky-city of Waking Prime. Your choices will matter and will determine the future of the San Saba!

We have a lot in store for the finale of Season 4!

  • We have a special LIVE Q&A planned on our DR:TX Discord server on Thursday, April 20th at 7:00 PM CST. Join us in this voice chat on Thursday to hear from Heather and Jonathan about the next episode; Vox Populi, and answer your questions about SURVIVING THE WAKE, our big siege-style fight at the end of the event.

  • Our next event will feature options to use the ZIPLINE and the POOL at Camp Kachina! Make sure to pack those swimsuits! Tickets will go on sale soon for the Zipline Passes!

  • Our Feedback Form is still up for our last event!  Did something really amazing, exciting, or tragic happen at game? Was there a person who helped make your time better and welcomed you to the community? Perhaps nominate them for a Community Achievement! Tell us what you loved about game so we can make more of the content that you love and enjoy.  Conversely, if there is something you did not enjoy, or something which needs to be addressed, we would really like to hear about that too. 

  • We’ve added some new ways to spend your hard-earned CAPS from the last event. Check out the new items you can purchase with your Community Action Points!

TICKETS FOR VOX POPULI are on sale now! don’t miss OUT ON YOUR CHANCE TO MAKE A BIG DECISION!!!

THIS POST WILL DISCUSS A FEW LIGHT STORY SPOILERS FOR OUR NEXT EVENT, SO WE HOPE YOU ENJOY WHAT WE HAVE IN STORE!

Our photos for this post were taken from previous DR:TX events by our talented Photo Team.

I’m sure all those Resonant Raiders showing up in Bravado had nothing to do with what’s happening to Waking…

The Best of Bad options

This is a bit of a repeat from Heather’s post last week, but it bears repeating:

A central theme in any zombie post-apocalypse, to Dystopia Rising, and to our setting in Texas is “the best of bad options.”

You will rarely find a solution to a problem that is perfect. Complication drives story. Our world is deeply flawed, and that is what makes these stories exciting and impactful. At Dystopia Rising: Texas we want to encourage you to explore roleplay about making difficult choices and then living with the consequences of those actions. What does that look like for your character? How do you grow from that? Or how does your sense of personal ethics slowly degrade in a world that constantly asks the worst of you? Can you feel like a hero while knowing saving those people meant dooming others?

Like we mentioned last week, we’ve spent the last two months gathering all your ideas for the Fate of Waking. Both in research, letters, form submissions, and interactions with NPCs, we are creating a story to let you enact some of these plans.

But there is no “perfect” solution. 

While there’s a bit more granularity in the decisions and events that will occur during the game, each of the decisions you make during VOX POPULI will lead to one of three possible “endings” to the crisis facing Waking Prime.

  • Emergency Land Waking near an established settlement

    • With the right choices, you may be able to “land” Waking in a (mostly) controlled fashion somewhere in the San Saba.

    • This choice will still cause immense chaos, ecological damage, and will greatly impact the power and numbers of the people or faction that location represents.  The proximity to Waking will tie that area or faction deeply to the politics of the Board and will reshape them in significant ways for Season 5.

    • The Board will be unhappy, but not actively antagonistic to the town’s choice. 

  • Keep Waking in the air, no matter the cost

    • Great sacrifices may have to be made to achieve this, but it will be possible to keep the floating skyship-city in the air, despite the failure of the Capacity Engine.

    • Waking will continue to leak pollution and runoff on the area it sits over, causing ecological damage wherever it passes, but the Board’s Seat of Power will be maintained. No faction or location will be specifically removed or heavily reduced.

    • This Choice represents the Status Quo, and allows the San Saba Board to continue business as usual.

  • Shoot Waking from the Sky

    • The Rook has a plan to end the threat of Waking once and for all and intends to remove the Board’s seat of power with extreme violence.

    • A skyship of this magnitude will crash land with the force of a high yield bomb and will annihilate the faction and the area for miles in every direction, resulting in untold lives lost and ecological devastation that the area has not experienced since the Hiway War. The area the destroyed skyship-city crashes into will be decimated, and the faction and Waking will be largely wiped out.

    • The LCs will have to choose where the husk of the destroyed city falls, and which faction is impacted by the destruction.

    • This is an open act of aggression against the Board and will have long-term consequences for the story and Bravado heading into Season 5.

The time for new ideas is over.

There will be no Option D.

choice points and you!

The choice on where Waking will land (or crashes), will be decided by your actions at a new mechanic location inside the Depot called THE CRISIS CENTER. We will dig into this aspect of the event in a later blog post, but we want to practice Radical Transparency with some of the BIG CHOICES you will be able to make during our season closer.

The FALL of Waking is a CHOICE of physics and gravity, and hard choices.

During this event, your LCs will have a chance to decide what exactly happens to the flying skyship-city of Waking Prime, the current capital of the San Saba Territories. The doomed city is falling from the sky slowly, but inevitability. Through your actions like sacrificing parts of the city to gain elevation, shifting ballast to change the direction it is falling, or creating a burst of engine speed to hasten its demise, you will be able to impact the trajectory, destination, and the elevation of the city throughout the event.

While most of the choices you make at the Crisis Center will apply to one of the three resolutions above (Controlled Landing, Stay in the Sky, or Crash Landing) there will be a few planned Choice Point Events that will determine major decisions in the eventual destination of Waking. With the help of your allies and certain away mods, you will be able to take charge of how the fall of Waking resolves.

We are sharing WHEN these choice points will be made in advance, so that LCs who want to be a part of that choice can be present.  This will help you plan around player events and NPC shifts to make sure you can participate in the “voice of the people”.

Here are the three times to plan for:

  • Friday @ 12:30 AM

  • Saturday @ 11:30 AM

  • Saturday @ 6:30 PM

During these times, Waking will be in an area or situation where a choice on a new trajectory can be made. Moving a flying city as large as Waking is largely a matter of momentum and speed. A slight change in the course can dramatically alter it’s final destination, but the mass of the ship is not easy to move. It’s not some Road Royal race car that can turn on a dime, it’s a monstrous behemoth that is on a collision course with Widow’s Peak.

Let’s talk a bit how this will work…

STEERING THE FALL OF WAKING

During these three Choice Point Events, you will have some agency in deciding where the city of Waking goes next. During each choice, you will get to make some limited choices by “steering” the skyship-city through your actions.

Waking can be moved by firing all the engines in the appropriate district, or performing a similar action that changes the trajectory of the city. Wherever this occurs, there will be a chance that some portions of the city will collapse, and will no longer be accessible. In addition to a tremendous loss of life, you will not be able to evacuate valuable technology, refugees, and resources from that portion of the falling skyship.

During a Choice Point, you will have a few choices to make:

  • The LCs will choose to move Waking either to the Left (West), Center, or Right (East) or to have it hold position. 

  • The choice point will be made based on the majority vote of those PRESENT AT THE TIME, and this challenge will be TIMED.

  • If a consensus or a majority is not reached by the end of the timed event, Waking will automatically move forward one step on its current trajectory.

Momentum means that a gargantuan airship is descending forward whether you make a decision or not. If you don’t take action to change the fate of the city, it will reach it’s eventual destination of Widow’s Peak. With a massive sandstorm rolling in from the Dune Sea, wind currents mean that some of the obvious easy choices for safely landing Waking Prime are no longer an option.

Heather has prepared a slightly [REDACTED] map of the remaining choice points below:

The options above represent a pyramid of choice, loosely based off our map of the San Saba Territories.

  • To illustrate, let’s assume Waking is the Red Dot, approximately where it will be at the start of the event as the fall begins.

  • At each choice point, it can move ONE SPACE to any circle that is connected to with lines. 

  • Waking can only move forward on the pyramid map and cannot go backwards. Sorry!

  • So for Choice 1, Waking can either move to the Left, towards Widow’s Peak, or to the Center, to line up with Bravado and Essex. 

It is important to note that if the City isn’t moved in a certain way, it will eliminate some options as Landing (or Crash) sites. 

As you make decisions (or fail to make one), the momentum and mass of the city will limit your future options for a choice. For example:

  • In order to land (or crash) the city on top of Killhouse:

    • Choice 1 would need to move it Right towards the center line.

    • Choice 2 could either Hold Position, or move it Right.

    • Choice 3 would need to be either move to Right, or Hold Position. 

A couple of different choices here will drastically limit your options.

  • If you moved the city to the Left on your first decision at Choice 1, there is no possible set of choices that will allow you to land on top of Killhouse.

  • Even if you managed to get the skyship to take a hard right at each remaining choice, you won’t be able to steer the ship sharply enough to reach Killhouse. There is no multi-track drifting on this trolley problem, sorry!

  • Your early decisions will be the MOST impactful on the eventual destination of Killhouse, so these will be the crucial events to attend if you want to have a say in the fall of Waking.

Your LCs will need to be strategic in where they move Waking and at what point.

Don’t worry if this is a bit confusing!

We will have an NPC there to guide this and help further explain the mechanic during each choice point, and we have a neat Discord Q&A planned with Heather and Jonathan on Thursday, April 20th at 7:00 pm if you have any other questions that might come up.

Wrap Up

That’s it for today Vados! The time to start politicking starts now! What decision will you make in the fate of the San Saba? Can your vote at the Choice Point be swayed by Brass or favors? Will you vote to shoot down the city, or help maintain the status quo? Will you be able to steer the finale towards an enemy or a friend?

Waking’s fate is in your hands. And the San Saba will never look the same. TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW!

Pre-register and get your choice of NPC shift to maximize your experience!  

See you soon Vados!

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Vox Populi

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Can you conquer a four hour battle for survival? 

Locked in together, defending the only building safe from the toxic Wake blanketing Bravado from the Falling City. Join us in May for an epic battle to send you off into the Burning Season with only the best stories to tell!

 

PLOT TWIST! It’s HEATHER here with our first weekly blog post for the upcoming event, VOX POPULI! Don’t worry. Jonathan will return soon to a blog post near you.

This is the leadup for our May DR:TX event written by yours truly, Heather Halstead, Overarc ST for our Season Closer, and Operational Storyteller for Season 5. Today we will talk a bit about some story teasers, content warnings, some core mechanics and concepts for the event, and a reminder of some of the benefits of pre-registration! We have a lot in store for the finale of Season 4!

  • Our Feedback Form is up for our last event!  Did something really amazing, exciting, or tragic happen at game? Was there a person who helped make your time better and welcomed you to the community? Perhaps nominate them for a Community Achievement! Tell us what you loved about game so we can make more of the content that you love and enjoy.  Conversely, if there is something you did not enjoy, or something which needs to be addressed, we would really like to hear about that too. 

  • We’ve added some new ways to spend your hard-earned CAPS from the last event. Check out the new items you can purchase with your Community Action Points!

TICKETS FOR VOX POPULI are on sale now! don’t miss OUT!!!

THIS POST WILL DISCUSS A FEW LIGHT STORY SPOILERS FOR OUR NEXT EVENT, SO WE HOPE YOU ENJOY WHAT WE HAVE IN STORE!

Our photos for this post were taken from previous DR:TX events by our talented Photo Team.

Let’s talk a little bit about the story of the next event that your ST Senate is so hyped about:

The Premise for “VOX POPULI”

Waking is falling. Not even the Board can deny the truth now - the land is coated in the Capital’s toxic runoff, and debris falls regularly from the sky in a deadly rain. Strange, new zed spill from its twisted underbelly in scores. Something MUST be done. And in the midst of the chaos caused by the impending disaster, many agendas are at play. 

Most prominently, The Rook screams her fury at the falling city from the rooftops. She will not stand by and wait for her people to be dragged out of their homes and murdered, or worse. The fear of someone’s brief attempt to remake the Resonant Choir has settled deeply into the hearts of the aberrants of the San Saba, and her support has ballooned rapidly. But she is hardly the only person in the wastes with motivation, drive, and a plan. 

People are desperate. The citizens of Waking seek escape. The people of the San Saba, already ravaged by drought, now suffer from Waking’s pollution, and an influx of the city’s people they don’t have resources to feed. Waking’s trajectory has it aimed at Widow's Peak, and the Lovelaces may suffer yet another catastrophic violence upon their people. Even the elite are in a state of panic as the City falls.

Amid the desperation and despair, such an imminent disaster means refugees. It means evacuation efforts and resource management. It means opportunities. It means destruction. And ultimately, the fate of the Capital of the San Saba, and City in the Sky, lies in the hands of the people of Bravado. The town that has been called small, backwater, uncivilized, now holds all the power to shape the future of the entire region. 

And the San Saba Board knows it.

The Rook’s burgeoning support is made manifest in the device she has created. A massive weapon capable of one, single shot. A weapon constructed of recovered Juggernaut artillery, generational trauma, and pure fury that could, if pointed in the right direction, blow Waking Prime from the sky for good. And she’s handing the trigger to Bravado. 

Sounds like it’s time to really let the Board know how you feel…

POLITICAL CHOICES AND CVC

The plot of the weekend will be highly reactive to player choices. We want to give you the chance to make a big impact of what the landscape of the San Saba looks like for Season 5 and beyond. The ultimate choice on what happens to Waking will fall to you, the players. 

But big choices for our setting means people will have differing opinions, and that can provoke conflict.

If you get involved with the story of The Big Choices™®©, be prepared for that conflict.

That might look like in characters issuing threats, yelling, and other big emotions. It might include implied or actual CVC violence, or in-character consequences if you choose against the popular opinion. If this sort of role-play doesn’t sound fun for you, that’s okay! There will be plenty of other ways to interact with story of the falling city that are less likely to engage in this type of CVC. But the large choice points might be something for you to avoid.

Remember, we always have the OK Check in System to calibrate an intense scene in the moment to either ramp it down, or up, if that’s your jam, and you can check our Conflict Warning lists on our website. Conflict drives story, and CVC can be a great way to have memorable and intense scenes with your fellow players, but we want everyone going in to understand CVC is possible in this scenario. 

Jonathan has written excellent posts about CVC, how to keep it fun, and how to get the most out of the experience. Check them out!

So… what do these big choices look like? Well, we can tell you that it will greatly affect the off-screen existences of large groups of NPCs, and the land they live in, forever altering our setting in very real ways.

Choice points of this magnitude will be made by groups of LCs, not individuals. Some will be timed to represent the very chaotic nature of the ongoing crisis situation Waking finds itself in. Failing to make a call in the moment will lead to repercussions. 

Okay but what ARE the choices?

A central theme in any zombie post-apocalypse, to Dystopia Rising, and to our setting in Texas is “the best of bad options.” You will rarely find a solution to a problem that is perfect. Complication drives story. Our world is deeply flawed, and that is what makes these stories exciting and impactful. At Dystopia Rising: Texas we want to encourage you to explore roleplay about making difficult choices and then living with the consequences of those actions. What does that look like for your character? How do you grow from that? Or how does your sense of personal ethics slowly degrade in a world that constantly asks the worst of you? Can you feel like a hero while knowing saving those people meant dooming others?

In that vein, we’ve spent the last two months gathering all your ideas for the Fate of Waking. Both in research, letters, form submissions, and interactions with NPCs. Through this, we are creating a story to let you enact some of these plans. But there is no “perfect” solution.  And many of your ideas will have consequences you did not foresee. But the choices boil down to three:

  • Emergency Land Waking near an established settlement

    • With the right choices, you may be able to “land” Waking in a (mostly) controlled fashion somewhere in the San Saba.

    • This choice will still cause immense chaos, ecological damage, and will greatly impact the power and numbers of the people or faction that location represents.  The proximity to Waking will tie that area or faction deeply to the politics of the Board and will reshape them in significant ways for Season 5.

    • The Board will be unhappy, but not actively antagonistic to the town’s choice. 

  • Keep Waking in the air, no matter the cost

    • Great sacrifices may have to be made to achieve this, but it will be possible to keep the floating skyship-city in the air, despite the failure of the Capacity Engine.

    • Waking will continue to leak pollution and runoff on the area it sits over, causing ecological damage wherever it passes, but the Board’s Seat of Power will be maintained. No faction or location will be specifically removed or heavily reduced.

    • This Choice represents the Status Quo, and allows the San Saba Board to continue business as usual.

  • Shoot Waking from the Sky

    • The Rook has a plan to end the threat of Waking once and for all and intends to remove the Board’s seat of power with extreme violence.

    • A skyship of this magnitude will crash land with the force of a high yield bomb and will annihilate the faction and the area for miles in every direction, resulting in untold lives lost and ecological devastation that the area has not experienced since the Hiway War. The area the destroyed skyship-city crashes into will be decimated, and the faction and Waking will be largely wiped out.

    • The LCs will have to choose where the husk of the destroyed city falls, and which faction is impacted by the destruction.

    • This is an open act of aggression against the Board and will have long-term consequences for the story and Bravado heading into Season 5.

The time for new ideas is over.

There will be no Option D.

Now, we go with the options before us, make the best of bad choices, and figure out how to live with ourselves in the Aftermath. 

These are merely some of the ramifications of these choices. But in the interest of transparency, we want to give you the broad strokes so that you understand the potential outcomes you might be angling for. Further, less wide sweeping repercussions will be discoverable in game.

SURVIVING THE WAKE

One of the major set pieces of this event will be a four hour long assault on the Depot we have dubbed Surviving the Wake. From 10pm - 2am Saturday Night, the town of Bravado is rendered unlivable as Waking, no matter the choice that was made, passes over, raining down smog, radioactive waste, zed, and other calamities. 

During this time, you will not be able to leave the Depot unless specifically instructed (or to use the restroom).

This fight will be long, hard, and completely exhilarating. A protracted fight with Zombies, including some old returning 2.0 favorites that the ST Senate decided we just couldn’t live without anymore.  But this means you should plan for that in advance. Get those brews brewed, meals cooked and herbs farmed before 10pm Saturday night.

What about the Post Office?

Expect to have limited or no access to the PO from 10pm - 2am. There will be an option for LCs to secure limited PO access during the assault depending on your choices, but you should assume you will have no access to farming, crafting, or econ during this time. Plan ahead, and make sure you have all the supplies you will need to survive.

What If I die?

Death happens! And is an extremely important part of our setting. But it can be a bummer to die early on in a long fight and feel like you missed out on the rest of the experience. We will have mechanics in play that will keep the fight interactive for anyone who might take an early, untimely death. Hell, dying might even provide some assistance you can bring back with you.

What if I’m not a fighter?

That’s okay! A huge assault has need for many roles, including for non-com LCs. Equipment repair, healing, building reinforcement, and there will be small strike team missions running during the conflict for things like supply runs, distractions, stealth missions, and rescue operations. There will be plenty to do while the phalanx holds the door.

Opportunity for Extra NPC time

We will also be taking a LIMITED number of NPC volunteers for additional time during the assault for perks. Our goal is to fill out a shift to give NPCs time to breathe while maintaining a constant pressure. We do not want to have most of the town on the NPC side of the conflict, so these extra hours will be limited.

THE CRISIS CENTER

This will be the key set piece in choosing the Fate of Waking. 

Waking’s fall represents a huge humanitarian crisis, and in order to assist in the efforts, the Railroad Conglomerate, spearheaded by Felicity Redfield, has set up a CRISIS CENTER in the Depot to manage the many, MANY moving pieces of such an operation. 

The Crisis Center will have active and passive content. You will be able to select actions from the Crisis Center to complete in order to move the needle on the Fate of Waking. Sometimes, this might be requesting specific, pre-written mods to be performed with a group. Sometimes, this might mean interacting with passive content such as completing a ZOM or building a piece of needed equipment.

Sometimes, it might mean making very hard choices on who escapes, and who doesn’t.

Not all of these actions will be altruistic. Some actions will represent taking advantage of the crisis, rather than assisting with it. Every catastrophe has its opportunists.

The goal of the Crisis Center is to have a very low threshold of entry. Anyone can complete an Action from the Center-  interact with the plot and have things to do that MATTER. But the Center will also provide large benefits to digging deeper into the mechanics to be strategic with your choices. We will get more into the mechanics of this Center in later blog posts.

Artwork by Beau Lee

THE STAKEHOLDERS MEETING

The Law of San Saba will be written, revised, and unwritten by a majority vote of The Board.

Suggestions for new Laws or amendments to the Charter will be presented to the assembled Stakeholders of the San Saba each year during the annual Stakeholder’s Meeting, for a period of consideration no shorter than 3 days.

Amidst of this calamity, politics continue to roll ever upward, ever onward, yes?

The annual Stakeholders Meeting is how laws of the San Saba, and the San Saba Charter itself, can be changed. Have a pesky law you don’t like? Vote to change it. Want a new law established? Petition the Board. 

Currently, there is an open seat on The Board due to the untimely destruction of The Scientist by the Archons. Surely that won’t be an important chess piece in anyone’s political machinations.

Several laws will be suggested by the San Saba Board for a general vote of the stakeholders of the San Saba. These laws will offer various changes to the Charter or Laws as we progress the story into Season 5. But these are not the only changes to the laws that can enter play.

How do I petition to add or change a law?

If you want to submit your own change to the Law or the Charter of the Board, you can put the wording of your change in front of The Board for immediate review, via an application.

  • You must have a Trustee (someone with Master Society Membership), 100 Brass, and the signatures of 50 different LCs. So start planning now!

  • This effort does not guarantee the change will be enacted. The Board will review all petitions and vote during the Burning Season. 

  • The sooner you can submit your proposed change, the sooner we can include it into the politics of the weekend. You can submit your intended change early, via a Personal Plot Request.

Your Society Membership Matters

The Board will be suggesting several new laws for vote by Society Members, and you will have a direct voice in how these votes resolve. Each attending character may cast a ballot, and you receive a number of votes equal to your level of Society Membership with a San Saba Faction.

  • Basic Membership (Contractor):  1 vote

  • Proficient Membership (Stakeholder): 2 votes

  • Master Membership (Trustee): 5 votes.  

Remember, if you don’t currently have a Society Membership, you can earn one quickly with a San Saba Work Order. If you have multiple faction contracts, you must Pick ONE faction to vote under. The faction you choose to represent for your vote will also impact how powerful that Board member’s voice is in future politics of the San Saba Board.

an Air of Legitimacy

The final action you can take during the Stakeholder’s meeting is to formally recognize your in-game player group as a political power in the San Saba. This is the way that we recognize player factions by the San Saba Board, and it can even allow you to vote as your player group on the ballots instead of representing a San Saba faction.

Any LC-led faction that completes a series of tasks on a Zone of Mechanics can earn the support of the San Saba Board. These tasks will require you to politic with the Board members, spend Brass and resources, and earn your way into the halls of power. If you succeed, you will gain a unique Player-Led Faction Bonus and custom ZOM for next season for your player group.  These Player abilities can offer powerful activated abilities for your faction each game, and you might have seen some of these abilities in play over this season!

Currently recognized groups (the Road Royals, Shields of the Lonestar, and Ramguard) must re-up their applications at this time as well to maintain their Board recognition.

ZIP LINE MOD AND POOL CONTENT!

We’ve covered a lot today, but we have a few more cool events to share:

Anyone ever zip lined off a falling airship before? Soon, we will be releasing more details on a special Zip Line Mod for this event. Because use of the zip line incurs an extra cost, we will be selling a ticket add on soon for using the zip line.

And don’t worry. This mod will not be restricted to those who want to do the zip line and purchase that pass. There will be content for those who would like to go on the mod but don’t want to, or can’t, ride the zip line. Details to come! Stay Tuned!

Lastly, we will once again have access to the Camp Kachina Swimming Pool for our May event! Make sure to pack your swimsuit for some summer fun by the pool!

Waking’s fate is in your hands. And the San Saba will never look the same. TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW!

Pre-register and get your choice of NPC shift to maximize your experience!

 See you soon Vados!

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Hells of the San Saba: Rules You Should Know

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It’s Jonathan here with our last weekly blog post for the upcoming event, HELLS OF THE SAN SABA! This is final post in the leadup for our April DR:TX event written by our Overarc STs, Ash Sexton, Ren Lewis and Andrew Harper. Today we will talk about about some Rules You Should Know, including a reminder about Water Rations, the danger of Sinkholes, and some Threat Skills of Note like Psionic Vampire, Fear, and Raider Rage!

  • Did you hear? We are running a Returning Player Campaign through the end of the season. If you have friends that have been away from DR for a bit, not only can you earn some CAPs for inviting them back, but they can also get a head start with some free items and benefits for coming back home to Bravado.

  • Blueprints were updated a few weeks ago, and another round of updates hit shortly after. I’ve catalogued most of these changes on my Blueprint Checklist, but I have written a blog post on the topic as well.

    • TL;DR: You need to replace the cards for your Murder Inc gear immediately, but you can update the blueprints and other item cards through the Post Office in game when convenient. You probably didn’t have any of the items that were removed from play.

  • DR National updated their main website with some neat graphics, but more importantly posted about the next stage of the LIT 1.0 to 2.0 Conversion. This won’t have much impact on you if you only attend live events, but if you do online play you should check out the blog post they just released: Dystopia Rising News

    • TL;DR: Any herbs, brews, meals, and other single-use consumables without expiration dates will be expired as of July 1st.

Our photos for this post were taken from previous DR:TX events by our talented Photo Team.

Let’s get into the main topic, Rules You Should Know!

Water Rations, art by Shan Lind.

Water shortages & YOU!

I covered these full mechanics of our new Illustrated Item Cards, WATER RATIONS, in our first post, Welcome to the Hells of the San Saba. I’ve also added these mechanics to the Temporary Local Mechanics, found on our website. The theme of this even is on RESOURCE SCARCITY, so this is a big part of the challenge of the weekend.

Let’s sum up the basics once more:

New Item Cards: WATER RATIONS

  • These Illustrated Item Cards will be given out at check in and will be used throughout the event as a resource for clean, potable water. These are Local Plot Cards and may be traded, bought, lost, or stolen.

  • You can get three Water Rations during check-in or choose to take less if you like a challenge.

New Roleplay Burdens - Parched & Dehydrated

  • You must drink at least one carded Brew or Water Ration each 12s.

  • If you don’t stay hydrated, you become PARCHED. While Parched you don’t refresh your Mind points at the 12s. Any Brew or Water Ration fixes this condition but doesn’t restore your lost Mind points.

  • If you go another 12s without any water, you become DEHYDRATED. Once at this stage, only Water Rations will fix your condition. While Dehydrated you must spend BODY as well as Mind points to activate a Skill. Ouch!

  • If you stay Dehydrated at the next 12s, you die. Try to drink some water, okay?

  • You can GAIN the Parched or Dehydrated keyword immediately through certain actions this weekend, but it will be telegraphed in advance if this is possible during a mod or Zone of Mechanics.

How do you get more Water Rations?

  • NPCs and certain mods will offer Water Rations as rewards throughout the weekend.

  • Players with Foraging, Trailblazing, and Hunting will be able to gather new Water Ration cards from the Post Office.

  • You can purchase these from other players, and trade them for Brass, favors, or in exchange for goods and services.

Drought Burdened Crafting

  • Any use of Agricultural must spend 1 Water Ration per trip to the Post Office for Agricultural (up to 60 minutes/30 mind).

  • Any use of Culinary recipes require 1 Water Ration in addition to the normal resources.

We will cover this once again during Opening Announcements, but the basic cycle of this mechanic is pretty simple — Drink water rations regularly, or else you take a penalty. If you need to do certain crafting, you’ll need to spend Water Rations to perform the skill.

Remember, you can Opt Out of potential death at any time by consuming at least one Water Ration!

Sinkholes

The drought has caused a bit of instability in the San Saba. The ground is as cracked and parched as your characters, and the environmental stress has aggravated the SINKHOLE problem that was created during the IMPRINT BY DESIGN event.

During this event, you will periodically encounter a SINKHOLE, marked with a yellow Zone of Mechanics instructions. Here’s how it will work:

  • While within 10 feet of a Red Glowstick (or otherwise marked area) if there are more than 10 Individuals (LC’s, NPC’s, etc.) gathered in this area, the ground beneath begins to crumble underfoot, and all Individuals in the area are affected.

  • Any Individual may call “SINKHOLE, AOE TAKEDOWN 10 SECONDS” every 30 seconds until the number of Individuals is reduced to 5 Individuals or Less.

    • This AoE call may be countered by Balance.

  • Any Individual may use Basic Enhanced Movement, Proficient Telekinetics, or Master Malicious to traverse through this area unharmed, regardless of the number of Individuals within the space.

Hope you don’t run into anything dangerous while having to deal with a Sinkhole!

Headhunter Raiders

Threat Skills of Note - Raider Clans

Most of the threats you will encounter this weekend will be various types of RAIDERS. Raiders are generally former Strains that succumbed to the deadly disease known as BAD BRAIN. Once the disease rewrites their brain, they lose whatever spark of humanity that they had left and become killing machines bent on feeding and killing. Over time, these infected Strains evolve and mutate into something worse, and band together with others like them into loose tribes and clans.

This means that most of the Threat Skills will be pretty basic during THE HELLS OF THE SAN SABA. You might see some variations of player skills like Break, Mangle, Takedown, or Choking Blow used by Raiders, and many can swing for higher amounts of damage with a single swing. But most of their skills are ones that you might have as a player, save for the few we will cover below.

The real danger of Raiders is that they are intelligent foes, if a bit single-minded.

Raiders are clever and cunning, but they are still terrible, deadly foes to all Strains across the Wasteland. They can use equipment, operate doors, set ambushes, and sometimes even perform first aid to keep their prey from bleeding to death. Very few people can hope to talk or reason with a Raider, save for perhaps the Tainted Strain. They are capable of using basic tools and strategy, but are still predatory creatures driven by the basic instinct to hunt, kill, and feed on the flesh of their victims. Raiders tend to not play nice with each other, and often follow the biggest and meanest of their kind on raids into survivor settlements.

Let’s cover some of the unique skills possessed by most Raiders.

RAIDER RAGE (Basic Anger Mutation)

  • Allows a Raider to call “Raider Rage” to heal their Body to full and fix all limbs instantly. This skill cannot be called while in bleed out, and instead is used mid fight. This berserker rage makes even a common raider into a tough, deadly foe.

RAIDER RUSH (Proficient Anger Mutation)

  • Allows a Raider to call “Raider Rush” to become immune to all paralysis, knock out, or mangle effects for 5 minutes. When struck with these effects call “No Effect, Raider Rush.” At the end of the 5 minutes these effect calls are dropped as if they had been canceled. Skill cannot be initially used as a counter or during bleed out.

RAIDER FRENZY (Master Anger Mutation)

  • Allows a Raider to call “Raider Frenzy” to become immune to all Anomaly skills for 5 minutes. When struck with anomaly skills call “No effect, Raider Frenzy.” At the end of the 5 minutes these effect calls are dropped as if they had been canceled. Skill cannot be used as an initial counter or during bleed out.

Infectious (Bad Brain)

  • All Raiders are infected with the Bad Brain disease (p. 206, DR Corebook). This means if you do something silly like devour a Raider corpse or drink their blood, you’ll probably contract the disease. Even working on some medical procedures on a Raider is ill-advised without the appropriate protection!

Raiders of all types will generally have access to some variation of these abilities. One thing to remember is that ALL of these Raider abilities (Rage, Rush, Frenzy) have to be used while the Raider is still standing. Once they hit Bleed Out, they can’t use these abilities to heal or gain a buff.

An additional Threat Skill worth mentioning is an oldie, but a goldie…

fear (p. 103)

  • Many Raiders this weekend will use varieties of the FEAR ability from the DR Corebook. (p. 103). When called, they will declare “Fear, Cannot attack me for 5 minutes!”.

  • The Fear effect is broken if you are attacked by another foe, if a threat uses an ability on you, or you are forced to attack by some other effect. As long as the threat avoids hitting you, you are locked out of combat by this effect.

  • You don’t have to leave the battlefield, and you can still fight other enemies that did not use Fear on you. There are few resistances to this ability other than some brews and equipment.

  • Fear can be a surprisingly deadly ability when used well. If you are in a small group and the Raiders prevent you from attacking, you may not be able to save your friend and have to watch while they are eaten and killed!

Lastly, most Raiders carry equipment that can be LOOTED!

Raiders represent a solid source of items as they tend to collect bits and pieces from their victims, and their weapons can be broken down for valuable scrap. Let’s talk a bit about how this works:

  • Raiders will have SALVAGE CARDS, which can be gathered by any player by searching the corpse over 30 seconds. You do not need to have a particular skill to collect these cards as loot. However, these cards have all the rules to use them printed on the card and are marked with a type of Raider Equipment on the front.

  • In order to turn these cards into useful resources like Scrap and Herb, you must have the appropriate Salvaging skill listed on the card. You can spend the Mind points listed on the card and turn in the Salvage Card to the Post Office to receive your prize.

  • Salvage Cards are still an item card, and can be traded, bought, or stolen like any other Scrap but cannot be used in blueprints without first converting them to scrap. If you don’t have Salvaging, this item may not be very useful, and you might need to trade these to another character or find someone to help you convert the salvaging card.

Resonant Raiders and You!

One last enemy is one we talked about during my blog post on The Resonant, remnants of the sin and decadence of the people of Barogue. To wrap this blog post up, let’s talk about a few important Threat Skills you should know about before facing these mysterious psionic Raiders. These skills have been up on our website for some time, on our Local Threat Skills page, but I’ll summarize a bit here.

Resonant can feed on the emotional turmoil and aberrant energies of lineages as they are dying. This potent ability is represented by the skill call of Psionic Cannibalism. For all intents and purposes, this is treated as a use of the Cannibalism skill and has the same effects.

Psionic Cannibalism

  • This skill is resisted by Basic Mental Endurance but remember — you CAN use this skill to defend while in Bleed Out. In fact, it’s one of very few skills that you can use while bleeding!

  • If uninterrupted for the full 30 seconds of the roleplay, the Resonant calls “Psionic Cannibalism: Reduce Bleed Out to 1 minute”. Roleplay for this should still be loud and dramatic but the Resonant will roleplay getting close to the target in order to bask and soak in their energies with cries of glee and hunger. The Resonant 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.

Some powerful members of a Resonant Raider clan can even take this emotion leeching ability to the next level and turn it into a potent weapon. Many dangerous creatures can react to the unnatural Anomaly skills of psions with a power called “Anomaly Response”, and the Resonant Raiders are no different.

anomaly response (Basic)

  • Whenever you use an Anomaly skill within eyesight of most Resonant Raiders, they will leech some power off of these skills and gain a buff.

  • The Resonant will generally call some variation of “Anomaly Response!” and gain an Upsurge effect. This can range from gaining Body, gaining Armor, or worse. If a Resonant Raider notices you are using an Anomaly skill, they can call these reactions. Watch out!

Psionic Vampire (anomaly Response)

  • When an Anomaly skill is used within Line of Sight of the Resonant, 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!”

  • This skill cannot be resisted. Luckily, most Resonant can only complete this attack a few times before exhaustion, and they can only make this attack once per minute on the same target.

  • Mind damage causes you to lose Mind points instead of Body. If you cannot lose Mind because you are at 0, this damage has no effect.

  • 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 Resonant so it cannot feed on your psionic energy.

Lastly, some survivors of the Resonant reported that in the presence of some of the raiders, their blood turned to ice and they were frozen in place, fear overwhelming every part of their being. This assault on the senses temporarily blinds and stuns the victims while the Resonant drink in their fear and terror. This ability is represented by the following Threat abilities:

Psionic Assault

  • Resisted by Basic Mental Endurance. The Resonant will call “Psionic Assault: Line of Sight, Blinding, Stun, 10 body!”.

  • The victim of this power is overwhelmed and left helpless to the fear inducing powers of the Resonant. The only recourse to survive this attack is to steel your nerves and resist the effect entirely. If you use Mental Endurance, you can resist the entire attack!

The final ability of Resonant Raiders is one that is only experienced by those lucky enough to actually kill one of the creatures. In their dying gasps, the agonizing mental energies of the dying Resonant creates a painful void of emotion and psionic energy.

Last Laugh

  • Resisted by Basic Mental Endurance. After 10 seconds of maniacal laughter while in Bleed Out, call “Psionic: Last Laugh, Area of Effect 10 Mind damage!”. Instant kill mechanics such as Murder or Double Tap can deny the use of Last Laugh.

wrap up

That’s it for today, Vados! Will your characters have what it takes to survive the calamity of drought, Raiders, sinkholes, and more during THE HELLS OF THE SAN SABA? Are you a survivor that can manage the Water Rations for their crew, or will you rely on force or trickery to obtain the much-needed water you need? Let’s find out together this weekend!

TICKETS ARE STILL AVAILABLE AT THE DOOR! SEE YOU THIS WEEKEND AT CAMP KACHINA!

See you soon, Vados!

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Collection Day & the Grave Tax

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It’s Jonathan here with our next weekly blog post for the upcoming event, HELLS OF THE SAN SABA! This is leadup for our April DR:TX event written by our Overarc STs, Ash Sexton, Ren Lewis and Andrew Harper. Today we will talk a bit about one of the major world events that happens during April, Collection Day, and the role this “holiday” plays for the Grave Council. We will also cover the details on the GRAVE TAX, and what you can expect from this event if you owe a debt to the Grave Council.

  • Did you hear? We are running a Returning Player Campaign through the end of the season. If you have friends that have been away from DR for a bit, not only can you earn some CAPs for inviting them back, but they can also get a head start with some free items and benefits for coming back home to Bravado.

  • Blueprints were updated a few weeks ago, and another round of updates hit shortly after. I’ve catalogued most of these changes on my Blueprint Checklist, but I have written a blog post on the topic as well.

Our photos for this post were taken from previous DR:TX events by our talented Photo Team.

Let’s talk a little bit about the “holiday” that occurs during our next event…

In life there are only two things assured to us, Death and Taxes. The Grave Tax is inevitable, it is necessary, and paying it yearly is as regular as a bowel movement. There is nothing glamorous or terrifying about the Grave Tax, so long as yours is paid on time and in full. Otherwise, the Reckoners; blackclad taxmen who specialize in wetwork, will provide the only alternative known to Taxes; that being Death.

Collection Day

A Grave Council “holiday” of sorts, Collection Day is when the Grave Taxes come due, once a year, normally in the oldcestor month of April.  The forces of accountants and taxmen take to the towns and cities of the Lonestar to upkeep the ledgers of life and death, collect interest on the debts they are owed, and keep tabs on those who would irritate the balance of power in the Wastes. During this time, the fees for Groundskeepers can skyrocket in price, and people across the land strive to avoid an untimely death that could increase their debt, or else the Reckoners could attempt to “close your account” for good.

During the Collection Day “festivities”, the fee for deaths normally doubles in price.  As the bulk of the Grave Council is concerned with upkeep on the ledgers and collection of debts, distractions to manage the morgues have an additional opportunity cost assessed.  

If the debt is deferred, the Grave Council normally applies interest to the debt until it is paid.  This is at a negligible rate but accounts for the cost of maintaining the morgues of the Lone Star.  At Collection Day, a debtor must pay at least a portion of their interest to the Grave Council or risk being held in breach of contract.

  • During Collection Day (which normally occurs in April), Tax Collectors & Reckoners will be available to provide a balance of a person’s account and to offer alternative methods of paying the interest.

  • This debt can be accessed by interacting with Grave Council characters or through mechanics at the Post Office

Why do we have a Collection day?

Collection Day was a local tradition we introduced to DR:TX back at the start of 3.0. Shan & Aesa introduced the various factions of the San Saba, one of them being the GRAVE COUNCIL. This faction was envisioned to handle two major things in the Dystopia Rising game — how we handle Death scenes from an “in-character” perspective, and how we could create a threat of punishment for breaking the contracts and laws of the region.

One phrase that kept coming up in our design docs and brainstorm sessions was the familiar quote about death and taxes. We loved the idea of creepy taxmen coming to collect what is owed around the same time the rest of us are forced to pay our tax debts to the government. From there, Collection Day was kind of… inevitable.

We missed our first attempt at running Collection Day due to the pandemic closing down live events, but we revisited this “holiday” last year amid some turbulent times for the Grave Council faction. During that event, COLLECTION DAY, the leader of the Grave Council, Takheeta Firstborn, gave her life to cure a sickness that plagued the morgues of the San Saba.

We have three major themes of this holiday, from a Storyteller perspective:

  • Death has Consequences - In a world where survivors can return from death again and again, crimes like murder can run rampant unless some threat of punishment is enforced.  The Grave Tax is a method to prevent the needless deaths of shareholders, merchants, and Vados, and is assessed as a financial burden upon death.  Unnecessary death is frowned upon and punished more heavily.

  • Death Comes for All, Pauper or Prince - The Grave Council does not care for the status placed upon a person in the times within the Mortis Amaranthine. They pursue their due from every being that walks the San Saba wastes, no matter their station. The Groundskeepers treat the death of a Pureblood from an ivory tower the same as they treat the death of a wandering Rover.

  • Story, not Punishment - The purpose of the Grave Tax is not to punish players for dying or to create an undue financial burden.  The Grave Tax provides a concrete way to involve yourself in the greater story of the Lone Star, interact with several powerful factions, and seek out assistance and roleplay with other characters in the game.  It is tied with the enforcement of law in the game and can be opted out if the player wishes to avoid a negative play experience.

Collection Day is still an “opt in” holiday, as we have many options to bypass our system of Grave Taxes if this is not a story you want to tell. I’ll cover the details of the Grave Tax in a moment, but let’s talk about how Collection Day has changed for this year…

The latin in this Grave Council faction symbol translates to “Death and Taxes”. Aesa even included our symbol for Brass Notes into the forehead of the skull.

the story of collection day DURING A DROUGHT

This year, our story takes us back to familiar territory, with a bit of a twist. You see, for years, the Grave Tax and Collection Day were just an assumed burden. Ever since the Hiway War, the morgues of the San Saba have been sick, and the very act of retrieving a person from the Grave Mind intact was fraught with risk and peril. Very few questioned the Grave Tax or the role the Grave Council played in maintaining the Morgues of the region.

Until last year.

Last year, Takheeta Firstborn, the High Mystagogue of the Grave Council and leader of the faction, gave her life in service of the Great Work — to cure the ailing morgues once and for all. Using a Barogian artifact called the CANTANKEROUS MATRIX, she was able to conduct a ritual to cleanse the morgues of the Plague of the Unfinished and finally restoring the damage done by years of war and misuse of the Grave Mind.

In her zeal, the process to heal the morgues worked a little TOO well, and for a time, every morgue in the region was sealed with a scabrous tissue that prevented those that died from returning. The Grave Council worked diligently to correct the mistake, but it took another sacrifice, of a young man named Eight to stabilize the morgues and finish the work that Takheeta Firstborn had started. Their imprint joined with Takheeta’s to form a new balance to the cycle of death and rebirth, a Gravemind Shard called the Eightfold Mother.

Since the formation of the EIGHTFOLD MOTHER and the curing of the Plague of the Unfinished, the region has experienced a stability not seen since before the Hiway War. This has dramatically eased the burden on the Groundskeepers and the Grave Council but has created unrest at the same time. With the threat of the Plague gone, the job has become somewhat mundane.

There are those that suggest that Grave Council has not earned their due this year, that perhaps the tradition of Collection Day and the Grave Tax are a misuse of funds and maybe a relic of the past. The beleaguered new leader of the Grave Council, Reckoner-General Rampart has argued that the Council still performs needed tasks, but this seems more and more like a political response as the days pass. A sickness spreading through the Groundskeepers has yet to find a cure, despite the supposed expertise of the Grave Council on matters relating to the Mortis Amarathine.

With the added stress of clean water being in short supply, increased raider activity targeting psions in the area, including those psions that make up the various Graverobbers and Groundskeepers of the faction, it seems as though a tipping point is being reached. How will the Grave Council weather this new storm during their “holiday” of Collection Day? Can the faction survive if they cannot collect the Grave Tax that funds their very operation?

So, with that context in mind, let’s look at some of the mechanics of the Grave Tax itself…

The Grave Tax

The Grave Tax is one of the enforced laws of San Saba Territories and a tradition of the Grave Council that helps cover the maintenance of the Morgues of the Lone Star.  This is a fee, normally paid in Brass notes, that a Groundskeeper is paid to retrieve someone from the Mortis Amaranthine and is tracked and collected by the agents of the Grave Council.  As part of an agreement with the newly formed Railroad Conglomerate, the Board has delegated authority over every Morgue within the San Saba Territories and the Lone Star to the Grave Council and enshrined the Grave Tax into law of the San Saba Board:

“None shall interfere with the Delivery of the Post, Nor the Collection of the Grave Tax.”

Implementing the Grave Tax

When a character dies in Bravado, this fee is assessed by the Groundskeepers (or STs) that run your death scene.  Depending on the nature of the death, the fee can be classified into one of several categories or brackets:

Class 1: Accidental or Unpreventable Death (25 Brass)

  • Death by Zed, Raider, or a Creature of the Wastes

  • Death from the Environment, or Natural Disasters

  • This is the standard and most common fee assessed for passage through the Mortis Amaranthine or a Sunless Garden.

  • If the death cannot be clearly identified as a Class 2 or 3 death, this is the minimum fee for the Grave Tax.

Class 2: Preventable Death (50 Brass)

  • Death that could have been avoided in some way.  Foolhardy, silly mistakes are normally classified in this manner.  Needlessly feeding the Gravemind is a threat to the delicate balance of the Mortis Amaranthine.

  • Duels, Crimes of Passion, Violations of the Laws.  If an action of the deceased could have been avoided by upholding the laws and contracts of the San Saba, this level of fine is normally assessed.

  • If a Law Dog is responsible for killing a target during apprehension, this is the normal fee assessed to the Law Dog instead of the deceased.

Class 3: Intentional Death, or Murder (100+ Brass)

  • Purposefully feeding the Gravemind is the most grievous crime. This can include collateral damage and actions that lead to the death of others in addition to themselves, particularly in ways that can be proven by the recently deceased or other witnesses. This is the starting amount of a fee for this type of death but can escalate accordingly to the severity.  

  • If a Law Dog can investigate and identify that the deceased was murdered by another, this fee is instead assessed to the Killer of the person that died.  Depending on the egregiousness of the murder, this fee will often be increased substantially.

  • A member of the Law Dogs known as a Hell Hound is almost never assessed a fee for Murder, provided the death occurs in the course of their duties.  Abuse of this privilege can cost the Hell Hound their title and protection of the Board.

  • Sanctioned targets of the Red Ledger do not incur a Grave Tax on the striker. 

As you can see, the key person in charge of deciding this amount is the Groundskeeper. Let’s talk about the role they play…

The Role of the Groundskeepers and Graverobbers

The Groundskeepers of the Grave Council are responsible for the common task of helping guide an unfortunate soul through the Mortis Amaranthine and provide the support necessary to complete the transition in one piece.  The Groundskeepers interview the dead and assess the correct level of tax based on the manner of death and provide a friendly face for those that have undergone the trauma of the Mortis Amaranthine. Originally, the Council earned the right to charge a Grave Tax by promising a rebirth free of the Curse of the Unfinished, a wasting plague that infects those that return to the living without help, but this mandate has grown murky in recent months.  There are rumors that since the Curse of the Unfinished is no longer be the threat it once was that there is no need for Groundskeepers any longer.

The Sanctioned Graverobbers of the Council operate in a contrasting role to the Groundskeepers as fixers and specialists that deal with outbreaks of disease and issues with the Morgues of the Lone Star.  While they are also equally capable of the more rote tasks of the Groundskeeper if needed, their abilities are kept in reserve for the rite of Pallor Mortis and assessing outside threats to the Gravemind.

The recently deceased has several choices, after a Grave Tax is assessed by the Groundskeeper: 

  • Pay the debt, in full, immediately or by the end of the weekend event.  

    • If not paid to the Groundskeeper at the Morgue, the fee can be submitted to the Depot, through an Ops Guide.

  • Defer the payment until Collection Day

    • If the Tax is not paid by the end of the event, it is automatically deferred to Collection Day and is added to the Grave Ledger.

    • Using this method will offer the players a chance to have a scene later in the season during the Collection Day event.

  • Ask for Forbearance, or assistance, from the Pauper’s Fund

    • If the player wants to opt out of the Grave Tax, the fee is said to have been simply paid by the Fund so that a negative play experience does not happen.

    • If the player cannot afford the debt or does not want to defer until Collection Day, they can seek an alternate method of payment by taking a debt to the Widows instead.

    • Forbearance is not granted for deaths that occur on No Quarter mods, during CvC, or deaths that occur in the Wasteland.

  • Use a Grave Council Voucher to pay the debt

    • This offers a way that another player can pay the debt or earn an advantage for their influence in the faction for themselves.

    • Certain San Saba Socials can mark a period of time where the Grave Tax is not charged, provided a Stakeholder spent the money to post it at the Post Office.

The Pauper’s Fund

The Widows of the Lone Star maintain an account called the Pauper’s Fund with the Grave Council that helps alleviate the debt of the unfortunate or those that cannot afford to pay.  This fund pays the Grave Taxes of those that ask for assistance and is collected by the various charitable works of the Widows.

  • The Grave Tax is meant as a way to create a cool story behind each death, not a burden or punishment.  The Pauper’s Fund can be used in the cases where a player wishes to opt out of this mechanic, within reason.  

  • Class 3 deaths cannot normally be paid from the Pauper’s Fund (as the player chose to be flagged for CvC).  There are rumors of powerful favors or vouchers from the Widows or other factions that might be an exception to this rule.

  • Using the Pauper’s Fund will normally require a “Widow’s Favor” completed on behalf of the Widows in exchange for their assistance, instead of a Brass payment.  Widow Clauthia normally hears requests to clear a debt to the Widows during her afternoon tea. 

  • Requests to pay off the debt should be submitted as Action Requests in between events.

You can find a list of our current Groundskeepers on our Staff Listing on our website.

wrap up

That’s it for today folks! I’ll be back next week with our traditional Rules You Should Know on the Wednesday before our event, THE HELLS OF THE SAN SABA. We hope you will join us for this event, where we hope to test the limits of your character’s endurance and skill with water shortages, crazed psionic raiders, and the most threatening foe of all — taxes and bureacracy!

See you soon Vados!