The Atrocity

Howdy Vados!

It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to our May live event THE ATROCITY! This is our FINALE for Season 5, led by Heather Halstead and Jonathan Loyd. Each week, I’ll discuss in detail an aspect of the upcoming event, compiling the rules and lore into one easy place to read! This week, we are covering the premise of our event, some content warnings, and some teasers about our upcoming event!

  • TICKETS FOR OUR MAY EVENT ARE ON SALE NOW! Will you survive the atrocity?

  • If you had a great experience at our last event WHISPERS FROM THE DEEP or had some suggestions for how we can improve, we’d love to hear from you! Did you encounter the EVE-volved or EVE herself? Did you fight glowing green zombies by moonlight? Did you help the Rebellion continue to push back against the San Saba Board? Let us know!

  • CLEAN UP IS CHANGING! We will be continuing to experiment with a new process for Clean Up at the end of the event during our May games. Immediately after closing announcements, we will start with our Camp Cleanup first, and then complete our Personal Cleanup last! We had great success with this change during our April event, and we look to continue to improve!

  • Our Post Office times will be changing! Starting in May, we will return to opening up the Post Office at 8:00 AM on Saturday! Crafters and Econ Junkies rejoice!

Our photos for this post were taken from our April 2023 DR:TX event by the talented Lauren Guzaldo.

The Premise

Felicity Redfield is dead. 

After months of secret imprisonment on charges of treason, Felicity was found slain in her cell in Essex, a Golden Spike lodged in her chest, her flame red hair extinguished with drying blood. There are no suspects, and there will be no investigation. 

In Bravado, the drums of rebellion have beat a fevered cadence. The Rebellion is poised to strike against Essex, a final blow against the power of the Board. Chastized and rebuked by the town, the Chairman's wrath now burns solely for Bravado, eschewing the rest of the San Saba for vengeance.

The Chairman has brokered a deal, a bargain wrought in blood, crystal, and fell promises. Whispers on the wind speak of ill tidings. The sun darkened to blackness. The rivers of the San Saba rendered still. Farmers clawing at their eyes in their sleep until blind. These dark omens resonate with the Music of the Spheres, a portent of impending and terrible violence. A prophecy of an ATROCITY foretold in ancient Barogian manuscripts, an echo of a crime committed in the past. 

And it is coming to Bravado.

The Obelisk at the crossroads has repelled The Prince Undying once, but it is unclear if it can withstand a second onslaught, or if it was created for something else entirely. With the Obelisk bolstered, any Nightmares that force their way into Bravado are disoriented, relying on sound to hunt their prey. To speak is to invite death, as your very words solidify the imprint of the living. 

But Felicity has not left Bravado to weather this hardship unaided. There is a duty to uphold, and contracts to keep that not even death can hinder.   There is none that rivaled her knowledge of the Lost City and its forgotten history, no architect of lore that matched her research.  Rumors fly that her journal was smuggled out of Essex, and that it holds her most powerful secrets of the past meant for her beloved Bravado. 

Everything that has happened before will happen again. 

But what if didn’t? 

Only if the prophecies can be unwritten, a Prince contained, and The Atrocity averted, can Bravado be poised to claim their destiny…

Inspiration & Tropes

This season in Bravado we have focused on bringing some new elements of Survival Horror to the forefront of the story. In our tradition of Radical Trust, we want to share some of the inspirational bits of media and movie magic that we feel help capture the themes and feelings of our upcoming event. If you are looking for a movie to inspire your role play for this event, here’s a list of our favorites to get ready for THE ATROCITY:

  • The Quiet Place

  • The Omen

  • Butterfly Effect

Much like the creatures in the Quiet Place, one of the major tropes we will explore in May is the importance of SILENCE. Furtive whisperings in the dark, struggling to stay unnoticed as predators stalk nearby, and the reliance on body language and communication are going to be highlighted during the game. The Nightmares that have periodically plagued the town will return in force, but this time with a brutal intent to hunt the living. Survivors will need to stay quiet and avoid drawing the attention of deadly enemies, and find new ways to warn their friends of imminent danger other than a shout or cry of distress.

Prophecy and legend will also take center stage for the end of this story. Much like the stories of Damien in the Omen, strange tidings are on the air, with individuals experiencing strange waking nightmares, portents and omens foretelling a catastrophic event coming soon, and a focus on the stories of old. Prophecies are only real if they come true, but the history of Bravado has an unfortunate tendency to repeat itself, again and again. Once again the town faces a dangerous horde bearing down on the town, driven by war and vengeance, and leaving the town with an important choice — stand and fight, or die trying.

Everything is connected, much like the Butterfly Effect. But what impact will the choices you make during this weekend have on the future? May is also a time of endings for stories, characters, and arcs in our narrative. As we continue to scale down our scope of story, we will be closing out stories that have tied together back since Season 1 of Bravado. Important faces will be replaced by new characters, new alliances will be forged, new factions formed, and a new future crafted for the survivors of Bravado.

Concluding Stories & Finale Events

We’ve established a bit of tradition with our May events in DR:TX. At the end of the season, we tell BIG stories, and we make some BIG changes to our setting. Previous events have involved us passing new laws for the San Saba, fighting a four-hour SIEGE as the City of Waking crashed nearby, enacting a dangerous plan to cure the Plague of the Unfinished and seal away the Cantankerous Matrix, and defeating Archons in the city of Essex as the city threatened to be overwhelmed by the dead.

We also end our season by firing our staff of Storytellers and Guides, and giving folks permission to take a break from the important roles of supporting our game. We will hire new STs and Guides over the summer, so that means that some stories will need to come to a conclusion because the ST may elect to stay a player for our next season. With that in mind, the finale event is a great time for us to wrap up loose ends, say goodbye to some NPCs, and clean up some of the continuity and lost stories that might have been missed during the season.

In our tradition of Radical Transparency, we want to be clear about some of the content of this next event as the architects of this overarc story. When Heather and I were faced with the idea of wrapping up the major loose threads and events from the season and telling our BIG story, we reached that the conclusion to that the story was simply too big to try to cram into one event. With villains like the Prince Undying and the Chairman, Arthur Lovelace, we can’t really do them justice if we try to make them share the limelight. We’d have to cram way too much content into one event, and it wouldn’t really be the satisfying conclusion we want to see.

So, we won’t make them share the story, or the conclusion.

The May event is going to be PART 1 of the conclusion of these stories, and we will be finishing the story of the The Fall of the San Saba Board during our September opening event as a PART 2 in a few months, after the summer. Think of this as a series finale of your favorite TV show that ends on a cliffhanger, with more to come! In the fall, we will pick right back up, with the resolution of the events of this game as we launch into a new and exciting Season 6.

During the May event, we will be focusing on the story of the Prince Undying, Sister Mammon, and Felicity Redfield we started with the revelation of Barogue three years ago. Our story will deal with the Nightmares as the primary antagonist, though you’ll still see a bit of your favorite mustache-twirling San Saba Board villains. You’ll still need to commit your units to the final battles across the San Saba as we continue to narrow our scope to focus on Bravado itself, but the primary enemy to face is the Prince Undying. If the ATROCITY can be stopped, there will be a new future in store for Bravado, and a new chapter for our story.

In September, we will use PART 2 to tell the story of the War that finally reaches Bravado, and you’ll be able to personally see to the final end of Arthur Lovelace, the San Saba Board, and the final end to the Rebellion story. Instead of rolling dice and pinning item cards to a bulletin board, you’ll need to fight actual skirmishes against enemy troops, defeat dangerous commanders on the field, and challenge the power of the Board itself in a final conflict. You’ll need to fight against some intelligent foes that use tactics against you and defend points around the camp from dangerous attacks. We are very excited to let you face the Chairman in a way that feels worthy of this foe, and we want to allow it to be the entire focus of the story.

So please be patient as finish out this season with THE ATROCITY, as we have many more stories to come in Season 6!

CONTENT WARNINGS

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 set proper expectations for our content. 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.

It’s important to watch for descriptions, situations, or events that you might want to avoid. You may find new limits that are unknown to you because the matter never came up. We encourage you to take the necessary steps for your own emotional safety. We want you to be comfortable with the types of horror in our events so you can enjoy the thrill of the zombie apocalypse and the nightmare creatures we introduce into the game space.

It’s one reason we take our OK Check-In system so seriously! We understand that these may not be stories you want to participate in, and that’s okay! Remember, you can always use the OK Check-In System to choose to leave a scene, even CVC!

You can always find a list of our Content Warnings on our website, but let’s talk about some of the specific things you might want to be prepared for during this May event.

Overall, this next event focuses heavily on the themes of SUDDEN VIOLENCE, BODY HORROR, and LOSS OF AGENCY. These can be some serious themes, so let’s talk about some content warnings of note for THE ATROCITY:

SUDDEN VIOLENCE, JUMP SCARES, DEADLY SURPRISES

  • The Nightmare threats during this event will not be “visible” for most characters in the game, unless those characters have a specific Keyword, Nightmare Host. If you don’t have these keywords or see the purple glowsticks/headbands on the Threats, you’ll need to pretend you don’t see them approaching.

  • These stealthy threats will hunt anyone that makes noise, so you can avoid the sudden violence by avoiding their attention. However, only when the creatures attack will you be able to interact with them briefly, so you’ll need to stay quiet and hope they find other prey elsewhere.

  • When the Nightmares attack, these will be deadly, quick, and sudden attacks out of nowhere. They will primarily operate at nighttime, but they will also be active during the day as well. You’ll need to be prepared to suddenly stop a conversation, silence a musical instrument, or quickly shush a crowd to prevent an attack.

Body Horror, grotesque or disturbing mutations, visceral costumes and props

  • Certain creatures this weekend will have disgusting and visceral costumes and props that might require you to interact with unnerving, or terrible looking things. These props will change the features and silhouettes of certain threats and should be repulsive and terrifying.

  • If a module requires you to interact with chemicals or substances that might stain your clothing or costumes, we will announce these aspects as a “SPLATTER MOD”. We will try to give you a fair warning before engaging with these challenges, but we cannot guarantee clothing or items may not be affected by the disgusting goo in our mods.

LOSS OF AGENCY, UNSTOPPABLE THREATS, Consequences AFTER DEATH

  • Some threats during this weekend will not be things you can easily fight. While you may be able to defeat them temporarily, these Nightmares will be difficult to encounter because they will be “out of phase” until they attack. You won’t have long after a Nightmare attack to react to their presence, so you may not be able to truly confront or kill some of these threats.

  • The Prince Undying is not a Threat that can be truly killed but is something that must be stopped by other methods. When you seem the familiar ochre form of the Prince in play, just know that you are meant to survive and endure, not overcome.

  • Many horror stories involve this concept of loss of agency, where you are powerless to stop a monster that is itself a metaphor for the relentless advance of time, death, or war.

LOOSE THREADS & PLOTLINES

With the changing of the guard at the end of the season, we also have many new opportunities to come for folks that want to take a shot at telling their own stories in the Dystopia Rising world, or folks that want to serve as Guides in the Post Office and in the field. We will have some applications going up after we finish our season for those interested, so please make sure you don’t miss out on your chance to join the team!

With that in mind, we would love to see some Plot Requests and emails from you our players as we prepare for this event. Is there a particular story that you enjoyed that didn’t feel quite finished? Did you have you a particular NPC you’d like to see again, or a particular ST-led story that you enjoyed? Is there an answer you were hoping to uncover before the end of the season? Ask away, and we will do our best to wrap up as many loose threads as possible!

Send us a message via our email, at Dystopia Rising Texas, or send in a Plot Request through our form on the website. Let us know what you’d like to see during the final story of the season, so we can do our best to bring those stories to a satisfying conclusion!

wrap up

That’s it for today, Vados!

We hope that you will come join us for our next event, our finale of the Season 5 story. We have some fun surprises in store for you during this game, and we hope that you are ready to try and prevent the ATROCITY from happening. Will you be able to help to finally contain the danger of the Prince Undying? How will you protect those you love from the vengeance of a petty tyrant? Can you stay quiet while deadly Nightmares prowl around you?

Next week we will recap some of the important events from our last game, and catch up to speed on all the story continuity you’ll need as we face THE ATROCITY! See you soon, Vados!

Tickets are on sale for our MAY event now! Don’t miss out!

Rules You Should Know - April

Howdy Vados!

It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to our April live event WHISPERS FROM THE DEEP! This is our next ST led over-arc game, led by Noah Goodman. Each week, I’ll discuss in detail an aspect of the upcoming event, compiling the rules and lore into one easy place to read! This week, we are covering some of the last minute rules you should be ready for this weekend!

Our photos for this post were taken from previous DR:TX events by our talented Photo Team, by Max Pohlmeier, Lauren Guzaldo, Sidney Betzina, and Jason Dumas.

Rules You Should Know - APRIL

When the things inside Waking Prime escape into Bravado this weekend, you’ll need to be ready for a few specific mechanics of note. Let’s cover the common stuff before we dive into the unique aspects of evolution during WHISPERS FROM THE DEEP.

We covered some of this during the first post of the cycle, but let’s start:

Rad Damage (P. 105)

This is a mechanical damage effect normally associated with radiation or irradiated creatures. Radiation damage cause an equal degree of lost Mind as it does Body.

This is a dangerous effect you might have seen before on Glow Boys and Toxic Terrors. When damaged by this type of attack you lose both Mind AND Body, so it’s particularly devastating. For example, if the threat calls “5 Rad!” on an attack that hits you, you lose 5 Body and 5 Mind from the wound.

  • Radiation Damage by itself doesn’t inflict Radiation Sickness, the disease most commonly associated with irradiated creatures.

  • These attacks can (and should!) be Avoided, and are generally delivered by a melee Strike or a Ranged Attack with a packet.

  • If the attack is called by an AOE or Sound of My Voice call, these effects cannot be Avoided, and must be prevented by mechanics that stop AOE effects.

  • Armor doesn’t stop Rad Damage. If your got hit by a “5 Rad!” hit while wearing 20 Armor, you would lose 5 Mind and have 15 Armor remaining.

Small attacks with Radiation Damage may not be worth using Avoid on, as spending the Mind on the defense may be more costly than the damage you’ll take. But, take enough of those small hits and you won’t have the remaining Mind to dodge the next big hit! Ouch!

LINGERING DAMAGE

Damage Augment. If a Threat hits you with this type of attack called as “Lingering Damage, 1 Minute!”, you will suffer repeated damage over time as the effect continues. This effect inflicts 2 Body damage for each STEP you take while affected by the Lingering Damage. This effect normally lasts for one (1) Minute, but can last longer in certain situations. This effect can be Avoided, and ends upon entering Bleed Out or when the duration elapses. If the victim does not move, they do not take damage. Forced movement, such as from a Knockback effect, still causes damage to the victim.

This is a new type of Damage that you’ll see on certain Blueprints starting this weekend. This is a bit of a teaser for some similar mechanics arriving in DR Live, but these represent damage over time that gets worse if you try to run away.

  • If you hear the call “Lingering Damage, 1 Minute” as part of an attack, you’ll take damage if you try to move from one spot. You’ll take 2 Body damage for each step you take, even if the movement is forced by something like Telekinetics or a Knockback.

  • This effect can be Avoided, and is generally delivered as a Ranged Attack.

  • When you fall into Bleed Out or the duration elapses, the effect ends. The safest way to avoid this damage is to stay still, but that means staying in place while the [REDACTED] can circle you and attack from behind!

Remember, freeze in place and you can avoid the Lingering Damage!

ATTRACT

Countered by Basic Mental Endurance for a five-minute period. Attract is an ability that lures those creatures or people with a certain keyword towards the user. Those affected by it must move when possible in the direction of the call, although if attacked they can stop to defend themselves – if an assailant withdraws, the effect reasserts itself. While they are not required to attack the source of the effect, most zed and raiders will, and critters will if their natural instinct is to do so. Player characters affected can make their own decisions as to what to do once attracted.

This is a universal Keyword that was added to the DR Lexicon a few years back. It appears on a few blueprints and even a couple of common threats, but you’ll hear this from a particular threat during the weekend.

  • You can resist this ability with Basic Mental Endurance, and once you do you can ignore any further uses for the next five minutes. This is probably one of the more efficient uses of Mental Endurance out there, so pay attention!

  • This doesn’t mean you have to play nice with whatever attracts you to it, just that you get close enough to be in arm’s reach. However, getting this close to a threat is likely a dangerous prospect, especially something like [REDACTED].

Death Stalk (Master Malicious)

“This skill can be used if the user currently has a Fracture (subdued or active). After spending 1 Resolve and pointing at a Target while saying “Death Stalk”, an individual using [this] skill may ignore 20 seconds worth of strikes and effects while stalking toward the Target. They cannot deviate from walking toward the Target and cannot attack or swing at others while walking toward the Target, and the Target must be no more than 15 paces away. One they reach their Target, they must strike the Target and then will begin taking damage and skill effects as per normal.”

Let’s break down the important parts:

  • This is one of only a few skills that need Resolve that can be used while Fractured. Even Scattershot can’t be used while fractured, but you can still Death Stalk!

  • You declare a target, call “Death Stalk” and walk menacingly towards them. While nothing suggests this can’t be a brisk pace, the skill specifically mentions walking. This skill is based on an old skill from 2.0 that prevented you from running, so this is a common interpretation of the skill, but it does not mention running either.

  • You can ignore 20 seconds of strikes and effects, or take 15 paces, whichever happens first. For this short moment, you are an unstoppable juggernaut, with bullets and swords alike glancing off your angry advance. Because you have to use it on a Target within 15 paces, once you reach them the effect ends.

  • You end the skill use with a strike against your Target, but you can’t strike anyone until you reach the Target. While you are protected from others strikes, they also gain a measure of protection from you! Don’t wade into the fray, keep your eyes on the prize!

  • You cannot deviate from walking towards the target. This is NOT an “out of character” teleport ability, and this is probably the single biggest confusion on Master Malicious. There was an ability back in 2.0 that worked differently that this, but this power specifically is in character. If you cannot reach the Target because of an obstruction like a door, wall, another LC, or something like a tightly packed shield wall, this effect fails after 20 seconds. Period. Make sure you have a clear path before you spend the Resolve!

unique Threat Skills

You’ll see a few repeated threats this weekend, including some old favorites from the strange facility beneath Bravado, the dangerous BLOOD GHASTS. These creatures are a particular strain of Undead that arises from contaminated cryo tubes that once housed Semper Mort below the town. Instead of becoming a Lineage, the body mutated again and again and again without being able to enter the Grave Mind. Generations of evolution have turned the Blood Ghast into a lean, mean killing machine. As such, let’s cover some of their particularly unique abilities:

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 time 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

[REDACTED] 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 [REDACTED] down, they will regenerate their wounds and keep attacking.

Bloody EXPULSION

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 explode into a frenzy of blood and gore. If a Bloodghast uses this power, they will call “Bloody Expulsion” 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 call “Area of Effect, 10 Body, Self-Immune!”. Better stay away if you don’t want to become the next victim!

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.

Most of these skills above will be used on you, but the main mechanics will be for the NPCs themselves. Just know that letting a friend get Cannibalized during this event will have additional consequences, especially if [REDACTED] finds you in Bleed Out.

forced evolution

If you are caught alone on the battlefield with certain threats, they may convert you to their cause by a spontaneous evolution before the Mortis Amaranthine takes you with a FORCED EVOLUTION.

Forced Evolution

Upon taking a “Forced Evolution” call, writhe in pain for 10 seconds before rising again and fighting for [REDACTED] with the following stats.

30 BODY, Strong Limbs (Immune to Mangle), Keywords: [REDACTED], Once per flurry/reload deal Radiation Damage. Radiation Damage inflicts both Mind and Body damage at once.

Upon death, report to Ops. Return from The Grave Mind with Radiation Sickness Stage One.

Similar to being devoured by zombies with Cannibalism, if this attack hits your character they will be D-E-A-D, slain by the [REDACTED]. After your death, instead of proceeding to Ops to get your death scene, you’ll first return to play as a NPC threat. You’ll join the horde of enemies, and try to kill your friends until you are stopped for good.

Let’s cover this attack in a bit more detail.

  • This attack counts as a Killing Blow. It’ll only be used on bleeding, helpless, and dying characters, so it’s not really something that can take you down in a single hit.

  • It’s not a Murder effect, so armor like the Striker’s Coat won’t prevent this effect. However, stuff that stops a Killing Blow can prevent this effect.

  • You cannot use most Skills, Equipment, or Abilities during this Forced Evolution. You are just a reanimated corpse, so you can’t do much other than attack.

  • You can use still use the basic damage of your weapons (even firearms!) during this brief return from death, but cannot use activated abilities of the item. Rad Bullets sound pretty scary to me! We will also have some white brawlers available for you should you fall to this effect without a weapon handy (or if your friends disarm you.)

  • Since your body isn’t really YOU anymore and you aren’t really dead yet, certain skills like Faithful Will won’t be very useful on the creature you become. This means it may be hard for your friends to prevent an Infection loss if get up and wander away.

  • Once this Forced Evolution has ended, you can collapse on the ground dead for a brief time before headed to Ops. Once this has happened will effects like Faithful Will or Necrokinetics be again useful on your corpse.

REBELLION WAR Mechanics - a Primer

If you’ve been participating in a game this season you might have seen some of the War Mechanics we’ve introduced over the season. As the Rebellion has reached a crescendo, we’ve updated a few of the mechanics to be a bit easier to approach. There is a Design Doc for the full rules if you like that sort of thing, but I’m primarily gonna focus on the basics for this brief guide.

small skirmishes, not battalions

First, for the Bravado Rebellion, the scale of the battle is much more reduced than wars of the past.  In the zombie apocalypse, a powerful “army” will never be the massive force of before the fall, with forces of soldiers, artillery, support forces, troop transports, and more.  There simply aren’t enough survivors left.  While each individual survivor can be a powerful hero in their own right, gathering too many people in one place attracts the undead, raiders, and worse.  Battles are conducted between dozens and hundreds of soldiers, not thousands.  This war is prosecuted on a scale of technology similar to the Civil War, or the Revolutionary War, and involves much smaller armies than would have been found in the time before the fall.  When we say “army” or “combat unit”, just keep in mind that the scale is much smaller.

war supplies

This is a unique Local Plot Card that can be generated by using a ZOM in the Depot, and there are copies of this that will be posted at the Post Office. There are a few different ways to generate this Resource, but upgrading your Combat Units, performing Strategic Actions, and interacting with the war will generally require you to spend these items. You can find details on how to make these, but there are three main ways to do so:

  • Bullets & Beans - Crafters may spend spare resources assisting the war effort.  When completing an Artisan, Culinary, or Education project that generates an item card or blueprint, you may spend an additional 10 Mind or 1 Resolve to generate one (1) War Supplies, in addition to the items you create by crafting.  Write “Bullets & Beans” on the back of your character sheet.

  • Outside Assistance - You may spend 20 minutes and 10 Mind writing a letter requesting aid from an ally or faction of your choice.  This can be a request for soldiers, resources, or even just helpful advice.  At the end of this time, turn in your letter at the Post Office and write “Outside Assistance” on the back of your character sheet.

  • Smelted Brass - You can simply throw money at the problem of the war and generate one (1) War Supplies per 20 Brass you invest at the Post Office.  In the oldest tradition of old Bravo, you can turn your hard earned money into ammunition for the troops.  Write “Smelted Brass” on the back of your character sheet.

Combat Units

All of the ZOMs at the War Table really interact with the idea of a COMBAT UNIT. This is a unique Item card printed on a rectangle of yellow paper. You can get one of these through the Post Office, and you can RECRUIT these units at the War Table in the Depot.

These represent a force of mercenaries and allies that will face down the enemies of Bravado on the battlefronts across the San Saba. This is a small group of people, no more than 20-30 folks, that you’ve gathered to lead into the fray. Where these troops came from in a story sense is mostly up to you to decide. If you want to participate in the Rebellion, all you need to do is RECRUIT a Combat Unit of your own. In future games you’ll have to lead these Units physically in a fight against NPCs, but for now, the main action happens “off camera”.

  • Each Unit will have a NAME of the unit chosen by the player that recruits the unit, and a COMBAT VALUE. The Combat Value is simply the bonus you get on a d20 roll during a BATTLE. In this case, the Essex Protectorate would need to roll a d20 and add +10 to their roll.

  • Your Combat Value (CV) can be raised by spending War Supplies, but it gets more expensive as this number goes up, and you can’t really raise it above +10 without specific behaviors or matching Keywords.

  • Units will have different Keywords that show up during a particular battle. In general, each matching Keyword your unit has will give a temporary +1 to your Combat Roll for the Battle. You can have up to five different Keywords on a Unit, plus a Faction Keyword.

  • Your Unit can gain certain Negative Keywords during Battles that can affect their Combat Roll in dramatic ways. If you are ROUTED, you fight with 1/2 of your CV and cannot spend extra War Supplies to increase the roll with a Bolster, and if you are DEMORALIZED, you must roll two dice and choose the lowest.

  • Each unit will also have a single Faction Keyword, but if it’s something rarer like a Player Faction, it may not come up as often as you like. Every battle will have a few Faction keywords involved that can give you a +1 to your Combat Roll, or even give you access to REROLLS!

  • Each unit can do TWO (2) actions during an event. This is generally fighting during a battle, but each action normally costs War Supplies or Resolve to complete. Some Keywords or Items will let your Unit complete a ZOM without using an Action or spending Resources, but you generally get to do TWO different things with your forces during an event.

  • Each Combat Unit must be COMMANDED by a player character. You’ll write your name at the bottom of the Combat Card, so the ST can understand who is responsible for that Unit.

combat dice

  • The main way that you fight during a battle is to roll your Combat Dice, which is simply a d20 provided by the Guide. You’ll roll the dice and add all of your modifiers from your Combat Value (CV), any actions that gave you a bonus, or other plot effects listed on the Battle.

  • Base Combat Value +/- Modifiers = Final Combat Roll

  • If your modified roll is over the DIFFICULTY of the Battle, you will earn a Success for that fight. Each battle will need a certain number of total Successes to win the fight.

  • If a unit has Advantage, they roll 2d20 and choose the highest.  If the Unit has Disadvantage, they roll 2d20 and choose the lowest.  This will normally be gained by plot effects or having certain Officer bonuses.

  • If you roll a 20 or a 1 on your Combat Roll dice, additional effects can impact your Combat Unit.  If you get a Critical, your unit will gain a Lucky reroll for later use, while if you roll a 1, your Unit will get ROUTED.

  • You can gain a REROLL through some items or a plot effects. A unit with the ability to reroll a Combat Die must accept the result of the second roll, regardless of success or failure.

The War Table

On the back wall of the Depot, you’ll find a poster board with the various mechanics that can be done for the Rebellion, as well as a list of the upcoming BATTLES that will be fought off camera during the event. These appear as a series of Zone of Mechanics, printed on yellow paper with the details of how you can interact with the war against the San Saba Board.

There are two main things you can do at the table:

  • Universal Actions (DOESN’t COST AN ACTION):

    • These are ZOMs on the top most row of the bulletin board in the Depot.

    • These actions don’t require you to spend one of your limited actions, but can generally only be performed ONCE per event, per player.

    • RECRUIT - This is how you can make a new Combat Unit. Each two War Supplies you spend increases their Combat Value, and they get a free Keyword of your choice, along with a Faction Keyword. Your new Unit will be limited to CV 5 until you receive additional training, but you can get an additional CV for free if you choose certain Faction keywords each month.

    • UPGRADE - You can add a Keyword to an existing Combat Unit or increase the CV. Each of these things costs War Supplies and it gets more expensive the more you add. Generally, you are limited to CV 10 for a Unit. Additional CV have to be earned in Battle!

    • BOLSTER - You can spend War Supplies to give your Combat Unit a temporary buff of up to +3 for the entire event. This is a great way to add a bit of oomph to your favorite band of mercenaries before a fight, and it’s a great way to increase your dice roll above CV 10!

  • Strategic Actions (Costs an ACtion):

    • These are the ZOMs on the middle row of the bulletin board in the Depot.

    • These actions require you to spend one of your TWO actions. Remember your Actions cost War Supplies or Resolve to use, so you’ll need at least two War Supplies to fully exploit your Combat Unit. Choose wisely!

    • Your Second Action is called a REDEPLOY. Cavalry and Airborne units can do their Second Action without paying War Supplies (but still have to pay a Resolve), and certain Battles will make deploying to a second Battle cheaper.

    • RECON - This action reveals how difficult an upcoming Battle will be and lets you know how many total Successes will be needed to win. This is vital for knowing where to coordinate your forces. Scouts and Stealthy units can do this for free.

    • RAID - This is the only Strategic Action that generates new War Supplies. By sending your Unit out pillaging, you can earn some War Supplies based on a dice roll, but this consumes one of your two actions for the event. Naval and Deadly units can do this for free.

    • DEPLOY - This is the primary action for a Combat Unit. This is simply assigning your Combat Unit to fight in an upcoming Battle. Simply pin the Combat Card nearby the Battle you want to fight, or show up at the time of the Battle to participate. Because each Unit only gets two actions, you won’t be able to fight in every Battle. Self-Sufficient and Veteran units can do this for free.

    • WAR SUPPORT - These are unique opportunities that come up during the event to give you unique items, custom benefits, or other ways to recruit help for the Rebellion. These will require you to roll a d20, and will be detailed on an ZOM.

    • RESUPPLY - If your troops get wounded in Battle, you can spend one of your Actions to send them for a bit of R&R. They will mend their wounds, take a break, and be ready for a future Battle. This action can remove negative Keywords or even give your Combat Unit a Reroll with some Combat Drugs. Medics and Logistics Specialists can do this for free.

Battles

Each month, the Rebellion will face a series of Battles across the San Saba. As the fighting gets closer to Bravado, the Rebellion will face off against the enemy forces of the San Saba Board, the Clearwater Pirates, and the nightmarish legions of the Prince Undying.

There will be 3 or more Battles fought over the weekend, and they will generally happen near the 12s. The first Battle will happen Friday night at 12 am, the second at noon on Saturday, and the final battle Saturday night at midnight. An ST will be present to conduct the dice rolls, and determine if the battle was won or lost, and answer any questions you may have.

Battles are simpler than it might appear, but you have a few bits of important info:

  • Difficulty - This is the number a Combat Unit has to roll over on a d20. If a Battle has a Difficulty of 15 with a CV 10 Unit deployed, they would need to roll a 5 or better on the d20 to succeed on this roll (5+10 = 15).

  • Success Threshold - This is the total number of Successes that the Rebellion will need to achieve to WIN the fight. If you achieve less than the needed total, the Rebellion will LOSE the fight. If you achieve equal to or more successes than needed, you’ll generally WIN the fight. After every Victory, one of the Rebellion units will get a free Keyword and CV for wining as the MVP.

  • Narrative Description & Enemy Forces - These simply explain the who, what, where, and why of the Battles, and an idea of what your Combat Unit is facing on the battlefronts.

  • Keywords - For each Keyword that matches one on your Combat Card, you gain a +1 to your Combat Roll. This is a great way to turn the tide of Battle in your favor by carefully picking the Battles you’ll fight over the weekend.

  • Deployment Effects - These effects happen BEFORE the Battle starts and dice are rolled, and can have dramatic effects on your Units assigned. Read carefully or ask for help from the ST or friendly player to understand the risks you might take by fighting in a Battle.

  • Rewards of Success or Consequences of Failure - Each battle will have clear outcomes listed here, detailing what happens if the Rebellion loses or wins the Battles. These will generally result in destroyed or damaged units if you lose, or gaining additional free upgrades for Units if you win. Each Battle will earn or lose Victory Points towards the total success of the Rebellion, and will determine when Bravado can force the San Saba Board into a surrender.

summary of the WAR MECHANICS

This is a completely OPTIONAL mechanic to interact with the game. You don’t need to collect War Supplies, or recruit a unit. There’ll still be plenty of zombies, an overarc story, and more to do during the event.

You don’t have to do this, and it’s purposefully designed to allow you to do all your actions and then turn in your card and go back to the game. While there can be cool roleplay around where and how you organize your forces, the only person that gets to decide what your Combat Unit does is you.

You’ll generally have a Combat Unit, get to perform up to TWO different actions for them over the weekend, from buffing and improving the Unit to fighting in different battles. Three or more Battles will happen over the weekend, detailing the story of the Rebellion’s fight against the Board and their other enemies. All of the mechanics really revolve around rolling a d20, adding your bonuses, and trying to roll above a certain difficulty, similar to many other tabletop games like D&D. It’s pretty intuitive, and we will be there to help you along the way.

You don’t have the Recruit a Combat Unit to fight for the Rebellion, but this can be a great way to be involved in the story of the end of the San Saba Board. I’ll be available at each of the Battles during this weekend to answer any questions you have, so you’ll generally be able to find me near the War Table at the 12s.

There’s a few other rules of the war mechanics I haven’t covered here, but this should be enough to get started during this weekend’s event. The easiest way to get involved is to recruit a Combat Unit and send them to fight a Battle!

wrap up

That’s it for today Vados!

This weekend, you’ll find yourselves on the precipice of a new dawn, as the glories of evolution rise triumphant from the wreckage of Waking Prime. Will you survive the forced evolution and join the ranks of what lies beneath? Will you be able to reactivate the Electric Shield or will you find something else inside Waking? What happens if the pinnacle of evolution is allowed to mutate the already dangerous Blood Ghasts into something worse?

Let’s find out together, as we listed for the WHISPERS FROM THE DEEP…

TICKETS ARE STILL ON SALE AT THE DOOR! SEE YOU THIS WEEKEND!

San Saba Update

Howdy Vados!

It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to our April live event WHISPERS FROM THE DEEP! This is our next ST led over-arc game, led by Noah Goodman. Each week, I’ll discuss in detail an aspect of the upcoming event, compiling the rules and lore into one easy place to read! This week, we are recapping the story of our previous event and updating you on a few continuity updates and changes you should know about going into April.

  • TICKETS FOR OUR APRIL EVENT ARE ON SALE NOW! CAN YOU SURVIVE WHAT EMERGES FROM WAKING?

  • CLEAN UP IS CHANGING! We will be experimenting with a new process for Clean Up at the end of the event during our April and May games. Immediately after closing announcements, we will start with our Camp Cleanup first, and then complete our Personal Cleanup last! We will have some more details on this soon, but we appreciate your flexibility as we try some new ways to speed up how fast we can get off site after game and still keep our friends in the Girl Scouts happy!

Our photos for this post were taken from our March 2023 DR:TX event by the talented Heather Halstead.

Recap - Gifts of Suffering

You can read more about the Premise of our last event, Gifts of Suffering, if you’d like to catch up, but we’ll cover some of the highlights of what happened if you missed out!

At the start of the event, Brother Agony, a Final Knight holy man came to town bearing several RELICS of unholy power. Each of the relics was a powerful psionic artifact, each with an insidious geas that encouraged those that claimed the crown to blaspheme the faiths that they were designed to mock. In all, there were TEN crowns released into the wild during the March event.

  • Crown of Stagnation (Church of Darwin)

  • Crown of Anarchy (Cult of the Fallow Hope)

  • Crown of the Hellwrought (Final Knights)

  • Crown of Moderation (The Light of Hedon)

  • Crown of Solitude (The Nuclear Family)

  • Crown of the Lost Signal (The Telling Visionaries)

  • Crown of the Extinguished (Sainthood of Ashes)

  • Crown of the Broken Wheel (Tribe of Seasons)

  • Crown of the Discordant (Virtues of the Kings & Queens Court)

  • Crown of Fresh Blood - This last crown only functioned in the hands of a character with less than 50 XP, meaning it quickly fell into the hands of a new player!

Each of the crowns offered boons like damage reduction, the ability to use various skills for free, resist AOE effects, and even use Faith Bane against their enemies. But, if conflict was not created, often requiring the wearer to commit a sin against the faith tied to the crown, they would slowly bleed and kill the wearer until they died. But if this compulsion was completed, the Crowns gained new and impressive new abilities, but required the wearer to take the life of another every 12 hours to satiate their lust for blood.

However, the Crowns offered a potential boon for the town of Bravado. If the town would fully ascend and empower the Crowns of Suffering, Brother Agony offered to teach them a benediction that could reinforce and shield the town from the terrible Prince Undying. As the night continued, the comforting blue light of the monolith at the crossroads began to bleed crimson, as the attacks from the Grave Mind grew worse.

Coupled with these psychic attacks on Bravado was the very real challenge of a Reckoner Blockade and the damaged docks that were destroyed by the pirates of the Clearwater Accord after the February event. While folks worked to repair the damage done and ensure the town could reopen a connection with Drywater and other cities along the riverways of the San Saba, the forces of the San Saba Rebellion deployed against the mighty armies of the Reckoners and the Board.

Throughout the day on Saturday, various forces attempted to claim the Crowns for themselves, whether it was rogue Reckoners of the Grave Council, agents of the Waking Intelligence Service, or even simply victims of Brother Agony’s gifts that destroyed towns that were torn apart by the infighting created by the relics. Cassiopeia, a Mystagogue of the Grave Council, heir apparent to the seat held by Rampart offered to help the town understand more about the relics of power with the resources of the Grave Council.

Saturday afternoon, a Gauntlet was held for the villainous General Rampart, leader of the Reckoners, but his military forces were set to keep the Justices of Sin from reaching the trial in time to pass judgement. With the help of Justice Blayne, the town snuck past the Reckoner Legions to bring the Justice to the Gauntlet, where she pronounced the General guilty of the crime of Murder and executed him on the spot. While a few of the townsfolk pried into his brain for a few final questions before he was taken by the Grave Mind, they were all shocked with inky black nightmare tentacles instead drug the corpse to somewhere else.

As the evening grew near and the incursion from the nightmares continued to threaten the town, Brother Agony proved true to his word. He returned with a Benediction to seal the monolith with Seals of Faith, reinforcing and securing the monolith against the influence of the Prince Undying. For every priest they could get to perform their part of the ritual, they could reduce the impact of the nightmares that came to break the strange crystal at the heart of the town. With help from priests of the Hedon, the Seasons, the Sainthood, the Fallow, and the Final Knights, the ritual was enacted as the night fell on Bravado.

Hordes of strange nightmare creatures swarmed the center of Bravado, intent on disrupting the Monolith, but the Crown bearers used the influence of the crowns to sway the tide in their favor. While common attacks to deal with the dead were useless, the seals of faith were useful in driving back the shadowy horde. As the faith of the town held strong under the assault, the crimson light faded from the monolith as it returned to the pure blue light that marked the town under its protection.

While the Crowns of Suffering could have been kept by the bearers, each of the crowns was surrendered and destroyed, removing the threat of them forever. Only time will tell if this was a hasty decision, but the strange GIFTS OF SUFFERING are no more.

UPdates for bravado

Let’s cover the nitty gritty of what has changed since last month:

  • First, the Blockade of Bravado has been lifted thanks to the efforts of the brave soldiers of the Rebellion. They broke the back of the Reckoner Legions outside the town and have lifted the immediately consequences that was affecting Trade Connections and other Skills at the PO.

  • Anyport was repaired and access to the riverways was restored thanks to a monumental effort of scrap, resources, a trip to sail against the Blockade, and a fierce battle with the Clearwater Accord. The penalities against the Sailing skill have been removed.

  • Despite the Blockade being lifted, the town is still being isolated by the San Saba Board. The Ox is forbidden from being sent to the town, telegraph lines need to be repaired, and connections to the greater Wastes are still limited under threat of treason and enemy forces of the Board. While the immediate danger of the Blockade is gone, work yet remains to gain access to the greater railways. You can expect to see ZOMs and other similar repair efforts continue as we end the season, and Battles will continue to fight against the Board.

  • We’ve always referred to the “Ox” in a general sense of the RRC network around the area, but there’s more than one locomotive in use by the RRC. While a few “misplaced” locomotives from the lesser fleet of trains that the RRC and the Hackard Family manages can now return to Bravado, the crown jewel of the fleet, the jet-powered Ox, is much too valuable to send into contested territory. Players can once again arrive via the train, but it’s assumed to be a hijacked or mis-purposed train car, a handcart, or some other lesser form of rail access. Players will have an option to claim the Ox for the town of Bravado in the coming events.

  • The new MORALE BOOST effect continues until the end of the season. The fire in the heart of the Rebellion is still strong and ready to claim a new future for Bravado! Yeehaw!

The NEw Bravado Charter

One of the important threads from this event that will show up again during April is the question of Law and Order in a town that has rebelled. During the March event, the Law Dogs met to consider a new Bravado Charter, a set of common-sense laws that the town could agree to enforce as a community. Much like the laws of the San Saba Board were created as part of a charter between the powerful factions of the area, the town of Bravado would instead draft their own charter as part of the rebellion.

The Law Dog agents worked to whip up support for their organization, but also to sell the need for some structure in the face of Anarchy. In the end, the town gathered an overwhelming majority of the town to consider the following laws. In April, the town will be able to sign the Bravado Charter, ushering in a new sense of justice in the wastes, and ensuring that the Law Dogs and Justices of Sin can help keep the worst excesses of anarchy and lawlessness at bay.

The laws suggested by the Law Dogs are as follows:

  • The act of Murder is illegal, regardless of actual Infection loss.

  • Theft of property, labor, or Infection is illegal.

  • The possession, harvesting, distribution, and manufacture of Crystal Candy is illegal.

  • Contracts between parties do not absolve of violations of these laws.

  • The protected rights of assault, post, press, or radio shall not be infringed.

Most of these laws are similar to the ones that have been in place before now. You shouldn’t trade in Crystal Candy, kill, steal, or prevent the Post Office from delivering the mail. But, the Law Dogs have chosen to enshrine the right of a good old fashion brawl with Assault as a town tradition, and protect the nascent rights of the press and radio to bring news to town. Lastly, instead of saying that ‘contracts are the sum and whole of the law’, like in the San Saba Charter, they made sure to close a loophole to prevent contracts from being used as an excuse to escape the long arm of the law.

During the April event, you’ll have a chance to consider any final modifications to these laws before they are enshrined by the new Bravado Charter. As we reach the end of Season 5, we want you each to have a say in the laws of the town as we move towards Season 6. With law and order in sight, the Rebellion takes another step towards building a bright new future for the tiny town of Bravado.

rebellion updates

We introduced a few new updates to our Rebellion mechanics that you can read for yourself on our Discord, but the fight against the enemies of Bravado continued in the month of March. Several folks took the opportunity to draft and muster new Combat Units, and the forces of the Rebellion swelled as they set to defend their hard-earned freedom from the the forces of the San Saba Board and worse. The town defended far away locations by deploying their Units to various battlefronts near Bravado.

There were three battles that took place, with the brave soldiers of the Rebellion striking back to claim territory and break the back of the Reckoner Legions that had laid siege to the town for a month.

Regaining Control of the River

Eager to liberate Roy’s Rest, the Rebellion struck eastward against the forces of the Clearwater Accord and the treacherous pirates that follow Carina Astora. The enemy forces were made up of Clearwater Accord pirates, prowling the waterways trying to prevent reinforcements from reaching the Junkerpunk Port.

Fighting against D’arcy the Dark, the Rebellion reclaimed the riverport as part of their campaign to provide aid to the embattled Junkerpunks. D’arcy was a powerful psion and opportunist, and she turned on the Oxkillers after Carina offered a better paycheck and a disregard for her preference for cannibalism.  She claimed that eating the hearts of her victims let her steal their psionic potential for her own, and was prepared for a feast, but was instead met with an devastating loss.

With the town of Roy’s Rest firmly in the control of the Rebellion, they can now strike along the rivers to rescue ships and citizens that are under siege by the pirates of the Spoiled Coast, and will be able to provide aid to the Clutch during the April event.

Reinforcing Tremorsands

Before the Militia disbanded in February, General Hargrave made the sound decision to provide additional support to the oilfields of Tremorsands Post, one last stop at the edge of the Dune Sea. Thanks to the timely assistance, Tremorsands was prepared for a new and terrifying enemy as the forces of the Undying Empire moved out from Barogue, their undead hordes intent on destroying the living.

Through it was the hardest fought battle of the weekend, the forces of the Rebellion narrowly persevered against the terrible nightmarish legions of the Prince Undying.  A wave of foul blackness sweeps across the desert, resembling shadowy cavalry with skeletal features.  A shrieking chorus rose across the sands, breaking the nerve of even the most stalwart defenders.

The Rebellion overcame the terrible Maja’sulum Nabat, the Consort of the Tentacled Depths, the leader of the undead hordes, and stopped the advance from the desert. However, as the wave of nightmares rolls into the heart of the San Saba, the next bastion of defense will need to be the brave soldiers of the Ramguard as they attempt to defend Falken Castle from the Prince Undying.

The battle of bravado

The final battle of the weekend took place as the Rebellion mustered their forces against the Reckoner Legions, intent on breaking the siege of Bravado. The Battle of Bravado took place Saturday night, with the Rebellion breaking the back of the San Saba Board as they tried their next attempt to reclaim the town.

The enemy forces were made up of allegiant Reckoner Legion units wielding psi-tech weapons and leveraging the Undead hordes still riled up by the strange rituals they used to control the dead from afar, led by Commander Grant, one of the last followers of Rampart. While his forces had been battered during their defeat in February, they still presented a danger to the town and needed to be stopped.

The Rebellion was victorious, pushing the Reckoners back to Essex, and opening a path to reclaim the fortress-prison of Killhouse, a personal goal of General Hargrave. With Tabitha and her Board soldiers separated, it will be up to the combined forces of the Oxkiller Alliance and the Rebellion to break the fortress that has stood firm for the entirety of the War of Antlers.

Looking Forward

There will be FOUR (4) Battles during April, based on the outcomes of the Battles that were fought during the March event.

  • Liberating Widow's Peak

  • Evacuating the Clutch

  • The Conquest of Killhouse

  • Defending Falken Castle

Will you be able to claim a bright future for the Rebellion and break the San Saba Board once and for all? Can you hope to stop the Prince Undying, and can you provide aid to your allies in their hour of need? I hope you have your War Supplies ready!

Wrap Up

That’s it for today, Vados. We have a few weeks until our April event, WHISPERS FROM THE DEEP, and we still have a few surprises in store. While evolution may have run rampant in the depths of Waking, what will that mean for your characters as they discover the dangers of Project Eve? Will your be forced into a new evolution, or will you survive the evolutionary leap into the a bright new future for Bravado?

Let’s find out together! Next week, we cover some of the Rules You Should Know, and we will cover some of the important mechanics that might be useful to survive what emerges from Waking.

Tickets are on sale until Friday, but you’ll still be able to reserve your spot on site next week. Don’t miss out on the next chapter of our story!

See you soon Vados!

A New Dawn

Howdy Vados!

It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to our April live event WHISPERS FROM THE DEEP! This is our next ST led over-arc game, led by Noah Goodman. Each week, I’ll discuss in detail an aspect of the upcoming event, compiling the rules and lore into one easy place to read! This week, we are covering some of the lore you should know about the upcoming event and glimpse at the new dawn for some of the established traditions of Collection Day and the Grave Tax.

  • TICKETS FOR OUR APRIL EVENT ARE ON SALE NOW! CAN YOU survive what emerges from waking?

  • One of the next Dystopia Rising Live books has been official released - A GRAVE PLACE is now available on the DR Live Website, free to read and enjoy! This book is a primer on the Grave Mind, but it does include some important story spoilers within. If you are still interested, take a look at the secrets of the Mortis Amaranthine!

  • CLEAN UP IS CHANGING! We will be experimenting with a new process for Clean Up at the end of the event during our April and May games. Immediately after closing announcements, we will start with our Camp Cleanup first, and then complete our Personal Cleanup last! We will have some more details on this soon, but we appreciate your flexibility as we try some new ways to speed up how fast we can get off site after game and still keep our friends in the Girl Scouts happy!

Our photos for this post were taken from previous DR:TX events by our talented Photo Team, by Max Pohlmeier, Lauren Guzaldo, and Jason Dumas.

Whispers from the Deep [Lore]

Last week, we talked a bit about the teaser for the game and introduced a few points of interest that you’ll encounter during the April event. But if you haven’t been around DR:TX for a while, some of these names and places might be new to you. Let’s talk about a quick primer of the important stuff your character may know about some of these topics.

Let’s cover the “who’s who” of our next event:

The Buzzbee Family

One of the powerful Families of Waking Prime, the Buzzbees are easily identified by their maroon colors and Tainted scientists. The Buzzbee family was one of the oldest institutions in Waking before it crashed near Bravado, and were said to have been the founders of the flying city.  They created the lightning rod system that brought power to the city’s lesser systems, and the storm alert system that detected weather changes and navigation.  Considered masters of electricity, they collect oldcestor technology in hopes of recreating the marvels of the time before the fall. Some have suggested that the Heavycraf company stole the blueprints for the electro-welder from the Buzzbees, but this is probably just a jealous rumor started by one of the lesser family heads.

Regardless of the family’s success, the Buzzbees are known to be a bit eccentric and a more than a bit secretive. Many of their family worship at the shrine of Savannah’s light as members of the Church of Darwin, and the Buzzbees were thought to be responsible for the maintenance of the Capacity Engine, the strange oldcestor device that powered the flying city before its fall. The Buzzbee family has long since diversified their scientific interests beyond the electrical, and have become somewhat divided on the research in which they dedicate their wealth and expertise, particularly when it comes to the Grave Mind.

Kincaid Buzzbee

Kincaid Buzzbee— the Buzzbee that inherited the profitable backing of his name— chose to focus his life’s work on the Morgue of Waking. He is both the sole student and teacher who maintained a morgue in the sky and has been critical to helping the Grave Council understand how the morgue can be safely assimilated into the Gravemind network in the San Saba. Buzzbee has also been the primary Graverobber for the Waking Prime Family Members, and they have sustained his pockets heavily for decades. Most of the family has stayed very focused on managing the Electric Shield, a device powered by ancient Aggie technology, but Kincaid’s first priority has been the Mortis.

While many of the Waking Families fled Waking when the city was taken by the Mustang Loyalists, the Buzzbees have been one of the few families that has remained invested in the town of Bravado. Both Kincaid and his cousin Professor BB Buzzbee have been frequent visitors and sponsors of Liquidation Runs into the city over the past few months, and their knowledge has been crucial in surviving within the husk of the fallen skyship.

The Buzzbee Electric Shield ™

While the specifics are considered trade secrets by the powerful RRC family, one of the primary defenses of the mighty city of Waking Prime before its fall was known as the ELECTRIC SHIELD. Part generator and part super weapon, the Shield was the last line of defense of the city if a foe was able to overwhelm their arsenal of zeppelins and mounted cannons. When fully powered, the device was said to be capable of energizing the entire surface of the city, creating a powerful deterrent to raiders and those that would have tried to conquer Waking. During the Waste's Faire, the Electric Shield was used to cripple a fleet of raider skyships of the Stormchasers, thanks to the timely intervention of survivors from Bravado.

After the crash and the final shutdown of the Capacity Engine, most of the power of the crashed city has come from the capacitors of the Electric Shield. With most of the city’s interior filled with deadly radiation, the meager energy needs of the surface city have been only a minor drain on the potential of the Shield. While the reservoirs are no longer as easily recharged from lightning storms while in the air, the Chairman set a number of oxblood generators and repurposed batteries towards keeping the defenses of the city intact. Some suggest the Electric Shield may even still be a functional defense of Waking, even in its crashed state.

Mother Mayhem, chief auditor

Mother Mayhem is one of the chief agents of the AUDITORS in the Bravado and Essex areas. One of the only groups within the Grave Council capable of rivaling the Reckoners for sheer power, the Auditors are the day to day accountants, tax collectors, bankers, and financiers of the powerful faction. Mother Mayhem is an older Lascarian who has a habit of killing with kindness until she needs to force something with an iron fist. It is rumored that even blackmail and intimidation are key tactics if needed, but Mother Mayhem purposefully lets the rumors build up their mystique.

Mother Mayhem is the chief arbiter of the Grave Tax, and is responsible for the collection of Brass from across the San Saba to fund the support of the Morgue system. They are a known aberrant and have a deep fondness for other psions, believing their protection will lead to healthier relationships with the Mortis. She strives to protect the Grave Council at all costs, even against themselves, and her assistance was crucial to the arrest of the late Reckoner-General.

Cassiopeia Stargazer

One of the newer prominent figures within the Grave Council, Cassiopeia has recently been promoted as a leader of the Mystagogues, the sect of priests and Grave Mind cultists that make up the spiritual branch of the Grave Council. Cassiopeia is one of the ancient Imix Tribe, the Unborn refugees that first founded the Grave Council after the Hiway War. While most of her focus was on Essex and the heart of the Grave Council’s headquarters, she has recently found allies within Bravado.

Cassiopeia is a member of the Quiet Path, a group of grave cultists that believe the Mortis Amaranthine at its core is neither good nor evil. It is a catalyst for change that should be deeply respected and honored above all else. They believe that when we die, we are stripped down to the barest form of ourselves, and we must reassemble ourselves from the things that are most important to us. This may be seen as unsavory or unsettling to many, but to the Quiet Path, it is an awe inspiring journey that enables us to be the purest form of ourselves. The ever continuing cycle of change and growth is essential for survival in this imperfect and fleeting existence. Many members of the Quiet Path are necrokinetically inclined, and lean deeply into studying the interactions between the Mortis Amaranthine and the rest of the world.

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 morgue services 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.

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 Railroad Conglomerate, the San Saba 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 Board. Even the Junkerpunks acknowledge the need to preserve the cycle of death through the Mortis Amaranthine.

Let’s first consider why we started this tradition in the first place…

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. I even wrote a cool story as a teaser before we started play, that you can read about here:

We missed our first attempt at running Collection Day due to the pandemic closing down live events around Season 1 and 2, but we revisited this “holiday” two years ago during Season 3 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. Thanks in part to the Grave Tax, a very real problem of disease was at last resolved. Last year, during our Season Four event, HELLS OF THE SAN SABA, Reckoner-General Rampart fired all of the Groundskeepers during a Gauntlet, and declared the town under a “quarantine”. While the faction was kept busy trying to stabilize the morgues of Waking, they left the town to their own devices without any real support from the faction.

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 meant as 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.

You can read more about the Grave Tax and Collection Day in our story sections.

The Grave Tax during a Rebellion

Very few individuals that care about the Morgues and the Grave Mind can deny that the maintenance of the Mortis Amaranthine is a demanding task. Each time a person dies, a bit of their body that remains becomes a newly formed zombie, adding to the undead terrors that harass the living. Simply helping someone survive the harrowing journey after death can risk the mind and Infection of the morgue specialists themselves, and it can be a thankless job with little pay and extreme risk.

Furthermore, activities like Grave Dives, Pallor Mortis rituals, Infection transfers, Necrokinetic abuse and more can quickly lead to the ecosystem of the morgue suffering a dangerous MORGUE COLLAPSE. When this happens, the threat of the Undead increases and every death becomes more uncertain, as simply escaping the Mortis becomes a challenge. Whatever the reason, there are consequences when there is no Morgue in an area to attract the newly deceased.

Fixing such a calamity needs valuable and expensive resources like Psionic Crystals, scrap, and more to repair, and keeping that balance maintained can be a full time job for most Grave Robbers and Necrologists. While the stated purpose of the Grave Tax was to provide resources for such a crisis, as well as trained professionals to aid the town should a calamity like this occur, the Grave Council is inevitably tied to the power of the San Saba Board. After a year of little or no support from the Council per General Rampart’s orders, discontent over the concept of Collection Day has grown.

So, with the recent Bravado Rebellion, a very real question looms:

“why should we pay the Grave Tax at all?”

One of the questions that must be resolved during the April event is what becomes of the Grave Council in a world where the San Saba Board’s power is quickly crumbling? Will your survivors find a need for the Grave Tax, or will they be able to forge some new agreement with the Grave Council for their support? What purpose does the Grave Council serve if they cannot collect the Grave Tax?

Will the players fight for the soul of the Grave Council, and can they establish some new system to help maintain the morgues of the area? Can Mother Mayhem and Cassiopeia be trusted, or will they just repeat the mistakes of past Grave Council leaders? Since Rampart quarantined the town, what services has the Grave Council even done for the town over the past year? Should Bravado even continue paying taxes to the Grave Council, given their continued support of the San Saba Board? If the Grave Council isn’t maintaining the Morgues, who is supposed to do this in their place?

As the town continues to fight a Rebellion, and as the survivors of Bravado consider the very laws and order they will continue to maintain, the threat of the Morgue collapsing remains a very real possibility. During WHISPERS FROM THE DEEP, you will get a chance to decide the fate of Collection Day, the Grave Tax, and the very Grave Council itself.

wrap Up

That’s it for today Vados!

We hope that you will join us for our April event, led by the talented Noah Goodman, and explore the future of our factions as we reach the conclusion of our Season 5 story. Will you help the town reach a new dawn, fighting against evolution itself and the horrors that spring from within Waking? Will you pay the Grave Tax, or resolve to handle future grave crises on your own?

Tickets FOR “WHISPERS FROM THE DEEP” are still on sale, so don’t miss out! aPRIL 12-14!

See you soon!

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Whispers from the Deep

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Howdy Vados!

It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to our April live event WHISPERS FROM THE DEEP! This is our next ST led over-arc game, led by Noah Goodman. Each week, I’ll discuss in detail an aspect of the upcoming event, compiling the rules and lore into one easy place to read! This week, we are covering the premise of our event, some content warnings, and some teasers about our upcoming event!

  • TICKETS FOR OUR APRIL EVENT ARE ON SALE NOW! CAN YOU survive what emerges from waking?

  • If you had a great experience at our last event GIFTS OF SUFFERING or had some suggestions for how we can improve, we’d love to hear from you! Did you get to take one of the Crowns of Suffering for yourself? Did you hear Brother Agony explain why he was “helping” the town? Did you help the Rebellion fight the first battles of the war against the San Saba Board? Let us know!

  • CLEAN UP IS CHANGING! We will be experimenting with a new process for Clean Up at the end of the event during our April and May games. Immediately after closing announcements, we will start with our Camp Cleanup first, and then complete our Personal Cleanup last! We will have some more details on this soon, but we appreciate your flexibility as we try some new ways to speed up how fast we can get off site after game and still keep our friends in the Girl Scouts happy!

Our photos for this post were taken from our March 2023 DR:TX event by the talented Heather Halstead.

The Premise

Something is churning deep within Waking's corpse. Memories best left forgotten from the time of the Hiway War have left old Darwin experiments to fester in basement labs. As Mustang Loyalists solidify their hold over the decaying remains of Waking Prime, the final safeguards on long dormant projects have become unstable, threatening to unleash what has been left trapped within the radioactive wreckage. Errant and uncaring soldiers shut off power, open doors, and unlock new sensitive areas within the city without thinking of why those doors were shut in the first place.

Sometimes a door was closed for a reason…

Project EVE, one of those forgotten evolutionary experiments, was said to bend infection itself, capable of mutating flora and fauna and worse, and now it stirs within the bowels of Waking, changing and mutating into something new and unique. Underneath this glowing city of scrap and decay that looms over Bravado, a new danger threatens to EVOLVE.

Kincaid Buzzbee, scion of the Waking Families of the RRC, has called upon the townsfolk of Bravado to help him contain the worst of these threats within Waking. With the aid of brave Vados, he hopes to reactivate the remnants of the Buzzbee Electric Shield ™ to save the town from this new ecological destruction. If these dangerous experiments are let loose to infest the tunnels below Bravado, there is no end to the mutated nightmares that might erupt if evolution is left unchecked.

At the same time, Collection Day looms. With The Grave Council in disarray, Mother Mayhem and Cassiopeia come to negotiate with Bravado’s citizens about a reformation within the Grave Council and revision of the sacred tradition of the Grave Tax. The Grave Council must evolve as the Rebellion continues, but the mystagogues and auditors wish to reestablish their society’s legitimacy in Bravado even after Reckoner-General Rampart’s fall from grace.

Sitting at the edge of a possible mass extinction event, Bravado must salvage the remains of Waking Prime to save themselves from total annihilation while building the pillars of their future society. How will the townsfolk of this rebellious boom-town survive an evolutionary leap into the next epoch of San Saba history?

Inspiration & Tropes

This season in Bravado we have focused on bringing some new elements of Survival Horror to the forefront of the story. In our tradition of Radical Trust, we want to share some of the inspirational bits of media and movie magic that we feel help capture the themes and feelings of our upcoming event. If you are looking for a movie to inspire your role play for this event, here’s a list of our favorites to get ready for WHISPERS FROM THE DEEP:

  • Resident Evil

  • Parasite EVE (Video Game)

  • Cabin in the Woods

  • Mimic

  • The Crazies

For this event, the common theme is that “evolution doesn’t have a plan. It makes frequent, catastrophic mistakes”. Waking was a city of a mad scientists, using technology beyond their ken to tinker with things that should not be. With the Board in exile, and the city in the control of their enemies, no one is left to contain these projects, and sometimes something goes wrong.

This event also plays on the ideas of “Mad Science Gone Wrong”. The world is being forcibly evolved because of the horrors within Waking. Experiments created in attempts to play God have now escaped and are wreaking havoc on the world. We are looking extinction in the face because scientists focused on if they could without ever considering if they should.

As strange new creatures emerge from Waking, echoes of these experiments can be seen in the horrors like the Necrophage, the terrors within Killhouse Prison, and all of the mutant monstrosities unleashed on the town last year. With this new lingering threat emerging, can you save the town from the disastrous consequences of unchecked evolution?

CONTENT WARNINGS

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 set proper expectations for our content. 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.

It’s important to watch for descriptions, situations, or events that you might want to avoid. You may find new limits that are unknown to you because the matter never came up. We encourage you to take the necessary steps for your own emotional safety. We want you to be comfortable with the types of horror in our events so you can enjoy the thrill of the zombie apocalypse and the nightmare creatures we introduce into the game space.

It’s one reason we take our OK Check-In system so seriously! We understand that these may not be stories you want to participate in, and that’s okay! Remember, you can always use the OK Check-In System to choose to leave a scene, even CVC!

You can always find a list of our Content Warnings on our website, but let’s talk about some of the specific things you might want to be prepared for during this February event.

Overall, this next event focuses heavily on the themes of BODY HORROR, LOSS OF AGENCY, and TAX COLLECTION. These can be some serious themes, so let’s talk about some content warnings of note for WHISPERS FROM THE DEEP:

Body Horror, grotesque or disturbing mutations, visceral costumes and props

  • Certain creatures this weekend will have disgusting and visceral costumes and props that might require you to interact with sticky, gross, or terrible looking things. These props will change the features of certain threats, and should be repulsive and terrifying.

  • If a module requires you to interact with chemicals or substances that might stain your clothing or costumes, we will announce these aspects as a “SPLATTER MOD”. We will try to give you a fair warning before engaging with these challenges, but we cannot guarantee clothing or items may not be affected by the disgusting goo in our mods.

LOSS OF AGENCY, UNSTOPPABLE THREATS, Consequences AFTER DEATH

  • Some threats during this weekend will not be things you can truly kill. Much like the Tyrant in Resident Evil, while you may be able to defeat them temporarily, these are threats meant to survive and endure, not overcome. As evolution itself runs out of control, these threats will continue to return after being killed and continue the pressure of their attacks. You’ll need to run and hide, rather than trying to make a valiant last stand.

  • There will be mechanics during this event that return the recently dead back to play as a new threat. This is a powerful way to restrict your character’s agency after death, but will not be something you can avoid if you get put into certain situations.

  • Many horror stories involve this concept of loss of agency, where you are powerless to stop a monster that is itself a metaphor for the relentless advance of time, death, or war.

TAXES, RENT, AND DEBT COLLECTION

  • Each April we feature the Grave Council tradition of COLLECTION DAY. While this is on it’s face a way to represent the horrors of financial burden and mimic the real life stress of tax day, it’s also a big part of how the town continues to support one of the major factions.

  • There will likely be conflict over how the Grave Council attempts to collect debts incurred over the course of the season. If you notice on the bottom left corner of your character sheet, you might see a GRAVE TAX owed if you’ve died during this season. This is a monetary amount in Brass that your character may be expected to owe by the end of the event. While there are ways to ask for forbearance or have this debt taken by another, you may encounter NPCs asking to “check your contract” for their debt. Be prepared!

FORCED EVOLUTION & RAD DAmage

In our tradition of Radical Transparency, let’s discuss some key mechanics that could happen to your character during WHISPERS FROM THE DEEP.

If you are caught alone on the battlefield with certain threats, they may convert you to their cause by a spontaneous evolution before the Mortis Amaranthine takes you with a FORCED EVOLUTION.

Forced Evolution

Upon taking a “Forced Evolution” call, writhe in pain for 10 seconds before rising again and fighting for [REDACTED] with the following stats.

30 BODY, Strong Limbs (Immune to Mangle), Keywords: [REDACTED], Once per flurry/reload deal Radiation Damage. Radiation Damage inflicts both Mind and Body damage at once.

Upon death, report to Ops. Return from The Grave Mind with Radiation Sickness Stage One.

Similar to being devoured by zombies with Cannibalism, if this attack hits your character they will be D-E-A-D, slain by the [REDACTED]. After your death, instead of proceeding to Ops to get your death scene, you’ll first return to play as a NPC threat. You’ll join the horde of enemies, and try to kill your friends until you are stopped for good.

Let’s cover this attack in a bit more detail.

  • This attack counts as a Killing Blow. It’ll only be used on bleeding, helpless, and dying characters, so it’s not really something that can take you down in a single hit.

  • It’s not a Murder effect, so armor like the Striker’s Coat won’t prevent this effect. However, stuff that stops a Killing Blow can prevent this effect.

  • You cannot use most Skills, Equipment, or Abilities during this Forced Evolution. You are just a reanimated corpse, so you can’t do much other than attack.

  • You can use still use the basic damage of your weapons (even firearms!) during this brief return from death, but cannot use activated abilities of the item. Rad Bullets sound pretty scary to me! We will also have some white brawlers available for you should you fall to this effect without a weapon handy (or if your friends disarm you.)

  • Since your body isn’t really YOU anymore and you aren’t really dead yet, certain skills like Faithful Will won’t be very useful on the creature you become. This means it may be hard for your friends to prevent an Infection loss if get up and wander away.

  • Once this Forced Evolution has ended, you can collapse on the ground dead for a brief time before headed to Ops. Once this has happened will effects like Faithful Will or Necrokinetics be again useful on your corpse.

Let’s talk briefly about the other prominent mechanic during this event, Radiation Damage.

Rad Damage (P. 105)

This is a mechanical damage effect normally associated with radiation or irradiated creatures. Radiation damage cause an equal degree of lost Mind as it does Body.

This is a dangerous effect you might have seen before on Glow Boys and Toxic Terrors. When damaged by this type of attack you lose both Mind AND Body, so it’s particularly devastating. For example, if the threat calls “5 Rad!” on an attack that hits you, you lose 5 Body and 5 Mind from the wound.

  • Radiation Damage by itself doesn’t inflict Radiation Sickness, the disease most commonly associated with irradiated creatures.

  • These attacks can (and should!) be Avoided, and are generally delivered by a melee Strike or a Ranged Attack with a packet.

  • If the attack is called by an AOE or Sound of My Voice call, these effects cannot be Avoided, and must be prevented by mechanics that stop AOE effects.

  • Armor doesn’t stop Rad Damage. If your got hit by a “5 Rad!” hit while wearing 20 Armor, you would lose 5 Mind and have 15 Armor remaining.

Small attacks with Radiation Damage may not be worth using Avoid on, as spending the Mind on the defense may be more costly than the damage you’ll take. But, take enough of those small hits and you won’t have the remaining Mind to dodge the next big hit! Ouch!

wrap up

That’s it for today, Vados!

We hope that you will come join us for our next event, led by the very talented Noah Goodman. We have some fun surprises in store for you during this game, and we hope that you are ready to EVE-OLVE your tactics to fight the dangerous new enemies facing Bravado. Will you be able to help contain the danger within Waking? Will you fight for the soul of the Grave Council as they take steps forward into this brave new world? Will you pay your Grave Tax?

Next week we will recap some of the important events from our last game, and catch up to speed on all the story continuity you’ll need as we face the WHISPERS FROM THE DEEP! See you soon, Vados!

Tickets are on sale for our april event now! Don’t miss out!