character concepts
YOU can find the complete rules for character creation in the player’s Guide starting on page 9
If you are a new player to Dystopia Rising Live, regardless of your level of experience with roleplaying games as a whole, the process of character creation is pretty simple. Building a character is as simple as choosing concept, deciding what Strain best matches your style of play, and what your costume might look like in the apocalypse.
Once you’ve put together the physical supplies and props that you will need for an event, you are mostly done! You don’t need to spend experience points on character creation if you don’t want to, and you can simply jump into the game ready to play.
If that seems a bit overwhelming, that’s okay too. Our friendly New Player Guides will be on site for your first game before it starts to help you with character creation in person and teach you what you need to know to play. We’ve even put together a brief summary of the rules you’ll need to know to start, but character creation is easier than you think.
Let’s talk about the basic things you’ll need for a new character before we get into stuff like mechanics and rules.
concept
Concept is simply your vision for what your survivor in the zombie apocalypse is going to be. This can be as simple as the role you want them to play or the experience that you want to have in game.
What does your character do?
Rather than focusing on a background right away, we’ll ask what you want to do during the event. Are you eager to try combat? Would you prefer to be a doctor, or maybe try your hand at the economy? Do you want to use psionic powers? Sneak around in the woods at night? Think of some of the activities you’re excited to try, and build your concept around those.
Character Name
You’ll need a name for your character! If you’re bad with coming up with names on the spot, you can always change it later. Simple names can be best and try to avoid silly names that you might regret later. You can choose to make your name as simple or as complicated as you wish but remember that most folks will tend to create a nickname for you if your name is too long to remember easily. There are a number of name generators on Google that you can use, or you can consult something like a phone book for ideas.
starting experience points
As a new character, you’ll have fifty (50) Experience Points with which to create your character. The only choice you need to make is whether there are Skills and Stats you want to start with, or if you want to learn these skills during play. If you have a strong idea of the skills you want, you can spend the build before entering play, otherwise, you can wait and see which skills you’ll actually use during the game. Don’t worry about making a “good” decision; you can rewrite your character after your first few games.
If you are ready to get started, you can start right away. Click the link above to learn about our free character builder once you’ve had a chance to look over the rulebook. The character builder is intuitive and easy to use and allows you to plan out your first Dystopia Rising Live character.
You can find some suggestions of how to build your character in the other links in the New Player Skills section on our webpage.
you are a survivor!
Remember, Dystopia Rising is ultimately a game about banding together with others to survive the apocalypse. While it can be tempting to make that bad ass lone wolf character, you’ll find it pretty boring if you don’t make friends. Instead, try to think of ways you can get involved into the story and setting of the world, and really dive in!
The most important resource you have throughout the event are the players you’ll meet: don’t hesitate to talk to everyone! They’re excited to meet you and eager to help. The best thing you can do is ask them this question: “Will you show me how?” You’re going to encounter a lot of new things, from combat to economics to religion. Ask another player to do something with you and show you how to do whatever activity you want; we were all new once, and that’s how we learned.
Here’s some in-game Survival Tips for your first event.
Here’s an introduction to the lore of our world, in the DR:TX Lore Introduction.
strain
You can read more about the Strains of Humanity on our website, or you can read the full rules on page 20 in the Player’s Guide. These are similar to a race or species in other roleplaying games like D&D, and it can be a big part of your characters appearance in the game. Some of the Strains have costume requirements you’ll need to consider before you get too involved with a costume and props.
You can read a summary about how to Choose Your Strain here, including some pictures of some prominent characters of each Strain type.
We recommend carefully considering how difficult portraying the following Strains can be, as they often have elaborate costume and makeup requirements that can be intimidating to attempt for your first game:
Reclaimer
Unborn
Retrograde
Full Dead
Semper Mort
Saltwise
The book Strained Ancestry has additional rules for Strain Variants, but we recommend against these expanded options for first-time players.
Once you’ve selected a Strain, it’s time to think about your costume.
Costume
One of the cool things about Dystopia Rising is that you don’t have to have an elaborate costume to fit in. Since this is a world set in the post-apocalypse that started sometime in the late 1990s, even something as simple as a t-shirt and jeans can fit in with a few alterations. It’s a mostly post-apocalyptic setting, so avoid any high-tech gadgets on your costume and
Here’s a few suggestions:
Hit a thrift shop! Second-hand shops can be great for finding new costume pieces. Think about how you can build a core layer and add small details from there. Little things like jewelry, scarves, or even some second-hand sports armor can be a nice touch. Think about trinkets, trophies, and other things you might have collected in the wastelands. Old bits of metal, keys, and worn plastic can give you that suitable apocalyptic look.
Distress and weather your gear. Survivors may not have a good change of clothes, so how can you make it look worn and repaired? Add some cuts or holes or consider picking at the seams a bit to leave some loose threads. Hitting cloth with some coarse sandpaper can quickly give it a worn look. You can even add some patches or sew up some of the holes you made to give it that reused and abused look. Using a coarse grit sandpaper can add a nice, distressed look to most fabrics, or you can even use a scraper or other sharper tool to weather thicker fabrics or leathers.
Break out the paint and make it dirty! It is the apocalypse after all. A simple watered-down brown or black paint can simulate dirt and grease, or you can get really elaborate with stuff like mineral oil, “clean dirt”, plastidip, and weathering effects. Add a little splatter of red paint to simulate blood, or rub a bit of grass into the cloth to stain it. You can even use a bit of orange or burnt red to simulate rust.
Add layers and bits of armor. Adding bits of protective gear like bike armor, arm pads, shoulder plates, and bits of EVA foam painted to look like metal can add a lot to an outfit. Look to movies like “Mad Max”, “Fury Road”, or “Book of Eli” for ideas of good post-apocalyptic armor. You can even hunt down some tutorials on how to build your own on YouTube!
Add some character flair! A great costume can help instantly communicate who you are and what you are about in game. Think about how your character survives in the wasteland — what would they carry with them? Think about what your character has accomplished before arriving in town — would they have a trophy or souvenir of their journey? Think about a signature item to make you stand out, like a cool custom-made boffer, a neat hat, or some unique piece of gear that can identify that character.
You can read about how to make your own weapons and armor on our Do It Yourself guide, and there’s some neat video tutorials for how to distress and “genre” your costume for the zombie apocalypse.
Background
First, you don’t need a background to start a new character.
However, having an idea of where you came from can be helpful for roleplaying as your new character. After all, it’s easier to portray your survivor if you have a little context.
Are you a caravan guard, a doctor, a sniper, or a powerful psion that can wield their mental energies as a weapon? Were you a soldier in a recent war, a mercenary for hire, or did you escape the destruction of your town to find your way to our settlement? Did you travel to the city in search of fame and fortune, or are you after some secret from your past?
Ask yourself some basic questions:
Where was your character born and raised?
What do you do for a living?
What brought you to Bravado, our small settlement?
How did you and your family survive in the Wasteland?
What unique thing about your character makes them part of the Dystopia Rising world?
What motivates and drives your character to keep going?
Are there any other characters that might be important to your story?
What goals do you want to complete in Bravado?
Make sure to leave yourself some space to move, grow, and adapt to the story of our world. A hero’s journey is never finished, and it’s much more entertaining to tell the story of your character as they grow and survive in the harsh wasteland of the zombie apocalypse.
