Guide Roles

Guides (formerly called “Marshals”) for a Dystopia Rising Texas event are team members at our events who are able to assist you by answering questions, addressing problems, or making the experience of an event more enjoyable (DR Corebook, pg. 15). Rules Guides are members of our team that assist in the field during NPC shifts, helping our Storytellers and NPCs maintain the integrity of the rules during modules and fights. Coordination Guides help operate our in-game “Post Office” or “Public Works” by issuing item cards or currency for various in-game Skill uses. Safety Guides help secure dangerous parts of our site during setup, and act as a liaison for Safety and Check-In behaviors on site.

General Responsibilities

  • All Guide roles are fired and re-hired every summer. When you apply, we do expect you to be present for the entire upcoming season (8 events). Guides must commit 4 hours of their time to their Guide shift in lieu of an NPC shift.

  • Because we need to depend on our Guide coverage, guides cannot purchase the no-casting or minimum-casting tickets.

  • All Guides are expected to attend each DR:TX game as a rule and have it as your home chapter. Regular attendance is required, so please let us know if you cannot attend an event as soon as possible so we can plan around your absence.

  • Sign up and execute your shift as per the Guide schedule, and be active in Guide spaces in between events to self-educate yourself about rules changes and event updates.

  • Guides must be upstanding members of the DR:TX community, espouse our community guidelines with gusto, and be able to separate their personal feelings, characters, and plot interests from their Guide role as needed to better serve the community.

  • Guides are expected to be able to make rules-calls in the field, and be passingly familiar with a solid foundation of the rules and blueprints that shape our game mechanics.

  • Guides must be well versed in the rules regarding CVC Best Practices, and be able to follow procedure regarding CvC behaviors and in-character theft.

Guide Benefits

In exchange for their volunteer support of our game, each Guide receives the following benefits for their hard work:

  • 40 CAPs earned for each game attended

  • Guides receive a $20 Discount on attendance

  • Guides can bring one New Player to every home game for free.

  • Enfranchised involvement in executing and often producing our story and setting content for the enjoyment of your fellow players!

Types of Guides

There are three types of Guides that exist in Dystopia Rising Texas.

Rules Guides

  • Assist the on-shift Storyteller with a four-hour NPC shift, acting as an assistant in the field to manage NPCs, enforce rules calls, and maintain the schedule of events.

  • Rules Guides may serve in any NPC role on a shift, from combat to roleplay characters, but must defer to the Storyteller on duty for assigned tasks for the shift.

  • Interpret 3.0 Rules and make field calls responsibly and understand and be able to clarify any mechanics in the field as per the World Binder, our rulebook, and blueprint/augment mechanics. Rules Guides, like all Guides, may be asked to marshal theft and CvC in the play space at anytime so you must be comfortable with those CvC Best Practices.

  • Rules Guides respawn and deploy NPC threats in the field, reading the temperature of the fight and helping maintain immersion by staying “off camera” in an out of sight location during a fight.

  • Rules Guides manage item cards for a planned event on the shift, distributing items to NPCs as loot and assisting the Storyteller in communicating the statistics of NPC threats being used for that fight or event.

Coordination “Coord” Guides

  • Operate the In Game Post Office as an NPC, and help players with copying blueprints, crafting, cashing out LIT inventories, and related tasks. This is a paperwork heavy role with a fair amount of reading and writing required.

  • Interpret 3.0 Rules and make field calls responsibly and understand and be able to clarify any mechanics in the field as per the World Binder, our rulebook, and blueprint/augment mechanics. Coord Guides, like all Guides, may be asked to marshal theft and CvC in the play space at anytime so you must be comfortable with those CvC Best Practices.

  • Help with processing stolen item phys-reps, tagging combat boffers and weapons, and general questions LC’s may need assistance with.

  • Be familiar with using the 3.0 database to process LIT inventory changes and tracking. Training will be provided.

  • Contact the Logistics team (Amber and Joscelyn) for any needs, including maintaining item card inventories, delivering letters, and any mechanics that require clarification.

Safety “Check-in” Guides

  • Inspect player’s weapons (boffers, nerf guns, etc.) and armor to ensure they’re safe for combat before game in accordance with the latest safety recommendations.

  • Provide access to any applicable check-in skills and purchase lists and assist the Logistics Director (Amber) at check-in as needed.

  • Tag equipment after ensuring the item fulfills the card’s description (ie: coverage points, specific phys-rep requirements) and write/evaluate starter armor and weapon cards for new characters.

  • Help the New Player Guides with New Player Orientation before game on.

  • Place glowsticks around camp on Friday night to illuminate dangerous terrain in heavy foot traffic areas.

  • This role will need to be filled by someone who can consistently be on-site and available from 5 pm -9 pm on Fridays, prior to Registration opening and be present up through Opening Announcements.