REQUIRED READING: What to Know for Our Upcoming Premier Event

Barkers and Travelers alike!

Please read this blog in totality for important information about our August 2025 Premier Event at Camp Tumbleson Lake. A lot of this info is different from what we have done for events held at Camp Tumbleson Lake in 2024, and some will be specific to this weekend (e.g. we’ll be doing stuff slightly differently the rest of the season).

Where to go

Google maps will send you to 173 Co Rd 96, Ward, CO 80481.  When you get to that spot, you will want to continue down County Road 96 to the next left, which is the main parking lot.  

You may arrive on site at 5 p.m. to select a bunk, or aas early as 3 p.m. if you want to help us set up.

Check In

Right next to the parking lot is the Arts and Crafts building.  You will check in here with Seth P. to get your character sheets and make any outstanding payments, OR you will be directed to where to go in case we find a better place for Seth P. to set up.

All players will need to sign both a Dystopia Rising Colorado liability waiver (as we have re-upped our insurance) as well as a YMCA Camp liability waiver (this is new).

If you arrive after lay-on, you can check in at the Public Works (see below).

Arts and Crafts will also be the place to go for your assigned casting (NPC) shift if you have one (NPC Camp).

Cabins and Tents

Once you check in with Seth P. you will be directed on where to set up.  Most players will be sent to the Frontier camping pod, which you can drive your car to, unload, set up, and then later drive your car back to the parking lot. Once your car is reparked, we would love your help getting set up either in NPC camp or in the Frontier space, where the crafting areas and other zones are.

Please note: This area is a little more rustic and does not have any power, therefore it’s important to bring power banks or spare batteries as needed. There are plenty of glamping tents with more than enough bunk beds for our player attendance, a log cabin (called a longhouse), pit toilets, an amphitheater, and the space where we will set up a camping kitchen for food, a water cooler, agricultural area, morgue spaces, crafting areas, Public Works, and more.

If you need Medical Sleep we will have two options for you:

1. If you just need a space where your cabin won’t get attacked at night and quiet space, we will have a glamping tent set up as Medical Only at Frontier.  This space will be closer to the rest of the tents, the crafting areas, Public Works, etc.

2. If you need power or close access to the bathhouse, we will have a limited number of cabins available in Miner’s Row.  

Meals and food storage 

Food storage will be at the Dining Hall only; please, no food in the glamping tents, cabins, or vehicles, as this poses a wildlife risk.  Sealed bottles for water or beverages are fine; please remove labels/genrify your drinks.  The Dining Hall is in the main part of the camp, which is a bit of a walk from Frontier.  Please check with our kitchen leads, Lucan or Joelle, for assistance on where to keep any food that you’re bringing.  We recommend dry goods and other things that can be kept in a cooler for the weekend.  There will be a limited amount of fridge space for cold items.

Our access to the Dining Hall and the kitchen has some limitations this weekend, specifically on Friday night and all day Saturday.  As such, our kitchen staff has elected to host all meals after Thursday night, and our Saturday barbeque at Frontier, where we will be setting up a camping kitchen.  We will have our disposable cutlery but you are encouraged to bring your own mess kit.

On Thursday night, our dinner will be held in the Dining Hall.  Since opening announcements are at 9 p.m. and the opening mod will follow, you will want to be in costume.

You will be able to utilize the microwave in the dining room when it is not otherwise occupied; we are also looking to set up a microwave at Rustler’s, which is at the top of Miner’s Row (previously known as the Counselor’s Lounge, with the balcony porch).  We will update when we know for certain.

Guide Meeting

If you are a guide, we will have a pre-game meeting at 8:30 p.m. at NPC Camp (Arts and Crafts).  Please be prompt and we will do our best to be concise.

Opening Announcements

We will have opening announcements at 9 p.m. on Thursday at the Dining Hall, with lay-on to follow.  After opening announcements, all PCs will meet outside Arts and Crafts as the mustering area for the opening module at 10 p.m..  Any latecomers or people who haven’t checked in yet can get that done before 10 p.m.; afterwards, check-in will move to Public Works at Frontier.  Please be in costume for opening announcements; Frontier will be unavailable from 9 p.m. until after the opening module is complete.  This will also be a great time to return your car to the parking lot, if you haven’t moved it down before dinner.

Getting around site

While there will not be sufficient parking near Frontier for everyone, we will be allowing and utilizing people’s cars to shuttle NPCs, meal service items, equipment, and trash as needed.  Please let us know how we can help if mobility is a concern for you.

Public Works

Seth P. has secured a solar-panel set-up and a Starlink to set up Public Works at the Frontier camping pod.  Depending on the space, we will set up Public Works either in the Longhouse, the yurt, or a pop-up nearby.  We should be able to handle all Public Works requests, though there is currently an open question about blueprints.  We will either print blueprints at Public Works, or if our power solution can’t handle the printer, we will print them in batches at another location from time to time.

Closing Announcements

We will be calling lay-off at 3 p.m. on Saturday.  We will do a quick closing announcement, and then we will tear down most of our play space and NPC camp.

Folks who need to leave early can do so any time afterward cleanup; the camp will be available for folks for the rest of the evening for…

Community Gathering

Saturday after cleanup we will have our out-of-character hangout, board games, barbeque and more.  Non-attendees, friends and family members are welcome to join us and should RSVP so that we are sure we have enough food for folks.  Players are free to spend one more evening on site.

WHEN WE HAVE TO BE Off Site

We will be looking to be off site by 12 p.m. noon on Sunday, so any remaining cleaning, packing and loading will be done in the morning.  Breakfast will be available at 8 a.m.

We’ll see you all very soon!

Gear Up for a “Home Coming” — Our Premier Event This August

Tickets are now available for our August Premier Event! Join us at Camp Tumbleson Lake on Thursday, August 21st through Sunday, August 24th. This event has some slightly different scheduling and cadence compared to our regular events and past premier events, so be sure to read the whole post.

While you’re here, we also included some exciting updates pertaining to the event site, Community Action Points (CAPs), and more.

Event Details

When you get to the site, please check in at Arts and Crafts rather than the main office, which is being used by the increased camp staff as an office and store. It’s right next to the main parking lot.  

Unlike past four-day/three-night events, this event will offer just the normal base XP (e.g. no +1 bonus), and it will also be the same price as a normal weekend event. Like other premier events across the network, you will have the option to purchase up to 5 extra XP.

Opening Announcements will start at 9 pm on Thursday, and the in-character action will continue through 3 pm on Saturday, August 23rd.  Most of the plot line items will be occurring on Thursday night and Friday all day so if you are coming up on Friday evening and not on Thursday, you may miss a lot of the stories that we’re running this weekend.

On Saturday morning and early afternoon, we have reserved time for community-driven plot and events.  This will be your time to participate in the Diesel Jock races, have religious ceremonies and inductions, host a bazaar, or whatever else your character would like to have the extra time to engage in. If you have a fishing license and a pole, there’s a lake you can take advantage of as well.

At 3 pm on Saturday, we will lay-off (end the in-character portion) from the game, do a little cleaning and packing, and have a Community Gathering. Board games and personal crafts are encouraged, and we will have a barbecue in the evening. We are also inviting any players who can’t make the main event, new players, veterans, players of other LARPs, and LARP retirees to come join us at 4 pm. This event is open to everyone — including family members. Please RSVP so that we know that you’re coming and planning to eat with us.

Players will have the option to head home early on Saturday or spend one more night at the beautiful campsite out-of-character, under a moonless sky in a part of the country dark enough to see the Milky Way galaxy on a clear night.  

Camp Tumbleson Lake Updates

The areas around each of the three longhouses have all been heavily constructed since we first started using this campsite. Each area is now arranged as a “pod” — named Sky, Fortis, and Frontier respectively — with each area having a constructed log fence, an entryway, ten large tent platforms with 14 bunks each, and a yurt likely to be used for Public Works.  We will use a couple of the tent platforms for buildings as needed, and the longhouses will host our Artisan and Culinary areas with an Agricultural area nearby.

For our August event, we will be using Frontier for our sleeping area and are looking at Fortis for some modules on Friday. There are pit toilets nearby both of these pods.

Please note that none of the pods are currently running power, so please plan for battery operation or power banks as needed, and genre lights. Folks who need power for CPAP or other medical purposes will have access to a limited number of cabins in Miners’ Row, which is closer to the shower house and the dining hall.

Frontier Camping Pod (longhouse is behind the tents, to the right)

The shower house was also completed this year and is just east of the Sky pod. We will have some of our meals at the dining hall, and others will be held at Frontier. Stay tuned for updated information on our Discord server.

Thanks to the support of our players and visitors from around the network, we were able to order some additional infrastructure support for this and future events, including the ability to provide meals and host Public Works in remote locations.

CAPs update

The staff and the writing team are pleased to release our CAPs Rewards and CAPs Redemption lists.

For those who may not know what CAPs are, they’re rewarded for performing particular tasks, making donations, and otherwise helping out the local Dystopia Rising Live chapter. Each chapter has their own list of rewards and redemptions. People can earn CAPs in any chapter, but these are not transferrable between chapters or players.

For those who remember CAPs from 3.0, there are no “National” or “Network” CAPs anymore, as these were decommissioned last year. If you see some in your player profile in the DRL Database, reach out to the game you are attending to see if they will honor them.

The Rewards list is how you can earn CAPs and the Redemption list is for what you can redeem CAPs.

If you contributed to a Dystopia Rising: Colorado event this year, you may have earned rewards that are not reflected in the database yet. These will be entered into the database over the next couple of weeks.

Redemptions may be made in anticipation of any future event (including the Premier Event). For some rewards, you may want to make the request early (e.g. not the Monday before the event) to ensure any in-game impacts are taken into account for that event.

Available reward amounts, reward types, redemption values, and redemption types are subject to alteration in the future, as we balance out what we want to prioritize.  We are also looking for additional redemption possibilities for community artwork or videos, so please let us know if you have any ideas or if you’re interested in contributing.

The Important Links

• Premier Event Tickets

• Database Checkin

• Community Gathering RSVP

• CAPs Rewards (how to earn)

• CAPs Redemptions (what to spend them on)

• Join us on Discord

"Resurgence" Event Overview and Expectations

We are excited to bring you, “Resurgence,” our July event this weekend! Before the event, we’d like to detail what you’re walking into for transparency and to get you excited, as well as set some expectations for the event and going forward.

Event Overview

The Barkers have been called to Resurgence, a new settlement formed in the shadow of the old Everliving Wood. Groups from the Darksky Natural Ones to some of the ever-persevering Irons of Ironwood have formed a settlement in dangerous territory based on tenuous alliances, unfriendly to outsiders – except the Barkers, who many of them owe or have entwined destinies with. They’d make a key and powerful ally in retaking Barker, but how will you convince this settlement of mostly Natural Ones dealing with their own problems to take on that amount of risk and inevitable death?

Resurgence has been dealing with the Devouring Pines who see the Overgrowth as a brutal way to enlightenment, the Overgrowth itself’s dangers (including Diseased Critters transmitting Feral Wasting Syndrome), and zombies aplenty. Worryingly, there’s even rumors of a Raider Den in the area…

Helping Resurgence with their issues and navigating their internal and external politics via. diplomacy, strength of force, and more, will be key to gaining their help with retaking Barker.

Expectations and Themes

We hope this game will mark a return to form and the intended genre of Dystopia Rising as a survival horror game. Let’s break down what each of those words mean in this context, starting first with horror.

Horror

Horror is rooted in threats both physical and psychological to the characters in the story. We look to bring a level of threat, danger and scares to the game that will excite fans of horror. 

This includes a  return to late night threats, and a potentially deadlier game for your character
As far as themes we may tackle that are difficult or disturbing, here is an ingredients list of the spicier ingredients this weekend:

• Kidnapping 

• Body Horror

• Torture 

• Medical Horror

• Depictions of loss and grief

• Plants 

• Animals in peril, including diseased animals and animal death

We hope that by returning to form and tackling difficult themes along the way, we can deliver a great horror experience. - 

Survival

Simply put, some plots do not have heroic outcomes. For example, running away is not “losing,” and not all stories are written with some “win” condition. Tragic narratives are intended to open story and character opportunities in both the setup and aftermath of the tragedy.

A “loss” is not the end of a story. This is, as much as we can make it, a living world LARP where we aim to expand on stories no matter the outcome of an encounter and we encourage you to roll with the dynamic story as well.

All that is to say, we want you to come to the game and have a fun time. We want to facilitate excellent character beats and role-play. We want you to be scared and traumatized in-character and have a ball out-of-character! We hope to see you this weekend at Camp Lazy Acre for “Resurgence.”

Dystopia Rising: Colorado Returns to FAN EXPO 2025

Before we get to our news, we want to wish you a safe and happy Pride Month!

Dystopia Rising: Colorado alongside our friends at Alliance LARP Colorado will be returning to FAN EXPO Denver this year on July 3rd to July 6th at Colorado Convention Center. Will you join us?

FAN EXPO Denver is our game’s #1 opportunity every year to bring new folks into the community. Signups are now open here for volunteering at the event. Player volunteers are the beating heart that keep our efforts at the con running smoothly. Plus, you’ll get to chat with potential new players about your experiences with playing Dystopia Rising.

There are opportunities for everyone to shine as a volunteer at the event regardless of your skillset. Whether you want to run tabletop modules, wander around as a quest-giving NPC, or train rookie fighters in the boffer ring — there’s something for everyone! Signups are by the half-day — with a 9am to 2pm and a 2pm to 7pm shift. Please don’t commit to a shift if you cannot be there on time as coordinating the handout of con badges is always a challenge. Priority will be given to full-day signups.

What’s in it for you if you turn up? Participants will get CAPs, and you can double dip with your Alliance character to get Goblin Stamps, Dragon Stamps, Silver Scales, and more. You will also enjoy a free badge into the event for the shifts you volunteer with ample opportunity to wander the floor, as well as a free bag lunch each day of FAN EXPO. Sounds like a pretty good deal.

What are you waiting for? Fill out our participation form today.

Epic Day Of Service! Work Day at Camp Tumbleson Lake

Join us at Camp Tumbleson Lake on Saturday, May 17th for Rotary Club’s “Epic Day of Service.” This volunteer work event will help to get some of the YMCA camp’s facilities ready for the summer camp season and our events there starting in August. You’ll also get a preview of the repairs and improvements that have been completed in anticipation of the 2025 season. There will be many volunteers there from various groups, including Alliance LARP Colorado, and this is also a great opportunity for all for skill-building, networking, and marketing Dystopia Rising Live.

Last year we had about a dozen volunteers from just Dystopia Rising: Colorado, and more from the local LARP community. Over a hundred volunteers repaired and painted railings and picnic benches, cut out deadfall, scouted site boundaries, and prepared lunch.

BONUS to all DR players: as part of a network-wide initiative to give back to the campsites that host us, all participants who show up to this Epic Day will receive 10 XP for one character or ALL characters for those with Advanced Membership. These will count against the 25 XP limit for the month of May 2025, and each player can receive the reward from at most one Work Day offered by all of the chapters across the network.

If you also play Alliance LARP Colorado, you may also receive rewards for participation as well.

Be sure to sign up here and we’ll see you then.

'SURVIVORS: A Dystopia Rising Game' is On Sale Now

‘SURVIVORS: A Dystopia Rising Game’ is now available for purchase through Mooney Bin Entertainment.

Originally funded through a crowdfunding campaign, this game challenges 1-5 players to work cooperatively in the Wastes through over 100 unique story encounters. Manage the safety of your resources (and survivors) while trying to find a new place to call home… before the Horde catches up to you.

If you’re interested in getting a copy, you can reach out to Mooney Bin Games via email at MooneyBinEntertainment@gmail.com or email Logistics Director Seth P. at drco.logistics@gmail.com for prices and delivery.

We’ll see you Saturday for our April day game!

Ease Back IRL into the Wasteland at our April Day Game

The Hordefront—a zed horde of historic scale—is tearing through the Dead Range. Regrouping at a Tal-Servi Rover way-station, our survivors must band together, build and prepare for taking back Barker Meadow. Join them and help them fight for their future!

We’re hosting a day game event on April 26th at Lakeview Ranch! As a thank you to our amazing community and the support we have received over the years, we are offering a variety of ticket prices for people who show up to this event, which is our first in-person event using the new Dystopia Rising Live rules. All attending tickets (aside from Opt Out and Non-Attending) are the same; they include full XP (the same as a normal weekend event), a 2 Hour NPC shift, and lunch. You choose what you want to pay for this event.

Some other things to know for our day game:

• You may arrive upon site at 7:00 am to help set up or put up your own areas (e.g. pop-ups, tables, etc).

• Opening announcements will be at 8:45 am.

• Lay on will be at 9:00 am.

• We will be playing until 6:00 pm, with closing announcements and tear-down to follow.

Get your tickets now by clicking here, and make sure to register in the database.

Don’t forget our Community Day this Saturday

Prepare for this event by joining us at Lakeview Ranch for our community day this Saturday, April 12th. We’ll help you build or rebuild characters, exchange cards, get your fighting chops back, and more.

NOT FAMILIAR WITH THE DYSTOPIA RISING LIVE RULES?

Make sure to check the rule books (at the very minimum, the Player’s Guide) for the changes you’ll need to know. A quick rundown is also available in our past blog post. Don’t fret if you feel overwhelmed. We’re all still adjusting to the rules, so please feel encouraged to ask questions if you have any.

April 12th: Community Day!

We’d love for you to join us at Lakeview Ranch in Longmont, Colorado on the afternoon of Saturday, April 12th from noon to 5 pm for a community day! Spend time with members of the DR:CO community at this free event and engage in a number of activities including:

• Burgers and Potluck!

• Crafting

• Fighter/boffer practice

• Card exchange (e.g. 3.0 items cards for DR Live item cards, old blueprints for new blueprints)

• Props and costuming swap

• Dystopia Rising Live rules discussion and character sheet (re)building

Our community event is available to all players and their friends and family. Whether you’re brand new to Dystopia Rising (or our Colorado chapter); have been playing since the initiation of our chapter 10 years ago; used to play Dystopia Rising and want to get back into the swing of things with the new ruleset; or fall somewhere in between, we’d love to have you.

Please sign up here so that we know you’re coming and to make sure we have enough food! Since much of this event will be outside, it would be great to also bring camping or lawn chairs.

If you want to send your card and blueprint inventory exchange in advance, we’ll try to get you set up for success beforehand. Inventory your items into a Google spreadsheet (here’s an example that other chapters have used, make a copy!), submit (e.g., share as Editor) your sheet to drco.logistics@gmail.com, and bring your cards to the community event and we’ll change them out. If you have 3.0 blueprints that have no DRL corollary, we’ll credit you another blueprint that is not a Necrology or Criminal Influence blueprint.

Our Event Schedule for the 2025 Season is Now Live

We’re excited to share our calendar of events for the 2025 season here at Dystopia Rising: Colorado. All of our events, both in-person and online, will be using the Dystopia Rising Live rulebooks.

We appreciate your understanding and patience in us getting this schedule ready for public consumption; we wanted to review our dates to minimize the number of events overlapping with Dystopia Rising: Kansas’ (one of our new chapters in the network!) schedule so folks from both chapters can visit each other.

In addition to our event schedule for this season, we have some other exciting things going on in the Dystopia Rising: Colorado universe. Keep reading for a breakdown of what to expect this season both in-game and out-of-game.

community DAY (APRIL)

We’d love for you to join us at Lakeview Ranch in Longmont, Colorado on the afternoon of Saturday, April 12th for a community day. Spend time with members of the DR:CO community at this free event and engage in a number of activities including:

• Potluck

• Crafting

• Fighter/boffer practice

• Card exchange (e.g. 3.0 items cards for DR Live item cards, old blueprints for new blueprints)

• Props and costuming swap

• Dystopia Rising Live character sheet (re)building

Our community event is available to all players and their friends and family. Whether you’re brand new to Dystopia Rising (or our Colorado chapter); have been playing since the iteration of our chapter 10 years ago; used to play Dystopia Rising and want to get back into the swing of things with the new ruleset; or fall somewhere in between, we’d love to have you. More details will be available on our social media profiles and Discord.

DAY EVENTS (APRIL & MAY)

With recent changes this year, including opportunities provided by the new ruleset, we are able to run different types of events from our usual options in the past. Our main camp will be unavailable in the spring due to construction, however we’ll be able to host two 1-Day events on April 26th and May 31st respectively, at Lakeview Ranch in Longmont. This will give new and returning players alike a chance to experience the new rules for the first time in Colorado.

For these events all you have to do is show up in the morning, play all day, and we’ll conclude in the evening. Lunch will be provided and we encourage you to join the community for afters when we’ve packed up our gear.

In addition to the standard Day game ticket price for these events, we’re excited to offer a Free Event ticket to all players who wish to participate at these two games.

Camp Tumbleson lake volunteer event

On May 2nd and May 3rd we’re collaborating with YMCA Camp Tumbleson Lake during their big volunteer weekend. Join members from a variety of communities — including Alliance LARP Colorado — as we help the wonderful people at YMCA get the campsite ready for their first full season of overnight camping. Much of the site is still under construction, with planned rebuild of their kitchen and dining hall, new cabins and yurt platforms, and transforming their maintenance barn into a modern shower/bathroom facility. We’ll be up there helping with fire mitigation, landscaping, finishing touches, and other tasks.

june happenings

As June tends to be hotter at lower altitudes, and the campsites are full of kids, we’ll be looking at the possibility of running a virtual event for this month. We also want to give players a chance to travel to Deathcon 2025, taking place at Forestburg Scout Reservation (home to Dystopia Rising: New York).

We’re also going to have another social event in June. Keep your eyes peeled for more information on social media accounts.

RETURN TO LAZY ACRES (JULY)

In July, we return to full weekend events (Friday night through Sunday morning); and the first one will be at Camp Lazy Acres in Rye, Colorado. We used this great semi-rustic site both in 2016 and 2021, and we’re excited to be working with the Girl Scouts of Colorado once again. Stay tuned for more updates.

…and then it’s back to camp tumbleson lakE!

For August through October, we return to the beautiful YMCA Camp Tumbleson Lake in Ward, Colorado. These events will be held after the regular camp season is over — which means campers and counselors will be gone. Our Premiere Event in August will be a four-day event starting Thursday, August 21st.

We’ll watch the aspens change as we finish our main in-person events in September and October at the same campsite. As for November? Keep your eyes on our blog, discord, and social media for updates as the season gets underway.

Will You HEED THE CALL at DR:CO’s March Virtual Event?

Thanks to all who attended and supported the first Dystopia Rising Live virtual event in February! We had volunteers from across the network join us to run mods and it was much appreciated. Mod rewards have been entered into the new virtual inventory on the DRL Database, and physical cards and blueprints have been mailed to those who participated in Public Works!

March 2025 Virtual Event

Come visit Northheed Armory HQ, the epicenter of the crumbling arms dealing empire, with the Hordefront on its way! With both corporate and undead forces threatening those at HQ as Northheed falls apart, will you heed the call to hold the line, or help strip this financial giant for parts? It's time to collapse the war engine and dismantle a corporate horror that's threatened the Dead Range for too long.

Tickets for our March 28th virtual event, “Hordefront Part 2: Heed the Call,” are now available.

Network Event in June 2025

Deathcon 2025 is on June 20th in New York state! Coordinated by local chapters and run by guides from across the country, this will be the second network event under the Dystopia Rising Live ruleset — and first with the most recent updates after the first event (Downfall 2024) was run to preview the rules. Ticket sales for Deathcon go live on Wednesday, March 19th.

Glow Shrooms or Radiation: Which Will You Decide for Our Setting? Cast Your Vote Today!

The Dystopia Rising: Colorado team is excited for our first virtual event, Hordefront Part I: King of the Mountain, using the new ruleset. In addition to our take on a “back to the basics” Dystopia Rising experience, this event will be drawing from the Illusions of Civility Part 1 network plot kit’s themes, groups, and conflicts.

For transparency's sake, although the fate of Elder Mountain is an in-character decision that can be impacted by any and all participants of our February event, the direction of Illusions of Civility Part 2 — and its impact on our setting at Dystopia Rising: Colorado going forward — will be decided in a poll (here) that will be available to local players until March 11th. This is to both empower players to make decisions at the upcoming game even if they are not local, and to allow local players the chance to weigh in on long-term decisions even if they cannot attend a conclusion mod.

Illusions of Civility Part 1 involves choosing a path to either decrease or increase the ambient radiation in our corner of the wasteland. This leads directly into what antagonistic groups might appear in Illusions of Civility Part 2 — as well as what temporary diseases, threats, and other mechanics or narratives will be run while Illusions of Civility Part 2 is active until May.

In addition to those unique temporary mechanics, Illusions of Civility Part 2 will give players the option to narratively change their Strain and Lineage between our March and May events. There will not be future narratives that give players the chance to change their character’s Strain and Lineage after this, and to do so will require either a full retirement of an existing character and creation of a new one, or a discussion with local directors/game runners about your current and desired experience playing the character to resolve rewrites. These may be limited by other factors as well, per game runner discretion.

The most important aspect of the player choice in Illusions of Civility Part 1 is its impact on the setting and future stories over the season and potentially longer:

• If local players choose the path of the Glow Shrooms, the setting will have a greater focus on the Overgrowth and other Infection-influenced places and creatures.

• If players choose the path of Radiation, the setting will have a greater focus on the Apocalyptic Wasteland, resource scarcity, and mutated creatures.

You do not have to vote in the same way your character would. In fact, we’d prefer you vote based on the kinds of stories you’d like to see going forward, as well as the impact you’d like to see this decision have on the settlements and groups in them.

Cast your vote by March 11 here.

[UPDATE] What to Expect From Public Works During Virtual Events + Econ Form!

It’s time to fill out your Public Works sheet for “Hordefront I: King of the Mountain” — our first virtual event and first event using the Dystopia Rising Live ruleset! As a reminder, we’ll be using the new Virtual Play rulebook (available here, along with other relevant resources) that the rest of the network will be using going forward. At our February event this weekend, we will have multiple folks present in case clarifications are needed.

With the new rules, we are also getting a new online inventory system. The Virtual Play rulebook describes how players can interact with this inventory system at both in-person and virtual events. In a nutshell, items received at either type of event can either be placed in the virtual inventory OR be turned into a card, but item cards may be only used (e.g. equipped or expended) at in-person events, and virtual items may only be used at virtual events.

One clarification that we received is that blueprints will be printed, and can be used at either type of event.  Many blueprints will be available for use or copying at virtual events; and expect the ones that are commonly used (e.g., not limited by Criminal Influence, a society, Necrology, etc.) to be included in that list.

If you have items still in the 3.0 inventory, or amounts due, please work with your local chapter to get those items written out as cards because they will not be available to players at the Dystopia Rising Live virtual events going forward.

You will want to make a copy of this spreadsheet and follow the instructions on the sheet for getting it filled out. The instructions include some notes taken from the Virtual Play rulebook as well as some notes where we received clarification from the rulebook’s authors. Public Works spreadsheets are due at the beginning of the event.

If you don’t plan on engaging with the Public Works, you’ll probably still want to fill out a sheet in case you need your Mod Rewards sent to you. Either way, we will have separate instructions for Mod Rewards coming soon.

DR:CO Season 10 Starts February 28th!

Doing it Live!

Dystopia Rising: Colorado is excited to enter its 10th season this year, starting with online games February 28th (tickets now available) and March 28th! These games will be using a different online ruleset than we’ve previously used, because we will be using the virtual play rules for the new system that we are moving to this season.

Last year testing began for the newest edition of Dystopia Rising, Dystopia Rising Live. With overwhelming enthusiasm and support from chapter owners and directors across the network, all games are beginning the transition from 3.0 to DRL between February and May of 2025.  Dystopia Rising: Colorado will be using the DRL ruleset for the entirety of 2025.

Want to get the scoop on the latest ruleset, threat books, Strain variant mechanics, and lore of the world of Dystopia Rising? Download the latest publications here.

Not sure where to start? We recommend the “Player’s Guide” for updated rules of play, the Lineages book “Strained Ancestry” for new Strain variants and updated lore, and the “Devotion & Faith” book for updated lore and subsects of the wasteland religions.

Want a quick rundown on some key differences? We have you covered.

It’s Alive - All documents are Living

There will not be print publications of this edition available. Instead, the website will host PDFs of all documents — which will be updated as needed and include change logs. Most of these publications have already been updated since their release, so if you have looked at any of them in the past, it’s recommended that you check again. Some of these documents will likely see a lot of change over the first year as the system is played, and then will slow to only be updated as needed or when new content is published.

Impact and Development Skills

With only a few exceptions from professions and items, Mind Points are now completely divorced from combat. The skills you would rely on in combat or other tricky situations are now Impact Skills. Once you learn an Impact Skill, you may spend XP to purchase additional uses of the skill. These uses refresh after 20 minutes of resting away from combat, and new Blueprints facilitate the creation of items that can regain those uses should rest be untenable. Crafting, Gathering, and Social skills are now Development skills. These skills cost Mind or sometimes Resolve to use, as they did in previous editions.

Different Power Scale

All new characters now start with 50 XP to learn skills and/or train Mind/Body/Resolve at their first game. With this change, existing characters get a bonus 50 XP for putting together a DRL character. New players earn 10 XP per game for their first 10 games. After the first 10 games, players earn a standard 5 XP per game, and can purchase up to three (3) additional XP at a standard game, or more at a Premiere or National game. Players cannot earn more than 25 XP per month.

There is no longer a minimum XP expenditure before purchasing Tier 2 and Tier 3 skills — those can be purchased immediately.

Skills and Stats cost little to start, but quickly become very expensive. This better balances the scales between the largest characters and the smallest ones, empowering players with less XP and allowing players with more XP to participate in the game without threat of disrupting a challenge.

That said, this is a different scale from 3.0. The adjusted starting XP and increased XP per game leaves the number of games to reach certain milestones the same, but your XP milestones will be different — in 3.0, a character could get their first PFA after 100 XP spent, and additional PFAs every six (6) months. Now, while the requisite Skill or Stat purchases may be as little as 45 XP, it is recommended that a character looking to be fairly well-rounded aim for one Profession every 200 to 300 XP spent. This is a general bit of advice to help those who are feeling discouraged looking at the character creator — if you have a vision that involves a Profession and little else at lower XP, the right build is whatever is most fun for you.

Professions — like PFAs in the 3.0 system — have prerequisites. Development Professions require two Master Skills each, Impact Professions require at least 5 collective uses of either or both of their prerequisite Impact skills, and Default Professions require at least 30 cumulative purchased points of Body and Mind. Unlike PFAs, Professions each have two (2) skills unique to them. Profession Skills are purchased separately from the Profession title. And unlike PFAs where there really wasn’t a limitation on the number you could earn, your characters are limited to three total Professions. This is to help your characters feel more unique, as it is less likely for any two characters to pick the same three professions.

Updated Economy

• All items will have different mechanics now. Most will have an equivalently named item, but some won’t. We will have more information on how we’re handling swapping 3.0 items and blueprints for Live items and blueprints in the future.

• Scrap expires now. All scrap has an expiration date of one year, and cards without an expiration date will be assumed to expire February 2026.

• There are no more Twelves. Mind refreshes now only come from item and Lineage mechanics.

• Being interrupted during crafting or gathering only loses the time, not the resources or Mind points. Just start over again when it’s safe.

These are big changes to the game and the way the economy has functioned thus far, but serve the purpose of creating a system that encourages player interaction and cooperation. No character can be an island anymore, and you’re not supposed to be self-sufficient — the scaling cost of base Mind, the lack of natural Mind refreshes, and the lessened ability to stockpile resources, are all meant to encourage players to either form crews or coordinate with different characters each game to make the items needed to survive.

It’s called Live, but will you Live?

This system is designed to be deadly. Spike damage for players is limited and precious, threats are more powerful, and additional threats are unlocked when over a third of the characters checked into a game are aberrant. The threats are designed to be approached tactically, and while crafted weapons and gizmos are helpful, collaborating with others and strategizing make it possible for a group to handle any standard threat with starter equipment.

It’s worth noting that resolve expenditure is rarer in this edition, and forced Resolve loss rarer still. This means Fractures are a rarer occasion overall. Which is good, because after a character has accumulated four Fractures, gaining any more results in permanent character loss. In most cases, a character with a Fracture cannot be forced to gain another — they may only gain more through voluntary methods. This opens a new avenue of stories for players who want to portray a character shattering to the horrors of the wasteland, and greater incentivizes players to help resolve or soothe one another’s Fractures.

You will find that playing it cautious and buying more uses of Avoid and Mental Endurance, or raising your Infection cap, makes it harder to buy more ‘fun’ skills. You are encouraged to play it less safe and have fun with it. Infection only costs XP to raise your cap above three (3) now - if you are ever below your cap, there is no XP cost to regain Infection. However, Infection regain, and Infection loss prevention, are rarer and more expensive than they were in 3.0. There is a greater expectation that characters will retire or perm in this system than in the previous one - which is part of why 100% of your XP carries over for making a new character after permanent character death. When you retire a character, 50% of that character’s XP is available for new character creation, and the remaining 50% is awarded after six (6) months of playing the new character.

Presenting our first Live game: Hordefront Pt. 1: King of the Mountain 

On February 28th, we’ll be hosting our first virtual Dystopia Rising Live game on Discord using the new virtual play ruleset. Come visit scenic Elder Mountain, irradiated home to an ideological conflict between the Wells Society seeking to eradicate the radiation with their Glow Shrooms to pave way for civilization and the Temple of Evolution seeking to embrace radiation’s power and potential. The fate of Elder Mountain will be in your hands in more ways than one, as a horde the likes of never before seen in the region is on the way. With the potential for events on Elder Mountain to impact the future of the area, including Barker Meadow, stakes are high and we’re doing it Live!