"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.”

The Dying Light: What To Expect at Our May 2025 Day Game

We're excited to give you the rundown on our upcoming May 2025 Day Game event focused on the fate of the Aberrant commune of Will-O-The-Wisp. This commune located on the grounds of a historic Lovelace Family Estate was envisioned as a sanctuary for Aberrants and became a source of growing danger and tension in the region. This weekend our Survivors have been invited to the Lovelace Estate by members of the once-all-Pureblood Aberrants, the Lovelaces, to interact with human drama, dangerous faith, and the way good intentions pave the road to hell.

Setting The Scene

Will-O-The-Wisp was — some might argue still is — a small commune (population: 15) built on estate land donated by the Lovelace family. It is meant to be a refuge for Aberrants in a historically anti-psionic region once more inflamed with those sentiments. Recently, the gathering of Aberrants and meddling of the Holy-Field cult (more on them later) festered their Morgue into a Corrupted Morgue, which burst and left the community reeling, vulnerable, and coping with deaths including permanent ones. Meanwhile, a few members of the Lovelace family have moved back into the Estate's old manor house, navigating their relationship with the Aberrant community on their land and its people, but how far will the obligation of nobles to the people stretch?

Themes and What To Expect This Event

interpersonal drama

Will-O-The-Wisp's people are a group that's full of conflicts, family dynamics, and more challenges to the mission of building an Aberrant sanctuary in a hostile world. Characters interested in social and political gameplay should look to lean into the drama of these imperfect people and their fledgling settlement. Townsfolk like Bayley Topshelf, anxious Vegasian full of Spoilers searching to rescue their sister Abby from the Holy-Fields and Lydia Of-The-Dirt, an Unborn who tends to the Morgue and holds complex views on aberrancy, will need aid and direction to move forward in a dangerous aftermath.

The Holy-Fields

The Corrupted Morgue didn't just damage the settlement, it attracted dangerous attention. The Holy-Fields, a doomsday grave cult (see Dystopia Rising: Live's publication “Faith and Devotion,” p.150 for OOG details), embedded themselves within the commune and recruited vulnerable residents. Among their recent converts is young Abby Topshelf, who is one of the characters at the center of this drama. The Holy-Fields won't stop until Will-O-The-Wisp has either joined their cause or been sacrificed to power their Engine of the Mortis Amaranthine. Will you stand against their zealotry and twisted actions?

The Aberrancy Debate

At the heart of Will-O-The-Wisp's existence lies a fundamental question: Why remain Aberrant? The concentration of psionic abilities in an Aberrant sanctuary also makes it a target, drawing Undead, problems with the Morgue, diseases, and more. Is aberrancy a tool for survival, a burden to be managed, or something to be disdained or even hunted for possessing? In a world full of dangers, are psionics worth the cost? Expect philosophical debates along with prosaic challenges as the community wrestles to define itself and its future.

Threats from the Mortis and more

No settlement is safe, and the small encampment by the Estate definitely won't be either. Aberrants bring Undead — and nasty ones at that — while other threats like the Holy-Fields may aim to take your Infection. The concentration of Aberrants in one location has its consequences that have already been seen, and more far-reaching and long-term that need to be untangled with the help of our Survivors.

Quick list of Gameplay Focuses

• Social roleplay opportunities with the residents of Will-O-The-Wisp

• Combat encounters with Undead and possibly cultists

• Philosophical and practical debates about Aberrancy, family, and community

• Chances to help shape the future of Will-O-The-Wisp

• Visiting the Lovelace Estate and meeting the secretive Lovelaces

…and more to be uncovered this weekend!

We look forward to seeing you at our Day Game! Tickets are still available here at flexible pricing, so if you haven’t registered yet — what are ya waiting for?

Aberrancy and You! Or, How Aberrant Abilities Impact Your Settlement

This blog has been in the works since we began working on our May event, “The Dying Light,” and has gone through several revisions as we’ve seen and aimed to respond to questions and concerns from local players. The community of Will-o-the-Wisp is Dystopia Rising: Colorado’s first plot surrounding Aberrancy using the new Dystopia Rising: Live rule set. Our aim is to play it straightforward per the current lore and narrative advice given on pages 37 and 38 in the Guide’s Guide, a public document available to view and download here.

In the world of Dystopia Rising, all Strains theoretically have the ability to become Aberrant. Doing so involves learning or honing innate abilities within the Infection to acquire power. However, this power does not come without a price, as those with Aberrant powers draw Undead to them, interface with the Mortis Amaranthine in destructive ways, and can be vectors for disease. The more Aberrants there are in an area, the more dangerous that area becomes. This can lead to Aberrant characters facing social stigma and being the targets of anti-Aberrant factions. 

These narrative factors have mechanical implementations. When an Aberrant character passes through the Mortis, approximately 1-5 higher threat Aberrant Undead are sent out. When over one third of the checked-in characters at an event are Aberrant, these higher threat Undead are available to run throughout game. When over one half of the checked-in characters at an event are Aberrant, the highest threat (Apocalyptic Undead) are available to run. The disease Cerebral Scourge spreads from Aberrants. Additionally, certain Mortis procedures are mechanically more difficult if more than one Aberrant is a target of the procedure.

Choosing to make your character Aberrant is choosing to accept the conflicts and challenges that narratively and mechanically come with it. The narratives surrounding Aberrancy are about power and consequence. If you reach for your potential and learn to bend reality, your powers could help you and the people you care about. But is it all worth it? That’s for you to decide.

These narratives are intentionally filled with moral ambiguity, with no truly right or wrong answer, and characters may have opinions that span from Aberrant supremacists to militantly anti-Aberrant and everything in between. In order to align with the intended themes of choice and consequence, characters in Dystopia Rising: Colorado’s stories are always able to give up their Aberrant powers without causing lasting physical or psychological damage to themselves. Narratively speaking, this process can be as complex as a surgery, or as simple as a period of meditation.

With all of that said, because the negative impacts of Aberrancy are core in-universe canon, players should not use Aberrancy as an allegory for neurodivergence, disability, and LGBTQIA+ identity in order to prevent negative bleed for themselves and other players. Unlike any of those things in our world — in the world of Dystopia Rising — Aberrancy is actually dangerous. Characters with anti-Aberrant sentiments can hold legitimate, logical concerns about the impact Aberrants and Aberrancy have on their communities. This imbalance between the canon of Dystopia Rising: Live and the reality of these experiences can result in:

• negative bleed for players using this allegory when interfacing with anti-Aberrant plots and characters,

• can make players of anti-Aberrant characters uncomfortable with the role they are forced into when an allegorical connection is created, and;

• can make other players who have these experiences feel uncomfortable with the implication that their existence is equivalent to one with a canonical negative impact.

Aberrancy is meant to ask the question: “Yes, you can, but should you?” — which is not a question we want to ask about LGBTQIA+ identities or disabled and neurodivergent people.

Because of the narrative and mechanical impact Aberrant characters have on the setting, and the challenging narratives Aberrant characters can face, if you local to Dystopia Rising: Colorado and wish to have any Aberrant skills removed from your sheet, please reach out to the local game runners to accommodate this request either at game or beforehand.

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.

Unholy Passengers and You: A Primer

As we head towards the end of our live season of events, one prominent plot during this upcoming event will focus on faith – the zeal, corruption and true belief that makes up Barker Meadow Reservoir. 

In this blog post, we’ll cover the Unholy Passengers, those long-dreaded parasites of faith, and the mechanics and story around them. First, the lowdown on what the Unholy Passengers are and how they will function mechanically. Second, some interaction points and themes we encourage exploring this game. Finally, attached mechanics to this particular outbreak of Passengers – the Host keyword, the ways a Passenger can be interacted with by calls: Advance, Inflame and Weaponize, the Weaponized Passenger status and two types of Bane to be on the lookout for: Host Bane and Faith Bane. 

So, What exactly are the Unholy Passengers?

The Unholy Passengers are parasites that “eat” away at the bodies, minds and faith of Lineages. They influence, addle and poison their Hosts, often ending in death and, for the faithful, loss of their faith. 

Unholy Passengers have three Stages. All characters will enter into town with a Stage 1 Passenger unless the player expressly opts out either OOG or through mechanics. Each Stage will include an  RP Prompt and mechanics for what happens when your Passenger is Inflamed (agitated by an outside force). Faithful characters will have a base effect that makes Faith abilities painful to use and receive, while Faithless characters will experience a different issue in play with their status as Hosts. 

To be clear, while the RP Prompts can be opted into and out of at any time your character would be under the effect as usual, we do strongly encourage leaning into the RP that comes with being a Host. The mechanical effects of being a Host at different Stages, such as what happens when Inflamed, can not be opted out of without opting out of the entire experience of being Host to a Passenger. 

Unholy Passengers Stage 1 -

If Lineage is Faithful: 

Mechanics: Faith Anomaly skills cost 10 Body Damage and Agony to use or receive. When Inflamed, take 10 Body Damage and Agony 30 seconds.

Role-Play Prompt: Crisis Of Faith 

If Lineage is Faithless: 

Mechanics: When Inflamed, take 10 Body Damage and Agony 30 seconds.

Role-Play Prompt: Yearning for Faith

Stage 2 - 

If Faithful: 

Mechanics: As per Stage 1 but when Inflamed, instead take 20 Body Damage from brain hemorrhaging.

Role-Play Prompt: Corrupted Faith Zealotry (replaces Stage 1 Prompt)

If Faithless: 

Mechanics: When Inflamed, take 20 Body Damage from brain hemorrhaging (this replaces Stage 1’s effect)

Role-Play Prompt: Existential Faith Crisis (replaces Stage 1 Prompt)

Stage 3 - 

If Faithful: 

Mechanics: When Inflamed, take 1 Resolve Damage. If the character reaches 0 Resolve from this damage, they receive 20 Body Damage, Blinding and Stun 5 minutes, then 1 minute later, 10 Murder (Striker’s Coat does not immune, and this replaces the earlier Inflame effect). Reaching 0 Resolve from this damage will remove the Faith from a character and add a note to their sheet that they require a Rite of Reaffirmation to be rebaptized within the next 3 months to that faith. This removal of faith can expressly be opted out of and the note either not added or removed at any time based on a player’s choice. Death by any means purges the body of the Passenger and results in a more intense Mortis scene, during which reaching 0 Resolve will remove Faith as per above.

Role-Play Prompt: As per Stage 2

If Faithless: 

Mechanics: When Inflamed, take 1 Resolve Damage. If the character reaches 0 Resolve from this damage, they receive 20 Body Damage, Blinding and Stun 5 minutes, then 1 minute later, 10 Murder (Striker’s Coat does not immune, and this replaces the earlier Inflame effect). Death by any means purges the body of the Passenger and results in a more intense Mortis scene.

Role-Play Prompt: As per Stage 2

Whew! So the takeaway here is: Watch out for those Inflame calls, and get ready to explore faith in your roleplay as a Host! What’s it all mean though? What sort of stories are the Passengers meant to encourage and where might you take your RP of being a Host? 

Themes of the Passenger Experience

The three themes of the Passenger experience in this writer’s mind are the Give and Take of Faith in Barker, the Search for Meaning inherent in exploring faith, and the Dread of being Host to an increasingly deadly Passenger that threatens body and soul alike. 

In Barker, faith giveth and faith taketh away, as people and whole religions rise and fall with Trials big and small. The Unholy Passengers are yet another test of faith and of the community strength of Barker Meadow – including the strength of the All-Faiths. For the faithful, being Host to a Passenger is a terrible state, one’s faith turned into a weapon against oneself, but also the Hosts will be key for dealing with the outbreak (as we’ll talk more about below) and this is yet another opportunity to prove the strength of your faith in Barker. 

The RP Prompts involved are meant to evoke a winding path through the experience of faith or faithlessness, with a movement from crisis to zealotry for the faithful and a descent into the now very literal crisis that is lacking faith in Barker for the faithless. We encourage you to lean into aspects of your character’s beliefs you’ve been wanting to explore and to take dramatic action based on the RP Prompts!

Finally, being a Host is dangerous and potentially deadly. There will be calls that Inflame and put the Hosts in danger in other ways, and the fear and horror inherent in being affected by something that’s taken worse and worse root in you should be at the front of the mind of those playing Hosts. 

How to Interact With This Plot Other Than Being a Host

There are some ways you can interact with this plot other than suffering from being a Host,  including Research and Removal. 

First, the Passenger outbreak will need to be Researched in order to understand how to deal with it. This Research will be made available during play, and provide a chance for the educated to put their book learning to use. One thing to note ahead of time about the Research: it will require at least one Host involved in the process. While it will be possible to remove the Passengers in town, it would make the overall problem much harder to deal with without Host researchers. 

Second, the All-Faiths have a ritual for removing Passengers that will be made available to town. Of course they do! This ritual requires some heavy faith RP, ritualists, a surgeon and a Sunbloom. The problem with this ritual is no problem for the All-Faiths – it does not work on the faithless. There may be other ways to remove a Passenger discoverable during game, however, with different methods taking variant resources and having their own complications. 

There will be more ways to interact with the Passengers and more for Hosts to do to understand their predicament and importantly, protect themselves against the Passengers within them that will be unlockable through play. 

What Mechanics to Know

You’re going to want a quick mechanical rundown of relevant calls and keywords for the Passenger outbreak this month: Host, Advance, Inflame, Weaponize, Weaponized Passengers and Host and Faith Bane. 

Host: A keyword targeting all who currently have Passengers. 

Advance: A call that impacts Hosts, bringing a Passenger one stage forward, to a maximum of Stage 3. There is no progression beyond Stage 3 and Advance does not impact those without Passengers (there is no advancement from “Stage 0” via this call, unlike some Diseases).

Inflame: Inflame is a call that has different effects at different Stages of hosting a Passenger and can be delivered in a variety of ways, defended through its base defense – a melee-delivered Inflame would be Avoided, a Psionic Inflame countered with Basic Mental Endurance, etc. – as well as specific mechanics to negate Inflames overall. 

Weaponize: Now this is where things get spicy. Weaponize is a call that turns a Passenger into a Weaponized Passenger. Exactly what this means is to be discovered in-game but for transparency, let’s go over the Weaponized Passenger status. 

Weaponized Passenger: A Weaponized Passenger acts as per the Passenger’s base mechanics, but adds the following – 

• The Passenger will Advance every 2 Hours up to a maximum of Stage 3. 

• When about to Advance, make sure to tap a Guide familiar with the plot (Brom or Emily are your best bets) to make the appropriate calls that result from Advancement of a Weaponized Passenger. 

• Dying while under the effects of a Weaponized Passenger is a dramatic event above and beyond the experience of death – make sure to get a Guide as detailed above as well.

Host Bane: This is a Bane that deals double damage to anyone or anything (spoilers: not just Lineages can and will be Hosts to Passengers…) with a Passenger. 

Faith Bane: This one is simple. If you have a Faith, this effect will deal double damage. 

With the rundown of a big threat this weekend complete, we look forward to seeing you at our September event, “Politics and Religion!” If you haven’t grabbed your ticket and checked in on the database yet you can do so here.

Local Custom Mechanic: Lights Out

As part of our two-part June and July plot, we'll be running a custom mechanic called Lights Out. Here's how it works:

A guide will enter a building and call “By This Zone: Lights Out.” All characters not immune to blinding will be under the effects of Blinding and Stun until the guide specifies otherwise, calling “Lights Up.” All players affected by Lights Out will be asked to cover their eyes until tapped by a guide or NPC.

Any character that is not blinded does not have to cover their eyes during this time, and does not take the effects of the Stun. They are considered to have needed cover for Stealth, and can move to intercept NPCs as long as the NPC is not under the effects of Basic Enhanced Movement or Stealth.

If an NPC is intercepted, play will briefly pause while the combat is moved to an open space. Any players that are needed to be moved for safety will be informed by the guide. Once a combat space is cleared, play will resume.

Why would something kill the lights to a building? To snatch helpless victims, of course!

There will be times during our June and July events where NPCs may attempt to abduct your character. If you wish to opt out of being kidnapped, inform a Logistics Guide to receive an opt-out wristband.

If your character is abducted, your kidnapper will attempt to take you to a certain checkpoint. If you are rescued or use the Larceny skill to slip your binds before this checkpoint, you're free! Otherwise, you and the NPC will go back to Ops, where you will be presented with 3 options:

1. If you have Basic Larceny and the mind to do so, but chose not to slip your binds while being taken, you may escape and return to town without drawing enemy attention.

2. If you don’t have Larceny and are OK with your kidnapped character being "offscreen" until one of the rescue missions run the next day, you may NPC for CAPs or play a different character during this time.

3. If you don't have Larceny and don’t want to be offscreen until the next morning, a guide will spin up an escape scenario for you, and you can find out how you managed to escape and what state you find yourself in as you make your way back to town.

We hope to create a tense game with a sense of danger lurking in the dark. Will you find a way to hold back the darkness?

The Wardens' Brewing Conflict with Murder Incorporated: A Primer

There is an underlying plot element starting to heat up that aims to put some PCs and the Wardens in direct conflict with Murder Incorporated. Here’s how we will address the way this plot, involvement in it, and opt outs will work at Dystopia Rising: Colorado, as this conflict has the potential to generate bleed for players. The information in this post regarding Murder Inc. should be considered Out Of Game information, should not be taken as In Game knowledge, and is provided solely to give OOG context and background to those looking to get involved in this plot line.

Who are the wardens?

The Wardens are a group of law enforcement who work at the behest of the Financial Institutions to keep a certain minimum threshold of order in Lorado. The Marshal (the head Warden of an area) of Barker Meadow is bounty hunter Ephraim Butcher and his posse, the Hangmen, who have set their sights on Murder Incorporated, a mysterious group that they believe to be a threat to the safety of the Greater Wastes.

What is Murder Incorporated?

Murder Incorporated is a secret network of ritualistic assassins engaged in a sweeping conspiracy in service of what they see as the “Greater Good” of the Wasteland. Its existence is largely unknown in the wastes: if mentioned at all, it is in whispers and rumors. (If you know, you know, but for the most part, especially if you do not have Criminal Influence, you won’t know until someone tells you.) The local MI Families are established groups with their own resources that could be valuable allies, but are also under suspicion in Butcher’s hunt.

This plot line will see these two forces, and player characters on both sides, brought into direct and bloody conflict with potentially lethal consequences.

how plot engagement and optING out will work

You may — before engaging with this plot — choose to completely opt out of it, no questions asked. Please notify an Operations lead of your intent to do so. Your character's name will be kept out of any information trading, and should it come to light that you are part of MI, will be ignored by the Wardens.  You MAY NOT engage with this plot in any way if you choose to opt out — with the exception of being able to attend other MI events where this might be discussed such as general MI meetings and activities. If you decide you wish to join the plot at a later time, you must inform Sorin.

While engaging with this plot, you are considered to have consented to involvement and consequences that come from this — up to and including character death.  If you decide, after engaging in the plot, that you would like to deescalate and disengage, you must speak to Sorin in order to do so. If you are triggered by an action occurring in the moment, please take care of yourself and leave situations that may be harmful to your OOC mental health, then seek out Sorin at the earliest possible opportunity.

There are four ways that the Wardens could find out about a character’s criminal involvements:

1. The character was seen out of disguise by an enemy while participating in a Criminal or Murder Inc. module.

2. The character was brought in for questioning and forced to reveal their criminal involvements while under interrogation.

3. The character’s name was willingly given by another PC — this is a CvC action and should be negotiated between involved parties beforehand.

4. The character’s name was unwillingly given by another PC under the effects of an interrogation. Note: This is not a CvC action, as the player providing the information would not have had any control over what information they provide.

Important updates and our first live-in-person event of 2024!

Survivors!

Join us at YMCA Camp Tumbleson Lake in Ward, Colorado on May 31st, 2024 for our first live-in-person event of the season! Tickets are on sale now, but please scroll through here FIRST for some very important updates:

New Site!

As previously announced, we are going to be at Camp Tumbleson Lake this year. YMCA of Northern Colorado recently purchased this 100+ year-old campsite from the Boy Scouts of Colorado and are currently in the process of making renovations and new construction, so availability of amenities will fluctuate as the season progresses. In June and July it will be used for day-camp, but the plan is that it will be used for overnight camp in 2025, so they will be adding tent pads and renovating existing buildings to accommodate larger volumes of campers and volunteers.

Want to check out the site? Join us for the Work Day and get XP!

If you want a hands-on preview of the site, you should join us for the Epic Day of Service volunteer day on May 18th. You’ll get to meet up with players and other volunteers, and in doing so earn 10 XP, thanks a special offer from the Dystopia Rising Network! Get all the information from our previous blog post about it.

Kitchen being renovated

While the campsite has a sufficiently-sized dining hall, its kitchen was old and too small to handle overnight camping attendees, so it’s undergoing renovations and refurbishing with new equipment. Since we don’t currently know the state of the kitchen, we will be delaying food service sales until closer to the event, when we’ll either have access to the new kitchen or choose a more rustic option.

You might need a new COVID-19 vaccine

CDC has updated their guidance and vaccinations prior to September of 2023 are no longer sufficient for protection against the current strains of COVID-19. This was made very apparent when several of our players tested positive after the October 2023 event! For the safety of all, we have updated our COVID-19 policy and you can see those updates on our local expectations page.

Price changes

On October 1st, 2023, the Dystopia Rising Network changed prices of tickets across all chapters. The current nationwide price structure is as follow:

• No Casting: $120 (was $105)

• Minimum Casting (2 hours NPC): $105 (was $85)

• Standard Casting (4 hours NPC): $85 (was $65)

• Maximum Casting (6 hours NPC): $45 (no change)

• 10-Hour Play (2 hours NPC): $35 (no change)

• New Players: first event free (was $35)

• Extra XP: $15 for 1, $30 for 2 (no change)

• Non-Attending/Buyback for local players: as Standard Casting

But wait! We’re going to make a few changes here

We have analyzed our business model, past attendance, site costs and have come up with some amendments to Network Pricing to start the 2024 season, some which may be familiar to our players.

• If you pre-register for a Standard Casting ticket via this website, you will have three options:

  • Get a pre-registration discount of $10 - that’s right, it’ll only be $75 instead of $85 for the standard ticket.

  • Oh what the heck: if you pre-register and choose the Pay at Door option for the Standard ticket, we’ll give you the $75 price as well! We accept cash and cards with a chip or tap function at the door.

  • Support our chapter a little more with the full-price High Altitude Ticket! It’s the Standard Casting option at the normal DR Network price of $85 and we’ll give you an unique, personalized Event Chit as well! Check out our past blog post about Event Chits, under “Dishes Network Update”, for details about Event Chits!

• We will have a limited number of Max Casting tickets, as this ticket actually costs us money to offer (e.g. it does not generate enough revenue to cover the site and royalty costs). However, we will continue to have an unlimited number of Casting Champion tickets (Max Casting plus 2 Extra XP) for $75, the same price as before.

• We will presently not be offering the No Casting or Casting Only options, but we will have a limited number of Sunday Minimum Casting tickets for $105 each. For this one, you will do the Sunday morning casting shift, after breakfast and before lay-off/closing announcements.

• Our Star Line program will continue to be available! This will be at the Network-standard $85 price for a donated Standard Ticket, and we will continue to offer 1-for-$1 on CAPs and a special Chit for all benefactors as well.

• Note that Buybacks for prior events are sold at the Standard Casting price for when they were originally offered. So Buybacks of live events for 2019-2023 will still only be $65, and Buybacks of events going forward will be $85.

Wait! Not so fast!

Before you buy your ticket, you may want to double check your emails because if you’re a local player, it’s highly likely you purchased a ticket for the November 2023 which ended up getting cancelled due to site complications. If that’s the case, you’re going to want to see the Cancelled Event Reconciliation option. We will honor any tickets that were sold for that event for the upcoming events, or you can pick a different option, but please use that ticket to get registered or make a decision about the ticket you’re still due.

Phew! That was a lot

You can get your tickets on this website now. Also make sure to check on the Dystopia Rising Database to register your ticket and secure your Casting shift. And join us on our Discord to chat with members and get hyped for the first live-in-person DR:CO event of 2024!

A Primer on the Barker Meadow Necropolis

As our February virtual event quickly approaches, we wanted to put together this little guide to let you know what you're heading into. Before the Wycked White settled in at the end of last season, Barker Meadow warped into a Necropolis - a place where the Grave holds powerful sway. Much (but not all!) of the weekend’s content will focus on interacting with, understanding and fixing the distorted Necropolis. Let’s talk about how we got here, where things are now and how the Necropolis might be dealt with.

How Did We Get Here?

Back before the early arrival of the Wycked White, the Barkers used Cracked Psionic Crystal Weapons of Mortis Destruction to defeat Flesher Calonyction. The ancient Graverobber had used strange Grave science to convert himself into a mass of Infection with the intent to overtake the local Gravemind. These weapon - the Cracked Crystal Projectile Shell and Cracked Crystal Coating - were understood to have terrible effects on the surrounding land. 

The Cracked Crystal Projectile Shell works by draining off Infectious mass and energy when it impacts a target, which then causes a backlash when that mass and energy interacts with the psionic crystals inside the shell. This causes necrosystemic and ecological damage where the shells land, weakening the bacterial biosphere that forms a barrier between the Mortis Amaranthine and the world “topside” while pulling the Mortis layer closer to the surface.

The Cracked Crystal Coating sinks into the soil and stimulates the growth of Cracked Crystal clusters. Since these clusters are typically an immune response meant to strengthen damaged or weakened Morgues, these clusters forming outside of conditions they are typically found in caused distorted Grave phenomena as they absorbed and concentrated Infectious material.

Where Are We Now?

This Necropolis is a region of unchecked Mortis expansion and growth, like a damaged organ replicating cancerous cells and spreading them to areas far beyond where they are meant to be. The Barker Meadow Reservoir Necropolis blurs the line that Strains understand to exist between the Mortis Amaranthine and the world they live in. Masses of Infection cause high concentrations of DMT - leading to psycho-reactant landscapes - while memories churned from deep in the Mortis spur it to fabricate corrupted structures and artifacts to recreate the past.

Although the freezing temperatures of the Wycked White have slowed the spread of decay, the winter will not hold forever. If allowed to continue in this manner after the thaw, this Necropolis will continue to build on itself. The end result will be the creation of a localized necrosphere deep in the Overgrowth. 

So, How Do We Stop This?

The Necropolis must be pushed back - both physically and psychologically in the minds of the people that live here. This will require the excavation and removal of the Cracked Crystal clusters, as well as the treatment of the land to repair the biosphere. The Mortis layer will then have to somehow be pushed back and repaired, while the tumorous Grave masses will need to be surgically, radioactively or chemically removed to prevent the Mortis from resurfacing. Finally, something must be done to lay the Necropolis to rest in the minds of Barker Meadow Reservoir - something to convince the entire town to accept the paradigm that the Necropolis is no more. What that is exactly? Well…

Continue the conversation on our main Facebook group, our private Facebook hype group, in our Discord server, and on Instagram. And we’ll see you in the “Wycked Wonderland” that is the Necropolis in Barker Meadow Reservoir.

Last-Minute Details You Should Know Going Into This Weekend's Event

With our October event, In The Flesh (tickets and details found here), barreling down on us like the apocalyptic plans of the Taleholders, all of us at Dystopia Rising: Colorado wanted to make some quick announcements. These will encompass the final fight with the Taleholders and, given we've told you there will be a Worker(s) on the field, the status of some of the tools we've seeded for fighting those horrible Grave monstrosities!

To be upfront: you should start preparing in-character for the fight as soon as game is on. After all, we've announced here that the fight will be in the 2 p.m. to 6 p. m. Casting Shift block. Start out the gate prepping and strategizing for the fight for the best chance to triumph in the final hours! We're looking to provide plenty of opportunities for varied playstyles and build levels in getting ready for and executing the fight itself, so don’t hesitate to get involved and see where you can help out and contribute.

But first, to get your attention we’re giving a peek at some of the new content for this final fight that was developed in-game last event! This Weapon of Mortis Destruction came from the minds and effort of the people of Barker Meadow, and it's a doozy! What have these careless hands wrought, and what might happen if it fell into the wrong hands?

With the Weapons of Mortis Destruction – the one pictured above and a terrifying Cracked Crystal Coating meant to be delivered on a blade – available to be produced for the fight, you'll still have to deal with the sticky situation of Workers being allied with the Taleholders. The last time the town fought one, they made it flee using the Inverted Cairn, and in a protracted fight like the one lined up for this month, we recognize that some mechanics need to change around fighting the Workers. 

An important change is being made: We're replacing Imbued Crystal Fragments often used for anti-Worker tools with Cracked Crystal in all things going forward, as we behind the scenes made a decision that you all had enough local resources to account for already. If you see Imbued Fragment in a print, nope, you see the equivalent in (more in some cases) Cracked Crystals!

We recognize that this means potentially needing a LOT of Cracked Crystals to make All The Things to save the day, so we remind you that certain factions (namely Northheed and the Taleholders, but also other shadowy forces) have loads of the infection-eating psionic crystal, and encourage you to get creative and see what we can Yes And or No But in your efforts to gather enough to triumph.

There will be opportunities to gather Cracked Crystal in-game, and we’d like to remind you that it’s available off the Northheed Minor Favor buylist, that you can spend 50 CAPs to get a Minor Favor item like a Cracked Crystal, and oh yes, certain Masters of Criminal activity can purchase it as one of their buylist options as well. Get scheming to get those awful rocks!

So here's the details, as much as we can release currently and without spoiling too much of the surprise: 

• The Inverted Cairn Schematics have been updated to be simpler, less expensive and less punishing to the user.

• The Inception of a Weapon Zone of Mechanics, that necrokinetic ritual to harm Workers, has been updated to use Cracked Crystal instead of Imbued Fragment, but is otherwise unchanged. Read those glyphs and channel Grave knowledge to combat the Workers! 

• The Bloody Poison Condenser to make Worker Bane applied poison has been updated to be less resource and time-intensive and more effective. 

• For our local Worker-focused prints, the Everliving Weapon and Spike Severer updates are upcoming. We're looking to make the Everliving Weapon less mind-intensive and the Spike Severer will receive minor updates.

• The Blinding of the 3rd Eye Mental Endurance/Mind Killer ritual will be back in a new form, updates are incoming. Last time it was brought in by S&P and used up in the fight, what will it look like this time?

The ZoMs will be updated in-place in-play at the Library, they are all living documents subject to change up through game. For the prints, we'll announce a process for getting those swapped out on any significant change. Keep in mind that we’re always open to feedback to improve your experience and the game in general, these mechanics included, don’t hesitate to reach out with feedback on these in the lead-up to the game or after you’ve experienced them.

We look forward to seeing you in-game this weekend, and wish you the best of luck in your fight against the Taleholders and their ages-long machinations!

Pre-Game Briefing: Taleholder Finale

In advance of the climactic battle with The Taleholders at our October event, In the Flesh (tickets and details available here) , we would like to provide information to set expectations and make sure everyone has an awesome time wrapping up this story. In this blog post, we're going to go over what's happening before the fight, during the fight, and how it could all end. 

Importantly and up front, the fight will happen during the 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. NPC shift block, so if you're aching to be involved on either side of the fight, we present this information so you can make an informed decision. 

There will be a significant preparatory phase leading up to the fight, and we encourage you to make the most of it! In addition to various plot items such as the Weapons of Mortis Destruction developed last game and the tools to fight Workers – which will be key in the final fight – there's also a bevy of brews, augments, armaments, and more in the core rules to equip yourself with to better your chances! Hit up those crafters and resource gatherers and get to work to prepare for the fight of a lifetime. It's important to note that we will be reworking the living documents of Worker-fighting tools and mechanics to better accommodate a longer fight, as they were originally designed for a much shorter encounter.

Preparing the Weapons of Mortis Destruction and the Oblivio Mortis – the ritual which the Taleholders' Graverobber Flesher Calonyction uses as his primary tool, plotted to be his undoing by his rival and tenuous ally of the town, Tomas Gleaming Keep – will be key, to have weapons during the fight and to combat Flesher in the Grave. 

Now onto the fight itself!

The fight will have multiple phases across multiple locations, something we have not yet experimented much with at DR:CO on our site at YMCA Camp Santa Maria. Prepare to walk, and to have to move across site to accomplish your objectives. In this fight, through the different stages and their dynamics, your preparation will matter, and tactics will be critical against deadly threats, which will be killing blow active. As the final flourish of a years-long storyline, we're not pulling any punches on this one, but we're also dedicated to making it fun and cinematic, no matter the results in-character. 

Those are the details of the fight we're presenting currently, without spoiling too much, and it's important to talk about the role of this fight in the overall narrative. We've advertised through in-character means and want to be clear out of character that this fight most likely ends in the Gravemind, the multi-stage conflict determining the shape of that scene, of stopping and undoing the Graven work of Flesher. If the survivors of Barker Meadow stumble in their efforts, will they even be able to launch the Oblivio Mortis to counter Flesher, and if they succeed triumphantly, will he meet an even worse fate than in his attempted Oblivio Mortis at the Premiere event, where survivors subverted his efforts and slayed him multiple times? 

We’ll all just have to see at our October event, where This Has All Happened Before, and it's up to our Barkers to make sure this will Never Happen Again. The cycle of the Everliving Wood and Flesher's machinations against Barker and Lorado ends in October, but what that looks like... as the TVs of the Taleholders might say, tune in, intrepid viewers, for a story ending like none other!

Info Gathering Results: The Taleholders’ Finale

At our September event, several intrepid Survivors from Barker Meadow sought information on the Taleholders’ Finale – the final, apocalyptic stage of the Great Work of their Graverobber, Flesher Calonyction. To help you prepare for the Finale and the battle to stop it, we present the Info Gathering results they received.

Pieces Of Information: 

- The Taleholders’ plan to utilize Flesher’s power over the Workers and possibly other creatures, all of which will be going for the kill. This is the Finale after all. 

- Even the preparation required for Flesher’s Integration and the Finale will cause the local Mortis to go haywire, causing unpredictable and dangerous zones and distortions of the local environment.

- The Taleholders have heard about plans to protect the Morgue in Barker Meadow through various mechanisms, and are attempting to work around and through the plans they hear about, because they will need to interact dramatically with a Morgue in Barker Meadow. Whether it is the Morgue across from the Saloon, the Synthetic “Wolf” Morgue, or an “any Morgue will do” scenario – it remains unclear. Protecting or obfuscating the Morgue(s) would help against the Finale.  

- Flesher is brimming with Infection given by Taleholders and others. Whatever form Flesher’s Integration takes, it can and will burn through multiple of his Infection in a protracted conflict. 

Exceptional Success Information: 

- Flesher is likely to attempt to modify a Worker in some way so that the psionic storm around it will not harm Taleholders – at the cost of Taleholders being near it weakening it in some way. 

- Flesher is likely to attempt to deploy at least one Worker that will be able to Spike and heal off of the bleedout of something other than Undead, perhaps a Sin-Eater or something similar.

- The Finale will take place throughout Barker Meadow, rather than at a single location, as it is an overall strike upon the town physically and existentially.

- Flesher created the Synthetic “Wolf” Morgue in town and has utilized the moving nature of the Everliving Wood’s presence in the Overgrowth before. All This Has Happened Before, and all this could be utilized as weaponry again.

- Flesher will need to be defeated fully while inside the Gravemind, he must be vanquished with the battlefield being in his ‘home territory,’ weakening him before he gets there is key.

We will have more details on this climactic conflict to come. Make sure you register for the gather where it all goes down, our October event, IN THE FLESH!

Apotheosis August Premiere Event: Plot Threads Highlight

We are thrilled to present Dystopia Rising: Colorado's August Premiere event, APOTHEOSIS, taking place on August 17th through the 20th. Here you can get some quick insights into key plots and challenges that both locals and visiting Survivors will face during the event, as well as a quick taste of some themes we’re looking to highlight during the event.

Archons and the Abyss

While this event emphasizes the broader concept of the Abyss over the Archons themselves, their presence will be felt through their impact on the world and in opt-in Grave Dives dealing with the Trapped Archon in Barker’s Grave. For more information on the Trapped Archon and the consequences of the Abyss, such as Distortion, Corruption, and Marks, check out our story highlight on the Trapped Archon here and our combined triple threat of a mechanics highlight here.

The Stitched

Expect to confront a horrifying hybridization of Undead and Raiders known as The Stitched as they emerge alongside the presence of the Abyss in Lorado. These grotesque creations of the Archons will possess potent combinations of Undead and Raider abilities, and are not vulnerable to any form of Bane. How will you prepare to do battle with this new and dangerous enemy? 

The Overgrowth Pinemaw

After confirming the existence of the legendary Overgrowth Pinemaw in a harrowing November trade, the survivors of Lorado have begun to understand more about these deadly threats and their role in the local ecosystem. The rugged frontiersmen of Bear Claw Hunting & Trapping have recently reported telltale signs that a new Pinemaw has become active somewhere in the Barker area - and other evidence that something unknown and more sinister may be happening along with it. Bear Claw will need Tradegoers’ help this month to venture into the Overgrowth, pin down the exact location of the monstrosity, and eliminate it… all while delving deeper into the mystery of why everything about it seems so wrong.

A NOTE FROM YOUR TEAM:  The mechanics of the Pinemaw have been overhauled and refined since its debut; in-character, the monster will not be considered to have changed, but we hope those who remember the grueling fights of the first run will find this new version to be a better balanced and more fun experience. Read more about it here.

Local Threats

Barker Meadow is home to various horrors like the Faith-hunting Profane Wolves and the Grave-distorted foxes known as Sin-Eaters, which drag mauled strains to the Morgue to confess their sins to the Mortis. Additionally, the recent appearance of terrifying Grave Antibody Undead adds to the tension in Barker. With escalating regional events, these threats may behave in new and unpredictable ways, calling for the investigation of the destabilization in the region and the defense of Barker.

The Taleholders and the Truce

The Taleholders, a cunning sect of Telling Visions and Tribes of Seasons determined to control the narrative of Lorado, have been a constant antagonist to Barker residents. With their Graverobber, Flesher Calonyction, plotting an apocalyptic Great Work, they now offer a truce and assistance to combat the Archonic intrusion that poses an existential threat to all sides equally. Rumors of Flesher’s unholy powers have long abounded: control over the formidable Undead known as the Workers; the world-shaking Grave procedure known as the Oblivio Mortis. With the chance to wield the weapons of their enemy against a far greater foe, will locals and travelers alike make bedfellows of the Taleholders? 

Overall, come into your weekend expecting to deal with themes of Cosmic Horror and holding on to humanity in a time of catastrophe: in a world under siege, what deals with devils might your survivor make to stop the end of their world?

Follow our blog and social media for updates and insights into the event. Tickets for APOTHEOSIS are available here.

See you there, Survivor!

A New Tree for 2023: Updates to the Overgrowth Pinemaw

With the resurgence of last November’s apex Overgrowth threat right around the corner, we want to tell you all about some of the changes we’ve made to refine and balance the Pinemaw into the challenge we always dreamed it to be: it will still pose a deadly threat, but our hope is that these changes will bring it from being just a hard fight to a hard and fun fight!

The Pinemaw WILL still require the feeding of a special Herbicide to harm it. The Print for this Herbicide will be seeded several times throughout the coming event and will be used for further Pinemaw encounters in the future.

The Pinemaw WILL NOT require a count of Root NPCs to be killed to knock it into Bleed Out. Instead, the puppeteer inside the Trunk will have a Body tally, and players will be able to attack the monster directly with Ranged Attacks and Strikes to the puppeteer’s arms, shoulders, and torso. Attacks to the exterior of the puppet will have No Effect - beat the player, not the prop!

Pinemaw Roots WILL still be present, but they have been very heavily nerfed to better serve a role as small harassers of PCs attempting to engage the Trunk.

The Pinemaw WILL still have a mix of Pheromone and Psionic calls. We have refined them, however, to be distinct in their functions, and more heavily favor Psionics. Pheromone calls are, as before, resisted using the Proficient ability of the Helscape Deathmask, while Psionic calls are resisted with Mental Endurance as normal. If an AoE or BMV call does not possess either of those carriers, it follows other resistance and counter rules as normal!

These changes are OOC knowledge related to what is fundamentally a mechanics patch; in-character, survivors are not intended to take this as a cue that the Pinemaw has mutated, evolved, or changed in any way.

Thanks for reading! Good luck out there, Survivor, and happy hunting!

Memetic Fixations: Need to Know

Our July event, POWDER KEG, introduces a new threat to Lorado: Memetic Fixations. These are more potent and easily spread versions of the original Fixations that have plagued the residents of Barker Meadow. Memetic Fixations are intense, destructive, and maladaptive intrusive thoughts that characters must confront throughout the event. Their effects will be more specific, brutal, and swiftly resolved than before. Possible vectors now will include the terrifying potential of it spreading through discussions with the Fixated about the individual's mental state or the phenomenon itself, sprawling out through Lorado as a virulent idea.

Designed for characters who enjoy medical, psychological, and resource-based gameplay, Memetic Fixations will be a pervasive threat beginning with a module on Friday night in-game. They are not a "coming-into-town" mechanic for the purpose of mechanical interactions.

Fixations follow a Prompt and Resolution format. To be considered Fixated for mechanical purposes, you must have an active Prompt. Roleplay of being Fixated should convey being plagued by intrusive thoughts and desires, but giving in to fulfilling Fixations is a combined in-character and out-of-character choice.

The physical Fixation Prompts can be picked up at a location that will be central in the playspace and may be drawn if desired to swap out or when receiving redundant pulls from available Fixations, when receiving Fixations in the course of play.

Note that detection and treatment of Fixations is challenging since they are not Fractures or Diseases and do not respond to traditional methods known in the Wastes.

Players will need to discover methods to detect, treat, and eliminate the threat of Memetic Fixations throughout the weekend. Players can opt their characters out of Memetic Fixations during play or start with immunity if they wish. We are also offering an option to begin the weekend with an experimental inoculation having been applied to your character by shadowy forces, an opportunity we’ll be providing more details on in the coming days. What could go wrong with that, right?

Join us at our event by purchasing tickets on sale HERE.

P.S. Contact Emily B. on Discord if you have the [LATENT] tag on your character or believe you should. No reason, just checking!

The Premiere Event and the Mayoral Race: An Update

As we approach the July game, the mayoral race is in full swing. As such, we would like to dispel any potential confusion regarding the mayoral election before it has a chance to pop up.

In game, characters believe that the election will go off as planned in August, but the election itself will be moved to our September Event: Taking Care of Business.

Why are we doing this?
After a lot of discussion, the story team decided that it would be best to not hold the election over our August Premiere Event: Apotheosis, as we anticipate an influx of travelers that game, and do not want that to somehow sway the vote in a manner that could be frustrating to local players.

So should my character stop campaigning for a month?
Keep campaigning! In character, there is no reason to suspect the election will be pushed. The in-game state of emergency that will cause the election to be pushed back will not be recognized until the August event.

I have opinions about this!
We want to hear them! Our post-game feedback forms are a great place to give feedback about decisions made by the story and guide teams. You can also submit feedback using the Contact Us, Event Feedback, or Rules Call Feedback forms, all of which are located under the Contact Us section of our website at any time. Your feedback helps us to create the game you want to play, and lets us know when we're on the right track.

Don't You Want to Be Wanted?

With the inauguration of The Wardens, lawbreakers all across Lorado are seeing their golden age of chaos drawing to an end. But formidable though they are, there are only so many Wardens to go around, and far too many slick lowlifes and dastardly outlaws dot the Western Wastes for the most tenacious law dogs to attend to them all; thus, the honored tradition of cash bounties returns - and the target: you!

Bounty Hunting mechanics in Lorado are intended to provide a dynamic experience that’s one part Where’s Waldo, one part pseudo-CvC that allows you to take on your friends’ characters not as a mindless zombie or berserk Raider but as a crafty and determined Strain of your own design who will do whatever it takes to get the best of the PCs. You’re encouraged to play your Bounty NPCs as if they were player characters: fight to win, and use every trick in your arsenal to survive. Whether you’re a face in the lineup of a bandit gang or working as a guard for a merchant coming into town, it’ll be up to the PCs to spot you, figure out how to take you down, and test their wits and skills against yours in the name of collecting that sweet, sweet payday. And best of all, this all happens during the course of your regular NPC shift!

To create your Bounty NPC, go to NPC Camp and create a unique, distinctive Strain outfit from the costume items there. (Bringing your own is also acceptable!) Pay special attention to the head and shoulders, as your NPC should be recognizable in play from the sketch on their Bounty Poster! Once your look is complete, a Guide on shift will take your picture in front of a plain background. Then, you’ll fill out a Bounty Registry sheet in Ops with some additional information:

• Your Name and Player Number

• Bounty’s Name and Strain

• If you don’t want to come up with a name, you can be assigned one.

• Bounty’s Payout and Crimes

• Roll a D6, reroll if you get a 1. Your result is your number of Crimes, and multiplies by 10 to determine your Payout as well as your Body and Mind.

• Your Crimes determine what Skills your Bounty has:

• Assault:  +10 Body, Take Down, Break

• Grifting:  +10 Mind, Basic Mental Endurance, Proficient Social Influence

• Evading Arrest:  Basic Enhanced Movement, Balance, Proficient Awareness

• Burglary:  Proficient Larceny, Basic Stealth, Proficient Criminal Influence

• Armed Robbery:  Break, Choking Blow, Proficient Combat Tactics

• Kidnapping:  Blinding, Master Unarmed, Basic Malicious

• Murder:  Master Malicious, Bounty is Killing Blow Active

• Assassination:  Piercing Strike, Master Criminal Influence, carry 2 Glass Stilettos

• Malicious Witchcraft:  Proficient Telekinetics, Proficient Telepathy, Basic Pyrokinetics

• Arson:  Master Pyrokinetics

• ALL Bounties have Avoid and all Master Weapon Skills (not Unarmed)

• Wanted Status

• Dead or Alive? Or only one of the two?

• Bounty’s Signature Item / Proof Of Kill

• This is a Local Plot Item card unique to your Bounty NPC, to be looted if your Bounty is killed; this is delivered to the Post Office for payment. It CAN be a visible item on the costume, but doesn’t have to be. If you’re only Wanted Alive, you won’t need this.

We will then use your picture and other information to create a Bounty Poster, which will be posted up on site and in the Public Works Bounty Ledger. 

You’ll receive a copy of the stat block and the reference pictures of your Bounty NPC costume, as well as your choice of one of the four Ace Card Local Items to bring into play on your PC.

Starting the following event, once per event, you can play your Bounty NPC in place of an unnamed Strain character on an eligible mod! Mods that can support Bounty NPCs will be marked as such, and the Ops Lead will notify the NPCs when prepping a mod of this type to go out. If your Bounty NPC returns from a mod without being killed or captured, depending on actions you may have taken in play, your Payout might go up!

Bounties are always equipped with Strain Loot cards for any one Proficient Armor, one Master Weapon, one St. John’s Tincture, and may consider any one Augment of their choice to be equipped to their weapon. You will also go out with your Signature Item card.

The Wastes are your oyster, outlaw - give ‘em hell.

Powder Keg Pre-Game Briefing: Encountering The Workers

In the months leading up to our July event, POWDER KEG, we have been foreshadowing an encounter with The Workers, the formidable defense system of the Grave. Previously found only in the Everliving Wood, players will now have a chance to confront them during the 2pm to 6pm Casting shift (being more specific about the time might ruin some of the surprises around how it will occur). Before diving into the crucial mechanics of this battle, let's briefly review what we know about The Workers in-character.

The Workers are powerful protectors of the Mortis – ancient entities compared to the most horrific Undead that have plagued the Greater Wastes. A compilation of in-character information about The Workers has been made available here.

Now for the mechanics! Please note that these are living documents and may be subject to change. Let us know if you see anything that doesn’t seem to work as intended or that you have questions about!

First, be aware of NULL status. Workers are surrounded by a constant psionic barrier and immune to most effects. If your character would not be able to be affected by Anomaly effects (Master Mental Endurance fields or the Master Shield ability of the Forged Steelpaw Shield being the best ways to accomplish this), you must call "NULL" when interacting with a Worker at the end of your interaction (such as an attack for damage) to signal to the portrayer of the Worker(s) to take the effect. You can gain or lose NULL status through various plot interactions as well.

We've released two blueprints and two Zones of Mechanics (ZoMs) specifically designed for combating The Workers, as well as the schematics for the now-infamous Inverted Cairn project driven by characters in-game over the last months. Access to these blueprints will be available in-game, but summaries are provided here for transparency.

The Spike Severer is an augment for a Melee Small weapon intended to disable The Workers' ability to regenerate Body when Undead around it fall into bleedout. Here are its core mechanics:

• Spend 5 Mind for "End Worker Spike" on the next attempted strike against an Undead

• After a successful strike, the user suffers Blinding

The Everliving Weapon is an augment for any melee weapon type with these core mechanics:

• Spend 5 Mind and 5 Body for NULL modifier on next 3 attempted strikes with augmented weapon

• After 3 strikes or 1 minute (whichever comes first), the user's bleedout timer is reduced to 30 seconds for 5 minutes

• Weapon cannot deal damage to non-Worker targets

Additionally, two ZoMs were unlocked by character actions: the Bloody Poison Condenser and the Inception Of A Weapon. These will be accessible in the Culinary Crafting Area and the Library, respectively.

Finally, the Inverted Cairns Schematics can be found here and will reside at the Library as well but can be moved in-game for constructing the actual Cairns.

That covers the mechanics for this highly anticipated showdown with The Workers! We're excited to see how it unfolds at POWDER KEG. Get your tickets (and be sure to check-in on the database) here.

CvC and You

Hey everyone, we realized recently that we talk a lot about consent for physical RP (which is important), but not a lot about consent for conflict and CvC! Consent and clear communication are key to making sure that everyone is having fun when character conflict comes up, so let's talk about it - and always remember the acronym FRIES when it comes to consent! 

People often have different definitions of what constitutes conflict, and what requires a check in. If you aren’t sure if someone will be bothered by the way you are engaging with them, it is always best to ask. Just because it would be fine (or even fun) for you to be approached in a certain way doesn’t mean it is the same for everyone else. Once you have developed enough of a relationship with someone to understand their fun (often by having a number of these kinds of conversations with them over time) checking in beforehand isn’t always needed, but it doesn’t hurt! If you don’t know someone well enough to be certain, it is ALWAYS safer to check in before engaging.

Not everyone wants to engage in RP that involves conflict or CvC, and that’s ok! Some people want to engage with it sometimes, but not all the time. Some people want it most of the time, but are occasionally having a bad day and might not want it right then. Because of this it’s very important to check with your fellow players before these types of play occur, as well as after. It is also important to note that it is primarily the responsibility of the aggressor to make sure that their target is doing alright afterwards. If the conflict between two characters or groups is mutually hostile, then it is everyone’s responsibility to make sure that everyone else is ok.  Situations that are going to involve extended conflict should include regular check-ins.

It is also important to note that choosing not to consent to CvC or conflict RP does not mean that a player or character is free to do anything they want without consequences. If someone approaches you to have a conversation about future conflict and you don’t want it, that’s fine! However, there should also be a conversation about WHY they approached you about the conflict to begin with. Maybe they just thought it would be fun for both of you and were mistaken, in which case the two of you can simply move on without issue - but it’s also possible that they are trying to respond to something in your RP that makes them feel like conflict between the characters is the next appropriate step. 

A common example is when Character A is (often, but not always, due to a Fracture) behaving in ways that put themselves or others in danger, and Character B decides that the best way to prevent that is to knock out, mangle, or otherwise incapacitate Character A for their own safety. 

Being mangled or unconscious for long periods of time is often not fun on an OOG level, so when Player A may reasonably choose not to consent to this - however there should still be a discussion about what is fun for Player B. If Player B does not want to spend excessive time, resources, or emotional labor trying to wrangle Character A, they should bring it up in the conversation! The fun of BOTH players is important here, and it’s important that they work together to make sure that they are both having fun - asking for consent for conflict isn’t simply a one-sided conversation in which the target gets to say yes or no and that’s the end of it, especially if there are OOG reasons why the aggressor is trying to initiate in this way. 

There are many ways that the above example could be resolved - maybe Player A helps Player B come up with a way to keep their character occupied until the Fracture (if that is the cause) can be resolved. Maybe Player B agrees to pretend not to notice that Character A has snuck off so that it isn’t their responsibility anymore. Player B could agree to let Character A do as they please, but with the condition that they will not help get them out of danger that they end up in.

Another example is social or political conflict. The election for Mayor of Barker Meadow is coming up, and people will be campaigning against each other! If you intend on running a smear campaign against another candidate, you should check in with the other player about it first!

Situations like these are most often easily handled in the moment (with check-ins afterwards) between the players in question and do not require the presence of a Guide, but if you intend to engage in CvC that is intended to result in loss of infection you should always make sure to bring a Guide. Even in the Wasteland, it is HIGHLY recommended that you bring a Guide if you intend to kill a player character! Speaking of the Wasteland - just because you don’t need consent for CvC in the Wasteland, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t consider the fun of your fellow players before doing so. The Wasteland isn’t intended to circumvent good communication and post-conflict check-ins (again, we ALWAYS recommend that you check-in after conflict), but is instead meant to be a place where conflict and CvC can happen spontaneously for people who find that to be fun! 

On a related topic, sometimes people don’t want to check in because they don’t want to interrupt the flow of a scene. While this is understandable, it is worth remembering that check-ins with someone who is doing well and having fun should be very quick and non-intrusive and if someone is NOT having fun then it is absolutely worth breaking the scene in order to check in. Players are always more important than the scene or roleplay, and making sure that everyone is alright and having a good time should take priority over preserving maximum immersion.

Most character conflict can be fun if both parties communicate about their intentions, check-in after the fact, and respect each other's boundaries. The vast majority of hurt feelings are the result of assumptions being made by one or more people. Having a clear conversation about what you want out of interactions with another player or character can help prevent a lot of issues before they happen. In the event that you and another player are having a hard time coming to an agreement about how to engage in conflict together, it is possible that you are simply not a good fit for this sort of play together and it would be best to avoid it. 

If you have any questions or are having difficulty resolving a conflict situation, please feel free to reach out to a staff member for help. Our priority is making sure that everyone is safe and is having fun.

Article by Sarah K.