July 2026 Mid-Season Updates
We are halfway through the 2026 season and gearing up for our July event that is right around the corner. While we’re busy preparing for that, check out some important (yet good) updates happening for Dystopia Rising: Colorado.
Cart Donation Drive
We are working to get some more of the sturdy Gorilla carts donated to Camp Santa Maria! Receive 2 CAPs for every dollar that you donate towards this fund. Each of these carts costs about $200, and we’re looking to get three of them to stay on site for campers and LARPers alike to use.
Changes to Our Star Line Pass
We have updated the Star Line Benefactor—sponsored tickets for those who need financial assistance—process to a Donation Pool from a full ticket purchase option. Now you can donate any amount you wish to, in $5 increments, and receive 2 CAPs for every dollar you donate to this fund to help out folks who are experiencing hardship and would like to come to an event.
Non-Attending Tickets Aren’t Just for Locals Anymore
We are excited to announce that for the first time in DR:CO history, Non-Attending tickets are now available to non-local players. Choose this option if you wish to support our chapter and gain some XP in the process. Other chapters may offer this as well; check with their websites to see if such an option is available.
“NPC Only” Is Now Known as “Experience Expert”
We are changing our “NPC Only” ticket to a new “Experience Expert” ticket. The changes to this ticket are partly to reflect the nature of the contributions by the players who will take it, as many of them tend to be Guides. This ticket must be purchased in advance so the Directors can plan accordingly, but we are also offering more perks with this ticket as well.
With the Experience Expert ticket:
The cost is $10, or $30 with meal service. The $30 option is the same price as the regular meal service, making the Experience Expert portion of that ticket effectively free (or, if you wish to think of it another way, it’s still $10 but you get the Meal Service for only $20). Note: If you buy an Experience Expert ticket with Meal Service option, you do not need to purchase a separate Meal Service ticket.
Experience Experts who are not Guides (e.g. NPCs) will be expected to “on shift” during each NPC shift.
Experience Experts who are Guides will be able to contribute during NPC shifts, Kitchen shifts, and/or Public Works shifts, depending on what they have been approved for.
Experience Experts will also be granted permission to portray one of their checked-in characters when not on Guide shift. As their character, they likely won’t be engaging in combat and they won’t have access to the Public Works, but they WILL have the ability to spend Mind points and Resolve with any other skills or item usage requiring Full Engagement, such as medical skills, removing Fractures, using an Entertainer’s Kit., etc.
Formal Update Regarding Our Refund Policy
We are making a formal update to our Refund Policy, which has been nebulous in the past. Please read to see all available options should you be unable to attend an event for which you have bought a ticket.
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.