Story

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San Saba Update

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Howdy Vados!

It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to our September live event BENEATH THE CORPSE OF WAKING! Each week, I’ll discuss in detail an aspect of the upcoming event, compiling the rules and lore into one easy place to read! This week, we are covering some of the in-game changes to the setting, faction changes, and a few important RULES updates your characters should know!

  • Our Admin team and some other DR:TX volunteers had a great time at ColossalCon in Round Rock this past weekend! It was a blast to spend time talking about our game with new players, so expect to see more of these con appearances in our future! Can’t wait to see some new faces at our first event!

Let’s get started!

The San Saba Territories, circa PHW ‘07, by Aesa Garcia. What’s that red spot in the north?

important Story events from last season

We covered a few out-of-game changes in last week’s blog post, but let’s cover a few changes that have happened in the San Saba since last season. This is information a returning character might know, and you can always choose to follow along or instead learn this info in game if you prefer.

Last season, we had a LOT of big events:

  • During VALLEY OF FEAR, Bravado shut down a dangerous crystal candy operation near the town. They dealt with dangerous diseased mutants and stopped Juliet Butcher from helping Killhouse spread poison into the town. Deadly variant Crystal Candy blends were stopped from being spread through the San Saba, though Juliet Butcher escaped.

  • During our National Event PYROCLASM, the San Saba successfully defeated a deadly disease known as the Necrophage. In doing so, most of the Lifer population of Prudence Penitentiary was killed, as was the titular villain behind the plot, Grandfather Nichols. The only real survivor within Killhouse was Tabitha St. Mercy and a few of her most trusted allies.

  • During IMPRINT BY DESIGN, the town experienced a means to change a person’s Strain to something else entirely. While the technology was ultimately lost with the death of its creator, Dr. Esgrove, several characters in town experienced some dramatic shifts in Strain, including revealing that CEO of the Railroad Conglomerate, Felicity Redfield, had been a Remnant all along.

  • During THE EMERALD GALA, Bravado survived an incursion from the mysterious entities known as Archons. The town developed new technology known as the Emerald Arsenal to combat the threat of outsiders, helping Bravado successfully repel the Archon threat for a final time. However, that destructive technology is now loose in the world for other uses, for better or for worse.

  • During CRISIS OF FAITH, the Red Ledger helped Bravado defeat a doomsday cult known as the Cult of the Tiny God. The Cult attempted a conversion by the sword of any that opposed them but were stopped by the combined faith of the town. Without the demogogue leader of the Cult, the cultists were scattered by the might of the Red Ledger and Bravado.

  • During THE RAGE THAT FILLS HER SAILS, the town defeated the undead fleets of Joanna Waves, the Strainscourge of the Seas. They survived the deadly Black Spot and broke the Amaranthine Armada with a desperate attack on Joanna’s flagship. The Junkerpunks and Bravado defended the town and recovered a massive cannon from the Juggernaut after it sunk.

  • During HELLS OF THE SAN SABA, the town dealt with deadly Resonance Raiders, the lethal heat of the San Saba, and a water crisis. Building a new water filter system for the town helped protect the town from the worst of disease and shortages, but the town uncovered that someone had been attempting to recreate the nightmarish Resonant first found in Barogue. With the strange laboratory shut down, the Resonant ceased their attacks on the town.

  • During VOX POPULI, the flying city of Waking was crashed near the town of Bravado. During the Waking crisis, the terrorist known as the Rook fired a shot from a massive cannon at the floating city. The town narrowly decided to land the massive city on their own heads, sparing Widow’s Peak at the last moment. While the emergency landing kept most of Waking intact and avoided the worst outcome, the devastation has forever changed the town of Bravado, bringing deadly radiation and new undead threats from within the wreckage of the city. The decisions made during the fall of Waking will have a BIG impact on the future of the San Saba.

  • During THE UNDYING PRINCE, mysterious Obelisks awoke across the San Saba, leading survivors to the Lost City. During our summer online event, players took shelter within Barogue during an Oxkiller attack, and awoke the Prince Undying, the last ruler of the Lost City of Barogue. With his help, they used the Shards of the Red Crown to silence the obelisk within Barogue and escape from a horde of Resonant Raiders, but were nearly trapped in a nightmarish realm beyond death. At the end, it was as if everything they had experienced was just a dream, and the Prince Undying was nowhere to be found.

Text: Declaration of War! A State of War exists between the San Saba Territories and the people and government of the Oxkiller Alliance. The San Saba Board is hereby authorized and directed to employ the entire military force of the San Saba and the resources of the Territories to carry on war against the Oxkiller Alliance and bring the conflict to a successful termination. Levying war against the San Saba, adhering to the enemies of the San Saba Territories, or giving them aid and comfort is an act of treason. The Charter nor Law of the San Saba shall levy punishment against those that spill the blood or bone, steal the Infection of the body or work of the hands of those that have committed treason.

Big story changes for Season 5

We told a year of exciting stories last season, but there’s some important consequences from last season that will matter for this upcoming event and Season 5.

  • The War of Antlers has begun. The San Saba Territories are now at WAR. The enemy forces of the Oxkiller Alliance, the remnants of the Okiller and Antler Tribes that left after the death of Queen Jasper, have claimed the territory of Star City and Fort Worthless as part of a new OXKILLER TERRITORY. This new faction is at war with the San Saba, and plans on using their superior military might to undermine the San Saba Board. Thankfully, the town elected to fund a new militia to match this threat, and the Board has named anyone that helps the Oxkiller Alliance a traitor in an emergency wartime change to the San Saba Charter.

    • During this season, you can freely kill Oxkiller Alliance enemies without worrying about being sentenced to a Gauntlet for murder or theft.

  • The Lovelace Family has withdrawn to Widow’s Peak. After nearly losing their family to a Bravado-based threat three times over two years, the Lovelace are through with risking their kin in Bravado. While they were spared from a death beneath the crushing weight of the skyship city of Waking, it was only in the last moments that the town redirected their efforts to avoid the Quiet Folk settlement. The Widows of the Lone Star have been granted ultimate influence over legal decisions, leaving the orphanage and charitable organization to manage their interests in town during their absence.

    • The Lovelace Family will no longer be an eligible Society Membership, and any characters with this membership will gain Widows of the Lone Star membership instead. However, all of the items on the Lovelace Family Faction Buy Lists remain available for players with Widows membership.

  • General Rampart and the Grave Council placed Bravado under a Quarantine and Audit. After risking the balance of the morgues to an entity known as the Voice Below and the reckless behavior involving Grave Mind Shards and more, the Grave Council has “quarantined” our community from the danger they represent. They will not offer official services in town as a faction, have fired all the groundskeepers, and the Reckoners will be performing an audit on any actions that impact the Grave Mind over the next year. Heavy fines and penalties will be placed on those that choose to use unlicensed graverobbers, particularly for life binding services, and Bravado is on their own should a morgue crisis ensue. Yikes!

    • Characters may not increase their Society Membership with the Grave Council past Basic without a specific plot request.

    • Any character that uses Master Faithful Will will incur a 100 Brass fine from the Grave Council during the duration of the Audit. This amount will be added to your Grave Tax, and could come due in April.

    • The Morgue will have additional mechanics for maintenance that must be completed by players during each game. If this is not completed, serious consequences could occur in the town.

  • The Railroad Conglomerate has been seriously impacted by the fall of Waking. The loss of their capital as a shining beacon of their power was a massive hit to the financial faction. In retaliation for Felicity’s role in the catastrophic crash, the Families of Waking Prime have claimed the second Board seat once reserved for the Railroad Conglomerate. This has served to weaken the influence of the RRC during Board votes, as the Families are much more likely to favor the Chair.

    • The RRC will experience several penalties to their financial and political influence during Season 5 based on the decision to land Waking Prime on Bravado.

    • The second RRC seat on the Board is now held collectively by the Families of Waking Prime, powerful allies of the Chairman that were introduced during the Emerald Gala.

  • The Red Ledger is focused on the war to the north. Their Strikers have been sent to aid the war effort alongside the San Saba Republic, and they have their hands full. Expect to see less of a Red Ledger presence in Bravado as the season continues, as they chase bigger prey in the war to the north.

    • The Red Ledger is no longer an eligible Society Membership. The Red Ledger Buylist will be added into the various Faction Buy Lists instead, and your Marks are still eligible to be earned and spent on SES-related items.

    • We will have some more information on this in the weeks ahead!

Text: Strikers of the Red Ledger should regroup on the northern fronts. Mercenaries and militias don’t mix. There’s no glory in small quarry and the Oxkiller War has plenty to go around. Let the San Saba folks handle the small stuff and let’s answer the call. Iron sharpens iron, Strikers. — Gustav Glasseyes

  • The Charter of the San Saba has been updated, giving new autonomy to the Law Dogs and the Justices of Sin. Thanks to a clever submission during the Stakeholder’s Meeting, the contract the Law Dogs signed with the Board has been renegotiated. Additionally, the Justices of Sin have become an entity of their own, gaining new freedoms from Tabitha and Killhouse Prison. However, the conflict between these three factions is sure to cause issues for justice in the San Saba during Season 5.

    • The Faction Buy Lists for Prudence Penitentiary and the Law Dogs have been updated. Several items once limited to one faction are now available to players of BOTH factions.

    • Players will have an opportunity to decide the final fate of these three Justice factions during our Season 5 events: Prudence Penitentiary, the Law Dogs, and the Justices of Sin.

  • The Bravado Morgue was successfully defended, and the Voice Below was silenced. Near the end of our May event, players successfully dealt with the Grave Mind entity known as the Voice Below, and the catastrophic consequences that might have occurred had Waking landed with the link still intact were prevented thanks to player sacrifice. However, while players successfully dealt with this threat, the Shard of the Grave Mind formerly known as the Eightfold Mother is still a growing problem within the Bravado morgues.

    • The Local Blueprint “Rite of the Indulgence” has been removed from play.

    • The Bravado Morgue has been moved to the Treehouse. Returning safely from death will no longer be as certain within Bravado. If you are not careful, you could lose multiple Infection when you die!

  • The mysterious Obelisks have quieted for now, but Lake Bravo is still boiling. Folks did something in Barogue to slow down the crisis of these strange monoliths that awoke over the summer all around the San Saba, but it didn’t fix everything. There’s something different about the strange white obelisk in the center of the lake, and its still wrecking havoc on Drywater, the Junkerpunks and anything that lives near or on the water. Plus, the Prince Undying is still missing after the nightmarish escape from Barogue. Where did he go, and what is he up to now?

    • Sailing mods this season will involve new threats, new enemies, and the Junkerpunk faction will have several penalties to their financial influence during the season.

    • Shards of the Red Crown are a new limited currency item introduced for this season. This item is an Illustrated Item Card, and will have several different uses over the season.

    • A new keyword “Attuned to Nightmares” has been added to our Local Rules.

  • The radioactive husk of Waking is on Bravado’s doorstep. The once mighty skyship was crash landed near the city, causing massive ecological devastation in the process. While the surface city is mostly intact, the interior decks of the ship remain dangerously irradiated. The town has cordoned off the radioactive approach to the airship into the new Waking Exclusion Zone. The seat of the San Saba Board is now directly involved in the future of Bravado.

    • Zuni has become our new NPC land. The entire area is severely radioactive and should be avoided in-character. Players may not enter this area unless on a mod, as they will quickly die from lethal exposure to radiation.

Text: To our Lovelace Family in Bravado. At the request of our Matriarch, Immacula Lovelace, and the town council of Widow’s Peak, it has become time to protect our values politely but proactively. The Lovelace Family has chosen to focus our public assets with the charitable organization of the Widows of the Lone Star. Our family will not grace the lands of Bravado until restitution for sins committed has been met. Rebuilding a community starts from the ground up, but our patience tells us when to prune the weeds from the blossom. Your deeds for the Family will not be forgotten and all the respect and honor of our family will be met by our siblings within the Widows. Live Quiet, Peaceful, and Connected Lives, Clauthia Lovelace.

A sneak peek at the future

We have a lot in store this season, but I’ll wrap up today’s post with a teaser into our season story. Here are the episode titles and Storytellers of the upcoming games of the season:

  • September 15-17 - BENEATH THE CORPSE OF WAKING

    • Overarc Storytellers: Heather & Jonathan

  • October 13-15 - CIRQUE DE DREAD

    • Overarc Storyteller: Matt Hoadley

  • November 10-12 - EMERGENCE

    • Overarc Storyteller: Maenad Wilder

  • December 8-10 - THE RED DEATH (Premiere Event!)

    • Overarc Storytellers: Heather & Jonathan

  • February 9-11 - THE BREAKER OF CROWNS

    • Overarc Storytellers: Heather & Jonathan

  • March 8-10 - GIFTS OF SUFFERING

    • Overarc Storyteller: Andrew Harper

  • April 12-14 - WHISPERS FROM THE DEEP

    • Overarc Storyteller: Brett Moulton

  • May 10-12 - THE ATROCITY

    • Overarc Storytellers: Heather & Jonathan

What could it all mean? Oh man, I’m so excited to tell the next chapter of the San Saba story. We have a lot in store for this season, and I hope you are as excited as we are.

Remember, tickets are still on sale for our September event. Skip the line at pre-reg!

See you soon Vados!

Text: Life Binding: Class 3 Offense. The Grave Council will enforce a 100 Brass bounty on each use of Life Binding to upset the balance of the Mortis. Robbing the Mortis Amaranthine in this way threatens our work in Waking and the San Saba and will not be tolerated under the Bravado Quarantine & Audit.

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Beneath the Corpse of Waking

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Howdy Vados!

It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to our September live event BENEATH THE CORPSE OF WAKING! Each week, I’ll discuss in detail an aspect of the upcoming event, compiling the rules and lore into one easy place to read! This week, we are covering the premise of our event, some content warnings, and a few logistics changes for Season 5!

  • Our Admin team and some other DR:TX volunteers will be at ColossalCon this weekend! Stop by our booth in the Dealer’s Room for a chance at some sweet swag and a raffle for a cool prop!

Our photos for this post were taken from previous DR:TX events by our talented Photo Team. The art pieces for this post are some new sticker concepts featuring art designed by Shan Lind.

The original obelisk, within the boiling waters of Lake Bravo, by Shan Lind.

Beneath the Corpse of Waking

Here’s the premise and summary of our first event of the season:

The San Saba Board has been bloodied with the fall of Waking.  Never before has the San Saba Board’s power been challenged so successfully as the fall of Waking Prime.  Despite the threat of strange Obelisks and the impending struggle against the dangerous Oxkiller Alliance, the Board is focused instead on containing the crisis that is the barely landed wreck of Waking Prime.

The wreckage of Waking Prime lays burning with fire and radiation on the doorstep of Bravado, leaching into the water, the soil, the Gravemind and the hearts of people who rely on the land for survival. The devastation is immense, and the clean up efforts will need to be just as extensive to restore the land to its previous state.

But beneath the corpse of the once mighty flying city is a brewing problem.  The morgues are churning forth the undead in larger numbers than before, bringing back creatures that have been unseen since the Hiway War alongside the threat of radiation sickness.  Somewhere within the underbelly of the city is the answer to stop the horde of undead, but the radioactive husk of Waking is lethal to even Retrogrades.  

To fix the problem, the Railroad Conglomerate has contracted a series of Liquidation Runs into the corpse of the city for any brave enough to risk the delve.  Brave the deadly radiation, get out alive, and you will be handsomely rewarded.   However, the deadly threat of radiation kills more surely than the claws of a zombie or the cruel ax of a raider.  

A certain and insidious death awaits those runners that tarry too long on their mission, get trapped by the undead, or get lost in the maze-like pathways inside the city.  Stay too long on a liquidation run, and no amount of medical assistance or meals will save you.  If you survive the lethal radiation, you’ll still have to contend with the raiding parties of the Oxkiller Alliance trying to stop any from saving the monument of the Board’s failure.

Can you survive beneath the corpse of Waking?  Can you stem the tide of radiation and undead before it is too late?

Zombies! by Shan Lind.

A Radioactive Season Opener

Oh my. Radiation and undead sounds like a lethal combination, but that’s probably not all the dangers that are in store for your characters during our Season Opener.

If you attended our online event, THE UNDYING PRINCE, we will be continuing our saga of the San Saba Territories into a brand new season with new mysteries, new dangers, new nightmares, and new stories. We have new threats, new allies, new zombies, and more! We even have a brand new currency item this season to join Amaranthite, the Shards of the Red Crown.

Over the next few weeks, we will be covering more about this season opener event during our regular Wednesday Blog Posts, including an update on some important story changes for the season, new NPCs to watch out for like the Oxkiller Alliance and the Families of Waking Prime, some more traditional Rules Rambles on the dangers of Radiation, and more!

Content Warnings

The themes of Dystopia Rising often touch close to our real world in ways we cannot always avoid. The DR:TX team believes that we can still tell these stories about challenging topics, but we also believe we need to be transparent about our intentions, and allow folks to opt-out of any mechanics from those stories. In our tradition of radical trust, we want to also trust in each player that attends our game to know their own limits and be able to choose to avoid topics and situations that make them uncomfortable.

Its one reason we take our OK Check-In system so seriously! We understand that these may not be stories you want to participate in, and that’s okay!

You can always find a list of our Content Warnings on our website, but let’s talk about some of the specific things you might want to be prepared for during this first event of the season.

Disease & Radiation

  • Disease, infection, and consequences of diseases

One of the themes of this upcoming event is the consequence of crashing a giant airship powered by a nuclear reactor right next to Bravado. The choices made during our last event in May left a lasting effect on our tiny town, and many of the events of the weekend will deal with the insidious danger of Radiation. It’s a threat you can’t defeat with a boffer, it’s invisible to the naked eye, and it can be quickly lethal. One aspect of this threat will be in the form of RADIATION POISONING, a common disease associated with the dangers of irradiated threats in Dystopia Rising.

During the September event, you might encounter ways to contract this disease for your character, particularly if you purposefully enter irradiated Hot Zones, like the WAKING EXCLUSION ZONE, or encounter certain Radioactive Zombies. These areas will be clearly posted, so you’ll be able to see how to avoid most of these mechanics if you want, and we will have the mechanics and roleplay guidance for this disease posted near the Post Office.

This is a dangerous disease that can lead to character death if untreated, but this is a well-known malady. Any doctor with Basic Medical can treat and cure this disease, and the treatment is well known through the wastes. Next to Bad Brain, this is probably one of the most common diseases in the world of Dystopia Rising. It’s a pretty slow to progress disease if you avoid irradiated areas, so you’ll have many opportunities to seek out a cure before it spells an untimely end for your LC.

Liquidation Runs & Timed Events

  • Physically demanding activities, intense emotional situations, where characters may be pushed to their emotional limits.

During the September event we will be debuting LIQUIDATION RUNS. I’ll cover more about these in detail in a later post, but these will be high risk, high reward events during the game that you can participate in at set times during the weekend. These events will deal with delving into the corpse of Waking, the crashed airship outside the city limits, braving the deadly radiation in search of stemming the tide of undead flowing from the wreck. One of the intensely scare things about radiation is that when a person dies of exposure, they literally start to melt as the cellular bonds decay. It’s like you are being liquified!

These Liquidation Runs will involve potentially character deadly events that will be timed, repeatable mods, similar to the supply runs we ran last season during our closer. If you stay too long in the mod area, your character will DIE from lethal exposure to radiation. Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect 200 Brass. This risk will be telegraphed in advance, and these events will be entirely optional. You don’t have to enter the radioactive belly of the beast if you don’t want to.

Additionally, during these events you’ll have to complete a series of stressful challenges while dealing with undead and other threats of Waking. Many of these challenges will involve physically demanding activity (running, simulated fighting, etc.) or kinetic puzzle events. Similar to the quick events we used during the 4-hour Siege last season, these events won’t be so much about how many Mind points you can spend, but rather how clever, coordinated, or quick you are as a player. This makes these events perfect for characters of any tier of play, as it won’t be a matter of how much XP you have, but how well you can communicate and coordinate with your team and react to the dangerous events we throw your way.

Heather and I have some devious challenges in store for you, and we hope you decide to take the risk! Just don’t take too long, or you’ll be LIQUIDATED!

Another bit of obelisk art by Shan Lind.

logistics Changes for Season 5

We have a lot in store for the story this next season, but let’s make sure we cover a few big out-of-character changes that you’ll need to be ready for during our next season:

Zuni is now NPC Land!

The area of Camp Kachina known as Zuni (formerly The Breach) will be reclaimed as an NPC only space during Season 5. During our live games, this area will be off-limits unless you are participating in an away mod in the space, as it will now represent the heavily radioactive area known as the WAKING EXCLUSION ZONE.

We apologize if you had your hopes set on staying in the open-air cabins there, but we have a lot of cool events in store that will benefit from having a dedicated mod space. We appreciate your understanding and your grace as we make this adjustment for Season 5. We still have plenty of beds and cabins available elsewhere on site, including several climate-controlled spaces like Kiva, Wigwam, and Wikiup! You are always welcome to set up a tent in most areas on the site too, and there are many open-air cabins in Hopi and Yuma!

The Morgue is Moving! (again!)

Based on player and ST feedback, we will be moving the Morgue to a new location during Season 5. Last season, we experimented with the area behind the kitchen in the breezeway, but we found it to be easily disrupted by noise from players in the Depot despite the cool ambiance it offered. This year, we will be housing the entrance to the Mortis Amaranthine in….

The Treehouse (aka The Maw)!

This space is an exciting area that can be easily set up for a black box experience, and we have a lot of neat death scenes planned for this year with our new Specialized Storytellers. It is far enough away from the major population centers to be remote, but still close enough to Ops to allow us to include it into our stories for the season. The Treehouse will give us a space where you can experience the deathly quiet of the Grave Mind, and delve into the mysteries of what happens when we die and are reclaimed by the insidious forces beyond death itself.

ticket prices have been updated for season 5

We posted about this last week, but in case you missed the announcement from National, you can read up on how we are implementing these changes in our blog.

Saturday NPC Shifts & the Siesta

Based on player feedback and operating with a slimmer ST team this year, we are making a slight adjustment to our NPC schedule. Players appreciated having a low-threat time during the afternoon for our Siesta, but we had repeated feedback about how it disrupted the flow of the event and led to some boring afternoons. To fix this, we’ve changed up the schedule:

  • Our first NPC shift on Saturday will now start at 10:00 am, and run until 2:00 pm. That’s right, you can stay up late without worrying about a zed attack right at 8:00 am.

  • Our Siesta will run from 2:00 pm to 4:00 pm. This is a time where we will have little to no dangerous NPCs in the world, making this a perfect time to get lunch, take a shower or get a quick nap, or plan those fun player-led events. The Post Office will still be opened for all your crafting and econ needs!

  • Our second NPC shift on Saturday will begin at 4:00 pm, same as last season.

We appreciate all of your feedback, and we will continue to work tirelessly towards improving and iterating on our processes as we go. We are excited to try some new things this season and we hope that you will appreciate all the hard work!

Wrap Up

That’s it for today Vados!

Thanks for sticking around after a long, hot summer, and we can’t wait to get back into our favorite zombie game. Next week, we will be right back at it with some of the in-character changes you can expect for Season 5, including some monumental changes to the San Saba…

Remember, tickets are on sale now, so don’t miss out on your chance to return home to Bravado!

See you soon Vados!

This is a cool sticker we will be handing out at our booth at ColossalCon!

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Summer Break!

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It’s Jonathan here with a bit of a BREAK from the usual Wednesday blog posts and Rules Rambles! A Summer Break, if you will!

We just wrapped up VOX POPULI, our season closer event ran by Heather Halstead, and it was awesome. However, with the end of Season 4, we get a bit of a hard-earned break before we start back again for Season 5. We have a LOT to write and get ready over the summer, but it also means the cadence of my blog posts will change a bit, so let’s cover the details today!

From this point forward, I’m going to plan on releasing bi-monthly blog posts over the summer. The Admin team doesn’t get much of a break from the prep for Season 5, so I’m going to give myself a treat and have two less blog posts to complete in my long Summer to-do list.

Don’t worry, we will still have some regular content coming your way, just not as frequently as you see during the live game season!

Our photos for this post were taken from our VOX POPULI event by our talented Photo Team.

Save the Date!

We have a few important events happening over the Summer involving DR:TX:

  • SEASON 5 TEAM APPLICATIONS - May 29

    • Applications are due by May 29th!

    • Each year, we hire new Storytellers, Coord Guides, Rules Guides, and our entire support team of Medics, Settings & Props, Truck Team, and Photographers.

    • We are looking for new AND experienced folks to apply!

    • APPLY TODAY!

    • If you apply as a Storyteller, make sure you plan on being available for on July 14-16 for our Storyteller Retreat!

  • CAMP CLEAN UP WEEKEND - June 2-3

    • Earn CAPS for your attendance and get a chance to hang out with your friends out-of-character at Camp Kachina while doing a good deed for the Girl Scouts!

    • Each year, we help out the Girl Scouts prepare Camp Kachina for new visitors by helping the rangers with tasks around the site. This will include some manual labor, so come prepared!

    • Friday, June 2nd - Filming, Hangouts, Community Potlucks

    • Saturday, June 3rd - Camp Work Project, DR:TX will provide Lunch!

  • SUMMER DR:TX ONLINE EVENT! - August 4-6

    • We announced this at the closing announcements of VOX POPULI — We will be running our first DR:TX ONLINE event since Dead Man’s Hand!

    • Mark your calendars and join us as we explore the mysteries of BAROGUE, THE LOST CITY! What lies beneath the sands, and how has Barogue changed since we visited during the THE LOST CITY?

    • This event will include CRAFTING! Get a head start on your Burning Season econ projects for September!

    • This will be our first event of the Season 5 storyline before we start live games again in September. Don’t miss out on the introduction to our story for the season!

  • SEASON 5 LIVE EVENT - September 15-17

QUICK RECAP - VOX POPULI

We had some BIG choices and some BIG consequences during this event! I’ll recap the basics of the big events here in case you missed the last game, but these are some things to be thinking about over the summer.

Thank you so much to Heather, our entire DR:TX staff, and all the players and NPCs that helped make this one of the best events we’ve ever run!

The Fall of Waking

We held three votes over the course of the event to determine WHERE the city of Waking would end up in the descent. We had a handy map of the San Saba Territories to guide their choices during these STEERING EVENTS. Each time this happened, there was a vote to Steer West, Steer East, or they could Slow the Descent once, and once only. Each time they made a popular vote with the folks present in the Depot, and the results changed which Factions would be impacted by the fall of Waking.

  • During the Friday night vote, it was almost a tie! The final vote was to Steer West towards Widow’s peak, removing KILLHOUSE as an option for the landing.

  • During the Saturday morning vote, the town voted to Slow the Descent by a solid majority, keeping Waking mostly in place, and removing ESSEX and THE CLUTCH as options. A LOT of favors were promised by the Board to keep Essex out of the line of fire, though many of the town wanted to land Waking into the Clutch.

  • A crucial confrontation during the Widow’s Tea that afternoon changed many minds before the final vote, and revealed some powerful secrets for the first time, including the true identity of THE CHAIR!

  • During the final Saturday evening vote, the town voted in with a small majority to Steer East, and remove WIDOW’S PEAK as an option for the landing.

    • Fun Fact: the town made this final choice even though they didn’t know what the final result of the Crisis Center would be. Over half of the town was willing to risk Infection loss and destruction of ALL of their items to make this choice. Talk about bravado!

  • The final destination of Waking ended up over BRAVADO, much to our Storyteller’s surprise.

This was a close vote every time, and player actions made a BIG difference in protecting the various factions of the San Saba. Players that supported Killhouse made a big play on Friday night to remove Killhouse as an option right away, and it was their early moves that had a huge impact on the final resolution.

The Crisis Center

We had a massive board with over 85 different tasks to complete to determine HOW the landing of Waking would happen, either in a CRASH, a mostly “controlled” LANDING, or if against all odds they could keep it in the sky by completing REPAIRS! Players could complete a task, with the color of the task determining which result it would support. Some of the tasks even counted for more points than others, so a determined group of players could have a BIG impact on the final decision.

  • Waking was EMERGENCY LANDED near Bravado.

  • The final tally was:

    • 27 points towards Destroyed. This was the leader up until Saturday afternoon when it was clear that Bravado was very much still an option.

    • 75 points towards Landed. This was the final winning tally, with almost every single supporting task on the Crisis Center board completed.

    • 41 points towards Repaired. A last-minute push on Saturday made folks worry about the final results, as this jumped almost 30 points in a few hours.

  • These tasks involved all manners of activities, from convincing NPCS to sign a contract to accept refugees, performing CVC actions on other players, spending vast amounts of scrap and metal to craft new Airships, stealing (or protecting) air lifted supplies, and even requesting chances to board Waking and rescue (or liberate) valuable supplies and citizens.

The Groundskeeper Gauntlet

Saturday afternoon, a Gauntlet was held for several of the Groundskeepers in Bravado for breach of contract with the Grave Council. Each of the Groundskeepers was found guilty by the Justices of Sin and stripped of their titles and ability to perform Graverobber duties for 1 year. At the end, General Rampart declared that the town of Bravado was under AUDIT and QUARANTINE and removed the assistance of the Grave Council from Bravado. This means Bravado might be on their own from Grave Mind related crises in the future! Players worked to help the Groundskeepers find new employment and appealed for mercy on their behalf during the Gauntlet but were unable to sway the leader of the Reckoners.

The Stakeholder’s Meeting

In the midst of the chaos of Waking falling, most of the San Saba Board was in town on Saturday to make deals and listen to the people during the Stakeholder’s Meeting. The town got to see Boss Debs, Reckoner General Rampart, Tabitha St. Mercy, Felicity Redfield, Grand Admiral Sinker Swim, and The Chair’s Representative, a mysterious well-dressed man in a striped suit that spoke with the voice of the Chair himself. Even Clauthia Lovelace was seen in town for the Widow’s Tea, meaning players had a chance to interact in person with many of the most powerful NPCs in the setting.

Players could research where the Board stood on these votes, and politic with those NPCs during their appearance in town. Characters with higher levels of Society Membership had more influence on the votes than those that were simply Contractors, and some important deals were struck.

  • There were three votes for consideration during the Stakeholder’s Meeting, and all PASSED.

    • The proposal to form a San Saba Militia narrowly PASSED, providing the Board an option to increase their military to fight threats abroad and internal. One can hope they intend to use this new martial might to focus on their enemies, and not pesky rebellions from a tiny town on the Oxline. This vote resolved based on player decisions.

    • The proposal to allow the Board to choose new members PASSED, reducing the power of several Board members through the stalemate. This vote was heavily favored to pass by the Board and would only fail with significant opposition from the players. The town had a narrow majority vote against this law but did not acquire enough “nay” votes to change the Board’s decision.

    • The proposal to separate the Justices of Sin was PASSED by an overwhelming majority of votes. Tabitha St. Mercy loses a key part of her power, and the Justices will introduce new faithful members for Gauntlets next season. This vote resolved based on player decisions.

  • Four player-led groups were recognized by the San Saba Board, via The Air of Legitimacy ZOM. These groups will receive a custom Zone of Mechanics for their group for Season 5.

    • Ramguard, The Shields of the Lonestar, the Blood & Bone, and the Road Royals completed the required ZOM in time.

    • This ZOM will be available once more for other player-led factions to complete in Season 5 if you missed out!

  • TWO new laws were suggested by Trustees, along with 50 signatures from players (and a modest application fee, of course)

    • These new laws will be voted on by the Board over the summer, and we will reveal the outcome of these votes during our summer Storyteller prep. We always strive to include these proposals into our story, unless they create an unfun experience for other players.

    • The results of these new laws will be one of our settings reveals we cover before the next season, so stay tuned!

    • Player Proposed Law #1: A new proposal to separate the Law Dog Union from their Board Contract and make them an independent entity. This could have big impacts on the Law Dogs in Season 5!

    • Player Proposed Law #2: An amendment to require the new head of the new San Saba Militia to be chosen by the people in a popular vote, instead of being chosen by the Chair. This means that we will likely start out Season 5 with a vote on who should lead the new San Saba military force!

The Siege of the Depot

As the flying city of Waking begin it’s final descent, clouds of radioactive smog, debris, and hordes of undead poured from the city onto Bravado. The town took shelter inside the Terminal Station Depot and weathered the rad storm against the waves of zombies and environmental challenges.

  • Thousands of Zombies poured into the Depot and crashed onto the shield wall. Countless brews were consumed, and the doctors were kept busy. Countless Quick Events were survived, several Siege Challenges were completed, and multiple successful Away Missions were finished during the course of the 4 hours. Our NPCs kept up the pressure for FOUR almost non-stop hours of combat, and it was intense!

  • For the Away Missions, players literally had to break through a Drywall sheet to escape the Depot, and had to defend the new hole in the defenses from the incoming zed, and some of the Siege Challenges had players drawing our intricate ritual markings around a grave protrusion, propping up massive pieces of the building that fell on them, and racing against the clock and the deadly radiation outside to repair leaks in the windows.

  • Four characters permed and their zed were seen either during the siege or shortly before and after. Rumble, Tim, Ryssa, and Varis all met their final ends during VOX POPULI.

  • New Zed were seen and defeated including some classic threats like Bone Heads, Hates, 13th Story Ghasts, Golgos, Mercies, and Mortis Champions. Now that Waking has landed nearby, you can be sure to face these threats during Season 5!

The Voice of Killhouse

Somehow, the Voice of Killhouse, a mysterious Grave Mind connection with Prudence Penitentiary made at the start of the season was finally silenced. You might have encountered a mysterious voice during a Grave Dive or a death during this season, and the source of this problem was finally resolved. The exact details are a mystery, but something happened Saturday night after the siege that helped settle the morgue under Prudence Penitentiary and silence the voice under the Prison for good. This plotline wrapped up thanks to player actions, and the decision not to crash land Waking into Killhouse.

The potential Consequences of the fall of waking

Each of the potential landing sites for Waking could be Researched during the game for an idea about the potential consequences of this important choice. Here’s the information we revealed about the FINAL DESTINATION within Bravado:

  • The Railroad Conglomerate will be heavily impacted by the damaging landing, seriously impacting their political and financial standing.

  • The Junkerpunks will be impacted by the landing, as Drywater is harmed. This will have a minor impact on their political and financial standing.

  • It’s feasible that Lake Bravado will assist in lowering casualty rates, at the expense of polluting the water supply. 

  • Radiation levels will rise and be an issue in the coming year.

  • The Waking Morgue could become an issue with Bravado’s own Morgue System and might envelope it without extensive intervention.

  • Ecological impacts will affect surrounding water sources and farmland.

  • There will be mass casualties in the surrounding areas of farmland and in the town.

  • After everything settles, Bravado and Drywater will have access to what’s left of Waking Prime, which will represent a large political and material gain for the area, but also put the seat of the San Saba Board in their backyard. 

Now, not all of this will come to pass (and there could be some other unrevealed consequences as well!). There were several actions completed by the players to lessen and reduce the damage done by the fall of Waking, particularly with insulating the Bravado Morgue (and the Eightfold Mother) from damage. We will have some more details over the summer, as many of these specifics haven’t been written yet!

Once we’ve selected our new Storytelling Senate for Season 5, we will be hard at work on incorporating your choices into our Season 5 plots!

Wrap Up

That’s it for today, Vados! Short and sweet, but still full of useful content!

Summer Break is a great time to update your costumes, take a well needed break from DR, craft a new boffer, or just spend time with the people behind the characters you enjoy so much. Plan a board game day, or meetup with some of your new friends you met playing, and stay tuned for some awesome summer content!

I’ll leave you with some of my favorite pics from the first round of photos by the very talented Lainey Weiss that will be uploaded to our Flickr page soon! See you soon Vados!

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The Crisis Center

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How will you decide the Fate of Waking?

Waking’s fall represents a huge humanitarian crisis, plus the chaos of the Rook’s rabble rousing… So how do you get involved?

THE CRISIS CENTER!

It’s Heather here with our weekly blog post for the upcoming event, VOX POPULI!

This is the leadup for our May DR:TX event written by me, Heather Halstead, Overarc ST for our Season Closer, and Operational Storyteller for Season 5. Today we will talk about how The Crisis Center Works, some CVC Best Practices, and more!

TICKETS FOR VOX POPULI are on sale now! don’t miss OUT!!!

THIS POST WILL DISCUSS A FEW LIGHT STORY SPOILERS FOR OUR NEXT EVENT, SO WE HOPE YOU ENJOY WHAT WE HAVE IN STORE!

Our photos for this post were taken from previous DR:TX events by our talented Photo Team.

“And how did you plan on paying your delinquent Grave Tax? Would you like to take advantage of our low-cost extended financing and payment deferral at a low APR of 320%?”

The Crisis Center

The Crisis Center will be set up for the majority of the game in the DEPOT (Cafeteria). Organized by Felicity Redfield, CEO of the Railroad Conglomerate, this is the place you will plan to rescue refugees, turn in needed supplies, or maybe sabotage efforts to keep Waking afloat. The Crisis Center is the primary place you will take ACTION to make one of Waking’s THREE OUTCOMES come to life. 

There is going to be A TON of things to do from this board. We are working hard to really represent how IMMENSE the efforts are to affect Waking’s Fate. 

This in character space will consist of:

  • A Map of Waking

  • Bulletin Boards full of ACTIONS any player can complete

  • A radio to facilitate occasional communication with Waking

  • A dropbox to drop your completed ACTION slips. 

Here’s the mockup of what we are planning, courtesy of Heather

The goal of the Crisis Center is to have a very low threshold of entry.

Anyone can complete an Action from the Center and interact with the plot and have things to do that MATTER. But the Center will also provide large benefits to digging deeper into the mechanics to be strategic with your choices. 

There will be over EIGHTY Total Actions available. NOT ALL OF THEM NEED TO BE COMPLETED. But I’d rather you guys have too many, rather than not enough. Hell, if you are like me and get overwhelmed by too many options.. Just pick one of the right color and go from there. Don’t worry about reading every Action on the board. 

Every Outcome will have a color. So for example, all the Actions that advance the Emergency Landing Outcome will be on the same color of paper (probably green, but subject to change when we go to print.)

Some actions may not be added to the board until later in the event due to other mods that occur, so you may not see all 80+ up at game on. 

There will be an equal number of actions for each outcome. And we are monitoring the total resource cost of each Outcome as well across all actions. 

The Outcome that has the most Actions completed by 7:00pm on Saturday will decide THE FATE OF WAKING. 

Just to highlight that again: Actions need to be completed by 7pm Saturday. 

We will be tallying the actions throughout the event and will work to provide a running score for players to reference. 

So, how do I use it?

The Basics

  • Walk up to the Bulletin Board

  • Choose an Action posted there that you want to complete

  • Use the provided slip to mark that Action “Pending”

  • Go complete the action!

  • Return to the Crisis Center, take down the Action from the board, sign it with your player number, get any guide to sign off on it and STAMP it COMPLETE!

  • Drop the action (and any relevant other materials) into the ACTION BOX.

BOOM.

You’ve just moved the needle on The Fate of Waking. 

Action claimed by a pending slip!

Completed Action! This goes in the Action Box.

Actions will vary. Some of these actions are mods that you can request from Ops! Most of these actions are roleplay, resource gathering, or ZOM behaviors that you can complete without NPCs or a staff presence. If you need to be given a prop to complete it, the slip will tell you where to get that prop.

Each Action will be COLOR CODED and labeled as to which OUTCOME it is associated with. So, if your character’s goal is to Emergency Land Waking, take a look at all the GREEN slips of paper on the board! Those will be the actions you’ll want to complete to advance your OUTCOME. 

Before we get into the more complex aspects of the Crisis Center, there are a few important rules I want to outline:

  • Each ACTION on the board can be completed ONCE. If there are actions that can be multiple times, there will be multiple copies of them on the board. But as a rule, one action slip = one instance of that action. 

  • If you find a duplicate Action, please leave it for someone else if you’ve already completed one of the same action. For example, there might be three Action Slips that read “Send 10 Recovered Electronics to Waking”. Complete one, and leave the other two for other players. Or get a group together of at least 3 LCs and do all three. But no one LC should turn in duplicate actions.

  • Once an Action is marked “Pending” no one else can claim it until the “Pending” tag is removed. Pending tags may be removed if any action stays in this status for too long without being completed.

  • If you mark an Action as PENDING, you should work to complete it as soon as possible. This is a huge one! If an action is left pending for too long, the staff will remove your pending tag, and the Action will be able to be claimed by others and you will either lose out on that Action, or have to go reclaim it. We want to avoid situations where someone claims an Action, then gets stuck going to 3 meetings and 2 gravemind scenes and forgets, leaving that Action, and that VOTE, in limbo. There is no set time an action can be pending, because actions vary in difficulty level. We’re all going to work to use our best judgment and we ask you do the same. 

  • You cannot mark Actions as pending that you do not intend to complete. The Bulletin Board itself should not factor into your strategy to beat out the competition at this event. The board is our way of helping players know what they can do to affect the setting, not a place where anything should be obscured, obfuscated, or tampered with. 

  • Please do not Remove Actions from the board unless you have completed them. You may need take attached ZOMs or other documents if you’re working on that Action. But please do not remove action slips themselves until you’ve completed them. Actions that are removed and aren’t accounted for in the Action Box will just be reposted. And it will make me cry to have to do that paperwork. Please don’t make me cry. My cry time is strictly scheduled for post-event only. 

  • Please do your best to avoid reading actions for the OUTCOMES you are NOT working towards. This will help everyone avoid unintentional meta-gaming. This isn’t a hard and fast rule, but it will help us keep competition and CVC more organic. If you SEE someone tampering with Waking circuit boards, by all means, call them out! Fight about it! But don’t camp the circuit boards because you read on the Bulletin Board that there was an option to sabotage them. 

We are quite literally putting all our cards on the table to help everyone get as involved as possible, but in order for it to work, we need you guys to help us, by being diligent with this mechanic so everyone can have a chance to enjoy it. 

Now, let’s look DEEPER.

This is for the folks who want more STRATEGY.

Districts and Threat Scores

Waking is going to be divided into 5 DISTRICTS. Actions will be evenly distributed between districts. Each District has a THREAT SCORE. This score represents how likely that District is to become inaccessible during the event. This is a crashing ship, after all. A district might fall off, or collapse, or be intentionally cut away by a group of n’er-do-wells in a desperate attempt to maintain altitude…. You know, the usual. 

So if District A has a THREAT SCORE of 5… you should probably focus on getting those Actions done first because that District has the highest CHANCE of being destroyed.. And if its destroyed, all Uncompleted Actions for it will be removed. 

So what might cause a District Collapse?

  • The primary way a District will be in danger is during one of our STEERING EVENTS. We covered these events in last week’s blog post.

  • These STEERING EVENTS are how you decide where on the San Saba Map that the city of Waking ends up. But moving such a massive ship causes heavy strain. So if at 12:30AM Friday night everyone wants to MOVE THE SHIP RIGHT, all the engines on the LEFT side of the ship will have to fire… and the Districts on that side of the city have a chance of being destroyed. So hold your breath when you radio Waking on where to steer.… and wait to hear what, if any, the damage is.

  • Out of game, this will be determined by rolling some dice by the ST. The higher the threat score, the higher the chance the dice say it collapses.

  • There are some Actions that might affect Districts if completed. Either by removing them from play, or by raising their THREAT SCORES.

Actions for each outcome will also be evenly spread across districts. We don’t want one Outcome to get fucked over just because of a couple unlucky dice rolls. 

Some Actions are marked “Duster Only”

This should be self-explanatory. If you aren’t a Duster, don’t claim these actions.

If a Duster asks you for help on an action they’ve already claimed, go ham. Hell, maybe enlist a few Dusters to join you on your quest to achieve an outcome, and get them involved proactively! If a Duster Only action is completed by someone who is not within their first three games, it will be excluded from the tally.

There will still be the normal, scheduled mods we all know and love, and some of these mods will have choice points that affect the Outcome as well. These choice points will be telegraphed so that you know what your choices in the mod are affecting. We will also keep these opportunities equal across the span of the event. 

WHEW! That’s a lot.

Thanks for sticking with me so far. We’re very excited to give you guys different avenues to affect this wide sweeping plot, and we hope you really dig into this mechanic. 

If there is a slow moment for you (which is…. doubtful, given how packed this schedule is that I’m eyeballin’ right now, but I guess could happen!), go to the Crisis Center, claim and action, and get to WORK. 

CVC Best Practices

We covered this previously, but its such an important topic, I want to cover it again. 

Jonathan has written excellent posts about CVC, how to keep it fun, and how to get the most out of the experience. Check them out!

In this event, there is more likelihood of CVC, especially Social CVC than in some of our previous events, because we have LCs vying for DIFFERENT OUTCOMES. And that’s awesome! Responsible CVC can lead to some truly amazing and impactful moments for everyone involved.

So what does ‘Responsible CVC’ mean, then? If you came out to the Live Q&A last week, you heard my request to everyone, and about My Best Practices for Successful CVC. 

Responsible CVC is largely about your GOAL and MINDSET.

As a PLAYER, your goal in a CVC encounter, whether it be social (maybe it’s a yelling match!) or physical (the conflict comes to blows!) should NOT be “to win”. If your PLAYER goal is to win, then if you don’t, you are just left feeling disappointed and frustrated. 

However, if you shift your GOAL from winning the encounter to “having a badass scene with another player” then the actual outcome of the CVC scene is way less important. Because regardless of if you convinced them to vote your way, or you didn’t, you had a cool, memorable, impactful scene… and that’s what it should be about. 

Some of my most memorable and fun CVC moments were ones where I got the shit beaten out of me (physically or emotionally/socially), because while my character’s goal was to win, my goal as a player was just to have a cool moment. 

That being said, it’s okay to calibrate a scene that is too intense.

This best practice takes.. Well.. practice.

We always have the OK Check in System to calibrate an intense scene in the moment to either ramp it down, or up, if that’s your jam. Also, you -are allowed to break character- to tell someone to scale it back. We like to preach about the OK Check In System because it keeps everyone immersed, but if you feel like you are getting overwhelmed, we would much rather you break a little immersion than suffer a scene that you aren’t into. 

If you are averse to this type of in game conflict, we recommend instead sticking to the Crisis Center Actions, and avoiding the big Steering Events. There are plenty of Actions that you can complete that don’t have CVC baked into them. 

Wrap Up

That’s it for this week! If you have any additional questions, please let us know! There will be instructions posted at game as well for everyone to reference. 

Waking’s fate is in your hands. And the San Saba will never look the same. Remember that tickets are on sale now.

Pre-register and get your choice of NPC shift to maximize your experience!

“See you soon Vados!”

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The Fall of Waking Prime

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It’s Jonathan here with our next weekly blog post for the upcoming event, VOX POPULI! This is the leadup for our May DR:TX event written by Heather Halstead, Overarc ST for our Season Closer, and Operational Storyteller for Season 5. Today we will talk a bit about the BIG CHOICES you will be able to make during our season closer as your characters can decide the final fate of the sky-city of Waking Prime. Your choices will matter and will determine the future of the San Saba!

We have a lot in store for the finale of Season 4!

  • We have a special LIVE Q&A planned on our DR:TX Discord server on Thursday, April 20th at 7:00 PM CST. Join us in this voice chat on Thursday to hear from Heather and Jonathan about the next episode; Vox Populi, and answer your questions about SURVIVING THE WAKE, our big siege-style fight at the end of the event.

  • Our next event will feature options to use the ZIPLINE and the POOL at Camp Kachina! Make sure to pack those swimsuits! Tickets will go on sale soon for the Zipline Passes!

  • Our Feedback Form is still up for our last event!  Did something really amazing, exciting, or tragic happen at game? Was there a person who helped make your time better and welcomed you to the community? Perhaps nominate them for a Community Achievement! Tell us what you loved about game so we can make more of the content that you love and enjoy.  Conversely, if there is something you did not enjoy, or something which needs to be addressed, we would really like to hear about that too. 

  • We’ve added some new ways to spend your hard-earned CAPS from the last event. Check out the new items you can purchase with your Community Action Points!

TICKETS FOR VOX POPULI are on sale now! don’t miss OUT ON YOUR CHANCE TO MAKE A BIG DECISION!!!

THIS POST WILL DISCUSS A FEW LIGHT STORY SPOILERS FOR OUR NEXT EVENT, SO WE HOPE YOU ENJOY WHAT WE HAVE IN STORE!

Our photos for this post were taken from previous DR:TX events by our talented Photo Team.

I’m sure all those Resonant Raiders showing up in Bravado had nothing to do with what’s happening to Waking…

The Best of Bad options

This is a bit of a repeat from Heather’s post last week, but it bears repeating:

A central theme in any zombie post-apocalypse, to Dystopia Rising, and to our setting in Texas is “the best of bad options.”

You will rarely find a solution to a problem that is perfect. Complication drives story. Our world is deeply flawed, and that is what makes these stories exciting and impactful. At Dystopia Rising: Texas we want to encourage you to explore roleplay about making difficult choices and then living with the consequences of those actions. What does that look like for your character? How do you grow from that? Or how does your sense of personal ethics slowly degrade in a world that constantly asks the worst of you? Can you feel like a hero while knowing saving those people meant dooming others?

Like we mentioned last week, we’ve spent the last two months gathering all your ideas for the Fate of Waking. Both in research, letters, form submissions, and interactions with NPCs, we are creating a story to let you enact some of these plans.

But there is no “perfect” solution. 

While there’s a bit more granularity in the decisions and events that will occur during the game, each of the decisions you make during VOX POPULI will lead to one of three possible “endings” to the crisis facing Waking Prime.

  • Emergency Land Waking near an established settlement

    • With the right choices, you may be able to “land” Waking in a (mostly) controlled fashion somewhere in the San Saba.

    • This choice will still cause immense chaos, ecological damage, and will greatly impact the power and numbers of the people or faction that location represents.  The proximity to Waking will tie that area or faction deeply to the politics of the Board and will reshape them in significant ways for Season 5.

    • The Board will be unhappy, but not actively antagonistic to the town’s choice. 

  • Keep Waking in the air, no matter the cost

    • Great sacrifices may have to be made to achieve this, but it will be possible to keep the floating skyship-city in the air, despite the failure of the Capacity Engine.

    • Waking will continue to leak pollution and runoff on the area it sits over, causing ecological damage wherever it passes, but the Board’s Seat of Power will be maintained. No faction or location will be specifically removed or heavily reduced.

    • This Choice represents the Status Quo, and allows the San Saba Board to continue business as usual.

  • Shoot Waking from the Sky

    • The Rook has a plan to end the threat of Waking once and for all and intends to remove the Board’s seat of power with extreme violence.

    • A skyship of this magnitude will crash land with the force of a high yield bomb and will annihilate the faction and the area for miles in every direction, resulting in untold lives lost and ecological devastation that the area has not experienced since the Hiway War. The area the destroyed skyship-city crashes into will be decimated, and the faction and Waking will be largely wiped out.

    • The LCs will have to choose where the husk of the destroyed city falls, and which faction is impacted by the destruction.

    • This is an open act of aggression against the Board and will have long-term consequences for the story and Bravado heading into Season 5.

The time for new ideas is over.

There will be no Option D.

choice points and you!

The choice on where Waking will land (or crashes), will be decided by your actions at a new mechanic location inside the Depot called THE CRISIS CENTER. We will dig into this aspect of the event in a later blog post, but we want to practice Radical Transparency with some of the BIG CHOICES you will be able to make during our season closer.

The FALL of Waking is a CHOICE of physics and gravity, and hard choices.

During this event, your LCs will have a chance to decide what exactly happens to the flying skyship-city of Waking Prime, the current capital of the San Saba Territories. The doomed city is falling from the sky slowly, but inevitability. Through your actions like sacrificing parts of the city to gain elevation, shifting ballast to change the direction it is falling, or creating a burst of engine speed to hasten its demise, you will be able to impact the trajectory, destination, and the elevation of the city throughout the event.

While most of the choices you make at the Crisis Center will apply to one of the three resolutions above (Controlled Landing, Stay in the Sky, or Crash Landing) there will be a few planned Choice Point Events that will determine major decisions in the eventual destination of Waking. With the help of your allies and certain away mods, you will be able to take charge of how the fall of Waking resolves.

We are sharing WHEN these choice points will be made in advance, so that LCs who want to be a part of that choice can be present.  This will help you plan around player events and NPC shifts to make sure you can participate in the “voice of the people”.

Here are the three times to plan for:

  • Friday @ 12:30 AM

  • Saturday @ 11:30 AM

  • Saturday @ 6:30 PM

During these times, Waking will be in an area or situation where a choice on a new trajectory can be made. Moving a flying city as large as Waking is largely a matter of momentum and speed. A slight change in the course can dramatically alter it’s final destination, but the mass of the ship is not easy to move. It’s not some Road Royal race car that can turn on a dime, it’s a monstrous behemoth that is on a collision course with Widow’s Peak.

Let’s talk a bit how this will work…

STEERING THE FALL OF WAKING

During these three Choice Point Events, you will have some agency in deciding where the city of Waking goes next. During each choice, you will get to make some limited choices by “steering” the skyship-city through your actions.

Waking can be moved by firing all the engines in the appropriate district, or performing a similar action that changes the trajectory of the city. Wherever this occurs, there will be a chance that some portions of the city will collapse, and will no longer be accessible. In addition to a tremendous loss of life, you will not be able to evacuate valuable technology, refugees, and resources from that portion of the falling skyship.

During a Choice Point, you will have a few choices to make:

  • The LCs will choose to move Waking either to the Left (West), Center, or Right (East) or to have it hold position. 

  • The choice point will be made based on the majority vote of those PRESENT AT THE TIME, and this challenge will be TIMED.

  • If a consensus or a majority is not reached by the end of the timed event, Waking will automatically move forward one step on its current trajectory.

Momentum means that a gargantuan airship is descending forward whether you make a decision or not. If you don’t take action to change the fate of the city, it will reach it’s eventual destination of Widow’s Peak. With a massive sandstorm rolling in from the Dune Sea, wind currents mean that some of the obvious easy choices for safely landing Waking Prime are no longer an option.

Heather has prepared a slightly [REDACTED] map of the remaining choice points below:

The options above represent a pyramid of choice, loosely based off our map of the San Saba Territories.

  • To illustrate, let’s assume Waking is the Red Dot, approximately where it will be at the start of the event as the fall begins.

  • At each choice point, it can move ONE SPACE to any circle that is connected to with lines. 

  • Waking can only move forward on the pyramid map and cannot go backwards. Sorry!

  • So for Choice 1, Waking can either move to the Left, towards Widow’s Peak, or to the Center, to line up with Bravado and Essex. 

It is important to note that if the City isn’t moved in a certain way, it will eliminate some options as Landing (or Crash) sites. 

As you make decisions (or fail to make one), the momentum and mass of the city will limit your future options for a choice. For example:

  • In order to land (or crash) the city on top of Killhouse:

    • Choice 1 would need to move it Right towards the center line.

    • Choice 2 could either Hold Position, or move it Right.

    • Choice 3 would need to be either move to Right, or Hold Position. 

A couple of different choices here will drastically limit your options.

  • If you moved the city to the Left on your first decision at Choice 1, there is no possible set of choices that will allow you to land on top of Killhouse.

  • Even if you managed to get the skyship to take a hard right at each remaining choice, you won’t be able to steer the ship sharply enough to reach Killhouse. There is no multi-track drifting on this trolley problem, sorry!

  • Your early decisions will be the MOST impactful on the eventual destination of Killhouse, so these will be the crucial events to attend if you want to have a say in the fall of Waking.

Your LCs will need to be strategic in where they move Waking and at what point.

Don’t worry if this is a bit confusing!

We will have an NPC there to guide this and help further explain the mechanic during each choice point, and we have a neat Discord Q&A planned with Heather and Jonathan on Thursday, April 20th at 7:00 pm if you have any other questions that might come up.

Wrap Up

That’s it for today Vados! The time to start politicking starts now! What decision will you make in the fate of the San Saba? Can your vote at the Choice Point be swayed by Brass or favors? Will you vote to shoot down the city, or help maintain the status quo? Will you be able to steer the finale towards an enemy or a friend?

Waking’s fate is in your hands. And the San Saba will never look the same. TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW!

Pre-register and get your choice of NPC shift to maximize your experience!  

See you soon Vados!