It’s Jonathan here again with another Wednesday Rules Ramble! Each week, I’ll introduce a topic that will be important in an upcoming game, explain some new mechanic or system for DR:TX, or discuss a particular rule from the DR Corebook. In each ramble, I’ll focus on explaining that topic in more detail than the book alone can provide and help provide one place to reference all the various errata or rulings that might be relevant. Sometimes I’ll even drop a few Story Teasers or provide a summary of the last game in a Game Recap.
Tickets are on sale until FRIDAY for our first event of the season, THE VALLEY OF FEAR!
Make sure you get your ticket before the end of the week, so we can have your pre-reg packet ready when you get to site. It’s been a long summer, so save your time catching up with your friends in Bravado instead of waiting in line at check-in!
Today’s blog post will touch on a bit of the narrative for Season 4, particularly with some Stories and Characters of Note for the story line this year.
We did a post like this last season, and it was a great way to help you know which characters and stories to pay attention to when they show up in the game. While each game will have it’s own distinct plot, there is also an overarching story running through the whole season. If you want to be involved in the big events, it’ll be easy to identify what is important by the people that are involved, and by paying attention to the big threads of story.
The Season 4 Premise
Every season, Shan & I start out with a Design Doc that lays out our intentions for the entire season arc. From there we build out each game, but this is the first bit of inspiration we shared with our STs for the new season, and today we share it with you.
New Bravado is built on old land, older than the towns that came before it, and older still than the San Saba Territories in which it resides. The land beneath New Bravado dates back to before The Fall of Humanity, when the world was heavy with splendid and delicate thing, before the Archons descended upon the works of men and before the Mortis Amaranthine or, at least, before we knew it existed and of the various and terrible Grave Minds that are like unthinking gods below.
New Bravado is built on old land, and inscribed in the unbreakable firmament of the ancient and chasmic structures far beneath the arid soil is an ancestral site of unimaginable age, a Facility from before The Fall. Perhaps the lost cradle of Barogian myth, the underground campus upon which countless bodies of unwoken Semper Morts sleep in cryostasis. Ensconced in their intentions, these long-changed humans sleep beyond the fall of humanity and into its eventual rise. But, the Survivors who make a living on the surface above, beneath the apocalyptic sun, seek the deep knowledge and priceless artifacts of an age before.
New Bravado is a boom town, but instead of mining gold and silver from the hills and steppes that surround it; Vados delve into the deep structures of the facility beneath the city and brave it's sometimes dangerous, and always bizarre, depths in pursuit of glory, riches or knowledge. In recent years, the slow but steady discovery of Grave Tech and Crystal Technologies in the halls beneath Bravado has lead to the formation of not only a governing body over the geographical area around Bravado, The San Saba Board, but also the formation and growth of sister settlements such as Drywater, Essex and Widow’s Peak.
What truly lurks beneath New Bravado looms in the future, yet. But in Season 4 of DR:TX the town of New Bravado will need to take the reigns as one of the most advanced cities in the Lone Star, and, either allow the Greater Wastes to grow wild and free, or to move it’s educated, deadly population to becoming not simply a participant in the San Saba story, but it’s primary author.
Sounds exciting!
Stories of Note (Season 4)
Let’s take a look then at some threads from last season, plus a few more that we will explore during our games this season:
Waking is Falling?
We released a few WASTELANDER articles this summer, with some rather conflicting reports about the majestic floating city of Waking Prime. The capital of the San Saba, this monument of oldcestor technology is held aloft by the curious and misunderstood Capacity Engine. A mighty airship the size of a small city, Waking is the seat of the San Saba Board, the heart of the Railroad Conglomerate, and a testament to the power of the factions of the Lone Star.
While there are multiple points of view of what exactly happened in Waking in the last few weeks, some uncomfortable questions have been asked of the leadership of the San Saba. Is it wise to have the capital of the San Saba in a floating city that could crash to the ground? From a daring raid on the city two years ago by the Oxkillers, the nefarious Stormchaser raider clans that harass it in the skies, or just the radioactive waste it leaves in the wake of its passing, Waking Prime has had its share of challenges but emerged triumphant each time. What does the future hold for the capital of the San Saba?
The Fate of Tabitha St. Mercy
This season will decide the fate of the villainous leader of Killhouse, Tabitha St. Mercy. From the very beginning of our 3.0 story, the story of Prudence Penitentiary has been meant to reach a conclusion and an end. We’ve never shied away from difficult stories in DR:TX, but we do want to provide agency for players to dismantle or remove the various organizations and personalities that make up the evil of Killhouse. This season will continue the player’s efforts to bring a close to the story of Tabitha, one way or another.
Last season, Tabitha saw a challenge unlike any other as players stood up to the Warden of Prudence Penitiary in the middle of a public Gauntlet in May. They also passed a vote at the Stakeholder’s Meeting and held an armed negotiation with the Warden to step down from her post at the prison. Now, Tabitha hasn’t been seen in months, but it seems like her influence has not waned at all. How can you deal with a threat that is no longer as easy to find in her seat of power at prison? How can the concept of law and order survive in a society where death is not the end, and the violence of the zombie apocalypse renders folks hard and heartless?
The Crystal Candy Question
Crystal Candy seems innocuous enough at first. An easy to purchase Gizmo, capable of a cheap Mind restore available to characters with the Skill Criminal Influence. It’s a well designed item mechanically, as it is very useful when you first start out in a game of Dystopia Rising, but becomes less useful as you gain more ways to use your Resolve. It’s a cheap and effective item, and has remained a solid source of trade and regaining lost Mind points since the start of 3.0.
However, it was revealed that the primary way to “create” the drug is through the painful and deadly harvesting of psionic crystals from the very brains of kidnapped and exploited psions. Several Law Dogs even died during a raid on a “Candy Shoppe”, a temporary chop shop and charnel house set up to harvest the drug from helpless psions. Last season, the San Saba Board put their foot down, passing a law that makes the drug illegal throughout the Territories. In fact, this season you can’t even BUY the item from the Buy List any more (at least via the Post Office…).
However, opponents suggest that the vaguely worded new law could be a slippery slope to pursuing psions themselves as illegal. While the question of ethics has always been murky or crystal clear regarding the drug depending on who you talk to, this season will see the consequences of the war on Crystal Candy. How will the criminal underworld react, and will they chose to find new and more dangerous ways to create illegal substances to sell, or will they continue with business as usual?
Characters of Note (Season 4)
Like we did last season, we want to introduce a few new faces and remind you of a few characters of importance during Season 4. I’ve included some images of most of them, so hopefully you recognize a friend-shape in the mix. Two faces on here are the same as last season, but are still important in their own and unique ways.
Felicity Redfield, CEO of the RAILROAD CONGLOMERATE
As she was born into a lesser Pureblood House before the Hiway War, following its conclusion, Felicity Redfield found herself in a unique position of power. As one of the few remaining members of the extended Lineage League, Felicity used what remained of her clout and dowry to form the Railroad Conglomerate and spent the ugly, irradiated years following the Hiway War building train-tracks across what is now the Greater San Saba.
Her crowning achievement is the settlement of New Bravado, which she owns down to the rocks the city is built on, followed shortly thereafter by the creation of The Iron Ox; a locomotive of monolithic proportions, designed to endure the threats of the Greater Wastes as it trucks goods between settlements at speed. The tracks of the RRC Oxline stretch further each day as the influence of the rail system continues to grow. Felicity has spearheaded “delves” into the uncharted ruins underneath Bravado in search of some unknown goal, using resources found beneath to fund future endeavors.
Deeply motivated to create a more magnificent future in her image, Felicity is a founding member of the San Saba Board. Despite multiple assassination attempts this last year, Felicity’s can-do attitude and plucky persistence is symbolic of both the spirit of the Lone Star and the citizens of Bravado. Her company, thanks to a merger in 04” PHW, still retains two of the six votes needed to change San Saba Law, and her alliance with the Junkerpunks has ensured that only a tie-breaking vote from the Chair can prevent most of her efforts from passing. Though she has not always seen eye to eye with the Board and the Chairman, her ambition has continued to reap dividends for the RRC.
Tabitha St. Mercy, Former Warden of Killhouse
Tabitha St. Mercy, former Warden of Prudence Penitentiary (more frequently known by its moniker of “Killhouse”) is seen frequently in the company of her pet killers, the Lifers of the XXX Wing. This Retrograde Hedon is pragmatic, business-like, and always happy to make a deal. Tabitha St. Mercy can still offer a variety of social contracts. Need some unwanted parties disappeared? The sick, the broken, the marginally useful? Send them to Killhouse Prison! For a nominal fee, the former Warden is all too happy to cut out your blighted parts of society and relocate them behind tall walls where they can be used for her own means. Greed is her only master, and as she has lost power in Bravado and lost face on the San Saba Board, this impulse for restitution has only intensified.
Tabitha is still a voting member of the San Saba Board and a supremely influential person in the Territories, though she has been recently suspended of her duties on the Board by the Chairman. Each year after the great Indulgence, she gathers up her errant Lifers and returns them to the Prison, but each year she asks for them to be taken alive, not dead. With her no longer in power at Killhouse, it remains to be seen what will happen during the Indulgence this year. What will happen when the former master of Killhouse is no longer chained to her station?
The Rook, psion terrorist
The Rook is a powerful psion, marked by a massive growth of psionic crystal emerging from her forehead and left eye. Made infamous by a recent attack on the city of Essex, this powerful psion is a mysterious and mostly unknown threat to the San Saba. Branded as a terrorist and criminal, the Rook has been hell bent on going on the offensive to protect aberrants from any threat, real or perceived.
She has led several successful raids on Crystal Candy Shoppes of the San Saba, which both makes her a vigilante rival to the Law Dogs, but earns grudging respect from those she has freed or that are familiar with the horrors of the confectioner’s trade. Her message is divisive, but she speaks a truth to power in a way that few can ignore. Her stated ultimatum and goal is to not only give the San Saba a chance to protect the helpless and exploited, but to push them to do it in the only way she will accept. She is a vocal and outspoken opponent of the new laws against Crystal Candy, foretelling an escalation of “justice” that will turn on her people, those capable of wielding the dangerous powers of psionics.
The Rook is not a reasonable person, and is a general force of chaos despite generally enacting what could be considered by some as noble behaviors. However, the echoes and reminders of former vigilantes in the Lone Star’s past like Four or Sparrow cannot be ignored or forgotten. The recent violence in Essex has split her following, with some branding her a murderer of innocents like the others, while others insist that she was framed by her enemies in the government of the San Saba Board itself.
Adam Moriarty, The spider
The former Lifer and spy master has been named the new Warden of Prudence Pententiary in the wake of Tabitha stepping down from the post. Hand chosen by the former Warden, Moriarty is a known as the Spider of Prudence Penitentiary. Moriarty is a criminal influence in his own right. He deals in information, buying, selling, and trading, and always has a scheme under way.
Adam is a Tellingvisionary, and a member of the Nemesis Cult. He fashions himself after his namesake, looking for a worthy Adversary. When he finds this Adversary, he will do everything he can to destroy them, secretly hoping this will be the one who challenges him and perhaps rises above. Despite his faith, Adam has been considered one of the more “reasonable” Lifers.
No one knows where Adam comes from. He is a Pure Blood, but the family he claims is not one local, and no local families claim to know him. He claims his family came across the great sea a generation or two back, and that he had to remove them from his life. The smile he makes when he says that makes people think they did not live.
The Eightfold Mother
During the last Collection Day, the former leader of the Grave Council, Takheeta Firstborn died while attempting to cure the morgues of the San Saba. Takheeta was barely sane at the end and in the shattered psyche of the Gravemind, the shards of her and her acolytes combined into something terrible. Her machinations, zeal, and ambition in life would bleed into what is known as a Gravemind Shard — a manifestion of personality, id, and ego with all the powers of the undead hordes the Mortis Amaranthine could create. Takheeta needed what she sought most in her life and her journey on the Quiet Path — balance.
A lone and quiet voice reminded them of the sacrifice of Eight, a young and brave resident of Bravado. He was strong, resolute. He was determined. He could be the soldier to keep the tainted energies of Takheeta in check. He had emerged in the darkness, volunteering life, Infection, and their very being to save the town, to save the San Saba, and to provide some measure of balance to the Grave Mind. The sacrifice of Eight was redirected by the Cantankerous Matrix, becoming a way to contain the final energies that was formerly Takheeta to form a stable Gravemind Shard, their combined strength balancing out the inequity of that pairing.
The new presence in the Gravemind has been called “The Eightfold Mother” by the fanatics of the Grave Council, but they promise that the Shard remains dormant. However, the recently deceased all speak of a voice in the darkness of the Gravemind — a voice that reminds them of home and beckons them to stay with her. Small shrines to the Eightfold Mother are common now in Bravado, but are quickly cleared away by Groundskeepers and Graverobbers, intent on keeping the slumbering presence and her new followers in check.
Wrap Up
That’s it for today, Vados! I hope you enjoyed the sneak peek into the story this season. There’s so much to be excited for, from a collection of overarc stories written by our talented Storytellers, our first live National Game of 3.0 - THE NECROPHAGE, and a killer premiere game in December. We can’t wait to start Season 4 off with a bang!
There’s a few more characters of note left to be seen, but we’ll save some of them for a later post as the season continues. See you next week, as we get ready for our last teasers for the game, in the rules you need to know in your journey to the VALLEY OF FEAR!