Blood in the Water
Howdy Vados!
It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to next premiere Dystopia Rising Live event BLOOD IN THE WATER! This game will be led by Krypto, Jonathan, and Fable. Each post, 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 some themes of our upcoming event!
TICKETS FOR OUR december premiere EVENT ARE ON SALE NOW!
December is a PREMIERE EVENT! Once each year you get the opportunity to purchase additional XP for your character, so this can be a great way to accelerate towards a new Skill, a Profession, or a new Lore. These extra funds can also help us invest in new props, new settings, and help us make this capstone event be a game to remember.
If you had a great experience at our last event THE MENAGERIE or had some suggestions for how we can improve, we’d love to hear from you! We appreciate your high-fives and suggestions and always want to seek ways to improve our events.
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We’ve updated our DR Fiction page! This summer, I’ve published some new stories digging into the narrative of our upcoming season. I’ve had a lot of fun writing them, and I’ve even dusted off a few of our older stories from the start of 3.0 if you’d like to see how far we’ve come.
Underneath a Drowned Sun - This one is particularly useful to read before this event!!
Our photos for this post were taken from previous DR:TX events by our talented Photo Team, including Lily-Jay Jones, Miranda Farmer, Heather Halstead, Noah Goodman, and Max Pohlmeier.
THE PREMISE - BLOOD IN THE WATER
With that out of the way, let’s get to our next event. Each season, we share a bit of a teaser about our upcoming event. It’s one part ‘movie trailer’ and one part ‘story time’, but it covers some of the important beats of our upcoming event.
The DR:TX team has prepared some fun stories ahead, so let’s see what is in store for our premiere event, BLOOD IN THE WATER:
For months, a storm has been raging between the Junkerpunks, rebuilding and fighting from the shores of Bravado, and The Drowned Suns, under the command of the cutthroat pirate Margeaux Latiche. The pirates have claimed the neighboring town of Drywater since the summer and the corruption of their morgue has threatened to spread into Bravado and the surrounding territories. The Drowned Sun have been cornered and contained, but they won’t give up their prize without a fight.
It’s time for the final assault on Drywater. One last chance to remove the threat of the Drowned Sun and cleanse the decay and rot from their morgue before it spreads. With the help of the Junkerpunk rebels, the mighty firepower of Bastion, and the true grit of Bravado, it’s time to take up arms and join the fray.
But the Drowned Suns are ready for war. Citizens are held hostage and used as fodder, zed directed towards likely landing spots, and Margeaux’s deadly lieutenants have their own deadly traps and defenses prepared for the attack. With the nightmarish Graverobber Capricorn ripping apart any who dare die and try to return through the Drywater morgue, they’ve ensured that any conflict will feed the festering morgue below their feet.
If something is to be done about Captain Margeaux, Capricorn, and the dastardly Drowned Suns, it must be done now, or eventually every morgue in the San Saba will be at threat of collapse or worse. Undead will overrun Bravado unless Vados are prepared to survive the dangerous WAHEL DEAD, corrupt incarnations of the Grave Mind that can only be stopped by the force of a catastrophic payload delivered into the heart of corruption itself.
No matter the outcome, the only assurance is that there will be Blood In The Water.
INSPIRATION & TROPES
In our tradition of Radical Trust, we want to share some of the inspirational bits of media and movie magic that we feel help capture the themes and feelings of our upcoming event. If you are looking for a movie or show to inspire your role play for this event, here’s a list of our favorites to get ready for BLOOD IN THE WATER!
Pirates of the Carribean: At Worlds End
Stranger Things
There are two key themes for this next event, and these movies are good inspirations and ways to communicate those changes.
Revolution is Messy - In every war there will be casualties, and fighting door to door in the town against the pirates is going to be a bloody affair. This fight is going to test the citizens of Drywater as they try to stay out the fighting between the Junkerpunk and Bravado assaults on the town, while the villainous Drowned Sun try to defend what they’ve claimed. Each step of the Battle of Drywater will involve your characters striking deep into enemy territory to complete missions throughout the weekend, undermining the vicious Captain Margeaux and forcing her to face the end of her world in one last stand in Drywater.
Corrupted Death - Capricorn has been corrupting the morgue in Drywater through irresponsible necrology and purposeful tampering with the Grave Mind. Much like in the series, Stranger Things, the nightmarish tunnels and flesh covered chambers of the morgue of Drywater could be inspired by the depictions of the Upside Down. During this event, trying to stop the overflow of undeath by lancing the corruption from within will face our survivors with the worst that the Mortis can summon — the terrible WAHEL DEAD.
Will you liberate Drywater or will there be BLOOD IN THE WATER?
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 set proper expectations for our content. 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.
It’s important to watch for descriptions, situations, or events that you might want to avoid. You may find new limits that are unknown to you because the matter never came up. We encourage you to take the necessary steps for your own emotional safety. We want you to be comfortable with the types of horror in our events so you can enjoy the thrill of the zombie apocalypse and the nightmare creatures we introduce into the game space.
It’s 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! Remember, you can always use the OK Check-In System to choose to leave a scene, even CVC!
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 December premiere event.
WAR AND WAR TIME ATROCITIES
The Battle of Drywater will take place both during away mods in the neighboring town, and at home. This event will feature several opportunities to be involved in the conflict with the Drowned Sun, from leading attacks into the town, fighting to lead a ship through a dangerous blockade, or even counter attacks on your hometown itself. This is a bigger conflict than just the one town, with forces of Bastion, the Junkerpunks, the Grave Council, and more lending their strength to help end the threat of the Drowned Sun. These repeatable mods will be called the DRYWATER ASSAULT, so pay attention when a hook shows up in town.
The success of the Battle will depend on your actions during the event. As you lead attacks on Drywater, eliminate dangerous Lieutenants, or delve into the corrupted morgue, you’ll have a part to play in the action. While the town has significantly aided the success of the attack through donating scrap, time, and ships to the cause, it’ll still come down to the actions of a heroic few. There will be various ways to contribute, from defending your local workstations from counter-attack, helping cart materials to the front, or guiding Loyalist airships for an attack run on the pirate navy, you’ll be able to participate in the attack directly.
The NPCs in Drywater will offer NO QUARTER. The Drowned Sun have prepared as much as they can for the assault and though they may be outnumbered, they aren’t afraid to fight dirty. The pirates are intelligent threats, and can lie, cheat, steal, and murder their way to victory, so you should be very careful when fighting the Drowned Sun. They can and will execute their prisoners, steal valuable items and brass, and use every CVC trick in the book to work against your efforts. You may even find your local resources under attack if you don’t respond in time. You should consider every Drowned Sun to be KILLING BLOW ACTIVE during a mission in Drywater, so be warned!
You’ll be able to confront and deal with the Drowned Sun threat. Each of the major villains you’ve faced for the past year will be available to fight during this event. From Margeaux herself, to the villainous Capricorn, you’ll be able to take your vengeance on the deadly pirates of Drywater. However, be prepared for a fight — these are intelligent threats that can use equipment, Professions, and traps against you!
GRAVE DIVING & CORRUPTED MORGUES
During this event, you will have the opportunity to join small teams in a GRAVE DIVE. The main details of this type of mini-event are listed in the plot kit Grave Divers, if you aren’t afraid of a few spoilers. We will still have plenty of surprises and threats to challenge you during these events, but the basic function will involve a few players during a timed event with some incredible challenges to overcome. During a Grave Dive you’ll need to complete an objective before time runs out and face the dangerous WAHEL DEAD, proto-zombies unique to the Corrupted Morgue environment. You may even encounter a few other strange things inside, such as Necrotic pests and dangerous zones of mechanics.
Your normal weapons are useless in the Corrupted Morgue. A key feature of the deadly Wahel undead is that they take ZERO damage from weapons that aren’t specifically “Wahel-Bane”. While you can still block their attacks, or use certain skills on them in combat, most of your normal equipment won’t really apply during a Grave Dive. Wahel can’t really be stopped for good, so you’ll have to deal with reinforcements throughout the run of these unstoppable threats.
Most Necrology equipment is optional. Outside of a Helscape Catastrophic Stabilizer and the Lancing Casket that lets you enter the corrupted morgue itself, most of the other Necrology equipment isn’t technically necessary to succeed during a grave dive. While Wahel bane weapons will certainly help defeat the primary antagonist in the Mortis, many of the challenges inside will be more about team organization, communication, and problem solving than equipment. Some of those handy gizmos might increase your chances of surviving, but they certainly aren’t required.
Time is your real enemy. The true test is time itself — each run will have a strict time limit for how long you can stay within the Mortis before your exit closes. The dangerous environs of the Mortis can only be withstood for a short time before you need to return to the physical world of the wasteland. There are some items that can let you exit a corrupted morgue, but most normal escape skills don’t work while within a grave dive. If you get stuck behind, you may face a danger worse than just losing Infection!
Resource scarcity, and the struggle to provide for yourself in the apocalypse
3.0 Scrap is expiring soon! Scrap cards that don’t have an expiration date will expire in February 2026. Expect there will be some adjustment this season as folks work to use their remaining items before the winter break. Make sure to check your item cards before you come to event to prevent some surprises!
Expect a scarcity of some resources. There’s still going to be a LOT of folks building equipment for a Corrupted Morgue or preparing items for the Battle of Drywater. Crews will likely be focused on copying new blueprints, making items for their team, and harvesting resources for their personal use. There may not be as many people selling the goods you need, so plan ahead!
DRYWATER ASSAULTS & Grave DIVEs
An attack on a neighboring settlement presents some interesting logistical challenges. First, we don’t really have a whole other site to use, and we don’t have hundreds of extras ready to play these other citizens. To represent the conflict in Drywater we will be asking you to complete several repeatable mods we are calling “DRYWATER ASSAULTS”. This won’t be the only way to interact with the fight over Drywater, as you’ll also need to defend your home territory from desperate attacks by the Drowned Sun, and deal with the usual critters, raiders, and undead threats that are part of life in the post-apocalyptic wasteland.
For this game, the Honeysuckle Huts (formerly Zuni) will represent our town of Drywater, instead of the usual Exclusion Zone. These mods will be similar to our Liquidation Runs of the past, involving small teams of Vados striking into contested territory of Drywater to advance the war effort. While there, you will face deadly Pirates and undead threats that will be NO QUARTER, and dying in the town of Drywater will have it’s own terrible complications.
While on a Drywater Assault, you’ll have an opportunity to complete several missions. These tasks range from rescuing civilians that are trapped by the Drowned Sun, attacking strongholds of the pirate captain and defeating her trusted crew members, setting flares to direct a Bastion air attack on a Drowned Sun fortification, rescuing valuable hostages from captivity, or just bringing an Explosive payload to damage to Drowned Sun supplies. Some missions may require you to complete multiple objectives at once, and it’ll be up to you how many you can complete before you need to retreat to safety. Once you’ve reached the safety of the Junkerpunk ship, you’ll be able to end the mod and survive to fight another day. However, if you aren’t quick enough, you’ll face certain death as the forces of the Drowned Sun converge on your position and overwhelm whatever defenses you have left.
Your successes on a Drywater Assault will determine the outcome of the war effort in Drywater, while a lot of the other fights happen “off camera” as part of the narrative Battle of Drywater. We hope that this will allow every that wants to aid the war effort to be personally involved. Not every objective will require combat skills, so there will be many ways for folks to participate in the Assault, provided they are up to the challenge.
The second part of the weekend is going to be repeatable Grave Dives as you prepare to assault the Corrupted Morgue within Drywater. On Friday night, you’ll be tasked with claiming the Drywater Morgue back from the dangerous Grave Robber Capricorn and his ruthless minions. You’ll get some practice for the Hell Dives that come later on Saturday by braving packs of GORE HOUNDS and trying to complete several objectives within 5 minute windows. If you tarry too long, the undead will overwhelm you or you will attract the attention of Capricorn’s deadly cult of assassins. If you are successful in holding the Morgue against Capricorn, you’ll be able to prepare for your final attack on the Corrupted Morgue on Saturday night, where you will need to use your Lancing Caskets to descend into the Corruption and bring your necrological tools to bear to collapse the morgue and ensure Drywater survives the lurking threat under their feet. It’ll take several dedicated teams of Heldivers to set off the bomb that can seal the morgue, and it will require teamwork, a bit of luck, and a whole lot of effort to win the day.
Both of these series of runs will make up the majority of the Drywater conflict, but there will be various other activities and mods throughout the weekend. If you pay attention on each mod, you may find valuable clues that can help you in your final confrontation with Margueax Latiche and the deadly Drowned Sun.
Wrap Up
That’s it for today, Vados.
We hope that you will come join us for our next event, BLOOD IN THE WATER. The liberation of Drywater is here, and it’ll be up to you to help save your neighbor from the deadly pirates of the Drowned Sun. Will you get a chance to face one of Margeaux’s crew on the battlefield? Will you find a way to stop the insidious corruption that lurks within the morgues of Drywater? Will you survive your grave dive into a corrupted morgue and evade the ruthless WAHEL? Will you make sure that the BLOOD IN THE WATER belongs to the Drowned Sun and not you and your friends? Let’s find out together!
See you soon, Vados!
