Changes for Season 8
Your friendly neighborhood game runner, Jonathan
Howdy Vados! Jonathan here, owner of DR: Texas, with some important changes for our upcoming season.
On Wednesday, June 3rd we hosted our Season 8 Town Hall to cover some changes for our upcoming season with our players on Discord. This blog post is a follow up and recap of that event if you were unable to attend that event. If you have questions about this information, feel free to reach out on Discord and we will do our best to help!
The Bad news
Shortly before our May event, we were informed by the Girl Scouts that our relationship with them has been changed. While a few of our staff have known about this news, we wanted to present this information publicly to each of our players, as part of our tradition of radical trust and transparency.
For many years, we’ve enjoyed a great relationship with our Girl Scout partners, and been treated as a ‘member group’ for purposes of rentals. This has allowed us a priority choice of dates each season for our events and provided discounts that have helped keep our games affordable. In return, we’ve been able to help with various work day events, partner with local troops to help sell cookies, attended Girl Scout ceremonies, and we’ve rented our site from the Girl Scouts of Central Texas for the last fourteen years.
Starting this next season, our priority booking position has been removed and the site price has significantly increased. (They have increased our monthly site cost by 47%, for reference.) We’ve also lost options to use on-site storage, and have to pay deposits for sites much earlier than last season. We are now considered a ‘non-member group’, as they prioritize their own local Girl Scout groups.
Most importantly, this is an internal GSCTX council decision. Our normal contacts like Rafiki, Cactus, Alicia, and Michele were not part of this decision and should take no blame. This is likely connected with some recent Texas legislation following the Camp Mystic tragedy. Many overnight camps throughout the state are suffering with exorbitant new costs based on this legislation, which will likely lead to many other potential camp sites closing. While we are certainly disappointed in this decision, we have no ill will towards the folks that have been great partners for us over the past decade.
What Does that Mean for DR: Texas?
GSCTX has only guaranteed us four (4) dates for this upcoming season, and we did not get to choose more popular months, as most dates are now reserved for their actual Girl Scout troops. We have signed our 2026 contract with Camp Bluebonnet Shores for one last season, as we elected to enjoy a few less in-person events while we consider our next steps rather than canceling the season altogether.
This next season will likely be our last season at Bluebonnet Shores.
This could also be our last season for DR: Texas as a whole if we cannot keep attendance up during this next season. We will need to find an alternate site to continue at all into Season 9, but we are committed to running at least four live events at Bluebonnet for Season 8.
In many ways, Bluebonnet does not meet our needs any more as we only utilize a fraction of the total site, but the amenities have been a big advantage for the price we used to pay. Bluebonnet sleeps 177 people, and we normally hit about 80-100 folks. This is like renting a large house for only a few people, as we are paying for almost DOUBLE the space we need. While the extra space is nice, only the group discounts made this site affordable for a game of our size.
We may be able to find other sites at a cheaper rate, but the amenities like climate controlled cabins, nice bathrooms, paved roads, WiFi access, or nearby restaurants and stores at alternate sites may not compare with what we are used to at Bluebonnet. Additionally, most camp sites tend to be fairly rural, so it might require a different amount of travel to attend, depending on where you live, and could mean we need to consider alternate locations closer to Austin, Houston, or Dallas.
There is still a bit of uncertainty with how the Camp Mystic legislation will impact other campsites, or if this will create additional competition for fewer options for camping. We are looking into other potential sites over this summer so we can increase our in-person events, and we are happy to take suggestions for new sites if you have a particular contact, at info@dystopiarisingtx.com.
That said, this is potentially goodbye after 15 years so take time this season to make good memories of our home away from home. Our themes this season will focus on celebration, and wrapping up story lines just in case. We want to end our story of Bravado on our terms, wrap up plot lines, and create space to tell new stories at future new sites.
Let’s cover how we are going to adapt to these new changes.
Season 8 - A Hybrid Experience
Accommodating this change, Season 8 will be a Hybrid Experience, utilizing the Dystopia Rising Live Virtual Play rules alongside our live events.
September, December, February, & May will be in-person events as normal in the town of Bravado at Camp Bluebonnet Shores. These will continue to be whole weekend events, from Friday to Sunday.
October, November, March, & April will be virtual events primarily located in Essex, The City of Light And Sound, and hosted on our Discord server, focused on Friday night and Saturday.
We are excited to tell new stories in some new ways!
You can read more about the specific dates of next season on our page at Event Schedules.
The Value of Virtual Play
A big advantage of online events is that they have no real site fee or cost of renting a truck to move props, so we can help offset the new higher cost of renting Bluebonnet for live events. This will be important to keep to making this final season at Bluebonnet possible.
Our virtual story arc will focus on ESSEX, the City of Light and Sound, and will revisit key NPCs and settings updates for DR Live. During the DR:TX pandemic season, we found a lot of value in repeated online events at one location, as it enables you to build a connection with the places and NPCs in a very memorable way. We want to keep our live events in Bravado and our online locations separate.
Online games can fill in the blank parts of the map in new ways, and help really provide context for our live event games. We can also explore areas of our setting that are difficult to do in live play, like Pride’s Hold, Widow’s Lament, Bastion, Morgan’s Folly, and more. These events will feature small group stories led by a Virtual ST in the style of a RPG group, and will be focused on Friday night and Saturday throughout the day. You’ll be able to register for several mods throughout the event, and there will be other planned in-character events, featuring face NPCs on camera in costume, and other social events to help tell the shared story.
Virtual Events require less time off of work to attend, and have no major costs for traveling. We’ve reduced the ticket price for these events accordingly, and we’ve picked dates that don’t compete with other virtual events. Virtual play uses a different rule set, so we will be doing Blog Posts and Discord events explaining and demonstrating the DR Live Virtual rule set.
Crafting and Virtual rewards will be available at these online events, but keep in mind that most items made during an online event are used exclusively online, and many items aren’t as necessary in the virtual play rules. We’ll cover some tips and tricks to help you prepare through social media, discord, and blog posts.
We will be looking for new VIRTUAL STORYTELLERS, as we recognize these games need a separate skill set than helping out in Ops during a live event. This can be a great new way to join our volunteer team!
Season Tickets
Season Tickets are on sale now, as of Monday, June 8th at 1pm.
If you can afford to do so, we appreciate your support of the game through season tickets - this helps us cover our initial deposits for the campsite and make sure we secure our dates for the season. This is the single greatest way you can help out DR:TX, outside of your volunteer hours.
Season passes are split between the In-Person and Virtual events as we understand the audiences for these two experiences are not necessarily the same. You’ll be able to buy a 4-pack of tickets for either option, or you can purchase both. If you want to pre-purchase tickets for the entirety of Season 8, you just need to select both the Live Season Pass and the Online Season Pass together (a full season pass would be $800, while an opt out pass plus online games would be $1300)!
Live Season Pass - $500
This is a 4-pack of general admission tickets to an in-person live DR:TX event and requires four hours (4) of NPC time. This ticket includes three (3) extra XP points for each of your active characters with an Advanced Membership, or a character of your choice (8 XP base, 13 XP for new players, Player’s Guide, p. 15).
Online Season Pass - $300
This is a 4-pack of general admission tickets to an online DR:TX event. You’ll earn XP for each of your active characters with an Advanced Membership, or a character of your choice (5 XP base, 10 XP for new players, Player’s Guide, p. 15). This will allow access to online crafting and small group modules led by a DR:TX Storyteller.
Luxury Season Pass - $1000
This 4-pack of limited quantity ticket includes all three bonus XP, no required NPC shift, and no required camp cleanup. This is a luxury minded ticket, perfect for travelers with an early flight or for folks who can’t stay for camp cleanup. These tickets includes three (3) extra XP points for each of your active characters with an Advanced Membership, or a character of your choice (8 XP base, 13 XP for new players, Player’s Guide, p. 15).
You might notice some other changes to the tickets this season - namely that increased casting tickets and standard opt out tickets no longer exist. NPC Opt Out is now exclusively offered as part of our Luxury Ticket so we can continue to offer a premium option without undercutting our ability to staff modules and run content. This will help increase the number of NPC's we have during our casting shifts, and ensure we can have zombies in our zombie game.
Staff Applications & Team Composition
We know that many folks are excited for our upcoming season, and we are excited to announce our Staff Applications will begin in JULY. We’ll have more blog posts here and announcements on social media and Discord, so stay tuned!
Along with our ticket updates, we are going to make a few adjustments to the storytelling team’s design and expectations as we better craft our team and system to DR Live’s unique needs. What worked for 2.0 and 3.0 doesn’t necessarily work for Live, and we’ve learned a lot of valuable lessons over the last season and a half of DR Live play.
We’ve updated the roles for Season 8 on our website, which you can read about here.
Here’s a summary of the big changes:
We can’t run our game without the help of our talented volunteers. Our volunteer positions will come with a $25 DISCOUNT for tickets to our events, bonus CAPs, and your normal NPC shift will instead be served in that guide role. Some roles will offer options for complimentary tickets, but we’ve had to reduce the number of these roles given the increased costs of Camp Bluebonnet Shores.
We have a few different types of Guide roles at DR: Texas during Season 8:
Operation Guides will be our experts on the DR Live mechanics, leading NPCs in the field and helping us run our event shifts, enacting the planned scheduled of mods and events in game, directing our NPC volunteers in roles as zombies, raiders, survivors, and more, and getting a chance to get an inside look at the story early. This role will require attending a meeting on Discord in between events, but we’ve drastically reduced how much time you need to commit outside of the live events. If you submit an approved story arc, you will receive a complimentary ticket to live in-person events. This is a great role for folks that want to be involved in building the setting of Bravado.
Grave Guides will be trained to run immersive Grave Mind scenes for characters that recently died, guiding them through the cycle of death and rebirth from the mysterious Mortis Amaranthine. This is a great role for folks that want a bit more personal storytelling opportunities, while focusing their volunteer time on an ‘on call’ status for certain hours of the event.
Logistics Guides will serve in the Post Office, writing item cards created by Developmental Skills and printing blueprints for players involved in the deep economy aspects of DR Live. This is a great position for folks that want a less physical role for their NPC shift, as you will usually be in a climate controlled building and not running through the woods.
Settings Guides will serve during the set up our event, helping us do the physical labor of setting up props and creating the immersive play space of Bravado. This is a great way to help out the game will keeping your volunteer time before the game starts so you can spend more time in character.
We will have other members of our team, with some different responsibilities and time commitments:
Virtual Storytellers will be a new role separate from our standard Operations Guide functions. While we expect a few of our volunteers to serve in both roles, we know the skill set is a bit different to run these online events. This is an amazing opportunity to feature some new faces on our team, particularly for those folks that may not feel comfortable leading a big NPC shift at game. This role includes a complimentary ticket for online events.
Room Stewards are an online-only role that will focus on providing passive content in Discord rooms to promote roleplay, and to help encourage immersion online. These roles are perfect for folks with a bit of costuming flair and a love of text-based role playing.
Our New Player Storyteller will assist new players with character creation, signing waivers, tagging weapons, handing out blue bandanas, and distributing helpful documentation. This role includes a complimentary ticket, as it can require a bit more presence on Discord in between events to coordinate with our prospective players.
Our Truck Team helps unload props from our storage container, staging the totes and large props we use during the game, both before and after the event. This is a physically intensive role that requires you be on site much earlier each event, but is a paid role for the effort. Our Truck Team Lead will help organize this load out and packing each event, and will have a few additional responsibilities each game.
Wrap Up
While we know this is some unpleasant news about the future of our game, we are grateful for the community we have been able to build over the last decade. We are excited to share stories with you for another season, and we hope we can end our time at Camp Bluebonnet Shores in a memorable way. I would ask you to invite your friends, tell friendly travelers, and invite new players this season to share in our final stories of Bravado at our home away from home in Belton.
If you have any pressing questions, reach out on Discord or via our email at info@dystopiarisingtx.com.
