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Cirque de Dread

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Howdy Vados!

It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to our October live event CIRQUE DE DREAD! This is our first ST led overarc of the season, led by Matt Hoadley, Ash Sexton, and Luka Drystan. 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 some notes about our Compulsion and Roleplay Burden mechanics!

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

Cirque de dread

Here’s the premise for our next event, Cirque de Dread:

Times of trial and tragedy have begun to fall upon Bravado, after dealing with the brunt of Waking’s crash landing. Easy livelihood and a unified community have begun to feel increasingly lost, especially with open war with the Oxkiller Alliance erupting across the San Saba…The last thing this town needs is gangs of Thrill Kill raiders in garish clothes showing up, people running away from home or just straight up vanishing, Nemesis sightings, critters rampaging like mad, and best friends killing each other over random trinkets. It's too bad that that’s exactly what’s been happening to towns all over the wasteland. Even worse, all these problems seem to have a common denominator: each town was a stopping point for a flying carnival and none of this weirdness was happening before it arrived. 

But who cares about all of these rumors? Raiders and critters and people vanishing? That happens all the time in the wasteland. You know what doesn’t? The once in a lifetime experience that is almost at our doorstep: Colonel Rictus’ Flying Carnival! The Ringmaster and their carnival are making their grand debut in Bravado! Beneath the Big Top you can find compelling wonders from across the world: Exotic animals! Horrors from around the world! Games (that are definitely not rigged) for the whole family! You won’t be able to pull yourself away from the fun! And what sort of carnival would this be if it didn’t have a grand finale? A dull one, that’s what! 

Colonel Rictus has brought with them the ultimate prize: infection. Those interested need only obtain an entry medallion to earn their place in a grand game of skill (no luck involved) and a chance to extend their lives. How do you enter, you ask? Well, you’re in luck! There are plenty of ways for you to find to get your hands on one of these oddly entrancing Entry Medallions. Play some games, dig into the mysteries swirling around the carnival, or, if you’re very daring - or very desperate - you can put your own infection on the line. Just watch out for jealous folks trying to swipe your well-earned Medallion! Whether you hold one by skill, luck, money, or trouble, when the final curtain rises those eight lucky locals get a shot at the grand prize. And even should you come out with no Medallion, never fear!

There's plenty of compelling thrills for everybody at the carnival!

Carnivals, clowns, and carnage? Sounds like a bloody good time…

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 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 first event of the season.

clowns & scary Carnival themes

  • Psychological Horror, Clowns, Carnival Themes, Creepy Masks, Blood & Gore, Body Horror

We haven’t really had any clown-themed threats for awhile in DR:TX. During our upcoming Halloween event, CIRQUE DE DREAD, we will have a number of enemies that will wear masks, makeup, and carnival style outfits, playing on that deep, primal fear we all have of circus clowns. It’s a popular trope in horror films, in video games, and more, and we are planning to dig into this phobia during this event. These threats will primarily be in the vein of Nemesis, our favorite Telling Visionary heretics, and Thrill Kill Raiders, creepy psionic raiders that wear terrifying masks and act a bit more clever than your usual raider enemies.

Coulrophobia or the fear of clowns is a real phobia, so we want to provide some advanced warning for this event just in case. Many of these specific encounters will be limited to our carnival location by the Totem Pole on the site, so there will be a specific section of the camp you can steer clear of if this is something you want to try to avoid. However, there will be no way to completely remove the risk of encountering one of these creatures, as they will be a big part of the story of the weekend.

There will still be zombies and raiders to run away from in the darkness, scrap to salvage, herb to farm, and blueprints to copy. We hope you will be excited to join us for this story, but we will have many other stories to enjoy in the future if this is a story you don’t want to experience.

Compulsion & Loss of Agency

  • Simulated mind control, loss of agency, psionic compulsion, involuntary CVC

This mechanic will be in play on limited NPC threats portrayed by STs and Gamerunners, but it offers a powerful way to cause a Loss of Control to your character. Many horror stories involve this concept, where you are powerless to stop a monster that is itself a metaphor for the relentless advance of time, death, or war.

This means that if your character is interacts with a key item during this overarc, it could put you into situations where your character is no longer in control of their actions. This is a unique form of mind control that might allow the bad guys to COMPEL you to help them. The bad guys might order you to defend them, hurt your friends, abandon your crew, or do other terrible things that your character might not normally do.

If you were playing in 2.0 or have encountered our new Bone Head Zombies, you may remember similar abilities that turn you into a Body Puppet, and it can be a great challenge and intense scene when one of your friends suddenly turns on you and it’s not just the monster that’s after you in that combat.

Our ultimate goal with CIRQUE DE DREAD is to tell a story about dangerous villains bringing a deadly carnival to town whether you like it or not, recruiting townsfolks to play their twisted games, and generally holding the town hostage unless YOU can stop them from their evil machinations. We hope that you are excited to step right up, and join the show…

Let’s cover a bit more on the Compulsion mechanic…

Compulsion Mechanics

We’ve used these mechanics throughout last season, particularly during our Necrophage event, but in case you missed out here’s a quick summary about how this core mechanic works. As with all of our Local DR:TX Rules, you can find these on our webpage under Local Rules & Skills.

Compulsion

Effect. When an NPC calls “Compulsion, All <KEYWORD>, [Insert Command]”, the affected target must follow the next single command until the task is completed or nullified (such as being compelled to defend someone who then dies). The target must complete the command to the best of their ability. When the target enters Bleed Out, the effect immediately ends. Characters under the effects of Compulsion remember the actions they take, but are not in control of them. This ability is normally resisted by Mental Endurance, but some effects may prevent this resistance.

You can already do similar things to this Skill on zombies and raiders with Telepathy and an item, but this Threat Skill allows them to use a similar ability on YOU. That last line is important, though, because there will be one major effect during this event that will prevent you from resisting this ability. I’ve cover how our ENTRY MEDALLIONS work next week, though.

The primary use of this Compulsion mechanic will be a call you will hear during this event that is also circus themed:

“Compulsion: STEP RIGHT UP and JOIN THE SHOW!”

When you hear this phrase, your character will be compelled to participate in the dangerous and deadly carnival events held by Colonel Rictus's Flying Circus. Proceed to the NPC that made the call, and follow their instructions for the next TEN (10) minutes.

However, you have few ways to avoid this mechanic in game:

  • Resist the call. First, the skill Basic Mental Endurance can resist this effect most of the time, for only 5 Mind. You can avoid some of the terrible commands like “kill and eat your friends”, for instance. However, each time you hear this command, you’ll need to spend Mind points. If this happens multiple times or is used by several enemies, you’ll need to either flee the area, deal with the threats, or make sure you have some spare Mind points.

  • You can make yourself immune to psionics. There’s a few ways to do this. You can use the ability of the Master Steelpaw Shield to resist this effect, but you’ll need Master Shield to use this item. Master Mental Endurance can create a field where psionics may not function, but the NPC or the targets will have to stay in the 10’ bubble you create in order for this to keep working. If they get drug out of the field by a raider, they lose the protection.

  • Use an expendable item. While you can use a Murky Black Byproduct to make it easier to resist the Compulsion effect, there is another item in game that can help you resist this ability if you don’t have the Mental Endurance Skill too, called a Grave-Bell Shard. This San Saba Sundry can be purchased by ANY character for only 1 Brass from the Post Office. You can only buy ONE per event, but you can buy this item even if you don’t have Society Membership.

  • Thumbs down the scene. Lastly, you can always choose to use the OK Check-In System to opt out of a scene entirely by using the “thumbs down” gesture and exiting the area. The COMPULSION mechanic DOES NOT override the OK Check-In system.

Now that we understand a few ways to avoid this effect, let’s cover the last major mechanic for this weekend:

ROLEPLAY BURDENs

This is also a regular local mechanic we’ve used throughout Season 4 and beyond. This is an alternative to a Fracture, and it creates some fun opportunities for engaging roleplay as your character.

roleplay burden

Keyword. A character can have one Roleplay Burden at a time. A Roleplay Burden must be fulfilled once per 12s, or else it will turn into a Fracture.  Roleplay Burdens can be soothed or cured as if they were a Fracture, but does not count as a Fracture for preventing use of certain Skills.  Players can opt-out of a particular RP behavior at any time, but must fulfill any required mechanical cost or effects. Roleplay Burdens expire at the end of an event, unless the player chooses to keep them longer.

The primary way you’ll encounter this mechanic during CIRQUE DE DREAD is through the mysterious ENTRY MEDALLIONS. We’ll cover these items in more detail in a later blog post, but they inflict a particular Roleplay Burden. Once you’ve collected one of these items, you’ll be compelled to keep it secret and keep it safe. It’s not an effect that can be resisted as long as you have one of these items. These medallions will be a physical 3D printed item in the play space and will have a few other rules associated with them, but you’ll generally want to hang onto the medallion. If your friends try to remove it, or it gets taken by another player by force, you’ll end up with a Fracture (DR Corebook, p. 180).

survival vs problem solving

One of the horror themes of this upcoming event is the persistent danger in the dark and the cruel threats of Colonel Rictus’ Flying Circus. Like the movies and shows that inspired it, like Something Wicked This Way Comes or American Horror Story, the story of the deadly carnival is a common trope in horror tales and even the iconic slasher flick. But that brings up our last important aspect of the weekend to consider when purchasing a ticket — the issue of Survival versus Problem Solving.

Often in a DR plot for a weekend, there’s some problem to solve, a puzzle to uncover, or something that can be actively fixed. You might be completing Liquidation Runs, finding a way to save or doom a flying city, or even figure out a way to fix the water filtration system in town. Each of these things involves a different level of player agency than the story this weekend.

The story of the creepy carnival and the Thrill Kill raiders that follow in its wake is instead one of SURVIVAL. This is a threat that is meant to be endured, not solved. Bad Brain disease and raiders are as much a part of the world of Dystopia Rising as zombies, and it’s not a problem that’s going away any time soon. You need to survive this threat, not fix it.

During CIRQUE DE DREAD, the threats of the weekend will be an ever present danger in the world, from strange new zed, to masked Dolly Raiders, to the Nemesis stalking the woods during “sweeps week”. Each of these threats will be killing indiscriminately in their twisted ideas of terror and faith, and when the Thrill Kill raiders don their masks as the first leaves of fall begin to settle in, we hope you will be ready. We’ve explored this concept of Survival year after year during our October events, particularly with the story of the Indulgence over the last few seasons, but with the massacre at Killhouse last year by Doc Nichols it’s time for a new story.

While we hope that every character will survive the weekend’s terrors, it’s by no means guaranteed. How will your character survive the terrors of Colonel Rictus’ Flying Circus? Will you be able to hide from the Nemesis in the dark? Can you survive the insidious threat of the Thrill Kill Raiders?

Let’s find out together.

Regardless of the outcome, we can’t wait for you to step right up, and join the show….

Wrap up

That’s it for today Vados! Tickets went on sale on Monday for our October event, and I hope you’ll come join us for a scary good time. Our next event takes place on Friday the 13th (I’m sure that won’t be relevant), and it takes place during a Lunar Eclipse. Where else can you have fun killing zombies in the woods with your friends?

Make sure you get your tickets early and save yourself time at the door!

See you next week, Vados!