Forced to Evolve
Howdy Vados!
It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to next premiere Dystopia Rising Live event FORCED TO EVOLVE! This game will be led by Jon Hearn. 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!
Notes & Updates:
TICKETS FOR OUR march event ARE ON SALE NOW!
Our EARLY BIRD promotion continues for our March tickets! If you purchase your ticket BEFORE March 7th, you’ll receive a bonus XP for FREE! If you’ve already bought a ticket with additional XP, send us an email to info@dystopiarisingtx.com for more information!
Undated Scrap Cards expired on February 1st, 2026. Back at the start of DR Live last year, we set expiration dates for all undated cards and the day finally arrived. Read more about this and how to gather scrap here.
If you had a great experience at our last event SEEDS OF CORRUPTION 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.
Fill out our Feedback Form!
Want to Experience the Next Event on Hard Mode? If you would like to start this next event already infected with a brand new disease, send us an email to info@dystopiarisingtx.comwith the subject line "Fungal Growth" with your player number and character name. You’ll get to start the event already involved in the plot for the weekend!
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 - FORCED TO EVOLVE
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 event, FORCED TO EVOLVE:
In the damp aftermath of a rainy battle against the undead pouring from the morgues of Bravado, a quiet stillness has settled over the town. The lingering corruption was excised and the waters have washed away the rotted blood and renewed the fertile soil. In the quiet mornings, new life returns to the forests and brush around the town. Critters stir after the Long Night, emerging into the dawn with hunger and strange new behaviors. Creatures that were once nuisances have instead been driven to madness and violence, some mutating suddenly into dangerous new and threatening variants.
On some critters and undead, a familiar blue glow of fungal growth has been discovered, creeping from wounds and spreading via cloying clouds of spores. The glowshrooms have been thought contained within the Exclusion Zone for the last year, so it is curious that they have spread so far and so fast. This new growth is too pervasive, too widespread, and too purposeful to be a coincidence.
The rot is growing rampant as the glow shrooms give off their alluring light, growing in decaying corpses found hidden in the underbrush. Perhaps they are simply victims of the fungal spores, but each is curiously infested, dying with an ecstatic smile. Spores travel on the backs of the shambling dead, a pervasive disease spreading with a touch, a new threat to the recovering and wounded Mortis Amaranthine.
An unseen threat rears its ugly head, and is lurking within the shadows of Bravado. All things, seen and unseen, are connected through the Mortis. As these spores take hold, will you become a living testament to the Mortis’ power, ultimately succumbing and joining this insidious new fungal network?
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 FORCED TO EVOLVE!
fallout
the last of us
stranger things
Now, you probably recognize a theme in these inspirations, and it’s for good reason. Stories of the wasteland (and horror genres in general), strange beasties are often the product of radiation and experimentation. This month, the critters of Bravado have experienced some unfortunate changes and that will probably end badly for a few of our survivors…
Critters, Critters, Everywhere - Over the past year of DR Live, we’ve introduced a bunch of new critters. From the iconic Murder Goat Deer, to Leviathans, to Behemoth Polyps, and even the new Carrion Crows, these dangerous critters have caused havoc again and again. This month, you may not be able to predict the behaviors of these critters and the abilities and threat skills they use may be different than you remember. As strange diseases and glow shrooms infest the town, the critters have reacted in new and interesting ways.
Dangerous Diseases - This week, the Network Support Team released the newest DR Live sourcebook, the Pathogen Primer! This book introduces several brand new diseases and updates to disease mechanics for the new world of the zombie apocalypse. There are several new dangers, new ways to spread pathogens, and deadly infections that can spread amongst your survivors. This month will focus on one of these new Diseases - Grave Bloom Syndrome. If you don’t mind spoilers, you can read ahead in the newest book, but we will have plenty of time to explain how this disease functions before our event. Next week, I’ll have a blog post focusing specifically on this disease.
Environmental Threats - There is a natural ebb and flow within the wasteland, as critters and survivors alike Sometimes the threats aren’t just NPCs or zombies, but the very world around you trying to kill you. The hostile environment of the wasteland is a recurring theme of our DR Live events, as the struggle to find clean water, safe places to sleep, and protecting the ones you care for most can be a challenge. If the glow shrooms are truly spreading on their own, outside of the lethal radiation of the Exclusion Zone, what does that mean for Bravado, and how will that impact our future?
The theme of Disease in the Wasteland is one that we’ve touched on before, but it’s worth mentioning for this new world of Dystopia Rising Live, and it deserves it’s own section.
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 February event.
critters, creepy crawlies, and animal violence
Critters will be the focus of this event, but they are much more dangerous in DR Live. It’s worth mentioning that any Critter threat with the Cannibalism skill is functionally “killing blow active”, capable of killing your characters without need for quarter. Some threats will have dangerous abilities that can make traveling by yourself in the darkness very dangerous indeed, so make sure to bring a buddy! If you don’t mind spoilers, you can see what we mean in the Animal Almanac.
Critters are a valuable source of Produce though, so make sure to consider time to loot that fallen predator! Depending on the chosen build of the critter, they can carry many varieties of Produce items, which are helpful for your friends with the Culinary skill. However, many of the common items that can interact with corpses don’t work on critters.
We have several puppet SPIDER props that will be in play for this event. Remember, if your arachnophobia gets too much, you can always choose to leave a scene with the Okay Check in system, and our critters won’t pursue. We have several other critter props, including scaly reptiles, many-eyed Behemoths, and other fur-covered and avian enemies. There will be areas covering in webbing, but these areas will be clearly marked. While the puppets can be scary, we hope that clearly telegraphing these creatures with a human nearby will help reduce some of the shock value.
Hit the NPC, not the prop! Several of our smaller critters will be portrayed through puppets or smaller props. These props are sturdy, but are not designed to be combat safe. If you encounter one of these enemies, please use your boffers and nerf guns on the NPC holding the prop, not the prop itself. We want to be able to use these props again!
Critter are not pets. Period. The Menagerie has been lucky so far, but trying to cage or contain critters is doomed to failure. There is no way to tame, domesticate, or otherwise turn these creatures into cute fluffy companions. These critters will tear you apart, gore you, or eat you. They are meant to be scary rather than friendly or silly. With that in mind, pets and Critter domestication are not a part of live representation at Dystopia Rising Live (unless you are a NPC - like a Raider). Critters are threats that eat you and player pets are exist only off camera and as downtime narrative.
Religious conflict, religious-related death, corruption, and abuses of power (only in-game faiths - not real faiths)
Doomsday Cults prey upon the weak, worship destruction, and twist the teachings of existing faiths. Cultists may use blueprints and other means to pervert common faithful rituals during our event, and they represent the perils of extremism and the dangers of belief taken too far. These are evil groups, luring in the desperate with promises of safety, purpose, or power, but use acts of violence disguised as devotion to lead their flock in a dangerous agenda.
You may find strange, ritualistic sites marked with corpses and decay. While prowling around the darkness of Bravado evading enemies in the night, you may find grotesque and disturbing scenes of gore or violence. If you are foraging and see the glow of candles or blue light in the woods, be warned that it could stain clothing or make a mess, and please don’t put the spore props in your mouth. This will usually be a blue holi-style powder, but you’ll want to be careful not to actually ingest the dangerous fungus. You know who you are!
These are bad guys. Period. There’s no rehabilitating a zealot, and they cannot be really reasoned with. The enemies of the weekend aren’t ones to secretly aid and abet as part of a subversion, but are dangerous and deadly foes. If you side with the villains of the weekend and find yourself joining in on their plans, you should expect your characters to meet a swift and untimely end. You’ve been warned!
Disease, infection, and consequences of diseases
While the primary danger during the March event will be Critters and Undead, some carry an insidious threat. It’s worth mentioning that some threats can also use the “Inflict Disease” ability. This powerful threat skill is normally used on survivors that are bleeding to death, but can infect them with the same disease that runs rampant in the Infected Raider clans. It can also be spread via other Vectors, including exposure to certain props and Zone of Mechanics.
Parallels in the Real World - All diseases and ailments presented during our events are fictional constructs designed for play in the Dystopia Rising universe. They are grounded, physical, and internally consistent with the lore of the world, but they are not meant to mirror real-world illnesses, conditions, or lived medical experiences. While it can be easy to draw parallels between fictional disease and mundane suffering, that is not the intent of these mechanics. These ailments exist to serve narrative pressure, environmental threat, and character-driven consequence within a post-Fall setting, not to recreate or comment on real medical trauma.
Brand New Diseases - This week, the Network Support Team released the newest DR Live sourcebook, the Pathogen Primer! This book introduces several brand new diseases and updates to disease mechanics for the new world of the zombie apocalypse. There are several new dangers, new ways to spread pathogens, and deadly infections that can spread amongst your survivors. This month will focus on one of these new Diseases - Grave Bloom Syndrome. If you don’t mind spoilers, you can read ahead in the newest book, but we will have plenty of time to explain how this disease functions before our event. Next week, I’ll have a blog post focusing specifically on this disease.
You can choose to start with this disease, for a HARD MODE experience! During a few mods last month, you might have encountered some strange critters or seen a different type of corruption than the main undead threats. It’s very possible that your survivor has already been exposed to the spores of the glow shroom without realizing it. If you’d like to begin the game with this disease, send us an email to info@dystopiarisingtx.com before the event!
This disease isn’t immediately deadly, but it can be expensive to cure if left untreated. The primary disease introduced this game can require an expensive Scrap to cure, but there are new ways to temporarily treat Disease available in the Pathogen Primer. As the disease progresses, the materials needed to cure the plague get even more expensive. I’ll cover the details of this next week, but it’s worth mentioning early. You’ll have plenty of opportunity to cure this disease over the next few months, but it can be deadly if left alone. You may find some unlikely allies that can help, if you keep your eyes open during the event.
Resource scarcity, and the struggle to provide for yourself in the apocalypse
3.0 Scrap is EXPIRED! Scrap cards that don’t have an expiration date will expire before our next event 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!
Give people time to mourn and be gentle. The timing of this change caught many of us off guard, and it’s okay to have some feelings about seeing a lot of saved up resources expire. This change will have some big impacts to the economy of the game, and there’s going to be some fluctuations as people figure out how to adapt. It’s okay to feel a loss or to mourn how things used to be. Give yourself and your friends the time and space they need to vent.
Expect a scarcity of some resources. There’s still going to be a LOT of folks building equipment or working with a bit less resources than they had before. Crews will likely be focused on copying new blueprints, making items for their team, and harvesting resources for their personal use. There could be some scrambling to use important workstations or getting access to places like the Helscape Mine. There may not be as many people selling the goods you need, so plan ahead!
Our team will help with the adjustment. We will be increasing the amount of found Foraging cards we distribute over the game, as well as making sure that there will be Raider threats throughout the weekend. The DR Live system is much more forgiving than the world of 3.0 when it comes to resources, so you might find you don’t need that stockpile of scrap nearly as much. If you have any specific concerns or want to consider some changes to your character sheet, please let us know!
DISEASE IN THE WASTELAND
The story of the zombie apocalypse is at it’s heart a story of disease. Zombie stories involve pandemics, viruses, and the deadly consequences of what that disease turns survivors into. You could argue that “fear of disease” is the key trope to any story that involves zombies and the undead. During our March event, we will be introducing a dangerous Disease into the world of Dystopia Rising Live, called Grave Bloom Syndrome.
From the new Pathogen Primer, on page 4:
Diseases and ailments exist in Dystopia Rising Live as narrative engines first and mechanical systems second. They are tools meant to apply pressure to characters, settlements, and beliefs. They create moments of fear, sacrifice, desperation, and resolve. They are not punishments and they are not obstacles to be minimized. They are story accelerants, designed to push characters into difficult choices and force the world to react in meaningful ways.
The wasteland is not kind, and neither is survival. Loss, discomfort, and suffering are not failures of play. They are often the moments that players remember most clearly. Diseases allow those moments to take shape over time instead of arriving all at once. A cough becomes a warning. A tremor becomes a liability. A quiet symptom becomes a community problem. When engaged honestly, disease stories invite players to slow down, lean into vulnerability, and make choices that matter even when the outcome is uncertain.
From the new Pathogen Primer, on page 5:
When a disease appears, it arrives with context. Something went wrong. An environment was unsafe. A choice carried consequences. A resource failed. The narrative comes first, and the mechanics exist to reinforce that narrative by giving it structure and weight. A disease without story is just bookkeeping. A disease with story becomes a shared memory.
These ailments work best when they help tell the story of how people suffer, adapt, and sometimes fail in the wasteland. They should highlight why a location is feared, why a ruin is avoided, or why a settlement struggles to survive. A coughing survivor says more about a toxic ruin than any signpost. A trembling medic communicates scarcity better than a paragraph of exposition. Disease makes danger visible.
It is also important to remember the world these characters live in. Dystopia Rising Live is not a setting with widespread medical education, clean facilities, or reliable pharmaceuticals. Most characters do not understand what is happening inside their bodies. They work with rumor, superstition, improvised treatment, and hard-earned experience. Medicine is rare. Certainty is rarer. Recovery is never guaranteed.
Using disease well means letting it be messy, frightening, and uncertain. It means allowing characters to make bad calls with incomplete information. It means showing how the lack of tools and knowledge shapes behavior and belief. When disease is treated as a narrative force instead of a mechanical toggle, it reinforces the setting and reminds everyone at the table that survival is never clean, never easy, and never assured
From the Pathogen Primer, page 8:
Some diseases are tied directly to Zones of Mechanics. These represent spaces where the world itself is unsafe. Radiation zones, corrupted Morgues, necrological failures, fungal overgrowth, and psionic fallout all create conditions where illness is a predictable outcome of prolonged or careless exposure. In these cases, the disease exists to make the environment matter. If a place is dangerous, the characters should feel that danger linger after they leave it.
Other diseases are carried by specific NPC threats. Certain Zombies, Raiders, Aberrants, or Critters are vectors by design. These diseases reinforce the identity of those threats and make encounters with them more than a question of combat success. Surviving an encounter does not always mean escaping unscathed. Disease in this context extends the threat beyond the battlefield and into the aftermath.
Some ailments are introduced through items and materials. Tainted resources, contaminated body parts, unstable organs, experimental drugs, corrupted food stores, or scavenged technology can all carry disease. These are especially effective when tied to temptation or desperation. Eating unsafe food, harvesting dangerous materials, or using illicit substances should feel like meaningful risks, not flavor text. Disease is often the long-term cost of short-term survival.
There are also activity-based diseases, contracted through actions that clearly warrant consequence. Eating things that should not be eaten. Drinking untreated water. Ignoring hunger, exhaustion, or contamination warnings. Mishandling necrological tools. These diseases reinforce player agency by tying illness directly to choice. The disease is not arbitrary. It is the result of doing something in a world that does not forgive mistakes.
Diseases in the Wasteland can emerge rapidly, and escalate if left unchecked. During our March event, there will be NPCs actively attempting to spread and weaponize this disease in game, often as carriers of the fungal growth. Some threats might try to purposefully infect your character with this disease, so there will be a real danger of your character contracting this disease during the course of the event. There will also be some chance of contracting the disease through environmental exposure like Zone of Mechanics or particular unique props. You can even risk this disease by simply dying and passing through the Mortis, so even normal threats like the undead and your fellow survivors could inadvertently expose you to this danger
Will the threat of this new sickness become something you can avoid, or will these mistakes have lasting consequences?
Wrap Up
That’s it for today, Vados.
We hope that you will come join us for our next event, FORCED TO EVOLVE! How will you survive the Grave Bloom? How will your characters encounter this insidious threat? Will you find yourself trapped in a cloud of spores, or will a vomiting zombie spray infectious disease upon you as you bleed to death? What preparations will you take? How you you keep yourself safe? We are excited to explore these themes of survival in our next event, and hope you are excited to uncover the mystery beneath this affliction. Why has it spread so quickly? What are the consequences of not understanding the danger of this disease?
Let’s find out together! See you soon, Vados!
Tickets are on sale for our next event of season 7 noW!
Our overarc ST - Jon!
