Red Skies at Morning
Howdy Vados!
It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to next Dystopia Rising Live event RED SKIES AT MORNING! This game will be led by Jonathan Loyd and Jo Brown. 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!
Have you built any new costume pieces or props over the summer, or just have a cool story to share with all the friends you’ve made at DR? Share your work on our Discord server!
The Juno Database has been updated! If you didn’t attend one of our last events of the season, you may have missed the reset. You might need to remake your characters before this event, so I’ve included step by step instructions in a blog post on the topic. Check it out here!
Feedback is open for the next quarter! We’ve opened a new channel on our Discord called #DRL-feedback, so you can have a say in what I represent for our chapter. Each quarter, we get to pick our five most pressing changes we would like to see, so if you feel up to it get involved in the conversation!
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.
Our photos for this post were taken from previous DR:TX events by our talented Photo Team, including Lily-Jay Jones, Miranda Farmer, Noah Goodman, and Max Pohlmeier.
Season 7 - a season of “IDENTITY”
It’s been a long summer, so let’s start off with our setting updates from last season. Where did we last leave off, and what the heck just happened? If you are just now joining us, or you had a long and eventful summer, don’t worry! This season is aimed at resetting expectations and really digging into what DR Live is about. As we continue our stories for this season, these are some of the themes and stories you can expect to see revisited each game.
a common theme
Each season, we look to isolate a particular theme for the entire set of events. This core theme inspires our stories for the season, and it’s a guiding light for our Storytellers as they develop their stories for each event. We’ve explored themes of Horror, War, and even Survival over the last few years, but this year we decided to take a step back and look at something more integral to each of our characters — IDENTITY.
DR Live is a brand new system, and our stories this season really need to focus on laying a new foundation for the years to come. This is a place for new stories, new heroes, and new villains. While we had a few games to explore DR Live last season, this will be our first full season in the new system. We have new new archetypes, new strategies, and new options for our characters, so it’s important to really establish what the identity of this new system means for our game.
Because the world of DR Live is full of fun new lore and a fresh new look at the zombie apocalypse, we’ve updated a few of our factions, focused our setting even further on our home of Bravado, and sunsetted some arcs that came to a natural conclusion over last season.
There’s never been a better time to join our story than at this brand new beginning.
But at the heart of all of this story is the simple question —- who are you?
How does the identity of self, place, and culture impact your decisions in the wasteland? These three ideals are vitally important to our characters and can create conflict by offering context or opposition. A character will have distinct ways that they view themselves, particularly when it comes to where you live, what groups you consider yourself part of, or even what your actions say about you. A good way to refine someone’s idea of something is to tell them information incongruous with their personal perspective — you’ll find a need to correct them!
What do you believe in? Are those beliefs immutable, or can they change in light of more information? Faiths have changed considerably in the new DR Live books, so we must consider the new path forward during Season 7. How are your characters adapting to new religious tenets, or have you decided upon a new subsect or heresy of your faith? What does it mean to be faithful in the apocalypse, and is there a line you are willing to draw when it comes to what motivates you?
How does the world see you? For your strain, your birthplace, your residence, your occupation, how are you perceived by the other denizens of the world? Can we juxtapose these known stereotypes, or seek out ways these shape our identity? What does it mean to be a Vado? What does it mean to be a member of your crew? Are you a sum of your skills and choices you made in your character design, or is your profession part of our core identity in a different way? What does it mean to be your strain?
Are you defined by your past, or the decisions you made before? In a game rooted with a decade of history, how are these ideas of history core to your beliefs? How have characters changed through war and cataclysm? How has the world? What is the distance between people, groups, and places at their inception versus how they are now? What if you weren’t here for the war — how can you fit into that storied past when its all just history you never experienced personally?
When in doubt, you should ask how your personal stories will focus on the conflict of identity. How do you make people care about your characters and plots? Find a way to make that connection personal. We want to explore your backstories, and create new threads to get invested with. Meet that new NPC. Walk down that dark path in search of answers. Take risks. Do the dumb. Decide what is important to you.
What new story will you tell in DR Live? We want to create a new set of stories for a new edition of our game. We should be able to be informed by past stories, without being beholden to them. What is the next chapter of your story?
Major Overarcs for Season 7
While many of our events this season will focus on a particular story line, there will be some recurring stories that take place over several events as part of our season-long stories. These stories won’t progress over a single event, but rather evolve over several months to their climax and conclusion. These are not stories that will be resolved after a single mod, but something that is shaped by your decisions during each game.
Some important events to expect our stories to cover this season in Bravado:
The Tri-City Alliance
In May, the town signed a monumental peace treaty with their neighbors in the Junkerpunks and the Mustang Loyalists. This treaty provides for a shared defense of the San Saba peninsula and sets some common-sense rules for respecting the sovereignty of the three settlements. This year promises newfound trade, commerce, and communal support for the region, as the fires of war finally begin to settle. While each town has promised to put the past behind them and focus on the shared prosperity of the alliance, the civil war in Drywater is a stark reminder of how fragile peace can be.
Resource Scarcity in the Apocalypse
Our continuing economic story focuses on simple survival in a terrible wasteland that is constantly trying to kill you. The most dangerous threat in the wasteland is your fellow survivor, and in a world where scrap and herb are as important as Brass, providing for your basic needs can be a challenge. How can you ponder deeper questions of identity when your stomach is growling? With three thriving towns in close proximity, resources are scarce and contested. Simple luxuries like electricity, safety, and fresh water are at a premium. The dangerous wasteland continues to introduce new deadly threats to contend with, while the Mortis Amaranthine churns out new undead horrors. What will you do to simply survive?
The Liberation of Drywater
Last season, the nefarious pirates of the Drowned Sun attacked and occupied the neighboring port of Drywater, across the lake from Bravado. The bloody attacks sent the Junkerpunks fleeing to Bravado to rebuild and make a plan to reclaim their home. This civil war between the pirates of Drywater has many residents of the town just trying to keep their heads down lest they become the next victims of the mad graverobber Capricorn, and the charismatic pirate queen, Margeaux Latiche. Over this season, the town of Bravado will have a chance to help their allies reclaim their home and fight back against the villainous plans of the Drowned Sun.
The Evolution of the Peacekeepers
During the treaty summit, control of the Bravado Militia passed into the hands of General Mustang, the Fallow Hope leader of the neighboring city of Bastion. This military force is being reshaped for a new era, as the needs of the San Saba have shifted in the wake of the alliance. An army is no longer necessary to fight a war, so something new has emerged. Work is being done to slowly transition the Militia into the Peacekeepers, as they clear out corrupt officers, work to consolidate their best soldiers, and convert people into a singular ideal of communal defense. While there are certainly growing pains as people who were once enemies fight side by side, how can you maintain distrust when you have to work with them everyday?
The Season 7 Premise
A new dawn breaks over the San Saba. Through the embers of the Burning Season, the town of Bravado emerges into a brave new world. For the first time in years, a chance for real peace looms on the horizon and the echoes of war fade into memory. The wasteland is still a harsh and unforgiving place, and survival is never guaranteed, especially in a world of unending hordes of zombies and deadly raiders.
The new Tri-City Alliance has made a promise of renewed diplomacy, trade, and peace, but the red skies over Drywater betray the unity of the nearby settlements of Bravado and Bastion. With Drywater still in the hands of the fearsome pirates of the Drowned Sun, the displaced Junkerpunks have taken refuge in Bravado, adding new mouths to feed and new competition for limited resources. The Mustang Loyalists of Bastion have reinforced the beleaguered Militia, reforming it into a new force under the command of the infamous General Mustang. The Peacekeepers, a new vision of security in the wastes, have focused their defense on the San Saba peninsula, erecting new watch towers and walls to protect the shared interests of the Alliance.
New laws and organization have reshaped the tiny town of Bravado, moving one step further from anarchy and towards structure and society. With the Law Dog Union leading the hunt for criminals and terrorists, the Justices of Sin turn their gaze inwards to reform their ranks with the help of the Arbiters of Bond. The Ox has moved back to Essex, leaving Bravado a forgotten stop on the rail lines of the San Saba. The RRC has once again chased their dreams of scrap and salvation into the ruins of Morgan’s Folly under exciting new leadership. The Grave Council has echoed Bravado’s concerns about the faltering Mortis and potential corrupted Morgue, but has focused on the mysteries of Necrology to protect the new Vaults of Reckoning underneath Pride’s Hold.
The survivors of Bravado now face a moment to contemplate the choices they made during the War of Antlers, and to focus once more on the immediate concerns of surviving in a hostile apocalypse. Simple decisions like finding fuel, scrap, and food drive most days for a survivor in Bravado, but in those quiet moments between simple survival comes the questions. Who are you, really? What identity will you choose to define you? What makes your efforts mean something in this new world? How will your choices ahead inform who you will become? How will you avoid being left behind in a world where you no longer have a war to fight? Will anyone remember Bravado, as the strange fogs continue to tear at the memory of those outside?
New threats, new faces, and new challenges await Bravado in the new year. Will you be a survivor, or will you be lost to the Fog of Memories and the endless churn of the undead?
THE PREMISE - red skies at morning
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. You might be familiar with the old sailing advice, “Red Skies at Morning, Sailor Take Warning”, and it seems to be a good reminder as we start our season.
The DR:TX team has prepared some fun stories ahead, so let’s see what is in store for RED SKIES AT MORNING:
The horizon glows amber and red long before the dawn over the skies of the Tri-City Alliance. As the world burns as it is wont to do under the baleful ire of the summer sun in the San Saba, days are marked by a sun made red by the choking clouds of ash that drift and fall like some cruel parody of snow over the land. However, the red skies on the horizon are not just the product of the Burning Season, but a reminder of the ongoing conflict across the shores of Lake Bravo, from the neighboring town of Drywater.
Junkerpunks aligned with the incumbent leader Sinker Swim have fled to Bravado from their burning city and the brutal culling of Margeaux Latiche and her Drowned Suns. As those loyal to Sinker and the Tri-City Alliance seek refuge among the Vados, back in their home of Drywater, those who would rise against the mutiny of the Suns are hunted down and killed, or worse, turned into agents against their former comrades by the twisted graverobber Capricorn. Deep in the bowels and annals of the Drywater morgue, the morbid mortician uses the Third Red Riot as a cover to feed and nourish a festering cancer within this necrotic nursery, perfecting it before they can release their vengeance and Magnum Opus upon Bravado.
As if this conflict was not enough of a threat to the residents of the San Saba, the Burning Season has presented new and even more dangerous challenges. Taxing in its gentlest iterations, this particular Burning Season is made all the more eventful by the fields of the Glow Shrooms planted in the Exclusion Zone by the joint efforts of Bastion and the Wells Society to aid in the suppression of the oppressive radioactive zone. As the raging wildfires sweep over the lands of nearby Bravado, the mushrooms have succumbed to the seasonal inferno by releasing their baleful payload into the air. These new Radioactive Firestorms push about swaths of Raiders, Critters, and Zed that flee (or chase) its withering miasma.
When the air is alight with radioactive fire, the only shelter is what you can make in the fleeting moments of safety indoors. Can the fragile walls and windows of your town survive the withering radioactive heat before it burns you to a crisp?
Unfortunately, tides take time to turn, and the world will not wait for you to sort your squabbles before turning you and all you know into glowing ash and choking dust. Will you heed the warning?
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 RED SKIES AT MORNING!
Dante’s Peak & Volcano
Disaster movies are certainly in theme for the Burning Season. While the main reason we don’t use Camp Bluebonnet over the summer is due to conflicts with Girl Scout events, the Burning Season has been our annual story for what happens to our survivors during the intervening months. This movie combines the cheesy 90’s action movie with the implacable threat of magma, fire, and destruction. There is no escaping the threat in this film, as the characters need to deal both with other residents that don’t take the warnings seriously, or get trapped by the consequences of their own decisions. These types of movies are perfect to capture the spirit of the Burning Season.
The RoaD
This is a brutal film of survival in a deadly wasteland. It covers the grueling journey of a father and his young son over several months across a landscape blasted by an unspecified cataclysm that has destroyed industrial civilization and nearly all life. While it can be an intense watch, it’s a great way to really capture the challenges that face our survivors in DR Live. People have to make tough choices to survive, and it often puts them at odds with other survivors. The scenes of scavenging for food, staying hidden while dangerous raiders are nearby, and surviving in a world that seems to want you dead is a perfect companion to our stories of survival.
This event combines environmental danger with the needs of simple survival during a tense time for Bravado. As the Burning Season wanes and the dangers of other settlements threatens to impact our home, it’s time to establish strong bonds with your fellow Vados in the quest for what amounts for survival in the post apocalypse. Bravado is vulnerable and it’s up to you to survive the storm!
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.
FIRE, FIRE, EVerywhere
The Burning Season is ending, but the danger is still present. During the summer in Bravado, the heat is a very real danger (much like in real life Texas). The unforgiving sun sparks firestorms, damages buildings, and grinds the entire region to a halt. For a few months, citizens either flee the area, or hunker down to wait out the deadly heat. Even the zombies and raiders don’t stand much chance against the environment. This season, the radioactive Glow Shrooms have enhanced the danger — now the fire is radioactive!!
Expect some environmental Zone of Mechanics. You’ll need to work together to survive the deadly heat, from putting out fires that threaten your cabins, dealing with deadly zombies while trying to seek shelter inside the buildings of Bravado, and simply repairing the damage done to the town over the long Burning Season. You might need to take certain actions to avoid damage while outdoors or look for obvious ways to deal with the fire that threatens your town through several kinetic events.
This isn’t a problem to fix — it’s problem to survive. This isn’t a story of a ‘monster of the week’, but rather one that deals with an implacable foe — nature itself. While you can defend against burning zombies and deadly raiders, this is a danger to be endured, not stopped. These threats won’t be fixed by hitting them with a boffer, but will be need to evaded in order to survive. When a firestorm is sighted, you’ll need to take shelter indoors to avoid damage and other effects called by the guides, and hope that something worse doesn’t seek shelter with you.
Resource scarcity, and the struggle to provide for yourself in the apocalypse
There will be some resource sinks during this event, but none will require massive investments. The impact of the Burning Season will be felt across the town, but these repairs and damages will focus more on your particular actions during the game rather than a need for a ton of scrap. These repairs will involve roleplay and kinetic actions to fix, not Mind points. Your Skills will help reduce the costs and times needed to return the town to function, but any character can participate in helping the town survive the radioactive firestorms.
3.0 Scrap is expiring soon! Scrap cards that don’t have an expiration date will expire in February 2026. This even includes the Natural Scrap that would have expired sooner, so 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. One lesson we see every September is that many items (like Herbs) were scarcer than folks imagined they would be. A lot of these farmed resources may have gone bad over the summer, so there will be a rush of folks trying to rebuild their stores for a new season. There’s still going to be a LOT of folks building new equipment after the summer and or excited by some items that are brand new since our last event in May. 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!
MISTAKES, RULES ERRORS, and CORRECTIONS IN FIELD
This is literally everyone’s first game of the season. We are all still learning a new system at the same time. We have some brand new guides and Storytellers for Season 7. We will make mistakes, we will get the rules wrong, and so will you. While many of the new systems are intuitive, it’s still a lot of information to absorb at once. We must treat every moment of this event as everyone’s first game ever, and treat our fellow players as if they were tender-horns experiencing the world for the first time. For some of our players, it literally will be!
Please show your fellow players and our staff grace and forgiveness. For this event, we will especially ask for your grace, patience, and forgiveness as we experience the ups and downs of our first event of the season. Please be kind to your fellow players and especially our volunteer staff, as we all have the same goal — telling an amazing story in the zombie apocalypse. We will learn and explore this new system together.
Correct and Move On. If we make a mistake in the field, as either a guide or player, we will practice a strategy of fixing it for future encounters. We won’t try to reset or roll back any major rules calls, but trust our Guides to make the call in the moment. If we find an error later, we will correct and move on with the right ruling for any future instances. We might have to calibrate a combat encounter on the fly, so be prepared for sudden ends to fights, and generally expect us to continue to improve as the weekend goes on. We will try to avoid any major scene or continuity breaks, and try to keep everything in game as much as possible.
There may be delays at the Post Office. We appreciate your patience as we work with a leaner team of guides in the new season. We’ve changed up some of our coverage to account for the new needs of DR Live, but this is something we will continue to iterate and improve over this season. We will be training some new guides, so there may be some delays or mistakes at the Post Office during your crafting trips. Please be prepared to show some grace to our Logistics Guides!
Wrap Up
That’s it for today, Vados.
We hope that you will come join us for our next event, RED SKIES AT MORNING. The Burning Season makes an already hostile wasteland even more forgiving. How will you band together to survive a town where the air hurts to breathe? Will you survive the deadly firestorms that sweep through Bravado, or will you be reduced to cinders? Will you be able to help the Junkerpunks plot the liberation of their home town from the Drowned Sun? Will you find out how the other inhabitants of the wasteland survive the deadly Burning Season? Will you be able to bury the hatchet on old grudges and embrace the bright new future that awaits Bravado in Season 7? Let’s find out together!
See you soon, Vados!
