The Charter Summit
Howdy Vados!
It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to next Dystopia Rising Live event THE POLITICS OF ANARCHY! This game will be led by Jonathan Loyd and Heather Halstead. 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 some final RULES YOU SHOULD KNOW about our upcoming in-game event, the Charter Summit!
Ticket sales are closed, but you can still get a ticket at the door! Don’t miss out on our season finale!
The Juno Database has been updated! You’ll need to remake your characters before this event, and I’ve included step by step instructions in a blog post on the topic. This is super important to make sure that you can check in for the May event and have a character sheet, so we need your help! Check it out here!
Feedback is starting up at the owner level for DR Live! 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. 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 will have a special SUMMER online event called BRAVADO-CON coming soon! This will be a virtual event held through Discord on Saturday, June, 27th, so SAVE THE DATE! Stay tuned for more info!
Our photos for this post were taken from previous DR:TX events by our talented Photo Team, including Lily-Jay Jones and Miranda Farmer.
CAmp bluebonnet work day! (Fri may 30th - Sat may 31st)
Camp Bluebonnet Shores is our Bravado home, and from time to time this community pitches in to help keep the camp looking nice and functioning not just for us, but for the Girl Scout troops that also call the site home. On the weekend of May 30-31st, we will be giving back as part of a special charity camp work day event.
As a special bonus this year, we are offering up to 10 XP for folks who come out Friday and Saturday! Earn FREE XP just by helping out the Girl Scouts!
That’s enough to afford your first Profession skill, some more Body or Mind, or even just a few new Impact Skills, just in time for the national event DEATH CON in June. If you’re looking for an edge over the summer but can’t attend a National game, this is your chance!
You can be onsite as early at 2:00 pm Friday, but we won’t really start clean up events until the next day. On Friday night we’ll have a potluck and hang out with your friends out of character. Bring some food to share, and maybe your favorite board game, M:tG deck, or some smores!
On Saturday, we’ll start the day with some coffee and tackle some necessary projects the Camp needs done. Bring some clothes to paint in and wear your close toed shoes. This will mostly be manual labor around the site, either painting, cleaning, or cleaning up the grounds. We’ll break for lunch around 1pm (don’t worry, we got this one!) and end the day around 5:00 pm.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q: What time are we starting THE CLEAN UP EVENT?
Bluebonnet will be open at 2:00 PM on Friday, but the fun starts at 6:00 PM. We have a planned potluck that evening, or you can get food in nearby Belton. I’ll bring a few board games if folks are interested, and maybe a Commander deck or two.
Saturday, we will start at 9:00 AM after some morning coffee and go until either 5:00 PM or until our chore list is complete! Lunch will be provided by DR:TX, so don’t worry!
Q: IS THERE A COST TO ATTEND THIS EVENT?
Nope! Just whatever cost it takes you to get to Belton to help out! This is a charity event, so there’s no charge at all! You’ll be responsible for whatever food plans you want to make for Friday night and breakfast on Saturday, but we will order some pizza for lunch on Saturday.
Q: Does this extra XP apply to all of my characters if I have an Advanced Membership?
YES! This is a special set of XP provided to you for the Clean Up Day event. It stacks with your Advanced Membership, so EVERY character will get this perk. Amazing!
Q: Does this extra charity XP go over my XP cap?
No. This 10 XP will be awarded in May 2025, so if you attend too many other events this month you may hit the cap of 25 XP. This means you can attend our DR:TX event in May as a brand-new player, buy extra XP, and still not be at the cap (13+10). Most folks will earn up to 8 xp per game, so this shouldn’t be an issue for our players.
Q: Can we stay on site on Saturday night?
Unfortunately no. The Girl Scouts will be starting their orientation for summer camp the next day, so we need to be off site after the work day is completed Saturday afternoon. There will be a few guests from the Girl Scouts on site too, so remember to be neighborly!
Q: What Cabins will be open?
We plan on using Redbud Cabin (The Dusthouse) for this event. This is a climate-controlled cabin, so we will have access to the air conditioning. Whew! If we get too many folks that show up, we will likely use Oak or Cedar depending on which cabin is available.
Q: What tasks will wE be completing on Saturday?
While we don’t a complete list of tasks yet, we can cover some of the tasks we’ve been asked to do previously. We recommend bringing old clothes that you are fine with getting covered in paint, and plenty of sunscreen and clothing appropriate for the likely heat.
Here’s what we’ve done before:
Painting the benches around the fire circle to the new Girl Scout green color
Painting the additional picnic tables around Kiva the new green color
Painting the porch of Kiva to match the color of the building.
Rock removal from the grassy area around the flag circle
Dutch oven clean up
Replace ropes on damaged tents and open-air cabin areas.
Limb removal and cutting firewood for the summer. If you can bring a saw, we would appreciate it!
Making cleat boards for sailing instruction.
Helping move/assemble/set up bunk beds (no tools needed!)
We will likely have some additional projects to work on just in case, but the Girl Scouts are excited to have the extra support for their upcoming summer season.
Q: WHAT SHOULD I BRING?
We will have access to the climate-controlled cabins, so bring the usual sheets, sleeping bags, or air mattresses you’ll need, as well as the normal toiletries and snacks. We recommend bringing a water bottle and sunscreen too! Stuff like a hat, gloves, and solid shoes should be considered, and if you want to bring any games or activites for Friday night you are sure to find some takers.
Will you be able to answer questions about Season 7 plots?
Nope! We are happy to talk about stories from the past season, but we have some VERY cool plans for Season 7, don’t worry!
THE charter SUMMIT
In my last post, we covered some of the CHOICE POINTS you can expect to encounter during our event THE POLITICS OF ANARCHY. Today, we are going to cover the specifics of the CHARTER SUMMIT, an in-game event that will take place on Saturday after the siesta, at 4:00 PM.
The important decision the faces the town is how to cement the relationship with their nearest neighbors. While our area of the San Saba covers the whole 10-mile radius around Bravado, our most pressing stories will be dealing with the folks that can most reasonably impact our town - Drywater and Bastion. As we continue our stories into Season 7, you can expect these two nearby towns to be the subject of most of our upcoming stories in the region. Both towns are mostly in walking distance of Bravado, and things that impact these locations will likely be an issue for Bravado too. Simply put, it will be easier to have allies than enemies in your neighbors, so it makes sense to consider how you can make this a reality.
Starting in the DEPOT, you’ll have your chance to establish a working treaty with your neighbors in Drywater and Bastion. This will be a social event, aimed at those that are excited for politics and role play. We will still have other threats in the world, mods, and other activities happening at the same time, so if this isn’t something you are interested in you’ll still get to be a survivor in the zombie apocalypse.
In the interest of not having a 12 hour debate about rules and treaties, Heather and I have worked out a plan to keep the story focused on the task at hand and give every a chance to interact with the plot if they wish. We’ve provided a copy of the instructions that you’ll get at the story event this weekend
The Summit will broken into three different groups, each running at the same time.
Each resident of Bravado may choose ONE of the three groups to join, as each of the three meetings will happen at the same time. The group will be responsible for adding to and creating the language for a portion of the treaty, and using their voices to collectively craft a document for the Tri-City Alliance.
In each group you’ll get a starting document provided by the Wells Society and the Justices of Sin, with some simple “fill in the blank” parts if you come up with some new ideas or have a particular concern with the treaty. You’ll need to decide as a group how to complete the tasks given in the documents, and decide the future for the Alliance. There will be face NPCs from the various factions present in each group to lend their advice and support for the ideas the players present.
Our goal with this three-part approach is to facilitate productive and expedient role play, but also make you choose what is most important to you in the process. We want this to be an engaging political role play scene, but we don’t want to turn it into a C-SPAN session. With three separate groups, we can have some fun opportunities for role play without taking up the entire weekend in debates.
Once the discussion and negotiation is complete, Heather and I will combine each document into a single treaty to present for a signature, following the rules for the Bravado Charter. Based on the recommendations of the Wells Society and the Justices of Sin, there are three areas of focus for the Summit:
Rules & Representatives
This group will be tasked with deciding who represents Bravado for the purposes of the treaty, as well making sure to provide ways to update the treaty should something occur in the future. If each settlement is to decide their own law and order and remain sovereign, there needs to be some common rules and laws that each settlement recognizes, like murder, theft, and the like. If the town can decide on some common shared values and how to change out representatives for the future, it gives the town a representative to speak on Bravado’s behalf should something arise that threatens all three settlements. If you like suggesting new laws, this is a perfect group to be involved with.
Dispute Resolution & Reparations
This group will be tasked with finding a solution and compromise between the two warring Junkerpunk factions, the conflict between the Militia and the Drywater, and how to deal with threats like the Midnight Covenant. The Law Dog Union has a basic framework for some of these resolutions ready, but the main point of order will be deciding if there should be some form of reparations for war crimes or long standing grudges. Each settlement has something they really want from the others, so it’ll be up to the players here to resolve the conflict once and for all. If you fancy yourself a diplomat, this will be a great place to show of your influence over the various characters involved.
Collective Defense & Enforcement
The main issue facing the last group will be how to deal with the Bravado Militia. This will determine if there is a debt owed by Bravado during each event in Season 7 to support the collective defense of the San Saba. You’ll have some options to decide who pays for this cost, including avoiding a tax altogether, but each will have some consequences you’ll need to consider. This group will get to decide how much Bravado needs to pay each event, and determine if the Militia will stick around for Season 7 .
There will be more to uncover in game if you attend, but this is a major CHOICE POINT for the event. If the treaty is signed, it’ll be a big step forward for the town and their new allies. If you can’t get everyone to agree to support the treaty, Bravado may be forced to weather any coming storms alone.
Our goal with this in-game event is to give our players agency in deciding how law and order function for our next season, as well as making some BIG decisions on how you deal with your neighbors. Drywater and Bastion can be powerful allies, or powerful enemies, and it’ll be up to you to decide!
rules you should know
During our next event, THE POLITICS OF ANARCHY, one of the primary dangers will be your fellow survivors. As such, let’s consider a few prominent skills that are useful in CVC as well as ones you might see on a few unique local threats.
Murder -- Target Both (Player’s guide, p. 63)
With this skill, an individual may call “20 Body, Murder” and land a single Strike with a Melee Small or Ranged Attack to the torso. If successful, and if this strike causes the Target to fall into Bleed Out, the Target skips their Bleed Out count and is considered to have instantly received a Killing Blow.
Countered by Avoid: This skill can be negated by Avoid.
No Vitals to Stab: Most Zombies are immune to Murder.
Let’s cover a few important notes here. This is a skill that’s on a few different enemy raider, critter, and zed threats as well as being the signature ability of the Assassin Impact Skill Profession. This profession is based of off the Impact Skills Blinding and Piercing Strike, so you can generally expect a foe that can use this skill to have those abilities as well. You can also see this skill on a few deadly TRAPS as well.
Murder can only be delivered by certain weapons and traps. If it’s not a critter or zed, your enemy is gonna have to use specific equipment to use this skill. If the person is using a giant weapon, this is probably not a skill you’ll need to worry about. (Well, mostly…)
Most zombies are immune. Murder is mainly useful against living threats. Save it for your fellow survivors, critters, or raiders that aren’t in Raider Rage.
This attack is armor piercing. Murder deals Body damage, so this ignores any points of Armor the target may have. This makes this very effective against armored opponents and it makes it an excellent finishing blow after dealing some initial damage in the fight. Most assassins won’t lead with this attack, but will save it for an opportune moment when you can’t easily defend.'
It must be a fatal blow to count as a Killing Blow. If the 20 damage included in the strike as part of this ability isn’t enough to knock them into bleed out, then the Murder effect doesn’t trigger. It may take multiple uses of Murder to kill a particularly tough target with a lot of Body.
You need to be precise. The easiest way to escape a Murder call is if the attack contacts a weapon or shield first, or hits another part of your body other than the torso. This attack needs to hit a vital spot in order to work, so no, you can’t murder someone by striking their foot.
This is an attack that can (and should!) be prevented with Avoid. This means all of the items that work with Avoid are useful here, such as the Daline Go-With-the-Flow or even the armor ability of the Counterbalance Rigging. This is mostly used a finishing blow, so remember that a target in Bleed Out can’t really prevent this effect.
Master Faithful Miracles can stop this effect. Because the Murder call is functionally a Killing Blow, this is one of the few non-equipment means to stop the instant death attack. The Killing Blow will trigger the Knockback effect of the buff, so make sure you have a plan to get away once it goes off.
Proficient Biokinesis can DELAY the effect, but not prevent it. This is one of the skills that can be slowed down by the delaying effect, but you’ll take all the Murder calls 30 minutes later and they can’t be prevented. Murder is especially deadly if someone is using this ability.
This is an instant Killing Blow. This is probably one of the most useful parts of this ability. Because it is a much quicker deadly strike than a simple three-count Killing Blow, Murder prevents the target from using injectables or other quick healing to bounce back.
There’s a few pieces of crafted equipment that can modify this skill even further.
Brain Shudder Blade - This is a particularly deadly blade, stopping most means of preventing Infection loss. This is a powerful combination with the Murder skill.
Steel Main Gauche ‘Blade’ - This item lets you spend a use of Murder to call two smaller hits of Murder instead. This is great for dealing with multiple weaker threats, or quickly finishing off a downed victim.
Striker’s Coat - This is the only item that specifically stops Murder, but it costs Resolve and requires you to be in Murder Inc. It’s a powerful item, but a bit more restrictive to use in the new world of DR Live.
As you can tell, this is a very deadly ability in the hands of an Assassin.
abduct (corpse catalog, p. 8)
Allows the user to drag a non-willing target, similar to the Drag Handle skill.
This ability is a threat-version of the popular Drag Handle profession skill (p. 63, Player’s Guide). Some particularly deadly monsters might have this ability, particularly ones that enjoy dragging you off into a dark corner away from your friends. This has a few main points to consider:
This ability doesn’t require you to be willing. The monster is happy to drag you away kicking and screaming to consume your flesh in privacy. This also works on a target that is Unconscious, in Bleed Out, or stuck under the effect of Nail.
The monster gets 10 steps over 3 seconds. This doesn’t seem like much at first, but 10 steps is often enough to get you into the shadows away from a fight, or out a door.
This skill resets the target’s Bleed Out timer. While this does mean that you’ll get to enjoy your full bleed out timer while being eaten alive, it may offer some crucial time for your friends to get to you. Don’t forget this easily overlooked benefit!
Abduct can still be countered by “No Escape”. There’s a few items like the The Moulen Rude that can modify this ability, but you generally need to have the skill Cutthroat, found in the Night Cap profession.
Yikes! Make sure you have a Healing Injection handy!
Area of Effect (Modifier) (Corpse Catalog, P. 8)
Area of effect is a 10-foot radius for the mechanics for a skill or effect, centered on the user of the skill. No areas of effect outside of plot mechanic zones reach more than 10 feet. Areas of effect do not pass through structural walls, but they do bypass partial cover and non-permanent structures. (Player’s Guide, p. 83)
Skill affects a 10-foot radius, centered on the user. Effects do not pass through structural walls but bypass partial cover. (Corpse Catalog, p. 8)
Some threats this weekend will use larger radius effects that can hit multiple targets. Area of Effect attacks automatically hit any target in the range of the attack (sometimes even the user of the skill!). This will hit past a line of shields, through an open doorway, or behind a curtain. If it’s not a shut door or inside a building, you’ll be in range.
There’s only a few ways to interact with this ability, particularly the SHIELD MASTER skill of the Battle Wall profession. This powerful ability lets you react to a single AOE or Sound of My Voice call, and call “Shield Master” to negate the effects of the call on themselves. Much like how Avoid can negate a melee strike, this is the one real way to stop an AOE or Sound of my Voice attack.
You can’t use Interfere to take a hit from an AOE attack (p. 37), nor can you use Balance (p. 35) to stop the attack. The only time Balance works on an AOE call is if it also includes some sort of movement effect or causes the Stunned condition.
The Angry Anchor Riot Shield item is one way a Battle Wall can protect the people around them. This shield allows them to extend the protection of the Shield Master profession skill to up to two nearby allies.
The Fast Mover Vest can be a useful escape, provided you are the Skirmisher profession. This armor lets you expend one use of Agile Movement in response to an AOE or Sound of my Voice call not activated by the user to call 'Fast Mover'. You get to take up to 10 steps out of game and if you move out of range of the call, you do not suffer the effect. Keep in mind, this is generally solid against AOE effects, but Sound of my Voice calls are pretty big so you may not be able to get out of the radius if you are near the monster.
AOE effects can be pretty deadly, so maybe stick next to those big guys with shields?
Knockout (Player’s Guide, p. 37)
This skill allows an individual to call “Knockout” and, after landing a successful Strike with a brawler to a Target’s back torso (no other means), render the Target Unconscious. The Target remains Unconscious for 5 minutes or until they take any damage, experience any form of mechanical effect (after the Knockout is complete), or are roused by someone role-playing for at least 30 seconds to wake them.
Countered by Avoid: This skill can be negated by Avoid.
Unconscious State: The Target remains Unconscious for 5 minutes unless damaged or affected by another mechanic.
Rousing Role-Play: Another player can rouse the Target with at least 30 seconds of Full Engagement Role-Play to wake them.
I mentioned during our last blog post, but this is a powerful ability possessed by certain types of [REDACTED]. This can be a brutal ability, as it’s very challenging to save yourself if you don’t manage to avoid the strike, packet, or area of effect.
In most cases, this is an attack delivered by a brawler, so remember to save an Avoid! (or maybe a helpful piece of personal jewelry.) If the attack lands, you’ll need a nearby friend to save you.
This is a great skill to use to capture a player… um, I mean, a target with things like Binds or other dangerous abilities. When you are Unconscious, you can’t stop folks from looting your gear or carrying you away, applying dangerous effects to you, or tying you up with the Lockpicking & Security skill (p. 46, Player’s Guide).
The effects of a Gleaming Red Byproduct can make you immune to Knockout, if you use it before the attack is called.
Overwhelm (Player’s Guide, p. 86)
An attack or effect needs to be defended against twice to prevent the effect from occurring. Example: “Mangle - Overwhelm” would require 2 uses of Avoid to prevent. “Psionic Mangle (Limb) - Overwhelm.” would require 2 uses of Mental Endurance to prevent.
Certain powerful strikes can be hard to prevent, even if you are quick on your feet. When you hear the modifier OVERWHELM, you’ll have to defend TWICE. These attacks are hard to stop, and as a battle drags on and Impact Skills run low, these attacks will be especially deadly. However, remember that Overwhelm attacks still need to connect with a target in order to take the effect!
Wrap Up
Whew! That was a long one, but that’s it for today, Vados.
We hope that you will come join us for our next event, THE POLITICS OF ANARCHY. We’ve told a year-long story of the collapse of the San Saba, and it’s time for some BIG choices. Will you help resolve the civil war between the two Junkerpunk factions? Will you find a way to restore the balance to the San Saba and help the wounded Militia recover and reshape into a new fighting force? Will you settle your differences with Bastion and choose against a new war in the San Saba? 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!
