Howdy Vados!
It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to our December live event THE RED DEATH! This is our next Premiere Event game, led by Heather Halstead and Jonathan Loyd. 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 teasers about our upcoming key mechanics!
TICKETS FOR OUR DECEMBER EVENT ARE ON SALE NOW! GET READY for a macabre twist on the winter lights festival!
LIT Cashout! For the next couple of weeks, you can purchase a $0 Ticket to have your LIT inventory cashed out and ready for pickup at the December Premier Event. This $0 ticket acts as your place in line, so just snag your ticket, and we’ll ensure your supplies are waiting for you when you check in on Friday, December 8th. This opportunity is only for players with Texas as their home chapter and will be handled first come first served. We will have 30 tickets open for this next event, and additional opportunities for the cash out if you miss out, don’t worry!
If you had a great experience at our last event EMERGENCE or had some suggestions for how we can improve, we’d love to hear from you! Did you enjoy surviving the threat of the Behemoth Parasites? Did you contract “the wiggles”? Did you experience the body horror of the DIGESTION PITS? What did you like best? What memories did you make? How was your NPC shift? Did another player impress you?
Fill out our Feedback Form!
Nominate another player for a Community Achievement!
Our photos for this post were taken from previous DR:TX events by our talented Photo Team, by Max Pohlmeier, Lauren Guzaldo, and Maddeax Khole.
PREMIERE EVENT TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW!
First off, THE RED DEATH is a DR:TX PREMIERE EVENT.
Premiere Events are special events run by chapters to give their players the Special Event feel in their own chapter and telling their own stories. These are heightened events meant to be used with unique mechanics, one of a kind plot items, and an opportunity to push the limits of the game to give the community something really big to experience. These events are perfect opportunities to involve National level plots, mechanics, and items, and are a way to “blow the roof off the joint and make people’s heads spin.”
WHAT DO THEY OFFER?
MORE XP — Premiere Events off more bonus XP options! You can purchase up to FIVE (5) additional experience points for each of your characters during a Premiere Event. This is awesome for saving up for that point of Infection or a new PFA.
NATIONAL CONTENT— National items like Festering Crystals, ABCs, ARKs, and other National-level currency can be distributed during these events. Premiere events give out less of these items than a National game, but they will still be available through mods and events.
BIGGER PLOTS, BIGGER THREATS — In general you can expect a more intense threat than a normal DR:TX event during a Premiere game, including our very own breed of mysterious threat - the LONGWALKERS and NIGHTMARES.
SELF TEACH — You gain the ability to Self Teach ANY non-PFA Skill that you are able to learn, on each of your characters that are checked in. If you have an Advanced Membership, you can Self Teach a Skill for each of your three characters! This is a trick that normally costs 50-300 CAPS to get a teacher, so this is a great value. Have you been struggling to find a player that has that particular Skill you want? Look no further!
These events can also be held over 4-days, but we’ve elected to keep our Premiere Events to our normal 3-day duration, both to save our own sanity and not stretch our team thin.
These events can be held once per season, and December is our chosen month! We have a lot of travelers planning on attending this event, so we hope to have a killer experience to share with y’all.
New grab Bag!
For our featured Premiere Event, we have an extra special treat this year for the holidays — a return of a classic t-shirt you might have seen a few of the 2.0 veterans wear, updated for a new generation. In addition, you can some other cool goodies for both you AND your character!
OUR GRAB BAG THIS MONTH INCLUDES THE FOLLOWING FOR $25!
Entered into a raffle for a Free Ticket to “The Red Death” ($85 value)
Custom pen, sticker, mini-hand sanitizer
Free “I’d Rather Be In Bravado” t-shirt
San Saba Sundry (of your choice!)
Copper Chit: 1 Free Blueprint (redeemable at the Post Office)
Festering Crystal
The T-shirt will be available in M, L, XL, and 2XL, and this is your chance to take part in a Texas tradition that dates back to our very first seasons of play!
Now that you understand what a Premiere Event is, let’s talk a little bit about the story of the next event…
The Premise of “The Red Death”
It began in Widow’s Peak, just as the first candles of Winter Lights lit cozy windows. Strange, alien sirens wailed across the Peak, and lantern flames turned red. Animals began barking at shadows. And as the lights shifted, the night became deadly.
The Longwalkers, creatures of myth and imprint made reality that haunt the San Saba during the Long Night have changed, transformed into something from our deepest nightmares. Fleeing Lovelace survivors speak of a terrible malevolence within the once predictable threats. No longer are they content to haunt the Long Night, but they move from the shadows into a new nightmare made reality.
Now that the ancient Obelisk in Lake Bravo is silent, a new song rises across the San Saba, an echo of the music of the spheres heard months ago. Changes roll across the Territories, as the red masque of death spreads from the Peak. The shadows begin to lengthen in Essex, in Waking, and the Clutch, the shadowy figures within marching towards a new destination.
These new monstrous Nightmare Walkers are called by this siren song back to Bravado, to answer the call of their new master, the Prince Undying, the mad architect of Barogue. His influence spreads across the wastes, warping reality, afflicting zed, creature and raider alike.
And yet the darkness is not only full of terrors. Reports of the long dead rising to bid their loved ones welcome during the Winter Lights spread just as quickly as the crimson mist. But as the truth of the world bends and folds around itself, what is real and what is a symptom of a creeping madness?
If you missed out on our summer online event, we wrote a few bits of backstory about some of the villains and enemies you might face this month:
Sounds like an ancient threat is returning…
Inspiration & Tropes
This season in Bravado we have focused on bringing some new elements of Survival Horror to the forefront of the story. 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 to inspire your role play for this event, here’s a list of our favorites to get ready for THE RED DEATH:
The Masque of the Red Death
Silent Hill
Drag Me To Hell
Stranger Things
Ghost
The traditions of Bravado are no longer sacred, they have become profane. The Nightmare spreads across the region as the Prince Undying turns his sights to our town, but this influence spreads to the creatures as well, twisting zed and Longwalkers alike into Nightmarish versions of themselves. The town must find a way to shore up the boundary between the nightmare Realm and this one and push back the Prince’s influence from their land and minds.
You’ll find elements of this story in Silent Hill, where the world changes as the strange sirens begin to wail, as shadowy ghosts like in the finale of Ghost try to drag you screaming into hell, and as the entire world is turned upside down into a bizarre mirror of reality as the Red Death descends upon the town, like in Stranger Things. We will have a movie night over the next few weeks, sharing some of our inspiration for this next event, but this is a good list of movies to check out to get in the right mood.
With that in mind, let’s cover a few of the major ingredients we have in mind for this next game…
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 event.
Heavy Ritual themes (not linked to any religion)
One aspect of the upcoming event is the use of rituals, and ritualistic themes. Dealing with the Nightmare of the Prince Undying has perverted and twisted the Winter Lights traditions of our event into something different, and these themes will come up during our resolution of the event and as part of several in-game rituals and events, including Grave Mind scenes. These are not tied to any specific religion, in-game or out, but we understand the sanctity of the season and how these might connect in unexpected ways.
You can also read a bit more about our particular take on holiday traditions, Winter Lights.
Loss of grasp on reality
The Nightmares that have descended on Bravado exist in a place not quite the same as our world, as only certain characters with the Keyword “Nightmares” can interact with these threats. Madness, paranoia, and the loss of grasp on reality are important themes included in the Nightmare and this may not be something you can entirely avoid during the event, particularly from roaming threats. These mechanics may include Fractures or other mechanics that simulated this loss of connection to the real world, particularly as night falls.
Loss of mobility, freedom of movement
The creatures that hunt you in the darkness as death descends on Bravado will use various manners of abilities that make you helpless or unable to escape their assault as they try to literally “drag you to hell”. The loss of agency as movement is a big part of the horror trope, as folks are “scared stiff” or are unable to move out of fear. These mechanics and situations will be present during this event, but we will always check for consent before touching or moving a helpless target and want to help you buy into the terror of being dragged away screaming by the nightmarish terrors in the night.
If you choose to opt out of these situations with the OK Check In System, don’t worry. There’s still plenty to do during the event, and we will have the usual threats of zombies and raiders, and the continuing story of the San Saba. There’s still a WAR going on, and there will be other mods and challenges during the event outside of the Nightmares. You’ll still be able to complete Liquidation Runs, craft and gather resources, and spend time with your friends. If this is still a bit much for you, don’t worry, we have some more scary stories next year in February.
The Red Death Descends…
We have a few things to prepare for as the Red Death approaches Bravado. This game, you’ll see the return of some classic threats and mechanics, as well as some entirely new changes to reality. I’ll cover the specifics of these in a future blog post, but here’s a sneak peek:
Alone in the Dark
First used by our friends in DR: Virginia, and written by Phil Grau, the Alone in the Dark mechanics provide an interesting challenge for those that try to travel alone across town.
First used by our friends in DR: Virginia, and written by Phil Grau, the Alone in the Dark mechanics provide an interesting challenge for those that try to travel alone across town. We used these last year and Heather has some new and terrifying encounters planned out for what happens if you get caught ALONE IN THE DARK. Hope you brought a buddy to the zombie apocalypse!
The Masque of the Red Death
When darkness falls, Bravado will get LOT more dangerous. Candles will turn red, lights will be disrupted, and strange sirens will begin wailing across the town. While the Red Death lays over the town, DEATH seems both closer and further away as those who die get back up immediately, only to be dragged away by shadowy nightmares at a later time.
Resource gathering will be more challenging at night, and will require the expenditure of RESOLVE, as reality itself seems to bleed away.
When a person dies, they Bleed Out and are returned to play immediately. They stay at 1 Body, lose an Infection, lose a Resolve (with a potential for Fractures), and gain a level of Nightmares. This means they can now interact with the shadowy creatures that will be attempting to draw them deeper into the madness of the Nightmare.
Those that die to threats in the darkness will not experience the Grave Mind scene right away, but rather will be pursued by shadowy enemies that will attempt to drag them into hell, where they will face a horrible choice in the darkness.
The Nightmares of the Prince Undying
A few of y’all may have had a terrifying encounter with a giant 15’ threat that lurked in the darkness over the past few events, or other terrifying shades that stalk the night in pursuit of those that have touched the Nightmare. Back during our Barogue online event, THE UNDYING PRINCE, a few folks found a way to stay connected to the mysterious dreams of the Prince Undying. A few more even found a strange Nightmare Altar in the woods (or maybe at the crossroads last game) and made some questionable decisions that drew them further into the Nightmare. I even heard that was a strange rock that seemed to whisper when the shadows drew long…
During the December event, as the pall of the Nightmare grows closer when the Red Death descends upon Bravado, you will find all manners of creatures have become changed. Zed, Raiders, even Murder Goat Deer and Behemoth Polyps have been touched by the Nightmare and have developed strange and terrifying new abilities. Even other Strains have been touched by the Nightmare, leading to some unexpected mutations to Nemesis, Oxkillers, and more. These Nightmares will be particularly deadly to those that are marked by the Nightmare. You can expect not just the world to shift, but the things that go bump in the night to shift into this new reality as well.
Red Lights & Candles
When the Red Death descends upon Bravado, all of the lights in the town will turn RED. While we normally ask our players to bring tea lights to decorate in game spaces and cabins during Winter Lights, but this year we are asking for that same tradition, but with a twist:
Please bring RED tea lights (or multicolored versions that can be changed to RED) to decorate your spaces during this event. We will be offering CAPS for donations of these types of lights that you will find our Wish List this month. You can also simply use a red paper bag to place normal tea lights into to change the color to red.
Our in-game spaces like the Depot will have the normal lights disabled at night, and replaced with Red Dome Lights or bulbs through the spaces. We ask you to avoid using white lights in your cabins, and instead apply a red filter or gel, or cover it with red automotive lens tape. (In fairness, you should be doing this already, but here’s an extra incentive!)
Candles are an important part of the Winter Lights tradition and will have a few extra uses during this event as all the light turns to the color of blood…
Wrap Up
We hope that you are ready for the challenge of THE RED DEATH. How can you stop the machinations of the Prince Undying? Can you survive a world where death itself is changed and the night is blanketed in red? Will you escape the Nightmare Walkers or worse? We have some some fun and exciting challenges planned for your characters in the nightmarish zombie apocalypse. But don’t worry, it’s not just all about the RED DEATH, you’ll still need to deal with (nightmare) zombies, (nightmare) Oxkillers, (nightmare) raiders and more!
TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW, AND WE HAVE OUR SPECIAL grab bag RUNNING FOR A LIMITED TIME.
See you next time Vados, when we talk about how the dead return, and how you can have loved ones from your backstories enter the game, as a twist on the old legends of Boot Hill!
