It’s Jonathan here with our first weekly blog post for the upcoming event, THE EMERALD GALA. This is our December DR: TX Premiere Event written by Maenad Wilder and Shan Lind. Today we will talk a bit about some story teasers, some core mechanics and concepts for the event, and a reminder of some of the benefits of attending a Premiere Event. This month is going to also include a formal party, so we want to give you enough time to prepare for the social event of the season!
Our last event was a smaller, more intimate event and provided some amazing roleplay opportunities, but this event is going to really dig in the METAPLOT of the season, and some consequences from decisions and events last season. This post will discuss a few light STORY SPOILERS for our next event, so we hope you enjoy what we have in store!
Photo credits in this post are from Max Pohlmeier, Lainey Weiss, Crystal Louise Remy, and Noah Goodman.
PRemiere EVENt Tickets are on sale NOW!
First off, the EMERALD GALA 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, Imprint Crystals, and 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 — During a Premiere Event, we can also use unique National-level threats like Archons! I’ll cover a bit more about these apocalyptic threats in a future blog post. 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.
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.
You can also check our Content List here, before you purchase a ticket.
Let’s talk a little bit about the story of the next event…
A personal invitation from Felicity Redfield for the Emerald Gala
The Premise of the Emerald Gala
The Inventor’s Ball, otherwise known as the Emerald Gala, takes place on Waking Prime every year in the lofty penthouse levels of Eureka Tower. Technocrats and debutants trade gossip and trade-secrets over thin flutes of Pre-Fall champagne as they soar above the San Saba, and all its rugged candor. But Waking is Falling, inch by inch. And as the megalithic blimp-city descends below the cloud layer, its streets will fill with the same noxious fumes that give the Lonestar Sky its vibrant, blood orange hues.
Dispossessed, the Board turns to Felicity Redfield of the RRC. The owner of the lands Bravado has agreed to host the Emerald Gala here, in Bravado proper, in exchange for a very public favor. Saving face for the San Saba Board and Waking Prime means drawing their wealth, resources, privilege, and knowledge to Bravado Station, all in the hopes to stop the the greatest threat known to the San Saba and perhaps, the Greater Wastes - the unnatural outsiders known as ARCHONS.
A year ago to the date of the Inventor’s Ball, Archons descended upon New Bravado through the throat of the Monolith and ravaged the town before being beaten back by the combined might of the San Saba Territories and a signal that rendered the normally untouchable beasts, temporarily capable of sustaining harm. On that fateful night, Reckoner-General Rampart proclaimed that the Archons would return, a year to the day, according to the arcane mathematics of the Midnight Orrery, which reads the currents of the Mortis Amaranthine as if it were a rotating sphere of constellations.
And so, Felicity Redfield suggests a kind of exchange, not of gossip or trade-secrets, but of munitions capable of destroying the greatest threat known to the San Saba and perhaps, the Greater Wastes — the Emerald Arsenal. The greatest minds of the San Saba have been hard at work testing and creating new gizmos and machinery to meet this threat. These untested weapons must be capable of not only stopping this threat when it emerges but protecting all of the people in Bravado from this otherworldly incursion, lest the Archons rage through the Territories, unleashed in their predatory hunger. The Inventor’s Ball will be a premiere of their genius, on the one night that an incursion of the Archons can be predicted.
For, on the night of the Gala itself, the Archons will surely return dressed in their sharpest carapaces, wholly prepared to eviscerate the well-coiffed attendees of the Wasteland’s fanciest party, and the denizens of Bravado should be equally armed as they are prepared to meet this threat from beyond death itself, while ready to dance the night away in their finest Emerald Regalia. Gather your finest clothes, your deadliest arsenals, and prepare for a party at the end of the world.
So, there’s a few things mentioned there we need to talk about.
The emerald Gala
It wouldn’t be the party of the century if you didn’t come dressed in your very best. For this event on Saturday night of the game, we want to encourage you do something special with your costume. From 7PM to 12AM, we will be hosting the Emerald Gala during the event, and it will be a party with music, food, and fun. At the end of the Gala, it will culminate in a ballroom blitz when the ARCHONS arrive. How will you dress to impress?
What is your character’s idea of “ballroom formal”? Do you have a cute outfit you’ve been dying to wear? Have you been eyeing a costume update? We want to give you a heads up as soon as we can so you have time to prepare and decide on what formal wear means to your character. We are excited to see what you can come up with, and we hope you’ll buy in to the idea of a party in the zombie apocalypse.
We will also be introducing a new Local Blueprint, the Emerald Regalia, that allows you to benefit from the protection of Armor, while not having to give up a certain sense of style. Perfect for parties and Galas alike, this armor can even afford a certain bit of CHARISMA to the wearer, ideal for making friends or playing politics. And, since it adds a bit of armor, it can be useful if something… terrible decides to attend your party.
Nope. Nope. Nope.
The archon threat
During our last Premiere event in Season 3, THE LONG NIGHT, three terrible creatures emerged from the Monolith. These apocalyptic threats nearly defeated the town of Bravado until a signal from within the obelisk rendered them capable of being injured and repelled. However, in the wake of that event, the weapon they used to hurt the creatures was destroyed by the feedback, and now the town is unable to deal with the creatures should they return.
The Archons are a truly dangerous threat, with abilities capable of sapping your Resolve in one blow, strikes that can kill you where you stand, and even devouring your very imprint should you lay bleeding. I’ll be covering more about what to expect from these terrible monsters in a future blog post but know that THEY ARE COMING (to use the last words of the late Dr. Nichols).
I hope you are prepared but know that this will be a HIGH-RISK game.
The best way to survive an Archon is to run away, if you can. They are truly threats to be survived, not defeated. Until a weapon can be developed to face them, they are nigh-impossible to injure, much less kill. A big element of the story of this event will be trying to uncover and choose which weapons to bring to the Emerald Gala in the hopes of stopping these immortal terrors.
The Night is dark and full of terrors
Speaking of night terrors, we will be releasing a new global mechanic for this event, borrowed from our friends in DR: Virginia, originally designed by Phil Grau. This mechanic also saw use in DR: Michigan, and we will be including our own DR:TX take on the concept below:
ALONE IN THE DARK
At any time after the sun has set that a player finds themselves alone and without the ability to see another person, that person is considered to be Caught Alone.
That player must, at their next convenience, drop out of character and report to Ops.
Results for being Caught Alone vary wildly and could be a slight scare or a grievous consequence.
Players under the effect of Basic Stealth may move after dark as they wish, but should beware anything that would cause them to become seen.
If you are caught alone at night, one of the many things lurking in the shadows may find you first. You might wander through a weak part of the veil between the worlds or get too close to some early abyssal incursion. Maybe you just got caught alone by one of the Longwalkers or experienced some strange time dilation as you get lost in the woods. Perhaps some local terror like a Nemesis or Murder Goat Deer found you as prey in the darkness. Maybe it was nothing at all. Whatever the result, it’s best to walk in groups or be able to evade prying eyes in the darkness with Stealth during this event.
Better yet, the candlelights and altars of the Lovelace Family is said to protect you from the darkness, provided you can convince them to part with their lanterns to protect you.
Festive lights in the Dive for the holidays
Winter lights, a DR:TX Tradition
Winter traditions have been part of the human experience since we're clawed out of the primordial muck using thumbs and thought to ourselves "I ought to buy my child nine pairs of socks”. First thing we did with those dexterous extra digits was to throw up a pine tree in the den and shove some well smoked meats under it to give to people on a specific day but not before. We’ve been doing that for about thirty thousand years, give or take. So let’s try something a little different?
We started this tradition WAY back in 2019 as a way to be more inclusive on our holidays around this time of year, and we are pleased to once again share this tradition with our new players and guests.
The setting-specific holiday we focus on in Bravado is Winter Lights, a Quiet-Folk holiday focused on the notion of Ritual and Tradition, honoring the beliefs of the varied many across the Lonestar. The Lovelace Community celebrates this season every year not on a specific day, but as a kind of blanket period during which they assume and honor the traditions of their neighbors. What that looks like in the playspace, in terms of decoration, is a ton of tea lights all over the camp. So if you want to buy into this tradition and thusly the attentions of the Quiet Folk who celebrate the soft and quiet light of community, you should put tea lights all over your personal areas.
In addition, the Nomads who travel the Long 360 out of Essex have their own tradition of decorating “Loop” trees along the highways. What was once a seemingly out-of-place garish display of garland and lights that has slowly become an important cultural touchstone of the Winter season in the Lonestar. We can’t wait to see how our players bring the trees of Bravado to life with festive in-genre decorations (that of course, can be easily cleaned up after game off).
Similarly, The Junkerpunks celebrate Cargo-Net Day, another “new/old” tradition based on holiday themes. This holiday and its rituals have been completely designed by our amazing players, and we are excited to support it by honoring the related plot requests they’ve put in to our writers. We love the tales of Nopalito Joe and Kelpie.
We encourage you to put your brilliant minds to work to come up with amazing holiday traditions to fit within our shared story. Something from your character’s past? Something entirely new? Winter Lights is all about discovering and celebrating tradition, and we are excited to see the creativity our players bring to that.
We’re attaching a link here to a useful article that we hope will give you something to think about when designing holidays for the LARPspace that are clever and respectful.
The long Night & Longwalkers
Every year the town of New Bravado experiences a period of total night. From sometimes late December to early February - the sky above the township goes utterly and oily black. Whether it is a result of the bombs of the Hiway War or smog and radiation buildup from Waking Prime, the result is the same — a time of darkness descends on the San Saba. And in that night lurks something… strange and foreboding.
LONGWALKERS, denizens of that Long Night, stalk the blackness between settlements and play wicked tricks on those foolish enough to wander into the blind eternity beyond the circle of their firelight. This gallery of cryptids stalk the darkness of Widow’s Peak and beyond, even venturing as far south as Bravado. Shadowy, half-real entities that are considered folklore by much of the greater San Saba, nonetheless stalk the bleak between. Zed or creature, it is hard to tell. But the Longwalkers have been the subject of local legend for generations of Lovelaces before the Long Night came to New Bravado.
Some in search of prey, others absolution, most - with opaque motives. Are they strains gone mad in the blind eternity of the Long Night? Are they expressions of our terror made manifest in the chaos of sensory deprivation? Are they the Gravemind itself dreaming in the siesta between seasons? It depends on who you ask. Some Longwalkers have strange tells that indicate they are present. Water running backwards, the scent of rotten fruit, the sound of tinkling chimes. These mysterious entities stalk the Long Night looking for something. The No-Face Man, the Midnight Jellyfish, the Behemoth, the Gardener, the Nite Owls, the Shadow People, the Lady of the Long Night, and The Click - these figures sometimes derive from folktale and myth - and others are the inspiration for the same.
Can you count all the Longwalkers in this picture of Widow’s Peak?
wrap up
That’s it for today Vados!
I hope you’re excited to play with us in December! This is a special time of year for DR:TX and we are excited to present our Premiere Event for this season with some of the biggest, baddest enemies seen in the world of Dystopia Rising.
Next week, I’ll dig a bit deeper into the Archon threat, with some more information on their particular abilities and a bit more into the lore you might want to know. See you soon!
“When the haunted Hallows moan,
And the Long Night looms so near,
Remember child, dog, and delver,
That the dead can smell your fear.
Remember always to carry a light,
To ward off the fearful zed,
To remind them that they have no business here,
And that it is you that they must dread.
So in these small and quiet days,
When the world beds itself down,
Protect those who would bear your light,
Through the tired streets of town.
Plant a torch and be the Light,
That leads your family home,
In the last and frigid nights,
Come home to Bravado.”
— A Lovelace Winter Carol, PHW 02’