Howdy Vados!
It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to our November live event EMERGENCE! This is our next ST led overarc of the season, led by Maenad Wilder. 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 full reveal of our disease, BEHEMOTH PARASITES, and looking at a CVC challenge called Symbiotic Parasites!
TICKETS FOR OUR November EVENT ARE ON SALE NOW! get ready for a creepy crawly good time!
We are running our first ever BUNDLE deal for event tickets! If you purchase your Standard Casting tickets for both the November and December events at once, you’ll get a great discount AND access to the unique new Blueprints we will release in December. Check it out on our Tickets page! You’ll still be able to purchase a Grab Bag for the December when tickets go on sale after the EMERGENCE event!
Our Slime Promo is live! We have a new reward when you purchase the extra +2 XP for your ticket in November. If you get the additional XP, we will have a container of home-made SLIME ready for you at check-in! This slime may or may not contain bugs (don’t worry, they are fake!) and is guaranteed to be the perfect way to get into the right headspace for this event!
We have a new CAPs offer for GLOWSTICKS! Scoop up some deals during the post-Halloween sales and earn some goodies for your characters! We are offer 3x CAPs for all glowstick purchases, so all you need to do is bring your receipt or email us a copy. We prefer the chunky glowsticks versus the bracelets, but any and all glowsticks are appreciated. The colors we need most are green, purple, orange, and red.
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.
Fair warning, this post includes a bit of SPOILERS for the event. If you’d like to keep the mystery of our disease in game, feel free to skip the blog this week.
Behemoth Parasites
Last week we covered some of the Content Warnings for our upcoming event, EMERGENCE, particularly when it comes to disease, bugs, and body horror. 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.
If you’d like to know more, you can start by checking out last week’s blog post below:
With that reminder covered, let’s talk about a new November disease called “Behemoth Parasites”.
One of the primary new mechanics you’ll need to deal with during this next event is a “disease” that is ravaging the population of the San Saba, and it offers some new challenges for your survivors. I use the term “disease” loosely, because unlike other maladies that are viral or blood borne like Bad Brain or Gutscourge, this disease is actually an infestation of internal parasites that invade a host.
It’s important to remember from my first post that this can be a very deadly disease, and it’s very easy to spread.
BEHEMOTH PARASITES can be deadly and your character can die from this disease.
It’s not a bacteria or virus that is spreading amongst the town, but rather actual tiny creatures burrowing in the skin and bodies of the infected, eating them from within. This is a terrifying disease, as it’s more akin to something like mutated tapeworms, fleas, or ticks. If you don’t get medical treatment quickly, you might die a painful and quick death at the hands of the things devouring you from within.
Additionally, this disease spreads VERY easily.
Behemoth Parasites is an insidious and quickly spreading disease, spread by the simplest of transmission vectors - TOUCH. It’s something so ubiquitous and common, and it’s the primary reason this disease has become so dangerous. A simple handshake, hug from a friend, or even life-saving medical procedure while bleeding out may end up spreading the parasites to a new host.
Mechanics: Any touch between you and another strain triggers “Inflict Disease (Parasites)”. This includes touching prompted by mechanical skill use, like Medical or Enhanced Movement.
However, just because this disease spreads via touch doesn’t remove your consideration of your fellow players. Remember, physically touching another player without their consent is prohibited in Dystopia Rising, so make sure you get the enthusiastic consent of the other person before engaging in physical contact.
The Mechanics of Behemoth Parasites
In our tradition of Radical Trust, we are revealing the basics of this disease to our players today. We still have a few surprises in store, so some parts will be kept redacted (like the Treatment Plan) until we get to the game. I’ve included the first page of the disease sheet above, but let’s talk about it in detail.
Transmission Vectors
Touching a person who is infected with any stage of Behemoth Parasites. This is Infectious regardless of whether or not you are mechanically prompted to touch.
Infected critters, zed, raiders, and Strains. These creatures will normally deliver this disease via the “Inflict Disease” skill call.
Let’s cover some questions you probably have about this part:
First, the goal is to involve any significant skin-to-skin contact as a transmission vector. We aren’t going to put a real limit on exactly how many seconds of touching that it takes to transmit the disease, as we want to leave that part to YOU, the player. Simply brushing up against someone probably isn’t enough to transmit it, but we want you to buy into the danger. If you think it makes sense that you could have contracted the disease, you probably did!
This is largely going to be ran on the honor system. We trust you to decide when you got infected by the parasite.
** AS A REMINDER TOUCHING ANYONE REQUIRES VERBAL CONSENT **
If you do not get consent and must still use a skill or ability that would normally require touch, you are still considered to have been infected, even if a touch did not actually occur. You can still heal your friend and get infected even if they don’t want to involve touch into your medical role play.
Skill Use that requires Touch
In the Dystopia Rising Rulebook, there’s a few skills that might require touch to use on another player. Again, we leave the specifics of if this is enough contact to transfer the disease to you, but here’s a few examples from the book to consider:
Unarmed Combat. Any attack onto an infected target could be dangerous. A punch is still contact!
Interfere. You could Interfere someone else’s touch, if you need to save a friend from infection. The rules state you can take a negative effect, and Inflict Disease counts.
Larceny. Provided you are only trying to steal from the Supply Bag, you’ll probably avoid infection. If you are trying to steal from a pocket, or remove a worn item, you’ll likely make contact. Additionally, using Larceny to remove manacles or bindings will likely involve contact.
Medical. This is probably the most likely source of infection from a victim. Any level of Medical use requires prolonged physical contact. The Dr. Ottoman’s Disease Control Kit provides some protection when using this skill to a doctor, but it can be expensive to make.
Basic Malicious. This skill states that you need to take at least 10 seconds tying up a victim. That’s plenty of time for the parasite to spread.
Enhanced Movement. Using the “rescue” part of this skill to move a fallen ally away from enemies will require physical contact with the person you are saving. Taking 5 steps while holding someone is plenty of time for the critters to spread.
Hunting. Interacting with infected game will likely cause infection, as dressing the meat, fish, and shellfish could be enough contact to spread the parasite. It’s possible that even eating food contaminated with the parasites could spread the disease.
Proficient Stealth. Using this skill to apply a disguise to another player will be enough contact to spread the parasite, as it takes several minutes to complete.
Basic Biogenetics (Basically any Psionic Attack skills). Any psionics delivered via touch will be enough to spread the disease. Packet-delivered Psionic Attacks will not spread the disease, so make sure you pack some extra white packets.
Master Faithful Will. Interacting with the corpse of the recently dead requires a Psionic Attack, and probably requires some measure of connection to join them in the Grave Mind. Anyone that tries to follow the recently dead into the Grave Mind will likely get infected with Behemoth Parasites - be warned!
Gorger Lineage Advantage. This should be a no-brainer, but eating an infected target like a Raider, Zombie, or a Strain WILL give you the disease. Watch what you eat!
Duration Between Stages
Your Stage increases with each new exposure to a source of Behemoth Parasites via Inflict Disease.
Untreated, the disease progresses one stage every four (4) Hours.
The primary way to advance this disease it to take a use of “Inflict Disease”, but even if you do nothing the disease still advances quickly. That means that if you get infected early Friday night, you’ll reach Stage 3 by Saturday morning. Yikes!
This also means that if you take three disease-laden swings from an infected Shambler, you could quickly hit Stage 3 in a single combat. Make sure you save Mind points for an Avoid or bring a shield!
Role play Notes
You are able to speak and eat as normal, but discomfort is starting to rise in the back of your throat and creeping onto your tongue. Whenever you ingest food or drink, the discomfort rises to a noticeable pain, but not enough to keep you from performing the action.
A scuttling sensation at the back of your throat and the occasional sharp pain followed by a mouthful of blood.
That sounds uncomfortable. While the disease lists some horrifying descriptions of what is happening to your character during each stage, we leave the exact specifics of the role play up to you. If you don’t feel comfortable with extra makeup or prosthetics, that’s completely fine. This part is optional, so you can just keep to the mechanics instead.
Stages of the Disease
Behemoth Parasites is a quick and deadly disease, but it’s pretty simple mechanically. There’s only three different things to consider with this disease, though every stage of the disease has the same Infectious Touch condition.
Stage 1 - Infectious touch
Any touch between you and another strain triggers “Inflict Disease (Parasites)”. This includes touching prompted by mechanical skill use, like Medical or Enhanced Movement.
Stage 2 - internal bleeding
Any touch between you and another strain triggers “Inflict Disease (Parasites)”. This includes touching prompted by mechanical skill use, like Medical or Enhanced Movement.
Mechanics that heal Stage 1 diseases also cure Stage 2.
Reduce your maximum body points to HALF of its normal value, rounded down.
Stage 3 - Larval Parasites
Any touch between you and another strain triggers “Inflict Disease (Parasites)”. This includes touching prompted by mechanical skill use, like Medical or Enhanced Movement.
Reduce your maximum body points to ONE.
If not cured within four (4) hours, the individual dies.
While this isn’t TOO complicated, it does present some interesting challenges to avoid spreading it to your friends. You won’t suffer an additional penalty until you reach Stage 2, but each successive level reduces your total Body, rounded down. With less total Body, you’ll be more vulnerable to entering Bleed Out, making you an ideal target to be fed on by infected zombies. This could easily advance your disease if you are not careful. If you hit Stage 3, a single hit will be enough to drop you to Bleed Out!
This disease is very easy to cure until you reach Stage 3, using existing mechanics in our game. The simplest way to deal with the parasites is to eat a crafted Meal that was prepared using the Deep Cholesterol Fry blueprint. There will be other ways to cure this disease with medicine and research, but the easiest way to avoid death via parasites is to get it cured quickly.
Unlike other diseases, this disease stays easily treatable up until the final third stage of the disease. While cures will be plentiful, the bigger strain of Behemoth Parasites will be on Mind points, healing, material resources like herb and produce, and the most dangerous threat of all — the inexorable advancement of time.
Once you have reached the final Stage 3 of the disease, your doctors and healthy meals will no longer be able to cure you, and DEATH may be certain. There will still be some ways to mitigate this timer that you’ll be able to discover in game, but it will be a very dangerous disease. Make sure you save time to say goodbye before the larval parasites erupt and kill you.
resolution & other mechanics
I know I said I would only spoil the front half of the disease sheet, but here’s some of the other frequently asked questions about the disease:
Identifiable with Basic Medical skill for 0 Mind points
Remission vs. Cure: Cure for Stage 1-2. Stage 3 disease Cure is unknown.
Return from the Mortis Cures the Disease: Yes?
Mutant Lineage Advantage Works: Yes. Mutants can not die of Behemoth Parasites, but they can advance to Stage 3 and will stay there indefinitely unless cured.
Deathmask Works: No, this is not an airborne disease.
Let’s cover the questions from this side:
The disease is easy to recognize and any person with medical training can identify it. However, remember that physical contact with the victim is enough to spread the disease, so unless you have a Disease Kit, you’ll also be infected by checking for the disease.
In my other essay on diseases, I mention a thing called “remission”. This disease is pretty simple, and we aren’t using these mechanics here. If you cure the disease, it’s cured. The only exception at game on is Stage 3, which has no known cure. If you manage to discover a remedy, that cure will also work on Stage 3 to complete remove the disease.
At the start of game, no one that has died to these parasites have returned from the Grave. While this disease is probably cured by death, you’ll have another challenge to discover in game should you pass beyond death.
Lastly, Mutants will get to endure a special hell because of the Parasites. Their unique biology makes them perfect hosts, as they cannot die to a disease. However, that doesn’t stop the Promethean-level pain and anguish as the creatures inside continue to devour your regenerating organs. Plus, allowing the larvae inside you to gestate that long will likely have some unintended consequences…
Sorry Helscape Deathmask fans — this item specifically protects versus airborne diseases. You’ll need a Disease Control Kit instead. The Deathmask can stop AOE threat skills that would cause Inflict Disease at Proficient level, but this doesn’t stop the normal transmission of the disease.
All in all, this is an insidious take on disease in the zombie apocalypse, and we hope you have fun trying to avoid a deadly fate at the hands of tiny critters. Let’s talk about the last complication you should be prepared for with Behemoth Parasites — Symbiotic Parasites.
Symbiotic Parasites & the S.E.S.
As a special “hard mode” for November, players that use the Survival Ethos System (SES) will have a special opportunity to earn additional Marks during our event. This is a unique currency that can purchase powerful items from the Survival Ethos Buylist. This is a high risk, high reward option that WILL involve potentially deadly CVC behaviors.
If you accept this challenge, you will get a new Local Plot Card to represent a variation of the Behemoth Parasites that the rest of the town will be enduring. While most people seem horrified at the prospecting of the parasites infesting them, a few rare hosts seem to achieve a balance with the things devouring them from the inside. Some even report that they feel a sense of communion with the parasites and feel compelled to help them survive by finding them new hosts.
If you choose to commune with this swarm intelligence and enter into a symbiotic bond with the parasites, you will need to instead observe the following mechanics:
Symbiotic Parasites (DR:TX Local Plot Card)
You cannot be cured of Behemoth Parasites until this LPC is somehow destroyed. Replace the normal mechanics of Behemoth Parasites with the following.
“Twelve (12) hours after initial infection you will enter a 1-minute Bleed Out and cannot be stabilized nor regain any body. Any touch, intentional or not, between you and another strain triggers “Inflict Disease (Parasites)” and ADDS three (3) hours onto your disease timer if the target was uninfected. This includes touching prompted by mechanical skill use. Death does not cure this disease, and Mutants can die from this effect.”
Talk about Patient Zero! With this Symbiotic Parasites affliction, you will need to PURPOSEFULLY spread the disease to others in order to survive. Let’s cover some specifics:
Spreading the disease in this manner is a CVC action. You will need to get consent from your victims first, or use the Wasteland mechanics to engage with your victim. This is a hostile action and will start your CVC timer, so make sure you can stay in play for the next four hours to allow a response to your CVC action.
You can’t be cured. This mechanic can only be lost through plot effects. Because your character has bonded with the parasites, normal disease cures aren’t enough to fix this. However, this version of the disease doesn’t impact your Body totals so cures aren’t as useful.
You will need to infect the uninfected. You can’t just touch the same person over and over. You’ll need to help the parasites find new hosts. Bring your friends into the hive!
Each spread of the disease adds three (3) hours to your timer. If you do nothing, you will die sometime on Saturday morning. You’ll need to infect at least 8 or more people in order to survive the entire weekend. However, you’ll be basically immune to “Inflict Disease” during the weekend, and if you extend your timer enough you’ll avoid death from the parasites.
Expect in-character conflict. This is a purposeful hard mode. Willfully spreading this disease on purpose will likely spark some consequences for your character, and that could include item loss, character punishments, or even death, even if you manage to stave off the disease long enough to survive.
Will you take the challenge? Are you ready to infect your friends? Are you ready to become Patient Zero? Are you mad enough to try to survive the weekend and certain death with the Symbiotic Parasites? Let’s find out together!
Wrap Up
We hope that you are ready for the challenge of EMERGENCE. How can you save your friends when a touch can be deadly? What is underneath the ground, and how can you possibly stop it in time? Why are people not returning from the grave when they die? These are some fun and exciting challenges for your characters in the zombie apocalypse. But don’t worry, it’s not just all diseases, you’ll still need to deal with zombies, Oxkillers, and raiders and more.
Tickets are on sale now, and we have our special Winter Bundle deal running for a limited time.
See you next time Vados, when we talk the specifics of a little thing happening in the background of games called the WAR OF ANTLERS. Stay tuned!
