It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble! In these blogs, I’ll discuss in detail a mechanical aspect of Dystopia Rising, compiling all the rules and lore into one easy place to read! This week, we are covering a two-part feature on Crime and Punishment in the San Saba! Part one will cover aspects of how to do Crime in DR, while the second part will focus on what happens if you get caught by the Law Dogs. Let’s get started!
Our photos for this post were taken from previous DR:TX events by our talented Photo Team.
Crime & Punishment Overview - crime
So, you want to commit a crime in game? Maybe that merchant over there has been flashing some Brass and looks like an easy mark. Maybe someone left that weapon unattended, and you just so happen to need a shiny new toy. Maybe that Diesel Jock over there has been running his mouth and it’s time he learned a hard lesson.
What’s the best way to get involved? What happens if you get caught? How does the legal system work within the game? How do the Law Dogs and Justices of Sin get involved? How does a Gauntlet work? I’ll try to cover the answers to these questions and more in our Crime & Punishment two-part series.
Being a criminal in the wasteland is one of the easiest ways to get involved in character-vs-character conflict, or CVC. There are a few things to consider before we get started, but let’s say the quiet part out loud:
Crime will involve you in CVC conflict.
If you commit a crime in game (on an npc or LC), you’ll need to be okay with consequences of cvc that follows.
Even if your “victim” of crime is an NPC, you might eventually have to answer to a Law Dog about your breach of the law, and THAT encounter will involve CVC. Your crime might earn the ire of folks associated with that Faction, or even attract the attention of the criminal underworld or Murder Inc. So, regardless of the intent, crime generally involves CVC at some point.
We’ve covered a lot on CVC and similar topics in previous blogs on CVC Best Practices, and I’ve written pages and pages of rules blogs so it’s easy to have missed one particular week. I’ve compiled the “best of” into our OOC RESOURCES tab on the website, so here’s a few bits of reading to get started. I’ll refer to concepts within these essays during this series, but I’ll try to keep this blog focused on a high-level understanding.
The rules for CvC start on page 159 in the DR Corebook, in a section titled “Conflict Between Leading Characters”. I highly recommend people take a moment to read through this section in its entirety, as it is an often overlooked part of the book.
If you want additional reading, these other essays will be a great place to start:
Introduction to CVC - An introduction to the basis rules for CVC
CVC in the Moment - How to handle spontaneous CVC in the moment
Long Term CVC - How to approach long-term CVC with another player
CVC in the Wasteland - How the Wasteland works, and some rules to watch out for
Thick as Thieves (CVC Theft) - Details on the theft rules in game, and some important considerations
Disguise 101 - This covers useful rules for Disguises in DR and some tips for better disguises.
Steering & the 10 Foot Rule - This is a must read before you consider CVC, and is a very useful reminder of how to ethically steer your roleplaying for fun for everyone involved
Survival Ethos System - This is our DR:TX way to “opt in” to CVC in advance for all of you characters at the event. In exchange for this extra risk, you can access a brand-new list of items and resources for your characters.
With the CVC deep-dive part covered, let’s dig into doing some crimes in Dystopia Rising.
Crime in Dystopia Rising
Crime is an important aspect of CVC and roleplay within the Dystopia Rising universe. In DR:TX, we even have a Specialized Storyteller just for Crime related plots and roleplay. There are a few different ways to get involved with Crime in game, so let’s cover the basics on how you can get involved. It’s important to realize that you can choose how much you get involved with Crime in game, and that while skills and items are not necessarily needed, they can improve your chances of getting away with the deed.
Let’s first talk about what actually constitutes a crime in the world of Dystopia Rising.
An important consideration - Assault isn’t against the law in the San Saba.
As long as they don’t die from their injuries, and you don’t take their stuff, you can still be involved with CVC without necessarily breaking the law. Remember the Bravado motto — talk shit, get hit!
The in-game setting has some enforced laws that come in two parts, the Laws and the Charter. You can click the links below to read more, but basically, it’s against the law to steal, murder, break contracts, traffic in Crystal Candy, and mess with the Morgues. If you violate the laws, you can be fined, killed, punished with a Gauntlet, or even made a Vagrant.
The Laws - These are the main laws of the San Saba. These are the primary ways you can break the law in the game, and these are only updated with a lot of effort during the annual Stakeholder’s Meeting, held during our May events.
The Charter - These are the secondary laws governing the Factions of the San Saba. These outline what aspects of life in the wastelands one of our local factions is granted authority over and serves as a secondary set of violations. These tend to be a bit rarer to enforce, but generally involve ‘breach of contract’ when they come up during criminal activity.
Let’s cover how these breaches of the law occur, and some ways you can involved:
Criminal Influence
The skill Criminal Influence is the easiest way to get involved with crime. This ties your character into the criminal underworld of the game, has some cool check-in rumors you can access, gives you a neat buy list you can acquire illicit goods from, and even gets you invited to a criminal meeting that occurs during each event. Plus, you can even disarm traps and bombs! There’s a reason that this is one of the most popular skills taken by players in Dystopia Rising, and almost one half of ALL 4000+ characters in the database have this skill. I’ll go into more detail about organized crime below, but this is the easiest way to get involved with the crime aspect of game. All you got to do is to spend XP!
If you are interested in learning this skill in game but are anxious about trying to ask in-character, you can always ask for help from our New Player STs, a member of the Admin Team, and Chase Lira, our Specialized Crime ST.
Theft & Larceny
You don’t actually need a skill to get involved with crime. The simplest way to break the law in game is to simply STEAL something. However, theft is generally one of the crimes that’s illegal in pretty much every corner of the wastes. There are a few ways to do this activity, but you should always involve a Guide before you get involved with theft, as it’s one of the most damaging things you can do to another player in game.
Larceny Skill - This skill is the only way to commit a theft in game without first obtaining consent (which we will cover in a moment). The rules for this skill are outlined on page 118, and I cover the detailed aspects of this type of crime in detail in my Thick as Thieves essay.
Unattended Theft - This aspect of theft is covered within the core rulebook on page 163, and can be used to take items that are left in the game space. You can steal weapons, shields, brews, blueprints — basically anything with a phys rep in game. If someone leaves a prop behind, you’ll take this to the Post Office, and report the theft to the Guide, so they can make sure the actual phys rep boffer or item gets back to the player who owns it in real life.
NOTE: While white-tagged Starter Weapons CAN be stolen, they have no actual value in game, and the owning player can just get it reissued at the Post Office. These aren’t really good targets for theft, so make sure to check for the tag!
Mugging & Robbery - Stealing and looting from a disarmed or subdued target is the last aspect of outright theft in game. Any NPC that enters the world has stats and can be interacted with, and that means many of them can be robbed, attacked, or even killed. You can steal from another character, but this generally requires consent before it can happen. However, remember that death is not the end in Dystopia Rising, and that these types of foes are intelligent. That means even if that NPC merchant is killed, they can remember your face and report you to a Law Dog for a breach of the law.
the Wasteland
About one half of our campsite in Bravado is considered “Wasteland”. Basically, any section of the campsite from the Crossroads towards the lake is covered. This means that the Meadow, Delvedown Camp, the Dive, Widow’s Walk, the Lake, the Morgue, and even the Waking Exclusion Zone lie within Wasteland territory. The only places that are not considered Wasteland are the Depot, the General Store, the Dusthouse, and the Dog Run.
In this portion of the campsite, you can engage in CVC combat, theft, and even murder without much fanfare. While we always recommend a Guide for these types of behaviors, it’s not actually required unless you are killing another character. You can read more about this in my essay on CVC in the Wastelands.
Murder
The killing and murder of another Strain is one of the most heinous crimes you can commit in Dystopia Rising. It feeds the Grave Mind, potentially creates a new zombie, and generally is considered a cardinal sin in every corner of the wastes. While characters can come back from the dead in Dystopia Rising, they only have a certain amount of Infection before it is their last, and there’s no real way to know if that character or NPC you just killed will even come back.
Sometimes it’s an accident or crime of passion, or maybe you’ve justified it somehow, but other times it’s for the “greater good”. But sometimes, a person just needs to die. And there’s a certain class of criminal in the waste that are willing to do the deed.
An important consideration — Murder is generally answered in kind in dystopia rising. Don’t play the murder game if you aren’t willing to risk your own infection.
If you kill another character, it is common for your character to die if they are caught. The wastes are a brutal place, and this crime is generally met with an eye for an eye. Murder shouldn’t be committed lightly in game, as it can have dire consequences for your character if (and generally WHEN) you get caught. The curious thing about Infection is that murder is harder to get away with when the person killed simply comes back a few hours later with all their memories of what just happened. This gives them time to build their own posse to come get revenge, or to report the crime to the authorities. Be warned!
Other Crimes
While the most obvious ways to break the law are theft and murder, let’s talk about a few of the other ways that you could run afoul of the law in the San Saba.
Morgue Crimes - The Grave Council is very influential in the San Saba, and they have exclusive right to operation of morgues and the collection of the Grave Tax. They have recently added Life Binding, a powerful Faithful skill that can stop Infection loss, to the list of violations of their Charter rights.
Postal Crimes - No, we aren’t talking about your econ behaviors, though our Coord Guides may consider those crimes sometimes. One of the other Laws in the San Saba prevents the interruption of the Post. Interfering with the mail, stopping a Postal Worker from doing their job, or attacking a Postal Worker carries serious penalties.
Breach of Contract - One of the first laws of the San Saba involved the sanctity of Contracts. This is the general violation of the Charter rules of the Factions, and is a pretty broad category. If you break a deal with the RRC, or try to muscle in on the Junkerpunks right to the waters of the San Saba, you’ll break this law. This level of breach normally results in fines and punishments other than death but is one of the primary rules violations that earns the Vagrant status.
Crystal Candy - A recent law outlawed the trafficking of Crystal Candy. This drug, obtainable with Basic Criminal Influence, is made by harvesting live psion crystals from the brains of helpless victims. Anything to do with the production, selling, or harvesting of Crystal Candy is illegal in the San Saba. It’s a shame that the item itself is such a cheap and useful source of Mind restoration. Surely no one will want to buy that?
Treason - The newest crime in the San Saba, treason is largely done by “Aiding & Abetting” the Oxkiller Alliance. Luckily, these foes want you dead, so there’s little negotation to be had with an Oxkiller. This crime carries a harsh penalty during the war and will be swiftly and brutally enforced during Season 5.
Now that we understand what laws can be broken, let’s cover the most important step of crime and CVC: Consent.
consent & Crime
Dystopia Rising’s rules for Crime and CVC are all heavily based around the concept of Consent. Basically, no one can involve you in CVC and crime without your explicit and enthusiastic consent, outside of a few areas of play. You can always opt out of a scene by using the OK Check-In System — even crime.
Not only is this in the rules, but it is also just a good practice for keeping your criminal roleplay in game and respecting the players and Guides outside of game. Remember, not everyone at the game may be interested in this type of roleplay, and that’s okay.
This means that, in practice, it’s hard to commit a crime on another player character without their explicit consent.
Starting on page 160 in the DR Corebook, we can find the rules for CVC in the Moment, and I’ve elaborated in an essay about the topic. Because of this restriction, many crime behaviors are instead targeted at NPC threats.
There are four main ways to get consent for crime and CVC in game:
OOC Conversations
“C” Gesture
Wasteland
SES List
Let’s cover a bit about these below.
OOC Conversations
If your planned crime is against another player, the first thing that should happen is a conversation. This can set some boundaries for the planned action, decide where the story is going, and generally make sure both parties are on the same page. This should happen BEFORE the crime is committed, and this involves a bit of ethical steering. You can read more about that in my blog, but basically, you should check in with the PLAYER before you commit an offence against their character. By asking for consent before conflict occurs, you are showing your respect for the other player. Remember, you can always opt out of a scene by using the OK Check-In System.
This is a question: “Do you want to have conflict that does not involve Infection loss or item theft?”
“C” Gesture
Outside of the Wasteland, the main way to ask for Consent versus another player or NPC is with the “C Gesture”, seen in the photo nearby. You don’t need a Guide for conflict done under this agreement, and it’s a common way for folks to deal with in-character moments of violence.
This asks a question of the NPC or player and warns them that combat is about to begin. This is a courtesy and can help that person prepare to get hit by a boffer and be prepared for what happens next. If they decline, you should steer your behavior away from any combat or crime. While this isn’t strictly necessary for most combat NPCs, it can be a welcome courtesy that helps keep their anxiety and surprise to a minimum. Remember the person BEHIND the NPC when you start your criminal behavior, and let them get more involved in what happens next.
The Wasteland
When a character is in the Wasteland, they explicitly consent to CVC conflict. Simply being in this zone is “raising your flag” for CVC, and by extension, crime. While this is a big section of our campsite, you can still access all the necessary parts of camp like climate-controlled cabins, the Post Office, crafting zones, and bathrooms without ever having to step foot into the Wasteland. In practice, far less violence happens in the Wasteland than you might expect. At least, against player characters. You’ll often find planned criminal meetings take place in the Wasteland, and most mods that will provide these opportunities for crime on NPCs will happen there too!
You can still use the OK Check-In System even within the Wasteland, but you should consider if you are willing to take this risk before you take a long walk down to the lake with a stranger.
SURVIVAL ETHOS SYSTEM (SES)
This is our optional CVC system for DR:TX. With this voluntary “flag” for CVC, you can let other players know you are ready for lethal combat and theft at any time during the weekend. Like the Wasteland, this is explicit consent to CVC conflict. Effectively, it’s like you ARE the Wasteland wherever you go! These folks are great choices to involve in crime and CVC conflict, as they’ve opted into a new level of CVC for the weekend.
You can sign up for this list at the start of the weekend, and we will publicly post this list at the Post Office near the General Store. This is for ALL of your characters you play during a weekend. The SES List is not something to consider lightly, but you can always talk to a Gamerunner about removing yourself from the list if something changes during the weekend. You can read more about the rules for the Survival Ethos System and it’s rewards on our website.
Now that we’ve covered the basics of how to ask for consent for crime, let’s cover some ways to get involved in crime in a more direct fashion - with Criminal Influence and our crime factions.
organized crime
If your character takes the Skill Criminal Influence at any level, this represents a connection into the seedy underworld that exists in the San Saba, known as “The Underground”. You’ve made a tie in someway to one of the gangs or groups of organized crime in the world, and gain several advantages. Criminals, traffickers, smugglers, killers, and more call the Territories home, and business is good.
Why should I take Criminal Influence?
Criminal Influence gets you access to a few extra things past the obvious bits in the book, like disarming traps:
You get an invite to the Underground Market, a meeting of fellow criminals that happens at each game. I’ll cover more about this next.
You gain access to the Criminal Buy List. This is a list of items that can be gained at the Post Office in exchange for Brass. This is one of the few ways for items like Crystal Candy to enter into the game outside of a dangerous procedure.
With Proficient Criminal Influence, you can gain access to a Fence who can sell your stolen goods. Normally, when you steal an item with item card it is marked as ‘stolen’. A Fence can “wash” the item and give you an unmarked item card.
With Master Criminal Influence, you can gain access to a special series of jobs offered by the Inner Circle. These are commonly requested with an Action Request, but our team at DR:TX assumes one of these will be entered each game, so unless you have a specific request you can simply join and tag along on the planned event. These can offer rewards like Brass, Buy List vouchers, and gear, and often tie into the story of the weekend in some way.
This skill works at travel events. If you attend another chapter’s games, you can also access the buy list, attend their criminal meetings, or even make Action Requests for Master Criminal jobs. Your connections with Murder Inc. also travel, but I’ll cover that a bit later.
Let’s cover one of the most prominent parts of organized crime:
The Underground market
Criminal Influence is one of very few skills in the game that comes with a guaranteed role play event that will happen at the game - the Criminal Meeting known as the Underground Market. You can gain access to this meeting during your check-in to game once you have at least Basic Criminal Influence. Ask the staff for the Criminal Influence folder at check-in and inside will be a series of rumors, information about items that can be fenced, information about any Master Criminal jobs, and a “passphrase” that can be used to access the meeting. This will tell you where to meet, when to be there, and how to gain access.
When you arrive at the Underground Market, you’ll be required to answer with the correct passphrase to a challenge, and this will always happen in an area of the Wasteland. You should be on guard for rogue Law Dogs and others that would seek to disrupt the meeting, and make sure to be careful who you trust. At the meeting, there will be a series of criminal jobs available to criminal players, and these can involve various tasks like information gathering, petty larceny, or even vulgar robbery and murder. Basically, any activity that could break one of the Laws is fair game for a job. Any pertinent information for the weekend will be shared, and you can make connections and trade deals with other members of the Underground, both NPC and LCs.
One of the cardinal rules of the Underground is “Eyes Open, Mouth Shut”. Talking about criminal jobs in the open, revealing what was discussed, or leaking information to the Law Dogs is a sure way to earn a death sentence from the Inner Circle. Remember, Criminal activity is generally CVC so you need to be prepared for the consequences.
We’ve mentioned a few proper names above, so with this in mind, let’s discuss the organization of the Underground and the Criminal Factions.
The Criminal Factions of the San Saba
There are four major groups within the underworld of DR:TX, but they are loosely organized into two sections - the “good” vigilantes, and the “bad” gangsters. The vigilantes are focused on serving the greater good and doing what is necessary to keep the most monstrous villains in check. The gangsters enjoy their freedom and prosperity that comes with working on the opposite side of the law. Neither group is truly blameless, but they will often find themselves in opposition. Sometimes, however, they might find themselves with a common foe and need to rely on each other to survive.
The Underground
The Underground is simply the common criminals of Bravado. This somewhat encompassing term, as anyone with Criminal Influence is considered part of the Underground, even members of the assassin’s guild. These will be the primary focus of most common criminal jobs that show up at the Market, and these tasks might range from Covert Ops, like murder or assassination, Black Market duties like theft and extortion, and other Esoterica, like rituals, illegal medicine or science.
San Saba Gangs
There are several NPC groups that claim territory within Bravado. Some of these groups were antagonists from past seasons while others are subfactions of more prominent San Saba Factions. Regardless of their reason for involving themselves with crime, the Gangs and the politics around them will be a big part of criminal stories in Season 5. Some of these gangs are fairly infamous like the Rotguts and the Volsteads, but others are a bit more secretive. You can learn more about the Gangs by attending an Underground Market.
Inner Circle
The “made men” of Bravado, the Inner Circle are characters and NPCs that have unlocked the Profession Focus Achievement tied with Criminal Influence. This title gains you access to the criminal elite, and elevates you into the deadly games and politics of the Underground, as well as the ability to use powerful criminal items. The Inner Circle will often be responsible for sharing criminal jobs, running the Underground Markets, or providing information to the various gangs in town. The Inner Circle will have a lot of agency in deciding the course of the Underground, but there will be a lot of responsibility at the same time.
Murder Inc.
The only “good” faction within the Underground, Murder Incorporated are the vigilantes of Bravado. This is a National faction within Dystopia Rising that can be accessed by committing yourself to the cause and tenets of this murderous cult. You can read more about Murder Inc on our separate page for this faction, but this is a high risk faction that often involves deadly CVC against the most dangerous opponents in the wastes. However, most of their violence is aimed at NPC threats, so they tend to stay away from the more mundane acts of murder.
Because they oppose evil in the world and work towards their own version of “the greater good”, Murder Inc. often finds itself in opposition to the Underground as a whole, and some of their members might be forced to make some uncomfortable choices about where their loyalty lies if they get a bit too greedy or successful at the cost of others. You can take jobs with both the Underground and Murder Inc, but you might find yourself helping one of the enemies of the cult.
There will also be a folder at Check-In that has a special set of information for players that are part of the shadowy Murder Inc. While any character can access this envelope with only Basic Criminal Influence, showing up to a Murder Inc. meeting uninvited is a sure way to earn a trip to the Grave Mind. Becoming a member of this shadowy cult is often a story in and of itself. Like Criminal Influence, connections with the guild are usable at different chapters when you travel, so you can commit sins for the greater good where ever you go.
best practices to commit a crime
There are some good practices from Jonathan to consider when you set out to get involved with criminal activities in Dystopia Rising. These are some tips and tricks we’ve learned over the years that can help you have a better experience
Be ready for consequences
The first step is to accept that once you get involved with Crime in DR you are accepting a certain amount of risk. Your individual skill may determine if you get caught, but I’ve found this is not a matter of “if you get caught”, but rather “when you get caught”. Eventually, you will risk your items, your standing in the community, your health and safety, and maybe even your Infection. Generally, you should be ready for the consequences that could happen to your character if and when you get caught doing the crime. If you prepare yourself for this risk, it’s much easier to accept it when it eventually happens.
Get consent
Like I mentioned above, the best way to do crime is to first get consent from the other Player or even NPC. It’s not expressly required to flash a “C” at an NPC, but remember that they are people too. Unless they were told by the Guide to expect a ruthless assassination, you might be surprising the actual player, and not the NPC. If they don’t give an enthusiastic “yes” to this type of question, steering, or conversation, you are better finding another target for the crime if possible. I know it may seem strange to “warn” a person of an impending crime, but I think you’ll find more people are interested in this type of conflict than you may expect, especially if they can prepare themselves for the loss in advance.
get a Guide (or don’t)
Remember, any time you are impacting another character in a permanent way, by changing their character sheet or removing item cards, via Larceny or Combat, you should get a Guide involved. At the start of every event we ask our Guides to identify themselves, and many will wear a button that marks them as a member of our staff. When in doubt, you can simply ask for assistance at Ops. While it’s not technically required in the Wasteland, it never hurts to have another set of eyes on your deadly conflicts and robberies. I’ve listed some best practices for thievery in my post Thick as Thieves, with some helpful tips to increase your chances of not being noticed.
Do the deed & be prepared for an audible
When you set out to do crime, you should have an expectation that something will go wrong. Someone will notice what is happening, they might use an Avoid on that Choking Blow attack, or you might simply not be able to defeat the NPC. When things go to shit, you’ll need to be prepared with a backup plan, or at least an escape plan. Think about what you will do if things go wrong, because the main reasons folks get caught during crime CVC is they forget this simple truth.
There are several items that can help disguise you, and you can read more in my guide on Disguise 101. If they can’t identify you as your LC, then it’s hard for the Law to find out who did the deed. Items like Widow’s Tea can even ensure you can escape a trap that is set for you, at the high cost of your own Infection. I’ll cover a bit more about what happens if you get caught in my next blog post in this series.
Follow up OOC
This is probably the most forgotten step of CVC. Remember to check in on all the parties that were involved in the crime either after it happened, or once game is over. This applies to the other side as well, and if you get involved in an particularly intense interrogation scene, it can be good to check in with all the players involved. CVC can come with a lot of emotions, so it’s important to remember the player behind the mask, as well as the victims in the crime. Even if it was an NPC, it doesn’t hurt to check in with that person at Ops, or after their shift. You can offer apologies, ask for steering, and generally make sure they are still okay with the decision to be included afterwards. I’ve listed several ways to help with Steering in my blog post.
Tell a good story
Dystopia Rising is a survival horror game, but it’s also about telling neat stories with your friends. Crime can be exhilarating, and deadly CVC is a roller-coaster of challenge. There are so many cool tricks, neat items, and unexpected player skill to consider in a fight against an intelligent opponent, and you can tell an amazing tale of the daring and skill that goes into your heist. Remember, that if you never get caught, never get to answer for your crimes, that can be kind of a boring story. There’s so many connections and possibilities that come from this type of play, and I’m excited for you each to explore this deep and rich side of Dystopia Rising.
WRAP UP
That’s it for this half of the Crime & Punishment series. Criminal behavior is one of my favorite ways to interact with the world of Dystopia Rising. We’ve provided a LOT of opportunities to get involved, and we have a lot of story moments ahead of us this season that will involve crime. If you are interested in participating, let us know!
See you soon Vados!