Howdy Vados!
It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to our December Premiere event FORGOTTEN IN THE DARK! This will be the last game under the 3.0 system, led by Andrew Harper. 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 themes of our upcoming event!
If you had a great experience at our last event THE FUTILITY OF EVIL or had some suggestions for how we can improve, we’d love to hear from you! We appreciate your high-fives and suggestions, and always want to seek ways to improve our events.
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Buy Back for 3.0 Events ends on December 15th!
Any local DR:TX player can still retroactively buy tickets for past events they missed, or for any past XP you didn’t add to the ticket since your character has been created. If you missed an event there’s still time to make sure you don’t miss out on the XP! This is a great way to both support our game and add some XP to your roster before the transition to DR Live. After December 15th, our new contract will prevent this purchase and you will no longer be able to buy XP for any past 3.0 events. Don’t miss out!
Our photos for this post were taken from previous DR:TX events by our talented Photo Team, including Lily-Jay Jones, Miranda Farmer, Noah Goodman, Seth Kahler, and Max Pohlmeier.
PREMIERE EVENT TICKETS ARE ON SALE NOW!
First off, FORGOTTEN IN THE DARK 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, or adding a few new skills once DR Live starts next year.
NATIONAL CONTENT— National items like Wells Society Favors, 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. We will also continue the story we introduced during DOWNFALL of the Illusions of Civility plotkit!
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.
LAST HURRAH! — You gain the ability to Self Teach ANY PFA or Skill that you are able to learn, on each of your characters that are checked in. That’s right, if you always wanted that PFA, you can just add it to your sheet for this game. If you have an Advanced Membership, you can Self Teach a Skill or PFA for each of your three characters! Get one last use of that PFA before the world changes in February!
This is the last event that sunsetted items like SES Credits or Local Blueprints can be used. Don’t miss your last chance to use these unique resources before we move to DR Live!
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.
DR Live start date!
During the 3rd Quarter, the Network Advisory Board met to discuss and vote on the upcoming transition to Dystopia Rising: Live. After thorough discussions and collaboration across all branches, a unanimous decision was made regarding the following key dates:
January 15, 2025: All branches will sign new contracts.
February 1, 2025: Branches can begin transitioning from DR 3.0 to DR Live.
April 30, 2025: DR 3.0 will officially end for all branches.
We will meet once more before Thanksgiving to iron out the details of the transition process, including character builds, item trade ins, and more. We will have more details on this process soon.
Mark your calendars for February 7-9, 2025, as "Cradle's Lullaby" will officially kick off Dystopia Rising: Live for the Texas chapter! With those details out of the way, let’s take a look at the story of FORGOTTEN IN THE DARK!
THE PREMISE - FORGOTTEN IN THE DARK
As we approach the threshold of Winter’s door, thoughts turn to the plans, solidarity, remembrance, and rituals needed to see Survivors through the Long Night. The past year has been full of upheaval and change. The Winter Lights tradition normally remembers those lost and no longer able to join us at the table, and it is also a time of reflecting on the future.
But that future is uncertain and ever changing. The unified structure of the San Saba has collapsed into constellations of independent settlements each trying to claw prosperity from the anarchy of an uncaring wasteland. The once great factions retreat to attempt to rebuild and reshape their future. To the north a great warband of Raiders scours these settlements from the map. Zombies everywhere grow more fell and tenacious.
But reaching that future requires first surviving the Long Night. For something is wrong in Bravado as the days grow shorter. Time tested plans fall apart leaving a scramble for necessities. Rituals of comfort and assurance waver and leave only feelings of insecurity and doubt. And worst yet, suddenly empty homes and farms leave phantom disappearances in place of community and solidarity to see through the challenges of winter. Survivors sense an alien, feral hunger just out of sight, gnawing at the edges of their memories.
The Long Night approaches and waits for no one. What can be done when the ways that worked before wander where the memory can’t recall them? How does a community survive when members go missing, memory is stolen, and the lost cease to exist to those that should miss them? Where do you go when you don’t remember where home is anymore?
When memories fade and the lost vanish… will Bravado endure, or be Forgotten in the Dark?
Sounds like this will be a Long Night to remember!
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 or show to inspire your role play for this event, here’s a list of our favorites to get ready for FORGOTTEN IN THE DARK:
Star Trek: the Next Generation, S4 E5 “Remember Me”
30 Days of Night
Darkness Falls
During this next event, there will be many things going “bump” in the night. Much like in the movie 30 Days of Night, darkness will equal death. Venturing away from the protective light of community risks meeting the fell things that stalk the darkness. As the winter approaches, our survivors must hole up for a dangerous winter, though we might need to worry more about zombies than vampires.
Like in one of Andrew’s favorite Star Trek episodes, “Remember Me”, the Long Night brings with it the creeping horror of knowing something is going wrong but everyone else just can’t remember the things that have gone missing. How will your characters deal with the emptiness and the certainty of the people just disappearing around you? Will you remember them or will your memory fade away?
Lastly, the things out in the dark are not survivors. Like the eldritch abomination of Darkness Falls, they are stories and legends that speak to a much more sinister truth. They are the OTHER, the monstrous, and they cannot be reasoned with. When fell things stalk the dark and memory is unexpectedly fleeting, is it justified to look over your should and check every shadow? Will you be properly paranoid, or is it just a figment of your imagination?
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 premiere event.
SUDDEN VIOLENCE, JUMP SCARES, DEADLY SURPRISES
The strange threats during this event will will be “killing blow active”, capable of killing your characters without need for quarter. They will have dangerous abilities that can make traveling by yourself in the darkness very dangerous indeed.
These stealthy threats will hunt anyone that makes noise or strays from the light, so you can avoid the sudden violence by avoiding their attention. You’ll need to stay quiet and hope they find other prey elsewhere.
When the fell terrors in the night attack, these will be deadly, quick, and sudden attacks out of nowhere. These threats will primarily operate at nighttime, but some will also be active during the day as well. You’ll need to be prepared to suddenly stop a conversation, silence a musical instrument, or stick to well-lit areas to prevent an attack.
Heavy Ritual themes (not linked to any religion)
One aspect of the upcoming event is the use of rituals, and ritualistic themes. During the holiday season, these themes might 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.
Memory Loss
This event will touch on the strange aspects of the Fog of Memories and a more pervasive plot effect tied with the Long Night, through several opportunities to experience memory loss. This role play will generally be optional and mostly contained in the “Caught Alone” mechanic I cover below, but you may also encounter this phenomenon in other characters or through interacting with their role play around the effect.
Characters may forget where they are or how they got there, losing track of important memories, places, or people, get lost in places they've been many times before or have trouble with tasks that were once familiar, or asking the same question or repeating the same story over and over.
The primary function of this memory loss mechanic is to allow characters to prepare for the new edition. We want to empower characters to be able to change, edit, or update parts of their background, remember things differently or learn new skills, and generally prepare for the seismic shifts of canon stories as we move towards DR Live.
The Night is dark and full of terrors
Speaking of being forgotten in the dark, we will be once more using a global mechanic for this event, first 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 strange Grave Mind effect. 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.
Worse yet, some report their memories of loved ones or things they should remember are fleeting and forgotten after an encounter in the dark of the night. This memory loss seems to effect different survivors in different ways, but it is certainly tied with the looming approach of the Long Night. In a world that is changed by the choices we have made over the past few seasons, how will this new and terrifying darkness change your characters?
However, the candle lights and Quiet Folk family altars of Bravado are said to protect you from the darkness, provided you can convince them to part with their lanterns to protect you. Stay in the light, lest you be FORGOTTEN IN THE DARK!
Wrap Up
That’s it for today, Vados.
We hope that you will come join us for our next event, our last DR:TX event using the 3.0 rules for Dystopia Rising. We have some fun surprises in store for you during this game, and we hope that you are ready to try and survive the looming Long Night. Will your memories fail you as you wander the lonely woods of Bravado? Will something terrible find you in the shadows, or will you discover the answer to the strange happenings and disappearances? Will you be forgotten in the dark?
Next week we will cover some of the specific memory loss mechanics you’ll encounter during this event! See you soon, Vados!
