Rules You Should Know - November

Howdy Vados!

It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to our penultimate 3.0 event THE FUTILITY OF EVIL! This is one of the last events of the 3.0 rules system before we launch DR Live, led by Jared Schlabra. 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 last minute Rules You Should Know before you arrive on site on Friday!

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.

The Penultimate 3.0 Game

November is a stressful time for most of us. With an election looming, holidays close by, Black Friday craziness, it’s going to be a relief to get back to the stability of the zombie apocalypse. This game will be a great opportunity to prepare for the upcoming edition change, as well as an opportunity to earn some XP, farm some herbs, or craft those last minute items before DR Live. For this event, we have a few key transition pieces we are planning for the game that you should watch out for during this event.

We will be transitioning a few DR Live Rules into our 3.0 games, starting with THE FUTILITY OF EVIL.

  • During these next two events, you can expect to see a few familiar rules from the DR Live books. You’ll see a few threat skills you might recognize, maybe some item mechanics, or abilities from certain blueprints. Our goal during this time of transition is to familiarize you with a few key rules from the upcoming edition, and what better time to start than right now?

  • You will see some DR Live Threat Skills in play. As such, you might start to find familiar loot from monsters similar to DR Live, hear calls like ABERRANT SUFFERING, or even see strange Benedictions in play. More of our zombies may suddenly start to RISE AGAIN, and you might encounter some strange FAITH abilities that feel familiar. We want to incorporate some of the most common new items from DR Live, and pave the way for the new year.

  • We started this last season, actually. We introduced LINGERING DAMAGE last season with some local blueprints, so remember you still have a few months to use those fancy Local Plot Cards and custom items before the changeover to DR Live.

As we get ready for DR Live, our goal is to help ease the transition to the new rules by keeping them the same over the next two games. We’d rather keep these major bits similar, rather than force you to unlearn and relearn items for February.

Lastly, remember that because this is the last few events of 3.0, it’s a perfect time to take some risks, and try something new.

  • At the start of the new edition, everyone will be allowed to completely remake their characters. This also means you’ll start with at least three Infection, no matter what you ended with in 3.0. This means that as long as you don’t use your last Infection, you’ll get a new lease on life in the next edition as you suddenly regain some Infection for the new world. It’s not so bad to die over the next few games!

  • Try something new, take some risks, and step outside of your comfort zones. For the next few games, very little changes to your character will continue past the December event, so take advantage to try some new things or explore some fun new experiences like a grave mind scene, or CVC.

  • Some PFAs or items may not exist in the new edition, so enjoy them while they last! These are the last few games to do some cool Techno Savant stories, to use some Local Items, and to build certain blueprint items. Not everything will make the change to DR Live, so take advantage of this last hurrah to have some cool moments and stories with your friends.

Intelligent threats & choice Points

As the Cannibal Crown approaches Bravado, we will be facing a somewhat unique enemy threat that we haven’t dealt with in a while. The Cannibals are survivors, just like your characters. While some of their rules will resemble some common Raider enemies, they will be thinking, breathing, intelligent threats that aren’t necessarily willing to be martyrs and zealots throwing themselves into the fray.

Simply put, the Cannibals will act much like your characters will. They might fall back from a fight where they are outnumbered, or they might use treachery or subterfuge to get close to their prey. They can hold conversations, espouse their own twisted philosophies, and even maybe try to recruit a few of you into the cannibal horde. While the survival tactics of the horde are ultimately doomed to failure, the dumb cannibals died off long ago. The ones that are left are smart, cruel, and clever. They know what they want, and they’ve had a lot of practice eating people.

The cannibals can use equipment and brews, just like your characters will. Some of the cannibals will use crafted items against you, leverage unique Benedictions to empower their horde, or psionic tricks to mark their chosen champions. They are organized, deadly, and ready to take on the challenge that is Bravado — or so they think.

Despite this intelligent threat, the big unknown is YOU. The leader of the Cannibal Crown is coming with a proposition — help him escape his choices, and he’ll give you intel to take about the cannibal horde in a way that they can’t threaten other settlements again. But you’ll have some BIG CHOICES to make as we face THE FUTILITY OF EVIL.

choice points & Consequences

  • There will be several key modules during the event that will require you to make a choice. What decision you reach in these moments will depend on the folks that choose to attend the mod, and these decisions may have lasting consequences for the cannibal hordes attacking
    Bravado. Will you be able to end their threat for good, or will you chose to save your own skin instead?

  • These choices will be telegraphed in advance, usually with an OOC sign that reads “CHOICE POINT” and will generally consist of an EASY choice, and a HARD choice. While violence is Bravado’s usual answer to their problems, it’s not always the best solution. Facing the cannibals with violence probably won’t end their threat, but if you can undermine the things keeping the horde united, you may be able to answer the larger looming threat. Much like completing a challenge or achievement in the game, the harder decision will require some coordination from your group and incur a much higher risk if you fail.

  • The big choice is simple — If the horde is defeated at Bravado, they will simply emerge from the Morgue ready to hunt and eat other easier targets in towns close by. Will you be willing to risk others safety for your own ease? Or will you try to stop the Cannibal Crown for good? Will you face the Malefactors and break the will of the cannibal horde?

We will be tracking these choice points over the weekend, and you’ll be able to check in with the cannibal leader as the weekend progresses. Depending on the decisions you make, the outcome of this event will be entirely in your hands.

Rules You Should Know

With the intelligent threat of the cannibals looming, let’s talk about some different rules we will be telegraphing. If you’ve read the DR Live books, you’ll recognize most of these. We’ve selected a handful of rules that will be common in DR Live to preview during this event, and we will introduce a few more during our December event.

Let’s take a look at what you will face this weekend:

Aberrant Suffering

Call “Aberrant Suffering”. Suffering is a mechanical effect that prevents an affected Target from using Any Skills, Upsurge, or Resolve for 10 seconds. This specific skill only effects Aberrants and requires a Brawling strike. This can be Avoided like any other strike.

This is a skill that will be unlocked for players by the new Mind Killer Profession in DR Live, and it’s common skill on Aberrant Undead threats. This is a powerful control ability that will shut down an psion’s ability to use Skills, take advantage of any Upsurge abilities, or even power skills and items with Resolve. If this lands, you’ll be in a pretty dangerous situation for the next 10 seconds.

This attack can be Avoided, but it’s often used after another form of attack that leaves you helpless like a Stun, Blinding, or Take Down. If you are hit by this attack and you do not have the Aberrant keyword, it has no effect. This functions kind of like a Blinding attack that only affects psions.

betrayal

An Aberrant attack that causes the Target to attack, without holding back, the next Target the user of this skill gestures to. This skill can only be used in the Wasteland and is resisted with Mental Endurance. Use of this skill can lead to increased CvC tensions and role-play after the fact, but does not count as CvC directly as neither character Target has agency in the moment. This skill lasts for 10 minutes or until Target enters Bleed Out.

This powerful skill will only be seen on a few select zombies and maybe a few other spicy threats, but it’s sure to make an impact. When Betrayal is used, the targets will turn on their allies and fight until they enter Bleed Out or 10 minutes has passed. The only counter to this ability is Mental Endurance, but this threat skill lets you have a bit of CVC as a treat. Remember, most of the DR: Texas site is considered Wasteland, so this can be a dangerous attack basically anywhere on the campsite.

This skill functionally replaces the old ‘Compulsion’ unique DR:TX ability we’ve used throughout 3.0, and will be the face of this type of effect as we move to DR Live.

Cannibalism

A unique form of Killing Blow that takes a 10 count instead of the normal 3 count. Cannibalism causes most Zombies to regain all of their Body and Skills. Visually, cannibalism is the act of being eaten alive. Cannibalism is role-played via making active movement and sounds of consuming while crouched down next to the Target in Bleed out. If a Target was not in bleed out but instead immobilized, Cannibalism cause Agony and 5 Body Damage per second per threat using Cannibalism

The staple threat of zombies in DR Live is that every single zombie, from the lowliest of shamblers to the scariest of Maulers is functionally capable of killing you quickly. If a zombie successfully completes this call of “GNAW!!!” ten (10) times while roleplaying ripping and tearing at your bleeding body, not only will they fully heal and reset their skills, but it will also count as a Killing Blow. The NPC will call the Killing Blow after the last call, just in case you lose track of how close you are to death.

For the remainder of games in 3.0, we will be adopting this form on Cannibalism for our events. It was an awesome way to add a bit of tension to fights, remove a bit of the meta thinking around leaving people for too long during a zombie fight, and it’s a change we want some time to get used to.

remember - There is no “gnaw 1, gnaw 2, gnaw 3..” style count any longer, simply multiple calls of “GNAW!”, with a silent count for the victim being eaten.

This change is an active and intentional design choice by the author to break up a bit of the ‘meta’ around cannibalism in previous editions. There is no audible timer while you are being devoured, nor do you have the ability to gauge exactly how much longer you have until your friend is dead. If you weren’t nearby when that person hit the ground, you’ll need to act fast and make the decision to charge into the fray with a use of Rescue or an emergency brew!

This new Cannibalize threat skill will probably be the number one cause of death by zombies, so if you hear zombies gnawing on a corpse you better hurry!

Cannibalism - Modified (cannibal Autopsy)

A unique form of Killing Blow that takes a 60 count instead of the normal 3 count. Modified Cannibalism causes the [REDACTED] to regain all of their Body and Skills. Visually, cannibalism is the act of being the subject of a living autopsy where key parts are harvested and spliced with the [REDACTED] to create new [REDACTED].

Some threats this weekend will be capable of consuming you much like a zombie, but they like to take their time and SAVOR the taste while they eat you alive. The cannibal horde enjoys the grotesque act of consuming their prey, and they sometimes like to take a few souvenirs and left overs for later. This will use the same rules as above, inflicting AGONY and damage over time if you aren’t in Bleed Out, but being a slower form of the zombie cannibalism.

Victims that die in this way are sure to have a bit more trauma in the Grave Mind, as this will be a terrible way to suffer before your death at the hands of our terrifying cannibals.

Rise Again

10 seconds after being dropped to 0 health, or with both legs Mangled, a zombie regains full Body, all Impact Skills (except Rise Again), and is immune to damage for 5 seconds. A verbal growl/moan signals reanimation. If a “Double Tap” skill is used, Rise Again is negated.

Robust rise Again (x)

A zombie with a Robust Rise Again requires multiple uses (X) of Double Tap to be used in order to have Rise Again negated. All uses of Double Tap must be on the same instance of using Rise Again, and if the zombie returns to its feet, the counter resets. On each use of Double Tap less than X, the zombie NPC calls “Resisted” and groans to signify that more than one Double Tap is required to keep the zombie down.

Almost all zombies in DR Live have the ability to stand back up after being defeated, the undead corpse lifelessly rising again to devour the living. The Rise Again ability is a powerful ability you will see throughout any DR Live event, and this skill lets the zombie stand back up with full health, all of their skills, and a 5 second damage immunity. This gives the zombie time to stand back up and get back into the fray without being simply beaten down before they regenerate.

The only way to stop this is to use Double Tap in the 10 seconds before they reanimate. Certain powerful threats like Flesh Tanks and worse will even have Robust Rise Again, and this version of Rise Again will require multiple uses in that 10 second window to keep them down. Make sure you invest some XP in Double Tap!

For these next few games, you’ll see this ability more and more on Undead as they adapt to an ever changing wasteland. While Double Tap is a bit easier to use in the 3.0 rules, costing Mind Points instead of Impact Skill uses, it will still be a valuable skill to keep ready against the undead.

Wrap Up

That’s it for today. I hope you are ready to face the cannibals this weekend!

We have some fun surprises in store for you as you are ready to try and survive the cannibal hordes of THE FUTILITY OF EVIL. Will you help the Cannibal Crown escape from the choices he’s made for power? Will you help the Malefactors recognize the folly of their philosophy, or will you answer their threat with violence? Will you survive being eaten alive by vicious cannibals?

Let’s find out together!

Tickets are on sale at the door this weekend!

See you soon Vados!