Howdy Vados!
It’s Jonathan here with another signature DR:TX Rules Ramble, leading up to our March live event GIFTS OF SUFFERING! This is our next ST led over-arc game, 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 a new unique item that will be at the core of the event!
TICKETS FOR OUR MARCH EVENT ARE ON SALE NOW! WILL YOU CLAIM ONE OF BROTHER AGONY’S GIFTS?
The Rebellion update is coming! Make sure you check out some important updates to our Setting and the results of the town’s decisions from the BREAKER OF CROWNS later this week in a special bonus blog post.
We’ve added a new #war-planning channel to the Bravado After Party Discord. We’ve heard your feedback on the War Mechanics, and we have some really big changes coming soon! If you are interested in updates to the war mechanics, check it out!
Our photos for this post were taken from previous DR:TX events by our talented Photo Team, by Max Pohlmeier, Lauren Guzaldo, Sidney Betzina, and Jason Dumas.
Gifts from Brother Agony
During our next event, GIFTS OF SUFFERING, the titular “Gifts” will be a prominent part of the next event. Brother Agony has brought several powerful items to provoke conflict and suffering in the town of Bravado, and it will be up to your characters what you decide to do with these new items. Will you use them for personal power, or will you instead use them to save Bravado? These Relics will be a feature of the event, so let’s cover a bit more about their purpose and how they work.
In our tradition of Radical Transparency, we are going to fully reveal the rules for one of the TEN (10) Crowns that will be available to claim during this event, the CROWN OF STAGNATION. Each Crown is themed around a particular Faith in the wastelands, and this Crown is a foul perversion of the Church of Darwin. Just be warned - the other faithful of the Darwins likely won’t be a fan of someone using this relic to make a mockery of their faith.
Wait a minute - there are only 9 faiths in the corebook, and you said 10 crowns. What’s the 10th Crown supposed to do?
Artist concept of the Crown of Suffering prop, by Poe Popek
The Mechanics of SUFFERING
These are a unique local item and will have all the rules you need included on the provided item card sheet. It’s a full page, front and back, so let’s break down the key parts:
Every Relic REQUIRES behaviors of CVC. Trying to claim one of these items will involve your character in conflict against other characters.
If you are not interested in CVC behaviors, you should not pursue one of these Relics.
The Crowns cannot be hidden and must be openly worn. These are powerful Final Knight relics and must be displayed proudly and prominently. This will include a cool prop that is unique to each crown, and the item will be worn on your head like a tiara or crown.
Every Relic has a bonus ability of Damage Reduction. This can make you much tougher in a fight, which is helpful considering some folks may want to take that Crown from you by force! Lineage Bane damage ignores this protection, so grab that Toothpiq Chopper!
Every Relic has a punishment if you don’t complete one of the “Geas” every 2 hours. You’ll lose a Resolve (possibly gaining a Fracture) and take 10 unavoidable Body damage. While this can be damage can be healed if you have a friend, can you trust them not take your new prize from you in a moment of vulnerability?
This only counts time spent awake, so you don’t have to worry about keeping track of this timer while sleeping. But, in the morning you’ll need to get up, get some coffee, and get to committing crimes!
Each Relic can be Empowered to gain dangerous new abilities called “Boons”. Gaining these boons will require you to perform behaviors that will likely provoke conflict with other characters. These will generally let you use a certain skill for free, count as a Baptized Final Knight for various faith abilities, and help you unlock the ultimate power of the crown.
The Relic can’t be given away willingly — unless you’ve taken damage for not performing a Geas. Someone might be able to attack you and take it by force or steal the item while you are sleeping. But, once you’ve worn the Crown for two hours and taken damage from the Crown, you’ll be able to gain a moment of sanity that you can use to give the cursed item away. But will you want to give up your new prize?
The final “ascension” of the Crown requires Deadly CVC. This will unlock an ultimate power but requires performing a KILLING BLOW on another Lineage - a clear act of murder, and something that could get you in trouble with the Law Dogs if you are caught. Additionally, the final form of the Crown will require doing this multiple times, so be aware of what you are agreeing to if you choose to empower the Crown to it’s ultimate form.
If you are not interested in Deadly CVC and killing another player or NPC, you should steer away from empowering the Crowns.
What’s in a Geas?
Pronounced “geSH”, this is an old word from Irish folklore, but it generally refers to an obligation or prohibition supernaturally imposed on a person. This was also a wizard spell in classic D&D and shows up in a number of other roleplaying games. For our purposes, the Crowns have a sinister influence included that encourages the wearer towards acts of conflict and violence.
During GIFTS OF SUFFERING, the Geas of the Crowns will be the motivator to complete the tasks on the back page of the unique item card. Each of these actions will generally bring you into conflict with those that follow the Faith that the Crown is mocking. These actions might be something like interrupting a crafting session, having a dramatic scene with a particular Lineage, or require you to renounce your faith entirely.
The Goal of the Gifts of Suffering being in play is NOT to win by having one. The goal is to create dramatic scenes of conflict when they change hands, or when someone trys to fulfill the Geas of a crown.
Each of these Geas actions must be witnessed by a Guide and must include a dramatic scene of conflict. We want you to buy into to the conflict and roleplay, so each Geas compulsion is meant to be a noticeable scene that involves others. We want you to not just use some technicality to empower the crown, but really dig into the amazing roleplay that can come from scenes of conflict with another character.
But, say you are successful in performing the Geas tasks for the Crowns - what next?
The Ascended Crowns
So why would you even want to acquire one of these cursed Relics? Brother Agony brought these gifts to Bravado for a purpose - to inflict Suffering. But they have a strange connection to the Monolith in the center of the Crossroads. If the Crowns can be Ascended, they might be able to either empower or even destroy the Monolith.
Brother Agony has provided a useful tool that can be used in your Rebelllion against the Board, or maybe even as a weapon against the Prince Undying, or even more mundane enemies like Raiders and Zombies. However, you’ll notice that these items aren’t bound to just this single event. If you are willing to go through the effort to Empower the Crowns, you can use their cool abilities for the REST OF THE SEASON*!
* You can use these for the rest of the season In Bravado only, at least. These are still Local Plot Items and cannot be taken outside Bravado, without specific approval.
Let’s cover some of the important things to consider on the Ascended Crowns:
Your targets that you kill must be Lineages. It’s not enough to kill a zombie or some critter. It needs to be a living, breathing character, either NPC or LC.
Your Damage Reduction improves. You can now reduce most Damage effects down to 1, subtracting 10 points from any hit. You’ll be a virtual tank!
You can’t be the target of healing effects. You’ll have to recover from a deadly fight the old fashioned way - with brews and meals. You won’t be able to use or be targeted by skills like Medical or Biogenetics.
You gain the ability to do a Mangle, even if you don’t have the Skill. This is a powerful ability, and can dramatically swing a battle in your favor.
You can use skills as if you don’t have a Fracture. Need to cause some more pain with Pyrokinetics? No worries!
You can call Faith bane against your enemies. This could be handy against some pesky Fallow Hope that took up residence in Waking last month.
You can ignore most Area of Effect or By My Voice effects. Well, you can at least 3 times per Twelves. Your friends will need a crown of their own, or you’ll get to enjoy their suffering nearby.
Important Note: The Ascended Crowns require you to complete a Killing Blow every 24 hours. This means you’ll need to kill more than one character over the course of the event. Be warned!
How useful could these Crowns be as we continue Bravado’s Rebellion? You just need to be willing to keep up the bloodshed necessary to satisfy the Geas of the Crowns. That’s a small price to pay for the ultimate power of the Damned!
Or you can do something silly like try to destroy them. It’s your choice. During the GIFTS OF SUFFERING, it matters not what you do with the crown - the Suffering is guaranteed either way…
Wrap Up
That’s it for today, Vados! We will have another Blog coming soon detailing the effects of the town’s Rebellion against the Board, but those Crowns are looking mighty useful in the dangerous wasteland. Will you be tempted by power? Will you cast aside your faith for something more? You can just use the Crown against the Board, and then you can give it up - your friends can trust you! Will you strike down the heretic, and try to destroy the Crowns?
Let’s find out together, as we discover the GIFTS OF SUFFERING!
