Howdy Wastelanders!
And welcome to our next segment of Pro-Tip Thursday! Today’s Topic - Wasteland Threats.
Dystopia Rising is historically a post-apocalyptic survival horror game. While each chapter has their own flavor as to what type of encounters you’ll face or what those horrors look like, one thing is certain; it is inherently more dangerous at night rather than in the daytime. At DR:AR you may find yourself fighting for your fucking life the hardest on Friday and Saturday night where as in the daytime, you may be in a political game with factions or intercepting caravans for their goods.
At night, it is designed and intended to be more dangerous. Creatures of all types would rather utilize the shadows of the night to execute and hunt. There is a reason you’re more likely to see specific types of zed at night, like a hunter or buried occult, than in the daytime. However, there are some exceptions to this rule. If you find yourself saying “oof, it’s really weird that these creatures that typically show up at night to hunt are all of sudden attacking in the afternoon”, there may be a story reason for it. And part of that is to prompt players to dig into the why.
Whereas in the daytime, the threats may look different. Raiders and regular zed both will appear in the daytime but their behaviors may be slightly different. In Quiet Hollows, you’ll find that we have more critter encounters in day time (unless it’s Murdeer or Whoop Ass Crane mating season), more factions actively seeking assistance Saturday morning/afternoon, and more strain encounters than we do at night.
That being said, lately it appears that at a specific time frame on Friday nights, specific characters leave town and when they do, a massive threat marches in and rolls the town. It can come off as a punishment for not leaving when the specific characters did, even if that wasn’t the intent. That’s where our rules guides step in. As you may have noticed at our recent game, we have a lot of rules guides this season! The job of the rules guide is vast but one of the main things they’re responsible for is adjusting the encounter to match the challenge that the town has to face. If you find yourself in a particularly over powered encounter, once it’s done you can find the rules guide for that encounter and check in with them. They should be able to provide insight into why a particular situation happened, as long as it doesn’t interfere with the story.
Remember at the last game Saturday night when Lunos was preparing everyone for buried occult zed to roll into town? They showed up, engaged with the town for way less time than anticipated, and fucked off. Then roughly 30 minutes later, the tank army showed up. Not gonna lie, it did feel like a punishment! It wasn’t until Sunday afternoon when Truate clarified to everyone why that happened. It wasn’t evident to us at first. But that clarification drastically changed my outlook on the situation.
This is a survival experience. Sometimes we find our characters and their friends in tough situations that warrant making complicated and controversial decisions all in the name of survival. It’s not always going to be black and white when it comes to those decisions. But sometimes you do have to ask yourself - what would my character do to survive? Not every choice is going to paint your character as a hero, no matter what actions you take. However, those can make some of the most exciting and compelling stories.
I’m excited to see how this season progresses. There’s a lot of exciting things going on with our experience design team and hopefully, you’ll get to experience them soon. As always, we want your feedback. Please don’t hesitate to use our feedback form or send an email to contact@dystopiarisingar.com.
Stay safe in the wastes!