Thank You! Using Your CAPs

Photo by Shawn Smith

Dystopia Rising New York relies on you, the players, to make our events happen. Without your help, we wouldn’t be able to bring a hundred larpers to Forestburg nine times a year and make these amazing games. We often want to thank you for what you do, not just with words, but with something to enhance your play experience. Luckily, we have a way to do this… Community Action Points, or CAPs. You can spend these CAPs on a number of cool rewards, from Mind refreshes to extra resource production. But there’s a problem:

You never use them.

Every game we give out thousands of CAPs, and they just sit there accumulating in the database. For the #readytoreq campaign alone, a dozen people get enough CAPs to buy a “Blue Plate Special” (a meal that will refresh you to full Mind), only to see players never cash them in. So to fix that, we’re going to explain what you can buy with CAPs, how to know how many CAPs you have, and finally, make using them easier.

Bottom line up-front - You can now spend CAPs without ever going to the Post Office, just by writing on your character sheet that you used them for certain effects. 

What Can CAPs Do For You?

The Dystopia Rising main website describes Community Action Points, including how you earn them, and what you can do with them. Basically, they’re awarded by Guides and other staff members as a “thank you” for helping us. You can use CAPs for story rewards, to find teachers (or unlearn skills), and to establish play spaces such as Culinary or Agricultural zones throughout the site. However, there are three things you can do for your character at game, all for 50 CAPs or less:

• You can spend 40 CAPs on a Blue Plate Special. This is a meal that takes 10 minutes to eat and works as a full Mind refresh. You can only use this twice per event, they are non-transferable, and they expire at the end of the event.

• You can spend 25 CAPs on a G.O.G.O Gatherer: <skill name> for any gathering skills (Agriculture, Foraging, Hunting, Salvaging, or Trailblazing). You can use this when you perform the skill for one more of any single item you gathered (i.e. a one-time buy one, get one free). These expire at the end of the event, and you can purchase two G.O.G.O Gatherers per skill, and they are non-transferable.

• You can spend 50 CAPs for 3 Local Currency. There’s no limit on how many times you can do this.

These are cool, but we really want you to enjoy your CAPs. So here are some Requiem-Specific Uses for Community Action Points. 

• If you’re using a crafting or gathering skill, and are interrupted, you can spend 100 CAPs to call “Not Today.” You can ignore the interruption, and take up to a 5-minute break from the task. As long as you return to using the skill within 5 minutes, you may continue where you left off. You can use this ability once per event. 

• If you use a combat skill and that skill is countered (i.e. your attack is Avoided) you can spend 100 CAPs and call “Nothing Ventured.” You regain the mind you spent to use the skill. You can use this ability once per event. 

• If you’re an Aberrant, and you’re in an Area of Effect or By My Voice call that targets Aberrants or does Aberrant Bane damage, you can spend 100 CAPs and call “Just Say No.” For the sake of that one effect or call, you do not count as an Aberrant. You can use this ability once per event. 

You might notice these uses of CAPs are calls you would make in the middle of a fight, and not items you get from the Post Office. This is because we’re now letting you use CAPs and log it on your sheet, to make it easier for you (read on for more details).

How Many CAPs Do You Have?

All Community Action Points are associated with individual chapters, or with National (which can be used at any chapter). You can find your CAPs for all chapters (and National) on the Database. However, you don’t need to worry about that at an event, because your local CAPs will be on your sheet. Right below the boxes that record your Lores and Fractures, it should list the CAPs for the chapter that printed your sheet (picture in the next section). 

How Can I Use My CAPs?

Normally, you have to go to the Post Office, stand in line, and ask them to spend your CAPs. They’ll then give you an item card with the item you requested. Some uses require you to contact the Directors and take more time. However, we’ve realized that this is a barrier to use, so we have a local rule about using CAPs, to make it easier:

If you’re using NY CAPs, you can spend CAPs on Blue Plate Specials, G.O.G.O Gatherers, and any local CAPs calls simply by recording them on your sheet.

All other rules still apply: you have to spend 10 minutes eating a Blue Plate Special, for example, and you still have to go to the Post Office to use your G.O.G.O Gatherer. However, for any of the Requiem-specific Calls (Last Ditch Effort, Not Today, Nothing Ventured, and Just Say No), you can simply use them and record them on your sheet.

To record CAPs usage, write them on the front of your sheet, under your skills (the red circle shows you where you can find your local CAPs). 

We have one caveat: you can’t spend National CAPs this way, as National CAPs don’t show up on the character sheets. If you like, you can contact the staff or visit the Post Office, and they’ll convert your National CAPs to local. 

Why Are We Doing This?

Community Action Points are supposed to be our way of saying thank you to you… if you can’t use them, they don’t mean anything. We’re hoping by giving you more ways of using them (and seeing others use them as well), they’ll become more desirable and make our gratitude more meaningful to you.

We will be adding excerpts from this blog to the website under Local Mechanics.

What’s A PFA (To Us)

Photo by Shawn Smith

Shadow. Bad-Ass. Graverobber. The one thing we’re sure about: Professional Focus Achievements (PFAs) have awesome names. The majority of plot requests we receive at Dystopia Rising New York involve PFAs, as well as quite a few complaints. PFAs are some of the coolest things that can end up on your character’s sheet, and take the longest to achieve… you have to have spent at least 100 Build before you can have one, then put in a plot request. And then… to use one, you have to have an expensive piece of equipment or “be in the right place at the right time.” All this results in PFAs being a source of confusion for players and staff alike. So what is a PFA in DRNY?

A Disclaimer - No One Right Way

First, we’re just talking about PFAs in our local chapter. You might not like our approach, but we want to be clear and transparent about how we treat PFAs. Most importantly - we’re not saying “you’re wrong” if you disagree with us… there’s no one right way to use PFAs. We know that players are (rightfully) very attached to some of the PFA titles (more on that below) and want them to behave a certain way. What’s important is that we’re clear on how they behave at our game.

The Problem

PFAs are a relatively new game concept; we’ve only been playing with them for about three years. The rulebook doesn’t actually tell you what they are… pages 138 through 139 tell you how to get them, but not really what they are. The book does describe the titles associated with Professional Achievements, however:

Titles of Professional Focus Achievements are used as an honorific title related to a skill tree and the skill requirements of related equipment bonuses. They are not intended to be a literal description of any profession, title, or description can ever encompass all potential routes and mechanical design focuses an individual could use to describe a Professional Focus Achievement.

However, at the same time PFAs arrived, an older mechanic - Advanced Professions - disappeared. Advanced Professions were a mechanic you could purchase for your character that opened up unique skills: if you had an Advanced Profession, you could do things no one else could do, like perform Grave Mind procedures, raise the dead, and kill powerful undead by pointing a finger. To receive an Advanced Profession, you needed months of roleplay, with a minimum of three lessons. For most of their existence, these lessons could only be taught by NPCs, and for a time, advanced professions were extremely rare. For many, achieving an advanced profession like Grave Robber, Saint or Mercenary were long-term character goals. They’re very different from PFAs, which are really just capstones to individual skills.

But while PFAs and Advanced professions are different, they have one thing in common: the titles. Many of the old Advanced Profession titles (like the aforementioned Grave Robber, Saint, and Mercenary titles) became PFA titles. So while people remember how important those titles used to be using the old mechanics, they don’t carry the same weight under our current rules system. 

Further Complications

Let’s admit a problem: Advanced Professions went away because they relied on a gatekeeping mechanic. If you met the prerequisites, you could apply for an Advanced Profession and the staff would decide if your character was worthy of it or not. While this did keep Advanced Professions rare and prestigious, it also led to bad feelings if someone was not approved. Further, there were issues of favoritism and, even worse, biases as certain professions were gatekept unfairly. When PFAs arrived, they removed the approval process: while you still have to put in the plot request, you can’t really “fail” a PFA “test.” You just have to meet the prerequisites, put in the request, and after your mod, you put it on your sheet. This effectively solves the gatekeeping problem.
However, without rarity, PFAs lack the same prestige. You don’t “earn” a PFA; you buy it like you would Mind, Body or another skill. You receive a mod not to determine if your character is “worthy” of a PFA, you go through a story to make it more enjoyable. But what about the people who remember being gatekept out of their Advanced Profession, or never had a chance to achieve that goal, and remember what it meant to have one of those Advanced Profession titles? This introduces a new problem: the PFA title doesn’t match player expectations of what that title means.

So What Does A PFA Mean (and Do)?

The best way to approach a PFA in DRNY is to treat it exactly as it behaves mechanically: it means your character has achieved a certain level of skill and knows how to use specific pieces of equipment more efficiently. It doesn’t mean you’re inherently better at anything than other characters without the PFA.

For example, the Shadow PFA allows players to use certain Stealth related items more effectively: with the right items, they can stay in disguise longer and use “Never Here” more advantageously. It also signifies they’ve achieved a certain level of skill at Stealth, and suggests this may be a focus for their character. However, it doesn’t make them “more stealthy” than other characters, or mean they should automatically succeed at Stealth mods. 

But what about the ability to use PFAs in specific plots? Storytellers can design scenarios to include a special opportunity for specific PFAs to stand out with unique mechanics. While we do try to do this in DRNY, the numbers make this impossible - we have about 150 active players in the database, and well over 200 PFAs to account for. Further, this number is heavily skewed: at our last game, we have more than a dozen Shadows (23), Veterans (20), Mercenaries (20), Graverobbers (16), Assassins (16), Flankers (15), Bone Breakers (14) and Inner Circle (13). Even if we include special mechanics for PFAs in our mods, with these numbers, the mechanic has to be something multiple people can enjoy, as opposed an overwhelming advantage one person can use to “win” the mod. 

Big Picture: The Game Has Changed

It’s been three years since we introduced PFAs… the majority of our players never had an Advanced Profession, and at least 20% of them never played with those mechanics. However, when the rules changed, we didn’t emphasize the change enough, and some perceptions bleed over into how we think about PFAs. In human factors engineering, there’s a concept of negative transfer - where you take previous expertise in a situation, and apply it to a new situation where your expertise doesn’t quite fit. We have to remember not to apply negative transfer to our mechanics… a PFA is a cool title you can add to your sheet, and while it can be very important to you as a player, it doesn’t fundamentally change how your character interacts with the game as a whole. 

Confusing Calls, Made Simple, Part 3

Photo by Allana Marie

This is part of a series of articles that attempts to make some of the more confusing rules calls simple. In this one, we look at some reminders from our Rules Guides. Don’t forget to check out Part 1 (particularly for damage reduction) and Part 2 (about ways to incapacitate someone).

Reminders

A couple of reminders from our previous parts:

• If you call “Bane” on a damage call against a creature with damage reduction, they just cancel out. Pretend it’s a normal damage call… it doesn’t get increased or decreased.

• We talked about untying someone’s bonds in a previous blog, but don’t forget: if you want to untie someone quickly (5 seconds), it takes 1 Mind to cut their bonds. Otherwise it takes 1 minute but no Mind. 

• If you’re Stunned (including Takedown), you have to crumple to the ground for 5 seconds. You can’t just stand there. 

Bleed Out

So… you’re reduced to 0 Body.  Congrats! You’re in Bleed Out. First, realize that you can’t fake Bleed Out, so if you take a hit, fall over, and start acting like you’re dying, you’re going against the rules. There’s no real reason to lie down in a fight if you’re not in Bleed Out, so don’t do that. Bleed Out ends when your Bleed Out timer expires (typically 5 minutes, but some items or skills can change that) or you receive a Killing Blow.  Once it ends, you’re dead and should lie on the ground for 10 minutes before going to Ops.

What’s a Killing Blow? Generally it’s a strike that takes three seconds, that you then declare. While you have to role play it, you don’t have to count out loud (although it’s a good idea if you’re an NPC to count to create a compelling scene). Murder acts as a Killing Blow as part of a strike, so effects that prevent Killing Blows prevent the effects of Murder. 

The Lexicon

We have some terms in the Lexicon that you should know; it collects a number of rules into one place.  Some highlights:

• Agony - This call is countered by Basic Mental Endurance if it’s an Area of Effect or By My Voice call, or by Avoid if it’s delivered via a Strike or Ranged Attack.

• Nail - This skill is countered by Avoid unless it’s an Area of Effect or By My Voice call, then you’re just stuck. It just forces you to keep your foot in the same spot on the ground for 1 minute or until you enter Bleed Out - you can still use skills and defend yourself.

• Terror - This skill is countered by Basic Mental Endurance, and makes you flee for 30 seconds. It’s different than Fear, which just prevents you from attacking the source of your fear.

On the topic of Fear, please note you can’t use Basic Mental Endurance to counter it, and it is broken when you’re attacked by any foe; it doesn’t have to be the creature that caused it, but it can’t be your buddy tapping you for 2 damage.

Other Notes

Some other notes our Rules Guides asked us to pass on:

• You can’t target yourself with a skill unless it says otherwise.

• When you use your last Resolve, you can’t use items that cost or make you lose Resolve for the remainder of the event (this means no injectables!)

• When you’re Blinded, you can’t use skills you’ve spent build on, so you can’t use Florentine. 

• If you Break something trapped, or the trap itself, you trigger the trap. Breaking containers Break the contents.

Confusing Calls, Made Simple, Part II

Photo by Allana Marie

This is part of a series of articles that attempts to make some of the more confusing rules calls simple. In this one, we look at different ways to really incapacitate a character.

“Potatoed”

The word “potatoed” isn’t anywhere in the rules set; it refers to a character who has had all their limbs Mangled. What’s interesting about this state is that they’re specifically “Subdued,” a state in which you can’t use any items. So if you have an item that allows you to heal a limb or ignore effects of Mangled limbs (as opposed to preventing them), you can’t use it unless you have one working limb. 

Subdued

The “subdued” state is also not often understood. It’s explicitly different than being Stunned, and only happens if you have had all your limbs Mangled, are Unconscious, or are in Bleed Out (also tied up, but we’ll get to that). While you’re Subdued, you can’t use any items or any skills except for Anomaly skills (unless that item or skill specifically states you can use it while Subdued); you also can’t move. What players forget is that being unable to use items or skills or move (like when you’re Stunned) does not mean a creature is Subdued. This is important if someone wants to use a skill that requires a Subdued target.

Tied Up

One such skill that requires a Subdued target is the use of Basic Malicious, which lets you tie someone up. It takes 5 seconds, and while the effects are very similar to being Subdued, they’re not exactly the same (specifically, only Anomaly skills will work when you’re tied up). Further, it’s possible to be Subdued and tied up at the same time: right now, there’s no item in the game that will work when you’re both Subdued and tied up. 

Stabilized

An important point in all this: a character who has been Stabilized by Basic Medical is no longer in Bleed Out, and is therefore no longer Subdued because of this. Although the book explicitly states a Stabilized character can’t use any skills… but they can move slowly and use items. So you could become Stabilized and drink a brew or a meal to regain body; and you can’t tie up a Stabilized character (unless you Subdue them some other way).

Research in Requiem

Photo by London Belli.

Research! The word attracts the attention of some players, and inspires dread in others, but since the beginning, research has been part of Dystopia Rising. However, we don’t have many rules describing how characters can perform research during an event, and each chapter develops its own techniques to introduce new information to players. So how do you, as a player, perform research in Requiem?

Method 1: By The Book

There are three methods of performing research according to the rulebook:

• Enhanced Information (pages 100 - 101): The storytellers prepare some sort of “marker” with the words “RESEARCH (SKILL)” indicating what skill can provide additional information. Note: players can’t just call out a Skill (i.e. “Lore: Undead”) to gain additional information - it has to be prepared prior to the module entering play.

• Unlocking Lore Cards (page 136): By having the appropriate Lore on your character sheet, you can open “Lore Cards,” placed in modules by the staff, in a similar manner to gaining Enhanced Information.

• Researching a Disease (pages 187 - 188): By spending 20 minutes and using Lore: Medical, a player can spend 5 Mind points and learn about a particular aspect of a disease (including transmission, stages, and treatment). By spending enough Mind, they can develop a treatment plan.

As you can see, all three methods depend on the staff already knowing the information they want to release to the players; these can’t immediately react to player actions. So what happens when a player has a question, and wants to research an answer?

Method 2: Requiem Research

So you want to research something in Requiem… it can be anything from “why are raiders moving into the area?” to “what are the favorite meals of every Family head?” How do you get your answer?

At Dystopia Rising New York, you have two choices. First, you can use the Library (described fully under Local Mechanics) to spend 20 minutes of role-play, and then go to Ops to ask one yes-or-no question per level of Education you possess, at the cost of 5 Mind per question. Further, if you have the Sage PFA, you can gain insight into further research - basically asking to be hit by the “Clue-by-Four” if you’re trying to figure out the next steps to tackle a plot. This mechanic gives you plenty of options if you have an open-ended question, but that question still has to relate to existing lore or mechanics in play at DRNY.

A second option, also described under Local Mechanics, is Requiem Research. This lets players investigate any topic they wish, through role-play and engagement with the setting. There are three steps:

1. Go to Ops and ask an open-ended question, and tell them you want to do Requiem Research.

2. Go role-play doing the “research.” If you want to learn more about the gravemind, spend time role-playing taking samples at the morgue. If you want to learn more about the history of the site, role-play an archeological dig. Two things to remember: 

   1. The more people you involve, and the more in depth the role-play, the more information you’ll receive.

   2. Skills and items matter! For example, if you use a bunch of psionic crystals and have people with aberrant skills when researching psionics, you learn more. 

3. Come back to Ops and tell us what you did. If we have information available for you right away, we’ll provide you with it. If not, we will ask you to submit an action request so we can get you your answers next time.

Requiem Research is an option for people who want a more freeform experience, and work with the staff to get answers to advance a narrative. If you work with us, we’ll work with you, but we need time to answer your questions.  It’s possible to do the first step as an action request, so that we have something prepared for you! Also, remember to have reasonable expectations. One gathering worth of research isn’t enough to discover a unique new print, and some mysteries may take many months to unravel.

Research is an important part of Dystopia Rising, and we want to make it enjoyable for you. We think an impromptu, player driven mod with your friends might be more fun than sitting around a table for 20 minutes, especially when we can’t predict every question you might ask us and prepare. Using the tools we provide, both through the rulebook and local mechanics, gives you lots of different options to learn new information in Requiem.

Confusing Calls, Made Simple, Part I

Photo by London Belli.

The Dystopia Rising rules system is huge… it consists of a 207-page rulebook, hundreds of prints, and an array of storyteller documents. With the size of the system, it’s easy to get confused about some of the rules. This is the first in a series of articles that attempts to make some of the more confusing rules calls simple.

Damage Reduction

Sometimes, you hear the call “Reduced, Minimal” or “Reduced, Immune” when you hit a character. This means the character takes little or no damage from the strike.  That part’s easy.
However, what gets through Damage Reduction? The answer’s actually pretty easy if you remember three things:

• “Bane” cancels Reduction, and vice versa. If you hit a zombie with Ranged Reduction with Undead Bane damage, then the creature takes normal damage.

• A Burst (i.e. using a Proficient or Master ability with a weapon to do more damage) ignores Reduction. The damage goes off normally.

• If an attack is both Burst and Bane (i.e. “50 zombie bane”) the creature takes all the damage as if they didn’t have damage reduction. 

Enhanced Movement

Enhanced Movement is a little wonky because it’s basic ability actually does two different things. The first ability lets you take 5 steps with the stealth gesture (ignore restrictions on light that would end the use of Basic Stealth). The second lets you escape combat by taking 5 unchaseable steps.

The confusion comes from two restrictions that only impact the first ability (5 steps with the stealth gesture). This ability requires a) cover of some sort to use and b) can be negated by the use of basic Awareness (i.e. “Alert”). The second use doesn’t have these restrictions.

Predatory Stealth

Predatory Stealth is something you’ll see on your NPC shift when you’re playing sneaky monsters, mostly zed. While the full description is in the threat book, realize that Predatory Stealth is essentially the same Basic Stealth. The difference is that normally, zombies don’t avoid light, or run away from physically superior threats. Predatory Stealth, as an ability, just allows Zed to stick to the shadows instead of lurching directly at their prey, and retreat if they’re threatened, all the while being capable of Basic Stealth. It’s not a better form of Stealth, it just sounds really cool.

The Strange Case of Theft in Dystopia Rising

Photo by Allana Marie. Pictured - Daniel Carrione, Robert Udasco

We covered Character versus Character (CvC) conflict in three parts earlier, and it’s time to talk about the oddest case of CvC in Dystopia Rising: theft. Theft occupies a unique place in terms of consent: it’s inherent to the game via the rules there’s no real way to opt-out of it. To help players better understand it we’re recapping how to steal stuff, both with Basic Larceny and good, old-fashioned theft.

Consent and Theft

When you play Dystopia Rising you are inherently consenting to theft. It’s hidden in the section “Thick as Thieves” on page 158 (emphasis added):

Always remember that the player is more important than the character; just because your character is a master thief doesn’t mean you should try and steal every single item from someone you know may become upset. You do not need to check in with another player prior to using a thieving skill on their character, but you should prioritize the mental and emotional health of the player representing the character you are stealing from over your character’s fiction desire to steal.

So you don’t need to use the Conflict Check-In but you need to prioritize the emotional health of the other player. This is very different from what we’ve talked about in our Consent and CvC series! Instead of direct communication you need to be a bit of a mind-reader. Luckily there is a solution built-in: every theft in Dystopia Rising requires a Guide.

Using a Guide

Whether you use Basic Larceny or pick up an unattended object you will need to have a Guide present to monitor the theft. They’ll help you negotiate the situation and, if needed, gauge the other player’s reaction. When you steal something with Basic Larceny they’ll notify the other player and retrieve the card for whatever you stole. If it’s an unattended object they’ll help you register it in the theft log. Having a guide involved helps to meet the intent of the theft rules by ensuring there is a neutral third party considering the other player’s feelings.

What You Can’t Steal

The rules are quite clear on what can’t be stolen: anything on or under your bed is considered out-of-character and can’t be stolen. However, you can’t hide carded items there unless you’re on NPC shift.  You also can’t steal a supply bag: you have to loot it and leave it behind.

Other Notes on Theft

• Similar to causing infection loss, you have to remain in play for at least 4 hours as the character who committed the theft after you steal anything.

• When you’re stealing from a body, you can only steal items from the supply bag or phys repped items. Don’t dig around in people’s pockets. In Dystopia Rising New York, we ask that if someone loots your supply bag while you’re wearing it, you also hand over all your cash.

• You can pick a person’s pocket by attaching a black clothespin to it. You can do this if you spot where someone keeps their money.

• If you steal a phys rep, you have to hang onto it for 30 minutes (so there’s a chance you get caught) and then turn it into operations (so the other person can use the phys rep).