Voices of the Fold
Requiem’s in-character newspaper
Something For Everyone
As we prepare for Honor’s Fall, we spent a lot of time talking about Saturday night, when our players and NPCs all settle a year’s worth of scores between sunset and sunrise. But just as big an event is our Hot Zone, the special event mod we’re running that weekend. While we’re sending out dozens of mods and have a couple of staff shambles planned, the Hot Zone will be central to the event, and we want to make sure everyone gets a chance to enjoy our Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical (NBC) wasteland. So how do we take what we learned with our previous Special Event mods, like our Train Job in April or our Jonestown Run last month, and scale it for a game that might reach 200 people? Read on to learn more…
Honor's Fall - What You Need To Know
For the past twelve months, we’ve talked about Honor’s Fall… it’s the climax of the year for Dystopia Rising New York. However, every year, Honor’s Fall changes a little, and it’s important to understand the “rules of the game.” We want to make sure all players, both in- and out-of-character, know what to expect this August.
Winning & Losing In Larp
“Playing to Win” gets a bad rap in larp. Larp is a cooperative act, where we gather and agree to a common story and context, and yes, competition gets in the way of that sometimes. Approaching a larp in a play to lose manner overcomes this, and is a valid (even encouraged) playstyle. But many larps, and Dystopia Rising in particular, are games, and games have optimal and suboptimal outcomes. So when you play a larp where you can “win” or “lose,” you have to understand the game and how it affects you.
The Contenders
If you pay attention to the politics of Requiem, you’ve probably heard someone mention “the Thirteen Families.” The problem: there aren’t Thirteen Families. The number shifts, and depends on how you count them… so we’ll just talk about Patron Families that exist right now. As of the summer of 2022, we have nine Patron Families - six Families with NPC Heads (Anastasia, Boonhelm, Molon, Volkov, Warren and Zodiac) and three with players leading them (Brokentooth, Devils and Lonely Streetz). So with only nine Patron Families, what happened to the other four, and where do we go from here?
The Dirtiest Word in Dystopia Rising
Before we talk about the dirtiest word in Dystopia Rising, let’s call out one other problematic larp behavior: splitting (also called black-white thinking). Splitting happens when we look at something as “all good” or “all bad” instead of realizing that the thing is actually a mix of both.
Making the Most of...
At Dystopia Rising, we spend a lot of time on our costumes, and they look great. We distress our jackets, sew all sorts of patches and accessories, and craft realistic boffer weapons. However, then we often pack those costumes into suitcases, cover our bunks in sleeping bags and spread out all sorts of non-genre items across our sleeping space.
Making the Most of... Mods
A Dystopia Rising game has many parts: the economy, roaming threats of zed and raiders, and persistent NPCs (or “Casted Characters”) to name a few. One staple of the Dystopia Rising experience are mods; short stories that typically last an hour or so, using the players on NPC shift.
Confusing Calls, Made Simple, Part II
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.
Waiting In the Wings - What Comes Next
During our May event, you’re extremely likely to experience the conclusion of the Jones War and the end of the Anarchy (we say “extremely likely” because you can always throw us for a loop). But what about June? And our premier event in August, Honor’s Fall? Role-play is a collaborative activity, and both the storytellers and players should work together to guide the narrative. To do this, we want to talk about three things: steering, pacing, and agency.
Culture Versus Rules
Dystopia Rising has a lot of rules. Most of these rules tell us how to play the game: everything from how to swing your boffer to how to make a Red Mist. But not all rules focus on game play - some rules help us come together as a group and play together. While the rules of the game are all written down (and most of them available for free), the rules of play are a bit more complex.
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