Starting Guide for DR:Live

Leading Character, Casting Time & Clean up

Your leading character is the character you will be playing for the majority of the game.

At one point during the weekend, you will be required to be an extra or a cast member during the event. Casting info here.

Finally, after closing announcements, everybody will be responsible for their personal clean up as well as a section of the site to clean as well!

Make sure to pack the essentials!

Gathering & Crafting

In DR:Live, there will be designated crafting areas in the play area of Dystopia Rising New Jersey. They will be located in or around the main tavern for accessibility and ease where anybody with the skills (Artisan, Culinary, Agriculture, etc.) can create items and go to the Public Works to claim that work you put in!

Most play areas are all welcome for roleplay, however we also have a Wasteland zone. If you do not like Character vs Character interaction, try to avoid this area. The Wasteland is strictly free-for-all and you do not need player consent for any interaction that may occur. We have a Ok-Check in system in place for any character vs character or “CvC” to ensure players are okay with the engagement. Bathrooms & Kitchen are strictly out of character!

Otherwise, hang out at our Dry Event with a bunch of other larper shapes and kick back at an in-game bar or try our tasty treats and foods other players offer in game.

Combat & Weapons

Dystopia Rising utilizes a lightest touch system. With stylized, safety first, foam weapons and soft cloth packets to represent projectiles. All melee weapon is a flat 1 damage, projective and range does 5 against your armor or your body (health). You will hear some players call out specialized skill names which will allow them to do certain things, if you are ever confused about a skill usage, don’t be afraid to make a fist over your head (our universal out of game hand gesture) and ask the adjacent player “Clarify, what skill did you use?” We all were there, and asking questions made us a stronger larper. As you engage in combat, be on the look out for special Calibration Patches that some players would wear.

As you start your experience, you wanna make sure you can get the most out of your experience. Here at DRNJ, we wanna make sure you are suited up for the best experience you can have!

For starting gear, you can walk into game with:

3 Melee weapons (Small, Standard or Two handed, in any combo)
1 Set of Brawlers
1 Gun or Bow
1 Shield
6 Thrown Weapons
1 Starter Armor (5 points, 25% Coverage required)

All references of size and creation can be found in our free online rulebook.

Skills in DR: Live

Characters in DR: Live have access to three different types of skills: Default Skills, Impact Skills and Development Skills.

Default Skills, as the name suggests, are skills that every character in DR: Live has by default. Those skills being all of your base combat skills that allow to use each weapon type as well as shields.

Impact Skills are action focused skills that may be used once per combat/action scenario for each time the skill is purchased. Between scenarios, if the player spends 20 minutes not using any Default or Impact Skills (this includes base weapon use), their Impact Skills refresh. Some abilities that fall under Impact Skills include Avoiding Damage, Double-Tapping threats, and Performing First Aid just to name a few.

Development Skills are more in-depth skills that take a set amount of time and expenditure of Mind Points to perform. They all have three tiers: Basic, Proficient and Master, each with different abilities. Some abilities that fall under Development Skills include, Crafting, Cooking, Farming and In-Depth Medical procedures.

The amount of Mind Points you start with is determined by the Strain you choose to play as. Mind Points do not refresh during the game, however they can be restored through certain items like Meals and Brews.

BODY ARMOR AND DYING

When you choose a Strain of Humanity in the next section, it will tell you how many hit points your character starts with. If you receive damage that reduces your hit points to 0, your character is now dying. When you're dying, you can't move or heal yourself, but you can and should yell and scream, you're dying after all. There are specific items and skills that allow people to heal your hit points. Armor is very similar to hit points, but it requires someone with the appropriate skill to fix it back to full.

Death

If after 5 minutes of yelling and screaming for help, nobody comes to save you, your character has died. Dying is a big part of Dystopia Rising as this is a Play to Lift and Lose system of storytelling. After you die, You have 10 minutes before your body goes through. Here is where other skills and items can interact with dead characters. Afterwards, you'll head over to our Ops building where the Storytelling team will provide for you an amazing roleplay experience that will explain exactly what happened to your body and help drive the future actions and attitudes of your character.