Doing it Live!
Dystopia Rising: Colorado is excited to enter its 10th season this year, starting with online games February 28th (tickets now available) and March 28th! These games will be using a different online ruleset than we’ve previously used, because we will be using the virtual play rules for the new system that we are moving to this season.
Last year testing began for the newest edition of Dystopia Rising, Dystopia Rising Live. With overwhelming enthusiasm and support from chapter owners and directors across the network, all games are beginning the transition from 3.0 to DRL between February and May of 2025. Dystopia Rising: Colorado will be using the DRL ruleset for the entirety of 2025.
Want to get the scoop on the latest ruleset, threat books, Strain variant mechanics, and lore of the world of Dystopia Rising? Download the latest publications here.
Not sure where to start? We recommend the “Player’s Guide” for updated rules of play, the Lineages book “Strained Ancestry” for new Strain variants and updated lore, and the “Devotion & Faith” book for updated lore and subsects of the wasteland religions.
Want a quick rundown on some key differences? We have you covered.
It’s Alive - All documents are Living
There will not be print publications of this edition available. Instead, the website will host PDFs of all documents — which will be updated as needed and include change logs. Most of these publications have already been updated since their release, so if you have looked at any of them in the past, it’s recommended that you check again. Some of these documents will likely see a lot of change over the first year as the system is played, and then will slow to only be updated as needed or when new content is published.
Impact and Development Skills
With only a few exceptions from professions and items, Mind Points are now completely divorced from combat. The skills you would rely on in combat or other tricky situations are now Impact Skills. Once you learn an Impact Skill, you may spend XP to purchase additional uses of the skill. These uses refresh after 20 minutes of resting away from combat, and new Blueprints facilitate the creation of items that can regain those uses should rest be untenable. Crafting, Gathering, and Social skills are now Development skills. These skills cost Mind or sometimes Resolve to use, as they did in previous editions.
Different Power Scale
All new characters now start with 50 XP to learn skills and/or train Mind/Body/Resolve at their first game. With this change, existing characters get a bonus 50 XP for putting together a DRL character. New players earn 10 XP per game for their first 10 games. After the first 10 games, players earn a standard 5 XP per game, and can purchase up to three (3) additional XP at a standard game, or more at a Premiere or National game. Players cannot earn more than 25 XP per month.
There is no longer a minimum XP expenditure before purchasing Tier 2 and Tier 3 skills — those can be purchased immediately.
Skills and Stats cost little to start, but quickly become very expensive. This better balances the scales between the largest characters and the smallest ones, empowering players with less XP and allowing players with more XP to participate in the game without threat of disrupting a challenge.
That said, this is a different scale from 3.0. The adjusted starting XP and increased XP per game leaves the number of games to reach certain milestones the same, but your XP milestones will be different — in 3.0, a character could get their first PFA after 100 XP spent, and additional PFAs every six (6) months. Now, while the requisite Skill or Stat purchases may be as little as 45 XP, it is recommended that a character looking to be fairly well-rounded aim for one Profession every 200 to 300 XP spent. This is a general bit of advice to help those who are feeling discouraged looking at the character creator — if you have a vision that involves a Profession and little else at lower XP, the right build is whatever is most fun for you.
Professions — like PFAs in the 3.0 system — have prerequisites. Development Professions require two Master Skills each, Impact Professions require at least 5 collective uses of either or both of their prerequisite Impact skills, and Default Professions require at least 30 cumulative purchased points of Body and Mind. Unlike PFAs, Professions each have two (2) skills unique to them. Profession Skills are purchased separately from the Profession title. And unlike PFAs where there really wasn’t a limitation on the number you could earn, your characters are limited to three total Professions. This is to help your characters feel more unique, as it is less likely for any two characters to pick the same three professions.
Updated Economy
All items will have different mechanics now. Most will have an equivalently named item, but some won’t. We will have more information on how we’re handling swapping 3.0 items and blueprints for Live items and blueprints in the future.
Scrap expires now. All scrap has an expiration date of one year, and cards without an expiration date will be assumed to expire February 2026.
There are no more Twelves. Mind refreshes now only come from item and Lineage mechanics.
These are big changes to the game and the way the economy has functioned thus far, but serve the purpose of creating a system that encourages player interaction and cooperation. No character can be an island anymore, and you’re not supposed to be self-sufficient — the scaling cost of base Mind, the lack of natural Mind refreshes, and the lessened ability to stockpile resources, are all meant to encourage players to either form crews or coordinate with different characters each game to make the items needed to survive.
It’s called Live, but will you Live?
This system is designed to be deadly. Spike damage for players is limited and precious, threats are more powerful, and additional threats are unlocked when over a third of the characters checked into a game are aberrant. The threats are designed to be approached tactically, and while crafted weapons and gizmos are helpful, collaborating with others and strategizing make it possible for a group to handle any standard threat with starter equipment.
It’s worth noting that resolve expenditure is rarer in this edition, and forced Resolve loss rarer still. This means Fractures are a rarer occasion overall. Which is good, because after a character has accumulated four Fractures, gaining any more results in permanent character loss. In most cases, a character with a Fracture cannot be forced to gain another — they may only gain more through voluntary methods. This opens a new avenue of stories for players who want to portray a character shattering to the horrors of the wasteland, and greater incentivizes players to help resolve or soothe one another’s Fractures.
You will find that playing it cautious and buying more uses of Avoid and Mental Endurance, or raising your Infection cap, makes it harder to buy more ‘fun’ skills. You are encouraged to play it less safe and have fun with it. Infection only costs XP to raise your cap above three (3) now - if you are ever below your cap, there is no XP cost to regain Infection. However, Infection regain, and Infection loss prevention, are rarer and more expensive than they were in 3.0. There is a greater expectation that characters will retire or perm in this system than in the previous one - which is part of why 100% of your XP carries over for making a new character after permanent character death. When you retire a character, 50% of that character’s XP is available for new character creation, and the remaining 50% is awarded after six (6) months of playing the new character.
Presenting our first Live game: Hordefront Pt. 1: King of the Mountain
On February 28th, we’ll be hosting our first virtual Dystopia Rising Live game on Discord using the new virtual play ruleset. Come visit scenic Elder Mountain, irradiated home to an ideological conflict between the Wells Society seeking to eradicate the radiation with their Glow Shrooms to pave way for civilization and the Temple of Evolution seeking to embrace radiation’s power and potential. The fate of Elder Mountain will be in your hands in more ways than one, as a horde the likes of never before seen in the region is on the way. With the potential for events on Elder Mountain to impact the future of the area, including Barker Meadow, stakes are high and we’re doing it Live!