Dystopia Rising, A Personal Rundown, Part 1...
The water pooling at the bottom of my shower tonight ran pink with blood. I thought I had gotten most of it off, but the stuff on my right shoulder, back and stomach had gone straight through the clothing, not to mention my hands and forearms were simply all just a tinted red hue even after previous washings. It made me smile.
After three games now, I've finally hit my stride with Dystopia Rising: New Jersey. It's been a transition to go from the "theatrical" style LARPing to boffer/fully immersive gaming, especially on the ragged edge of the world, four generations after the zombie apocalypse, where having a tent is lucky and a roof over your head a barely heard of blessing. Even the richest in town live in the back room of a restaurant in bunks stacked three high. http://newjersey.dystopiarisinglarp.com/index.php is the game, if you have somehow managed to miss anyone else's posts on it. It's amazing. And one of the hardest things I've done in a long time. I love it.
It's hard for me to write a review of the game because I am certain I saw maybe 30 percent of what happened. 350+ people on dozens of acres of camping ground in the Jersey Wilderness (yes, this exists). This past weekend was "DeathCon", the season finale of Dystopia for this year. It meant we started Thursday night at 9 pm instead of Friday. Game still off Sunday at noon. Going in, I was terrified I wasn't going to make the extra day. I could barely handle camping two days and gaming for 40 hours. What was 60 going to do? But this game I finally hit my stride. I get it, and it was lovely. So, I'm going to give a run down of MY game, since several have asked for the play by play in curiosity, and I'd hate to forget all the amazing things that happened. Details are already slipping away, so here I go.
Thursday got off to a quick start. Having been on the team that obtained "Whisper Boxes" from a secret woman naming herself M, Rosemary and a few others got a message that this weekend was going to be extra horrific. All sorts of horror movie villains in the woods, raiders dropping out of trees, loose Psionics, infections, etc. Too dangerous for them to be assigned a separate mission, but there was a drop box of supplies hidden in the back of the defunct Wit's End bar. While Rosemary is still too young to be running off into the woods without much back up, there were two others with her and we were on a timeline. So, I grabbed the borrowed gun someone had given me and we dashed into the pitch darkness to walk a quarter mile down the path to pick up supplies that could mean life or death. Three of us, zombies on all sides of the path, and a hope that we'd get there before they got us.
We managed there unscathed. Our only help was a nigh unto full moon that meant the night had some ambient misty light. Then started the frantic searching of dust, mold, left and mud scattered boxes for the hidden supplies. Two looking, one on look out, but there are multiple open exits/entrances to the building, so it's impossible to watch our backs at all times. Every noise makes your pulse jump and sends us into silent stiffness, even just a squirrel. We can't find the supplies. We have a single red flashlight to use. And two figures are approaching in the darkness.
They aren't making zombie noises and are not running. Friday, a burly soldier of Rosemary's faith, is guarding the door. He doesn't dare speak because, for the moment, we are essentially completely invisible. The moonlight is blinding compared to the darkness in which we stand. Myself and Savannah join him, guns raised, especially as we realize the figures are clearly coming straight for us. It's not until they are five feet off we recognize them as friendlies. Another member of the faith and a guard. A collective breath of relief is shared that no one got shot, and we go back to searching with better guards on the doors. Eventually, the supplies are found and divvied up. Game has been on for 45 minutes and I've not stopped fearing for my life for a second.
On the way back into town, I run across the "New Caravan" coming into town: aka, the new player module. Still only in my third game, I decide to join as it will be the last one I can take. The group is being led around by an agent of the town's biggest momentary enemy, a Telling Visionist group by the name of Nemesis. They are torturing, fighting and destroying town using old Telling Visions villains in an attempt to "make the town stronger." He's pointing out all the rules, flaws and idiocies in town as he brings us out to one of the outer guard outposts. When we arrive, we find no one at this post still alive. And there are waves of zombies coming out of the woods.
A hard and fast fight breaks out. They've got triple our numbers, if not more. We're still in pitch darkness as the sounds of groaning continues pouring out of the woods, soon dissolving into the slapping of foam swords, cocking of guns and screaming of the injured. Another nice point for Dystopia: A thirty second fight takes thirty seconds. Real time, contact-safe battle. The waves of zombies ('zeds', nicknamed in game) are still coming. We have to make a hasty retreat. The group slightly breaks, the smarter ones pulling back towards town, others remaining to fight. Numbers grow smaller.
The first retreating group is now only half a dozen, Rosemary the only one who has been in town longer than tonight. Now being one of the 'senior' party members, armed with a weapon she know how to use, Rosemary realizes she HAS to fight. Or they're going to die. Zeds are coming out on all sides. So, I start shooting. We keep retreating. I keep shooting. And one goes down.
And it feels GOOD. So. Damn. Good. Some of that fear is turned into justice. There is a new flicker of confidence. Another comes and I shoot three times, all shots hitting. It goes down. I'm practically giddy. It is possible to survive, to defend myself in this hell hole of a world. One gets a vicious bite to my shoulder and arm, but I put it down too and we race back to town. The adrenaline high cuts some of the pain. Medics are numerous and soon all is repaired. It's the first stain of blood across my skin and clothing for the weekend, it won't be the last.
I'm going to split this into parts because it's already going long. But just the above scenarios show a glimpse of what I have begun to love about the world. There was no downtime, no table top. We literally walked into pitch darkness out of town into woods surrounded by enemies to grab life saving supplies. We ran into another caravan on the way back and things went to hell, but we survived. Hell, I'd call it a success. Just imagine when things go wrong...
Part 2 coming soon.