The Invention System
Dream it.
At Dystopia Rising Virginia, we strive to ensure that players have as much impact on the setting we’ve provided as possible. To that end, we’ve worked hard on creating a Research system that allows players of any stripe to dig into story and local lore. But we’ve noticed that people seem to be interested in building more and creating things they can use against the many threats and situations the Deadfall Line offers. Introducing the Invention System: designed to better facilitate the flow of these pet projects and achieve your character’s vision.
By spending 10 Mind Points and 30 minutes of Full Engagement Active Roleplay within a Research Center building and testing your invention, you can fill out an Invention Form and turn it into Ops to discover the results. A character may only turn in one Invention Form per event, but if you have the Techno Savant PFA, you may turn in two Invention Forms per event.
Build it.
Now, no invention is ever easy or perfect. The first time you turn in an Invention Form, you’ll get a rundown on how things worked out and may even be written a Local Plot Mechanic card for your prototype.
Prototypes are inefficient, prone to failure, and come with side effects that aren’t ideal. Most invention projects will take multiple events worth of time, Mind, and materials in order to arrive at the final product you set out to build. But keep in mind, even the most arduous refinement process might not yield exactly what you want. The limitations of the world and setting of Dystopia Rising will stifle complex or advanced concepts. And we as game runners may need to adjust things for the sake of balance.
As a final note, when thinking about projects you want to do using Invention Forms and dreaming up ideas, please keep in mind the post-apocalyptic setting we exist in within Dystopia Rising.
Any concepts that are outside of what is genre will not be accepted. The limits of reproducible technology in Dystopia Rising is generally placed at anything made up to 1899. So, sorry, no robots, computers, or anything more advanced than what you may find in the Industrial Era.
But hey, if you want to mess around with the Infection and psionics to potentially create disturbing works of Necrotech or Psi-Tech, we encourage you to walk those morally questionable routes if you’re curious enough to try…who doesn’t love a little mad science?
