local mechanics

Local Custom Mechanic: Lights Out

As part of our two-part June and July plot, we'll be running a custom mechanic called Lights Out. Here's how it works:

A guide will enter a building and call “By This Zone: Lights Out.” All characters not immune to blinding will be under the effects of Blinding and Stun until the guide specifies otherwise, calling “Lights Up.” All players affected by Lights Out will be asked to cover their eyes until tapped by a guide or NPC.

Any character that is not blinded does not have to cover their eyes during this time, and does not take the effects of the Stun. They are considered to have needed cover for Stealth, and can move to intercept NPCs as long as the NPC is not under the effects of Basic Enhanced Movement or Stealth.

If an NPC is intercepted, play will briefly pause while the combat is moved to an open space. Any players that are needed to be moved for safety will be informed by the guide. Once a combat space is cleared, play will resume.

Why would something kill the lights to a building? To snatch helpless victims, of course!

There will be times during our June and July events where NPCs may attempt to abduct your character. If you wish to opt out of being kidnapped, inform a Logistics Guide to receive an opt-out wristband.

If your character is abducted, your kidnapper will attempt to take you to a certain checkpoint. If you are rescued or use the Larceny skill to slip your binds before this checkpoint, you're free! Otherwise, you and the NPC will go back to Ops, where you will be presented with 3 options:

  1. If you have Basic Larceny and the mind to do so, but chose not to slip your binds while being taken, you may escape and return to town without drawing enemy attention.

  2. If you don’t have Larceny and are OK with your kidnapped character being "offscreen" until one of the rescue missions run the next day, you may NPC for CAPs or play a different character during this time.

  3. If you don't have Larceny and don’t want to be offscreen until the next morning, a guide will spin up an escape scenario for you, and you can find out how you managed to escape and what state you find yourself in as you make your way back to town.

We hope to create a tense game with a sense of danger lurking in the dark. Will you find a way to hold back the darkness?

A New Tree for 2023: Updates to the Overgrowth Pinemaw

A New Tree for 2023: Updates to the Overgrowth Pinemaw

With the resurgence of last November’s apex Overgrowth threat right around the corner, we want to tell you all about some of the changes we’ve made to refine and balance the Pinemaw into the challenge we always dreamed it to be: it will still pose a deadly threat, but our hope is that these changes will bring it from being just a hard fight to a hard and fun fight!

Memetic Fixations: Need to Know

Memetic Fixations: Need to Know

Our July event, POWDER KEG, introduces a new threat to Lorado: Memetic Fixations. These are more potent and easily spread versions of the original Fixations that have plagued the residents of Barker Meadow. Memetic Fixations are intense, destructive, and maladaptive intrusive thoughts that characters must confront throughout the event. Their effects will be more specific, brutal, and swiftly resolved than before. Possible vectors now will include the terrifying potential of it spreading through discussions with the Fixated about the individual's mental state or the phenomenon itself, sprawling out through Lorado as a virulent idea.

Don't You Want to Be Wanted?

With the inauguration of The Wardens, lawbreakers all across Lorado are seeing their golden age of chaos drawing to an end. But formidable though they are, there are only so many Wardens to go around, and far too many slick lowlifes and dastardly outlaws dot the Western Wastes for the most tenacious law dogs to attend to them all; thus, the honored tradition of cash bounties returns - and the target: you!