Narrative Scope and Guidelines

The Dystopia Rising Live universe is defined by a consistent, immersive world where players explore the decay of civilization, the rise of new communities, and the relentless threats of the post-apocalypse. To maintain the integrity of this shared universe, storytelling operates within defined parameters, balancing creative freedom with core lore.

Core Narrative Themes

Survival and “Human” Drama:
At its heart, Dystopia Rising Live is about resilience and societal struggle. Stories focus on:

Personal and Community Survival: The fight for resources, safety, and stability.
Ethical and Moral Dilemmas: How far will you go to survive? What are the costs of leadership, sacrifice, and betrayal?
The Fragility of Civilization: Communities can rise or collapse based on player decisions, reflecting the tenuous nature of rebuilding society.
Resource Scarcity: Game branches have the ability to write multiple settlements within their county, and should do so. They should, however, always write in that there are not enough available resources for everyone.

Horror and the Unknown:
The world is filled with existential and physical threats:

Zombies and Raiders: Constant dangers that require tactical thinking, cooperation, or retreat.
The Mortis Amaranthine: The psychological horror of dying and returning, where each death chips away at sanity and identity.
Environmental Hazards: Radiation, disease, and scarcity add layers of tension and fear.

Faith and Belief Systems:
New religions and philosophies have emerged to help survivors endure their reality. Faith can:

Bind Communities: Offering structure, hope, or control.
Create Conflict: Differences in belief can drive narratives of cooperation, conversion, or confrontation.

Rebuilding and Collapse:
Narratives explore the rise and fall of societies:

Settlement Growth: Players shape towns through trade, defense, and politics.
Internal and External Threats: Communities face challenges from within (betrayal, scarcity) and without (zombies, Raiders)
Internal and External Conflict: Without a universal standard for what is right and wrong combined with many times acts of survival needing to trump morality, conflict is always there.

Storytelling Boundaries

Canon vs. Custom Content:

Canon Content: Major lore elements, such as the Infection, Mortis Amaranthine, and Lineages, are fixed and must not be altered. Canon locations, NPCs, and Groups / Organizations written in Canon Content are not for local use outside of what is specifically stated.
Custom Content: Local stories can introduce unique settlements, local political and military groups, minor faith local-only subsects or cults, and antagonists within the established lore limited to the county they have licensed for use.

Thematic Consistency:

Stories should reflect the gritty, survivalist tone of the Dystopia Rising Live universe.
Do not introduce elements that clash with the core genre, such as high-tech devices or non-genre fantasy tropes.

Narrative Scope:

Focus on events within a county-sized area.
Avoid defining large territories, major historical events, or universal truths that might conflict with future canon updates. As an example, you cannot say a canon city has been blown up, or define the nature of how Psionics function.

Player Agency and Growth:
Encourage character development, moral choices, and the exploration of community dynamics. Narratives should challenge players to grow, adapt, and collaborate.

What Branches Cannot narratively Do

Define the nature of the Infection or the Mortis.
Create or allow players to define content outside of the branch’s county.
Create new Lineages or variants, major faiths, control or introduce narrative that suggests control over canon content, operate outside the scope of modern-day post apocalypse, or large-scale historical events.
Alter core mechanics or technological limits.
Create new local mechanics, disregard content as written, or disregard canon lore or content.