Starting a New Game

Select Character

After starting a New Game, you'll be taken to a character select screen - there's three protagonists in the wind, but in Early Access, only Thomas is available. You can see a summary of that protagonist's plot, and their Stats, on their page. The initial stats suggest what sort of playstyle might be most beneficial for that character, but anyone can play any way if you work towards it.

Three inmates, three stories.

Select Past

Each character comes with three different pasts to choose from. These pasts provide two Skills, one a positive ability, and a negative effect. This can help you tweak your protagonist further towards the gameplay style you may want to explore.

Pasts for Thomas

Name	Flavor Text	Special Skills	Positive Ability	Negative Effect
	After graduating from college, you joined a television station as an intern and soon found your way in front of a camera thanks to your good looks. You were able to get first-hand stories from the mouths of even the most reluctant interviewees. However, your years of working in the public eye have also made you extremely self-conscious about your image.	SKILLS	Charisma +1, with an extra 30% when raising Rapport with others.	You can't shower without soap, and you lose 1 Mind when searching through trash without gloves.
	As a journalist, you know all too well that the city's evils are often hidden in the darkest corners. That is why you always carry a miniature camera when you venture into the seedy backstreets on your quest to reveal the truth. However, the constant danger has made you overly cautious.	SKILLS	Agility +1, with extra pocket slot(s).	Attempting a challenge with a re-roll success rate of less than 30% will cost two Focus Points.
	During the civil war in the Republic of Aslovia five years ago, you volunteered to go to the front lines as a war correspondent. You photographed up close the struggle that civilians endured in the fighting. Life on the battlefield left you physically strong, but the horrors of war are forever seared in your mind.	SKILLS	Strength +1, and your armor type changes to Thick Fur.	Nightmares can't be automatically forgotten, and you need to take two sleeping pills at a time to sleep.

Pasts for Bob

Coming soon.

Pasts for ???

Coming soon.

Choosing Difficulty

Once you have a protagonist and past sorted, the last step is to choose your game difficulty. Back to the Dawn offers three, essentially equating to Easy, Normal, and Hard. If a difficulty is too challenging, an easier difficulty may be selected at any time in the options - keep in mind that players cannot swap to harder difficulties once started.

New Eden Mode	For players who want to experience the story in a less challenging, and more relaxing way. Fate will be in your hands. On this difficulty, characters will have two special items at the start.
Central District Mode	This is the recommended mode.
Skidroad Mode	On this difficulty, you won't be able to use Memory Recall, so you'll have to accept and face all the results, good or bad.

New Eden Mode Items

Thomas	Key_Items#Dice of Fate: You can spend Focus Points to make up the missing points if you fail a roll (1 point per Focus Point). Unable to do this on a Critical Failure. Key_Items#Trainee Report Card: When Body and Mind are reduced, halves the loss. You will no longer be brought down by Pain or Depression!
Bob	Coming Soon
???	Coming Soon

And now you can begin your journey in Boulderton Prison! In addition to this wiki, the game itself has a very helpful encyclopedia of gameplay know-how in the Prison Manual, accessible any time from the in-game menu under Tutorial.