The tour
The Tour
The tour is the route you drive. Every tour is a real Grateful Dead run, its stops are actual shows (venue, city, date), and each stop knows its concert date so the in-game "Tonight's Tapes" panel can pull that night's real recordings from the Internet Archive.
Choosing a tour
You pick a tour year on the first screen. Ten are available, 1970 through 1979. Each has a different length and mileage, so they play quite differently — the 1975 "Hiatus" is four shows a few miles apart in San Francisco, while 1973 and 1977 are long cross-country hauls.
| Year | Name | Shows | Total miles | Notable |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 | The Fillmore Years | 5 | ~435 | Short hops; opens at the legendary Capitol Theater |
| 1971 | Skull & Roses | 6 | ~2,240 | Legendary Fillmore East |
| 1972 | Europe '72 | 4 | ~680 | Overseas; legendary Lyceum finale |
| 1973 | Wake of the Flood | 8 | ~3,900 | Legendary Watkins Glen Summer Jam |
| 1974 | The Wall of Sound | 5 | ~3,060 | Legendary Winterland finale |
| 1975 | The Hiatus | 4 | ~12 | Tiny Bay-Area run; legendary Great American Music Hall |
| 1976 | The Comeback | 7 | ~2,310 | Theaters; legendary Tower Theatre |
| 1977 | The Spring Tour (default) | 10 | ~4,560 | Legendary Barton Hall (Cornell) |
| 1978 | Shakedown Street | 6 | ~2,740 | Legendary Cameron Indoor (Duke) |
| 1979 | Brent Steps In | 8 | ~2,405 | Legendary Halloween at Nassau |
Each tour has one legendary show (a bigger morale payoff, and the only place you can pull a "legendary" tape) and a finale (the last show; attending or taping it wins the run).
The default route: 1977 Spring Tour
The 1977 Spring Tour is the default and the recommended first run — ten shows from the Palladium to the Hartford finale, with Barton Hall (May 8, Cornell) as the legendary stop. Distances are miles from the previous show.
| # | Date | Venue | City | Miles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | May 4 | The Palladium | New York, NY | 0 | start |
| 2 | May 5 | Veterans Mem. Coliseum | New Haven, CT | 75 | |
| 3 | May 7 | Boston Garden | Boston, MA | 135 | |
| 4 | May 8 | Barton Hall, Cornell | Ithaca, NY | 330 | legendary |
| 5 | May 9 | War Memorial Aud. | Buffalo, NY | 150 | |
| 6 | May 11 | St. Paul Civic Center | St. Paul, MN | 900 | |
| 7 | May 13 | Auditorium Theatre | Chicago, IL | 410 | |
| 8 | May 19 | Fox Theatre | Atlanta, GA | 720 | |
| 9 | May 22 | Sportatorium | Pembroke Pines, FL | 660 | |
| 10 | May 28 | Hartford Civic Center | Hartford, CT | 1,180 | finale |
Distance and the real gap between show dates drive how much gas, food, and time each leg costs — see Resources & the Road.
Campaign mode
After picking a tour year (and before picking a role), you can set a campaign length: play up to 4 consecutive tour years back to back with the same character, crew, and van. Pick 1977 with a length of 3, for example, and you'll run 1977 → 1978 → 1979 as one long career. A campaign of length 1 is just a normal single tour. The chain always runs forward from your chosen year, using whatever consecutive years remain.
The Peak
Once per run, your character gets a scripted Peak — a story beat that surges one of your stats. It becomes eligible a couple of stops in (a chance each leg) and is guaranteed on the final leg if it hasn't fired yet. The Night Owl mod makes the surge bigger (+4).
Each role's Peak fits its character:
| Role | Peak surges | To |
|---|---|---|
| Trust-Fund Kid | Lot Cred | 90 |
| Veteran Taper | Vibes | 100 |
| Burnout | Lot Cred | 100 |
| Deadicated Grandma | Vibes | 100 |
| Off-Duty Roadie | Van | 100 |
| Spun Professor | Lot Cred | 85 |
| Runaway | Lot Cred | 92 |
(Any role without a defined Peak falls back to a generic Vibes-to-100 surge.)
The finale & how a run ends
- Win: attend or tape the finale show. The run is scored, achievements are evaluated, and the result posts to the Hall of the Fallen.
- Lose: Vibes hit 0, you lose your whole crew, or the van breaks down (0 health) and you can't pay the $50 tow.
In a campaign, finishing one tour's finale rolls you into the next year rather than ending the career, until the last year's finale.
Related: Resources & the Road · Taping, Scoring & the Hall