Starting something up again?

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Looks like there might be some interest for another round of PbP, or just text RPing. Mainly I'm talking about Silencedfaith's questions. But one or two people might be enough to start something which a few more people might join.

Of course any type of genre is possible, but what would people think about a post-apocalyptic setting. Maybe global warming really did get us, or the phyto-plankton collapsed triggered a total collapse of the food chain, global economic depression, bird and or H1N1 flu goes lethal and pandemic, a combination of many or all horror scenarios, whatever. The main point would be that the fragile thing called modern society with its just on time delivery and limited warehousing system supplying major cities with enough food for a few days would no longer be functioning, or if it did, just barely. Think Katrina over the whole US to imagine what things might happen.

Some source material might be the "Dies the Fire" series by S.M. Stirling, John Ringo's "The Last Centurion", Jared Diamond's "Collapse", or for movies "The Postman", "Mad Max", or "The Road." Or just read the news from pretty much anywhere in the world and imagine how close global society is to collapse.

Come to think of it, it would be a pretty darn depressive RP, but what fun!

 

Post-apocalyptic!

I love this kind of settings, so much to do and explore!


I'm in!

Especially PbP gives more flexibility when time is involved.

 

Yes, I've never been able to commit to any of the games that happen at a certain time, so Pbp is what works for me. Glad you like the post-apocalyptic genre, it is fascinating and also horrifying at how easily we could actually go down that road.

Do you have any ideas on a grand scheme to follow? I mean wandering around a wasteland trying to survive is not bad at all, but having a goal can sometimes help move things along. Also, do you have any ideas as to what "rules" you would like? By that I mean the physics of the game world.

One way would be total realism, with the laws of physics that we experience in real life the ones that function on the game world. No paranormal powers, ghosts, etc. It would be easy to decide what goes and not, but maybe could get dull. The bad guys would be limited to different flavors of humans and wild animals.

Another idea would be along the lines of S.M. Stirling's "Dies the fire" series, where higher powers have altered the physical laws so that no forceful explosions and no electronics can work, which means no guns, no internal combustion engines, and no communications. Or maybe like the "Left behind" series, the rapture has occurred, or maybe it wasn't the rapture, but Ragnorak. That would allow for many more strange things to happen.

Is any one else out there remotely interested in such a project? Things work a lot better with three or four people as opposed to two.

 

For me personally, the cause of humanity's downfall would really link to the setting we're going to play. For example, if it's because of a worldwide nuclear war, then I would say that realism and current days physics should basically work with physical mutations for 'special effects'.

I personally like zombie apocalypse though. I used to play in a post-apocalyptic world where all manners of zombies (almost got killed by a zombie RAT, out of all things) roam the Earth. But, psionic rules are in effect.

So I got to meet psychic zombies too.

 

Okay, I've got a friend who will be joining us soon. Zombie fiction is one of his favorite genres, so he will have a lot of insight. Before we start the actual role play here are some things I think we should do:

1. Discuss the mechanics of text based role playing. Generally we will need at least two threads, the thread where the actual game will take place, which should have the name that we come up with, such as "Zombie Attack!" or "Safeguard your brains!" Of course those are just lame suggestions off the top of my head and I'm sure we will come up with something better. Then we will need an out of character thread called for example "Zombie Attack OOC" where things such as setting details and rules, descriptions of player and non-player characters and such are posted. If it really takes off, we might want specific character threads and a synopsis thread where we briefly summarize the action so that if people want to join down the road they do not have to read pages and pages to have a clue of what has happened.

2. Discuss some guidelines. Generally, unless someone steps up to the plate, there is no game master. Everyone posts what their character sees and does. Of course, at different times people will have more or less ideas about what should or could happen. A rule of thumb is do not kill or seriously injure another player character unless you have previously agreed to it in the OOC thread or private messaging PM or something. For example, rather than writing: "Jakob swung the fire axe with all his might, and it sunk deep into Jessica's forehead. He regretted losing his lover, but it was better than that she become one of them." One might write:"Jakob saw the telltale red in his lover's eyes, and knew what he had to do. Without warning he raised the fire axe and swung it with all his might towards her forehead." Which gives Jessica the option of bowing out if she needs to leave the game, or she could reply:"Jessica woke up red eyed after another long night of crying. She was just about to manage a smile at Jake when he swung his axe at her. She managed to duck and turn not quite enough, the blade sliced off the tip of her nose and the handle impacted her shoulder with a bone-jarring smack. Through the spurting blood and pain she managed to cry out, 'I'm not infected! I'm not infected!' As Jakob raised his axe again."

Another thing to talk about is how often to post. One problem that many RPs have is a small group of characters who are online simultaneously post a lot and advance the plot a lot, leaving offline people feeling left out. If two characters are having a conversation, this isn't such a problem, but during a battle it is very easy to let things get carried away by people who are online. The solution is for every one to agree to limit their posts to maybe once or twice a day. This gives players spread over all the time zones of the earth an equal chance to participate.

3. Discuss ideas for what we want the zombie world to be like. My limited understanding of the zombie genre is that there are always some variables that need to be established, such as:

-Is the cause natural, for example a bio weapon gone bad or a mutated virus, or super-natural, for example, hell is full and the souls are coming back to their bodies, or god, or the gods, have gotten sick of humanity and decided to loose a plague of zombies on us.

-Is it infectious, and if so, in what manner?

-What abilities do the zombies have? Of course this is related to their origin.

4. Commit to giving this a good shot. Of course, the whole reason to do an RP is for fun, and if anyone is bored it is silly for that person to continue, but this board is littered with the corpses of RPs that flared to life for a brief period then turned to cyber dust. I'm guilty of being part of many of them, sometimes they just don't take off. But having been a part of Rashemen, I can attest that it is great fun to be a part of a longer lasting RP, so let's give it a try. Lurkers and readers, join in!

 

I agree with your summarized points above, especially with the no God-modding part. Let's wait for your friend to join us to go into the Campaign's finer details.

 

OOC - Interested

OK I am in. Hit me with an axe if I can't figure out the protocol.

 

Great! Now all we need is a summary of the campaign and where we're starting... And get our characters polished and ready for becoming zombie baits play.

 

Double post

 

Er... Is this going anywhere?

 

Well, obviously not yet. My friend said he's still interested but busy. We should just start anyway. What is your preference for the natural/supernatural question? I would vote for supernatural.

 

Supernatural it is then. I don't really mind about their origin, after the zombie talks I had with my friends just now while we're having a drink (coffee, out of all things.) We talked of viruses, parasites, and even radiation (causing a mutation in the brain, shutting down all functions except the craving of the most basic necessity -- food)!

Aaanyway, since we're playing a supernatural game of zombie-pocalypse... Here's my idea:

1) A massive spill of negative energy from the Negative Plane caused the dead to rise: Moot point -> Getting bitten by a zombie won't kill you; if you die you will definitely become a zombie due to the spill of negative energy.

2) Necromancer/Spellcaster/Shaman/Whatever attempting a raise dead spell gone wrong: Creating a bunch of zombies that will kill and consume flesh... Whoever killed by the zombie will raise as one. No question asked.

3) The gates of Hades were opened, causing the evil souls to return to their dead bodies... But their twisted sanity and nature cause them to hate the living and crave their flesh... As long as the souls of the body was not deemed worthy enough to go to Heaven (or any resting place, really), they will return to haunt the living as flesh-eating zombies.

4) A variety of idea no.3, but instead of Hell opening its doors, its door is closed. All recently deceased were revived in their zombie forms...

 

Okay my friend is here as Sovoz, sorry, didn't connect that name to him, though I should have. I vote for scenario 1.

Given that, what would the zombie physiology be like? Specifically, what would it take to kill them again? In many movies it's the brain. A head shot or decapitation or even a fencing foil through the eye then twirled around will take one out, but one shot through the heart will keep coming. Other movies I remember dismembered zombie hands crawling and grabbing at people. For me, the brain makes sense, as it is where our consciousness is located, and therefore a good candidate for where a returning soul would go, as opposed to say the appendix or spleen.

Also, how about location? Big city, town, rural? Real city such as New York or London?

Finally, any good name suggestions? Maybe just simple:
Zombies! ?

 

Scenario 1 is... scenario 1. That's why it's at the top of my list.

Well, destroying the brain should be good enough since as long as the brain is there to 'maintain' the flow of negative energy within the body, a heart is not required I guess, just like how a skeleton could rise even without any binding flesh. In this case, the dead brain is something like a spell focus, drawing in negative energy. Destroying the focus destroys the zombie, naturally.

Location: I vote town. Starting anything bigger will make things end up ala Resident Evil, which I adore. But really, I'm up for anything.

Name: [SHOT]Biohazard[/SHOT]; The Last Supper; Wake of the Dead; Dead Rising; Blank Eyes; To be Forsaken; Living Hell; The Black Plague; The Undying; To be Alive; Among the Living Dead. Just pick one.

And then... our characters?


Edit 1: I'll post my character up tomorrow as it is a bit late in my part of the world.

Edit 2: I forgot to ask, how far in the time line are we? Is the zombie plague just starting or it was already after a few days/months/years?

 

I think it would be fun to roleplay the initial outbreak. Though if the zombies are consuming the entire bodies of their prey they won't grow their population much. Shouldn't be too much of a problem though.

Town sounds good. How about Dubuque, Iowa? It's on the Mississippi River in north eastern Iowa.

 

Well, this would work. Time to roleplay the 'uni student on tour from Australia and was stuck in the US forever' person.

 

So here we go, "Forsaken" starts. Let me know if you have any questions about the location, both Sovoz and I grew up in Iowa, though neither of of us live there any more.

 

Great! I'll be sure to ask... since I had never even been to that part of the world. I will depend on you both.

 

Any idea on when Sovoz is going to join us? Or are we free to go as far as we like in the RP before he joins us?

 

Not really, let's just keep going and he and others can jump in when they feel like it.