Play@YSDC

I had a dream about zombies 2 weeks ago (second time it happens). I had no guns, no place to hide, just my legs to run...

In my dream, we were in some sort of warehouse, all up high on these shelves... and doing a good job keeping the zombies at bay. Then when we thought it was clear, I was hopping down to retrieve something, and one showed up. It was moving slow, but apparently faster than me as it grabbed my arm. I tried to pit strength against strength, but it man-handled my arm like I was a toy doll, and went in for a bite...

I woke up.

Wow, awesome dreams. Sometimes running can be the best move. The only problem is that zombies can move without rest a lot longer than we can.

I won't have time to update Omaha tonight, but I'll hopefully be able to do it Wednesday, or Thursday at the latest. Omaha is nearly done (the other sections are close to finishing Chapter 4 too), and I have to congratulate the players there. In spite of all the deadly danger, there hasn't been a single character death. Some serious injuries, some lost marbles, and evne a dunking, but nobody died who didn't already start out that way. Part of that was luck, but there was also some good decision making and coordination. Fixing the generator ASAP was the key, as that prevented a massive zombie break-in. With Emilio's critical success at Electrical Repair (on a 1), only a handful of zombies got through the fence before the power came back on.

Perhaps we are learning hmm? Which means you may have to rachet up the horror Mr Handy.

Yes, you're learning. Chapter 5 will be different in a number of ways, but I'm not going to give anything away yet. Chapter 4 has been very low-fatality. The only other chapter that even came close was Chapter 2 - until that chaotic battle at the end took out all those characters. It was lucky that the motel didn't fall then and there. Before that, only two people had died in the entire chapter. Chapter 3 was a slaughterfest, and nearly resulted in a TPK in one of the sections - Sally was the sole survivor from that group. That was probably the most difficult chapter...so far.

In my group in chapter 3, there were 2 slaughters: one made by Gardner an npc and the other by a single zombie ... We made several bad decisions, but we worked as a group trying to protect it's members. And it was the best role-play in a group that I participated.

Yeah, the Over section was great. Gardner did become a PC (played by Laraqua), but only after he killed five characters. He didn't manage to kill anyone directly while she was playing him, though he did cost Alvarez his leg while knocking him down to 1 HP.

and all Alvarez wanted was to give peace a chance

I can't help but feel like the longest day was a bit too short - Tariq ran from the Cafeteria to the balcony, pulled Kyle into the workshop, got him medical treatment, then ran down to the bottom floor, and it took him all day long.

I've only ever had one zombie dream, and it was a while ago. I was killing them in my driveway with an axe and a bicycle. I' m thinking it was more likely a prediction of my upcoming game than a result of another one, but last week I had a dream in which I woke up from sleeping in a pyramid on a table - and realized I was a shoggoth...

Now that is really cool.

I used the title The Longest Day both for the obvious WWII reference (the sections are named after four of the five beaches where the Allies landed in Normandy on D-Day) and due to the fact that it takes a lot of time in the real world while not taking so much in game time. So far the Omaha section of Chapter 4 has encompassed about 35 minutes of game time, and it's probably going to be done with the next major update. Sword is already done, and Gold and Juno aren't that far from being completed either. This has been a rather short chapter. Only Chapter 1 was approximately the same length (seven months of real time), whereas Chapters 2 and 3 have each lasted about a year. In over three years of real time, less than eleven hours of game time have passed since Chapter 1 first started way back in June 2006. That's another reason why Z-Day is The Longest Day.

Chapter 5 will be called Dead of Night, and time will flow somewhat faster there due to changes in the situation, especially in Gold and Omaha. There will be parts of Sword and Juno that will move in an accelerated manner as well, I'm sure - there will be the occasional lull between crises, and people do need to sleep at some point.

So what are the chapter names going to be called and when does Chapter 5 start up here?

Chapter 4 should be finished within a week or two at most. I expect Chapter 5 to start in early September. The section names will remain the same.

well unless something actually weird and horrible occurs I am actually finishing a chapter with the same characters I started it with although Colin does not seem he will make it in the sane world much longer.

Thanks for clarifying the time. Suddenly this game makes sense! My character has yet to even see a zombie, but something tells me his survival chances are going to plummet once he leaves the scool.

Mr Zombie killer wrote:well unless something actually weird and horrible occurs I am actually finishing a chapter with the same characters I started it with although Colin does not seem he will make it in the sane world much longer.

Colin is going to get a Sanity boost after the chapter is over. He's still going to have mental disorders and need serious long-term therapy, but he won't necessarily hit 0. In fact, all of the characters in Gold from the first 3 chapters will get Sanity boosts for reaching a "safe" haven, though the new characters added in Chapter 4 will not - they started out there. Also, every character in Omaha (new or not) will receive a Sanity boost as well, as Omaha is now a "safe" haven of sorts. Characters in Sword and Juno will not receive one yet, as they are anything but safe.

Mi-Go Agent wrote:Thanks for clarifying the time. Suddenly this game makes sense! My character has yet to even see a zombie, but something tells me his survival chances are going to plummet once he leaves the scool.

You're welcome. Whether you leave or stay, there is still danger. It just may take a different form than what you're used to.

Ahh yes he will recieve a sanity boost but will it matter in the end? Something tells me it won't but then again that could be cause I am a glass half empty sort of fellow.

Even if poor Colin gains the maximum Sanity, his glass will still be 8/9 empty!

Well, look on the bright side of being a pessimist. At least you won't be disappointed if you turn out to be wrong, and if you're right you expected it and were able to prepare.

Yeah the fun part of this game is that I expect my characters to die off and while i do not go looking for death it sometimes visits and that is all part of the game. The only funner part would be if you let us make up our own backgrounds and or secrets but oh well.

But you will be able to do that in Chapter 5. Not you specifically, since you still have four characters and thus no room for a new one until you lose somebody, but every player who has slots open will be able to create their own characters, one in Gold and another in Omaha, with full freedom to develop their backgrounds. I'll add in other secrets besides what you put there that are appropriate to your character (characters with low stats will be more likely to have special abilities that give them a boost, and high-stat characters will be more likely to have disadvantageous secrets).

On the time speed issue, my character has been through a lot and has survived because of other people (PCs) died. Been on a number of locations so far. Met a bunch of different groups of players. That and some careful treading. I hope for my traffic controller to make it to the air force base. If nothing ugly appears on that roof. So far in this game I´v had two characters and lost none. I´ve however, lost a serious amount of supporting characters.
The ratio of killed PCs per player is not always high. Just to clarify how this game plays out.
Over and out from a sunny Swedish day, not that common.

Till the next update, alive and kicking .