OOC-Chapter 1-The Beginning of the End-General Discussion

[Mr. Handy]

This is the thread where we'll post anything that's completely Out Of Character, whether it's game-related questions that can be asked in public or simply out-of-game chatting. Anything that involves your characters' secrets or any information that you'd rather not share with everyone can be sent to me in a PM. You can also include OOC comments or questions in your In Character posts - just use the spoiler or spoiler-button tags. You'll see how to do it in the instructions in the Rules and Guidelines thread (which I'll need to create later) or when you see me use it in the IC threads. You would do this if you want to say or ask something about what's going on in that particular thread.

Remember that if you're playing in this game, you are only allowed to read the threads that have your characters in them. The title of each IC post will indicate which characters are involved, and the Current Location thread also will have this information along with a thread history (complete with hyperlinks to the exact post where each character enters each thread), but you can ask here if you're uncertain which thread you're supposed to be in. When characters move between threads, I'll indicate which new threads they go to and post links in their old threads that you can follow.

Right now, this is the only thread I've had time to create, but I hope to add more over the weekend. I'll want to transfer the character sheets over from the old iteration of Zombie Apocalypse (which you can find here). I'll add more information below in this thread as well when I have time.

[Dave Syrinx]

Mr. Handy, will we be starting at the No Mutants Allowed bit? That way there will be context to the story. I never checked it out properly so that would be nice. Or is that bit Welsh´s story?



"I was awake..."

[Mr. Handy]

Yes, we will be starting at the truck stop, so you can experience it from the beginning. It also lets characters who got killed early finally have a chance. Most of them will be new to you, since you've only met a handful. So many of them got killed before you had the chance. It is Welsh's story, but he already had me take over in the middle of Chapter 1 twelve years ago.

[Mr. Handy]

I haven't had time yet to get things started, but fortunately I'm off from work tomorrow, so I should have time then. I'll try to at least get the character sheets up then.

[Dave Syrinx]

A plan is a plan is a plan. Never count on it though. It will get here when it gets here.

[Mr. Handy]

I'm almost halfway done entering the character sheets. I probably won't be able to finish the rest of them until next weekend.

[Dave Syrinx]

Good job! I´m off to watch the latest FTWD. Based off of ZA, it would seem.

[Mr. Handy]

Yes, I've noticed the similarity, though Zombie Apoclaypse tends to be more intense and action-packed, more in the style of 24. Welsh and I had discussed back in 2008 the possibility of making it into a TV series that would take place in real time. Chapter 1 took place over two hours, so that could have been eight fifteen-minute episodes. Nothing ever came of it, but when The Walking Dead premiered, it was very close to what I had envisioned. Of course, that was based on the comic series, and I'm not sure when that started, but I have to wonder if someone involved may have read ZA and been inspired by it.

I got done 24 out of the 49 character sheets yesterday. Some of them needed quite a bit of work to clean them up and make them more presentable and consistent with each other, so it took longer than I thought it would. I also had to assign ages to the characters, as most didn't have them. I've got them saved as a draft right now, and I'll post the whole thing once it's done and I've given it one final read through to check for errors. When I brought characters over from the old site that had survived to Chapter 3, I'd just copied and pasted everything. Few of them survived to Chapter 4, however.

[Mr. Handy]

I've finished 32 out of 49 character sheets so far. I'll be off from work on Wednesday, so I'm hoping I can finish the rest of them then.

[Dave Syrinx]

Great! I think I´m leaning towards trying out that horny truck driver!

[Raiko]

I'm looking forward to the start.

[Mr. Handy]

Thank you both! Yeah, David is a great character. His picture is that of Kurt Russell as Jack from Big Trouble in Little China. He was one of the few characters from the start of the game to survive past Chapter 3.

[Mr. Handy]

I typed up all the character sheets (there are 50 in all, 44 playable, as I miscounted). I'm in the middle of double checking them and fixing errors, and there are quite a few. I have 25 of them done so far, and I hope to have the rest done and all of them posted tomorrow night.

[Starspawn338]

So we choose from the characters that are being pregenerated? How many characters are we playing at once?

[Raiko]

As I understand it, you can have up to 4 active characters at a time, but if you use all 4 slots you won't be able to take control of any new characters that appear, until one of your 4 dies.

[Mr. Handy]

Yes, that's correct. There are some guidelines for choosing characters that I'll detail in the character selection thread when I post it, probably later tonight after I put up the character sheets. Basically, I recommend that you each play three characters, but if you want a fourth, go for it. That's one less for me to play as an NPC. If all your slots are full, you won't be able to pick a new one just yet, but one of them's bound to die sooner or later. There are three groups of characters, and ideally you'll each pick one character from each group, though one of the groups only has five characters. Since we have six players so far, that means not everyone will have a character from that group.

[Mr. Handy]

The character sheets are posted! Please follow the instructions in Character Selection and Discussion and choose your starting characters there.

[Raiko]

Is this set "the day after tomorrow" or is it set in a particular year or decade?

[Mr. Handy]

It pretty much is "the day after tomorrow," the nebulous near future. The original run was unofficially set in 2012, though as 2012 arrived in the real world, this clearly wouldn't have worked. I just thought of it as the generic 2010s, and so this run will probably be the generic 2020s to me.

[Raiko]

It pretty much is "the day after tomorrow," the nebulous near future. The original run was unofficially set in 2012, though as 2012 arrived in the real world, this clearly wouldn't have worked. I just thought of it as the generic 2010s, and so this run will probably be the generic 2020s to me.

That's great thanks.

I was asking more for visualising the characters at the start than anything else.