Welcome

A group of strangers at a highway truck stop must cooperate to survive as the world becomes overwhelmed with legions of the living dead. But more terror awaits them as they race to prevent the end of mankind and the coming of the Zombie Apocalypse. (This is a Blood Brothers Campaign based on Call of Cthulhu Rules and the films of George Romero).

[This game accepts new players]

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kabukiman
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Re: Welcome

Post by kabukiman »

When we will be able to see (and chose) our characters?
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welsh
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Re: Welcome

Post by welsh »

A couple of questions.
Handy is currently the Keeper on this while I was the original keeper. He and I continue to cooperate in plot elements, structure, story, etc. Most of what you can expect in the next chapter is Mr. Handy's creation.

The way Zombie Apocalypse runs is that it slows down time. The idea for this came for watching too much 24 and being surprised with how much can be crammed into an hour. There are also elements of this drawn from Lost- multiple characters with their own backstories and agendas. Finally, the main source of inspiration are the Romero zombie movies. Because we liked the "fast zombies" of the most recent Dawn of the Dead film, we incorporated three types of zombies- Runners, walkers and twitchers. Runners are usually those zombies that are still "the most together" and are capable of higher level brain functions necessary to sustain sufficient dexterity for running. Climbing is, so far, still hard.

Otherwise you should think of zombies as walking, eating machines that will home in on whatever morsal is closest.

Each character plays a number of characters- all pregens. Characters come from varied backgrounds and experiences and also harbor personal secrets and fears. Although the Keepers may know your character's backstories, you need not disclosed those to your colleagues. This creates a push/pull dynamic between the need for characters to cooperate (man as social animal) and man's own individualist nature (man's sense of self-preservation).

But the plot of Zombie Apoc also builds on stranger elements. A quick review of the story-

Our characters meet at a lonely truck stop off I-80 in Nebraska, on the outskirts of Warren AFB (a major US missile site) and near the border with Wyoming and Colorado. This is, we discover, no ordinary truck stop. Across from the diner/garage is a Motel (run by a mysterious Asian couple) that we later find out was a Cold War eaves-dropping/ communications station. We later find out that underneath the truck stop are more secrets- what appears to be a prison, and below that, a lab. And there are.... things... down there best not discovered.

But there are also things above that are causing problems as well. During the previous night, a meteor shower has hit the earth. Unlike most meteorite showers, these meteorites have hit the earth causing devestation across much of the planet. What is later discovered is that these meteorites carry... something. But that's not all not only are the recently dead being reanimated, but even some of the older dead. Worse yet, while our heroes discover that a zombie bite will turn you into a zombie, so will a gunshot wound, a traffic accident, and just about anything else that can kill you.

Our truck stop is caught between two towns- Sydney and Kimball, and two smaller communities, Poke and Browson. It doesn't take long for zombies to begin arriving at the truckstop. But humans have also started to come in. The first group (and this begins even before our narrative) are the passengers and crew of a NPS helicopter on a desperate and secret mission to Omaha where a CDC station waits for secretive information. The helicopter has broken down enroute and needs to be repaired.

But that's not all- a nearby white supremist militia movement has its own interests in the Truck Stop. They come demanding one of their members, now long dead, and the confrontation leads to a rather nasty fight as the zombie horde closed in.

Those at the truck stop emerge victorious from this first battle. But soon a new group of humans joins our group of survivors- a small detachment of USAF Security Troopers who seek to secure the Hotel- which offers one of the few communications links remaining with the rest of the world. The USAF is to hold the communications center at all cost but are suspicious of potential "infected" coming from the truck stop. Matters are made more complicated still when a State Trooper helicopter arrives. The passengers of the NPS use the helicopter in a desperate effort to continue on their journey east. But the move sets off a chain of conflicts over command that explodes near the end of Chapter 2 as yet another group of zombies begins to arrive.

Weakened by internal conflict and by waves of zombie, our groups are overwhelmed. Those at the hotel are forced underground and deeper into the lab. Those above are few and trapped.
The situation grows increasingly desperate.

As for game mechanics- remember time slows down. Players should use their characters as seperate individuals. This is not a game for team work among your characters- no convenient allies please.

All NPCs are played by the Keeper. Players post what they do, the Keeper posts what happens. And the clock ticks as the zombies close in.
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Re: Welcome

Post by Fearlessfred »

Actually it was the group at the diner forced underground the group at the motel are still in control.
A robot will guard its own existence with lethal antipersonnel weaponry, because a robot is bloody expensive.
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Re: Welcome

Post by Mr. Handy »

Yes, that's right. The motel is still in human hands...for now. :twisted:

Though you'll each play multiple characters, they will usually be in separate threads. It may happen that you'll have two characters interact with each other. It's not impossible for your characters to work together in that case, but they should have good, in character reasons for doing so. It's also possible that your characters might end up working at cross-purposes to each other.

I'll start posting the character sheets Friday night if I can, and they should all be up by the end of Saturday. Once they are, you'll be able to choose your characters. I'll post a character selection thread with instructions for how to do this where you can reply with your choices. Once you've chosen your characters, I'll send you their secret information. All characters have secrets, but some have more than others.
Doctor Who/CoC Campaign:
(viewforum.php?f=176)The Terror Out of Time
(viewforum.php?f=191)]The Ninth Planet
The Shadow Over Dunwich
The Brotherhood of Death
The Horror in the Blackout
The Masque of Nyarlathotep
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Re: Welcome

Post by Stoned_Golem »

I've been following the zombie apocolypse thread for a little while now, and am interisted in joining. I'd most likely only play 2 characters, with a slight possibility on a 3rd.

I'd most like to play one of the Under characters, if there are any open.

My second choice would be one of the Through characters (probably one of the relief troops). I'd prefer to play a trained sniper type (non-cerebral good-ol-boy that happily transfered his deer poaching skills to people poaching) ...ish. Hmmm.... on second thought something less like Bubba Redneck and more like the american sniper from Saving Private Ryan.

A third but less likely choice, would be someone with more leadership skills and tactical savvy. Not necessarily a team leader, possibly someone more like Radar O'Reilly ("Sir, those things keep sneaking up on us through the grass. Maybe we should burn it down or something. Sure the winds going the wrong way, but we could back-burn it. You know burn it in strips from close to far so it'll die out if it comes back our way. Yes sir, I'm glad you thought of that. I'll get some men right on that.") or something.

A couple of questions: What kind of posting frequency are we looking at? It kinda varied in the 2 chapters.
Could you repost the instructions for invisible castle? it would be more convenient to have it here than the other forum.
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Re: Welcome

Post by Mr. Handy »

Welcome aboard, Stoned_Golem! Since you've read Chapters 1 and 2, you can certainly play one of the Under characters. There are still several available, as a lot of people got trapped underground when the zombies rolled over the diner. I'll post the full character sheets here, probably on Saturday, but you can still see them on the old site. The Under characters currently still available are:

Rosie the waitress
Lynne (she's got a broken leg)
Max the dog
Mrs. Foo
Mr. Foo
Ellen Cody
Sally the traveling nurse
Willie the aging camera man (currently wounded and unconscious)
Jenny Cooper the lab assistant
Kimberly the pharmacist (badly wounded)
Michael Walters the British psychologist
Kerry Pierce

The other Under characters are being played by others already. Randall is an NPC, but he was bitten and doesn't have long to live anyway. If you recall, he intends to sacrifice his life to seal the hatch once everyone gets below.

If you want a sniper character, there's a National Guard sniper in the Over group (Private Simone Dawkins), but she's rather different than the sort of character you're talking about. The relief troops don't have a sniper per se. None of them have sniper rifles, though there are some with good sharpshooting skills who might fit the bill. You might like Senior Airman Roger Coltrane. He's a good marksman as well as a fire team leader. There are also some characters in the biker group with military backgrounds, and a couple of them have scoped rifles and good skills with them.

While the characters have fixed stats and skills, their personalities are yours to shape (within the loose bounds of their descriptions and secrets, and anything they've already done if they're not new characters). If you want to play Coltrane like Radar O'Reilly, for example, feel free!

The posting frequency varied based on the time available to myself and the other players. Unlike the first two chapters, I'm going to be using multiple threads that can be updated independently. I'm hoping to update each thread at least twice a week, though there may be slower or faster periods, and some threads may move at different speeds depending on the posting frequency of the players in them.

I will repost the Invisible Castle instructions as well as the important rules and guidelines from the old board here in a new thread. I want to get the character sheets up first so players can choose, and while I'm waiting for them to choose I'll post the other things. I'm not going to have a chance to post any sheets tonight, but tomorrow looks good.
Doctor Who/CoC Campaign:
(viewforum.php?f=176)The Terror Out of Time
(viewforum.php?f=191)]The Ninth Planet
The Shadow Over Dunwich
The Brotherhood of Death
The Horror in the Blackout
The Masque of Nyarlathotep
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Re: Welcome

Post by OathinBlood »

Are there any extremely stealthy, thief-type characters about? They'd be interesting to role-play. Otherwise, I'd just like to go for the average guy, perhaps with a stronger than normal swinging arm. It's cool that you can play a dog.
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Re: Welcome

Post by Mr. Handy »

Many of the military characters have good stealth skills and are fairly strong. If you want a thief-type, Airman Brian Kincaid may be close to it, but he lacks stealth. Airman Thomas Cole is a scout and Airman Frank Hodges is a recon specialist. All three are strong too.

There are a couple of stealthy characters with thief skills among the existing characters, but you'd need to have read the first two chapters to play them. Lynne is one of them, but she's got a broken leg and can't move around so well now. Mr. Foo is another, though he does only have 6 Dex. Azadeh had the requisite skills, but she died.

I like that you can play a dog too. There used to be two of them, but one met a tragic end thanks to a reckless character and some very bad rolling on Invisible Castle. :cry:
Doctor Who/CoC Campaign:
(viewforum.php?f=176)The Terror Out of Time
(viewforum.php?f=191)]The Ninth Planet
The Shadow Over Dunwich
The Brotherhood of Death
The Horror in the Blackout
The Masque of Nyarlathotep
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Re: Welcome

Post by OathinBlood »

Just a question - I've been ready through the first chapter, and it seems more like a join-effort story with some skill checks than a role-playing game. Is this just the finished version of several role-playing threads?
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Re: Welcome

Post by Mr. Handy »

No, the first two chapters always had a single main thread (supplemented by PMs and such). This is actually the fourth or so attempt to run Zombie Apocalypse - Welsh has been refining it since its earlier incarnations. The early parts of Chapter 1 may have seemed more freeform, but there are definitely rules here. The players decide what their characters want to try to do, but the Keeper (with the help of the dice) determines the outcome. The players are most definitely not in control of the game world, and can only attempt to influence it by using their characters' abilities. If you've gotten to the first mass death, you'll see just how little control the players can have over what happens.

The PCs will often be reacting to the situation as the Keeper develops it, but it really pays to plan ahead. Many of the disasters of the first two chapters could have been avoided or mitigated by proper planning and better cooperation between characters. Another thing to keep in mind is that the world is chaotic in that small details can have a great influence on the outcome of events. Where you chose to park your car, for example, might have made a difference between it getting blown up or just having its windows blown out. This is one way you can have an influence on the outcome of events, but often it's impossible to predict what the results of seemingly minor decisions will be. Only the Keepers have full knowledge of the situation, but even we don't have complete control. That's where the dice and the players' freedom of action come in.

Another thing to keep in mind is that anyone can die at any time. A mistake can get you killed, but you can also die even if you do everything right just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Being a tough character and having great stats won't save you - just ask Alex (one of Stompie's characters who died early on). Many of the characters who survived the first two chapters are in fact those with poor stats and little to no survival skills (Mrs. Foo, for example). One reason for this is because the more capable characters seem to be the ones who take risks more often.
Doctor Who/CoC Campaign:
(viewforum.php?f=176)The Terror Out of Time
(viewforum.php?f=191)]The Ninth Planet
The Shadow Over Dunwich
The Brotherhood of Death
The Horror in the Blackout
The Masque of Nyarlathotep
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Re: Welcome

Post by welsh »

OathinBlood wrote:Just a question - I've been ready through the first chapter, and it seems more like a join-effort story with some skill checks than a role-playing game. Is this just the finished version of several role-playing threads?
To be fair, the main problems with early Zombie Apoc games at NMA was that NMA players were, in practice, free form joint effort story tellers. The problem with that, however, is that you can't do horror. The current ZOmbie Apoc incorporates CoC Rules (but CoC rules lite) consistent with the transition from free-form roleplay to more structured horror role play. In practice quite a few of the first players (free form) didn't jive the transition and dropped out and it took a bit of time to develop the practice of more rule based gaming.

But what you see us settling into by the end of Chapter 1 and into Chapter 2 is pretty much the way the game plays out- attempting to balance agent free will with structural determinism.
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Re: Welcome

Post by Bosco »

Hello.

Looks like a fun game, I'm interested in playing. I hope there's still a place free?

Ben.
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Re: Welcome

Post by Mr. Handy »

Welcome aboard, Ben! Yes, there's still plenty of room. Go ahead and look over the character sheets in the thread by that name and choose the ones you want to play. Information on how to choose them is in the Character Selection and Discussion thread. I'm planning to start the game this weekend. Have fun!
Doctor Who/CoC Campaign:
(viewforum.php?f=176)The Terror Out of Time
(viewforum.php?f=191)]The Ninth Planet
The Shadow Over Dunwich
The Brotherhood of Death
The Horror in the Blackout
The Masque of Nyarlathotep
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Re: Welcome

Post by OathinBlood »

I'm still trying to read through all the previous threads, but Christ, it's long. It's interesting, though disjointed, so it's both enjoyable to read yet hard at the same time. There's so many different characters and places!
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Re: Welcome

Post by welsh »

Hey Oath-

That was kind of the idea- sow seeds of confusion but allow even something that seems rather simple (a truck stop in the middle of Nebraska- even if its a rather unusual truckstop) a lot going on. Much of the success or failures of the game arise not from the zombie or individual actions, but the interactions of the characters. The narrative breaks and the confusion I think adds to the uncertainty and horror of the game.
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Re: Welcome

Post by Mr. Handy »

Yes, that's one of the great things about how Zombie Apocalypse works. That will continue in Chapter 3, but in a different way. We're going to have several different story threads, and players will only be allowed to read the threads in which they have characters (non-players are of course free to read everything). This limits the amount of information you have to work with since you don't know the whole story and enhances the effects of confusion, and it also limits how much you need to read.
Doctor Who/CoC Campaign:
(viewforum.php?f=176)The Terror Out of Time
(viewforum.php?f=191)]The Ninth Planet
The Shadow Over Dunwich
The Brotherhood of Death
The Horror in the Blackout
The Masque of Nyarlathotep
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Re: Welcome

Post by Fearlessfred »

Shame I may just need to pick a character in over so that I can read the whole story :D .
A robot will guard its own existence with lethal antipersonnel weaponry, because a robot is bloody expensive.
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Re: Welcome

Post by Mr. Handy »

Even then you wouldn't get to read the whole story. Each section (Over, Under, and Through) has its characters split up into multiple groups, each with its own thread. You can only read the threads for the groups your characters are in. The characters in the prison level in Under (such as Joe Barring) aren't going to know what's going on with the characters in the lab level and vice versa, at least until they meet up. The Over characters start out in three different locations (the helicopter, the tower, and Hangar 1). The Through characters also begin in various places. Each subgroup will remain in sync with the other subgroups in Over, Under, or Through, but will be independent of the other two large groups. Under and Through are near each other, so it is possible for one of them to affect the other or even eventually reunite.
Doctor Who/CoC Campaign:
(viewforum.php?f=176)The Terror Out of Time
(viewforum.php?f=191)]The Ninth Planet
The Shadow Over Dunwich
The Brotherhood of Death
The Horror in the Blackout
The Masque of Nyarlathotep
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Re: Welcome

Post by Fearlessfred »

True it should make it interesting to say the least.
A robot will guard its own existence with lethal antipersonnel weaponry, because a robot is bloody expensive.
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Re: Welcome

Post by fulcilives2003 »

any chance i can jump in late on this one?
so says I "The amazing man wonder"
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