[OOC] Zombies in the Backyard

InkSplat

ZOMBIES IN THE BACKYARD

Zombies in the Backyard is about survivors--the young men and women who have been lucky enough to survive the zombie apocalypse. They struggle to find safety within a world of horror, having only themselves and their fellow survivors to count on.

The setting is a post-apocalyptic version of a city in our own modern-day world. Picture a landscape of empty streets and powerless buildings. Blood stains the sidewalks and trash blows about like tumbleweeds. All the while, danger lurks, a horde of the undead shambling their way after the smell of living flesh.

You are survivors, struggling to hold on to not just your lives, but hope and sanity as well.

---

The Survivors must deal with the problems that arise from being stuck in a post-apocalyptic world. Not only do they need to fight off the hordes of zombies, but they also have each other to worry about.

Safety, food, weapons--all of these things are in limited supply, and it is up to the survivors to figure out how to manage them. Do you share with everyone you encounter? Or do you keep only your closest friends safe and leave all others to fend for themselves? And how do you deal with the colonies and gangs that spring up around you?

The ethics and moral problems of how to deal with each case will hopefully be what makes Zombies in the Backyard so fun to watch. One Survivor is out for blood, the other seeks hope: how will things resolve?

---

CHARACTERS

You play one of the Survivors of the Zombie Apocalypse. You struggle to survive in a world that has been turned upside down and inside out. You represent the last hopes of humanity--so long as you can hold onto your own.

Starting characters can be male or female of any age. However, if you want to be a senior citizen survivor or something, you better have a good explanation behind how that happened.

The game begins almost immediately after the outbreak has begun. Each character will play through a small solo encounter depicting their discovery of the zombie menace and how they reacted--this will also be the first chance for the characters to begin to develop and evolve by earning a trait depending on the outcome.

STEP ONE: Background

- Well-Rounded: Your character is straightforward, balanced, and effective. A good choice for your average joe.
17d6 in Stat dice, 1d4 4d6 2d8 in Trait dice, and 4d6 2d8 in Relationship dice.

- Strong History: Your character has a good education, lots of experience, or specialized training.
13d6 in Stat Dice, 3d6 4d8 3d10 in Trait Dice, and 1d4 3d6 and 2d8 in Relationship dice.

- Complicated History: Your character had a troubled, dangerous, or challenging upbringing..
15d6 in Stat dice, 4d4 2d6 2d10 in Trait dice, 5d6 2d8 in Relationship dice

- Strong Community: Your character is socially adept, and from a strong, caring family/community.
13d6 in Stat dice, 1d4 3d6 2d8 in Trait dice, 4d4 4d8 3d10 in Relationship dice

- Complicated Community: Your character is socially vulnerable, or from a broken or destructive family/community.
15d6 in Stat dice, 6d6 2d8 in Trait dice, 4d4 2d6 2d8 2d10 in Relationship dice

STEP TWO: Stats

Divvy up those Stat dice between your stats (don't roll them!). If you had, say 10d6 in Stat dice, you could put 2d6 in one Stat, 3d6 in another, another 3d10 in a third Stat, and the last 2d6 in another.

The minimum for each stat is 2d6, with no maximum.

ACUITY - You are perceptive, alert, educated, clever, savvy, or well-read.
BODY - You are big, healthy, strong, wiry, muscular, tall, graceful, quick, or steady.
HEART - You are compassionate, attractive, charming, gentle, courageous, enduring, faithful, or likable.
WILL - You are tenacious, aggressive, confident, unflinching, strong-willed, or unshakable.

STEP THREE: Traits

Now, this is where you get to really make your character unique. Whatever you think would be relevant or interesting to who your character was before the Zombie Apocolypse--you haven't yet developed your survival skills, so make sure these things are all relevant to your character's life pre-zed head.

Not only can they be skills, like "Biology" or "Kickboxing" but they could be worded as bits of your history, like "My mother always told me God would protect me," or as a fact about yourself--"I hate police."

Either way, give yourself some and assign your Trait dice to them. You can double up dice as much as you want, but only one type of die per tTrait (you can have Kickboxing 1d6 or 7d6, but you can't have Kickboxing 1d6 1d10 or anything like that.)

If you need some trait inspiration, start with what your character did for a living before the Apocalypse and think about some skills they might have--even if those aren't necessarily conducive to fighting zombies.

When assigning dice, don't match die size to Traits by competence (higher die sizes are better), but by how important that Trait is to your character. "I'm a great fighter 1d6" versus "I can't believe there are Zombies! 3d10" means that the latter is a lot more important to who your character is, and factors prominently in how an event will unfold.

d4 - Traits or relationships using d4 make it more likely that you'll suffer consequences in conflicts. Take them as disadvantages, but also as complications. "I'm a great fighter 1d4" means that yeah, you can throw a punch, but when you start doing that, things tend to get out of hand.

THE RULE - You HAVE to either take "I'm a Survivor" as a Trait, or in the next step take a Relationship with Survivors. Your choice.

STEP FOUR: Relationships

Name a few people your character has some sort of relationship with and assign them dice (following Trait dice rules above.) Don't make too many--save the dice for later on in play, when you can make new Relationships on the fly.

In addition to the usual DitV rules, I'd like a bit of info on anyone you start the game with a relationship for, since you might be running into them and I'd like to let you tell me a bit about them before I bring them into the world.

Family - If the Relationship you take is with family, you can either make a 1d6 relationship without using your pool of Relationship dice (so, for free) or you can add a free 1d6 to it should you want to throw some dice at it in addition. (So, if you put 2d6 towards a Relationship with your mother, you can make it a 3d6 Relationship. You still can't mix die sizes.)

STEP FIVE: Belongings

Name some things you carry with you. If you decide they need dice, give them to them (as in, do you imagine they'll come up in a relevant way in conflict with other characters? Weapons will, and so will tools and maps and valuables. Use your judgment, but don't worry - you can improvise their dice on the fly if you need to). There's no limit, but realize that you are on the run and the Zombie Apocalypse has just begun, so you haven't really had time to acquire much, if anything other than what you risked to grab. Your "origin" has an effect on this.

Did you pack your stuff up ready to leave before you got caught and had to run? Or were you totally caught by surprise by an early infection and had to leave everything but a weapon behind?

Giving them Dice - give them the appropriate dice if normal.

Normal things - 1d6
Excellent things - 2d6
Big things - 1d8
Excellent and big - 2d8
Crap - 1d4

A good, large hunting knife - 2d8
A baseball bat - 1d6
A rusty rake - 1d4
A powerful rifle 2d8 1d4

If the thing is a gun, it gets an additional 1d4 no matter what it is.

SIXTH STEP: Survival

Pick something about your first encounter with zombies or your attempt to run that you hope your character accomplished.

Did he manage to save his little sister?
Was he able to convince his parents to get in their car and get out in time?

Next, each character will run a small solo conflict which will explain the dice rolling rules of the game, and also give a chance to get into the skin of your character. At the end, we'll discover how your Survival moment went and you'll get a new d6 Trait for it, even if it went badly.

SAMPLE CHARACTER SHEET

Joseph Marc - Well-Rounded History

Stats - 17d6
Acuity - 5
Body - 5
Heart - 3
Will - 4

Traits - 1d4, 4d6, 2d8
I had discipline beaten into me - 1d6
I spent 6 years in the Army - 2d6
I don't take shit from anyone - 1d4
I killed a man in a bar fight - 2d8
I'm a Survivor - 1d6

Relationships - 4d6, 2d8
U.S. Army - 2d8
Louis Marc (brother) - 2d6

Possessions
Pristine .45 - 2d8 1d4
Urban Camo - 2d6
Beat up Axe - 1d6

Survival Moment
"I hope I faced the first zombie bravely."

As you can see, my character has a strong sense of duty and order. He's a soldier to the core.. but at the same time, there's also a fear deep down inside that might just come out.

Now that you know what a character looks like, here's a blank sheet for you to use:

Your character's name here!

Statistics - [whatever your history says]
Acuity -
Body -
Heart -
Will -

Traits -

Relationships -

Possessions Survival Moment

InkSplat

Here's how the rules work: Say yes or roll the dice. Repeat that to yourself every second of every scene. Look at what's happening - one of your fellow survivors seems unhappy. Say yes, or roll the dice. She's keeping herself covered, saying she feels ill. Say yes, or roll the dice. She's been doing this for days now.

Say yes (I agree, that is acceptable, it makes sense) or roll the dice (oh-no-you-fucking-don't, I don't want the scene to go this way, it would be better if someone intervened before she goes zombie on us!)

You constantly want to move towards the next conflict (conflict, here, means when we roll dice to see what happens). See, here, you don't roll the way you do in say, D&D or White Wolf. If you want to do something, then you do it. Do you see the ambush before it happens? Depends - is it dramatically appropriate? Does the rest of the group care? Say yes or roll the dice. You have the option to interrupt anything, even what the GM says, and force it into a fight. So look for the next possible conflict. Be aggressive! You don't have to roll to see if you can pick a lock, or things like that. It's on a grander scale. Let's look at how to do a conflict, first, and this will make more sense.

There's a problem. Someone didn't say Yes. The GM decided to pick on you. Something's wrong.

1. Establish what's at stake, anyone can suggest this. The stakes are what the conflict is about, what we're fighting over, what's so important.
   - What's at stake is, does your brother shoot the woman?
   
2. Set the stage. Fancy up the scene and get everyone in the mood.
   
3. Who's participating in this conflict?
   
4. Take up dice depending on how you want to enter the conflict (these are called Arenas):
   - We're just talking (Acuity + Heart)
   - Things are getting physical, but we're not fighting (Body + Heart)
   - Fist-fights (Body + Will)
   - We pulled out the guns (Acuity + Will)
   
   You can roll your Relationship dice if the Relation is what's at stake or is your opponent.
   
5. Everyone rolls their dice for all to see.
   
6. Take turns Raising and Seeing.
   To Raise, say what your character does and put two dice forward. Do something your opponent can't ignore.
   - (dice: 5, 6) I stare him down, not even flinching when he shifts the gun to me. I act like I hadn't even noticed. "Joe, stop it. You can't just shoot her 'cause she's sick. Don't make me throw you out of here."
   
   To See, put forward any amount of dice that equals or exceeds the standing Raise (less dice is better). So, the current Raise is 5 and 6 (above), with is 5 + 6 = 11. So you need to put forward some of your dice that equals or betters 11.
   - (4, 3, 3, 2) I see he's not kidding. And, honestly? I don't have it in me. I can't shoot my brother. I couldn't shoot this woman... I won't say it out loud, but I'm afraid. My gun lowers to my side, and I take a few steps back, not wanting to get tackled right off. "Alright, Lou. Alright. But this is on your head now."
   • When you See, if you can do it with one die, that's Reversing The Blow. You turn the Raise back on your attacker somehow (he swings, but you grab his fist and squeeze, forcing him down; he tells you the King of Life has a place for him, and you remind him how the Steward said Heaven had no place for a sinner such as he). Keep your See die - you get to (and have to) use it for your next Raise!
     
   • If you See with two dice, that's a Block or a Dodge. Say how you defend against the attack.
     
   • If you See with three or more dice, that's Taking The Blow. Say how the blow lands and how your charater reacts. You also get Fallout Dice, which will later on change and affect your character, possibly for the worse. You take a number of dice equal to how many you used to See, and set them aside - if the blow wasn't physical, those dice are d4s. If they were physical, then they're d6s. If a weapon was used against you, it's a d8, and if it was a bullet, it's a d10.
     
   • If you don't want to See, you can Give. This is a pretty standard action, don't be afraid to do it. You lose the Stakes and the conflict, but you get bonus dice for a follow-up conflict! You do NOT Take the Blow or anything, you basically get out of the conflict free, and you don't win it. Take your single highest die and keep it for a follow-up conflict. A follow-up conflict's stakes follow directly from the previous conflict's resolution. You can actually try the exact same Stakes again, but to do so, the number of participants, the location, and the opening arena (Just Talking, Fist-Fighting, etc.) must be different, all three.

Follow-up conflicts and Giving are important parts, and we will all be pushing towards them. Fight with all your heart, but don't be afraid if you need to Give.

That's the structure:
- Stakes?
- Stage?
- Who's involved?
- Roll dice
- I Raise, you See.
- You Raise, I See,
- etc., until someone doesn't have the dice to See

Also, if more than people need to See a given Raise, that's acceptable. Their Sees are different and exclusive, though - they don't add their dice to beat yours. They beat you separately. And yes, you will sometimes be Raising and Seeing against each other as players!


ESCALATING
That's all well and good. Let's say we're Just Talking, and I'm about to run out of dice. What I can do is Escalate, and move out of Just Talking into, let's say, Fist-Fighting (the arenas are Just Talking, Physical but not fighting, Fist-Fighting, and Guns). I get to roll my Stats for Fist-Fighting and add those dice to my already standing dice, and of course, the conflict's taken a turn, where we're not just talking, we're actually fighting.

You can only roll a Stat once per conflict, so if an escalation calls for you to roll Acuity + Heart, and you've already rolled Heart, just roll Acuity.

TRAITS AND THINGS
When you use one of your Traits as a Raise or See, you get to to roll its dice. Same for a Belonging. You can only roll a Trait / Belonging once per conflict. You can keep using in the conflict as much as you want, you just don't get the dice for it.

You roll their dice before putting them forward, and you don't have to use them if you don't like them. You can even use them for a separate See or Raise.

FALLOUT
Nasty stuff!
- Roll all your Fallout dice after conflict. Add the two highest together.
- You'll be presented with a list of Fallout Consequences according to the sum, and you get to pick something to add to your character. Less than 8 is pretty safe, with only short-term damage. More than 8 is lasting harm, bad stuff, and more than 12 is injured. 20 or higher, and your character is dead.
- Fallout will be dealt with as it happens, since it's not immediately relevant. Just know that it's bad.

Here's the list of Fallout Consequences, for quick reference when I tell you what to choose from!

Short-term Fallout:

- Subtract 1 from one of your character’s Stats for your next conflict.
- Take a new trait rated 1d4 for your next conflict.
- Change the dice of one of your character’s Relationships to d4s for your next conflict.
- Have your character leave the scene and spend some time alone. Only choose this one if nobody else launches a follow-up conflict.

Long-term Fallout:

- Subtract 1 from one of your character’s Stats.
- Take a new trait at 1d4.
- Take a new relationship at 1d4.
- Add 1d to an existing d4 trait or relationship.
- Subtract 1d from an existing d6+ trait or relationship.
- Change the die size of an existing trait or relationship to d4.
- Erase a Belonging from your character’s sheet.
- Change the description of your coat to include bad damage. Reduce your coat’s dice as appropriate.

Experience Fallout:

- Add 1 to one of your Stats.
- Create a new Trait at 1d6.
- Add or subtract 1 die from an existing Trait.
- Change the d-size of an existing Trait.
- Create a new Relationship at 1d6.
- Add or subtract 1 die from an existing Relationship.
- Change the d-size of an existing Relationship.
- Write a new Belonging on your character sheet and give it its usual dice.

Cheeseliker

How's this? Do I need some more for the relationships?

Jack Handyman -Complicated History

Statistics - 15d6
Acuity - 4d6
Body - 3d6
Heart - 3d6
Will - 4d6

Traits - 4d4 2d6 2d10

"You name something illegal, I've probably done it. Twice." 2d10 "Above anything else, in any situation, I've learned to survive, well, if you can call it that." 4d4 "I've learned that anything can be a weapon, if used correctly". 1d8 "Don't you touch a hair on her goddamn head." 1d6 Child's Aide 1d4 "I survived goddamnit." 1d6 Relationships - 2d6 free Johnny B. 2d6- local bartender and owner of Johnny's Pub. Close friend, if something goes down, he knows about it and will tell, for the right price. Gale Johnson 1d8 - Pretty prostitute, in a relationship but not...."Yeah I still gotta pay...It's complicated." Blackjack Pete 1d6 - The man to talk to when you need a job, or when a job needs you. Elly 1d8 -Little girl Jack saved from her zombified parents Possessions: 9 mm: 2d6 1d4 Knife: 1d6 Cellphone: 1d6 Cigs: 1d4 Flask full of whiskey: 1d4 Lighter: 1d4 Survival Moment: "I may not like people, but I can't just let that little girl die." History: Jack has no parents, no family. He lived on the streets as best he could, begging, cheating, stealing. He grew up there. His thefts, his jobs, became bigger. He started gaining recognition as a man who'd do anything, if the pay was right. He could be a simple thug, a thief, a killer, a bodyguard, or a conman. He knows how to get things done. He's a loner and does what he feels he must to survive. Fallout: -1d Body: Recovering from the zombie infection has left Jack weakened. -"I've learned that anything can be a weapon, if used correctly". 1d6-1d8 Edit: So I took the example you gave, 'the little girl'. Basically, I imagine it as being, he's this loner pessimistic guy but when the zombeis hit, he sees this lone little girl and he has just enough humanity in him to try to help her. Whether it succeeds or not, well it could change him either way. Is that alright? I had a hard time thinking of something since my character is pretty much a loner.

InkSplat

Nope, don't need more relationships. Its good to save some so that you can allocate them on the fly.

Relationships are going to be important in this game, as they represent how much help NPC survivors are to you.

Other than that, the only thing that needs changing is the Survival Moment, because if you fail that.. then that would mean you died. :P For the Survival Moment you want something that might make a mark on your character whichever way it goes, whether its saving a person or a cat or getting something important to him, or facing his terror or disbelief at the fact that the dead are rising.

Edit: Also, a little brief bit of background on the character would be nice.

Cheeseliker

Editted it a bit. Let me know if you need more. I'm pretty excited about this. Always watched Dogs threads go by and wanted to participate, and now you add zombies which pretty much just makes it all that much better.

interrobang

awwwww yeah

I'm about to leave for work, but when I get home I'll put something together!

Plutonium

Wow, it's Dogs in the Vineyard without the Mormon.

InkSplat

Cheeseliker wrote: »

Editted it a bit. Let me know if you need more. I'm pretty excited about this. Always watched Dogs threads go by and wanted to participate, and now you add zombies which pretty much just makes it all that much better.

Using the little girl is perfect. Some other ideas could have been getting to a large stash of cash or getting to his gun ooor maybe trying to get that prostitute chick on the phone as zombies bust through his windows?

Either way, the loner saving the little girl definitely works.

hotran

Hey, hope this works; if not, let me know and I'll change things up. I've never played DitV, but this looks like fun.

Pat Sullivan: Pat is a firefighter, just a few months out of his "probie" period. Somehow, he's managed to defy the seemingly pre-ordained familial path from brawls and barfights to (barely) organized crime. After fire academy, Pat managed to do pretty well for himself: good job in the city, decent apartment in an inexpensive neighborhood on the outskirts, even a dog. Everything was going so well...

Statistics - Complicated Community
Acuity - 4
Body - 5
Heart - 2
Will - 4

Traits - 6d6 2d8

Firefighter Training: 3d6
I'm A Survivor: 1d8
I can drive anything: 2d6
You can't bullsh*t me: 1d8
No stranger to guns: 1d6



Relationships - 4d4 2d6 2d8 2d10

Mike (brother), the small-time dealer: 2d4
Joan, Pat's recently ex-d girlfriend: 2d4
Larry, fellow new firefighter: 2d6
Pete, loyal Shep-mutt: 2d10
Lyons, childhood friend: 2d8


Possessions

Go-bag: 2d8
Beat-up .45: 1d6 1d4
Fireax: 1d6


Survival Moment

2am: "Pete, what the hell are you whining about? Fine, fine, let's go out..."

InkSplat

Two things:

First, if the .45 is beat-up, then its not excellent. 2d6 is for excellent things, and excellent things are things that someone would see and say "That's a really nice <blank>!"

Second, for the Survival Moment, I'm going to assume your Moment is whether or not you save Pete once you get outside?

hotran

Fixed the .45, and yes, that was pretty much what I was going for regarding the Moment.

Edith Upwards

Would a car/truck have a 1d4 added onto it as if it were a gun?

InkSplat

Erich Zahn wrote: »

Would a car/truck have a 1d4 added onto it as if it were a gun?

No, I don't think so. The 1d4 doesn't actually represent their ability to deal damage, but rather their ability to get the user into trouble.

Cheeseliker

How many players are we aiming for? I'm just antsy to get this started because its going to be so much fun...

InkSplat

Well, Dogs is usually done with 3, but since this isn't quite Dogs, I'd be willing to try to run it with 4-5 if we got that much interest.

Cheeseliker

Sounds good.

Mike Danger

Oh hey, this looks like an awesome thing.

Barclay "Bark" Ash, CS/Engineering Double Major - Experienced History

Something of a loner, Bark divides his time mostly between jury-rigging things in his room, working at the Help Desk, sneaking into Johnny's, and hanging out with his small circle of friends. He has something of a reputation on campus as that guy who can fix anything, but he's just another damn college kid on a fixed-gear once he's away from school.

STATS - 13d6
Acuity 4d6
Body 3d6
Heart 2d6
Will 4d6

TRAITS - 3d6 4d8 3d10
I've read every issue of Make magazine and my MacGyver DVDs are in the mail from Amazon - 2d10
I'm a Survivor - 1d6
I've been all over the tri-state area - 2d8
I like driving and riding my bike - 2d8
I'm an Eagle Scout - 1d10
I know where all the best places to get food are - 2d6

RELATIONSHIPS - 1d4 3d6 2d8
Johnny B. 1d4 - Sometimes he lets my friends and I drink and doesn't card us. Pretty cool guy.

Charlotte Ron 2d6 - I wish my friends would stop teasing me about her. We just like to make stuff and watch movies together.

BELONGINGS
Laptop - 1d6
Baseball bat - 1d6
Maker kit - 2d6
Cellphone - 1d6

SURVIVAL MOMENT

I nearly barfed when I climbed up onto the roof of the university center, but I had to get over to the administration building to turn on the CampusAlert system.

Cheeseliker

Nice, I like it. I also realize I forgot to take I'm a survivor trait. Whoops. Fixing now...

simonwolf

Man, I started working on a sheet, but then I got all "busy" with "work".

I'll post something up within the next few hours!

InkSplat

Once simon gets his sheet up, I suppose we can go ahead with the 4 characters. Unless anyone else plans to throw something up?

interrobang

I'm still brainstorming (and trying to wrap my head around the rules) but if you get a set of 4 people you're satisfied with and really wanna get started, don't wait on me!

Cheeseliker

Are we doing the survivor moment thing? Because then we wouldn't need to wait for the others to get started or would we?

InkSplat

Well, even if you did the survivor moment, you'd then have to wait for them to finish it before we could start.

And Interrobang, if you're interested, I'll wait for you and we can run it with 5. Just let me know if you have any questions about the rules and I can attempt to explain them.

interrobang

I think I did this right!


Sydney "Syd" Henson - Strong Community

Bio: A twenty-some-odd CS major, she's content to drift through the best years of her life coasting through class, getting high, playing video games and breaking into abandoned buildings with equally delinquent friends in the name of "urban exploration".


Stats - 13d6
Acuity - 3d6
Body - 2d6
Heart - 3d6
Will - 5d6


Traits - 1d4 3d6 2d8
I can get real mad when I need to - 1d4
People always tell me I'm good with computers - 2d8
I'm a Survivor - 1d6
I know lots of empty buildings for hiding in town and how to get inside - 2d6


Relationships - 4d4 4d8 3d10
Cameron L. 2d10 - "Probably my best friend. We met in high school and play lots of video games. I had a crush on him for a while. Cool dude, just a little bit of a wuss."

Professor Mayes 1d8 - "My CS professor. I think I'm his favorite student; he always tells me how talented I am. We don't talk much outside of school, but he's an alright guy."

Leo V. 2d4 - "My dealer. Sketchy as fuck, and he hits on me all the time, but he sells me good weed for cheap. I can't really complain."


Possessions

Aluminum bat - 1d6
Cell phone - 1d6
Wallet - 1d6


SURVIVAL MOMENT

As badly as I wanted to grab what I could and bail, I had to get to the security office before everyone started losing their shit and scattering like idiots... hopefully someone would actually be there to signal a lockdown.

fadingathedges

Thread has promise.

"Myles, watch your aggro. Waaatch your aggro, I'm serious. Watch your- whoops, you're fuckin' dead! That's what happens! That's what happens, fatty! Ugh, someone get him up, someone's outside. Who the fuck could be here at three in the morning..."

Thread is delivering!

InkSplat

Only thing, interrobang, is your Survival Moment. You need to have something you're hoping to accomplish, so that you can either fail or succeed at something.

Kias

Nice! Love me some zombie themed RPG's. Is there room for one more? Just wanted to ask before I take the time to put a character together and get straightened out on the rules.

I will go ahead and start putting a character together so I am ready, just in case

InkSplat

I should probably cut this off at 5 players, I think.

However, if this goes well, I'm thinking of doing a Steampunk Zombie DitV game.

Mike Danger

InkSplat wrote: »

Only thing, interrobang, is your Survival Moment. You need to have something you're hoping to accomplish, so that you can either fail or succeed at something.

Clearly, you've never tried to 5-man UBRS with a n00b priest in the midst of a zombie apocalypse. :P

Kias

InkSplat wrote: »

I should probably cut this off at 5 players, I think.

However, if this goes well, I'm thinking of doing a Steampunk Zombie DitV game.

Looking through the char sheets, I think that makes me number five, correct? If so, here you go:


Vincent Lombardi- Strong History

Bio: Vincent is the youngest of six boys and was always more interested in spending time with his mother in the kitchen than with his siblings outside. His hobbies included reading, cooking, and dressing up, which earned him endless amounts of grief, and concern, from his family who was ever on the look out to make sure none of their own caught “the gay.” Vincent is the first of his family to make it to a university for study, where he fits in better than ever, and takes a stubborn pride in resisting his family’s attempts to make him more “manly”.

Stats:
4d6 ACUITY - You are perceptive, alert, educated, clever, savvy, or well-read.
3d6 BODY - You are big, healthy, strong, wiry, muscular, tall, graceful, quick, or steady.
3d6 HEART - You are compassionate, attractive, charming, gentle, courageous, enduring, faithful, or likable.
3d6 WILL - You are tenacious, aggressive, confident, unflinching, strong-willed, or unshakable.

Traits:
“I’m a survivor”- 2d8
“You don’t know real Italian food”- 3d6
“Literature can change the world”- 2d10
“It’s tough being the youngest brother” - 1d8
“Dress to impress” – 1d8
“Figure skating is not for girls!” – 1d10

Relationships: 2d6 and 2d8
Joey Lombardi- 1d6: “The oldest of my five brothers and the only one who ever tried to understand me. Two years in community college makes him the only brother besides myself to get a higher education.”
Pete Lombardi- 1d4: “Still thinks I’m “a gay”, and I think he is an egotistical ass, so we our content to avoid any conversation that goes beyond the weather or meatballs.”
Susan- 1d6: “My figure skating coach and drinking buddy. She’s single and cute, but we are purely platonic”

Belongings:
Sports Bag w/ change of clothes, Water Bottle, Towel
Figure Skates- 2d6
Blackberry

Survival Moment:
“Are you sure you will be okay in here? That guy looks pretty sick." "I'll be fine," replied Susan, "I keep getting busy signals from 911, so I will just drop him off at the hospital when I finish locking up the rink." Vince hesitated for a minute after she closed and locked the front door and disappeared from view, then, realizing he was being silly, headed for his car. It was then he heard a scream, but no amount of calling could get Susan to the front door. "I have to get in there and see whats happening!"

Body+Heart+Relationship= [5,6,1,6,4,4,1]

interrobang

InkSplat wrote: »

Only thing, interrobang, is your Survival Moment. You need to have something you're hoping to accomplish, so that you can either fail or succeed at something.

Okay. The idea was gonna be that she open the door and suddenly have a angry zombie trying to rip her throat out in the middle of her living room - lemme edit it a bit.

InkSplat

interrobang wrote: »

InkSplat wrote: »

Only thing, interrobang, is your Survival Moment. You need to have something you're hoping to accomplish, so that you can either fail or succeed at something.

Okay. The idea was gonna be that she open the door and suddenly have a angry zombie trying to rip her throat out in the middle of her living room - lemme edit it a bit.

You want something that isn't life or death. Basically, you're going to survive no matter what--otherwise it wouldn't be a "survival" moment. :P

And Kias, originally simon said he would have a sheet up, so I was counting him.. but as he still doesn't, I suppose that makes you the 5th.

And you have the same problem interrobang does. The Survival Moment is something you're going to survive either way or else you wouldn't make it to the main game. Its supposed to be something that is important to the character, however--something that is going to leave an impact in the form other than teeth marks. :P

simonwolf

Yeah, sorry about not getting my sheet up - work kicked my arse yesterday, and by the time I got home, the idea was completely out of my head. Kias got in before me, so go ahead and start the game!

Also, five players? I honestly wish you luck in your quest to keep this alive until the end.

InkSplat

simonwolf wrote: »

Yeah, sorry about not getting my sheet up - work kicked my arse yesterday, and by the time I got home, the idea was completely out of my head. Kias got in before me, so go ahead and start the game!

Also, five players? I honestly wish you luck in your quest to keep this alive until the end.

Well, if someone slacks off too much, I can just have them eaten by a zombie. :P

I wouldn't try it with Dogs, but this will hopefully be a little easier given the setting and the fact that its a bit more open.

Kias

Ahh, sorry about that Simon. You are free to the spot if you want it and I can be a guy you find locked in his car later on (in reserve) in case someone dies/goes inactive! Either way, this system looks like lots of good times so I will be excited to keep up with the game!

Just let me know!

InkSplat

Kias wrote: »

Ahh, sorry about that Simon. You are free to the spot if you want it and I can be a guy you find locked in his car later on (in reserve) in case someone dies/goes inactive! Either way, this system looks like lots of good times so I will be excited to keep up with the game!

Just let me know!

If you're going to be the 5th, I still need you to adjust your Survival Moment.

Clearly almost all of you are having issues with this, and I'm sorry about that. :P

Basically, I just need something you want to try and accomplish. In Dogs you have something that happens during your initiation, like, "I want to learn to control my temper." or "I want to prove myself to my parents."

This is sort of like that--something you want your character to accomplish during the first minutes of the infection. It can involve zombies directly, but it doesn't have to. Maybe you hear/see them attacking a neighbors house, and you want your character to go help. The challenge would be your character building the courage and getting ready to go do that. If you succeed, you help, if you fail the challenge, you either run away or get there too late.

Its something that will leave an emotional mark on your character, but not something that is going to lead to their death. Maybe a loved one turns into a zombie and your challenge is whether or not you can kill them or run away? Maybe you live in an apartment building and the challenge is whether or not you panic and run or try and reach the fire alarm to warn the rest of the building?

Stuff like that that if you succeed will make your character feel something, but also if they fail will make them hold onto that failure as well.

interrobang

Survival Moment edited once again, IS. I think I get it now.

InkSplat

That's perfect.

smeej

Aw, full up?

Kias

Edited my survival moment, am I good to go?

InkSplat

Yup, you're good to go too! I guess we should probably start the game friday rather than tomorrow. :P I should be able to get everyone's Survival Moments started before I head to work Friday morning.