The ZSG - more of a splurge than a post, but you might enjoy it anyway
Amy any I ran another play test of the Zombie Survival Game this evening. It was a slightly more comedy-oriented tone than most, which was cool. We had a good crowd for it, Scott, Margot, Esom, and Boris.
Our survivors fought their way through a resort space station. A meteor struck the station and drove the survivors to the lower decks. They tried to barricade themselves in 'little Venice,' the source of the zombie outbreak. But hundreds died when the zombies made a surprise attack from the canals. They holed up in the replica of San Marco's cathedral for a while. Then they found an escape pod and jettisoned all but five of the survivors, a Mila Jovavich look-alike, Captain Dashell "Dash" LeRon, and three others. Finally, they were driven from their refuge, and made a last stand in the green house, where Captain Dash went mad, killed the others, and let the zombies eat him.
There were other narrative details, but Amy and I also learned more about how to improve the mechanics of the game. We'll ditch the dice pool idea, since it didn't make much difference, and simply give 2 story dice for the reaction proposal, and 1 die for the result proposal. Voting should be done in secret, to avoid all the wacky influence that knowing who's in the lead has. We need a better end-game mechanic; something that the players agree on when choosing the setting. This may involve a 'game over' clause in the result proposal, and a final resolution proposal phase that only happens once per game at the very end. And we're thinking of ways to clarify what needs to be in a reaction proposal; specifically, players could be required to end their reaction proposals with a question, which can be answered in the result proposal phase.
Finally, we need better terms for just about everything in the game. Tragic Fate Bonus Dice... seriously?
I'll buy some shoe polish tomorrow. Anyway, thank you, play testers!
Our survivors fought their way through a resort space station. A meteor struck the station and drove the survivors to the lower decks. They tried to barricade themselves in 'little Venice,' the source of the zombie outbreak. But hundreds died when the zombies made a surprise attack from the canals. They holed up in the replica of San Marco's cathedral for a while. Then they found an escape pod and jettisoned all but five of the survivors, a Mila Jovavich look-alike, Captain Dashell "Dash" LeRon, and three others. Finally, they were driven from their refuge, and made a last stand in the green house, where Captain Dash went mad, killed the others, and let the zombies eat him.
There were other narrative details, but Amy and I also learned more about how to improve the mechanics of the game. We'll ditch the dice pool idea, since it didn't make much difference, and simply give 2 story dice for the reaction proposal, and 1 die for the result proposal. Voting should be done in secret, to avoid all the wacky influence that knowing who's in the lead has. We need a better end-game mechanic; something that the players agree on when choosing the setting. This may involve a 'game over' clause in the result proposal, and a final resolution proposal phase that only happens once per game at the very end. And we're thinking of ways to clarify what needs to be in a reaction proposal; specifically, players could be required to end their reaction proposals with a question, which can be answered in the result proposal phase.
Finally, we need better terms for just about everything in the game. Tragic Fate Bonus Dice... seriously?
I'll buy some shoe polish tomorrow. Anyway, thank you, play testers!