(no subject)
TIME SKIP: ZOMBIES!
10/26/10 - 10/31/10
One Oct. 26th, a glowing door will appear in the House. Care to step through? As soon as you do, you can't go back until the time skip is over. Those that choose not to step through the door will remain in the House. Those that do will find themselves in a hideous post-apocalyptic zombie world. All superhuman powers will be neutralized completely, all weapons will be gone. Yeah. You're Joe Everyman stuck in a crapsack zombie world.
THE SET-UP:
Where are you, exactly? Modern-day Earth, probably in the USA or Europe, but the specifics are up to you.
Everyone will find themselves separated into groups of two, or three at the most. You'll be in your own playground, separated from other groups by wide distances. You could be on the other side of an ocean from them, who knows. Journals still function normally, so you can stay in contact with those outside your group, but for the most part you're on your own.
Here are some examples of settings you guys can choose from:
WEAPONS AND ABILITIES AND WHAT YOU CAN DO TO KEEP FROM DYING
YOU HAVE NO WEAPONS AND NO ABILITIES. Any weapons, magical artifacts, or things that could otherwise aid you in any possible way will be gone when you wake up. The idea of the zombie genre is that it's Joe Schmoe who gets the be the hero, not the Time Lords or the Vampire Slayers of the world. So you get no special powers and no weapons and no nothing. Biology will remain intact, so vampires will still be vampires and still have to drink blood and stay out of the sun, but anything they can do beyond the capabilities of a normal human will be nerfed entirely. Anything that remotely qualifies as a superpower or as superhuman is gone.
There's an upside, though: you can find weapons! Melee weapons can be anything you find lying around: cookware, baseball bats, musical instruments, etc. You can also find guns, but keep in mind your location and keep it realistic. Plenty of people have handguns in lock boxes, but nobody in suburbia has an M-16 assault rifle. If you're in a hunting lodge, you'll probably find a nice selection of hunting rifles, but not much in the way of submachine guns. You can find caches left behind by the military or other survivors, but there'll probably only be a couple nice guns to choose from, and keep in mind that guns run out of ammo. You'll have to conserve your bullets until you can find a replacement gun or another cache. Also remember to keep it realistic in terms of how much you can carry. Two guns or a gun and a melee weapon is probably about it.
You can also make use of your surroundings, of course. In a bar? Whip up some molotov cocktails. In a gas station? GAS IS VERY FLAMMABLE. On the North Pole? USE ICE FLOES STRATEGICALLY.
If you end up in a hospital, near a neighborhood clinic, or at a factory with a well-stocked first aid station, you're lucky. Regular apartments and households will also have basic care items like pain pills and bandages. Again, keep your setting in mind and keep it realistic.
ZOMBIES!
These zombies sprint. They're attracted to lights and sounds, so keep quiet and stick to the shadows as much as possible. Whatever you do, don't set off car alarms. In their idle state, zombies will be leaning against walls, vomiting quietly, or scratching each other. If one notices you, a bunch of others won't be far behind. If they catch you, they'll claw you and bite you until you kill them. They don't have to be shot in the head - anything that would incapacitate a human will incapacitate them.
Be creative in terms of uncommon zombies! In a police station, you'll find zombies in bulletproof vests. In a factory, you'll find zombies wearing safety gear. Feel free to make up zombies appropriate to your setting that have special traits.
And, let's face it, this is really based in large part on Left 4 Dead, so if you like, you can be attacked by Special Infected:
NPCs:
For the most part, everyone should NPC their own zombies. Be creative with how many your characters face, which kinds they are, and how they're dealt with! If your thread is looking like it could use more danger, the mods may throw in a Tank, Witch, pissed-off zombie horde, or other random obstacle for you to face, but playing out the encounter will be your responsibility, we'll only pop in to say "and now there's a Tank throwing a dumpster at you, kill it." And please don't feel you have to rely on us to do this - insert your own terrible hideous things into your threads.
MISCELLANY:
If someone dies during the time skip, they'll wake up in the medical ward just like if they'd died in the House. Any injuries they sustain, they have to live with.
Is your character immune to the zombie virus? Up to you. Some characters may get bitten and have no ill side-effects (beyond, you know, getting bitten). Others may start to become a zombie after being bitten, which can take anywhere from fives minutes to a couple days. If this happens, your friend may have to put you down. Zombified characters will wake up in the House after the time skip as though they died like normal. If they're halfway through the zombification process, it will be reversed and they'll return to normal as soon as the time skip ends, though they may experience nausea and headaches for several days afterwards.
In-game, the time skip will last a few days. Note: this plot is NOT taking place in real time. You don't have to play everything out minute-by minute - if you prefer, you can play out the start of the plot and from there skip ahead to the next day. The mechanics of playing should be worked out within groups, but we don't expect everyone to play it all the way through to finding the safe room. The idea here is to put your character in a raw survival situation with barely any assets, get their adrenaline pumping, and see what emerges.
CONCLUSION:
Your character is not just wandering aimlessly through the zombie apocalypse. They'll each be given some indication that that they have to find a saferoom, and that will lead them back to their zombie-free life. Indications could be graffitti on the wall, a map, or something else. These saferooms are further apart than in Left 4 Dead, hence it taking a few days to reach one. Occasionally, you'll find a bit of graffiti left behind by another survivor pointing your way to the saferoom.
Once you enter the saferoom, the time skip will be over and you'll be back in the House.
10/26/10 - 10/31/10
One Oct. 26th, a glowing door will appear in the House. Care to step through? As soon as you do, you can't go back until the time skip is over. Those that choose not to step through the door will remain in the House. Those that do will find themselves in a hideous post-apocalyptic zombie world. All superhuman powers will be neutralized completely, all weapons will be gone. Yeah. You're Joe Everyman stuck in a crapsack zombie world.
THE SET-UP:
Where are you, exactly? Modern-day Earth, probably in the USA or Europe, but the specifics are up to you.
Everyone will find themselves separated into groups of two, or three at the most. You'll be in your own playground, separated from other groups by wide distances. You could be on the other side of an ocean from them, who knows. Journals still function normally, so you can stay in contact with those outside your group, but for the most part you're on your own.
Here are some examples of settings you guys can choose from:
- Urban Settings. Hospitals, airports, sewer systems, apartment buildings, malls, factories, hotels, major cities in general, etc.
- Rural Settings. Woodlands, farms, swamps, deserts, one-horse towns, etc.
- Suburbia. Suburbia... and... more malls :c Cemeteries, for that extra spooky feel. Schools.
- Other. Amusement parks, sugar mills, train stations, etc.
WEAPONS AND ABILITIES AND WHAT YOU CAN DO TO KEEP FROM DYING
YOU HAVE NO WEAPONS AND NO ABILITIES. Any weapons, magical artifacts, or things that could otherwise aid you in any possible way will be gone when you wake up. The idea of the zombie genre is that it's Joe Schmoe who gets the be the hero, not the Time Lords or the Vampire Slayers of the world. So you get no special powers and no weapons and no nothing. Biology will remain intact, so vampires will still be vampires and still have to drink blood and stay out of the sun, but anything they can do beyond the capabilities of a normal human will be nerfed entirely. Anything that remotely qualifies as a superpower or as superhuman is gone.
There's an upside, though: you can find weapons! Melee weapons can be anything you find lying around: cookware, baseball bats, musical instruments, etc. You can also find guns, but keep in mind your location and keep it realistic. Plenty of people have handguns in lock boxes, but nobody in suburbia has an M-16 assault rifle. If you're in a hunting lodge, you'll probably find a nice selection of hunting rifles, but not much in the way of submachine guns. You can find caches left behind by the military or other survivors, but there'll probably only be a couple nice guns to choose from, and keep in mind that guns run out of ammo. You'll have to conserve your bullets until you can find a replacement gun or another cache. Also remember to keep it realistic in terms of how much you can carry. Two guns or a gun and a melee weapon is probably about it.
You can also make use of your surroundings, of course. In a bar? Whip up some molotov cocktails. In a gas station? GAS IS VERY FLAMMABLE. On the North Pole? USE ICE FLOES STRATEGICALLY.
If you end up in a hospital, near a neighborhood clinic, or at a factory with a well-stocked first aid station, you're lucky. Regular apartments and households will also have basic care items like pain pills and bandages. Again, keep your setting in mind and keep it realistic.
ZOMBIES!
These zombies sprint. They're attracted to lights and sounds, so keep quiet and stick to the shadows as much as possible. Whatever you do, don't set off car alarms. In their idle state, zombies will be leaning against walls, vomiting quietly, or scratching each other. If one notices you, a bunch of others won't be far behind. If they catch you, they'll claw you and bite you until you kill them. They don't have to be shot in the head - anything that would incapacitate a human will incapacitate them.
Be creative in terms of uncommon zombies! In a police station, you'll find zombies in bulletproof vests. In a factory, you'll find zombies wearing safety gear. Feel free to make up zombies appropriate to your setting that have special traits.
And, let's face it, this is really based in large part on Left 4 Dead, so if you like, you can be attacked by Special Infected:
- Boomer. Fat, ugly, and covered in sores. He won't attack you, he'll just vomit all over you, and his vomit does two things: a) it temporarily blinds you, and b) it attracts a horde of regular zombies. If you shoot him while standing too close, he'll explode all over, having the same effect.
- Smoker. Usually hangs out on rooftops, waiting for the right moment to grab you with his super-long tongue and drag you away from your friends. If you're caught by one of these, you'll need someone to come rescue you. Their tongues are too strong to escape on your own. This one's also surprisingly durable, so it'll take quite a few bullets to bring him down.
- Hunter. Fast, agile, and jumpy. He likes to pounce on people, pin them to the ground, and tear them to shreds with his mighty claws and teeth. This is another one that requires intervention from a friend, but luckily a single shotgun blast can do it in.
- Charger. Like a footballer on 'roids, and he comes out of nowhere, knocks you down, and pounds you into the ground until you die. One of its arms is withered and useless and the other is massive.
- Spitter. Likes to jump out at people, vomit acid on them, and run away. The acid will burn you, but it's only fatal if you stand around in it for too long. When the Spitter dies, she leaves behind a tiny pool of acid that you'll need to navigate around.
- Jockey. Heralded by his distinctive crazy laughter, this little guy jumps on your back and steers you into trouble while humping you. You'll need a friend to get it off you.
- Tank. Your worst nightmare. He's 7 feet tall, 5 feet wide, made of rock-solid (literally, rock-solid) muscle, and can throw cars and giant chunks of pieces of the road at you. It will take you and your teammate pumping bullets into it continuously for over a minute to bring it down. And when you have a giant zombie running at you, a minute is a really long time. You can set it on fire, which will kill it a lot quicker, but will also make it twice as fast.
- The Witch. Or maybe this one's your worst nightmare. She looks like a sobbing woman in rags. At night, you'll usually find her blocking your path inconveniently, but you may not think much of it because she looks harmless. Until you step too close, shine a light at her, or make a noise. At which point she will fly into a rage, incapacitate you with a single swipe of her claws, and not stop clawing at you until either you or her is dead. It takes a lot to put this one down, which is why it's always best to sneak around her. Oh, and setting her on fire? Just makes her madder. During the day, she walks around crying. It's harder to startle her, but it's not difficult for her to walk right into you if you're not paying attention.
NPCs:
For the most part, everyone should NPC their own zombies. Be creative with how many your characters face, which kinds they are, and how they're dealt with! If your thread is looking like it could use more danger, the mods may throw in a Tank, Witch, pissed-off zombie horde, or other random obstacle for you to face, but playing out the encounter will be your responsibility, we'll only pop in to say "and now there's a Tank throwing a dumpster at you, kill it." And please don't feel you have to rely on us to do this - insert your own terrible hideous things into your threads.
MISCELLANY:
If someone dies during the time skip, they'll wake up in the medical ward just like if they'd died in the House. Any injuries they sustain, they have to live with.
Is your character immune to the zombie virus? Up to you. Some characters may get bitten and have no ill side-effects (beyond, you know, getting bitten). Others may start to become a zombie after being bitten, which can take anywhere from fives minutes to a couple days. If this happens, your friend may have to put you down. Zombified characters will wake up in the House after the time skip as though they died like normal. If they're halfway through the zombification process, it will be reversed and they'll return to normal as soon as the time skip ends, though they may experience nausea and headaches for several days afterwards.
In-game, the time skip will last a few days. Note: this plot is NOT taking place in real time. You don't have to play everything out minute-by minute - if you prefer, you can play out the start of the plot and from there skip ahead to the next day. The mechanics of playing should be worked out within groups, but we don't expect everyone to play it all the way through to finding the safe room. The idea here is to put your character in a raw survival situation with barely any assets, get their adrenaline pumping, and see what emerges.
CONCLUSION:
Your character is not just wandering aimlessly through the zombie apocalypse. They'll each be given some indication that that they have to find a saferoom, and that will lead them back to their zombie-free life. Indications could be graffitti on the wall, a map, or something else. These saferooms are further apart than in Left 4 Dead, hence it taking a few days to reach one. Occasionally, you'll find a bit of graffiti left behind by another survivor pointing your way to the saferoom.
Once you enter the saferoom, the time skip will be over and you'll be back in the House.