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View Full Version : Zmobie: a (eventual) post-Z-day survival game (hopefully).



the_other_gm
2011-11-13, 05:47 PM
So i'm currently working on a homebrew system where the basic idea is this:

in the year 20XX, the zombie apocalypse has happened. people died, they were unable to stop the Zeds in time. the end. well, for the most part. humans are kinda like cockroaches: we will find a way to survive, if only to spite the zombie apocalypse.

here is where the players come in: they will control a small community/group of survivors. PCs will come in 3 tiers: "heroic", "specialist" & "average joe", ideally, players will control one of each since they will be created for different scope of adventures. an "average joe" among "specialists" is a liability. a "specialist" traveling with "heroes" will almost always be second stringers.

"Heroic" PCs are the action hero types: they're just the right mix of thoughness and crazy which allows them to wade into a horde of undead and come out with everyone else's blood on their shirt, laughing all the time. be it pure luck or skill, if there is a high-risk task to be done, they're your ace in the hole.

"Specialist" PCs are a cut above the rest. either because they were at the top of their feild (atheletes, scientists, military, etc...) or simply because they're able to keep their cool in these trying times, they form your go-to if there is someplace to be scouted or a few stray zombies that need taking out before they can horde. while they can take out most zombies one-on-one they're not invincible and can be quickly mobbed.

"Average Joes" generally don't go far outside the complex unless the above two have secured it. they maintain what little amenities the survivors have, make sure the walls & doors are safe from zombie beatings, patrol for looters or hostiles, gather resources from secured areas, etc... while the above two are out in the middle of zombieland.

each PC is built off a foundation of "Profession" which has two actions (close to what would be a 4th ed at-will & encounter power) and three skills attached to it, with each tier getting less and less. in addition each PC gets their choice of 2 skills.

a heroic PC will have the 2 actions, 3 preset skills & 2 of their choice.
a specialist will have the at-will equivalent, 2 preset skills and 2 of their choice
an average joe will have one preset skill and 2 of their choice.

their HP totals will also vary, with the heroics able to take more punishment and heal faster, while the specialists can still take a beating but once mobbed are screwed. average joes will have a hard time against the average zombie if it manages to close the distance.

the professions are currently a VERY basic structure right now and the gist of character abilities will be chosen from a list, think GURPS or White Wolf's Merits rather then D&D's feats as these abilities will (in concept anyways) alter how your character can react to a situation as opposed to simply add +s to existing abilities.

there is currently no real "leveling" track in either abilities or stats, simply adding more options to how a character can react to a situation. i'm thinking of making a sort of small 3-4 step advancement track but i'm not too keen on letting it be level-based. i'm kinda getting bored of level based games of late

the adventures i'm thinking of will probably fall in two main categories: surviving the post-apocalypse and surviving it's inhabitants.

for the first PCs will generally be doing tasks to boost the community stats (securing a chop shop can raise "production", saving & integrating a group of travelers can raise "personnel" and securing a gas station for fuel can up their "salvage", i'll explain these later) and raise their living conditions to pre Z-day conditions or live like kings in their post-apocalyptic compound. basically the difference between living like Bear Gryllis in the woods and Bill Murray in Zombieland.

the second, when not trying to turn their fenced in compound into a home, in addition to the local Shambler's United Union to worry about, there are looters who would infiltrate for supplies and leave (possibly leaving a backdoor or two open), Mad Max-ian marauders who simply want to see the world burn, insane pastors and their undead flock, other survivors vying for the same limited resource, etc...

now the main problem i'm running into is when i'm trying to setup the community system.

what i'm thinking of is that a "Community" will come with 3 basic stats:

production (available gear / amenities)
personnel (population / defense)
scavenge (resources available)

a town with a low production value might have a large community and resources, but be unable to house them, supply them clean water, provide heat, safety or whatnot.

a town with low personnel might have access to quality mateiral and tools but be unable to properly defend themselves from looters/the undead or simply make use of the stuff.

a town with a low scavenge rating might have access to good gear and a lot of people but be unable to keep the gear maintained properly or keep it's people fed.

i'm just hitting a roadblock on how to use these effectively. i'm thinking something along the lines of the Civilization games : "Production Points" can be spent on a tech tree of sorts as long as some basic pre-requisites are covered, for example if you have access to a generator & a supply of fuel (thanks to the resources they've either traded for or obtained), you can have some form of electricity for your community, and use of these various techs require having a certain number of Personnel running it (though some might be automated), so you'll probably need at least one guy with the Mechanics skill making sure your generator is properly maintained.

as the options available to them go up they'll most likely have to start expanding outwards and getting more people into their community to either help with various jobs or simply because they're missing.

think of the community as a sort of adventure hub (there is always something to do) you can upgrade and personalize. whereas you might start with a broken down SUV and no fuel, you might later have it be a steel-plated zombie-slaughter wagon as you do a mad dash between outposts to trade commodities.

it's still VERY much in the working stages but is one of those little pet projects i'd like to eventually accomplish and here are a few main questions for the TL;DR folks

1) does anyone know of an RPG with a solid town-building/upgrading system? i'm not looking for anything extremely complex, just something quick and easy to digest that i can mine for ideas.

2) professions: i'm not sure how i feel about going about these. i like them as simple frameworks but i know i could do more. i'm on the fence

3) resource tracking: i didn't expound on this much, but does anyone know of a system that tracks resources without making it seem like busywork? i've always hated tracking individual arrows/bullets fired, trail rations or encumbrance since it was normally "we have X, we use Y, we replenish Y at next opportunity".

i hate that.

Morghen
2011-11-13, 09:43 PM
This sounds awesome.

No help yet, but I'll put my brain on it. Just wanted to give a kudos for the awesomeness.