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Zahhak
2013-02-07, 05:07 PM
This is probably going to be the strangest question asked on this forum. Brace yourself for that.

My group once upon a time thought about doing a zombie survival game around halloween. The game fell through, but I'd still like to do it, so I'm still half-working on it every time Mercury is in the house of Orion. Part of the thing we wanted to do is to see how well our party would actually do in a zombie type situation, by playing ourselves.

Basically, the whole group (and anyone we would reasonably expect to be with our group) would have their own character sheet, and we would make a fairly indepth map of our hometown and wherever we went, with lists of resources and threats in the different types of buildings (like, there's an average of 1 zombie per gas station, for example). And then we'd use the character sheets as basically a pool of PCs that we could cycle through as the situation requires it.

Now, there was a few things we figured out (like we'd use HERO system, the DM would only ever type up his ideas on how his PC would react), but I'm curious if anyone's thought about this before, or done this, or has any ideas.

Anderlith
2013-02-07, 05:26 PM
I've done it before. Me & my friends played it with Top Secret though.
Some issues to make sure to look out for.
"Johnny is stupid as a rock, why does he have high int." Also "I'm totally stronger than you, why do you have a higher score than me?"
We chose to give everyone the same array with mostly average stats, one good one & one bad one. & mostly knew what we were going to put were.

You friends (like mine) can sometimes be @ssholes, & when in the Apocalypse may play themselves like they are PC in a game rather than themselves. Like when one of my friend pulled a gun on me, to try & get me to do what he wanted.

Proper descriptions of what you are doing to prepare yourself. If you wrap a few layers of ACE bandages around your wrist to prevent zombie bites make sure your DM knows that ahead of time & doesn't thing that you should be infected from that last zombie fight

These are some problems I ran into playing the game. Make sure those friends you invite aren't @ssholes, & will take it seriously

FreakyCheeseMan
2013-02-07, 05:45 PM
From my experience trying this with my group, Laughter is your greatest enemy. Really. Every time we tried it, it descended into giggling fits.

I suggest as strict and somber a set of rules as possible. With most games, the goal is to keep them fun and exciting. When you're playing as yourselves, "Fun and exciting" comes rather naturally- you need to focus more on keeping things from running wild.

Gavinfoxx
2013-02-07, 05:53 PM
Try a, 'represent an idealized you that evokes you and your goals and what you want, using these rule restrictions' as an option...

Ashtagon
2013-02-07, 05:55 PM
Enforce point buy for chargen.

prufock
2013-02-08, 10:42 AM
I've actually wanted to do this with a superheroes game using Mutants and Masterminds rules (3rd ed). I call it "The Normals."

Basically, the players build themselves as PL 2 characters, with no powers - abilities, skills, defenses, and advantages only. They gradually become superpowered, as I grant each of them (semi-randomly determined) powers (up to 60 points worth, max PL 6) gradually.

The point of the campaign is intended to be a RP answer to "what would you do if...?"

The campaign is still in development, and they voted against playing themselves, but I recommended that they at least behave similarly enough that they'd make the same sort of decisions.

I think it's going to be a fun game. It's VERY sandboxy, and what happens to them will depend entirely on what they do with their powers. Seek fame? Stop crime? Commit crime? Lay low and keep it to yourself? Seek out others with powers? I have lots of little possible threads indexed.

OverdrivePrime
2013-02-08, 11:05 AM
My friends and I have been RPing ourselves for various games for well over a decade now. It's a lot of fun. We started by playing Immortal: the Invisible War, where the whole point was that you were playing as you... but with a voice in your head that whispered of past lives and glory. Our 7 year immortal campaign (with 5 rotating narrators) is still the pinnacle of my gaming experience.

I'm currently 2 years into running my friends through a "you get pulled from the real world into a D&D world" game, and it's going great. My players are all pretty mature (we're in our 30s), and have been friends for years, so we thankfully avoid some of the dumb intra-party fights that some other groups might otherwise experience.

If you've got a really good group that can realistically self-assess for character creation, go for it. Otherwise, listen to the others here and go with point buy.

Narren
2013-02-08, 02:21 PM
My group did this a Vampire: Masquerade game years ago. It was pretty interesting, given that the whole theme of that game is (often) to attempt to hold on to your humanity. I was running the game, and made myself a character as well. My character ended up going insane and the group spent a good part of the game putting him down to avoid execution by the Prince.