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Berenger
2013-02-22, 02:53 PM
Hello, Playground...

So, our group (consisting of ~10 soldiers and some 20 civilians) plans to "conquer" a zombie-infested island.

I expected them to clear out an area and set up some kind of fort as base camp for further exploration over the next days / weeks. Stupid me! According to their leader, they plan to "disembark the military types & kill everything that moves" before even landing the civilians, "taking as much time as needed" for this.

Unfortunately, I have no friggin' clue how long this task should take. We talk about an area of roughly 250 hectare. Half of that area is wooded, the remainder consists of a small harbor town and some scattered hotels, holiday lodges and the occasional farmstead (there were 800-1500 inhabitants prior to the zombie apocalypse).

So my questions are:

1. a) How long should it take those soldiers to scout this area in a reasonably cautious manner?

1. b) How to employ skill checks? The mechanics of Search (Int) don't seem quite right for this task. The system is d20 Modern, but I take it the mechanics in question are quite similar to those of D&D.

2. Which interesting difficulties (except those Zeds and less-than-helpful survivors) could they face?

3. How to entertain those hapless civilian player characters that are stuck on their boring patrol boat for the next, uh, offplay weeks of our Play-by-Post game?

Frathe
2013-02-22, 04:47 PM
Scouting (spotting other creatures) would more classically use Spot. Spot checks are made automatically and passively if there's another creature to notice (opposed to the creature's Hide check), so it might not take that long (no longer than it would to walk all over the island, because the Spot checks are automatic).

Jack of Spades
2013-02-23, 09:53 AM
That island seems big enough that to do a properly thorough job would likely take weeks. That would be a problem for the civilians because there's no way survivors in a zombie apocalypse scenario thought to put that many days' worth of food on the ship.

So, instant plot there for the civilian types. Supplies are getting low, but the militant types haven't come back with the all-clear (or, for all the civvy's know, they died days ago). People aren't likely to stay happy for long-- look at the Carnival Cruise ship thing that happened recently, for example.

Probably have the folks island-side make stealth, search/spot, and survival checks as you see fit, abstracting the checks out to mean several hours' or days' worth of achievement a piece. Of course, failing a check will generally mean either zombies or attrition set in (depending on the check). Local fauna (lions, tigers, bears), mishaps (fall and break a bone or the like), terrain obstacles (ranging from big rocks to rivers to half-collapsed floors in buildings) and adverse weather all make decent random encounters for this kind of segment.

EDIT: Oh wow, turns out hectare are freaking tiny. I'm not even sure why people bothered to settle such a small island in the first place. Use what you can of the above.

Ashtagon
2013-02-23, 10:03 AM
Important point for the military team: At best, they will get "It looks like there aren't any more zombies around."

Searching doesn't tell you there's nothing there. It only tells you that you didn't find anything. This is even harder when the things you are searching for can move when you aren't looking.

Now 250 hectares between ten men. 25 hectares each, or about 1/10 square mile each. Plenty of room to miss spotting something.

Rhynn
2013-02-23, 11:24 AM
Obv. this is modern, since a 250 hectare (~615 acre) island would have to be 20 times as productive as a medieval manor to sustain that 1500 people (150 per 1200 acres was usual). That's still be a population density of 320-600 per square km, though, so even then it seems a bit crowded...

Anyway, 250 hectares is 2.5 km square, so an area of about 1.2 km by 1.2 km. That would probably take... a few hours to scout, maybe? Spend all day to be thorough - very thorough with 30 people.

FWIW walking 1.2 km takes something like half an hour. You could spread your dudes out every 40 meters (not quite LOS in a forest, but not too bad) and do it in a half-hour, or spread them every 10 meters and do 4 sweeps, taking 2 hours.

Slipperychicken
2013-02-23, 11:42 AM
For now, just scout out an area to make camp, then let the civvies sit around there while the soldiers continue their patrol. Setting up camp and dealing with other miscellaneous dangers on the island should give plenty for them to do while the soldiers play zombie-hunt.

Berenger
2013-03-08, 07:40 PM
Sorry, I totally forgot I posted this thread some night. :smalleek:

Anyway, thank you very much for the input. I ended up dividing the map in 40,000 mē-squares and declaring that scouting takes 15 for natural and 45 minutes for urban environments. Then I pointed out that there is too few ammunition for an all-out assault, I think it worked.

Rhynn
2013-03-09, 03:35 AM
Sorry, I totally forgot I posted this thread some night. :smalleek:

Anyway, thank you very much for the input. I ended up dividing the map in 40,000 mē-squares and declaring that scouting takes 15 for natural and 45 minutes for urban environments.

Scouting what, a mē-square? :smallconfused:

Also, 250 hectares (2.5 kmē) is 2,500,000 mē... or did you mean you had 40,000 squares of 62.5 mē each? That's 7.9 m to a side, that'd hardly take 5 minutes to inspect, IMO.

If you want zombies to remain hiding after the sweep, your best bet seems to be missed corners, crannies, cabinets, basements, bathrooms, cellars, etc. Maybe an inhabitant had a concealed cellar door, for whatever reason, or a cellar door had a big bunch of scrap lying on it for some reason (maybe to trap zombies in), or someone had moved a large piece of furniture in front of a door to keep some zombies trapped (covering the door entirely) and no one noticed the traces of it having been moved.

A thorough exploration of all indoor spaces would definitely take more than the couple of hours it'd take a bunch of people to entirely cover the outside, for sure, and would be less reliable.

mjlush
2013-03-11, 11:13 AM
If you want zombies to remain hiding after the sweep, your best bet seems to be missed corners, crannies, cabinets, basements, bathrooms, cellars, etc.


Good calls, remember that the inhabitants who could not flee would have to hide and if they were already infected, you get lots of well hidden zombies :->

Berenger
2013-03-12, 05:05 AM
Scouting what, a mē-square? :smallconfused:

Also, 250 hectares (2.5 kmē) is 2,500,000 mē... or did you mean you had 40,000 squares of 62.5 mē each? That's 7.9 m to a side, that'd hardly take 5 minutes to inspect, IMO.

No, each square had 200m side length (=40,000mē) and took 15 / 45 minutes to scout and there were about 60 squares to be scouted. :smalltongue:

But nice inspiration for stay-behind-zombies.

Jay R
2013-03-12, 10:08 AM
I find this question delightful. You see, this may be unclear in modern D&D rules, but it was completely worked out in the rules for original D&D.

According to The Underground and Wilderness Adventures (the third book in the original game), first you must build a stronghold. Then:


Clearing the countryside of monsters is the first requirement. The player/character moves a force to the hex, the referee rolls a die to determine if there is a monster encountered, and if there is one the player/character's force must remove it. If no monster is encountered the hex is already cleared. Territory up to 20 miles distant from the stronghold may be kept clear of monsters once cleared - the inhabitation of the stronghold being considered as sufficient to maintain the monster-free status.

So until they get everybody off the ship, and build and inhabit a fort, they aren't clearing it yet - just having random encounters.

Totally Guy
2013-03-12, 11:33 AM
There are two periods of time it could take. Quick enough and not quick enough. You could roll dice to decide which it is. If not quick enough is the answer then the bad thing that'll happen if they're too slow happens.

If you don't have a bad thing in the wings then it really doesn't matter. So you could say that the time has passed and get on with it.

Killer Angel
2013-03-14, 05:55 AM
So, our group (consisting of ~10 soldiers and some 20 civilians) plans to "conquer" a zombie-infested island.

(snip)

3. How to entertain those hapless civilian player characters that are stuck on their boring patrol boat for the next, uh, offplay weeks of our Play-by-Post game?

Are you playing a PbP game with 30 players? and 20 of them play civilians? :smallconfused:
Anyway, have you tried to explain your doubts to the soldiers' players? If there is a NPC officier, you could explain to them the problems IG.

Slipperychicken
2013-03-14, 11:09 AM
Are you playing a PbP game with 30 players? and 20 of them play civilians? :smallconfused:
Anyway, have you tried to explain your doubts to the soldiers' players? If there is a NPC officier, you could explain to them the problems IG.

They chose to play civilians, so they're "role-players". Just let them engage in mindless banter for a week or two while worrying about the soldiers; it'll probably be hard to make them stop. Maybe you could even set them up on Skype or other IM service so they can do it in real time :smallbiggrin:

Killer Angel
2013-03-15, 03:14 AM
They chose to play civilians, so they're "role-players". Just let them engage in mindless banter for a week or two while worrying about the soldiers; it'll probably be hard to make them stop. Maybe you could even set them up on Skype or other IM service so they can do it in real time :smallbiggrin:

Oh, it can be done for sure, but it's certainly an... unusual situation. :smalltongue:

Berenger
2013-03-15, 07:55 AM
Are you playing a PbP game with 30 players? and 20 of them play civilians? :smallconfused:
Anyway, have you tried to explain your doubts to the soldiers' players? If there is a NPC officier, you could explain to them the problems IG.

Well, the play started in early summer 2011. In the heyday of the game there were about 10+ players with 2-4 chars each. Some of the players dropped due to RL issued over the last year but wanted their chars to remain in case they could manage to rejoin. We allowed it 'cause the game runs ultra-slow anyway (we're only about 16 days into the zombie apocalypse).

Turns out one of the players convinced the main GM to do some We Take Shelter In The Farmhouse Of Local Incestuous Cannibal Hillbillies subplot for the civilian. Hell yeah.

Rhynn
2013-03-15, 08:25 AM
Local Incestuous Cannibal Hillbillies

Is there any other kind? :smallamused:

Berenger
2013-03-15, 08:42 AM
Of course.

Roving Incestuous Cannibal Hillbillies.

Local Rapist Cannibal Hillbillies.

Local Incestuous Demon-Worshipping Hillbillies.

Local Incestuous Cannibal Sewer Monsters.

You see, we've got it covered.

Jay R
2013-03-15, 10:35 AM
Of course.

Roving Incestuous Cannibal Hillbillies.

Local Rapist Cannibal Hillbillies.

Local Incestuous Demon-Worshipping Hillbillies.

Local Incestuous Cannibal Sewer Monsters.

You see, we've got it covered.

Ah -- role-playing.

Killer Angel
2013-03-15, 11:01 AM
Well, the play started in early summer 2011. In the heyday of the game there were about 10+ players with 2-4 chars each. Some of the players dropped due to RL issued over the last year but wanted their chars to remain in case they could manage to rejoin. We allowed it 'cause the game runs ultra-slow anyway (we're only about 16 days into the zombie apocalypse).

Turns out one of the players convinced the main GM to do some We Take Shelter In The Farmhouse Of Local Incestuous Cannibal Hillbillies subplot for the civilian. Hell yeah.

Makes sense. :smallwink:


Ah -- role-playing.

And the proper responce is "cleanse with FIRE!!!" :smallbiggrin: