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Talesin
2013-10-18, 10:30 AM
Hey all.

I'm trying to introduce a few friends to a dice based roleplay game in the next few weeks. I'm playing with five people in total, three guys and two girls. I believe two of the players would enjoy a traditional fantasy based D&D game but I think the setting would put off many of the others.

I'm attempting to adapt the 3.5 system, the one i'm most familiar with, to try and have some fun with the players but I could use a bit of help.

With halloween coming up it makes sense to try and run a 'scary' (though not horror) type game and I know quite a few of the players enjoy Zombie based films so i'd like to attempt to run something similar to that. Given the above point about the fantasy setting it makes sense, to me anyway, to try and run it in the modern day setting.

I'd like to base the complex they are in around the place we work but I appreciate that playing a game in a real place can limit the options you have.

I'd like to run a one-shot game but leave it open ended so that it could be continued in the future if/when they want.

Storyline
I'm thinking that they will all be members of the site's emergency team working late one evening. The team has been trained with all the regular things you'd expect like first aid and such, but has also received additional training to combat any potential zombie apocolypse.

This'll give me excuses to hide weapons and guns around the complex as well as give them radios and ways to heal themselves. I think the primary objective would be to attempt to get off of the site but requiring a vehicle because they'll find out, either by the internet or TV or something, that the infestation is much bigger than they realise.

Game Mechanics
I'm thinking of doing away with skills all together and just giving the players 'traits' based on what kind of character they are. The three types i'm thinking are strength, dexterity and intelligent.

So Strength based characters get bonuses in combat with heavier weapons and doing strength based skills.
Dexterity characters can move faster, maybe a bonus with guns and doing dex based skills.
Intelligent characters get bonuses to their defense as well as intelligence based skills.

Given they'll be fighting 1 kind of enemy, zombie, i'm thinking of making combat just based on a single dice roll. Strength characters roll a D8 in combat, with dex and int rolling a D6.

However if they get a weapon that works well with their class, heavy weapons for strength characters, guns for dex characters and something for intelligence (maybe a precision thing so they can use their intelligence to pick their target's weak spot), then they can move up a dice class. So D6->D8 or D8->D10.

Rolls of 5 or more will kill a zombie. 3 or 4 will incapcitate them for two rounds, while below that doesn't do anything. The zombies will attack back using a D6. 5 to hit intelligence characters, 4 to hit dex/strength. 2 hits and you're infected and start to turn. Dunno what negatives to give you based on turning but could potentially be dampened by picking up first aid equipment.

I could also run skills on a similar system, better dice if you're better at the skills.


Does anyone have any advice or tips for running this sort of thing?

I'm hoping they'll enjoy the game and want to play more like it. If so I could then expand the game into running one of the actual commercial systems out there (unless you know a good one I could use?).

Thanks for your help.

SethoMarkus
2013-10-18, 11:38 AM
First, just a nitpick, but it is Horror that you want to run; you just don't need to make it Grimdark. Basically, as I take it, you want to focus on atmosphere and danger, but not gore or "everyone dies, the end" type storytelling. To achieve this, try to be descriptive with the environment and try not to time-skip too much. Make the players aware of the environment the same way that their characters would be- pay extra attention to sounds, smells, shadows, etc. If you can play in a dim, dank space, that's a bonus.

Second, D&D 3.5 doesn't really translate very well into modern settings, so I suggest either adapting the setting to be "zombie survival" during a historic timeperiod (such as Victorian or Renaissance, maybe Colonial?) where firearms and other technologies would be uncommon to begin with. The other option would be to look into Modern d20 or some other systems that are designed to be run in pseudo-modern settings.

Thirdly, as it seems you plan on heavily reducing the mechanics to begin with, why not just create your own basic system for the game? It seems that you are already well on your way to doing just that. Make it simple and focus more on storytelling/roleplaying. Forgo skills checks altogether and make the players pick proficiencies. If they know how to do something, they can do it. If they don't know, maybe make it 50% chance of succeeding. Under pressure, someone that is proficient has 75% chance of succeeding, while those non-proficient only have a 25% chance or something.

Finally, unless everyone loves the system you end up using/creating, don't try to turn this one-shot into a gateway for another system. If you want to introduce the players to 3.5, then run it fully in 3.5 (just pull back to core only and you should be fine for complexity). Since you seem a bit concerned whether some of the players would find traditional fantasy interesting, maybe this is a great opportunity for you to try out another system yourself, starting all together in a system that fits everyone's interest.

Erasmas
2013-10-18, 12:00 PM
I too love the zombie genre and play a lot of d20-styled D&D (3.0/3.5/PF/Homebrew). And I adapted a very boiled-down d20 system for playing through the zombie apocalypse in a modern setting - called Dead End. There are no skills, no feats, and no classes - with the players simply picking their occupation and receiving certain "GM considerations" when making certain rolls (such as a taxi driver gaining a nice bonus on Drive checks; or a ER nurse gaining a great bonus on Treat Injury/Heal checks). Creating a character takes very little time (probably 30 minutes tops) and it has been a ton of fun when we have played it. We have done mostly one-shots with it... but I did run a long-term game with the system as well and I think it held up well.

If you're interested in it, you can get the basic gist of it by going here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=15926979#post15926979) (a game here on the Playground that I am running on the same system) and read what is posted under "The Crunch" spoiler at the bottom of the first post! I would love to hear your thoughts on it.

Talesin
2013-10-18, 07:33 PM
I too love the zombie genre and play a lot of d20-styled D&D (3.0/3.5/PF/Homebrew). And I adapted a very boiled-down d20 system for playing through the zombie apocalypse in a modern setting - called Dead End. There are no skills, no feats, and no classes - with the players simply picking their occupation and receiving certain "GM considerations" when making certain rolls (such as a taxi driver gaining a nice bonus on Drive checks; or a ER nurse gaining a great bonus on Treat Injury/Heal checks). Creating a character takes very little time (probably 30 minutes tops) and it has been a ton of fun when we have played it. We have done mostly one-shots with it... but I did run a long-term game with the system as well and I think it held up well.

If you're interested in it, you can get the basic gist of it by going here (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?p=15926979#post15926979) (a game here on the Playground that I am running on the same system) and read what is posted under "The Crunch" spoiler at the bottom of the first post! I would love to hear your thoughts on it.

Hey, thanks for the post. I've had a little look through it, its quite late here and i've just got back from work, and I really like it. It seems pretty rules-lite, which is exactly the sort of thing I want, but it leads to some nice progression. You say it worked well for one shots so i'm going to look in-depth tomorrow at it.

I like that there is minor progression, ie after you get kills with weapons you start to become more skilled and pick up more bonuses. I like this idea and I actually might incorporate something into my game though maybe going up in dice rather than adding incremental bonuses.

I also like the combat idea, where beating it by X causes different amounts of damage to the zombie. I might adapt this idea slightly. You can roll and scoring the various numbers gives you damage to the zombie or you can try and aim for a body part and but your window for damage becomes narrower.

So rather than rolling 4-8, with 4 doing minimal damage and 8 killing you can aim for the head but now you need a 7 or 8 to get a kill while below that does nothing.

Thanks for the info!


Detailed discussion of the game

Firstly, thanks for taking such a long time to look into my problem. Your input is really helpful.

I like the idea of a dim and dark place. I'll try and incorporate the feel of a scary atmosphere into the game space. I'll also try and keep the players on edge with the descriptions. I'm not strictly looking for horror, in that i'm trying to scare my players, but I want them to appreciate the game as a descriptive tool but also as something to really immerse themselves in. I think the descriptions you mention will help there.

I like the simplicity you suggest and based on your recommendations I think i'm going to drop the system all together. Just go for something easy so the players don't have to worry about finding information on a sheet and can just enjoy and play the game.

Alejandro
2013-10-18, 07:36 PM
Get yourself a copy of Savage Worlds and the zombie survival adventure written for it. It's a simple tabletop system to start them with, and the adventure literally has the players play themselves in the zompocalypse (neat twist, all your friends at the table will make the PC version of you.)

Kid Jake
2013-10-19, 01:42 AM
It's been a while since I've read over it, but as I recall Oakspar (http://community.wizards.com/forum/whats-dm-do/threads/1004776) had a great example of a zombie game gone right.

Black Jester
2013-10-19, 02:48 AM
You want All Flesh Must Be Eaten. Trust me, if you are familiar with D&D, you will have no problems with the system's mechanic and there are no games who can depict any zombie survival horror game as good as AFMBE.