i definatley like class systems better. i feel if everyone could do everything, then you would just have a mishmash of players who could do some of everything and there isnt much sense of team-unity. if you had only
one person who could build barricades, you want him alive. if everyone could, it dont matter so much outside of another mook with a gun at your side.
but if you really dont want a class system, perhaps you could go part way and not make the skill list set-in-stone? you could choose classes, and each one would make a certain set of skills more or less expensive to get and possibly starting with a handfull of basic skills. choosing the soldier class would have you start with proficiancy with certain firearms/armour, but it would cost alot more to learn to ghetto-rig alarms like i mentioned geeks could in my last post. a geek would start being able to do that on a basic level, and could get better at it for alot less exp/points then the soildier could, but it would be more expensive to learn things like construction and such like a handyman/construction worker could. ect. the difference being everyone could do everything. but its more practical haveing a team of specialists, each one good in a set of things. it forces them to work together and adds some challenge.
also, a leveling system is more realisitic. think of it this way: a zombie invasion has occurd
right now. oh crap. you wouldnt have much supplies stockpiled, no defences prepaired, maybe no weapons on hand. and you dont even know how the best way to fight them are. sure we have movies and books and theories, but none of them have ever been seen or tested in real life. out of all those choices you had in the first post for zombie types, it could be any one of them, and assuming the wrong one could get you killed.
now imagine yourself in this world, say, five years later (just for example). the invasion is still around and its an apocalypse at this state. by now, your probably alot fitter from all the work youve been done, you have a small group together, you probably know how to do more stuff by experiancing it in your new day to day life. heck, you might have even looked online or on the tv in the first few months of the outbreak, before those went offline. now that the city is wasted, you could just steal books to learn stuff. you possibly moved into a place in the city where its easyer to defend, raid, and attack. you overhauled it into a awsome bunker, prepped escape routes and panic bags. you might have been lucky enough to steal better armour or guns from stores and warehouses. i know for a fact if it happened to me, i would get down to the archery shop on west eleventh and raid as many arrows and bow supplies as possible.they even have cameo outfits that are heavy padded for woodland trecking. it'd take em too and trust my training with the bow in the begining. atleast untill i could get guns and training
now after this little mental trip, compare the you from
right now (EG: the start of the invasion) to the you from
five years. see the difference? all in all, in game terms, you have leveled up. alot. it also motivates the players to take action. its possible for them to build impossible-to-enter buildings all over town connected by catwalks that'r proofed from zombies, but then nothing happens and it gets boring fast. if that happens and there
is a level system, you can throw a super-zombie that smashes the walls down and kicks all their asses at them; and when they die give them a "oh well, if you had bothered to train some you woulda lived" to teach em a lesson, but thats a sure fire way to loose your friends.
why, yes, i
do think about this alot. whatever would have given you that idea?
Author
Topic: Zombie Apocalypse RPG - This is going to be more work than I thought. (Read 11098 times)