Okay, I am jonesing for some RP. So, I am going to start a game here. Basic premise:
You are on Manhatten Island in June of 2014, and shit just got real. Over the past decade, there have been a few pandemics. These pandemics killed approximately one hundredth of the world's population, and caused a temporary tailspin in human population growth.
The first was a form of influenza carried by domesticated animals as well as human, which killed approximately forty million people. Food supplies being infected, which added to the casualties by starvation in some areas. The pan-species spread shocked scientists to no small degree, but they have been unable to identify the original vector. Transmission was primarily airborne when it came to human-human interactions, but tainted foods instigated many outbreaks before recalls could be issued. In the end, the disease died off on its own. Being immunized against mundane influenza weakened the disease, and after the wild-fire spread during the cold season, it had killed those weak enough, and most had either been immunized from their exposure or had been resistant to catching it at all. The world reacted as most would guess, and the CDC and it's brother and sister organizations in other countries received a windfall in funding. People mostly forgot about the disease a few years after, however, even if face-masks and latex gloves became much more common, so far as to be widely available in convenience stores.
The second was a hemorraghic fever, and it killed thirty-five million with much more panic across the globe. This disease spread through water as well as contact with biologicals, even through some purification systems used by companies such as Aquafina, Evian, SmartWater, and other brands. Even municipal systems weren't immune. A number of workers at such facilities had been infected somehow, and tainted a portion of the water supplies in the urban Europe, eastern Asia, and United States. The disease, while quarantined and eradicated, was nearly 100% lethal to those infected, and regulations regarding water purity skyrocketed. Public outcry and panic was widespread, and rioting occured in nearly every major city of the countries involved. Graphic images are still used to advocate disease control.
There is plenty of evidence left from these outbreaks. Huge quarantine wards in most hospitals, and massive blood banks as well as stockpiles of vaccines. Aged flyers are still found everywhere, plastered on walls and underfoot. Burnt hulks from the riots that occured two years ago still have 'Condemned' tape across their entries and windows, though a majority of those had been demolished and rebuilt in some way,shape, or form. Billboards for pharmaceutical companies have grown larger and more common, and radios playing music have commericals about flu vaccinations as often as Christmas jingles, this time of year. Stores hold supplies needed, and a few new companies have arisen with their own bottled water 'guaranteed pure'... And costing a dollar more then the closest competitors. Vaccine vans travel neighborhoods, going from door to door and offering free vaccinatiosn. Most receive them, and flu cases of any type have been halved across the world. If it did not evolve to different strains so often, it would likely be eradicated, and that hasn't stopped virologists from trying.
But the third pandemic... Well, the third hasn't been classified yet. It hasn't spread much, either. Initial symptoms include minor photophobia, as well as inflammation of the eyes and mucus membranes. Wet coughing begins two to four days after those symptoms, and by a week after that, the victim is delirious with fever, bleeding from the eyes and nose, and suffers intense agoraphobia on top of a mild form of hydrophobia. After a day or two, the fever finally drops to tolerable levels, and the victim falls into a short coma. When they awaken, they are violent, vicious, and bestial. Stronger, faster, and almost psychopathic, they escaped from the hospitals, breaking bones, biting people, even killing a few unfortune people. Only a hundred cases have reached this point in New York (a few hundred in nearly every major city on the planet), but all of them have gone to ground, evading increasingly frantic law enforcement and CDC officials. They've been travelling underground or by night, and assaults on people have been rising. The early symptoms have become far more common too, as they've become a vector, spreading the disease by air, water, and touch. Vagrants are the first infected, as well as cats and dogs. Rodents and birds seem immune, at least. The symptoms are somewhat similar, and animals progress faster. They tend to roam in packs, and animal attacks and maulings have become more common. No one has been able to capture one of the infected alive, and the dead decay rapidly, letting off noxious fumes that may have infected others already... The disease has multiple vectors already, and is quickly spreading, though no one has fully noticed the scope yet. Multiple strains exist, aquatic, airborne, and that carried by living organisms, each one developing slightly differently.
National Guard units have been activated, and law enforcement has begun a curfew in the streets with soldier patrolling. People are getting worried, cautious, afraid. There's been mutters, and sightings of black helicopters haven't helped anybody with the situation. The city is starting to panic, and the disease hasn't even touched a thousandth of the population yet.
The Premise:You are in New York City. You are quite special, even in a city of seven million. You were one of the few survivors of the hemorraghic fever from two years ago that had killed a sixth of the city's population, with nearly no lasting signs that it had ever touched you. A medical miracle, the doctors have finally stopped poking and prodding for the secret to your survival. They never found anything to date from any of you. Though none of you know this, your previous exposure to the hemorraghic virus has one good side-effect... Whatever this new disease is, you are immune. This doesn't prevent a disease-ridden psychopath from attempting to rip your arm off and beat you to death with it, but contaminated water, air, and bites won't infect you. Others who had been exposed to the flu pandemic are generally immune to one or two of the vectors, but never all three. The city has already started on the path to martial law, if chaos doesn't develop first.
Rules and Character Creation:This game is going to use rules based off of the Storytelling System/Exalted. A few things are changing, like jumping height being Strength+Athletics in feet, not yards, and each dot of Strength+Athletics used for calculating feats of Strength adds 50 pounds. Exalted healing factor will be used for the infected and all (partially or fully) immune characters, as a result of the tinkering the disease has done to the biology. You are not receiving the lethal soak yet, however. I currently won't be allowing any inhuman powers for players, and the infected are quite limited at the start as well. Merits and flaws will be allowed on a case by case basis. And if you take something poor vision, expect me to take your glasses. Things purchased with experience will be trained immediately, as you gathered that experience doing whatever it is that got you buff or skilled with guns, etc. Also, +2L damage on shotguns, add 15 yards to Range. Fuck you Exalted, you did it wrong.
Attributes:
You receive 6 for your Primary, 5 for your Secondary, and 4 for your Tertiary, all starting at one. Appearance can be dropped to 0, but there is no refund for that.
-Physical
Strength
Dexterity
Stamina
-Social
Charisma
Manipulation
Appearance (0 is fugly, 1 is average, 2 is pretty, 3 is attractive, 4 is model, 5 is 'hot as the sun')
-Mental
Perception
Intelligence
Wits
Abilities:
I am using Shards of the Exalted Dream for some things, so Guns and Drive are relevant abilities. Occult is removed, due to the shenanigans of no magic. You start with thirty points, nothing over three without bonus points.
Archery (Bows, crossbows, grenade launchers, harpoon guns if anybody is a diver)
Melee (Swords, clubs, axes, bludgeons)
MA/Hand-to-Hand (Hitting, kicking, blocking, clinching. No M tag weapons without a specialty)
Thrown (Grenades, rocks, etc.)
War (Tactics, strategy, ordering folks)
Firearms (Guns, etc.)
Dodge (Getting out of the way)
Athletics (lifting weights, running, jumping, etc.)
Larceny (pickpocketing, lockpicking, casing a place, hiding things, disguise)
Awareness (Passive use of senses, avoiding surprise, etc.)
Stealth (Being sneaky, staying hidden)
Drive (Cars, trucks, armored vehicles?)
Sail (Aircraft, boats, swim trunks and flippy floppies optional)
Ride (Bikes, motorcycles, animals, etc.)
Bureaucracy (Finances, prices, haggling)
Linguistics (languages known, writing and vocabulary)
Socialize (Guile, social interaction with misdirection and showing them what they want)
Presence (Giving orders, command, bearing, showing them what you want)
Performance (Song, dance, instruments, speeches, etc.)
Resistance (Physical resilience, resisting disease, etc.)
Survival (Gathering supplies, setting snares, tracking things)
Integrity (Mental fortitude, resistance to bribes, loyalty, sense of self)
Craft (Making things, fixing things. No split trees of doom. Instead, 2 dice internal penalty if you have no relevant specialty.)
Medicine (First Aid, Surgery, Diagnosis, etc.)
Lore (Knowledge, Science, Math, etc.)
Investigation (Searching, detective stuff, active use of senses)
Specialties:
You start with six, the cap on these is two.
Merits and Flaws:
Right here...
Virtues and Willpower:
These are your virtues, what guides you to a degree. It's also a sign of whether or not you are brave or a coward, biddable or self-assured, a hedonist of ascetic, sociopath or bleeding heart. You get 5 points, they all start at one. Capping these at 4.
Valor
Compassion
Conviction
Temperance
Willpower is your sense of self, your will in the face of conflict. You use this to resist your virtues, attacks coming from social sources, peer pressure, etc. You start with 5.
Health Levels:
Health! You can buy extra health levels with experience, from your body naturally getting tougher. Dyings cost 3, Incaps are 4, -4s are 5, -2s are 6, -1s are 7, and -0s are 10. Conditioning training is some rough stuff.
1 -0
2 -1
2 -2
1 -4
1 Incapacitated
1 Dying
Equipment:
Equipment goes at the bottom, using standard format for armor, weapons, etc. Please note that looting hasn't started yet, and your history does have a say in what kind of things you would have, as well as resources. So no heavy machine guns mounted on the roof of your Hummer unless you are rich or some kind of militia or something? Not until the fun starts, at least.
Finally, you get eighteen bonus points, with the usual prices on them. You can raise a maximum of three things to five with bonus points. Backgrounds such as Artifact and Manse are gone, obviously, as are other obvious ones. Law enforcement, military, etc. are all good examples of Backing, you get the idea. And Allies would be having something like a cop friend, know some officer in the military in the area, that scientist you went to college with who specializes in infectious diseases...
One new background though, one you can't start with, is the Pad. It is similar to Manse, without the magic and hearthstones. It's whatever you fortify in the area as you try to survive, or claim as your own. Or, if you shelter at a military base, you share with others, which might be shown as a Flaw such as Obligation, or Enemy if you take a side in some factional dispute.
Author
Topic: Apocalypse Now! Recruiting Closed- Character Creation (Read 2205 times)