That's right, All Flesh Must Be Eaten. My college schedule has calmed down, and I think I'm ready to GM a campaign of this on Gametable.
This will not end like Dark Heresy. This idea is too cool to let it die. You will get PMs if you stop responding, and we will replace you if you fail to respond to the PMs. I am 100% committed to it. I will not abandon you if you don't abandon me.
AFMBE is a P&P RPG like Dungeons and Dragons, Dark Heresy, Pathfinder, you get the idea. It's very freeform, and can be easily modified to fit almost any setting. The one prevailing theme, however, is ZOMBIES.
You will be playing as citizens of the town of
Greenford (Apparently the town is called Telluride, that's a weird name), somewhere in the
Midwest. A map follows:
It's a pretty normal town. It apparently has restrooms, some opera houses, a bit more than 8000 people. Oh, one more thing, ZOMBIES.
The game will be pretty open-ended, and you will have the freedom to deal with the situation in whatever way you think best. The most immediate goals, of course, will be finding food, shelter, and weapons. Other survivor groups will be forming, and you'll be able to befriend them, trade with them, raid them, be raided by them, the possibilities are endless. Perhaps zombie cults will spring up. Perhaps the military will show up eventually. Who knows?
Despite the open-ended nature, there will be a way to win. The zombies can be permanently stopped, but that will be up to the survivors to discover.
I'm planning on allowing 4 or 5 players at a time, but there can be a waiting list. If someone dies or is otherwise eliminated from the group, it can be arranged so whoever's next is found by the survivors and added to the group.
Now for the heavy stuff.
Character creation is pretty easy compared to stuff like D&D. There's only one part that can be kind of confusing, and I'll make sure to explain it clearly.
Step 1: Character Type
There are three character types in AFMBE:
Norm: This is your average Joe, good for a horror-themed campaign. Norms get 14 Attribute Points, 5 Quality Points, a Drawback Cap of 10, and 30 Skill Points.
Survivor: These are your Francises and Bills. An all-survivor group is good for an action-themed campaign, and one survivor makes a great leader for a group of Norms. Survivors get 20 Attribute Points, 15 Quality Points, a Drawback Cap of 10, and 35 Skill Points.
Inspired: These people have special powers, like controlling the zombies, healing people, and calling down fire and lightning from the sky. We will not be using Inspired. This isn't Dungeons and Douchebags. There are no wizards, only suffering and desperation.
Step 2: Primary Attributes
You spend your attribute points on primary attributes (Go figure).
Attributes are as follows:
Strength: Determines HP, how much you can carry, how much melee damage you do.
Dexterity: Determines accuracy, speed, and the like.
Constitution: Determines HP, endurance, and similar things.
Intelligence: Determines how smart the character is.
Perception: Determines how alert the character is.
Willpower: Determines the character's ability to resist things like fear and temptation.
Each attribute has a human range of 1-6. 2 is average, 5 is the practical human limit, and 6 is the absolute limit of human ability. Non-humans, of course, can have attributes much higher or lower than that range, but you can only play as a human.
Attribute points are spent on a one-for-one basis up to level five. Level six costs three points. If I want 3 strength, that costs three points. If I want 6 strength, that costs 8 points.
Step 3: Secondary Attributes
Secondary attributes are determined by your primary attributes, and are as follows:
Life Points: Your character's health. Death does not occur at 0 Life Points, it's a bit more complex than that. We'll cross that bridge when we get to it. Health is determined by adding your Strength and Constitution, multiplying the sum by 4, and adding 10. This is illustrated by the formula 4(s+c)+10.
HP ranged from around 16 to 55ish. That may seem like a lot, but trust me, it isn't. Injury is a Very Bad Thing, and getting into melee with three or four zombies is a good way to get yourself killed, no matter how much health you have.
Endurance Points: Determines how much physical exertion you can take before you become exhausted. Determined by adding your strength and constitution, multiplying the sum by 3, and adding 5. The formula is 3(s+c)+5.
Speed: Speed determines how fast you can run. Speed is determined by adding your constitution and dexterity, and multiplying that by 2. 2(d+c)
Essence: Essence is your spiritual strength. It mostly has to do with Inspired, so we won't use it much. Just in case we run into something that needs it, we'll figure it anyway. Add all of your primary attributes together. Simple.
Step 4: Qualities/Drawbacks
This is the complicated part I was talking about earlier. Qualities are special bonuses for your character, and cost Quality Points. Drawbacks are special hindrances for your character, and give you Drawback Points. You start out with zero Drawback Points, and can get up to your Drawback Cap in points. Drawback Points can be spent on qualities and skills on a one-for-one basis. They can also be spent on attributes, but cost more. It costs 3 drawback points to raise an attribute from 2 to 3, 4 to raise it from 3 to 4, etc.
Qualities and Drawbacks are listed below. A Q means a quality, a D means a drawback, an X means it can be either. Next to the name will be its point value. V means the point value is variable. I'm not going to detail every single quality and drawback here. They're mostly self-explanatory, and when one is more complicated I can explain it to you. All you have to do is ask.
Mental Qualities/Drawbacks:
D Addiction: V
Q Artistic Talent 3
X Charisma V
D Clown 1
D Covetous 1-3
D Cowardly 1-3
D Cruel 1-3
D Delusions V
D Emotional Problems V
Q Fast Reaction Time 2
D Honorable 1-3
D Humorless 1
D Lazy 2
Q Nerves of Steel 3
D Obsession 2
D Paranoid 2
Q Photographic Memory 2
D Reckless 2
D Recurring Nightmares 1
D Showoff 2
Q Situational Awareness 2
D Talentless 2
D Zealot 3
Physical:
X Acute/Impaired Senses 2
X Attractiveness V
Q Hard to kill 1-5
D Physical Disability V
Q Resistance V
Social:
D Adversary V
Q Contacts V
D Minority 1
Q Multiple Identities 2
X Resources V
D Secret V
X Status V
Drawbacks and Qualities are optional, but are good for fleshing out a character concept.
Step 5: Skills
Skills are used in skill tests, much like in Dungeons and Dragons. You spend skill points on a one-for-one basis up to skill level 5. After five, each skill level costs three points, just like Attributes. The only difference is that you can raise a skill above 6.
There are also special skills, which are marked by an asterisk. These are the kinds of skills you must receive formal training for, and cost 2 points for one skill level up to 5, and 5 points per skill level past 5.
Some skills require you to specify a type. For example, the Guns skill requires you to specify what kind of gun you're skilled in, such as rifles, shotguns, handguns, and the like. If it's a very narrow range of types, I will list what types are available. If it is a broad range of types, I will simply put (Type) after the skill. I'll put a bit of an explanation for skills whose uses aren't obvious.
Skills are as follows:
Acrobatics*
Acting
Beautician
Brawling
Bureaucracy
Cheating
Climbing
Climbing
Computer Hacking
Computer Programming
Computers
Craft(Type)
Dancing(Type)
Demolitions
Disguise
Dodge
Driving(Type, as in car, motorcycle, etc)
Electronic Surveillance
Electronics
Engineer(Type)
Escapism
Fine Arts(Type)
First Aid
Gambling
Guns(Type)
Haggling
Hand Weapon(Type)
Humanities(Type, refers to things like science, literature, history)
Instruction
Intimidation
Language(Type)
Lock Picking(Mechanical or Electronic)
Martial Arts*
Mechanic
Medicine(Type)
Myth and Legend(Type)
Notice
Occult Knowledge*
Pick Pocket
Piloting(Type)
Play instrument(Type)
Questioning
Research/Investigation
Riding(Type)
Rituals(Type)
Running(Marathon or Dash)
Sciences(Type)
Seduction
Singing
Sleight of Hand
Smooth Talking
Sport(Type)
Stealth
Storytelling
Streetwise
Surveillance
Survival(Type, refers to type of terrain, as in Jungle, Forest, Mountains, etc.)
Swimming
Throwing
Tracking
Trance*
Traps
Unconventional Medicine(Type)
Veterinary medicine
Weight Lifting
Writing(Type, as in what kind of papers the person writes)
Step 6: Possessions
This will be dealt with in-game. We'll either be starting right at the beginning of the outbreak or a week or two later, depending on what the players agree on. Your possessions will vary depending on this, and therefore we'll deal with it when we decide.
Step 7: Final touches
Give your character a name, a background (You don't need to write a novel, but you need to have something), a pre-apocalypse career, appearance, and your personality.
Once all of this is written down, you're done! Congrats.
I'll detail the rules a bit. The game system is very simple and elegant. Unless the outcome of something is important for the storyline, most things are abstracted out. Assuming you have plenty of time to do so, you won't need to roll to do most simple things, like breaking a door down or setting up a simple barricade. If time is a factor, or the task is more complex, you will need to roll.
Let's say Jim Halpert is being chased by zombie Pam, and needs to break down a door to get away. He must make an attribute test to force the door open. He rolls 1d10. Since it's an easy task, the door isn't very sturdy, he adds twice his strength score to the roll. A difficult task would only add his strength score. His strength is 2, so he'll add 4 to the roll. He rolls a 5, adds 4, and gets a 9. This is just enough to break down the door, and he escapes zombie Pam.
Inside the room is a chainsaw and a .22 pistol. He grabs the pistol and shoots at Pam. Shooting is a skill test. He has 3 dexterity and 2 Gun(Pistol) skill. He rolls 1d10 and adds his dexterity and gun skill to the roll (You do NOT double your attribute for a skill test). A faster enemy would be able to dive to the floor and attempt to dodge the attack, but Pam is a zombie. She just shambles forward. Jim rolls a 2, and adds his bonuses for a 7! The shot misses.
Jim drops the gun and grabs the chainsaw. A melee attack is just like a ranged attack, but uses the hand weapon skill instead of the gun skill. Jim doesn't have any Hand Weapon(Sword) skill, so he gets a -2 penalty on the roll. He rolls a 9, and gets a 10 after his bonuses and penalties. It hits! A chainsaw deals 1d10*The character's strength. His strength is 2, so he does 1d10*2. He rolls an 8 and does 16 damage. First Pam's armor is subtracted from his damage. Since she has no armor, she takes the full brunt of the attack. Since it's a slashing weapon, all damage that penetrates her armor is doubled. She takes a whopping 32 points of damage!
Jim feels a momentary resistance as the chainsaw strikes her spine, but it makes short work of this obstacle, and Pam collapses, her head rolling across the floor. Jim raises the chainsaw in the air and shouts "KILL, MAIM, BURN"
That's an example of the rules in action, and details just about all of them. Almost everything in the game that needs rules and dice is accomplished in terms of skill and attribute tests. Like I said, it's wonderfully simple.
I've added some homebrew stuff to make the game more interesting, while only adding minimal complexity. There's a hit location table, which I'll post here.
1-5 Head
6-10 Neck
11-15 Upper left arm
16-20 Left forearm
21-25 Left Hand
26-30 Upper Right Arm
31-35 Right Forearm
36-40 Right Hand
41-55 Chest
56-70 Abdomen
71-75 Left thigh
76-80 Left calf
81-85 Left foot
86-90 Right thigh
91-95 Right calf
96-00 Right foot
I don't think it's too complicated, after a few rounds you'll know about where it hit without even having to consult the table, and the combat is already so streamlined we can afford to add a bit of stuff. The combat below with the marines and the 24 zombies took much less time than it would have in most other games.
As for travelling through the town, I'll post the above map on the gametable grid, and place a red dot on it. That will be the party. You'll move the dot through the town to represent where you want to go, and other groups will appear on the map as you find them, also in the form of dots. green is zombies, blue is other survivors, gray is military (If/when the military arrives), purple is zombie cults if zombie cults arise.
Once you get into something we'll zoom in, I'll set up a map for that area (Depending on how long it takes for the game to actually start, I may or may not have large portions of the city detail-mapped beforehand. The detail-map is where the real action will take place.
Also, and this is
IMPORTANT:
I'm going to give a few tips for surviving that may not be entirely apparent. Messing up in this game will get you killed, and I don't want a TPK in the first session. Most of it is self-explanatory, but I'll put it up here just in case.
Don't get hurt. Damage bonuses are multipliers, not added bonuses. That means that a good hit will do crazy amounts of damage, and it is imperative to avoid being hit. Body armor can help a lot, and render you almost immune to bites, but quality armor is going to be hard to find and anything capable of saving you from bullets will have to be stolen from the military most likely, which will be difficult.
Don't get complacent. It's easy to see the zombies shambling along at an almost pathetic pace, and think you have all the time in the world to plug away at them. When you finally decide it's time to run away, more zombies have heard the shots and are closing in. It's very easily to get yourself surrounded if you don't keep moving.
Don't get cornered. Always have a second way out of a safehouse. If you have a second way out, find a third way. You can never have too many exits. The marines in my playtest only survived because they took out a section of wall, and even then only one made it out. A safehouse with only one exit is worse than no safehouse at all.
That's about everything you need to know. Any takers?
CURRENT PLAYERS:
Name:Sid Graham
Type:Norm
Attributes
HP:25
Endurance:17
Essence:14
Speed:6
Str:2 Dex:2 Con:1
Int:3 Per:5 Wil:1
Qualities/Drawbacks:
<Qualities>
Fast Reaction Time 2
Acute Senses 2
Hard to Kill 1
<Drawbacks>
Cruel1 1
Paranoid 2
Obsession 2 (obsessed about making tons of traps)
cowardly1 1
Skills:
climbing 1
running(dash) 3
instruction 4
notice 6
stealth 2
mechanics 6
weight lifting 2
traps 6 (2+6 drawback points)
Special Things
Hard to Kill: +3 HP
Fast Reactions: Can act first in combat without rolling initiative.
Acute Senses: +3 to perception tests involving acute sense
Name:
Background: has always had a hard time making a living, often resorting to stealing. when the zombies struck had a fun time looting for a bit until he realised just how big this was. after a while he started having bad nightmares. runs from anything that seems dangerous. and runs damned well
Type:Norm
-Attributes-
HP:30
Endurance:26
Essence:15
Speed:16
Str:2
Dex:5
Con:3
Int:1
Per:2
Wil:2
-Q/D-
5(used)/6 (5 into dex)
<Qualities>
fast reaction time 2
situational awareness 2
hard to kill 1
<Drawbacks>
cowardly 3
recurring nightmares 1
paranoid 2
-Skills-
running 6 (marathon)
Acrobatics 4
Climbing 4
dodge 4
escapism 4
running (dash) 2
lock picking 4
pick pocket 1
Name: Reece Riley
Type: Norm
Attributes
2/3/2/4/3/3
Qualities
Fast Reaction Time (2)
Situational Awareness (2)
Hard to Kill (2)
Drawbacks
Reckless (2)
Clown (1)
Showoff (2)
Honorable (2)
Skills:
Dodge (3)
Survival (2) (Forest)
Guns rifles (3)
First Aid (3)
Medicine (3) (infections)
Running (2) (dash)
Running (1) (marathon)
Engineering (4) (Mechanical)
Engineering (1) Constructual
Swimming (2)
Steath (3)
Hand Weapon (3) (Sword)
Occupation: Mechanical engineer, he also works on construction from time to time, depending on if he needs work, which is rather rare. Its more of a hobby for him, designing buildings.
Background: Reece always been knocked around, even as a kid. He has a few problems, those being he's prone to leaping into situations without really thinking, and he likes to show off. As such, its been a rather interesting life. He's gotten into his fair share of fights, normally one sided against him. He's just recently moved here, fresh out of college, and working. As a kid, he was obsessed with swords, and finally managed to get a class. For a while, he considered being a doctor, but after getting deeper into it, he decided it just wasn't for him. It was about halfway though college when he started to hunt, and loved it, learning his way around firearms and the woods quite well.
Personality: Reece has two bad tendencies about him. He tends to be reckless, and jump into situations before he's ready, and two, he likes to show off. Those both had tended to get him the ire of people easily ticked off. Still, he does have a reason to show off at times, he's quite a smart guy. He knows his way around things he sets his mind too, and he doesn't show off if he's not good at it. It doesn't mean he isn't insufferable though. Also tends to not take things too seriously, perfers to mess around rather than be serious. Still, he's a good guy, and wouldn't shy away from helping people in need. He has a way of knowing whats around him, probably from charging into so many situations recklessly. As well, don't expect him to hurt people, that's the last thing on his list.
Name:Kenny Rilas
Description:
Occupation: Taxi driver. Also mafia intimidator chappy. As in he goes to people who owe people money with some other guys and looks menacing with a baseball bat. Occasionally required to 'pop a cap' in people, beat them about a bit, chase them, avoid rival gunfire, that sort of thing.
It's more of a hobby though really. He likes to do it. Not the killing part. But the chasing and intimidating part.
Living conditions: Small apartment in the city, complete with all standard living facilities. Also a small office for business taxi related and mafia related, in which is stored (in a safe); an assortment of pistols and ammunition, two baseball bats, a cheap bullet proof vest, a trenchcoat, a pair of awesome sunglasses, and a small quantity of illegal substances.
Atributes:
2/4/3/1/2/2
Q:Fast reaction (2) (slow reaction+gunfight=death)
Hard to Kill (2) (Been beaten about a bit and has survived)
Nerves of Steel (3) (Fought. Hasn't run away. Has got balls)
Contacts (1) (Mafia people might be inclined to help him a little)
D:Showoff(2) (Well he is)
Reckless (2) (")
Adversary (1) (Mafia enemies are less likely to help him and more likely to maybe tie him to a chair and break his nose)
S:Climbing(2) (Alleway chases! Guy goes over the wall, you don't go back to your boss and apologise, you follow)
Dodge (4) (Guy hits you you get out of the way or you get hurt)
Driving (2) (It's one of his jobs)
Guns (pistols)(3) (He uses them a lot more often than, say, joe civilian)
Hand Weapon (club)(3)(He has had to bop some people over the head sometimes)
Intimidation (2) (Standing around looking menacing is most of his other job)
Martial arts (2(c.4))(Sometimes you have lost your bat and your gun and still have to fight. For these situations, you take martial arts classes)
Running (dash)(3) ('He's running away-get him!')
-Running (marathon)(1) (Has some stamina, at least)
Sports (2) (Oh he likes sports)
Streetwise (2) (Well he is)
Survival (2) (Not one to let a new situation get the better of him. Will find out how to survive and do it, easy. Also he watches those awesome survival programs on TV)
Throwing (1) (the humble half brick; solution to every problem that can be solved with a heavy object to the cranum)
Tracking (1) (You have to know where your quarry is running)
Character Type: Survivor (20 Attribute Points, 15 Quality Points, a Drawback Cap of 10, and 35 Skill Points.)
Strength: 5 5
Constitution: 5 10
Intelligence 3 13
Dexterity: 3 raised to 4 16 using 4 Drawback
Perception: 2 18
Willpower: 2 raised to 3 20 using 3 Drawback
Mental/Drawbacks:
D Honorable 2
D Humorless 1
Q Nerves of Steel 3
D Reckless 2
Q Fast Reaction Time 2
D Showoff = 2
Physical:
X = Q Acute Impaired Senses 2
Q Hard to kill 5
Social:
D Adversary V = 1
X = Q Resources V = 4
Q Contacts V = 1
Quality Spent: 15 Drawback points taken: 8
Skills:
Acrobatics* to 4 = 8
Brawling 9
Climbing 10
Craft(Explosives) 11
Demolitions 12
Dodge 13
Driving(Motorcycle) 14
First Aid 15
Guns(Shotgun = 2) 17
Haggling 18
Hand Weapon(Crowbar) 19
Intimidation 20
Mechanic 21
Myth and Legend(Vampires) 22
Questioning 23
Running(Marathon = 2) 25
Stealth 26
Story telling 27
Streetwise = 3 29
Survival(Forest, Mountain, Urban = 3) 32
Throwing 33
Swimming 34
Weight Lifting 35
Final touches:
Name: Eddy Callahan
Background: An intown Mechanic and part time biker, Eddy is well known around town to a few of the local Biker gangs and pawnshops. He's was once a drifter who settled in once he started to realize, he couldn't keep going forever. He's got a bad attitude, but he's a loyal friend to have, if you get on his good side, as many people know. Due to his previous loner life style, he works best alone, but he'd be up for the challenge of working in a group.
Career: Mechanic and Part-time Biker
Appearance: 6'1'' feet tall, scruffy, broad shoulders, brown eyes. He's got stopping power to spare, and you can tell he's not about to let anyone get in his, or his compatriot's way.
Personality: He's not exactly the most socialble type, and he can't exactly take a joke. If he isn't all business, than he's probably acting pretty sarcastic. Not a bad person to have around, but not one to count on in lightening the mood. He's more than willing to listen to a plan, but when he has an idea of his own, he expects people to listen carefully.
Norman Smith, call me Norm.
Stats:3 Strength, 2 Dexterity, 3 Constitution, 1 Intelligence, 2 Perception, 3 Willpower.
Qualites/Drawbacks:D Cruel 1, D Paranoid 2, D Recurring Nightmares, Q Fast Reaction Time 2, Q Situational Awareness 2, D Minority 1, Q Hard to Kill 5.
Skills:Computer Programming 4, Han weapons (Knife) 3, Sleight of Hand 3, Stealth 2, Intimidation 6, Mechanic 7.
A poor Mexican, Norm used to be Pedro. He was a small-time thief and thug, robbing people and getting in gang fights, working as his gangs car thief and salvager. He won a green card raffle, came to America, and found that all his work salvaging cars gave him an intricate knowledge of them. He worked as a mechanic for a while, saving up money and hopping careers to become a computer programmer. He isn't very smart,and has troubles with it, but he can do a decent job at doing some solid programming work.
WAITING LIST:
chaoticag
Nordic Dorf
NewerMartianEmperor
Archangel
CJ1145
Cthulhu: GMT-5, free all day Friday to Sunday, till 5pm on Monday, from 2:30 to 7 on Tuesday and Thursday, and till 7 on Wednesday
SHAD0Wdump: GMT -5 I seem to be waking at 12:00 PM until 1:00 AM
Sonerohi: GMT -6. Free for tomorrow and monday, free on weekdays from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m
tehstefan: GMT -8 I believe here, and I'm normally around from 4 to 9 save on tuesday and thursday, when I'm around from 4-6, my time.
WorkerDrone: GMT -8, I'm usually good any time from 1 PM to 10 PM during the week, MAYBE earlier than that on Saturday.
I have a gametable server up right now.
You can get Gametable
here.
IP: 24.209.243.246
Pass: bay12
Port 6812
I'll be there and can answer any questions you can have, or you can ask them here, but using Gametable will get a more prompt response.
Strike the braaaaaiiinnnnsssss!
Author
Topic: All Flesh Must Be Eaten: First session cancelled, due to dead laptop, sorry. (Read 13547 times)