Dead... and Back is a survival horror Role Playing Game. The Anarchy Zones is its official setting - aliens, reanimates, and the ruins of 2055 America.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Still Not Dead

Its the middle of May again, time for another celebratory video.

Its this video that really turned me on to Metallica, and in conjunction with a similar video one based on Trans-Siberian Orchestra's "Christmas in Sarajevo" - spurred my interest in the Resident Evil Franchise.




To improve your zombie gaming night, a good session should include at least two scenes from this music video to really keep the players going. Last moment escapes, mad doctors with odd serum, a climatic showdown, doomed supporting characters - its all good for upping the ante in your game.

Now as to improving my game, that is going to be a bit more work.

I am pretty happy with most of the mechanics, but feedback seems to indicate there is still work on that front.
  • Chancing the damage die to be read like the other tests (top two outcomes) will make things a bit more dangerous, and might need to re-balance NP totals a bit. 
  • Initiative might see some new options - allowing hand to hand maneuvers to move characters out of otherwise static turn order. 
  • Skills and Special abilities need new lists, along with more informative descriptions.
  • Altruism Points and leveling up needs to be rewritten, with some new things to buy -like extra deadening, and improved carry weights.
  • A scale system to differentiate between people and armored vehicles might be nice, though this is a game about hunting zombies, not tanks, so that is still under consideration.
  • Finally, a point system or at least a more through guide for creating creatures is going to be required at some time soon.

Fortunately, most of the big work isn't really rules revisions. Most of the titanic struggle is to write up all the stuff the system supports. This post is officially the 240th to be published, so as you can imagine - editing the stories and putting them into a cohesive collection or two is going to be quite a task. Then there is the rather through list of thirty to forty vehicles that need stats (ranging from ultra-light aircraft to alien war-machines), background information on other pieces of technology, and character sheets for various raiders and leaders.

I don't think I'm going to finish this thing anytime soon. But I do know that the final product will be well worth the wait.

1 comment:

  1. We're still playing! Albeit we've canceled session cos of illness and absence. Hopefully next Tue will be the next session.

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