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.
Showing posts with label Advice. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Advice. Show all posts

Thursday, October 31, 2013

October 2013

I haven't been having a great couple of months, and the materiel on this site is thinner that I would hope. Its been harder to keep my commitment to you than I'd like.

To make it up, let me show off some of the other work that I have produced.

A Teenage Texas Road Trip 
While still in draft form, is a longer piece of fiction set in the zone, and deals with a group of teenagers exploring the area outside of the Lone Star arcology. It contains an encounter with both the Planetary Citizens and Type One/Alpha reanimates. I think the story gives a good impression of entering a new town and dealing with the aliens.

The Last of Second Platoon, Charlie Company
This story is a fairly good example of how I want to eventually anthologize the sort of stories on this blog. While some of it should be recognizable from the archives, they are linked fairly well and the last section gives a good feeling for both operating a power armor and fighting Beta reanimates.

On My Way to Birobidzhan
This has no relation whatsoever to Dead... and Back, I just want to show I can write things that aren't related to zombies, and do so pretty well in fact.

Remington, IBM, Smith-Corona, and Underworld Typewriter Repair
Also unrelated to the game, but part of a different demon infested  cosmology I occasionally write about.

Let us not forget - its October 31st. Time for a music video to inspire your games. This time around, its scenes from "Hellsing"


There is no reason you can't replicate vampires in my game, and I certainly hope the above gives some good pointers on how to destroy ghouls with style.

Good luck with your gaming, and aim for the head!

Thursday, July 11, 2013

R.A.T.s in the NEST (Part Four)

United States. Library of Congress. Beyond the End Volume II: Survivor Story Archive. By Doctor Howard Remington et al. Edition Two. Nevada: Las Vegas Printing Office, June 2072 
Subject: Brian Mixon, subject number 8891-80-10 NEST arcology survivor

***

So, what was life like when I wasn't out risking my neck? Hot and Sticky. Kind of an eternal - whats the name - Summer of Sam? Zodiac Killer, riot waiting to happen, that kind of stuff.

Electricity might not be free - but before the event, Utility bills were payed for with only a day or two worth of work at an average job, not even that most likely. After the event, power was so limited, that it took most of the month to earn the power credits for running the AC, much less the electric stoves. Yeah, pretty much any apartment that had a kitchen was electric or induction - no contractor was going to run that many miles of vertical gas lines. Most of the cooking ended up communal for that reason. And most of the residents couldn't cook for a damn and would only go insane faster if left to their own devices, though don't complain about the food since that always started a fight or made more work for a RAT...

I'm rambling. Yeah. Um. Electricity. Almost no one was kind enough to remember to turn off the AC and unplug their refrigerators as they were being torn apart by abominations. So every locked off area was drawing a ton of power. There is a pretty big gulf between reduced reliance on the grid, and independence - so yeah, for all the efficiency built into the structure, it was still a struggle. Break into an apartment, hope your're not killed, flip twelve switches, repeat six-thousand times - not a very tenable solution.

No AC, little choice in food, same people day after day, working a job chosen for you rather than what you trained for or enjoyed, surrounded by monsters. Not an impossible situation, not even necessarily as bad as an earlier century. But the people [Sigh] - I don't care if this is going to be a text book - include an otomotopea for that sigh.

People would gamble to pass the time, which lead to cheating and loan sharks. Someone would try to retrieve stuff on their own and compromise security, or pass around bribes to get stuff, which usually came through the chain of command and made our lives harder. Children would get lost in the under-halls and a big search was called. Scavengers would pay no attention to the people living here and break in.

Politics, Polotics, Politics. Do we try to contact the government, should this be a democracy, is it one vote per person, or is there some way to earn multiple votes?

At least in NEST seven, we did have multiple votes - earning extra for various duties or achievements. It turned into a rigged system fairly shortly. RATs got extras, but since our superiors decided if we went on missions at all and what equipment to bring - they held sway over our jobs and possibly lives if we didn't vote their way. They called it a "Roman Patrician" thing, I called it something you're not going to print!

So yeah, gangs, power-blocks, patronage, a mafia even if there wasn't one before (Not that I'll believe there wasn't any organised crime in a project as big as a NEST) - everyone trying to get a little extra for themselves. We usually weren't killing each other like the outside, even Tower Reversed stayed away from our area, and inside you didn't get any aliens. Once we got the irrigation equipment, we were almost set, and the argument came about as to if we should even bother leaving and helping the outside. That was an  - unpleasant - debate. With a few guns involved, if you catch my meaning.

Friday, June 28, 2013

Orphan Tribes (Part One)

Being a camp counselor sounds like fun, at least if you have never been one. Fresh air, paid to work with kids, regular meals, simple hours. Ok, so they're simple meals, hours are regular, and the kids get fresh - but its not "work" work - right?  If you're the camp cook keeping 400 people fed, its quite a lot of effort, and safety for that many people isn't easy either.

Yet the daily heroic efforts of our eighteen year old staff members is nothing compared to what awaits them after the zombies rise. Most of the children will no longer have a family to go home too. Where will the food come from?  With boyscouts you're dealing with 14-18 year olds, though as to if ones with an independant streak and teen angst is any better than dealing with a younger crowd is a good question.

Actually, I don't have answers for what this would be like right now. It would certainly make an interesting scenario, depending on the camp.

The boyscout camp I attended had two shooting ranges, replete with a large number of .22 bold action rifles, 20 gauge shotguns, and bows. Not that you'd let the kids themselves hunt zeds, but four or five dozen guns on hand and a couple hundred rounds of ammo isn't a half bad stock. Food service came weekly, and the closest town was a small one about twenty miles away. (Wal-Mart arriving a few years ago was a major event.)  There was a big lake in the middle of camp, and while there certainly wouldn't be much fish - water shouldn't be a problem, nor wood - give its in a Forrest and near an old tree farm. On the other hand, scouts stay in tents, so security would be a big problem if the walkers entered the property.

From what I recall, the child to adult ratio would be somewhere in the 10:1 to 20:1 range. While some would drive, most people come to the camp via bus - there would be no way to migrate the population without outside assistance.

Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Apocalypse versus Fantasy

Not too long ago, I came across an article on Stargazer's Blog: "Is it just me or is the post-apocalypse much like a fantasy world?" Since many of the stories featured here take place after the fall of human society, its probably a good idea to chime in on this. Its late in the day of course, so excuse the somewhat disjointed format of the essay.

Its a matter of loss, knowledge, and recovery

There are certainly a lot of parallels between the two genres (Or if you want to take the Joesph Campbell approach - between all genres). Digging through ruins for items of great power. Strange creatures or bandits to be wary of, natural hazards to avoid, and most outings are for a quest rather than simply walking because its a nice day. (Would you go jogging every morning if there was a 15% chance of meeting gnolls?) 

In a fantasy world, however, that has always been the case.  Orcs have been around since time immemorial, dragons live centuries, and the goblin problem is a known issue. Either by design or just dint of our books focusing on the interesting parts - fantasy worlds are made for adventure.

We have worked long and hard to make sure the real world is not a place of adventure. Most of the human eating megafauna was killed off thousands of years ago, military might keeps raiders at bay. 

Most PA settings do not take place centuries after the event. As such there are people who still remember the before times. Gunslingers understand that their weapons are machines and not magic - spare parts might be rare, but it can be fixed or replaced. Perhaps even improved upon. There is a sense that what is gone can be recovered.

Conclusively removing the fantasy elements from a fantasy setting is rarely the goal. Sometimes the quest is to actually stop the big bad evil guy from doing that. Meanwhile the goal of a PA setting is to make it less hostile to all life. Fantasy is protecting the status quo, PA is restoring it.

Thursday, June 13, 2013

Raider Types

Ran into some Star Sinister guys a while back. Don't like them at all. They're harder to deal with than independents and Tower Reversed combined.

What - you're surprised by that? Sure, everybody fears the tower, and with good reason. They're the biggest, best armed, and smartest. At the same time, they have a code. You do not disrespect a man of the tower.  Just pay the damn toll, and don't insult their intelligence, and you'll make it out all right. Make a fuss, and they will teach you respect. Its like wolf alphas. Or perhaps like reanimates - something might come along to clean it up and be worthy of praise - but until then, be careful.

Lesser groups of low level adventurers - they're usually a bit desperate. They'll either shy away from a real fight, or make make stupid mistakes and get in over their heads. Either way, its a lot easier to trick, fight off, or escape a small band than evade the Tower for an extended period.

Star Sinister has a size closer to the Tower, but all the cockiness and violence of an independent group. They don't act like gentlemen and avenge their honor. No, getting back at someone who evaded their wrath is just a game and the Star plays to win. The tower isn't above threatening innocents to get the law to come out, but Star Sinister just skips to the burning without the warning.

There is no cure for comic book crazy. That is the big trouble. Sometimes putting the hurt on the Star is enough to drive it off, sometimes it just makes them all the more angry. Individual members will hunt you down even without support because they're just like that. Its a matter of judging people and avoiding the loose cannons. People skills over firepower, regardless of how reprehensible the members singularly and collectively are.

I hate violence, and I'd still prefer a good shoot out to navigating the sick minds of raiders. That is how bad these guys are.

Tuesday, May 21, 2013

What Are Monsters?

There are a lot of optional rules in the most current version of the game. Alternate ways of reading the damage dice, building settlements, simpler vehicle stats, ammunition types, and new ways spend altruism points. I will admit, part of this is the difficulty of me winnowing stuff from my game. It seems such a shame to just redact these options away, as they can be useful tools for your game. Its all a matter of defining your monsters.

One school of horror holds that monsters are things beyond your means and reason. Fears you can't placate, negotiate, or truly overcome. You might delay, or prolong survival, but you'll lose something in the process.

Hence options to make ammunition more scarce by requiring reloads to be of a specific caliber, and other that make hits count only half as often as the normal rules. In turn, carrying multiple guns to allow for ammunition shortages, or relying on close combat, can be a dangerous move or at least eat up invintory space - Up-rise only allows for so many items in combat. An optional stress rule can eat up deadening points, and another means that supplies must be used to restore the lost fatigue, not just points earned.

However, there are enough things in everyday life that are crushing your spirit - from boring jobs to fear of flying, or bad dreams of evil people abducting your children. Are games not a way to escape that depression for a time?

Thus the other line of thought - that monsters are gruesome obstacles to be overcome. Better yet, there are no repercussions to solving this problem. Foreclosing on a poor family's home or losing your own job at the bank - no good out come there. Blowing the head of a zombie? Knock back a cold one and celebrate!

Speaking of celebrations - is this a great achievement for the character, or just a side story to the true rebuilding of a nation? One of the options allows the group's advancement points to be spend on actually restoring civilization and creating a settlement. On the other hand, the points could just be used to allow the characters to achieve ever more epic feats?

Many of these things depend on the Game Master's Tone and description as well. A town might be an obligation that drains needed AP from characters, or their collective victory over the unrelenting hordes of undead.

Characters in Dead and Back start off fairly competent, even if the average starting values are maintained as is. Its altering the strength and prevalence of threats, and the immediacy of obligations that that make a session a walk in a zombie filled park, or a mad dash for survival.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Doesn't start with the Dead

Survival Horror is often designed to begin "In Media Reis". Often the characters begin running for their lives, and then work backwards to find some safety so they have time to figure out why. In other cases, they don't even bother to ask - zombies want to eat you, what more reason do you need to shoot them? The unknown is a powerful tool for horror, and doesn't matter in an action fest.

There is a place for starting slow, however. A normal day or two of the character's lives can make the player's more attached to what what is otherwise a collection of numbers and dice rolls. Some challenges that are not life and death matters can get new comers familiar with the system. This is also a chance to earn some altruism points -which can make the characters more unique than the average starting numbers and allow for greater danger later because they're tougher than beginners.

Dead and Back's Unit "2552" setting has many different ways to slowly bring in characters. If you begin in the 1970s, perhaps all the players are new conscripts going through basic training. This introduces them to the background characters, life in the army, and the somewhat disturbing procedures of the chemical augmentation process (Don't worry - the heart stopping every now and then is perfectly normal! Just not this long usually.) In a post 90s game, it can begin with normal police investigation and help familiarize players with the setting. (Gun laws are very different from the US for one, so the acquisition of gear is not going to be quite the same.) This can be a time of investigation and simply learning that there was a unit 2552 a revelation and a lead in to the next part. Hematavores don't usually spread the sickness, so the world is less apocalypse, and more "Jason Vorhees goes to Moscow".

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Urban Encounter Thoughts

"The cities are aliiivveee with the sound of music..."

Oh come on, I know I can't sing - its a joke - for the love of - fine! Some people just think you need to be serious about these things. Most people, really. But the big things about the cities, is that you absolutely must be flexible in your expectations, because there can be almost anything, and always something.

Even the deadest city is very much alive. Its just too convenient a location to ignore. From the standpoint of just about any any animal, human, rat, or feral dog - there are plenty of places to hide from predators, or at least escape bad weather for a while. A lot of the formerly domestic ones are simply used to the area, and others have learned about all the neat ambush locations the alleyways provide. The overhangs and tunnels are great for bats, parks for forest critters, and many escaped zoo animals haven't wandered that far from where they were contained.

On top of that, there are still going to be people. You might not see them everyday, but that is because they're intentionally hiding from you - and if you're smart, you'll hide from them. There are resource collectors of course, outlaws, survivor outposts that have taken over factories, and transients who think a brick facade is safer than a tent. Some cities are even almost repopulated - not metropolises, but you'll see trade, or gangs holding territory, and bazaars, and even some concentrated efforts to take and hold buildings of cultural importance - it takes a lot of work to keep a museum safe. (Wouldn't you just love to camp with the dinosaurs in the natural history museum? Really - who wouldn't?)

Of course, cites also seem to be the default habitat of reanimates. You're not likely to see advanced type threes in the middle of nowhere, but stick around the city long enough, and chances are you'll be killed by one. No, I don't mean encounter one - killed is the operative word here. Those things know how to navigate the city too, weather it means popping out of the old subway station, or leaping from the third story of an office building onto your head, or beating you to death with a stop sign out in the open - they can and will use the streets to your disadvantage.

Returning to the opening chorus - its the signs of life that are the worst part. Towns might be totally depopulated and creepy because of that. Old factories can have tetanus and toxins all about. Bandits may or may not be lying around the next bend of the road. In the city, you know there is something out there that bears ill will, its just a matter of time, and no amount of caution or medicine is really going to prevent that.

Friday, March 22, 2013

Bigger Picture

Can I trust you with a secret? A big one I mean, possibly a life changer, not just a locker combination. I'll chance it.

We're not doomed.

It always seems like it. The stocks of non-perishable foods have been picked clean, we don't have any major munitions factories running, the city states are gearing up for war, the aliens are copying earth vehicles, the pipelines have all corroded, no one makes the tools to fix the machines to rebuild the infrastructure to make the tools to fix the machines to re-

You know. Its been pounded into your skull with some regularity. None of this is false, but its not quite true either.

Fact is, you have already survived one of the most tumultuous uprisings and cullings since the black death, small pox, the second world war, or that volcano that reduced the human population to less than 10,000 a couple of millennial ago. If you can make it on Broadway, or through reanimates - you can make it anywhere.

Another thing for you - the chain of transmission for a lot of diseases has been broken. Hiding from the reanimates has been a quarantine enforced by an unexpected source. Nano-vac may be hard to come by these days, but the need for it has been dramatically lessened. Germs tend to go extinct when their carriers disappear.

It might take centuries to fully reverse the impact of the industrial revolution, but the air in many places is already cleaner, and the world on a whole isn't that unpleasant right now. We don't have the old over-crowding of the past few decades. Trade might be down, but we don't need it as much.

If ninety percent of humanity died, that means ten percent still lived, and ten percent of nine billion is still a big number. Enough to keep nations, religions, currencies, and art forms alive - we're not going to have one big happy family unified earth at the end of this, but humanity is going to keep chugging along for a while. Heck, so will you. Even without new sources of nano-vac, seventy or eighty is still easy, you just can't rely on tiny robots to do much of it for you.

Humans are still as adaptable as ever. We've made it over the hump. There are still challenges ahead, but extinction can wait for another day.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Some Draft Notes on Internal and External

One of the big differences between an Internal and External mode game in the Anarchy Zone, is which characters drive the action. External games tend to be driven by the players - where they go in the zone and what gets done there is largely up to them. Conversely, are usually centered around Non-Player characters, with the player's being their agents or rivals. What might be considered safe is another inversion - External characters generally want to avoid city states, and Internal ones seek to avoid leaving.

Wandering the wastelands can be lucrative, interesting, and even fairly safe. Aside from the occasional battlefield or industrial accident due to the lack of human oversight or EMP - the land is actually not so much wasted as abandoned. So until they poke a hornet's nest of reanimates, pick a fight with raiders, or become embroiled in city-state politics - players are quite free to wander the Zone for their own goals. Getting back to their home across the country, exploring the area like a new pioneer, or showing up to help the helpless like the lone ranger are all perfectly valid motivations. Recovering old documents, weapons, machinery, or medical supplies can be big business. If one wishes to skip the middle man - gold and cash aren't too valuable, but the things they used to buy are available for the taking, just avoid some reanimates.

Of course, not everything is happy in the zone. Reanimates migrate about making areas less safe as time goes on. There is no ruin fairy happily restocking the canned goods in old houses - so supplies are going to run out sooner rather than later. Raiders or aliens might decide to take over the area, and city-states are always looking for outsiders to do their dirty work or blame for their ills.

Characters in an internal game usually start off content, but the trick is keeping it that way. From the beginning they have a home, more possessions than what just fits in a backpack, and possibly even a family (either all surviving, or a new one started after The Event). However, it takes a lot more effort to maintain a state than a little group of survivors, and many states are run by the people who took charge because they wanted to, not because they were qualified. Player need to hold some sort of job to keep their stuff, and may well experience first hand the power struggles that keep the city moving. Perhaps they act against someone to help maintain the status quo - or to avoid being evicted by the old leader.

Internal games run closer to the traditional concepts of a zombie game - struggling against others, with the threat of the hungry dead beyond the walls. Rather than an incidental problem when exploring, or a reason to leave an area rather than be too comfortable - reanimates are the wolves at the door and a constant danger to be avoided - by engaging in back hand dealings or other services for the community.

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

My Kind of Resort

Location: Redacted
Name: Redacted
Purpose: Level Three Testing

Although field tests provide an excellent proof of concept in the real world, far too many variables are in play for very accurate assessment of some program aspects. Furthermore, the task of isolation and clean-up afterwards is a non-negligible expense and can provide the occasional hazard if the tests - deviate. Hence a need to rely on controlled locations and conditions provided by specialized laboratories.

This location in particular is useful due to its warm setting and inviting atmosphere - though it is admittedly not the most isolated of locations. Fortunately, as a hotel, it is home to a population of transients, so it is unlikely that they have much familiarity the area, or that locals will notice their disappearance as anything other than routine.

I can't say I care for the decor of the main lobby - it reminds me a bit too much of the rather messy "coconut Grove" clean up operation a good while back, though I am one of the few staff old enough to remember that. Perhaps the more legitimate critique it looks cheap, like every other "tropical" theme bar festooned with plastic palm fronds and random pineapples.

Once you're checked it everything does markedly improve. To the left is the main hall, complete with stage, dancing, buffet, and second level bar overlooking everything, though just isolated enough to be quiet. There is an outdoor mezzanine, but the view is somewhat ruined by the structures containing most of the accommodation behind them. We're probably not going to do well trying to host weddings here but I suppose that is what happens when your hotel is designed by biologists instead of architects.

To the right is a few smaller rooms dedicated to activities - small movie theaters, meeting rooms, and an arcade. I approve of the last one - we don't have nearly enough of the younger demographics in our tests - though the selection might be a bit anachronistic. Do children really play pinball all that much these days? Nine of ten machines should be actual video games with a few analog machines, not vice versa. Also, that virtual robot twin stick game is unduly distracting the staff.

Yes, yes, I am griping about minutia. Do you expect anything less of me at this point? Allowing even small mistakes breed complacency, and that is hard something our operations can afford if we wish to remain on schedule.

At the very least, there isn't much to complain about with the rooms themselves. They are your very standard tessellating L-shaped hotel room, set back to back on on two story buildings, accessed by covered halls. If it weren't for the cheery setting and fairly plush amenities, it would seem like a fairly standard mom and pop motor lodge, but credit where it is due, as out of date as the arcade is, the rooms are very modern, and our agents have put their best foot forward in their masquerade as hotel staff. Paying them twice also probably helps, but the hotel does seem to be self-supporting so far as budget goes.

Room 101 contains a clever entrance to level B of the labs, whereas Level A is from a more discrete location near the boat house. Of course, you should already be quite familiar with the testing are layout - its quite similar to the one in Paris, though a bit reinforced after that accident with type "tree triple H" (Parasitic).

Testing is set to begin soon, though it will be starting slow with a surgical type to make sure everyone is properly up to date with SOP.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Dead of Winter Edition Released!




I tried to get a new version done for February, to mark a year since the supposedly temporary "FFS edition" was released. I tried for may for my birthday, 200th post, the 250th post, Halloween... Still nothing.

Well screw it, I'm not going to say I couldn't release a version until 2013 or 2014. It might be the eleventh hour and not quite a milestone post (295 published if you're counting, so 300 is next month...) but here you go - a rough draft of the Fourth Version of the rules.

Dead of Winter, Release Candidate One

It is a lot rougher than I'd like for a release.I fully admit there are blank entries in some charts, tons of optional rules since I haven't gotten enough feedback to settle a few things, a few old examples haven't been altered, and setting information is limited. (That should be a whole other book though...)

What is present?
  • The Character Creation chapter has been reordered, and is hopefully a bit more intuitive.
  • Updated rules for vehicles
  • More of the scarcity system for tracking resources
  • Combat now behaves like everything else - the top two numbers on the die, not just one 
  • Some incomplete random tables for creatures
  • More information about handing out Altruism Points
  • A new character sheet and reference sheet 
  • Changes to the initiative system - its now once per combat, though deadening can be spent to alter the order temporarily.
  • At least some setting information for both Unit 2552 and Anarchy Zones, and a very basic introduction to the Oroborus project.
Generally speaking - this new document is slightly over 80 pages long, the last release was about 50, and the very first edition of the game was only 20. Yet I am still not done. So many stories, so many little errors, such a need to run a con game for feedback. How many more drafts until this is sitting on the shelves at your local book store I don't know, but I hope its not more than two or three.

Thanks for reading, thanks for playing, and aim for the head. 
 
Transcript
You OK? You Okay? Damn It! You're worse off than I thought. Well, so sorry to find you're the first one to learn the Zone has gotten a lot more deadly. I'm trying to get some vehicles together, move a bit out, but things are getting more scarce and the creatures have some new abilities of their own. Oh Well. Get out the word. Its time to revise your survival plans.
Oh, um - nothing personal, my friend but you know - got to remove the head, or else they come back.



Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Hobbes in the Morning

Apparently I got 342 hits on the blog in October, and 355 hits in November when I was writing nothing. Not a great sign. To those of you who aren't spam bots - thank you for your patience. Without further ado...

***
Good Morning Wasteland!

Another great day in what remains of the USA. The predicted temperature is really cold and snowy - but you're not stuck on a mountainside for radio wave line of sight, so enjoy your warmer day until winter catches up with you as well.

Something rots in Denmark! Shortwave reception says that the Kola Command Authority is on the march again, making some of its final raids before the Ports get too iced up! Everyone is happy that icebreaker got sunk which limits winter raids - but the missile boats want vengeance!

Several farms have changed hands during the month of hacienda wars south of the border, but we have no figures on casualties, and there seem to have been no great upsets in the balance of power.

The US government wishes to remind everyone that the postal service is vital to the reconstruction, and the penalty for raiding a mail convoy is summary execution. The reward for arrest or destruction of the raiders who have been interdicting caravans in the South East territories has been raised once again. It is now 200 liters biodiesel fuel, one four wheel drive light military transport, a generator, and five liters nano-vaccine.

Transmissions from a station in Altoona have gone silent. This is a great chance to play the hero and find out what happened.

Reanimate forecasts for the local area are low.


We have reports of heavy reanimate activity and type Lambda sightings around Ashland and advise caution to those in the area.
Remember, they hibernate and can come about without warning when you're desperately seeking shelter or food in the snowy months - so stockpile now and avoid the rush.

For those of you who missed the announcement last week at 15:00 we'll be starting a new program of music for citizens, lasting approximately an hour each day. We've tried to limit it to instrumental pieces to avoid unknowingly offending anyone, and from blowing out your speakers with naturally high pitched citizen speech. Still, you might want to watch the volume.

That concludes this mornings announcements. Now to be followed by classical "Beethoven with breakfast" music schedule and after that some medical tips courtesy of Paramedic Ms. Feral.

Be careful in the zone.
***

104.3 or similar radio stations can play a vital role in your Anarchy Zone games. Each broadcast might introduce plot hooks, warnings about areas to avoid, or simply show the progress of time and reveal background details. Being mentioned in the dispatches can be a special reward to the players for a job well done - an indication their characters are now (almost) famous. Getting together supplies to start their own station could be the focus of a long term game.

Furthermore, it can be a good ritual to get all the players ready for the session - sit down, play the teletype sounds, and read off the news to set the mood. Last session go poorly -reports of infighting, lost settlements, and reanimate attacks. Things going well? Share recipes or advertise products to show commerce is returning to the lands and trade routes reforming. Keep the practice up long enough, and one night an errie silence and lack of announcements can have a meaning all its own.

Thursday, October 25, 2012

The Experience of Experience Points

Experience points are not a reward, and should not be given out at the end of a role-playing session. A movie soundtrack is not a reward for watching nor does it come only at the end. Instead, the music is a major factor in how you enjoy each stage of the film. Proper music highlights emotions and sets the pace for scenes indicate of when characters are tense or relaxed.

Experience points can be seen as a soundtrack for your RPG - what you reward and how many you give out goes a long way towards shaping the world of your game.

In Dead and Back, there is a certain level of antagonism when it comes to the use of Advancement Points. They are a vital resource for healing and recovery of used mental stats of your character, or a means to increase the abilities of someone else. This choice gets even more difficult with the possibility of group and place AP are introduced into the mix. (further splitting the choice; heal, help the community, or strengthen your allies.)

Giving out a large number of points per session makes it possible to heal and spend on others, allowing for safety and quick advancement. Allotting only two or three points each night means fully healing could often be near impossible, much less saving up to purchase new stats for your friends.

Give out AP in the last quarter of the game, and then roleplay the choices of how to use them. Spending these points represents something going on in the world - people don't just "level up" after all. For example, the choice between improving mental stats and building the settlement is akin to hiding somewhere to read for a while, or pulling your weight digging the new canal. Does the character just sit and watch movies until the nightmares go away and their hands stop shaking - or do they get some bruises and help with their friend's jujitsu lessons? Not only can the players speak amongst themselves about how to spend the points earned each session - but they can play out the character's demands for how they should be spent or of act out the new training regimen.

Advancement Point costs are still being balanced, what ever the numbers are in the end, D&B isn't going to be a game of super characters. There will probably be a cap placed on just how much characters can improve most likely preventing more than an extra die or three being gained and maybe a few new skills. It is the players who will learn about interacting with the world, thus protecting their avatars better, rather than simple escalation of figures.

Thursday, September 27, 2012

NEST Musings

The interior of a NEST is surprisingly bright. That somehow makes it worse. At least if its dark, you're always wary, and searching. During the day you can get complacent - or worse yet, miss something in the shadows that are cast.

A large part of energy efficiency, is not needing energy in the first place. Most of the arcos are not one monolithic block, but a series of smaller inter-linked towers, each of which is narrow enough that natural light can penetrate all - or at least most of - the way into the central core. Some use mirrors, some fiber optics, and there are a few that really are pitch-black in many spots.

Given the massive expense and time it takes to create these things - it becomes evident that shortcuts and stop gaps were made at various times, so be aware that some levels aren't always the most logical.

Anything that can be acquired by a quick "smash and grab" run, probably has. Instead, the endeavor must be approached like climbing a mountain. Clear a base camp, and set up stopping points along the way. If you can, get a guide. Just like on Everest - oxygen tanks might not be a bad idea - there are all sorts of internal pollutants and rot. Rappelling gear can help avoid certain areas for those who don't mind scaling objects two hundred metres or so above ground.

Reanimates can hibernate when no prey is around. It might be hard for the lesser variants to chase people into an arco and navigate the labyrinth, but there are still huge numbers just waiting to wake up.

Given the danger and complications of mounting a several day - or even several week long - expedition into an arco - most of them are still quite full of untouched supplies and artifacts. Food is probably going to be the limiting factor on any given adventure, since anything stocked in the building has probably expired. Aside from that, artifacts in the interior areas, up to and including national guard armories and nano-vac hospital stocks may very well be still in place.

A possible way to start a game is to either have players as survivors who are trying to get out of an Arco, they've been living is, now that all the supplies in nearby apartments have been used up. Another would be a large group of reanimates chasing them into the structure - leaving the players with little choice but to go up and find a way out that isn't blocked.

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Creatures Concepts

Dead and Back is a one person project. I would love to find an artist, and probably need an editor - but up to now, all the work has been just me. As such, there are not going to be any major point-buy systems to balance. If you want your character to be a one-armed alcoholic samurai jazz pianist - role play it, but don't expect to get any extra character dice at character generation.

On a similar note, I am not implementing a big buffet of creature powers like "All Flesh Must Be Eaten". AFMBE is a good game - for that reason alone I shouldn't copy it, and make mine just a pale imitation.

What I am doing, however, is to create a table with a various abilities. Senses go in some columns, weakness in others, movement in the next, and other twists in yet another. The GM may roll to randomly throw an abomination at the players, or pick and choose to form what they feel is a reasonable fit for their setting.

Through the Free RPG Blog, I've learned of a free book of random mutations - "Metamophica". Personally, I'm trying to avoid looking at it until I've compiled some ideas of my own. I have too much pride to go the "ctrl-c" "ctrl-v" route, but why seek temptation? You are quite welcome to use it in your games. The Oberous Setting for D&B is practically built around the idea that some nebulous organization is releasing mutated creatures in isolated areas to test their abilities, and those of the unfortunate townsfolk.

Speaking of creations, I've got at least one more setting on the back burner, and an overhaul of the AP system cooking. Actually, there is enough running, that I'm a bit worried about the October 31st deadline, but I'll try to have something ready.

Anyway, some of the ideas for creatures I've thought of:
  • Low Light, Infrared, Hawk like, and spiritual sight - as well as "non visual" 
  • Excellent Hearing, Seismic Detection
  • Blood Hound Nose, Shark Taste, Electro-receptors
  • Aquatic, Cold Proof, Fire Proof, Gecko Climbing, Gliding (Zombie flying squirrel)"
  • Sprinter, Horse, Car
  • Untiring, Noxious Fumes, Venomous, Super Strong
  • Web Spinning, Acid Spit, Regenerating, Highly Infectious
  • Telekinetic, telepathic, EMP inducing, 
  • Pack Hunter, Hive Mind, Contortionist
  • Claws, Tentacles, Bites through steel
  • Weak, (material) vulnerability, poor senses, falling apart, mindless, attracts carrion feeders, light sensitive, entranced by singing, afraid of ducks.

Thursday, July 12, 2012

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...

Not a lot of people die in the zone. Reanimates, Aliens, accident, infection, raiders, black market deals gone south, unstable explosives, building collapse, bad food - all of these things kill people on a regular basis. But, its a matter of perspective and understanding.

When infant mortality rate is only about five per one thousand, then each lost baby seems like a tragedy. When its thirty per hundred - it seems terrible and unacceptable, but you're still breeding at replacement levels and then some, and frankly - you become inured to it - these things happen, move on.

The other thing you have got to realize, is we have it easy now. At the heyday of the Event, it was chaos. Everyone has just kind of collectivism put it out of their consciousnesses because it was the epitome of anarchy Hobbes "nasty, brutish, short". The military was fighting an actual war around the world, against an enemy that could bomb anywhere and anything from orbit, the dead were rising with little local enforcement and poor coordination due to networks breaking down, some sociopaths were taking it as the end of the world and killing for canned food and bottled water...

Even the mousiest chartered accountant and quietest librarian you meet today has successfully lived through hell on earth.

Things aren't simple now - we need to replace all the infrastructure lost five years ago. We need to chose white kind of government will help us rebuild, and what ideals it should enshrine. It would be far better to say we are recolonizing the former territories of old nations, than to claim we are rebuilding the old states themselves.

We are not going to allow this dark age to last long at all. Perhaps that is the most important lesson. A few years ago, it looked like natural selection and Darwinism would reclaim its grip on humanity. Now we have some issues, but no need to accept that humans are simply prey animals in the food chain.

Thursday, April 26, 2012

More Thoughts on Internal Games

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." Leo Tolstoy

The zone is a place beyond good and evil, perhaps it is a place for the occasional ubemench to rise, but the most important note is that misquoting Nietzsche gets you nowhere fast. Instead, it is a place seeking results, where those with good ideas and the ability to force them forward advance. Good intentions are the rule, that these intentions often conflict is the law.

Some people do rule small settlements with an iron fist, but in the larger ones, that is often counter-productive. In a place that has trouble feeding and protecting everyone - sending the guardians out to bring more people in just doesn't help. However, a more reasonable goal may seem too long in coming, or not doing enough to others.

For example, New Birmingham often seems to be the villain, yet it has some redeeming intentions.Certainly, its a somewhat regressive theocracy against woman's rights and with its eyes on the territory of its neighbors. But it maintains the atmosphere of suburbia, and is trying to create a system where the additional working hours of women isn't needed, a big change from settlements in wilder territories that see sixteen hour days for young and old of both genders. There are people who believe that change begins at home, and thus the policies must be amended, but there are also people who claim there is no point in being the exclusive city on the hill, and that the current laws must be brought to more sinners, across the zone.

Even raider groups are prone to these sorts of problems. Remember, any that have lasted this long is because they have long term ideals and driving purpose. Tower Reversed exists as proof the government is inadequate to the task at hand - but the question remains, does that mean they should become a ruling body that can do something, throw in with someone who can, or continue to simply enrich themselves because they're the only ones who can? The "Ambulance Chasers" Raider group is going to need someone to manufacture more medical supplies if they want to continue their "mercy runs" but with who? New Birmingham controls one of the biggest and most advanced hospital complexes in the hemisphere - but their stance on certain medical procedures clashes with that of the doctors.

NEST
Risk unlocking areas currently overrun vs current safety
Local currency vs socialist practices
Old Social classes vs new order based on knowledge

Tesla
Who to allow in
Degree to focus on the various trans-human projects
Tesla first, or help humanity

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Vehicle Availibility - Five Years On

The first rule of transportation in RPGs: it's available as necessary to move the plot, and stops when the GM needs it too. If they want transit to be fairly easily available, that isn’t a problem. However, given the background of the Anarchy Zones, Motorized transportation would probably be a major bottleneck in the setting. Many parts would be hard to acquire, and the fuel more problematic yet - "Mad Max" this is not. In turn, part of the establishing self-sufficiency themes would be setting up fuel production, and then modifying vehicles to run off your supply.

One would think that there would be a lot of stranded and forgotten vehicles lying around, ripe for the salvaging. The abundance is true, but the pickings are actually rather slim. Cars are actually far more perishable than commonly thought. Lubricating oil turns to sludge, for example. Moisture infiltration means the upholstery might be a mold covered disaster. Rubber tires also degrade - most mechanics say you probably should avoid using ones that have been in storage for more than five or six years. This last piece of advice should make it rather clear that making fuel will be the easy part of getting the world going again. Importing rubber - that is going to be difficult.

Power sources also have limited shelf-lives, and the setting is taking place five years after most up-keep stopped. Batteries have probably discharged or corroded from time, to say nothing of being burned out by EMP. Petroleum derived fuels do go bad over time - partially evaporating, oxidizing, and absorbing water - leading to lower performance and more particulates in the fuel system. Biodiesl goes bad after a number of months. Ethanol by nature is antiseptic and hydrophilic, so it won’t rot, but it will contaminate itself fairly quickly.

These are just the issues that come with time passing, but remember - there are disasters in the background of the zone. Peak Oil and assorted emergencies in the preceding twenty years means that natural oil fuel and lubricants are quite rare - and likely guarded by remaining military for use in high performance war machines.  As The Event occurred, EMP shorted out components, looters damaged what was left, and panicked people seeing reanimates for the first time often abused or crashed vehicles as a result. Since then aliens have been trying to deny the enemy resources, raiders have been trying to corner the supply, and reanimates... 

Reanimates are a bit of an oddity. One of the big arguments for the existence of a type 4 is how they treat vehicles. Often, they will simply smash the things to prevent the victims from escaping. Other times, they seem to intentionally leave vehicles in near pristine condition, serving a lure to the unwary.

As stated in the beginning - making vehicles available to players isn't a bad thing, if it moves the plot along. A more likely scenario, however, is that acquiring the vehicles and maintaining it drives the plot. Finding a machine untouched in an underground parking garage, finding a mirco-fac that can produce replacement tires, and getting a working bio-fuel reactor going to keep it running, while fending off those who want it for themselves - that is the crux of getting the machine restarted in the zone.

Thursday, January 19, 2012

NPCs for Everyone! (draft)

Why should the game master be the only one to create non-player characters? We've all heard of, or experienced, the cliche of the game master making boring set pieces, or controlling the game too much, or simply getting confused talking to them self.

Let the players make some extra characters, preferably ones they have some interest in. It makes the world a bit more vibrant when other minds contribute. The GM has some less work to do in pre-game preparation, and the player's have a new focus at the beginning of the session. Players are going to recall names they assigned themselves better than the GM's personal dossier file.  Furthermore, this allows everyone to have a hand in filling out the world, becoming connected to it, and discussion of what type of people are needed to move the game along. Wouldn't it be nice if characters are motivated by actual friendship or loyalty, rather than just some stranger in a bar demanding they kill creatures for gold?

Even more interestingly, these characters might be related to or other important in the lives of the players. This gives new story hooks, or a potential replacement for a dead character.