Survivors! (Zombie Apocalypse RP) Interest Check/Worldbuilding/Signup.

All right, the Necrophobia reboot failed miserably. However, there were some new folks in the signups thread, wanting a restart of a zombie apocalypse game. I'm all for it, so I'm going to start this thread and post the fluff I wrote for the ill-fated reboot.

This is it.

It's early 2013. The global economy has collapsed. The US has fallen into a state of civil unrest bordering civil war. The government is powerless to stop the revolts. Demonstrators clashed with police and eventually routed them. It looked like the start of a well-deserved popular revolution... That is, until the plague started.

Its early symptoms were similar to those of a flu... In fact, it was initially mistaken for a particularly virulent strain. Unfortunately, the late stages of the disease cause homicidal impulses, cannibalistic urges and brain damage. The Virus, codenamed WRATH, is a genetically modified hybrid between rabies and common influenza. The first roaming bands of infectees were mistaken by particularly reckless and homicidal rioters, brutalizing both police and bystanders. Hospitals were overflowing with infectees... A couple of days later, infectees would riot and kill everything inside. Health infrastructure shut down completely.

It is Day 6 since the outbreak. The characters are regular Joes and Janes. Fortunately, the state of revolutionary uprising prior to the outbreak made sure they were all armed. They need to get the fuck out of Portland and find shelter away from civilization. There, they will have to defend and rebuild, both against the zombies and their fellow survivors. Do they have the cunning, ingenuity and ruthlessness required to survive a Zombie Apocalypse?.

Sheet Format is as follows:

• Name:
• Age:
• Gender:
• Appearance:
• Personality:
• History:
• Useful Skills:
• Weapons and Tools:
• Weaknesses:

Characters can be anything except elite military and law enforcement units. They will all survive the escape from Portland, but once they reach the Compound, character deaths will become fully possible. I'm not necessarily going to GM this on my own: I'd like to have a co-GM (luckily, there are candidates ).

SETTING DETAILS

• The Virus:
  • WRATH is fluid-borne. All bodily fluids are infectious. Getting into contact with an infectee's blood, saliva or semen will infect ya.
  • It produces symptoms outwardly similar to those of influenza during the initial stages (lasting some 72 hours). Fever rises nonstop, and the virii release toxins in the bloodstream: The infectee will eventually go into a state of shock, seizures and coma. They emerge from it turned into zombies.
  • Them zeds are Technically Living Zombies. They don't rot, they can heal from wounds, the works. They're a permanent threat: Decay can't be counted on to do the job.
  • They're fast zombies, even though they're not very coordinated, sometimes stumbling and falling over. They don't respond to pain and don't suffer shock: The only way to kill them is to damage them to the point where they just fail. Headshots do the trick, so do holes big enough to bleed out from.
  • There is no way to cure the infection. However, the condition can be managed with lifelong anti-viral medication. Non-brain damaged infectees will stabilize and remain non-infectious and in good health as long as treatment is not interrupted. Thankfully, a providential influenza scare in 2012 made most pharmacies chock-full of subsidized antivirals that were never used.
  • A fraction of the population do not contract the disease when they're infected, becoming carriers instead. Quarantine alone doesn't work: People will have to be screened out. Carriers won't contract the disease if untreated, but they need treatment to become non-infectious.

edited 16th Oct '11 10:40:40 PM by SavageHeathen

Interest.

Early 2013... so shortly after December 21st, 2012.

Interest shown. I'll be posting my character within a couple days

Interest. I'll have my character sheet up later today.

Interest detected. Character sheet incoming.

EDIT: Can I play as a carrier? Having a combat useful carrier in the group seems like a good way to make A House Divided.

edited 17th Oct '11 9:50:08 AM by KSPAM

Zombie semen?

Never done one of these before so sorry if I do this completely wrong:

Name: Rory Taylor

• Age: 22

• Gender: Male

• Appearance: Tall, lanky, scruffy hair

• Personality: A Cloud Cuckoo Lander and a Keet. Also has a affinity for cats. His favourite food is bananas.

• History: Used to work in a deadend office job. Got fired the day before the whole zombie thing due to a Noodle Incident that he doesn't like talking about.

• Useful Skills: He has a love for technolgy so he is good at fixing broken machinery. He also very quick on his feet due to lots of practice from running away from childhood bullies.

• Weapons and Tools: Old-fashioned revolver, double-barreled shotgun

• Weaknesses: He's a complete wimp when it comes to anything physical (such as lifting heavy things, hand-to-hand combat etc.)

edited 17th Oct '11 11:41:19 AM by PurpleDalek

I'll be reposting Gabby, albeit slightly younger.

• Name: Gabrielle “Gabby” Connors
• Gender: Female
• Age: 23
• Occupation: Office worker/Intern
• Description: 5’7” tall, average weight. Fair skin, brown hair, brown eyes. Her hair is somewhat messy, since she hasn’t been able to style it since the outbreak. She is wearing her office clothes: A white button-down blouse and khaki skirt.
• Brief Biography: Not much to say here. She was an office worker before the outbreak. Single, lived on her own, a half-decent cook. Her father had always wanted a son and raised her as such, although she hardly picked up any boyish traits.
• Traits: Quiet, Helpful, Skilled with a rifle.
• Weapons: Gabby is in posession of a bag, like a laptop case. In it is a can of mace, a multi-tool, and a small handgun (courtesy of her dad).
• Other(s): She is skilled in using rifles as her father used to take her hunting when she was younger. She’s never killed anything without someone nearby to observe. She becomes almost robotic when she’s given a task to complete, but whether it’s because she’s traumatized or if it’s just her personality is left to the imagination.

edited 17th Oct '11 11:13:54 AM by KarlKadaver

Carrier semen, I'm afraid.

For obivous reasons (the group has to survive in order for us to have an RP), I'm not too hot on allowing carriers among the initial players. Unless we already know they're carriers, or something like that.

edited 17th Oct '11 10:43:52 AM by SavageHeathen

Name: Lars Romanov

Age: 42

Gender: Male

Appearance: Tall, muscular, brown hair, grey eyes, head shaved and beard unshaven

Personality: Rough and abrasive, with a sharp wit and sharper tongue. He's unashamedly in it for himself, but will cooperate with the group providing doing so is still within his best interests (which, in the zombie apocalypse, it probably is). Loves fast food and big dogs

History: Used to work with the Russian mafia, but was sentenced to death after dropping the ball on a particularly important task (namely, resolving an inter-group dispute using diplomacy instead of his guns). Knowing he couldn't stay in Russia, lest he be killed, he made off with a good deal of his bratva's considerable assets and fled to America, where he has lived a simple life as the owner of a small gun shop specializing in "less than legal" firearms for a good ten years

Useful Skills: Great with guns of the spray and pray variety, with lots of experience in urban combat situations. Can cook rations and basic foodstuffs into passable meals. While his speed is average, he can endure and go the distance

Weapons and Tools: Lubochka and Mstislav (a SPAS 12 and AA 12, respectively), as well as a mostly empty military pack with two weeks worth of MR Es (give or take a couple days) and a couple box magazines and drums for his guns. Carries a lock pick on his person at all times as a matter of principle

Weaknesses: Is absolute shite at any sort of diplomacy, and paranoid to a fault, something the zombie apocalypse didn't help with. In addition, he's a carrier of the virus, so he will be unable to safely prepare food without protection (although he can instruct others). Not an accurate shot (hence his preference for full-auto and shotguns), and only possesses average running speed. Is most definitely not an intellectual, meaning his usefulness in brain over brawn situations will be greatly diminished

What do you think? Too much combat experience? Should I use someone else? Also, he won't hide his carrier status, if that's what you're worried about

edited 17th Oct '11 10:56:50 AM by KSPAM

• Name: Arnold Adams
• Age: 31
• Gender: Male
• Appearance: About 6'1, and very Lanky. Has greasy brown hair and blue eyes covered by spectacles.
• Personality: A man who is tired of being picked on, and now will do anything to stay in control of a situation. Intelligent, though is kind of a jerkass.
• History: Worked as a menial pencil pusher when the infection struck. Wound up killing his zombified boss with the handgun he had planned to use to kill himself. Quickly raided the nearest weapon store, and shot his way through the city.
• Useful Skills: A surprisingly good shot with a gun, and a very intelligent man.
• Weapons and Tools: A handgun, a machete and a pen with notepad.
• Weaknesses: Physically very weak, and not a very fast runner.

I'm not worried about his being a carrier per se. Carriers who take their two pills a day for more than a week are non-infectious. It's carriers who don't take their medication that are dangerous. Assuming he knows he's a carrier, the guy is in, but he can have a SPAS-12 or a Saiga-12.... Not an AA 12. The AA has not hit mass production in sufficient numbers to appear in the black market yet, and it's unlikely it will at 2013. It's not even common in the armed forces.

Accepted.

@Karl Kadaver: Gabby is accepted.

@Dalek: Are you really sure you want to use a butterfly knife against zombies?

edited 17th Oct '11 11:11:04 AM by SavageHeathen

I knew you'd let her back in.

Interested. I don't know when I'll make a character, though. I may wait until the setting is fleshed out a little more, some ideas are put on the table, the "needs/wants" are set up, etc.

"Are you really sure you want to use a butterfly knife against zombies?"

Yep. That's how I roll.

You're aware you won't last long on those tactics, right?

Good point. I've changed it. To be honest the butterfly knife was Rule of Cool.

Considering his character's personality...

Dibs on his revolver?

Edit: Uhp, guess not. Still got dibs though.

edited 17th Oct '11 11:43:32 AM by HeavyDDR

He's in.

edited 17th Oct '11 11:53:55 AM by SavageHeathen

Who me? Cool.

Edited Gabby's weaponset.

@Savage Heathen: On second thought, I might have someone who can better fill the hard-to-talk to gunslinger role (without massive application of military grade firearms :P)

Name: Sharon Harkness

Age: 28

Gender: Female

Occupation: Former staff sergeant in the US military, currently employed as a firearms instructor at a shooting range

Appearance: Moderately tall (between 5'9 and 6'0), with a slim, curved build, long black hair in a ponytail, and dull hazel-ish eyes. Tends to wear sleeveless shirts and baggy cargo pants decked out with a large multitude of pockets, as well as a pair of combat sunglasses and earmuffs from the shooting range where she works

Personality: Unrelentingly pragmatic and efficient, but otherwise affable enough. Does not like forming close relationships with others, preferring to keep people at what she sees as a comfortable distance

History: Served in the US military straight out of highschool, feeling it was the best use she could make of her skills. Put in a good seven years of service, but was discharged after barely dragging herself out of her downed helicopter, the crash of which killed the men she'd been put in charge of. The incident left her right leg all but smashed and in need of replacement, and rendered Sharon mute, leaving the matter of exactly what happened in the forty-eight hours between her crash and her return a total mystery

Useful Skills: A fantastic shot with just about any gun, and an experienced and determined survivalist. Has slightly above average strength and a great deal of endurance thanks to her military training and advanced prosthetic leg. Can perform basic first aid

Weapons and Tools: She keeps her custom Colt M1911 left over from her service in the military on her person at all times, but is proficient with just about any semi-automatic weapon. Carries a good deal of military rations and backup ammunition in the confines of her cargo pants' many spacious pockets

Weaknesses: Cannot (or will not) speak, communicating solely with hand gestures and other non-verbal cues. Her prosthetic, while advanced, cannot repair itself if damaged like a normal human leg, and will need a jury-rigged (and likely less useful) replacement if significantly damaged. And, while she's an accurate shot, it comes at the cost of speed, as she prefers to deal with her targets one at a time as opposed to using full-auto fire or explosives (to clarify, because that was worded awkwardly: she fires her gun at a normal speed, but prefers to deal with targets one at a time, even in crowd situations)

I think she might be better than our infected Russian friend.

edited 7th Dec '11 10:12:27 AM by KSPAM

Both characters are way cool. Still, I liked the Russian a fair bit. I might accept both characters.

edited 17th Oct '11 12:08:03 PM by SavageHeathen

All right, I'll let you guys pick which one you want to see more, Lars or Sharon.

I want to see more of Sharon Harkness. She sounds Bad Ass. Any relation to Jack Harkness from Torchwood?

I want to see more of... -dramatic tension rises- ... Sharon Harkness.