I have had low output on this blog for the last few weeks and the reason is that I just needed a break from pretty much everything. I finished the latest semester of school and found out the courses I need for next semester are all full; I am actually pretty glad about that so I can take off the next semester to recharge my batteries. I have also had the last two weeks off of work due to our Christmas shut down at work. That has gone a long way to getting caught up on overall rest. Simply put, I just decided to step back from all of my extra activites for a short time since I was off work and out of school so I could get a few things done that I have been stalling on and just plain relax.
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Now that I am refreshed, I have the itch to get back to posting and developing projects that I have floating around in my head. I have come to one conclusion about my gaming posts - I am going to take a step back from fantasy for a short period. I have the itch to look into other genres and I just need to do something new for a bit. One of the projects I have been thinking of is a zombie game powered by the USR rules.
Name
Outbreak (or maybe Contagion).
Concept
A role-playing campaign powered by the USR system set in the time of a zombie apocalypse. I am going with a campaign idea heavily inspired by Resident Evil but not exactly the same.
What The Characters Know
Zombies are loose in the world and they have no idea why. Popular theories include magic, aliens, the end of the world, and experimentation among others.
The Truth
The "zombies" are bio-weapons engineered for use in war. There is nothing supernatural or otherworldly about them.
Playable Characters
Players will have the choice to play citizens, teachers, cops, and other normal citizens. There will also be military personnel and special government agents; of course, some of them will have hints about the truth of the outbreak.
There it is in a nutshell. In upcoming posts, I will layout some of the USR rules adaptations for playing in this campaign. More to come...
Interesting. I am all for non-Fantasy gaming :)
ReplyDeleteSo what type of rules do you think you need to come up with?
Not exactly your idea, but there are some things you might want to look at:
The Secret World - an mmorpg that is buy to play. Spend $30 and you get all of the current content. The world is besieged by zombies, and you play one of 3 secret societies trying to figure out what is going on.
This is not a zombie, but aliens. It fits with what I think you are wanting from a game experience, it just uses aliens instead of zombies. You can download the adventure here:
http://www.bcaplan.com/punctuated.pdf
Thanks! Don't get me wrong - Fantasy is great - I love fantasy roleplaying but I just have the itch to do some other stuff.
ReplyDeleteActually, USR is really rules-light and I don't anticipate a lot of rules from my end. Basically, just stome Attribute Dice recommendations for different character types (police officer, detective, etc.), some weapon stats, and then the different Bio-Weapon varieties.
The biggest part of writing and design will be the campaign information. I would like to insert news transcripts, lab reports, and other such goodies throughout the rules to help establish the setting properly.
Thanks for the link. That looks interesting and I will definitely check it out in greater detail. You seem to be two steps in front of most people when it comes to RPGs - sorta like the info kiosk at the mall or something...lol. I always appreciate rhe links and recommendations.