Post Apocalyptic Mayhem

Ok, since there are so many post apocalypse scenarios (aliens, nukes, robots, disease, zombies, etc.) How many are too many? I am almost afraid that I'm combining too many right now with the zombies and the post apocalypse but I still feel they go hand in hand. Only problem is I want to add some other elements too, but doing so might make it excessive and limit the story that exists. So today's (short) post is to ask people what they think. Is it bad to combine 3 of these? I think it could be done but I want to know what you readers think. Leave me a comment!

I am excited because people are finally reading the darned book! It's about time! They think I'm gonna be upset by all the stuff they can do but PLAYERS: I WANT YOU TO DO THAT COOL STUFF! I'm just not gonna spoon feed it to you guys! I'm all for you reading the book or looking at the SRDs online because of how there is you can do! Combat could be a lot more fun (given i'm not doing everything i could myself).

On another note, I am trying to think of ways to make the game a bit more challenging. I think I'm going to have to increase the difficulties of certain tasks so it doesn't become overly simple and no longer fun. Guns are going to limit the combat excitement (especially against zombies) but I hope to make up for it with other tasks/skill checks/ inventive ways to make zombies more fun to kill. Then again, everyone loves killing zombies :-P

Leave comments!

Week of no posts

Hey everyone, sorry about posting nothing last week, I had a hectic two weeks there and blew off some steam by not doing anything (and i mean ANYTHING). So anyways, playing time this weekend was really short as we basically just had one small encounter, killed off a character and then got everyone leveled twice. Yep, boring weekend :-P. Unfortunately, I ruined the surprise of killing the character (basically so he could make a new personalized character) so nobody was shocked or awed.. Oh well, worse things have happened.

So now the party is two people larger. I made their boss join the game (so i can deus ex machina if need be) and another player returned. It should be fun now, I like the group and feel they should be ok with it. Gotta say though, the apocalypse (which we are just getting to now) is not comfortable, sorry girls (all players except one are female). Ultimately though, this poses problems as I need to come up with a way to keep adventures going. So far, I have basic scavenging and going to certain locations that require intense amounts of travel. I want to keep things rolling and have it be a bit scary (so scavenging a grocery store doesn't become boring but more a scary scary thing to do).

Any one got ideas for where to take the campaign? Anyone got ideas of what to do for adventures or rewards? Leave me a comment!

Zombies This Weekend!

We're finally at zombie point! I'm very excited for this as it will be an absolute blast to play. I've opted to use a combination of the traditional zombie with the zombie from 28 Days Later. Here, the zombies will have the increased life expectancy while they will be able to run full speed (but not climb ladders and such) and attack their prey quickly. It should be very scary facing them especially as their interests lie solely in eating the players (and NPCs) leading to a continued spread of zombie mayhem. It should be an absolute blast.

Unfortunately, this leaves me with a bit of a challenge as I've got adventure laid out for one (maybe two at tops) session more and then I'm not sure how I'm going to deal with everything, from here I suppose I'll have to wing it much more. But should be very exciting to play, I can't wait!

Anyways, I've got a few suprises for the players so I can't go into detail over the campaign that happened this weekend. I'm very excited about how things are working out and the details are awesome (I feel). As always give me some comments and feedback! Also, I'm thinking of changing the layout of this page, anyone got suggestions on what to change it to be?

Single Player Games

While RPGs are good for single players when on the computer, I have discovered this weekend that it is rather difficult to run a campaign for a single player. With that being said, I ran a mini-campaign for one character this weekend and it felt rather dry. One thing I think is necessary for the game is the gathering of players and the random insanity that ensues. I believe that it is clear after this weekend that while a single player can play with only the GM, it is a lot more fun to have that joking nature. A gathering of two people (player and GM) doesn't allow for the goofing off and fun that D20 provides.

So yep, short message today. Unfortunately I wrote a 7 page paper today because I have a ton of work to do this week. Unfortunately, that means my writing skills are rather fried right now and I'm not in the mood for a long post. If I have the energy tomorrow, I'll be sure to write about all that happened this weekend. That's all for now though.

As always: COMMENT!

Trade Values

It's time to start making the transition, and I am trying to stay quiet about how it happens on this blog so that when it occurs, the players will at least be surprised when it happens. Other than that, I attempt to focus on the rules and hopefully make things clearer. Today, I will focus on the Trade Value system. It's a fairly basic system where every item has a Trade Value and the only way you can attempt to get other items is by bartering what you have for it. From the apocalypse book, we'll use the example of a round of ammunition. One round of ammunition for a gun equals a single Trade Value. This means that using a few bullets, it is possible to trade for a gun.

The idea behind the trade system is that there is no currency after the apocalypse (and printed currency is as useful as toilet paper with no government to back it up. Unfortunately, it becomes incredibly difficult based on the values that certain items have. The developers gave the various items a trade value between 1 and 40 (primarily) but this means that 30 bullets can be spent to trade for a car. I believe in the coming days I will have to rewrite these rules to have certain classes of Trade Value, so that a handful of bullets can't be traded for a car (except in extreme circumstances).

Stay tuned and include your thoughts (aka COMMENT!) so I can make a better change!

Mini Campaign

I have decided to run a mini campaign for one of the characters so that the player can catch up a bit on experience. Everyone except he is going to be home for the weekend so it gives me a perfect opportunity to run one. Unfortunately, I have never run a single player campaign so it might be a touch difficult to figure out how best to do this. Right now, I'm mildly afraid I made it way too tough for him to complete, but hopefully things work out. Heck, I might have to make it be a Deus Ex Machina experience if things get too hairy. We'll see how it goes though.

Other than that, nothing much has happened in the campaign or planning. Like I said on Monday, we're moving to ZOMBIES. I'm excited. And I managed to change the story a bit so that I like it better. It should be a blast when we get the opportunity to play. I'll keep my secrets but I hope everything works out well. We'll see when the time comes.

Sorry for the lack of anything said here, but unfortunately, I got a midterm tomorrow I really gotta study for. Catch you guys later and feel free to comment as always!

Another weekend, another session

The game session went pretty well this weekend... a minor hickup came when everyone was passed out and napping at the time of the game but we ended up playing later on saturday. Lots of fun, involved one person being a sniper while the rest of the group stormed a factory. One last session before the APOCALYPSE!!! i'm really excited. Unfortunately, I had to make them fail only to push the game along (actually a mistake made by the party to do research before leaving was used as an excuse for the failure :D). So yep, essentially the zombie virus was made, and before the party got to the room where all the ingredients were being mixed, the final ingredient was put in.

In a last minute effort, the party burst through the doors, gunning anyone down they could as the sniper made an amazing shot at the cult leader killing him. Unfortunately, as he fell, the ingredient (a magical flower) fell into the mixing vat and they were unable to prevent it. It was a good time though. Especially with a sniper watching over them. That was unexpected, but a bit more manageable.

One thing I'm discovering is it's much easier to just have both teams go one by one... best way to ensure everyone gets to do something and no creature/player gets skipped. Now the party has to head back to the shop to rescue their boss. I'm very excited about this as I'm going to make an NPC where I can remind them of bad ideas... and he'll be powerful :D. Always fun. anyways, i'll talk about him tomorrow I'm sure. Night all!

Feel free to comment as always!

Supplementary Books

Today I figured I would talk briefly about the supplementary books that are available (as a whole, not going into details on them as I simply don't know about them all). I am of two minds for them, for I've read reviews and seen layouts or chapter lists for some of them and honestly, the d20 system seems to be tightly packed into the original rule book. From the sounds of it, the supplementary books are nice in certain aspects, but are not really necessary on all accounts. That being said, I do own d20 apocalypse, and from the looks of it, it has an excellent modification of the rules system.

Future seems the be the primary addition to the d20 Core Rulebook, and I believe this has a lot to do with the mysteries of advanced technologies in the future. Ultimately, the rules don't seem excellent to me what with the mecha ideas as well as the advanced technologies. While some of it would be fun I am sure, there are aspects I have heard about that would just create problems. Maybe one of these days I will be able to take a look and see if this is true.

I am very excited to use the d20 Apocalypse books that I have. I like the switch to bartering it provides, but that will be intriguing to work out in game. I also am especially wary of the Mutation Points system that is provided... Mutations could add interesting elements, but I feel they might be quickly distorted to make ridiculously overpowered creatures/players. That will require looking at as well.

Next time I might give a brief analysis of D20 Past or Urban Arcana, not really sure what I can say about them as I haven't really used or read them yet, but we'll see what I can figure out!

Writers Block

Sorry about no post yesterday! I might make this blog a 4 days a week thing... that way i can save topics to write about later!

But seriously (I feel like I say that a lot) today's topic is good old fashioned writers block. What do you do when you can't come up with material? Right now, I'm trying to come up with something of a map for the next campaign meeting (in two days) and I just can't get myself to focus enough to get it written down. I'm feeling lethargic and every time I look at graph paper, I have no motivation to do anything. Heck, I sometimes have that problem with this here blog! But due to commitments, the person running the campaign has to press on and get the work done. I have learned that winging it generally doesn't work and that a basic idea is necessary. With this, a general picture of the terrain is needed before anything such as objects in the map or anything more specific can be created. As a result, I'm about to scour the internet to try to get some inspiration. Have a good night all! And if anyone knows any good d20 map sources (free of course!) feel free to send them along!