Since I have a pretty good idea of what my setting is going to look like I am deciding that I need to go ahead and start thinking about the rules I will be using. Like I said in previous posts, I am going to go with the New World of Darkness core book and maybe some others. I browsed through my collection a bit and nothing really stood out in my mind other than the armory so it looks like I may be doing a lot of work as far as fleshing the rules out.
I actually think this is going to be an advantage because I can work on both new rules and setting information at the same time.
The first question I am going to ask in regards to both rules and setting is how close to the current nWoD do I want to get? Do I want to use the clan/faction concept in my game? If so how would I best implement it. If I don't will that create more or less work. One thing is for certain, if I do go with the clan/faction set up I will do my best to make sure all clans and factions can play together. That is something that kind of bugs me about nWoD is that some groups just can't play nice with each other and if players decide to be from these two groups it pretty much shreds the game.
One advantage of the clan/faction system is it would give me the option of giving characters cool powers, the only problem is finding a rational for it. Sure, I have vampires, zombies, and other stuff, but that is in relation to the Ground Zero Event. When it comes to giving the "heroes" of the story powers it is literally opening a can of worms.
One direction I was thinking about going is that everyone in the world was eventually infected by the rejuvinext cells which means babies were born with them too. The one problem this creates is that it takes away some of the fear of being harmed by monsters since obviously the infection didn't affect them that way in the first place.
The second idea I am considering is that some kind of cure was rapidly developed and that it was not what everyone was hoping it would be. It didn't manage to make people immune to the infection, but it did create changes within their body. This would give me a great way to create a clan/faction system while still maintaining a rational. So I think I will go with it and see what I get.
I have also been trying to come up with a name for this setting. I want it to express the idea of the undead apocalypse without calling it undead apocalypse. The word abide sprung into my mind (yes from the book Earth Abides) and I really want to use it somehow. I came up with Abiding Sin: A game of post apocalyptic terror and will probably use that until I come up with something better.
Well that is all I have for now, I plan to post some stuff up about the different clans/factions in the world tomorrow or the next day. Until then take care of yourself.
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Sunday, May 15, 2011
The Ground Zero Event
The old wanderer looks at you over the flames of the campfire as he wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. "So you want to know about the Ground Zero event." he says looking at you with a fixed stare that unnerves you slightly.
"Well, I can't tell you specific details, but I know the story well enough. It were most stories about bad things start, with someone somewhere trying to find a way around nature. The problem with trying to figure a way around the way nature wants things to go is that it is damn complicated, and any attempt messing with her plan is bound to backfire sooner or later, and that is exactly what happened."
The Old Wanderer now turned story teller sipped at his drink absentmindedly as he thought back to those days. "I was but a babe barely born when it happened. A company by the name of Rujuvanext had been working on a way to stop the human aging process and had a promising breakthrough of some kind or another. See they had found the secret to cell regeneration. While it would take someone a lot smarter than me to explain it all to you, the basic concept is that there is a clock in every cell, when this clock hits a certain time, it fires off a message to the cell to die. It doesn't take a genuis to figure out if you could get this clock to stop, then a cell wouldn't die and that in turn means no one would grow old. Like I said its a bit more complicated than all that, but that is the general gist of it all."
"Anyway, this breakthrough was so promising that Rujuvanext actually managed to convince the government to allow them to take criminals on death row and serving life sentences and use em as lab rats. It seemed a fair deal on the surface, you got to test a product that would benefit all of humanity while making a use out of those who were merely a drain on society. The one thing no one counted on was this experiment giving hardened killers super powers."
The Old man chuckles slightly then continues his tale "I suppose super powers might be a bit to much of a word, but there is no doubt that whatever experiments were performed changed the prisoners in a way no one would imagine. I don't know if the experiment ever stopped their aging, but I do know that it did other things. It changed them from normal humans into the first vampires and it wasn't long before these vampires escaped the prison where they were housed and that my friend was the beginning of the end. This was what we now call the Ground Zero Event."
"If people turning into vampires wasn't expected, what really wasn't expected was what happened when those vampires escaped their prison. It has something to do with cells interacting with one another or some such, but what it really boils down to is that if you get bit by a vampire he spreads it on to you. Now not everyone who gets bit by a vamp becomes a vamp, some become zombies and the like, others simply die, and a very small amount become perfectly immortal without having to drink blood to stay alive."
The old man stops his story staring into the flame for a bit "So there you have it, the tale of how it all started. It was that event that led to the near extinction of humanity, but we have been clawing our way back. We have started building cities, discovering old technology, and most importantly, we have found a way to fight the monsters. Sure they still have the advantage in most cases. They are still stronger, faster, and tougher than we are, but we have out own advantages."
The story teller gone and once again replaced by the old man takes a final drink from his cup and stands up "Well, I appreciate the fire and the tea and would love to talk more but these old bones of mine need to get some rest."
"Well, I can't tell you specific details, but I know the story well enough. It were most stories about bad things start, with someone somewhere trying to find a way around nature. The problem with trying to figure a way around the way nature wants things to go is that it is damn complicated, and any attempt messing with her plan is bound to backfire sooner or later, and that is exactly what happened."
The Old Wanderer now turned story teller sipped at his drink absentmindedly as he thought back to those days. "I was but a babe barely born when it happened. A company by the name of Rujuvanext had been working on a way to stop the human aging process and had a promising breakthrough of some kind or another. See they had found the secret to cell regeneration. While it would take someone a lot smarter than me to explain it all to you, the basic concept is that there is a clock in every cell, when this clock hits a certain time, it fires off a message to the cell to die. It doesn't take a genuis to figure out if you could get this clock to stop, then a cell wouldn't die and that in turn means no one would grow old. Like I said its a bit more complicated than all that, but that is the general gist of it all."
"Anyway, this breakthrough was so promising that Rujuvanext actually managed to convince the government to allow them to take criminals on death row and serving life sentences and use em as lab rats. It seemed a fair deal on the surface, you got to test a product that would benefit all of humanity while making a use out of those who were merely a drain on society. The one thing no one counted on was this experiment giving hardened killers super powers."
The Old man chuckles slightly then continues his tale "I suppose super powers might be a bit to much of a word, but there is no doubt that whatever experiments were performed changed the prisoners in a way no one would imagine. I don't know if the experiment ever stopped their aging, but I do know that it did other things. It changed them from normal humans into the first vampires and it wasn't long before these vampires escaped the prison where they were housed and that my friend was the beginning of the end. This was what we now call the Ground Zero Event."
"If people turning into vampires wasn't expected, what really wasn't expected was what happened when those vampires escaped their prison. It has something to do with cells interacting with one another or some such, but what it really boils down to is that if you get bit by a vampire he spreads it on to you. Now not everyone who gets bit by a vamp becomes a vamp, some become zombies and the like, others simply die, and a very small amount become perfectly immortal without having to drink blood to stay alive."
The old man stops his story staring into the flame for a bit "So there you have it, the tale of how it all started. It was that event that led to the near extinction of humanity, but we have been clawing our way back. We have started building cities, discovering old technology, and most importantly, we have found a way to fight the monsters. Sure they still have the advantage in most cases. They are still stronger, faster, and tougher than we are, but we have out own advantages."
The story teller gone and once again replaced by the old man takes a final drink from his cup and stands up "Well, I appreciate the fire and the tea and would love to talk more but these old bones of mine need to get some rest."
Developing the Setting Part I: Concept
Okay, I'm back. I know you probably didn't miss me, but eh, I probably didn't miss you either.
I have an idea for my setting and I have decided on the system I am going to use. I gave it some serious thought and realized that I can't really tweak the system until I have the setting a lot more fleshed out. In fact I will probably have to have the setting almost complete before I can really start working on the system but we will see.
Whenever I sit down to create a new setting the first thing I do is come up with a concept and then go from there. Right now I am working the concept of an undead apocalypse. While this sounds great, there are a lot of questions that need to be answered. I need to decide the who, what, when, where, why and how of it all. I know some stuff already such as the game is going to be placed in our world, but I don't really know about most of it.
The who and what are pretty simple. Something happened that caused a mass outbreak of undead that caused the collapse of human civilization. I am going to assume that a large part of humanity died shortly after the ground zero event (still working on that little nugget in my head) and that there will be a large variety of undead type of critters crawling around. That gives me a good starting place as I consider when.
I am deciding that the ground zero event happened today (in fact think I think that is the official game name for it) so that gives me a launching point. Now I need to decide what time period the campaign is placed in. Since the past is pretty much out that means I can either go with the present or I go with in the future. Both definitely have their ups and downs.
The up side of starting the game in the present or near future is that the world is very well known to both myself and my players. Also, it would probably be a pretty fast paced game focused on immediate survival. In fact building a campaign would also be pretty simple. I create a timeline of events that begin with the Ground Zero event and then go from there. While this idea is simple and could be a lot of fun, I really feel like stretching my creativity a bit.
This means I need to set the game in the future, but what future should that be? I could go thousands of years in the future, but not only would that be a lot of work creating a history, but it would kind of change the post apocalyptic feel I am going for. I think I am leaning towards placing the campaign after the fall of mankind and during the time it has started to rebuild.
I have the when, and the where is going to be North America, but I don't know where in North America. Since I am currently assuming the Ground Zero event was some kind of scientific accident there won't be a lot of change to the continental structure of things. Since so much of the setting is till unknown I don't want to really narrow down the where more than that at the moment.
The real big question at the moment is the why and how of everything. Why and how did the undead apocalypse occur? We know that some kind of scientific accident is what caused it, but why did this accident happen and how did it cause the end of civilization?
I know that the virus explanation is in vogue right now, but I don't want to do the same thing everyone else is doing. I also don't want to use some kind of easy button trick like a sudden magical awakening of the planet, and would prefer to avoid using a religious cause. Also complicating the issue is the fact that I don't want just one kind of undead, I want zombies, vampires, and even ghosts if possible. In fact I also wouldn't mind being able to throw other kinds of things in such as super mutants and the like but we will have to see how it all turns out.
So I need something that changes people into monsters, spreads quickly, and is somehow resisted by a small part of the planet. I also need it to be scientific, but not a virus. I am thinking that it is some kind of medicine gone wrong. Right now there is a lot of research going into gene therapy and the like. One of the things that people are always looking for is a way to not grow old. So, I am thinking that some pharmaceutical company had a research project devoted to cell regeneration as a means to stop the aging process and something went very, very wrong...
Okay I got a great idea and will finish this post up and start working on the next one...
I have an idea for my setting and I have decided on the system I am going to use. I gave it some serious thought and realized that I can't really tweak the system until I have the setting a lot more fleshed out. In fact I will probably have to have the setting almost complete before I can really start working on the system but we will see.
Whenever I sit down to create a new setting the first thing I do is come up with a concept and then go from there. Right now I am working the concept of an undead apocalypse. While this sounds great, there are a lot of questions that need to be answered. I need to decide the who, what, when, where, why and how of it all. I know some stuff already such as the game is going to be placed in our world, but I don't really know about most of it.
The who and what are pretty simple. Something happened that caused a mass outbreak of undead that caused the collapse of human civilization. I am going to assume that a large part of humanity died shortly after the ground zero event (still working on that little nugget in my head) and that there will be a large variety of undead type of critters crawling around. That gives me a good starting place as I consider when.
I am deciding that the ground zero event happened today (in fact think I think that is the official game name for it) so that gives me a launching point. Now I need to decide what time period the campaign is placed in. Since the past is pretty much out that means I can either go with the present or I go with in the future. Both definitely have their ups and downs.
The up side of starting the game in the present or near future is that the world is very well known to both myself and my players. Also, it would probably be a pretty fast paced game focused on immediate survival. In fact building a campaign would also be pretty simple. I create a timeline of events that begin with the Ground Zero event and then go from there. While this idea is simple and could be a lot of fun, I really feel like stretching my creativity a bit.
This means I need to set the game in the future, but what future should that be? I could go thousands of years in the future, but not only would that be a lot of work creating a history, but it would kind of change the post apocalyptic feel I am going for. I think I am leaning towards placing the campaign after the fall of mankind and during the time it has started to rebuild.
I have the when, and the where is going to be North America, but I don't know where in North America. Since I am currently assuming the Ground Zero event was some kind of scientific accident there won't be a lot of change to the continental structure of things. Since so much of the setting is till unknown I don't want to really narrow down the where more than that at the moment.
The real big question at the moment is the why and how of everything. Why and how did the undead apocalypse occur? We know that some kind of scientific accident is what caused it, but why did this accident happen and how did it cause the end of civilization?
I know that the virus explanation is in vogue right now, but I don't want to do the same thing everyone else is doing. I also don't want to use some kind of easy button trick like a sudden magical awakening of the planet, and would prefer to avoid using a religious cause. Also complicating the issue is the fact that I don't want just one kind of undead, I want zombies, vampires, and even ghosts if possible. In fact I also wouldn't mind being able to throw other kinds of things in such as super mutants and the like but we will have to see how it all turns out.
So I need something that changes people into monsters, spreads quickly, and is somehow resisted by a small part of the planet. I also need it to be scientific, but not a virus. I am thinking that it is some kind of medicine gone wrong. Right now there is a lot of research going into gene therapy and the like. One of the things that people are always looking for is a way to not grow old. So, I am thinking that some pharmaceutical company had a research project devoted to cell regeneration as a means to stop the aging process and something went very, very wrong...
Okay I got a great idea and will finish this post up and start working on the next one...
Deciding the System...
First I want to say that I know three posts in one day is a bit much for a blog. I apologize for it to all you readers out there (my stats say I do have some LOL), and hope you understand that I am simply using this space as a way to think, practice my writing a bit, and provide a point of reference to as I go on. In fact I will probably do at least one more post before I am done today if not more.
I finished my last post with the decision that I am going to develop some kind of undead apocalypse game. Now I need to decide what system I want to use. I really think that a system should always help the feel of the game. If you look at games like 7th Sea, Werewolf, etc. You can see how this works. For this reason I really want to avoid the d20 system if possible. I like the d20 systems flexibility and ease of designing games around it, but it is better suited toward heroic style games and trust me folks, this game is not going to be like that.
I want my game to be dark, gritty, and maybe even a little painful. I want to capture a feeling of quiet desperation, of being a flicker of flame in the all consuming darkness. The New World of Darkness can definitely capture this feeling pretty well and it shouldn't be that difficult to make whatever changes I have to make. I considered Savage Worlds a bit, but again I think its a bit to heroic for what I am looking for. I also gave both Gurps and All Flesh Must Be Eaten, but I don't really have enough experience with Gurps, and All Flesh is a bit to focused on zombies.
In the end I really like the idea of using new World of Darkness as my base system and going from there. It's a good system for horror style games and it has plenty of rules for the modern world so I don't need to work to hard on that. Of course I am not going to use any of the particular setting info such as Vampire the Requium or Werewolf, but the system is pretty solid.
Now that I have both what kind of game I want to run and what system I will use to run it decided, the next step is to flesh out the setting a bit more and begin tweaking the system. I am going to take a slight break, then get back to this blog with one or the other (maybe even both)...
I finished my last post with the decision that I am going to develop some kind of undead apocalypse game. Now I need to decide what system I want to use. I really think that a system should always help the feel of the game. If you look at games like 7th Sea, Werewolf, etc. You can see how this works. For this reason I really want to avoid the d20 system if possible. I like the d20 systems flexibility and ease of designing games around it, but it is better suited toward heroic style games and trust me folks, this game is not going to be like that.
I want my game to be dark, gritty, and maybe even a little painful. I want to capture a feeling of quiet desperation, of being a flicker of flame in the all consuming darkness. The New World of Darkness can definitely capture this feeling pretty well and it shouldn't be that difficult to make whatever changes I have to make. I considered Savage Worlds a bit, but again I think its a bit to heroic for what I am looking for. I also gave both Gurps and All Flesh Must Be Eaten, but I don't really have enough experience with Gurps, and All Flesh is a bit to focused on zombies.
In the end I really like the idea of using new World of Darkness as my base system and going from there. It's a good system for horror style games and it has plenty of rules for the modern world so I don't need to work to hard on that. Of course I am not going to use any of the particular setting info such as Vampire the Requium or Werewolf, but the system is pretty solid.
Now that I have both what kind of game I want to run and what system I will use to run it decided, the next step is to flesh out the setting a bit more and begin tweaking the system. I am going to take a slight break, then get back to this blog with one or the other (maybe even both)...
In the Beginning...
I don't know how other GM's do it, but I like to start any new game by first deciding what kind of setting I am going to use. My default is generally a fantasy world of my own creation. However, sometimes I want to do something different. The problem with going with something different is player interest. Most of my players have a strong preference for not only fantasy, but Dungeons and Dragons specifically. I do not mind either fantasy or D&D but sometimes I like doing something a bit different. My conundrum is generally I don't want to put a lot of work into a campaign I am never going to run. On the other hand, I am doing this in a public domain which means there is a chance someone else might use some of what I put up here.
Since currently I am not in the mood for fantasy and there is a chance that even if I don't use any of what I write here someone else will, I am going to go with something else this time. I have been thinking of doing a Sci Fi game for a while but this is a bit difficult because I don't have much in the way for source material. I have Dark Heresy, but I find that setting is a bit limited in concept, you can play part of the inquisition and that is about it. I know that Rouge Trader is out and I want it, but I don't have it yet so I can't go there. There is Fading Suns which is an incredible setting, but the system is a little on the wonky side. Of course there is always D20, but I have never really liked that system for Sci Fi. Since I can't really seem to find a happy medium here, I don't think I will be going Sci Fi.
I always like to run horror games and at least a couple of my players like them so this has some potential. I have been considering a Vampire, and know the players would like it, but I don't know if I am in the mood for that kind of horror. I would love to play Geist, but so far I have not really come up with a story I like enough and again, not sure if I want to go there right now. Of course thinking about White Wolf has gotten me thinking about all of their games and Scion comes to mind. I have to admit letting the players loose as the children of gods sounds like a lot of fun, the one problem with Scion is that it is generally a lot better to know who the characters are before building a campaign around them.
I am going to shelve horror at the moment and keep Scion in the back of my mind. Since I have decided that fantasy, sci-fi, and now horror are out I am not left with a lot of room to wiggle. I would like to do a western but its not a very popular thing, but I could go with combining horror and a western with Deadlands. I really like Deadlands and have never ran it, but I have also never played it and I try to stay away from running systems I haven't played. I will throw that in the back of my head along with Scion.
A game I have been dying to run is some kind of post apocalyptic game like Gamma World or Shadow Run. I would also like to do some kind of undead apocalypse game. In fact right now I suddenly had a burst of ideas. Hell, why not?
Yep thats the way I am going to go, I am going to run with the undead apocalypse idea. Now that I have decided what kind of setting I am going to run, I need to decide what system to use. I will cover that in my next post.
Since currently I am not in the mood for fantasy and there is a chance that even if I don't use any of what I write here someone else will, I am going to go with something else this time. I have been thinking of doing a Sci Fi game for a while but this is a bit difficult because I don't have much in the way for source material. I have Dark Heresy, but I find that setting is a bit limited in concept, you can play part of the inquisition and that is about it. I know that Rouge Trader is out and I want it, but I don't have it yet so I can't go there. There is Fading Suns which is an incredible setting, but the system is a little on the wonky side. Of course there is always D20, but I have never really liked that system for Sci Fi. Since I can't really seem to find a happy medium here, I don't think I will be going Sci Fi.
I always like to run horror games and at least a couple of my players like them so this has some potential. I have been considering a Vampire, and know the players would like it, but I don't know if I am in the mood for that kind of horror. I would love to play Geist, but so far I have not really come up with a story I like enough and again, not sure if I want to go there right now. Of course thinking about White Wolf has gotten me thinking about all of their games and Scion comes to mind. I have to admit letting the players loose as the children of gods sounds like a lot of fun, the one problem with Scion is that it is generally a lot better to know who the characters are before building a campaign around them.
I am going to shelve horror at the moment and keep Scion in the back of my mind. Since I have decided that fantasy, sci-fi, and now horror are out I am not left with a lot of room to wiggle. I would like to do a western but its not a very popular thing, but I could go with combining horror and a western with Deadlands. I really like Deadlands and have never ran it, but I have also never played it and I try to stay away from running systems I haven't played. I will throw that in the back of my head along with Scion.
A game I have been dying to run is some kind of post apocalyptic game like Gamma World or Shadow Run. I would also like to do some kind of undead apocalypse game. In fact right now I suddenly had a burst of ideas. Hell, why not?
Yep thats the way I am going to go, I am going to run with the undead apocalypse idea. Now that I have decided what kind of setting I am going to run, I need to decide what system to use. I will cover that in my next post.
Another Blog, Another Purpose
Yes, I am starting another blog. This one should be quite a bit different from my other one. While it still focuses on gaming, this is going to be where I store campaign design notes and discuss world building. I like the blogger platform for this because it gives me a great place to store information that will not be going anywhere quick and it gives other people a chance to see how I do things. I am hoping that this blog will generate not only readership but some discussion as well. If you are one of my consistent players, please try to forget anything you read here as soon as possible.
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