The Walking Dead (OOC)

The Jeffinator

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The name says it all. I am wondering if anyone would be interested in a group thread about survivors in the zombie apocalypse. All characters would be original. I myself will play a few extra characters so I can let one or more die here and there. Maybe certain characters can even defect from the main group and start a new one.

Anything is possible.

We will create the story as we go. It's a chaotic world. You can also play characters in a different faction and have them attack our main group to move the story along. Or play a group of zombies who attack us. Walkers are plentiful, so "spawn" in as many as you want.

For the initial setting, I'm thinking my main character is 37 year old US Army Ranger Colonel Julian Shepard, though he is sometimes called "Jules" or "Shep" for short. After fifteen years of seeing combat all over the world, he finally has a reprieve when he is offered an office job at the Pentagon. He accepts, and when school gets out in June, his wife, Samantha, his son, Mike, and his daughter, Lucy, will all move to Washington DC so they can all be a family again.

But in late March, the virus breaks out. Violently.

This is where we can do one of two options. We can have it just zombies, like the show, or we can say the virus has a bit of a varied effect. Humans, dogs, cats, even fucking cows -- any living being can be infected. Most of those that get infected are swarmed with chaotic brain signals and chemical imbalances, making conscious thought impossible and inciting an extreme, unquenchable hunger for meat. They also feel no pain, no fear, and in some cases their body mutates into various forms.

Yes, I said it. Mutant zombies. Like, they could suddenly be faced with a giant fucking mutant alligator zombie that looks like some badass dragon or something. Or a hairy man who has mutated enough to look like a zombie bigfoot. Our imagination is the limit.

We could say that everyone is infected, but some have milder reactions, still allowing varied levels of conscious thought but mutating the person enough to have advanced abilities. In a way it would be like X-Men versus zombies. We have the mutants that are complete zombies and have no thoughts, we have our characters which are still themselves mentally but have developed superpowers, and then there are those inbetween. Maybe a man who has kept his mind so far, but he has incredible electrical powers that threaten to send it brain into a frenzy if he gets too stressed and thus complete his transformation into a monster. Maybe every day he has to fight to maintain his humanity.

We can also have mutants that resemble werewolves or vampires.

Regardless of whether we go with normal zombies versus normal humans or go with the extreme mutant zombies idea, the story starts out with Shepard trying to get out of DC so he can make his way to his family's home in Missoula, Montana. He desperately hopes they are still alive. Characters can be anyone who initially joins him in DC or people they find along the way. The path they take will be the same path found on MapQuest if you search for directions from DC to Missoula, with small variations here and there.

So, anyone interested?
 
I can see the fun with this...have to say I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to Zombies I prefer humans to be just humans and while the zmbies are eating any animal they come accross the animals themselves are just as they are before any outbreak

But I'd be interested

Thinking human survivor -overseas tourist who doesn't mind travelling West because ultimately he wants to get to the Pacific and if possible find a way home....he'd be a young guy late teens with a can do kiwi attitude and little life skills
 
Been years since I did any rp but the idea sounds intruiging to me :).

Ps /love tenacious d :)
 
Mutant zombies? Like Left4Dead style?

Anyway, this sounds interesting and I may just like to give it a shot.
 
Okay, so we got four males and two females. Until we get even numbers, lets say no more guys, for the time being, anyway. We need two more females or for Bitey and Surry to agree to play more characters.
 
Okay, so we got four males and two females. Until we get even numbers, lets say no more guys, for the time being, anyway. We need two more females or for Bitey and Surry to agree to play more characters.

Hmm I think Ill stick to one char for now atleast.
 
Cool, a zombie RP! I´m gonna jump right



For the initial setting, I'm thinking my main character is 37 year old US Army Ranger Colonel Julian Shepard, though he is sometimes called "Jules" or "Shep" for short. After fifteen years of seeing combat all over the world,

[...]

Yes, I said it. Mutant zombies.




Wait a second. Is this one of those games that advertises itself as a zombie RP, then turns out to be a poor substitute for an action videogame?

I´m asking because I don´t want to make a human character with normal human capabilities and access to normal everyday items trying to survive a massive tragedy under great physical and mental duress... only to get overshadowed by shotgun-toting, head-kicking demigods with ammo spilling out of their ears and an obvious and rather worrying knack and glee for making diced meat out of creatures that used to be their neighbours and loved ones.
 
Cool, a zombie RP! I´m gonna jump right

Wait a second. Is this one of those games that advertises itself as a zombie RP, then turns out to be a poor substitute for an action videogame?

I´m asking because I don´t want to make a human character with normal human capabilities and access to normal everyday items trying to survive a massive tragedy under great physical and mental duress... only to get overshadowed by shotgun-toting, head-kicking demigods with ammo spilling out of their ears and an obvious and rather worrying knack and glee for making diced meat out of creatures that used to be their neighbours and loved ones.

Actually, I was wondering this as well. LOL. But I was going to take a 'wait and see' approach. I am more interested in a post-apocalypse landscape and true survival than action hero dynamics.
 
It was an either or kind of thing. We can do the normal human versus zombie approach, no super powers. And no, lol, Shepard won't be some gore-loving action hero. He was hoping to put his violent past aside and live the easy life with his family. He is deeply disturbed by the horrors unfolding before them and desperately wants to find his wife and kids alive. I plan to play him as sort of a mix between good Shepard from Mass Effect and Rick Grimes from the Walking Dead comic and tv series.
 
It was an either or kind of thing. We can do the normal human versus zombie approach, no super powers. And no, lol, Shepard won't be some gore-loving action hero. He was hoping to put his violent past aside and live the easy life with his family.

My point is that there is absolutely no fun in playing action heroes in a zombie setting in narrative roleplay. That is, stuff like:

- Killing zombies effortlessly
- Knowing exactly how to kill them or figuring it out super-fast
- Always having the best plan, and it always working out
- Lots of ammo and cool weapons (cool in the "I love the Remington shotgun so I´ll have my character use that one!"sense)

Because:

- There is no challenge or difficulty
- Teamwork is useless (so there is no reason for players to band together)
- Players who make realistic characters are forced to either step it up despite that not being what they wanted to do, or playing second fiddle to the action heroes



A good comparison of what I mean is looking at the difference between Resident Evi and the The Walking Dead videogame.

In RE6 you have macho-men decked out like Robocop smashing the zombies´ faces in, when not unloading rifle clips into their brains, and always finding the explosivest way to deal with any unusual monster.

In The Walking Dead, killing a single zombie is disgusting and a moment of reflection on what the characters´ lives used to be compared to what they are now, while fighting several zombies at a time is a terrifying experience that often ends in death, injury, or the avoidance of both by a hair´s breadth. The characters also fuck up constantly, have to take tough difficult decisions, and even clash against each other going from strong arguments to fistfights or even a fight to the death.



So I´m wondering where we are going before I decide to take the first step.

Are we going for a serious zombie RP, or for something I could replace by playing an action game?




By the way, your character being a colonel in the Rangers makes him the default leader of any group. Personally, I don´t think that kind of character has any place in a serious zombie RP. Rick James is just a cop, and in his group there were actually two, the other being Shane. In the game, Lee is an ex-convict and his position as a leader is earned, not given.
 
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As stated before I'm more inclined towards a walking dead scenario than a resident evil (love resident evil btw) it'll make the rp a lot better.....give us super powers ala Alice and the zombies simply get in the way as opposed to being any sort of threat.

And while I don't have a problem with us all being armed with guns and god to very good shots I'd prefer again to have similar limitations to weapons like the walking dead as opposed to a group of Rambo's finding each other
 
There's also almost zero chance a Colonel in the Army would be less than 50. I've never heard of anyone less than 45. Special Forces, typically, promote less quickly than other branches.
 
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