Feeding on life (Zombie survival in a high fantasy

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Jargo

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Hey there, Iwaku.

Do you like generic zombie stories? Well, so do I. I also like to make up stories with multiple variables and thus possible outcomes. I have been thinking about writing a zombie survival story for the longest time, but I recently thought that instead of making it a story where I just control everything, I could make it into a roleplay instead.

So.

What will this roleplay feature:

1. Zombie survival in an imaginary world, much similar to ours with a few key differences, namely:
  • Nights and days both last longer.
  • The planet is further away from their sun, hence much colder.
  • Alien visitations are a matter of public knowledge, though no one knows officially why or what is the purpose of those kidnappings and encounters (the visitors never speak).
  • All rain contains poisonous chemicals, which can destroy the human body in a prolongued exposure. These are absorbed by the local flora, much in the way CO2​ is by ours. Water in any water bodies is drinkable and not salty.
  • There are 11 continents, all of them having countries similar to our concept of Japan, China, SE Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, North America (US style, basically), Germany, France, England and Russia.
  • Cannibalism is practiced in the cultures that are similar to Latin American and SE Asian ones, for which their inhabitants are under heavy scrutiny by the rest of the world and a subject of stereotyping, even if they are not doing it.
  • Each city has a similar in size Underworld, populated by anything any conspiracy theory ever suggested. This is also common knowledge.
  • Religious people can have some superpowers at their time of greatest needs, like bending steel frames, becoming invulnerable, leaping from great heights and surviving. This has only ever happened to very religious people, though. There hasn't been any proof of divine force yet, though.
  • The Hollow Earth theory is true. There is a small civilisation inhabiting it, but since the atmosphere there is deadly to humans and the pressure breaks most vehicles, no contact has been had with them. A few attempts have been made, but they were met with extreme aggression and the crews never made it back.
  • There are dragons. Nobody knows where they really come from, so its speculated they live in the Inner Earth and only seldom go out. They weren't aggressive but none has officially been dissected.
  • "The Truth" is a global radio, which broadcasts always on the same frequencies and has given a number where survivors can call to report recent news on the outbreak. They give tips, advice, news and hope to all who may hear them in the Common tongue or, sometimes, the local languages to your respective country. You have no reason to doubt them thus far.
2. Everything above is a matter of public knowledge. Why do I say that? First off, so you don't need to ask me if it's OK for your character to know it. Secondly, because there is a whole lot of much more disturbing facts, which are also true, but they are not common knowledge. Whether your character will be aware of some of it or not is entirely up to how you make them to be. If I think your character should be in on some secret lore, based on their background and character, I will inform you via a PM. Whether your character wishes to reveal that to the rest in the course of the IC is entirely up to their (respectively your) discretion. I only ask that you don't do so OOC, since secret knowledge will be a big part of this RP and it can be both traded and gambled with (I mean, there is literally no way of 100% knowing whether or not the person is revealing a secret or blatantly lying to suit their own agenda, right?)

3. Character death. Not very common, but if you do something silly or heroic, chances are, you might pay a certain price.

4. Only one character per person. If you die, you get to reroll, of course.

5. Zombies. Lots and lots of zombies. The mutagen is extremely variable and changes very frequently. There are so far these varieties, as last officially reported on "The Truth":
  1. Regular human carcasses which move at a walking pace, moan loudly all the time and are sensitive to sound, light and high pitched vibration.
  2. Runners - same as N1, but can rapidly accelerate for indefinite periods of time, at the sight of a victim.
  3. Spitters - Same as N1 but they spit their inner juices at the sight of a victim.
  4. Mutalisks - Mutated various extensions, after having consumed stuff like metal, wood etc. Alternatively, they have body extensions to help them better chase and kill prey.
  5. Zombie animals, dogs most evident, can run and jump at high speeds.
  6. Rumours of some weird sort of a zombie lurking in the shadows and hiding from daylight have not yet been confirmed.
6. The Zombies are much less effective in broad daylight, unless you make a noise, you can literally slip past a horde, since the light effectively blinds this sense of theirs and they are only left with sound.

7. The following facts have been reported on "The Truth" about the mutagen's properties:
  1. Infects a being within about a minute of entering the body by any means. The Being becomes a fully-fledged zombie in about an hour, which is an extremely agonising process. The Zombies feeding on it stop feeding once it becomes a zombie.
  2. Ingesting infected flesh is infectious.
  3. Having an intercourse with an infected is, apparently, not. (don't ask)
  4. The infection is being carried over the entire body, so any touch from any of it can be infectious, if it enters the body of a person. The entirety of the body does not include teeth and nails, but teeth usually bring in saliva, so...
8. This roleplay will be taking place after only 10 days of nationally announced state of emergency, so everything happening will feel extremely new. The remnants of the old world may even still be alive in some places!

9. You will begin your story in a city similar in structure and size to modern day Tokyo. It is a city in the middle of a vast plan, not far away from a mountain range, there are other larger cities around, as well as lots of small villages and farmland.

10. The sea is quite far, but there is a mag'lev train leading to it.


If all that sounds interesting so far, and you've actually bothered to read up to here, please, do express your interest in the comment section below and thanks for sticking! I hope my simple style text has not put you off, I do plan to insert more pictures in the future. This thread will also be updated regularly, along with an IC opening post.

So far I haven't got a character structure lined up, but please do message below what kind of a character would you like to play if you're interested, so I could already think of how much or what kind of secret knowledge I can give you. Almost everyone will have some, unless you just make a random citizen who only gets their news from the local TV station, in that case, the basic package above will be all for you :)

In case you want more info, or think I've neglected to mention some major aspect, please do ask.
 
interesting :)

I don't know what kind of charrie yet, but maybe a daughter of a high ranking army, maybe general or lieutenant general? But she got left at home and something happened so she can't talk to her father anymore...I could run with that, lol

I did notice no rules on post length
 
interesting :)

I don't know what kind of charrie yet, but maybe a daughter of a high ranking army, maybe general or lieutenant general? But she got left at home and something happened so she can't talk to her father anymore...I could run with that, lol

I did notice no rules on post length
Hey there, thanks for showing up :)

That kind of character would be pretty interesting :) She would know a few secrets for sure, however what's more interesting is, she will know A LOT of rumours and speculations, with no way of telling if it's true or not. You'd need to specify her relationship wit her father and with his work friends/acquaintances in order for me to determine the latter. I imagine she'd also have some weapons on her disposal when she makes her break, so that's always a bonus :P

Post length is as much as necessary to make a descriptive and engaging post which contributes to the furthering of the story. That is usually a few paragraphs, but can also be longer or shorter.

The level is intermediate/advanced.

Rules... meh - everyone knows that crap "standard Iwaku rules apply"; "..."; "no god moding and meta gaming" bla bla bla
 
@Aleksandar

This seems really interesting, keeping an eye on this. Also, will you be making a character sheet for people to fill out?
 
I'm still basically a beginner, but I will try to do more than one paragraph, I do better when I am engaged in the story. I hope this takes off and stays going. :)
 
@Aleksandar

This seems really interesting, keeping an eye on this. Also, will you be making a character sheet for people to fill out?
Thanks so much, much appreciated :)

Yeah, I will make a CS skeleton probably sometime later today, but if you have any concept, you can already start thinking about it - I can't imagine something I wouldn't allow. You can be the president, the local drunk, a super famous porn star, a famous religious leader (BTW, just inserting it here, if you do wanna be a religious leader either invent your religion yourself or ask me for a ready-made one) :)
 
Thanks so much, much appreciated :)

Yeah, I will make a CS skeleton probably sometime later today, but if you have any concept, you can already start thinking about it - I can't imagine something I wouldn't allow. You can be the president, the local drunk, a super famous porn star, a famous religious leader (BTW, just inserting it here, if you do wanna be a religious leader either invent your religion yourself or ask me for a ready-made one) :)
Thank you for the clarification. Hm, I'll need to think of something for the character I'm going to make.
 
This looks awesome and I am fairly interested. I'm interested in making a younger girl who was away at camp or something when the state of emergency was declared, therefore without her parents. OR a slightly older woman, 50-60ish that is a retired nurse, still in great health but getting a bit grey.
Anyways, this looks great!
 
This looks awesome and I am fairly interested. I'm interested in making a younger girl who was away at camp or something when the state of emergency was declared, therefore without her parents. OR a slightly older woman, 50-60ish that is a retired nurse, still in great health but getting a bit grey.
Anyways, this looks great!

Hi there and nice avatar :) I appreciate your interest!

Both options are, of course, fine but do remember that having a more frail body due to age may be impairing your survivability to a certain extend. In both cases, though, please make sure to include her relationship with her family or peers or any particular encouters and relationships with other persons, should you wish to receive some additional lore knowledge. If you don't, that's also a perfectly viable option.
 
This looks awesome and I am fairly interested. I'm interested in making a younger girl who was away at camp or something when the state of emergency was declared, therefore without her parents. OR a slightly older woman, 50-60ish that is a retired nurse, still in great health but getting a bit grey.
Anyways, this looks great!
Fancy seeing you here.
Hi there and nice avatar :) I appreciate your interest!

Both options are, of course, fine but do remember that having a more frail body due to age may be impairing your survivability to a certain extend. In both cases, though, please make sure to include her relationship with her family or peers or any particular encouters and relationships with other persons, should you wish to receive some additional lore knowledge. If you don't, that's also a perfectly viable option.
I'm pretty interested, as this is a bunch of shit thrown into one. So its total chaos and I love it.
 
Alright you have my full attention on this x3. Going to probably go with a military deserter type character for this to have even more chaotic a experience XD.
 
Fancy seeing you here.

I'm pretty interested, as this is a bunch of shit thrown into one. So its total chaos and I love it.
Just so that I don't give anyone the wrong idea: Yes, all these things are presen within the roleplay, but you would need to be in a certain position, to have dome some action or at least be in possession of some knowledge, in order to have some of the less standard things occur. DO NOT expect to get aliens and dragons from the very start of the game - it may feel like a regular zombie survival for a while :)

Alright you have my full attention on this x3. Going to probably go with a military deserter type character for this to have even more chaotic a experience XD.
Sounds quite good, I'd say go for it, this group does need someone skilled in combat :) If you'd like to discuss the reason for his/her desertion together, please shoot me a PM, because that can be greatly useful plot device - in the sense that he found out something being done by the military and bailed.
 
@Aleksandar

Hey, is it possible for a character to be a dragon tamer or a priestess that's part of a religion that worships dragons? ...Not sure if the last one exists though.
 
Interested. Might make a combat oriented/hunter oriented religion for the rp. Already got a power in mind for the latter.
 
Interested. Might make a combat oriented/hunter oriented religion for the rp. Already got a power in mind for the latter.
This world is similar in technology to ours, I stated it in the first post, so there can't really be a hunter-orientated religions, the entire world is way past the hunter/gatherer societies. Some religions might have begun that way, but the only remnants would be in stories not actual practices. As for power, what I said about religious people and them exercising some superhuman qualities in their hour of greatest need, that is really more of a divine intervention, not a consistent power. You character cannot just have some power because of being religious. At most, he could be internally certain his or her god would help them if they are in mortal peril and he/she could have some idea of how their god may do that, based on previous people in the Church, but nothing can be certain, let alone, used on a daily basis.
 
This sounds interesting, what is the posting pace?
 
This sounds interesting, what is the posting pace?
Whatever feels comfortable, I will make a detailed explanation on the posting structure, but if you don't post for over a week w/o explanation, your character might be left behind and have to describe how they chased back the group.
 
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Alright peeps, here's the character sheet skeleton for you all! You can already start working on your PCs :)

GENERAL
Appearance: Just post a picture, please. Don't bother with writing an actual written description of how your PC looks, nobody reads those :D Allowed pictures are realistic anime/caricature formats as well as RL people/actors. You can snap a selfie of yourself for all I care :D
Name:
Age:
Gender:
Previous occupation: What did your guy/gal did before shit hit the fan?
Current occupation: If any. If not, you could just say "trying to survive or something along those lines".
Religion: (if any)
Languages Spoken: You've seen the countries stated in the OP, each has their own language, just say for example The language of the Russia-like country. You can get a maximum of 2 languages, unless there's a good explanation for why your PC knows more in their history. I strongly advice you all to pick common, otherwise you'd be like the Korean dude from Lost :D

PERSONALITY:
Defining Characteristics: (if any)
Personality: You can actually skip that if it's clear from the history part.
Strengths: Related to survival. I don't care if you've had a great relationship with your family, that's not gonna save your sorry ass from the 5 runners chasing you!
Weaknesses: Again, related to survival. You can manage to escape the horde, even if daddy never really loved you!
Talents: I swear to all the gods, if somebody says "I'm better than a pornstar"... (This means - better be something useful for your survival, playing the clarinet at the school choir isn't gonna count for much.)
Fears: You DON'T have the right to remain silent. Anything said here will be used against you indiscriminately.
Inabilities: Is there something your character CAN'T do? Killing people is also an option.
A seventeen days old rotting carcass moans loudly, before charging rapidly at you. The creature is relentlessly gaining in on you and you can see the maggots in its infected flesh, you can spot chunks of raw meat and internal organs, covered with what was once blood, but is now merely a blackish goo. The creature is already so close you can smell it's rotting organs and the smell alone is enough to make you sick. What do you do: (just a few sentences dude, don't write a sonet!)

EQUIPMENT:
(OP)Specialties: If for some reason you're proficient with some or any weapons whatsoever. This needs to be justified in the History. Keep in mind, this is going to be used to determine how you use a weapon. Anyone an fire a pistol and shoot a zombie walking towards them, but if you somehow find a katana but you've never held a sword in your life don't expect to go all samurai on them. (I swear to god, if half of you turn out to be Buzujima Saeko wannabes I'm gonna kill myself!)
(OP)Weapons: Do you carry anything? Anything at all that can be counted as a weapon. (No, Tyrion, your wits don't count, and if I were G.R.R.M. I'd have killed you off already!)
(OP)Charms: Do you bring your religion's bible? Did your sister give you an amulet when she was leaving for university and you keep it ever since? Here's the place to confess.
(OP)Armour: If for some reason you do have some armour, you'd need to do a good job justifying why in your history.

HISTORY:
*This is the most important part, which will likely decide wither you get accepted and how much you know of the world. Be as explicit as possible. Be as creative as possible. Be as devious as possible! Unleash your inner Strugartski. Oh, wait, you... you prolly don't know the Strugartski brothers, do you... well, I meant your inner Wachowskis then! The structure below is there to let you know what to include, but please write it all in one single coherent story, not just different one word answers :) The overall story needs to make sense and explain all the parts above. I can't wait to read it!
Relationship with family:
Relationship with extended family and the family's circle of friends:
Relationship with your own friends/co-workers etc.:
Attitude to life:
Position in life and society: What are you in society and do you like what and where you are?
Early life:
Important event(s) in forming your PC into what they are:
Raison d'etere:
I see the destruction of the old world as: (Liberation, terrible, opportunity, death, intriguing) etc.:

You could skip a few of these, if they somehow don't apply to your PC at all.

PERKS:
Would you like to receive a perk: Yes/No (please choose one)

Q: But Aleksandar, what is a "perk"?
A: Well, I'm so glad you asked! A perk is a leap of faith! A perk is an unfair advantage your character will arbitrarily have! I will be giving those at random, depending on what I think would be interesting for your character type. A perk is something which will be beneficial to your character in some way. BUT! There's always a drawback: each perk comes with a drawback. It's up to you to maximise the advantage from your perk, but minimize that of your drawback. I have a list of about 10 so far, but I have little doubt I will think of more. If you're feeling ambitious and you're not afraid of taking some risk, then say "Yes" and I'll message you with your perk upon acceptance of your PC. Your character will know of having the perk, but it's up to you to choose whether or not he/she reveals to the party that they have one and what it is :)

An example of a perk can be:

Advantage: You character is born with unnaturally heightened senses, due to a random genetic defect. This trait of theirs has mutated under the immense pressure of them being constantly worried of incoming zombies and now he/she can sense any undead within a 16 meter radius, regardless of where they are and she/he can relatively tell how many they are.
Disadvantage: This ability causes your character's natural body vibration to increase by a large margin, hence making them completely unable to hide from nearby zombies under any circumstances, because they can always detect his/her vibration.



Good luck! I hope this wall of text doesn't destroy your enthusiasm :)
 
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Religions sheet:
Since I gave this information to one if you, I don't see why I shouldn't make it public:

The religions of this world will be:
1) Shinto-like animalistic religions
2) Divine-king worshipping religions (Abrahamic religions of our world)
3) Universal law and order religion (Taoism/Zen Buddhism)
4) Worshipping a deity pantheon, like the Greeko-Roman style
5) Religion with heavy monk traditions and martial arts incorporated (sth. like Shao Lin monastery buddhism)

I have an idea for how to formulate those, but if you have any ideas and want to bind your character to a religion, please don't hesitate to contact me, I'm open for suggestions. Creating your own religion is still an option!

N4 and N3 religions are the most prominent in the world, N4 is almost the solely professed religion in the country you're in. Religious discrimination is a thing, especially if you're a monotheist in this polytheist country. Atheism is acceptable.
 
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Clarifying Question: I read over the first post again, maybe I skipped it. You said this was taking place in a city like Tokyo, but what continent will we be on?
 
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