ZM Campaign Questions

[Antman9]

Your friendly Zombie Master (ZM) will post questions that need addressed about the campaign here.

Starting with these (from the CharGen thread):

QUESTION
How do we want to deal with character death?

1. Start your Real Life character over? If so, where should that character be inserted into the campaign/world?
2. Create a new character, not based on you, using point buy system or the pre-gen cards in the Survival Guide?
3. Character death means a new player slot has been opened up. The next time a new slot opens that original player can then jump back in?
4. Other suggestions?

[Antman9]

QUESTION 2

Is anyone interested in using a Social Media thread to imitate Real Life

• This would be utilized up until the point, if/when, the internet crashes (in game oc)
• Characters would make post like they would normally in RL such as Facebook, NextDoor, chat threads, Texting, WhatsApp, etc.
• Your ZM (Zombie Master) would make posts for fictitious characters/NPC's as well
• Other suggestions?

[wolfpack]

I vote for Create a new character, not based on you, using point buy system or the pre-gen cards in the Survival Guide?


Is anyone interested in using a Social Media thread to imitate Real Life
I would be willing to try this, you mean just post in a thread here as if it were face book etc. right?

[Antman9]

I vote for Create a new character, not based on you, using point buy system or the pre-gen cards in the Survival Guide?
Is anyone interested in using a Social Media thread to imitate Real Life
I would be willing to try this, you mean just post in a thread here as if it were face book etc. right?

Thanks wolfpack.

Yes, I mean post in a thread here, just like you would in Facebook or some other social media.

[Rex]

I agree with Wolfpack on a new character if you die, one of me is enough. I don't care on the social media thing, in real life I don't have a facebook page.

[wolfpack]

I think we should start in a rural area in the south or medwest.

Small town Ohio, Alabama, West Virginia.

I think we will need to take soem real lif eliberty such as we all are friends and live in the same town, don;t think you want to run 7 different ongoing story lines.

[Antman9]

Thanks for the input Rex.

Agreed wolfpack. I was thinking the same thing.

Here are some city population sizes. What are your thoughts? Your starting city size will impact resources and quite possibly proximity to an outbreak epicenter. I have a rough plan plotted for the outbreak. Flushing it out more tomorrow.

• Under 500
• 500 to 999
• 1,000 to 4,999
• 5,000 to 10,000
• 10,000 to 24,999
• 25,000 to 49,999
• 50,000 to 99,999
• 100,000 to 399,999

As soon as we nail down your starting city, I can customize the campaign more precisely.
I will finalize my review and compilation of the core rules tomorrow, and we can start focusing on character creation. The 2E rule set is a bit different than 1E. I'm familiarizing myself with it now. I'd like to have the first campaign thread up by no later than next Friday.

[Gerrin]

I agree with Wolfpack, a new character.

[wolfpack]

Do you want us to give ideas for actual places or just selected size?

I don't live there but I think a good place could be West Liberty West Virginia. My daughter is commited there to play softball at the university so i am familiar with the area.

population 1,542 small town located in the hills surrounded by lots of woods and farms. small college campus and only 30 minute drive from a larger city (wheeling) on the ohio river.

[Scott308]

That might be too small for me. My job would require me to be in an area (or at least much closer than 30 miles away) with a hospital large enough to have an operating room. It doesn't have to be a Level 1 trauma center like I am currently at, but at the very least they would have to occasionally take out an appendix or perform C-sections. It would need to have surgical procedures of some sort with some regularity. Now, it could be in an isolated area that ends up with anyone for some distance going there. I used to work with someone who worked in the OR on Kodiak Island- obviously anyone that needed surgery ended up there unless it was something major that would get them flown to Anchorage on the mainland. That might be a bit too remote for the purposes of this game, as whatever occurs might not reach somewhere that remote.

[Antman9]

Do you want us to give ideas for actual places or just selected size?

I don't live there but I think a good place could be West Liberty West Virginia. My daughter is committed there to play softball at the university so i am familiar with the area.

population 1,542 small town located in the hills surrounded by lots of woods and farms. small college campus and only 30 minute drive from a larger city (wheeling) on the ohio river.

My thought for now is start with city size, then I'll come up with a list of possible starting places and the group can vote. How does that sound?

I'm thinking somewhere between 25,000 - 99,999 might be a good starting point/compromise fro everyone. Thoughts?

[Rex]

I am fine with anything. I could always be on a trip to the area for one reason or another. Some smaller areas do have hospitals, I am in a smaller area than the WV area and I have a hospital 7 or 8 miles from me. No clue what level but I have had surgery there twice.

https://www.northwesternmedicalcenter.org/

Overall I would guess we have more role playing opportunities in a more populated area and it will be a bit less us vs nature and more us vs others and undead (or whatever). Either way I am good.

[Scott308]

I guess I am fine with any size area.

[wolfpack]

I am fine for whatever.

[Monsieur Rose]

Size matters not. Depending on your particular situation, you could always start us off in your home town or somewhere else you are very familiar with. Might make things easier for planning and be an interesting experience.

[Antman9]

Thank you all for the input.

Here are my current thoughts:

• St. Louis is where I live. It’s the center of the U.S., and would make a good starting point, and it has a major waterway, and freeway systems to the rest of the country, and would allow for multiple scenario options for the characters.
• I’m not opposed to choosing another large city. I’m not married to STL.
• Defy would want to start everyone in one city. But might be fun to include family/friends/acquaintances in other locals across the country maybe? (I’ll post a question about Family/Other separately).
• Planning to utilize Google Maps/Earth, even after the Outbreak. Maps seem like a fairly easy thing to come by (at every gas station), and Google Maps make for an easy game resource common to us all. Plus we're using the real world of now/today.

Here are my first thoughts on Starting City. Choosing small, med, and large will all have different starting challenges for the players in resources and risks. Each of the cities below fall in line with the Outbreak Scenario I’m plotting:

• St. Louis, MO (Pop. 318,069)
• Albuquerque, NM (Pop. 558,545)
• Providence, RI (Pop. 180,393)
• Knoxville, TN (Pop. 187,347)
• Green Bay, WI (Metro Pop. 320,050)
• Salt lake City, UT (Pop. 200,544)
• Gainesville, FL (Pop. 132,249)

Do any of these seem interesting?
Additional, you all might not end up staying in the starting city, we don't know know do we

Once we choose a city, I’ll have you each pick an address for your preferred imaginary home, an exact duplicate of your RL home for all intents and purposes with all included resources.I’d like to have you all know each other in one way or another, so you can all start brainstorming how you know each other, etc. That will give us a starting point for Session 0 & 1 (Outbreak Levels). If anyone wants to have a home in your RL home city, but be located temporarily, short term contract, etc. in the city we choose, that might work. Just keep in mind you have 6 other characters/players who might not want to follow you home if you decided to do that in game. I wouldn’t want to split the group, at the beginning of the game at least.

[Gerrin]

That would be fun. I've lived around Missouri for most of the time I've lived in the U.S.

[wolfpack]

I am fine where ever we start, but I would never live in a city. I am sure that all those places have suburbs.

Also I don't think I have see everyone post yet.

[Antman9]

Sorry wolfpack. My wife yells at me all the time about this. When I say "City" I actually mean "Metro Area/Suburbs/vicinity/etc."

[Rex]

I am the same as Wolfpack on this. I grew up in a "city" of 25,000, haven't lived in anything remotely that big since I moved out. That said we can just plop me as far out as I can get away with.