- In this campaign every character starts out playing themselves (their Real Life Self). Or as close to your Real Life (RL) self as you can get.
- Go through the following steps and provide the information requested in each section to your Zombie Master (ZM).
- Provide the following details about your Real Life Self
- Name
- Age
- Height
- Weight
- List your RL work history starting from oldest to most recent.
- Provide the number of years you’ve worked for each one you list.
- We will use this information to determine the number of Tiers we assign to each Profession on you Character Record - attached below for reference - (1 Tier / 5 yrs experience).
- The more details you provide about each one, the closer we can get your in-game character to your RL self.
- List your RL Education starting from oldest to most recent.
- Your education will assist us in assigning Tiers to Abilities and Skills later on.
- List all of the hobbies/activities you participate in (currently active in, and formerly participated in.)
- These will assist us in assigning Skills later on.
- Current
- Former
- List any physical ailments, traits, or conditions you possess in RL.
- These could include or bad vision that requires glasses, allergies, illnesses, etc.
- List out any Advantages, Challenges, or Quirks that you might face/possess physically, mentally, or otherwise.
- These could include things such as Physically Fit, Anger Issues, Shyness, Healthy Diet, Tatoos, etc.
- You can choose to assign Disadvantages if you like, but this is not required.
- Try to limit these to (3) or less.
- Here are the categories:
- Psychological/Physiological (these can be found on the Character Profile tab of the CharGen spreadsheet attached below)
- Addiction: Uppers
- Addiction: Downers
- Agression
- Chronic Pain
- Insomnia
- Irascible
- Mania
- Monomania
- One Eye To The Past
- Paranoia
- Phobia (Thing/Situation)
- Character Quirks
- Assign as you see fit.
- Coping Mechanisms
- Assign as you see fit.
- Psychological/Physiological (these can be found on the Character Profile tab of the CharGen spreadsheet attached below)
Current RL Home
- Describe where you currently live so we can assign you a physical address in the starting campaign city.
- Details such as square feet, pool, 2 car garage, in the country, in the city, population of the place where you live, etc. Just enough details to allow your ZM to choose an appropriate home site for you.
- This section is not required, but if you’re comfortable you can provide your Meyers-Briggs personality type.
- This information will assist greatly in getting your in-game character as close to your RL self as possible.
- If you do not know your type you can visit https://www.16personalities.com/personality-types and take a free test.
- Your ZM will fill in the rest for you.
- We will be using the Hunter Entertainment SPEW AI System to determine your Real Life Attributes.
- Go to http://www.spew-ai.com and click “Start New Quiz”
- After you complete the test it will take you to the “S.P.E.W. Assessment Inventory” page.
- Start by increasing your Attributes (Strength, Perception, Empathy, Willpower) using the radio buttons (Gestalt: +/-) at the top of the screen until they match your RL attributes. The system will give you a certain number of points for you to assign to each attribute. It won’t let you surpass those numbers, and you shouldn’t need to. It is not necessary to use all of them though. Try to get the numbers as close to your RL self as you can. Read the following Attribute descriptions to determine the number range where you believe you fall personally. Use your best judgement. Keep in mind you are trying to match your Real Life Self as closely as possible.
- Strength (Sb)
The physical power and endurance of the character. Strength is not just a measure of physical power, it’s also a measure of endurance and overall health.- 5-10 Infirm
- Minimal physical activity in daily life and in work. If your lifestyle puts you at serious risk for heart disease as far as diet and exercise, then you probably fall into this range. This range can also describe someone who is physically small, like a child.
- While you are by no means an athlete, you are missing only a few critical components in your lifestyle to make you a healthy and strong person. You either have a good diet or exercise (if somewhat infrequent), but it is not routine.
- You incorporate several positive routines into your lifestyle that make you a generally healthy person. You eat right, exercise with a fair amount of regularity, and your heart rate is excellent.
- You stick to a rigorous exercise regimen and a strict diet. Generally, if your Strength is this high then you are an athlete of some kind.
- You are an Olympic-class athlete. This requires daily upkeep by diet and exercise to maintain.
The measure of the character’s senses and special awareness. Much of Perception is linked with the ability to see and hear. If someone is reliant upon prescription eyewear or hearing aids, their Perception may be lower than average. Another crucial component of Perception is reaction time. Being able to think quickly is a trait that is absolutely vital to survival. Therefore, Perception is also a measure of applied intelligence. If a person is clever but not booksmart, they can still benefit from a high Perception score, as Perception is just as much a measure of their senses as it is one’s ability to understand and perceive the world around them.- 5-10 Oblivious
- You are either exceptionally detached from the rest of the world or you suffer from enough handicaps to your senses that you are dangerously unaware of your surroundings.
- You are not very aware of your surroundings but you are not completely without mental or sensory facilities. You are smart while lacking common sense, are handy but are without much intelligence, or are not particularly intelligent but very aware.
- You are not outstanding in your intelligence or in the acuteness of your senses. You may be outstanding in one or two categories but you probably have one or two serious setbacks. More likely though, you are unremarkable in any respect.
- You have both high cognitive function and are well practiced in the use of your senses to a high degree. You either score high in contests of accuracy, in tests of intelligence, or are above average in both. Very little escapes your attention.
- You possess a very high degree of intelligence and supplement your intelligence with added physical and mental dexterity. As a rule, someone who is Astute will have high scores on tests of accuracy or in intelligence (but not both), while someone at the Prescient level will score high in both, to a level that is achieved by few.
Empathy (Eb)
The ability of a character to relate emotionally to another. It not only determines the preferred method of survival (determining if a Character will be a loner or work well with a group), it also shapes every reaction a character takes to obstacles in an outbreak. Scoring low on Empathy indicates decisiveness and quick thinking in a situation that might paralyze someone who is too empathetic. In fact, a low score on this Attribute is a good indicator of one’s ability to survive on their own. People with high Empathy are the glue that holds groups together by keeping peace among members who would otherwise turn on each other. Someone with low Empathy will see someone with high Empathy as a hopeless idealist and themselves as a realist. Someone with high Empathy will see someone with low Empathy as rash, selfish, and uncaring while seeing themselves as level-headed and calm. Empathy also affects how easily you are coerced into doing things by other people, especially those in distress. In this way, a person with high Empathy is sometimes taken advantage of. Answering a call of distress has been the end of many would-be heroes, and though selfish, it is one more advantage a person with a low Empathy score will have. While someone with high Empathy will be psychologically bogged down by moral conflict, a low Empathy person will simply act, albeit in their own self-interest.- 5-10 Apathetic
- You are completely unhindered by moral quandary. You are decisive but also almost entirely self-serving. This is especially true if you possess high Willpower Ratings. If someone like this has a low Willpower, then they are just dangerously ambivalent.
- You are remarkably callous to the feelings of others but are not without mercy. You will only consider your actions when you or someone you care about is being affected. Even under these circumstances, you still consider actions based on serving your own interests.
- You are not remarkable in your ability to empathize. You care deeply about helping others, only if you know them. You are not as inclined to help someone you don’t know unless you know you will be unharmed in the process or if it means saving a life.
- You are very selfless and would give little thought to helping others, even if your own life is in danger. You can potentially be bogged down by moral quandary, but this often allows you to make a fair and reasonable judgement, which makes you an ideal mediator.
- Your selflessness is legendary, and you are known widely for it. You are generous with your time and will almost never hesitate to lend your aid. This does mean, unfortunately, that the descriptor of “Saint” often becomes that of “Martyr.”
Defining Willpower is not easy. Some indicators of Willpower are one’s stress management, patience, reliability and ability to complete sometimes tedious or stressful tasks. Low Willpower is characterized as being impulsive, skittish, and unreliable. Ratings in Willpower can be described as follows:- 5-10 Fearful
- This is Willpower that is so far below average that you are flighty, completely compliant or unreliable. You are unable to handle most of life’s stresses and will seek safety both physically and psychologically.
- You can withstand most mundane situations, but will crack under pressure given time. This kind of person dislikes stress and avoids it at all costs but is capable of handling work stress. They may also be extremely jumpy.
- You are unremarkable in regard to stress management. You can handle work-related or situational stress without much adverse effects to the performance of your duties, but you will be unable to cope with extreme stress without a strong emotional support structure or formal counseling.
- You can handle almost all mundane stresses. It takes quite a lot to startle you.
- You are nearly impervious to stress and will rarely crack under pressure. This sort of person would be a combat veteran or someone who has endured similarly nightmarish events in their life. If a person has high Empathy as well, they are also exceptionally brave.
- 5-10 Infirm
- Choose the “Abilities” that you feel match your Real Life abilities. Excluding the ones that have (Profession) after them. I’ll assign those based on what you provide below.
- You can click on each ability to see a description.
- For each ability you believe you possess, assign (1) point for every (5) years of Real Life experience in that ability. Use your best judgement. The personal history you provided above will assist you in this area in-game.
- You don’t need to assign points to these abilities on the website. Simply list them out and return them to you ZM.
- Go to the Skills tab of the CharGen spreadsheet and choose the Skills you believe you possess in RL.
- List the number of years you have in RL experience for each Skill.
- Provide the above information to your ZM and they will assign everything appropriately for you.
- You can go ahead and start putting your list together if you like.
- Start thinking about what "things" you have that might be useful. Items you might carry on your person or in a vehicle if you have to "move/skedaddle."
- Keep in mind that we're trying to imitate RL, so if you currently have a "Go Bag," that's good, if you don't keep a Go Bag in RL then you wouldn't put one together for your character now, Unless...the circumstances in-game would dictate it, in that in real life, if a major catastrophe happened, you would put together a Go Bag. This will be something you’d do when the time comes In-Game, not now.
- In this campaign we're starting at Outbreak Level 0, which means your In-Game character/circumstances closely resemble/match your RL circumstances today/now. Try to think about what you "would do"/"do do" normally in RL, and then role play that in-game.
- Unlike a normal D&D rpg where you would document your gear and weapons, and have that on our character sheet...or in a more advanced Outbreak Level, where Zombies are already walking around eating people's faces, we're starting out in the Real Life phase (everything is normal/peachy-king, you go to work, come home, eat ice cream, etc.), then we'll move into the "Oh Shit! There's F#@$!#& Zombies eating people's faces!!! What do I do?!"
phase. - In-Game your character will have the opportunity to see the S#!@ coming and plan appropriately, In-Game. We'll role-play out dialog and actions/plans as the sitch escalates (in game). Things will start slow for a few days then escalate quickly.