Left 4 Dead, SR style Options

[Karoline]

So, after reading a discussion on the boards about how crazy powerful and infectious HMHVV III is, and how using the RAW basically turned SR into RE, I figured 'why not?'

So, I present to you now, my idea for a survival horror type game (And with Halloween just around the corner, it couldn't be better timing).

HMHVV III has mutated, making itself more viable, more infectious, and its hosts more suitable. No metahuman or sapient is safe from this new strain, deemed HMHVV IV. The Ghouls created by HMHVV IV make the III verity look like something you'd want to cuddle up with. They are far more ferocious, but far less intelegent. Getting bit or scratched by an IV Ghoul is as good as a death sentence. What HMHVV III did in ten days, HMHVV IV does in ten hours. Due to this fact, and the sudden appearance of HMHVV IV, the world was caught unprepared.

The other problem, is that there was no ground zero. The mutation took place on a global scale, all ghouls changing to this new form, carrying this new disease. Seattle, Hong Kong, Tokyo, everywhere with even a handful of Ghouls suddenly found the city overrun with the new strain. Now... now the focus is on surviving as long as possible and maybe... just maybe finding somewhere that the infection hasn't spread to yet, holding it back long enough for the Ghouls to starve themselves out, and start rebuilding. But first, that Ghoul behind you won't kill itself...

It is a bit late, and this was kind of spur of the moment, so please forgive the mediocre writing, just wanted to get this up as soon as possible so we could get started. Now, the important points. This is a survival horror type game, so combat skills will be -very- important. Social skills will be minimally important for a large part, but there will be other survivors that you will have to deal with, so some amount of social skills could be handy. Similarly there will still be locked doors and automated security so hackers will have a place.

Your setting will be Seattle, one of multiple ground zeros. You aren't immune to infection, but you are resistant, and with meds (Or some really amazing stats) you will be able to fight off being infected. You will likely start hold up in a building/room somewhere, but supplies will be non-existent, so you'll need to move somewhere else. It will be up to you guys where you want to try and go. You could go to the mall for supplies, the hospital for more meds, a corp to try and use their automated security for yourself, or try getting out of town where the Ghoul population might be less dense.

As for characters: 500 BP using normal character creation with the following exceptions: 100 BP max on resources (Born rich gets you 120 max, can't take debt) with base availability of 20 and restricted gear letting you get any availability you want. Don't buy food/meds (medkit is fine) as I'll be starting you with specific amounts. Many qualities will be unavailable and so subject to particular GM approval (Use your heads, enemies won't matter much, nor will records on file). You may also go to 50/50 on the qualities. Contacts will likely be dead. Lifestyles will likely be overrun or hard to get to (But may still be viable options).

Once you've spent your 500 BP, you get 100 Karma to advance further. This can be spent on basically anything you would normally spend karma on. Up to half of it may be traded in for additional resources which may be spent as per the previous rules (But must be spent separately. Not generally an issue, but it means you can't save up for that 600k thing you wanted. You may spend 10 karma to get the restricted gear quality to apply to one of these purchases if you wish.) You can't initiate with your 500 BP, you can initiate with your 100 Karma.

I think that about covers it. I'm not available for questions tonight, but will see if I can answer some in the morning before I go to school.

P.S. Yes, like the title says, I'm looking for 4 players, but if there is alot of interest I may allow for more.
P.P.S. You may not have more than 10 'clips' for any given weapon at character start. This game will be very much about conserving resources as well as kicking ass.
P.P.P.S. Normal skill caps at character creation do not apply. You may buy groups up to rating 5, and you may have any number of individual skills at 5 or 6. If you want to break your groups you'll have to use the karma to do so.

Edit: Possession traditions will be restricted/disallowed, as the mage possessing himself makes for an absurdly powerful character when allowed access to high force spirits. Also, if it wasn't obvious, you may get beta/deltaware.

[Weaver95]

your welcome, btw.

[Karoline]

your welcome, btw.

(IMG:style_emoticons/default/nyahnyah.gif)

[wind_in_the_ston...]

Not that it matters much for your purposes, but the longer the incubation period, the farther it spreads. Nobody takes precautions, because nobody knows they have it, and they contact even more people.

[Marwynn]

Oh this sounds like terrific fun.

[Karoline]

Not that it matters much for your purposes, but the longer the incubation period, the farther it spreads. Nobody takes precautions, because nobody knows they have it, and they contact even more people.

I had thought about that, particularly with how difficult it would be for it to get overseas if people would generally transform mid-flight and likely end up causing the plane to crash, but the high transformation rate is necessary to insure large numbers of infected. Otherwise you have the problem of the ghouls killing people before they get a chance to change, and generally give a very long time for medical attention to be sought.

While my IV does have a shorter incubation period and thus less of a chance to be spread unwittingly, I believe that in your standard city sprawl the amount of contact that people have with each other would allow a single person to infect hundreds on his way to work (Or from work) Who would then go on to each infect several hundred more. The kicker part is that by the time they realize they have anything, they only have a few hours to get medical attention. Then of course once you start hitting 'zombie appocolypse' people wouldn't realize just how dangerous it was to get bitten by (or even touched by) one of these new ghouls at first, thinking they had days before they would transform, when in fact they only have a few hours before it becomes too advanced to recover from.

Also I think it just makes the game more fun if when infected the PCs have hours to find something to fight it instead of days.

[crizh]

I'm game for a laugh.

That's a lot of BP's and karma, I could get really out of hand with that much to play with....

[Karoline]

I'm game for a laugh.

That's a lot of BP's and karma, I could get really out of hand with that much to play with....

Well, that's the idea. I in turn will be getting quite crazy with the number of ghouls that you'll have to fight. Not to mention fun extras like troll ghouls and swat ghouls and good times.

I will be restricting possession traditions though. I should include that in the initial post.

[crizh]

Restricting or banning?

Not that I was going to go that far...

What about gear ratings?

[Karoline]

Restricting or banning?

Not that I was going to go that far...

What about gear ratings?

I think I'll just go for banning for now unless someone can really sell me on it. Gear ratings can be as high as the limit on availability allows (Which is availability 20, restricted gear quality gets you one thing with limitless availability).

[pbangarth]

Hah! My pitiful little possession mystic in Agape's game frightened you, huh?* I would be interested in putting together a killing machine... I haven't done that in a long, long time.

When do you plan to start? I will be in and out of touch from the 7th to the 11th.

* Of course, you could take a look at Uncle Zola in the 800 BP thread.

[pbangarth]

Hey! How about playing a ghoul? You know, sort of like... Blade?

Hmmm... my common sense just kicked in. I'm playing in three games already and running one. Sometime in there I should do some work, too. So, I will withdraw my hat from the ring. Sorry, it looks like real fun.

I might toss in a few nuggets, if that's OK?

Like, this could be a real transformative event for humankind. After this is over, if there are survivors, I bet they will have a much higher percentage of dwarfs.

[BlackHat]

I dunno.... It's like the old saying goes... "You don't need to run faster than the Infected that is chasing you... you just need to run faster than the Dwarf on your team." (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

[Marwynn]

Yeah I don't want to take anyone's spots, having enough trouble getting the time to post in the games I am in.

Just think it's really cool. I wanna see what a Mage would look like with this get-up, really.

[CollateralDynamo]

I'm already in one game (as you well know, Karoline) but this sounds like a lot of fun and I'd like to throw my hat in the ring to play.

[crizh]

Yeah, Ghoul seems like a great choice of Metatype but I'm not sure I can see a good character concept in it.

On the other hand the light bulb may go on at any moment.....

I definitely thinking of playing a Mage.

Or maybe a PhysAd.

Or a maxed out StreetSam.

Or...

[Karoline]

That's fine pb, I'll put you on tentatively for now, but if spots fill up I'll bump you to free up space. Same for you Mar.

CD, you're the first official person.

And no, it wasn't your possession mage, it is just that I expect people to be able to get up to around 8 magic or so, and don't want to have to deal with 'Mr. Indestructo' with a force 8 spirit bound to him all the time. Of course mages have to be extra careful about getting infected thanks to the essence loss (And mundanes will need to watch how much essence they burn with ware). As I've said, a big part of this game will be resource management. You'll have to watch your bullet supply, food, water, and especially meds. It will also be a good idea to be versed in many weapons so that when you raid the gun shop and it is out of automatics (Because other survivors got there first) you need to be able to use something else.

Melee characters will run a higher risk of getting infected, so they'll be trading bullet usage for med usage. It should be good times all around. Shame there is no 'create ammo' spell huh? (IMG:style_emoticons/default/wink.gif)

Edit: Oh, and ghoul won't be an option because all ghouls transformed simultaneously into IV Ghouls. I'm not sure about allowing other infected or things that would be immune to diseases (AIs, free spirits, etc) as that would take out a big risk factor that I want included.

[pbangarth]

Well, two of my other games have been slowing down lately, and that crack about dwarves makes it attractive to see what I can do with one. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/grinbig.gif) Maybe... maybe I'll just poke at a character concept to see what happens.

I am discovering that the idea of a possession mage turns out to be a lot scarier than the reality. Binding something that gives you "Mr. Indestructible" gets really ugly, really fast.

Magic seems like a real benefit in this scenario, given that ammunition is less of a problem for that system. Yeah, the issue of Essence is scary, though.

Hmmm... Karoline, with your example of MAG 8, a dwarf adept(or mystic adept) with 8 levels of the adept power Natural Immunity and BOD of 10 (it can be done) will have 20 dice to resist disease. A troll with higher BOD could make up for the lack of the dwarf bonus. And if there is a Prophylaxis spell floating around in the group ....

Yes, that is a freaky selection for a PC to have, but in a severely selective environment, it is sometimes the freaks that survive.

EDIT: Oh! Oh! Rat as Mentor Spirit! 22 dice to resist disease!
EDIT2: Resistance to Pathogens/Toxins Quality! 23 dice to resist disease.

[crizh]

No ghouls?

[sadface]

I'd just had a really good idea.....

I'm toying with a Pixie Shaman, only having a Bod of 2 can be an advantage for creative use of Shapechange.

[Marwynn]

Bah I always run into the lack of good Intuition traditions, which would be perfect for Combat Mages who actually fought. I'm thinking Firearms Group myself.

Will continue to fiddle, I appreciate being put on tentative in case there are players who are interested and haven't been playing. But I am interested in this.

A few questions:
- How much variety of Ghoul can we expect to encounter? Not just meta-types but will there be ones with rudimentary firearm skills? Or throwing skills for that matter.
- Ghoul Mages/Adepts? They're a possibility correct?
- At Character Creation can I buy a Quickened Improved Reflexes spell at Force 4? Pretty please? (And yes, Initiatied with Masking, Extended Masking, and Centering already).
- Vehicles? Drones? The latter can be pretty dang good. No real chance of getting it hacked right? At least by the Ghouls.

[ravensoracle]

I have an idea for a stealth/combat specialist. I may put him together and submit him. This sounds like so much fun. I'll get him put togather this evening.

[Embers]

Mages would be in the best shape, especially pixies with their concealment power and flight. With a high magic of 8 as you suggested, binding some F8 spirits to killing any infected that enters a given area would give a damn good base of operations. Add on some wards and drones. Slaughter Infected would be a pretty bad-ass spell at that point you'd be pretty much garaunteed to kill any ghouls caught in it with a base of 8P+ successes at that point you'd have 8 magic + 6/7 sorcery + 2 Specialization + 4 Power focus = 20 dice to throw at the spell, or better only cast it at Force 7 since 7 hits should also be more than enough and it drops the drain to 4 which a soft maxed pixie (14 drain dice) should be able to do all day long even without centering. With that high of a magic, having concealment of 8 is not too shabby.

If you bit the bullet and started with magic 6 you could initiate twice and get your magic to 8 for 94 Karma. Take Slaughter [Infected] for 5 karma and you keep one in the bank.

[ravensoracle]

One quick Question. Are we using Sr4 or Sr4A rules regarding Karma?

[crizh]

Magic 8 seems a bit OTT, I was hoping just to manage 6.

I haven't started building anything yet though so I might revise that opinion....

[pbangarth]

Karoline started the MAG 8 wave with her arguments against possession mages. We just carried on. It is pretty high.