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.

your welcome, btw.

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.

Oh this sounds like terrific fun.

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.

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.

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).

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.

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.

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."

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.

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.

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...

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?

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.

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. 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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....

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

Woo! Interest

Lets see if I can address some things. First off, even with 23 dice you aren't guaranteed to be able to fight off the infection (Scary thought) so you'll likely still want/need meds, you'll just run through them more slowly. I'm going to be doing a somewhat specialized system for the meds, with something along the lines of 'you use up as much meds as you get bonus dice' because meds as they are presented in the game can't help against HMHVV III at all (Highest rating is 6 and HMHVV III has penetration of -6) So yeah, lots of dice on your resistance tests are certainly a good idea, and basically a requirement of being able to last long enough to make it to the start of the game (That or good med type skills or other reasons that you aren't already a Ghoul).

The large majority of IV Ghouls are basically zombie grade intelect and mentality, having their old skills overwritten with natural instinct, but some (We'll call them Ghoul Bosses) Ghoul Bosses will retain their old skills. This is -especially- true of those who were awakened when they were transformed, so yes, expect to run into ghoul mages/adepts wielding concentrated pain. There will also be the odd ghoul that has retained other skills through sheer will, or the fact that they are heavily cybered enough to have retained a bit of their old memories (Basically people who were under 1 essence when they turned). So, be ready to fight the hoard, be ready to fight the snipers, be ready to fight the ghoul adepts in heavy armor of hurt, be ready to fight the ghoul swat team, and for the love of all that says 'final boss' be ready to fight the super cybered troll ghoul

In short, I plan on pushing your 500 BP and 100 Karma to the limits and beyond. Planning, tactics, teamwork, and conservation of resources mixed with just that perfect level of overkill might see you through this. If you've played L4D, you'll know what I mean... if you haven't... what's wrong with you people?

You may buy quickened improved reflexes at force 4 if you can buy the 4 hits (ie a DP of 16). If you can't buy all four hits, you'll need to pay an extra karma per die that you need to reach the proper number (I may be willing to adjust this price, just kinda off the top of my head.)

Your biggest difficulty with vehicles will be moving them without drawing serious infected attention, not to mention just getting through the streets filled with wrecked cars, bodies, and of course infected. Drones are a good option, as hacker Ghouls will indeed be exceedingly rare. I will warn you that matrix connection has become spotty, and power has gone out to many parts of the city, so recharging your drones could be an issue. Your best bets for recharging your drones will be corps that have their own in-house power supply, or anywhere you can find an old fashion portable generator (Which you are welcome to buy at startup along with fuel, but you'll have to lug it around if you want any use out of it.)

Oh, and someone asked when this will start... I guess whenever I get enough characters submitted to me

We are using: Pretend you are advancing your character through normal play of the game. ie use whatever rules you would use if you had made a 500 BP character, and then played and gained 100 karma (Except you don't have to pay for training).

I was just guessing on 8 magic. Still, even a magic 6 character can summon a higher force spirit if they're willing to take a handful of points of damage, which given the benefits of having a high force spirit, may be worth it (Especially if the mage can just throw a heal spell on himself and make it all better).

Don't worry though, there are still plenty of surprises in store for you guys.

Heal spell won't work on Drain damage, but the controversial First Aid seems to do fine.

Bring it on! [Last words of Death Wish Charlie]

It would probably be better to go with magic 7 and 4 initiations. Pick up centering, masking, extended masking, and uhh Shielding? I could see Flexible signature being good too. Actually what would even be good for this type of game?

Well, that is up to you to figure out

Since I got asked in a PM, I'll clarify a few points.
1. When I said 10 clips of ammo, I meant 'you have your gun loaded, and you can reload it 9 times' If that is magazines of 100 shots or a speed loader with 6, that is what it is. I will be asking you how you are carrying around thousands of rounds of ammo if you come equipped with a warehouse worth of ammo. Also note that this is -per gun- so you can have 10 clips for your predator, 10 speed loaders for your thunderhawk, and 10 magazines for your White Knight (Two of the same gun do not count)

Edit: oops, left out the rest of my post...

Grr, stupid quick links getting hit by mistake.

2. In order to get the virus, you must either touch a ghoul, its blood, or its saliva with your bare skin (So gloves and face covering helmets are advised), or you must be forced to resist P damage from a ghoul's melee attack (So even if you resist it all because your body is just that amazing, it still managed to get through your armor enough to touch you).

Hmm, sounds like everybody wants to go all magicky, maybe I'll create some sort of super troll muscle...a bruiser with insanely high resistance to toxins and some big dakka skills could be fun.

I am working on a Harumen BioNinja/GunBunny. I am planning on having a nanohive with high rating O-cells.

Now that's thinking with your credstick

But really, could I please get a headcount on who is actually joining. Right now I have CollateralDynamo as the only confirmed player, with pb and mar as 'I'm in unless someone else wants my spot'.

I'm in.

I'm going to see what I can do with a Pixie Shaman.

O-Cells was on my list for a less exotic character. Combined with nano-infectors you could actually treat others that had been infected.

I'm in, IF you'll have me.

Crizh, Where are nanoinfectors? Augmentation what page? Guess I'm missing them.

117

Ok, well the only piece of cyberware I've taken is the Nanohive with Rating 9 O-cells and Rating 3 Nano-infectors (Contact Vector). Everything else is Bio.

Or is that a too much cheese Karoline?

Dude, I'm quickening a Force 4 Improved Reflexes spell. I don't think any amount of 'ware can compare to that cheese at the moment.

But me wants some nanoware too. You know what? I'm in hehe, this is too much fun to pass.

Yeah, how much time have our characters had to adapt to this "ghoul land" if you will? Would it make sense that our characters have had time to stock up on things like high rating o-cells (grabbing them while civilization was collapsing). Also, what is the opinion on things like spells that allow you to go with-out food and sleep? Do you expect us to have combat monsters? People optimized to survive the ghoul apocalypse? Or just an experienced runner?

Either way, I'm still debating heavily weather to go high magic or high tech, I'll wait to see what we need.

Yeah but I am also rolling with an agility of 10 and a strength of 11. I thought for this game it would be fun to make a combat monkey. Then I remebered the Harumen (Monkey like Dwarfs), so I literally made a combat monkeyman.

Since Crizh spoke up first on the Pixie, I'll leave him to it, I made one as well, though more of as an exercise to see what a character built like this could do than for any other reason. I think she would be pretty damn bad ass. She throws 17 dice for spell casting and 18 for resisting drain, she'd be pretty hard to notice given her concealment 7.

The only thing that I wonder about is just how much someone with strength 1 could carry, if one sized down armor for a pixie, just how strong would you have to be to wear it? If you could get away without needing the improved Strength you could do some good stuff with the other 9 build points and extra spell.

It was fun to see what I could do with it, though I'm sure there are probably things I missed and/or got wrong.

Triella
[55] Race: Pixie [Uneducated is bought off]
[200] Attributes:

B [10] A[20] R[20] S[00] C[40] I [30] L [20] W[40]
2[5] 5 5 1 [4] 7 5 3 7
[/size]
[75] Special Attributes:
EDG ESS M Init IP
3 6.0 7 10[12] 1[3]

Karma: 99/100
[1] Joining a Shinto Magical Group [Her Pixie Clan]
[8] Initiation 1- Ordeal - Oath [Masking]
[35] Magic >7
[10] Initiation 2- Ordeal - Asceticism [Extended Masking]
[12] Initiation 3 - Ordeal - Thesis [Centering]
[14] Initiation 4 - Ordeal - Asceticism [Shielding]
[05] New Spell Slaughter [Infected]
[05] Improved Invisibility
[05] Physical Barrier
[02] Binding Specialty [Spirits of Man]
[02] Unarmed Combat 1

[-25] Qualities:
[10] Mystic Adept [Shinto]
[-5] Braggart
[-5] Thrill-seeker
[-15] Sensitive System
[-5] Incompetent Automatics
[-5] Incompetent Ritual Spell Casting

[102] Skills:
[24] Sorcery 6
[12] Counter-spelling 3
[04] Astral Perception 1
[04] Perception 1
[10] Influence Group 1
[06] Infiltration 1 [Urban]
[04] Dodge 1
[18] Summoning 4 [Spirits of Man]
[16] Binding 4 [Spirits of Man]*
[04] Computers 1
[00] Unarmed Combat 1


[00] Knowledge Skills: [24 Free]
Meta-Sapients 3
Magic 5
Spirits 3
Para-Critters 3
Fashion 2
Languages
English N
Sperethiel 4
French 4


[36] Spells:
Fashion
Heal
Orgy
Increased Reflexes
Stunbolt
Stunball
Manabolt
Influence
Physical Mask
Mana Static
Shape-change
Improved Body
Physical Barrier
Improved Strength
Slaughter [HMVV Infected]

[44] Gear Resources: ¥10 / ¥220,000 / 700 Starting Nuyen (800)
Power Focus r4 [100,000¥]
Sustaining Focus r3 [Health][30,000]
Sustaining Focus r3 [Health][30,000]
Sustaining Focus r3 [Health][30,000]
Force 6 Lodge Materials [3,000]
Spirit Binding Materials F6 [3,000]
FFBA Full-suit [1600]
+Chemical Seal [5000]
Bike Racing Armor [500]
Bike Racing Helmet [200]
Fake SIN r4 Myrielle [Pixie, France][4,000]
Fake License r4 [Health Focus][400]
Fake License r4 [Health Focus][400]
Fake License r4 [Health Focus][400]
Fake License r4 [Power Focus][400]
Fake License r4 [Stunbolt][400]
Fake License r4 [Heal][400]
Fake License r4 [Improved Body][400]
Low Lifestyle 1 month[2,000 credits]
Erika Elite 2500
running Redcap Nix 400
R4 Firewall 2000
FTL Matrixware Powersuite 1240
+Skinlink 50
+AR Gloves 250
+Simrig 1000
+Subvocal Mike 50
runs in silent mode
[size="3"]
[13] Magic Gear:
[04] Power Focus 4
[03] Sustaining Focus 3 [Health]
[03] Sustaining Focus 3 [Health]
[03] Sustaining Focus 3 [Health]

Armor: 11B/10I [8B/10I for encumbrance]

Looks like there are lots of committed players. Have fun, gang, and I'll be cheering from the sidelines.

Same here, though I'll definitely be reading curiously. I'm kinda curious how fast the infection would run itself out though, if infection is this rapid, then it should probably burn out and be safe for survivors to come out again in 4 or 5 months with most infected of every kind that has to feed off of meta-humans going with the Strain 4 ghouls as their food supply is killed off or changed.

You've had a few days tops to adjust to what is going on, but that said, high rating O-cells aren't -that- hard to get. I don't mind you getting things like O-cells, because it explains why you aren't already a Ghoul. It may seem kinda cheesy for every character to have O-cells, but it is kinda a darwinism thing. The people with O-cells are the ones who could handle the infection.

Do keep in mind though people, that O-cells go down one rating every time they are used, so they will help for a while, but you'll eventually need to restock (Nanohive can only restore a rating per week)

Str 1, especially for a pixi, means that she would have trouble carrying much. Supposedly her armor would be custom fitted, so it wouldn't hamper her more than a human with str 1 and armor, but that is already a fair bit of their load capacity.

So, my players are:
1. CD
2. Mar
3. Crizh
4. Ravensoracle

My offical cheerleaders are:
1. pbangarth
2. Embers


It is true, the ghouls will kill themselves off fairly quickly once the infection has spread completely. A ghoul needs 5% body weight in meat per week, so that means that 5% of the population will be killed off every week once they run out of fresh victims. It'll still be a while until anyone is likely to come out though, because even one ghoul left could cause problems.

Triella looks good, but I wonder how long she would really be able to survive, she doesn't seem to have the body or spells to keep from getting infected quite quickly.

Also, you should keep in mind people, that the nano-infectors need actual nanites to go with them. You can use your own nanites, but then you have to get them back, which is actually somewhat hard (And may carry risk of bringing the infection back with them if you don't wait long enough. They also need a nanohive to keep them alive in your system until they are deployed.

I wouldn't think a Pixie would have too much trouble avoiding problems. They aren't on the menu for ghouls since they aren't meta-humans and they wouldn't provide much meat if they were. I am curious if a Pixie could be infected at all (aside from just being swatted for being annoying). Without a need for Improved Strength since her only gear is her armor and a commlink Strength 1 should be more than sufficient, she could take a different spell, maybe Cure Disease, but even that wouldn't be of too much use given the strength of HMVV, even with a body pumped up to Augmented Max.

That goes for Crizh's pixie too, with such a low bod, the only way to survive the infection is just not getting infected meaning fly above all the ghouls and use your concealment. The best spells to prevent infection are ones that keep the enemy away, ie physical barrier, though I'm not sure which others would be of use. Keeping a Force 7 spirit of man (with Slaughter Infected as a power) around with a service spent on killing any infected that come within X yards of you would make for a pretty pro-active defense as well.

Yeah, Pixies are relying on not being Metahuman.

Pixies, Nagas, Centaurs and all the Shifters ain't metahumans and can't be infected or targeted by spells that are restricted to metahumans.

Awww, I guess I won't be playing a Heavy Milspec Armor, Nodachi wielding Troll.

So Pixies can't be infected? I thought one of the requirements of players was that you had to be able to be infected...

So of Karoline's players we have:
1. Marwynn: Mage, something about a quickened force 4 reflex spell
2. Crizh: Pixie mage type guy
3. Ravensoracle: Heavily armed nano-gunbunny
4. CD: Hmm, as I doubt hacking will be all that important I guess the primary role remaining is a fire support drone rigger, I'll start working up a drone rigger that can avoid infection, see what shakes out.

Well, the ghoulies don't know that the pixie wouldn't satisfy the rumbling in their tummies, the same for the other Meta-Sapients I would imagine. I would say though that unlike Spirits and AIs though, they could be just as screwed by the outbreak as the meta-humans from the take a bite out of me point of view, especially with stupid ghouls.