Hi all, and welcome to the 4th OOC thread!

Its been a few years and the new Zombieland movie is just around the corner.

Who's hyped for that?  I know I am!

Let's start with a role-call and find out who is still reading this game.
From there, we can do a soft start and get Zombieland kicked into overdrive.  Cuz them zombies sure are hungry!

Hello all, still here and itching to wreck some undead

Sweet!

There's gonna be a lot of that I imagine.

Wreck, or get wrecked... the choice is up to you!

I'm here. Are we continuing were we left off, maybe losing whoever is gone in the rescue attempt, a general time jump, or a general restart?

I'm going to tentatively say I'm still around, though whether I'll have the time to be as involved as I was before is a little debatable. Also it would kind of depend on how you were planning on getting things up and running again.

I'm more along the lines of going back to what made Zombieland great to begin with.  A free-form fun-filled story.  So less about GM-driven-plot, and more about the story that emerges when a bunch of great story tellers are working together to inspire and interact with one another.

Our initial run of the game began very similar to Amber DRPG which merely asks the players, where they are and what they are doing.  Beyond that, the Story Guide works to tie the players to one another, get the stories crossing over, and developing excitement through unexpected twists and turns of event (and a few zombies too, ya gotta have those).

So we have a handful at least, which makes our Zombieland story intimate and filled with all sorts of possibilities for humor and the like.

I'd like to hear from all of you.  What are you looking for in the game?
Do you prefer to write and navigate most of your story?
Are you hoping to do this together, as in the separate stories of Zombieland intertwined?
Are you seeking high drama (Walking Dead) or high humor (Zombieland)?
Are you seeking clowns and theme parks, or post apocalyptic red necks hunting you down?

Let me know your thoughts.

Personally I prefer to be a part of a group rather than on my own as I like interacting with other player characters. I also tend to lean towards a grittier Walking Dead style plot line if for no other reason than the fact that I'm useless at writing comedy, although I wouldn't be against some humour every now and again. As for the last question...why not both?

I'm good for whatever. Though I will say I wouldn't have had any idea so many of the group were NPCs if I didn't look at the cast list.

I won't be juggling a lot of NPC voices.

One of the things I loved about the Zombieland movie and this original game was that there were no NPCs distracting.  Its all about the main characters, YOU!

I would also prefer to be part of a group rather than doing a solo story. Kat was written for a grittier Walking Dead style story but I think it would be interesting to see how she would react to more humorous situations.

OK, this sounds like we have a good basis to work with.

Rather than try to move everyone's storylines and try to converge them together, how would you all feel about me simply doing a mild re-boot, starting you near each other where you first meet up?

HAPPY THANKSGIVING ALL!

For those of you who celebrate it, may you find great delight in family and food as you celebrate all the blessings you have received throughout the year.

If this isn't your national holiday, may you still know the joy of family, and taste abundance in your life.

There is much for each of us to be thankful about.  May we show gratitude this day, and every day, for the abundance we have: lives that know us, families that surround us, food before us, and an internet to connect us.  :P

Blessings to each of you!

-Story Guide

• Dominic Dubreton
• Hank Lucion
• Tom Lucion
• Katherine Reed
• Lorenzo

OK, I'm working the start now, so that we might actually have a Christmas get to celebrate together (in-game, of course).

Even though I'll be starting you all in separate threads, I'll be weaving you into one another's paths (where you share threads) pretty quickly.  I tend to make the game more of a story-mode, putting in links that can be clicked on when a PC jumps from one thread to another.  This helps if you have to go back and find some information later on.

Let me know if there is anything you want/need/desire so that we can tailor our story together.  :)
This message was last edited by the player at 17:53, Sat 07 Dec 2019.

Well I'd probably want to keep Isabelle with Dom. I'm currently planning on using some of the plot lines from the original run through (Including how Izzy lost her leg) in Dom's background but have it happen whilst he was in another group (sole survivor perhaps?) consequently I think I can restore Dom's sanity, lol.

@Dominic:

Absolutely!

If we approach this the same way that Hollywood often approaches things we can do a 'new expressin' on the existing characters.  We don't have to re-think them or make things different but we also won't be constrained by what went before.  We allow the previous chapters to be their own awesome story, and then let where we go be a new story in itself.

Some elements will still be the same and other elements may be completely different.  We'll find out as we tell it together and discover the story that emerges.  :)

Merry Christmas to all, and a Happy New Year too!

If you've been good, Santa will bring you a machete and an M-16.
If you've been naughty, expect to open presents with living body parts!  *ewww*

Have a very Merry Holiday Season all!

Does that mean I can finally finish my collection of still beating hearts?

muahhaha...

yes?

A lonely street corner, with wild grass growing up from the cracks near the base of a street light that hasn't operated in how long?   Its uncertain.  No one uses calendars anymore.

A man in tattered black walks up the street, occasionally moving to a wall or window.  He dips his thumb in a small dish filled with something black then rubs it on door frames, windows, or the occasional head-shot body.  "From Dust you came... to dust you shall return..."   Then he moves on quickly.

Preacher doesn't have a flock but is out there seeking the lost sheep, unwilling to hide, he feels the drive of His God to bear witness in a fallen and broken world.

- - -

Happy Ash Wednesday folk!  Remember to "Get your ash in church today!"  :)

Good evening

I was just reading a NY Times article that provided the latest update on COVID-19, the Coronavirus.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/0...oronavirus-live.html

The article states:

"RIGHT NOWThe Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends no gatherings of 50 or more people in the U.S. for the next eight weeks."

I invite you to continue in prayer and conversation as you prepare to navigate the days ahead with hope and with caring for others and yourself.  Our family extends beyond the four walls we live in, and we have personal ways of spreading love and caring for others within our unique life-settings.

If you need someone to talk to, please don't hesitate to reach out.
You aren't alone.  You don't have to be afraid.

Your Story Guide, Sean

Things have been getting pretty wild where I am. Hope you guys have all been doing well

Everything is closed.  The government just announced that as of 8pm tonight all non-essentials must be closed, no exceptions.  So it isn't even based on numbers anymore, the restaurants have to close too.

Everyone doing OK?

I know there's a lot of folk feeling penned in by the stay-at-home orders

Not much different then before everything went crazy, for me at least.

Out here its been incredibly trying.
I work in one of the Essential sectors so we have been busier than ever.
I am absolutely exhausted with phone calls, e-mails, and non-stop work.

It's been a little crazy here. I worked with ice cream so I was technically essential, but it wasn't worth the risk in my opinion for minimum wage so I quit after the stay in order.

Wow.  I guess I'm failing to understand how ice cream is essential.

Are you going to be able to support yourself without income?

It was food and food is an essential thing. As for supporting myself, I'm staying with my mom until things get less crazy, which I hope is soon.

That makes sense.  Especially since my wife and kids buy ice cream!

I think I may have to give myself a Homer Simpson facepalm.  "Doh!"

I'm glad to hear you aren't alone and you have someone to ride out the social-distancing with.

God bless you and your mom!

Heyo!

How is everyone surviving CV19?  No zombies in your areas I hope!

Shhhhh, that's what August has planned.

Shouldn't we start preparing now?

...now I'm nervous about any NPC that shows up called 'August'

I'm hangin in there, hope yall are well

We aren't sick, but trying to get ready for an overseas move is nightmarish.
busy, busy, busy...
Praying that everything goes smoothly.  We have to have Covid testing done within a (3) day window (and get results) in order to avoid super expensive quarantine on the island.

We got here... smooth was a relative question though.

At least I didn't blow up the truck and end up zombie fodder!

Still, we're here and the motorcycle made it.  Now we have been setting up house.

How is everyone doing with COVID?  No one has gone full-on-zombie, have they?

Almost done with my extra skin suit...I mean all good here...

Someone has been really following TWD!

What do you think about the new Walking Dead show they are coming out with?

Haven't seen it. How was everyone's day of spooky?

With COVID, we couldn't do anything.
I live on an island, and the governor ordered everything closed.
One neighborhood family I know had set up to pass out candy but unsurprisingly he only had (2) children come.

So overall, boring.

Only a handful of cases where I live, thankfully. Watched some scary movies & dressed up as a cowboy. Lol

ooooo  Cowboys are great!

Especially Cowboys in space!

"First, there are no cowboys in space.  Second, didn't you wear that like 5 years ago?"

"yeah.  But I like it."

...Ok, anyone remember where those lines (which may be paraphrased) come from?
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:47, Wed 11 Nov 2020.

OK, so the Firefly reference didn't go over so well.

Never watched it

Ah, that makes more sense then.

I'm having trouble finding Nerds out here on Guam to hang out with.  Not a lot of them.

Merry Christmas my friends!

Happy Lent and Passover to ye who worship the God of Abraham.
And to ye that don't, happy Spring Preparation!

Ayone experiencing a taste for brains after getting a vaccine, or is it just me?

The proximity of those lines are dangerous things.
The one at the front gets infected and it spreads like wildfire!

Lucky we live on an island.
Because you know islands are safe, right?
...oh... yeah... that's right, no safety on an island.

I'm still waiting on my turn to be zombified

As in getting you bit and turning on the others?

So...what's the word? Shall we be continuing our jaunt through zombie paradise or shriveling in the sun until all our body fluids are evaporated?

Funny you should mention that.

I was watching Netflix's new movie about Zombies that just came out and thought of this game.

I stream a couple shows and I'm not seeing any time opening up to restart this anytime soon, sadly.  :(

How can I help you play?

In other words, what would you need or like to see from me that would help you all roleplay?

I've always enjoyed the randomness a GM provides. It's a lot harder to have your character fail something on purpose then to try something and react to the gm's call. Especially with a couple NPCs ingrained in the mix.

Though it seemed like the time in the warehouse before the storm was relatively uneventful, depending on whose around maybe we could do some roleplaying of that time skip. I don't think we lost anyone and since nothing happened that seemed to be noteworthy it might work as a PC only run section.

Sorry for the slow response Hank,
I'm down and out with Covid at the moment.

I'm definitely down with your idea.
If the other folk are game for it we can kick something off there.
I don't know all the ins and outs of your stories, having been an early player myself.

Posting to keep things active.

Well it’s been a while since I’ve said anything; partly due to health problems and partly because I thought this game had died. However if people want to give this another crack then I would suggest we just create a new thread and put Dominic, Hank and anyone else that shows up, walking down the road looking for a new home after the events of the last time we played and take it from there.

I can’t promise to be the most active of players however if you need help with storylines I’m happy to help out.

I'm happy to open a new thread and start a new story.
We could run it the way the original Zombieland did as a free-form roleplaying with the GM merely inserting interesting events,.

Sure, sounds good to me.

It would do just to get the ball rolling, if we decide we need a more hands on approach later on I could always step in as a Co-GM and help with NPCs etc, but for now I think we just need to start writing again.

Well…that’s looking pretty interesting. You’ll have to bare with me as I’m currently on holiday in the Scottish highlands so I don’t have a lot of time or signal at the moment.

Glad you liked it.
Take your time.  There's no rush.  We've all waited a long time.
Let's settle in for a long-term campaign.  Zombieland isn't going away anytime soon.  :)

Out of interest has anyone considered dropping Katherine and Lorenzo a PM to see if they're interested in joining in? The more the merrier and all that.

Absolutely.  Zombieland was always open and inviting.
I'll do that now.

Would Tom have been scooped up as well, or were we just a two person scouting party?

This is the starting point of the story.
If you want Tom to be in it, then he is.
New beginnings, it can be whatever you need it to be.

With that in mind, I may have Dom go in search of Isabelle

Sorry, only just saw the Rmail! Haven't been around the site much, but I''d be down for becoming active in this game again for sure. Hope you've all been well during the intermission

Don’t worry about it, we’ve only been up and running for around a week. I’m not too bad thank you for asking I hope you’re doing good also, had some health problems at the back end of last year but things seem to be settling down again.

Well unless the GM has anything special in mind I’d say you’re waking up in a cell like me and Hank.

Yay, more peoples. If you're interested feel free to take the cell Hank bumped into if you're on our floor. Or any other cell, whatever floats your boat.

In reply to Lorenzo (msg # 70):

Hey Lorenzo,
The new thread is set.  Just write yourself into the opening scene.

Ok, so I'm assuming this is sometime after the trading post. Since we probably aren't going to play through what happened after Wyoming told us it was under attack by zeds, how do we want to summarize the aftermath?

It seems we either saved the post and dealt with the Lost Boys, and we're either peaceful or at least neutral with them. Or the post is lost and we just moved on.


It seems most of the NPC's were tied to the missing GM's, but if the post is lost then it's likely Kaiden and several of their leaders would be dead. Which leaves the question of Wyoming. Hank's vote would have been to let him stay with the group, or at least give him the option if he survived the rescue attempt.

If we saved the post:
Were we just scouting for supplies to bring back to it?
Was the city nearby and we were looking to maybe settle down for a little and have a trading relation with them?

The intro I used is intentionally generic, so that it can easily have happened at the same time as the zed attack on the trading post, leaving the Lost Boys as well as the attack an unknown.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:08, Mon 23 May 2022.

That’s cool, means we can piece it together as and when it’s needed. On a side note, where the obits are concerned, Sakachewen was killed by Dom with a sword (msg 82, chapter 6) along with Orleans…Sighs…I miss that sword.

I'll have to go read that!
Thanks for the link, I'll put it in.

I'll post tonight. Am I good to just pop in?

@Lorenzo:
Yes, this is the idea of the opening thread.
You are all on the same level, open doors, trying to figure out what is going on, etc.\

Hey folks, new player here!

What would be a good 'entry point' into the story?

The current thread is the entry point.
Folk have been rounded up, and awake with a partial amnesia of the time before.  This gives you the ability to have 'left off' your story wherever you want and awake surprised by the same events as the other players.

Hi there, welcome to the game. Like Story guide said; we're currently gathered on a mezzanine outside a set of open cells so I'd say wake up in a cell then come out and meet us.

Thanks, just posted :)

Added some pictures, one of each since i'm technically playing two people :)

Cool, I got a bit of a Deckard from Bladerunner vibe when I read your bio, which reminds me…I may need to update mine at some point

Thanks, i previously had him in a Rifts game (Interface Zero), Elderly Hindrance and all.

He ended up soloing a Juicer in melee combat, so i'd like to think he was fairly successful :3

Let me know what you need to continue posting.  If you need a prompt from me, or something more direct, I can do that.

As for me, i figured i'd give the others a chance to post first. Johnathan isn't a martial character and he's a relative newcomer to the existing group, so it felt more natural for someone else to take the lead.

I'm guessing it is a no-fly type of episode.
Folk were given wings, but no one wants to jump.

Ok so as far as I am aware our little group consists of Dominic, Jonathan, Hearse, Tom, Hank and Lorenzo (who I’m happy to keep around until we get outside to give the player chance to join us).

I’m happy to go with what Jon said in that we saved as many as we could though I don’t think we’ve encountered anyone from the caravan so two or three new npcs? Remembering of course that there’s only so much room in a lift.

Yup.  Whomever you name getting in there, is who gets in.  I won't puppet the absent players, so if you bring them along, you are responsible to post for them in future threads.

Me (and Hearse) are the most recent additions, so i wouldn't know how to play the missing players very well. That said, we do need people staying behind on base defense...

I'm only planning on bringing Lorenzo and Hank along, as they put posts up saying they were in the facility, and then releasing them into the wild once we got outside (assuming their players don't return).

NPC wise there's only a passing comment saying that Luke might be in the facility, though I'd be happy enough to run him along with Isabelle if and when she appears.

As for us saving new NPCs, I'm happy to have one or two with us if everyone else is, after all it is a new "season"

That's an option too, yeah...

So yeah, i'm all for saving everyone we are currently able to, and then also for going our separate ways, so that if they return, at least their PCs will be not killed off.

Sounds like a plan to me

Sorry for the delay.  Been super busy.  Glad to get back and put up a post for ya!

Thanks for the post.  I'll be on vacation for the first time in (3) years and will be back in September.

Happy holidays :)

Thank you!
May this new year be an exciting one for you and your family John!

With three of them ending up sick and one in the hospital for an overnight stay, 'exciting' is certainly the right word.

They're all fine now though, though one is still on the back end of pneumonia. ^^;

Oh my!  I'm sorry to hear that you are having a rough start of it all.   May God speed the healing that is needed so that you can have the turn-around 2024 that God is bringing to so many this year!

Have things gotten any better for you?

Yes and no, had the flu but it's passed as of a day or two ago, went to a bday today and i've got Comic-con up tomorrow, with a visit from my mother the day after. So things are busy, but in a good way :)

In reply to Johnathan Metraxys (msg # 103):

How was Comicon?  That sounds like it would have been terrific!

Well... More like something else with 'terr-' in it, actually.

The hall of the venue the event was in was smaller than a soccer pitch, with 80% of it stands selling 'mystery bags'. There was an area with seats and a big projector screen, and a sofa in front of it for guests to arrive, so you'd think they'd talk movie trailers, right? Nope, in comes a writer for Hollywood to talk about the labor strike of the Writer's Guild, and he was about as entertaining as a sack of potatoes. Also, people were giving autographs and, going by how busy the line was, i'm certain i wasn't the only one who never heard of any of them.

Honorable mention to the few stands that actually tried to make something of it, one had trial swordfighting classes and another set up a full-on Maid Cafe.  Also a fair amount of cosplayers, but since they're audience i'm not counting it in favor of the event itself. Overall, it was a Comic, Movie and Manga convention with (virtually) no comics, movies or manga.

Don't know why they made the event last a weekend, when all you'd need is an hour or two before heading back home. But hey, one less thing on the bucketlist i suppose.