/tg/ - Traditional Games

>>223745

The primary theme, in my opinion at least, of the Resident Evil series is that information is valuable. Information runs everything and the people who have it escape the calamities around them, people who don't die. This is why the majority of the games focus on unraveling mysteries, solving puzzles, etc. and they are tasked with fighting against villians and creatures which are unknown to them or simply know more than them about the situation. Where you want to start with a game in that universe then is pretty simple - start with what players know.

Players will, for example, expect that if they shoot a zombie in the head then it will die and they won't have to worry about it again. This isn't true with many Resident Evil creatures and shooting the heads off of some of them will either do nothing or make the problem worse. Many games let you get comfortable with the idea of headshots eliminating threats only to introduce a new enemy that does not give a fuck two ways or one way about where you put your bullets. Similarly there is the idea of Crimson Heads who are zombies that have not been completely destroyed (ie. cremated) and who have become stronger because the player failed to properly eliminate them.

Of course another strong theme is that supplies, like information, are limited so you can't always make the best decision…or, rather, you have to make the best decision out of the available options rather than the optimal one. Again, back to Crimson Heads, the player does not have enough supplies to cremate every single zombie so they have to make decisions about which ones are most advantageous to eliminate. Similarly they don't have enough ammo to shoot every single zombie either so running away from the ones you can avoid or using a melee weapon (even if it's dangerous) are things you have to get comfortable with if you want to survive.

So with all that in mind you should consider what the game developers have done themselves in pretty much every new installment of the series - make shit just straight the fuck up. Old information is rendered completely fucking useless when you change the rules of engagement so that is what they do and why they invent a new virus every generation. What works on the T-virus does not work on the C-virus for example and that creates tension because the player doesn't know, exactly, how to handle a threat. There a re few other general thematic elements that you should incorporate into your game, however, that are much less vague and much more helpful…

(cont.)

>>223772

>enemies are always inhuman and changed, in-fighting between party members is uncommon and even the 'human' enemies are revealed to b inhuman when it comes down to putting a bullet in their brain. RE is not a universe of complex moral decisions - if it looks weird and moans you kill it.

>no creature is perfect either, every enemy has some sort of deformity or weakness that can be taken advantage of provided the player has that information available to them. This heightens the value of knowing things in a strong, seamless, mechanical sense.

>character backstories are largely fucking irrelevant beyond as a pretense for information so you may consider a character creation process that is centered more around chances to glean information. You might ask players to, for every step in their character's lives, tell you what possible information about Umbrella, vriuses, etc. they might have learned from it and when the game starts? Hand out postcards with special information, unique to them, that they know and have to keep secret until it's relevant.

Ex. As a child Frank spent a summer on an island with his aunt that was too close to an Umbrella facility and saw several men in trench coats walking around town one day, noticing that their costumes were a bit…strange.

When Frank's player comes to the table you give him a notecard that reads something like "You know that Tyrants have visible deformities they hide in coats or armor." Make the players think about how their lives have potentially been influenced by the baddies because that is really all that matters in a universe like RE - plot outside of Umbrella and zombies is non-existent.

>if the system allows, encourage players to keep track of their inventory and equipment on something tangible (again, notecards work great) because they have to hand the card over to you when it is done. This is a very powerful way to convey to players that what they do has a cost and that their resources are pretty fucking finite. If a player wants to do something then feel perfectly in your right to hold your hand out and ask them if they're sure. Make sure they feel the mental turmoil of losing out on things they might need later.

Do they really want to use their only rocket launcher rocket now? If it's just a tally mark on a character sheet it's easy to make that decision fairly objectively but if you've been looking at a crude rocketlauncher drawing on a notecard you've been handling for weeks? Not so easy. It'll sting a little to hand that over and making sure that sting is there should set the mood.

Op, just use all flesh must be eaten.

>>223772

>>223774

>>223871

Some very good ideas here, thank you both for the advice.

Timeline-wise, I was planning on setting it Post-Raccoon City, but Pre-Umbrella's Fall. Let's say… around the time of Code: Veronica? That means Umbrella still has some venue of respectability, but things are starting to get out from behind the veil of lies, damned lies and bribery.

I was thinking that some non-infected (at least, they appear so initially) NPCs are scattered around the island; low-level lab techs, security guys, even escapees from the "test subjects" groups, just folks who're trying to survive on the island before the PCs even get there.

I'm not sure when the BSAA was actually put together; I don't think it was until some time before the raid on the Caucaus Facility (the final unique levels for The Umbrella Chronicles)?

Hmm… since we're all thinking the plantation should have some dark history to it, what if at least some of the PCs are "ghost chasers?" Tourists who go looking into haunted houses and the like who came to check out this legendary cursed and/or haunted plantation, only to be stranded as the only survivors when the ferry was attacked and eaten by one or more giant gators, ala the one you fight in RE 2?

>>223876

>Hmm… since we're all thinking the plantation should have some dark history to it, what if at least some of the PCs are "ghost chasers?"

That could be very cool, though you may want them to explain why they're decent with firearms (or slowly allow them to get better with guns as the adventure goes on). I guess someone could just be good with martial arts or just beating zombies with their bare fists, but that may end up feeling a lot more Dead Rising than RE.

>>223876

Something to consider is that the BOW market is not exclusively owned by Umbrella and by the time they started mass producing these things you should expect that, like any other market, knock offs and competition started to exist. Perhaps the knock off competition was siphoning off Umbrella's work and has had to make some quick work of their own supplies now that the Raccoon City incident has made it quite clear the kind of risks this sort of development carries with it. It's one thing to make bootleg t-virus out of an old shoe and stolen samples when you don't understand the risks but once you do? Few people would take those risks knowingly is what I'm saying basically, if crystal meth had a chance of unleashing a biotoxic hell on your community less people would cook it.

But not everyone would stop and you mentioned ghosts which has my gears turning - what if you have a knock off virus, developed to provide BOWs for local conflicts or to undercut Umbrella, that once the development teams decide to burn it…it doesn't burn. It's developed into something that, when burned, just changes form and takes on a cloud-like arrangement of organisms. Every smoke cloud that comes from a burned BOW they made is a new, infectious, hard as fuck to deal with BOW that nobody has ever seen or dealt with before because aint' that T-virus a bitch.

So people come around because they think the place is weird and expect ghosts…and they find ghosts. Except these ghosts kept drifting over living animals or corpses and changing them, twisting them, making them into something a little less organic and a little more dangerous. Maybe once the players start piecing together what it is via research notes they find themselves in the middle of a full scale forest fire and think to themselves "Oh well that solves that problem, I guess we're done here." only to see more of the little cloud monsters rising up, blotting out the sky, and drowning the local population in a rain of the things turning everything that isn't currently indoors (maybe just the PCs) into a fuck huge zombie problem.

You can only barricade the door so long.

They're coming in eventually.

None of the notes cover this.

Nobody knows what they are or what kills them because clearly fire is not your friend anymore and putting bullets into them through the window isn't doing much either.

Only so many supplies in the shack and you may as well dump your ghost hunter knock off equipment because that shit aint' helping.

No way out either, the little zombie dust fog has the water covered up too and you can see an awful lot of eyes you don't remember being there before looking back at you from under the water.

What now?

>>223921

> It's developed into something that, when burned, just changes form and takes on a cloud-like arrangement of organisms. Every smoke cloud that comes from a burned BOW they made is a new, infectious, hard as fuck to deal with BOW that nobody has ever seen or dealt with before because aint' that T-virus a bitch.

It's an interesting idea, though I'd probably go with something more like giving swarms of insects a collective consciousness, like the Cifal from the 1st ed Fiend Folio. You could give it a weak point (say a certain clump of insects that actually carry the virus and control the lesser bugs) but you'd still have an enemy that can get into any room by just pouring it's body under the door or through the vents. Have them start out effected by chemicals, and then deeper into the lab the "pure strains" come out and give no shits except to fire or explosives.

Toss in an Umbrella commando team sent to raid the lab, things could get pretty crazy, pretty fast.

Some very interesting ideas here. Thanks to everyone who's offering advice and suggestions so far. I wish I could give you something more solid as a result of your contributions…

>>224403

Draw the Emperor in MSPaint, preferably with titties. This will be acceptable thanks and also, most definitely, heresy.

>>224403

Just come back with some stories once you run this shit, yo.

>>223758

>In fact, if you are playing online, i would like to join you guys.

I would love to do something like that but it's too much work, I've no idea how to (never played a /tg/ type of game before) and I don't want to be a pain in the arse, plus you fags will all ask me to repeat myself a million fucking times because of my accent

>>224562

Im not anglo myself, so i understand how you feel.

All Flesh Must Be Eaten could probably make an RE game work

>>224579

At least you have an excuse lol

I'm ( >>224562) Scottish.

>>224477

I'd love to. But I don't actually have a group to run this with. I was hoping to write up an adventure module/scenario/whatever the terminology is these days based on the advice you guys have given and then leave it here as a sign of thanks.