There was a release date announced? Sooooo looking forward to this game.

Yes well looks like I won't hit it, but making a big push in the next 24 hours to get the roles finished and randed.

ROLES THAT NEEDED TO BE RANDOMIZED HAVE BEEN

IT IS NOW INAPPROPRIATE TO DISCUSS STRATEGY IN THIS OR ANY OTHER THREAD UNLESS SPECIFIED BY ME PERSONALLY.

What happens next:

I am still writing role PMs, it is a time consuming process.

I will, however, begin contacting people privately to inform them if they have received a special role which is a different experience from an ordinary town survivor, such as being a member of a smaller team like the umbrella or syntech teams of the previous game, to confirm they are ok to play those roles.

Last minute switches may occur if people demonstrate no response to my inquiry or for other valid reasons. Smaller teams suffer from inactivity more, so they absolutely must be active.

I should be able to go as a reserve, if you need me Pizza.

Full game rules and game mechanics should be published within 24 hours in rough unedited Pizza style. Cracking that whip on myself.

Will edit it down and make it look nicer, hopefully with help from my lovely assistants.

What the hell, those're zombies.

Don't worry, these rules will be reposted in a better location when the game begins.

OFFICIAL GAME RULES



1. Observe all the Gameroom rules as posted in the Gameroom subforum. They are stickied for easy reference. The major thing that applies to this game is sportsmanship, because unlike most games, there are some aspects of the game I simply cannot police. I need you to be mature and not do things which break the game, as described here.

Please do not grumble about the outcome of the game, or any delays that may occur. Be a good sport!

2. PRIVATE COMMUNICATION outside the thread about the game, and PUBLIC discussion about the game is not allowed unless specified exactly by the game host.

No seriously, this is the biggest rule of them all. Most of you cannot communicate telepathically across a city, so unless you have an item which allows such communication, you cannot talk to your friends or enemies about the game in any way shape or form. You may mention the game in passing to a friend who is not playing if you wish, but do not divulge your current stats, weapons, location, or other sensitive personal information. You never know who your friend might tell that information to... and having your friend communicate this information to other players on purpose is an intentional rule break and it is not allowed, no exceptions.

If someone accidentally breaks this rule, please inform me immediately, and I'll send them a friendly warning. This is the best outcome for that situation. Otherwise, you're on the hook for this rule break as well.

ENFORCEMENT:

This particular rule is so important, that I need to be informed of any accidental rule breaks here immediately, to maintain the game balance. It is possible to keep playing, but there may be a penalty. Depending on the situation, I may have to release you from the game. However I value honesty and you may play other games of mine. Repeated or (In My Opinion) Intentional rule breaks will result in a ban from this and possibly future games.

3. Screenshots or quoting/full revealing your "Role PM" and any other message from the game host is banned.

However, you may tell people your name, your general objective, and what items or weapons you have, at your own peril. Just do not copy/paste my role PM, and do not ask anyone to reveal their role PM. Remember, the above rule (Number Two) still applies... you can't reveal anything to anyone you don't have contact with. (This means you need to have a method of communication, or you need to be in the same grid coordinate or you need to be in adjacent grid coordinates)

4. When you die

You can continue play as a zombie, provided you be a good sport. This is your best chance of scoring well if you die. The participation points and opportunities to score are quite real, and you can still have a wonderful time. If you don't want to be a zombie when you die let me know.

5. PUBLIC DISCUSSION:

I will allow for there being a public thread for commenting. However, the following is strictly enforced:

You are not to discuss any of the following-

1) Who you are in the game
2) Where you are in the game
3) What you plan on doing in the game
4) Reveal any game-related information that you have obtained during the game

What can you do?

A) Comment on how awesome the writeups are
B) Comment on how lousy the writeups are
C) Prod the game host to "GET ON WITH IT"
D) Ask a question to the game hosts which does not reveal private information.
E) Want to say something else? Get permission first, please.

6. Other rules

If I need to adjust the rules or aspects of the game, I as the host have the prerogative to do so. I will attempt to keep my hands off, but if I need to make a final balancing adjustment to the game or add or remove elements of the game, I reserve that right.

However, every change I make to the game (if any) will be logged and made public, with apologies that I did not do my job as a game designer and iron out any difficulties beforehand. If this change affects your character or your play in any way, you reserve the right to protest such an action, and you will get my sincere apologies. If I accidentally made your weapon too powerful, then I have learned my lesson for next time. However, if there is a major problem with the game (such as the LUCK stat being too powerful that it prevented normal combat) I may adjust its strength, globally, and announce that change. Other than that, I really have to leave the game as-is and hope for the best. Any change will be made in good faith and with the best interests of fairness and fun.

7. Phase length

The reality of this game is that my real life schedule will greatly impact when new rounds begin.

You will have a minimum of 3 days (72 hours) to send in Movement Phase orders.
You will have a minimum of 2 days (48 hours) to send in Interactive Phase orders.

You may attempt to send in missing orders after this deadline for an additional 24 hours, and I will attempt to carry out your wishes as best I can, however, if my hosting duties have already progressed too far to fully accept them, your orders will essentially be to either stand still and waste a turn, or arrive too late to your destination to do anything the following phase, depending on the severity of how your late orders would affect the outcome. That's why it behooves you to get your orders in on time.

Please note it may sometimes (or often) take longer than 24 hours to resolve your orders. Be patient, this game is more work than hosting 10 large complicated mafia games at once, or hosting 3 huge sized mish-mash games for you 2+2 types. I have a co-host and a backup co-host and this will still be more work than I can always handle within a 24 hour period.

I reserve the right to add a new rule here, if I need to do so I will announce it. Otherwise, just seven rules to worry about.

Frequently Asked Questions from the last game that still apply to this one: (ignore the numbers)




1. Am I allowed to talk to you outside the thread about the game? (referring to the game host)

A: Yes of course, and you may also talk to anyone in your square, in an adjacent square, or if you have a communications device and so does your friend. Think: Two-way radio. The instant you are out of contact, however.... you move too far away.... you can't talk to them anymore. Not without that radio device.

2. How do you find out if anyone is there?

A: You have a certain amount of line of sight which allows you to see people a few tiles away, and you can communicate with and know the name of the players in your "zone of control" which is the 8 tiles surrounding your tile.

By "see", I mean I'll tell you they are there.

NEW: You are also allowed to climb on top of a building or structure at your location during the "Interactive Phase" and listen and observe carefully. Using this course of action will allow you to determine which direction noises are coming from, which will give you a rough approximation of where everyone else in the game is. You just won't know if they are friendly, hostile, human, or zombie. You also won't know precisely their locations or exactly how far.Example: "There are at least a dozen people northwest of your location, fewer people to the south."

6. Can you attack some one without them attacking back?

A: Yes. A first strike will cause damage without retaliation on the first round of combat. Then if their orders are to escape from combat, they will flee immediately, if they're still alive.

8. Can different factions work together / not automatically attack each other?

A: Yes.

9. What about zombies, can I work with the zombies? Or other, non-zombie monsters?

A: Zombies are different, they cannot cooperate with you. They are part of the zombie horde and have limitations on what they can do.

Other monsters may be intelligent, but I won't reveal whether or not they're hostile.

10. Are we able to make noise? Our awarness is limited but sound travels a long way.

A: Well, that's good thinking, but it goes against the limitations of what I designed the game to do. Let's pretend if you were to do something like that, the entire zombie horde comes after you, and that's the reason why you can't. However, there is something in the game, the flare gun, which if you fire it into the air, everyone on the map can see it and know precisely where it was fired. You can use that to rally people to your location... or lure them into a trap.

11. Do we start with 0 points on everything? When choosing what to add points to, Is there a limit to the amount of points I can assign to any one attribute ?

A: Most of you start with all your points evenly distributed. You can choose to take away points from one category and add it to the other. So if you don't assign your points, all your skill sets will have an average number of points. And yes, your maximum points in a category at the start of the game is 10.

Other roles in the game have restrictions, minimums, maximums, or completely locked stats, for game balance purposes. Most ordinary townsfolk can customize their stats, however.

12. If I'm attacked does the attack take a fixed amount of my vitality or does it vary? Could I die in one strike (with no chance to fight back or run away), or would it take many?

A: Some weapons will cause more than one point of damage if you are hit successfully. Yes, you can die in one strike with certain weapons. For example: If you get blasted by the rocket-propelled grenade, you can possibly die instantly (especially if your luck fails). If you get hit repeatedly by an automatic weapon (several shots fired in one combat round) you can lose enough vitality to die that round. Also, some players will have the strength, speed, and skill to cause severe damage with melee weapons.

However, any attack which removes your final vitality point gets a special 50/50 "saving throw". If you win the "saving throw" you will survive the attack and keep your final vitality point.

13. Can this save throw be used multiple times? Seems like you could survive a long time if you get lucky.

Yes. Every time your final vitality point is taken away, you have a 50/50 chance at life or death.

This means someone can shoot at you with a machine pistol 4 times in a combat round, and have you miraculously survive each bullet. Or you could die on the first one.

16. Can you have more then two weapons? Eg, can you have a sniper rifle and a sub machine gun at the same time?

Yes. You can carry an unlimited number of weapons and items and gear.

17. Also, a related point: During any given combat round can you use more than one weapon, perhaps one in each hand fired simultaneously?

You can use a different weapon on a different combat round, but not two different ones in the same round. The one exception is if you're using two guns that come as a pair. For example there's a pair of machine pistols that come as a pair and effectively count as one weapon. In all other cases, there are no exceptions.

18. Can you combine two similar pistols and treat them as a pair?

No. Pistols will be relatively common and there will be little point in having automatic weapons in the game when you could effectively turn common pistols into an automatic weapon simply by holding one in each hand. I know this breaks the realism a bit, but it's for the purposes of simplicity (I have made only rare sacrifices in realism for the sake of simplicity) and game balance. If I allowed that, I'd have to make automatic weapons even more powerful than they already are, and then anyone with automatic weapons will destroy anyone with any other kind of weapon, and that's a game balance issue. They are already powerful enough and I do not believe two handguns are more powerful than a single sub-machine gun, and that's the only reason I won't allow combining two weapons.

19. Do I need to know anything about Resident Evil?

Nope, you don't need to know anything about Resident evil. For people who aren't fans of the series:

1. The dead people in this game turn into zombies and keep playing. They can be killed with weapons, or you can outrun them.

2. There are non-human creatures that are much bigger and stronger than you. Especially the crowd-busting creature that I will be sending after you. He's about 20 feet tall.

3. Herbs can be mixed together to make heath items or attribute-boosting items.

4. There will be almost no one from the Resident Evil games in this game. 98% of you are all new characters. Yes, you have images that look like RE characters, but that's because I'm not about to make 52 brand-new images. These are new characters, with the rare exception.

5. Some of your fellow townsfolk may simply wish to kill you and take your weapons and items, to increase their chance of survival. Others want you eliminated anyway because they aren't ordinary townsfolk.

20. Can I go into the river?

There may be zombie fish which will um.... eat you.

Like piranhas, except they are undead and super, super strong and extra bloodthirsty.

STAY OUT OF THE WATER!!!

21. Does the river have sharks?

I would have sharks, but this particular mountain river doesn't have any.

24. As a Botanist, does it mean that i have a 50% chance of finding herbs (during search mode) regardless of search value?

50% during search mode regardless. You find herbs 50% of the time on average regardless of how bad your search value is.

25. If i increase my search stat, would this chance increase with it?

Nope, just your chance of finding OTHER items and weapons.

26. the combined herbs that give +1 or +2 vitality; that essentially means getting more stats points right?

All of your stats can increase depending on which herbs you find. Some herbs heal you. The really good herbs are rare.

27. Is there a limit to the number of items we can carry?

Nope

28. combat is good for guns but not so for melee yes?

Combat is important in all forms of... combat. Strength just enhances the damage you do in melee. But think of combat as your TO-HIT-YOUR-OPPONENT percentage no matter what.

29. What's the difference between strength and combat?

Combat is your To-hit-your-opponent percentage. Strength, as it pertains to combat, relates only to melee, and it increases the damage of your physical attack weapon, not your guns, if any.

31. Can people inside a group have different commands? For example, one guy is in Search mode, while the other is guarding in Defense mode and the third is in Stealth mode?

People inside a group can have different commands, absolutely!

32. Can players give other players gifts or exchange equipment?

Yes, players can gift or exchange equipment. Both parties inform the host of their intent, and they must be in the same square or adjacent squares.