Just Another Day: A Zombie Survival Choose Your Own Adventure

[Ninjat_126]

Hey again. I'm going away for the weekend, so hang in there for a few days.

As for weapons, I would have suggested taking a pump-action shotgun, but that kind of weapon wasn't among the options listed. That means I'll have to go with...

Nope. There wasn't one in the shop. Also, the guns themselves aren't M1 Carbines and .44 Magnums, they're crappy imitations liable to break at dramatically opportune moments. You have been warned.

 

[RaNDM G]

Also, the guns themselves aren't M1 Carbines and .44 Magnums, they're crappy imitations liable to break at dramatically opportune moments. You have been warned.

Maybe this should have been stated in your last post. Just a suggestion.

 

[Ninjat_126]

Sorry. Really, I'm barely updating at all now. I've been writing 3 or so other stories and have been having a severe case of writer's block.

Ok. Going from the varied votes, I'm saying A, go inside, and number 5, the assault rifle. I'll call it Tyler.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

Safety in numbers. Jacob and I entered the building, to be confronted by a pair of gas-mask and riot armour wearing men behind a makeshift barricade of tables and chairs. After a brief search for injuries and concealed weapons, we were returned our unconcealed weapons and allowed upstairs.

Up on the third floor, we ran into more guards, wearing the same police protective gear but with clear plastic visors on their helmets. They waved us in as well. Inside the first room, we found a collection of people in police uniforms. Even here, they were still holding their weapons and there was a distinct lack of conversation for such a large group.

We were pulled aside by one of of the officers; he appeared to hold some authority.

"Don't get too settled in, we'll be moving out in an hour. We're the remains of the city's police department, and until last night we were comfortably secured inside the hospital. At around 7:00 pm, a massive horde of these zombie things broke in and tore us to pieces. There's another group of police and survivors still on the top floors of the hospital, but they're trapped and need our help to escape. Any help you can give would be appreciated."

As it turned out, most of the city was killed or reanimated in the first night before anyone had a clue what was going on. The next morning, the highways into the city were blocked by huge traffic jams and the drivers were easy prey for the undead. By this morning, they had spread to the outlying suburbs. The military was mostly controlling the spread, but a number of outbreaks had been spotted in other cities around the country and a place this small was of a much lower priority.

If we stayed to help with the rescue, we would have a larger group to travel with when we made our escape. But would that be worth the risk?

Choices:
a) Help the rescue!
b) Leave now, try and escape the city.

Minor Choice:
Feel free to ask the police officers any question you'd like to. Not everything will be helpful though, try not to waste the opportunity.


Hints:
- The suburbs are filled with zombies, remember?
- You might want to learn more about the rare zombie types. Hint hint.

 

[Jedoro]

A, because it's better to stay with a group of people who are at least basically trained with their firearms. And no matter what, save two bullets; one for you, one for Jacob if he doesn't have one left.

As for questions, let's stay on task and ask about the zombies: any special types they've seen, and most effective ways of dealing with them.

 

[Ninjat_126]

Waiting for more votes (if anyone still wants to play), but I tried to recreate Alex in The Last Stand: Union City.

http://armorgames.com/play/12009/the-last-stand-union-city

I'm advertising I guess, but whatever. She's got Oliver and Tyler with her, although there wasn't a head bandanna or the right kind of coat.

EDIT: Hasn't uploaded properly (She's my avatar). I'll try again.

 

[RaNDM G]

b) Leave the city.

I cannot stress this enough. A large group of people is bound to draw the attention of hordes of zombies, and that only puts yourself at greater risk. Not only that, but we would also be taking a trip to the hospital. That's bound to be the most infested point in the city. We should be running in the direct opposite direction.

As for the possibility of rescuing other survivors, they've isolated themselves at the top of a skyscraper. Trying to fight your way up is suicide considering that if the horde follows you up, you'll be trapped along with everyone else. You're not the hero in this story. Aside from a few brushes with the undead, you have no fighting experience whatsoever. So let the police do their job and stay out of the way.

Besides, when you're in a group of that size and you get swarmed, you'll never know when some trigger-happy officer mistakes you for the undead and busts a cap in your head.

 

[RaNDM G]

But what about the value of friendship, RaNDM?

I'm sorry. I didn't think friendship was high on our list of priorities, what with the downfall of civilization as we know it. My mistake. I promise to work on my friendship skills more when we get ourselves slaughtered on the way to the hospital.

That post was sarcastic, by the way.

 

[Bohemian Waltz]

I'm inclined to vote B, but the GM is obviously railroading/guiding so I'll go along with it and vote "A". (the hints about the suburbs being filled with zombies and what not)

Plus the game would get rather boring if the story went down the path of "you make it far enough out of the city for the slow dispersal of zombie density to effectively keep you safe, and start up a post-apocalyptic agriculturally based society and die years later safely in your sleep."

Ask about the zombies.

Also is there any reason we didn't take both the Assault rifle and the M9 handgun? I mean a M9 is at tops 2 pounds fully loaded and can be useful as a back-up weapon or we can pawn it off on another survivor unlucky enough to not be equipped with a firearm.

 

[RaNDM G]

Also is there any reason we didn't take both the Assault rifle and the M9 handgun? I mean a M9 is at tops 2 pounds fully loaded and can be useful as a back-up weapon or we can pawn it off on another survivor unlucky enough to not be equipped with a firearm.

Using two guns instead of one? That just wouldn't be fair for the zombies.

Since Benndak changed his vote, that puts the score at 2-2. We need a tiebreaker.

 

[Bohemian Waltz]

Also is there any reason we didn't take both the Assault rifle and the M9 handgun? I mean a M9 is at tops 2 pounds fully loaded and can be useful as a back-up weapon or we can pawn it off on another survivor unlucky enough to not be equipped with a firearm.

Using two guns instead of one? That just wouldn't be fair for the zombies.

It's also a fairly useful shot to the head of the Convient gun jam/misfire trope [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ConvenientMisfire]

 

[Ninjat_126]

I'm inclined to vote B, but the GM is obviously railroading/guiding so I'll go along with it and vote "A". (the hints about the suburbs being filled with zombies and what not)

Railroading? Me? I'm hurt.

(Actually, I changed most of my story to suit the players' opinions and have tried to avoid railroading. But I'm not that experienced at GM/DMing, so I've probably failed on that count.)

It's also a fairly useful shot to the head of the Convient gun jam/misfire trope [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ConvenientMisfire]

Don't worry, I won't kill you with that. If it happens (unlikely), you have a chance to get out of it.

I'll need to wait for a tiebreaker vote before I continue, but whatever you pick you'll have a reasonable chance of escaping alive unless you do something stupid.

 

[Jedoro]

Eh, for the sake of continuing, I'll change to "get the hell out of Dodge."

 

[Bohemian Waltz]

I'm inclined to vote B, but the GM is obviously railroading/guiding so I'll go along with it and vote "A". (the hints about the suburbs being filled with zombies and what not)

Railroading? Me? I'm hurt.

(Actually, I changed most of my story to suit the players' opinions and have tried to avoid railroading. But I'm not that experienced at GM/DMing, so I've probably failed on that count.)

What I really meant was that as a rule of thumb any real choices PCs make won't result in a significant reduction of danger. The game would be boring if the PCs win and we die peacefully in our sleep. Without danger to drive the game it becomes stale and lifeless; in short not a very good game.

It is therefor reasonable to assume that any and in fact all courses of action will result in a "throwing us out of the frying pan and into the fire" sort of situation to varying degrees, as it's a GM/DM's job to make the life of the PCs difficult by producing obstacles and danger to drive the game and keep it lively.

It's been established that the suburbs are filled with zombies and been implied that there's nothing of interesting in that direction (besides more zombies). The other choice seems to be a plot-hook of some kind otherwise we wouldn't have encountered the group and continued on our way into the suburbs; it looks like a juicy hook and as such I'll bite. It will likely lead to more characters to interact with and a more interesting harrowing adventures in this zombie survival game.

I'm basically not naive enough to think we can escape and obtain any measure of safety. So sticking with a group and following the hook you've placed at our feet seems to be the best choice. IMO.

Though, truthfully my choice involves heavy amounts of meta-gaming.

 

[Derek_the_Dodo]

I've read the past 4 pages so I think I'll join in.

I vote to go to the hospital. We have an assault rifle and a whole load of cop backup so we're at a better time now to raid a new place than any other that we have been so far. We could get medical supplies, more food, masks and contamination suits to protect us and maybe even a survivor or two.

We should ask if they have any kind of transportation as well, or know where we can find any. we need an escape if the horde comes. Also ask about special zombies.

 

[RaNDM G]

Jedoro changed his vote. The score is 3-2 in favor of leaving town.

 

[Ninjat_126]

Right. 3-2 it is in favour of GTFOing. Also, you're asking about the "special zombies" before you go.
________________________________________________________________________________________________

There was no way I was going to risk my life on a suicide mission like that. Jacob... disagreed. The police didn't seem very happy about it, but they weren't about to shoot me for anything. I stuck around for a while to have the resident gun expert show me how to clean and maintain my guns, and was even given a spare 9mm police handgun from one of the guys who didn't quite make it. I made a point of asking about the zombie types on my way out.

"So far, we've seen three kinds of zombies. There's the walking ones that crash tackle you and try and bite off your face. they don't kill you generally, and they only eat wounded and corpses from what we've seen.

Then there's the runners. They seem to make nests and just curl up in corners most of the time, but if you wake them up they run right at you. They're smart too- if you shoot down two running at you, the third'll try and dodge the bullets. They're not that fast fortunately, but it's not exactly a comforting sight to see a flesh eating cannibal that manages to remember what guns are.

The third ones are covered in all these bruises and swollen veins, and if you break their skin they bleed everywhere. Nobody's been unlucky enough to take a face full of the stuff yet, but I don't think it would be a good idea to try.

Anyone who's been bitten by one of these things just seems to go insane. They become irrational, they lash out at anyone nearby, their heart rate slows and after about twenty minutes they're almost indistinguishable from the rest of the shambling mobs out there. Except for some, who just go full-blown runner and start tearing faces off. Some of the regular shamblers do that as well- just hulk out and sprint at you. No clue why."

I left while everyone else was gearing up for the big rescue mission, heading in the opposite direction. I didn't come across much more than the occasional walking zombie and those went down easily to a crowbar hit to the face. It was only a few minutes later when I saw the crowds begin to thicken in the distance. A mass undead exodus, right down the main streets. Why was I even on a main street?


Choices:
a) Pull a Han Solo and return to the hospital.
b) Find a big 4X4 offroad vehicle and smash right through.
c) Get a motorbike and maneuver around the individual zombies.
d) Find a car, but take it around the side streets and avoid the higher concentrations of zombies.
e) Berserker mode, charge in and start breaking heads.
f) 1337 Sniper mode, use your gun to shoot them down from a reasonable distance.
g) Ninja your way down the side streets on foot.
h) Go out the way you came in- Grab a bike and find a less popular street.


Hints:
- Doesn't seem to be any runners in the crowd. At least, not any running runners.
- You've got a healthy amount of ammo for your AR, but it's not bottomless. Pistol ammunition is much more limited, about 45 rounds or so.
- No, this isn't a dead end, you can get past them. Without going back to the hospital.

 

[Derek_the_Dodo]

i vote c) but only if we can find two of them, one for alex and one for jacob. also they both have to have a full tank of petrol (gas) because we dont want to break down in the middle of nowhere. if neither of these then just go h instead.