(Biohazard Dawn) A trip to the Pharmacy

[Amadeo]

The following is based on a true story of gaming Biohazard Dawn:

So, I had my very first playtest of my zombie apocalypse game Biohazard Dawn the other day, and from what I've heard and seen it went over really well. I had five players initially but when someone came over later and watched for awhile they wanted in. The players were:

Mariah: Mariah was playing a teenage angst queen with a love of fire and a working knowledge of the Anarchist's Cookbook. While she very rarely used her Molotov Cocktails, she did have a ball frying zombies with her homemade blowtorch. Her class was "Nerd" a catch all for technically inclined characters,
Darryl: Darryl played a former bouncer named Antwon. His class was "Brute" which means he excels in melee damage and his class ability "Improvised Weaponry" meant he was never short on bashing implements, from tire chains to a shaft of wood he tied a bayonet to.
Joanna: Joanna was playing a "Medic", a class that excels at keeping the other characters alive. Biggest problem I noticed with the playtest is that was all she was doing, she didn't have any other attractive options, and I definitely need to work on that.
Logan: Logan was playing Leon, a former police officer who led the group through the trials of the game session. His class was "Marksman", a class that is the master of ranged combat.
Tj: Tj played Diego, an escaped mental patient whose guilt over the deeds he has had to commit to stay alive have summoned forth a "guardian angel" who Diego can see every time he looks in his reflection. He carries around a mirror with which he can communicate with his angel. Diego is a "Joker" a lucky class. You know in horror movies that guy who has no real skills but is somehow still alive, that's the joker.

The final player who joined us was Patrick, who played former little league coach Carl. Carl was a leader, a class that strengthens the team's abilities and is also highly proficient in acts of diplomacy.

The game started with the players running into an alley to escape a hoard of undead that were aroused by a nearby gunfight the party had with a crazed group of national guardsmen. The party's goal was to acquire medicine for their settlement, and having been chased away from the hospital by a group of more well-armed survivors the party decided to search the nearby area in the hopes they may find some sort of pharmacy.

It was at this point the party began to try out their skills, which are essentially keywords that, if the player can come up with a reason for why they could be applied add a bonus to a certain roll. In this case Tj used Diego's "Intuition" skill to try and figure out whether a pharmacy would be near a hospital. Due to his success I was happy to inform him that yes, there was probably a hospital nearby. After which Logan used Leon's "Investigate" skill to see if he could find clues to its whereabouts. After rolling to see the validity of his action (every roll in Biohazard Dawn has target numbers, the amount you roll above the target number after adding in modifiers determines the amount of success you have achieved) Leon discovered a broken sign for "Bob's Drugs", and after a short canvass of the area discovered the storefront still locked and unattended after all these years. It was a small mom and pop store with an attacked apartment inside where the owners family probably lived.

As the party had no thieves in the group they were unsure how to procede until the medic decided she would try to pick the lock, utilizing her "Dextrous and Steady Hands". After a high roll the lock clicked and the party was able to proceed into the darkened chambers ahead. Leon took point and drew his flashlight and handgun and raised the light just in time to spot the zombie who was steadily approaching. At this time I had characters roll for initiative, adding an ability called "Agility" which is also used to determine movement speed and to attack rolls. I've decided however that this sort of move slowed down play as everyone tried to figure out what order they went in, I belive I'll try something more static next time to keep play fast-paced.

Leon acted first firing his pistolat the zombie before it could close into melee. Following this he moved into the building to examine the rest of the room. He was followed by Diego whose luck kept him from being bitten by the zombie at the end of the hall. Combat went well as the zombie remains of Bob (of Bob's Drugs fame) and his family poured from the woodworks to assault the living survivors. Drawn by the earlier gunshot other zombies were quickly gathering outside and Antwon moved to the door to intercept. While switching to his nightstick to conserve ammo Leon was attacked by a zombie and bitten. At this point I rolled a d20 against a percentage number called Resistance, if I had beaten it Leon would become infected and as time wore on he would become more and more a zombie. However, I failed, but the players did not know this, and thus the medic quickly ran over to sterlize his wounds.

Infuriated by his character's injury Logan had Leon distract the zombie with his flashlight as he crashed his nightstick down on the abomination's head. This revealed one of the other mechanics of gameplay that I call flourish, essentially if you get into the roleplay you gain a bonus to your roll. Leon succeded and knocked the zombie to the ground. Although more zombie's came forward to challenge him. Aware that his character wasn't made for melee combat Leon drew his gun again and took a "shooter's stance" a marksman ability that adds an additional bonus to attack rolls.

During Leon's altercation the other players were quickly filling up their bags with prescribed drugs and Antwon was using his weight to handle the zombies at the door.

When it returned to Leon's turn he tried another mechanic, the Called Shot system, which allows a character to increase the difficulty of his shot to attack a specific body part. In the case of the arms this could result in an enemy dropping a weapon, or a shot to the legs may slow an enemy's approach for instance. But Leon went for the most difficult shot, a headshot, which as we all know is a zombie's greatest weakness. On his attack roll he rolled a natural 20, which amounts to an extra 1.5 times damage, and added on to the headshots increased 4 times damage the zombie's head essentially exploded in gore.

The fight quickly died down enough to allow the party to move into the next room, and that is when they heard sounds coming from the nearby fridge. While they were talking about what to do with the fridge and Diego was readying his knives for what was on the other side Carl, played by Patrick heard them talking and quickly assured the group that he was no danger with his "Diplomacy" skill.

Leon, wanting to restock his ammo supply found a gunstore nearby the pharmacy and went with Antwon while Jade stayed behind to set the zombies on fire and some of the others worked together to see if any of the nearby cars were in working order to help them survive.

When Antwon entered the gunstore a group of survivors shot at him, and it was only because Carl came in and used some of his diplomatic abilities that the situation geared down. After a short trading deal the party had not only gained new weapons, but some new allies as well who they took back to the community to help shore up its defense. It was on the way home that they heard a broadcast over the radio made by other survivors holed up in a grocery store. But that, is a tale for another session and we ended the game there.

Players asked when the next sessions would be, stayed around to talk about the games mechanics for about a half hour and talked about what they liked about the game and what they didn't like, all in all I felt it was a very productive playtest.



Please, I've never done this before, posting about playtests and whatnot, so any questions you have will be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time already given and any you may give in the future.

[Abkajud]

Sounds like you got a lot done, friend!
If I might offer a tip on posting play-reports: breaking things up into a) brief-ish synopsis of plot, b) around-the-table interaction, and c) rules quibbles or things that came up, that can do a lot to make sure folks don't have quite so complicated stuff to go through.
When it's all layered together like that, it can be a little tough to read ^_^
That being said, I'm intrigued by how the players are doing with what sounds like (and what you've referred to as) the game's Gamist CA. And, in general, how are the players faring with the game? Did they enjoy it, have fun, have good questions, that kind of thing? When I read the names of the classes in Biohazard Dawn, I was amused - they're very to-the-point and they give it a strong schlocky-horror feel.
Especially "Nerd" and "Joker". And the presence of a character who's lucky is kind of fun, too.

I like that the class system's skills are nice and flexible: when I read that the Medic was able to pick the lock, it made me happy. That's definitely an issue I take with more tactical/crunchy/strategy-based games: if someone doesn't roll up a character of a certain type, the group has trouble dealing with an entire kind of challenge. No good. If characters lean in different directions, but, a la the Medic, they don't do anything that nobody else can do, that's a better deal. What you get if you have unique skills is, well, either a group that's very hodge-podge, or a group that says "No traps/spells/combat, please", depending on the gap in their abilities.

I'm not even entirely sure where such a focus on group synergy like that came from, but I can tell you, I wish it hadn't happened. I don't think it was based on the fiction that inspired the games, as stories have the characters they need, and then make use of those characters.
Lemme ask you this: the PCs would have been able to do something else to get through that door if no one could twist a skill into lock-picking, yes?
And did Bargain Points factor into play at all yet? They sound fun.

- Abby

[Amadeo]

Thank you, so much for the tip. That's a big part of the advice I was looking for, I looked around at other people's posts but they all seemed to do it differently. Then again, it took me like two years of reading D&D books and Dragon magazine articles before I broke down the 3.5 layout process.

As for the Gamist CA, in Biohazard Dawn, the default way to play anyway, is that you win once your colony becomes sustainable without constant excursions for supplies. But, you can make this dream become a reality sooner by having high supplies, which of course necessitate the said excursions, which are called "Seeks" in game. As Seekers it is your job to take a look at what your colony has (it has its own stats like Food Supply, Welfare, Defense and so on) and see what needs shoring up. Because things can happen to your colony while you are gone (determined by a Fate roll at the middle and end of the Seek) such as zombie attacks or one of the guards breaking his leg it is very important to keep your stats relatively high to deal with things while your Seekers are away. The competition comes, not from playing against the other players, but by the GM actively giving a challenge to the players everytime they come out of their Settlement.

The class names, I'm glad you liked that. Originally I tried to really maintain that B-rated horror goodness for the class names. For instance, one class, the "Siren", a class about using your charisma to inspire the other party members to feats of derring-do in your name was originally called the "Hot Chick". But, after looking at it, time and time again I just didn't want to have people pigeonhole the class as a woman. So not only did I change the name of the class, but I also made the first ever Siren a former male model named Hans.

Well, this is still a strategy game, and although my playtest group was larger the game assumes a group of four players (I've found through past iterations of the game that this formula produces the most uncertainty about survival) and with so few characters and such a large amount of skills to use in today's modern world it seemed important to have skills be very general factors.

An emphasis on group synergy is still important in this game, for instance, Leon has an Ability called "Protect and Serve", any time he is under the effects of a Leader's Directed Attack (Leader points out opponent, allies get plus 1 to hit) or a Siren's Damsel in Distress (After an enemy attacks the Siren, allies get a plus 1 to hit it) Leon gains an additional +1 to his attack rolls.

And, to your first question about the lock. Oh yes, if they hadn't been able to pick the lock, the Brute could have smashed either the door or the handle to bits, or Leon could have made a Called Shot against the Lock and busted it off that way. Both things would have had a chance to alert nearby zombies however. Or, if they seemed recalcitrant about that, it is always within the GM's ability and often encouraged in Biohazard Dawn (to keep things fun and moving) to have provided another way in, perhaps a window.

Unfourtunetly bargain points have not made it into the game yet. this was a recalling of the first session of play and I haven't had a session since hashing out Bargain Points to see how it would work.

For everyone else, Bargain points are a favor-for-favor system that can be stored and called in later for some very helpful in game events. Like forcing that other survivor team to lend you their truck so you can get more supplies to your settlement, or calling it in to rest for a night in another settlement with access to their medicine supplies. That kind of stuff.

[Abkajud]

Oh, cool! The rules for settlements sound awesome; good execution!

I know the window you mentioned was just an example, but that got me thinking "well, that wouldn't require hardly any skill to use, now would it?" But then another thought occurred to me - brute strength isn't just for smashing things; maybe if you were sans lockpicking, you could have the Brute manhandle his way up the side of the building to open the window?

The whole "creating challenges" thing is really not my forte when it comes to GMing, as I think more in terms of plot and narrative than I do in terms of "what skills could be used here?" I know it's not at all exclusively for story-games, but the idea of picking character skills to determine what sort of challenges your PC faces, rather than hoping you pick all the good ones.. that's pretty important.

I suppose Gamism could take the Narrativist wisdom of escalation and use that; oh, and now the lightbulb is turning on! Since the GM more or less arbitrarily decides which kind of skills are useful when (barring the occasional awesome jury-rigging, fueled by player creativity), then the skills themselves are not the important issue, rules-wise. The issue would be escalation and consequence, which you could approach at several different points in the skill "process".

Okay - if you "front load" player choices (i.e. place the big choices in character creation), in terms of Challenge, then you could set things up so that, in the get-through-the-door scenario, there's absolutely an ideal approach to the problem. What would have to differ, then, is how one goes about skilling up in that ideal, to ensure that there are fairly equal pros and cons to lock-picking. Go a step further, and you could say that, while brute force or whipping out blueprints or something costs fewer skill points, it also is more prone to escalation.

If you "mid-load" player choices (i.e. put them into actual play only), then rather than making particular skills costlier or cheaper, the difference could be in frequency of application, as well as escalation-level: lock-picking and leverage cost the same, but leverage is more frequently the obvious solution to the problem. That changes the nature of the Challenge for certain kinds of players, though: if you have to keep Exploring until you find the spot where you can use your skills to some effect, I wish you happy hunting. For PCs with more readily-applicable skills, I imagine some tactical options would need to exist so that there's more to obstacles than simple dice rolling.

I dunno what it would mean to "end-load" player choices, but I suppose a retrospective look at the situation and how the PCs handled it could be considered thus. Maybe if you have an in-game relationship riding on, say, breaking into the warehouse in a fairly seamless, subtle fashion, and it's only once the consequences of doing/not doing have been played out that these choices would really, fully matter.

I dunno if this distinction seems applicable; what are your thoughts? Regardless of its relevance, it got me thinking about an old design I had for a D&D clone, one that helped tangentially to inspire Mask of the Emperor: the four "classic" character classes each have a single extra-good skill, like Sorcery, Thievery, War, and Religion. In terms of how these skills work "in the rules", they'd be identical - roll some dice, check the result. The specific skill you have, or use to tackle a Challenge, matters in terms of Color, but not mechanics. This is really getting back to the "Mike's Standard Rant" series, specifically the rant about combat vs. non-combat rules; this Classic Adventuring skill-concept is planted firmly within the notion that it's extraneous to have fundamentally different rules for certain activities based on what those activities are.

The reason for this notion is that it becomes practically tougher to learn and execute a game design with, essentially, multiple "mini-sets" of rules, rather than a larger, organic whole that must be mastered. AD&D2 and, I'm sad to say, Burning Wheel seem to both suffer from this many-piles approach to rules; both have unifying mechanics of a sort, but quite different approaches to different sorts of conflict simulation, based on the sort of conflict. To be fair, I've never seen a form of D&D that lacked this attitude, and pretty much every mainstream RPG is under this impression, as well. But I think it'd go easier on new players, ones still trying to learn a game, to show their stuff through wit and inspiration and verve, rather than the ability to digest large amounts of rules.

[mjbauer]

I also really like the settlement rules, it gives the setting more depth and makes the character's actions have more than immediate consequences.

Do the players play a few days in the settlement and then decide when it would be best to go on a seek (and what to seek for)? Or is most of that determined by the GM?

It sounds like things went really well. Did it go too well (was it not challenging/tense enough)? It seems like the key to a zombie game is the tension and unpredictability of the setting. That might be defeated if a group is too prepared for each encounter/obstacle or if improvising is too easy. I'm not suggesting stifling the players creativity or blocking their attempts, just making sure that you are making the most of your setting. 

Coincidentally, I'm actually watching Night of the Living Dead as I type this.