<span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 14pt;"><span class="bbc_u"><strong>Dead State. Basic Game Info.</strong></span></span><br/><br/>First of all I am aware, excited by and a backer of the Kickstarter project of the same name. My old PBeM game came first and its lists are still up on Google Groups for all to see. So there. I have precedent to use this name without embarrassment.<br/><br/>Second, its really not about the zombies. Its about the writing, the characters, the stories. Its about taking the world back a piece at a time. Its about surviving against the odds.<br/><br/>Third, We are fussy. We don't take just anyone and there is a vetting process. We look for writing style, quality and posting frequency. If you made it into E itself you are familiar with the process of being vetted most likely. We have a fairly in depth character bio form which you are required to fill out and we will be looking at stalking anyone who expresses an interest. If you do not have a history of posting on E yet we will ask for submissions of your writing via PM.<br/><br/>While we are fussy, we are not -that- fussy. We took in Caitlin after all, so hey, we can't be -that- bad. *Teasing grin* We are quite warm and fluffy once you come to know and understand us, we just have a certain basic standard we are looking for.<br/><br/>This will be collaborative fiction. We will be discussing where to take the plot as a group in the OOC thread, sketching out a plot and then writing towards that goal as a group. This sort of approach requires a mature and intelligent group of writers which I believe I have at this point and am very grateful for.<br/><br/><hr/><br/>The game takes place in the town of Romero New York, which is to the north of the state near Syracuse.<br/><br/>The game features zombies, the living dead, the walking menace. They are an ever present threat, the bogeyman, the monster under the bed.<br/><br/>The zombies in the game are of the Romero type. If you are unsure of the Romero type of zombie watch the films Night of the Living Dead, Dawn of the Dead and Day of the Dead.<br/><br/>They are slow, however they are relentless, unforgiving, they don't sleep, they don't rest and they keep coming. They will break down a hastily constructed barricade over time, once they see or hear you they will not give up the chase till they have your flesh in their mouths or they find someone else to munch on. They kill and eat the living, and those they kill and leave enough of left behind get up and kill the living.<br/><br/>As the story begins its shortly before dawn in late fall (autumn to folks from the old country). The days are getting shorter, the weather colder, and some time last night the dead started walking.<br/><br/>Those who have stayed up all night will have seen the first news reports and the first paniced blog posts about it. They will know that this situation exsists all over the world, that it happened everywhere simultaneuously, and that governments are generally not reacting quickly or well to the things. That they don't understand what is happening and so are taking the wrong steps, as a whole, to combat the change in status of man from top of the food chain to meat for the undead.<br/><br/>The game is not about the zombies.<br/><br/>The game is not about the player characters cutting a bloody swathe through the zombies, returning each and every undead in their path to the grave.<br/><br/>This game is about the psychological effects on human beings of being besiged in the modern age by an implacable threat that you cannot stop. We are looking for realism and ordinary people under extreme stress.<br/><br/>Not to say you can't take out the occasional walking dead, we just don't want to see the kind of writing where guns never run dry, every shot is a perfect shot at the hindbrain no matter the situation and nobody ever get's bitten.<br/><br/>We don't like that sort of thing. We don't encourage it, and we don't stand for it. If this is what you are seeking, this is not the game for you. Please remember to switch off the lights on your way out.<br/><br/>The game will focus on several locations in the town where survivors will congregate, and eventually move out and reclaim the rest of Romero. These locations are to be inviolate. Zombies will not be written as breaching them, and they will remain as safe houses both figuretively and literally in some cases.<br/><br/>These locations are as of right now.<br/><br/>Boulcotts Department Store downtown, The Costco Distribution Warehouse in the industrial district on the outskirts of town, the The Judith Ridley Memorial Mall and TNT Surplus.<br/><br/>Once the town has been re-taken, if the game makes it that far, longer term goals for the survivors can be discussed in character.<br/><br/>The rules of the game are.<br/><br/>1: You get bit, you die. No antibiotics, no antivirals, no chopping off of bits (which is a bad idea if bitten on the neck anyway) is going to help you. The zombie mouth carries stuff nastier than that of the kimodo dragon. If you are bitten you grow weaker, you sweat a lot, you can't eat, you can't hardly move, you can't walk. Then you lay where you fall for a while. Then you die. Then if your friends don't find you and destroy the brain you get up and try to eat them. Zombie bodily fluids, especially after a few days of putrefaction, are extremely nasty and once infected a character is going to die.<br/><br/>2:<span class="bbc_u"><em><strong>No one man armies.</strong></em></span>No, its not cool, its not clever and its not fun for anyone. No not even you. Yeah, you are the kind of person that cheats in online multiplayer games because you can't win otherwise, and spoils it for the rest of us. We get the picture. Crawl off somewhere and grow a pair already. Realism is the order of the day and one man armies are not realistic.<br/><br/>3. Injuries are to have real world style consequences. Please research this if necessary. Without experienced medical professionals even quite minor injuries can rapidly become fatal. Major ones are<em>very</em>likely to kill.<br/><br/>4: Use your common sense. If you don't have one, you will not be issued with one. You are expected to either provide your own, or not apply in the first place.<br/><br/>5: The four locations listed above are not to be breached. They are the holdout locations for survivors and must remain inviolate.<br/><br/>6: There is no rule 6!<br/><br/>7: No zombie characters. No. The dead are the dead. We concentrate on the living.<br/><br/>8: Any issues with other players tell one of the mods. Any issues with one of the mods, tell one of the mods. Any issues with the game as a whole, tell one of the mods. Any issues outside of the game, don't tell one of the mods. Thats your own problem.<br/><br/>9: Any drop-outs become either zombie chow or NPC's and fair game for new/existing players to take over.<br/><br/>10: Mods are mods are mods. They look out for continuity and are there to not only steer the game but keep it on the straight and narrow. Please respect them and use your common sense. See rule 4.<br/><br/>11: Actions must have consequences and if any player involved in the game writes anything that is egregiously variant from agreed plot, logic or Dead State world norms then they will be quite reasonably asked to make changes to their post.<br/><br/>12: There is no minimum post limit, as writing styles differ and things do tend to be faster with shorter posts during dialogue. However if its a small number of people having a chat please consider a Joint Post as it helps with the flow enormously.<br/><br/>The object here is to write an interesting and compelling work of collaborative survival horror fiction. Or die trying.<br/><br/>Please fill out a bio form http://www.zen90682.zen.co.uk/blankbio.doc (http://www.zen90682.zen.co.uk/blankbio.doc) and mail it to me at veganmayonnaise@gmail.com along with possibly a picture of an ordinary type everyday person who matches your character description and visa versa. We are looking for realism here folks, so the closer to real life your picture is the better. Pictures of models or movie stars are not liable to pass muster. I have a good selection and collection of 'real life' type pictures and I am more than happy to help folks find one if they have trouble. While a picture is not required its certainly encouraged.<br/><br/><br/>Accepted characters will then be posted hereabouts. If you require assistance in locating real life pictures I am happy to do so I have a good number of this type of thing on file from lurking and stealing them from /soc/'s neverending 'rate me' threads.