Shotgun Diaries Rules

Jan 21, 2016 12:40 am
This section will be broken into three sections: Character Creation, Gameplay, and Character Advancement.

Character Creation
Creating a character is easy. Copy Paste the Character Journal below:

Name:
Archetype:
Journal:
Fear:


Name- Give your survivor a name.
Archetype- There are six Archetypes in Shotgun Diaries: Clever, Dangerous, Fast, Sneaky, Strong, and Helpless.
Clever Survivors can jury-rig tools and weapons. They can make machines work. They can figure things out. Clever Survivors roll 4d6 whenever they're using their brains to survive. Examples: Scientists, Doctors, Inventors.
Dangerous Survivors can kill you in ten different ways with a plastic spoon. They can shoot guns with deadly accuracy. They know where all your mushy parts are. Dangerous Survivors roll 4d6 whenever they're using violence to survive. Examples: Soldiers, Policemen, Crooks.
Fast Survivors can run like hell. They can juke and scramble. They can leave you in the dust and they only need to be faster than the slowest survivor. Fast Survivors roll 4d6 whenever they're using their feet to survive. Examples: Distance Runner, Personal Trainer, Cutpurses.
Sneaky Survivors can move around unnoticed. They can disappear into thin air. They can slip though any
cracks they can fit their head through. Sneaky Survivors roll 4d6 whenever they're using the shadows to survive. Examples: Assassins, Cat Burglars, Pick Pockets.
Strong Survivors can pick up heavy things and set them down lots of times. They can crush a 16oz can of beer with their hand and smash it into a small coin against their forehead. They can throw a dumpster over a small car, or a small car into a dumpster. Strong Survivors roll 4d6 whenever they're using their brawn to survive. Examples: Weight Lifters, Bouncers, Clydesdale Horses.
Helpless Survivors can't do much of anything. They depend on others to survive. They're more often a detriment than an asset. Helpless Survivors never get dice to roll to survive unless they're with other survivors. Examples: Children, Elderly, Invalid.
Journal- For the time being, this is a simply an area to give your character a little bit of background. Who was the character back when the world was easy? What did they do for a living? Who did they lose and what do they still have? What motivates them, and why do they still struggle to survive every day? For now these are just some examples of things that can be put here to make your character more than just an "extra" soon to come to the foreground covered in teeth marks. Later, if the character survives long enough, this journal might be updated with valuable lessons the survivor has learned; lessons that will give the survivor advantages under appropriate circumstances. This will be covered under the Character Advancement section of this thread.

An Example Character is given below:
Name: Norton Tyler
Archetype: Fast Survivor
Journal: Norton is 38 years old. He used to sit in a cubicle day after day, processing medical claims for an insurance company... Or maybe he was insuring medical patients who had pending medical claims... Actually he might have been paying medical claims to doctors that didn't have insurance. Hell Robert had no idea what exactly he did for 8 hours a day in his cubicle colony. He had a family before everything went to hell, though, and that's the only reason he sit in that awful box for 40+ hours a week. In the evening's after he put his kids to bed, he'd go out for his nightly run. He trained for marathons, even ran Boston once. It was sort of his thing that kept him sane and let him believe he was different from all the sedentary, miserable bastards that hated the cubicle colony as much as he did. When the world got awful his middle daughter was spending the night at a friend's house across town. She's the only one of his family he didn't kill or watch die, or kill after he saw them die. Holding out hope that she got out somehow, that she's alive and safe with some set of parents he only met once at their kids' holiday concert. It's a long shot, but falling asleep and waking up in one piece is a long shot in this world now, and so far he's been beating the those odds.

This concludes the Character Creation section of this game. Remember, each player is allowed two characters, both of which can be played together. These characters should be added to the "Shotgun Diaries Characters" thread, both under a single post.


Gameplay Rules
As a narrative/storytelling experience, there's very few rules used in Shotgun Diaries. However, in keeping the game a complete free-for-all, and to ensure the survivors are never always successful, there are a few rules regarding Taking Risks, Fear, and The Zombie Clock. Likewise, to prevent the game from becoming a complete slaughter, there are a few rules regarding Finding Sanctuary, Gathering Supplies, and Special Weapons and Tools.

Taking Risks:
For the most part the GM narrates events as they unfold and the players simply explain what their characters are doing and it can be considered done. However, whenever a survivor has to fight or otherwise survive a zombie assault, dice need to be rolled in a process called "taking risks". When a survivor takes a risk, the player states what the character is going to try and do to survive the zombie attack. If the action being taken is in accordance with the character's archetype the character rolls 4d6. If the action is not in accordance with the characters archetype, the player gets no dice to roll. If the players rolls at least one "6", the action is successful and the player gets to narrate what happens and how their character survives the zombies. If the character takes a risk and fails though, either because the player didn't roll a "6" or because they weren't given any dice to roll, the GM narrates what happens, which is always very bad, and usually results in death.
It should also be noted that if a character is with other survivors, they get one extra die to roll for every survivor that either directly or indirectly helps them. This is the only way a character who isn't playing to their archetype can roll dice and take a risk, and it the only way a Helpless Survivor can ever do anything.

Finding Sanctuary Survivors can occasionally find reprieve from the constant onslaught of living dead by taking refuge in side a defensible building. In order to determine whether a building is a feasible sanctuary each player that plans to enter the building and use it's defenses must agree to take a risk. Then all survivors that were willing to take the risk roll 4d6 (except Helpless Survivors; they may not roll any dice). There are no bonus dice awarded for taking this risk with other survivors. If the total number of sixes rolled by the group does not exceed the number of survivors intending to use the building as a sanctuary, the defenses were insufficient to keep out the onslaught of the dead and they have trapped themselves with no escape. The GM will narrate how bad it gets. If the total number of sixes rolled among the group exceeds the number of survivors that intend to use the safehouse, the location is a temporary sanctuary. The total number of sixes rolled is now equal to the sanctuary's defense score (see The Zombie Clock) below. All of the sixes rolled are also put into the center of the table and become Supplies (also see below)

Gathering Supplies At the beginning of play all Survivors roll 4d6, and any 6 rolled goes to the center of the table marked as Supplies. After this Supplies can only be replenished by finding sanctuary. The dice in the center of the table (or in this case noted at the bottom of the GM's most recent post), are available for the taking by all survivors (even Helpless Survivors) as needed. Supplies are nondescript, and can become whatever is needed as it becomes needed. One die may become a pair of new running shoes, while another may become an ammo cache, while another may be various items needed to jury-rig a weapon or a trap. Whatever the supply dice eventually become is entirely up to the player narrating their characters successful risk. To use a supply, simply take one or more from the pool in the center of the table and add those dice to the survivors pool when taking a risk. Once a supply die is used, it is gone.

Special Weapons and Tools
Survivors may choose instead to use a supply die become a Special Tool or Weapon. Most Special Tools and makeshift or melee Weapons give a +1 bonus, reducing the number needed for a success by 1 while taking a risk. Firearms, however, have a +2 bonus. Whenever taking a risk using a supply die and converting it to a firearm the number needed for a success is reduced by two. Thus risks taken using a tool or melee weapon succeed on a 5 or 6. Ricks taken using a firearm succeed on a 4, 5, or6.

The Zombie Clock
Throughout the game, clicking constantly away in the background (yet the progress of which is also noted at the bottom of each post made by the narrator) is the Zombie Clock. The purpose of the Zombie Clock is to keep gameplay progressing at a reasonable pace, and to remind the players that chaos is always just around the corner. The zombie Clock starts at "1" and in face-to-face games, the zombie Clock goes up one rank every ten minutes. As this isn't a feasible option in a PbP game, the zombie clock will increase by one rank every IRL week of play.
Every time the Zombie Clock increases by one rank a number of things happen:
1) The Sactuary's security rank is reduced by one rank. This represents the zombies constant assault on the safehouse's barricades.
2) The party's Supplies are reduced one die. This represents the resources used up by the group as they sit and hide.
3) When the Zombie Clock's rank exceeds the Sanctuary's security rank, the zombies have broken into the safehouse, and chaos once again ensues as survivors struggle to escape or fight their way out, sometimes abandoning others to save themselves, sometimes being torn to pieces trying to save their fellow survivors.
4) The ZM may also manually manipulate the Zombie Clock in order to cause complications for the survivors. To cause a complication for the survivors the ZM reduces the Zombie Clock by one rank. A complication may be that a vehicle breaks down in the middle of nowhere. It may mean that a lone zombie managed to find a weak spot in a sanctuary's defenses and slip inside. Maybe a fire accidentally started n a corner of the sanctuary and someone needs to go outside to access a fire hydrant. Complications are simply there to threaten the survivor's sense of security.

Fear and Fear Checks
Finally, the last rule to be noted is on Fear. While survivors are often rewarded for sticking together as a group, and occasionally may find the likelihood of survival greater if they were abandon the others and go it alone, Fear is is one factor that can interfere with even the most kindhearted Player. All characters start with one rank in Fear. Witnessing or experiencing certain traumatic events will cause survivors to make a fear check. These traumatic issues are:
1) Witnessing another survivor killed.
2) Seeing a zombie the survivor recognizes.
3) Finding a zombie inside a sanctuary.
4) Losing something key to survival.
5) Being ditched by a fellow survivor.
6) Any other dramatic scene of horror or helplessness, per the ZM's discretion.
Whenever a Fear Check is needed, the player rolls 1d6. If the player rolls higher than the survivor's current Fear Rank, the Fear rank increases by 1.

Whenever you make a risk check some of your dice will be Fear dice and are equal to the survivor's Fear rank. These Fear Dice will be noted and designated as the first dice rolled by the GP system on any risk. So if a survivor has a Fear rank of two and has to roll 4d6 to take a risk, the computer will roll the dice. While all 4 dice will be used to see of the risk was successful or not, the first two results will be noted as being Fear Dice. If a player is ever forced to use one of the Fear Dice to succeed while taking risk, the character survives the risk but must use their success to hide, run away, or even save themselves at the expense of others.

Character Advancement
Every time the character survives the onslaught of the Zombie Clock exceeding Sanctuary security rank, they may add an entry in their journal. This serves two purposes.
1) The survivor may reduce their Fear Rank by 1.
2) the survivor may make one specific observation about their abilities in this new world. Whenever this observation is invoked during gameplay from then on, the character gains one bonus dice for taking tests. For example, a caharacter my discover that they're particularly deadly with a claw hammer. Whenever the sirvivor uses a claw hammer to make a risk check, they get one extra die to roll, just as if they had another survivor helping them. Or maybe the character realizes they're a strong swimmer. they will gain one extra die to roll whenever taking a risk that inbvolvces swimming. As stated before, all observations noted in the character journal must be specific. TA player can't make a broad observation that their character has suddenly gotten fitter in the last few days, in an attempt to earm a bonus die for literally every risk they take.

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