Realistic or Modern Fortune Amongst Hardship - zombie apoc survival rp

[RascalRoadkill]

FORTUNE AMONGST HARDSHIP
"These are the end-times,
there was no hope of survival.
This is how you died."
​

---

• The Setup
• Lore
• Player Characters

• 
  
  PREMISE​
  
  
  
  "Fortune Amongst Hardship" intends to be a survival story starting in the summer of 1995, five years after the start of a zombie apocalypse. It focuses on the breakdown of a settlement and the new challenges the remaining survivors must face. Its inspirations include The Walking Dead (particularly the games), The Last of Us I, and above all, Project Zomboid.
  
  The story starts in the midst of the destruction of the safe haven “Fortune Amongst Hardship”- nobody quite knows how yet, but the defenses have failed and the undead cause mass death and chaos. Its numbers whittled down from over a hundred to a small group, the few and far-between remaining survivors (the player characters + some NPCs) are able to regroup. As everyone recovers, they'll try to pick up the pieces, scrounge up resources, flee the area, find a new permanent shelter- and try to find any other remaining survivors. It goes from there.
  
  Get goin'- this is no place for you to die.
  
  

  ---

  
  
  STRUCTURE​
  
  
  
  I'm Rascal, and I'll be your GM. I'm not going to have a Player Character for myself. I will instead be playing out NPCs, the environment, the undead, and any other obstacles. Think of it like a Game Master-to-Players type TTRPG structure, just lacking the mechanics (save for a few dice rolls to determine chance encounters that may come up).
  
  I would consider this to be "semi-lit+". You can go higher if you'd like; I'll never complain about more content! I'd prefer if people could post at least once a week, but that's a preference, not a hard rule at all. Stuff can come up at the worst times. Let's just keep our communications open and be flexible, and all should be well.
  
  This RP will be using Discord for Out-Of-Character comms. I would prefer players to be 18+ due to the nature of the RP.
  
  

  ---

  
  EXPECTATIONS​
  
  
  
  What it says on the tin - Expect blood, gore, mature themes, hard choices and difficult scenarios. Your character is probably going to see, deal with the consequences of, and probably even take part in some fucked up shit. Failure may be frequent.
  
  Keepin' it real - Don't expect to be Total Combat Chads- most people aren't. Even a seasoned military veteran is going to have trouble in a survival scenario like this. Finding a working gun with the suitable ammunition isn't super common, and even less common is knowing how to effectively use it off the bat. Even then- they're loud, and easily attract many undead. How able you are to find resources is a much bigger concern than how many zombies you can kill. This intends to be a story about mostly-average people in a really shitty scenario.
  
  Talk shit, get hit - While I will not dismember, kill, or zombie-bite your character without your express permission (anything with total permanence, essentially), please do not attempt to dodge the realistic consequences of your character's actions. If your character insults somebody, don't be surprised if they get irritated or retaliate. If you punch somebody, don't be shocked if they return the hit. If you fire off a gun, don't be surprised when undead swarm to your location. If you run unarmed into a horde, it's nearly impossible that you're getting out unscathed.
  
  You get what you give - I can only give you the amount that you give me. This is, in shorthand, to say that I can only include you as much as you're willing to participate. That said, please feel free to suggest plots and ideas for both your own characters and the group. I may not be able to include all of them, but if I can find a place to slot in ideas that people enjoy, I will. If you have a certain arc that you want your character to go through, let me know so that I can integrate it into the main plot for you.
  
  In good faith - Since I plan for this to be heavily character/plot driven, plans and plots might require a bit of obfuscating on my part to keep things fresh. Unless I am asking about certain Content Warnings that I should avoid, you will often not know what is going to happen next until it happens. This is to say: you're just going to have to trust me.
  
  I'm not really willing to bend on the expectations above. If you aren't into what I've elaborated on above, this is likely not the RP for you. If this all sounds fine and dandy- then great!
  
• 
  
  THE DESTROYED SETTLEMENT​
  
  
  
  Fortune Amongst Hardship is named after the small town it was built in the husk of, unorthodox name stemming from the town’s original Puritan founders. Surrounded by the forests of Massachusetts, the survivor settlement remained a relatively safe gathering until now. Over the course of five years, Fortune was built on the backs of the few survivors of the initial outbreak as, gradually, they cleared out a space in a section of town to build something from the group up. There was death, blood, and hardship- but through their efforts, those joining the community gradually came to know less and less of the
  
  suffering the initial group had endured when establishing this place.
  
  All were welcome within its walls. Children, the elderly, those who could not survive on their own- it never mattered to Fortune how "useful" someone was. Everyone was considered deserving of its advantages. Fortune Amongst Hardship eventually expanded from a ragtag encampment to a true community. Through the skills of those who joined the settlement over the years, Fortune was able to obtain nearly everything necessary for long-term survival; gardens for food, decent medical care, basic infrastructure, a system to properly delegate responsibilities. "Runs" out into the dangerous wilderness beyond became rarer and rarer as Fortune became more and more self-sufficient. If not for the nature of the settlement's existence, it would've been easy to forget about the ravenous creatures beyond the safety of its walls.
  
  It even established communications and trading with a few neighboring, far-off survivor encampments of similar caliber. In the night, most would light flames- smoke visible above the treeline confirming that they still stood strong. Fortune's signal, night after night- a fire lit from the bell-tower that said we are here, and we are alive.
  
  Nobody's gonna light that flame tonight.
  
  

  ---

  
  
  THE UNDEAD​
  
  The zombies are Walking Dead, Project Zomboid-style shamblers; there are no spitters, hunters, clickers, etc., just classic ol' zombies. They cannot use fine motor skills, such as opening doors by the handle or climbing ladders. They are drawn to noise and are rather simplistic creatures, displaying only the desires to devour and infect humans. They can only be truly killed by significant damage to the head, but can be rendered essentially useless any number of ways.
  
  
  
  Infection passes through saliva, i.e. a bite. Cutting off a limb before the infection spreads to the whole body might stop it. Turning into a zombie is not instantaneous, or even within a few hours- it is a slow crawl of illness and decay over the course of 3-7 days, depending on how hearty the person is. An individual who dies of something aside from the infection who is infected, however, will rise far more quickly.
  
  They do not appear to have any interest in any flesh besides human, ignoring most animals. Generally, they tend to wander in hordes. They seem to gravitate towards corpses and decay; this sense potentially exists in order to find one another.
  
  They tend to conserve energy where they can; many have been on the receiving end of an unfortunate surprise when a shambler they swore was dead rose when they weren't paying attention. They do not sound like they usually would in fiction; as they cannot breathe, they do not grunt, moan, cough, or choke. They are almost completely silent besides the sounds of their movement. This is one of their main advantages besides sheer horde numbers.
  
  There may be colloquial terms amongst groups, but there is no universal term for zombies. Undead, shamblers, walkers, "those shitheads over there"- whatever your character would say.
  
  There is no cure. There will never be a cure- not in this story. This is about living in the apocalypse, not solving it.
  
  
• 
  
  PLAYER CHARACTERS​
  
  
  
  I will preface by saying that this will not be first-come, first-serve. It's not personal or a strike against your writing abilities; it's just because I prefer to pick out a group of characters that I think will mesh together in interesting ways. I know my limits, and I simply can't give a ton of players and characters the time and attention they deserve if there's too many people.
  
  Faceclaims - I will ask for no very well known celebrities. I think it'd be pretty difficult to imagine our survival scenario with, like, people with the faces of KPop stars and major actors running around. I ask for no AI generated images either. Aside from that, anything goes, I have no preference between drawn, realistic, or just plain text description.
  
  Character Sheets - Freeform. There will not be a traditional character sheet. You can elaborate on your character concept through descriptive writing, a classic character sheet, or a mix of both. As long as it establishes the character's concept and gives me an idea of who they are, it's fine by me.
  
  I only have one requirement for it. On the sheet, I would like answers to 2-3 of the following questions (your choice!) regarding your character. They are purposefully vague. Consider them "pre-RP"; these aren't intended to ask about what happens to your character during the initial conflict at the start of RP.
  
  
  • What selfish thing did you do for your own survival, and what were its consequences?
  • Who was the latest person to die because of you?
  • What was your latest sacrifice?
  • Who resents you for what you did, and why?
  • Why were you forced to leave your old group before Fortune?
  • What is the cause of your current grief?
  • What secret have you never told anyone? Why are you terrified of it being revealed?
  
  If these questions all sound rather despondent- good! That's the intention. I want flawed characters with histories that might come back to bite them. Surviving is a matter of skill, but it is also a matter of luck.
  
  Your escape, after all, will mostly be a matter of good fortune.
  

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask below! And a playlist if you're interested, for the vibes.

Here is the CS thread!

 

[Viper Actual]

Very interested!

 

[LadyOfStars]

This is an awesome idea, I’d love to join.

 

[sophiezaur]

Interested! Glad I saw this, I'd love to join!

 

[tieflinq]

i'm very interested!!

 

[RascalRoadkill]

Hehe thanks gang… I think I will make the CS thread soonish! I also tacked on an extra info about the Undead yesterday as an update

 

[Wyll]

Much respect for a GM who knows what they want in an RP
But also love what you're building here and would like to be a part of it

 

[RascalRoadkill]

Viper Actual LadyOfStars sophiezaur tieflinq Wyll

cs thread is here feel free to take it slow when character making, i don't plan to rush this stage at all

and thank you, i like to make my expectations/intentions for rps as clear as i can!

 

[WanderLust.]

Intrigued

 

[Gears]

Interested

 

[RascalRoadkill]

bumpin up :^)

 

[Lost Martian]

Haven’t done a zombie roleplay in awhile and this one looks really cool. I’ll start working on a character sheet for this story.

 

[RascalRoadkill]

Haven’t done a zombie roleplay in awhile and this one looks really cool. I’ll start working on a character sheet for this story.

thank you! don't feel the need to rush it, I want people to take their time

Intrigued

Interested

thank you for your interest also :^)

 

[silkysoul]

Very interested in thie concept, my curiosity has genuinely been piqued! Is this still open for individuals to apply for?

 

[RascalRoadkill]

Very interested in thie concept, my curiosity has genuinely been piqued! Is this still open for individuals to apply for?

Indeed it is!