How can I put the group together from the start.

[Thinyser]

Ok so I'm starting a DR campaign and have a varried cast of characters. I want your input on how this group could all be together at the rise of the undead when people are just finding out that there really ARE zombies that are attacking and killing people who then also rise as zombies.

I've got:

1) First we have my PC (I'm GM but I usually run a PC too) who has taken Ordanairy Person O.C.C.: Psychologist
2) Next is a my buddy's PC who is a Ordanairy Person O.C.C.: Athlete: Fighter/Strong man.
3) Next is a guy I work with who's PC is Soldier OCC: MOS Medic
4) The last one so far is a friend of the guy I work with had rolled up a Ordanairy Person O.C.C.: Driver:Specialty vehicles
5) ? Possible friend of the guy I work with will get to play too will be restricted to Ordanairy Person O.C.C. or soldier
6) ? Possible friend of the guy I work with will get to play too will be restricted to Ordanairy Person O.C.C. or soldier



1) Psychologist - Heavy on skills and and only W.P. is Shotgun (has been hunting but only for bird so does not have "hunting" as a skill.

2) Fighter/strong man - He is an ignorant farm boy who was trained in martial arts, but back yard wrestles (and FYI has no ranged W.P. and is illeterate though he speaks english like an ignorat & illeterat farm boy). He has a 39 P.S. and wields paired claymore swords. Has nothing but physical skill and performance (backyard wrestling) HAHA hes gona be the meat wagon and ammo hauler and he knows it.

3) Soldier: Medic - Pretty much what you would expect from a OCC Soldier: medic. In addition to WP Rifle he has archery and plans to use flaming arrows as weapons when stealth is an issue... though I'm not so sure he's thought that through because I'm sure that even though staked with a flaming arrow the zombie is still gonna moan and that's gonna call in his zombie buddies.

4) Garbage truck driver with driving skills for cars, motorcycles, other trucks, & tracked vehicles as well as combat driving skill, vehicle armorer and a gift for remote controling full sized cars like on Mythbusters.

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So far I was thinking that my character was a grief counselor and these three were in my group for loosing a loved one recently, and that we were all in a group session at the time the news reports started comming in and we get some sort of a message to turn on the TV and when we do we are confronted by the first news casts of the event... basically zombies leaving hospitals in droves to spread out and infect others. Since we are all single and have nobody else to care for (which in real life is totally untrue) we decide to stick together and see if we can get some friends together to survive this.

Now I should also tell you that we will be starting in Sioux Falls South Dakota which is a town of about 130,000 people (123,000 as of 2000 census and has grown a lot since then maybe even up to 140,000) because that is where we all live now.

Myself and my buddy (as well as the guy I work with-obviously) all work at the phone company's 12 story office building downtown. Its the tallest building in town (and sadly tallest occupied structure in all of SD) and has some great backup electrical systems (have to keep the land lines functional even in power outages) and is very defensible as it only has about a 20 foot section of 8 foot tall (floor to celing) windows on the ground level all the rest of the ground level is stone with no windows. Currently in real life the top two floors (which are really floors 10 and 11 even though its a 12 story tall building) are empty but are set up as offices and if I were to use my current plan to be the leader of a grief support group then I would have the office on one of these floors.

I know my idea would work, and would be relitivly plausable, but I was wondering if you all had any better/other ideas.

[J. Lionheart]

This little element is something that you can actually leave to your players. Anything that's "Character background" information, including how the group was formed, can belong to the group itself to determine. Offer them a nice little carrot, say 200 free starting XP each, if they present a good, viable, and creative background for how you all ended up together. This is something they can probably put together in 15 minutes during the first session, while you prep your notes, get your maps together, and set up your table. Just give them the outline of your GMPC, and go along with what the other three decide as far as how you got there.

Players can be endless wells of creativity if you let them, and sparking that part of their brain before you even begin playing can be a great shot-in-the-arm to the rest of the night. Tell them the very basic outline of where they need to start out, and ask them how they got there. I.E. "Ok guys, you've found yourself together on the upper story of an office building in the middle of a mid-sized city. You've been here for a couple weeks, holding out well, but supplies are running out and you know you need to move soon. How did you come together and find yourself here?" That saves you some trouble, and immediately invests the players in both their characters and their situation, by making them feel responsible for it before it's even presented.

[Thinyser]

This little element is something that you can actually leave to your players. Anything that's "Character background" information, including how the group was formed, can belong to the group itself to determine. Offer them a nice little carrot, say 200 free starting XP each, if they present a good, viable, and creative background for how you all ended up together. This is something they can probably put together in 15 minutes during the first session, while you prep your notes, get your maps together, and set up your table. Just give them the outline of your GMPC, and go along with what the other three decide as far as how you got there.

Players can be endless wells of creativity if you let them, and sparking that part of their brain before you even begin playing can be a great shot-in-the-arm to the rest of the night. Tell them the very basic outline of where they need to start out, and ask them how they got there. I.E. "Ok guys, you've found yourself together on the upper story of an office building in the middle of a mid-sized city. You've been here for a couple weeks, holding out well, but supplies are running out and you know you need to move soon. How did you come together and find yourself here?" That saves you some trouble, and immediately invests the players in both their characters and their situation, by making them feel responsible for it before it's even presented.

I like your idea but I do want to start them in the initial instants of the rise of the zombie hoards... both to see how they "improvise adapt and overcome" as well as give them a chance at some unlooted stores.

Also the location of the office building is just my thing it could just as well be a pizza place or a sports bar. My tough question (which your idea could potentially solve nicely) is how did they A) meet up in the first place and B) why such a varried group would want to stick together.

My other idea was that they were poker or RPG buddies and were all over at one of their (our) houses for game night and though have hugely different background have been friends for years. I like this but I think I like my original idea better as it means they are aquainted but don't necessarily have strong ties to each other.

Thanks for the input I might just let them try that and if I dont like the idea they come up with no XP and they will use mine.

[Thinyser]

I don't have Dead Reign, the silly stores want money for it.lol but I want to run a game, so I'm making my own zombies. I plan to start the game as a Lab Escape scenario, where the characters are people who have proven immune to a pandemic, and have volunteered for a research project to find out why. Shortly after the study begins, the disease mutates into Zombie Apocalypse.

Wow I guess I would want to continue that reasearch and find out why we were immune and to find out who to seek out as survivors.

I like it but I'll probably not use it.