The Zombie Blog

Here marks the end

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 12:03:44 GMT

Here marks the end of the Zombie blog.

We will be replacing it with a mailing list, possibly attached to it's own forum, given time. The address for the mailing list is ohgodmylegs@googlemail.com, and should you wish to subscribe please send us an email.

Reasons? Well, not everyone reads the gamessoc boards with frequency, and not everyone has livejournal, and I think it's time to establish our own reliable presence on the interbutts. Everyone has email. The forum address will be posted here (which will be the actual last post, not this fake one that I used to get your attention) at some point in the future.

I haven't posted saying thank you to everyone for Zombie 4 yet, which is something that I'm keeping for the mailing list's first email. Once we have more than five subscribers. (please sign up, also get your friends to sign up, etc) It was an awesome night, though, and I think we learnt an awful lot about what makes Zombie fun and what makes it not-fun, and balancing these while having a good time ourselves.

The next game is still scheduled for march/april, more Silent Hill than anything else. But we'll still be trying to go for quick execution rather than complex set pieces.

ZOMBIE 4 - SATURDAY 25 OCTOBER 2008

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 19:03:45 GMT

ZOMBIE 4 - THE QUICK AND THE DEAD

When - Saturday 25th October, starting at 8pm and running until around 3am.

Where - University of East Anglia, Congregation Hall, somewhere downstairs

Who - GMs for the night - Grant Howitt, Chris Taylor, John "The Todd" Tudball, Ben Pavey, Mary Hamilton (to varying degrees). 25+ Zombies.

How - Equal parts graft and charisma. How much? £2.50 for the night.

What - Zombie is a Live-Action Roleplaying game. This means that instead of sitting around a table and describing what your character does, you'll be in the thick of it as you fight off the undead with NERF guns and foam weapons. It is rules-light (it takes fifteen minutes to learn all the rules we are using), easy to get into and a gathering for players from all over the country.

Zombie operates on the "Run" system - instead of one long game going on throughout the session, as with normal LARPs, we run around eight. In each, six players are chosen to take the parts of those attempting to escape from the complex while the other 20 or so participants take the role of Zombies or NPCs. Once their plot has been resolved - a process taking around half an hour to forty-five minutes, on average - then they act as Zombies and some of the undead from the previous run have a go at escaping.

We aim to have players take part in two runs each over the course of the night, but depending on time we may have to limit repeat runs. Rest assured everyone will get a chance to play.

You will be playing as a civilian trapped in the Bioflex complex, a company that works on the cutting edge of biomedical research. As the workday draws to a close, the doors lock and you are trapped with five other people in a dark room. Outside you hear screaming, moaning, the sound of weapons fire, and distant alarms. Hours later, the doors unlock, and you emerge into a series of dark corridors packed with the shambling undead. You'll have to use whatever weapons and equipment you have to escape alive.

You will using one of three character classes, detailed below:

Security Guard: You wear black, and you carry a gun. Security guards start the game with a pistol or shotgun variant.

Medic: You are a trained doctor or nurse, or maybe you have a natural aptitude for patching other people up. Medics start the game with two "spare" health strips with which they may heal other players.

Survivor: You have no idea what's going on and you grabbed the first thing you could find. Survivors start the game with a melee weapon.

Full details of the (ridiculuously simple) rules will of course be given on the night in presentation format. If anyone has any rules queries please leave a comment or send me an email at ropey_d@hotmail.com.

You should bring some snacks and drinks to keep you going until we wrap up (although nothing with peanuts in, as GM Mary has a severe allergy to peanuts and the building is poorly ventilated so they may well cause her to die), some card games if you fancy something to do between runs, and any NERF guns or LARP weapons you don't mind other people using.

Why - Zombie was written by two guys who liked LARPs but never enjoyed a session they had attended. We had tried normal LARPs and felt they were a little stop-start for our tastes, or full of talking and politely pretending to be a vampire. We wanted something that would let us use Live-Action gaming as something different - something visceral, exciting, something which mattered when you were in it.

This is what we ended up with, refined over two years. Zombie 4 is the eventual evolution of the basic rules set, and with it we're returning to our roots. We love running it - we love scaring people, we love the adrenalin kick you get as you emerge into the complex, we love having the capacity to do something that makes a lot of people very happy indeed. It's simple, it's easy to get into, and it works. Plus, you don't have to wear elf ears or plastic vampire teeth at any point.

There are almost no rules, no dropping out of character, no calls, no skills system, no character names. You are trapped in a building, and all that stands between and you death at the hands of that wave of zombies coming down the corridor are the four bullets left in your revolver. What do you do?

Recording

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 11:17:07 GMT

- TAPE RECORDING STARTS -

"Hello? Hello?

It's so cold. I can't find the others. I think it took them.

I don't know how long I've been in here. My watch stopped working and I can't find my phone. There's no light here. No light at all. Can't tell when it's daytime. It feels like I've been in here for ever.

I managed to find a gun - why do they have guns in an abandoned building? No-one's come near here for months. The police cleared the whole thing out. It was in the newspaper, wasn't it? With the bodies. Ritual murder and cults and stuff like that. Lots of dead bodies. I remember that. Lots of dead bodies. Maybe the cult hid the gun here for safe keeping. When I found it, it had five bullets in. Now it's only got two. I had to shoot at it, but it wouldn't go away. I ran instead.

I can't even remember why I'm here. Someone was lost. I can't find him, though. It's so cold. I think I'm bleeding.

Everyone I've met so far has gone. I had to kill one myself - I had to kill a man - when he cut himself on some rusty fencing and went berzerk and tried to hurt me. There was blood everywhere. I left the axe in the room. I didn't want it anymore. I think he's still following me.

I don't know why I'm wearing this mask, and this cloak. They feel safe. They're the only thing that hasn't changed yet. The mask has my name on it - I think that's my name - no, that is my name - yes - and the cloak keeps the cold away. Some of the time.

I think it's out there. I don't know. I miss them. I wish I hadn't killed him. I wish he wasn't so angry.

Oh Jesus. Oh God oh God oh God no. No. Not now. Stop it! STOP IT! I don't want to. No. Please stop. Please don't. Don't make me. I don't want to.

- TAPE ENDS -

CHAOS

Coming Fall 2008

CULT Report

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 10:15:02 GMT

So. Yes! That all definitely happened.

Cult was our most successful event thus far; not because we made more money (we barely broke even, making 2 - COUNT THEM - 2 Pounds each) but mainly due to the fact that nothing went wrong and all the GMs made it through to the end of the night. I even had fun, in places. I'll be knocking out a brief list of Awards (and can issue paper copies should anyone feel they want them) followed by Thanks. Also, at some point in the future, I will be scanning all the fluff we put together for the event into a big zip file and whacking it online, should anyone want to catch up on the material they may have missed when they were running screaming through the halls.

AWARDS

Feel free to put this in your sig. That saves me printing them out, after all.

MVP - Goes to Bob for his sterling work. The MVP (Most Valuable Player) award was peer-selected, and Bob made an aboslutely fantastic White Knight/Frothing Cultist/Axe-wielding Magician on the runs he took part in. Rarely have I seen as much screaming enthusiasm for absolutely anything at all. Bob won two free cinema tickets (kindly donated by the Todd) as a result.

OSCAR NOMINEE - Goes to Tim Lewis, for his constant dialogue as a Cultist. It should be noted that this is not the ironic form of the award, and we genuinely value his contribution. Sadly he did not manage to win a Golden Tim award.

SH*TTY QUIPPER - Goes to Jack Shannon, who upon hearing Felicity shout "Get out of this place!" responded with "That's not what your mother said last night!" Jack - never one to lower the tone of any event he attends. Jack also came a close second for Oscar Nominee for screaming at his fellow players to shoot him in the face once reduced to the Dying level of injury - some truly impressive screaming and a lot of Gamessoccers' wishes fulfilled.

ALTAIR - Only Danny can truly qualify for this award, who on his first run (Gatecrasher) managed to kill the entire enemy force with nothing but a knife. In cultist costume. And none of them noticed while he was doing it. Danny is officially Badass and should probably be treated with a modicum of respect.

FAMOUS LAST STAND - Mainly because he also won this one. Danny is the proud bearer of two awards, having been part of the final assault team and charging the heavily-armed, heavily-protected leader of the Cult with a short length of metal and beating her to the ground, dying in the process. I believe he also shouted "I'll take you with me!" which is, y'know, a nice touch.

HERO - Bob managed to win this one by killing three White Knights with a Fireaxe. I didn't see him do it, but managed to walk up to the room where he was standing in a Circle of Repel Zombie, their undead bodies slumped around his feet, a look of grim resignation on his face. I really wish we could have got that on camera. Bob's character may well receieve some healing and employment prospects from the operators of Bioflex.

B*STARD - Cactus took this award home for sneaking into a cult ritual with a sawn-off shotgun stuffed up one of his sleeves.

MEDIVAC - Wesker, Will and Jarval all managed to pull an injured teammate out of the building. Hats off to them.

FRANK WEST - We have yet to view all the footage captured of the runs, and whatnot, but at the moment the photography award is tied between Alex for filiming the Gatecrasher ritual and managing to escape by playing dead so Dr. Emmerson didn't cut out his organs and wear them as a mask, Dave for his film footage of the first run and Eric for disguising himself as a Cultist and taking still shots of Emmerson, Kramer and their associates. Should anyone volunteer photos, they will of course be considered.

THANKS

My apologies if I miss anyone out, here, but from a GM team of five we receive a lot of help from you kind Gamessoccers and can't quite keep track. Rest assured we appreciate your contribution.

ELLIE AND ALEX deserve mad props for their tremendously creepy roles as Emmerson's Daughters. I think it's safe to say that they were both tremendously wrong in a very real way, and I certainly became slightly scared of Ellie as I beat one cultist to death and then she ate his face, giggling.

CACTUS AND JARVAL for their help in setup and gun-loading.

SWAFF for help tidying up, grinning as he did. Also for being a generally good sport all night and dying appropriately when I shattered his legs for insubordination.

ANDREW AND CHARLIE for driving and generally being kickass helpful in the running of the game and ferrying of sleepy GMs and equipment.

VICKY for playing the Demon Berith, walking around all night in those chains, and making the hyper-cool cassocks that Chris and I were wearing. I am totally not wearing mine in bed shut up.

To EVERYONE WHO TOOK PART - thankyou. Thanks for putting up with us as we got increasingly tired, following orders, and getting shot over and over in the name of entertainment. Without the player base Zombie wouldn't happen at all. Thanks for coming along.

Also, a final big thankyou to JEN AND KATIE who very kindly rid us of the "worse than trickster demons" that we had managed to summon through naming angels and drawing glyphs that I had entirely made up from alchemical symbols. Had it not been for you that spirit would undoubtedly have torn the entire place up as it totally existed and you were not talking a load of superstitious bollocks. The last I heard it had made it's home in Andrew's tiny dog - a powerful vessel, indeed - which if truly possessed would have have been a fearsome Hellhound. Good luck in your future endeavours, ladies - and remember, don't cross the beams!

CULT - Next Weekend

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 18:21:25 GMT

(a cross-post from the Gamessoc boards)

So - Cult is taking place a week tomorrow. Eight days.

I'm posting here as a reminder to everyone, and to run over what everyone will need to bring. I'm very sorry if I seem to be spamming the board with this, but the game relies on players and if anyone has a problem please PM we with issues. Or, you know, just don't read it. This might be a bit of a tl;dr, so I apologise for that too. Stick with me, though, I'll try to make it as interesting as possible.

First off, if you're unsure whether you're coming or not, please feel free to skip this paragraph and carry on. If you're unsure, though, a brief spiel on why you should join up and come along. Firstly, it's pretty cheap as far as an evening's entertainment goes. Secondly, it's not a LARP as far as the standard idea of the concept goes; at no point do you have to pretend that you're a goblin or a vampire, there's no drawn-out periods of acting and diplomacy ("Oh, hello, I am a vampire, would you like to be my friend, let's sit on plastic chairs") and no wodge of rules to memorise. Everyone has the same power level, you act as a team, and all the rules are thoroughly explained before the event. If you are worried about playing, feel free to turn up and just be an NPC - it's free, and you can decide on the night whether you want to play or not.

That done, if you are sure about your attendance, why haven't you signed up yet, eh? Of course, if you're not coming, fair enough. Sorry. If you are, though, I've produced the handy-dandy quick sign-up form below. Simply put your name in it and send it to ai.wintermute@gmail.com with "CULT" as the RE if you want to be a player or crew.

"HELLO I would like to come to Cult plz my full name is (INSERT NAME HERE) and I will turn up and everything kthnx."

If you want to go into more detail about what you want to do, there's resources on the wiki and blog. Just filling out the form above will suffice though.

WHEN TO ARRIVE, WHAT TO BRING

- WHEN - Cult will kick off after 18.00 on Saturday the 12th of April in the Congregation Hall at the University of East Anglia. The GM crew will turn up at 17.00 to get set up, and we will begin training at around 18.30. If you would like to take part, be in the hall by then as training will take around 45 minutes and is a real bitch to do on the fly. The game will be wrapping up early on Sunday morning - not exactly sure when, but probably around 04.00 or 05.00.

- PRICE - Cult costs £5 to take part. This is a non-profit endeavour and most of the fee is going towards costume and set-dressing. If you feel that five pounds is a bit much to participate, then feel free to come along and crew as it doesn't cost a thing. We are accepting all money on the door, as it were, but feel free to pay us beforehand if you want to.

- SAFETY - Safety is tremendously important to us as a) we don't want you to get hurt and b) we don't want to get in any legal trouble. Players and crew will be required to sign a form clearing us from any culpability should injury or property damage occur. We aim to make the event as safe as possible without making it boring, and rigourous safety demonstrations are carried out before the event. We are operating on a 3-strike system where breaking the safety rules three times will result in an immediate explusion from the event.

- PLAYER COSTUME - As a player, your character will either be an Investigative Operative (see X-Files for inspiration) or an Assault Team Member (see SWAT teams for details). You may also be playing a character with the ability to use Divine or Occult magic. Dress for the character that you would like to be. If you have no specific character in mind, black clothing never hurt. You may also want to wear a long coat as it is awesome to do so when you're shooting things. We are providing costume for all cultists and Zombies, so you needn't worry about that.

- EQUIPMENT - Feel free to bring modern LARP weapons and any NERF guns that you own. Melee weapons are pretty limited, so you may not get to use one at all times (probably once or twice throughout the course of the event) and it should be suitable for use as a) a government agent or b) a bloodthirsty cultist. NERF guns are similarly encouraged. Any weapons will be safety tested and if they are not suitable for use (they could hurt people), they cannot be used.

- FOOD AND DRINK - As last time, we'll have some juice, coffee, tea and general sandwich facilities available for use. Probably some fruit as well. These are for use by everyone. We will be putting in an order for food at half-past six - pizza - and should anyone especially want anything else, please get in touch. It's difficult to co-ordinate food deliveries with training and runs and whatnot. You should also bring snacks and drinks enough to see you through the night - alcoholic beverages are allowed, but in moderation, of course. Do not under any circumstances bring anything with peanuts in as Mary will die as she is allergic to peanuts and then you will die because several big men will kill you.

Hope to see you there. Any questions, feel free to get in touch.

G

NERF guns

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 16:04:55 GMT

Toys R Us (and, oddly enough, Tesco) have started stocking more dart-firers. At the moment both have the ever-so-useful Dart Tags in sets of one or two (visible here) which are sort of expensive but, you know, easy to use and pack ten darts. They also stock the stubbier one-shot version in the Dart Tag Strike (visible here) which, although it only holds one dart at once, has five underslung points for ammo storage and is a) small and b) slightly badass. It comes in at a tenner, so slightly more expensive than a Nitefinder, but it looks to be a solid gun. Haven't used one myself, yet, though. The NERF guns are stored several aisles away from the Buzzbee Tek Tens, Tommy 20's et al, persumably so they're not comtaminated by contact.

On visiting there with Keeper he has picked up two Tommy 20's (on a whim! The disposable income of some people) and is talking about cutting them down and rewiring the battery packs. All very exciting.

Three weeks

Tue, 18 Mar 2008 17:01:49 GMT

Any news from us?

Very little. Since the playtest we're happy with the new rules (although we gave Occult spellcasters "Raise Dead" as a class spell replacing their Heal spell - so even if your friend gets shot to death the game doesn't have to be over for him. Hell, if you cast "Control Undead" on him afterwards he won't even try to eat your face) and we're focusing on getting the individual runs streamlined and acquiring props.

There are a lot of props to acquire. Like, four pages' worth. This is an absolute bitch.

Not much more to report - we have some recons, and they're titting awesome; clip-fed pistols are where it's at, although the "armed" plunger leaves something to be desired as far as the cocking rate goes.

But yes! Sign up - the link is below - if you're coming. Tell you what, I'll make that even easier for you, and put the link here.

Character Generation Table

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 19:32:10 GMT

Oh, and here's the Brand-Spanking-New-Official Character Generation table, in no way written up last night at 3am.

Playtest Results

Sun, 24 Feb 2008 15:57:40 GMT

Thanks to all who helped us out last night at the playtest! We learnt a lot of things - namely, that the system is pretty fine as it is and we need only make a few tweaks, some situational changes, and limit the numbers of cultists. Past that we have a moderately fluid system with guns and heroics and whatnot.

The wiki will host any updated rules - we're using "Sacrifice Mass" rules for magic, so rather than use two Scrolls to power a mass spell it requires one scroll and a Health level on the part of the caster. We need to do some fine-tuning - some way of stopping divine magicians becoming a healing battery for Occultists - but the "go out in a blaze of glory" tactic witnessed went really quite well.

Also, we're banning NPCs from casting massed spells, as we found out in the first run that such an action can effectively ruin an entire player group in roughly thirty seconds. Also, my apologies to the first group.

If anyone has any comments on the playtest - either from their experience as a player or a monster - then please get in touch with us. You can leave a comment below or if you have something you wish to talk about in more depth you can email me at ropey_d AT hotmail DOT com.

But yes. Thanks. All comments appreciated. Laters.

Playtest Details, and the Magic Already

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 18:33:49 GMT

Playtest Details

Aims: To test the ruleset for Cult.

Monsters
1 - Armament of Cultists - heavy, light, melee, none.
2 - Number of Cultists versus average group of 6 Assault and 6 Investigative.
3 - Behaviour of Cultists - grouping, psychology, "fairness to players."
4- Mix of Zombies with Cultists. Problems with, balance of, etc.

Magic (in the conditions expected)
1 - Spell Mechanics - Test for game-breaking and "best spell." Clarity of spell calls. Ease of remembering spell rules.
2 - Spell Strips - Determine ideal number.

Guns
1 - Number/type of guns in player control. Reloading versus additional guns.

Time/Location: One 90-120 minute session in the Congregation Hall on Saturday the 23rd of February (24-hour Roleplay at 10pm. We will run five small-scale test games in the session followed by interviews with the player crews.

Magic Rules

Spell Scrolls

Spells scrolls (also know as spell strips) power spells. For one spell scroll you may cast any of the following spells, assuming you are of the correct class. Some spells do not require scrolls to cast and this is mentioned in their description. For two scrolls, you may make the spell "mass" and affect all valid targets in the room (i.e. all enemies for attack spells, all allies for healing spells).

Duration

There are two levels of spell duration - Combat, and Permanent. A spell's duration is noted after it's name. Combat duration spells last until the target is out of combat. "Out of Combat" means no longer under any form of instant threat; i.e. in a room currently not containing enemies and with no enemies chasing or otherwise seeking to cause you immediate harm. Permanent spells last for the duration of the game or until they are dispelled.

Spells

Spells are of two types - Occult and Divine. A single character may not use both schools of magic. To cast a spell, shout the spell's name and indicate your chosen target with pointing, archaic prose, jeering, and any other gestures you can manage. If your target does not understand your intentions, they are not affected by the spell but the strip is not spent. To cast a Mass variant of the spell, shout "Mass" immediately before the spell's name. Other spells will feature in the game but these will be as part of scenarios or under control of GMs and will be detailed more fully during briefing.

A note on "Undead"

"Undead" in spell descriptors refers to Zombies. White Knights (and any other form of enemy) are not considered undead. Any spell which affects Undead behaviour (TURN, CONTROL) supercedes any existing spells cast on them.

Divine

CONSECRATE - Permanent. A Zombie target of this spell is Destroyed. A White Knight may no longer regenerate health levels. It has no effect on other targets.

PACIFISM - Combat. A target of this spell must lay down their weapons and cannot use a weapon until the spell ends. NERF guns are fragile and should not be dropped. Zombies are not affected by this spell.

TURN UNDEAD - Combat. An Undead target of this spell flees the caster at maximum movement. It will continue to do so, ignoring all other stimuli, until the spell ends.

HEAL - Permanent. The target heals 1 Health level. This cannot take them over their starting number of Health levels. HEAL cannot be dispelled.

DISPEL - Permanent. Choose an effect currently on a target, which is dispelled. Shout out the name of the effect that is being dispelled immediately after announcing the spell; for example - DISPEL PACIFISM or MASS DISPEL CONTROL UNDEAD.

Occult

BLIND - Combat. A target of this spell is Blinded - they must shut their eyes. They must keep their eyes shut until the duration of the spell ends (or the spell is dispelled) unless they feel doing so is dangerous - using stairs, for example. Targets should use their common sense.

WITHER - Combat. A target of this spell may no longer move under their own power as if they were reduced to the Dying health level. They otherwise function as normal and lose no health levels from this effect.

CONTROL UNDEAD - Permanent. An Undead target of this spell becomes a friend of the caster and his allies. They will act as normal, but their base action is to follow the caster and his allies. They will attack any valid targets they see as per normal behaviour, but once out of combat, they will attempt to regroup with their allies. The Zombie will not follow commands of any kind but can be moved or pointed in the direction of things.

SACRIFICE - Permanent. Does not require spell scroll to cast. Caster transfers one health level to target. This cannot take them above their starting number of Health levels. If the caster is Dying they may use this spell but they are instantly killed. This spell cannot be cast with the Mass variant.

DISPEL - Permanent. Choose an effect currently on a target, which is dispelled. Shout out the name of the effect that is being dispelled immediately after announcing the spell; for example - DISPEL PACIFISM or MASS DISPEL CONTROL UNDEAD.

Sign-ups

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:13:05 GMT

We're ready to receive sign-ups, now. Cult, like Zombie, will cost £5 to play. We will be spending most of this money on costumes for the cultists (they come to just under £4 each; if anyone has a cheap supplier of black cloth and creepy white facemasks, please get in touch).

Cult uses the Run System to ensure everyone gets a go; therefore, over the course of the evening, you’ll be playing your character through a scenario but also acting as a Cultist and/or a Zombie to attack the other players. Also, each team will elect an operative to take part in the Final Run, the assassination attempt on Felicity (Mary) which will take place at the end of the event.

The sign-up is behind the cut, below, and is written in character. It contains details of the situation at present, the call to arms that brings the characters to the complex, and details of the runs we have planned. Following that are forms you can copy and paste and email to Chris at ai.wintermute@gmail.com. (please put "Cult" in the RE field) They contain the following fields -

1) Your name - Simple enough.

2) Preferred Codename - Should you want to play a character with a different name than your own, enter his or her name here.

3) Location – Where you will be living on April the 12^th.

4) Field of Expertise - Either Investigative or Assault.

5) Mission Choice 1st/2nd/3rd - Choose the 3 runs you'd prefer to go on, in order of most to least. You should only pick from the runs listed in your field of expertise. (a note - Gatecrasher is open to both Assault and Investigative teams, with the higher demand deciding which runs it).

Esteemed Operative,

We are contacting you due to your extensive experience in combating the more esoteric threats that our country has had to face throughout history. As you may be aware, the existence of a prominent cult in the East Anglia region of the United Kingdom has been worrying us for some time now, and we are preparing to move against the Cult leaders through a systematic campaign of investigation and well-placed assaults. Over the next few days we hope to crush the cult and eliminate the official Leader, Felicity Rowan.

Our enemies, however, surround us. Our attempts to gain funding for Operation Lightbringer (as it is known) have been fraught with bureaucratic hurdles and outright refusal; we fear that the Cult's venerated God-figures Lars Emmerson and Duncan Kramer have some form of influence within our organisation. We must move quickly lest they destroy us outright.

So it is in this spirit of desperation and urgency that we approach you, operative, to assist us in our time of need. What do we offer you in return for your services? We have not the resources to pay you, nor will your actions gain you the adoration of the country or ensure you a place in history. Your names will not be celebrated. There will be no parade. But you will stave eternal night from this world for a little longer. You will push back the curtain that surrounds us and make the world a safer place to live in.

The campaign is not a simple, or a safe, one - we are out-numbered and out-gunned on all fronts. But it is not without hope. You can help change the course of history for the better.

Please contact us with details of which missions you are prepared to undertake. Our final mission - the assault on the Cult's leader - will be undertaken by the finest member of each team, ensuring a varied spread of experience and skills. Operatives for the final mission will be selected by peer review at our debriefing sessions.

Yours,

Gabriel Adams, Special Operative, Occult Investigation Bureau

Mission Outlay for Operation Lightbringer

Assault Missions -

Assault missions cover tactical applications of firepower and brute force in selected areas of the complex. Primary aim of missions is elimination of hostiles and disruption of Cult activities.

A - Scope
Mission brief: Assess threat level of all primary targets.

B - Clean Sweep
Mission brief: Eliminate hostiles in preparation for Investigative Mission Data Sweep.

D - Gatecrasher
Mission brief: Investigate White Knight creation.

F - Blind Spot
Mission brief: Disrupt target ritual activites.

Investigative Missions -

Investigative missions will encompass fact-finding and crime scene investigation. Operatives must expect to encounter hostiles but combat is not their primary concern. Their main task is to gather evidence and information on the cult.

C - Data Sweep
Mission brief: Investigate summoning rituals and target plans.

D - Gatecrasher
Mission brief: Investigate White Knight creation.

E - Sleight of Hand
Mission brief: Inflitrate cult and acquire vital materials.

G - Smokescreen
Mission brief: Acquire or plant mundane incriminating evidence.

(the following to be completed and emailed to ai.wintermute@gmail.com with "Cult" in the RE field)

Name -
Preferred Codename -
Location -
Field of Expertise -
Mission Selection
1st -
2nd -
3rd -

Slowly Updating the Wiki

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 21:13:07 GMT

As the title says, we're slowly updating our out-of-date wiki. Keep checking back there for exciting updates of stuff you probably already know.

Wiki, as ever, is here.

G -out -

Date Confirmed

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 18:05:50 GMT

Ladies and Gentlemen -

We have booked the Congregation Hall at UEA from 8am Saturday 12th April to 10pm Sunday 13th of April. We will therefore be starting proceedings for Cult at -

6.00pm, Saturday 12th April, Congregation Hall

Be there AND be square!

Magic rules soon.

G -out-

News - Magic and Investigator Equipment

Fri, 25 Jan 2008 18:30:43 GMT

We have the ideas for the runs down on paper, now, at least; we're alternating OTF (guns-blazing-screaming-get-the-hostages) runs and Investigation runs. In fluff terms (and we have more fluff than ever this time around) both flavours of team are working for the Occult Investigation Bureau operating out of London. The runs have a story arc progression, each mission drawing the Bureau nearer to their goal of crippling the Emmerson and Kramer cult that has sprung up just outside of Norwich.

The OTF have character classes, but come in standardised teams; a Leader, a cleric, a mage, a medic and two standard operatives (read: gunbunnies). The mages and clerics have access to some of the more powerful attacks and defenses in the system through their magic, and we're working on a system where one "spell scroll" powers a standard effect (heal someone, disarm someone, kill a zombie, wither someone's limbs, strike someone blind) and by burning a second one the spell can effect all possible targets in a single room. Spells with an effect other than straight damage generally wear off once a target leaves a room or if the spell is dispelled by an allied cleric.

The Investigators have access to a Bag which contains all the equipment necessary for the team to function, so there are no classes - the team divides equipment and therefore roles amongst themselves. A standard Investigation Bag for a team of six, assuming that there is no special equipment involved, contains the following -

Weaponry ("loaded" refers to a gun that is full of bullets - three for a Nitefinder, six for a Maverick, two for a shotgun)
- 2 loaded Nitefinders
- 1 loaded Maverick Revolver
- 1 loaded Shotgun with six spare shells
- 10 spare bullets
- 1 small melee weapon such as a baton

Support Equipment (a single player character cannot use both Occult and Divine magic)
- 2 Medic Strips (can be applied by anyone)
- 2 Occult Spell Scrolls
- 2 Divine Spell Scrolls
- 1 Bible (King James Edition)
- 1 Magican's Primer (for decoding mystic alphabets, etc)
- 2 small bags (shoulder or satchel-sized)

Evidence Collection Equipment
- 1 Camera
- 1 UV Fingerprint Scanner
- 6 Torches
- 6 pairs Latex Gloves
- 10 Evidence Bags (with labels)
- Various pens and notepads

As you can see, the Investigative teams have a lot to do; these aren't boring "filler" runs we put in to vary the pace, but something altogether different from what we've done before with puzzles that hopefully go beyond rearranging wiring. You'll also note that almost everyone starts with a weapon this time around, which means that there will be no scripted hardware drops - if you need another gun or some more ammo, you'll have to find someone who's packing and kill them (or steal their gun). Investigative runs can be carried out with the minimum of combat, and we're trying to work it so that fighting is always an option, rather than a necessity.

One last thing - we've removed the Tech class altogether from the game. It was a lovely idea, but to be honest, the Tech is the area where things have the highest chance of going wrong. In the first Zombie, door locks wouldn't open correctly even with the code keyed in, and in the second the laptop puzzles were the cause of more player deaths and GM frustration than I'd care to mention. Although the idea of a class that handles technical matters is a nice one, it's not something that we can implement without GM supervision on the ground. So - if there are any techy goings-on, they'll be scenario-specific and as foolproof as we can make them.

Alright. That's it for now. Next update will have the provisional magic rules and definite dates. I promise.

G - out -

New LARP! New LARP!

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 15:53:46 GMT

Ladies, Gents - I have good news, and I have bad news, concerning our next LARP.

The bad news is that we won't be doing Heist. I know. I know. I'm sorry. I really wanted it to happen as well - we all did. The problem is that we couldn't bring together the two aspects that we wanted to implement; firstly, a system without calls or active GMs and secondly an almost entirely open world in which to rob a club's secure vault. Without GMs, we just can't do everything we wanted with the game unless we very strictly limit what you can do, which isn't what we wanted. Also, we had issues with location as we didn't want to - and couldn't effectively - hold it in the congregation hall. Maybe in a few years, if we're all still around (and we probably will be), we find a perfect location, and we have more idea of what we doing.

So, instead, we're skipping ahead a game and running Cult instead. Cult is, for all intents and purposes, Zombie 3. We're not deviating from the formula too much; there's still guns, and Zombies, and running screaming in the dark. It's a good system and not one that we're about to change. The main difference in Cult is the expansion of classes and the nature of the scenario. Emmerson and Kramer, the bad guys from the last affair, along with Secretary/Right-hand Woman Felicity have turned the now abandoned Bioflex facility into a cult headquarters as they expand their evil schemes.

Players will no longer be survivors trapped in the complex but one of two types on individual runs - Investigators and Task Forces. The Investigator teams will be underarmed and underpowered and focus on a psychological style of play, ordinary people trying to infiltrate the complex for their own reasons - going undercover in the Cult, breaking out captured friends, or simply trying to unravel the mess surrounding the dark and blasted edifice. The experience will be similar to playing Call of Cthulhu or World of Darkness mortals, but live-action. Every shot fired will be important (we hope) and teams will have to work together to survive. Hopefully, not too many of you will get out. Task Forces are paid-up members of governmental organisations who wield a) Big Fuck-off Guns and b) Magic. These runs have the feel of an action film; run in, guns blazing and preacher screaming, and take down as many of the freaks as you can while you pull out the hostages / execute the big bad / kick off the ceremonial ritual that will bring about the end of the world. Etc.

The magic system is interesting and currently in-progress. There's no calls and no codified system of spell-casting per-se, but instead trigger phrases that you can build phrases around. For example, the key words for the Fear spell are "flee from the darkness", which you work into some psuedo-religious claptrap and shout at everyone you want to run away from you. Or you can just shout the words. These function as calls but they sound in-character, so it's not breaking our "no calls" rule of Z-LARP, if you squint. Every spellcaster gets five or so spells represented by generic scrolls which are torn in half or discarded as the spells are cast, acting as ammunition. There are two spellcasting classes - Mages and Clerics. Mages practice Demonology and have powers over fear, darkness, pain etc and Clerics gain access to miracles such as healing, dispels, divine armour and disarming spells.

So, yes. Feel free to drop us a line if you're interested, and we can chat with you about character ideas and rules changes. We have bigger plans, new kinds of enemy and all sorts of exciting things planned. Cult is set to take place around Easter (no real confirmed date as of yet) but you can be guaranteed it'll be fucking awesome.

The Second Incident Video

Sun, 21 Oct 2007 01:36:54 GMT

So, in the tradition of Zombie Movies worldwide, here is our screamy dark awesome actual play video from last week. Most of you will have seen this but, hey, some of you might not have. So here you go.

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=3114251263450092691&hl=en-GB

Apologies - it's very hard to see what's going on in the main hall. Rest assured that the hi-res version is awesome, and may well be rapidshared or whatnot in the future.

Second Incident

Sun, 14 Oct 2007 19:36:30 GMT

Firstly, to all, thank you. Seriously. You turned up and paid us five pounds of your hard-earned (or, alternatively, easy-borrowed) cash in return for being a) scared shitless and b) shot in the face while you stagger around the place until 6am. I still worry about the way we charge people to do that sometimes. Still, you all seemed to have fun.

The GMs, however, had some issues. Mainly because we were all Very Tired. I myself was still hungover from Friday (which seems like weeks ago) and we had all been up pretty early. About 3am, we hit a big nasty wall of tired and all sort of wished we could just sleep for a few hours and start the whole affair again.

But we soldiered on for as long as we could - Chris ducking out after his run due to health and tiredness-based issues - and everyone had a pretty damn good night, all told. My thanks - and the thanks of all the GMs - go out to Andrew and Pavey, who were enthusiastic and helpful throughout the evening and, Christ, we couldn't have run the damned thing without support. Thanks, guys. Also Charlie for the mass amounts of electrical gubbins brought and Vicky for the ritual circle, ingredients and wallhangs. Fantastic stuff.

So, I reckon, a brief collection of highlights is in order. Feel free to add your own.

- Tom dragging Dan, blindfolded and bloody, through the lower levels of the Bioflex complex, distracting Zombies by hurling bottles and cans everywhere. And then, later, attempting to hack one of the computer terminals whilst on the phone to the Tech. And then pushing Dan into a bunch of chairs and running away. And then shooting himself in the head.

- The fact that our "Zombie reveal" gambit in Horror actually made people scream.

- Hannah G-S dying at the top of the stairs, mauled to death by Zombies as she tried to call anyone - anyone - who could help her.

- Pavey for trying to kill himself, but failing and being dragged down by a horde of Zombies. Also for jumping over tables - not LARP-safe, technically, but hats off to you. You signed a waiver. You can do what you want.

- Running screaming through the main hall, SWAT team at our backs, yelling that we are good to you and we have opened the doors and that they should probably all run now before we execute them. Similarly, standing at the end of the corridor during EVK and shouting our heads off, becoming - it turns out - a far bigger threat than the Zombies themselves.

- Vicky and Harriet plugging Dan over and over just to get the password, possibly simultaneously

- Actually pulling off the screaming White Knight onslaught, and getting to stride along in front of them (good work, boys).

- Not a highlight, but a comment - I was so sad that during EVK no-one shot each other, despite having "KILL" written on Alex and Ellie's foreheads in UV-reactive marker (everyone else had "SAFE"). Lizzie claimed that they were the "hottest" - I'm not about to argue with that one, but they were chosen for a) being harmless and b) having an axe they could kill someone with. Still. Apparently some of the players were gearing up to kill each other, but our little white knight friends popped along and hurried events along somewhat.

- Due to shouting, I developed a voice the consistency of rich gravy. This is a Good Thing. I have begun shouting and smoking again to try and cultivate it, should I need to sing the blues or rapidly seduce a large group of people.

- Jos' sledgehammer. I want one. How much are they. Seriously.

- The shootout in Thunderdome - it seemed to have all but one of the players in it - so eleven players, standing in a room with no cover, letting rip. I only saw it from the corridor; jauntily whistling and pushing "armies of Zombies" (as one player said) onwards as I was, but the air was filled with foam darts. I was very impressed. Apparently four of them made it out alive, as well.

- The absolute highlight of the night for me, though, was Tim's attempted escape. Following the Thunderdome shootout, I heard him shout "Somebody get down here!" from downstairs. "Okay!" I shout, and walk down the stairs with my (now-trademark) Sledgehammer slung over my shoulder. "Don't shoot me, little one," I say as he levels his fully loaded Dart Tag at me. "That would be very rude of you." He runs - pegs it down the length of the downstairs corridor and charges into the main hall, hounded by Zombies all the way. I follow at a respectful distance occasionally cracking his attackers in the leg if they come too close to me.

"Get away from me!" he shouts, firing one-handed, swinging his crowbar with the other, and runs onto the stage. Zombies start to crawl up the sides and front, and as he realises he's being surrounded he runs and jumps - over a man's head mind you - off the stage into the aisle between two sets of chairs and runs out of the door, meeting Felicity on the way. She's packing her Longshot, and he turns to her and says - "You've got to help me. We've got to fight them off." She smiles and levels the gun at his head, and says - "Run. Go on. Run."

That was the last I saw of him - apparently he got ganked in the changing rooms by around eight Zombies as he ran out of bullets. Still. Top notch.

- Finally, the last run. All of it. The beautiful ritual circle. The players screaming The Lord's Prayer at the top of their lungs for the entire duration. Dave circling the hall freestyling religion and firing round after round into those poor Zombies. The players, huddled in the circle, screaming the prayer, some out of time, swinging fireaxes and crowbars and dual-weilding Tommy 20's. The hideous keening wail of the Zombies as the riutal took effect. The trail of empty shells and dead bullets left throughout the hall in the players' wake. Beautiful stuff.

We have a few pictures - if anyone's got any online, please, link to them (if you don't have a Livejournal account you can post comments regardless). I especially want to see the pictures of the Horror players, seeing as those are the only people we got decent shots of. A shame - like last time, we just didn't have the presence of mind to photograph much of it.

We also have the bonus videos that the Omega Protocol team got to see, which we'll be putting online, and the footage of the run itself which hopefully came out alright. I hope to hell it did. Even if it didn't, we'll still get the sound, which was the important part.

As far as Zombie goes - well, we probably won't be doing another one exactly the same. We may do something at 24-hour in the early hours of the morning for a little while, but it'll be basic stuff and with no plot attached; simple "kill everything" runs for around three hours. This is mainly so the GMs can run, as some of us never have. And we really want to.

Our current plans for the next LARP are one of the three below -

Heist - On the opening night of a mafia-controlled nightclub, a daring raid by a mix of professionals and amateurs is carried out to claim a mysterious and very valuable briefcase from the basement levels. Long story short - you get to be part of a heist. This is something, according to comedian Dane Cook, that every man would do rather than have sex. This is probably true for most of us. As part of a team you get a budget to buy weapons, disguises, skills and information and you raid the damned place. We are hiring professional DJs for the event, too, which should be a nice bonus.

Cult - The evolution of Zombie - Emmerson and Kramer start to ascend, a bit, and ask God some difficult questions. Players take the roles of cthulhu-esque investigators or Occult Task Force sqauds (with magicians, and battle-preachers) and try and stop us from taking over the world. We may well put in magic rules, if you're good. Also angels.

As-Yet-Untitled-Cthulhu-Game - City-wide, espionage-themed PVP Cthulhu LARP. Act in cells and take out your enemies - or your supposed comrades - as you kick ass and take names and try to trigger/avert the onslaught of something terrible. Absolute secrecy, an absolute minimum of rules, and the ability to act like a spy for a week.

But yes. That's all in the far future, and not mentioning the Zombie prequel "Shareholder's Meeting" or the far more exciting weekend-long war between rebels, military, Zombies and others that we have imagined in our heads, taking place somewhere out in the country. Right now we're knackered and need to sleep for quite a while.

You are all fantastic. Hope to see you at the next one, whereever and whenever it is.

G - out -

T-Minus 12 Hours and Counting

Sat, 13 Oct 2007 09:51:31 GMT

Hello.

Agh.

Many of your will have seen me last night, drinking with wild abandon and throwing caution to the wind. Big Ian's "Dumfriesshire Depth Charge" - Drambuie and Guinness - was especially well-received. As were the two appletinis. For the unobservant, I was handed all three of these drinks at once.

It was a good birthday. Thank you all.

Also, damn you all. Seriously. My head. What the hell. No-one said this would happen. I couldn't look at my computer screen this morning; the charming aquamarine wallpaper seeming almost unbelievably garish. I tried to sleep for two hours but instead entered a bizarre waking dream, in which we were handed pears that "smelt like people" and looked an awful lot like they contained human fat. Bizarre.

But yes. Zombie is less than 12 hours away; we'll be beginning training around half ten, once the Muslim prayer meeting clears out of the main hall. Hopefully by then I won't feel like I'm made of glass and feathers. All of the readers of this blog are fully bloody aware of when the event starts, but hey. Whatever.

If you feel like playing a particular class, bring a costume. That will give you a definite edge.

See you in around eight hours. Agh. Agh.

G - out -

The Long Awaited Second Incident Video

Tue, 09 Oct 2007 22:51:00 GMT

Go on. Here. Take it. http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-8284586197869766809

I'm especially proud of Charlie for his death sequence.

One Week To Go

Sat, 06 Oct 2007 17:14:20 GMT

Agh. Agh. Titting fuck Jesus. It's only a week away. I mean, you know, we've planned everything* and acquired all of the props** but still, a week? It's a strange mixture of excitement and fear; excitement for it to arrive and fear wishing that it was always around a month away so we don't have to go through what is, essentially, our first proper game of Zombie (if you consider the last affair a glorious, terrifying playtest).

As an aside, I awoke this morning in a half-conscious state and swore that Zombie was taking place tonight. It was an odd hour or so I spent in bed, working out exaclt ywhat we had to do to make it run properly.

But you didn't come here to hear GMs whinging! You came for hot, steamy, dripping news. So here -

1) Everything now is actually planned. Like, properly "we could run this tonight" planned. We've changed the name and theme of the last standard run from "Security Clearance" to "Amateur Night," which is a markedly different - and more terrifying - run than all the others. As far as we can see, we don't currently possess a "weak" run - each is pretty nifty in it's own right, although they all have different themes. We are especially looking forward to Emmerson Versus Kramer.

2) All you lovely shiny people who signed up have been allocated run slots. We have things tailored precisely to your requirements - the easily-scared have been deliberately dropped into the scariest runs, whereas the battle-hardened cigar-chompin' veterans of last game and countless NERF battles have been firmly inserted into guns-blazing action runs. Unless we thought you were a bit too good, in which case, you now have no guns. Ha. If you have a particular run in mind - or you want our special tailoring process applied to your fair self - sign the hell up already.

3) We bought three more shotguns - mainly for Grant's Hand of God equipment, but they are - of course - for public domain usage. This brings the total number of guns up to something like 35 and the number of shots these carry (without reloading, except in the case of shotguns and Nitefinders) to 365. We can cap you once a day for an entire year without having to pop open any chambers or slot darts into awkward places. This is a Good Thing.

And - for any that are coming (and if you're not coming, pfft, shame on you, bloody come already, what else are you going to do that night) a few lumps of advice.

- Bring a torch. We can't say for sure you'll get to use it, but the more torches we have, the more likely it is you'll get to use one.

- Don't wear fancy clothes. We intend to attach health strips to you with Duct Tape, which would ruin a mohair jumper (but to be honest, can you "ruin" anything that's made of mohair?). Zombies also have bloody hands and faces (messy Zombies) which may or may not get on you at some point throughout the evening. Apparently it washes off - as Zombie Associate Charlie testifies - but it may well not be worth the risk.

- Bring bottles of water and snacks. It's a long night and we'd hate to see some of you crash out before you get properly terrified. We'll be ordering Pizza at some point before the simulation kicks off (say, around 9pm) but to keep you going we can recommend some chocolate bars, fruit (bananas are excellent), sandwiches, etc. Do not bring any nuts, as Zombie GM Mary is fatally allergic to them. Seriously. No Nuts. We will have limited sandwich making facilites available for use in the hall, alongside a selection of biscuits and fruits and tea and coffee, but it won't be enough to feed everybody, so it would be a good idea to bring some food.

The GMs are all given two cans of Red Bull and a packet of 10 Menthol Cigarettes, even if they don;t smoke or hate Red Bull. This is the traditional means for a GM to survive the night and we'll be damned if we're going to change it.

- Bring along five pounds. Yes, the game costs five pounds to take part in. Half of this goes to charity, so if you think even for a second "Gosh that's a bit steep" you hate underpriviledged people and should be shot. NERF guns, props, blood, bribe money etc. also don't come cheap, and we operate entirely outside of our society's budget, so we need to get moneys back somehow. Of course, you needn't come along if you think it's too much - you'll just have to put up with a year of people talking about how frigging awesome it was in front of you. But I guess it's your choice.

But Yes! See you this time next week. Agh.

* This is a lie.
** This may well be a second lie.

Nearly all of our guns

Tue, 25 Sep 2007 16:11:45 GMT

Here are almost all of our guns. We have more than this - like, um, four more. Two more shotguns and two Fireflies, which are sexy. But yes. Have a looksee, after the jump.

Run Listing

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 09:54:27 GMT

Last night, in a mess of cheap lager and an odd meal of our own devising, we finished the provisional run listing for the 13th of October. We've also changed the descriptions of the runs - rather than "Action" or "Thinky" we have "Action" or "Psychological." In film terms, Action runs are equivalent to the Resident Evil series and Psychological are equivalent to 28 Days Later. It's the difference between Aliens and Alien. Psychological ones still have more puzzles and more thinking to be done, but it comes down - basically - to how important each Zombie is.

So without further ado, in a teaser sort of way, here's the run listing. Runs are marked "A" and "P" denoting whether they are action or psychological.

1 - Horror (P)
2 - Siege (A)
3 - Thunderdome (A)
4 - Emmerson versus Kramer (P)
5 - Tech Rescue (A)
6 - Security Clearance (P)

After this, we have the bonus or "Storming" runs, in which players get as many weapons as they can carry. These are "runner-up" prizes for the teams that come second and third - and a chance for the GMs to have go, too. Players abandon their original character class and instead become members of the Ministry of Defence's Occult Task Force (or OTF), which gives them access to all the guns they can carry. These runs are all, inescapably, action-based.

7 - Operation Nemesis
8 - Operation Hand of God (GM Run)
9 - Operation Dark Extraction

And then, finally, for the team that scored the highest on the standard runs, we have the big mac-daddy of all missions, the climax, the -

10 - Omega Protocol

- take from me; you want to be on this run. You really do.

- Grant

Lights, Camera, Braaaaaaiinnnssss

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 13:55:17 GMT

Many of you will be aware - and some of you won't - that we filmed a teaser trailer for Zombie last Saturday. Everyone did very well and special mention goes out to Dan, for learning his lines in ten minutes, getting over his nervousness and then asking me if there was another trailer he could act in when it was all over, and Charley, who got shot in the head and mauled to death over and over and over.

Editing will be taking place next week at Nexus President Max's house, with his fancy editing computer. Expect equal amounts of static blurring and awesome.

Any other news? Oh yeah, York - where the hell are you? Do drop us a line if any of you are still coming. T'would be lovely.

With less than a month to go (actual count - 26 days) we're getting pretty buzzed about the whole affair. We're hitting the crisis point of organisation soon and we'll have to stop saying "Oh my God, that's a fantastic idea, we can totally do that" and taking another sip of beer and talking about something else and actually, you know, sodding do it. Our current challenge is the "Elements of Awesome" pledge, in which each team gets to experience something awesome aside from the standard "Zombies coming up the hell right now" awesome.

Oh - and refs. Well, um, "ref," actually - Todd. I've mentioned this to everyone else. Talking to the GMs I discovered two things -

1) We all want to be on a run.
2) Surviving with each other would be a laugh.

So - two birds with one stone territory, here - all named NPCs (currently - Mary, Dan, Dave, Chris, Todd and I - Todd, we'll sort out a name and a role for you) will be part of a plotless, chew-through-Zombies run at the end of it. This allows us to get on with the awkward running of the game and, later on, let go of a lot of pent up agression by firing shotguns at things. It also leaves us free for the Omega Protocol. Titter.

But yes. 26 days. Holy fucksocks. If you've yet to sign-up and you're in Norwich, wing us an email or come along to Socmart (11am-4pm, Wednesday 26th September) or to the Icebreaker (6pm-11.30pm, Friday 28th September) we'll have sign-up sheets and friendly representatives there.

A variety of news

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 09:44:50 GMT

Yesterday, I wrote a pretty good update - it was funny, and well put-together, and it distracted the reader pretty well from the fact that there was no actual news to speak of.

And then IE lost it. Stupid work computers. Grr.

So I wrote it again, but angrily, and at around a quarter of the length. And most of that was the phrase "blah blah blah." The rest of it was garbled swearing and vaguely relevant news about the game. Finishing it, I realised that it wasn't the face that we were supposed to be projecting. So I got rid of it. Here is the news again, in a slightly shorter than first draft but less vitrolic than second draft - form.

1) We have twenty-six sign-ups. That's as many as two tens. And a six. That's quite a few people, all told - and that isn't counting people who just turn up on the day, or sign up from the ranks of this year's newbies. So if you were hesitant about signing up before, don't worry - you won't be sitting on your own in the Congregation Hall with only a NERF gun for comfort.

2) We're putting the finishing touches to the "action" runs and looking warily at pieces of paper that have our ideas for the "thinky" runs drunkenly scrawled upon them, hoping that they'll sort themselves out and we won't have to actually do anything intelligent. Rest assured, something exciting will have happened to them by the 13th.

3) The props are coming along well - we've imported help from down South in the form of Vicky, Chris' friend from Sixth Form. As a fellow geek and possessing artistic skills extraordinaire (seriously - after seeing her sketchbooks I had to hurriedly hide all of mine in case they ended up open next to one of hers, and mine were shown up as the grubby scribblings that they really are) we'll be working her like a dog - or, presumably, some other animal that can draw - giving her intermittent breaks for food and rest.

That is all.

tumbleweed

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 15:37:38 GMT

In the six weeks of possible sign-ups we've had roughly nine people email us. Seriously. It's quite depressing. If you're coming to Zombie, give Chris an email. It won't take more than three minutes and it would give us a tremendous boost after we found out we couldn't go to Gencon due to financial restrictions. Template for sign ups is on the Wiki, which is linked a couple of posts below.