I am putting together rules for a Walking Dead inspired zombie apocalypse game. I am looking for rules that would allow players to investigate a scene and determine what happened in the past. Maybe see the way bodies were lying and determine if they had been running to or from a place when they died. Or investigate someone’s (currently unoccupied) living space and get a sense of who they were. Anyone have a customer Investigation rule like that they have used?
I am putting together rules for a Walking Dead inspired zombie apocalypse game.
I am putting together rules for a Walking Dead inspired zombie apocalypse game.
Have you ever read a sitch?
Also Lavinia Fantini
Check out Monster of the Week if you haven’t already. It’s Investigate move is similar to what you’re looking for.
You’ll want to tweak the specific questions you can ask, but those are always going to be specific to your hack.
You could roll it into a scavenging move.
Picking the bones
When you pick through a location that shows signs of habitation after the outbreak, roll+resourceful. On a 10+, you find an item of useful salvage. You may expose yourself to risk and ask one of the following questions.
On a 7-9, you don’t find anything, but you may ask one of the following questions:
What were the previous occupants like?
How long has it been since they were here?
What happened here recently?
On a 6-, either someone’s coming back or they were already here.
I’ll be interested to see the themes you promote for your hack. Walking dead doesn’t treat zombies as a foe to be defeated, but a hazard to be avoided, navigated, or escaped. Zombie apocalypse fiction is about scavenging the bones of the old world, the compromises made to survive, and what happens to people when civilisation and the laws of death crumble around them.
There’s also Graham Walmsley’s Dark World (http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?665682-Anyone-have-Dark-World-by-Graham-Walmsley-%28AW-Hack%29), which has moves for Lovecraftian investigation, it prompts the MC to improvise Lovecraftian horrific description. The Marmot is a playbook all about investigating mysteries, but it assumes there are mysteries that the marmot is trying to investigate, and there are discrete clues towards solving those mysteries. Also, there’s the Things Speak move from the Savvyhead playbook.
Sub, I’m interested! 🙂
Isn’t there a playbook with someone reading bloody murder scenes? I seem to remember having borrowed it (and can’t check them on phone). +tremulus has great Investigate move also.
You want an out-there suggestion? Use “open your mind to the psychic maelstrom” (Apocalypse World) and “gaze into the abyss” (Monsterhearts) as touchstones for the move. When you take in the horror of the undead apocalypse, roll +whatever. Get information, maybe get a little unhinged.
This is for a game where investigating involves people out of their depth coming to accept the reality of the zompocalypse. Which feels very Walking Dead.