New article up about character creation:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=5152

Thoughts comments?

Hmm, I think I may be left with left-over points making myself... Logic 4, willpower 3, charisma 3, empathy 3, dexterity 1 and vitality 1.

I think I am zombie-fodder already...

So remember kids, don't smoke if you want to survive the zombie apocalypse!

It looks really fun. I'm excited to hear more.

Your group has a say into your character creation, Hmm interesting.

3 Categories, max 5 in a characteristic... Reminds a bit of WoD.

It is as some of us surmised: You don't have to play yourself, you can't just min-max yourself as the group has a sort of final say- co creation about your character..

I'm more curious how the "features" and positive/negative dice will work.

You can basically make up wathever you want as a positive or negative. And when it comes up during a game you get positive or negative dice. (Wonder how similar this will be to EotE and WHFRP3d)

I guess it's up to the GM when it comes up during a game, so my first (munchkin) tought was to choose positives that wre very broad in scope and a bit vague, while my negtaives would be narrowly defined as to make sure they don't come op as often.

Let's say:

+ I'm very lucky when looking for/finding items

- Obsessed with collecting/playing LCG's

Your group has a say into your character creation, Hmm interesting.

3 Categories, max 5 in a characteristic... Reminds a bit of WoD.

It is as some of us surmised: You don't have to play yourself, you can't just min-max yourself as the group has a sort of final say- co creation about your character..

I'm more curious how the "features" and positive/negative dice will work.

You can basically make up wathever you want as a positive or negative. And when it comes up during a game you get positive or negative dice. (Wonder how similar this will be to EotE and WHFRP3d)

I guess it's up to the GM when it comes up during a game, so my first (munchkin) tought was to choose positives that wre very broad in scope and a bit vague, while my negtaives would be narrowly defined as to make sure they don't come op as often.

Let's say:

+ I'm very lucky when looking for/finding items

- Obsessed with collecting/playing LCG's

I'd like to think the GM has final say in what can and can't be taken in terms of positive and negative traits, because if I was running that game and you took those I'd make you lucky in always managing to find more cards for your LCG.

The positive negative dice thing is a little disconcerting, it seems like it might be lent to a unique set of dice appearing...which as discussed in other threads will lead to me personally not getting the thing. Which is a shame.

Fair enough! If I die holding a Mint condition Alpha Black Lotus from Magic the Gathering, I'll die happy!

But "Item finder" would fit me, but i'll probably take "Obsessive Hoarder" for a negative. (Unwillingness to share suplies, must aquire more items) I'm the type of guy who is found in the desert , dead from dehydration, with still water in his canteen.

This game uses D6's right? My guess is the positive/negative ones would be easily converted to regular D6.

Or FF could go wild with dice with weird symbols that add aditional effect etc, I guess time (and FF updates ) will tell.

Another thing that has me wondering is the lack of a Strength stat. How am i supposed to lift the heavy rubble that has landed on you, if there is no STR test?

Fair enough! If I die holding a Mint condition Alpha Black Lotus from Magic the Gathering, I'll die happy!

But "Item finder" would fit me, but i'll probably take "Obsessive Hoarder" for a negative. (Unwillingness to share suplies, must aquire more items) I'm the type of guy who is found in the desert , dead from dehydration, with still water in his canteen.

This game uses D6's right? My guess is the positive/negative ones would be easily converted to regular D6.

Or FF could go wild with dice with weird symbols that add aditional effect etc, I guess time (and FF updates ) will tell.

Another thing that has me wondering is the lack of a Strength stat. How am i supposed to lift the heavy rubble that has landed on you, if there is no STR test?

I just assumed you would use vitality for any strength based checks. Also if it's something like lifting you might not even need to use a die roll. If you're playing as yourself wouldn't you know about what you could lift anyway?

Ah i pictured vitaly more as having to do with stamina, wounds, and the ability to resist desease and infection.

not necessarily: I'm not a weightlifter, in an average day i might lift something about 20-25 kg. But i know i can lift more. Factor in panic states and adrenaline and people can lift more than they think they can.

Stamina (altough it might be called viatlity in this game) also seems important. Because stamina is where teh zombies have us beat. Humans are faster than zombies, but zombies keep on going, slow and steady. A human might swing a hammer at a boarded up door, but after a while he'd have to stop and rest for a bit. A zombie would keep on hitting that same door with the same mindles energy until the door breaks eventualy.

This game uses D6's right? My guess is the positive/negative ones would be easily converted to regular D6.

Or FF could go wild with dice with weird symbols that add aditional effect etc, I guess time (and FF updates ) will tell.

One can hope not, however given the popularity of the systems that use unique dice sets I have growing doubts. Which is unfortunate personally.

Your group has a say into your character creation, Hmm interesting.

3 Categories, max 5 in a characteristic... Reminds a bit of WoD.

It is as some of us surmised: You don't have to play yourself, you can't just min-max yourself as the group has a sort of final say- co creation about your character..

I'm more curious how the "features" and positive/negative dice will work.

You can basically make up wathever you want as a positive or negative. And when it comes up during a game you get positive or negative dice. (Wonder how similar this will be to EotE and WHFRP3d)

I guess it's up to the GM when it comes up during a game, so my first (munchkin) tought was to choose positives that wre very broad in scope and a bit vague, while my negtaives would be narrowly defined as to make sure they don't come op as often.

Let's say:

+ I'm very lucky when looking for/finding items

- Obsessed with collecting/playing LCG's

Oh can we completely make them up? I got the impression from that news article that we'll be picking from some list in the rule book. Making them up would be so much better!!

Well, in the article it said "During character creation, every player thinks of a positive feature and a negative feature for each category. A feature can be nearly anything you can think of – anything that makes you different from other survivors."

Either there will be a very long list in the book or we'll get to make stuff up.

My take is that the features are mostly there to differntiate yourself from the other (N)PCs, and only serev to give bonuses/penalties in certain situations. Ofcourse since aparantly your Gm/ gaming group/ both has some say in your character creation you can't make up rediculous stuff (unless you're into that) like "+ Made of Awesome" and "- To sexy for my body armor".

Also just tought of a humorous alternative to playing yourself: Play as a Celebrity! Make up stats for Ahnuld Shwarzenegger, Britney Spears; Obama and Robert Downey Jr. and see how long they last in a zombie apocalypse. Have fun making up features like " + Bulging biceps" and "- Thick accent" for Arnold, etc...

P.s. I get to play as Christopher Eccelstone.

If your group is mature enough to do so it might even be interesting to play as each other.

Well, in the article it said "During character creation, every player thinks of a positive feature and a negative feature for each category. A feature can be nearly anything you can think of – anything that makes you different from other survivors."

Either there will be a very long list in the book or we'll get to make stuff up.

My take is that the features are mostly there to differntiate yourself from the other (N)PCs, and only serev to give bonuses/penalties in certain situations. Ofcourse since aparantly your Gm/ gaming group/ both has some say in your character creation you can't make up rediculous stuff (unless you're into that) like "+ Made of Awesome" and "- To sexy for my body armor".

Also just tought of a humorous alternative to playing yourself: Play as a Celebrity! Make up stats for Ahnuld Shwarzenegger, Britney Spears; Obama and Robert Downey Jr. and see how long they last in a zombie apocalypse. Have fun making up features like " + Bulging biceps" and "- Thick accent" for Arnold, etc...

P.s. I get to play as Christopher Eccelstone.

Or Sean Bean for a real game of how long can you live.

We might have to ban players from picking Chuck Norris or Bruce Campbell...

It's no fun if all zombies get wiped out in the first 24 hours of the outbreak.

Your group has a say into your character creation, Hmm interesting.

3 Categories, max 5 in a characteristic... Reminds a bit of WoD.

It is as some of us surmised: You don't have to play yourself, you can't just min-max yourself as the group has a sort of final say- co creation about your character..

I'm more curious how the "features" and positive/negative dice will work.

You can basically make up wathever you want as a positive or negative. And when it comes up during a game you get positive or negative dice. (Wonder how similar this will be to EotE and WHFRP3d)

I guess it's up to the GM when it comes up during a game, so my first (munchkin) tought was to choose positives that wre very broad in scope and a bit vague, while my negtaives would be narrowly defined as to make sure they don't come op as often.

Let's say:

+ I'm very lucky when looking for/finding items

- Obsessed with collecting/playing LCG's

I'd like to think the GM has final say in what can and can't be taken in terms of positive and negative traits, because if I was running that game and you took those I'd make you lucky in always managing to find more cards for your LCG.

The positive negative dice thing is a little disconcerting, it seems like it might be lent to a unique set of dice appearing...which as discussed in other threads will lead to me personally not getting the thing. Which is a shame.

Same here. My group of players showed interest in the theme of this game, but if sets of some unique dice are required, we'll just stick with D&D.

I have no issue with unique dice per se, provided they are kept to a few ones. say a bunch of D6s with +/- on it or something like that. EotE and WHFRP 3d went completly overboard.

Aslong as i can see at a glance if my roll succeeded and the GM can immediatly narrate what has happened thats good.

If I and the GM have to keep going back to the rulebook to look up, what 3 hammers, a skull and a comet spread out across a green and 3 purple dice mean, then you have troubles.

From a design perspective, any game creator should be able to do anything they want with the standard spread contained in standard 7-die sets. The SW Edge of Empire dice set retails for $14.95, so my group as a whole would be spending about $60 just on dice...

The motivation for a game to have unique dice is obvious. If my group were to spend $60 on dice, it had better be for the greatest RPG ever, which those games with the unique dice certainly are not, at least in my opinion.

The motivation for a game to have unique dice is obvious. If my group were to spend $60 on dice, it had better be for the greatest RPG ever,

"The World of Synnibarr"?

In the case of edge of the empire I get why there are unique dice because it would be a nightmare trying to remember if that 6 I rolled gives me 2 opportunities or an opportunity and a success. If end of the world had a similar mechanic to EotE I would be ok with unique dice being used. As long as it's worthwhile to have unique dice I don't have a problem with it.

New article up about character creation:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/edge_news.asp?eidn=5152

Thoughts comments?

I've given this a lot of thought and had my whole gaming group take a look at it. Overall, my group is negative on the character creation process and I agree. It's way too abstract and simplistic for our tastes. Where are skills? While in more than a few groups, everyone may know each other well and know what they are capable of, but certainly not every group (I doubt the majority of groups).

Another problem I see is that this, like so many other games seems to be based on the idea that everyone should start out equal. Everyone starts out with 1 point in each of six characteristic, and then has 10 points to spread amongst those six. Then you come up with a positive and a negative feature for each category (merits and flaws vastly simplified). then there is the voting by the group to possibly raise or lower each characteristic, but if there are raises then you have to either drop the positive feature or come up with another negative so everything still ends up equivilent.

If you like equivalent characters and such abstraction and simplification then this game will probably work for you. But I pretty much wont be buying the Zombie Apocalypse book. Between the short page count, the high price, and lackluster character creation, it's just not for me and my group. The other books are still a possibility if the background and ideas are good enough.

As an aside, I did really like the sidebar " What if I don't want to play as myself? " That should take care of the very vocal concerns and comments by some.

Fair enough, I appreciate the simplicity, but hey to each their own.