Worth Buying?

By P-Dub663, in Zombie Apocalypse

I read the product page and I must say it piqued my interest. I do have a couple questions:

How do you handle skill checks? Dice rolling? What dice if any are needed?

How does this stack up against D20 Modern?

It sounds like this game is more narrative driven than mechanically driven. Can you make your own campaigns / scenarios like you do with other RPGs?

What do you like about this game? What don't you like?

Will let you know.

I just ordered all four books last night, so might be a week or two before I can read the rules and let you know. Thought I'd answer so you knew there's at least one person active on the forum here.

I was fortunate enough to have some of my books arrive today. Each book is about the size of a Supplement for the Star Wars line of RPG's, and most of the pages are the scenarios. Rules are so simple, my brain temporarily fried as I was expecting something more complicated. In the end much is left up to players and Games Masters.

The only dice needed are "handful of D6". It recommends two different colours for Positive and Negative Dice.

It seems to work like a less complicated version of the Star Wars RPG's. You start with one positive die. You then add another positive for helpful skills, equipment, environmental factors and being helped by others. Negative dice are then added for things that would go against the success of a certain task. Once the roll is over, the GM and players narratively figure out the meaning of the result. Good or bad. There's still damage, physical and psychological, but nothing that gets bogged down in too much detail.

Just to clarify, skills add a positive dice to the dice pool. That's it. Obviously a GM can decide to add an extra die if the character is exceptionally skilled at something, but that's up to the GM and player to agree upon.

I'm still new to the RPG side of the hobby. But comparing to Star Wars, the FFG 40K and Savage Worlds, this is the simplest ruleset I've read. But it still looks fun and exciting to play. I can't wait to get going.

I've likely already answered this, but these books are most definitely narrative. I've already started to think up my own scenarios, even though I've not played any in the books, and with the amount of freedom this ruleset gives you can create plenty of your own things. While one book would do if you just want to create your own scenarios and campaigns, I've found that the additional books helped in my own creative process. Suffice to say I'm going to try out swarms of nanites reanimating corpses, and a giant robot having a fist fight with Cthulhu. Just for fun.

What I like from a quick look at the books is that it will be quick to learn. I've friends who don't game, and don't know I'm a gamer, and I feel confident that I can invite them round and get gaming without any problem. It's simple enough to get started with a bunch of newbies. No long list of complicated rules and tables which would have them running for the door.

I can understand the complaint of some that this could have been one big book, or the rules in one and extra details in the others, but frankly I'm happy with how FFG have done this.

Hope this has helped answer your questions.