Hey all! So I've been looking to play end of the world with some mates, and by chance also was looking at the metro 2033 computer games. If you haven't played them it's basically a post apocalypse where people have retreated to the Moscow metro system to survive, and are risk from mutants, nazis, communists etc. There was also a heavy focus on environmental risks like radiation and a need for gas masks to survive outside of the settlements. I was thinking 'well that'd be a pretty cool rpg setting' and then I got the idea to combine this system with that setting. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how easy that would be to work? The games was an fps so combat was a big focus, but for this I feel it'd be more around sneaking and surviving, but combat would still be important.

Has anyone tried a combat focused game like this, and did it go well? I'm also looking for any general tips for trying to balance a pretty lethal setting so it's still playable and fun for the players.

Thanks in advance for any help with this!

All the ZA sessions I ran in this system featured combat prominently, as one might expect a ZA to do...

It's a weird system for combat because of the way Resistance works/builds up. At a certain point, PCs don't have to worry about certain actions/threats/zombies (those that can only muster a couple dice). But it's also quite a lethal system the very first die over that line once you're facing anything that is actually capable of being a threat.

It frankly feels kind of out of control.

It's why I arrived at my houserules .

The gear stuff in particular is very useful, thanks for this! I hadn't intended my players to start with what they had on them because it was going to be post the bombs dropping, so a lot of gear they have wouldn't work any more. Part of me does like the lethal nature of the setting, I feel like it fits the metro setting in particular. I'll also need to work on some rules for freezing to death, so the sleep/starvation rules you have will help with that. I'm currently converting some npc's from the books to match enemies from the setting, so fingers cross I can get that working. Thanks for helping!