Some ideas to spice up the game...

[ThomEye]

At first, sorry for my english. I am French and I’m not used to write in English…

I’ve read many times people complaining about the game: it doesn’t give any goals (more than surviving), any quests, has no end (other than dying but you can always create a new PC to continue in the same world to create a “family” of PC if you admit to have to begin again with a weak one!). IMO, it doesn’t matter to have to create my own objectives, my goals, my roleplay. I’ve always been a solo player and I’m used to! Remember, you didn’t need any written goals or scenarios when you played IRL with your toys when you were a child!!

 I use to play in “survival” mode ou “sandbox” (in this case it’s to have an higher number of Z, changing the beginning date and have no respawning) and after a month IG, I like to spice up the things with random events, little deseases or challenges (the first I’ve made was just “let’s clear the Mall!!...”. OMG! I’ve lost so many PC in this one!).

I give you some of my challenges… There’s more, I will try to post them later.

If you want to post your owns, it will be fun to keep the same form as mine (we can compile this after to create a “challenges doc”, maybe…) : first I explain why I create this challenge, second you have an few words from the Thom’s diary, (Thom is a PC who survived more than a year around Riverside) and third, what you have to do to play the challenge in game. It’s just ideas, you can change everything to adapt it to your way of playing.

So… let’s go!

 

- « I will give you a last home…» : Project Zomboïd can be taken as a « map game » or a « family game » as the succession of PC can write a story. In that story, each dead PC can be honored by a decent tomb and have his name unforgotten by keeping his key ring.

« … When I got in the street, I first saw a body that seem different: she was carrying a big bag and had a bloody axe in the hand. The other arm was cut off and she seemed to had suffer great pain. Maybe she had been taken by a hord. I found a notebook in her pockets. She gave all the clues to find her homebase and all the stuff she hide in it. Thanks this young women, I’m still alive today. I live in her base, mostly safe because of all she has done before dying. I made a beautiful grave for her and put on it all her jewels. I go there every week to think of her, I say “thank you” and give her some flowers…».

You can have another PC after the dying of one if this new PC can find the key ring of the dead one in 24 hours and, then, find the body and bury him in a “decent grave” during his first week IG. (That means you have to find back the Z he became and kill him!). As “decent grave” I mean a tomb with a cross, at least four beautiful ground titles around (flowers, stones, etc…) , the keyring on it and a « beautiful » object (gravestone, statue, mannikin, ….). If your new PC can’t do this in a week it’s final “game over”. -

 

« The cure» : The PC is the sole survivor so… he can think he knows why ! The PC figures that it’s a medical cure he had days or hours ago that saved him of the zombification. So he can imagine saving all the Z around (or at least the ones he loves) by making the same cure and trying it on a Z.

« … In Muldraugh, I found the Cortman’s diary. This doctor was convinced that he was still alive because of the experimental antibiotics the government send to all the medics in the first days of the infection. He wrote that he was sure of being able to cure his family by giving them a self-made cure based upon what he has taken… I took all the risks to find all the medics he need without killing a single Z and managed to create his own cure. But it didn’t cure his wife and she bite him… Poor man. I know we have no chance to save them… So I kill all the Z I can.“

Before your PC can : build walls, cultivate, hunt, fish or do mechanics, he must have made a « cure ». For this you have to have in your main inventory at the same time: 1 antibiotic, 1 vitamin, 1 painkiller, 2 desinfectant and a full bottle of water. (It simulates the cure the PC is trying to make). Put all this on a dead Z and burry the all thing (to simulate the try of healing and the lost of all the ingredients). When the tomb is closed, your PC has no more restrictions (he knows he can’t do anything for the Z but killing them…).

Harder: The PC has to be level 2 in “First aid” before making the “cure”.

Much harder!!: You can’t kill a Z before you made the “cure” (because the PC thinks he can save them all…).

 

- « Poor children…» : We can figure the psychological problems a survivor can have when he saw (or kill) children Z. It’s getting worse if they remain him his lost ones…

« …this little girl was just as Mary was. Same age, same size and same long blond hairs. I had to bury her and I spent a lot of time crying on her grave, thinking of Mary… My little Mary, I hope you are safe in France with your mother. I hope you had both taken this last plane to Paris. I miss you so much…”

Each time your PJ find or kill a Z carrying a doll, he has to bury him as soon as he can, in the nearest place, put a cross on the grave and put the doll on it. (If you want to make it harder, put a butter knife on it too, to simulate the engraving of a message on the cross). If the PC doesn’t do that in 24 hours, he must stay in his base or a closed room for 12 hours without sleeping or doing anything… (he cries for his lost children…).

 

- « S.O.S. » : It’s difficult to imagine that, in the first days of an infection of this kind, some survivors don’t try to catch helicopters or planes attention… as they can see some passing in the sky. We can figure how bad they feel when they realize no one is going to come and save them…

« … All over the fields around this little town, some survivors has built big S.O.S. signals with all they can find : tables, boxes, towels, pieces of houses or cars. How many of them die in doing this work to attract an help that never came?.... »

Before the helicopter, the PC must have made in an empty field or a rooftop an easy to read “S.O.S.” sign (with walls, objects, cars… be creative!). If he can do that, the PC will only have the sadness of not being rescued when the helicopter arrive (he must stay in his base or a closed room for 12 hours without sleeping or doing anything after the helicopter’s gone). If he can’t do this, the PC will think he could had miss a chance to be rescued and try to end his days (the PC must stay in his base or a closed room for 12 hours without sleeping or doing anything after the helicopter’s gone and, after cut himself twice at a broken window…).

 

- « A light in the night… (S.O.S. II)» : It’s easy to imagine that, after the electricity shutdown, some survivors will try to catch other survivors ‘attention or being seen by eventual rescuers by having a burning fire all night in an higher ground.

« … I’ve seen this light all nights after the shutdown. It shined for hours and disappeared just before the sun. There was another guy, there… And on monday, I decided to try to find him. It takes me two nights and a lot of fights to get there. There was a camp fire on the roof of a factory. When I reach it, I saw a sleeping bag near. In it, a dead guy. It was easy to see that he died of starvation: I think he was spending all his days trying to find something to burn. I came too late for him…”.

When your PC see there is no more electricity and for a week, he must have a camp fire burning between 22:00 and 0:00 on the roof of a building. If he can’t do this, he think he lost a chance of being rescued and have a bad day… The PC must stay in his base or a closed room for 24 hours without sleeping or doing anything and, after cut himself once at a broken window…

 

- « Illness and other bad hours…» : With a lot of zombies in town, even the smaller things can be lethal…

“… Today, I risked getting caught by a horde when I came out of the barber shop. The Z were here, waiting for me and I was almost bitten but I only thought of one thing: cut my hairs. The head lice devour the flesh of my skull, prevented me from sleeping and the wounds they made began to get infected. Finding a razor and some soap was like getting my hands on the Holy Grail! For a moment, I forgot to be vigilant and if I managed to get out of this, it was only by luck. Too bad, I lost my better knife in the mess…”

After a week or after the helicopter, I invite you to try, at the frequency of your choice, a small disease in the list below. You can also roll a dice (1d20), every week, to know what your character has caught!

1- Exaeresis: your PC can no longer wear a garment on a part of the body for 48 hours...

2- Bad shoes…: your PC can’t wear shoes for 24 hours...

3- Big cold: Your PC must drink a hot drink with honey within the hour or take three sleeping pill or drink a bottle of whiskey.

4- PTSD : Your PC has an hour to group the objects you want in the room where his bed is located. It will have to stay there during 72 hours without going out.

5- Bulimia: during 8h, always have the marker "hunger" in green. If it turns off once, your PC must make himself a wound at a broken window. 6- Bad move : your PC must make himself a wound at a broken window.

7- Unbearable cough: During one day, your PC must sound the alarm of his watch at: 8h, 10h, 13h, 15h, 19h,midnight, 2h.

8- Gastro: your PC must spend a whole day next to a toilet bowl without eating.

9- Food poisoning: your PC must spend three days without eating.

10- Depressive anorexia: during 48 hours, always keep the "hunger" marker in red. If it disappears, your PC must make himself a wound at a broken window (he eats too much!).

11- Bed studs: destroy the last bed where your PC slept.

12- Chips: tear off all the clothes your PC wear.

13- Invasion of parasites: tear off all the clothes from your PC’s base and those that are worn.

14- Otitis: mute the sound of the computer for 24 hours IG.

15- Lice: assemble a Soap, a pair of scissors or a razor and a comb in front of a washbasin. As long as this is not done, the character can no longer kill zombies (it's too itchy to fight!).

16- Bugs everywhere !!: The character can only get in the rooms of his base where he has placed 2 bottles of bleach, he will not be able to move them afterwards. (To simulate insecticide treatment of the room).

17- Alcoholic depression: every night during a week, before bedtime the character must drink at least half bottle of alcohol, otherwise he does not sleep until it is done, regardless of his fatigue.

18- Morbid thoughts: your PC must swallow half bottle of alcohol (or smoke 20 cigarettes) and 2 sleeping pills or cut himself at a broken window.

19- Need to escape: your PC must read 6 magazines and 4 books in 12 hours or cut himself once at a broken window.

20- Food allergy: the character can no longer eat cabbage (or anything you eat the most).

Etc... it’s up to you to imagine more “little” problems!!! 

[ThomEye]

OK. .. my tille wasn't a good one when I see the last Thurdoïd. Apologize and hope for the next IWBUMS soon!!