Made to Suffer: Season 2 Episode 1

On Friday night we launched a new RPG campaign, the first in a long time. This time around we're running "Zombie-World" by AJ Ferguson, a hack of Dungeon World, which itself is a variant of Apocalypse World.

Anyway, the game system is not that important for our purposes here (I'm sure I'll talk more about that on Rule of the Dice in a couple of days). Right now what I want to concentrate on is the story. The Apocalypse World series of games is very much a story-driven system; it encourages the players to build on the world and drive the plot and the action. This is in contrast to many game systems where the game world is entirely created and manipulated by the Game Master and the players are along for the ride.

Our group, being far more familiar with the latter style of game, took a bit of getting used to in this new open-world format. But we are getting the hang of it, and it was a lot of fun. We told a story, and it was wild and wacky and worth recording here, I think, for my own future benefit if nothing else.

For those keeping score, this story is roughly set in the same world as my previous zombie games, just several months later, long after civilization has fallen and the survivors are struggling to make sense of the crazy new world. Our group is holed up in a city (which city exactly is unimportant - it could be almost any major city in North America) and they're just trying to survive day-to-day.

The Cast of Characters

Andrew "Mac Truck" Feldman - An escaped inmate, he was serving time for white collar crime, but his prison stay actually turned him into a harder, more dangerous individual. The hard lessons of prison prepared him for surviving the apocalypse. A huge muscular man who uses a pickaxe as his weapon of choice.

Chibi - A Goth chick with a samurai sword, she uses her charms and wits to survive. She's gotten by letting others do all the dirty work for her and if she can't find someone to do manipulate she will usually prefer to run and hide from a fight.

Dusty and Oswald - Two grumpy oldtimers who both think they know everything and think the other knows nothing, these two burly grumps are quick to provide advice to everyone whether asked or not. Both are flustered by young Chibi, and she takes advantage of it.

Bubba McMahon - A police academy student when the zombie uprising hit, Bubba has no trouble telling people he was a lawman even though he probably never officially wore a badge. He's not quite right in the head, and grows ever creepier as the days and nights go by. His entire body is covered in tattoos, and he keeps adding more, often prison-style and drawn by fellow survivor Mac Truck.

Trevor - The most average and boring man on the planet. He can become invisible simply by standing in a crowd. His only distinguishing feature is "he used to drive a truck" though he is annoyingly positive and is good at cheering on the other members of his team. He also develops a weird overly-friendly relationship with Bubba that everyone is pretty sure is going to end with Trevor on Bubba's plate.

The Story

The group is hunkered down in a warehouse trying to determine what to do about their dwindling supplies when the quiet night is shattered by gunshots. A young man is being chased through the streets nearby, firing a weapon wildly and drawing great attention to himself. They consider leaving him to his demise but Chibi convinces the old men to go get him and see if he has anything good on him. Mac Truck, Bubba and the Oldtimers head outside to fight off a couple of zombies and grab the kid, but Trevor and Chibi head to the roof to discover that the noise is attracting a large hoard of zombies.

Bubba attempts to question the kid but he's hysterical and ends up trying to shoot the lawman - fortunately his weapon is out of bullets. Bubba beats him unconscious and drags him into a back room to further interrogate him. Meanwhile the zombie mob converges on the warehouse and the group tries to determine how to escape. Trevor tries to burn the zombies and inadvertently lights the front of the building on fire.

Help arrives in the form of a school bus full of armed survivors who offer help if the group can get past the zombie mob. As they're escaping, Oswald goes to the back room to get Bubba and sees the kid's mutilated corpse - it looks like Bubba had been eating him. Without time to deal with Bubba's cannibalism, they fight their way through the zombies. Trevor is wounded and nearly bitten, but Bubba goes back to help him and carries him out.

The group makes it to the bus and the leader - a soldier named Corporal Thompson - demands to know where Samuel is. They quickly determine that Samuel is the kid they beat up and left behind, but lie and say they never saw him. The group convinces Thompson to take them back to her refuge (mostly thanks to Chibi getting cozy with one of the young men in the group and convincing him to vouch for them).

The leader of the other group is a Doctor Theodetos, who immediately recognizes Samuel's bag among the group's possessions. The again lie and say they just found it. The Doctor says he wants to believe them and offers them a deal - if they can head out on a supply run and bring back some good provisions for the group to share, he will know that they are trustworthy.

A woman in the group - Samuel's sister Anastasia - also recognizes the bag and is very distrustful of the newcomers. Trevor and Ozwald give her the recognizable patch off the bag back, but she still seems to have it out for them.

The next morning the group sets out to check the nearby refuge of another group of survivors that was recently overrun. Dusty stays behind due to severe diarrhea, and to see if he can learn anything about the group. On the way they find a station wagon full of supplies, but are wary of a trap. They're about to walk past when Trevor tries to slash the car's tires to keep them from following, and gunshots ring out from a nearby building. Oswald and Mac Truck charge the shooters, bringing one of them down but the other escapes. Oswald tries to incapacitate their assailant but Mac Truck doesn't hesitate to crush his head with his pickaxe. The group has to flee, leaving the supplies as the noise of the battle attracts wandering zombies.

The group finds the refuge, a townhouse that appears to have been overrun by zombies. They split up and Trevor is once again nearly eaten by a zombie but saved by Bubba. The young Everyman falls deeper under the creeper's spell. The rest of the group encounter a massive, 300+ pound zombie in the basement that Mac Truck dispatches gruesomely with a chainsaw they found upstairs.

Grabbing what they can, the survivors return to camp to share their spoils. Doctor Theodetos is pleased to have such a great windfall, and praises the group for their generosity. Most of his people share that opinion save Anastasia, who still suspects they had something to do with her brother's death, and Corporal Thompson, who seems to have some other schemes on her mind.

Not to mention they know there are other survivors out there who are not afraid to ambush their fellow humans, and one of them got away to tell his friends...

Pre-Order My Book and Help Me Win a Publishing Contract

I just posted my latest work-in-progress on Inkshares, a crowd-funding site for publishing. Here's how it works: You pitch your book idea and post excerpts on the site, and try to convince readers to pre-order the book. If you hit a certain threshold of pre-orders, Inkshares will pay for the editing, design, printing and marketing for the book.

It's a fascinating model that seems like a win for all parties involved. The author (potentially) gets their book published without the personal cost of self-publishing or the humiliating obstacle course of finding a traditional publisher. The reader is only charged if the threshold is met and the book goes to print. And the publisher (Inkshares) has a guaranteed number of presales on the book before they even accept the manuscript so they know that they can cover their investment in the project.

Inkshares say they can get their books into many major book sellers, such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Apple and numerous independent bookstores. They also claim their are options for publishing overseas in other languages and even selling movies rights, but those are pale in comparison to the true reason I'm signing up.

The biggest reason that I decided to so this right now is that they're currently running a contest in conjunction with pop culture powerhouse Nerdist.com: The 5 books with the most pre-orders by September 30th in the Fantasy & Science Fiction categories will automatically get published, even if they don't meet their thresholds. More importantly, the folks at the Nerdist will pick their favourite book out of the top five to be backed and endorsed by Nerdist.com, becoming the first book in The Nerdist publishing imprint with all the perks and glory it entails.

So now I implore you, all my faithful readers: Help me win this contest so I can get an interview with Chris Hardwick on The Nerdist Podcast. Sure, publishing my book is great, but my true life's ambition is eat a burrito with the son of Bowling Hall of Famer Billy Hardwick.

This man's son is the first face you see after your favourite character bites it on The Walking Dead.

My project, tentatively titled "Hell Comes to Hogtown" is now live at Inkshares. The entire first chapter is available as a free preview so you can determine if you like my style of writing. I would love it if you would pre-order it and tell all your friends, but if you just "Follow" the book to increase it's profile on the main page, that would be great. Even if you tell all your friends and spread the word, that would be great. Maybe one of them would like it?

Seriously, Click Here to Check It Out!

Anyway, here is the (very) short pitch of what the book's about:

A comic book nerd and a pro-wrestler try to clear their names in a kidnapping while evading a bloodthirsty demon hobo.

It's a comic horror/dark fantasy in the vein of Christopher Moore. If that sounds like something up your alley, please check out the page and show your support!

(Also, if you have any better ideas for names for the book, I am open to suggestion)

Made to Suffer, Season 1 Episode 4

The following is a dramatization of the closing moments of our role-playing game session from this past Friday night. I didn't even really "dramatize" it very much - it pretty much happens exactly as you see here. I just had to record it for posterity because it was perhaps the most perfect few minutes of gaming I've experienced in a long time. 

If it reads like the closing moments of an episode of The Walking Dead, that's just about right. The whole session felt an episode of the show. Moving along slowly, in-group bickering punctuated by a few flurried moments of zombie encounters... all leading to a shocking climax out of left field.

Without living with these characters in their world for a few weeks I don't know if it will have the same impact, but those of us who were there certainly enjoyed it.

* * *

A chill icy wind blew in across the Liberty River. Winter was coming, and when the snow hit an already shitty life was going to get a whole lot worse.

Three men trudged across the elevated tracks of the blue line between Addison and Division stations. Below them a few zombies shambled aimlessly through the deserted streets. One looked up and a low, strangled moan escaped from its bloody rotting lips. A second and third followed the first's blind gaze, but the shuffling dead were too stupid to figure out how to get to their elevated prey and did nothing but point and groan uselessly.

The three men were the last remaining survivors of a much larger group - almost 20 at one point - who had struck out two days ago in a desperate attempt to escape the city. They had been holed up in a subway station for nearly two weeks, until the food ran out and they had no choice but to come up to the surface. The world above had changed drastically. The city was overrun by the mindless, flesh-eating risen dead, and though there were supplies and food to be had they were often too dangerous to retrieve. Just crossing the street was taking your life into your hands. They picked up a few more stragglers along the way, but many more died, and soon only three brave, tired souls were left to try and cross the bridge across the Liberty River into the figurative world of Freedom.

The oldest, a man they knew only as Church, took up the rear. A surprisingly fit and tough vet who was old enough to have fought in Vietnam, he had gotten banged up bad during the escape and was limping heavily. His weathered face was dark with the shadows of what he had witnessed, and his eyes were heavy with loss. Somehow he had survived the last two weeks on the streets alone, but his knowledge of the area had proven invaluable at finding a route to safety. The other two survivors owed Church their lives.

The youngest, walking just ahead of Church, would not have been described as a "man" just a month ago but had grown up fast in the last few weeks. Noah was not quite 16 years old, but he had seen and experienced things getting out of the city far beyond his years. He was quick and wiry and good at getting into and out of tight spots, but he was not handling the trauma well. He had shakes and sweats and was constantly looking over his shoulder - he stayed close to Church both for protection and because he was concerned for the old man.

Leading the pack and barely waiting for the others to catch up was Hank, who called himself "The Tank." A giant of man - over three hundred pounds - he was not quick or smart but he was tough and absolutely ruthless. Many survivors had died due to Hank's actions - and inaction - but somehow he had survived it all when better men and women had fallen. And Noah had survived by sticking close to him. The blood-caked Heckler & Koch submachine gun slung over his shoulder was a perfect symbol of his brutal determination. He had charged the original owner and wrestled it away from him, killing two bystanders in the process when the weapon went off. After running out of ammo, Hank continued to use the gun as club, beating zombies to death when he had to and running when he could, often leaving his fellow survivors behind to fend for themselves.

The broken table leg in his hand, studded with rusty nails, was also a pretty good symbol for how he got the job done.

"Wait," Church called out from the rear, his voice gruff and pained.

"We're almost to the river, old man." Hank didn't slow his pace. "We're not stopping now."

"I just wanted to thank you," Church said, which finally caused Hank pause. "When I met you I didn't know if I could trust you. And I was right, you are a bastard, but I couldn't have gotten out of here without you. So I just wanted you to know I appreciate it."

Church extended his hand to the big man.

Hank hesitated a moment, then walked straight back toward Church. A hint of a smile appeared on the old man's face - the first they had seen since they met him.

Hank raised his makeshift spiked club and smashed Church square in the face.

Noah gasped as the old man crumpled in a heap on the tracks. Hank merely turned and started walking away. "What the hell did you do that for?" the kid screamed at The Tank.

"He was bit," Hank said, without emotion. "I saw him trying to clean it in the restroom when I went to fill my water bottle. He was going to turn and come after us."

"But he... but he... he helped you!" Noah fell to the old man's side. His face was a bloody mess, the skin peeled back across his forehead. One of his eyes was destroyed, punctured by one of the club's nails.

"He was bit," Hank said again, and kept walking.

Noah watched Church's chest rise and fall slowly. A soft moan escaped his lips. "He's still alive!"

"Leave him."

"We can't leave him here! He helped us!"

Hank stopped. He half-turned back. "So finish him off."

Noah was quiet. He sat frozen with fear by old man's side, unsure of what to do. Church continued to groan.

"Goddamn it," Hank grumbled, and stormed back toward them.

Church surprised The Tank when he came at him with a knife. Whether it was from adrenaline, desperation or years of training, Church still had fight left in him despite his wounds. Rising to his knees he stabbed at Hank's ample guts, but his blade struck the bloody gun slung over The Tank's shoulder and snapped. Hank tried to swing his club but Church caught his wrist. The two men struggled for advantage a moment but Church was fighting a losing battle. Between his injuries, fighting for his knees and Hank's massive weight, the old man had little hope. He had only one chance and he had blown it. Hank put his boot on Church's chest and kicked him off, sending the old man back onto the rails.

Noah stared in petrified horror as Hank the Tank raised his club again and brought it down on Church's head. There was a sickening crack and Church moved no more.

The kid watched silently as a heavily-breathing Hank wrenched his club away, flicking spatters of blood, skull and brain matter across the tracks. He shook the weapon briskly to dislodge a particularly clingy hunk of scalp. Blood poured from the gaping hole in Church's head, dripping down through the rails and through the viaduct onto to the streets somewhere below. Hank quickly checked the dead man's pockets, finding nothing of use. He left the broken knife.

"He was bit," Hank said a final time, wiping sweat from his brow. He turned to walk away once more.

Noah continued to sit in stunned silence. He felt terribly cold.

"You coming?" Hank called a moment later, already a hundred feet away.

With nothing else to do, the kid stood up and slowly followed the big man across the river.