Discuss Population Zero: Backstage

[Vicky]

[size=1]The thread itself will be up tonight =p. So, I came up with this idea at lunchtime when I was watching the documentary [i]Aftermath: Population Zero[/i], and I thought... what a great idea! Except I twisted it a bit.

Basically, the setting and environment in [I]Aftermath: Population Zero[/i] will be the same setting for this game (don't worry if you haven't seen the documentary, the information needed is on a webpage I'll link to shortly and doesn't require immense amounts of dedication and time). The basic overview?

You will be playing a character who has been cryogenically frozen (either due to being rich enough to afford it, dying of a disease... which means you'll die somewhere in the game haha, or being one of the illusive 'possibly Posthumans' or a member of society with above average intelligence/skill that was placed into the 'Sustainable Future' programme. See RPG) and thus outlived the destruction of humanity. Your job is to find out how and why humanity suddenly disappeared with little but a few hundred bones left.

This will be one of the only games I do where I'll be picky with who gets in. Not based on writing talent so much, more based on the characters themselves. I really doubt I'll be offering places for hard-arse military mercenaries, haha. The characters will be accepted on the writer's ability to take a setting and twist their own creative designs to make them fit... which is odd, as one would find it difficult to fit into a world now full of animals and nature. But you get me.

The characters can wake up any time between 450 A.H (After Humanity) and 500 A.H., which is the year the RPG will take place.

I haven't decided on a chapter set up, or even if there will be one, for the game yet. I'm pending on ideas for that.

I was just wondering if any was interested or had anything they wished to contribute? Ideas for the chapter system/story system would be good. I'll probably post the timeline when I'm done with that too.[/size]

Any takers?

EDIT: This is your bible for the game if you're interested: [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aftermath:_Population_Zero[/url] . You just have to ignore the events after 500 A.H.

[Drizzt Do'urden]

This is really the first time I've checked this out. I've heard of the documentary and heard it was well received, and that wikipedia link was the first experience I've had with it directly.

My first question is what route will you be going, is it going to be a survival RP. Where we'll have to find food sources, irigation, and basically rebuild society? Or will you be going the route that it was supernatural means and we'll be fighting for our lives against some sort've....well supernatural thing?

My second question is how many will you be taking? In my head I get a grand scale Gilligans Island, so you'd have the rich people with no common sense. The smart people, then you'd have a couple people who just shouldn't be there (gilligan/mary anne types).

I'm interested in which route you'll go, but I'll be posting an audition for sure.

[Vicky]

[size=1]It'll definitely be a survival route with a few nasty twists here and there. The thing I'm going to like is it's a chance for everyone to throw in two cents - if you've heard anything interesting about nature, for example, that has never been observed then you can throw it in. I haven't thought about anything supernatural but I'm looking for twists and whatnot, so supernatural creatures is indeed a possibility.

There's actually no official number, haha. I'm thinking of around five, but that can go up to around eight or even down. I'm not entirely worried about the numbers (though if it suddenly explodes to about twenty haha, unlikely but yeah, I'll rethink this) and I'm more worried about the characters. The criteria is very vague so it's up to everyone to consider the game and come up with something unique, yet fitting.

I may or may not post a criteria for characters, because I'm more inclined to see what people can do.

To answer your question, vague numbers. Twelve at the most, I suppose. I will be looking out for a somewhat balance between the different people, though.[/size]

[CENTER]EDIT: Timeline, somewhere to keep it for now before I forget the URL.

[img]http://c1.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images02/38/l_d7b3d17747194109895abdeac0544740.png[/img][/center]

[Mr. Blonde]

Gilligans island... Drizzt you silly billy...

Well, Vicky, this sounds promising. I have seen the documentary being a huge History Channel buff. There was a similiar one on the Discovery Channel too. I watched them both so I'm thoroughly vetted on this idea.

So the characters are waking up between 450 and 500, but at what point will the RP begin, in the year 500? So we can assume some sort of culture has been created by those humans that have been "unfrozen" for 50 years? In the documentary they said the Hoover Dam would be the last man made structure to survive because its hundreds of feet of solid concrete. I believe it's supposed to stand for nearly 100,000 years. So maybe there is a human stronghold inside the hoover dam?

I'd like a little more clarity on the plot of this RP. Why is it these people's job to find the cause of human extinction? What would they gain from this knowledge? I think there has to be a link between their survival and that information.

I'd like to join up whenever you're ready to post an audition. This could be interesting.


EDIT: Regarding the timeline, Vicky... the numbers on the right side are what... the year? If so why don't they correlate with the years on the left?

[Vicky]

[quote name='Katakidoushi']
So the characters are waking up between 450 and 500, but at what point will the RP begin, in the year 500? So we can assume some sort of culture has been created by those humans that have been "unfrozen" for 50 years? In the documentary they said the Hoover Dam would be the last man made structure to survive because its hundreds of feet of solid concrete. I believe it's supposed to stand for nearly 100,000 years. So maybe there is a human stronghold inside the hoover dam?[/quote]

[size=1]It would be unlikely as the characters who woke up at 450 would be rather old by now, or even dead. The amount of cryogenic characters is going to be the amount of players, no one else (unless I play out my twist, but nevermind that) as the majority of the machines would have shut down and killed those inside. Although I gave fifty years of freedom before the actual game I was thinking of people only using a few years of that - like a character who was unfrozen about twenty years before 500 A.H. could be useful as a sort of 'guide' and a knowledgeable character to the world after humanity.

I am, however, open to anyone having a character who is the result of two characters who were unfrozen fifty years ago who had a child. They'd have to run that by PM with me first, haha.

The dam, though, could serve as something for later on in the RPG.

[quote name='Katakidoushi']I'd like a little more clarity on the plot of this RP. Why is it these people's job to find the cause of human extinction? What would they gain from this knowledge? I think there has to be a link between their survival and that information.[/quote]

Human curiousity of obligation/pride of a dead species, mostly. But I decided there should be some kind of goal and some kind for force behind the characters, as I'm not planning on having them staying around the same place. The reason for finding the extinction would also possibly increase their survival rate - the fact that there are only a few skeletons suggests that humanity probably went somewhere. The small amount of humans around in this game would find it incredibly difficult to create their own civilisation... so they probably have nothing else to do until they die, haha.


[quote name='Katakidoushi']EDIT: Regarding the timeline, Vicky... the numbers on the right side are what... the year? If so why don't they correlate with the years on the left?[/quote]

The right side are the year in C.E. (A.D. though I don't really like that too much) and the left side is the year after humanity. That's just following the Wikipedia timeline so people don't get confused (and gives the almost exact year in which humanity fell, 2150). I also thought it'd be rather interesting to see what happens where, and exactly what year we would be in had civilisation not collapsed.[/size]

[Mr. Blonde]

I'd be interested to see your audition regarding this RP, because I definitely would like some more detail regarding:

The communities. What kind of settlements have these people established and what is their quality of life?

The hierachy. Do these people have some sort of established government or is the community ruled by a counsel of elders (Planet of the Apes style)?

Dwellings. Have they built their own structures to live in or are they squatting in whats left of buildings erected before the human disappearance?

Technology. Weapons? Transportation? I understand most machinary would be rusted away by now, but what has been rebuilt, if anything?

I know this may seem like a lot, and you don't have to answers my questions here but it'd be awesome if some of these things were addressed in your audition thread, not exclusively these subjects, but just a scale of the situation so we would know what kind of world we're diving into.

[Vicky]

[size=1]Haha, I'll answer them here since this is where that kind of information would generally be anyway.

[quote name='Katakidoushi']
The communities. What kind of settlements have these people established and what is their quality of life?[/quote]

The depends on the players themselves and what they come up with. Obviously the overrunning of nature makes it incredibly difficult to establish anything incredibly brilliant and even civilised. As these humans in the game will have grown up in a sheltered environment they won't be used to the feral animals out there, nor will they have access to the primal human instinct their caveman ancestors had.

So the settlements may be entirely up to the player's imagination. Quite often I might try and push the characters into exploring and there may be clues upon clues that lead them to different areas to find the answer to what happened, so each settlement might be purely temporary.

[quote]The hierachy. Do these people have some sort of established government or is the community ruled by a counsel of elders (Planet of the Apes style)?[/quote]

Again, based on the players. There could be one character whose personality dominates the rest and gives all the orders, or possibly a division of power and alliances. I don't think there would be a council per se, not with the amount of humans left, but there could be something vaguely like that. Again, it's up to what happens in the RPG and the players, though I do anticipate there may be a lot of traveling and exploring about.

[quote]Dwellings. Have they built their own structures to live in or are they squatting in whats left of buildings erected before the human disappearance?[/quote]

I would say probably squatting or making other buildings out of the remains. In the actual audition thread you'll hear, briefly, of a 'economic and political unease' between nations so there could in fact be a lot of bomb shelters around or buildings that were built by paranoid citizens anticipating a war.

[quote]Technology. Weapons? Transportation? I understand most machinary would be rusted away by now, but what has been rebuilt, if anything?[/quote]

Considering we're going to have a couple of 'above average' human beings in this it's a possibility that machinery can be rebuilt once again but technology will be very, very limited. There won't be any guns or weapons of that kind unless we did an immense amount of traveling and found... area 51 or something with weapons that didn't degrade. It's all a possibility but at the start of the RPG we're going to have little to no technology - perhaps odd and clever contraptions built, like a cross bow, but nothing beyond medieval until we get further into it.

To answer your further question on the [b]situation[/b], we're basically fending for ourselves completely and there's only a small amount of us left. We're looking for answers (at least the majority maybe wishing for that) and we're surrounded by wild nature with little to no help except our wits about us and an almost buried instinct. Pretty much, I want people to imagine this lonely, post-apocalyptic future, with all these weird and unexpected things occurring (quite natural occurrences might I add, just 'weird' as our characters lived in a sheltered and secure past). The idea is to have nothing to begin with and see how the characters change and develop, but not only that, we'll have the plot twists I have planned for later on. It should be more interesting than it sounds.[/size]

[Mr. Blonde]

That'll do, Vicky, that'll do.

How do you feel about corncob pipes?

(joking)

[Vicky]

[quote name='Katakidoushi']That'll do, Vicky, that'll do.

How do you feel about corncob pipes?

(joking)[/QUOTE]

[size=1]That would work =p.

I was also thinking of having football's with faces and coconut friends! Ten points to whoever gets the movie reference.

Seriously though, cheers for the questions, it clears things up for the shyer OtakuBoardians who probably wouldn't ask, haha.[/size]

[DeLarge]

[SIZE=1][B]WILSON!!!

[/B]Ten points to moi, I believe. Although the coconut friends did call to mind the Nightmare of Milky Joe.

Anyway, I haven't seen the documentary, but I very much like the idea - the whole survival aspect of it is something which does interest me quite a lot.

What about the climate? The Wiki page mentions some changes in weather and such - colder winters than before and so on - but has there been any drastic change in climate? I would imagine global warming is not such a problem, what with there being no humans and all, so are we looking at a healthier planet Earth? More trees and plants and less man-made structures?

To be honest, the Wiki page probably covers most of this, but it's late and I've only just got in from work, so forgive me if I'm asking questions which have already been answered.
[/SIZE]

[Vicky]

[quote name='DeLarge'][SIZE=1][B]WILSON!!!

[/B]Ten points to moi, I believe. Although the coconut friends did call to mind the Nightmare of Milky Joe.

Anyway, I haven't seen the documentary, but I very much like the idea - the whole survival aspect of it is something which does interest me quite a lot.

What about the climate? The Wiki page mentions some changes in weather and such - colder winters than before and so on - but has there been any drastic change in climate? I would imagine global warming is not such a problem, what with there being no humans and all, so are we looking at a healthier planet Earth? More trees and plants and less man-made structures?

To be honest, the Wiki page probably covers most of this, but it's late and I've only just got in from work, so forgive me if I'm asking questions which have already been answered.
[/SIZE][/QUOTE]

[size=1]YOU GET TWENTY POINTS! The coconuts were Milky Joe ;p.

I haven't thought about the climate all too much. I was thinking that, in winter, it would be too cold for us to survive it for very long so I'm basing it in summer or spring at the beginning. The Northern Hemisphere might be where we're starting but I'm not sure how cold it would be up there without humans. I'm aware that Britain would still be warm as the currents may not have changed, but otherwise we might actually be looking at basing the entire thing around Europe (France, Spain, Italy, Africa .etc etc) or Asia.

I'm not entirely sure about having the game over in America because there are a lot of cattle which can indicate there aren't as many predators. I'll have to look up my history but you see, even though America is massive, it doesn't have as much variety as over in the European area and further into the Eastworld. If we start off near a place that is relatively close together, rather than across the Atlantic, we have much more to explore.

I might get out the globe, spin it around and put my finger on somewhere random and make up the climate, haha XD.

I'll try and bring up some information for the climates though.[/size]

EDIT NOTAGE: Production is postponed until tomorrow or possibly Wednesday (well I say production, but it's already finished... I'm just... lurking and waiting).

[Mr. Blonde]

If you're going to have us traveling we should start in a place that is more mild and less of a threat (concerning animals and weather) and travel through... lets say Africa or possiblly India. The plains or the jungle would provide that "danger around every corner" feel.

Shere Khan frightened me severely when I was a child.

[James]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I've seen parts of this documentary so I'm vaguely familiar with this situation.

I actually like the idea of starting (or spending significant time) in a city, because I really like the idea of seeing towers with no windows where each floor is a different ecosystem almost (I remember seeing this really weird idea that the interior of a tower could become a jungle and feral cats/dogs might live in there, as well as all sorts of birds...I think that'd be so weird).

I imagine that rather than use an elevator you'd either go up the stairs (very treacherous) or you'd try to climb up vines and branches that are protruding from the windowless sides. *shrug*

[i]Anyway[/i], I guess my only question is... do we have to try to explain how all the characters end up starting in the same location? I'm not sure how that'd work.

In any case I'm definitely interested in this one. I just have to think of a good character. Hm...[/font]

[Vicky]

[size=1]I was actually thinking of the kind of societies animals would have created... monkeys in particular. I was also thinking of all these eyes in the buildings (hence the first line of the RPG haha) from the vultures and birds, or a lion's head popping up out of an eroded windscreen and staring everyone down while its mates wander out of Big Ben...

...I thought about that way too much >_<[/size]

[quote name='James'][font=franklin gothic medium]

[i]Anyway[/i], I guess my only question is... do we have to try to explain how all the characters end up starting in the same location? I'm not sure how that'd work.

[/font][/QUOTE]

[size=1]Well, luckily, I decided to start us off in a city with no name and without a definite location (for now). The explanation? Movement!

By some weird coincidence our characters will have been moved to this underground lab under a city which, at the time, was the only lab powered by an external source that out lasted nuclear, coal and... you know, all that junk. Such a source does exist (theoretically at least) and I just have to find the name for it. I plan on explaining all this in the very first post (not through my character though).

For the city we're starting off in I decided to go for a New York (post-apocalyptic NY, more like, haha) look but, because it's not New York itself, it's completely open to interpretation. Though the location on the globe will remain unknown to our characters for sometime the majority of the city will be Westernised - that is, you may occasionally find traces of other cultures. Nice variety.

That being said, the animals around will be European, or at least relative to that kind of climate. Any other animals from America or elsewhere will be easy to find; if they had been kept in zoos they would have escaped and bred, finding it relatively simple to survive in a climate almost like their homeland (Elephants and Arctics wouldn't, for example, and are less likely to survive for five hundred years because of the major climate difference they evolved in - lions and tigers are more likely to survive and adapt).

Hope that makes sense XD.[/size]

[James]

[font=franklin gothic medium]Mhm, yup, makes total sense. Thanks for that. :catgirl:[/font]

[Vicky]

[size=1]I forgot to mention in the game... and this thread... that the RPG will be mature. But I'm sure the majority of you gathered that, what with the blood splatterings all over the auditions thread, hehe.

Violence and language will probably be a definite - I mean, how else do we get food? Coax the foxes into letting us eat a bit of them? =p - the sex is all up to you lot. As long as it's something interesting that occurs through the process of the game and no one jumps on each other immediately without good reason... [i]Raiha[/i] =p. (You know I'm kidding!)

And when I say mature, I don't mean to be jumping on the bandwagon of the constantly mature RPGs here. I just mean to give a feeling to the world. It's dog eat dog, and that ain't pretty.

[/size]

[Draco]

I watched Aftermath: Population Zero and found it quite interesting. My character (already posted) is an intvintor of anything and is familuar with weapon. You can move my character from Area 51 to NYC. It would explain how I got their. Medevil weapons are basic in design. Bow and arrows are recognfigured to fire with out the need for the shooter to pull on the cord to produce torque. (Im talking about the cross bow.) Although their rather inafective compared to the long bow of the British Soldiers used during the midevil ages.

Armor back then was made up of mainly leather. Leather is (as you know) a very durable and tough material made by the hide of an animal. Though leather will be very difficult to make 500AH. Eh, basic wood armorwould be more usefull against arrows but would be uterlly useless in a fight with close combat animals like lions and tigers and so forth.

Metalurgist is my characters strong suit. The problem is that without a proper kilm, it will be difficault to get the fire hot enough to make steel, iron, aluminum, and other heavy metals that are still lying around from buildings and such. Although if a boulder was big enough, we could carve a big hole in the middle and make a hole underneath the main hold. The fire could burn very hot and keep the rock hot for a long time without the need to continuasly adding wood. It would also serve has a cooking place and a place for winter.

(We shouldn't move till after the first winter Vicky. One: We'll be very vunurable to cold climate due to inaduquite clothing and weapons training. Two: If we are starting in the Big Apple, Somethings might have survuved in the subways and basements of skyscrapers or military complexes that we could use. Like MREs (Meals Ready to Eat. They stay fresh till they are opened. Water and heat is all that are needed to make them. They also contain matches, toilit paper, and sometimes a nife. Which could be very usefully in making CCW (Close Combat Weapons) and LRW ( Long Range Weaons like tips of arrows.)


I cant wait to start this one up! My own Personality, pic as my character, and survival tatics rule! Go Bear! (Survival Man on Discovery)

[Raiha]

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"][FONT="Times New Roman"]Strictly speaking as a writer who knows what Vicky is going to expect in her rpgs, I'd like to take a moment to ask you, Dragons Wolfie to please use a spelling and grammar check on your posts for both the backstage and the main thread. It makes things less complicated all together and your posts far easier to follow. I.e. Metallurgist, difficult, etc. The numerous typos make your work difficult to follow.

Also, Bear Gillis it turns out doesn't actually spend the night in the wilds and sleeps in hotel rooms, which makes him more or less a not so good at survivalism kinda guy. [/FONT][/COLOR]

[Drizzt Do'urden]

Well this isn't the time or place for a debate on whether or not Man VS. Wild is a good survival show or not, but i knew from the start he was a phoney. I loved the fact he had to start putting the disclaimer stating that everything he was doing was supervised in the prescence of experts.

Sorry, just wanted to contribute.

[Mr. Blonde]

The "Survivorman" is Les Stroud, not that pretty boy Bear Grylls.

Which ironically touches on my character a bit.

So I'm putting down my audition today, Vicky. How much longer are you planning on keeping them open for?

[Vicky]

[size=1]Sssh, use your indoor voices =p.

I love the excitement around the game, haha, but remember everyone, you still have to get past the [i]auditions[/i] and this time around, I'm offering no help except maybe providing a list of illnesses, diseases and a few fun trivia facts for your characters. I feel like I'm being terrible... it's all quite new =p.

But not getting in doesn't exclude you completely - having made a character you should be quite familiar with the storyline. If anyone doesn't get in, feel free to post suggestions to the story here... same goes for any members who end up following the game. So far I only have a vague outline of the beginning, the middle and the end. Everything in between is an infinite blank XD.

Oh, and I'm thinking of keeping the auditions open quite long, because I spied some people spying on my thread in the Who's Online, so I want to give everyone who was thinking of joining a chance to consider. I'll be thinking of closing it around next week, possibly longer, if there's a reason for it.[/size]

[Mr. Blonde]

I've put my audition up as I'm sure some of you may have seen, but I recently edited it so check it out again if you'd like. I threw some juicier details in my "bio". Now it even has that new post smell.

*sniff*

Delicious.

[James]

[font=franklin gothic medium]I will try to jump in before the auditions end, but admittedly I'm having trouble thinking of a suitable character for this one.

And I really don't like joining RPGs without being able to commit to them and such.

In any case, whether I join or not, I'm really pleased with this one. I think I'll be putting this one up as our next Thread of the Week on OB World. You might get some more views that way, Vicky. I definitely think it's worth the mention anyway.[/font]

[Draco]

Sorry about my spelling errors. I'll try to keep them to a minimum in my posts if I get to join her thread. Anyways, I can't wait to start this one up. Im also thinking about a Star Wars themed thread if anyone is interested.

I hope we reach 6 pages and futher more pages soon.

[Vicky]

[size=1]Oh my gods, an OB World mention O_O. That'll be my claim to fame for the next ten years, haha, cheers James!

I've decided because I managed to (possibly, if they can) snag two writers from my college... and they're not students haha... plus the fact that I want to give others a chance to join, and I haven't advertised as much as I should (that is, I haven't threatened/bribed anyone, haha) yet so what I'm going to do instead it [i]start[/i] the RPG on the Friday and leave the auditions open for awhile. They'll be closed when the characters start moving.

Since the rule is you can wake up at any point between the given time, characters can arrive later. It's only when we start moving outside the city that the auditions will have closed.

I'd like any interested to try their best to get a character by Friday, but don't rush it, haha. I'd also encourage anyone to give this a shot - c'mon, guys, I'm not [i]that[/i] horrible, and you probably have a bigger chance than you think =p.

The point is, take your time if you wish ^_^ sign-ups would be wonderful by Friday and acceptable a little later on. And if you tell your friends to join I'll give you my mobile number if you're in the UK and my credit card number if you're outside there ^_~.

(No, no I won't, but I'd love you lots, haha)[/size]