I don't have Spirit of the Century yet, though been meaning to. One of the things I'm most excited about what I've heard is the whole 'make up your character as you go.'

That's a type of chargen I've... well, NEVER seen in a published system before, and it's a style I've often daydreamed about.

Zombies... after watching a few zombie movies I thought: You know, a RPG based on this would be nice. But it'd be nice if you just made up stuff about your character as you go. In a sense, your character becomes 'more of a PC' the longer you survive, the more you luck out. And if you die? Well, that's sad, but let's quickly make another character...
In essence, the longer your character survives and the more you get attached/interested in the character, the more you build the character up.

Any SotC fans care to weigh in on how workable this would be?

Would they be optimistic zombies?


OK, I'm kidding!

What you`re talking about is "creation on the fly".  It's meant to avoid the normal "two aspects per background phase" chargen.  What you do is pick an "apex" skill--what your character is Superb at, on the Fudge ladder--and two aspects.  The other 14 skills, 8 Aspects, and the unchosen 5 stunts are "slots" you can pick later as the game progresses.  F'rex, if a skill is called for and you don't have it yet in the skill pyramid, you can either roll from a Mediocre skill base (default starting position) or assign a slot in the skill pyramid.  You can assign aspects or stunts ("feats") based on in-game inspiration in the same manner.

    And, if you get zombified, just add the aspect "BRAAAAAAIIIIINS" to your character sheet.

    A quick explanation--SotC uses an updated FATE skill system that's is based on a pyramid of skills cascading down from a peak of Superb to Average.  Each lower level has one more skill than the one above.  Thus, you get 5 Average skills, 4 Fair, 3 Good, 2 Great, and one Superb.

Andrew

Pretty much any game can be a zombie game if you like it to be.

I think that zombies fro the pulp era would be nothing like a Romero zombie though.

In the early days of Zombie movies movies like King of Zombies & Zombie Revolt (these are from the 30's i believe) were not rotting flesh eating zombies. Zombies of this era are generally people who have had their mind taken over by an evil wizard/vodoo or whatever. Some "Zombies" infact are not even undead.

Pretty much all zombies, undead or not, were controled by some ultimate evil guy and had a underdog hero fighting against them.

I think two-fisted heroes doing battle against a voodoo master would be a nice change of pace from Romero.

But I don't like zombies much anyway...  :emot-ham:

Any game can be a zombie game, but I find that the assumptions of most chargen systems somewhat clash with how I'd want to run the game.

That is, if my character dies an hour into the game, I don't want to have to spend 2 hours making up my next character. This is a sometime complaint of BRP CoC, for example.

Also, I don't want to have to weigh taking Accounting or Law if it's not important, and I don't want to be screwed by that later if it DOES become important.

Finally, in zombie movies, you get this sense of slowly uncovering who a character is. First, you have a group of random strangers. Then, hey, that housewife happens to be a sharpshooter! Who knew? Then, hey, the kid has a merit badge in first aid... Then...

I think Spirit of the Century'd work damn well for 'adventurous' zombie stuff.  Not so well for 'you're all going to die and it's hopeless trope' that is sometimes popular in the zombie thing.

SotC's chargen method would work really well for what you describe, though.

Quote from: WillAny game can be a zombie game, but I find that the assumptions of most chargen systems somewhat clash with how I'd want to run the game.

   What about Unknown Armies?  It's got a fairly simple chargen system--X points to split between four major stats, x amount to split between freeform skills selection, a madness meter system perfectly adaptable to a Romero gorefest, and a quick resolution mechanic based on percentile dice.  To represent chargen on the fly, just keep some skills points unassigned until you want to define a skill.

Quote from: ConfessorSotC's chargen method would work really well for what you describe, though.

Sorry to threadcrap (and if this board had a fork feature I'd fork instead), but I've just realised something else it would be good for.  I've always wanted to run a Metamorphosis Alpha or Gamma World-type game where the PCs awaken from cold sleep from amnesia and gradually figure out their stats and skills during the adventure.  In most systems this would be pain in the neck, but this idea sounds ideal.

Shame it's Fudge - the weird dice mechanic would freak my players out

I think that's a great idea, Will, and would be very workable.  SotC, in general, is going to give you a higher action feel than most zombie movies involve though.  On the other hand, for more of a gore-fest type zombie game it would work really well.