Zombie Survival Choose Your Own Adventure idea

DakotaYoda · 27-01-2011 8:16pm #1

Greetings fellow Boardises!

A new idea has arisen to have some fun in the Zombie Survival Forum much like we did w/ our survival tournament some time ago.

Choose Your Own Adventure - Zombie Style!

For those of you that have read CYOA books you know the drill. For everyone else there is a brief description below.

ALSO - we'll be looking for writers to contribute so please give some feedback on the idea below and let us know if you'd like to join the Boardsie Writers Guild.

Boards.ie Zombie Survival Choose Your Own Adventure

The Point of the Story/Game: Trying to make it to safety and the end of the story.

Game Rules:

An initial post will be made and the forum will have 3 options to choose from. Each person viewing can vote. The choice will the most votes will win. Each post will have a limited time frame - ie 2-3 days to reply to before going to the next stop.

Game must be at least 10 turns long, Ex If the forum votes correctly each turn it will take them 10 turns to reach the end.

Each turn will have 3 choices
- 1 choice takes you down a safe route - Temporary Safety (TS)
- 1 choice leads towards danger but not directly into it - Danger Increased (DI)
- 1 choice leads you to fairly immediate death - Immediate Death (ID)

Story ideas:

You are trapped on the top floor of an office building working at your desk when you hear screams in the hallway and sirens from the streets below..... what do you do?
Out camping and something comes out of the woods.
Shopping at the mall.
Sick in the hospital.

Solo or group adventure?

I’m thinking solo. Group will be tough but could be done. Either way the “players” only control 1 person’s actions.

Pre or post outbreak?

Pre but could really do either one.

Planning the Story?

1 person write every option from start to finish. Detailed but a lotta work for one person.
1 person write the 10 Success steps and fill in bad choices as needed.
Distributed: Person 1 writes the first step. After the choice is made Person 2 writes the second step and so on...

Sample story...
Let’s face it - you got good ‘n ****ed up last night and barely managed a couple hours of sleep. The drive into work was a blur as you were on autopilot from your house to the office. Once there you shambled through the your fellow zombies at the coffee machine to extract some caffinated wakefulness...

You sat down, returned a few emails and then proceeded to space out for an hour or so making it look like you were busy. Your head continues to pound as you surmise the aspirin you took aren’t helping. Further down your body your stomach rolls as you dump in more black coffee. It’s obvious your guts are not real pleased with your performance last night, but a trip to the vending machine to fetch some little chocolate donuts might be just the thing you need to get you feeling better.

Then - you heard a scream. Probably not the first one as your natural defenses most likely kicked in to keep the high pitched noise from exploding in your brain. And maybe not even the second one. But maybe the third, or was it the fourth or the fifth?, you heard for sure - followed by a crash at the main office door as the hinges buckled slightly. You stood up and looked out the window and down to the streets from the 4th floor. People were everywhere trying to get somewhere - gridlock at 10am?? Odd but not unheard of... You step out of your cubicle to get a better look at the office door when you hear more screams followed by a torrent of red liquid sprayed across the window of the office door. What do you do hot shot? What... do.... you... DO?

Head out the main office door.
Head to the back stair case.
Stay where you are.

Micky Dolenz · 27-01-2011 9:38pm

I'll like to add, Once the writer has posted, the voting begins, you choose an option and explain why you gave it. you can not ask the writer any questions, you have solely the information in front of you to make your decision.

The reasons the voters give may influence how the writer continues the story. Basically no story should have a set start middle and finish. the story lives and changes by decisions made.

We'd need to work on timing, how long for voting and how long for the writer to get the next part up.

Do we have one writer per story or many?

How many posts can the writer use to tell the story? Is 10 too many, not enough?

degrassinoel · 27-01-2011 11:48pm

this sounds like fun, i'm in

Sticky_Fingers · 28-01-2011 3:35am

That sounds like a great idea.

Some suggestions if I may be so bold:

I think a group generated story would be a good format, OP supplies the initial scene, we vote on the decision and depending on what outcome the OP had for each choice, one of the those who voted for the preferred outcome (and are thus invested in the story) has to write the next part of the scenario. Boardsie (who voted for the most popular decision) chosen randomly has to write it or else:mad: (problem: may severely limit voters but I think it would give the story a more organic, exciting feel since no one would know what was going to happen next, any complete nonsense like vampires or werewolves being introduced would have to be punished with a lengthy ban)

Perhaps introduce an element of D&D into it, eg say you encounter a random Zombie (stats dictated by previous author), its a bad situation since you only have a feather duster and soiled underpants to protect yourself. All is not lost though since his hit points are only 6 and the total number of "correct" decisions that brought you to this point minus those who say wanted to wade into the maggoty horde screaming obscenities is greater than that means you can skip around him to fight another day.

There are just some ideas, probably completely impractical and rubbish but it might get people thinking...

Mahatma coat · 28-01-2011 11:05am

Mayber a two thread solution, where we fluff out the story in one and the options in another.

or is that over complicating the suituation

DakotaYoda · 28-01-2011 2:49pm

I really like the group story idea Sticky_Fingers but I'm not sure forcing people to write the next post will work well. I do like the approach - I'm not just sure how it would work and I don't want to chase people off of participating because they don't want to write.

We could, a bit like the short story group, get a list of willing writers and just rotate perhaps. I dunno.

I do like the rpg/D&D angle, as I still game regularly!!, but to start with I think we'll steer clear of that to keep things simple. We COULD start a whole zombie/apoco RPG thread tho if anyone is interested, but thats another topic...

degrassinoel · 28-01-2011 2:53pm

thats a nifty idea Mahatma, although the OP could also edit the initial post to include the voters addition to the story. I think you're right though about a discussion on each one, if only to edit mistakes or stick to the rules etc..

DakotaYoda · 28-01-2011 3:00pm

degrassinoel wrote: »

thats a nifty idea Mahatma, although the OP could also edit the initial post to include the voters addition to the story. I think you're right though about a discussion on each one, if only to edit mistakes or stick to the rules etc..

Yeah a discussion thread would be helpful - after all - it will be the collective will of the group that will decide if you live or die. Great idea! It would also help keep the main story thread clean.

Just remember, like Micky mentioned, ya get what ya get from each post so there shouldn't be questions asked of the OP for more information regarding the story.

Mahatma coat · 28-01-2011 3:23pm

So who's got a scenario planned??????

also for the gen Y creatures we should put up some basic info on how these books functioned
(books: they were paper things that we derived enjoyment from before the interweb)

and maybe a run through on how the C64 RPG games worked;)

DakotaYoda · 28-01-2011 3:27pm

I'm working on some ideas and may even incorporate some pics or video to a story eventually. BUT - we could start w/ the example above if we wanted to.

I'd also propose we wait to start until next week at the earlier. Give people through the weekend to see this post and chime in with any ideas or suggestions.

Gen Y - see here: http://www.iamcal.com/games/choose/
It's very basic and browser-based but it gets the idea across.
I'm with ya on the C64 Mahatma!!

Mahatma coat · 28-01-2011 3:39pm

I still curse that machine for making me think that Programming was something I'd like to do for a living

but now I run around the forest with a Chainsaw

:D:D:D

I was thinkin that we could try and lob a few paragraphs out on the Group story over the weekend, Get the ball rolling so to speak, I Bumped it earlier wit a paragraph that puts the 'Hero' in a fairly open situation, Wanna Play???????

I think we should get the aul creative juices of the BoardZies going and then see what sort of Depraved scenarios we land ourselves in:D:D

Dan_Solo · 28-01-2011 3:44pm

A few pointers perhaps

images?q=tbn:ANd9GcStqBxx6ALMsOJhFVFGzbMyVeQ4JGqC2AUEufwzPYkUMd1bJLMx&t=1

Mahatma coat · 28-01-2011 3:48pm

Oooooh, I choose Leggin out the Back stairwell

which probably leads to certain death :rolleyes: If I remember how the game works

Micky Dolenz · 28-01-2011 7:30pm

Peope who are willing to write should come forward. We could randomly pick a writing team of 2,3, or 4 and they write the first story.

Unless we are sure what format it takes, we are doomed. Doomed, I tells ye :O

ChaseThisLight · 28-01-2011 11:44pm

Will there be a specific amount to be written by each author? Say, a minimum of X amount of words and/or a maximum? I've found in past experience gaming, some people need that or they send you a one or two liner that gives you nothing.

Micky Dolenz · 28-01-2011 11:50pm

ChaseThisLight wrote: »

Will there be a specific amount to be written by each author? Say, a minimum of X amount of words and/or a maximum? I've found in past experience gaming, some people need that or they send you a one or two liner that gives you nothing.

I think there should be no limit, but we'll need more than a few lines. it's probably some thing we'll all have to judge on a post by post basis.

Oh, Welcome to the Zombie Survival forum

ChaseThisLight · 29-01-2011 12:27am

Micky Dolenz wrote: »

I think there should be no limit, but we'll need more than a few lines. it's probably some thing we'll all have to judge on a post by post basis.

Oh, Welcome to the Zombie Survival forum

Yeah, limits are tricky that way...you could get someone who has a lot to write and wants to keep going, which is great...but then the other end of the scope is, you get a short reply without much to it. So as long as it's specified ahead of time, I wouldn't think it'd be a problem.

And thanks. Nice to be here.

Mahatma coat · 31-01-2011 2:45am

Any movement on this?????????

Anyone???????????

DakotaYoda · 31-01-2011 2:17pm

Sorry all. Was outta computer access for most of the weekend. I didn't get any writing done but I think we can work this out and I think it may best be accomplished by just diving in on the first one - having an open dialogue on what does and doesn't work and then tweak it from there.

I'd suggest each post get's 2 days before the next choice is posted. That gives everyone 2 days to discuss and vote. That ALSO gives the next writer 2 days to come up w/ the next posts.

Unsure how to decide who does the writing. I'd just say for the first story we'll take 3 writers and they'll take turns in order until the game is complete.

I'm in to write. 2 other volunteers?

Micky Dolenz · 31-01-2011 2:52pm

Maybe you just start it and other writers can join in as it progresses.

You want to start a new thread with that story from the first post. We'll use it as trail run to iron out any problems.

SmileyPaul · 06-02-2011 9:45am

It's early in the morning, and I've got work soon :P

but I'm am completely in

Zombie Survival Choose Your Own Adventure idea

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