***Highlights***

I decided to create this topic so we could share our most Exciting and most annoying parts of each round we play,
I decided to include most exciting and annoying as I want to capitalize on what we all enjoy and fix what we all don't :

My First highlight of our first round were definitely when I did that speed run to the walk-in clinic to get disinfectant for our wounded doctor! After he told me that he had an infection I got Genuinely worried And I raced there as fast as possible, after about 10 minutes of frustratingly trying to pull At least 25 zombies away from the clinic I was finally able to get in the house, only to find that there were 10 already in their! I was able to dance around the house for a few more minutes and lock them in an adjacent room. I immediately started to grab all the medical supplies I could but only about a minute later I hear my panic volume go straight up and I see five zombies from the corner of my eye breaking through the door only a few feet away! suffice to say I had probably two seconds to grab my backpack jump onto the patient's bed and throw myself through the window! somehow I pulled it off of my heart was pounding like crazy on the run back home!!!

My second highlight was definitely Hobb's characters accusations about me, I found it quite amusing how he accused me of taking drugs while I was actually gulping down vitamins and antibiotics! and I got a real kick out of him calling me Dangerous every time I would walk away!

As for the annoying parts, every time I was out on a run I was actually kinda worried you guys were getting real bored and I was somehow making you wait around for me. Even though I'm fairly sure that wasn't the case most kids my age that I play with would've wanted to be the hero and went with me everywhere and we all saw how that turned out!

It was a little odd with the most exciting moments occurring off-screen as far as the majority of players were concerned - but I liked it.  (I also got a hefty dose of hardcore action during the 'dream sequence'...). The down-time allowed for not just character building but also allowed for the quieter - but no less horrific - side of the apocalypse to shine through. These quieter moments were many of my own personal highlights like:

• moving dead corpses into the horse stall
  
• wiping up blood from the wooden floors
  
• opening curtains to peer out awaiting the return of others
  
• exploring the chicken coop with the doctor and reminiscing about similar coops in Africa
  
• looking into the shed and finding it covered from floor to ceiling in blood
  

I would think that your expeditions took on more meaning besides bare survival because there were other players waiting for you at the farm. In Maslow's 'Hierarchy of Needs' once you secure survival & security than you turn to basic social needs like belonging.


An adventure game were you could not advance beyond the first two levels would eventually grow tiresome no matter what the thrills.

One part of the argument between Pappy & the group was that everyone was focused on level one (survival) but he was worried about level two (security & order). I will write-up a tribute to Pappy and post it here later.

Highlights for me were similar. I really enjoyed the quiet time at the barn moving corpses and cleaning blood. It had a quiett intensity to it. i enjoyed character building and role playing.

I'm not sure if anyone noticed but when Pappy got to the fatal warehouse, he reached into his bag and pulled out 6 white sheets he had been carrying since the beginning of the game. With them he managed to cover all the plate-glass windows that composed the front wall of the warehouse entrance. One by one, he shut the curtains and then retired to a dark bathroom.

When I was growing up my father quipped, "If nuclear missiles are about to strike, I'm getting my baseball mitt and trying to catch them, because the lucky ones will die quickly." I can remember standing on the street outside my house, on a warm summer eve, and just staring at the sky. There was nothing to stop people from just walking out of there houses and start trying to kill each other. I had never thought that before.

Pappy had seen social chaos growing up in Africa. He knew that young men form roving bands, that guns empower, that the weak are preyed upon by the strong.

In creating 'Warlords of Kandahar' I studied the sociological literature on warlords and banditry: game theory simulations of how societies break-down, economic cost-comparisons of buying security or having the state provide it, marxist analysis of imperialism and it's civil horrors and colonial garrisons, feminist analysis of rape as domination and the machismo warrior cults, the psychological and cultural trauma revealed by post-colonialism. I read about Africa (West, Central, North and South), about Eastern Europe, about South America, about East Asia. In listing these I can feel my mental space transforming, hardening, deadening, toughening, so that I can do justice to all the victims I've witnessed in stories and stats.

Be civil - put your shirt back on and give respect to the dead.

It's what Pappy would have wanted.

....

You just made me feel actual shame for being shirtless in a video game....

Well done

Though I do have to say that the one Real reason why Seth Kept taking his shirt off and kept shying away every time Pappy brought up these zombies as actual people was because.... Well let's face it the guy's 19, sure he's always had recurring nightmares of an apocalyptic world and has tried to Harden his mindset for that but in many ways that just makes what's going on right now even more profound and disturbing to him, right now he either has the choice of regarding these things trying to kill him as animals, or excepting that they used to be humans and have a mental breakdown. Right now he's focusing more on his own immediate needs, such as food water and for the shirt incident, Not getting sunstroke after running around for 15 minutes leading away a pack of zombies while Wearing a Black sweater.

In no way shape or form should you feel any guilt (or feel any need to justify your actions)  I was just riffing on Pappy's character and adding my own mixed-up feelings. I laughed out loud when I wrote that last line. To me PZ is a game of dark humour.

Pappy was never a joke to me but he was funny. My favorite line of Pappy's was when he said, "This cannot be the End Times, I wouldn't be trapped with such a bunch of heathens." Also:

"Do not trust him. He is a bad man."
"Dogs can be replaced, humans cannot."
"He is probably doing drugs."
"Poochie, Come! Poochie!" (said because of a dog barking sfx)
"Old man? I'm 32"
"Jackals!"
"Mothers eating babies, dogs eating elderly people, elderly people eating cats...."
"So you return from your banditry..."

and how about...

"Let's turn back, now." (said because he was 'anxious')
"What! The warehouse is LITERALLY around the corner!"

I also enjoyed how he would sit at the dinner table and rant while everyone else made food and ignored him. Stef cracked me up when Paige (RIP) said, "Oh, Pappy".  I could almost she hear character sigh. Playing off of your character was comedy gold.

But part of his humour was that he did have a point. I teach crime'n'punishment to pay bills, I can make a good case for law and order. That's why I can sympathize with the Taliban - they just want law and order. See how quickly we are in black humour territory: the fact I'm not joking about the Taliban is the dark comedy to me.

"What use is surviving if we just become animals?" Pappy died with prayers on his lips and he is free from the burden of having to answer his own question, but the other survivors - including my next character - still have to answer it. Whether wearing shirts is part of the answer is still open for debate. So is the treatment of dead bodies.

I think the last few lines That you wrote hit a chord with me because I'm not used to playing with such heavy role players, Plus you do have a way with words that befuddles most of us Uneducated heathens

"Let's turn back, now." (said because he was 'anxious')
"What! The warehouse is LITERALLY around the corner!"
Two minutes later we get ambushed by five zombies... Probably the most ironic part of our session

Not to mention what happened with your and stef's characters has seriously screwed up my characters mentality As well as my own mental state. When you boil it down, none of you needed to come with me, I in some ways (subconsciously wanting the group to take part in the adventure) urged us to take a long trip through town and on what I believed was our one last hope of creating a secure home. And in the process injure myself severely with a high chance of being infected, while simultaneously getting two of my group killed. In my character's mind both of your deaths are completely my fault. So unless someone comes along that can give me psychological help I'm going to slowly drift farther and farther away from the group while simultaneously trying to keep them fed and protected.

Basically my brain is a quagmire of different priorities and prerogatives that are all conflicting and contradicting themselves

All in all, I'm going to miss that old man... And his surprisingly hot wife! which died in front of my eyes.... I can feel my childhood slipping away.............

Dr. Frost liked Pappy for his objections to stealing and wanting proper treatment of the dead. Dr. Frost has not accepted that a life of scavenging is the only future nor has he accepted that some of these people can't be saved. He still lives  in a civilized world experiencing a disaster but normal life will return soon. He doesn't like the stealing or killing. Mostly he wants to hold up in a safe area and wait for help to come. 

The death of Pappy and Paige has reinforced his belief that scavenging is not ok but has opened his eyes to the scale of the disaster he is living in. He is anxious to return home with his fiancee Emma

I like to hope characters would miss Pappy and Paige! I'm sure Pappy would have been sadden if you failed to return (though he would attribute your death to your questionable morals). Steph has been practicing using a nail-riven baseball bat for the last two nights (in survival mode). She wants to avoid Paige's fate next time so she's doing B&Es and blunt trauma until they're in the muscle memory.

But they were just acquaintances. And this is a game of black comedy.

So use their deaths as springboards for story and character (and maybe even moral) development but have fun with it. I don't think any survivor could say "That's the way Pappy would have wanted" (i.e "Let's put on shirts, that the way Pappy...") in full seriousness and without smiling - but I don't think his death will just be a joke, either. That is basically the tone I'm trying to play my characters at.


Seth, I'm glad your character is confused - because this means he sees enough layers of reality to get lost in them and despair means your emotions have not yet turned to stone. When you are staring at zombies, the danger is you become one.

But you are leading the group, you know every inch of Muldragh, you run twice as fast as them (especially that peg-leg guy), you are dressed like a ninja. Also your character shadowy gifts of prophecy give him an internal resilience beyond his years.

So WWWD? What Would Wolverine Do?

Well, first he would take up smoking because it is bad-ass -- but you are going your own way. Rightly so. So take the stereotype and let it evolve in play. I won't worry about making it too roleplaying heavy (drama!) as long as you are enjoying the questions your character poses go for it. Like:

Like where did all the axes go? And why do I care about feeding and protecting this doctor and his wife and any other stragglers? Did I just lead people to their deaths?

Here is a question that occurred to me late last night: What will happen with Pappy's corpse? Is he coming back as a zombie? Did he semi-knowingly build his tomb?

Haha As far as my character goes that way I would like him to look is: heavy sunglasses and a bandanna over my mouth, both black of course and to basically stop any blood or bodily fluids from getting into my body. Sometimes you gotta get up Close and personal!

On the way of personality Well let's just say he's going to be going over some serious changes, depending on who comes next, As well as who wants to get involved in his issues will decide how fast these changes are made and What direction They will take.

I would also like to bring up the setting that we will be going for next round, personally I'm in favour of the three of us getting back to the farm and living there for about a week until we run out of food (that would make up for the fact that there is no food in the farm when we restart the server) And so naturally I take off to find some more. While I'm away Hobbs and Stef's Characters can find the farm and introduced themselves to the the doctor who will explain the situation.

One of the reasons why prefer this scenario is I have no idea what the doctor is going to say about me to both of you guys, is it going to be good or bad? songs of praise or hushed warnings.....

I enjoyed going on the foraging trips and staying at the farm house!  I felt that Paige just needed to be kept busy -that's why she started a garden when she was at home and wanted to head into the city when given the chance.  I tried to pick a skin colour that would make her look tanned because she was a lumberjack (had no idea what Hobb's character looked like).

Her death was no-ones fault - her own impulsive nature of wanting to take on zombies who were threatening the ones around her (and not having the skill) was the problem.

As Hobb mentioned I played the last two nights to familiarize myself with zombie killing and cooking.  In my first game I learned after being chased by a huge horde into a house (damn alarms)  that you can jump from a second story window to escape zombies trying to break down the door- I was rewarded with a fractured ankle so I couldn't run or walk fast anymore. I realized after  I could have made a sheet rope .  

Secondly, I learned to use both hands to hold my weapon and time my swings for better zombie killing.

Lastly, I learned that the game really misses something without others as the role-playing and interacting makes the game!

I'll be jumping back into the game as well To test out all the new toys, I'll also be camping in the farmhouse to see how the new zombie distribution system works on rural areas.

Update***

Toys: Never fear ladies! the game has now added everything from foundation makeup to hairspray, so you can fight the apocalypse and look good doing it
It seems like we lucked out because our little shed on the Farm has a generator And two propane tanks!
So I went back to the first warehouse that me Silver and Paige raided and proceeded to find Four axes and a shotgun on rare setting! so it seems like it was some malfunction with the multiplayer settings instead of some obscure patch that Nerfed all the axes.

Zombies: Nothing but good here folks!!! when I arrived at the farm there was only two elderly black people in the living room and nobody else in the entire area so I doubt we'll be dealing with unrealistic zombie's Spawn rates in a forest, Until of course they start to Wander in. Bringing me onto my next Observation. It seems with the new update zombies have become very sociable, often being seen in a group of either 5 to 30 of naturally's spawned roving zombies who appear to stick together until something sparks their interest. This is both good and bad for us, now that zombies seem to have a high group mentality that makes them much easier for a fast singular person to redirect them away from areas, That Person being Le me! However the zombies pose a much larger threat for any group trying to travel through town, anyone attempting such a feat would undoubtedly have to fight their way through multiple groups of zombies even when trying to evade as many as possible.
Another good thing however is that the zombies appear to be evenly spread out through the city, where in many of my previous games iv played there would be large patches of the city or suburbs that would be completely empty while simultaneously there would be 50 zombies in the middle of the woods, with the new zombie grid, zombie placement will be much more realistic. If you really want to get into the heart of the city where the goodies are at (Clinics, grocery stores, Warehouses) You're gonna have to work for your food. Though that said there are many different ways of dealing with the zombies, whether it be straight up killing them or my favorite Tactic, redirecting the the groups away from my target building.

I also noticed something with my character and I'm not sure if it happens to anybody else but the longer you run the slower your pace becomes, so I've taken to running at full speed for maybe two minutes, stopping for a few seconds and then picking up speed again. I've also tweaked my character a bit, now he has Night eyes Allowing him to scavenge day and night efficiently, and Dexterous, allowing me to shove crap into my pack sack at warp nine!

As long as the hairspray can be used as an improvised flame-thrower....