Realistic or Modern The Blight

[Archie]

In 2025 AD, Encephalitis Major swept through the world. The disease attacked the frontal lobe, turning its victims into feral creatures, willing to attack and eat even fellow humans. For decades, the world had been taught by zombie movies to think that zombies would be slow, uncoordinated, and unintelligent. Militaries around the world were therefore shocked to find that these creatures travelled in packs, hunted with the cunning of wolves, and were just as fast as any human, but felt none of their pain or fear. Highly contagious, EM spread through saliva or blood contact. Worse, not all zombies were affected the same way by EM. Some retained the ability to reason. These quickly rose to leadership over the others, becoming the "Alphas" of the zombie swarms, and coordinating attacks against humanity like generals planned battles. Our enemy wasn't just numerous, they were intelligent.

Fortunately, zombie movies also got something else wrong - humanity's ability to adapt and unite behind a cause. Throughout the world, humans, realizing that walls were no good (an Alpha could simply order his swarm to pile atop each other), retreated to islands between the rushing waters of rivers or the waves of the oceans. Entire economies were built around these communities, based on fishing, some farming, scavenging parties (sent out by boat to quickly plunder a location next to a river before zombies arrived), and trade. Unfortunately, even these were not impervious. Some alphas had enough intelligence to organize their swarms to build rafts, and landed at night.

Soon, most of humanity realized what we needed to do to survive - collaborate. All across the world, island communities realized that their defenses, their barriers, could only slow the alphas down. They started paying tribute - in food, services, and even live humans (alphas used to be human, and still retained most of their basic drives) - to the alphas who became their new lords.

Some communities did find ways to fight back. In the Western plains, former rancher Cain Sykes figured out that it was easier to live as a nomad than in any one place. Rallying survivors to herd cattle and horses, the Horde, as other survivors came to call it, travelled the plains, evading hordes with the help of aerial drones. In the Northeast, former mercenary Mark Chen managed to wipe out a series of swarms using chemical weapons deployed from crop dusters, and secured huge tracts of land for old-fashioned farming (subsequently using the threat of chemical weapons to subjugate all the island communities around him, forming the Union of "Autonomous" Communities). These communities, however, were the exception and not the rule.

Two other communities were lucky. Those who lived on coastal islands were relatively safe from the zombies, forming an economy based on fishing and trade. After the UAC chemical-bombed the islands of Boston Harbor, they united and formed the Maritime Republics, commandeering a former nuclear missile submarine to deter the UAC form further aggression. Centered around the cities of Atlantic City and Newport News, who survived the outbreak by blowing all the bridges to the mainland, the Maritime Republics preserve some of the old world's capitalism and debauchery. Finally, there's the old government and the remnants of the US military, hiding away in their bunkers, doing who knows what as they watch the world burn.

Our story starts in the unfortunate Delaware River in Pennsylvania, where all the communities are vassals of an Alpha we know only as "Jaws" (for his giant mouth). You are all townspeople of Mashipacong, fishermen, traders, scavengers, and mercenaries... except one. Recently, Heritage, a community that had disobeyed Jaws to the north had just been destroyed. When the sheriff of Mashipacong ordered a search party to scavenge for supplies weeks after, it turned out there was a survivor, and they had bite marks all over. They were immune to Encephalitis Major.

The local sheriff has the survivor under lockdown, and probably intends to give him/her/them over to Jaws to curry favor. Some of you, however, have different ideas. Maybe you're a mercenary who thinks the UAC, the Horde, or one of the oligarchs of the Maritime Republic might pay more. Maybe you're an idealist and think their blood could be used to create a cure. Or maybe you just think that the tradition of sacrificing humans to Jaws has to end.

Once we've freed the cure from the grips of the Sheriff, word will spread of the prize. Jaws will want to track us down and kill us, and the UAC and the remnants of the US government will no doubt want the cure for their own scientific purposes. We'll have to move South down the Delaware River to escape Jaws, but from what we've heard, the South is full of unwanted adventure:

- Two large hubs of trade - Walpack and Pennsbury Manor.
- A cult stretching numerous islands who see Jaws as the biblical demon Asmodeus, and who believe they are the last Christians fighting against the four horsemen of the apocalypse,
- The Canal, a community separated from the banks of the Delaware River with such a sliver of land that Jaws could destroy them at any time - they are Jaws's most loyal collaborators.

- Don't get us started on Philadelphia, where the American remnant dominates the skies with an aircraft carrier in the Naval Yard, a former city councilor claiming to be the "Mayor" rules a large community in the airport (which is fortunately built on an island), oil merchants occupy the old island oil refinery, a group of survivors hold up in the Baseball park and Football stadium, and a warlord has found a way to survive at the tops of the Philadelphia skyline, creating roof gardens and blowing out the staircases to the upper floors, creating rope and wood bridges between the skyscrapers.
- Fleets of houseboats coursing up and down the river, some of them peaceful, others surviving on raids.

Worse, it seems like the entire region is about to be the site of a confrontation between the Horde and the UAC, who are both moving in to subjugate the islands of the Delaware River under them.

Here is a MAP. Note UAC and Maritime Republic zones aren't named because there are so many of them. Every one of these locations that we choose to go to has a story and a moral conflict if we want to help the society get through its problems, though most I'm still fleshing out.


Let me know if you're interested or have any ideas to throw in!

 

[FireMaiden]

I'm hella interested

 

[Worthlessplebian]

Yea sure, I haven't played in a Z RP in a long time.

 

[Mianigh]

Very interested! ^^ This looks so cool. I already have character ideas in mind.

 

[Archie]

Sweet. I'll boot up a thread once we have like 6-7 people

 

[FireMaiden]

Noice

 

[Natural Flavour]

In! In! In!

 

[GrieveWriter]

Sure, I'm game to give it a go

 

[Maddie15]

I'm interested

 

[Archie]

Its up!

Realistic or Modern - The Blight

In 2025 AD, Encephalitis Major swept through the world. The disease attacked the frontal lobe, turning its victims into feral creatures, willing to attack and eat even fellow humans. For decades, the world had been taught by zombie movies to think that zombies would be slow, uncoordinated, and...

www.rpnation.com

Maddie15 GrieveWriter Natural Flavour FireMaiden Mianigh Worthlessplebian

 

[MysteriousFox]

Also interested, if you're still accepting!

 

[JesusOftheSlums]

I'm interested

 

[Archie]

We're probably starting by this weekend, but still time to get in your CS

 

[Archie]

Err... I just realized the map is on private. It's public now and everyone can see it.

 

[HighSanguinaryPriest]

Interested. Any Info on Alaska?

 

[Sabes]

This looks super complicated in world building but i'm up for it

 

[Grognard]

interested