GinkyGotBack
A Very Good Boy
The End of the World is a tabletop RPG where the goal of the game is ultimately to survive an apocalyptic scenario such as an alien invasion or a zombie plague or a series of world-ending natural disasters. The RPG has four books dedicated to a different theme and each book contains five or six different scenarios that put their own spin on the chosen theme. Each scenario has two different parts which take place during the apocalypse and (if the characters survive) the post-apocalypse, which deals with the world several years after the previous apocalypse.
The Characters and the Setting
Normally, the characters you play are based entirely on yourselves and their inventory is whatever you have on you and whatever you decide to take from your surroundings and the setting is supposed to be on where you all are in real life at the start of the game. However, since not everyone is comfortable playing as themselves and multiple people roleplaying in separate parts of the world alone isn't fun, we'll be doing things a bit differently. Your characters will be original characters created by yourselves
Gameplay and Character Creation
I'll be linking a PDF file of the rulebook at the end, but here I'll provide you with a summary of how character creation and gameplay works just so you can get an idea of what you're getting yourselves into.
The end goal of the game is not to save the world (though you're welcome to try) but to simply survive. The goals and missions your characters hope to accomplish are based on what they want to do, so whether they want to save a family member or head off to the nearest store and loot it is up to you. The game is intended for shorter, more defined play experiences, however, the campaign can last for as long as the players like assuming the PCs live that long.
Starting from the Zero Hour, I, the GM, will keep track of a Timeline that will progress as the characters act and move around. As we move further down the Timeline, important local and worldwide events will take place that the characters may or may not be aware of. If the characters can make it to the end of the Timeline they will have essentially survived the apocalypse and will move on to the post-apocalypse, which has no Timeline. At this point, the players can choose whether to continue the campaign, learning what has happened to the world and either adapting or continuing to survive or to end it there and simply be told how the world is now.
Characters are not all-powerful heroes. While they may improve or learn new skills, they are only human and are limited to what your average human can do. Fighting multiple zombies at a time or trying to take down a UFO is dangerous and could very well get your character killed, and they will sustain Injuries, Stress, and Trauma which could seriously put a damper on their ability to survive or make them emotionally and/or mentally unstable.
Character Creation
Just like almost any tabletop RPG players take turns describing their actions and sometimes roll dice to see how well they performed. Whenever you attempt something with a chance of failing, you must make a test, rolling several six-sided dice and interpreting the results to see whether you succeed or fail at what you were trying to do and whether you get a penalty from it. The GM will decide when you must make a test, though you can feel free to suggest some when you feel it's appropriate.
When creating a character you have six stats or 'characteristics' which you must distribute 10 points into. The six characteristics are split into three categories, with one 'offensive' characteristic and one 'defensive' characteristic for each category:
STRENGTH
- Dexterity (Offensive)
- Vitality (Defensive)
MENTAL
- Logic (Offensive)
- Willpower (Defensive)
SOCIAL
- Charisma (Offensive)
- Empathy (Defensive)
All characters start with a 1 in each characteristic before points are invested into them. Each point spent on a characteristic increases it by 1, but no characteristic can be higher than 5. After you've distributed your points, everyone else in the group (including myself) will vote secretly on all three of your character's categories, choosing whether one of its characteristics should be raised by one, lowered by one, or kept the same. This is to ensure a character is kept at a realistic standard for the type of person they are. For example, someone with absolutely no social skills shouldn't have a 3 or 4 in the SOCIAl category.
After stats, you must select features for each category that represent important aspects of your character, be they positive or negative. Positive features represent a character's strengths and skills while negative features represent weaknesses or flaws. You start with one positive and one negative feature for each of your three categories. Depending on whether a characteristic in a category was voted to be raised or lowered you will either lose or gain a feature for that category. If the group voted to raise a characteristic, you either add a negative feature belonging to that category or remove a positive feature. If they voted to lower a characteristic, you either add a positive feature or remove a negative one.
After deciding your character's features, you simply record what items they are carrying during the Zero Hour. As long as its kept realistic and makes sense for the character, there shouldn't be any problems with that.
And finally, you can choose from a list what Traumas, which are physical, mental, or social 'wounds' a character may have if they have any at all. These Traumas will influence your character's performance during the game, but they can be healed over time. Adding a Trauma to your character is absolutely optional, although almost everyone has at least something wrong with them.
The end goal of the game is not to save the world (though you're welcome to try) but to simply survive. The goals and missions your characters hope to accomplish are based on what they want to do, so whether they want to save a family member or head off to the nearest store and loot it is up to you. The game is intended for shorter, more defined play experiences, however, the campaign can last for as long as the players like assuming the PCs live that long.
Starting from the Zero Hour, I, the GM, will keep track of a Timeline that will progress as the characters act and move around. As we move further down the Timeline, important local and worldwide events will take place that the characters may or may not be aware of. If the characters can make it to the end of the Timeline they will have essentially survived the apocalypse and will move on to the post-apocalypse, which has no Timeline. At this point, the players can choose whether to continue the campaign, learning what has happened to the world and either adapting or continuing to survive or to end it there and simply be told how the world is now.
Characters are not all-powerful heroes. While they may improve or learn new skills, they are only human and are limited to what your average human can do. Fighting multiple zombies at a time or trying to take down a UFO is dangerous and could very well get your character killed, and they will sustain Injuries, Stress, and Trauma which could seriously put a damper on their ability to survive or make them emotionally and/or mentally unstable.
Character Creation
Just like almost any tabletop RPG players take turns describing their actions and sometimes roll dice to see how well they performed. Whenever you attempt something with a chance of failing, you must make a test, rolling several six-sided dice and interpreting the results to see whether you succeed or fail at what you were trying to do and whether you get a penalty from it. The GM will decide when you must make a test, though you can feel free to suggest some when you feel it's appropriate.
When creating a character you have six stats or 'characteristics' which you must distribute 10 points into. The six characteristics are split into three categories, with one 'offensive' characteristic and one 'defensive' characteristic for each category:
STRENGTH
- Dexterity (Offensive)
- Vitality (Defensive)
MENTAL
- Logic (Offensive)
- Willpower (Defensive)
SOCIAL
- Charisma (Offensive)
- Empathy (Defensive)
All characters start with a 1 in each characteristic before points are invested into them. Each point spent on a characteristic increases it by 1, but no characteristic can be higher than 5. After you've distributed your points, everyone else in the group (including myself) will vote secretly on all three of your character's categories, choosing whether one of its characteristics should be raised by one, lowered by one, or kept the same. This is to ensure a character is kept at a realistic standard for the type of person they are. For example, someone with absolutely no social skills shouldn't have a 3 or 4 in the SOCIAl category.
After stats, you must select features for each category that represent important aspects of your character, be they positive or negative. Positive features represent a character's strengths and skills while negative features represent weaknesses or flaws. You start with one positive and one negative feature for each of your three categories. Depending on whether a characteristic in a category was voted to be raised or lowered you will either lose or gain a feature for that category. If the group voted to raise a characteristic, you either add a negative feature belonging to that category or remove a positive feature. If they voted to lower a characteristic, you either add a positive feature or remove a negative one.
After deciding your character's features, you simply record what items they are carrying during the Zero Hour. As long as its kept realistic and makes sense for the character, there shouldn't be any problems with that.
And finally, you can choose from a list what Traumas, which are physical, mental, or social 'wounds' a character may have if they have any at all. These Traumas will influence your character's performance during the game, but they can be healed over time. Adding a Trauma to your character is absolutely optional, although almost everyone has at least something wrong with them.
And that's all I can really talk about without boring you with a wall of text and rules, assuming I haven't done that already. If you'd like to learn more about the game and how it's played you can check out this rules document which will better describe how the game is played (don't worry about the Zombie's theme, the rules apply to all four of the game's books).
If you're interested then leave a post down below and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. In the meantime, you can start talking about what kind of character you'd want to play, which theme you'd like to do (which you can vote on above), and maybe even start collaborating with others. You can vote for a total of two themes and whichever one of the four has the most votes will be the one we do.
Thanks for reading and I hope you will join me at the End of the World.
