The undead roam the lands unhindered, their numbers growing and spreading like a plague. Most surviving humans have fortified themselves behind walls of wood and stone, finding new faiths to guide them through these trying times. Commercial trade has ground to a near halt, effectively starving villages of certain vital supplies and throwing the economy into a free fall. The sick are quaranteened behind prison bars out of fear of them turning, and bodies of the deceased are burned on ceremonial pyres when at all possible. It is not safe to venture beyond the walls of civilization alone, and doubly so after dark. But the time for safety is over...

And the nightmare has only just begun.

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The OOC is now live! Apply here: https://www.roleplayerguild.com/topics/178044-the-black-undeath/ooc

Interested.

Few questions:

1) What type of undead? Do they run or just walk? Do they evolve? Is this more walking dead, resident evil or world war z?

2) Are most survivors taking sanctuary within the walls? How big is this space?

3) what kind of villain ideas do you have?

What's the timeframe/technology level? Like is this fantasy or modern? If it's fantasy how high? What's the plot points? Like is there an organization dealing with it or is this more open world sandbox?

I want to make it clear that this is a medieval/fantasy concept. I put that in the tags but feel my post did not adequately reflect this.

@QT
1. What do you mean by "type"? They're of the more magical variety, and I plan to have several different variations - two of which being your zombies and your skeletons. Their movement speed depends on what they are, so your zombies are really only going to reach maybe a fast walk. Skeletons, on the other hand, will be much quicker - like scary fast. Evolution is a fun idea. Unfortunately I'm really only familiar with World War Z, but from what I've seen from Resident Evil 7 it's probably closer to what I had in mind.
EDIT: Actually, I forgot Hunt: Showdown is pretty close.

2. Most survivors are indeed taking refuge in walled cities, and there are several of them. Efforts have been made for safer paths, but ultimately the safest method of travel is either by boat or in armed caravans.

3. Sadly nothing that isn't too typical. I'm still more focused on the world at the moment, trying to make it cool.

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@Dumb1And1Lazy Timeframe is roughly the medieval era, but the technology level will probably be slightly increased to maybe the renaissance (or it's dark and twisted cousin that never was). It's lower fantasy, magic for humans will be scarce and of religious value. At the same time, with the way I'm going with the introduction I'm willing to grant some extra leeway to the player characters.

No definitive plot points yet, but there are organizations - both religiously driven and not - trying to ensure the safety of the surviving cities. I'm still mulling over how sandbox-y I should make this.

EDIT: Also nice avatar

Interested!

Thanks for the interest! I'm continuing to work on this idea (currently focused on creating and fleshing out enemy types), and hope to keep up work on this idea for a good while. But college is starting to leave me feeling drained and uninspired. I'm going to be taking classes over the summer as well, so I'm really hoping this trend doesn't continue.

Though… it really shouldn't stop me from continuing to work, and should really only slow things down.

Ok Can I ask for a tad bit of clarification? are the zombies gonna be more realistic? Like Black Summer, The Walking Dead and the romero world? OR more outlandish like Z-nation, Resident evil etc?

@Madison Parker I feel they might be leaning towards outlandish. Some of the types I've come up with are definitely more towards the outlandish side, but there are also more mundane forms of undead.

Since the origin for the undead will be magic, I wouldn't expect too much realism (though I do enjoy it). At the same time, I wouldn't expect anything like those sludge monster things from Resident Evil 7.

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Sorry if this isn't a very clear answer, I don't really know how to explain what I'm aiming for.

So a middle point then per say? nice. lol.

Yeah, something like that. Maybe with a little bit of leeway in either direction.

Awesome. So with this being an obvious OC universe/world is there any restrictions on playing Zombie movie Canons?

@ArkmageddonCat How outlandish are we talking? Seeing as this is a fantasy RP and the zombs are made through the use of magic, I'm assuming that they'll be similar to the Scourge from WoW or White Walkers from GoT/ASoIaF.

Also, what is the land like? Are there different regions, each with their own geography (like a hot desert or snowy mountains)? Do they have different cultures throughout the kingdoms? I was thinking on going for a more rugged (though not super brutish, just used to a harsh lifestyle) character from an equally rugged place (perhaps somewhere cold and stony), so more information on the setting would be appreciated.

Another question I have would be how often do you expect us to post, and how much do you want in terms of responses.

Since the undead are magical beings and this is a sort-of low fantasy RPG, can characters beyond undead ones have magic abilities? If so, to what extent?

Let's say that I want to RP as an experienced but still common trooper. Will that soldier have any knowledge of magic to, say, enhance their armor? Or is magic less widespread? If I want to play as a famed, powerful knight, will that character have magic abilities instead? Do mages/witches exist? Speaking of "new faiths", will there be priests with magic abilities?

@Madison Parker Sorry about the delayed response, I didn't have time to respond when I checked the notification and then my schedule got absolutely destroyed last week.

But to answer your question, I don't really think I'm going to allow canon characters. I am toying with an idea that could technically make it possible, but given that this is a dark medieval / fantasy type of setting I just don't think it'll work thematically.

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@Kuro I don't know much of anything about the Scourge (or WoW for that matter), but I don't think they'd be too much like the White Walkers. I've mentioned in a previous comment that the closest reference is probably the game "Hunt: Showdown", but if you've played Dark Souls 3 and remember the human centipede fuckers in the water under Irythyll... well they've definitely inspired one of the enemy types.

Good question, and seeing as world building is one of my favorite things to do, I certainly want to include a good variety of regions and cultures to go along with them. Currently, my idea for the starting region (should we venture out into other lands) is a sort of lowlands area with stretches of marsh and floodplains, though there would also be some hills and mountains where castles and keeps are built. Basically the type of place that's already naturally kinda dark and nasty, where the air can feel thick and all manner of fungus and moss can grow - depending on the season, of course. Can be a beautiful landscape come spring, but it's just kinda downhill towards the end of summer.

As for other regions, you can bet there's gonna be a colder highlands region sprinkled with mountains and valleys and prone to extreme cliffs. You can expect this locale to be even more Jekyll-and-Hyde than the starting region, with a wonderful spring and summer but hellish winters. Main inspirations for the locale would be what I've come to associate with fantasy Scotland and Viking territory.
A desert is another likely location, though I cannot seem to think of many ways to diversify the landscape from your typical Sahara-esque landscape. I'll be damned if there isn't a glorious sea of sand dunes or lush oases scattered about. The sand dunes make it a little hard to diversify the landscape, but with a semi-mountainous rocky desert transition I might be able to logically fit in canyons and plateaus. (I do use logically rather lightly, as I'm nowhere near a geological genius - nor am I really all that versed at all, actually)

For posting frequency, I understand shit happens - work, college, hospital, writing yourself into a corner, losing inspiration, etc, you name it - so I'd wager no less frequently than 1 post a week, and about 2 paragraphs (8-10 sentences) long. I'm not gonna stop anyone from posting as much as they want, just that they try to wait for two other people to post beforehand. I'd appreciate a rate of 1 post every 3 days, but I'm not unwilling to spare a character from death after a week of inactivity (IC) if informed of the circumstances for a given player's absence within that time. I don't want to kill off player characters without the player's approval, but if you're holding up the RP then I've got to do something. Speaking of which, if you're having issues writing or if somebody you were trying to initiate an interaction with leaves you in an awkward spot - tell me about it. I'm not a god (IRL), or a mind reader (period), but we might be able to work something out together with my godly control over NPCs.

That spiraled off into a bit of a tangent, and my response to you is getting hella long on my phone, so I apologize for that. Adderall is a helluva drug.

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@Ocelot79 I'm not opposed to characters having access to magic, but I'd prefer to handle it similarly to the game Kingdom Come: Deliverance (which doesn't have any magic aside from the alchemical sort, cause I'm sure that Health Potions are based on placebo effect and medieval superstition). So, when it comes to alchemy and herbalism and all that shit that requires reasonable ingredients, that's a definite yes for the magical enhancement of / the addition of magical properties to mixtures. By extension, witches would be more likely to exist than mages - but they'd still be rare, and regardless of their moral alignment they'd almost certainly be perceived as vile (ofc).

When it comes to priests, though, I'm unsure of where to draw the line. Perhaps I will leave it at priests being able to sway fortune and fate in their favor, enough to make a difference but not enough to escape death and failure. I suppose they should also know how to make and apply bandages, and with the application of holy water they could effectively heal the wounded. Oh, and now that I think about it, fire will likely take on a renewed religious importance (at least with certain faiths, I suppose) - so I'd be willing to say that a priest could potentially consult with some sort of blessed, holy, or divine flame to acquire a hint towards the future. There's a lot of possibilities to explore just by enhancing the mundane world, and I want to see how much can come of that before assessing whether a higher level of magic is necessary.

Lastly, the presence of enchantments depends on the enchantment itself. If it's one that can be explained away or dismissed as placebo, then it's perfect. Anything else will almost certainly depend on the individual enchantment - at least until I can think of a way to categorize those that are undoubtedly not just superstition, but also are not overly strong.
Also just to be clear, I'm not requiring that enchantments be placebo - just that they could be dismissible as such. Like having a lucky necklace, or having a blessed sword. Superstitious beliefs such as those exist for a reason, and as such I will not discount the effect that they might have.

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*EDIT

<Snipped quote by ArkmageddonCat>
@Ocelot79

What a day when I take over 2 hours to write a response AND forget I've touched on the topic before. So, yeah, I guess there will be some actual magic still, at least in relation to religious practices.

Man, how did I forget that?

EDIT 2: I don't know why I edited this last part in, it doesn't notify on edits and the quote no longer possesses any information.

Basically this means we have a low magic setting (low access to magical items beyond potions, clerics/wizards are rare, etc). This is how I'm reading @ArkmageddonCat's response, anyway.

Basically this means we have a low magic setting (low access to magical items beyond potions, clerics/wizards are rare, etc). This is how I'm reading @ArkmageddonCat's response, anyway.

That's a way simpler way to put it. Adderall makes me so excessively wordy and rambly.

But yes, this. I'm pretty sure I've stated it's low fantasy, but now there's a concise description.

Link to a wiki page on the scourge. TL;DR They're a bunch of undead--ghouls, abominations (giant meat puppets made from flesh sewn together), geists, gargoyles, etc etc. General bad guys that might be some inspiration for the zombies here.

As for the setting, I'll probably go for a character from the highlands area. Was thinking a front line warrior with a mace and a large shield, with their birthplace helping to provide the brawn and bulk needed to stand on the front lines. A bit generic, I know, but a Northern barbarian (or well, more of a heavily armored fighter) sounds cool.

Not sure how I feel about a post every 3 days but I can for sure manage at least one per week.

At any rate, always played around with the idea of a zombie dark fantasy scenario in a medieval setting. Color me interested.

I'm with @QT in that I need to know more about the nature of the undead. Can there be more demonic-type creatures as well? Maybe even intelligent, sentient ones who can finesse their way into the walls using disguises and cunning? I'm really hoping the premise allows for paranoia and distrust within the walls in as much as without.