Do you remember your first time playing a resident evil game? I do. It was a dark October night when my cousin had come to visit, bringing a copy of the original Resident Evil on Playstation 1. Being nine years old, the game was terrifying to me. Trapped in a maze-like mansion, surrounded by creatures that seemed to soak up bullets while death came too easily to the protagonists. Over the years, Resident Evil has grown as a series, with various highs and lows in the game's releases. Now, after the big announcement trailer of Resident Evil VILLAGE (aka RE8), I felt it was time to dust off my gloves and play in the sandbox of the world once more.
The premise is simple: you are a resident in Virgil's Grove Oregon, a mid-sized city off the coast of the Pacific Ocean. It's not much of a tourist destination compared with the larger cities to the north (namely Portland and Seattle) but it does boast many modern city amenities. A beautiful central park, a popular zoo, a hiking trails up the mountainous eastern section of the city limits, and the beautiful coast, albeit ignoring the offshore research station that was set up ten years ago, run by a private research company. But that doesn't matter, what matters is that Virgil's Grove is a safe city, where people come to live their lives in peace and comfort.
Until of course, something happens. At first, it's a simple sickness, the hospitals fill up, people worry, quarantine and curfew are mandated throughout the city. It's what happens after it gets quiet; when the bodies start to move again. Suddenly the infection spreads at a rapid vector, and before any government or international groups can be called in, the city is undergoing a pandemic. The only option is to cordon off the city, blocking all passage in and out.
But it's never just zombies. Mutant creatures begin spreading throughout the city, and the danger only grows. With a rescue team mounted to try and evacuate any civilians out of the city, the residents have to find their way to safety and survival.
The setting is the heart of this roleplay: Virgil's Grove is an older city with century-old architecture being hit with a powerful storm off the coast. Weather will play a huge role in this roleplay, making it just as dangerous an enemy as the zombies and mutants the protagonists face. Flash floods can be terrifying, and can quickly destroy any fortifications that survivors have made to protect themselves from their hunters. Add to these severe winds and powerful lightning and the situation becomes incredibly tense. It also allows for interesting set-pieces for the roleplay.
Characters remain important to a good Resident Evil story (unless your name is Ethan) and the cast for this roleplay should be well-rounded. Consider the forgotten classic Resident Evil games Outbreak and Outbreak File 2, and how the characters in those games ranged from a doctor to a waitress, a college student, a subway employee, and a repairman. This segways into my next point about characters: military and law enforcement backgrounds are the things I keep a very discriminatory eye on. Starting off packed with weapons and ammo goes against everything Resident Evil. I would prefer no one to be a crack shot or an expert zombie slayer, but I also have a secondary thing to prevent that from happening as well.
Consider who would live in a small city and what their job would be; and in turn, what skills that job would bring to the forefront. An IT guy may be great with technology, a nurse may be great at treating wounds. A construction worker may be excellent at using tools to defend himself and could be physically more imposing than the others. Also, consider what your character desires or needs in order to escape the city. Are they searching for a family member? Have they lost something precious in an evacuation attempt? Characters need a driving force to survive beyond simply "hide from the zombies".
Above is a part of my OOC page for the RP I have envisioned. You can creep on my test forum to see the rest of the work in progress. I still have to set up a few locations to act as set pieces for the RP, but ultimately an RP like this is more based on Resident Evil Outbreak than anything recent. Well, I guess you could argue RE2 and RE3 remakes are recent, so there are those two. I do get excited any time a new RE game is announced, and VILLAGE: Resident Evil looks exciting! I want to play around with some of the monster designs from said game to go along with the classic BOWS (Zombies, Dogs, Bugs, Hunters, etc).
So yeah, this topic really exists to see if there's anyone that's interested in doing a Resident Evil based RP. I famously don't use canon characters in character, unless they take a periphery role as an NPC over the radio or in a file. I prefer focusing on OCs in my canon lore RPs. Because I'm a big old weirdo.
But yeah! Let me know what you think, or tell me that I'm smelly and I should leave the guild. I have mentally prepared myself for both possibilities. And if you have questions, comments or ideas, please shoot them at me.
Thanks!
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