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[mickilennial]

I don't know what you're talking about. My CS is finished.

[Bork Lazer]

Very interesting twist on the ubiquitous 'zombie apocalypse' trope that seems to have infected the current premise of roleplays. Most roleplays that use zombie apocalyptic settings usually have it set during modern times. It's typically extremely hard for a person to justify a zombie apocalypse happening in the modern era and causing the societal collaspe of humanity without resorting to contrived justifications. Here, it's justified because it takes place in the 1940's during the Great Depression of all eras which creates a realistic setting where a zombie outbreak could reasonably occur. This removes any need for suspension for disbelief as zombies are a outside context problem.

However, I have a few questions. I assume that most of these questions will be explored in the RP.

1. You said that these zombies will 'ignore any wounds that are not immediately fatal such as decapitation or destruction of the brain.' Is this a typo or is this actually an element of the RP?

2. Are these zombies able to disobey the laws of thermodynamics and continue to walk for weeks on end without a source of food or will they naturally perish after some time?

3. I'm also assuming judging by the description of stags being affected by the virus, I'm assuming that there will be animal zombies in this RP as well?

4. Is this outbreak local in Florida only or across the entire USA? (This is probably a spoiler question but I'll just ask out of curiosity.)

I'm a history student but I'm a little rusty on the historical setting of the USA during the 1930s and 1940s. After the Prohibition Era is where my memory goes south. I'll try to brush up on it a bit before I consider joining this RP.

Anyway, very good concept you got going on here and the trait system is a nice touch. Hope this roleplay can last for a long time.

[spicykvnt]

Lawrence Miller

Name: Lawrence Miller
Age: 27

Appearance
5'11" with a set of baby blues and an intensely imposing stare. He is not overbuilt in his physique, but years of working as a farmhand have left him toned and strong. The ends of his hair lighten to a sandy blonde under the heat of the Florida sun, with a darker brown growing in at the root. He is typically handsome and keeps himself clean cut and neat - trimming his facial hair short and his hair combed just so. He doesn't mind getting dirty during work, because of this, most of his clothing is stained with splashes and mixtures of oils, dirt, and paint. He is not a man who smiles often, or shows much expression on his face, but when he does smile he has a good set of straight teeth - a constant surprise to him that even after so many brawls he has yet to lose a tooth.

Personality
A private man who fiercely guards the details of his life before he left the family home, he appears to have a somewhat unpleasant personality at first, and is a man of very few words. He can be contemplative and meditative, and those that he works closest to know very little about him. They would describe him as being introspective but likely with a past riddled with more filth than a Louisiana Bayou.

He can come across as rude and blunt, and is the first to throw a punch when a punch needs to be thrown. When given space from others, he very much just gets on with it and softens around those that are less demanding on him and give him the space to be quiet. Despite what may be viewed as some shortcomings in personality - he has been able to build up a solid reputation for himself as being an honest and skilled craftsman. People trust that when Lawrence does a job, that job will be done the best it can be.

History
Born one of five in 1907 to a Preacher and his wife in Shreveport, Louisiana, Lawrence spent his early years under the iron fist of his religious father. He had only one brother, and three sisters. As the middle child he would often feel excluded and overshadowed by his siblings. Still, he tried his hardest to catch the attention and earn the respect of his father. The only time he would seem to get that attention was when his father delighted in beating him, it was an honor that seemed to only be bestowed upon his first born son - as his youngest sibling, James, was the apple of his father's eye.

Lawrence could do nothing right, no matter how well he read out scripture in Church, how he could retell the biblical stories, and no matter how much he prayed and worshiped... It was never enough. The actions of his father eventually broke his faith in God and religion, not to mention that God had never answered his prayers either... By his mid teens he was already a truly rebellious, reckless and troubled young man. He would get into fist fights, go out and vandalise buildings in the town, and would be a general nuisance - conducting disorderly behaviour on a frequent basis. It was never anything too serious, but it was serious enough to get repeated punishments from his father, and still, he never fought back.

By far, the worst beating he ever received came when his father discovered that Lawrence had torn the inside pages out of a bible and replaced it with a stolen copy of Wuthering Heights. How was Lawrence to know that that very night his father would reach for that old dog-eared Bible to read his scripture - only to be confronted with passages of a novel instead. Such novels were forbidden in the Miller household, what was Lawrence to do? It hadn't been the first time he'd done such a thing. Reading was one of the few things that he actually, truly, enjoyed. It provided him a quiet space away from his home. He got to visit better places by thumbing through the pages of forbidden novels.

When he was 19, he walked in on his father fiddling his youngest sister, Dorothy. It was to be the first and only time he found the courage within himself to take a swing at his father - he reached for an empty bottle and landed the blow to the back of his fathers neck. The first and only time he would strike back at his father would just wind up being another instance in which the the Preacher overpowered and humiliated his son. His sister scolded him for coming to her defense - protecting their father. Unable to understand why she wanted to protect him, and shamed from losing to his father again, he took off that very same afternoon and never looked back. He stole a few pieces of jewellery, some silver, what little cash he could find - pawning everything but his mother's crucifix necklace in order to pay his way out of Shreveport.

For a good 5 years he traveled around - jumping from job to job. He discovered on his travels that putting his hands to work properly helped to drown out the noise and make him feel less anger and guilt. He eventually reached Cypress Hollow when he was 24. By then, he had built up some decent skills in craftsmanship and mending things. He wound up taking on some continuous work as a farmhand and handyman on the Tackett farm.

A truly strange place for him to wind up, but for some reason he stuck around. There always seemed to be a fence that needed a new coat of paint, an engine that needed to be fixed, or furniture to be built. He kept to himself mostly, putting himself to good use by Henry Tackett, who unlike so many others he had worked for - really didn't seem to mind how rough around the edges he could be.

Speech Color
Teal - 00746b

Traits
Imposing - +2
Craftsman - +3
Pugilist - +2
Reputable - +2
Hardy - +1
Abrasive - -1
Reckless - -3
Loud - -1
Hot Headed - -2

Skill Value - 3

Inventory
Crucifix chain necklace.
Several farm tools kept on a belt

[Genni]

With the number of American Veterans or sons of WWI veterens around we really need there to be a reason for why so many would be in the same place at the same time. As I said before, only just over 1% of American troops who went to Europe during WWI were actually killed, with a further >3% injured.

The best reason I can think of to explain this concentration of veterans would be that they deliberately sought each other out due to their similar circumstances, something which did happen in the real world during the Great Depression where service veterans and their family built entire shanty towns together to help support one another.

The largest concentration of American casualties during WWI was the Battle of the Argonne Forest in late 1918, involving 1.2 million American soldiers, and leading to 26,277 killed and 95,786 wounded. This included elements of both the 1st US Army, which had been formed in August 1918, and the 2nd US Army, who had been brought together in October 1918 specifically for the purpose of pushing the American lines forward. Both ended up in a 'meat grinder' conflict with the German front lines, which lasted until the Armistice of 11 November 1918, 47 days later.

The 1st were mainly comprised of newly recruited soldiers who had been sent to Europe 'green', but who'd had about nine months of experience in the trenches before the push. The 2nd were pulled in from veterans of the Spanish–American War under Lieutenant General Bullard, who were more used to the stand up fighting seen in that conflict to the trench running of WWI. Characters in their early to mid-thirties would've most likely been in the 1st Army, while any forty-fifty or older would've likely been from the 2nd.

---

I'm a history student but I'm a little rusty on the historical setting of the USA during the 1930s and 1940s. After the Prohibition Era is where my memory goes south. I'll try to brush up on it a bit before I consider joining this RP.

@The Bork Lazer

The RP is set literally right after the Prohibition era, with the action starting in 1934 and Prohibition ending in December 1933, and given the rural setting very little would've changed culturally in the few months since the law passed so I think you'll be good.

EDIT: An important note to consider is that although the Federal government repealled Prohibition in December 1933, Florida still had a constitutional ban on liquor until November 1934, which makes Henry Tackettt's basement full of booze illegal, and explains his reluctance to let menfolk into the main house.

Having said that, this article has some useful clip notes on the state of the nation to get a general feel for wider cultural points which would've affected the characters at the time. Apart from Prohibition being repealled the New Deal programme has just started affecting the American population as well, leading to an economic boom for people such as Farmer Tackett, who'd have started receiving economic support from the government a couple of months before the RP begins.

This could also explain the sudden influx of new characters, since many unemployed people and their families were moving around the country at this time, finding work in places where it hadn't been available until a short while earlier thanks to the New Deal.

[Bork Lazer]

Stumps

Name: Joseph Nicholas Chester

Nickname: Stumps

“Whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also.”

Age: 23

Appearance
Every scar on Stumps can be traced back to the handiwork of a lynch-mob. Raw-red imprints of flaxen ropes and chains around his neck during a stay in Missouri. Burns on his hands and feet from Georgia. Healed cuts from Louisiana. He sometimes jibes that he’s the only Negro alive to have gotten scarred in all 50 states in America, which is heavily subjective to claim.
Perhaps the most defining physical characteristic of Stumps isn’t the heavy amount of bruises and past scars that appear to be on his black skin nor is it his small frame that belies his stout strength, it’s his left arm or rather, what remains of his left arm. Stumps left arm has been completely amputated from the elbow up, leaving only a bandaged scab as a grim reminder of the incident that crippled him. His former background as an amateur boxer have conditioned his body for the many trials and tribulations of working as a stable-hand in the Tackett Farmstead. His paunchy face remains solemn and stoic as always, only cracking up with a crinkled smile in the presence of the farm’s horses. His soft brown eyes conceal a maelstrom of anger and fury that he has resolved to keep locked inside him, until he gets back to the stable to practice boxing as the blistered knuckles on his fist can testify to.
Personality
Like everyone in the farm, Stumps works hard without complaint in order to maintain his usefulness and position of stable-hand to the Tackett Family, no matter how unfair the conditions are or how low his pay is. Due to his position as one of the only Negroes working in the farm, he is perpetually stuck in a quagmire of loneliness and solitude, only having the horses to converse with. His desperation for social interaction is buried underneath the fear of being kicked out of the Tackett Farmstead or attracting too much attention to himself. Stumps wants nothing more than a relatively safe and somewhat secure life in order to avoid the possibility of being lynched. Thus, he acts completely subservient to the demands of farmhands, no matter how absurd their requests are.
However, Stumps is an ardent pacifist at heart who is sometimes too kind for people who are prejudiced to Negroes to bear conversing with, sometimes frustratingly so. Despite his frustrations with the current status of Negroes in the USA, he remains indifferent and stoic towards the disparaging and demeaning comments of the other farmhands, only replying back with tacit comments. He never bites back. He never retorts. He never punches back. Above all, he never kills another person, no matter the race or background of the individual. This has stemmed from observing the horrors of lynching on fellow African-Americans such as him and teachings from his Baptist father during his own childhood. This has also led to him developing an overall open mind-set towards people of other backgrounds in fear of becoming the thing that he despises most.
Stumps has been willing to bend the rules of his pacifism though, as observed with his love of boxing, admiring both white and black fighters alike such as Jack Dempsey and John Johnson. Stumps mainly uses his passion for boxing as a means of releasing his anger and stress from the world that he lives in and as the only aspect of his life in which he has some tangible sense of control and choice in.
History
Joseph Nicholas Chester was born in 1911,March 16th, in the urban environment of Houston, Texas in a family of former slaves who worked as cotton pickers in Mississippi. His father was an amateur heavyweight boxer who regularly fought matches to feed the hungry crowd of boxing spectators and his mother, a worker in a dairy factory. Their family struggled to live a comfortable life in a hostile neighbourhood that seemed to outright reject their presence with young Joseph constantly wondering why he had to use a different bathroom compared to all the other kids in school.

Joseph grew up in the boxing ring, aspiring to become an amateur boxer just like his father and was his only source of pride in a neighbourhood where black kids like him were picked on every day in the playground by other white kids. Joseph eventually rose to the ranks of one of a proper boxer in Houston and began to fight professional live matches in front of crowds who betted on him to get his ass smeared on the ground. Much to the surprise of the crowd, Joseph eventually earned the nickname ‘The Rifle’ for his ability to deliver lightning quick jabs in the blink of an eye.

In 1932, after critically injuring a white boxer, Billy Barnes, in response to a racist jibe, Joseph and his entire family were lynched by supporters of Barnes as a means of revenge for beating the boxer, breaking his left arm in the process and the entirety of his family including him being hanged under the shade of an oak tree. By some miraculous chance, Joseph managed to escape from the noose, running and hopping onto a train that was leaving Houston by the skin of his teeth, adopting a stalwart pacifism in order to never repeat the same order of events again. Joseph eventually amputated his mangled left arm with the help of a black physician in Louisiana before being ran out of the state as well. No boxing ring rejected his offers of fighting in their ring, a Negro, much less a crippled Negro, and Joseph continued his country wide trek of searching for viable employment.

After travelling from state to state in search of a job that would offer employment for a Negro, Joseph eventually found himself in the town of Cypress Grove, securing a job as a stable-hand in the Tuckett Farmstead. He eventually grew into the role of stable-hand, being tutored by the geriatric former Negro stable-buck, Lewis Barrett, before his untimely passing. Nowadays, Joseph endures the conditions of working as a Negro on the Tuckett Farmhouse whilst hoping for a better future.

Traits
Positive
Pugilist (+2) " Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee."
Prize-Fighter (+3) " You can't touch what you can't see."
Observant (+1)
Hardy (+1)
Agile (+1)
Sprinter (+1)
Animal Whisperer (+2)
Rider (+1)
Negative
Church-Going (-2)
Maimed (-4)
Unlucky (-2)

Skill Value: 4

Speech Color:
Maroon

Inventory
- Roll of Gauze
- Horse-Brush
- Personal Comb
- Lucky Horseshoe Necklace
- Bag of Sugar-Cubes

[Genni]

@The Bork Lazer A Negro who likes horses, and a racist farmer's daughter who also likes horses. MJ's gonna make Stumps's life truly miserable.

[Bork Lazer]

@The Bork Lazer A Negro who likes horses, and a racist farmer's daughter who also likes horses. MJ's gonna make Stumps's life truly miserable.

@Genni

I'm a glutton for punishment.

[Genni]

I'm a glutton for punishment.

@The Bork Lazer

MJ: "Did you just talk back to me, boy?" ~reaches for her riding crop~

[Stitches]

I wonder - is it possible to play a character who is not incredibly racist in this time period? I'm thinking more about my singer/flapper girl; you'd think that the dive bars and gentlemen's clubs of the time would hire African American performers, coupled with the fact the whole purpose of a flapper was to turn social norms on their head, would allow a character that at least doesn't treat people of colour with open hostility? I'm thinking my Alice will view them as objects of curiosity as well as trying her damnedest to treat them 'normally', even though her upbringing makes it difficult.

EDIT: Actually, whilst I'm here - I'm looking the traits list. Are they are hard and fast rule? I put my girl down as 'Foreign' because she has 'strange customs' (see above) that, to a conservative country hick in a farm, would probably build up prejudice.

[SimplyJohn]

Spreading the word of our Lord, while womanising and boozing along the way.

Father Lucas McNulty

Name:

Father Lucas Algernon McNulty

Age:

48

Appearance:

A bald, bespectacled, middle-aged man with a slight gut, Father McNulty would never be anyone's first choice to aid them in a crisis, something he's more than happy about. His twisted features and weak frame speak volumes of his true nature, yet his charismatic nature as well as the position of authority his role as the local pastor grants him, often has others turning to him for advice. Normally seen dressed in well tailored suits with his golden crucifix hanging around his neck, Father McNulty enjoys all the comforts his rural setting can offer, and does everything he can to ensure those around him will always seek out his favour.

Father Lucas McNulty

Personality:

On the surface Father McNulty is a wise, honourable man of God who is always more than willing to help out his fellow townsfolk in times of trouble. Behind the mask though, Lucas is a backstabbing bastard more than willing to use his charismatic silver tongue to talk others into placing themselves in the line of fire to keep himself safe. Always willing to rouse a rabble into a frenzy to further his own agenda, Lucas is far less willing to place himself in danger even when lives are on the line.

While he has little hatred for anyone, Lucas often uses easy scapegoats such as blacks and homosexuals to distract others from his own failings, often turning the blame for mishaps and problems on the easy targets rather than taking any personal responsibility. Any problems which may occur are obviously down to the incompetence of those around him rather than any failing on his part.

History:

Father McNulty has always had the knack of never being in the wrong place at the wrong time, somehow always sidestepping dangers and troubles even if that meant pushing someone else into harm's way. From a young age he's fought to keep himself in the best of circumstances, and seminary school offered him the chance live in well insulated, comfortable surroundings and to avoid any heavy lifting, whioch seemed like a perfect combination for the lazy young man.

Picking up his studies quickly, Lucas learnt he had a gift for reading, and quickly used that ability to cheat and lie his way through his theological exams, selling copied test papers to the other students before ratting them out to their teachers. Once the competition had been thinned out, Lucas managed to get though the tests with the absolute minimum of effort required.

After being placed into the Cypress Grove ministry, Lucas quickly settled in to a quiet, peaceful rural life, which for many years left him bored and restless. Getting involved with local bootleggers, the respectable minister found solace in booze, and quickly settled once more into the role as a middleman for local bootleggers. In recent years this role has flourished, with the legalisation of gambling and other side ventures helping to line the pastor's pockets comfortably, all while he maintained the facade of the respectable man of the cloth in front of his parishioners.

Speech Color:

Silver

Traits:

Charismatic (+2), Scholar:Theologian (+3), Local (+1), Reputable (+2), Learned (+3), Lucky (+2), Quiet (+2)
Churchgoing (-2), Myopic (-1), Proud (-2), Abrasive (-1), Drunkard (-2), Weak (-1), Ugly (-1), Heavy Eater (-1)

Inventory:

Spectacles, Holy Bible, Crucifix, Hip Flask

[Genni]

@SimplyJohn How weak is McNulty? For some reason I’m picturing him with a walking cane which he barely needs to use.

[mickilennial]

I wonder - is it possible to play a character who is not incredibly racist in this time period? I'm thinking more about my singer/flapper girl; you'd think that the dive bars and gentlemen's clubs of the time would hire African American performers, coupled with the fact the whole purpose of a flapper was to turn social norms on their head, would allow a character that at least doesn't treat people of colour with open hostility? I'm thinking my Alice will view them as objects of curiosity as well as trying her damnedest to treat them 'normally', even though her upbringing makes it difficult.

EDIT: Actually, whilst I'm here - I'm looking the traits list. Are they are hard and fast rule? I put my girl down as 'Foreign' because she has 'strange customs' (see above) that, to a conservative country hick in a farm, would probably build up prejudice.

@Stitches

I suppose that entirely depends on your character and how you justify their opinions on race and class. My character, Abigail, is not particularly bigoted as for reasons explained in her personality but she is still very much from a bigoted family in that of her father and elder sister.

I think Deadbeat intended for these traits to be loose guides (you don't have to be particularly religious to want your character to be less than privy to kill people despite that trait referencing the church), though I think interpreting them too radically away from their design would be unwise. I think Deadbeat might be too concerned that certain traits are being selected too commonly like clean cut.

[Bork Lazer]

I wonder - is it possible to play a character who is not incredibly racist in this time period? I'm thinking more about my singer/flapper girl; you'd think that the dive bars and gentlemen's clubs of the time would hire African American performers, coupled with the fact the whole purpose of a flapper was to turn social norms on their head, would allow a character that at least doesn't treat people of colour with open hostility? I'm thinking my Alice will view them as objects of curiosity as well as trying her damnedest to treat them 'normally', even though her upbringing makes it difficult.

@Stitches

There have been examples of AFrican-American singers and flappers in the 1940s. However, most of those singers performed in Europe. It would be especially hard to see the justification for an African-American singer in America, especially in the South where they're more harshly treated.

However, as long as the justification for your character seems novel, it would be completely fine.

EDIT - Yes, it is possible to make a character that's not racist.

[mickilennial]

There have been examples of AFrican-American singers and flappers in the 1940s. However, most of those singers performed in Europe. It would be especially hard to see the justification for an African-American singer in America, especially in the South where they're more harshly treated.

However, as long as the justification for your character seems novel, it would be completely fine.

@The Bork Lazer

I do not believe that was their question. They were wondering if their [white] flapper would be racist and so forth.

[Bork Lazer]

<Snipped quote by The Bork Lazer>
I do not believe that was their question. They were wondering if their [white] flapper would be racist and so forth.

@Inkarnate

Ah shit, sorry for misreading then, @Stitches

[Genni]

The real problem would be the "Southern Attitude", since African-Americans were far more readily accepted in the northern states than in the Deep South. This was part of the reason for the mass exodus of coloured free men moving north during this period of history.

As far as African-American musical acts, a lot of them were around from 1890 onwards, with celebrities like Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, and James P. Johnson actively performing and touring around the US as early as 1904, with a large increase of acts during the 1910s. By the time we get to the 1930s African-American music had been established as a valid artform, in the northern states at least.

[Bork Lazer]

Alright, time for trivial calculations.

Food Required to feed the Tackett Farm and all of its employees
Henry Tackett approximately has about 50 or so workers under his employment along with himself and his two daughters and his wife. The minimum amount of people on the farm is about 54 people while the maximum amount from that statement is about 63 people.

The amount of food required to feed all of these people is hard to calculate due to the relatively normal distribution of the age of workers along with the chaotic variables of the Tackett family's diets. From a research paper detailing nutrition in the U.S.A from 1900 to 1974, the average American ate around 3260 calories of food per day during this period. This meant around 429 grams of carbohydrates, 51 grams of animal protein, 39 grams of vegetable protein and 134 grams of pure unadulterated fat per day. Assuming that Tackett is a business man who isn't on the level of Mr Burns when it comes to worker safety, we can do a relatively simple arithmetic solution.

Minimum calculation - 176040 calories per day.

Maximum calculation - 205380 calories per day.

(Revision coming soon...)

[Little Bill]

@The Bork Lazer Farmer Tackett provides them paltry breakfasts and dinners, which are mostly comprised of coffee, porridge, stew, canned meats, boiled vegetables, and chicken/eggs, which are always readily available. The workers do not have lunch breaks so much as daily quotas, so food consumed in between meals is to have been purchased in advance at the town's general store. There exists an economy within the farm of buying, selling, and trading snacks and other goods as well. Additionally, men have been fired in the past if they are caught killing/cooking extra chickens.

[Genni]

There exists an economy within the farm of buying, selling, and trading snacks and other goods as well.

@DeadbeatWalking

MJ certainly enjoys all the extra snacks she ends up with.

[Bork Lazer]

<Snipped quote by DeadbeatWalking>
MJ certainly enjoys all the extra snacks she ends up with.

@Genni

Master - You have some particular talent in which you are an absolute expert. Please specify exactly what this is when you choose it, e.g. "Master Baiter". +5

@DeadbeatWalking

Well, at least, the one above is more subtle than the one down below.