My plot takes place in the year 2200, 150 years after the collision. A giant comet had crashed into the east coast of the United States, destroying much of New England. However, the true terror that came from the comet was not the comet at all, but a pathogen carried on it.
The collapse of society was a very slow process. Some cities fell within just a few years of the initial outbreak. Many groups of people living in the earliest of destroyed places now live in small communities similar to old, hunter-gatherer tribes. Even after most of the army was wiped out, and most of the federal and state government leaders went into hiding, some individual cities tried to do their best to hold together. However, even those have now fallen.
As for the world, it would have the look and feel of I am Legend, but would have approximately fallout-level technology. Sentient robotics, genetic engineering, powered armor, and energy weapons are now a very real thing. Energy weapons, bows, and firearms are all widely in use. Energy weapons are mostly used by scientists and private security guards, bows are mostly used by tribal communities, and guns are mostly in use by ex-police and ex-criminals.
The zombies come in multiple forms (some scarier than others). They have superb regenerative properties, but are slowly weakened by sunlight. They don't need to eat, but they do need to consume blood. There are zombie cannibals, but it's very rare. It requires blood contact in order to catch the disease. Consuming zombified flesh doesn't spread the disease (it is still cannibalism, if the zombie was previously human). There are in fact, animals that have made a habit on preying on the undead...though zombies are not easy prey.
Most zombies can be 'killed' by mostly anything that would kill a human, but the problem is that they can still regenerate. For example, if you smother a zombie to death, it will collapse on the ground and stop moving for a short time...and then it will reanimate seconds later. Injuries like shooting it in the chest will take longer for it to regenerate. In order to permanently kill a zombie, you have to destroy a certain part of its brain.
Animals that contract the plague will die, and occasionally reanimate, though reanimation isn't as common as it is in humans. Likewise, young children don't reanimate (however, they die of the disease very rapidly). Reanimation is for ages 13 and up!
The disease: It's (usually) spread by your blood coming into contact with a zombie's bodily fluids (saliva or whatnot). It can also be spread by living infectees. Infected bite wounds do not heal. Common symptoms are:
1. Lightheadedness
2. Depression
3. Coughing
4. High fever
5. Vomiting
6. Foaming at the mouth
7. Pale skin
8. Dementia
The disease is uncurable, however, it is not 100% lethal per say. By pouring extra food, water, and medicine into somebody, they might very well live a full life. In the unlikely even they survive more than a couple weeks, the symptoms start to die down and the disease becomes dormant. However, when they do finally die, they'll become a zombie if their brain isn't destroyed.
Animals have overrun the cities, including clones of extinct animals created for research.
Our story revolves around a single group of survivors inside a recently-fallen city (Icarus City) who decide to share a hide-out and form a small community, using their various skills to try and stay totally safe from the zombies that want to gobble them up. It will focus on things like gathering resources, hunting animals, fighting off bandits, reinforcing our hideout, and of course, fending off the hordes at night.
A thing that I want this RP to emphasize is division of labor, where people have different jobs in maintaining our not-deadness. For example, a hunter might have a bow and try to keep us fed, where as an builder might have a hammer and try to make sure our fortifications are good, or a cop who carries a handgun and tries to keep us protected from bandits and such.
Some ideas for jobs, hobbies, pasts, ect, are written below. We can have a few characters with the same job (maybe they knew each other before the fall?), however, I think the story would work better with "rag-tag bunch of misfits" than "Sports team" or "Bunch of doctors" or "Police squad"
Also, these are just suggestions. If you have any ideas of your own or want to modify them, feel free.
0. Job = Skills = Equipment
1. Athlete = Heavy Lifting, Close Range Combat Speciality (which makes them great for fighting zombies) = Sports Gear, Fisticuffs
2. Medic = Healing People, Finding a Cure (but don't count on it) = Medical Equipment (Medi-Gun?), Scalpels, tranquilizer guns
3. Burglar = Breaking and Entering (Scavenging?) = Switchblades, Firearms, Crowbars, ect.
4. Construction Worker/Mechanic/Hardware guy = Building, fixing, and deploying nice things = Construction tools, Traps, Combat Drones
5. Police = Security = Firearms, Clubs, Energy Weapons
6. Hacker = Hacking enemy electronics, = Hack Tools, Combat Drones
7. Child = Getting into small places, are less of a target for raiders (even they have standards), tend to get better deals when trading = ?? (One idea I had was that they'd be protected by a pet or something)
8. Researcher = Exploring labs, Using awesome gadgets, Research = Energy Weapons, Science Stuff (like portal guns)
9. Farmer = Growing Food = Farming Equipment
10. Hunter = Finding Food = Bow, axe, knife
11. Taxi Driver/Trucker/Race Car driver/whatever = Driving, of course = Cool vehicle
12. Collector = Finding good things = Medieval weapons and such
13. White Collar Worker = Getting great deals on trades = Office supplies, Briefcase
14. Prospector/Miner = Destroying unwanted (read: Enemy owned) barricades and structures = Mining equipment, explosives, molotovs
15. Fire Fighter = Putting out fires, actually being competent at saving people, finding survivors = Fire extinguisher, Water spraying devices, Axes
Examples for good starting weapons:
1. Revolvers and pistols
2. Single Shotguns
3. Lower-caliber rifles
4. Submachine guns
5. Dynamite
6. Knives
7. Sporting Goods, Non-powered tools
A note on guns: Guns are powerful weapons, but they come at many disadvantages. For starters, they rely on non-reusable ammunition. Overusing firearms will result in having to scavenge for ammo more. Second is that they create noise and jam. Powerful, but impractical. They are also generally better at killing humans than zombies.
To join:
-Name:
-Age:
-Appearance:
-Convenient previous occupation/hobby:
-Starting equipment: (Only one or two. And don't make them very powerful. Some example ideas are listed below. Doesn't necessarily have to be weapons, either. It can also be armor, tools, medical equipment, that sort of thing)
-Skills: (list 3 or so)
-Bio: (primarily, you should try to justify how they survived when the city fell. Of course, the don't necessarily HAVE to be native to the city. They can, for example, be from a recently wiped-out tribe hoping there's stuff to scavenge in the city or something else entirely)