For those that don't know The End of the World is a series of RPG games that all use the same system from Fantasy Flight games. They all have different scenarios for the Apocalypse where the players play as themselves trying to survive an apocalyptic event. This was a Zombie Apocalypse but they also have Alien Invasion, Wrath of the Gods and Revolt of the Machines.
The system itself is easy, players create a pool of positive and negative dice when making a test. Any positive and negative dice with the same result cancel each other out and as long as one positive that is left is under the target number (determined by the players stats) they succeed. If any negative dice are left they player takes stress (damage) in the appropriate area, Physical, Mental or Social.
This is the story of how my players did on the open sea.
To start off because I was doing this as my first time as Game Master I did steal some ideas, encounters and setting from the guys over at INVICTUS Stream YouTube channel, if you are interested in watching some RPG games (This game and other longer campaigns) being run online via Google Hangouts check them out. Also as a side note I'm doing this from memory so some bits might be slightly different from how it actually happened, missed or in the wrong order. But you should get the idea.
The Theatre
Our players, Aron, Jodie and Martin started the game in the theatre on a cruise ship. They were travelling around South America and the boat was currently about 2 days at sea after leaving Mexico. It was late evening and after a few drinks they were watching the evenings entertainment which was a show with a few different acts. A couple of singers had just finished and a Magician was starting up his act. They were sitting close to the aisle towards the front of the show. During the act they notice the older man to the front and left of them start struggling to breath and holding his chest. His daughter sitting next him starts looking worried and trying to help him. Aron seeing this called for one of the members of staff in the area to come over to help. It was then that the man collapsed into the aisle and as the lights came up they could see he was pale, sweaty and unconscious.
Jodie decided to start trying to calm and talk to the daughter while Aron and Martin watched as a manager from the ship who had been working behind the bar and came running down started CPR on the unconscious man. As they watch on it seems that it isn't working. Jodie carries on trying to calm the daughter while getting some information about he father that might help. Suddenly the man wakes up, sits up and sinks his teeth into the neck of the barman performing CPR on him. He then rips back pulling a chunk of flesh from the bartenders throat. Aron pulled the bartender away from the man and shouted at Martin to restrain the other man. With help from another member of the crowd Martin grabbed the man from behind and held his arms behind his back as he carried on trying to bite and attack the bartender.
Aron calls for a towel or bandage to cover the man's wound and try and stop the bleeding, a waiter who had one to hand reaches round and tries to stop the bleeding. The bartender was seriously wounded and losing a lot of blood and despite their best efforts he starts to fall unconscious from blood lose. A crowd has started to form and people are panicking by now. Martin and other members of the crowd are still trying to restrain the attacker. Suddenly the barman opens his eyes and bites down on the forearm of the waiter trying to stop the bleeding on his neck.
Aron lets go of the man as staff start calling for people to clear the area, make room and leave via the doors at the back of the theatre. The waiter that Aron had let go of had got up and started attacking people around the incident. Our players all look around and realise they have to get away from these two guys that are attacking people. The crowd are pushing to get to the single set of doors at the back and the attackers are close to the players so they decide to put some distance between the attackers and themselves by running up onto the stage giving them a better view. On stage Aron and Martin grab mic stands they can use to hit or hold people back and defend themselves on the stage, they can see chaos in front of them as people seem to be attacking each other, trying to run to the doors or hiding behind chairs. Jodie noticed that the side stage doors were open and a woman in a red sequin dress is waving at them to come in.
The Dressing Room
After running through the stage doors Martin shuts the door and wedges his mic stand in the door to block it closed. They find themselves in a small dressing room with a few rows of clothes hanging up, mirrors and make up tables and three people hiding inside. There is another door at the back of the room which is closed. Martin grabs a guitar as Jodie thanks the woman that opened the door for them and introduces the group. The woman tells them her name is Rosa, a singer that was on earlier that night and with her is the other singer from tonight Faya. The man is a shorter man with a maintenance uniform on who the group discover is called Manuel. Faya is in the corner of the room completely unresponsive and crying. Rosa informs the players that she had seen everything from the stage and it was her boyfriend that had been bitten in the neck but Rosa had forced her back into the dressing room.
The group try and come up with a plan and while searching the room find a ship layout behind a perspex sheet on the wall. They pull it out and study it, they decide when they leave they will take it with them so they can plan their route around the ship.
This was the map that I gave them. I found it on a real cruise website and used it as the ship they were on. I pointed out to them where Lifeboats, their cabin, the bridge and their current location were.
Outside they could hear the noises up on the stage. Whatever those things were (the player's characters were still not using the Z-word yet) they were on the stage and they didn't know how long the door would last if they tried to get in. After talking to Manuel they learnt that the other door in the room lead to a corridor with a staff staircase/corridor that would bring them upstairs and out close to the casino on the floor above. They decide to take it and head upstairs, still armed only with a guitar and mic stand.
Before going they try and get Faya to come with them. She is still upset and not talking. Jodie takes a small bottle of rum from her bag and gets her to drink it to calm her down, she drinks it and does sort of snap out of it, just enough to remember her boyfriend is hurt and outside and jumps up running to the door and opens it. The group, along with Rosa and Manuel run out the other door, slamming it behind them and running up the stairs leaving Faya to her fate.
The Casino
When the group come out upstairs in the casino they find it quiet and deserted. There is noise and screams coming from downstairs. The players decide that clearly it is spreading but the panic hasn't made its way upstairs yet. They start moving through the casino and halfway across hear someone ahead of them calling for help. Creeping along they see the booth where chips can be brought or cashed in surrounded by 4-5 attackers and a man inside shouting for help. Hiding behind the machines they try and work out whether they are able to help him. They decide to make a loud noise and distract the attackers (still no Z-word) but can't work out how. They ask Manuel if he has a key to open the machines to set them off but he tells them it is in the booth with the helpless man. Rosa tell them that one machine the other side from where the group is makes a huge noise when someone wins.
Jodie was given a boost on top of a row of machines and crawls forwards to get a better view of the booth and the zombies there. She uses a mirror from her bag to flash light to the man in the booth letting him know she is here and signalling to him that they are trying help. She stays up there to watch the zombies and let the guys know when they start moving. Rosa and Manuel stay hidden behind machines close to Jodie while Martin and Aron start creeping round to the machine that Rosa said makes lots of noise. It is a game of skill not luck, Martin tries to play the game and Aron keeps watch while he does. From their position they can't see the booth. After a few tries Martin manages to get the machine to pay out and sure enough it flashes lights and makes a real racket. Jodie sees the zombies turn towards the noise and start walking that way. As Martin and Aron are trying to creep back round to where the rest of the group are one zombie breaks away from the group and ends up between Martin and Aron and the rest of the group. The guys are stuck, the machine and large group of zombies behind them and one zombie standing in front of them. The zombie hasn't seen them so they decide to ambush it and hope the noise from the machine covers the sound of their attack. They attack, Aron with the mic stand attacks from behind a machine hitting the zombie's legs knocking it off balance. As it falls Martin swings upwards with the guitar catching the zombie in the head crushing the front of its skull. It falls back with a thud between the machines. The other zombies don't seem to notice over the sound of the machine but the guys are quick to move on back to the group.
While this was going on Jodie dropped down from where she was sitting and got the guy out the booth. He was a young guy and seemed completely panicked by what was happening. He introduces himself as Jack and follows the group as they leave the casino to the stairs in the middle of the ship.
The Hallways
Clear of the casino the group find themselves in a corridor. By them are stairs leading both up and down and a corridor with cabins running down to the stairs at the rear of the ship. The group have decided they wanted to make their way to the top deck and and bridge to try and get the captain, who they are not sure knows what is going on, to put out distress signals and hopefully lock themselves in the bridge which they decide would be the most secure place on the boat.
Creeping up the stairs they see 3 sets of feet on the stairs above them around the corner. They notice that one set is wearing high heels and her ankles are broken and she is standing on the sides of her feet. This was the first time they used the zombie word since it was clearly spreading around the ship and they were slow and ignoring painful or debilitating injuries. They did notice that around the cabins there were fewer zombies guessing that most people still on these floors had been locked in their rooms since before the outbreak which was late evening and the zombies were taking time to get around the ship and spread to these areas in large numbers. They figure it will be safer to move away from the area where the incident started as fast as possible before more found their way up here.
Not wanting to go through the zombies on the stairs they decide to run down the corridor to the stairs at the rear of the ship and go up that way. As they start moving the zombies on the stairs notice them and start coming down the stairs. One falls down landing at the bottom, as the group run they see it just stand as if nothing had happened and carry on coming after them.
The group reach the far end of the corridor and start running up the stairs to get away from the zombies behind them. They decide to go up two floors to reach the floor with their room on it. In the corridor of their floor they have to make a decision where to go from here. Some of the group wanted to carry on going up and reach the bridge as soon as possible, others go back to their room where they might be able to get more supplies and lock the door while they come up with a plan, Jack is still panicked and seems to just agree with anything anyone says even if it contradicts something is already agreed to when someone else said it. As they are arguing there is a loud creak round the ship as it lurches and then goes quiet. Manuel says "Oh no, that was the engines stopping. No engines means no power" as he said that the lights down the hall cut out. A few seconds later emergency lights flick on along the corridor. Deciding they need to get somewhere safe fast they run to their room and block the door.
The Cabin
Once in the cabin they start trying to decide what to do. Manuel is convinced that he needs to go down to the lowest level of the ship where the engines are try and get them working again. He wants to make sure the ship gets it's power back so it isn't dead in the water. Some players are worried that this means going back down past the worst areas of the ship and that it would waste time if they couldn't fix the engines (side note, none of them can fix an engine). Rosa wants to get off the ship and says they should get to the lifeboats (a few floors down) as soon as possible. The players are split between going down to fix the engines and heading to the bridge to put out a distress signal if it hasn't already. Jack, when asked questions is just saying things like "Yea, yea that sounds good" or "Okay, if that's what you think" and over all being really helpful.
While they are discussing it they hear sobbing from next door. They know that there is a father and his young daughter staying in the cabin next door. They didn't want to go out into the corridor so looked out at the balconies. While the gap between the balconies was too far for a simple jump across they did see that the balconies were staggered on each level up the side of the ship. So each balcony overlapped meant if they went over the sides of the balcony between two cabins there would only be a short drop to the centre of the balcony below, they did see going that way it would be easy(ish) to climb up and down between decks. The drop if they went over the middle edge of the balcony would be straight down to the sea below.
Deciding not to jump between the balconies to get next door as the other cabin had the balcony doors closed they opened the door to the corridor and walked next door. Jodie decided she would be the one to knock while Martin and Aron kept watch down either side of the corridor. She grabs a stuffed toy she brought in port and takes it with her. Knocking on the door she waits and a young girl, about 8 years old, opens the door in tears. Jodie kneels down and asks her what is wrong. The girl tells her that its her daddy, Jodie asks were her daddy is and then hears groans coming from the locked bathroom. Jodie asked what happened and is told that the girl's dad went out to pick her up some sweets and came back with blood on him before locking himself in the bathroom and he hasn't come back out. Jodie tells the girl that they are going to get a doctor to come and look at her daddy and asks her to come and wait in their room next door. The girl had seen the group during the cruise around the cabins and went with Jodie still crying.
Back in the room Manuel says if they were going to look after a child he would have to leave to go and fix the engines, it wouldn't be safe to take a child with them so he was going to go with or without he group. Martin hands Manuel the guitar he has be carrying so he is armed and they let him go. While he is leaving they notice zombies coming up the stairs the opposite direction from where Manuel has just run. They lock the door once he has left.
They group come to a decision that they are going to head to the bridge and leave the girl (no-one bothered to find out her name at any point) in the cabin with Rosa. They decided to climb up the outside of the ship via the balconies so got out their life-jackets. There were 4 in the room so gave one to Rosa for if she needed to escape before they got back and had one each the each player, leaving Jack (who was coming with them) without one. Martin told Rosa to make sure that if they did have to escape to the lifeboats or sea without them to wrap the girl in duvets to keep her warm and hold on to her since Rosa had a life-jacket. They also got out any inflatables they had with them for the pool just in case. Next they tore up the bed sheets, twisted them together and knotted them to make a rope.
The Outside
They have to climb up onto the balcony above and then from there they can climb up to the railing and up onto the deck with the pools and hot tubes on them. They boost the first person up with the rope who then ties in onto the balcony and helps the next person up and so on. Aron has a fear of heights so was taking some mental stress during the climb. On the balcony above they decide to try and get inside the room (a larger suite than their own cabin). They test the balcony door and it is open. They try to find more life-jackets, they find one for Jack but can't find a child jacket for the girl (her name was Missy if any of them had made the effort to find out). They also found a drinks bar with a bottle opener and small fruit knife which they took with them. Jodie looking around found a box of matches and some Cuban cigars which she brought with them as they left the room.
Jodie was boosted up on the balcony to see if the deck above was clear. She tried but with the power still out and it being almost 1am at this point she couldn't tell if the deck was clear. They boosted Aron up onto the deck and then attached the rope to the rail and climbed up themselves.
It was pitch black on the deck, there was no emergency lighting here. Jodie decided to use the torch on her phone and they headed down towards the restaurant and the stairs behind it that lead to the top deck and the bridge. The light from the torch attracted a nearby zombie that was just outside the entrance to the restaurant. They ran back towards the pool on the deck, Their plan was to try and get the zombie to fall into the pool so they could attack it from above while it's movement was restricted by the water (we decided the pool would be deep enough it could touch the bottom but only just keep it's head above water if it did, plus we all know zombies can't swim). It was Martin that was acting as bait standing on the edge of the pool trying to attract it towards him. As it lurched towards him he dived to the side and crashed into the poolside injuring his shoulder. The zombie toppled forwards into the water. Jodie used a deck chair as a sort of shield while Martin and Aron attacked its head around the deck chair with the knife and bottle opener. They managed to kill the zombie and left it's body floating in the pool.
The Restaurant
Quickly the group headed back to the restaurant and went inside. They wanted to get into the kitchen and collect some better weapons. Walking in it was clear someone else had already been here, amongst the tables were bodies all with the heads crushed, smashed or cut off. Someone else has worked out how to kill zombies and had been through here already.
As they approach the bar hatch that leads behind the bar and on to the kitchen Aron spotted under the hatch a zombie that had been sitting on the floor with its back against the bar. As it saw them it started to stand, pushing on the hatch above it lifting it. Martin quickly grabbed the hatch and slammed it down onto the zombies head. As it started to stand up again Aron followed suit and smashed the hatch down onto its head again, this time catching its head between the counter and hatch causing even more damage to the skull. The zombie falls forwards away from the hatch face down on the floor but Aron catches his knuckles in the hatch as well. As the zombie starts to try and stand back up Jodie kicked it in the back of the head knocking the side of it's head again into the side of the counter. The zombie swung at Jodie's leg trying to bite her but missed. Martin plunged his fruit knife into its eye socket final killing it.
Running into the kitchen they see that it has been visited already for weapons, the biggest knives have already been taken but they do manage to each find a bigger cooking knife than the ones they have. Jodie also grabs a bottle of spirit from behind the bar and towel she could us to make a Molotov Cocktail if needed.
Deciding there is nothing else to take they went out the back of the kitchen to the steps up to the next deck where the bridge was waiting for them.
The Bridge
As they approach the door to the bridge they can see that it is a big heavy metal door. As they get closer they see that it is ajar and a bloody hand print smudged down the door. Inside the emergency lights are flickering on and off. As they slowly push the door open inside they see the body of what looks like one of the ships offices on the floor in front of the door, his head missing. Looking in they can't see much, the door leads to a short corridor before the room opens up so from the door they can only see the centre of the room. Looking around they can see that a lot of equipment is clearly broken. Aron decides to us the torch on his phone from the door to see if anything reacts to it before they go inside. As he shines the light he can see bullet holes in the glass and equipment in the room, clearly something got in here and the officers used guns to try and defend themselves. They also hear groans coming from the sides of the room. They came here to try and get flares and to send a distress signal. Jodie turns the music on her phone to maximum volume and throws it into the middle of the bridge to draw zombies towards it and see how many they have to fight.
The zombies start coming into sight. At least 3 ignore the music and head towards the door and the group, slowly dragging themselves. One of them has both it's legs eaten off and is wearing a captain's shirt. Another 4 don't see the players and head toward the noise of the phone. The players decide if the equipment is damaged the chances of being able to send a distress signal are slim and decide to burn the room, hopefully setting off the flares and starting a fire that might attract help. They pull the metal door closed and Aron, Martin and Jack hold it closed while Jodie gets a Molotov ready to go. She lights it and hands it to Martin to throw in, Aron is ready to slam the door closed as soon as Martins arm is clear. Martin throws it and fails to get it into the room properly, it smashes into the door frame starting a fire both sides of the door. Aron slams the door but both Aron and Martin suffer burns from the botched attack.
The group now decide the only hope is to get off the ship with a life-boat, they plan to climb back down the way they came, then down further towards the life-boats.
The Escape
Using the rope the group start climbing down from balcony to balcony back to their own cabin. When they reach it they find Missy asleep in one of the beds and Rosa looking nervous in the room. They explain the plan to Rosa who wanted to do this from the start so is ready to go. They wake Missy up and get ready to go, deciding to pass Missy down between them to get her down. Aron, Jodie, Martin, Rosa, Jack and Missy get ready to escape the doomed cruise.
Climbing down starts well, Jodie or Martin going first using the rope, then Jack, then the guys on the higher balcony lower Missy down to the guys below and final they climb down themselves. This continues on for a few floors and they are doing well. A couple of floors before they reach the bottom Jodie misses a balcony and falls crashing into the balcony below the one she was aiming for hitting her head. Dazed and bleeding the others catch up with her and after making sure she is OK they carry on. They have one more balcony to reach then it is the deck below that has the life-boats.
Dropping down to the last balcony Rosa slips and falls to the deck below, the group can see she is just laying there on the floor face down not moving. They get to the balcony and then get ready for the short drop to the deck. Most make it OK but Martin lands hitting Rosa again. The group is standing next to a life-boat and start climbing into it. Aron tries to check if Rosa is still alive but the darkness and wind make it impossible to tell if she is still breathing. As they are loading into the boats Aron brings up what they are going to do with her, he suggests putting her in a separate boat so she can get off the boat if she is alive but is separate from them if she is dead and comes back (they have worked out anyone that dies, no matter the cause, comes back). As they do she begins to moan, leaving her they jump into the boat and press the release button. As it lowers down past deck level Rosa turns her head, clearly injured she looks at the boat, leaving without her and shouts after them "FUCK YOU" and the group hear he cursing them as they drop out of view and into the water.
The boat floats away and the dead ship floats away, once they are at a safe distance they set off a flare they find in the life-boat.
The Morning
As day come round the survivors are sitting in the boat, alone in the sea. Jodie spots a ship heading towards them, it is a small navy boat. They start shouting and waving at the ship to pick them up. As the boat draws along side them their shouts for help stop as they look on in horror as the navy boat floats past, dozens of zombies swarming its deck.
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