Such is Life in The Zone (S.T.A.L.K.E.R. RP Interest/Idea thread)

[Febel]

With the recent closure of GSC Game World I got to thinking about how interesting an RP set in the STALKER universe would be. Post-Apocalpytic settings are always popular and why not do one in one of the (in my opinion) most well developed ones of all, albeit one in which the apocalypse hasn't technically occured. While I have some ideas that I need to follow through on and research, I?d like to know if anyone had any interest in joining such an RP or had any ideas for it.

I was probably going to set it around 5-10 years after the end of Call of Pripyat and have a major point be that the Zone has since begun to expand further than ever before so that should give you a vague idea of what I?m going for. I?m looking for any ideas you might have for...well, anything STALKER related, really. Situations to put the characters in, locations to visit, new enemies, artifacts and possibly factions, etc. Bear in mind that with the expansion of The Zone, areas will be present that were abandoned far more recently than anything found in the games so it doesn?t all have to be ruins and rotting villages from the 80?s.

EDIT: I probably should have gotten this out of the way in the first place. I am a massive STALKER fan and have already been exposed to any of the media related to it. Roadside Picnic, Stalker (the tarkovsky film) and that new book set in the same universe, Southern Comfort, I read/watched all of them. So I don't need those recommended to me, I need fresh, original ideas.

Looking for ideas about:
Locations
Mutants
Weapons
scenarios/events
NPCs maybe

 

[Dectomax]

Hokay, first off, The Zone is a bleak, barren waste. It's grey, it's bland and it's grim. That sets the tone for the RP. It's dark, almost GrimDark. So you should keep that in mind when writing the story or encounters. It's also mysterious, with Strelok and The major knowing that they can never understand it. The players have to feel intrigued and more so, you have to provide that mystery. You have to give them some over-all goal to achieve, something big and something that will have them traversing the landscape. Sub-plots, if you will.

Sub-plots can tie in or open up new possibilities within the RP - Maybe if they do a certain quest, they'll open up another way through to a bigger point. Maybe if they work with a faction, they'll be helped?

You've got to understand the mechanics of The Zone aswell. How each of the different factions affect and work in a kind of tandum. So maybe have ideas on how to include them as either a minor or major part of the over all story.

As for ideas relating to the story overall, I'd say have an item, an artifact, that they must search for. Something rare and valuable, worth dying over. It should be deep in the zone and to find it, they must follow up on stories and word of mouth, travelling from bars to camps of different factions. It'd get them about. The quests inbetween I'm not sure on, but information is a valuable thing in The Zone. Perhaps someone wants an item from an old power station, or a small camp wants you to clear out a snork lair - things like that. Also have big plot points, maybe there's a corpse from one of the groups, or from some outsider. Maybe a US spy or special forces solider that succumbed to the Zone, adding more intrigue and mystery - that's the point you should hammer in the RP, mystery and wonder. For the Zone is an VERY intriguing place.

If you're comparing The Zone from the game, to it's real life counter-part you'll find a few things are different, mainly to make the game more interesting - so you'll have a little bit of deciding to do, whether you follow the real life layout, or stick with the game. Though the landscape is the same, bleak and barren, dead and grey.

That's all that comes to mind as of now, keep an eye on this post and I'll update it when I get more ideas.

 

[Gennadios]

It's a bit too late for me to come up with or throw down specific ideas, but were you aware that the games were based on the book?

For reference check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roadside_Picnic, specifically the sections dedicated to Phenomena and Artifacts for some inspiration.

Also, the movie Darkest Hour, not exactly great but watchable, and has alot of the day to day survival/pseudo science elements of this kind of survival fiction.

 

[Febel]

snip

I was actually introduced to the story of roadside picnic before the games. My dad was a big fan of the strugatsky brothers and has a bunch of their books in english. I read most of them in high school. Not only was I planning to include anomalies, settings, etc. from roadside picnic, I was actually planning to name my eventual character after a minor one from the story. I've also seen the Tarkovsky's Stalker film that the games take even more inspiration from, visually and mood-wise. And thank you for reminding me that I probably should have mentioned all this in the opening post.

snip

I'm definitely aware of the tone and mood that needs to be set, like I said above (or rather, like I edited in above) I'm basically a STALKER fanboy and it was the mood of the games that attracted me to them in the first place so you need not wory about any deference from the tone. As for the inevitable goal, I was planning on it being one of two things, either following the wishbringer/golden sphere that was present in the original game and in roadside picnic or having them trying to stabilize the zone and prevent its expansion. Actually, now that I write that it seems a good idea to have the former lead into the latter. Have the characters enter the zone out of their own greed and end up saving the world, or at least the region from the zones growth.

The subplots are one of the reasons I made this thread. While I'm very good at creating worlds, backgrounds, technology etc. (look at me being modest) I've always had difficulty thinking up actual situations and stories to put into those worlds so I made this thread for help.

As for the factions, I've some pretty good ideas as for how to play them off each other and I'm in the process of refining a pair that I've created myself. The one that probably needs the most work is a sort of humanitarian faction that's more or less accepted that they can't stop the Stalkers entering the zone and have endeavored to provide them with basic food and medical care to help keep the casualties down. In my opinion it seems to light and fluffy and kind of unrealistic (how would they obtain funding? Why are they allowed access to the zone when they're helping stalkers etc.). The other one I'm thinking of is a sort of UN funded military force that is augmenting the Ukrainian and Belarusian military's presence in the zone. I was intending them to be a far more belligerent power than the normal military was, having them regularly conducting full scale raids on Stalker settlements and giving them access to what would probably be the most advanced equipment in the zone (first thing that comes to mind is a more advanced, more resistant version of the exoskeleton.) They would probably be an force that the characters more or less could not deal with in terms of power and any attempt to fight them would result in the group getting their shit ruined. I'm also rather interested in finding some way to revive the Clear Sky faction. I know that most fans of the series hated that game but I quite liked it and I liked Clear Sky's motivations.

For the story overall one of the things I'm definitely planning on doing is fixing something that's bugged me in a lot of the RPs that I've read here: Every player character is a badass. More than a few of the RPs of seen are people basically following a story and thinking up more and more creative ways for their guy to kill other guys and one up the other players. It's actually somewhat present in the Twisted Earth to be honest, with everyone threatening to kill everyone all the damn time. No one really acts like that and in the STALKER 'verse characters like that are the ones that end up dead before they've even left the Cordon, whether by mutants or other stalkers who killed them for being such a dick. Anyway, I'm definitely planning many of the set pieces to involve problems that flat out cannot be fixed by shooting at them, whether because the players are so out numbered or outgunned that it would be suicide or because it would something like an anomaly that requires thought to work out. Your idea for information being one of the driving goals is an excellent one and probably not one I'd of thought of. Having the players running around, gathering whatever rumors and snippets of information they can for their goal is a great way to keep things going.

As for the actual locations I was planning on going with sort of a mix, having the central area be more or less game faithful and then have the zone's expansion draw in the surrounding region and its towns, cities, landmarks etc. which I would base on their real world counterparts, as filtered through the wonderful warping lenses of the zone. They would be environments unlike those that were in the zone originally; more modern, more varied and with new enemies and anomalies that appeared in the new setting. This is something else I'm looking for in the thread, ideas for the sort of mutants and anomalies that would appear in, say, a recently evacuated suburb, rather than a forest or a manufacturing plant that was abandoned decades ago. Theses outlying areas would also probably be far less irradiated and as such slightly less dangerous to travel through.

Goddamn this was a wall of text. Writing all this out in one sitting has actually made me late for class...

 

[deathbydeath]

an mmo, maybe

 

[Dectomax]

-Snip-

Hokay! Sub-plots, factions and survival it is!

I like the idea of a faction that helps the Stalkers out, maybe some kind of smuggler type group. They give medical aid to stalkers, in return for profits from artifacts they find. They can get Stalkers in and out of the zone and leave safe havens for the Stalkers to hide. This could be used within the RP for the characters to rest or sleep in and make for temporary shelter whilst traversing The zone. Most of the smugglers would be teenage kids, so they can slip through dis-used oil pipes and such, to get into the zone.

The idea of the UN bolstering the defence of The Zone is an idea, but they wouldn't be so aggressive - They're mainly humanitarian and peace keeping forces, they'd guard the boarders and maybe arrest the Stalkers but not so shooty. I believe keeping the Ukrainian military as the main force would the best idea, though having some kind of special forces team that occasionally ventures into the zone to hunt for Stalker dens would be a nice touch. Giving need for the characters to hid or avoid some settlements.

Sub-plots should revolve around helping or destroying a faction, or discovering something useful. Maybe exploring a ruined factory will discover a key card of some sort that will open the door somewhere else, or if you eliminate a camp for a certain faction, they'll take it over and supply the characters or let them through an area/open an alternate route.

Another possibility is that as the characters will be new comers ( I'd specify this, so they can't be the bad-ass whose raided The zone before )they wont know much about The Zone and will have to travel and talk to people to figure out where locations are and any other information of the area, such as wild-life, radiation and the such.

 

[Febel]

-Snip-

Hokay! Sub-plots, factions and survival it is!

I like the idea of a faction that helps the Stalkers out, maybe some kind of smuggler type group. They give medical aid to stalkers, in return for profits from artifacts they find. They can get Stalkers in and out of the zone and leave safe havens for the Stalkers to hide. This could be used within the RP for the characters to rest or sleep in and make for temporary shelter whilst traversing The zone. Most of the smugglers would be teenage kids, so they can slip through dis-used oil pipes and such, to get into the zone.

The idea of the UN bolstering the defence of The Zone is an idea, but they wouldn't be so aggressive - They're mainly humanitarian and peace keeping forces, they'd guard the boarders and maybe arrest the Stalkers but not so shooty. I believe keeping the Ukrainian military as the main force would the best idea, though having some kind of special forces team that occasionally ventures into the zone to hunt for Stalker dens would be a nice touch. Giving need for the characters to hid or avoid some settlements.

Sub-plots should revolve around helping or destroying a faction, or discovering something useful. Maybe exploring a ruined factory will discover a key card of some sort that will open the door somewhere else, or if you eliminate a camp for a certain faction, they'll take it over and supply the characters or let them through an area/open an alternate route.

Another possibility is that as the characters will be new comers ( I'd specify this, so they can't be the bad-ass whose raided The zone before )they wont know much about The Zone and will have to travel and talk to people to figure out where locations are and any other information of the area, such as wild-life, radiation and the such.

I don't have a lot of time so I'll almost certainly edit this post later but...

A. The idea of making the humanitarians smugglers instead is a good one and much better fitting with the mythos. Hell they'd existed already in the games (who do you think shipped the artifacts out of the zone?) and the explanation could simply be that in the intervening time they've grown far more powerful. The idea of artifacts funding them was something I'd thought of with the humanitarians, with stalkers donating artifacts for them to sell as a way of ensuring the flow of medical care and food wouldn't be stopped but again this seemed to light and fluffy (stalkers are greedy bastards after all.) They way I was going to get the main group into the zone was by having a city being evacuated as the zone encroaches. Multiple stalkers (not just player characters) would be bribing officials into looking the other way as they slipped into the zone but all that is subject to change. i don't think most of the smugglers would be kids (teenagers aren't great at organization) but the idea of using them is a very good idea and very plausible and I had actually been thinking about letting people make their characters be practically children if they want with the exact same reasoning of "it would be very easy for a small child to slip through a cordon."

B. valid point, I'll put some thought into a more justifiable thing but when I said UN I sort of meant more like the coalition forces in the war in afghanistan and Iraq. A mish mash of forces from multiple countries. I should have been more clear.

C. Yes, that would definitely be good for subplots, i haven't the time to write my thoughts about this at the moment.

D. That was less a possibility and more a certainty. I was probably going to explicitly say on the character sheet template that the character will never have entered the zone or at the very least never been at all deep into it, staying in the non radioactive, less dangerous outer regions. The character could still have some backstory like being ex-military that would give them combat experience but they would still be new to the zone. Similarly I was going to force characters to be very ill-equipped upon entering, probably keeping them from having any weaponry bigger than something like a submachine gun unless their backstory gave them a good reason for being able to both afford it and sneak it into the ukrainian borders . I'm not sure but I think countries frown on you bringing heavy weaponry with you into their countries. SO the character would have to be a really rich thrill seeker or something.

two more things, the more I think about these things the more i'm beginning to think it would be better if I acted as more of a traditional GM than a character in the story. I could describe locations, set up situations and act as NPCs or something similar. It would make moving the story forward much easier and would be more entertaining for me to write.
At the moment I'm brainstorming some ideas for mutants, anomalies and artifacts. since A. I haven't the time too, B. You seem interested and C. I don't want to spoil my plans in a public thread I'll PM you the list later on once I've typed it up.

edit: also, holy crap look at all these misspellings from my hurried typing.

 

[Febel]

an mmo, maybe

What do you mean exactly? It's a forum RP, That's already multi-person deal.

 

[Dyp100]

(I thought I should let you know that the studio isn't actually closed, and work on STALKER 2 is continuing.

The only problem is there isn't a good flow of money since they lack a publisher, but are in some talks. Right now I imagine the project is going on the head of GCS World's money alone, though he is a rich Ukrainen.

As, intresting to note that...IDK, in 2030 I think the zone exploded, destorying itself but creating 7 new zones across the former USSR, if I remember correctly. It's offical canon for the Russian/German STALKER book series. Which is like 30 books now.

I also tried to find an RPG system to roleplay STALKER, but due to the lack of intrest in players I gave up.)

 

[Febel]

(I thought I should let you know that the studio isn't actually closed, and work on STALKER 2 is continuing.

The only problem is there isn't a good flow of money since they lack a publisher, but are in some talks. Right now I imagine the project is going on the head of GCS World's money alone, though he is a rich Ukrainen.

As, intresting to note that...IDK, in 2030 I think the zone exploded, destorying itself but creating 7 new zones across the former USSR, if I remember correctly. It's offical canon for the Russian/German STALKER book series. Which is like 30 books now.

I also tried to find an RPG system to roleplay STALKER, but due to the lack of intrest in players I gave up.)

I know, I heard. I it was more that I had heard they were being shut down that got me thinking, even if it didn't turn out to be true.
And as for the zone exploding...
...
the books weren't in English so we can ignore them (Stereotypical americanism).

If I managed to develop a story that worked would you be interested in joining up?

 

[deathbydeath]

an mmo, maybe

What do you mean exactly? It's a forum RP, That's already multi-person deal.

nvm, misread some lines

 

[MercenaryCanary]

I'd love to join up.

I think your storyline is all right with the "The Zone is expanding" plot, but see if there's anything we can do about it. Can we help the Zone expand or try and curb it? What would all the factions be doing? Freedom and Duty are obvious, but what about the military, loners, mercenaries, and bandits?

I also tried to find an RPG system to roleplay STALKER, but due to the lack of intrest in players I gave up.)

I just so happen to have one.
http://1d4chan.org/wiki/STALKER:_The_RPG

 

[Febel]

Febel, I love STALKER and if you got a story started up I would join.

Oh. Hey. People. I had sort of assumed this idea had crashed and burned in terms of generating interest and I'd sort of stopped working on it. If there's actually people interested I could start up again on it but I've definitely nothing even approaching a solid story yet. Like I said in the original post ideas for events and what not are always appreciated and would definitely help inspire me a bit. It would also be my first time GMing an RP so advice is always appreciated.

[/quote]

I'd love to join up.

I think your storyline is all right with the "The Zone is expanding" plot, but see if there's anything we can do about it. Can we help the Zone expand or try and curb it? What would all the factions be doing? Freedom and Duty are obvious, but what about the military, loners, mercenaries, and bandits?

Like I said, not much in the way of a story at the moment but I can easily think of what they'd be doing off the top of my head

Military: Frantically trying to stop the new inflow of Stalkers and protecting the surrounding area from the more frequent mutant attacks. Zones expansion means they get more support, possibly from nearby countries, and are more aggressively attacking stalkers, possibly because they think the stalkers are responsible for its expansion.
Loners: Probably becomes by far the largest faction in the zone since noobies wouldn't have allegiances. It would be largely without any clear leader as well. Maybe have someone try to unite it.
Mercenaries: New artifacts equals new interest from outside parties equals higher levels of mercenaries. I would probably still keep them small and lowkey in the world since that's how they were in most of the games. Perhaps have them take in interest in the character group due to ones backstory? Or if the players were sufficently loaded they could maybe hire some for some big mission?
Bandits: New people means new people to rob. I didn't really like how organized they were in clear sky but i did like how sultan operated in CoP so thats how it would probably be. Small gangs with one clear leader. They would probably be better armed than before though, inexperienced people with more expensive equipment than sense means good stuff to rob.

All this post was kind of rushed since I'm sitting in class as I type but I'll be putting more thought into it later. Also, that stalker book, southern comfort, I finished it. I don't recommend it. Not very good.

 

[Febel]

So when are we going to do this?

Not for awhile, certainly. I definitely need time to work out details and the like but the fact that there are still people interested should motivate me to work on it. Worst case scenario I finish it up a month from now and PM you or something. Can't expect you to check back here every day.

 

[TheIronRuler]

...Still interested.

 

[Febel]

...Still interested.

Duly noted. So far that's what? Three or four people who are confirmed to be joining up? Well, once I manage to finish it up and post a proper joining thread that number is bound to increase.
Oh, and sorry again for ducking out of your RP at such an inopportune time. I was extremely busy and the fact that I ended up being very perfectionist about what and how I was going to post. That perfectionism meant what I posted would either end up very rigid sounding or would take a long ass time for each post so I figured it would be better to focus on Real Life instead.


Just as a small note I am still looking for suggestions or ideas for locations, artifacts, Mutants, maybe characters, that sort of thing. It doesn't really matter if the idea is good or not, or even that it really makes sense. All I'm looking for is fresh ideas to provide inspiration since I am still a bit frozen on scenarios. Anything, anything will be of use.

I also may start posting rough drafts of what I'm working on so far. Nothing that could spoil anything that would happen in the RP, just basic outlines of characters, mutants, artifacts etc. and you guys could tell me what you think. Critique it, offer suggestions, tell me if it'
s a shitty idea and that I should die in a fire, that sort of thing. I think I said it before at some point but I am basically a virgin GM (so to speak) so I really don't have much experience in determining what's good, what's bad etc.

 

[TheIronRuler]

...Still interested.

Duly noted. So far that's what? Three or four people who are confirmed to be joining up? Well, once I manage to finish it up and post a proper joining thread that number is bound to increase.
Oh, and sorry again for ducking out of your RP at such an inopportune time. I was extremely busy and the fact that I ended up being very perfectionist about what and how I was going to post. That perfectionism meant what I posted would either end up very rigid sounding or would take a long ass time for each post so I figured it would be better to focus on Real Life instead.


Just as a small note I am still looking for suggestions or ideas for locations, artifacts, Mutants, maybe characters, that sort of thing. It doesn't really matter if the idea is good or not, or even that it really makes sense. All I'm looking for is fresh ideas to provide inspiration since I am still a bit frozen on scenarios. Anything, anything will be of use.

I also may start posting rough drafts of what I'm working on so far. Nothing that could spoil anything that would happen in the RP, just basic outlines of characters, mutants, artifacts etc. and you guys could tell me what you think. Critique it, offer suggestions, tell me if it'
s a shitty idea and that I should die in a fire, that sort of thing. I think I said it before at some point but I am basically a virgin GM (so to speak) so I really don't have much experience in determining what's good, what's bad etc.

.
It's alright.
Lets pretend that Aliens landed in other places beyond Russia! I'm serious.
We can say that they landed in the countryside of Provence, or that they landed in the heartland of Florenze, next to the holy city of Jerusalem (!!!) or in the Bronx. Go nuts, and remember that this guy lives in Israel. (*cough*, do it in Jerusalem, *cough*)