Dead Meat v.2
1) Welcome to Dead Meat
Welcome to the world of gruesome cinema role-playing! To play Dead Meat, you will need three or four people to play, each with a Character Record and three Persona tags, three six-sided dice, and a love of grusome horror movies. One person will act as the Director, and each Player will control a Character that is linked to three Personas. The object of the game is to create a Narrative of a zombie horror movie. The point is not to compete to survive, but to work together to create the horror movie story. Players that work against other Players will have their Persona's destroyed even faster, so you might as well join in and have some gory fun!
2) About the Game
Dead Meat is a unique role playing game for several reasons.
The point of the game is to create a narrative of a Zombie horror Film, or some other type of Horror film. The Persona's that the characters play are entirely disposable. You will not be getting attached to any of your Dead Meat personas. There is a difference between Character, which is the living force of the Personas, and the Personas, which are the individual Characters in the Film. As Persona's are killed off in the course of a Film, your other Persona's Character will increase in strength, thus helping them survive further into the course of the Film.
The Director has the ability to control a Players' Personas' actions.
The Director describes all Zombie Death scenes.
The Dice decide the actions of the Players Personas. The player then narrates their characters involement in the scene.
The Players must describe Persona death in detail, in order to gain
3) Rules
-d666 decides narration for Persona in each scene. Roll three six sided dice, and arrange them in the order you choose. (i.e. Preservation is most important, then Fear, then Violence normally…) The Player or Director then bases the narration of this scene on the outcome of the roll. If the Persona is wounded or killed, it's the Player's job to describe the zombie horde closing in and tearing the Persona a new one. If the result is brave & safe, and there is a "hit" with the Violence die total, the Director narrates the scene of zombies being geeked.
-Help
When the result on the Character Action Chart reads + x Help, the players receives 1 White Help chip to use to help another persona involved in the same scene. Each Help chip increases any single die result by one.
-Under the Black Flag
When Personas enter into a scene, the Director may give a pool of black or red chips to represent difficult odds that the characters will have to overcome. Each chip means -1 to the die of your choice, and the Players may split them up among themselves.
-Your Dying Breath
If two or more Persona's are in a scene together, and one of the Persona's Preservation outcome is Death, that Player can use his highest die result as their Violence and get in a final vengeful blow against the ravenous undead. With a quality narration, this can save another character's Persona or wipe out Black Flags if the number of ghouls is reduced enough.
-Human Sacrifice
When a Player has Help chips available, but does not use them to save a fellow Players Persona in a Scene
-Facing Your Fears / Numb To The Horror
Each time one of your Persona's die, the rest of the group votes on your narration of The Death Scene. If the resulting vote is in favor of the narration, that Player's Characters' Fear is increased by one point. (i.e. when you have good narrations of your first Persona's death, your Fear goes to +2 for the two remining Personas. When you lose the second Persona, your remaining Persona will have Fear +3.)
-Toe Tags
Each Persona record is kept on a small tag, to keep track of individual Descriptors and Wounds. When a Player narrates something that the Persona wouldn't likely be able to do, he or she needs to have a descriptor for that Persona that would make success likely. If the Player has no such Descriptor, then the Director is free to have a Rewrite.
There are only three states for Persona's in Dead Meat; Healthy, Wounded, and Dead. When the outcome of your Preservation die is a wound, check the wounded box. If the Persona is wounded a second time, mark the Dead Meat box, and come up with a good Death Scene!
-Ch-ch-changes
When a Persona is wounded, and scores a one on the Preservation die, the Persona is transformed into a zombie! The players must roll again vs. this new horror to conclude the scene…
-Smoke & Mirrors
When a Persona
4) Player & GM Responsibilities
-Player Responsibilites
Death Scenes: When a Persona dies, the Player is resposible for the narration of death and destruction. The Players and Director decide if this is a worthy cinematic death. If worthy, the Players gets to add +1 to his Characters Fear score. This is known as Facing Your Fears, or Numb To The Horror, depending on the Persona. If the narration is decided to be unworthy of the Film, the Director then automatically does a Rewrite to re-script the Scene as he sees fit, and the Player's Character recieves no Fear Bonus.
-Characters & Personas
Character - Refers to the statistics on the Character sheet. Think of this as "Strength of Character", rather than the typical "Player Character". This will increase for living Personas as other Personas are killed during the course of the Film.
Persona - Each person in the Film is a Persona. Each Persona has it's own Toe Tag, which is used to keep track of their Name, Typecast in the Film, Descriptors, and Wounds. No more than two of a Player's Personas' are permitted to appear in the same Scene. If there are Players who do not have a Persona in a scene, then each Player without an Active Persona should be temporarily passed the Toe Tag to play the Persona until the Scene is Cut.
Descriptors - Each Persona should have a small list or couple sentences about them. This may include personal relationships with other Player's Personas, a job or skill they might have, personality traits that may come into play during the game, etc...
-Director Responsibilites
It's the Director's job to provide the rough script for each Film. That means coming up with all of the following; basic plot, locations, scripted encounters, NPV's (non-Persona Victims), and of course, the vile monstrosity that will be laying waste to this films cast. It also enhances the game quite a bit when you describe things in cinematic terms; how the camera or point-of-view moves through a scene, how the Persona's initally react to a Scene (before the d666 are called for).
It's up to each group and Director how much detail is needed for this. Some Directors may need to write blocks of text to read off at points, and some prefer to improvise the scenes as they move along. Tighter scripting may be too constrictive for the Players, causing them to feel railroaded through the entire Film. While some railroading is expected in Dead Meat, you have to remember to give the Players enough rope to both have fun, and to hang Personas with.
The Director is also responsible for calling "Cuts" when the Players try to drag the plot too far off from the Script.
And for doing "Rewrites" when a Player doesn't succeed at a Death Scene narration.
And to describe the outcome of the Violence Personas cause in a Scene. This is left to the Director so he can scale the Violence to the monster(s) in each film, and to keep game terms out of the narration. This keeps the Players and Director from using RPG-style combat terms during the course of the Film. When a Player says "I get two hits" or "Yayy! I'm safe!" out loud, you can call for an instant Rewrite, and kill that Persona off immediately. Anything that takes away from the horrific narrative the group is attempting to create should be crushed out of hand.
Most of the horrors of Dead Meat will be destroyed by one hit. But the Director should feel free to have badass werewolves, mutant zombies, or killer cyborgs that require up to 10 hits to kill.
-Smoke & Mirrors
Keep the players on their toes before you lay them on the slab. Describe scenes in a cinematic manner, rather than based in normal reality. Use the unlimited budget on special effects that lie waiting in your mind!
Use of Film terms, camera angles, Point-of-View
Rewrites!!!
Zombie Carnage!
5) Plot Hooks
-Isolation
-Technology
-Religion
-Voodoo
-Fear of the Unknown
-Disease
-The Supernatural
6) Other Overwhelming Horror
7) Giallo
-Irresistable Force - Against an unstoppable opponent, your Persona's highest die roll is disgarded, and you cannot use one of your dice for Violence.
8) Examples of Play
-Use of Film terms, camera angles, Point-of-View,
9) Tips
10) Zombie Films
11) Books & Other References
Book of the Dead
Still Dead
Ultimate Zombie
Wet Work
Dawn of the Dead
All Flesh Must Be Eaten
Brains! Hardcore Punks Against Dead Guys
12) Other Indie Games & Resources
Sorcerer
Little Fears
Four Colors Al Fresco
InSpectres
13) Character Sheet & Persona Tags
14) Credits & Copyrights - Title Page
15) Music & Movie Quotes
About
Order of Play
1)Director narrates the opening of a scene, or the continuation of a scene if cutting from scene to scene.
2)Director assigns Black Flags is applicable
3)Players roll d666 to determine Persona role in the scene
4)Adjust roll outcome with Black Flags or Help chips
5)Players and / or Director narrate effects of d666 outcome on Scene
6)Continue scene or Cut or Star Wipe to different scene