Part 2 of 4: Z-Town
Do you have what it takes to live through the night in Z-Town?
The first title in the Fabled Worlds series is a classic zombie romp. The rules lite, all-in-one-book game system is easy to learn, complete in only seven pages! The majority of the rest of the 72 pages are filled up with not one, but two complete solo adventures.
No spoilers here, but I’ll tell you, you just might end up on the menu in Z-Town. The first character I ran through Z-Town was toasted pretty quickly, but my second character survived both adventures.
The story was well written and fresh, lots of typical zombie fare, but infused with a few new surprises. Jeff’s location descriptions drew me in and helped me visualize my surroundings quite well. Overall, a fun pair of solos with a great, easy to use rules set.
Interview Part 2
Q: So what inspired you to create Z-Town, what were your major influences?
A: The story of Z-Town is a long and winding road of ghoulishness. I worked in a Haunted Attraction for several years and zombies just kinda get into your brain after awhile. I created The Year Of The Zombie Calendar as kind of a joke. It was a retro styled look at how the age of the good citizen might have responded to zombie outbreaks. The calendar had a bit of success, and some local film enthusiasts wanted to do a short film version of the writing featured in the calendar as their first project. That was a lot of fun, and the film appeared in several little film festivals. I created The Zombie Coloring & Activity Book, and shortly thereafter I wanted to write a solo role-playing adventure and it was suggested that I draw from the mythology of the zombie projects. Ziggurat Chemical Company was born, and Z-Town was a great way to break in my Fabled Worlds RPG system.
Q: What was your involvement with the ‘In The Event Of A Zombie Attack’ movie?
A: I was pretty involved. My wife did most of the make-up work and we were there for most of the filming. I stagger around as one of the zombies, and it was a lot of fun to help other actors develop their zombie walk. It was really amusing to see the actors struggling to get out the overly dramatic lines of psuedo scientific wackyness I'd written, but they all did a great job. 4d4 Films was learning as we went along and Will was amazing at building his own gear and learning how to do all the technical stuff.
Q: Do you have any plans to release more solos or any supplements for Z-Town?
A: I can't say for certain that I won't be hit with the sudden drive to write more doom an' gloom zombie apocalypse stuff, but if so that's probably a ways off.
Q: How about a multi-player version of the rules, maybe with more archetypes, a weapons chart, zombie creation rules, and other GM goodies?
A: That's a great idea. I suppose it would be kind of a toss up as to whether I should release the Fabled Worlds Core Rules, which would have everything you mentioned, or to do a dedicated zombie romp. If only there were more time in the day!
Order your copy of Z-Town in print or pdf today: http://www.lulu.com/product/paperback/z-town-solo-adventure-rpg-deluxe/3551674
Next: Fabled worlds Part3: ¡Lucha Libre!
Previous: Introduction
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Copyright © 2010, Paul Ingrassia
I really, really, really love this game.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the article highlighting it!