Personally, Talien, I'd be happy if you'd do a Resident Evil campaign the way you did Terminator, Evil Dead, et al, (heck, I'd help you do it!) which makes it a pity that you've already gone on record as saying you won't make such a work.
Ravensblood said:
I've decided to try and put together a Resident Evil Campaign. I had originally seen a little write up somewhere using the D20 CoC rules and figured D20 modern would be more than adequate.
What you saw was probably
Resident Evil: The Umbrella Files, a fan-made PDF floating around on the internet. I personally don't think it's very good, but at least it's a start.
I was wondering if anyone had tried this before, or has any ideas which I could use...both rules variants, and story ideas would be appreciated.
I have some ideas, since I've kicked this idea back and forth a lot.
First, I recommend not using anything as reference but the games themselves (and even then, be discerning, that is to say, don't use
Survivor 2 or
Resident Evil Gaiden, as neither are canon). Don't use the movies, the novels, or the comics, as all (in my opinion anyway) fell short somehow, not to mention deviated from the rather tightly-knit storyline from the games.
In terms of timeline, you basically have three different options to choose from: before the first game, between the destruction of Racoon City and RE4 (six years later), or from RE4 onward.
The first option is basically anytime from when Dr. Marcus discovered the Mother Virus back in the fifties until July 23, 1998 (the day the Bravo team goes in in RE0). If you take this tact, then your PCs will be the first ones to stumble across Umbrella's bio-organic weapons. You'll need to think up reasons for why there was an outbreak to begin with, but there are several possibilities, including Dr. Marcus making an earlier move (such as he did in RE0), corporate espionage (perhaps by HCF, which is apparently the name of the company Wesker works for as of REC:VX), or even a genuine accident. Bear in mind that, by the game canon, there won't like be any Tyrants elsewhere, as the one in RE0 was the prototype. Play up the aspects of isolation, even after the adventure ends. The PCs would likely try to warn a world that would ignore them at best, and Umbrella certainly won't let them go.
The second option is the six-year period between (what is probably) October 1, 1998, when Raccoon City was sterlized by executive order, and (again, what is probably) late autumn of 2004, when Ashley Graham, the daughter of the President of the United States, has been kidnapped by Los Illuminados. After the affair with Raccoon City, the US government issued an indefinite suspension of business decree to Umbrella, and their company was finished.
Playing in this period offers quite a bit of possibility. During this time, people know that Umbrella was responsible for a viral outbreak that was responsible for destroying an entire city...how much more they know is up to you. That said, Umbrella is in its death throes as its stock plummets. However, that doesn't mean that their labs, viruses, or monsters all just vanish. You could stage a great campaign around the idea that there are now leftover labs sitting unattended, their monsters roaming free as they break out. Picking up the pieces to Umbrella could take a long time.
The last option is somewhat hard to do. As of RE4, Umbrella is gone, but its shadow lingers on. Likewise, whether or not the threat of Las Plagas and those who would use them (such as Los Illuminados) were completely eradicated by Leon is up to you. This is a story that is still being told in the games. You may have the players head to (what was likely southern) Spain to clean up the leftover's of Saddler's group after Leon saved Ashley.
Regardless of when your campaign takes place, there are some commonalities:
Emphasize that this is survival horror, not kick-ass-and-take-names horror. Don't throw the PCs into deathtraps, but if they chose to stand and fight every time they encounter enemies, don't be afraid to have them die grisly deaths. Resident Evil is about surviving against all odds first, and stopping the bad guys second. The PCs should feel that they narrowly cheated death, and also managed to somehow stop the horrors from being unleashed on the world (usually by activating a self-destruct sequence, if someone else doesn't do it first).
Isolation cannot be overstated. The PCs should be alone in the dark, whether they're in a combat zone or not. If they're on an adventure, then there shouldn't be an easy means of escape, or communication with the outside world (or even each other). Likewise, even when not fighting for their lives, they should be presented with reactions from other people ranging from indifferent to hostile. Things are less scary when the world believes you, so they should be thought of as kooks (by ordinary people) to dangerous threats that need to be silence (by bad guys in the know).
Be aware of the differences between the video games and a table-top RPG. PCs will do almost everything that characters can't do in the games. Why go halfway around a dangerous mansion for a key to a door, when you can just break the door down, or make an Open Locks check? Why not just make a Climb check to scale a fence to get to an area that's off limits? And everything, everything, can be used as a weapon. Of course, this works in reverse too, as you don't need to have enemies stop at the doors.
Occasionally you may be tempted to throw something supernatural into your Resident Evil campaign, just to take your players by surprise. Resist this temptation. It's a staple of Resident Evil that all the evils here are born of science, and man's misapplication of that science. Once you introduce any kind of magic, or even "hard" sci-fi (such as aliens, other dimensions, psionics, etc.), then the tone of the game changes. If someone cast an evil spell, why can't the PC's take a spellcasting advanced class? Questions like this signify that you aren't playing Resident Evil anymore.
One other bit of advice is to work out the mechanical difficulties ahead of time. For example, zombies are, in
d20 Modern, Undead, and have all the signature abilities of that type. However, zombies in Resident Evil are, technically, people with a virus. While on the surface that's similar, you need to be prepared for gameplay problems if you use
d20 Modern's Undead zombies in your Resident Evil game. For example, since virus zombies are technically alive, why can't you use critical hits on them? Also, I recommend that you not have virus monsters infect the PCs that they hit. Since the T-Virus is extremely fast-acting, and a cure can only be found in a few facilities, it's best that the creatures in the game not inflict the disease with a successful hit...since that would otherwise mean any hit is effectively a lethal attack (hence why that didn't happen in the games).
My original intentions were to start the group off like the original game does, with people running in a forested dark area, away from something and finding sanctuary in a mansion. There would be some lead up to this of course, but that is where the Resident Evil aspect starts. Should they be members of S.T.A.R.S. ? What level should they begin at?
I recommend that your PCs not be members of S.T.A.R.S. For one thing, nothing in the games indicates that the S.T.A.R.S. weren't specific to Raccoon City's police department. Likewise, having PCs in S.T.A.R.S. gives them a plausible excuse to contact the characters from the games, which is definately not something you want them doing (since then it becomes about those NPCs and not your PCs).
In terms of levels, I'd recommend around level four or five, where they can take a few hits, and fight back moderately well, but are still weak enough that enough monsters can easily chow down on them.
With all of that said, I hope your Resident Evil campaign goes well, and scares your players for many long, dark nights to come!
