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Gameplay + Rules
Legion is a multiplayer 'Pick, Choose, and React' light RPG with an emphasis on survival and puzzle solving. Game flow is simple, but be sure to read all the rules.

Turns
Each post (or turn) a player must:

1. ReAction: Pick your character's reaction to one of the three most recent posts.

2. Action: Further the story with either your character's [or NPC's] actions or words.

3. Challenge: End your turn with a challenge.

The third step is the most difficult, and requires the most thought. A challenge can be anything from your character [or NPC's] sarcastic comment to another character, or something far more complex, like the realization of acquired infection, or perhaps an accusation of infection toward another character. A challenge can even be enviromental, like tripping over a rock, or suddenly having to deal with a pack of hungry mosquitoes.

The only caveat to a challenge is that it must only immediately affect the characters YOUR character is accompanying and the challenge should be fair. It's NOT fair immediately sicking a massive crowd of the infected on the party. Now seeing a pack of infected moving in from a distance, a locked door that impedes the party's progress, or maybe a Legion member down the hall is fine by the rules.

You cannot kill other players in these posts, just their NPCs or yourself. You should also consider continuity in your turns, and don't magically whisk the party to another location or later date. The GMs control the passage of time, but hopefully only loosely.

Turns (posts) can be lengthy or brief, but keep them somewhat dynamic and descriptive. You don't want to drone, but you don't want to be vauge either.


Player Characters
That's you. When you first post, post a brief description of your character. Include height, age, ethnicity, hair/eye color, and clothing; basically only what another person would SEE upon meeting your character. Past, personality, etc., comes during in-game interactions.

Since Legion is based on the immediate future and real locations, I think it would be best if everyone played themselves, though feel free to use an alias instead of your real name. Any real life connections players have with each other CAN be carried into the game.

Example:
I may not know Outlaw in real life, but I know him from Gaia, so for the sake of the game I might recognize him if he chooses to tell me who he is. I've met and know Renton personally, so his player character and I know each other and recognize each other. On the other hand, he knows my family, while I do not know his.

NOTE Again, players CANNOT kill other players directly; that's what NPCs are for. Players MAY leave other players to die, or vote amongst the party to kill an infected member, but Legion is about the survival of yourself and the other people in the group.

Turning against the party
Hopefully won't become an issue or if it does, a player merely leaves the party in peace, if a player begins to attack another player intendning to KILL (not maim, bruise, insult, restrain, or immobilize) a NON-infected charcters, that player has surrendered control of the charcter and has effectivly become a hostile NPC, mostly likely to be killed within the next couple of turns. Players can always generate new characters if their character dies.


NPCs
Every player is allowed one NPC at a time, be they an infected person, another survivor, a family member, etc. NPCs are more disposable than Players, and CAN be killed by a player's actions, reactions, or challenges.

A lot of people die in Legion, so be wary. If one's NPC dies, they must wait four turns (posts) before introducing another. NPCs help move the plot along, present moral or survival dillemas to the rest of the group, and spice things up because they can be as colorful as you imagine.

NOTE NPCs do not take a whole turn to control directly (they can be included on the side during your player's actions and reactions) and are not subject to the three phases of a player's turn.

(Remember the phases of the turn: 1. ReAction, 2. Action, and 3. Challenge.)

Game Masters
That'd be me, or any of two other players who want to help run the game.(PM me if you want to be a GM)
A Game Master's post is different from a standard player's and is mostly concerned with the enviroment. A Game Master CAN sic a massive horde of the infected on the party, cause the party's veichle to crash and/or break down, or introduce a whole new location or host of NPC's into the game.

Game Master's posts will be written in bold or italic fonts, and are meant to shove the party in a new direction. They are not always nessassary, but should improve the flow of the game, not impair it.

Party
That's all of the actual players. While perhaps not together at first, I'll make sure (as GM) all the characters meet quickly and are forced into a game of survival as a group. The Party is your lifeline, and you may have to convice or coerce them into helping you with your personal goals, but leaving the party generally means certain death, and working against the party may lead to death for all...


Getting Started
The game begins July 19th, 2009, in Northeastern Florida.
This means it's hot and humid, the terrain is mostly urban with scattered woods, fields, and beaches, and the nearest city, Jacksonville, is large and crowded, soon to be filled with the Legion.

I want to give everybody a chance to join the game before we really get started, so your first post should consist of your Player's description, your NPC's description should you choose to start with one (if not, wait for your next four posts to pass before introducing one), location at the start of the plague, and immediate reaction.

You don't have to set up a challenge with your first post since everybody has the same challenge at first: gaining knowledge of the Legion.

What you know or expierence from the Legion can be different; maybe you heard about it on the news, maybe your mom called screaming about crazy people or the walking dead, maybe you work in a hospital (BAD starting point) and realize the entire Emergecy room is full of the infected...It's up to you.

IMPORTANT After posting these things, please wait until this thread goes to a new page before beginning your first turn (I'll bump it if it looks like not many are playing).

NOTE You CANNOT post twice in a row (unless you're a Game Master), but so long as someone else has posted, feel free to react.

(If you want to speak OOC ---that's 'Out Of Character'--- do so in {} brackets or italics with parentheses.)

The Legion march. The end of days has come...

(Malus stands at just over 6 feet, has green eyes, fair skin and short brown hair. He likes to wear dark clothing and always has his MP3 player on him. Would not leave it for anything.)

Malus stands on top of the ruins that were once his house. Fire was the only way to stop those beasts, he had guessed, and so far none had come out.

Malus' tall, slim form is covered in ash and his dark clothes have been stained in blood. He would like to change them as soon as he finds more.

He sees that there is nothing to gained by standing around, so he leaves and hopes to find someone, anyone still alive.

{Not bad origin posts, guys. Like I said, let's give everyone a chance to join before we really get this thing started.}


Sean "Kira" Easterling is a home care respiratory therapist who works downtown at Shands Hospital in Jacksonville. He is tall (nearly 6'5") and heavy set, with short, dark brown hair and greenish-brown eyes. Quick to react, with a similarly quick temper, he can run fast but is nearly incapable of stealth. He has extensive medical knowledge in the areas of respiratory care and diseases.

July 19th being a Sunday, the urban hospital is full to bursting with weekend accident victims, early morning head-on collision survivors, and the slowly recovering Friday visitors whose carlessness with the bottle ended in disaster for not just a few.

Sean doesn't notice anything overly strange about the very busy morning, and apart from not being able to raise his brother Malus on their home phone, has been on his feet since 6:00AM, rushing breathing medications and patients alike to their designated locations.

When lunch rolls around, Sean collapses in the break area and breaks out some caffinated soda he keeps in the break fridge. His lunch is cut short by Susan, a tall, severe looking brunette nurse who has questions involving one of the Emergency Room patients.

"Didn't you get him started on the ventilator? He's responding horribly; you better have a look." She eyes Sean suspiciously as if he's responsible for the heavy morning rush.

"No other RTs down there to monitor a head injury's vent stats?" Sean asks, confused.

"There would be if you hadn't taken your break early," Susan replies curtly. Rather than argue, Sean makes his way back to the emergency department, where an intense smell assaults him.

"What is that smell!?" he asks a passing orderly. The orderly rushes past Sean just a split second before a nurse comes flying into the wall opposite the Emergency doors.

The very same patient Sean had been sent down to check on is crouched over one of the shift doctors, tearing his throat out and munching noisily on the meat.

Sean takes two steps toward the creature, who looks up and shouts something foreign sounding before launching itself at Sean. The force of the creature sends Sean stumbling backward, leaving him open to the creature's next attack.

Fortunately for him, Susan unintentionally saves his life. "What's going on here?" the tall nurse demands with a definite 'I'm-in-control-here' tone in her voice. The former patient turns on her and easily rips her whole arm off. Blood paints the side of the emergency room, and Sean makes for the exit.


The parking lot is a war zone. People are screaming and being torn to shreds by battered, dazed-looking people, every one of their eyes rolled up in their sockets.

Sean immediately thinks "zombies" and makes for his car, yanking his cell phone out of his lab coat as he does. There is still no reply at his house; concerned, he begins dialing his friends' numbers...

Ben is a 6ft tall, medium-built 20 year old with medium-short dark brown hair, and a black chin-beard hinted with natual red. His skin is white, but not pale, and he he has somewhat hairy arms. He is wearing a bright yellow t-shirt with black jeans and always has his glasses on (corrective lenses that get darker in brighter lighting).

He generally keeps his thoughts and ideas to himself except under certain circumstances, and often finds himself being the ring-leader of whatever he's doing, but prefers advising and doing grunt work. He's a natural packrat and has an affinity for making things fit, and finding or knowing where to get things he or others need, not to mention some sort of plan for any disaster that may strike. Being that he lives on an old farm he can get impliments for almost anything.

He's surfing the internet at home when his cell phone starts ringing. It's his friend, Sean, a respiratory therapist at a downtown hospital Ben keeps forgetting the name of. "What's up?" Ben asks, "...Seriously? Zombies?" ... "Well, you sound serious enough. I'll start getting some stuff together out here. We're going by that zombie invasion plan we made last semester, right?"

Ben refers to an old zombie survival plan he and various friends came up with in months past; one that involves fortifying the local Community College into a survival shelter. "Awesome. Anyone at North Campus that can give us some details on what's going on up there?" ...

While he's talking, he heads to his room and pulls down a couple of duffle bags and starts packing in clothes, cloth rags, and towels; he also wanders the house setting out knives, self-packed foods, and other various stuff.

"Go ahead and try someone else; I've got a few calls to make myself." Ben sighs and takes a deep breathe. Now that the end is nigh, Ben feels surprisingly unaffected by it, maybe even excited to see it coming. He hangs up on a semi-panicked Sean and starts scrolling his call list...

*Me*

Shadowmanxp: Average height (about 5'6"). Wears clothes you want to burn, and too quiet for his own good. Likes friends, has blood analysis knowledge, loves to skateboard, and currently has a sprained wrist. *Dumb gun!*

I recognized the gibberish from the turned mortals, but even then there was no reasoning with them. I tried...I really did try.

The first to turn were the close neighbors. I armed myself with a 2-by-4, and that didn't go far. I barricaded myself in a rich neighbor's house, where I got a desert eagle and a .45, but tore up my wrist when I took out only one of them.

I eventually found my way out and hijacked an empty bus, just 'cause it lets me plow through the dead traffic...I really hope this thing doesn't run out of gas.

- Currently, he seeks Kira for access to a hospital.