Young Writers Society

For all your table-talking needs!

So excited to do this!

This sounds sooooo cool!!

Can I reserve the engineer?

if you're still looking for a scientist, I would love to take that role!

You got it! @Omni for Engineer and @JustPerks for Scientist!

Updated! As of now, only the survivalist spot is open. I’m going to say for now only one character per person, since our cast is so small, but this is pretty experimental so we’ll see how things go in the future

@JustPerks approved! I think Riley and Iridi will get along great when they have time to come out of their shells a bit

@Europa I absolutely agree. I love having characters kind of grow with each other, especially when they're tossed into a situation where they have to work together! ^^

Alrighty! I’ve determined that if we don’t have a survivalist by the time everyone’s submitted their character sheets, we’ll go on ahead and leave that space open. If we get into the game and feel we really really need the survivalist’s skills (having a survivalist would really help with finding basic necessities like reliable shelter, but using characters skills combined may also be good enough.) I have a character ready-made that can be introduced later.

Now, an important gameplay question: would incorporating dice rolls for certain things like death saves and severity of injuries make the game more fun for you? If you don’t have/don’t want to use physical dice I could link a pretty good dice roller here. We’d use mainly d-20 and as a general rule above a ten will be success/reduced damage, below a ten would be a failure/increased damage, nat 20 and nat 1 would be a critical success and failure, respectively. We’d go by dnd rules where a dying character gets three rolls. Three successes or one crit success you stabilize and can be healed, three failures or one crit failure, you die. Death saves would only be for very serious injuries, untreated illnesses, etc. and whether that happens will be largely up to you in the choices you make and what situations you want to put your character in.
I’ve also been considering random events, where I spin a wheel and see whether we encounter any unexpected dangers that will act as writing prompts for the next character posting. Either I’ll spin the wheel at the beginning of an in game week, (one posting round) or once for every post and let people choose when and where to use them.

These options are hypotheticals as I’m experimenting and building up game mechanics, if I do this again in the future, your input now would help a great deal! Naturally my goal is to create an enjoyable experience while keeping you in control of your characters, so if you feel these options are too restrictive, we don’t have to use them. (Though I’ll probably use dice for Riley regardless)

@JustPerks @Omni @winterwolf0100
Double posting to let you all know I’ve got a poll up for some game mechanic options! Please let me know what would work best for you!

Thanks for the ping! I really would like some combo of randomness and rolling dice because I love anything like DnD. ^^

Alrighty, it looks like the majority liked the idea of an injury wheel with the option of death saves, so I introduce to you...


There's all sorts of ways to get hurt in the apocalypse, and luckily for you your humble guide has specific wheels with all the fun ways your little guys can get pummeled. If your character is caught in a random encounter such as a snowstorm or a bandit attack, your guide has you covered with a handy Picker Wheel to tell you whether you've been hurt and how badly.

Minor injuries: Cuts, bruises, common cold, etc. Will need to be tracked and treated, but heal quickly and won't kill you as long as they're healed.

Major injuries: Broken bone, bullet wound, concussions, etc.
take longer to heal, so have to be managed for longer, limits a character to some degree. (If you're feeling evil, you can always choose to make things worse >:3)

Let's talk about the odds. Every wheel has spaces with injuries of varying degrees. The minor injuries, ones that will need attention but won't kill you as long as you take care of them, appear more often and are more likely to occur than higher-risk injuries or illnesses. Additionally, each wheel has a "fatality" on it. One slice on the wheel that will put your character at risk of dying, and you will have to make death saving throws to see if your character survives.

Death Saves

So, you've arrived at death's door. To keep from crossing its threshold, you'll need to make a death saving throw. Roll a d-20 three times. If you get at or above a ten, you succeed in a save! if you get below a ten, you fail. If you get more successes than failures, your character stabilizes and can be healed, though it may take some time to fully recover.
The one exception would be if you make a critical roll. A natural 20 is a critical success. Your character stabilizes and you don't have to roll any more saves. A natural one is a critical fail, instant death for your character. The odds of rolling a straight fatality are low, so hopefully, this category won't be needed often.

Random Encounters

At the beginning of each in-game week, in addition to the main objectives, there will be added prompts in the form of random encounters. A wheel will be spun full of dangerous little goodies such as violent weather, environmental hazards, and even meeting other survivors who may or may not have the best intentions. There are also three "Nothing happens" slots, so there's a good chance that of the four or five rolls, a few will not turn up events to keep the plotline manageable. Most random encounters are small and can be cleared up in a post or two, but some could lead to plot points that can act as mini-arcs for your characters to explore. You can choose which encounters to include in your posts and plot with your fellow writers to incorporate them into the story. The goal of this is to provide a writing challenge simulating the unpredictable nature of our fictional situation, as well as keep the momentum going

Okayyy I was going to catch up on character profiles first, but I have been convinced by the wise words of Omni ("charrie profiles are important yes / but can also join RP :eyes:) and the wonderful puns of Europa (Tomato Land and red scare... genius, lol!) xD
Sooo may I claim the survivalist please? :3

Sure!! We've got a full team gang! Welcome @Spearmint! I'm looking forward to seeing everyone's characters while I cook up the encounter and injury wheels. I'll also put up another poll to determine how the wheels will be played (This ooc will use a lot of polls lmao)