communication rules

[nitro9090]

Hello,

I am brand new to this site, was quickly browsing through the variants thread for LNOE (I don't have access to the downloads section yet) and didn't see anything that related to the communication between heroes or zombies. In a zombie horror setting communication is important, if lost you could be in big trouble, it gives that alone in a zombie horde feeling and we often have the issue that one experienced person tells everyone what to do on their turn, same with having a strategic zombie offensive which never seemed reasonable to me. This is an idea that could hopefully remedy/relieve some of those issues. These rules will of course work best with 4 separate hero players and/or 2 zombie players. They are currently completely untested and I would love some feedback.

At the beginning of the game everyone may/should discuss an overall strategy but once the first round begins these rules should immediately take effect.

zombie rule - 4 pips - lost communication
Unless heroes are 1 space or fewer from each other (ignore walls and barricades), two heroes have walkie talkies (explained later) or they are in the same bulding no hero player may talk about or reference a hero out of "ear shot" while discussing plans, it may be more viable to ask that they leave the room for a minute to discuss plans. If a zombie player catches this, all of that zombie players zombies 3 spaces or more away from the talking hero get to immediately move 1 space in any direction (zombie hunger applies). This may be too harsh, so you may want to also try all zombies 3 spaces away from any hero can move 1 space. The idea being that the heroes are shouting to each other, so all of the distant zombies who didn't know where your heroes were now know and will theoretically start moving quickly towards them.

Daisy-chain rules apply for talking, so if there are 3 heroes of which 2 are touching one hero and not each other they may still communicate, same with the walkie talkies. So, if 2 heroes are touching and one has a walkie talkie to another character they may all communicate together.

There can also be running communication. If a hero runs past another hero (comes within 1 space of that hero) during their move-action phase who wasn't in the conversation earlier the hero running past may tell the other hero their plan, but the non-moving player may not communicate back, since the other hero is basically running past and the non-moving character wouldn't have a chance to respond.

Walkie-Talkie - to give some freedom to the heroes at the beginning of the game you will roll a random building (reroll if same building as a hero) and place a pair of walkie talkies in that building (you can pick them up in any space of the building). During any characters exchange phase they may pick up one or both of the walkie talkies in the building and they do not count towards their inventory (pick whatever you want to be walkie talkie pieces). Heroes may freely hand off walkie talkies to anyone in the same space as themselves at any time, even if they immediately move in and out of a space with another hero in it. Basically handing off/throwing the walkie talkie as they run past each other. As you would expect any two heroes holding the walkie talkies may freely talk to each other. If a hero dies with a walkie talkie in hand it drops to the space they died in and another hero can come by and pick it up if they are in the same space as it during their exchange phase.

Hero rule - 4 pips - disjointed horde
Zombie players may not communicate with each other about strategy or tell the other zombie player what cards they have in hand, but they may freely play cards on the other zombie players zombies as long as it doesn't break any of the games usual rules. If caught communicating all heroes daisy-chained (as above) to the hero who caught them get to move 1 space aka the zombie lords communicated their plans a little too loudly to their zombie hordes and the hero picks this up and is quickly moving to thwart their nefarious plan. If not balanced you could also have it so all heroes move 1 space or just the hero who caught it gets to move 1 space.

I hope you like these ideas and I look forward to everyone's response.

[mqstout]

My group have some table talk, but it's fairly limited. We vary it from game to game. I do try to get them never to show each other cards, though.

I would expand this to "in same building" rather than "adjacent".

[nitro9090]

(04-04-2011 03:43 PM)mqstout Wrote:  My group have some table talk, but it's fairly limited. We vary it from game to game. I do try to get them never to show each other cards, though.

I would expand this to "in same building" rather than "adjacent".

This would be a set limit to table talk, because ours tends to get unruly and quite frankly unfair as more experienced people take over the game.

I actually forgot to include the same building rule when writing, thanks for reminding me.

[Animaux]

my play group have had trouble with communication because its seems too easy for the hero's to come up with coordinated plans and the zombies seem to have very little that they can do once this happens

the problem appears to be with event cards primarily because items and the such are clearly visible

[nitro9090]

(04-19-2011 12:43 AM)Animaux Wrote:  my play group have had trouble with communication because its seems too easy for the hero's to come up with coordinated plans and the zombies seem to have very little that they can do once this happens

the problem appears to be with event cards primarily because items and the such are clearly visible

Well, I hope these ideas help you out and feel free to make variations and report back to me. I'd love to hear how it all plays out.

[thegamelord]

While I don't think heroes should know what in each other's hands, they can discuss and talk

[nitro9090]

(04-23-2011 07:31 PM)thegamelord Wrote:  While I don't think heroes should know what in each other's hands, they can discuss and talk

I agree and disagree, I agree that with games like this having heroes work together makes it more viable that the heroes will survive, since in this game zombies tend to have the advantage. But thematically I think it makes more sense that if billy is on the other side of town you can't communicate with him without alarming all of the zombies in town, but in a small town you can probably see each other and thus can see each other on the board. So, it depends on what is more important in your game, either realism or gamesmanship and I tried to balance that out with these rules.

As the designer, I would love to have you or someone else try it out and give some feedback on how it actually works. Good or bad, sadly I haven't had a chance to do it myself, I am busy in grad school.

[Russ]

I dunno, in this day and age everyone can just call/text each other via cell phones. Most people anyway, even folks who live in small towns. On the other hand, I guess you'd have to suspend your disbelief a bit that the high school quarterback has the town Sheriff or the local priest on his contacts list, not to mention "strange" characters like the drifter.

I do kind of like this idea; I love anything that enhances the thematic element of the game. The only problem is that it involves people having to constantly leave the room when other players are taking their turns, (and even then, you can't help the fact that they can see where all heroes and zombies are located, even if they are in buildings or across town.) Either that or you have to have some kind of rule about "meta-gaming," and that seems like it would be annoying for this game.

[nitro9090]

(05-01-2011 01:25 AM)Russ Wrote:  I dunno, in this day and age everyone can just call/text each other via cell phones. Most people anyway, even folks who live in small towns. On the other hand, I guess you'd have to suspend your disbelief a bit that the high school quarterback has the town Sheriff or the local priest on his contacts list, not to mention "strange" characters like the drifter.

To take that idea into account, I assumed either the cell phone towers would go down (I doubt they are being maintained during a zombie outbreak, aka that's why it is lost communication) or it would be a little strange to use cell phones in the middle of a zombie attack, ("ah I am being eaten by a zombie" *beyonce cell ringtone* "excuse me zombies I have to take this" or "billy, quickly go on this suicide mission to draw out the zombies and remember give us a call when you get there")

Quote:I do kind of like this idea; I love anything that enhances the thematic element of the game. The only problem is that it involves people having to constantly leave the room when other players are taking their turns, (and even then, you can't help the fact that they can see where all heroes and zombies are located, even if they are in buildings or across town.) Either that or you have to have some kind of rule about "meta-gaming," and that seems like it would be annoying for this game.

Thank you. I admit, this system feels a bit clunky and sadly my gaming friends are starting to stray away from LNOE, so it is becoming ever harder to field test and try to remove some of the issues. As for knowing where people are vs. talking to them, I made this point in the last reply, this is a small town with a dozen or so buildings. In such a case you should be able to literally see across town (and through the windows) and in most cases you would be able to see survivors running around or atleast be able to watch the zombies converging on a point, thus you could see the other heroes, know where they are and see potentially what they are carrying, but wouldn't be able to contact them as it would alarm other zombies in the area.

[munkymuddface]

(05-01-2011 01:25 AM)Russ Wrote:  I dunno, in this day and age everyone can just call/text each other via cell phones. Most people anyway, even folks who live in small towns. On the other hand, I guess you'd have to suspend your disbelief a bit that the high school quarterback has the town Sheriff or the local priest on his contacts list, not to mention "strange" characters like the drifter.

I thought I read somewhere that this game takes place in the 80's. Cell phones weren't commonplace back then...