Rebuild: welcome to the Qt3 zombie apocalypse

Boughted thanks to this thread. According to Pocket Tactics, Rebuild will be going on sale next week, which means you could save a buck or two I suppose. At three bucks, I didn’t see a point in waiting. Rather the dev get a bit more change.

Tom, how is it your playthrough has no female survivors? That ain’t no fun…

Kyrios is not amused at your assessment of her gender:

-Tom

Hudson: Hey Vasquez, have you ever been mistaken for a man?
Vasquez: No. Have you?

$1 seems like a bargain. It won’t work on either of my current Android devices, but I still feel like it’s a sound investment for the future.

The flash version of this is still free. It’s called Rebuild 2, while the original is also still out there.

There is a huge difference in this game, moving from easy to less easy games!

I’m not a fan of zombies, but rather of the milieu in which they seem to thrive. I would love to see the updates to the game, to (if nothing else) add crowdsourced text for stuff like events, post mission updates, etc.

Tim James and Jarrod return from the Wal Mart with grins on their faces.

“What?” Nixxter asks, greeting them at the gate. “What did you find? Porn?”

“Better,” Tim says. He pulls a megaphone from his backpack. “It was in a minivan.”

“What are we going to do with that?”

Tim raises the megaphone and presses the switch. “Attention everyone! Can I please have your attention! Quartertown wants you! Come to Quartertown for free food, medical care, and boardgaming!”

Rowlf barks at the noise.

“My dog doesn’t like it.” Nixxter checks the megaphone’s battery.

“Your dog?” Jarrod asks, scratching Rowlf’s head. The dog’s tongue rolls out and its tightly curled tail wags frantically.

“Technically. You’re just borrowing him. So this is better than porn?” Nixxter raises the megaphone. “Come see the world-famous comedy routine of Kyrios! She even does impressions! Yeah, that’s pretty cool.”

Delta leans his head out a second story apartment window. “Could you guys keep it the fuck down? Some of us are trying to sleep.” He slams the window shut.

“Did you get much of a chance to talk to the new guy?” Jarrod lights two cigarettes and hands one to Nixxter.

“Delta? A little.”

“What did he do?”

“What did he do?”

“Before.”

“Ah. Lawyer, I think.”

“Just what we need.”

“He seems all right. He’s willing to do his part, just like everyone else.”

“How’s Ed doing with the hospital?”

“Three more days.”

“What happened here?” Tim notices the stack of burned bodies against the barricade to the North Mall.

“We had a bit of trouble,” Nixxter says. “The night you guys were gone, they tried to get in. More than fifty of them.”

“Jesus, so they’re trying to get in now?” Jarrod says. “We have to do something about that mall. There’s too many of them in there.”

“I know. As soon as Ed is done with the hospital, I’m going to send you guys into the mall.”

“As soon as Ed is done with the hospital? What, you think one of us is going to get hurt? You think we’re going to need a hospital?”

“I just want to be safe. There’s no need to hurry. But first, we’re going to check out some of the outlying areas for food. I’m sending Delta to one of the farms up north. Tim, you head south to that 7-11. Kyrios is going to check out that 7-11 down the street to the east. There should be some food in there.”

“Why do they build those things so close together?” Tim asks.

“It’s a city zoning issue,” Delta says, emerging from the apartment in a bath robe, squinting in the sun light, his hair piled up to one side. “So Kyrios does comedy? Seriously? Because I know some good lawyer jokes she can use.”

Day 5 results:
Megaphone (+2 to leadership) scavenged, equipped by Nixxter

Day 5 missions:
Ed Solomon is working on the hospital
Kyrios, Delta, and Tim James will scout

Results and day six tomorrow

This is great. I love the more prose-y style.

This thread is amazing.

Thanks for doing a “Let’s Play” type thread Tom!

There’s definitely a difficulty hump. Past a certain point you have enough resources that something would have to go hideously, repeatedly wrong to have much chance of setting you back. My last game was a little touch and go at the beginning because I wasn’t getting enough people so any missions I sent people on dramatically raised the danger in a zombie attack, not infrequently injuring the people on the mission and forcing them to cancel and sit out for a couple days. I seemed to have a neverending injury parade going. And then somewhere along the line I hit 95 out of 75 blocks reclaimed with 999 days of food and another 20 days worth coming in every day and like a 6% danger rating even with ten missions going at once and 1000+ zombies outside.

We all died.

Great thread, Tom. I can’t wait for day six and beyond.

Also, for 99 cents in the Amazon app store today, this game is a steal.

Nixxter is dreaming about his wife. He’s dreaming about the time they went to get the dog. When he suggested a dog, it had been a year since the miscarriage. He was worried she might think it was trite.

“What would you think of a dog?” he finally asked at breakfast one Saturday morning. Her face lit up. It was the most beautiful thing he’d seen in a year. That afternoon, they went to the rescue shelter.

In his dream, they’re at the rescue shelter. They’re looking for Rowlf, the weird pug she finally picked out, but they can’t find him. They’re walking between rows of cages filled with snarling dogs. In his dream, he knows he has to take home one of these angry feral dogs. In his dream, his wife has no idea that these dogs are dangerous. He has to warn her, but he knows how difficult it’s been to talk to her. He knows she’s hurt, frail, scared, and trying not to show it. He knows he’s probably lost her. And the dogs are barking, snarling, growling, frantic, clawing at the cages, chewing at the wire, their mouths bleeding, their black eyes wild and accusing.

“Get up. Nixxter, get the fuck up.” Jarrod is shaking him.

“What? What is it?”

“We need you at the barricade.”

“What is it? Are they trying to get in again?”

Nixxter realizes the sound of dogs isn’t in his dream. In the dim light of morning outside, he hears barking and snarling.

“Dogs,” Jarrod says. “Fucking dogs. I think they can smell the bodies we burned or something. They must think it’s a goddamn barbecue.”

They all spend the morning throwing rocks and bottles at skinny circling the compound, digging at the base of the barricades, barking and growling. The dogs have matted fur and many of them are scarred. Many of them are wearing frayed faded collars. There’s even a poodle down there. A few of the dogs slip through gaps in the barricade and charge Kyrios. She kicks at one of them and then smashes a cinder block onto its head. It falls to the ground, yelping and crying, trying to drag itself away. Kyrios finishes it with her boot. The other dogs scatter, too confused to find their way back out. She tracks them down one by one, and then drags the bodies over near the burned zombies.

Eventually most of the dogs fall back and watch the bigger dogs, the ones that look like they could do some real damage, as they weather the rocks and bottles, more sullen and uncaring than determined. The sky gets brighter and even those dogs fall back. They growl and sulk in the near distance.

“I think we’ve got this,” Jarrod tells Nixxter. “Why don’t you go get some sleep. I’ll wake you when the other guys get back from the scouting trips.”

Returning to bed, Nixxter finds Rowlf under the blankets, trembling. The dog presses itself against him as he falls into a dreamless sleep.

Day 6 results:
Dog attack, no injuried or losses suffered
Food spotted at an 8-12
Food and a survivor spotted at a farm

Day 6 missions:
Tim James, Jarrodhk (and Rowlf) scavenge the 8-11 to the east (0% danger, 34% to find an item)
Delta to scout another farmland on the other side of the North Mall
Nixxter and Kryios on defense (20% chance of losses if the zombies attack)
Ed Solomon is working on the hospital

This game is brutal!

I don’t understand. Shouldn’t all the dead dogs be converted to bonus food?

Suddenly, Rowlf looks pretty good with ketchup.

Tom, this is brilliant. This should be on the front page.

Dang, lost track of this until now. What fun! Bought. (whoops, sorry about the fun word Tom).

But, of course, the play by play by Tom is taking us all back to Tom v Bruce. Tom, you should think about doing something like T v B on the front page from time to time, it was most amusing!

On the sixth night, the zombie attack again.

“A sharp quick downward motion,” Kyrios says as they struggle with the broomsticks. “Just like fish in a barrel.”

It’s the second zombie attack this week. Over fifty of the things are pressed up against the main barricade, clawing at the wood, surging against it with the weight of their bodies. The moaning tide of grey flesh is illuminated by torches from above. Kyrios, Nixxter, and Ed Solomon, perched at the top of the barricade, thrust sharpened broomsticks down at them.

“You keep hitting them in the shoulder,” Kyrios snaps. “Take your time. Line it up with the top of the head or the face. Pretend it’s a nail. You know how to hits nails.”

“Nails stand still,” Ed protests. “These guys keep moving. Their arms keep getting in the way.”

It’s a cold January night, but the three of them are drenched in sweat.

“Hold it over their arms until you’re ready to stab it. Like this.” She leans perilously over the barricade to reach one of the zombies under Ed’s position. With a quick confident jab, her broomstick plunges into the zombie’s upturned face, just below the eye. It falls away, but another zombie grabs at the broomstick. A brief tug of war follows and the gore soaked broomstick is pulled down into the mass of zombies.

“We need more broomsticks. I think there are some in Jarrod’s apartment. Ed, take a break and see if you can find them. He keeps them in his workshop.”

“Gladly.”

Climbing down from the barricade, Ed loses his footing. His foot falls through the ladder. He tumbles backwards and wrenches his leg painfully at an awkward angle.

“Goddammit. God damn it to hell. Goddammmit.” He pulls his leg loose and lets himself down to the ground. The moans from the other side of the barricade get more frenzied at the sound of his pain.

“Hold on, I’m coming.” Nixxter climbs down as Ed struggles to stand.

“I’m okay, I’m okay. Goddammit.” He hops ridiculously on one foot back toward the apartments. “I’m going to get those broomsticks.”

“Let me have a look. Just sit down for a second.”

“I’m okay, I’m okay.” Ed lets himself to the ground and winces as he stretches his leg out. “I just have to catch my breath is all. Goddammit.”

The ankle is purple and starting to swell. He’s bleeding from a gash in his calf muscle. Blood is streaming freely into Ed’s shoe. “Kyrios, you okay on your own up there?” Nixxter asks.

“Fantastic,” she says without turning around. She leans down and jabs at another zombie.

“Three days? I have to stay here for three days?” Ed asks once everyone has decided that he can’t keep working on the hospital barricade.

“That’s how long it took Jesus,” Delta says.

“Yeah, but he was dead. I just have a sprained ankle and a cut. What am I going to do for three days? I’ve already read all the magazines we have.”

“You ever read those Harry Potter books?” Tim asks.

“My youngest one did. She saw the movies and everything.”

“They’re pretty good,” Tim says after a brief pause. This is often how they learn things about each other. A casual comment, a careless reference. It’s almost never clear whether it’s a matter of sharing or letting slip. The end result is the same. “I’ll go get you the first one. Philosopher’s Stone.”

“Hold up, I’ll come with you,” Nixxter says. “So this is really bad news,” he continues in the hallway. “He was half way through setting up the hospital after we cleared it out. Now we’ve lost all that time. We’ll have to go back in and clear it out again, which is going to take two days, and Ed will have to start from the beginning, which will take four days. One step forward, two steps back.”

“Well, at least there’s that one step forward.”

“I don’t think you understand math.”

“Here’s some math. We have enough food for ten days, and last night me and Jarrod got another two days’ worth. We’re fine for now. But there’s a bigger issue.”

“What?”

“I don’t have Goblet of Fire. If Ed gets to the fourth book within three days, we’re going to have a serious problem on our hands. Make sure he doesn’t read too fast.”

Day 7 results:
Ed Solomon injured and has to rest for three days, hospital construction canceled, morale down from 30% to 25%
Tim James and Jarrodhk return with ten rations of food

Day 7 missions:
Nixxter and Delta to recruit in farmland, 80% chance of success, 13% chance of mishap
Kyrios clearing out the hospital, 9% chance of mishap

What does the target on the injury update mean? Just that you killed 9 zombies? I gather that the other two mean 1 person hospitalized, and -5 happiness.

Yes.5

Nice!