I Am A Survivor
I Am A Survivor (AKA “Lonely Highway”)
This is a small one-shot game I prepared for my group when one of my buddies came in from out of town. I asked them what style of game they wanted to play, and they unanimously shouted “Zombies!” Since this was an on-the-fly game session and I didn’t have much time to prepare, I tried to create a simple but compelling character sheet with a short, concise rules page on the back. The game session fell through due to my fatherly duties, but none-the-less I thought this would be worth sharing.
I created the documents in Adobe Photoshop and then exported into Open Office Writer to create the PDF. As far as layout, it was mostly freeform. I started at the top left and made my way down to the bottom right. I think it’s pretty apparent that I approached it in that fashion by the look of the character sheet. At first I aimed for it to be a pure “Zombie-Pocalypse”, but realized halfway through that the game could be used for just about any post-apocalyptic setting. Here is the pdf for your viewing pleasure…
Download IAAS Character Sheet (Version 3)
Sentient Games 
insomaticfashion
September 2, 2011 at 1:47 pm
Came here from a link in The Forge. Gotta say, the concept is solid, and the overall design of the sheet is appealing. Obviously, without DM rules, I can’t tell you if the sheet works, but I’m sure you’re capable of determining that yourself. Now, I’m assuming that the “Conditions” boxes are a sliding scale? (As in, if your Condition decreases by 1, and you were at “Sick”, then you are now at “Angry”.) If so, then what penalties apply for having a negative Condition? It might take up more precious space on the sheet, but an explanation of negative Condition modifiers might be useful.
Other than that, I have no criticisms. Looks fantastic!
DrVonFisch
October 17, 2011 at 9:44 pm
mh..when i help someone and he fails, i dont lose a die. If he succeedes i lose a die, but instantly get it back for helping??? seems strange
The Sentience
October 19, 2011 at 9:08 pm
Okay, sorry for the delay on the responses.
@Insomaticfashion: I need to take the time to write up a GM sheet to tie everything together, definitely. The Conditions are NOT a sliding scale. The GM applies conditions as he/she finds them appropriate. If your character loses a backpack full of food, they might be assigned the “Angry” Condition. If they eat some bad food, they might be assigned the “Sick” condition. When your character has a condition, you as the player must narrate how that condition is affecting them. An “Angry” character might lash out at some NPCs while a “Sick” character might throw up occasionally during the scene. I left this very freeform. If a negative condition could affect how difficult an obstacle is, the GM can raise the difficulty by one step. That’s something I should definitely touch on!
@DrVonFisch: A few other people have pointed out that loophole. I’ve changed that in the updated version. I’m going to upload V3 soon! 🙂
James Orr
August 6, 2012 at 5:58 pm
Much later… Did you ever get that GM sheet put together?
The Sentience
August 13, 2012 at 11:47 pm
I started to work on it again a few weeks ago but of course I got side-tracked. IAAS remains one of the more popular offerings on this site so I’ll try to muscle through it.
thadrine
August 29, 2012 at 1:33 pm
Well, this sounds interesting, but none of the links work?
The Sentience
August 29, 2012 at 5:40 pm
Sorry about that. Links have been updated. Enjoy! 😀
Side Note: 75% complete with expanded rules explanation. Definitely too long to fit onto a single GM page but we’ll see what I can do.
Raffi
March 17, 2013 at 4:43 am
These rules and character sheet are great! Nice work on creating a quick free form game all wrapped up in 2 pages of efficiency.
Dustin R.
March 11, 2014 at 5:41 pm
I know its been quite sometime, but do you have any updates on this game? It looks really neat and I’d love to give it a spin.
Zack Wolf
March 12, 2014 at 6:35 pm
Actually, I spent a few hours writing up a lengthy explanation of how I’ve played the game. But….I was dumb and saved it on my work computer, then quit that job and forgot to send the text to myself. So… I did have an update but it’s lost. Not sure if and when I’ll ever redo the work, especially since this isn’t one of the more popular games on my blog. Any particular questions though?
John
April 30, 2015 at 11:28 pm
I really want to GM a survival type game with this system (basically just the tomb raider reboot story line since no one in my group has played it but me), and would really like to know if there is any more info on how to run it besides what’s on the sheet. I’m pretty new to GMing and would just like to know if there is anything extra that might be useful. Thanks
Zack Wolf
May 1, 2015 at 12:34 pm
At one point I did have a lengthy explanation of how to play written up, but unfortunately the document was lost when I quit my old job. I’ll consider writing it up again.
John
June 8, 2015 at 10:30 pm
Well I’ve been GMing it for a bit now and I think I understand it pretty well. It’s a very gritty and unique system, which works well for a Tomb Raider style game. Thanks for putting this out here for us.
Selaibur
April 13, 2016 at 9:14 pm
Hello! I seen this wonderful rpg months ago, and i have been translate it to spanish (my language). I dont know if u want to check it, or anything. Anyway, u have my email, so i hope u answer me soon.
Zack Wolf
April 14, 2016 at 12:47 pm
Awesome dude! Love hearing that some little thing I made is being played in different parts of the world! Rock on!
Selaibur
April 15, 2016 at 7:00 am
Oh, nice… How could u send u spanish sheet? And a rules trouble… How do u think to use vehicles, or driving skill of characters?
Survivalist147
August 7, 2016 at 11:03 am
Just a question will there be a sheet for base stats? for when the party is at a safe zone for the time being?
Survivalist147
February 11, 2022 at 2:23 pm
It has been years since I last posted here but I just wish to say, Me and some others have made a full TTRPG from this character sheet, I just wanted to say thanks for the inspiration to start something new back in 2015.