Arsilon
January 7th, 2026, 17:25
I’ve been working on a homebrew Zombie Apocalypse sandbox campaign in Fantasy Grounds, loosely inspired by the 7 Days to Die video game—particularly the Darkness Falls mod.
The campaign is intentionally sandbox and open-ended. The players are dropped into the world with no memory of how they arrived, only to discover it’s overrun by zombies. Their immediate goal is survival, but over time they also try to piece together what happened and why they’re there.
Given the setting, scavenging is a core gameplay loop. To support that, I use a lightweight item condition system (we can debate how "lightweight" it really is, but that’s a separate discussion), along with basic repair and crafting mechanics.
To help manage this in Fantasy Grounds, I’ve built a skeleton extension with the following functionality:
Adds a condition attribute to every item in the game (weapons, armor, vehicles, mundane items, etc.).
Condition defaults to 0 and can be decremented down to -10 by the GM or players.
Calculates a condition-based value modifier, where each step from 0 to -10 represents a 10% reduction in value.
Adds a value attribute to items, calculated as the item’s base cost minus the condition-based reduction.
Displays this value in character inventory tabs as well as the party inventory and parcel sheets.
The idea is that the value field can be used however the GM sees fit -- for barter, repairs, crafting, or other interactions. I intentionally didn’t overengineer this part so it could remain flexible.
As an example of how I use it in my game:
Items are only usable if their condition is -4 or better.
Items can be repaired if their condition is at least -6.
At -7 or worse, items are scrap or barter-only.
At -10, an item is essentially junk—maybe an interesting trinket, but with no real value or use.
I use the imputed condition based 'value' in crafting, repair and barter interactions accordingly.
I have a general currency defined that is 'scrap' as well (akin to bottlecaps in something like Fallout)
I’ve been dabbling with Fantasy Grounds extensions largely as a learning exercise and have recently published a few small ones on the Forge. This particular extension is still very much in "skeleton" form, but it’s functional and works well for my own games.
My question is whether there’s enough interest for me to go back and clean this up into something more polished and formally packaged for release on the Forge. If so, I’d also love feedback on what functionality would be important to make it more broadly useful, rather than just tailored to my own playstyle and tolerance for manual data management.
Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome.
The campaign is intentionally sandbox and open-ended. The players are dropped into the world with no memory of how they arrived, only to discover it’s overrun by zombies. Their immediate goal is survival, but over time they also try to piece together what happened and why they’re there.
Given the setting, scavenging is a core gameplay loop. To support that, I use a lightweight item condition system (we can debate how "lightweight" it really is, but that’s a separate discussion), along with basic repair and crafting mechanics.
To help manage this in Fantasy Grounds, I’ve built a skeleton extension with the following functionality:
Adds a condition attribute to every item in the game (weapons, armor, vehicles, mundane items, etc.).
Condition defaults to 0 and can be decremented down to -10 by the GM or players.
Calculates a condition-based value modifier, where each step from 0 to -10 represents a 10% reduction in value.
Adds a value attribute to items, calculated as the item’s base cost minus the condition-based reduction.
Displays this value in character inventory tabs as well as the party inventory and parcel sheets.
The idea is that the value field can be used however the GM sees fit -- for barter, repairs, crafting, or other interactions. I intentionally didn’t overengineer this part so it could remain flexible.
As an example of how I use it in my game:
Items are only usable if their condition is -4 or better.
Items can be repaired if their condition is at least -6.
At -7 or worse, items are scrap or barter-only.
At -10, an item is essentially junk—maybe an interesting trinket, but with no real value or use.
I use the imputed condition based 'value' in crafting, repair and barter interactions accordingly.
I have a general currency defined that is 'scrap' as well (akin to bottlecaps in something like Fallout)
I’ve been dabbling with Fantasy Grounds extensions largely as a learning exercise and have recently published a few small ones on the Forge. This particular extension is still very much in "skeleton" form, but it’s functional and works well for my own games.
My question is whether there’s enough interest for me to go back and clean this up into something more polished and formally packaged for release on the Forge. If so, I’d also love feedback on what functionality would be important to make it more broadly useful, rather than just tailored to my own playstyle and tolerance for manual data management.
Any thoughts or suggestions are welcome.