ZRPG FAQ Now Available

For this week's ZRPG update, DoubleBear Productions' Brian Mitsoda has posted a very informative FAQ over at the official Iron Tower forums. Finally, we have some real info to chew on:
And how do I kill zombies?
There are melee and ranged weapons. Melee weapons are quieter, while ranged weapons are more powerful and noisier. Zombies, on their own aren't that hard to kill, so if you're capable with a melee weapon, your characters should be able to take one down with melee without generating too much noise. Humans, however, are much deadlier than zombies and may be wearing armor and shooting back. Guns are an effective weapon against humans, but the noise can attract zombies. Of course, characters that are good with melee/ranged and have decent equipment will be able to handle a variety of situations. There are also special one-use items with combat or strategic uses.

What are the other skills?
The skills for the game are:
Survival Training in wilderness/military survival. It allows players to travel quicker on the Area Map, avoid random encounters, survey greater distances, and harvest wild sources of food.

Mechanical Mechanical aptitude. Governs ability to pick locks, upgrade the Shelter, modify weapons, and ability to strip more parts from objects.

Melee Proficiency with melee weapons/close combat.

Ranged Proficiency with firearms/ranged weapons.

Medical Knowledge of medicine/treatment of wounds. Skilled characters can heal more HP per character and use fewer healing items to do so.

Science Knowledge and application of scientific principles. Allows the player to craft new items, equipment, and upgrades.

Negotiation The ability to manipulate and reason with people. Used in dialogue and helps reduce Morale penalties.

Leadership - The ability to inspire and intimidate people. Used in dialogue and increases effectiveness of allies in combat.

Are there stats too?
A few. Stats represent a character's physical ability/limitations, and are used in conjunction with skills to determine combat effectiveness.

Skills are applied knowledge and stats are physical capability. It is easier to raise skills than stats. They are:
Strength Physical strength. Determines carry weight and contributes to melee damage.

Agility How physically quick a character is. Determines amount of Action Points and combat evasion.

Perception Mental alertness and keen sight. Used to determine initiative and chance to hit distant targets.

Vigor Health of the player. Determines HP.

What is the gist of the game?
The game is open-world, meaning the player can go anywhere in any order. There are quite a few (objectives) coming from within the player's group and outside forces, but the player will always have plenty to do and the story/relationships can go in very different directions based on the player's decisions.

The basic drive is going out of the Shelter to scavenge food, equipment, fuel, parts, and other items and trying to survive another day in the zombie apocalypse. There are a lot of ways this can be accomplished.

Is there a good and evil solution for everything?
There is no good/evil points, slider, whatever. If you piss off an enemy faction, most likely they are going to be hostile. Some people will agree with your methods and some won't and some won't care as long as the Shelter provides creature comforts. You have to weigh every decision like a political decision you can't please all the people all of the time, but you can please some of the people some of the time. Most of the decisions involve sacrifices (not literally) and it's about what you're comfortable sacrificing, though it's not always as cut and dry as that. There is also the question of the needs of the group versus the needs of the individual to consider.
Thanks, RPG Codex.