PDA

View Full Version : Zombies! Moustaches! Phrenology! Monocles! PSEUDOSCIENCE!



subject42
2010-09-29, 09:54 AM
The important bit
I'm building up a special Halloween episode for my weekly gaming group
(3.5/PF, more or less) and I'm looking for advice and suggestions. I've included a WALL OF TEXT below. If anyone has suggestions on how to make it better, I'd love to hear them.

The background
My homebrew setting is something along the lines of a collaboration between Lester Dent (Doc Savage), Robert E. Howard (Conan the Barbarian), and H. G. Wells (the time machine).

The game world is colonized more or less entirely by humans (they are the only playable race) and intelligent, non-human, sapient beings are incredibly rare and usually a BIG DEAL. Ruins are scattered all over the landscape, and more remote ones, or ones on "the new continent", tend to be full of fabulous wealth, lost technology, horrifying security measures, and other unknown perils.

Technological development across ranges from early Neolithic to "Anachronistic Victorian". Railroads are starting to show up in some of the more densely populated areas, hot air balloons are available to the adventurous, and one of the most powerful nations has just launched its first steam ship.

D&D style magic is essentially non-existent. A +1 sword is something akin to an artifact. Analogs to potions and oils (ie: single use items), however, are abundant.

Vancian casting does not exist. Divine magic does not exist. Gods, if they exist, are not active in the affairs of mortals. All classes are homebrew variations derived from Psionics, ToB, MoI, and ToM.

The rough idea
A local crime underlord/robin hood figure that has aided the players in the past asks them for a favor. He would like them to deliver a locked, ice-packed box and a chest of money to a Mr. Deepak Varmus in a city that is about a week's ride from their current location. Players might notice that he has a large square of gauze on his back, as if he has recently undergone surgery.

During the trip, the players learn from villagers that there is governmental unrest and rebellion simmering in this new city.

Upon arrival, the players deliver their package to Dr. Varmus, who excitedly takes the box and asks if the players are also investors, since the weight of the box far exceeds the payment that he expected for a single person. If asked, the Dr. explains that he is working on a "REVOLUTIONARY SERVICE IN THE FIELD OF EMERGENCY REVITALIZATION".

It turns out that Dr. Varmus has developed a means through which he may construct a perfect copy of an investor's body out of a sample of their flesh and a vial of each of their four Vital Humors. During the tour, Varmus shows hundreds and hundreds of sealed chambers holding unconscious bodies. The players will notice that there are only four or five unique faces on the bodies, and that they are clones.

Varmus then goes on to explain that all current investors carry an "ORGONE CAPACITOR" with them on all times, and in the event of their death the capacitor will "capture the signature of their unique ORGONE WAVEFORM and preserve it for reimplantation". This is done by means of a "UNIVERSAL VITAL MAGNETISM PROJECTOR ARRAY" that is in the national capital.

The end result is that if you die, somebody can return the rock that is housing your consciousness and you get brought back to life.

This obviously sounds too good to be true, which is where the plot starts.

During the night, an insurgent breaks into facility and activates all of the clones without the implantation process.

The clones break out and immediately begin mutating into zombie-like creatures. The Dr. explains that without a proper animating vital force, there is nothing to regulate Humor Imbalances that naturally occur, leaving the clones to devolve into monsters.

Even worse for the PCs, people who are bitten are afflicted with a similar humoral imbalance that will kill them and also turn them into zombies.

The outbreak spreads quickly, and the PCs need to simultaneously contain the infection and travel through zombie infested back-country on the way to the capital to fire up the "UNIVERSAL VITAL MAGNETISM PROJECTOR ARRAY".

The core question
How would you folks portray this kind of zombie? What would they do, besides eat the flesh of the living? What kind of effects would the various humoral imbalances have on them?




OMGWALLOFTEXT/TL;DR (Aka: the ADD block)
How would you make pseudoscience zombies in a quasi-victorian not-really-steampunk-but-has-elements-of-fantastic-science setting?

Deth Muncher
2010-09-29, 10:03 AM
I didn't read all of your thing, but re: Pseudo-Science Zombies: See Frankenstein.

dsmiles
2010-09-29, 10:09 AM
The four humours, IIRC, are: bile, yellow bile (choler), blood and phlegm.

So...
Bile = Acid-spewing zombies?
Yellow Bile = ?
Blood = Super strong or super fast zombies?
Phlegm = Disease spreading zombies?

subject42
2010-09-29, 10:12 AM
The four humours, IIRC, are: bile, yellow bile (choler), blood and phlegm.

So...
Bile = Acid-spewing zombies?
Yellow Bile = ?
Blood = Super strong or super fast zombies?
Phlegm = Disease spreading zombies?

Those are good ideas. Thanks.

Would a Phlegm zombie that left a grease trail behind it as it walked be too overpowered?

For yellow bile, exploding zombies, maybe?

dsmiles
2010-09-29, 10:21 AM
Those are good ideas. Thanks.

Would a Phlegm zombie that left a grease trail behind it as it walked be too overpowered?

For yellow bile, exploding zombies, maybe?

It wouldn't be overpowered, but you should call it like it is...a snot trail. :smallbiggrin:

And exploding zombies should work.

Radar
2010-09-29, 12:15 PM
It might be a good idea flavor-wise to describe all those imbalances as self-destructive. For example:
- bile zombies would still be affected by the acid - their lips and tongoues would be burned away, they might drip some acid on themselves through burn-holes in their jaw or something.
- blood zombies might be strong and fast enough to break their bones and joints by accident... and keep going.
- phlegm zombies would bear the full power of all diseases they carry
- yellow bile zombies - hard to say, maybe severe swelling and partial explosions before the final boom?

Also: it would add another level of horror, if the biten humans wouldn't lose consciousness too fast.

nhbdy
2010-09-29, 12:27 PM
Zombies in D&D are fun... but I found that they get old without intelligence behind them... if they are just shambling morons, then they will constantly fall for the same tricks over and over, and tedium sets in. The multiple types sound interesting, especially the ones with the grease trail, I'm always a fan of altering the battlefield.

So, in short, I think that there should be another type of zombie, a commander that can direct the others into (semi) intelligent tactics that improve the longer they stay alive.

subject42
2010-09-29, 12:34 PM
So, in short, I think that there should be another type of zombie, a commander that can direct the others into (semi) intelligent tactics that improve the longer they stay alive.

I was planning on running them with a level of intelligence that sat somewhere between a wolf and a gorilla. Do you think that would be enough for pack tactics without a controller?

Notreallyhere77
2010-09-29, 12:45 PM
I thought the humours were Bile, Black bile, Blood, and Phlegm. Where did yellow bile come from? Or is one black, one yellow, and people just pick one to leave uncolored when they talk about it?

Radar
2010-09-29, 12:46 PM
I was planning on running them with a level of intelligence that sat somewhere between a wolf and a gorilla. Do you think that would be enough for pack tactics without a controller?
Wolves already use pack tactics and gorillas not much behind us - they can learn sign language (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_ape_language) and you can talk with them even.

nhbdy
2010-09-29, 12:46 PM
I think this would work, but the key here is that those animals rely on numbers to get their advantage (and wolves cripple their foes as well (represented in D&D by them having trip tactics).

How strong would you be making the zombies? If the average party member could take 2-3 by themselves, then I would recommend having 3-4 for each player in the party, as the individual zombies will drop rather quickly.

If you make them stronger, obviously make the numbers less and I would focus more on hit and run tactics, using basic level tactics to tie up the party's melee with the (fast/strong) and the greasers while the acid spitters just stay back and pelt them.

Coidzor
2010-09-29, 12:48 PM
I thought the humours were Bile, Black bile, Blood, and Phlegm. Where did yellow bile come from? Or is one black, one yellow, and people just pick one to leave uncolored when they talk about it?

Da Wiki seems to believe that there's both types and it's people being lazy.


The four humors of Hippocratic medicine were black bile (melankholia), yellow bile (cholera), phlegm (phlegma), and blood (sanguis).

Caliphbubba
2010-09-29, 12:50 PM
I thought the humours were Bile, Black bile, Blood, and Phlegm. Where did yellow bile come from? Or is one black, one yellow, and people just pick one to leave uncolored when they talk about it?

The four humors of Hippocratic medicine were black bile (melankholia), yellow bile (cholera), phlegm (phlegma), and blood (sanguis). According to wiki

edit: swordsage'd

Edit Edit: Apparently the different humors are related to different elements as well, maybe you could use that. Blood = Air, Yellow Bile = Fire, Black Bile = Earth, Phelgm = Water.

subject42
2010-09-29, 01:12 PM
I think this would work, but the key here is that those animals rely on numbers to get their advantage (and wolves cripple their foes as well (represented in D&D by them having trip tactics).

How strong would you be making the zombies? If the average party member could take 2-3 by themselves, then I would recommend having 3-4 for each player in the party, as the individual zombies will drop rather quickly.

If you make them stronger, obviously make the numbers less and I would focus more on hit and run tactics, using basic level tactics to tie up the party's melee with the (fast/strong) and the greasers while the acid spitters just stay back and pelt them.

I was aiming for the 2 - 3 level like you mentioned so that they could make use of pack tactics, with "adds" showing up throughout most fights.

If the players sign up for the "service" they'll likely encounter a few "super zombies" based off of their own tissue from time to time. That's when I really get to ramp up the nightmare factory.

Another_Poet
2010-09-29, 01:26 PM
I was also going to suggest having 4 main types of zombies, one for each of the dominant humors. In addition I would have a few "boss" zombies who are mutating altogether - perhaps they manages to get the anima of some other living creature for example.

The original clones from the lab should be stronger than the bitten zombies, purely for game balance reasons (because there are only a few dozen of them, compared to the hundreds of infected).

So you have:
Scrubs (4 kinds of infected based on humors; still retain some of their consciousness/personality)
Minibosses (lab clones; completely mindless)
Bosses (mutant beastman creatures)

Other than that I just want to say I wish I could play in this awesome spectacle of a game.

subject42
2010-09-29, 03:12 PM
Does anyone know of any decent mass combat rules beyond the Cityscape mobs?

Notreallyhere77
2010-09-29, 03:27 PM
@ Subject42
Thanks. Why do I never think of Wiki? :smallredface:
Also, the rules for the mob template can be found in DMG 2, Heroes of Battle has rules for mass combat (among other treats), and there was at least one third-party book I read that had mass combat rules.

Or, if you have tons of expendable income and time, you could play a game of Warhammer every time there's mass combat in your campaign. Just refluff and re-crunch the units, spells, and heroes...:smalltongue:

ka_bna
2010-09-29, 03:47 PM
An idea why the zombies attack (living) humans: the zombies try to compensate their imbalance by eating whatever they lack. And whatever they lack, is inside the living human.
This may also generate an interesting spawn pattern. Say you have a bile zombie, which has a blood deficiency. It will attack a living person and eat a lot of blood to compensate the deficiency. Then of course the attacked person will lack blood and become an other kind of zombie (perhaps a bile zombie again, but at least not a blood zombie... you could roll 1d3 to determine the spawn type)

MachineWraith
2010-09-29, 04:00 PM
Well, I was thinking, rather than focusing on the physical effect that having too much of one of the humors, focus on another part of humorism - that is, temperament theory. Temperament theory states that each humor has a temperament attributed to it.

Sanguine (blood) is considered to be social and loud. So perhaps the zombies whose blood humor is high would travel in large packs.

Choleric (yellow bile) is associated with motivation and energy, so perhaps these could be your "fast" zombies, acting as a kind of primitive scout or shock troop for the zombie horde.

Melancholic is associated with deep thought and perfectionism. I have honestly no idea what you could make these, perhaps others have some thoughts?

Phlegmatic is associated with consistency, curiosity, and observance, so maybe these could be slightly smarter zombies who direct the horde?


Even better, you could combine those ideas with the physical changes to make each zombie type truly unique!

subject42
2010-09-29, 04:55 PM
Even better, you could combine those ideas with the physical changes to make each zombie type truly unique!

I'm actually planning to work with that idea a little. One "side quest" that I want to do is to force the players to collected the warped and misshapen severed heads of a few zombies for "phrenological study" back at the lab.


So, based on what we have so far:

Blood Zombies: Use the Mob rules from Cityscape or DMG2.

Yellow Bile Zombies: Fast Zombies with a bonus to speed and strength that take HP damage as they literally dissolve.

Black Bile: Zombies with a Burrow speed that tend to sit and wait for ambush. Carry tetanus.

Pleghm Zombies: Leave a slippery trail behind them as they move. Can squeeze through spaces that would leave a halfling rogue shaking his head.

How does that sound?

MachineWraith
2010-09-29, 05:19 PM
I like it. Personally I'd still give the phlegm zombies some kind of leadership capacity. Maybe they find a good spot to hide, then telepathically direct the other zombies, only coming out when the humans are dead and ready for feasting.

They could make combat with hordes much more dangerous, and then you could play hide-and-seek with the phlegm and the party rogue :smallamused:.

Still, even without any leadership qualities, I like what you've got.

Morph Bark
2010-09-29, 05:22 PM
An idea why the zombies attack (living) humans: the zombies try to compensate their imbalance by eating whatever they lack. And whatever they lack, is inside the living human.

This is very much like the basic idea behind the cadaver golem from Heroes of Horror. It can incorporate pieces of creatures it attacks into its own body, gaining skill ranks and the like in the process.