An attempt at zombie/apocalypse survival rules

[flare X2]

Hello. Now I wasn't sure of where to put this here or the homebrew because most likly the things I have posted here are most likely to have already been done but I need some advice on what to add/do with it to make it playable/fun. please comment thoughtfully, if you don't care about this post DON'T COMMENT for you'd just be giving me traffic.
What I actualy wanted to show are these zombies and a diffrent form of leveling which are both designed for a d20 apocalypse setting. the leveling system:
a) Provides a organic, gradual form of progression rather than the sudden jurky leveling system
b) Prevents the "five shots to the face" charecter

zombies
Normal
HD 1d8+2 (6 hp)
Init -2
Speed 20ft (4 squares)
Defense 8 FlatFooted: 8 Touch: 8
Bab +1 Grap +3
Attack: Claw (1d4/20)
Full Attack: 2 Claws (2d4/20) and a bite (1d6+infection/20)
Space/Reach: 5ft/5ft
SQ:Sensory Dependance
Saves Fort: +6 Ref: -2 Will:-
CR: 1/8

Fast
HD 1d8 (4)
Init +1
Speed 40ft (8 squares)
Defence 11 FlatFooted 10 Touch 11
Bab +1 Grap +3
Attack: Claw (1d4/20)
Full Attack: 2 Claws (2d4/20) and a bite (1d6+ infection/20)
Space/Reach: 5ft/5ft
SQ: Sensory Dependance
Saves: Fort: +4 Ref: +1 Will:-
CR: 1/4

Tough
HD 1d12+4 (10 hp)
Init -3
Speed 20ft (4 squares)
Defense 13 FlatFooted: 13 Touch: 8
Bab +1 Grap +3
Attack: Claw (1d4/20)
Full Attack: 2 Claws (2d4/20) and a bite (1d6+infection/20)
Space/Reach: 5ft/5ft
SQ:Sensory Dependance
Saves Fort: +8 Ref: -3 Will:-
CR: 1/4

Infection
Once contracted a charecter must take a Fortitude save (dc 12) the next turn, and every consecutive turn until the check fails. when the check fails the charecter dies instantly dropping to -10. The next turn the charecter becomes a zombie as relevant for its class (strong/tough- tough zombie, fast- fast zombie, dedicated/smart/charismatic-normal zombie).

Sensory Dependance
Zombies sight/hearing/sense of touch have deteriated due to brain damage, and rotting. To reflect this zombies can only react to sounds (take listen checks) within a 20ft area and can only see in a forward arc of 40ft. exclusions to this rule include loud noises such as car engines and gunfire (to DM/GM's descretion) and bright light such as a light house at night.

Leveling/Advancment
No leveling up
Charecter HD 6d6 (21)
choose 1 charecter class and occupation to determine class skills, feats, available skill tree's
Starting skill points (4+int)x4
You gain a skill point after using a skill succesfully 20 times.
When you roll a natural 19 or 20 for your designated skill you can either add one action point or one feat point. You can spend feat points when you have half-an hour of rest without disturbance. Once you have three feat points you can spend them on a new feat, losing the feat points you have gatherd.
Your designated skill could be any of the following:
-Improvised/unarmed attack
-Non Improvised melle weapon attack
-Non improvised range weapon attack
-Diplomacy
-Investigate
-Treat injury
-Survival
-Pilot/Drive

Players gain another ability point for every 60 succesfull check/save of that ability eg. knowledge skill goes towards Int.

City generator
Metro Generator
The Metro/Underground generator dosn't provide a map but all the info required for a map so a GM/DM can simply piece them together. I havn't given it a a go yet but I can guess that the biggest complacation would be matching all of the lines together.
2-5 miles between stations (1d4+1)
one first aid cupboard every mile of line
Number of lines per station 1- 60 percent, 2- 20 percent, 3- 15 percent, 4- 5percent.

[Wyntonian]

Well, without looking at anything else, 1/8 CR is waaaaayyyy too low. I'd but it at around 2-4. A 1/8 CR monster is like a tiny monstrous centipede, which deals 1d3-5 damage per hit, only one per full attack, has 1 hp, and has a poison that deals all of 1 Dex damage with a save dc of....10. The "1/8" cr zombie has two attacks that deal damage like a falchion, one like a shortsword that, if it hits, is a death effect. Just a liiiiitle bit overpowered.

[flare X2]

I'll see if I could change that (CR 1/2?) but you also have tobare in mind most attacks would insta kill it and it's designed for modern so more guns could be expercted (also you want there to be more risk in a survival game, and it means players would be even more wary of combat). however for the insta kill I could make it a grapple attack.

[Pilo]

Instant kill is far too kind.


Make your infected pc secretly take constitution damage, saying he feel a bit weaker every minutes if (s)he fail his save then change her/him into zombie.

[Geigan]

This thread (http://community.wizards.com/go/thread/view/75882/19905354/Lessons_from_DMing_with_my_GF&post_num=1#339174090) had a good example of a similar style of zombie/survival campaign with a similar thing about infection. There's links to all the zombiegeddon related posts right there in the first post so you should be able to find some useful stuff.

[flare X2]

No one has commented on the leveling system yet. :( I'm trying to think of what to do for a city map generating. I was thinking of having a general map (blobs representing housing estates, offices etc.) and for randome encounters/important buildings have some pre-made tiles. Also just made a metro generator today (don't expect much from me i'm more documenting these things here as a storage methode because I have all of these small ideas scatterd around my note pad).

[missmvicious]

Have you played "Last Night on Earth"?

It's a 2-6 player (variants include up to 12 players I think) board game with no specific GM, but it's always implied that the one who controls the zombies is the GM.

Either way, it has a lot of what you're looking for:
Variant type zombies
Gradual "leveling" -- sort of
Limited special abilities or attacks
Changeable map

Plus, it'll come with all the miniatures you need and a soundtrack, though admittedly, the soundtrack sucks. We ended up making our own, way creepier, soundtrack.

It's a d6 system game, but a judicious application of house rules could quickly turn it into a d20 system. The map is richly detailed with rubble, difficult terrain, territorial advantages, and special hidden items. And it's segmented into large tiles so you can reshape it, add tiles, take tiles away and customize your own creepy setting. I use it for D&D sometimes and love it.

The gradual leveling up isn't what you're looking for, but an easy home-brew fix could make it to where it is. Instead of levels, in the game, you get permanent items and event cards. Simply use those the same way you assign Powers in 4e so that instead of gaining levels, you simply gain new abilities. The modifications given by the event cards is subtle enough to where it won't feel like a "Ding! Level up" as they so humorously depict in OotS. You could apply D&D leveling rules the same way you always do and assign XP they way you always have, but since you don't want characters to "Level Up" per se, and they're always facing basically the same CR, just make it to where they gain a new Event card every 1000 XP.

I'm not sure how I feel about your leveling up rules, but I know why you feel the way you feel about D&D's leveling up rules. It has always metaphorically felt a little more like going up stairs rather than climbing a hill, but that's true with any RPG I've ever played.

[flare X2]

I havn't heard of that though I have heard of something which sounds simular, zombies!!! (exclamation marks required). mabey it uses the same system.

[missmvicious]

If you've got the cash to throw down, get it and the Growing Hunger expansion pack. Worth it.

The game is really fun, and will save you a lot of time reinventing the wheel.

[flare X2]

Sorry of it seems i'm posting to much but I,ve just ran a test game with my dad. You have to be very cautious about the number of zombies used but other wise its pretty good.