Game or rules for a Zombie RPG

[dascarletm]

I found myself catching up on the walking dead tonight, and I have been inspired to run a Zombie apocalypse game with my friends. My first thought was to grab my d20 apocalypse book and roll a d20modern game. I don't know if this would feel the way I want it to though.

You get bit by a zombie make a DC X fort save or contract zombie.

This doesn't feel right to me.

So, do you all know a good RPG to run this type of game in, or a good set of homebrew rules to make d20 modern fit.

I'd like to use d20 modern since I already own a lot of books for it, but I'm open to another option if it's superior.

Thanks for the help.

Dascarletm.

[Baroknik]

Personally, I think FATE would best emulate this (if a zombie hits with spin he afflicts you with the Aspect "Infected").
In d20 Modern, I'd maybe consider making it use the wounds system (as in the Unearthed Arcana rules for 3.5) and then any Wound damage from a bite attack automatically infects. Yes that means critical bites are bad, but shouldn't they be?

[Gemini476]

I personally enjoyed All Flesh Must Be Eaten, but that system isn't the best in my opinion. Although my GM did run it pretty rules-light. It's probably the biggest zombie-focused game on the market, however, so it may be worth looking into.

I also imagine that something like Dread (http://www.tiltingatwindmills.net/dread/index.html) (review (http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/11/11974.phtml)) might make for a good zombie game. Or something like FATE (http://www.evilhat.com/home/fate-core-downloads/) (FATE Accelerated is the lighter version) or We're All Going To Die (http://cavalorn.livejournal.com/241167.html). Go with something more rules-light so that you can get to the psychological horror or whatever without the mechanics getting in the way.

Although that does lead to a question - when you say "zombie apocalypse game", what do you mean? It's got zombies, yes, and it's the end of the world, but what type of game are you looking for beyond that? Do you want a focus on the zombies themselves, and the horror thereof? Do you want a focus on the people trying to endure said apocalypse? Do you want death to be cheap, meaningful, common or rare? Do you want a longer campaign or would you be happy with a one-shot session? Do you want to stick to the standards of resource management common in films and force players to keep track of encumbrance and rations and individual bullets, or are you willing to hand-wave that to focus more on the story? Do you want the horror to come just from the story you're telling, or do you want the mechanics of the game to reinforce that?

Because all of that changes what kind of system you want. Dread and WAGTD are awful for longer campaigns, for instance, and both rely on particular genres being the assumption. (That being horror and everyone dying except the sole survivor, respectively.) And if you want to kill off your characters quickly and often, I'm not too sure that FATE is the right answer.

Oh yeah, and GURPS is always an answer. Not necessarily the best answer, but an answer.

[prufock]

I have a homebrew D6 system that would probably work for this. It's fairly simple, rules-light, flexible, and based on the old Ghostbusters D6 rules.

You have your normal 6 stats as in D&D, and distribute 18 points among them, minimum 1, maximum 5. At 0 you are incapacitated in some way (unable to move, unconscious, etc), and theoretically 6 is unbeatable (only available to supernatural entities and through temporary magical boosts).

Whatever your score in a stat is, that's the number of d6 you roll to determine success. The DM sets success DC from 1 to 5, with 0 being auto-success and 6 being impossible. Unlike the "meet or beat" d20 system, however, you have to roll over the DC on at least one of your die to succeed.

For opposed checks, like attacks, the DC is usually the target's DEX score, though the DM can set different ones if the situation calls for it (CON for a poison attack, STR for a grapple, WIS for a mental effect, CHA for a magic attack, etc). Each "hit" you get on your dice is a potential point of damage, and the target rolls a resistance, depending on what stat you're attacking. Normally this would be CON, but you can attack any stat depending on how you do it (ie you could attack WIS or CHA using mental or magic effects, etc). They roll dice equal to their score in the resisting stat, with DC equal to your assigned damage stat, which is usually STR but can be anything. For each die on which they beat the DC, they negate one point of damage.

Attack, damage, and resistance can be basically any stats based on description. For example:
Player1: I want to bluff him out and gouge his eyes.
DM: Okay, roll your CHA (3 dice) against the Player2's WIS (2) for your attack.
Player1: I got 2 hits.
DM: Player2, roll WIS (2 dice) to resist against his STR (4).
Player2: One success.
DM: Okay, your WIS reduces by 1.

From this point until he rests, gets healing, or whatever, Player2 has a WIS score of 1 instead of 2, rolling only 1 die and making the DC to attack his WIS only 1.

There are some more detailed rules, but those are the basics. It's pretty easy to run on the fly, character creation takes no time at all, and it's a low-lethality game, since you have to be incapacitated before you can be killed.

To adapt for a zombie game, upon reaching CON 0 vs a zombie's attack, you turn into a zombie. Roll a new character!