Zombie Apocalypse. What does your character do?

[Tam_OConnor]

Could we even get a Zombie apocalypse in the standard D&D world? Bloody Pelorites and their stinking Sun domain... What would the BBEG have to go through to make it viable? How do you insure that it spreads fast enough? Close off access to the upper planes and the positive energy plane? Surgical strikes against the folk most likely to resist (Chosen, monarchs, high priests)? Heck, if you are switching to 4.0, there would be worse ways to do it. Essentially, world go boom. And the material plane zombifying is only the start...the elemental planes are converging on the abyss, memories are changing, people are drowning in the Astral Plane, etc, etc.

Assuming somehow that it does get going, what would your characters do? I'm fairly sure my idiot grappling barbarian would get turned within the first few minutes...

How would you model the zombie infection? One failed Fort save and you're screwed six ways from Sunday? More gradual, with characters getting slowly weaker? Heck, how would you DM this? Anyone know where I can get zombie-moaning sounds online?

Braaaaains....

[RandomNPC]

don't forget the farmer zombies
"Graaaaiiiiiins!"

and the faker zombies with a horrible bluff check
"Brownies!!"

i've been thinking this myself. maybe an un-controled zombie whos slaying of a living being casts create undead (zombie of course) an hour later. or if zombie draws blood the infected makes a save every two hours, at +1/hour untill zombified?

also, zombies need to be beefed up for this, or a game world needs to be made with this in mind.

don't forget union zombies
"What do we want?"
"Brains!"
"When do we want them?"
"BRAINS!!!"

[Jack_Simth]

D&D doesn't model most movie zombies very well; movie zombies tend to be infectious; Wights would make for a good apocalypse scenario, though; they're CR 3 critters that can breed in 1d4+1 rounds with just a commoner-1 (1 round to kill the commoner, 1d4 for the Wight to rise). Shadows take longer (strength drain - even commoners tend to have 10) for the same CR. Spectre's and Wraiths (while a higher CR) have that crippling daylight powerlessness that gives the current set of survivors a 12 hour reprieve every day.

Drop a single wight in a crowded city, with orders to kill everything living person it can find, then scatter to find more to repeat the process, and have all it's spawn follow the same set of instructions, including the passing of these instructions onto their spawn (Int-11; they can take complex orders) will flood the material plane with reasonable soldiers of death rather quickly in most worlds. Okay, the Epic Cleric with a Positive Energy Aura, or just about anything that's immune to negative levels and has meaningful damage reduction s safe... but just about anything else is toast, sooner or later (what's the encounter level on 100,000 commoner-1's converted to Wights?). A cleric-20 will run out of turning attempts before running out of those 4 HD wights to Destroy.

[Lyinginbedmon]

Grab everything I can from the cities, like food and gold and things like that.
Teleport to the countryside (Low population)
Permanency Wall of Force to create a wall around a suitable dwelling, high enough to avoid even Colossal creatures climbing up.
Use Create Food and Water for supplies
???
Profit

[Jade_Tarem]

"For my zombie plan, I'm going to Alaska. It's brilliant! Zombies don't have any body heat, they'll freeze like corpsesicles!"
- Griff, Red vs. Blue

[Dausuul]

Assuming somehow that it does get going, what would your characters do? I'm fairly sure my idiot grappling barbarian would get turned within the first few minutes...

My character is a dread necromancer specializing in corpsecrafting. She started it. :smallbiggrin:

[Kultrum]

well if hes a cleric (very important) Id pay commoners like 10 gold each (about what they make in two years) to build me a cottage in the woods with a ten foot height 2 foot thick stone wall and live off create food and water and divine to see if the world is screwed or if its safe to come out
that or get some mountain plate and have a field day with a mace

[Kyeudo]

Alright, if we are talking about D&D zombiegeddons, I must show you the master. Here's Oakspar7777's thread (http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?t=471897), full of tips for running games, but also containing the most amazing zombiegeddon campaign I've seen recorded on a message board.

[Jack_Simth]

As a player, though? Hmm.

Depends on resources allowed and the specific zombies.

Actually playing, the goal is to find the why of the zombies (usually) and fix that.

If they're rotting, stupid zombies (that is, they don't know to wait around where someone vanishes and, in a few months, I expect them all to be decayed to the point where they can't chase anymore) me and 19 friends can wait them out with a Rod of Security (rod is useable once per week; with that setup, the paradise lasts 10 days; dismiss as a standard action after a week, refresh as a standard action - you're out and about for... one round, tops; make sure you have a good initiative; you can go as high as 27 friends and do this). If they're rotting, smart zombies, it's just me and one friend for 100 days at a stretch.

I can do similar things with a few Extended Rope Tricks per day, a Sustaining Spoon, a container to make food in, and two ropes. I'll want a few Featherfall spells for when it's finally done. Fly helps. I might also want a bottle of air or a Necklace of Adaptation, depending on my DM. It's a little touchier, but basically, you get out of reach, cast Rope Trick on the rope in your hand (which is then self-supporting) climb it and bring the rope with you. Before it expires, you cling to the first rope and cast it on the second, which you suspend in the air by some method (familiar's are handy for this kind of thing!) and switch from one to the other. Hold the original when you dismiss it and it's support vanishes, so you can keep it and use it later.

As for Alaska?
Sorry, undead are immune to anything with a fortitude save that doesn't affect objects ... which includes cold weather (otherwise, great plan!). An otherwise uninhabited island, preferably out of sight of any larger land masses, will do very well (there's actually a lot of them - it's usually because they don't have a ready supply of fresh water; but that's just an osiron in D&D; and in real-life, you can arrange to harvest rainwater, if you've got containers and some canvas - and there's a lot of plants you can use in place of canvas... and you can make water containers out of many plants...). I'll let the aquatic scavengers deal with any zombies that try to trudge through the ocean. That should take care *most* of them.

[Nonah_Me]

In Real Life:

Always have a copy of the Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks. It's golden.

In DnD:

The last character I created was a conjurer3/cleric of Boccob3 on his way to Mystic Theurge. He'd probably war with himself over the simutaneous desire to not become a zombie against the desire to find out what the hell is going on. For intrest's sake, he'd end up going out and trying to find out what the hell is going on.

If only he could scry...

Edit: Actually, Augury could answer this question. "So, is it a good idea to check on what's going on?" "WOE WOE WOE."

[BardicDuelist]

Well, my epic bard who can affect undead with his music just fascinates them. When everyone finally gets to a safe plane, he makes a suggestion that the undead attack the mindflayers he hates so much, then lives in his magnificant mansion eating hero's feasts.

Using my Seeker of Song abilities to destroy most of the zombies helps too.

[....]

Use the plague from Expedition to Castle Ravenloft.

If a PC goes to -1 HP, they're zombified.

[Wooter]

I would multiclass into a cleric of Pelor, if I wasn't one already.

[Korias]

First, I would wet myself. Then, I would look at my class.

Am I a melee fighter? Get a big weapon that can drop zombies in one hit. Scythe and Greatsword come to mind, but Scythe less so due to the fact I cant get Crits off of Undead. This changes if I'm using the REd20 rules, where everything is abberation instead of undead.

Am I a caster? Save or Suck, Save or Die, Blaster, or Buffer?
Save vs Suck: Run.
Save vs Die: Also Run.
Blaster: Fireball everything.
Buffer: Chill on an Island till it blows over.

Am I a sneak-Skillmonkey? GTFO and start pillaging from the zombified villages.

Am I a Cleric? Turner, or Buffer?
Buffer: See Caster
Turner: Get out there and start smiting.

[Icewalker]

Well, for one way to emulate it, take a look at the link in my Sig to the Dread Plague. Zombie Plague ftw!

[Xuincherguixe]

Start punching them like crazy. (Monk Character).

Probably pick up Great Cleave.


Really, though, the zombies aren't going to be much of a threat to any reasonably high level character. Food and water may be a bit of a problem, but not if they're a Cleric.

[Zim]

Well, I play a kobold artificer, so I'd:

a) come up with some kind of contraption to control a number of zombies and turn them on one another. "Dance, meat puppets! Obey the fist!"

b) build a golem with a lockable chest compartment big enough to house me then stomp willy-nilly up and down the town blasting zombies with my ..er.. blasty...um...stuff that blasts.

c) invent a swarm of constructs that multiply and feed off of negative energy or convert it into positive energy. When they run out of food, they're programmed to shut down.

[Norsesmithy]

In Real Life:

Always have a copy of the Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks. It's golden.

It is a fun book, but it is obvious that Max is bad when it comes to evaluating a weaponsystems. He recomends a weapon (the trench spike) that forces you to put your own flesh within inches of an dangerous mouth.

And he is misinformed when it comes to firearms.

[John Campbell]

Call my armor, grab my +2 undead bane changeling short spear, cast overland flight, shift the spear to a longspear, and start stabbing zombies from out of their reach and/or blowing them up with various evocations. When I get bored or start to run out of overland flight, I can just fly somewhere inaccessible, put my familiar on lookout, and take a nap.

Then the next day I can prep... -flips through spellbook-

Ooo! I could prep a bunch of command undead and make my zombies fight it out with the other zombies for my entertainment. Sadly, I don't have control undead yet.

[Hecore]

To run one in D&D you'd want to do a few things --

Beef up the standard zombie.

All the dead come back. This takes a while, but expect a corpse to rise again in a few weeks.

Those that were bit by a zombie and die come back faster and much more powerful.

Turning, command, ect. undead doesn't nearly as well. It'll still work, but it won't let a single high level cleric wipe out everything.

The zombies are preserved to a degree; they rot very slowly. Also, if they sense no life within a few hundred mile radius they go dormant and can survive MUCH longer. Have fun waiting them out.

Predators and scavengers won't eat a still living zombie, and will only eat zombie flesh if they're starving. And if they do they'll come back as one of them.

[Kojiro Kakita]

Hmm, get my Jade Magistrate from the D20 version of L5R and start blasting away with Jade spells.

The Empire survived a Zombie invasion before, they can do it again.

[Nowhere Girl]

D&D doesn't model most movie zombies very well; movie zombies tend to be infectious; Wights would make for a good apocalypse scenario, though; they're CR 3 critters that can breed in 1d4+1 rounds with just a commoner-1 (1 round to kill the commoner, 1d4 for the Wight to rise). Shadows take longer (strength drain - even commoners tend to have 10) for the same CR. Spectre's and Wraiths (while a higher CR) have that crippling daylight powerlessness that gives the current set of survivors a 12 hour reprieve every day.

Drop a single wight in a crowded city, with orders to kill everything living person it can find, then scatter to find more to repeat the process, and have all it's spawn follow the same set of instructions, including the passing of these instructions onto their spawn (Int-11; they can take complex orders) will flood the material plane with reasonable soldiers of death rather quickly in most worlds. Okay, the Epic Cleric with a Positive Energy Aura, or just about anything that's immune to negative levels and has meaningful damage reduction s safe... but just about anything else is toast, sooner or later (what's the encounter level on 100,000 commoner-1's converted to Wights?). A cleric-20 will run out of turning attempts before running out of those 4 HD wights to Destroy.

I actually like this idea. A lot.

It has a very "Outbreak" feel to it -- sure, each wight is individually weak to a typical adventuring party, but ...

How do you stop all of them?

It's like a rapidly spreading virus. What do you do?

[shadowdemon_lord]

My thirteenth level battle rager? Get a tower shield, and start defensively cleaving through the bastards with my longsword. That's the problem with battleragers, they are no good over the long haul, but on the plus side, I could make it so they need 20's to hit me. That and I wouldn't need rage with him to see the baddies drop in one shot. With my significantly lower level priest, I'd just start dusting the bastards till I ran out of turns, then run and hide.

[Nowhere Girl]

For sure, any decently powerful PC could kill them by the truckloads, but once the outbreak really takes hold, what difference does that make? It's like stamping on an anthill repeatedly in an attempt to eradicate all ants in the neighborhood.

[Ossian]

Most zombies apocalypses are on a smaller scale, even in modern world. It's Racoon City and the underlying hive, the local farmers town, the local godforsaken community. Zombies are a lot better than, say, swarming guerrilla insurgents with AK 47. It's just that they target a city of unaware and helpless commoners, with possibly a sheriff, the girl with the miniskirt and other precious commodities,her geek boy and her lovely little brother with a pet weasel to oppose them (unless a genetically engineered solo heroine comes to the rescue). They are bad because the infection spreads and spreads fast, and in XXI century we all rely on stuff like fast communication and technology, which are the first things that go to hell when apocalypse kicks in. Want to see how to handle an undead invasion AND have fun? Watch "Shawn of the Dead". It's a hilarious movie with tons of great ideas.

In D&D it should be a bit harder for them to destroy and spread panic. First, I'd decide the magical scale of this D&D world. If it's Mystara or Faerun, it has to be a magically engineered undead disease. Heck, the average stable keeper is a warrior 4/cleirc of tyr 3!

If it's a low magic world, it still would be very tough. Comunities are few and far apart, and comunications are almost non existent. So it'd have to start in a BIG city, and it'd end there. Unless, disease starts in MANY big cities. That's a different story.

O.

EDIT: forgot to ask: how long do you allow your PCs to fight at full power? That is, giving 100% and using all feats and equipment? Since this seems to be fairly more demanding than just running with all that stuff, I wonder how long can they keep mowing down undeads without a shotgun and a Vulcan machinegun. Hacking and slashing (and mind you, they are immune to crtitcals) is a hell of a job, and after 4 or 5 minutes (and you are good!) you should run out of breath, even to run away from them, especially with all your gear. I'd personally call for Leonidas' help and tell him they are persian invaders...

[Fishy]

I'd still like to see a Living Fell Animate Inflict Critical Wounds roaming the countryside.

[Aquillion]

What should PCs do? Go Necropolitan, naturally, and blend in with the natives.

[Jack_Simth]

I actually like this idea. A lot.

It has a very "Outbreak" feel to it -- sure, each wight is individually weak to a typical adventuring party, but ...

How do you stop all of them?

It's like a rapidly spreading virus. What do you do?
It's a natural consequence of the Create Spawn ability of those four creatures. This will happen in basically any scenario where those creatures exist as listed, D&D towns are set up as listed, and intelligent undead want to wipe out the living.

Oh yeah - and you can get a Wight at level 7 by casting Enervation on a humanoid with insufficient hit dice to survive, given a day to leave the corpse in "peace". The 8th level Evil cleric (or neutral cleric of an Evil deity, or neutral cleric of a neutral deity that tends towards rebuking) can Command it.

World dies - because someone went overboard in self-defense (killed with Enervation) and didn't clean up properly after.

[drawingfreak]

"For my zombie plan, I'm going to Alaska. It's brilliant! Zombies don't have any body heat, they'll freeze like corpsesicles!"
- Griff, Red vs. Blue
"Everybody does not have a zombie plan."

[Lord Tataraus]

"Everybody does not have a zombie plan."

My group does. We ran a zombie apocalypse in our town/city using Cyberpunk 2020 mechanics. It lasted about 2 hours before the GM gave up. Sure there where a lot of zombies, but given our various abilities and smart planning, we had enough supplies to last a month and we had enough firepower (we raided the empty military reserve base) to waltz in if we needed anything.

[Threeshades]

My evil party character (Earth Genasi fighter) as well as his preceding characters (Catfolk Rogue, Fire Genasi Rogue and Human fighter) would probably call up their whole group and organize a slaughter-party. But they dont need a zombie apocalypse they would do it anyway.

My good character (Half-Dragon) would round up as many unaffected innocents in a fortress and try to get any good (aligned and good as in mildly effective) warrior around to defend the fortress. He himself in that case would probably release a few cold breath attacks and then jump into the zombiepile and let them taste their own medicine (by biting, clawing and slamming/tail slapping all around)

So in any case my characters would be trying to slaughter as many zombies as possible just for different reasons.

[Fawsto]

A friend of mine DMed a Undead Apocalypse and it ran pretty well. Even with pesky Clerics and their turn undead attempts (all PCs where Good)

What he did was the Following, for the Zombies:

1) Earthspawn: A group of zombies summons half of their number in zombies every end of round. Meaning that 10 zombies will become 15 in the next round, 15 will become 21 em 2 rounds and so on.

2) Grapple Bonus: Every Zombie receives +1 in his grapple check for every other Zombie in the room.

It was a spooky adventure...

[Techonce]

As a DM I'd use an ulgurstasa to start the apococlypse.

I probably spelled it wrong. Bad creature, appeared in the Age of Worms AP.

As a PC. I use a shoved and aim for the head.

[Doresain]

seeing as how im a dread necromancer as well, the whole legions of zombies/wights isnt really bothering me too much...

[toddex]

Marvel zombies could give you an idea. Have some being traveling the planes infecting everyone! That would be awesome, having to fight and kill zombie pelor.

[toddex]

seeing as how im a dread necromancer as well, the whole legions of zombies/wights isnt really bothering me too much...

This is why they would never be regular "undead" imo.

[Callos_DeTerran]

Hrm...depends on the character really, but to chose a personal favorite for this particular excerise...I'd be using my 'Ultimate Used Car Salesman', a rogue/harvester devil.

What do you do in a zombie apocalypse? Why start selling people Anti-Zombie Amulets! This is after waiting a week or so, when people start to get desperate about surviving so their more likely to accept a deal for their souls to preserve their mortal husks.

When in doubt, Hell provides protection from zombies....the end result is the same but you'll live longer before being damned. :smallwink:

[Mr. Friendly]

I tell you, I love the idea of the Wight Apocalypse.

For fun I did a little math. Assuming a large enough city, with a dense enough population, (i.e. everyone is a move or charge away from each other..) a single wight appearing in town, either via teleport or whatever.....

To explain the chart, T is Turn # Whatever, W is the number of active Wights, PW is the number of Pending Wights (i.e. those dead but not active yet); I assumed the average time of 2.5 rounds for spawnrise, which I rounded to 3. I may yet go back and redo the figures based on the actual 2.5 (i.e in some turns it takes only 2 rounds for the Wight to rise)


Wight vs. Crowd of Commoners
T W PW
1 1 1
2 1 2
3 1 3
4 2 5
5 3 7
6 4 10
7 6 14
8 9 20
9 13 29
10 19 42
11 28 61
12 41 89
13 60 130
14 88 190
15 129 278
16 189 407
17 277 596
18 406 873
19 595 1279
20 872 1874

That's 2,745 dead in 2 minutes. Within ~4 rounds of the 2 minute Mark, there are 2746 Wights. ~4 rounds after that, there are ~5,500.

Spectres are even scarier. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. At night anyway.

[BadJuJu]

Could we even get a Zombie apocalypse in the standard D&D world? Bloody Pelorites and their stinking Sun domain... What would the BBEG have to go through to make it viable? How do you insure that it spreads fast enough? Close off access to the upper planes and the positive energy plane? Surgical strikes against the folk most likely to resist (Chosen, monarchs, high priests)? Heck, if you are switching to 4.0, there would be worse ways to do it. Essentially, world go boom. And the material plane zombifying is only the start...the elemental planes are converging on the abyss, memories are changing, people are drowning in the Astral Plane, etc, etc.

Assuming somehow that it does get going, what would your characters do? I'm fairly sure my idiot grappling barbarian would get turned within the first few minutes...

How would you model the zombie infection? One failed Fort save and you're screwed six ways from Sunday? More gradual, with characters getting slowly weaker? Heck, how would you DM this? Anyone know where I can get zombie-moaning sounds online?

Braaaaains....

My buddy ran a game like this, but with subtle differences. He made the outbreak a virus instead of undead. It drained Cha and Int until one stat hit zero, then made them into biological zombies. Thus negating turning. Bite was 100% infection, claws had a slight chance. DC started at 15 and scaled up over time. Save once a day.

Also made it low magic. It was FR and he had a ripple erupt, damaging the weave and thus only allowing a max CL 10 unless you were in a mithal site. And casting had a 20% spell failure chance. Big nasties were there though, so you pretty much avoided those locations. It was fun, but if you do this, it gets very lethal. Creatures with natural bite attacks are very bad. Human zombies get -4 and provoke AoO, dogs get neither.

[axraelshelm]

extend "fly" straight away to get to higher ground for my wizard then rescue as much people as npossible in a higher building then using himself as bait start fireballing.

Cleric planeshift if not own plane. if own plane wall of stone to block of the part of the city that is most invested then flame strike and mass heal for "everyone" when all the zombies of outer wall is destoried create water to be stored for later date. sleep get all spells back then start to cover the confined city with multiple wall of ston spells then callapse it destorying most zombies within inner city the rest pick then off

[Doresain]

IMO the easiest way to kill zombies is with more zombies...if they opposing force of zombos was created by some magical disease, you go and do the same thing, but make it a little better...eventually, the zombos will combat eachother, keeping their numbers thinned...many commoners and peasants will die in the process, but sacrifices had to be made for the greater good

[Snadgeros]

Alright, let's get some zombie stats out of the way. By my logic, zombies would have to do two attacks to zombify you. First they must pass your AC to do damage, then your touch AC to see if they can get a bite in there. If they succeed the second time, then you have to make a (fairly high) fortitude save to not be zombified. Also, they have crap for movement, no AC, are mindless, but do not feel pain or fear anything. Some of this could be used to one's advantage.

Example: My monk (he's only currently 6th level though). He uses his vastly superior movement speed and ranks in tumble to get the hell away from the zombies. Should the time come that he needs to make a fortitude save, I'll be glad monks have good saves. Naturally, if he sees a zombie that's isolated from the massive horde, he'll take it out, but preferably from a range. Also, since I haven't yet chosen my 6th level feat (I was going to get improved grapple) I guess spring attack would be more prudent for this situation (run in, attack the zombie, run away).
For long-term survival I guess my monk would try to form up a group of survivors, start up an encampment on a secluded mountain (or other inaccessible area) and surround it with pit traps and stone walls. Zombies are stupid, they'll just keep walking into the pits like a pack of lemmings. For food and such, I suppose he'd rely on agriculture, since that's what he did back at his monestary.

So there you have it. Remember, anything you throw at a zombie will pretty much hit it, guaranteed. They fear nothing so they don't dodge or anything, they feel no pain so they can't make the connection between "fire" and "ouch," and they're mindless. Unless you're fighting a zombie in armor, they have NO AC. Use that to your advantage.

EDIT: Is zombification a magical disease? If not, my monk's immune to it anyway! :smallbiggrin:

[SpikeFightwicky]

In my zombie game, I made my own zombie template (for the 'Romero' type), that gave all of them a specific subtype I homebrewed that (among other thigns), made them immune to turning or any normal abilities that affect undead (they're creatures of science, after all), and made them vulnerable to crits, but they had fortification (not every crit is a headshot against the living), though there I had a homebrew feat that negated their fortification when taking an 'aimed shot' (d20 Modern setting) among other abilities. Worked out fine and I suppose it would be adaptable to any setting. Things got hectic when I used the 'Mob' rules from Critical Locations :smallbiggrin:

If I had a D&D character in a zombie apocalypse, my main concern would be getting flight and getting food. Not much is needed other than that. To go on the offensive, you'd need ALOT of still living adventurers to start making a dent.

[Leicontis]

Lesse... My first D&D char would probably either get protection from his apotheosis-bound vampire friend or have his NPC cleric girlfriend Plane Shift the two of them to safety.

My second character would probably die horribly while hacking down zombies to buy time for his friends.

My third character would climb up a tree, live in the trees (he was very good at this), and if the zombies were bothering the forest, pincusion them with arrows.

My current character would probably run away, dropping Psionic Greases behind him and laughing at the uncoordinated zombies. He'd then run out into the desert and live out there - after all, why would more than the occasional stray zombie end up in an unpopulated desert?

[Mr. Friendly]

As for my own solution to the Zombie question, I would go with a disease modelled after 'rage' from 28 Days Later.

"Zombie Plague"
Incubation: Instant
DC: 20+ (up to whoever)

Magical Disease; cannot be cured by normal (or magical) means; it works on Paladins.

Every hour the the victim must make a Fortitude Save (DC X) or take 1d3 Int, Wis and Cha. This is permanent drain. Minimum stats are Int 3 Wis 3 and Cha 1. Victims failing the save must then make a Will save (with their adjusted Will) against DC X (again, up to you) or go into a frenzy, attacking and biting every living creature that is not infected by the plague. Once the victim enters frenzy, it never leaves that condition and is overcome with hunger and rage, kicking, biting and clawing anything that does not have the plague.


As for what me the character would do? Gate or Plane Shift. Assuming it ws standard zombie movie hopeless odds. If I though I had a reasonable chance, I would just fly around and use a Daern's Instant Fortress or Rope Trick or Magnificent Mansion and stay out of trouble while rechargin, then go nuke some stuff .. rinse, repeat.

[Atanuero]

With my gnome cleric: uh... actually there's not that much I can do other than start turning.

With my twin rangers: Cirin (the bow ranger) can't do much at all. Dirin (TWF slashing weapons ranger) can only do so much. :smallmad:

[SpikeFightwicky]

As for my own solution to the Zombie question, I would go with a disease modelled after 'rage' from 28 Days Later.

"Zombie Plague"
Incubation: Instant
DC: 20+ (up to whoever)

Magical Disease; cannot be cured by normal (or magical) means; it works on Paladins.

Every hour the the victim must make a Fortitude Save (DC X) or take 1d3 Int, Wis and Cha. This is permanent drain. Minimum stats are Int 3 Wis 3 and Cha 1. Victims failing the save must then make a Will save (with their adjusted Will) against DC X (again, up to you) or go into a frenzy, attacking and biting every living creature that is not infected by the plague. Once the victim enters frenzy, it never leaves that condition and is overcome with hunger and rage, kicking, biting and clawing anything that does not have the plague.


As for what me the character would do? Gate or Plane Shift. Assuming it ws standard zombie movie hopeless odds. If I though I had a reasonable chance, I would just fly around and use a Daern's Instant Fortress or Rope Trick or Magnificent Mansion and stay out of trouble while rechargin, then go nuke some stuff .. rinse, repeat.

Mine was somewhat similar. I think the 'disease' entry I made was:
Incubation period 2 hours; initial damage 1d4 temporary Dexterity, Secondary Damage 1d6 temporary Constitution – the secondary damage is applied and saved for every hour (as opposed to every day), and the disease cannot be fought off by succeeding multiple Fort Saves in a row. (Insert creature will become zombie X period of time after it dies while diseased).

The DC for infected zombies was 10 + creature's HD + 4 racial bonus (gave a standard DC of 16 for a human zombie - too high for the typical NPC, but do-able for the PCs. Plus, the PCs received a special experimental serum that allowed them to fight off the disease the usual way.

BTW, monk punches would suck. DR 5/slashing and all. I'd make sure I had some sort of reach weapon and plenty of room to maneuver. Spring attack would be helpful.

[Knight_Of_Twilight]

As a player? Probably be playing a paladin- I'd attempt to rally as many survivors as I can, get them in a fortified place, and come up with a plan to insure safety.

All stuff that fails miserably in Zombie Movies, sadly...

[puppyavenger]

My sorceror would gather all his importent allies (party, dragons, extradimensionel horrors, and tuckers kobalds) and find a giant cavern with only one entrance. He would then make a permant gate to the positive energy plane on the entrance, make a long narrow hallway and get kobalds to waork filling it with traps and start abusing transfer and epic spells till he can reliably kill all of them.

[Ossian]

"THE" counter Player option: give them a family, a girlfriend/boyfriend (who is NOT an adventurer with heroic abilities, not even 1st level), a dog, a family, of a combination of the above. It ALWAYS works to s**w things up in no time. The 110% effectiveness of characters who act like they are controlled by a bunch of gamers at a table and never ever make mistakes, plan poorly, risk when it isn't appropriate, lose their mind or simply zig when they should zag, magically disappears. In fact, when it comes to real challenges like zombie apocalypse (and here I am asking DMs above all the others) have you noticed how a group of players will act as if they had a hive mind? They are worse than the borg and the zergs combined with Vin Diesel! Small wonder the zombies lose 9/10 games...

O.

[SpikeFightwicky]

I'm a fan of creating situations that make the players think less in terms of 'it's a zombie, shoot it'. In the first 'adventure', they accomplished their goals, and the only thing left was to get the heck outta the infested area (it was going to destroyed to prevent spread of infection - it was a small, top secret and remote military installation, so no real PR issues). They finally got access to one building of the compound - where there was a fully fueled helicopter - and were on their way out. As they went through the building, they encountered (they didn't know at the time) the helicopter pilot, but she was recently bitten. Seeing the NPC with a bite wound, they shot her with no questions asked. After searching the body, they found out that the person they just shot was the pilot. None of the other characters knew how to fly it. They found another way out (they thought their new escape plan rocked, but it was full of holes), but it was far from a happy ending for all the players.

The next part of the campaign, they had to find survivors and get them to safety :smallamused: The group's strong point was definately not PR.

[Yvanehtnioj]

Some of the questions asked by the original poster got me thinking:

i.) Could we even get a Zombie apocalypse in the standard D&D world?
ii.) What would the BBEG have to go through to make it viable?
iii.) How do you insure that it spreads fast enough?
iv.) How would you model the zombie infection? One failed Fort save and you're screwed six ways from Sunday? More gradual, with characters getting slowly weaker? Heck, how would you DM this?
v.) Assuming somehow that it does get going, what would your characters do?
vi.) Anyone know where I can get zombie-moaning sounds online?



Well...
1) Sure we could. I would love to play in / DM a game of it sometime. It'd be fun and challenging too.


2) A newly researched version of the spell "Contagion."
[PHB p. 213]
This version lets you cast the spell upon on an object(s) no larger than a fist, lasts 'x' hours per level, and is triggered by the first person to touch it with their bare hand. For our sanity, only humanoids will be susceptible to the disease. (It would make a great weapon-of-war; maybe it was created for this purpose, hmm?)
Now, go exchange some of your gold coin into copper and silver coins and cast your new disease spell upon handfuls of them. Then, (wearing gloves,) toss the 'tainted coinage' to as many beggars as you can, give the coin away to the needy, or donate some to a church's collection box. Within a day, or two, your initial 'outbreak' has begun.


3) Two important factors come into play here:
The incubation period is the time it takes from exposure to when symptoms first appear, at which point you have it.
The latent period is the time it takes from infection to infectiousness, at which point you can spread it.
For our purposes, we also need a turning period, i.e. the time it would take upon exposure for a person to change into a zombie.

The disease would need to have a short incubation period (~few hrs or less), a short latent period (~few minutes - hours), and a longer turning period (~24 hrs or less).
This would mean the disease would be quick to show symptoms, even quicker to become contagious, yet still take a while for someone to completely turn into a zombie.
[refer to DMG p. 75]


4) As seen above, our disease would be designed to be highly contagious. Once infected, people should became weaker and weaker until they "turn" into a zombie. This will prompt people to take steps to reduce the chance of being bitten, such as wearing armor. (People in zombie movies never do this. Leather gloves and jacket, etc. anyone?)

However, once a character has been bitten, they must make a Fort save of DC 30 + (damage from the bite) or contract the disease. (A Heal skill check of 18 should permit someone to identify the disease for what it is.)
Within half an hour after contraction, the character begins to feel ill. Treat as "sickened," granting a -2 to most rolls.
[PHB p. 312]

Also, every hour since contracting the disease, the character must make a Constitution check (1d20 + con bonus) of DC 18.
If made, then the character has shrugged off the effects for another hour.
If failed...then the character suffers 1 pt of Con dmg and 1 pt of Int dmg. (When either score drops to zero, the character dies and rises as a zombie 1d3 rounds later.)

To be cured, let's say you would need a "Remove Disease" spell cast by a level 12 cleric or druid, or a wish spell. Paladins are susceptible to this disease, unless a DM would rather they not be.


Also, the zombies I would use (as a DM) would be the 'normal' slow movie ones, dependent upon how long they have been dead. I do not care for zombies that can run the 100m dash faster than me. blah.
So, if a zombie had risen recently, I would give it a speed of 30 ft. For each month that goes by I would deduct 5 ft from this, until I had reached a minimum speed of 10 ft.

Time since rise: // Speed:
0 months // 30 ft
1 month // 25 ft
2 months // 20 ft
3 months // 15 ft
4+ months // 10 ft


5) I'd pull out my copy of "The Zombie Survival Guide" and meta-game my way to safety.
(Just kidding.)


6)Creepy. Very creepy. Check it out.
http://www.sounddogs.com/results.asp?Type=&CategoryID=1038&SubcategoryID=52

[TimeWizard]

This, my friends, is why the good god Woot'k gave his loyal flock Gehmars Hunter of the Dead in the holy writ of Seewar. Detect undead at will is nice, some smites, a couple extra turns, immunity to level drain, and my favorite feature: True Death. Any undead slain by a HotD are forever destroyed and connot come back. They throw in a couple of spells per day for seasoning.

For players, though. You definetly want them to have some kind of safe house. Really. You'd think it contrasts the whole 'constant fear' thing, but it is a game saver. Nobody wants to find themselves unable to shack up for eight hours, especially spell casters. Work in some time critical goals to keep them from hanging around base all day.

[SurlySeraph]

Hmmm... I'd go with one of my numerous paladin characters. Probably the epic-level Paladin/Monk/Greyguard/Cleric of Jergal that's pictured in my avatar. Stand in a bottleneck, throw down some guard glyphs, tanglefoot bags, and suchlike. Summon celestial creatures to tear the zombies apart as they approach. Flame Strike for the groups. If they actuall get up to me, Turn Undead, smite/ hack/ punch them, kill them with healing spells, etc. Stand there killing thousands until one of my various divine patrons decides to whisk me to safety in recognition of my honor and dedication.

[Bitzeralisis]

Epic explode-y spells.

[Nerd-o-rama]

Daveon:

Find a Diviner to figure out what's going on (actually, he might bug a mundane investigator since he's getting rather tired of smug wizards), carve a straight line through the zombie horde to whatever the source is, power attack and smite evil until it's no longer a problem.

If it's not something with a destroyable source, probably spends an afternoon clearing out a village as a haven for survivors, fortifies it, and then advertises.

Aaron:

Not a D&D character, and probably just mumbles a Hellsing quote while fragging hordes of the things in his giant mecha.

Liliana (M&M Fantasy character):

Her longbow has autofire, and she has Favored Opponent (Undead). Long story short, everybody re-dies.

Rin:

Giant mecha > Zombies.

[TheOOB]

It's easy, live the fat life in your mordenkeinen's magnificent masion until someone else deals with it.

[Doresain]

in the view of a LG inquisitor type: i invoke exterminatus...its really the only way to be sure

[NEO|Phyte]

Hmmm...

Ferah (non-Divine version) would note that Blood in the Water has been stated to be triggerable on creatures immune to critical hits, and go to town, slowly becoming more and more awesome at fighting. Ideally, she'd have a few more levels so she can use Iron Heart Endurance to keep fighting despite the inevitable trickle of damage.

Agdor would go in claws swinging, using his dimensional powers to take healing breaks when needed, until he runs out of power points, at which point he finds himself a hidey-hole to rest in for a few hours.

Brandon would get in his car and start making bumpermeat on the way out of town, where he hides out until the zombies go away.

[Fuza]

I would get my high level Wizard and start kicking zombie butt. Trasmute Stone to Lava! and some sunbursts. Lets not forget Meteor Swarm either.

[Laurellien]

My fire giant archivist/church inquisitor/profane exorcist/contemplative/DR 5 deity who spends most of his time as an undead/construct half-fiend eldritch giant would just summon to him my other characters, a human (now great wyrm force dragon) cleric/scion of the force dragon god, a dwarf barbarian/berserk/frenzied berserker with a ring of sustenance, a barbarian/monk/drunken master with enough alcohol to sustain a navy, a minotaur barbarian/frenzied berserker, half-giant barbarian/berserk/frenzied berserker, deep dwarf cleric, illumian wizard, and a dwarven ur-priest/wizard/theurge. They'd then bring in the wife of the force dragon scion, a brass dragon cleric, and the best friend of the deep dwarf cleric, a human evolved good lich wizard with all the lich abilities. Using his "book of the dead" the scion would make an army of deathless. With this power at their command, they'd head to the dwarven Halls, gather all the dwarves, giants, humans and goblinoids that they can, and cut a bloody path of destruction across the world, laughing heartily as their army grows, and smashing zombies into a pulp...

oh wait, you said surviving a zombie plague... not conquering earth...

[GoC]

My 24th level wizard/archmage would ignore them.
His isolationist people life in a heavily defended floating city and each of them could probably take on 100 zombies singlehandedly.

[Tam_OConnor]

See, surviving zombie apocalypi with more than 10 HD...boring. At that point, you can actually make a difference. It's so much scarier if you can't do a darn thing besides trying to survive. Which is why my players are all 3rd level NPC classes...*insert evil laughter*
Any other ideas for sound effects or atmosphere music? And, because I'm curious, fast or slow zombies? (Either from a DM or PC perspective) Which is scarier?

[SpikeFightwicky]

See, surviving zombie apocalypi with more than 10 HD...boring. At that point, you can actually make a difference. It's so much scarier if you can't do a darn thing besides trying to survive. Which is why my players are all 3rd level NPC classes...*insert evil laughter*
Any other ideas for sound effects or atmosphere music? And, because I'm curious, fast or slow zombies? (Either from a DM or PC perspective) Which is scarier?

IMO, depends on what you define as scary. Slow zombies tend to 'clump up' like cat litter, but they're easier to avoid. So this leads to more of a horror (you know and can see what's going to kill you, it's just a matter of time...) feel, whereas the fast zombies evoke more of a dread feeling. (At least in the movies) Fast Zombie encounter (Dawn of Dead 2004, 28 Days Later) tended to be fast and brutal. You're fine until you meet one, then it's kill or be killed, since you'll tire before he does.

In my zombie game, I had a mix. The usual disease that created the 'slow' zombies eventually mutated in a few hosts to create faster and a somewhat smarter zombies (long story). The players first found out about this when a group of 10 or so zombies were coming after them, and they decided to just sit back and shoot them from a distance. They didn't know that in the back there were a couple of fast zombies 'lurking' with the group, and once they got close enough, they burst through the group and attacked. Suprised/freaked the heck out of the players, too :smallbiggrin:

My choices for atmospheric music:

If you were ever fortunate enough to find the American McGee's Alice soundtrack (5$ on E-Bay FTW!), that contains alot of spooky/atmospheric music and some downright creepy tunes that are appropriate for horror games. Another good source is the Half-Life 2 soundtrack, especially the Ravenholme tracks. Some John Murphy stuff is good too (among other things, he did the music in 28 Days/Weeks later).

[Tyrael]

Doc: Hey Sarge, do you have a, quote, "zombie plan", unquote?
Sarge: A zombie plan? Of course not!
Doc: See? I told you.
Sarge: I have 37 different zombie plans!
Grif: Wow. Now that's preperation! I am seriously impressed, Sarge.
Sarge: Well don't be, dirtbag. In 36 of the 37 plans I use your fresh corpse as bait, so that I can make my initial escape from the legions of the undead!
Grif: Well, at least I know there's one plan where I-
Sarge: In the 37th plan, I knowingly infect myself with the zombie virus, just so I can devour you!
Doc: Sarge, you gotta be pulling my leg.
Sarge: Why do you think I carry a shotgun with me at all times? You have to be ready to act on a moments notice! Hyah!

[Chaos Bringer]

For players, though. You definetly want them to have some kind of safe house. Really. You'd think it contrasts the whole 'constant fear' thing, but it is a game saver. Nobody wants to find themselves unable to shack up for eight hours, especially spell casters. Work in some time critical goals to keep them from hanging around base all day.

Read: Dead Rising :smallbiggrin: But I agree as thats probably exactly how I would run it. Hell, now I HAVE to run it....

[Jensik]

What would your characters do?

I have a bunch of characters, and they'd all react differently.

1) My rogue (see avatar): "Hmm.... too dumb to realize they're being scammed... not smart enough to be scammed in the first place. Man undead really suck." (two days later, zombie food)

2) My ninja: Sets everything in sight on fire, only to regret it later when he realizes he has nothing left to burn.

3) My fighter: Kills a few, gets eaten, turns into a zombie, gets set on fire by a ninja.

[Jack_Simth]

I tell you, I love the idea of the Wight Apocalypse.

For fun I did a little math. Assuming a large enough city, with a dense enough population, (i.e. everyone is a move or charge away from each other..) a single wight appearing in town, either via teleport or whatever.....

To explain the chart, T is Turn # Whatever, W is the number of active Wights, PW is the number of Pending Wights (i.e. those dead but not active yet); I assumed the average time of 2.5 rounds for spawnrise, which I rounded to 3. I may yet go back and redo the figures based on the actual 2.5 (i.e in some turns it takes only 2 rounds for the Wight to rise)


Wight vs. Crowd of Commoners
T W PW
1 1 1
2 1 2
3 1 3
4 2 5
5 3 7
6 4 10
7 6 14
8 9 20
9 13 29
10 19 42
11 28 61
12 41 89
13 60 130
14 88 190
15 129 278
16 189 407
17 277 596
18 406 873
19 595 1279
20 872 1874

That's 2,745 dead in 2 minutes. Within ~4 rounds of the 2 minute Mark, there are 2746 Wights. ~4 rounds after that, there are ~5,500.

Spectres are even scarier. Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide. At night anyway.

Do be aware, though, that you'll run into circular distribution issues before round 20, that'll slow down your growth. Likewise, a standard Wight only has a +3 attack bonus - which means you've got a 30% miss chance against that AC 10 Human/Dwarven/Half-Orc/Half-Elf Commoner-1 (35% vs. the AC 11 Elven or Gnome commoner-1, 40% miss vs. the AC 12 Halfling commoner-1) before armor or a base dex above 11. This will slow down your growth as well. But yes - drop a Wight into a D&D Metropolis, and if it goes even an hour, I'd estimate around 80-90% "conversion" (some of the wights die, some of the inhabitants escape; after all, D&D metropolis tend to have a percentage of high-level characters that'll escape, eliminate some wights, or help others escape) ... but you're still staring down around 20,000 wights with just one Metropolis. Better stop it before it gets that far (for instance, if the Wight bombs it's initiative, it's only got 26 hp - a few good shots from some warrior-1's on the wall, and it's toast; if you get the first one before it can start it's killing spree, no apocalypse).

[Vuzzmop]

My Fire Mephling Warlock, Flint, two words:

Eldritch Blast!!!!!

[John Campbell]

My 24th level wizard/archmage would ignore them.
His isolationist people life in a heavily defended floating city and each of them could probably take on 100 zombies singlehandedly.

Killing 100 zombies singlehandedly isn't exactly difficult, even at mid-levels.

My current PC, using the overland flight plus undead bane changeling spear trick I mentioned earlier, can kill non-flying non-reach- or range-equipped zombies at absolutely no risk to himself until he runs out of either zombies or overland flight (8400 rounds later... more if he preps more than one, and he can always fly somewhere inaccessible to rest up and regain spells). So, basically, given the time, he can kill any arbitrarily large number of zombies.

Without his spells, it's more complicated, and the actual numbers depend on terrain, tactics, and how many 20s they roll vs. how many 1s he rolls, but even if he's totally surrounded by standard human zombies in a big zombie mosh pit, with more zombies always ready to charge in when he knocks one down, we're looking at five or six hundred zombies down before they finally tear him down. Given a chokepoint to work with, it could easily be into the tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands (one-shot-kill reach weapon + chokepoint + Combat Reflexes == ludicrous butchery, particularly since they can't move and attack without charging). And that's one 14th-level character who's fighting with his most powerful class feature tied behind his back.

[Jack_Simth]

Yeah - the MM 16 HP human commoner Zombie is AC 11. If you miss only on a natural 1, can arrange the terrain such that they can only come at you one at a time and can't charge, have a good dex, threaten both at reach and up close, and have a minimum damage of 15 per hit or better (not difficult to arrange by, say, level 10 - could probably do it at 5th, if you tried), and get an AC such that a zombie can only hit you on a natural 20 (also not too hard by 5th or so), then you can hold out for a long, long time. Forever, if you've got the overpriced Ring of Regeneration on.

Seriously.



Wall: *
Zombie: Z
You: @
Empty space: _

*****Z*
*****Z*
***@__*
*******
To get at you, the Zombie has to leave the far right empty space - which provokes (zombies only get one action per round - which means if they five-foot step, they still can't attack, so it's not too bad). 19 out of 20 of them die right then and there.

Leaving that square, you're close enough that they can't charge, so you're not attacked until the next round, even for that surviving 1 of 20. Which means you get another attack before they can even try to hit you - only 1 in 400 gets that chance, as you attack the zombie on your turn.

When they try to hit you, they need a nat-20 - so only 1 in 20 that get the chance actually hit - which means, you basically get to kill 8,000 zombies for every one that scores a hit on you. As long as you have enough HP to deal with the groupings, a Ring of Regeneration will fix you right up. It works better if you can get two attacks per round - Fighter-6 ought to do it.

[SpikeFightwicky]

Yeah - the MM 16 HP human commoner Zombie is AC 11. If you miss only on a natural 1, can arrange the terrain such that they can only come at you one at a time and can't charge, have a good dex, threaten both at reach and up close, and have a minimum damage of 15 per hit or better (not difficult to arrange by, say, level 10 - could probably do it at 5th, if you tried), and get an AC such that a zombie can only hit you on a natural 20 (also not too hard by 5th or so), then you can hold out for a long, long time. Forever, if you've got the overpriced Ring of Regeneration on.

Seriously.



Wall: *
Zombie: Z
You: @
Empty space: _

*****Z*
*****Z*
***@__*
*******
To get at you, the Zombie has to leave the far right empty space - which provokes (zombies only get one action per round - which means if they five-foot step, they still can't attack, so it's not too bad). 19 out of 20 of them die right then and there.

Leaving that square, you're close enough that they can't charge, so you're not attacked until the next round, even for that surviving 1 of 20. Which means you get another attack before they can even try to hit you - only 1 in 400 gets that chance, as you attack the zombie on your turn.

When they try to hit you, they need a nat-20 - so only 1 in 20 that get the chance actually hit - which means, you basically get to kill 8,000 zombies for every one that scores a hit on you. As long as you have enough HP to deal with the groupings, a Ring of Regeneration will fix you right up. It works better if you can get two attacks per round - Fighter-6 ought to do it.

Does't the zombie in the closest to you not provoke an AoO? He has cover with regards to your position (he's around a corner) so you don't threaten his square.

[Jack_Simth]

Does't the zombie in the closest to you not provoke an AoO? He has cover with regards to your position (he's around a corner) so you don't threaten his square.
He doesn't provoke when he leaves the square he's in - he provokes when he leaves the square just south of him (which he must enter, then leave, in order to attack).

In leaving that square, the range is too short for a charge. He can't charge from where he is (has to go around the corner), and he only gets one action a turn. You've got two chances to hit (and kill) him before he gets a chance to hit you (one chance on his turn when he provokes in trying to get close enough to hit, one chance on your turn). This pretty much only works with stupid, one action per round zombies (like the monster manual version). Things that can think tactically, take five-foot steps and attack in the same round, or even get a full round's worth of actions, are much more dangerous when you're cornered like that.

[kemmotar]

As a bbeg/DM what i would do to accomplish zombiegeddon is quite simple...make an underground lair-feeding ground, ie make one infectious zombie, put it in a large space where it cant reach you(preferably you're watching from up high),have your servants bring in victims from nearby villages, zombie kills and makes more zombies, throw in more victims, throw in the servants,gate from the center of the enclosed area to the center of a city...undead invasion ready...by the time the guards respond there will be so many zombies there's nothing they can do...

The drop an infectious zombie in the middle of a city was fine, with wights even better, but the guards are bound to notice and call out the epics before your minions get a chance to multiply enough...therefore you start with a large number and then spread...

As a PC...?

Caster:invent a positive energy magical disease, infect one zombie...wait it out...

Cleric:summon a celestial weasel, tell it to tell someone about the zombiegeddon...shortly after solars arive...accomplishable at level 1:smalltongue:

As a rogue: *bluff*BRAINSSSSSS*bluff*...see shawn of the dead for more info...hehehe:smallwink:

as a frenzied berserker-barbarian:aaaaaaaaarrrrggggghhhhhh*rage* then AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHH*frenzy* charge-leap attack-power attack-power lunge(shock trooper wouldn't even be necessary) cleave cleave cleave etc...when i roll a one full attack cleave cleave cleave cleave...roll 1...rinse and repeat:smallbiggrin:

as a fighter: watch the barbarian kill while drink some beer...nothing to do really...

Alternately become a lich and go find all the magic items i want from anywhere i want...become a merchant to the survivors or move to another plane with a ridiculous amount of bags of holding and stuff to sell...:smallbiggrin:

[Felius]

Well, if you are creating a character who has enough levels to become a Lich, consider in place becoming a cleric with the epic feat positive energy aura. You kill undead just by exiting.

[kemmotar]

You don't need to be epic to be a lich...demilich is a completely different story and much cooler than an epic cleric...

A floating skull decorated with jewels casting epic spells...

[merrja666]

Hmm.... what would my Cleric do?

Consecrate, Magic Circle vs Evil, Magic Circle vs Chaos, Protection from Undead, Hide from Undead, Protection from Evil, Protection from Chaos, Mordikaen's Priviate Sanctum.

Permanency.


Anyhoo, if you want to make a reason for hundreads of undead appearing how about a intersection of Planes? All Planes intersect the Material Plane, and the Negative Energy Plane could be linked to the Material Plane by a Arcane BBEG. Quest = find him, kill him, destroy big thing that is causing the intersection. The nasty thing is that as you fight him, undead and other evil things could be spawning out of the rift. I predict a TPK.

[prufock]

Assuming somehow that it does get going, what would your characters do? I'm fairly sure my idiot grappling barbarian would get turned within the first few minutes...

How would you model the zombie infection? One failed Fort save and you're screwed six ways from Sunday? More gradual, with characters getting slowly weaker? Heck, how would you DM this? Anyone know where I can get zombie-moaning sounds online?

I'm planning to run a zombie infestation game with my unwitting players in a couple of weeks. Of course, I'm using a modern setting with M&M rules (the players are PL 2 with no powers).

I set up the zombie infection to drain con at specific intervals. The get a primary fort save when bitten to fight it off completely. If they fail, they make another fort save each interval to resist the con drain (but they can't get rid of the infection - it just delays the inevitable). A zombie apocalypse SHOULD be deadly.

For the zombies, I basically took the example in the book and added the following traits for 71 points:
Disease 1 [Incurable, Persistent, Permanent, Contagious, Progression 4], Immunity [emotion effects, interaction skills, mental effects, all nonlethal physical damage, all nonlethal energy damage]
Disease: Zombie Rot – Infection by fluid transfer (bite, blood). Fort save when infected to negate. If the first save fails, make another save every 5 minutes thereafter or lose 1 point of constitution. When you hit 0 constitution, you become a zombie (plot device).
I also pumped up their notice checks a little. If the zombie doesn't notice you, it isn't a threat.

Using the same traits, I created adult zombies, kid zombies, and dog zombies. Just drop their con, int, and cha to non-scores and add the zombie traits. I'm thinking about making a zombie bear, but that might be overkill.

The characters have to figure out what's going on (they haven't been told that it's a zombie game - in fact, I'm specifically misleading them to think that it's going to be a game where they are just ordinary people with jobs; they're convinced it will be the most boring game ever), avoid the zombies, collect some weapons and food, and either hole up somewhere or try to escape the town. They'll probably discover other survivors (some of whom want to take their stuff, others who just think they're zombies and try to kill them).

I don't know if any of this helped, since your idea is set under D&D rules, but that's how I'd run it.

[Alex12]

In the utterly absurd game I've been in lately...

The party fighter has neutronium power armor and some utterly insane weapons.

The Rogue has a cloaking device that can stay active for ~22 hours/day and leaves no scent. And an autocannon with infinite ammo that fires neutronium bullets that can punch straight through an adamantite wall and kill whatever's behind it.

The two wizards (of which I am one) literally have the ability to shatter the planet with a single spell. Each. And survive. Plus we have things like antimatter grenades and a spell that lets one planeshift everything 50 feet from a designated point into a plane of our choosing, with possibilites like one of the many planes of antimatter or just the Positive Energy Plane.

Yes, we are violating a fair number of the basic concepts underlying D&D. No, we don't care, because we're having fun.

[allonym]

I am the Keeper for a CoC game.

Zombie apocalypse:

Sanity checks, lots of them, some of them pretty scary.

After that, the players want either to hope the zombies are mythos-related (created with mythos magic or servitors of a mythos entity) and sit on a huge elder sign, or get locked and loaded and try to blast their way out.

Unless any have magic, at which point they could probably try to summon/bind star vampires to fly away on, or quickly convert to worship of an evil deity (I'd personally go for Shudde M'Ell)

If everything was going tits-up, they could do something insane like try to call Azathoth. There are some anti-zombie spells, especially a few nice ones in the Arkham sourcebook. Whether trying to use mythos ideas and magic is a good idea with sanity having already taken a hit or 5 is debatable of course. A barrier or naach-tith is a good last resort. The Red Sign of Shudde M'Ell less so.


Edit: having just consulted the Arkham sourcebook, the spell Call Zombie seems a good plan: takes one day to learn (if successful with an idea check), causes all nearby zombies to come to your location, but includes an indefinately persistant anti-zombie ward circle. Sit there with lots of food, wait to regain enough magic points to cast something else. Could even study or recieve psychoanalysis if you had long enough.



My personal plan if I was playing and was my favoured type of character (professor type, high on pow and int, most likely to study magic) would be throwing up a zombie ward or barrier of naach-tith, casting contact cthulhu, then pledging my undying servitude.

Hey, being a deep one is better than a zombie, right? Can you imagine the set piece where millions of deep ones and star-spawn, led by Dagon and Hydra, arrive on the mother of all Waves of Oblivion to cleanse the now-abandoned surface world of zombies!

[internerdj]

My character heads to the Winchester.

[SpikeFightwicky]

My character heads to the Winchester.

Alright, so we get Liz, go to my parents' house, finish off Phillip - 'Sorry Phillip' - head to the Winchester and enjoy a pint until this whole thing blows over.