Zombie Roleplaying Game

[IllegalCatToss]

So I know there's like a ton of zombie tabletop roleplaying games out there. I was wondering if anyone could help me sort thru them. Like the pros and cons of the systems.

Ideally I want something with quick and easy combat (Since most of my players are coming from d&d and are used to easy combat)

Also there doesn't need to be, but if there's any systems with good crafting systems, that's a plus.

Thank you in advance~

[Pauly]

Any particular setting you’re looking for?

For example Deadlands, based on rhe Savage World engine, is set in an alternate history Wild West. There are a lot of options beyond just zombies in the setting, but you can easily make zombies the main feature if your campaign.

[Satinavian]

Just to clarify :

With zombie roleplaying game you mean a game with zombies as PCs and enough rule support for their unlife specialties, right ?

I am unfortunately not aware of one.

[Anonymouswizard]

Just to clarify :

With zombie roleplaying game you mean a game with zombies as PCs and enough rule support for their unlife specialties, right ?

I am unfortunately not aware of one.

I'm presuming they create some kind of undead society and hide from humans.

GURPS could do it fairly easily, so could Fate, but yeah nothing specific as far as I know


To be for serious, for RPGs where zombies are considered the primary enemy type I only have experience of two:

All Flesh Must Be Eaten is Unisystem, so it's pretty much your standard point buy RPG. There's optional magic, but you can also run it as your pretty standard zombie outbreak scenario, and includes a DIY zombies system. Combat is like D&D combat, it'll drag or not depending on how many options players have.

Morts is a setting for Fate Core that takes your standard post zombie apocalypse setting and adds in that necromancy works. I could go on but really all that matters is if you like Fate you'll like this. It's got that blend of two ideas that most Fate settings have, but honestly zombie apocalypse+necromancy us such a sensible combination you could run it in anything.

[IllegalCatToss]

I'm presuming they create some kind of undead society and hide from humans.

GURPS could do it fairly easily, so could Fate, but yeah nothing specific as far as I know


To be for serious, for RPGs where zombies are considered the primary enemy type I only have experience of two:

All Flesh Must Be Eaten is Unisystem, so it's pretty much your standard point buy RPG. There's optional magic, but you can also run it as your pretty standard zombie outbreak scenario, and includes a DIY zombies system. Combat is like D&D combat, it'll drag or not depending on how many options players have.

Morts is a setting for Fate Core that takes your standard post zombie apocalypse setting and adds in that necromancy works. I could go on but really all that matters is if you like Fate you'll like this. It's got that blend of two ideas that most Fate settings have, but honestly zombie apocalypse+necromancy us such a sensible combination you could run it in anything.

Thanks This was what I was looking for. Sorry I didn't specify a Table Top zombie system. Thanks for the input

[KyleG]

I'm presuming they create some kind of undead society and hide from humans.

GURPS could do it fairly easily, so could Fate, but yeah nothing specific as far as I know


To be for serious, for RPGs where zombies are considered the primary enemy type I only have experience of two:

All Flesh Must Be Eaten is Unisystem, so it's pretty much your standard point buy RPG. There's optional magic, but you can also run it as your pretty standard zombie outbreak scenario, and includes a DIY zombies system. Combat is like D&D combat, it'll drag or not depending on how many options players have.

Morts is a setting for Fate Core that takes your standard post zombie apocalypse setting and adds in that necromancy works. I could go on but really all that matters is if you like Fate you'll like this. It's got that blend of two ideas that most Fate settings have, but honestly zombie apocalypse+necromancy us such a sensible combination you could run it in anything.

How easy are those options to pick up? My son (12) wants to run us thru a zombie apocalypse 1 or 2 shot but we are only familiar with 5e.

[Pauly]

How easy are those options to pick up? My son (12) wants to run us thru a zombie apocalypse 1 or 2 shot but we are only familiar with 5e.

GURPS is heavy to pick up, it really benefits from an experienced GM with good knowledge of the system. I wouldn’t recommend it for a one shot if you’re not experienced with it.

Fate is supposed to be very quick and easy to use, and FAE (Fate Accelerated Edition) is the quickplay streamlined version. I’ve never played it but many people on the forums recommend it.

[Anonymouswizard]

How easy are those options to pick up? My son (12) wants to run us thru a zombie apocalypse 1 or 2 shot but we are only familiar with 5e.

A lot depends on your son. GURPS is very heavy, AFMBE and Fate are arguably as heavy as D&D.

Really the main issue with picking up Fate is the entire Aspects part of the game. They're very powerful, but I've seen players completely forget to invoke, compel, or generate them. Apart from that it's a fairly simple game with DIY aspects (tweak the Skill list to your specific game, although Accelerated uses six Approaches instead, and Stunts will mostly be made by the players).

If he already knows how to play/run a game that can handle the things he wants (I'm guessing that might be guns and relatively squishy characters) then it might be better for him to use that. Although in that case the 'reading the rulebook' hump might not be there.

So I'd tentatively recommend something along the lines of All Flesh Must Be Eaten, Savage World's, or Modern AGE.

[Jophiel]

How easy are those options to pick up? My son (12) wants to run us thru a zombie apocalypse 1 or 2 shot but we are only familiar with 5e.
If you just want to do a one-shot, there's a very rules-lite system with Evil Risen (https://arnivold.itch.io/evil-risen). Might be too rules-lite for some (all weapons are either melee or ranged, be they a battleaxe or pair of scissors, a shotgun or a crossbow) but definitely easy to pick up and learn/teach without much investment from anyone for a one or two session event. It's also a survival game, not a zombie-hunting game if that makes a difference and "rules lite" can mean more decision weight on the person running it which might be tough on a novice/young GM.