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kjones
2008-01-03, 12:53 AM
I'm going to be running a zombie-themed d20 Modern game for a party of 4-6 1st level d20 modern characters. Obviously, the book's stats for zombies don't really meet the flavor of the kind of adventure I'd like to run, so I shamelessly cribbed a homebrew from somebody off these boards (thanks, whoever you are... they were originally called Zombies of the Night. Let me know who did this so I can credit you.)

I toned down their toughness slightly from the original to reflect the lower power of d20 Modern compared to D&D, so I'd appreciate it if those of you with more experience with the system would tell me how reasonable these monsters are. Keep in mind that the characters aren't really meant to stand and fight against these things, especially not in large numbers.

TL;DR: These are similar to those proposed by Oakspar77777 on the WotC boards so long ago; my main addition is the Moan ability, which should make for some interesting changes.

Swan Point Zombies
Medium Undead
3d12 + 6 (25hp)
Int -1
Speed 30' (6 squares) (Can't run)
AC 11 (-1 Dex, +2 Natural)
Touch AC 9
Flat-footed AC 11
Grapple: +3
Attack: Bite +3 melee (1d3+1)
Full Attack: Bite +3 melee (1d3+1)
S/R: 5'/5'
Special Attacks: Infectious Bite
Special Qualities: Spawn, DR 3/Slashing or Bludgeoning, Darkvision 60', Scent, Moan, Undead Traits, Fast Healing 1, Critical Death
F/R/W +1/-1/+4
Str 12, Dex 8, Con - , Int - , Wis 10 , Cha 10
Feats: Toughness x2
CR 1

Infectious Bite (Ex): Anyone bitten by a Swan Point Zombie takes 2 points of permanent ability damage per hour to both Con and Cha until death. This can only be removed by a Wish or Miracle spell. No save.

Spawn (Ex): Anyone killed by a Swan Point Zombie or after recieving an Infections Bite rises as a Swan Point Zombie after 1d4+1 rounds. Cutting off the head or destroying the brain prevents this from occurring.

Moan (Ex): Upon encountering living humans, a Swan Point Zombie will let out a ghastly, chilling moan. All other Swan Point Zombies within 200 feet can make Listen checks; all who succeed move towards the sound of the moan as best as they are able.

Critical Death: Swan Point Zombies only truly die when their brain is destroyed. They can survive any other type of damage and Fast Heal it at the rate of 1 hit point per round. Lost limbs are not reattachable or recoverable.
There are only three ways to destroy a Swan Point Zombie. A successful critical hit against a Zombie kills it instantly, as will a Coup de Grace. Otherwise, fire, acid, or delivering a head blow will cause damage that will not Fast Heal and can kill a Swan Point Zombie. These head blows require a -4 to the attack roll due to the difficulty of the shot.

If anyone's curious, I called them Swan Point Zombies because I live a half-mile away from Swan Point Cemetery in Providence, a beautiful place mildly famous for hosting H. P. Lovecraft's grave. This cemetery will factor heavily into the plot.


Tactics: These creatures are shambling and slow, but relentless in their pursuit of human flesh. In combat, they attempt to grapple their opponents before (a la Resident Evil) biting them until either they or their victim are dead. They mitigate their slowness by making judicious use of partial charges, culminating in a grapple attempt.


My hope is that the deadliness of the bite will be somewhat mitigated by the fact that they won't really get that many chances to use it. First, the zombies have to get into melee with the PCs, difficult due to their speed. Next, they have to initiate grapple, which will provoke an AoO (but not against unarmed civilians, against whom they are much more deadly). Then, they have to maintain the grapple long enough to hit with a bite.

Thoughts?

EDIT: I made this thread not wanting to bring back this one (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=66239&page=3) from the dead, but I realize there's been quite a bit of discussion on this topic already. With that in mind, however, these are for d20 Modern, not D&D, so consider the differences presented by a modern setting (no clerics, holy water, or magical sources of food, differences in weapons and other equipment, etc).

Karsh
2008-01-03, 01:05 AM
I'm the one who threw those zombies together. I just posted in my Zombiegeddon thread, but read my adventure notes that I've been making. They're based on D&D fantasy, obviously, but several of the observations would probably useful to you.

My biggest suggestion would be to make the bite a secondary attack so that it's made at a -5 penalty. This lets you do a lot more bite attempts while drastically reducing the accuracy of the zombies.

Re: your fast healing: what you're describing is Regeneration that can only be overcome by critical hits and headshots. Change it to Regeneration 1 and leave the bit about the headshots and you should be good. You've already made them vulnerable to crits, making them vulnerable to nonlethal damage seems consistent enough.

Talic
2008-01-03, 01:20 AM
I'm going to be running a zombie-themed d20 Modern game for a party of 4-6 1st level d20 modern characters. Obviously, the book's stats for zombies don't really meet the flavor of the kind of adventure I'd like to run, so I shamelessly cribbed a homebrew from somebody off these boards (thanks, whoever you are... they were originally called Zombies of the Night. Let me know who did this so I can credit you.)

I toned down their toughness slightly from the original to reflect the lower power of d20 Modern compared to D&D, so I'd appreciate it if those of you with more experience with the system would tell me how reasonable these monsters are. Keep in mind that the characters aren't really meant to stand and fight against these things, especially not in large numbers.

TL;DR: These are similar to those proposed by Oakspar77777 on the WotC boards so long ago; my main addition is the Moan ability, which should make for some interesting changes.

Swan Point Zombies
Medium Undead
3d12 + 6 (25hp)
Int -1
Speed 30' (6 squares) (Can't run)
AC 11 (-1 Dex, +2 Natural)
Touch AC 9
Flat-footed AC 11
Grapple: +3
Attack: Bite +3 melee (1d3+1)
Full Attack: Bite +3 melee (1d3+1)
S/R: 5'/5'
Special Attacks: Infectious Bite
Special Qualities: Spawn, DR 3/Slashing or Bludgeoning, Darkvision 60', Scent, Moan, Undead Traits, Fast Healing 1, Critical Death
F/R/W +1/-1/+4
Str 12, Dex 8, Con - , Int - , Wis 10 , Cha 10
Feats: Toughness x2
CR 1

Infectious Bite (Ex): Anyone bitten by a Swan Point Zombie takes 2 points of permanent ability damage per hour to both Con and Cha until death. This can only be removed by a Wish or Miracle spell. No save.

Spawn (Ex): Anyone killed by a Swan Point Zombie or after recieving an Infections Bite rises as a Swan Point Zombie after 1d4+1 rounds. Cutting off the head or destroying the brain prevents this from occurring.

Moan (Ex): Upon encountering living humans, a Swan Point Zombie will let out a ghastly, chilling moan. All other Swan Point Zombies within 200 feet can make Listen checks; all who succeed move towards the sound of the moan as best as they are able.

Critical Death: Swan Point Zombies only truly die when their brain is destroyed. They can survive any other type of damage and Fast Heal it at the rate of 1 hit point per round. Lost limbs are not reattachable or recoverable.
There are only three ways to destroy a Swan Point Zombie. A successful critical hit against a Zombie kills it instantly, as will a Coup de Grace. Otherwise, fire, acid, or delivering a head blow will cause damage that will not Fast Heal and can kill a Swan Point Zombie. These head blows require a -4 to the attack roll due to the difficulty of the shot.

If anyone's curious, I called them Swan Point Zombies because I live a half-mile away from Swan Point Cemetery in Providence, a beautiful place mildly famous for hosting H. P. Lovecraft's grave. This cemetery will factor heavily into the plot.


Tactics: These creatures are shambling and slow, but relentless in their pursuit of human flesh. In combat, they attempt to grapple their opponents before (a la Resident Evil) biting them until either they or their victim are dead. They mitigate their slowness by making judicious use of partial charges, culminating in a grapple attempt.


My hope is that the deadliness of the bite will be somewhat mitigated by the fact that they won't really get that many chances to use it. First, the zombies have to get into melee with the PCs, difficult due to their speed. Next, they have to initiate grapple, which will provoke an AoO (but not against unarmed civilians, against whom they are much more deadly). Then, they have to maintain the grapple long enough to hit with a bite.

Thoughts?

EDIT: I made this thread not wanting to bring back this one (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=66239&page=3) from the dead, but I realize there's been quite a bit of discussion on this topic already. With that in mind, however, these are for d20 Modern, not D&D, so consider the differences presented by a modern setting (no clerics, holy water, or magical sources of food, differences in weapons and other equipment, etc).

That thread will also include my zombie entry from my d20 zombie game, which includes a moan ability.

As for thoughts, don't mitigate their slowness. Zombies are nonintelligent. They should not use any sort of intelligent attack plan at all. Ever.

Easiest way to incorporate the crit vulnerability is to make them living. Mindless, non dependant on oxygen, and with more vermin traits than anything. For a guide on this style of zombie, read Max Brooks's Zombie Survival Guide, which is set in a modern setting, and should be invaluable to you for a reference.

Balkash
2008-01-03, 01:57 AM
Very cool idea. I've homebrewed zombies based off of the Max Brooks Zombie. This is almost exactly like it. I gave mine unarmed attacks, as well.

Talic
2008-01-03, 02:17 AM
Very cool idea. I've homebrewed zombies based off of the Max Brooks Zombie. This is almost exactly like it. I gave mine unarmed attacks, as well.

My zombie build was actually a template (yes, ogres could be zombies... even, shudder, hydra). You remove all class levels, double racial HD, change to d12, give most traits that undead and vermin share, enhance strength and con, weaken dex, lower int and wis to -. Give them 1 skill point per HD, in listen, a +4 racial bonus to listen, a +4 racial bonus to grappling (note: Not improved grapple, as you want them to provoke). Keep movement the same, but don't allow double moves. Make their disease nasty (I did a 0 incubation disease, fort DC17 daily or 1d6 int and 1d6 wis damage... if either reached 0, you drop and animate 1d4 or so rounds later. Like mummy rot, it wasn't a disease your body could cure on its own.)

Full details are in the Zombiegeddon thread.

Khanderas
2008-01-03, 02:29 AM
Re: your fast healing: what you're describing is Regeneration that can only be overcome by critical hits and headshots. Change it to Regeneration 1 and leave the bit about the headshots and you should be good. You've already made them vulnerable to crits, making them vulnerable to nonlethal damage seems consistent enough.
And fire ? Gotta be able to use fire... as the saying goes "if all else fails, use fire". *giggles madly*

kjones
2008-01-03, 04:43 PM
Thanks for the feedback, everyone. Balkash and Talic hit the nail on the head; I'm trying to give these zombies the feel of Max Brooks zombies, albeit with a somewhat different reanimation mechanism. (Brooks' zombies take some time to reanimate after death, which usually doesn't occur for up to 24 hours.)

I would consider not making them undead except... that they are. I realize I could re-jigger most of the mechanical effects pretty easily but I'm not very good at home-brewing. These pretty much do everything I want to do.

Thanks for posting, Karsh, and thanks for letting me use your zombies; I'll be sure to give you credit if I repost this elsewhere.

Khanderas: I was actually considering giving them fire vulnerability (x1.5 damage) but ruled against it because I decided that their inability to "regenerate" fire damage was good enough as far as "kill it with fire" is concerned. It's also not terribly realistic; flesh, necrotized or otherwise, does not really burn very well. Your clothes, maybe, but not your actual body. This is presumedly why people were burned on funeral pyres rather than just having a torch put to their corpses.

As far as the Regeneration thing: The Swan Point Zombies' fast healing ability is meant to mechanically represent a specific fluff effect; namely, that while you can beat the crap out of them however you want, the only way to truly kill them is to destroy their brain. This is a difficult effect to represent with the HP system, as it is (of course) non-locational by nature. So, my hope is that in combat, this effect will be shown by people giving the zombies the beatdown, which will slow them down (and eventually knock them down when they are reduced to 0 HP) but not stop them (as they'll get back up and keep coming). I'll describe this not by saying that the zombies are regenerating damage, but rather that the damage that is being dealt is simply not having any effect on the zombies.

I'm preparing a treatise of sorts on this adventure; I'll post it when it's finished.

Craig1f
2008-01-03, 05:18 PM
I would remove bite as a standard attack, and replace it with a claw or slam attack, and give them improved grab.

They go for a claw attack, and using improved grab, immediately go for the grapple. They should only go for a bite if they A) start their turn adjacent to an enemy or B) are involved in a grapple.

kjones
2008-01-03, 05:58 PM
Here's what I've worked out so far.

Notes

Beginning at 2000 on Saturday, June 8th, 2008, the dead interred in Swan Point Cemetery will begin to rise again as Swan Point Zombies, at the rate of 250 per hour, so that all of the 2,569 people buried in the cemetery will have risen within 10 hours, unless drastic preventive measures are taken.

The Spread
The growth of zombies can be modeled as a logistic equation. Given a growth rate r = 1/3, a "carrying capacity" of 175,000 (the population of Providence) and an initial population of 250 (we unfortunately must discount the continuing rising of the dead, as I am bad at maths and don't know how to make the P(initial) term vary with time. According to my calculations, this means that the entire population of the city of Providence will be consumed in a little more than 36 hours.
These numbers, however, are of little more than academic interest, as the players will not be fully aware of the situation at any given moment. Random encounters in buildings across the city will play out thusly:
When a building that is relevant to the plot is encountered, roll d%. Only buildings that are within 1 mile of the cemetery need roll; this radius expands at the rate of 1 mile per 2 hours.

Less than 1: This building is functioning as it would be normally.
1-15: The building is secured and fortified by its inhabitants, who may be friendly or hostile to uninvited guests.
16-25: The building is empty, with some supplies and equipment available.
26-40: The building is empty, but most things of any value have been looted, expended, or broken.
41-60: The building is in the process of being overrun; see below
61-100: The building has been overrun; zombies are likely present. See below.

This roll has the following modifiers:
+1 per 3 hours elapsed since 2000 on 6/8
-1 per mile distant from the cemetery
Size modifiers, see below

Size modifiers:
+0 for a house
+1 per three floors of the building
+5 for a shop
+10 for an apartment or office building*
+25 for a large public place (mall, library, government building)*
+50 for a hospital*

*Each floor or room can be rolled for individually

If zombies are attacking or have overrun, their numbers are given by 1d4 * the modifiers used for the d% roll. So, if the players encounter a four-story apartment building, five miles away from the cemetery, at midnight, the roll is d100 + 10 (apartment) +1 (floors) + 1 (time) -5 (distance) = d100 +7. If a result of "zombies" occurs, the number of zombies is given by 1d4 * 7.

Moan
The Moan ability is constructed so that its results could be resolved individually for every zombie in the area, but this is somewhat logistically infeasible. The simple rule of thumb that I will probably use when it becomes necessary: Each round a zombie is moaning, they have a 50% chance of attracting another zombie. This will likely be adjusted for specific circumstances, and in cases where I've rolled a specific number, I'll account for that, but I don't want to get bogged down. This is complicated enough already...

Response

Police
Providence Police will show up within the hour; by 2100, some fifty of them will be dead or overrun. Future police efforts will shift from containment (abandoned by 2200) to establishing secure locations for citizens. These include Nathan Bishop Middle School on the East Side (overrun by 0200), Moses Brown School (overrun by 0600), and the State House and Dunkin' Donuts Center downtown (overrun by 1200 Sunday). Chaos will reign at the central police headquarters due to the large number of civilians seeking shelter there; this will ultimately result in an outbreak localized at that location. Because of this, police forces will lack coordination, with most resorting to acting autonomously.

Medical
Those who have contracted an infectious bite become very ill very quickly, with most dying within six hours. This will, of course, not immediately be known, and so many will be rushed to nearby hospitals, where they will soon die and reanimate before going on to infect others. This will be the fastest way in which the infection escapes the East Side and makes its way downtown.

Military
The R. I. National Guard will be mobilized by 0400, though at severely diminished capacity, as many Guardsmen have already been infected and many more simply will not come when called, either because they are already trapped somewhere or feel the need to stay and protect their homes. They will ineffectively try to contain the outbreak, as it will have spread far beyond the East Side by this point. By 0800, they will have retreated to the southern leg of I-95 in an attempt to contain the outbreak from spreading further south into some of the most populated parts of RI.
The U. S. Military will arrive in force by 1600 and immediately attempt to quarantine the city, forming a perimeter around the city limits. They will attempt to shoot anyone leaving the city on sight, on the assumption that all civilians are to be treated as infected. What happens next depends on how much time I have to run this adventure. They may call in airstrikes to attempt to destroy the outbreak with firebombs or conventional or nuclear explosives They may advance slowly into the city from all directions, trying to make contact with the remaining civilian strongholds. They may be overrun by the outbreak, which would then spread throughout the region. I don't know.

Threats

Zombies
Duh. Still, though, a single zombie presents little threat to a human; they are easy to outsmart, outrun, or (under the right circumstances) kill. The threat lies in numbers; going toe-to-toe with these creatures will eventually result in being bit due to sheer probability. Furthermore, the Moan ability plays to their strengths; a single zombie will quickly attract more. My hope is that players will try to use stealth and terrain to their advantage, fighting only when necessary.

Survivors
Other human survivors can present all kinds of dangers. They could be looking for a safe place, without caring who's there already. They could be looters, taking advantage of the situation like any other natural disaster. They could be infected and dying, trying desperately to find a hospital, or carry out some last wish. Some could take to the streets, Rambo-style (and likely get themselves killed in the process); others will hole up in their homes and shoot at anything that moves. Some may be police or other authorities trying to get civilians to safety. Some people might just go completely insane, committing arson, murder, and worse. In this setting, humans might be a greater threat than the walking dead. And don't forget the military...

Natural Hazards
Power lines will go down, fires will start, chemicals will leak, and cars will crash and jam the streets. All these hazards must be negotiated in one way or another if they present themselves.

I'll post more as I think of it. Am I missing anything big?

SpikeFightwicky
2008-01-04, 08:31 AM
(..snip..)
I'll post more as I think of it. Am I missing anything big?

Yeah:

Most of the zombies in the cemetary won't have functional brains thanks to natural decay :smallbiggrin:

Max Brooks also points out that cemetaries are semi-'safe zones' due to the fact that the burried have no way of getting infected.

Gardakan
2008-01-04, 08:57 AM
Your zombie are realistic... then you just have to play and enjoy the game.

(But i think that the zombie in Resident Evil can run when they are in Las Vegas...)

SpikeFightwicky
2008-01-04, 09:15 AM
Your zombie are realistic... then you just have to play and enjoy the game.

(But i think that the zombie in Resident Evil can run when they are in Las Vegas...)

Yeah those zombies were on crack or something. I don't even know if they were 'dead'. Alot of Alice's attacks seemed to just cut them up and they stayed down (a few times she'd slice one from groin upper torso ignoring the head completely, and it would still go down. Also, shallow 'throat slittings' seemed to kill them off quickly, though a real zombie would have kept coming). Then again, she's some kind of superhuman so the attack may be more damaging than it looks. All I know is that I wish my car could go 100 miles on 'fumes' like that big rig apparently could.

kjones
2008-01-04, 10:02 AM
Yeah:

Most of the zombies in the cemetary won't have functional brains thanks to natural decay :smallbiggrin:

Max Brooks also points out that cemetaries are semi-'safe zones' due to the fact that the burried have no way of getting infected.

You're absolutely correct about this cf. Max Brooks zombies, but my zombies are somewhat different. While I wanted them to be mechanically similar to Max Brooks zombies, the cause of their existence and other minor fluff (glowing red eyes) are somewhat different. The "disease" in my game is in fact magical; the zombies are being driven by the malicious spirit of H. P. Lovecraft, who is buried in the cemetery. When they spread "infection", they are in fact spreading his evil animus. Mechanically, though, it works out the same.

(Also, when I say Resident Evil zombies, I'm specifically referring to the first Resident Evil game, and nothing else.)

Anyway, I ran the first session. We didn't get as far as I had hoped (a common theme), mostly because character creation took longer than I expected; my players are more or less familiar with D&D, but have never played d20 Modern before, so stuff like the Wealth bonus and Purchase DCs was a little confusing.

We ended up with a wrestler who calls himself "The Reverend" and packs a longsword and a shotgun (Tough Hero), a brainy, shy college student (Smart Hero), a college-level fencer (Fast Hero), an off-duty cop (Strong Hero), and a minor pop star (Charismatic Hero). The plot, as I had envisioned it, worked out reasonably well, albeit dangerously "meta", for reasons that will become clear below. Here's how it went down:

The characters all knew each other in some respect; some went to high school or college together, some were friends of friends. All, however, regularly got together from time to time to play tabletop RPGs and board games. On this night, they were sitting around the table, waiting for their GM to show up.

At this point, I should mention that this is taking place at my house, both in-game and out-of-game. So, IRL, my players are sitting around this table, playing characters who are sitting around the same table. I decided to do this both because I thought it would be funny and because it allowed me to have a very detailed layout of the house, which became important later on. I'm not sure if it was LARPing or just stupid, but it worked out.

So, they're waiting for their GM to show, and he's an hour late and not answering his phone. Meanwhile, they're hearing more and more sirens go screaming by outside, all congregating somewhere nearby to the north. The pop star decides to turn on the news to see what's going on. The newscaster is giving a somewhat sketchy report of a disturbance at the cemetery; the camera doesn't show much, but it does get a shot of some humanoid figures shambling towards the police barricade.

At this point, I should mention that most of my players know that I am somewhat obsessed with zombies. At one time or another, I've lent most of them my copies of the Survival Guide and World War Z, and I've had long and serious discussions about zombies with several of them. So it didn't take them long to put 2 and 2 together; in fact, when I told them that the nature of the adventure was a secret, some of them guessed (among other things) that it was to be a zombie game. So it wasn't a secret for very long.

They immediately start fortifying the house, pushing all available furniture up against the windows and such. Meanwhile, they get their first glimpse of the zombies, as they see one attack a pedestrian, and the motorist who pulls up to help; they do not see the final result or the reanimation.

They finish securing the house and wiring the stairs with explosives (why did they have explosives? Why does the college student know so much about them?) just as a car hits the telephone poll outside and the power goes out. The survivor of the crash, an 8-year-old boy, flees the wreckage as a few zombies converge. He runs up to the front door and starts pounding on it and calling for help; they quickly let him in, but now they have company knocking on their front door. They shove up additional furniture and check the boy. He's hurt from the crash, but he doesn't seem to have been bitten.

They try to comfort the boy, who's nearly hysterical, while continuing to secure their location and cart supplies from the basement pantry to the bedrooms upstairs. They catch glimpses out the second-floor windows from time to time, and they can clearly see the situation getting worse and worse; the roads are clogged, there's zombies in the streets, and somewhere, off in the distance, something is burning...

They hunker down and prepare to wait it out for the long hall, but they don't have to wait long. By this point, there's some half-dozen zombies pounding on the front door and north windows, trying to force their way in. They hear a diesel engine slowly making its way down the street and peek out of the second-floor windows to see what it is.

A pickup truck with three men crouching in the truck bed is picking its way through the congestion in the street outside. Two of them start blasting away at the zombies congregating on the front door, while the third sweeps a high-powered flashlight around and picks off any that approach the truck one by one. The wrestler pokes his head out of the second floor window to express his gratitude and see what these guys are up to. One of the men, wearing a cowboy hat, explains that they're simply performing a community service, "cleaning up the neighborhood" as it were. However, everything has a price; in exchange for clearing the zombies off of their stoop, they expect to get their choice of whatever loot they can cart away. At this point, the wrestler notices a substantial pile of hardware and valuables in the truck bed; he goes for his gun, but Cowboy Hat fires, shattering the window, and the wrestler dives for cover.

The heroes decide to let these guys take what they want; they're outgunned, and material possessions aren't worth risking their lives for. They go to hunker down in the upstairs bedrooms, including the college student, who has been in the basement preparing molotov cocktails. The rednecks see her coming up from the basement through the windows next to the front door and misinterpret her intentions; they fire a shot straight through the door and she ducks back down into the basement.

"You can take anything you want! Just leave us alone!" the (female) college student yells out to them.

"Anything?" they call back leeringly, and it's immediately pretty clear that these are not honorable people here.

The heroes change their mind; they have to stop these people. They take up positions; the wrestler is crouched at the top of the stairs, with a bead drawn on the door. The fencer is hiding at the bottom of the stairs, concealed from the front door, ready to strike as soon as they enter. The cop is ready to pop up in the windows upstairs. The college student is now hiding in the basement, and the pop star is still trying to comfort the boy and keep him quiet.

By this point, they've dispatched the zombies in front of the house and are trying to break down the door. It's been weakened by the zombies; it seems like it won't hold for too long, even with the furniture barricades. The cop peeks out of the upstairs window and aims carefully at Cowboy Hat's flashlight, reasoning that if they can't see, they won't be able to fend off additional zombies, and furthermore that a warning shot might be enough to scare them off. She fires her hunting rifle (!) and it smashes the flashlight out of the guy's hand. He screams obscenities as he brings his rifle to bear, but she's already ducked back behind the window.

The flashlight's gone, but the pickup truck had already pulled up so that its flashlights were illuminating the front of the house. The cop pops up to take another shot, but Cowboy Hat saw her before she ducked down, and had his rifle ready. The cop is looking straight down the barrel of his R700 Remington. Cowboy hat smiles as he pulls the trigger and... click. "************* ***** *** ****!" yells, as he ducks back down below the lip of the truck bed. The cop returns fire, but the shot goes wild.

The two other men have finally broken the door off its hinges; they knock it down and shove the desk barricading it aside. Quick as lightning, the fencer lunges out from his position; his sword cane (!) catches the guy between the ribs, and he goes down like a ton of bricks. The wrestler fires, misses, and the other guy bolts off into the house.

The fencer is on him like white on rice, and with alarming alacrity, has slid up next to him and cut his throat. Cowboy Hat clears his weapon jam at the same moment as a bullet from the cop's hunting rifle severs his spine. The driver realizes the better part of valor and hightails it out of there.

This is where we had to leave things for the night, but things do not look good. With the front door broken down, they're considering abandoning the house; easy in theory, but there's at least fifteen zombies converging from all directions, so actually getting out will be another matter entirely.

Stay tuned.

SpikeFightwicky
2008-01-04, 10:57 AM
You're absolutely correct about this cf. Max Brooks zombies, but my zombies are somewhat different. While I wanted them to be mechanically similar to Max Brooks zombies, the cause of their existence and other minor fluff (glowing red eyes) are somewhat different. The "disease" in my game is in fact magical; the zombies are being driven by the malicious spirit of H. P. Lovecraft, who is buried in the cemetery. When they spread "infection", they are in fact spreading his evil animus. Mechanically, though, it works out the same.

(Also, when I say Resident Evil zombies, I'm specifically referring to the first Resident Evil game, and nothing else.)

Anyway, I ran the first session. We didn't get as far as I had hoped (a common theme), mostly because character creation took longer than I expected; my players are more or less familiar with D&D, but have never played d20 Modern before, so stuff like the Wealth bonus and Purchase DCs was a little confusing.

We ended up with a wrestler who calls himself "The Reverend" and packs a longsword and a shotgun (Tough Hero), a brainy, shy college student (Smart Hero), a college-level fencer (Fast Hero), an off-duty cop (Strong Hero), and a minor pop star (Charismatic Hero). The plot, as I had envisioned it, worked out reasonably well, albeit dangerously "meta", for reasons that will become clear below. Here's how it went down:

The characters all knew each other in some respect; some went to high school or college together, some were friends of friends. All, however, regularly got together from time to time to play tabletop RPGs and board games. On this night, they were sitting around the table, waiting for their GM to show up.

At this point, I should mention that this is taking place at my house, both in-game and out-of-game. So, IRL, my players are sitting around this table, playing characters who are sitting around the same table. I decided to do this both because I thought it would be funny and because it allowed me to have a very detailed layout of the house, which became important later on. I'm not sure if it was LARPing or just stupid, but it worked out.

So, they're waiting for their GM to show, and he's an hour late and not answering his phone. Meanwhile, they're hearing more and more sirens go screaming by outside, all congregating somewhere nearby to the north. The pop star decides to turn on the news to see what's going on. The newscaster is giving a somewhat sketchy report of a disturbance at the cemetery; the camera doesn't show much, but it does get a shot of some humanoid figures shambling towards the police barricade.

At this point, I should mention that most of my players know that I am somewhat obsessed with zombies. At one time or another, I've lent most of them my copies of the Survival Guide and World War Z, and I've had long and serious discussions about zombies with several of them. So it didn't take them long to put 2 and 2 together; in fact, when I told them that the nature of the adventure was a secret, some of them guessed (among other things) that it was to be a zombie game. So it wasn't a secret for very long.

They immediately start fortifying the house, pushing all available furniture up against the windows and such. Meanwhile, they get their first glimpse of the zombies, as they see one attack a pedestrian, and the motorist who pulls up to help; they do not see the final result or the reanimation.

They finish securing the house and wiring the stairs with explosives (why did they have explosives? Why does the college student know so much about them?) just as a car hits the telephone poll outside and the power goes out. The survivor of the crash, an 8-year-old boy, flees the wreckage as a few zombies converge. He runs up to the front door and starts pounding on it and calling for help; they quickly let him in, but now they have company knocking on their front door. They shove up additional furniture and check the boy. He's hurt from the crash, but he doesn't seem to have been bitten.

They try to comfort the boy, who's nearly hysterical, while continuing to secure their location and cart supplies from the basement pantry to the bedrooms upstairs. They catch glimpses out the second-floor windows from time to time, and they can clearly see the situation getting worse and worse; the roads are clogged, there's zombies in the streets, and somewhere, off in the distance, something is burning...

They hunker down and prepare to wait it out for the long hall, but they don't have to wait long. By this point, there's some half-dozen zombies pounding on the front door and north windows, trying to force their way in. They hear a diesel engine slowly making its way down the street and peek out of the second-floor windows to see what it is.

A pickup truck with three men crouching in the truck bed is picking its way through the congestion in the street outside. Two of them start blasting away at the zombies congregating on the front door, while the third sweeps a high-powered flashlight around and picks off any that approach the truck one by one. The wrestler pokes his head out of the second floor window to express his gratitude and see what these guys are up to. One of the men, wearing a cowboy hat, explains that they're simply performing a community service, "cleaning up the neighborhood" as it were. However, everything has a price; in exchange for clearing the zombies off of their stoop, they expect to get their choice of whatever loot they can cart away. At this point, the wrestler notices a substantial pile of hardware and valuables in the truck bed; he goes for his gun, but Cowboy Hat fires, shattering the window, and the wrestler dives for cover.

The heroes decide to let these guys take what they want; they're outgunned, and material possessions aren't worth risking their lives for. They go to hunker down in the upstairs bedrooms, including the college student, who has been in the basement preparing molotov cocktails. The rednecks see her coming up from the basement through the windows next to the front door and misinterpret her intentions; they fire a shot straight through the door and she ducks back down into the basement.

"You can take anything you want! Just leave us alone!" the (female) college student yells out to them.

"Anything?" they call back leeringly, and it's immediately pretty clear that these are not honorable people here.

The heroes change their mind; they have to stop these people. They take up positions; the wrestler is crouched at the top of the stairs, with a bead drawn on the door. The fencer is hiding at the bottom of the stairs, concealed from the front door, ready to strike as soon as they enter. The cop is ready to pop up in the windows upstairs. The college student is now hiding in the basement, and the pop star is still trying to comfort the boy and keep him quiet.

By this point, they've dispatched the zombies in front of the house and are trying to break down the door. It's been weakened by the zombies; it seems like it won't hold for too long, even with the furniture barricades. The cop peeks out of the upstairs window and aims carefully at Cowboy Hat's flashlight, reasoning that if they can't see, they won't be able to fend off additional zombies, and furthermore that a warning shot might be enough to scare them off. She fires her hunting rifle (!) and it smashes the flashlight out of the guy's hand. He screams obscenities as he brings his rifle to bear, but she's already ducked back behind the window.

The flashlight's gone, but the pickup truck had already pulled up so that its flashlights were illuminating the front of the house. The cop pops up to take another shot, but Cowboy Hat saw her before she ducked down, and had his rifle ready. The cop is looking straight down the barrel of his R700 Remington. Cowboy hat smiles as he pulls the trigger and... click. "************* ***** *** ****!" yells, as he ducks back down below the lip of the truck bed. The cop returns fire, but the shot goes wild.

The two other men have finally broken the door off its hinges; they knock it down and shove the desk barricading it aside. Quick as lightning, the fencer lunges out from his position; his sword cane (!) catches the guy between the ribs, and he goes down like a ton of bricks. The wrestler fires, misses, and the other guy bolts off into the house.

The fencer is on him like white on rice, and with alarming alacrity, has slid up next to him and cut his throat. Cowboy Hat clears his weapon jam at the same moment as a bullet from the cop's hunting rifle severs his spine. The driver realizes the better part of valor and hightails it out of there.

This is where we had to leave things for the night, but things do not look good. With the front door broken down, they're considering abandoning the house; easy in theory, but there's at least fifteen zombies converging from all directions, so actually getting out will be another matter entirely.

Stay tuned.

'Tis all good. Acutally, the whole HP Lovecraft idea sounds quite cool. I haven't had as much luck being a player in a zombie game... The GM always had NPCs bail us out of jams, and sort of railroaded us (the setting was our city, but the GM didn't let us go anywhere he hadn't planned).

I ran a few zombie games with a different group that ended up being quite fun.
The first few sessions went by with the PCs unaware that they were dealing with zombies. Unfortunately, they made some TERRIBLE decisions that resulted in alot of PC deaths. For starters, they decided finding keys or keycards for security points was inefficient, so they busted down all the doors (oops, can't lock out the zombies anymore...). They shot every corpse they found in the head just to be safe instead of using a melee weapon (or a boot) to crush or maim the head (and were low on ammo early on). They had to escape the area (long story) by helicopter, but none of them knew how to fly it. So they went looking for the pilot. They found a survivor of the compound who was bitten but found a decent hidey hole, and shot her as soon as I gave the detail (reasoning: she'll turn eventually. Better dead now than later). Unfortunately, she was mere seconds away from letting know she could fly them out in the helicopter (they would have had to clear out the landing pad for her. They found her pilot's license and were shocked).
With the air lift option gone, they decided to find a safe place and wait it out, when they were reminded that the area was going to be bombed soon (they knew ahead of time and forgot). They fought their way to the compounds large garage and decided each PC was going to take one vehicle each, so they could possibly sell them later on. Unfortunately, they went through with the plan, but only 2 PCs had ranks in Drive. Despite this, they took off. They were forced to make some tricky driving checks to steer clear of zombies, and one of the PCs managed to overturn his vehicle when he hit a large obstacle. One PC went back, but his vehicle was about to get swarmed. He didn't want the other PC to die alone so he fought his way to the wreckage, and the two died in a blaze of glory. The remaining PC who couldn't drive abandoned his vehicle and got into the other truck and they just barely made it out in one piece. Best part is: these are only the major 'decisions'. The PCs weren't Genre-savy and it showed. But we all had a good time.

Please keep us up to date on how your game unfolds!

Shraik
2008-01-04, 02:59 PM
I find it fun to make it when zombies are exposed to certain things, their biological design changes. For example, if it is diseased based, have it so when they come into contact with, Idk, gasoline, the zombies genetic make up changes and throws them into a fit of rage