Zombie Apocalypse Basics

[RebelRogue]

One group I'm gaming have become increasingly less focused on the 4ed game I've been DMing (they're teenagers, which is probably a large part of it, but I guess they're also growing a bit tired of the same old chars/fantasy style, at least for a while...)

After some discussions, we settled on a rules-light zombie apocalypse scenario. They're going to play people of their own age (I hope this will make them able to relate a bit more) and the rules are going to be simple: in case of conflict/drama/danger roll 1d6. 1 is complete failure, 6 is complete success with everything in between. The idea is, that the players themselves have to describe what happens based on these rolls - collaborative storytelling in other words.

One basic premise is, that it's going to be fast, dirty and deadly and as such players shouldn't be too afraid of describing bad stuff. Should they die (which will probably happen quite a bit - this is part of what they wanted: a higher level of danger) I plan on simply assigning them NPCs they've met. In this way, the cast may be slowly shifting over time.

All of this is pretty experimental as opposed to my usual, more rigid D&D style (it was suggested by a friend based on one of his own games), but hopefully it will be fun.

So much for mechanics/style. My problem is that I need some ideas for the plotline. Where to start and where to take it etc. I know of the basics of a zombie apocalypse, obviously, but I'm not an expert by any means. So I'm asking you: are there some things/people/events/whatever I absolutely have to include in such a scenario/storyline? Any help is greatly appreciated

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Buy the All Flesh Must Be Eaten rules. even if you aren't using them, it has a sample adventure and a bunch of advice on what should be going on during each stage of the zombiocalypse and how to give players something interesting to do at the same time.

[Thrawn4]

I strongly recommend the "Zombie Survival Guide".
http://www.amazon.com/Zombie-Surviva...3337735&sr=8-1

[Mad Wizard]

Well, the very first thing to decide is what kind of zombies you're going to have. Classic, slow, braaaaaaains zombies? Faster zombies, like in Left 4 Dead (which you should play if you haven't)? Headcrab zombies? It might also be good to decide what created the zombies. A virus is probably the most interesting option, particularly if you're looking to get away from the fantasy setting. Also, decide if you're going to have any zombies that are different from the norm, like special infected, again from L4D.

[Innis Cabal]

I strongly recommend the "Zombie Survival Guide".
http://www.amazon.com/Zombie-Surviva...3337735&sr=8-1

I see this all the time, and I feel compelled to say this every time its posted.

Its a fun book. It has some neat idea's. But by no means is it the end all, be all zombie guide it claims to be. It is only written based off his kind of Zombie and -alot- of his information is flat wrong. He's not a military person, and alot of his information on weapons, survival in general, and basic food/drink/stock idea's are...at best, lethal if you follow them.

[herrhauptmann]

I see this all the time, and I feel compelled to say this every time its posted.

Its a fun book. It has some neat idea's. But by no means is it the end all, be all zombie guide it claims to be. It is only written based off his kind of Zombie and -alot- of his information is flat wrong. He's not a military person, and alot of his information on weapons, survival in general, and basic food/drink/stock idea's are...at best, lethal if you follow them.

Did you notice how most of the weapons he starts out praising them, then by the end of the entry he's describing why they're not good to use?

Seriously, the dude's an author, he wrote an entire book full of fluff. It's like taking something from the PHB and saying "IT DOESN"T WORK LIKE THAT IN REAL LIFE!" which people often do on this forum.
If you enjoyed the zombie survival guide, go read World War Z. And hope the movie comes out soon.

If you really wanna know about zombie survival, go to a survival school, then adapt what they tell you for the circumstances of a zombie apocalypse.

[Deth Muncher]

*checks watch* Yep, appears to be that time again.

Zomb'o'clock.

[taltamir]

mystery helps suspense and suspension of disbelief...
come up with a back story, but don't immediately share it and never fully share it.

that is, even if they do a lot of research, they just find out bits and pieces and not the whole story. Though, its not like there needs to be much story in a zombie apocalypse...

[awa]

come up with a plausible reason why the military is unable to stop the outbreak.
Most zombie fiction assumes that the militaries and governments of the world are all really, really stupid which is an option i suppose but not necessarily a good one. A better choice might be that the virus starts all over the world simultaneously making containing it a failure from the start.
Most important are there zombies in popular culture in this world being eaten by zombies.

[Lysander]

A few classic settings:

Barricaded Mall
Fenced In Military Base
Survivalist Town Surrounded By Wooden Stockade
Prison turned fortress
Underground Science Lab Bunker
Zombie Infested Incredibly Dangerous Major City
Overgrown amusement park
Gas station that looks ok, let's go inside for supplies
Subway tunnels which must be entered for no good reason
Creepy apartment building
House in middle of the woods zombies don't find until after a few days peace
Gun Store where guns are obtained but guy gets bitten so its a trade off
Infested hospital with very necessary drug that must be obtained

A few classic characters:

Misguided mad scientist with good intentions
Savage Post-Apocalyptic Biker Gang
Incredibly necessary medical doctor
Jerk Soldier Who Is Pretty Close To Snapping
Jerk Leader Who Kinda Likes The Apocalypse Because It Means He's In Power
Captive Chained Up Zombie Being Studied By Science
Formerly Rich Guy Who Still Thinks Money Matters
Guy Keeping Zombie Family In Attic or Basement Hoping For a Cure
Feral Child Surviving By Their Wits
Zombie In Ridiculous Costume Worn At Death (Clown, Football Player, etc.)
Zombie Flanders

[Sstoopidtallkid]

Also:Wild Animals. Some of which are Zombified. A pack of wild dogs are dangerous already, but when you can't be sure whether they'll be fast and smart or diseased and unkillable, and they're circling you in the dark...yeah.

[Innis Cabal]

Did you notice how most of the weapons he starts out praising them, then by the end of the entry he's describing why they're not good to use?

Seriously, the dude's an author, he wrote an entire book full of fluff. It's like taking something from the PHB and saying "IT DOESN"T WORK LIKE THAT IN REAL LIFE!" which people often do on this forum.
If you enjoyed the zombie survival guide, go read World War Z. And hope the movie comes out soon.

If you really wanna know about zombie survival, go to a survival school, then adapt what they tell you for the circumstances of a zombie apocalypse.

Yes, in fact I did. Which is why I said what I said. It dosn't even have internal consistancy. And to me, thats a HUGE issue. He goes on and on about several guns, and then turns right around and says "These suck"...he can't even keep his own setting straight.

[ghashxx]

Also:Wild Animals. Some of which are Zombified. A pack of wild dogs are dangerous already, but when you can't be sure whether they'll be fast and smart or diseased and unkillable, and they're circling you in the dark...yeah.

While kind of fun, this is a wicked dangerous slope. What about rats, or even mosquitoes? So if you have melee oriented and incredibly melee infected creatures that by their very nature are incredibly fast then be real careful about it, otherwise you've got everyone dead without any real play time over and over again unless you DM fiat it, in which case it would be better to avoid entirely.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

While kind of fun, this is a wicked dangerous slope. What about rats, or even mosquitoes? So if you have melee oriented and incredibly melee infected creatures that by their very nature are incredibly fast then be real careful about it, otherwise you've got everyone dead without any real play time over and over again unless you DM fiat it, in which case it would be better to avoid entirely.

It's a virus. It only can be spread through species that fit certain criteria, and some of those criteria are impossible to know without a highly advanced laboratory.

That said, I'd make it a function of mass and kingdom(nothing smaller than a cat, and no non-mammals). And it's harder to infect them than humans, since the virus primarily goes after us. Also, carnivorous animals cannot become infected by eating infected flesh, their stomachs can handle low-grade meat in a way we can't(and don't care to duplicate). So now you can have wild animals running around, a small portion of which become infected after death, but the players can handle that many, especially if you limit it to mostly dogs and housecats(the town didn't have a zoo or anything similar).

[awa]

ive always wondered why zombie animals get to keep their speed unlike humans shouldn't zombie animals be just as slow

[Sstoopidtallkid]

ive always wondered why zombie animals get to keep their speed unlike humans shouldn't zombie animals be just as slow

Probably, but when you're talking about a pack rather than a shambling horde, speed matters less. The default setting when encountering hungry dogs is 'surrounded'.

[awa]

then why do they get to be smart enough to use the pack tactics

[Lycanthromancer]

then why do they get to be smart enough to use the pack tactics

Perhaps their mental capacities are less damaged than humans' are.

Seeming inconsistencies like this could easily be plot-points that you could make important to survival. Perhaps there's a beloved pet of one of the characters that gets zombified but retains its lovable personality even as bits fall off, and the players should figure out what's going on and how to get that trait to spread amongst the rest of the zombies. Sure, keeping your mind and personality while your flesh rots isn't exactly the nicest thing, but the still-living will likely appreciate it more than getting torn to bits.

[Croverus]

Its not a matter on intelligence. A lot of zombies are noted for mimicking things they did in life. Also human zombies don't hunt as a pack, tis just they all happen to be going for the same source of food as eachother and aren't gonan compete for it, so they "work together" purely by chance. Packs of zombies dogs is are not much different.

[Croverus]

Perhaps their mental capacities are less damaged than humans' are.

Seeming inconsistencies like this could easily be plot-points that you could make important to survival. Perhaps there's a beloved pet of one of the characters that gets zombified but retains its lovable personality even as bits fall off, and the players should figure out what's going on and how to get that trait to spread amongst the rest of the zombies. Sure, keeping your mind and personality while your flesh rots isn't exactly the nicest thing, but the still-living will likely appreciate it more than getting torn to bits.

Did this as a game once. The players awoke finding themselves infected and turning, eventually dieing but still aware and in control. The hunger was overcome with daily will saves that got higher during times when the hunger tried taking over, like stumbling upon a wounded person that was alive but out cold and injured, the smell of blood making penalties, while being around realitives gave bonuses to resist hunger. The players were desperate to discover a cure for their condition before they gave into the hunger, which coudl be surpressed by eating raw meat and by uninfected willing to help in some morbid way (one case the player's father willingly cuts off hsi own arm so the player coudl eat it without infecting his dad). It was awesome!

There's a version of it in All Flesh Must Be Eaten.

[Satyr]

The basic concept of any good zombie story is: The zombies are colour, and pillars of the setting, but the true danger and strife are other people. The zombies only exacerbate the whole problems.

[Vorpalbob]

The Zmobie Survival Guide is among my favorite fake-yet-awesome books/movies. (yes, right up there next to Spinal Tap). Max Brooks does tend to contradict himself a lot.

A warning for you people who live with 8-12 year olds who scare easily; allow them to read this book and they will take it seriously. After a sleep-over at my place, my aunt phoned asking why my cousin was asking them to stockpile M1s and Katanas. She didn't believe me when I told her about the book. She needed physical proof that I had made an honest mistake, not let my cousin watch Night of the Living Dead.

True story.

[Cicciograna]

For your game system, may I suggest Risus? It's simple, free and fun.

[Zincorium]

The basic concept of any good zombie story is: The zombies are colour, and pillars of the setting, but the true danger and strife are other people. The zombies only exacerbate the whole problems.

This has always been the ending message of zombie tales- but that, IMHO, makes it the cliche that has to be subverted to keep it all interesting. You can't surprise a genre-savvy group with a raid by mad-max style bandits or a domineering military faction.

[FuegoAzul]

Zombies that can explode in clouds of noxious vapor and spewing bone fragments. Always classic. "Oh look, a single zombie is coming in to melee us. This will be hard..." "Yeah, you take 4 d10 damage as it explodes. And roll vs poison."

Screamer zombies are good too, they can daze and confuse and even cause temporary insanity to players. Not unlike the Witches from Left4Dead.

[Bayar]

Zombies that can explode in clouds of noxious vapor and spewing bone fragments. Always classic. "Oh look, a single zombie is coming in to melee us. This will be hard..." "Yeah, you take 4 d10 damage as it explodes. And roll vs poison."

Screamer zombies are good too, they can daze and confuse and even cause temporary insanity to players. Not unlike the Witches from Left4Dead.

There actually was a screamer zombie when they were making Left 4 Dead. He would be dressed in a straitjacket (sp?) and scream when survivors were near, running away and hiding, and also drawing hordes while doing so. They scrapped the idea, and implemented the horde drawing mechanic into the Boomer's bile (originally, he was only a fat zombie that exploded in chunky bits).

[Satyr]

This has always been the ending message of zombie tales- but that, IMHO, makes it the cliche that has to be subverted to keep it all interesting. You can't surprise a genre-savvy group with a raid by mad-max style bandits or a domineering military faction.

No, but a) these are more interesting than more Zombies, especially when you play up the moral dimensions; based on the common concept that the PC's are quite normal guys, they are probably no cold-blooded killers. They will learn how to fight against the stenches (we don't say the Z-word), and so on, but true, 100% breathing humans are a completely different matter. Now, replace gun-totting Hell's Angels with a group of hungry, probably infected, but plainly malnourished and ill refugees who want to get into the PC's hideout. With children.

The scope of a good necrocalypse camapign is what seeting you use. You could play in a town which is a restricted area after the outbreak - with iron courtain style walls around it and spring guns which opens fire as soon as someone tries to flee. You could put your PC's up as raiding nomads who travel from place to place and plunder fuel, food and so on from the dead people's suburbs (bonus points for a cool car). You could focus on a small rural community, which can become self-sufficient (when you can grow corn, you can distill alcohol. Alcohol is fuel. Fuel means warmth, fuel means light, fuel means power. Feel the power.) and become paranoid concerning the outer world, rainding nomads who travel from place to place, and of course, the shamblers. You coud also take one of the classics - military encampments, and of course the mall are the basics here - but the where is pretty much one of the basic question.

The next basic question is the when - concerning the time of the initial outbreak, and what happened since then (The other thing, historical necrocalypse campaigns are another matter, but are usually made out of pure, solid nedcrotic win). Is it the first outbreak? How stable is the overall social order, how well did it react, how are the infected treated? In the classic zombie tale, a collapse of social structures is a given, but that doesn't mean that you have to follow that through. What about a campaign about a small groups of firemen or cops who try to maintain order and protect their families while the catastrophe of the necrocalypse does not only occupy them, but also looses the restraints?
Or what about a campaign where the initial outbreak was so long ago, that there is already a second, or a third generation of survivors, and a complete new society has evolved, when only the oldtimers still speak from the fairy tales of the old omniscient gods Google, the super market and, of course, TV.
If you want to run a game which happens a few years after the outbreak, try to get some footage of the Chernobyl area, like this stuff. It gives a certain feeling what happens to an urban environment when there are no more people inhabiting it. Besides, it is a nicely depressing view (and the music is a nice bonus to the mood).

As mentioned above, historical zombie slaying is a fun all in itself. Just think of a Roman Garrison defending their fort against hordes of undeads, or a pirate vs. zombie setting.

The next question is the who, but that's mostly up to your players. What's left for you is the layout of the moaners. Are they the standard Romero version - slow, but steady and using tools? The stupid but fast ones from the Dawn of the Dead remake? The "vampires" from I am Legend? Something different? Do they rot? How smart are they? Are they ruly dead, or is it just some kind of infection? Are the usual "one bite and you are hooked" rules intact, or does it work different? What happens to your usual every day normal dead bodies?