Suggest a zombie apocalypse system

[Quertus]

So, my group wants to run a zombie apocalypse scenario. I’m… trying to evaluate potential systems.

In nearly complete ignorance of zombie systems, and given one stray comment about “maybe learn magic later”, I have, of all things, put forth Shadowrun as a potential candidate: it has a magic system, one could (kinda) “learn magic later”, and “magic came back… wrong”, like, as wrong as Superman in Justice League wrong, and caused the zombie apocalypse is kinda… cool. Evocative.

But I figure there’s personally better choices out there. What do y’all think?

[Alcore]

D20 modern had a rather deadly zombie template in d20 apocalypse…

[The Glyphstone]

All Flesh Must Be Eaten

It's not hacking another system to run a zombie apocalypse, it's a system built explicitly from the ground up for running zombie-apocalypse games.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Even if not explicitly about zombies, you probably want to look for some sort of horror-oriented system. Depending on how long and how mechanically heavy you want the game to be, something like Dread (the jenga tower RPG) might be perfect--or even Fiasco, depending on your enjoyment of pure storytelling games.

[KyleG]

Just adding to the ops query formy own interest... what about for a one shot?
My twelve year old son wants to run something and zombies are what he wants to theme to.

[Tarmor]

The Zombicide board game has an RPG variant. It sounds fun, but I don't know how good it is. Probably best if you were already familiar with one of the board games.

[Gnoman]

As always, GURPS has a lot of this baked in, and is probably worth mining for ideas even if you don't use it.

There's even a built-in system for horror (the Fear Check) with the potential for long-term trauma consequences.

[Anonymouswizard]

All Flesh Must Be Eaten

It's not hacking another system to run a zombie apocalypse, it's a system built explicitly from the ground up for running zombie-apocalypse games.

It's totally hacking another system to run a zombie apocalypse! It's just that Unisystem was set up with pretty much all the tools it needs, and is fun enough.

Still annoyed that the one time I played it I didn't get to play the character I wanted to (a priest with the Visions and Strength miracles, maybe branching into healing once I had some XP). It's a fun system though, even if the GM spent the entire campaign actively denying my scientist the ability to use his skills*. So I highly recommend sitting down and hashing out what kind of game you want it to be early on, or else you'll set up a scenario for a group of struggling scavengers and your players will make a beeline for the industrial park and ensure they each have multiple suits of plate

* I had $10,000 worth of Resources, but had to have it in useless cash instead of the backpack full of devices, chemicals, and batteries I wanted. Which sucks because another character got expensive gear despite not sinking points into resources.

The Zombicide board game has an RPG variant. It sounds fun, but I don't know how good it is. Probably best if you were already familiar with one of the board games.

Huh. Depending on what they've changed that could actually be fun.

[Yora]

There's also Other Dust, which is quite similar to an older version of Stars Without Number and Worlds Without Number.

[Quertus]

Wow, so many different suggestions!

I've personally had (or avoided) bad experiences with d20 Modern, Gurps, and Dread, so unless I get strong pushback of "they're the bestest system for Zombie Survival (with Magic later?)", I don't think I'll push for those. (Honestly, from what I remember, d20 Modern might actually be a good match, if it has good scrounging / survival rules?).

What everyone wants out of the game... well, I'm not 100% sure, actually - I'm going from fragments, and what I know of them. So I'm glad there's so many suggestions, so I can try to help find a system that will match what we want.

Like... some of the comments were "modern(ish), this world", "<someone can play> the strong one - can carry lots of <stuff>" and "maybe magic later?". Seemed to be a focus on puzzle-solving: resource management and acquisition, zombie as puzzle over zombie as combat (talk of what guns can be silenced / not using guns at all because of attracting attention), questions about zombie max speed and a stated desire to have "run" as a valid button to push (you don't see that in most D&D Session 0 notes, IME), etc. EDIT: I just remembered, the players specifically said that they *liked* the idea of drama, of things like "different characters have different, strong opinions about how to survive a zombie apocalypse". In case that somehow helps for suggesting a system.

All Flesh Must Be Eaten

It's not hacking another system to run a zombie apocalypse, it's a system built explicitly from the ground up for running zombie-apocalypse games.

I've heard good things about All Flesh Must Be Eaten. Sadly, I missed the games my group played with that system. Does it do magic?

or even Fiasco, depending on your enjoyment of pure storytelling games.

Not familiar. Elevator pitch for Fiasco Zombie game?

The Zombicide board game has an RPG variant. It sounds fun, but I don't know how good it is. Probably best if you were already familiar with one of the board games.

Although I technically had a bad experience with the board game, I can see how it could be fun. So I'd believe that the RPG could be fun, too. Do you have any experience with it, to sell me on the specifics?

As always, GURPS has a lot of this baked in, and is probably worth mining for ideas even if you don't use it.

There's even a built-in system for horror (the Fear Check) with the potential for long-term trauma consequences.

I don't like GURPS, but I'll grudgingly admit it can have some good things. Given that "having things" is kinda a GURPS motto. If we need to hack something into an existing system, I guess I'll keep GURPS in my back pocket to mine ideas from.

If the right person were running it, I'd give GURPS another shot for a Zombie game.

It's totally hacking another system to run a zombie apocalypse! It's just that Unisystem was set up with pretty much all the tools it needs, and is fun enough.

Still annoyed that the one time I played it I didn't get to play the character I wanted to (a priest with the Visions and Strength miracles, maybe branching into healing once I had some XP). It's a fun system though, even if the GM spent the entire campaign actively denying my scientist the ability to use his skills*. So I highly recommend sitting down and hashing out what kind of game you want it to be early on, or else you'll set up a scenario for a group of struggling scavengers and your players will make a beeline for the industrial park and ensure they each have multiple suits of plate

* I had $10,000 worth of Resources, but had to have it in useless cash instead of the backpack full of devices, chemicals, and batteries I wanted. Which sucks because another character got expensive gear despite not sinking points into resources.

Sorry for your bad experiences. If you've got more to rant about that, I'd love to hear it. Maybe a "ways the GM gave others what you paid for" thread?

Oh, and what's this about Unisystem?

There's also Other Dust, which is quite similar to an older version of Stars Without Number and Worlds Without Number.

I'm not familiar, and I've been wanting to play a game in that series. How easy is it to get? Elevator pitch for Other Dust?

[Grod_The_Giant]

Not familiar. Elevator pitch for Fiasco Zombie game?

Like I said, Fiasco isn't really an RPG in the traditional sense. It's more of a freeform-but-guided storytelling game with a strong lean towards Shakespearian tragedy. Which is not an exaggeration-- a Romeo and Juliet style "I guess the war ends peacefully but half the characters are dead and no-one really got what they wanted" ending is not just possible but encouraged.


If I remember correctly (no guarantees, it's been a long time and I don't have access to my pdfs right now), at the start of the session you generate your main characters, (conflicting) relationships and goals, and some key items and/or locations-- the last game I played, I remember I had an "unhealthy obsession" with the player to my left and "an open grave in Hanging Coffin Gorge"-- and then you just start going around the table.

On your turn, you can either describe a scene and allow the rest of the group to decide the outcome, or ask the rest of the group to set up a scene and pick the outcome yourself. Afterwards, you get a white die or a black die, depending on (I think?) whether or not the scene ended successfully for your character. At the end of the game, those dice are used to determine how good or bad your ultimate fate is... but the trick is that having too many white or black dice in your pool is Bad. You want a mix, which translates to a storyline where you fail as often as you succeed.


----

Sorry if that's not very helpful. Like I said, it's been a long time, and I'm probably not explaining it well. The key point is that Fiasco is free-form storytelling with just enough rules and guidelines to make sure things get nice and tragic.

[Pauly]

Deadlands does the zombie apocalypse in a Weird West setting. Haven’t played the new edition, but the old edition was a lot of fun. It does have a lot of non-zombie horror in it, so to make it pure zombie you either run the system at the start of the zombie apocalypse after Gettysburg or you have to tailor your campaign to be zombie specific.

[Gnoman]

Wow, so many different suggestions!

I've personally had (or avoided) bad experiences with d20 Modern, Gurps, and Dread, so unless I get strong pushback of "they're the bestest system for Zombie Survival (with Magic later?)", I don't think I'll push for those. (Honestly, from what I remember, d20 Modern might actually be a good match, if it has good scrounging / survival rules?).

D20 Modern is fundamentally a system that doesn't work. It's not just a matter of extremely flawed rules for modern tech, but also a lot of stuff ported from 3.5e D&D that simply didn't work that far. There's some good ideas in there, but the system isn't very good.

[The Glyphstone]

I've heard good things about All Flesh Must Be Eaten. Sadly, I missed the games my group played with that system. Does it do magic?

One of the starting archetypes is Inspired, who have lower beginning stats but gain the advantage of being able to do magic/supernatural stuff. So it's definitely there baked into the core rules as an option, though it'd be easy to have everyone start with a mundane archetype and just allow them to branch out into magic later.

[Anonymouswizard]

One of the starting archetypes is Inspired, who have lower beginning stats but gain the advantage of being able to do magic/supernatural stuff. So it's definitely there baked into the core rules as an option, though it'd be easy to have everyone start with a mundane archetype and just allow them to branch out into magic later.

To expand a bit there's three archetypes in the corebook, one is normal dudes and the other two are action heroes and Inspired as above. Any of the nonmundane archetypes are generally the normal dude plus enough special stuff to make them equivalent to the action heroes. I believe a couple of the genre books have alternate systems, martial arts for the kung fu movie book and psychic powers for the pulp adventure one.

It's pretty neat, Inspired in the default fluff think they get magic from without but it actually comes from within. Hence my idea for an Inspired priest who got powers he associated with his religion, but it also works well enough for 'witchy' types.

If you want more magic I believe it's cross compatible with Witchcraft, which has the Gifted for your wizards and various WoD style options. The Buffyverse games also have their own magic system and supernatural qualities, so even beyond the official AFMBE stuff there's a lot of options.

But it is strictly speaking optional, and intended for more Zombie Action games than Zombie Survival ones.

[KorvinStarmast]

There's also Other Dust, which is quite similar to an older version of Stars Without Number and Worlds Without Number.

Slight thread drift: I got WWN a while back and have been reading through it. Man, I wish someone in our group would run it, but the number of prospective GMs keeps on shrinking as RL gets on with its own bad self.

Zombie Apocalypse? Nuke 'em from orbit; it's the only way to be sure.

[Anonymouswizard]

Zombie Apocalypse? Nuke 'em from orbit; it's the only way to be sure.

Zombies automatically get three points of Cool, if they're determined enough they can totally won the nuclear annihilation fight.

[KorvinStarmast]

Zombies automatically get three points of Cool, if they're determined enough they can totally won the nuclear annihilation fight.

I think you may be referring to cockroaches.
Oh no! Zombie cockroaches! In the immortal words of Gandalf the Gray: Fly, you fools!

[Quertus]

On your turn, you can either describe a scene and allow the rest of the group to decide the outcome, or ask the rest of the group to set up a scene and pick the outcome yourself. Afterwards, you get a white die or a black die, depending on (I think?) whether or not the scene ended successfully for your character. At the end of the game, those dice are used to determine how good or bad your ultimate fate is... but the trick is that having too many white or black dice in your pool is Bad. You want a mix, which translates to a storyline where you fail as often as you succeed.

Do you remember well enough whether it's just the active player that gets a die, or whether all the players get a die per scene?

I may look Fiasco up for a one-shot...

Deadlands does the zombie apocalypse in a Weird West setting. Haven’t played the new edition, but the old edition was a lot of fun. It does have a lot of non-zombie horror in it, so to make it pure zombie you either run the system at the start of the zombie apocalypse after Gettysburg or you have to tailor your campaign to be zombie specific.

I'm (a little) familiar with Deadlands. I don't think that the setting is gonna be modern enough for the proposed game.

One of the starting archetypes is Inspired, who have lower beginning stats but gain the advantage of being able to do magic/supernatural stuff. So it's definitely there baked into the core rules as an option, though it'd be easy to have everyone start with a mundane archetype and just allow them to branch out into magic later.

Easy to branch out later? That's definitely a plus.

If you want more magic I believe it's cross compatible with Witchcraft, which has the Gifted for your wizards and various WoD style options. The Buffyverse games also have their own magic system and supernatural qualities, so even beyond the official AFMBE stuff there's a lot of options.

But it is strictly speaking optional, and intended for more Zombie Action games than Zombie Survival ones.

Are these all AFMBE... "sub-games"? like the various d20 systems?

[Anonymouswizard]

Are these all AFMBE... "sub-games"? like the various d20 systems?

All based on Unisystem, so if anything AFMBE is a Witchcraft 'sub game'. Rules wise it's like the World of Darkness games, it's the same system but there can be some differences (mainly Classic Unisytem versus Cinematic Unisystem*). Setting wise they're all different settings.

Witchcraft is free in pdf, so if you want to check out the basic ruleset you can. But there's none of the zombie specific stuff from AFMBE in there.

* Witchcraft and AFMBE are classic, Buffy/Angel, Army of Darkness, and Eldritch Skies** are cinematic.
** Except for the Savage Worlds*** version.
*** Which could also do zombies fairly well.

[Grod_The_Giant]

Do you remember well enough whether it's just the active player that gets a die, or whether all the players get a die per scene?

I may look Fiasco up for a one-shot...

Okay, I *did* manage to find my copy. Let's see... Okay, it looks like I wasn't quite right.

• The game is divided into two acts, with a destabilizing event known as the Tilt happening in the middle. In both acts the active player gets a die for the scene-- good if they or the group decide the scene ends well, bad if they don't.; During act two they keep their dice, and during act one they immediately hand the die to another player they want to help and/or mess with.
• At the halfway mark, everyone rolls their good dice and their bad dice and cancel out the results; the player with the highest net good score and the one with the highest net bad score get to determine how the Tilt plays out.
• At the end of the game, everyone rolls their good dice and bad dice again, with their final net good/bad result determining how well the story ends for you. A high result gives you a happy ending regardless of whether your roll is net good or net bad; the closer to zero you get, the worse things get. (A final score of zero is literally defined as "the worst thing in the universe")

Ideally you want all good (or all bad) endings to your scenes--but since everyone is trying to do that, and your characters and their goals will be in opposition, you'll probably wind up with everyone having a very mixed final result. Which is better than I thought, actually, since it means that our competitive instincts wind up driving the narrative in the desired direction.

(Which, I can't emphasize enough, is going to be tragic for everyone--good/bad dice are d6s, and you need a net score of 8 just to make it out in the same condition that you started in. This is not a game where you get emotionally attached to your characters. This is a game that ends with half the characters dead and the remainder imprisoned, ruined, or insane. Oh, and someone probably got shoved in a woodchipper)

[Yora]

Slight thread drift: I got WWN a while back and have been reading through it. Man, I wish someone in our group would run it, but the number of prospective GMs keeps on shrinking as RL gets on with its own bad self.

Good games come to those who run them.

[Alcore]

Wow, so many different suggestions!

I've personally had (or avoided) bad experiences with d20 Modern, Gurps, and Dread, so unless I get strong pushback of "they're the bestest system for Zombie Survival (with Magic later?)", I don't think I'll push for those. (Honestly, from what I remember, d20 Modern might actually be a good match, if it has good scrounging / survival rules?).

Bestest? No. Not even close. However the hero’s saves tend to be a little lower than 3.5 and the zombie plague has a DC 20 save. It’s not quite a “save or die” but it comes close. (I think you make multiple saves with each failure reducing con? Wish I had my book on my.)


There is a crafting system system in apocalypse (irritably D20 future material is not covered) and adds more survival rules to the generic ones. It is 3.5 comparable so anything from 3.5 or pathfinder is valid for survival material. (Ultimate Wilderness from pathfinder if they decide to avoid all civilization and using modern is a good idea)


Outside of combat it is vary rule light zombie game (predominantly none existent rules; apocalypse branched out too much to focus on any one type.) with it just talking. Thought provoking if you missed anything in your world building.



I don’t fully recommend but if I were to decide to run a zombie game it is the top of reference material. Modern is fun but seems to have problems.

[KorvinStarmast]

Good games come to those who run them.

I am approaching DM burnout again, which is something that contributed to my dropping out of the hobby for a decade or so.

Forever DM isn't a role I prefer.

[Easy e]

I would imagine a rules lite game like Monster of the Week could be fun for this.

I also read an amusing Mutants of the Atomic Wastes set-up for FUDGE, that made me think that good old fashion FUDGE could do the job with some work on your part.