How would you run a Zombie apocalypse game?

[kentma57]

Well how would you? To give you a place to start here are some things to consider...

1- What system would you use? (d20, BESM, D&D...)

2- Group size?

3- Where do they start? (together, apart, at their homes, fortified, in danger...)

4- What do they start with?

5- What would happen in the plot?

6- Would you provide them with NPC?

7- Would you use the NPC for plot hooks? (escape, safety, a cure...)

8- What is the cause of the zombie apocalypse? (disease, magic...)

9- What type of endings would you have?

10- What kind of Zombie crunch do you use?

and any more questions you can think of...

[Zincorium]

1. Three or four PCs, a few NPCs (not necessarily combatants)

2. I decide time of day, they tell me where they'd be. Insert outside influences as necessary to give them an excuse to come together.

3. Only what they'd have on them or could acquire at quite literally a moment's notice.

4. Initial chaos, followed by siege and then foolhardy excursion to find and destroy whatever is causing it.

5. Yes. However, the primary purpose of the NPCs is to die and show the PCs what not to do.

6. See above.

7. D&D: Ancient curse related to disturbed tombs. Modern: Protozoans combining characteristics of slime mold and malaria (I have an entire treatise on this, so I'm gonna use it).

8. Depends mostly on what the PCs do, but it will probably end badly for them. One survivor is optimistic.

[Yami]

1- I would run with the Mechwarrior system.

2- Group size? the Pc's and whatever NPC's they manage to rope into coming with them.

3- Either outside of a large city housing Umbrella Corps headquarters, or just touching down on Umberlla Corps primary planet, dependand on the size/length of the campaign.

4- Thier starting gear of course.

5- Plot? well, Zombies of course. They'll probably have to grab some McGuffin or another to get paid for the job.

6- They would be forced to bring thier own NPC's with slight chances of a survivor or two being barraciaded inside ground zero.

7- Of course not! PC's provide themselves enough hooks for me, I don't need NPC's gumming up the works as well.

8- Cause? Too much biological reaserch. Bio-warfare can be a such a pain.

9- My endings would depend entirely on the PC's, as always.

[Sstoopidtallkid]

System? All Flesh Must Be Eaten.
All else comes down to preference.

[FlyMolo]

The trouble with DnD is that its zombies aren't zombocalypse zombies. They don't breed, they aren't strong or fast or difficult to beat. You just wear away at them.

I'd give them tops four players, though more could work. A few npcs, mostly because these zombies are going to kill off a few people before the PCs catch on.

Create a template: DOOM zombie.

Type becomes undead, hit dice become d12, add the con score to the strength score. Dex becomes effectively 0, as does con. Doom zombies don't die upon hitting -10, they can go lower indefinitely. FH1 and DR 5/-. When a zombie takes damage, deal Strength drain to it equal to half the damage taken. If a zombie loses it's strength score, it's destroyed.

All speeds are halved, or become 30 feet, whichever is lower. Zombie also gains penalty to all moves equal to total lost strength in feet. Round up. Fly manueverability becomes clumsy. Creature is mindless, retains only NA, (Ex) DR, and natural attacks. It also gains a slam attack appropriate to the size, if it doesn't have one already. What did I miss, hmm. Zombie loses all feats, all mental abilities, all spellcasting abilities, and gains Improved grab. If it hits with a slam attack, then wins a grapple check, it can use a constrict-like ability bite, which deals 1d4 points of damage and inflicts DOOM fever on the victim.

DOOM fever: DC for all saves=15+zombies HD+zombies remaining Str/10. Every day, save or take 1d3 points of constitution drain. This drain cannot be removed, and the fever cannot be cured short of Wish or Miracle. When the subject dies, he rises in 1 round as a DOOM zombie.

There. Not pretty, not neat, but I like it. I tried to make the system deal with a monster that doesn't ever stop, but you can slow it down and make it weaker.

[kentma57]

The trouble with DnD is that its zombies aren't zombocalypse zombies. They don't breed, they aren't strong or fast or difficult to beat. You just wear away at them.

I'd give them tops four players, though more could work. A few npcs, mostly because these zombies are going to kill off a few people before the PCs catch on.

Create a template: DOOM zombie.

Type becomes undead, hit dice become d12, add the con score to the strength score. Dex becomes effectively 0, as does con. Doom zombies don't die upon hitting -10, they can go lower indefinitely. FH1 and DR 5/-. When a zombie takes damage, deal Strength drain to it equal to half the damage taken. If a zombie loses it's strength score, it's destroyed.

All speeds are halved, or become 30 feet, whichever is lower. Zombie also gains penalty to all moves equal to total lost strength in feet. Round up. Fly manueverability becomes clumsy. Creature is mindless, retains only NA, (Ex) DR, and natural attacks. It also gains a slam attack appropriate to the size, if it doesn't have one already. What did I miss, hmm. Zombie loses all feats, all mental abilities, all spellcasting abilities, and gains Improved grab. If it hits with a slam attack, then wins a grapple check, it can use a constrict-like ability bite, which deals 1d4 points of damage and inflicts DOOM fever on the victim.

DOOM fever: DC for all saves=15+zombies HD+zombies remaining Str/10. Every day, save or take 1d3 points of constitution drain. This drain cannot be removed, and the fever cannot be cured short of Wish or Miracle. When the subject dies, he rises in 1 round as a DOOM zombie.

There. Not pretty, not neat, but I like it. I tried to make the system deal with a monster that doesn't ever stop, but you can slow it down and make it weaker.

awsome....

[Talic]

I did the following for my D&D zombie game:

Low Magic: Magic is failing across the realm. All casters have a max caster level of 10, all spells, as well as spell like abilities and supernatural abilities have a 10% Failure Chance (this stacks with all other failure chances. Any ability which is used at a CL higher than 10 is treated as CL 10. If this makes the CL too low to activate the ability, then it may not be used. All spells that create or summon undead have a 100% failure rate.

New Feat:
Bolster Casting
Benefit: Choose one spellcasting class. You may ignore the 10% general failure chance for casting spells with that class.


Dread Zombie Template: Can be added to any living creature except mindless ones.
Start: Remove all class levels from base creature, add Living Zombie subtype
HD: Change racial HD to d12, and double all racial HD.
Ability Scores: Str +4, Dex -4, Con +4, Int -, Wis -, Cha -4
Movement: As base creature
BAB: Poor (+1 per 2 HD)
Attacks: Give 2 claw attacks (if limbed), and bite, if base creature didn't have them. If creature had no bite attack, then reach for bite is 5' less than other attacks (minimum 0')
Special Attacks: Zombie Rot.
Special Qualities: Death Moan, Relentless, Ponderous, Hungers for Flesh, Go for the Head.
Skills: Living zombies always take maximum ranks in listen.
Racial: Living Zombies Receive a +4 racial bonus to listen checks and grapple checks, and a -4 penalty to balance checks.
CR: +2, +3 if base form had bite attack prior to template.

Death Moan: When prey is detected, a Living Zombie emits a loud moan, as a free action. The DC to hear this moan is DC 5. Any living zombie that does not detect prey and hears the moan will instinctively move towards the sound.

Relentless: Living Zombies do not die when their HP reaches 0. Instead, for every time that damage equal to their HP is dealt, remove a limb from the zombie. If a zombie loses a leg, it falls prone, and has standing movement reduced to 5 ft. If a zombie loses an arm, it receives a -4 penalty to grapple checks. In addition, living zombies are immune to disease (although they are carriers), poison, ability damage, stunning, mind infuencing effects, and death from massive damage.

Ponderous: Living zombies have both a move and standard action each round, but may never exchange their standard action for an additional move action. In addition, Living Zombies do not receive iterative attacks for high BAB, and instead must rely on their natural attack pattern (Claw, Claw, Bite)

Hungers for Flesh: Living zombies will always attack living flesh upon detection. They prefer non-infected flesh to infected. They will never use any sort of manufactured weapon, relying solely upon natural attacks.

Go for the Head: Living zombies do have one weak point... The head. When a zombie takes damage to the head equaling 50% of its HP, the head is assumed to be destroyed. Any critical hit is assumed to hit there. Any attack with sneak attack damage is aimed there (once the character knows of the weakness). Players may make called shots to heads at a -8 penalty to deal damage to the head. If a zombie has no heads remaining, it is destroyed.

Zombie Rot: Living Zombie attacks are carriers of Zombie Rot. If a zombie wounds with a natural attack, there is a 5% per point of damage chance to infect the target with zombie rot. If the zombie wounds with a bite attack, the chance is automatically 100%.


Disease: Zombie Rot:
Fort DC: 10+1/2 HD+ Con Modifier (of the carrier that infected target)
Damage: 2D6 Int, 2D6 Wis.
Special: This disease is magical in nature. Successive saves will not cure it. Immunity to disease is only 50% effective. The only way to remove it is a CL 10 or higher Remove Disease spell.

If an infected character reaches 0 Int or Wis, he appears to die. In actuality, they are being transformed into a living zombie (1d4 rounds).

[hylian chozo]

Wight apocalypses are much better for this in my opinion. Just don't treat the spawn as enslaved and you're good.

[Jack Zander]

Ghouls and Ghasts work really well for apocalypse zombies. The whole eat flesh and spawn more thing fits their flavor.

[John Campbell]

D&D is a terrible system for this sort of thing. It doesn't deal at all well with the sort of long, grinding encounter with endless hordes of mooks that epitomizes the zombie attack.

I'd use Shadowrun by preference, but just about anything would be better than d20.

[DementedFellow]

I would use Call of Cthulhu.

It allows for some inventive ways to deal with the undead horde. Like flamethrowers.

[Krimm_Blackleaf]

*Cough cough*

I'll be on my way, see you folks later.

[Attilargh]

I'd probably use the new World of Darkness (mortals, of course) combined with zombies from the Antagonists book. I think that'd work pretty well, being a horror game and all.

For a bit more light-hearted take on the matter, I'd use Mutants & Masterminds and soup up the zombies provided. Plus, you can't beat zombie supers.

[prufock]

1- I'd probably use the Mutants and Masterminds rules, actually, with a grim and gritty atmosphere. The PCs would all be PL 2, 30 points, with strict character generation rules (they'd get to choose a career, their character build has to match their career, no powers).

2- I'd have around 6 PCs. No more than 8, no less than 3.

3- In their own homes, most likely.

4- Whatever they have at home. Food, water, knives, heavy blunt objects.

5- They'd basically just have to survive long enough to reach some sort of outpost (military base, airstrip) where they would expect rescue.

6- There would be some NPCs, but they'd be either a) holed up in their own places and too scared to leave, b) openly hostile, or c) eaten very quickly.

7- Yes, of course.

8- Disease. It would be a modern campaign, no magic involved.

9- That depends on the players! If they make it to the outpost, they could conceivably survive. If they don't, they may very well be eaten. It would be pretty free-form.

10- The zombies are deadly. PL 5 or 6. They are contagious upon fluid transfer, so their bites are particularly nasty. They are better avoided than engaged. Basically the zombie example in the M&M core rulebook, but with added skill points in notice, immunity to emotional, social, and mental effects, immunity to nonlethal damage, and the zombie rot disease.