So, yesterday, a friend of mine asked yesterday if I could run a game for him and a couple of friends today. Very last miniute, but Iâ,¬,,¢m always up to the challenge. I told them that, for my sake, Iâ,¬,,¢m going to be running a d20 modern zombie game, because zombies are fun and donâ,¬,,¢t require too much planning. However, me being me, I canâ,¬,,¢t just throw together a zombie game without adding my own kinks in the work, especially since the guys Iâ,¬,,¢m running for are zombie movie buffs and the old tricks wonâ,¬,,¢t offer much fun for them. So, hereâ,¬,,¢s the basic premise
Campaign type: Survival and discovery: There isnâ,¬,,¢t going to be a huge plot here â,¬' their primary goal is going to be survival, with trying to figure out what caused the zombies and more about their nature. Individual scenarios will include, for the first session, finding a shelter and saving a major NPC, Andrea Cross, a scientist who will prove invaluable to zombie research (smart hero 1, fast hero 1). If Andrea dies Iâ,¬,,¢ll bring in another scientific figure. Theyâ,¬,,¢ll also encounter Fr. Michael Pox, (Dedicated hero 2) a former priest who is going to found, in later sessions, a death worshiping cult that seeks to use zombies as tools.
Other NPCs: Rachel Tate (fast ordinary 1) a teenage girl looking for her parents, Sergeant Brian Oâ,¬,,¢Malley, a police sergeant and the only surviving member of his precinct (strong hero 1), Fr. Brendan Connors (Dedicated 1), a counterpart for Fr. Pox, Amy Phillips, reporter (charismatic hero 1), Kevin Lee (Strong 2) a gang member and street kid. Also, I know my PCs and thereâ,¬,,¢s a 50% chance theyâ,¬,,¢ll head for the nearest army base, so Iâ,¬,,¢ll have to provide stats for soldiers and think up some things if they do.
The Zombies: The zombies are going to be different from other zombies in a few ways. First, they are the result of a military made retrovirus that would rewrite subjects DNA to make them into perfect soldiers. (not sure how the virus got out into the general populace yet.) As a result, the zombies have enhanced physical abilities and are prone to mutation over time. This also explains the need for human flesh and the lack of desire for zombie flesh â,¬' they need more human DNA to work with as the retrovirus modifies them, and zombies have already been altered, so the retrovirus doesnâ,¬,,¢t work with them. (I know thatâ,¬,,¢s not how retroviruses really work, but itâ,¬,,¢s cool and interesting and my players wonâ,¬,,¢t know the difference when they figure it out.) On a final note about them, Iâ,¬,,¢m stealing from Deelâ,¬,,¢s zombies in the fact that, when feeding, they become more clear and intelligent. Only briefly, though, before the hunger overtakes them again. The more mutated they are, though, the less human they are when intelligent, and the more they must consume to regain those brief moments of lucidity.
For the first session, theyâ,¬,,¢ll mainly be dealing with normal zombies with very few mutations, so I just need to work out stats for them. (Iâ,¬,,¢m thinking Iâ,¬,,¢ll just give them the stats of a fast, tough, or strong ordinary with a claw attack and a bite attack. The virus (tentative name: Human Necrotizing Enhancement Virus, or HNEV) is going to have a very high fort save, something like DC 35 â,¬' or is that too much? Part of me just wants to make it an automatic infection â,¬' you get bit, youâ,¬,,¢re screwed, like in most movies.
Thoughts on anything would be greatly appreciated, as I am going to be running this tonight and need to get more together. Iâ,¬,,¢ll post more as I think about it â,¬' and yes, this setting is going to be called ZOMG Zombies!!! until I find a better name for it.
Itâ,¬,,¢s good to be back. This does mark the return of true activity to the CBG, and Iâ,¬,,¢ll start commenting on other peopleâ,¬,,¢s threads tomorrow. :)
I'd be tempted to go auto-infection, myself. Setting DC 35 means it's pretty much 1 in 20 they're not infected. So it's up to you whether it's good there's a 5% chance that a bite does not carry the disease.
The easiest way to have introduced into the general populace would be the typical - the base it was tested at is overrun and 1+ subject(s) escapes into the city.
How it got out:
Testing is done at said army base. Fr. Pox has converted one or more of the soldiers (high ranking or not) to his cult. While testing the zombies combat effectiveness the converted soldier decides to disable to locks on the doors. The zombies start escaping terrorizing the military base. A few small pockets of soldiers are able survive, but their supplies are running low and the base is still overrun with soldier zombies. (If they want military weapons,you might as well make them work for it). Some of the zombies head to town and start spreading the disease there.
Unless your players are going to have many characters handy I wouldn't make the virus an auto-infect. Of course if they want to play a zombie on the other hand that has to feed every few hours to remain normal, they that is another story. It also depends on how much time it takes to become a zombie, since you say the virus works over time.
Thanks for the feedback, guys.
I think, when it comes to infection, I'll go over it with my players, give them an option between auto-infect, high DC, or medium DC. I'd like auto-infect, but I don't want to ruin fun. You raise a good point PK, 35 is just a bit too high - 5% success is kind of pointless.
As for release:
Posideon I really like your idea. I might tweak it some but for now, consider it ganked. :D Thanks for the idea, it'll help me tie in Pox better, which is something I wanted to do.
Virus is delivered via injury with a natural attack. In keeping with a balanced system, virus save DC = 10 + CON mod + 1/2 HD of the zombie. More advanced mutations are harder to resist. (Or STR mod if your zombies don't get CON)
Apon the first injury, the character must make a fort save or become infected. Infected characters make an additional save every ten minutes (or hour, or day, or minute, whatever). Failing a save causes the character to take 1d6 WIS damage. A character that reaches 2 or less WIS must make another save or become a zombie.
I am really, really tempted to suggest mixing some borg into this. My reasoning is thus; if they were going to try and design the perfect soldier, they would want someone intensely loyal and good at tactics, letting the higher-ups do the actual thinking. They would also need to incorporate some sort of communication into this. This would result in a horde of mindless drones that can be directly controlled by a 'higher class' of zombie. The infection would become more of an assimilation, adding new material to the group, which fits in with your concept already.
Quote from: Xathan, Actually Back This TimeAs for release:
Posideon I really like your idea. I might tweak it some but for now, consider it ganked. :D Thanks for the idea, it'll help me tie in Pox better, which is something I wanted to do.
I left if kinda vague, and incomplete, so you could modify it to your own plans.
Quote from: Teeter-toterVirus is delivered via injury with a natural attack. In keeping with a balanced system, virus save DC = 10 + CON mod + 1/2 HD of the zombie. More advanced mutations are harder to resist. (Or STR mod if your zombies don't get CON)
Apon the first injury, the character must make a fort save or become infected. Infected characters make an additional save every ten minutes (or hour, or day, or minute, whatever). Failing a save causes the character to take 1d6 WIS damage. A character that reaches 2 or less WIS must make another save or become a zombie.
I like this, it's fair and balanced. My players are zombie buffs, so they may WANT no resistance, but if they don't, I'll definately use this formula. :)
Quote from: Stargate525I am really, really tempted to suggest mixing some borg into this. My reasoning is thus; if they were going to try and design the perfect soldier, they would want someone intensely loyal and good at tactics, letting the higher-ups do the actual thinking. They would also need to incorporate some sort of communication into this. This would result in a horde of mindless drones that can be directly controlled by a 'higher class' of zombie. The infection would become more of an assimilation, adding new material to the group, which fits in with your concept already.
I actually was planning on incorporating something similar to the game. The zombies are going to have very primitive pheremone based hive-mind that only really works within a few hundred yards...until a new strain of the virus is discovered that creates the higher ups of the zombie command. *evil laugh.* That'll probably happen around 10 for them, when an orgaized zombie army poses a huge threat. Right now, though, the zombies are just driven by the hunger, which is why the program got out of hand in the first place.
Quote from: PoseidonI left if kinda vague, and incomplete, so you could modify it to your own plans.
And I appreciate that. :)
More Zombie rules:
Quote from: Uncontrolled BehaviorMindless uncontrolled zombies have two states: Active and Passive.
To conserve energy, Passive zombies simply lay on the ground, barely attentive. They pass as corpse, gaining a +10 to disguise checks to do so.
A DC 5 Move Silently check allows anything to go unnoticed around Passive zombies. Failure means a Zombie becomes Active. Noises like heavy machinery, thunder, or the constant hum of an active chainsaw can cause a zombie to become active.
Passive Zombies automatically fail spot checks.
A physically interacted passive zombie becomes active immediately. Sufficiently powerful earthquakes can shake a zombie into the active state.
Active zombies move or stand about randomly.
If they detect movement, they pursue it at their fastest speed.
When within 5ft of a source of interest, they can determine whether it is another zombie, an infectable creature, or some sort of non-infectble. Non-infectables are left unmolested, but are followed for some time before the following zombie becoms bored. A bored zombie will wander off and forget it's target of interest. Packs of zombies form by having each zombie take turns attracting each other's attention.
Infectables within 5ft of a zombie are attacked, and become the priority interest for the zombie.
A zombie will attack a creature it sees another zombie attack, or a creature that attacks a zombie.
A zombie will retaliate when attacked.
If a zombie sees a zombie attack another, it will enter the fight on a random side. This means a that the rare rogue PC zombie can cause a mob to degenerate into a free-for-all.
A zombie will constantly follow an infectable it detects for as long as it can keep it within 60ft. A zombie that has lost sight of an infectable will move to the place it had last seen the creature.
A zombie that has not had anything of interest for a day will fall to the ground and become Passive.
Quote from: Xathan, Actually Back This TimeI actually was planning on incorporating something similar to the game. The zombies are going to have very primitive pheremone based hive-mind that only really works within a few hundred yards...until a new strain of the virus is discovered that creates the higher ups of the zombie command. *evil laugh.* That'll probably happen around 10 for them, when an orgaized zombie army poses a huge threat. Right now, though, the zombies are just driven by the hunger, which is why the program got out of hand in the first place.
I like the idea of a slowly traveling hive mind. It makes it so that an isolated zombie won't automatically make all of them converge.
That and you won't have to add psionics.
I'm curious if there's a way to 'partially' be infected, ie the pathogen takes over the body, but your mind remains trapped, fully aware, but unable to do anything. Or that could be the normal state of things. Either way, it would result in some serious need of counseling for those brought back.
Quote from: Stargate525I'm curious if there's a way to 'partially' be infected, ie the pathogen takes over the body, but your mind remains trapped, fully aware, but unable to do anything. Or that could be the normal state of things. Either way, it would result in some serious need of counseling for those brought back.
Method 1: The "Master Sample". All the benefits of being a zombie, non of the side effects. You can still eat other people to absorb DNA. Also, your skin becomes very pale, and your hair either grows all black or all white from now on.
Method 2: The ultimate evolution. You've been bitten by a hive mind zombie, and that's what your becoming, skipping the whole WIS drain thing and just getting to the good part. "SHAMBLE, MY MINIONS! SHAMBLE!"
Method 3: Generation 0. You are a genetically engineered super soldier. Because it would take decades for you to have even one kid that could be used to supplement the army, the HNEV was created to spread your amazing DNA really fast. Guess what? A bee or ant or something got into the lab and messed up the brain part of the HNEV's DNA rewriting function.
Method 4: The vaccine. The HNEV can't properly infect blood type IB negative, so someone (you?) got bitten, got away and that person's insulin is being harvested to give people a vaccine against the virus.
Method 5: I'm awesome. The HNEV is actually two viruses, the mutagen and the spreader. The mutagen makes you a super soldier, and it's totally safe, but it has a very hard time 'infecting' more than a few host cells before dying. The spreader was developed to deliver the mutagen, but the combination is what's causing zombification. You are very resistant to the spreader, meaning the mutagen gets full effect, but without a sufficient amount of spreader RNA zombification doesn't occur.
On the subject of DCs/auto-infect, I think it a lot depends on what kind of tone you want. If you want your typical D&D-esk hack&slash, then that formula works pretty well. It's low enough that those with good fort saves should have a good chance of saving, while high enough those with low saves will still fear it.
On the other hand, if you want the tense horror vibe more than the action movie vibe, the auto-infect ensures players take extreme precaution not to get hit at all, and thus are far more likely to run, hide, and so forth.
Only you can know which kind your players would like, since that's just a matter of taste.
Your method three gave me an interesting idea, what if the zombiefication wasn't just humans. Instead, it attempts to assimilate anything it finds useful. The tactics of wolf-packs, the endurance of a horse, the speed of a cheetah, etc.
Add in some sort of 'zombie ooze puddle' that can combine these different DNAs, and you could get some very scary combinations a few 'generations' in.
I fear them once they find the zoo.
Quote from: Phoenix KnightOn the subject of DCs/auto-infect, I think it a lot depends on what kind of tone you want. If you want your typical D&D-esk hack&slash, then that formula works pretty well. It's low enough that those with good fort saves should have a good chance of saving, while high enough those with low saves will still fear it.
On the other hand, if you want the tense horror vibe more than the action movie vibe, the auto-infect ensures players take extreme precaution not to get hit at all, and thus are far more likely to run, hide, and so forth.
Only you can know which kind your players would like, since that's just a matter of taste.
The auto-infect will only encourage every character to be a high stealth and agility swashbuckler type.
What if a player wants to be a sumotori ex-girl scout leader with a chocolate mint flavoured chainsaw, avalanching into a pack of undead with reckless abandon, severing limbs and giggling like a psychotic tomato, ignoring the feeble chicken scratches with impudence?
Yeah, exactly my point TT. That's why he needs to know whether his players want horror or hack&slash. I don't know what "sumotori" is, but it sounds like that character belongs in hack & slash and not true horror.
SG, I second the idea of the virus spreading to other creatures. Perhaps it doesn't happen at first, until it mutates or something.
Sumotori = Sumo + Tori (which was added because my spell checker is retarded)
Hey Xathan, welcome back and thanks for the shout-out.
Teeter-totter, if someone was to resurrect my old ZA thread, it would have to be you. You have a beautiful mind.
I'm a little late, I know, but I will observe this - mechanically, this is actually starting to look a bit like UrbanDead. You get infected, you're a mindless zombie, then as you devour the hapless survivors you get faster, tougher, more resilient and more articulate, and your claws and teeth grow more dangerous...
With UrbanDead, of course, you can get cured with a bit of work, but that might actually work in some such setting.
Hmmmm... Hinting to someone else to do the thread necromancy for you. You are clever and devious. It might just work.
Zombie Apocalypse (http://www.thecbg.org/e107_plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?6901) - I may take a look at this later.
My current zombie fixes are playing RE4 on the 'No merchant Challenge' and the Newgrounds (//www.newgrounds.com) game called Endless Zombie Rampage (http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/378012).
I think I've created a new form of thread necromancy. Most of the threads I reply to usualy die soon afterwards. I've seen some that lasted for months 'till I posted. Creepy...
Hah, well, tihs one isn't dead yet.
The first session went really well. We decided to go with a fort save, a sucessful save not representing an resisted infection, but rather a failed bite - the skin wasn't broken, so the infection didn't transfer. So far, the players have encountered both Andrea and Pox - I'll post the full details later on today. :)
It's been three days!!!
Quote from: Teeter-toterIt's been three days!!!
They might be the slow-moving kind of zombie. I don't recall if he specified whether they're the fast modern-movie kind, or the slow shambling kind. You've got to expect it to take longer if they're the slow kind, after all.
Haha, sorry for the delay. I'll post the write up in a couple of hours - I'm working on it now because I have to game again tonight. :)
I don't know if you've already covered this, but it might be better to treat the infection as a disease like (IIRC) mummy rot. You keep making saves periodically until you fail. You will become a zombie. The question is when.
Also, with the millitary black ops theme, be sure to leave the occasional high-powered goodies lying around. They might use up their batteries before the session's over, but give 'em lasers. Or the neural interface might go crazy, but give 'em powered suits.
Not every session; just enough to give 'em an incentive to be curious, despite the risks.
Hand out one suit of reactive armor.
+10 AC for the next 10 attacks, then it's just a Kevlar suit. (Kinda like armor in DOOM, eh? Don't forget the confetti.)
MESSAGE FROM XATHAN!
Quote from: XathanHey guys. I'm running to actually play the game soon. I have the first night's write up 90% done, but trust me, you want me to edit it first. I'll get it and then tonight's writeup done tomorrow and post them - thanks for waiting!
Thank you, that is all...[/center]
*bump*
Let us know how it went, man!
Argg! I need to just stop saying when I plan on posting things, so I stop failing to meet said times. Pool opening + sickness + game = no time to post. Now that the busy weekend is over, though, I should be posting in something that, while isn't a regular manner, at least gets to visit a regular manner on alternate weekends with approved supervision. That being said, here's what's up:
Session 2 hasn't happened yet. With only two players, one bailed, and it's pointless and stupid to NPC half your players, so I had to cancel it. It looks like it's going to be wed, but not sure - my players are about as regular and predictable when it comes to game as I am when it comes to posting. Actually, theyâ,¬,,¢re probably worse. However, thatâ,¬,,¢s not what you care about. You want the story, the action, the drama, and I am happy to oblige. This is going to be the detailed summarized version of the story â,¬' once the game is finished, Iâ,¬,,¢m possibly going to write it in narrative format with dialogue and plot and such that just doesnâ,¬,,¢t exist in the game as is.
[note=Why so little on the PCs?] What I give you is the amount of detail they put into their characters. I work with it â,¬' they both usually have well developed characters by session 3, it just takes them awhile to figure out who they are in game. It makes the first few sessions much weaker than the rest of game, but I can deal with that.[/note] We start off with our protagonists, whoâ,¬,,¢s names Iâ,¬,,¢ve misplaced, so Iâ,¬,,¢ll call them by their playerâ,¬,,¢s names for the time being. There is Ted, a city cop stuck on traffic duty on day 0, and Case, playing a female motorcycle enthusiast/mechanic who was on her way out of down on day 0. Case is speeding considerably and drives past our valiant cop, who leaps into actions and pulls her over. She decides not to try and pull a fast one, and lets Ted pull her over. While they talk, a homeless man wanders onto the street, staring vacantly ahead. [note]Both Ted and Case metagame horribly in the first few sessions, so I have to throw red-herrings into the game as much, if not more, than actual leads to increase tension. I scale it down as the game goes on and they stop metagaming.[/note] A few shouts from Ted gets the manâ,¬,,¢s attention, who turns to him slowly and laughs before shuffling off into the night. Frustrated, Ted walks back towards Case â,¬' only to watch an SUV hit the divider and flip. Ted radios for backup as he moves his car to block off the highway, while Case hops in â,¬' she has considerable first aid training, and offers aid in return for Ted letting her off with just a warning. He agrees, and they leap out of the car and walk towards the SUV.
Case clambers atop to the divers side door, seeing the driver, a short-haired woman, sitting in the seat, her neck bent at a fatal angle and her head is deeply gouged. To be certain, she checks the driverâ,¬,,¢s pulse, and determines that yes, she is dead. He climbs down to inform Ted, who radios this new information in. Around this time their backup arrives, Robby Green, a cop fresh out of the academy who happened to be in the area, and his partner Joseph, who sits in the car. Robby looks over and points excitedly â,¬' the woman is standing up on top of the SUV, if unsteadily. Case is stunned â,¬' both in game and out of game, since in game she is rather skilled at first aid, and out of game he knows he rolled a natural 20, which in my game gives you a +5 on skill checks, bringing her total to 33, which is pretty damn impressive even if you arenâ,¬,,¢t at first level. Regardless, the woman turns to them, but her balance is off and she falls over the divider, landing immediately in front of a passing semi.
[ooc]At this point, though neither realized it, they just learned their first important facts about zombies. One is that, upon infection, the subject is comatose and registers as clinically dead for two minutes, give or take, before reanimation. The other is that, upon reanimation, the zombies are extremely clumsy at first, much like a newborn child â,¬' which makes sense, because thatâ,¬,,¢s what they essentially are. (none of the original persona remains) Finally, the broken neck and gouged head indicates that head trauma may not be a sure-fire way to deal with the zombies. They are only going to rarely actually see reanimation, so hopefully theyâ,¬,,¢ll pick up on these facts quickly.[/ooc]
The coroner arrives not long after the fire truck blocks off the other side of the highway, and she examines the body after listening to Ted and Caseâ,¬,,¢s stories. Because their crime scene takes place in the middle of a major highway, she works as quickly as possible. The detectives who arrive ask Case to stay overnight, courtesy of the state, while they sort things out, and Ted goes with the coroner.
Here things start getting strange. The coronerâ,¬,,¢s report is that the head trauma of the crash and the subsequent striking by the semi both happened postmortem, the only sign of premortem injury being a bite wound which, due to bruises on the victims arms and legs which are consistent with grabbing and the location of the bite (At the joining of neck and shoulder) the coroner believes was obtained during a sexual act, likely nonconsensual. Interestingly enough, searching the victims possessions revealed her to be Private Jordan Lynch. Ted is sent to relieve the detectives with Case, since they clearly have their work cut out for them.
[note=Meanwhile, in the Metaâ,¬Â¦]We take a game break here, and they both let me know theyâ,¬,,¢re sick of plot and ready to get to killing zombies. I decide not to waste time spinning out the rest of the buildup I had planned, and cut to the chase. I really want to run this scenario sometime for a group that cares about more than combat, because I have a lot planned I just canâ,¬,,¢t use with this group, because they wouldnâ,¬,,¢t care.[/note] Ted arrives and talks with Case shortly before a knocking on their door is heard, and a man shout for them to check on the news. There are reports nationwide of riots and attacks that â,¬Å"are like something out of a horror movie.â,¬Â Turning off the TV, someone knocks againâ,¬Â¦and continues to knock, consistently and loudly. Suspicious, they look through the peephole. A hotel maid is standing there, head down, knocking at the door. She doesnâ,¬,,¢t respond to their attempts to talk to her beyond continued pounding, which is seeming less and less like knocking and more and more like attempts to batter down the door. Grabbing guns (Case carries one after a mugging a few years back), they open the door, and the woman attacks. Case shoots and hits her in the shoulder while Ted misses. Cases bullet, however, barely slows the woman down. They shoot again, and the woman hits, managing to grab onto Case and bite a large chunk out of her motorcycle jacket. Case calls a shot to her head and wins the roll, dropping her.
More than slightly concerned, they prepare to flee the hotel, when they hear screams from upstairs. Ted rushes into action gallantly, and Case follows reluctantly, only sticking with Ted because of strength in numbers. They find a man, his fist through a door, attempting to batter it down with his free hand. Shooting him down, they open the door and free Andrea Cross, who will become the third member of their little group.
Thatâ,¬,,¢s what I have for now. If there is interest, tune in next time, in which they observe the state of the city, a cop becomes a criminal, dead bodies both animate and not abound, fortifications begin, a priest turns up at the opportune moment, and the plot thickens.