Quote:
Originally Posted by Engurrand
..or How Could Zed Dismantle Society
A recent thread inspired me to turn the question on it's head. It seems the hivemind consensus is pretty firmly that any situation where an organized military response is possible, standard contagion zed is not a threat.
I've been thinking of running a ZED game for a while...
So lets design an outbreak that IS a threat. Or in other words, take the winning elements of the zed formula and work backwards from there:
IMHO those winning elements are:
Misfit bands of survivors,
always on the move or holed up in fortified positions,
emphasis on resource management,
zombies everywhere,
zombies are dumb.
I know an easy solution would be to make zed smart, but to me that breaks the premise - it becomes an issue requiring an organized response, rather than one that fosters the band of misfits scenario.
All ideas are welcome.
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The easiest way to achieve these elements I think is with Left 4 Dead approach. An airborne virus that infects the majority of the population, with the player characters being immune for one reason or another.
The natural disaster that causes a zombie infection is a good way too. If a comet hit the earth, bringing with it a zombie creating virus, I don't see how the military wouldn't quickly be overwhelmed by trying to deal with the comet and zed at the same time.
Another approach is like the one used the E. E. Knights books, The Vampire Earth. In them the zombie plague was just the first in a series of attack on the planet by aliens from another world. The zombies weren't being directed, but they were a weapon. Imagine if another military group was actively trying to spread the virus as an attack on a country. The military would have little chance of stopping it then.