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Old 07-14-2010, 03:15 AM   #11
sir_pudding
Wielder of Smart Pants
 
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Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Ventura CA
Default Re: Building a better zombie

Make them intelligent.
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Old 07-14-2010, 03:35 AM   #12
The Benj
 
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Platform Zero, Sydney, Australia
Default Re: Building a better zombie

The main thing that makes zombies a worthy threat is that the protagonists are realistic in their own capabilities. The number one reason for zombies not being scary is if the PCs are buttkicking cinematic powerhouses.
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Old 07-14-2010, 04:54 AM   #13
chimchim
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: South yorkshire, united kingdom
Default Re: Building a better zombie

I know they were not zombies but the infected in "i am legend" work for me. Fast, strong, pain imune and intelligent. in sufficient numbers those guys would scare even powerful cinematic heroes.
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Old 07-14-2010, 05:24 AM   #14
Gold & Appel Inc
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: One Mile Up
Default Re: Building a better zombie

Quote:
Originally Posted by Dangerious P. Cats View Post
What make zombies something to be scared of?
Zombies are not scary. What zombies make the other survivors willing to do to you is scary.
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Old 07-14-2010, 06:09 AM   #15
DAT
 
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: Idaho Falls, Idaho
Default Re: Building a better zombie

If there are 20 zombies advancing, and your 5 player characters only have 10 shotgun shells left between them, the players should start feeling a little bit concerned.

I also like the rage zombies from 28 days; fast, strong, fearless, and infectious. Added bonus is recent friends and allies can become the enemy very fast.
-Dan
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Old 07-14-2010, 06:29 AM   #16
lexington
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Default Re: Building a better zombie

Make them look more human. Breeds paranoia.
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Old 07-14-2010, 07:41 AM   #17
Dr. Whom
 
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: In a phone booth, but a little classier than Dr. Who's.
Default Re: Building a better zombie

If this is a Zombie outbreak, it should be new to the characters....
The Zombies should smell, make constant moaning sounds....
Require fear checks at a penalty for a while.

The characters have to eat and drink...
The Tap water isn't going to work forever.
The fridge will stop working when the electric stops.

Those whole up in the city will spend dark nights surrounded by a very bad smell and eerie moaning sounds...
Lack of sleep, should be played into the game.
Boredom, not having anything to do, will also drive them mad, especially if they have the impulsive disadvantage.

Set up some encounters where they look like they can help someone, but then find out they can't. they have to watch the person die..fer check.

Where are they hiding out? Most doors and windows can be broken into by a normal person, a zombie, who doesn't care about self preservation, should get through most doors and window easily.

Basically, need more info on characters and game.
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Old 07-14-2010, 08:25 AM   #18
Jasonft
 
Join Date: Aug 2008
Default Re: Building a better zombie

The episode out of the book 'World War Z' (go buy it! Now!) that completely gave me the creeps was the one where you had people forced to work underwater in wetsuits because the "Z War" desperately needed the oil coming off that platform. Trouble was that certain critical work *had* to be done by hand and underwater.

Zombies of course don't need air, are immune to deep sea pressure, don't show up on IR scans, and quite often would be moving slow enough that motion detectors would only see them at close range. Add in a couple other minor quirks like their being able to home in on vibrations and you rapidly get to the point where the divers wouldn't go down there even if there literally was a gun held to their heads.

The was also a somewhat disturbing submarine vs submarine duel. One of the subs took refuge on the ocean floor to avoid detection and the zombies on the ocean floor started homing in on it's warmth and vibrations... scratching on the hull... plugging up the water intake for the reactor with zombie parts... getting impaled on the periscope when it was raised...

Up on the surface the scariest thing to me was how their zombies cleared out every last source of meat in any heavily infected area. Try to imagine the entirety of North America absolutely silent - except for the moaning of some zombie swarm off in the far distance when they scent a new victim...

Then try to imagine that every last bush, tree, or patch of tall grass might have a partially disabled (no legs, no lower jaw, missing entire lower torso, etc) zombie crawling through it.

And not just the countryside either. Every single time you opened a door anywhere in any city there might be a zombie behind it.

I pity the poor bastards that had to clean out the Roman catacombs in the later stages of the war.

Lots of ways you can make zombies scarier.
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Old 07-14-2010, 08:38 AM   #19
MattStriker
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Default Re: Building a better zombie

Some time ago I converted something from an old webcomic into DnD (3.5) stats...reworks.

They're not quite zombies, they're corpses taken over and mutated by an alien parasite, but they worked quite well in that game.

They were fast, they grew all kinds of useful natural weapons over time, could propagate extremely quickly through any urban population and shared a hivemind of sorts. So...zombies? Yawn. Fast zombies? A bit more troublesome. Fast zombies with perfect coordination and high (albeit alien) intelligence? That got my players' attention :P.
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Old 07-14-2010, 08:51 AM   #20
SolemnGolem
 
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Join Date: Apr 2010
Location: The Hall of Fallen Columns
Default Re: Building a better zombie

I second the necromancer theory. Sometimes the scariest thing is an enemy who can keep pace with you, tactically.

One campaign villain (back in DnD) was a lich, with the typical red glow in its eyes. Moreover, when it controlled undead, they got red glows in their eyes too. This counted as a gaze attack, with a relatively easy-to-resist Fear check, so that's nothing much.

Or at least, nothing much compared to the threat of coordinated attacks.

But my players were very afraid of the sheer deviousness behind their attacks once the lich took over. The undead would be shuffling empty-eyed stiffs for a period of time in the fight, easily downed and dispatched. Then the lich would take notice and begin possessing multiple undead - with red glowing eyes - to turn the tide. The latter half of the fight would then be a frantic melee with the PCs trying to counteract the undead with advanced tactics of their own.

One particularly memorable bit had one undead holding the PC's swordsman by the arm. Another one drew the PC's secondary blade out of its scabbard, and then threw it up into the air. The third undead leaped down at the PC, catching the sword in midair and plunging it down through his armor as it landed. All in one combat round.

After that, the players had a gratifying change of attitude. Even around non-possessed undead, they really thought through the combat ahead of time trying to maximize their own advantages just in case the lich possessed them. If the numbers weren't favorable, they thought about a workaround instead of brute force.

And if they saw a fierce red glow appear in the undead eyes, they weren't above calling a retreat-and-barricade while they regrouped.
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