The Walking Dead

[cell]

Hello everyone. Im planing on running a zombie apocalypse game in the near future. Its going to be based off of the comic book / tv show The Walking Dead. I have a few questions i would like to ask before going in. First off have others tried this before? If so what were the results? Also good advantages For normal people. Characters will be built with between 75 to 100 points. Any advice on long turm survival in this sort of game? I already owen the gurps zombies book. I have more questions but i will post them later.

[SCAR]

Originally Posted by cell

Hello everyone. Im planing on running a zombie apocalypse game in the near future. Its going to be based off of the comic book / tv show The Walking Dead. I have a few questions i would like to ask before going in. First off have others tried this before? If so what were the results? Also good advantages For normal people. Characters will be built with between 75 to 100 points. Any advice on long turm survival in this sort of game? I already owen the gurps zombies book. I have more questions but i will post them later.

GURPS Zombies (which you have) is definitely your friend here, it certainly covers the traits for normal people in such settings.
You might also find GURPS Horror useful.

[Anders]

High-Tech contains all the equipment you might need, including guns, guns, guns and chainsaws.

[Anaraxes]

But what about guns?

[Anders]

I think there's a chapter on that as well. IDHMBWM.

[Nymdok]

Originally Posted by cell

Hello everyone. Im planing on running a zombie apocalypse game in the near future. Its going to be based off of the comic book / tv show The Walking Dead. I have a few questions i would like to ask before going in. First off have others tried this before? If so what were the results? Also good advantages For normal people. Characters will be built with between 75 to 100 points. Any advice on long turm survival in this sort of game? I already owen the gurps zombies book. I have more questions but i will post them later.

I havent done Walking Dead, but I have done Zombie games before. The results were awesome!

I cant recommend zombie games enough. Everyone knows the genre, it normally uses tech were familiar with, etc etc.

I dont know how Walking Dead like you want your Walking Dead game to be, but the villans in the Walking dead (I only saw the first 2 seasons) were almost always humans. The Zekes were just there for flavor.

You may want to allow this to be your guide. Dont hinge your adventures on flinging ever increasing amounts of zombies at your players, but instead try to think about how people will act and react to the scenario that has emerged around them. Some people will rise up to lead. Some people will follow anyone that will provide safety. Some will cling to the comforts of the old civilization and long for them. Some will embrace the new way of things. You can get a lot of good mileage just by juxtaposing lives before and after the apocalypse.

So heres a few starter adventure ideas......

PC has a nemesis from his life before the apocalypse that still wants to settle that old score. (Frex: PC was in a car accident before the apocalypse that was fatal to someone. Now that person's family wants revenge).

PC's are entreated by a group to help restore civilized comforts. It might be a powerstation, water treatment plant, satellite link, Nat Gas pumping station or one many useful things that could make the PC's lives easier.


Nymdok

[Crzyraccoon]

I did a near future Zombie game way back, it took inspiration from Resident Evil's twisted experiments and Dead Rising's weapon combination, openworld and psychopaths with a big conpsiracy into it. It was TL8 but had some Ultra Tech thrown into it.

It was 100 points game, 100pts is like badass normal for an everyday person, the people at walking dead would definitely be around that point vaule, they are able to snipe zombies 50 yards away with pistols and know a damn well about survival in the wilderness and urbanscape :P

Originally Posted by Anders

High-Tech contains all the equipment you might need, including guns, guns, guns and chainsaws.

Agree, High Tech is amazing book, I would recommend everyone to have it. ^.^

[Gigermann]

I ran a (short) Walking Dead-type campaign, with a Supernatural twist to it, about a year ago. Well-documented, with some tricks and lessons-learned you might find useful.

[Adversary]

Do not have gurps zombies but here are some observations from the one zombie campaign I played in.

Headshots in gurps are quite difficult. -7 for brain is a stiff penalty for even a competent PC, especially with any range penalty. I'd consider allowing strikes to the face at -5 to kill zombies as well.

Killing zombies with hand weapons is even harder: -7 to hit brain, 2 DR from skull...even with the X4 damage for brain, you need a reasonably heavy weapon and decent strength to do enough damage depending on how much injury it takes to kill. In the campaign I played in, even if we had a crippled zombie at our feet we'd usually shoot it rather than bash its head in. If you want zombies to be as casually killable with hand weapons as they are in The Walking Dead you may need modified rules.

On the other hand, if zombies are vulnerable to crippled limbs it's quite easy to stop, if not kill, them by shooting them in the legs. If you want the feel of most movie zombies, which walk through bullets except for head shots, tweak rules accordingly (maybe the Zombies book covers this).

Personally I find the zombies on The Walking Dead to be far too weak to drive the plot. Notice how the writers have to create contrived situations for the zombies to be a threat: zombies falling through ceilings, zombies appearing from off camera when there is no way they could have gotten that close, etc. I'd use tougher zombies, but depends on the flavor you want.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Adversary

Personally I find the zombies on The Walking Dead to be far too weak to drive the plot. Notice how the writers have to create contrived situations for the zombies to be a threat: zombies falling through ceilings, zombies appearing from off camera when there is no way they could have gotten that close, etc. I'd use tougher zombies, but depends on the flavor you want.

I've always thought it worked better to make zombies little more than an obstacle most of the time, and other humans as the real threat. Of course, that may raise the question of why you need zombies at all (and I for one think they have been somewhat overplayed).