New to GURPS: Zombie Apocalypse

[Kromey]

Hello all. I've been spending a lot of time in recent weeks eagerly reading everything I can about GURPS, including the Lite rules. I have ordered my own copy of the Basic Set books, which are currently on their way to me. I am for all other purposes a complete GURPS virgin.

I am currently GMing a D&D 4e campaign (using a home brew setting based loosely on the old 3.5e setting and the events of a previous epic-level campaign I played in, with several updates drawn from the 4e setting), however I'm finding myself growing more and more... well, bored with 4e. I just feel limited, pigeon-holed into WotC's ideas of what characters somehow are supposed to be. It's very restricting. And I want to break free.

I've considered Savage Worlds (conveniently I already have that rules book), but it just feels too simple. Now I'm wanting to move to GURPS.

However, as I'm sure most of you have seen, there are a lot of RPGers -- seemingly especially those who've "grown up" on D&D -- who are extremely prejudiced against the perceived over-complexity of GURPS. If I were to simply approach my group and say "Hey guys, let's convert to GURPS, whaddya say?" they'd simply lynch me!

That's a long way to go to say that I'm planning a simple one-shot adventure set in the early days of a zombie apocalypse. I'm also planning on hiding all the mechanics (although my players insist on rolling the dice themselves -- fine) from them, so all they'll see is dice rolls and results. I'm not going to tell them what system we're using -- just "something I found on the internet and wanted to try out". They'll tell me what they want to do, I'll map that to appropriate actions, they'll roll the dice, and I'll tell them what happens as a result of that.

So, this will require pre-gen characters, obviously, since having them create their own will, of course, violate the "hide the mechanics from them" goal. But I'm having trouble coming up with good characters. I'm shooting for 50 points (upper "average"/lower "exceptional", yes?), and trying to avoid things like the police office or trained soldier (everyone else would be left bored while he mops up the zombies), or the asthmatic accountant (who'd be left bored while everyone else mops up the zombies).

Here are the characters I've got so far:
* The high-power business exec who's father was a world-class shotgunner. Low on combat skills, he has his father's 12ga pump-action shotgun and is not without some skill in its use, even though he never took to it like his father really wanted. (Balance note: Just enough skill with this extremely lethal weapon to not accidentally blow his own kneecap off.)
* The taxi driver. Not the safest of professions, she carries a Springfield Armory XD-40 and spends enough time on the range to be competent, but not exceptional.
* The outdoor enthusiast. She spends more time in the wilderness than the city, and was only caught here by the worst of luck. She carries her trusty machete and knows how to use it.
* The fireman. Strong and tough, at some point in this crisis he grabbed a fire axe, and is certainly no slouch with it.
* The martial arts enthusiast. Winner of numerous local competitions, her fists are the only weapons she needs. (Not really sure how this one will stack up against the others at this points level, so I may fudge it some and give her a few more points than the others.)

The two gun-wielding characters will be low-ish on ammo -- each has a full magazine loaded to begin with, but only enough spare ammo for a single reload and a tad more (the taxi driver does have a fully-loaded spare magazine, plus a small handful of loose ammo; the shotgun is equipped with a shell holder on the stock, plus he's got a few more in his pocket) -- to balance their relatively high lethality and ranged-ness against the rest of the characters. Plus I intend to avoid encounters in areas where the two ranged characters can bring down the zombies before they get close enough to threaten everyone.

So, the questions I have for you, oh might GURPS veterans, is:
1) Is this party balanced? By "balance" I'm looking for a group where one character doesn't rule the day while the others sit back and watch, nothing to do. If they're mowing through zombies too easily, I can always through in things to complicate their lives!
2) What other characters could I consider? My goal is around 10 characters, so that when (not if) one gets killed, I can have the party find another survivor around the next corner (a la Left 4 Dead, although the new survivor isn't just the same dude somehow ahead of them and stuck in a closet) and thus keep all the players in the game.

I'd also like to run these stats for a basic zombie by you guys, see if this seems reasonable for this kind of low-power game. I found it on some forum somewhere, maybe even here, but no longer remember where.

ST 12 DX 12 IQ 6-8 HT 12/15, weapon or brawling skill at 12-14, move slow until they get close (Fast leaping towards food), moaning causes some emotional discomfort (Will save), die once their hit points (15) reaches 0.

Beyond this little guy (in large numbers), I do intend to also have a few "special" zombies, like an oversized, over-muscled dude that plows through other zombies and survivors alike, and unusually stealthy, quick ones with an unnerving knack for scaling walls and leaping out of dark corners you thought empty.