Building a better zombie

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Jasonft

Pity the one poor bastard that is actually immune. Everyone thinks they are actually working for the enemy... but they *say* they aren't...

Yes, which is why if I do ever run Blight Years, "The Touch" will be a meta-trait combining Resistant, Social Stigma, Social Regard and 5 points in at least one Psi power talent.

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Mark Skarr

I've actually used that method in non-horror games. In one game, the PCs found a video record of what happened before, and instead of narrating it to them, I handed them pre-gens and they got to play through it. Worked very well.

I've done exactly that myself. It was a cyberpunk-horror game, and the "video" was a actually a full sensory upload, burst-transmitted upon the death of the first ops team. The players got to roleplay the NPCs in the vignette as they were slaughtered, and their PCs actually did see and feel those things, because the slaughter ended with the sensie helmets coming off and the PCs' mission leader saying, "So, now you know what we're up against." It was mutants and super-soldiers, by the way, and not zombies.

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

The other solution (and the one that I intend to use if I ever run my psionic knights versus astral alien powered zombie campaign Blight Years) is to require that PCs have some level of Resistant.

Yep. Personally, I find the threat of infection too great to be fun for the players. Death? That takes effort. A combat-monster PC can take a real beating and still survive, especially if he has a good medic. But the smallest nick or scratch spelling doom? Yes, that's certainly scary, but it also means that a single bad dice roll for the most trivial of attacks can end a PC and leave the player twiddling his thumbs for the rest of the campaign, unless you want to have new PCs available like Kleenex, which kind of kills the horror.

It's usually more fun for the PCs to be immune and see everybody else turning to zombies, those who aren't zombies jealously hating them, etc. It's especially fun if the PCs aren't merely immune but carriers. Thus, they can't ever go back . . . and if other survivors learn the truth, the PCs aren't going to be welcome. At best, they'll be captured and dissected if they screw up. At worst, they'll just be attacked.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Kromm

Yep. Personally, I find the threat of infection too great to be fun for the players.

Of course, if you're doing the replays/flashback method where you get to see the previous group all slaughtered, infected PCs just change sides and you now get to try and eat the brains of the remaining PCs. While I don't like player vs player among regular PCs, it's perfectly fine for a one-shot.

[PK]

Originally Posted by Crakkerjakk

First time I saw it was in Horror, by Ken Hite. Let your players know something is scary by killing some pre-gens the first session. That way you don' t have to kill off their lovingly crafted characters in order to make the bad guy feel threatening.

Yeah, I always liked Ken's advice. The only part of it I believe in changing is that he suggests you kill off some 25-point pregens, then have the players build 100-point heroes. I think it's much scarier the other way around. :)

[Kromm]

Originally Posted by Anthony

Of course, if you're doing the replays/flashback method where you get to see the previous group all slaughtered, infected PCs just change sides and you now get to try and eat the brains of the remaining PCs. While I don't like player vs player among regular PCs, it's perfectly fine for a one-shot.

True enough. I don't like one-shots, though. I always run campaigns – preferably long ones. Ergo, I overwhelmingly favor things that keep the peace between the players, and that let the players continue to play their PCs, who might have real-world years of game time behind them.

And yeah, I do think that one could run a fun zombie apocalypse campaign for months or years. I just haven't had the chance to do it, yet.

[Anthony]

Originally Posted by Kromm

True enough. I don't like one-shots, though.

I don't much either, but it can also be seen as an interlude in an ongoing campaign, where you're temporarily playing different characters.

Originally Posted by Kromm

I always run campaigns – preferably long ones. Ergo, I overwhelmingly favor things that keep the peace between the players, and that let the players continue to play their PCs, who might have real-world years of game time behind them.

I don't think conflict is a problem if it's established that it's the theme of the adventure (Hi. Today, we're going to find out how the previous group of explorers all died horribly, or possibly got turned into zombies and ate one another. You get to play the explorers), though I agree that in general it doesn't work well.

Consistent PC survival over years is problematic for actual horror, though it's not like a zombie campaign has to be horror.

[RyanW]

Originally Posted by Anthony

I don't much either, but it can also be seen as an interlude in an ongoing campaign, where you're temporarily playing different characters.

Way to really surprise them:

Play an interlude during your current campaign. Perhaps a SWAT team is sent to rescue the personnel of a bio-tech facility that they thought a lunatic had taken hostage, but the facility was actually the flash-point of the zombie plague. Proceed to slaughter the one-shot characters horribly.

Then next week, back to the ongoing campaign. During the first session, the PCs hear on the news of a suspected hostage situation in a bio-tech facility, and SWAT is being called in...

[vesper]

I like to let players realize just how out numbered they are. A lot of the tactics they normally use don't work. Shooting will damage them but only a little. Explosives only calls more. I give them the ability to sense life at line of sight and they tend to swarm. Since they never tire they will never give up. My players want to cry when they see more than 4 zombies

Rev is right , grapple overbear, let them pile on like a hungry brain eating rugby team, it will make that 250 point combat monster cry like a school girl.

Oh..and don't forget in a zombie Apocalypse ammo is hard to find

vesper