ICRPG Zombies

homebrew
inspiration
#21

Take a hero coin for starting an awesome discussion. :herocoin:

#22

Right? This is a world I want to play in, now.

#23

This sounds great I got inspired Frankenstein’s army recently its not recommended for youngsters but its a beast of a film.
It certainly but Zombies into a whole new perspective.
If you’re looking for more traditional Romero stuff that’s all cool but I like the idea of giving them augmentations.
F.A is worth a watch

#24

The reasons for Zombies are numerous if were talking apocalypse I think Fucci just let one escape
Seriously it could be something as simple as global warning
Or those crazy scientists have been up to no good messing with radiation
Perhaps a soft drink as an ingredient in it that reacts with the certain flavouring in crisps.
Forgot one of my favourite reasons for bad things
Meddling cultists with their pesky rituals.
Or somebody’s playing records backwards

#25

ICRPG ZOMBIES: (draft)

Setting Rules >>

  • Firearms: Firearms follow the GHOST MOUNTAIN rules. Your group should determine ahead of time which TYPES of firearms follow which rules.

    • For example, it makes sense for a shotgun to have either In The Face or Big Slugs, while a rifle might use Right In the Eye. Decide ahead of time, and allow each other to spend time modifying weapons to add or remove tags.

  • Supplies: Supplies follow the GHOST MOUNTAIN rules for movement, food and starvation, but are now split into three types. FOOD & WATER, AMMO, and MEDICAL. Track separately.

    • AMMO: You should decide with your group how much Ammo is required for different weapon types, or if they’re all considered the same. Perhaps using your firearm at all costs 1 Ammo, while a protracted fight with a hostile group may cost 3d4. Keep in mind the tone you want to have for your ZOMBIES game. Will you focus on the hardcore aspects of survival, or be more character story driven? Somewhere in between is likely a good place to start.
    • MEDICAL: Medical supplies are exactly what they sound like. As with Ammo above, decide with your group how much Medical is used for different kinds of instances. Something minor like a bruised face could only require 1 Medical, a sprained ankle 2, or a broken pelvis 5 or more.
    • These numbers are arbitrary. The point is to represent scarcity to whatever degree, and granularity, your group wants.

  • Stress: Stress is a reskinned version of Sanity from “Beneath the Door”. Each character has a Heart of Stress. Stress accumulation is not permanent like Sanity, but rather ebbs and flows. Follow Beneath the Door’s method for CHA, INT, or WIS to resist Stress Damage. It is very likely that the only amounts of Stress inflicted will be 1 or 2 in any failed event, but as per the Event chart, having a limb ripped off inflicts 1d4.

    • If your game starts during the initial outbreak, a character’s first encounter with the undead ALWAYS inflicts 1d4 Stress.

    • Recovering from Stress: Recovering from Stress is done at a rate of 1 per day in Safety, or per week in Safety for every point of Sanity damage at or beyond/below 3. Certain consumables, effects, or situations may reduce Stress. One such instance could be a critical success on a Stress Test (nat20).

  • ZOMBIES: Zombies come in a number of different types. These types can be modified by tags in a number of ways. Below are some examples. (a number of these come from other games such as L4D)

    • Walkers: Your garden variety of shambling rotheads. These guys lumber all over the place alone or in small groups, and sometimes forming extremely dangerous HERDS. Loud noises and bright lights attract them and once a herd starts… There’s no stopping it. #slow, #moaners, #weakAlone, #curious, #infectious

    • Runners: These guys are the real deal. You won’t know you’ve found one until you do, but you’ll know by their speed. They are extremely aggressive, and never tire. If you can’t lose 'em, you’ll have to put 'em down fast. The only upside is that they don’t seem to transmit the infection. Some might theorize that the host isn’t all the way dead yet, and may turn into an infectious Walker one day when they do. #fast, #loud, #aggressive, #deadly

    • Bloaters: Bloaters are, as the name implies, massively bloated infected creatures. They stumble around slowly, their puss sacks jiggling. Piercing their skin causes them to explode, sending pestilent spores and fluids everywhere! This stuff not only has a chance to infect any individuals with open wounds (not treated with MEDICAL supplies), but attracts all Walkers within a huge radius. Watch out for Herds. #slow, #fragile, #infectious, #signals

    • Abomination: Abominations are the stuff of nightmares. No, really. They’re formed by a unique strain of the infection that acts like a cancer. Huge growths form all over their bodies (including extra, malformed limbs), and their physical abilities are greatly increased. These creatures can easily kill survivors, but are usually passive. Assuming you survive the encounter, and that is hopeful indeed, they are not infectious. Startling them, getting too close, making loud noises, etc. attracts them. #fast, #tough, #deadly, #tireless

GMs are encouraged to add to, subtract and otherwise modify the list of zombies in their games. Also, remember that even standard walkers can be modified. Guards at a prison likely have riot armor on, savaged zombies could become crawlers, and animals could be susceptible to the infection, too.

Survivors>>

SURVIVORS are your characters, and they are vulnerable humans. Character generation is modified as follows.

  1. Assign your 6 stat points as normal.

    a) All weapons do d6 damage, and spells do not exist (or do they?). The D8 die/Effort is renamed Potency. You gain Potency by playing smart, doing heroic things, embracing character weakness, or using your character tags (skills, proficiencies, etc.). You may also gain it situationally. When you do, use a d8 instead of your d4 or d6, and gain the Potency bonus on TOP of your normal weapon bonus. If my weapon effort is +1, and my potency effort is +2, and I gain potency with a weapon, I will roll d8+3.

  2. Give your character 3-5 tags. These should include some skills or training as well as character notes. #military, #coward, #handy, #karate, #charismatic, etc. This is how you gain potency, possibly EASY/HARD rolls, and flavor your character (at a glance). You can gain or lose tags through play.

  3. Talk with your group about your current situation. ZOMBIES starts “a little ways in”, and your group has already formed. Considering the situation and your fellows, create 1 piece of useful loot, and 1-3 weapons. This really is a matter of flavor for your group. This is where you decide if you’re mowing down the dead, or have one pistol and three rounds to split between the group.

  4. Finally, answer the following questions.
    a) “Where were you when it happened?”
    b) “What did you have to do to survive?”
    c) “Who did you lose?”

Character creation should be a group process in ZOMBIES. Everyone needs to be on the same page with regards to what kind of ZOMBIES game you’re playing. There is a world of difference between Resident Evil 1 and 5, The Walking Dead, and Weird Wars.

Advice>>

  • Safety is a broad concept. Your ZM can simply have areas listed as Safe, or be Safety an achieved status. You might have to apply Effort towards creating Hearts of Safety (barricading, increasing sight lines, clearing the dead, etc.). How ever you do it, you need SAFETY to recover Stress.

  • Groups are encouraged to shadow to other places in the world, and other groups, whenever things are getting stale or a large time hop is going to happen. Your primary group could be in the suburbs of Chicago, while another group could be in a research facility in the frozen north, and yet another in rural Mississippi. This is a great way to explore the infection, it’s causes, and the struggles of others in the apocalypse. Vignettes could also be one-and-done instances!

  • Hordes are very much unlike a small group of Walkers. Seriously consider making hordes act as environmental hazards. You don’t fight a thunderstorm, or a heatwave, and you don’t fight the Horde either.

  • Depending on what kinds of zombies you include (traditional zombies vs Left 4 Dead vs Voodoo Zombies), you can modify their rules. Zombies created by a virus can be different than if they’re summoned by a necromancer or Nazi occultists, or a weird strain of Rabies. As long as everyone is on the same page, you’re doing it right.

I’ll edit this sometime in the future, just a stream of thought type deal. :slight_smile:

Zombies! Who has cool mechanics for them?
#26

Duuuuuuude! @Anthony_C, this is phucking awesome! It warms my cold, dead, patient zero heart! :green_heart: :woman_zombie: (that’s a zombie heart)
Take a Hero Coin! :herocoin:

#27

Awesome! I haven’t gotten around to making up my own stuff, but I’ll be sure to show you when I’m done!

#29

This is me necro-ing a post!

Would anyone be interested in joining a game like this? If so, would you be interested in a text-based game (with a virtual tabletop still like Roll20 and set sessions, just no voice), or is voice a must-have? Comment below if this sounds fun!

#30

Whoa. I love this whole post. Great stuff man. I was watching Dungeon Craft and he has a way he tracks what he calls Ethos. Which tracks how saintly or evil the character acts. This could be a great Stress tracker.

#31

I really like this concept. I am working on a WW2 conversion and had just tossed out Magic but replacing it with Skill is a fantastic idea!

#32

Has anyone considered the human capacity to trap and kill small groups or hordes of Zeds. This is something I have thought of but have never seen. Just a thought.

#33

Yeah Dungeon Craft has blown up recently. He deserves it, great content. :slight_smile:

As for trapping and killing zeds, absolutely. If players want to try that, they can try it. We’ll let the dice, modified by their actions, decide how well it goes. Being creative is really the only way to deal with the horde, if you’re unwilling/unable to avoid it.

#34

As a primarily play-by-post player, I would love something like that. Do you mean where we post through out the day on like a discord server or more like where we all get together at a certain time and just replace voice with text?

#35

Good question! In this particular case, I’m just looking to see what anyone would be interested in. If we did a text-based game, I would much prefer the latter option which is known as “synchronous” gaming. It’s the same as any other voice-based game, just no voice. So, in that case, we would still meet “Mondays @ 2pm”, but would use text instead of voice.

TLDR: I didn’t have anything in mind, just feeling out people here, but I prefer synchronous over standard PBP.

#36

I’m good with both, but I slightly prefer standard P-B-P since that’s what I’ve done so far.

#37

Í am replacing magic with science

#38

Something í have been playing around with is zombies that eat brains retain memories and traits from their victims