Zombies! Who has cool mechanics for them?

question
#1

I’ve seen weird mechanics on other systems (palladium, especially) that have unique mechanics for zombies to represent the complexities of combating the living dead, cuz that crap ain’t easy… LoL

For my group, I’ve considered making them only one hp, but having killing shots ‘hard’ to reflect head shots. Another thing I thought of was making them out of 5hp mini-chunks (but not chunk damage) to reflect being able to chop limbs off.
Do these seem reasonable? Do they need polished? What kind of non-standard things have you come up with for zombie combat hijinks?

Thanks!

Edited a word… LoL

#2

Using chunks to represent that (in most iterations of zombies) you need to go for the head seems like a cool idea. I would probably also use timers to have them pop back up in d4 rounds when the head isn’t destroyed.

#3

There are some cool ideas in the history of this forum. I searched “Zombies” and some good conversations popped up. (One such thread is linked below)

I’ve struggled with “just one bite and you are screwed” feel, so I am working on some bug enemies in my game right now that try to colonize you and take you over to become part of the swarm. Playing with the zombie theme a bit, but it takes time and one bite will not do you in.

Good luck in your ventures, I’ll be watching for any new stuff that pops up in this thread.

#4

If making Walking Dead like zombies, I would use 4 chunks to represent the zombie’s limbs. Give them 5-10HP per chunk but I would make the rest of zombie immune to other damage except for the head and brainstem. The head and limbs would be a Hard target from range, but a regular target with edged weapons.

I would then set a Room Target based on number of zombies, 12 for 5 or less, 15 for 10-20 zombies, 18 for 30+ zombies. The crush of numbers makes it more difficult to get a clean headshot.

Scatter shot weapons within Close would be Easy.

Lastly is the disease aspect, as it would inflict a conditions on to the characters if bitten, scratched, or if zombie blood gets into an open wound. The Condition would work like sanity loss in cosmic horror themed games but this would not be able to be healed through a Recovery Action. It would instead build up until it hit 10 and the character succumbs to the disease. Potentially there may exist some meds that could stave it off or make the symptoms less hindering. But ultimately, until there is a ‘Cure’, the zombie disease would be a death sentence for characters as its only a matter of time.

#5
#6

Zombie swarm – > 1 hp each and their bonus to hit is the size of the swarm. 10 zombies = 10 hp and (+10) to hit. Hitting a swarm only deals 1 damage (kills 1); 2 on a crit. When they hit you suffer basic effort with no applied bonuses from the zombies – you aren’t dealt traditional damage; instead it represents stamina loss. Describe how the mad scramble of the players takes a toll on their health. On a zombie CRIT you are bit and have to save vs CON or turn into a zombie in D4 rounds. Only way to save you is to chop off the bit limb! Timer represents the arrival of more swarms. Zombie swarms can merge into herds. Add ways for the players to kill EFFORT in zombies by creating elements in the scene that can be used to their advantage. A gaping pit, a crumbling wall, explosives of some kind, etc. Start the scene with 1 zombie in each swarm trickling in. First timer; 5 zombie swarm (5 hp // (+5) to hit). Keep scaling it up. Make the zombies merge into bigger groups. Force them back into some kind of a barricaded position where they are trapped.

The thing that makes zombies great, in my opinion, is making the scene epic. You shouldn’t treat them like stats on a page. They are the living dead marching across the earth! Walking Dead had some great zombie scenes. Going for loot can quickly become trapped in a room with no way out.

#7

I handle Zombies in my TWD games like this:

  • 1 Hit, inflicts Basic, no roll bonus, kill multiple if adjacent (if it makes narrative sense)
  • if many of them are around: roll CON or drop dying
  • zombies auto-attack dying PCs (additional click down of the dying timer)
#8

Which is both brutal and awesome. :sunglasses:

#9

Timers for reanimation is a cool idea. Thanks!

#10

@JDH
I’ll be totally honest, I didn’t search at all. My general approach to forums, especially active ones like this is to ask a question and see what comes up. I realize it can annoy some people, and I mean no offense. I’m not being lazy; Usually I’m equal parts caught up in having my own question answered, and often not satisfied by other answers I’ve found other times I’ve searched. Straight out asking usually gives me better engagement with people than lurking in old threads, and allows me to ask follow on questions for people who’ve chimed in.

Speaking to the “one bite and you’re screwed” feel, I’ve been thinking about doing D4 CON saves to save from infection. This could represent differing severity of a bite, and add quite a bit of stress, but at the same time could be too fatal, unless I allowed some way to fight the infection.

I dig your bug idea. I’m fairly certain there aren’t too many people who, when faced with the prospect of being bitten by a bug and taken over cordyceps style, would be all too cool with it. The number will never be zero, but then that’s the world we live in. Maybe it could be like COVID is, where the more exposure you get the worse it gets, or subsequent infections become harder to fight off, reflected by a increasing target number.

Thanks for your reply. There’s lots of good stuff here.

@Jaide
Lots of good stuff here too.

I have an unusual perspective on fighting Zombies. I think with a melee weapon, targeting the head or limbs should be easy. They have no interest in protecting themselves. Our Martial Arts club taught a Kids “How to survive the Zombie Apocalypse” class a few years ago. We would armor up with helmets and Gambesons and gloves and walk zombie like at the kids. They would chop at our hands, legs and heads. The hard part for them was always when there was a bunch of us, grabbing for them, but getting good hits on limbs wasn’t hard at all, and these kids had literally 2 hours of training.

And your disease thing is great. I love the idea of re-skinning an existing rule. I’ll give that a hard look.

@chrisbynum
HA! I can hear the music in my head as the handle gets turned…

@BigGrump
The Idea of a swarm is terrifying. The other rules here are good for onsie twosie zombies, but the idea of counting them like a swarm is an interesting one I hadn’t considered. The Self - Skywalkering you’d have to do to fight off an infection is terrifying. I happen to have a 12 sided hit location Dice I’ve been wanting to use… LoL

@glocke
Wonderfully simple. What do you mean, roll CON or drop dying. Like they pull you down and you are dying, or If you are down, you roll CON or immediately die?

#11

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Here’s how I do mine. I don’t use Hearts, I use d8 HD so my games are all easily compatible with tons of OSR material. I also don’t use “basic, weapon, gun” etc. damage, I use variety because I find it’s a lot more fun, especially when building monsters. The TN is a suggestion for the room if zombies are the only threat.

#12

I mean they pull you down to dying if you don’t succeed CON

#13

Ahh, I see. That’s a cool idea.

#14

I think it’s valuable to first consider the type of threat they are narratively, then determine how to best manifest that through the mechanics.

Is it Walking Dead-like in tone and trope, where zombies aren’t really enemies meant to be defeated so much as they are an environmental force to increase the stakes of human conflict?

Or are they more like draugr, isolated threats which can be overcome?

Are the protagonists meant to survive, or are they fodder?

Check out Shotgun Diaries for how zombies-as-elemental-force can be treated, mechanically.

#15

Interesting perspective. I don’t tend to think in these particular terms, but it’s a neat concept. When I am GMing, I tend to be more of a visual person. For zombies in our game, one of my players mentioned how zombies in one of the Palladium Games are handled, where they are somewhere in the middle between elemental force, and threats to be overcome. In that game, they are very hard to defeat. Thinking more about it specifically, they are at first a monster or few monsters, but at some point become an environmental danger. Onesie - twosie they are merely hard to kill, but in a group become nearly impossible unless you are using explosives or fire.

Thanks for the DTRPG suggestion. I’ll check it out.