RESIDENT EVIL & DAWN OF THE DEAD d20 "Survival Horror"

Here's some nifty random thoughts on how you too can create your own d20 "Survival Horror" RPG...

AEG's Spycraft (combined with WoTC's Call of Cthulhu, Pulp Heroes and Shadowchasers) would work well for a Resident Evil game, whether playing S.T.A.R.S. cops or Umbrella agents...

BREAKDOWN (mining for "crunchy" bits):
Pulp Heroes has a great Mad Scientist and Soldier class plus car chase rules, and Shadowchasers has neat horror rules. Spycraft has good secret agent classes and modern equipment/combat rules.

Call of Cthulhu d20 RPG Core Rulebook in March will have lots of icky monster goodness (most of the Resident Evil monsters are H.P. Lovecraft/Cthulhu rip-offs anyway).

Steve Jackson Games has a set of Floorplans called "Mall of the Dead" that maps out an entire multistorey shopping center so you can recreate DAWN OF THE DEAD, CHOPPING MALL or other modern "trapped in the mall" horror movies. Neat!

d20 Modern (not out til October) will also have complete d20 rules for running all types of modern settings.

RESOURCES:
Pulp Heroes is in Dungeon #90 (out last December)

Shadowchasers is in Dungeon #91 (released earlier this month)

Call of Cthulhu releases in March

d20 Modern releases in October

Spycraft (full rules book) releases later this year (spring/summer?)
Download the "Spycraft Lite" rules for free NOW from http://www.seriesarcher.com

Floorplans: Mall of the Dead is available now from Steve Jackson Games. Includes tons of double-sided maps (hex and square versions), zombie/victim "cardboard heroes," complete description of the mall's locations and stats for Eden Studio's zombie RPG, ALL FLESH MUST BE EATEN. Suitable for use with GURPS (hex based) and d20 (square based) and all similar RPGs.

Speaking of ALL FLESH MUST BE EATEN, this RPG is probably a great source to consult for running flesh-eating zombie horror games for any RPG system... Never seen it, but sounds cool.

I have ALL FLESH MUST BE EATEN I like the idea of survival horror actually, I mean how many rpg games have attempted to do something like that? Maybe someone should do a class version & a non class or a level & non level version.

There doesn't HAVE to be levels or classes in d20 but if classes & levels are the only things that get put out then publishers might not WANT to try new things for fear that they won't sell. That's what I worry about sometimes.

Call of Cthulhu will be classless but not levelless. Everything else has had classes, so we'll see what else comes down the pike.

All Flesh Must Be Eaten rocks for Survival Horror Plus its in a nifty size for taking with you and reading out and about.

Skywalker said:

All Flesh Must Be Eaten rocks for Survival Horror Plus its in a nifty size for taking with you and reading out and about.

Click to expand...

How is the game system? Not buckets o' d6 style is it? How convertible is it to d20? How faithful is it to the Romero movies?

It is very faithful to Romero's movies, in fact its their number 1 inspiration. There was an excellent promo PDF with rules, PCs and an adventure available from their website.

However AFMBE is a RPG solely devoted to zombie and survival horror. I recommend it as a great source book for ideas.

As for how convertible to d20 is it here is a rule summary from the website (AFMBE):

All Flesh Must Be Eaten is a game that combines elements of horror (there are walking dead in this world, and they feed on humans) with survival (characters have the rely on their skills and abilities to live through the night) and conflict (the characters may know the truth; what are they going to do about it?).

Flesh Character Archtypes
These Archtypes are from the All Flesh Must Be Eaten Mainbook:
Athlete, Goth Chick, Reporter, Biker, Hacker, Scientist, Cheerleader, Police Officer, Soldier/SWAT, Detective, Priest, Video Store Clerk

Attributes are a pretty basic lot (Str, Dex, Con, Int, Per, Wil), and run between 1 and 6 for humans (2 is average). They can go much higher for non-humans, but that is rare. Skills run the same gambit, but have no upper limit. Again, you will not likely see anything over a 9 or 10, however, and those will be very rare. As an example, a 4 or 5 skill is someone with a great deal of competancy, attained after a great deal of study or practice.

The basic Simple Test in the Unisystem is Attribute doubled plus D10 (a Difficult Test is Attribute plus D10). The basic Task is Attribute plus skill plus D10. If you roll a 9 or better, you succeed. Otherwise, you fail. Obviously, things can get more complicated, but that's the basics. A roll of 10 grants you a further positive roll; a roll of 1 requires a further negative roll (modified to curtail the degree of success or failure -- these critical rolls do occur 20% of the time).

If you need to know degree of success, you compare the number you rolled with 9. Each two numbers over 9, you get one success (e.g., a 14 is 3 Success Levels). This is important in a number of circumstances indicated by the text.

Another variance occurs when two actors are pitted against each other. This calls for a Resisted Test. Each side rolls a Test or Task, and the higher wins (unless more than one roll is called for, in the Zombie Master's discretion).

As for fighting, close combat is a Resisted Task between the attacker's combat skill and the defender's combat skill (if he has a weapon or Martial Arts), or defender's Dodge skill (if he has none, it's a Difficult Dexterity Test). Ranged combat is attacker's ranged skill modified for range, lighting conditions, recoil (if autofire is used), etc. Defender's only response there is to duck and cover -- a Dodge and Dex Task, and he needs to beat the attacker's roll (if it's over 9). Problem there is that it uses all the defender's actions.

Damage is expressed in Life Points, which are a function of Str and Con. Each weapon does a range of damage (e.g., 9mm pistol does D6 x 4), modified by bullet type. Armor protects with a range as well (e.g., basic Class I Kevlar prevents D6 + 7). If you want, you can dump all the dice rolling, and just use a set number that is provided.

The system can be used with cards or a non-random storyteller's method, but dice are the default system.

I couldn't find the free introductory rules pdf or the d20 conversion guide you mentioned on the linked site. Could I get a direct link? Thanks!

I don't think they exist. At least I've never seen them.

To be honest don't convert to D20 its not worth the effort the UniSystem is simple easy to use and suited to the genre.

D20 works best with class and levels, survival horror works best with death and corpses. Corpses don't have much call for experience points and advancing in levels. (Well unless they are free willed intelligent Undead but thats a different issue).

Here's something to chew on

There aren't any d20 conversion rules, but you can find the AFMBE demo pack PDF and an introductory scenario here:

http://www.edenstudios.net/intropacks.html

And if you're still hungry for more, check out the official site for AFMBE:

http://www.allflesh.com/

I've been a fan of AFMBE since the beginning, and I used to be very active on its mailing list. And now with "Enter the Zombie" coming out next month I'm more excited than I've been in months. I even have an AFMBE campaign site of my own, although I think it really needs to be updated:

http://dreadfulandsinister.athanon.com/margo/

Funny: I was just thinking of running a "survival horror" oneshot. I was going to look over the CoC rules to make sure it produces suitably fragile characters, give them some Dragonstar equipment and put them on the Nostromo or something like it, and then use some Aliens conversions I've found (see the tread! ) and see how many of them can get off the ship alive. We have a relatively small group, so I'd probably give them each two characters, just so when the inevitable casualties start rolling in, we don't have players with nothing to do.