[d20M] Apocalyptic Zombie Romp Help (and Resources) Needed [d20F]

[Bill Scott]

That survival guide sounds like a hoot...but I've only got so much cash to invest in saturday's one shot?) game

Does anyone have advice on running a zombie\horror game, under d20M?

Over on the WOTC Modern forum, there is a 33+ page thread on running a zombie campaign. Although it has strayed a few times, it's a good read if you're interested. If you are pressed for time, this is how I would work the adventure

Personally, I would give all the characters a reason to start the campaign together. Who would be called if a epidemic breaks out? I would say cops, paremedics and firemen. With this being said, a couple of cops and a medically trained fireman would be a 'must have' in the group. Then you can throw in a few more survivors to round out the group

Where can you start the campaign? Have the characters meet when they answer a distress call in some security apartments in the outskirts of the city. They get to the apartments to investigate. What appears to be a riot, which is the zombies attacking the the people, breaks out outside the apartments as the PC watch from a upper story window. The PCs call for help on their radios and all they hear is confusion and then static. They are on their own because help is'nt coming. They must either defend the aparments or try to get past the mass of zombies to find safety

Alternately, you can start the campaign with the PCs on a cruise ship out at sea. The ship, who has lost all contact with land a couple days prior, comes into port to be met with crowds of zombies.

 

[Turanil]

Oooooh.... reading this thread, I suddenly get the urge of adding a mob of zombies somewhere in my d20 future pbp (here on Enworld). This would have nothing to do with the adventure, but players could use their nice weapons to great effects... Mmmmh... well, I will have to forget this idea anyway...

 

[philreed]

It's not d20 but try MotoCaust.

www.motocaust.com

 

[exile]

I'll take a moment here to plug the new modern miniatures from RAFM. They are technically made for a Modern Call of Cthulhu game, but would work great for a zombie game too (my intended use for them...someday). They include a couple of male SWAT team leader types, a pack of four SWAT team regulars, a male antiquarian (they are for CoC after all), a female mercenary (looks a lot like the female lead in Underworld), a female assassin (looks a lot like The Bride from Kill Bill, complete with katana), a female 'survivor' (complete with muscle shirt and revolver, kind of an everywoman figure, very appropriate for a zombie game), and a male rogue cop (automatic shotgun great for blasting zombies). I'm very excited to see what they do next.
Chad

 

[Kirin'Tor]

Thanks everyone who helped and pitched in ideas! The game went pretty well. I made a few rookie mistakes (expostion\set-up was too long), but we all had a decent time...

Not the best session I've ever run, but I'm not exactly an old hand a DMing (my first serious campaign started winter of last year)...and I stink at modern stuff , overall, I gave today's game a C+!

 

[exile]

Kirin'Tor,
Thanks for the brief update on how your game went. I'd be interested in hearing some of the exact details. Party composition? Why did the dead rise in the first place? Party objectives? Messy deaths? Details man, details. Maybe a story hour is even in order.
Chad

 

[Kirin'Tor]

I'll save the story hours to those who have more successful games, but I'll give some details here, since at least 1 person is interested:

I decided to base the campaign around a central concept, almost entirely unrelated to the main plot, which I could draw on of inspiration, resources, and names...and with which I could insert subtle jokes to humor myself.

The base concept was the Star Trek: TOS episode, Space Seed. Trekkies will note the references quickly...while others will be left to be baffled or look them up; sorry, that's the nature of inside jokes.

The story focuses on 4 characters, linked in no way except circumstance. Only two players (or the 4 we regularly have) were able to be present, so they wound up running 1 with 2 npcs, who they switched to as players died.

The basic plot is that Botany industries, a biochemical research company, which was founded on pesticides, and eventually branched into plant genetics, has decided to open a Cryonics facility [where people can be frozen at or after the point of death, and be thawed out in the future when their (currently) terminal illnesses can be cured.]

However, Botany has undertaken this project not only as a way to draw more public attention to itself and gain more investors, but is one of several projects that the company's founder, Julius Singh, is implementing in a (some say futile) attempt to cure his terminal mental illness, and prolong his life.

Botany has also been experimenting in human genetics, out of the public eye, for several years, and has had moderate success in creating human clones with enhanced abilities and extended life spans. Botany Industries had also successfully transplanted a human consciousness into a dog, but all attempts to transplant into a consciousness into the super-human bodies had met with death for both parties.

So, upon realizing that their efforts in that direction were futile, Botany placed it's super humans into cryo-storage, and began expanding it's genetic facility, located discreetly on the island of Oahu (Hawaii), to include several Cryonics labs. After several experiments, modern theories about cryonics were again confirmed, and every thawing of a human (or any living) subject proved fatal...

That didn't stop the marketing frenzy around Botany Industries "Solution to Death" campaign...the theory that in the future, when terminal illnesses could be cured, so could the cellular damage caused by the freezing process, was not unfounded. However, there were very few volunteers willing to be frozen when they died...

That was, until Botany rebuilt one of it's carrier ships, The "Bay", into a cruise liner, and offered a free all expenses 4 day cruise to Hawaii....

And that’s where the plot starts. I'll write more about the actual goings on with the players if people are still interested.

 

[exile]

Still very interested...would love to know what happened to the player characters and the fallback NPCs.

 

[Kesh]

Only one nitpick: How is Oahu a great place for a storage facility? If it's not military land or pineapple plantation, every square acre on this island is already developed.

 

[Kirin'Tor]

Well...I needed the Facility to be somewhere both exotic, remote, and a good accessable vacation spot...and it was getting late when I was planning...