All flesh must be eaten

[DnD_Dad]

So my group tried AFMBE last weekend after I picked it up at Gamesplus on the recent games day. I ran it after a week or two reading the rules. No on in the group played any unisystem rules game before, and we all really enjoyed it. The mechanics are excellent for dealing with mobs and the feeling of being horribly overwhelmed by nooks(zombies.). It took about 2-3 time doing a skill check or attribute check for everyone to roll and understand what they are doing and combat only took a few rounds for everyone to start rolling dice and not asking what they needed to roll. The game is fast and intuitive as the success system applies to most of rolls made. The only issue that I had as a ZN is that the PCs were playing norms and wanted to build an "adventuring party." There was a lot of meta going on during the build process as everyone was trying to balance the "party." Next time I run a 1 shot there are going to be a bunch of pregens. Anyone else play this and have any thoughts on it?

 

[Crothian]

I haven't played it for a few years but I do really like the game. I still own a lot of the books and it is a game I'd run if my players had any interest in that type of game.

 

[Nagol]

I enjoy the uni-system a lot.

I had a similar problem when I first ran AFMBE for my group -- they tried to build people who could fight the zombies. The survivors managed to get away and "win".

 

[Michael Silverbane]

Using the pregens presented in the book has been what we did for our AFMBE game. We went a step further, and randomly determined who would be playing which character, which has led to some interesting roleplaying opportunities, as people get to play characters that they would not normally choose.

 

[Wednesday Boy]

The only issue that I had as a ZN is that the PCs were playing norms and wanted to build an "adventuring party." There was a lot of meta going on during the build process as everyone was trying to balance the "party." Next time I run a 1 shot there are going to be a bunch of pregens. Anyone else play this and have any thoughts on it?

We ran into this issue when playing Call of Cthulhu. All of the players made normal people but one of my friends made a "Southern Gentleman" and maxed out skill that would be helpful in investigating and combat (pistol, spot, dodge, occult, library use, melee weapons, etc.). He even had a sword cane! We (including the Southern Gentleman's player) overcame the issue by actively acknowledging the type of characters the GM wanted and consciously making normal people from then on.

(As an aside, Southern Gentleman has stuck in our group's lexicon. Last year I ran a futuristic Dread one-shot and the players wanted to equip their characters with sword-canes.)

If your players cannot get past the adventuring party mindset, I think pregens would work well provided it's not a long-term campaign. In my experience players will play anything for one session but want to create their own characters if they will be around for many sessions.

 

[pming]

Hiya.

We actually "just" (three sessions now?) started a zombie-apocolypse game. We looked at Rotworld, AFMBE, and one other I forget. After giving the rules a read-through, I decided I didn't like any one of them. Aspects of each I did like...but none "fit" with what my group was looking for. In the end, I decided to use some of the ideas from all of them, but use the Top Secret S/I rules.

The TS rules have hit locations, so that worked out to what we wanted (head-shots to take out zombies, and locations to blow off zombie arms, legs, etc. and still have them crawling after you! ). I used a "biological reason" for zombification (not cosmic radiation, magic, prophetic, etc.; my version has it starting after a virus that wiped out the dinosaurs finally made its way through the ecosystem after all the polar ice cap melting and such).

I had to come up with some "zombie mob" rules, which are actually quite slick, if I do say so myself. Zombies are fought 1:1 up to about 15. Once you hit 16+ zombies, you have a "hoard". A hoard has a set average head HP (typically 5), move, damage, etc. During the initiative roll, any player who's initiative die (it's a d10, btw) comes up the *same* as the zombie hoards, indicates a "zombie surge"; the zombies all get to move twice their normal move that round, and I roll 1d10 and add the number of the initiative; these are extra zombies that show up "out of nowhere" ...you know, when you have just heard a noise in the back staff room of the supermarket you are ransacking...and a zombie walks out, as well as a dozen more from the deli, produce section, etc...you fight back out towards the front doors and *blammo* another 8 zombies are milling through the parking lot towards you. Where did they come from? You walked through the parking lot and nobody was there? Nobody in cars... nobody on the streets...wtf?!? Well, in a zombie flick, this kind of thing happens all the time. A zombie hoard is like that. (for an example, go watch just about any episode of The Walking Dead...they're all standing on a highway full of cars wondering how to get through...minutes go by...then a zombie comes out from around the RV....Aaaaaa!!!!...a shot rings out, camera pans back and...there are zombies shuffling their way through traffic....how did they *not* see this?....I'll tell you...*zombie hoard rules* baby! ). The other nice thing is that it encourages "small groups" to try and sneak into town and whatnot...less people, less d10's for initiative, less chance to match the zombie hoard initiative.

Anyway...the PC's have managed to secure some transportation (a ford Focus and an old Lincoln Town Car) from two farms about 30km north of Prince George, BC, Canada. I think they are planning to head north...less people = less zombies...or so they think! Other people had that idea too...*thousands* of them, and they flew in before all hell broke loose. Should be interesting when they get to Fort Nelson and find an extra few hundred "people" there (Ft.Nelson has a population of about 4,000 normally...).

^_^

Paul L. Ming

 

[DnD_Dad]

That makes me want to say what our group did, but I'm going to run this at the next games day in July.