Dawn of the Dead in D&D?

[JoeGKushner]

Has anyone run a zombie horror story using D&D? I was reading a comic called the Walking Dead, which is similiar to Day of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead, and Dawn of the Dead, in that the world is overtaken by zombies that eat people.

Now it's not an original idea or anything and I've run worlds where demons have taken over and have their own plans and infighting, but in such a setting, it's all about character development.

There would have to be limits on character creation of course as clerical magic should probably not be around and arcane spellcasters would be pretty rare. maybe they were all lynched by mobs who thought they were to blame for the undead plague...

Then again, Eden does have a genre book coming out for All Flesh Must Be Eaten to cover this type of ground...

 

[Voadam]

Has anyone run a zombie horror story using D&D? I was reading a comic called the Walking Dead, which is similiar to Day of the Dead, Night of the Living Dead, and Dawn of the Dead, in that the world is overtaken by zombies that eat people.

Now it's not an original idea or anything and I've run worlds where demons have taken over and have their own plans and infighting, but in such a setting, it's all about character development.

There would have to be limits on character creation of course as clerical magic should probably not be around and arcane spellcasters would be pretty rare. maybe they were all lynched by mobs who thought they were to blame for the undead plague...

Then again, Eden does have a genre book coming out for All Flesh Must Be Eaten to cover this type of ground...

Night of the walking dead was a great 2e moderately low level zombie themed ravenloft module I ran. It has multiple themes but zombies are right up there. I think it was eventually offered for free by tsr as an rtf and might be in WotC's archives section.

There are plenty of zombie resources out there now for d20, check out the d20 modern arcana and menace manual srds for some neat variants, although the CRs are in some cases are way overblown.

 

[GlassJaw]

I love whole zombie genre but I think part of the attraction is that the "zombies take over" concept works best in a setting in which stuff like that isn't supposed to happen. Normal people are confronted with unbelievable horrors that they must not only survive from but also attempt to comprehend and come to terms with. In traditional D&D, anything can (and will) happen. It's very difficult to acheive the shock factor in D&D (at least in the sense that people rising from the dead do).

That said, I think you are on the right track with character creation/background. The first thing that jumps to mind is good ole Grim Tales. You could even start with a no-magic, traditional medieval setting. Maybe some alchemist/apothecary, while working on some new fangled snake oil, stumbles upon a substance that turns people into zombies. The characters could be knights and soldiers, clergymen, farmers and peasants, tradesmen and merchants, etc.

You could also make this as dark or campy as want.

Great, another campaign to add to the list. Thanks Joe!

 

[Toben the Many]

If you want to try out a Dawn of the Dead campaign, I would highly suggest the Ravenloft supplement "Van Richten's Guide to the Walking Dead." The zombies you can make with the book are pretty crazy.

I would also second the 2nd Edition adventure, Night of the Walking Dead. It would at least give you a starting point from which to base your campaign.

 

[JoeGKushner]

Perhaps even running it with NPC classes to cut down on the power even more...

But now you've mentioned some medieval stuff as opposed to the FR settign I was thinking of and I can't help but wonder... is it time for Excaliber to taste the fetid flesh of zombies in Legends of Excaliber? Have to bust that book out again...

 

[Crothian]

THere are two good ones for Modern, but really nothing I've seen for fantasy. The ability to turn undead just makes the idea work not as well....

 

[Klaus]

Might I draw your attention to the fine Fiery Dragon double-adventure To Stand On Hallowed Ground? Specifically to the James Bell-designed The Ghost Machine?

It's designed for 5th level PCs and is pretty much a "if we fail, zombies take over" module. Highly recommended!

 

[JoeGKushner]

I enjoyed the Ghost Machine. Ran it in my little "Fiery Dragon module" world when 3.0 first started.

My party ran through it with no problems outside of one instance of mummy rot. After the first undead came back, they quickly learned to burn.

 

[Ogrork the Mighty]

The big problem with such an adventure is that killing zombies gets really boring really fast - especially when the world is filled with them.

Now, 3E might be a little better since there are so many templates but I definitely wouldn't recommend basing an entire campaign around zombies.

 

[Voadam]

I think bottled imp games has a D&D zombie sourcebook as well. I don't have any of their stuff yet though.