FoxWander
Adventurer
I’d love to do a nice Dawn of the dead style zombie apocalypse game. I’ve always been a fan of zombie movies and awhile ago I got the excellent, and very thorough, “All Flesh must be Eaten” rulebook. But the players in my group don’t want to stray from D20 Fantasy D&D. So the question is- how to do a zombie apocalypse scenario (ZAS) in a traditional fantasy D&D setting?
It would seem most of the appeal of the ZAS is the modern setting. How does normal, modern day Joe Everybody deal with TEOTWAWKI by ravenous, flesh-eating hordes of living dead? How do you survive when normal society collapses? How do you defend yourself? WHERE would you defend yourself? And the ever-fun question- what would YOU do if it happened tomorrow? So would that type of game setting translate into typical fantasy D&D?
Sure it could- but would it be any fun? I mean, magic would certainly change how desperate the setting would typically feel. Not to mention making the whole ‘survival against the ravenous hordes’ a little easier. So would the ZAS even be interesting in D&D?
I can think of a few advantages over a D&D ZAS compared to modern day. For one, there could be a big aspect of figuring out what happened. And also the possibility reversing or fixing it- which is normally impossible in the modern day scenario. I mean, the normal explanation (if there is one in a ZAS) is passing comets did it, or government experiments gone awry did it or we discovered something [iMan Was Not Meant To Know[/i], and that did it. For all of those, there would probably be a way to fix it in D&D- and it’s the kind of thing that could drive a campaign to Epic levels. Then there are the scenarios that aren’t as possible in a modern day setting- secret cabals of necromancers, unholy deals with demons/devils/death gods, ancient spells cracking open gateways to the unknown.
So there’s a lot of potential there, but it would need to be developed and planned well for it to work and, most importantly, have the same visceral feel of a good zombie apocalypse. So naturally I turn to the brilliant minds of ENWorld! How would you run something like this? Or, what would you like to see if you played in something like this? Have any of you done this already and have any good advice? Any good ideas for how it started, and maybe how to fix it? What kinds of things will have to be considered to make this scenario work? I'd sure appreciate any ideas or advice anyone has.
It would seem most of the appeal of the ZAS is the modern setting. How does normal, modern day Joe Everybody deal with TEOTWAWKI by ravenous, flesh-eating hordes of living dead? How do you survive when normal society collapses? How do you defend yourself? WHERE would you defend yourself? And the ever-fun question- what would YOU do if it happened tomorrow? So would that type of game setting translate into typical fantasy D&D?
Sure it could- but would it be any fun? I mean, magic would certainly change how desperate the setting would typically feel. Not to mention making the whole ‘survival against the ravenous hordes’ a little easier. So would the ZAS even be interesting in D&D?
I can think of a few advantages over a D&D ZAS compared to modern day. For one, there could be a big aspect of figuring out what happened. And also the possibility reversing or fixing it- which is normally impossible in the modern day scenario. I mean, the normal explanation (if there is one in a ZAS) is passing comets did it, or government experiments gone awry did it or we discovered something [iMan Was Not Meant To Know[/i], and that did it. For all of those, there would probably be a way to fix it in D&D- and it’s the kind of thing that could drive a campaign to Epic levels. Then there are the scenarios that aren’t as possible in a modern day setting- secret cabals of necromancers, unholy deals with demons/devils/death gods, ancient spells cracking open gateways to the unknown.
So there’s a lot of potential there, but it would need to be developed and planned well for it to work and, most importantly, have the same visceral feel of a good zombie apocalypse. So naturally I turn to the brilliant minds of ENWorld! How would you run something like this? Or, what would you like to see if you played in something like this? Have any of you done this already and have any good advice? Any good ideas for how it started, and maybe how to fix it? What kinds of things will have to be considered to make this scenario work? I'd sure appreciate any ideas or advice anyone has.
