Menu
News
All News
Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
Pathfinder
Starfinder
Warhammer
2d20 System
Year Zero Engine
Industry News
Reviews
Dragon Reflections
White Dwarf Reflections
Columns
Weekly Digests
Weekly News Digest
Freebies, Sales & Bundles
RPG Print News
RPG Crowdfunding News
Game Content
ENterplanetary DimENsions
Mythological Figures
Opinion
Worlds of Design
Peregrine's Nest
RPG Evolution
Other Columns
From the Freelancing Frontline
Monster ENcyclopedia
WotC/TSR Alumni Look Back
4 Hours w/RSD (Ryan Dancey)
The Road to 3E (Jonathan Tweet)
Greenwood's Realms (Ed Greenwood)
Drawmij's TSR (Jim Ward)
Community
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Resources
Wiki
Pages
Latest activity
Media
New media
New comments
Search media
Downloads
Latest reviews
Search resources
EN Publishing
Store
EN5ider
Adventures in ZEITGEIST
Awfully Cheerful Engine
What's OLD is NEW
Judge Dredd & The Worlds Of 2000AD
War of the Burning Sky
Level Up: Advanced 5E
Events & Releases
Upcoming Events
Private Events
Featured Events
Socials!
EN Publishing
Twitter
BlueSky
Facebook
Instagram
EN World
BlueSky
YouTube
Facebook
Twitter
Twitch
Podcast
Features
Top 5 RPGs Compiled Charts 2004-Present
Adventure Game Industry Market Research Summary (RPGs) V1.0
Ryan Dancey: Acquiring TSR
Q&A With Gary Gygax
D&D Rules FAQs
TSR, WotC, & Paizo: A Comparative History
D&D Pronunciation Guide
Million Dollar TTRPG Kickstarters
Tabletop RPG Podcast Hall of Fame
Eric Noah's Unofficial D&D 3rd Edition News
D&D in the Mainstream
D&D & RPG History
About Morrus
Log in
Register
What's new
Search
Search
Search titles only
By:
Forums & Topics
Forum List
Latest Posts
Forum list
*Dungeons & Dragons
Level Up: Advanced 5th Edition
D&D Older Editions
*TTRPGs General
*Pathfinder & Starfinder
EN Publishing
*Geek Talk & Media
Search forums
Chat/Discord
Menu
Log in
Register
Install the app
Install
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Running a "Dawn of the Dead" zombie game in d20 D&D?
JavaScript is disabled. For a better experience, please enable JavaScript in your browser before proceeding.
You are using an out of date browser. It may not display this or other websites correctly.
You should upgrade or use an
alternative browser
.
Reply to thread
Message
<blockquote data-quote="ptolemy18" data-source="post: 2698829" data-attributes="member: 24970"><p>Fast zombies? *New* Dawn of the Dead, you mean! <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></p><p></p><p>Personally, I think that the D20 system isn't well-suited to horror games because the hit points and levelling system make it too easy for characters to shrug off damage which, if you were using a more "realistic" system, would be serious stuff. Basically, D20 is innately heroic ("Even though I can't beat this monster now, I will be able to after I gain a few levels"). D20 isn't grim-and-gritty, unless you do something radical like lowering the Sudden Death Threshold from 50 HP to 10 HP, like in D20 Call of Cthulhu. (Yeah, yeah, I know there's some horror rules in LORDS OF MADNESS... and Wizards is releasing HEROES OF HORROR... but converting D20 to horror without massive rules changes is like disassembling a car and rebuilding it as a motorcycle.)</p><p></p><p>Despite that.... I think you could still run a pretty cool D20-fantasy-zombie game. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> Zombies are very versatile.</p><p></p><p>You might want to consider working from a low-magic, low-good-guys setting like SPIROS BLAAK or MIDNIGHT.</p><p></p><p>My advice:</p><p></p><p>(1) Make sure the enemies are really tough and the players are always in horrible danger.</p><p></p><p>(2) Keep it a short campaign. That way people won't level up too much, and if everyone dies, they won't have gotten too attached to the characters anyway. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink ;)" data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /></p><p></p><p>(3) Since it sounds like you're using a pretty standard D&D-fantasy campaign setting, keep an eye on the clerics. Assuming your "zombies" are going to be undead (even if they're actually Wights or Ghouls or Viral Deathspawn or whatever), turning undead will be a very powerful ability. Of course, you don't have to get rid of it, just keep it in mind when designing encounters and figuring out the "logic" of the campaign world (i.e., maybe all the survivors are gathered in the temples, where the clerics are.)</p><p></p><p>(4) Personally, I would recommend doing the zombie infection as a Disease effect, and maybe giving the Disease Spell Resistance (like in AFRICAN ADVENTURES) so a single "Cure Disease" won't necessarily work. But that's just one way of handling it.</p><p></p><p>(5) This is also just my personal advice, but I would recommend screwing with the characters' expectations as to what kind of zombies they're facing. There's so, so, so many different kinds of zombie-esque monsters to choose from. If you really wanted to be mean, you could have different kinds of zombies and zombie-monsters (the RESIDENT EVIL effect)... or you could have the zombies "evolve" as the campaign goes on... ("Suddenly they've gained the power to regenerate everything except fire damage! Their movement rate jumped from 20' to 40'! Oh no, now they can Spider Climb!!! AGGGHGHHH!!")</p><p></p><p>Good luck! Hope it works out!</p><p></p><p>Jason</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="ptolemy18, post: 2698829, member: 24970"] Fast zombies? *New* Dawn of the Dead, you mean! ;) Personally, I think that the D20 system isn't well-suited to horror games because the hit points and levelling system make it too easy for characters to shrug off damage which, if you were using a more "realistic" system, would be serious stuff. Basically, D20 is innately heroic ("Even though I can't beat this monster now, I will be able to after I gain a few levels"). D20 isn't grim-and-gritty, unless you do something radical like lowering the Sudden Death Threshold from 50 HP to 10 HP, like in D20 Call of Cthulhu. (Yeah, yeah, I know there's some horror rules in LORDS OF MADNESS... and Wizards is releasing HEROES OF HORROR... but converting D20 to horror without massive rules changes is like disassembling a car and rebuilding it as a motorcycle.) Despite that.... I think you could still run a pretty cool D20-fantasy-zombie game. ;) Zombies are very versatile. You might want to consider working from a low-magic, low-good-guys setting like SPIROS BLAAK or MIDNIGHT. My advice: (1) Make sure the enemies are really tough and the players are always in horrible danger. (2) Keep it a short campaign. That way people won't level up too much, and if everyone dies, they won't have gotten too attached to the characters anyway. ;) (3) Since it sounds like you're using a pretty standard D&D-fantasy campaign setting, keep an eye on the clerics. Assuming your "zombies" are going to be undead (even if they're actually Wights or Ghouls or Viral Deathspawn or whatever), turning undead will be a very powerful ability. Of course, you don't have to get rid of it, just keep it in mind when designing encounters and figuring out the "logic" of the campaign world (i.e., maybe all the survivors are gathered in the temples, where the clerics are.) (4) Personally, I would recommend doing the zombie infection as a Disease effect, and maybe giving the Disease Spell Resistance (like in AFRICAN ADVENTURES) so a single "Cure Disease" won't necessarily work. But that's just one way of handling it. (5) This is also just my personal advice, but I would recommend screwing with the characters' expectations as to what kind of zombies they're facing. There's so, so, so many different kinds of zombie-esque monsters to choose from. If you really wanted to be mean, you could have different kinds of zombies and zombie-monsters (the RESIDENT EVIL effect)... or you could have the zombies "evolve" as the campaign goes on... ("Suddenly they've gained the power to regenerate everything except fire damage! Their movement rate jumped from 20' to 40'! Oh no, now they can Spider Climb!!! AGGGHGHHH!!") Good luck! Hope it works out! Jason [/QUOTE]
Insert quotes…
Verification
Post reply
Community
General Tabletop Discussion
*TTRPGs General
Running a "Dawn of the Dead" zombie game in d20 D&D?
Top