What do undead do when they're not killing adventurers?

[Zander]

Intelligent undead play D&D. Can you imagine a bunch of vampires sitting around a table with DM shields, dice, character record sheets etc? When the pizza delivery guy gets there, they chuck the pizza and chow down on the delivery guy!

Seriously, skeletons are often portrayed with undead motif shields etc. These are either supplied to them by their creator or made by themselves possibly under instruction from their creator. So some of their time might be spent working as armourers or adorning armour/weapons from their living days. A forge manned by tireless skeletons would be suitably creepy.

 

[Orius]

It would depend on the undead.

Stuff like skeletons and zombies are mindless, so they don't have ambitions, imaginations, desires, etc. If they're being controlled, then they're probably following the instructions of their master. Otherwise, they probably just mill about aimlessly.

Ghould have a pack hierarchy, they like to feed on corpses and turn people into ghouls. They might hunt down a mass grave or battlefield to feast on, and if there's no bodies laying around, they might kill people to make more food.

More intelligent, solitary undead like wights, wraiths, spectres often don't adjust very well to undeath, and that makes them crazy and homicidal. They don't necessarily plot anything, they instead tend to lash out at anything they can, because the pain of their undeath is unbearable.

 

[random user]

Thanks for all the replies folks! This is what I've decided to do:

Many sections of the city willl have zombies doing what they did in normal life. Creepier still, they will ignore the adventurers unless they get in their way or attack them.

There will be some inanimate skeletons lying about, as well as some undead ones strewn about. The skeletons don't do anything when the adventurers aren't there; they are just idle. When the party nears them, though, the skeletons will spring up and attack. At this point, any nearby zombie will assist the skeletons (they will assist any other undead as well).

In addition there will be ghouls and ghasts running about (hopefully the party won't encounter them all at the same time). These guys are territorial and belong to one of two factions, who occassionally fight with each other (there is a reason for the two factions if the party pieces it together). They will run around in small packs in an insane manner, sometimes looking for food outside the city, other times running around defending territory. Zombies will assist ghouls attacking non-undead, but will go back to their normal routine for ghoul vs ghoul fights.

There will also be a couple wights and shadows, and maybe wraiths. These guys have been cursed to remain with 100 yards of where they died, and will either be idle (and bored stiff) or randomly pacing their territory. Zombies will also assist any of these creatures.

At least that's my current thinking. Thanks for all the ideas, and if you have more let me know

 

[Thanee]

That sounds pretty good.

Bye
Thanee

 

[Gez]

Of all D&D creatures, I think unintelligent undead are the most likely to behave like videogames monsters.

Maybe they could patrol on a platform, turning back each time they bump into an obstacle or arrive at the edge of their platform.

 

[fafhrd]

There will also be a couple wights and shadows, and maybe wraiths. These guys have been cursed to remain with 100 yards of where they died, and will either be idle (and bored stiff) or randomly pacing their territory.

The last comment gave me an idea. I just might creep out your players. These greater undead are mad, wicked and trapped, but still intelligent enough to be bored. Have a wraith beg the passing pcs for news for information, about whether his legend has lived on(if vainglorious in previous life) about political events and the like(if a more staid character). Let them interact in a desperate and sad fashion. Of course the end result can be the same. The spook still plans to do his worst to the pcs after all is said and done, it is entirely corrupt(think the wolf creature from the neverending story movie if you've seen it).

 

[Dogbrain]

And once a year they all get together, back to back, belly to belly, at the Zombie Jamboree.

 

[CosmoKid]

My group actually wound up talking about this at one point.

The group consensus was that skeletons played damned good games of poker, because they are both mindless and have above-averege charisma.
Another theory was that they sat around and theorized about what adventurers did when they weren't slaughtering undead.

 

[AuroraGyps]

On a more serious note, you could have them going through the motions of their pre-undead everyday lives. Might freak the players out a bit seeing Wallygor the messageboy delivering blank (dnd equivalent) newspapers to the undeads' doorsteps.

This happened in a session I was in. A whole population of a town, including animals, were turned into zombies. We saw a woman doing her wash, while her toddler played in the yard. The laundry was full of holes because the woman just kept scrubbing them over and over and the childs toy had broken, but it didn't notice. It was very creepy.

 

[WayneLigon]

...The laundry was full of holes because the woman just kept scrubbing them over and over and the childs toy had broken, but it didn't notice. It was very creepy.

I'd vote for that type of thing. Like in Dawn of the Dead; the dead come to the mall because that's what they did in life. They probably do a fair amount of moving around, because they'll orient on a living thing to kill it, then go right back to what they were doing.

For more intelligent undead, the tedium will be (perhaps literally) maddening. They might develop obsessions that keep their mind repeating a single track: playing chess, or sculpting, or art.