Would you play this?

[Lord Pendragon]

For a while now, I've been kicking around an idea for a one shot campaign set in a city infested with zombies. I'd recently been playing Resident Evil a bit and so the ideas been fresh in mind.

What exactly do you mean by "one shot campaign"? Do you mean a premise that will last but a single game session, perhaps two? Or do you mean a long series of games? As a player, I'm willing to try almost anything for just one night. If you mean campaign in the way I understand it (long-term gaming scenario) then I wouldn't touch it with a 10'-pole.

Why? Because one of the reasons D&D is fun--for me--is the accumulation of abilities. The new toys. Being told I'll be playing a commoner for 20 levels leaves me feeling empty.

If I were going to use the premise over the long-term, I'd probably shelf my D&D books and run it using d20 Modern.

 

[Valicor]

Zombies!!

If you want to just go commoners, and make it out of town which is the basic zombie concept, might I suggest the Board game Zombies.

I realize it isn't D&D exactly but itts a fun ammusing game that would do exactly what u want, beign that it is a quick game. takes about 3hrs to play, and only costs around 25-30 bucks.

 

[JustKim]

What happens when someone dies? They sit out the rest of the game?

 

[SpiralBound]

What happens when someone dies? They sit out the rest of the game?

Nah... give 'em some zombies to control...

 

[Herobizkit]

Don't forget Adepts. Adepts are the answer to all the world's problems.

That aside, I'd let the PC's use d20 Modern rules and let them all be Ordinaries.

The only gripe with zombie hordes in Fantasy is the relative lack of interesting gadgets with which to smite the undead menace.

 

[Kae'Yoss]

So how big a fan of Call of Cthulhu are you, exactly?

The problem with this is that commoners are literally good for nothing. They can't fight - the first attack has a high probability of killing them - and it's unlikely they have the stamina to flee from the zombies for too long. They'll be hard pressed to overcome most of your average obstacles, and failure probably means death.

They won't last 10 minutes.

There are good ideas here: Being 1st-level characters - or 4th-level characters, really (5th would introduce fly and wild shape)- would be bad enough against thousands of zombies, but they might have a fighting chance.

And using storyteller - say, World of Darkness and let them make up some mortals - or make them up for them - would work much better.

 

[Herobizkit]

What happens when someone dies? They sit out the rest of the game?

No, they do what every smart DM does and let the PC try to kill his friends as a new zombie.

 

[wmasters]

Or possibly they pick up a new commoner from the pre-gen pile and play another hapless person trapped in the tavern/tavern/space station (delete according to setting) in a Megadungeon style

 

[DJCupboard]

I think this would be most funa as a one shot adventure rather than campaign (as others have already said). D20 modern, CoC, or storyteller might be better for long term campaigns, but I do think straight D&D could offer some fun. Crit = insta-zombie mush captures the genre perfectly. If was to run this long term I'd either use the UA variant generic classes (minus the spellcaster), or I'd start off with commoners for at least a few levels and then let them multiclass into the generic classes (minus the spell caster). I'd also limit the special abilities thay the generics could choose from to elimate anything overtly magical. I would let anyone who's character dies roll up someone new who gets discovered/rescued in the next scenario. I think playing characters who can't do much, a la comomoners, would be very fun, as long as you found some ways to give small bonuses for being creative (the two-by-four you sart with crits on a twenty, but the [insert clever improvised weapon that really can only be used once due to situational limtations] either auto crits or does so on an 18-20), increased gerenal survivability (more hp at 1st level, for instance), and eventually allowed the development of unique (non-magical) capabilites.

 

[awayfarer]

Concensus here seems to be that having PC's choose from NPC classes would be the best bet. Sounds good to me but I don't think I'd allow adepts. I feel like magic use is a significant enough thing to affect the mood of the adventure. If you look closely at your average zombie movie, characters tend to succeed as often by dumb luck as their own skill. The trick would be providing them with opportunities to get lucky. Someone who can spray fire from their fingertips is going to be a bit more confident than I'd like. I feel like there should always be a "You're not guaranteed to live through this" tone. Making PC's too capable could cut into that. Yeah, looking at it now, commoners would be too far in the other direction.

If someone dies I'm sure we can find another poor bugger holed up somehwere in the city to join up. Maybe theres a few dozen survivors hanging around in a boarded up tavern.


Lord Pendragon, I don't picture it going more than 5 sessions at most. Just long enough for PC's to find implements of destruction and get the hell out of dodge. It could probably be done in one session but I think I'd aim for two or three. I guess I should have said "adventure" rather than campaign.

For the record, I haven't played either Call of Cthulhu or All Flesh Must be Eaten but I'd like to give them both a try.