Zombies!!! Horror Board Game

[Iron_Chef]

I don't see a boardgames forum, so I'm posting this here...

Anybody else playing Zombies!!! from Twlight Creations?

The plot of Zombies!!! is simple: You and your fellow survivors are trapped in a city of flesh-eating ghouls. You collect cards and play them on yourself or your opponents (the cards are full color, gory and fun). You get to move yourself and some zombies every turn, racing around the city, breaking into and looting stores for Life tokens and Bullets. You must kill 25 zombies or escape to the helicopter, stranding everyone else to a certain doom. The thing I've noticed, is even when you lose, you still feel like you acomplished something, because you killed a truckload of zombies and screwed your opponents over many times in memorable ways. Every game is different, because you build the city one section (full color tile) at a time and the order of each section's appearance is randomized by shuffling the city tile deck.

ZOMBIES!!! official website
http://twilightcreationsinc.com/zombies/

I finally caved in and bought Zombies!!! and Zombies!!! 3 Mall Walkers (Dawn of the Dead mall expansion) and loved them! The Zombies!!! box set comes with 100 zombie minis! I've played 9 games in two days over 18 hours, LOL. I think I'm addicted. I'm gonna buy Zombies!!! 2 Zombie Corps(e) next to get the military base expansion and the 6 glow-in-the-dark uber-zombies. I'm also tempted to get Zombies!!! 4: The End, which takes place in the woods with zombie dogs and you have to collect the pages from the Book of the Dead to stop the horror and win. That set comes with 100 zombie dog minis! You can mix and match the various cards and rules from the sets to create the game you want. Only two pages of rules makes the game easy to house rule on the fly and just generally tinker with to make it the game you want. Each game is about 2 hours of beer-n-pretzels fun. If you only use the shopping mall or military base, instead of the city, it cuts down to maybe 1 hour or 90 minutes depending on the number of players because those locations use about 10 less tiles than the city. If you want to include the city, you'll need to buy more zombie minis (suitable for RPG use too), which they sell in bags of 100 for $9.95 in either (standard) rotten gray or glow in the dark varieties. The minis have a disgusting, wobbly, rubbery (but still sturdy) texture to them, which makes them more fun to pick up and move around, like you're actually touching clammy, dead flesh!

After trying the default rules and the standard Quickplay rules in two games, I'm using a combination of my own house rules and the Quickplay rules from the game's website. Basically, you always move a number of spaces equal to your current life tokens (or better if you roll higher on movement). Instead of only moving zombies one square each, you can split up the d6 roll and move less zombies faster, or more zombies slowly. If you are down to your last Life token, you don't die, but start losing kills for every failed combat roll. If you run out of kills, you just keep fighting until you defeat the zombie.

We also created a city only "death match" game where you start with 5 life and 5 bullets (and can trade in 15 kills for a "recharge" to put you back to 3 life and 3 bullets if you're lower). A variant "death match" allows each player three lives, so if they die, they lose all their kills, tokens and cards and start over in the town square with only 3 Life and 3 bullets.

We also added in uber-zombies (currently represented by skeleton and zombie RPG minis)! Here's how they come into play: Everytime the movie theater tile comes up (and there are 4 of them, each playing the movie "Evil Dad", LOL), an "Evil Dad" uber-zombie appears on that tile in lieu of the two regular zombies. The "Evil Dad" can only be killed on a six (instead of 4-6 like normal zombies) and moves twice as fast as regular zombies. If you are killed by an "Evil Dad" your character becomes an "Evil Dad" too! First one to the helicopter wins, regardless of the number of kills! Not respawning when you die and having the "Evil Dads" chase you around so fast really makes a dramatic, scary impact on your resource management and play style... everyone is much more conservative and nervous, at least until the helicopter tile is drawn and then it's a mad dash to screw over your opponents and jack the old whirly-bird. If not using the city tiles, the "Evil Dads" only appear when a player dies (on that spot).

 

[evildm]

My friends and I love this game, and every time I visit Montreal, we play it to death. Ironically, we invented some extra rules too. Must be a sign of a true roleplayer to invent extra rules for boardgames.

 

[Iron_Chef]

The official site has a bunch of different house rules and options, such as team play, different character powers for the players, new weapons, scenarios, campaigns, an alternate ending, and of course, FAQs --- check the links page for a link to an RPG based on the game. However, I've found the best house rules for me are not on the official site but rather are Rich Stoke's Quickplay Rules found here:

ZOMBIES!!! QUICKPLAY RULES
http://rwb.microsith.com/zombies/

The game is simple yet satisfying enough that it can be played "as is", or can quickly be made more complex to suit the taste of the players. It can even be "dumbed down" further for kids who can't read yet. With only 2-3 pages of rules, it can be whatever you want, and the designer tells you to do whatever you want with the rules while still providing a solid game to build on. I'm impressed with the people who made this game series!

 

[ASH]

Yup, great game. I love it.

 

[Frostmarrow]

I enjoy the game very much. I think the Quick Play rules (above) gives the game a nice polish. I won't be getting any of the expansions, though. I think that expansions rarely are worth it.

 

[evildm]

I enjoy the game very much. I think the Quick Play rules (above) gives the game a nice polish. I won't be getting any of the expansions, though. I think that expansions rarely are worth it.

Well, these expansions are actually great... provided you have the available playing space. I've only tried the Mallwalker add on, but it rocked. I highly recommend looking into the expansions if you like Zombies!!!

 

[Iron_Chef]

Well, these expansions are actually great... provided you have the available playing space. I've only tried the Mallwalker add on, but it rocked. I highly recommend looking into the expansions if you like Zombies!!!

Totally agree. Zombies 3: Mall Walkers gives you a shopping mall to run amuck in, just like Dawn of the Dead. The new cards are almost all great, and some allow you to fight other players or steal their bullets and cards! It's a little overpriced at $15 because it doesn't include any new figures or tokens, but you do get your money's worth in cards and tiles. You can move through the air ducts between stores (just like the original 1978 Dawn of the Dead). Two new scenarios are included, allowing you to rescue survivors (whoever collects the most survivors and escapes by helicopter wins), or for players to constantly fight amongst yourselves for the keys to the helicopter.

I really want Zombies 2: Zombie Corps(e) for the Day of the Dead military base expansion and 6 glow in the dark zombies. Also want Zombies 3.5, which is only $10 and gives you a bunch of cool new cards.

I bought Zombies 4: The End (a stand-alone game or mix-n-match expansion). This gives a fresh scenario (collect the pages from the book of the dead to cast the spell that wins the game and destroys the zombies). This one takes place in the woods (there are some buildings, too) and is a cross between Evil Dead and Pet Semetary, LOL. There is even a card that lets you turn into a werewolf and attack other players! I have not played Zombies 4 yet, but there are some nice cards, tiles and you get red heart tokens, more bullets, 6 new shotgun guy figures, blue and red dice and 100 zombie dogs.

 

[Wycen]

You haven't played Zombies! until you've played the 8 year old's version.

 

[Iron_Chef]

I played it with my buddy and his seven year old son last night and despite his ill-advised and often cowardly moves of both himself and the zombies, once he knew what his cards did, he usually knew which ones to play to great effect. We did not really help him play too much outside of explaining his cards to him. Once he can read the cards, he should become quite the dangerous player. We caught him cheating or fancifully moving pieces around several times, but it wasn't too bad, except for the time his dad surrounded him by zombies and he almost blew a gasket --- fortunately, he managed to roll his way out the situation and drew a card that surrounded his dad with twice as many zombies, so he turned that frown upside down pretty quick. He mostly understood the game fairly well and developed some rudimentary strategies (even if some were based around nonsensical premises).

The kid was impressed with himself because he beat two 33 year old men and was 5 years younger than the recommended age the game recommends (12+). He managed to win almost completely fair and square without our help, which just goes to show that it's often luck who wins the game --- but strategy can still influence that quite a bit, or at least delay another player's seemingly impending victory by several rounds, perhaps long enough to alter the outcome in another player's favor, even if it's not yours.

 

[Piratecat]

I think I'm the only person who really doesn't like this game. I own it and have played it a couple of times, but we found it repetitious and kind of boring. It's depressing, really, because I want to like it -- but I don't dig the gameplay.