Walking Dead / Zombies

[RandyT0001]

Anybody use zombies or walking dead like in the movies or TV show?
If so, are the zombies slow walkers or fast like in World War Z?
If so, is the zombie disease spread by bites, bites & scratches, or is everybody infected but one has to die to turn?

[stormlion1]

We had the Blue Undead to fill that role. There missing from 4th edition though.

[RandyT0001]

IMO they are not the same. They attack differently. The way to destroy Zombies and Blue Undead are different. Blue Undead attacks do not create new Blue Undead. Blue Undead were used as a area denial creature. Zombies are more of a wave attack kind of threat.

Too different to say that they have similar roles within the game.

[ArmySGT.]

Hmmmmmmm maybe write up a new timeline.

Bruce Morrow gets it wrong. It isn't war with the USSR. It was the last ditch to halt the zombie apocalypse. The world wide contagion that reanimates the dead can be killed with fire (or nuclear fire) and destruction of the brain.

It is 150 years later. The Dead still rise from locations the contagion hasn't been scorched away.

Might be a good scenario for players that know the game and the modules to well.

Give them a curve ball.

[mikeo80]

Interesting idea. The nuclear war is due to zombies. HHHHMMMMMM,,,,,,

I need to think on that....But it does pose interesting ideas....


My $0.02

Mike

[welsh]

I got a campaign called zombie apocalypse at another threat play@yog-sothoth.com going a couple of years ago. It is still in play. At the micro-level it is a zombie apocalpyse game, but at a macro its a cthulhu/mythos story- with giant worms burrowing beneath the world, and alien invaders who arrive via metoerites (actually eggs carrying giant mosquito like monsters that help spread the zombie apocalypse). Fun stuff if you are interested.

We used mostly slow walkers, but a few runners and zombie animals too.

[Craig R]

Originally Posted by ArmySGT.

Hmmmmmmm maybe write up a new timeline.

Bruce Morrow gets it wrong. It isn't war with the USSR. It was the last ditch to halt the zombie apocalypse. The world wide contagion that reanimates the dead can be killed with fire (or nuclear fire) and destruction of the brain.

It is 150 years later. The Dead still rise from locations the contagion hasn't been scorched away.

Might be a good scenario for players that know the game and the modules to well.

Give them a curve ball.

Heheheh. I like how you think!

[bobcat]

it also makes radioactive undead much more plausible. you know i could really work with this.

[mmartin798]

Of course Blue Undead are plausible. I do believe I read an article where they found a mold or fungus actually deriving biological energy (i.e. food - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiotrophic_fungus) from the radiation in the reactor core remains at Chernobyl. Couple that with the fungus mind takeover zombie creation from nature (http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/...he-last-of-us/) and we have blue undead. It's not rocket science.

[RandyT0001]

Ok, time for more questions.

Do your zombies eat meat for nourishment (is it required for them to move) or do they still move, possibly slower, even they have not eaten in months?
Do your zombies eat only human meat or will they eat other animals?
If zombies eat other animals can attacked animals transform into zombies also and do they also transmit the vector that causes transformation in humans and other animals?
Are your zombies capable of using all five senses to find food or just some or one?
How smart are your zombies?

1. Totally mindless driven solely by the need to feed (they will walk through fire to feed)
2. React to stimuli (they avoid fire to preserve themselves)
3. Can understand simple concepts like ascending/descending stairs, try to find a path around a barrier to get to food, pushing a door aside to open it
4. Can they use very simple tools like a hammer to beat on a locked or closed door, operate unlocked doorknobs
5. They can formulate a multi-step (6-9 steps) course of action to get into a postion to obtain food

Do your zombies communicate with each other? Is it by simple grunts for simple commands (stop, food here, go around) or is it some telepathic means almost like a shared group knowledge within a certain range of each other (1-5m, 1-10m, 1-50m, 1-100m, 1-1000m)?
If they do communicate and are intelligent enough do they formulate plans of attack, possibly including diversions, to obtain meat?

[ArmySGT.]

Originally Posted by RandyT0001

Ok, time for more questions.

I will give it a whirl!

Originally Posted by RandyT0001

Do your zombies eat meat for nourishment (is it required for them to move) or do they still move, possibly slower, even they have not eaten in months?

In my rendition it isn’t the meat they need as much as it is the fats and the hemoglobin. They need the fats to power their tissues and the hemoglobin to carry oxygen into their remaining systems. The amino acids and such are helpful but without digestion to difficult to make much use of.

Originally Posted by RandyT0001

Do your zombies eat only human meat or will they eat other animals?

Anything that walks, crawls, flies, or swims.

Originally Posted by RandyT0001

If zombies eat other animals can attacked animals transform into zombies also and do they also transmit the vector that causes transformation in humans and other animals?

No, the virus or bacteria that animates the motor reflex portions of the brain has only adapted to humans.

Originally Posted by RandyT0001

Are your zombies capable of using all five senses to find food or just some or one?

Yes, though this degrades as the zombie decomposes over time. The bacteria that animates the corpse also spawns off some highly aggressive phagocytes to kill/eat other bacteria keeping the host flesh from degrading to rapidly.

Originally Posted by RandyT0001

How smart are your zombies?

Like a rock.

1. Originally Posted by RandyT0001

   Totally mindless driven solely by the need to feed (they will walk through fire to feed)

   Driven by the need to feed and spread the infection. They seek other humans to transmit the infection by bite or exposure to body fluids. The host flesh needs glycogen, lipids, and hemoglobin that it can no longer produce itself.
   

   Originally Posted by RandyT0001

   React to stimuli (they avoid fire to preserve themselves)

   No. The animated dead don’t notice anything and will walk through fire or off a cliff to get to the living.
   

   Originally Posted by RandyT0001

   Can understand simple concepts like ascending/descending stairs, try to find a path around a barrier to get to food, pushing a door aside to open it

   Stairs, and ladders only if the muscular coordination has not diminished to much. The door knob, latch, deadbolt are ignored by the dead. They will breakdown a door because pain is no longer a stimulus for them.
   

   Originally Posted by RandyT0001

   Can they use very simple tools like a hammer to beat on a locked or closed door, operate unlocked doorknobs

   Nope. Cognitive thought is gone.
   

   Originally Posted by RandyT0001

   They can formulate a multi-step (6-9 steps) course of action to get into a postion to obtain food

   Nope. See food, chase food, pull food down, eat food, repeat.

Originally Posted by RandyT0001

Do your zombies communicate with each other? Is it by simple grunts for simple commands (stop, food here, go around) or is it some telepathic means almost like a shared group knowledge within a certain range of each other (1-5m, 1-10m, 1-50m, 1-100m, 1-1000m)?

No. They react because another has reacted. When one sees food and begins to follow that alerts the others.

Originally Posted by RandyT0001

If they do communicate and are intelligent enough do they formulate plans of attack, possibly including diversions, to obtain meat?

Nope, no brains.

[welsh]

One of the problems you might have going with zombies is that they become a bit too predictable. Your original zombie was a Voodoo zombie, and the way you dealt with it was by feeding it salted meat. Today, we usually think of zombies as the Romero zombies- kill them with a head shot, and they either run or walk. But then there are the 28 Day Later zombies- which can die of starvation and are spread by contagion. In Fallout, they use various forms of feral and non-feral ghouls, which live forever but don't necessarily eat meat, are not really 'undead' but really suffered a set of consequences from a release of Fast Evolutionary Virus (FEV).

But Modern anthropologists have identified another type of zombiefication- for mostly African workers who spent long hours working underground in African mines and came up looking and acting like zombies.

So if you go with zombies, I would think you should go with something that is yours. Create a concept or a creature that satisfies the things you like.

I have used Maggots- and these were essentially creatures that were forced underground during nuclear winter and suffered from both genetic mutations and madness and so devolved into something more primative. They are fierce, carnivorous and capable night hunters, with excellent night vision, sense of smell and hearing but avoid sunlight. They tend to hunt in large packs or often form small colonies. Often found in major cities and towns- they are a reason why one should not venture into underground sewer systems or subways and why you probably want to leave the city before night falls. One might think of these as area denying creatures.

I have also used a creature that was based somewhat on Crighton's book prey- essentially a nanotech robot that operates in a swarm but which can inhabit and possess human beings - so this is more like a techno form of demonic possession.

One can imagine a weed like creature that sends a poison into the air that causes brain damage and blindness, turning people into carnivores that will eat just about anything they hear or smell. Or a DARPA derived weapons system- a sonic frequency that turns people into zombies. IN the Strain, those little white worms are causing some kind of problem. Or....

You can refer to World War Z (the book not the movie) and you've got a long-lasting Romero type zombie from Night of the Living Dead. I think there is a variety of things you might want to introduce to this story to make it more your own and push forward the plot.