And now, as the saying goes, for something completely different.
A few weeks back I picked up several packs of Fortress Figures new Zombies:
plastic figures, dressed in the ragged remnants of modern clothing, that come
12 for $10.00. Theyre big 28mm figures, and look a little cartoony, but they
paint up quickly, easily, and very nicely. Right now, I have a little less
than forty of them painted and ready to go.
So now I have to game with them. My first thought was ShockForce, and thats
actually the perfect system for a certain style of game...but the people that
I am starting to game with are interested in Stargrunt, so I thought that I
might give that a try instead. At least as a first attempt.
So, what I have in mind is something similar to Dawn of the Dead. The idea
is for the Zombies to function more as a force of nature (UNnature, really)
than as just another kind
of opponent. Killing the Zombies will be a secondary goal, at best --
the primary goal of a given scenarion will be to rescue someone, or to recover
some device, or to take and hold a particular building. Something vaguely
reminiscent of Rorkes Drift would not be out of the question either. Human
opposition, in addition to the Zombies, is likely be part of some of the games
as well.
Heres what Ive got for rules thus far:
*****
Zombies move 6 per action, and cannot take combat moves. They just shamble
along, no matter the provocation. This means that they have to be right on top
of an opponent in order to charge into close combat, but thats just fine for
my purposes.
They will automatically move towards the closest living being, but will avoid
significant amounts of open flame.
They ignore Suppression, and have no use for morale at all -- the
mindless dead do not panic. Nor do they have leaders. They tend to group into
packs of 8 or 10, but none of these Zombies functions as a leader.
Charging Zombies are a terror weapon.
Wounded Zombies suffer nothing worse than cosmetic damage; only a Kill result
will take
them out of play. Certain weapons -- flamethrowers, plasma weapons,
lasers -- will
reverse this, and turn all wound results into kills.
Zombies do not take prisoners. In any situation that would result in a
captive, the unfortunate fellow becomes another casualty.
Zombie armor is 1d8. This isnt so much armor, of course, as it is the
ability to simply shrug off most injuries.
In close assault, Zombies roll 1d6 x 2.
*****
Any thoughts or ideas?
G'day John,
Sounds good to me... fun, fun, fun;)
> They will automatically move towards the closest
What even their evil overlord with the cruel, but maniacal laugh?;P
> In any situation that would result in a captive, the
I take it you mean dead, not another zombie?
> In close assault, Zombies roll 1d6 x 2.
You may find this a little strong, but I guess on playtesting will tell.
Cheers
Instead of wounds having no effect, you may want to reduce their
Significantly warped. May use this for GZG-WCC-II
Michael Brown Please let me know if you plan to attend!
[quoted original message omitted]
> G'day John,
Evil overlord? Oh, no, no, no! That would be *fantasy*! These are the kinds of
Zombies that are awakened by the radiation of a crashing space probe, or some
weird and icky alien virus!
You know, *scientific* Zombies! Really. Trust me on this.
> >In any situation that would result in a captive, the
I hadn't actually considered that. I figured that the Zombies would devour the
guy, but having him join their ranks might be fun too.
> >In close assault, Zombies roll 1d6 x 2.
Maybe 1d4 x 2. YUou're right, it needs to be playtested. Fortunately, this is
the kind of thing that lends itself pretty easily to solo playtesting. Zombie
tactics are pretty simple, after all.
> Significantly warped. May use this for GZG-WCC-II
Feel free -- I'll post any playtesting results to the list.
Unfortunately, living in PA
I'm unlikely to make it to GZG-WCC. I've still got my fingers crossed
for ECC, though....
G'day John,
> Trust me on this.
Oh I trust you implicitly John... was that a maniacal laugh I just heard from
you?;)
> Fortunately, this is the kind
Unless of course they happen to have read "Advanced and interesting tactics
for zombies volume 3"... oh don't laugh, this is serious stuff!! Lachy pulled
that one on me...
Lachy and Janneke are playing "our kids only FMA Mum!" with his knights,
outlaws, dragons and zombie...
"Umm, shouldn't that zombie just kinda amble forward with its arms out in
front Lachy?" "No this ones has read advanced and interesting tactics for
zombies volume
3"
At which point he points at his sister's latest attempt at "a book" (in the
very loosest sense of the word).
You've gotta love them... I've got no choice really, they'd scare me to death
if I didn't;)
[quoted original message omitted]
> ----- Original Message -----
That's a good idea -- and if this new Zombie attacks the unit that it
belonged to while alive, that would be a definite call for a morale check.
> On Tue, 18 Sep 2001 Beth.Fulton@marine.csiro.au wrote:
> You've gotta love them... I've got no choice really, they'd scare me
Now I'm scared!
If and when these kids get on the Internet, promise me that you'll keep them
away from www.eviloverlord.com for as long as possible. Give us a fighting
chance...
> > You've gotta love them... I've got no choice really, they'd scare me
Hey, that's the way it works. You get some nice, cuddly kids, and some day
they are better than you at writing HTML (or whatever else they fancy to
do).
:-)
> On Tue, 18 Sep 2001 10:13:33 US/Eastern johncrim@voicenet.com writes:
The best "vaccination" is either a thermal grenade or a flamethrower. Although
Nukes would work... Hmm, wonder how a culture that values perfection of body
would react to such an incident (vaguely remember a Star Trek paper back (one
of the few I have ever read) involving a child
from a race with antenna who was blind/deaf/some such and in the end
adopted by a human crew member...)
Gracias,
Glenn/Triphibious@juno.com
This is my Science Fiction Alter Ego E-mail address.
Historical - Warbeads@juno.com
Fantasy and 6mm - dwarf_warrior@juno.com
> That's a good idea -- and if this new Zombie attacks the unit that it
Each game turn, throw a dice. On a 6, he becomes another
> Zombie. And perhaps medics can 'vaccinate' a casualty against this.
A bullet through the brain usually helps ;-/
G'day,
> If and when these kids get on the
Cool list!! Except I have a quibble with
12.One of my advisors will be an average five-year-old child. Any flaws
in my plan that he is able to spot will be corrected before implementation.
The plans 5 year olds come up with are way too advanced and tortured for a
mere evil overlord to have dreamt them up in the first place;)
Luckily however, the kids are quite content to play non-net games and
when on the net only want to go to the Harry Potter site and send me emails
telling me I'm as ugly as a troll;)
Cheers
John Crimmins schrieb:
> At 12:31 AM 9/19/01 +0100, you wrote:
[snip]
> More seriously, soldiers who know what they are getting
Right, for extra problems, place the scenario in wooden buildings or near a
fuel dump.
Greetings
> John Crimmins schrieb:
> Karl Heinz wrote:
Oh, then it's no problem. Lure the zombies into the flammable area, using
whatever bait is convenient (eg the classic zombie lure is a couple of
> At 12:31 AM 9/19/01 +0100, you wrote:
Brains? Zombies have no need for brains! Sure, maybe if they get a little
hungry...but then they'll need someone *else's* brain.
More seriously, soldiers who know what they are getting into might be equipped
with a timed thermite grenade, just to prevent their fellows from rising
again. This would be a good thing to decide on a scenario by scenario basis.
> At 02:42 PM 9/18/01 +1000, you wrote:
Frightening though Zombies can be, kids have 'em beat. And for sheer
destructive potential, nothing beats a two year old.
Except, as I have learned to my sorrow, a "roomfull* of two year olds. I was
lucky to escape with my life from that one.
So where do I get 15mm Zombies?
Michael Brown
[quoted original message omitted]
Halfling Zombines for Advanced Dungeons and Dragons?
-----
Brian Bell
-----
[quoted original message omitted]
Michael Brown schrieb:
> So where do I get 15mm Zombies?
Good question. There are various companies that produce 15 mm fantasy ranges
(Essex, Chariot, Demonworld, Peter Pig etc.) Most of these have undead ranges
that include Zombies. However, these are typically designed for "Medieval"
fantasy and dressed and equipped accordingly.
Or use some 15 mm civilians or militia types with a 'zombie' paint job.
Greetings
[quoted original message omitted]
> On Wed, 19 Sep 2001 KH.Ranitzsch@t-online.de wrote:
> John Crimmins schrieb:
I've got 'Industrial Accident' houserules for SG2 - firing near certain
structures (tank farms, vats of stuff, pipes, refinery-type equipment)
leads to the risk of fires, explosions and gas leaks...
I use them alongside my "Aliens"-aliens rules, to give bughunting that
extra element - going into an industrial complex to rescue techs from
rampaging bugs gets more dangerous when parts of the place are dangerous in
themselves!
I don't have a copy on me, but sometime next week I'll post them to the list
for comment.
One bughunting game I ran, a fuel tank caught fire very early, after being
caught downrange when a squad shot up some charging aliens; the damn thing
burned for the whole game, blocking the easiest & safest route deeper into the
complex; it also exploded three times, and because the Marine player was
unwilling to find another route, it killed most of one squad and a hoverjeep
with the second and third explosions... Very late in the game,
the fire spread explosively, expanding 6" downrange - right across the
road leading back to the compound's main gate!
Anything to get players into that twitchy, paranoid frame of mind!