I have just been chastized by someone who is either a complete stranger or a new identity for a recurring “anonymous friend”.  The criticism is that my most recent Blogless Lepolt post has nothing whatever to do with Multiverser, and of course he is correct.  I may have again to rethink what I post here.

Fortunately, my inspiration for posting today is related to Multiverser.  Some of you will recall that as part of my work on the novels, I was creating character sheets based on the primary characters therein.  Judging from the blog posts, it has been entirely too long that those efforts have been sidetracked.  However, recently in the forums I launched one of my players in one of the worlds from the second novel, one which I am preparing for use in the next Multiverser Triple Play–that is, next after the horror one that is currently in the hands of the art director, the space-based worlds.  I was going to run it mostly by the seat of my pants and the notes and writing I’ve done on the world description–but as often happens in Multiverser games, the player’s character did something that changed things significantly.  He prayed another character into his scenario, and that prompted me to shift the plans to involve the story of that other character.  It also meant that I needed detailed information concerning the particular character from the story, including skills and equipment, so that I could put together events well.

Thus I returned my attention to the novels, and particularly to the character sheets.  In so doing, I found I had nearly finished all the data gathering from the first, and was almost ready to start the second.  I pushed forward into the beginning of the second novel, and the first bits of information about the character already involved in play, and hoping that this will facilitate both the ongoing game and the work on the novels.

I should apologize for my absence yesterday, but an explanation would involve details of family matters not at all related to Multiverser, and would thus raise the ire of people on all sides.

–M. J. Young

I have been pressured by several people who want to know when the blog will return.  I have wondered that myself.  Can’t you, they ask, write the blog without talking about the people who don’t want their lives made public?  No, I can’t, really, because the blog makes my life public, and they are part of my life.  There’s not much I can do about that.

Well, there is, really–I can stop talking about “my life”.  The point of the Blogless Lepolt, ultimately, is to let you, the Valdron/Multiverser fanbase, know what is happening with forthcoming product.  It is incidentally to let what might be called the Mark Joseph Young fanbase know about my other creative work being produced outside the Valdron/Multiverser stable.  In all this time, it has also been a place for talking about what has been in the way of producing such work, and thus the events and distractions of my personal life.  Part of that was because I was writing this every day, and I wasn’t getting anything done every day (or sometimes even every week), so I had to say something, and I felt I had to explain why there wasn’t any time to get something done every day.  One of the comments noted that this was something of value to him, to have some understanding of the conflicts that prevented me from writing so much.  That, though, is the part that gets personal–and thus the part that has to go.  Similarly, since I’m not going to be explaining why things have not been done, I will no longer be writing the blog daily–there will be posts when there is something to post; it won’t always be much, and it won’t always be very informative, but at least it won’t be about the progress I did not make.

It will also move that last blog post off its prominent position on the front page of this site, which will make me feel a bit better.

All of this suggests that I have something to tell–and indeed I do.  As I have been typing, I have realized that there is more than one thing to tell.

The impetus for resuming is that there is a new page in the Bible Studies section of M. J. Young Net, On Sabbath.  The brief story behind it is pretty much stated on the page as an introduction.  For those curious as to how someone who has always “regarded all days the same” justifies being part of a Seventh Day Baptist church which very clearly “regards one day above another”, there’s some insight into that there.

As I was typing, though, it occurred to me that I did not mention having made progress on the Multiverser Triple Play:  Horror.  I did what I am hoping will be the last text edits (and neither Jim nor John have commented on them, so I’m feeling fairly secure in that hope).  That puts the ball in the court of our art director.  He, however, takes an extended visit to family overseas every summer, so he might not get to the artwork as soon as he would like.

There was a third thing that came to mind while I was typing, and that is that Collision, the band, now has its own MySpace site.  There’s nothing there yet–not even a picture of the band, and no music–but it’s a start.  I had been thinking it was a necessary step, but that I did not have the time to do it and we weren’t really ready for it, when Baxter asked me about it.  He and Brittany have been overseeing it (I’ve not yet even had the chance to log in to the editing page–but I’m not particularly good at maintaining MySpace sites), and it’s progressing.  What do you think–should our lyrics be posted there somewhere, somehow?

Anyway, that’s the situation.  I will post again when I have something to tell.

–M. J. Young

Sometimes it feels to me as if I have not accomplished much–particularly when I wind up collapsing early, then going on late-night errands, then sleeping well into the next afternoon only to commit to long errands on behalf of others.  However, review of the facts suggests otherwise.

At some time within the last twenty-four hours I finished reading a book I have promised to review.  It was an allegorical science fantasy illustrated novel by a writer I know somewhat personally (never met but have corresponded), whose work I have reviewed before.  I’m not certain when I’ll get to the review, as I’ve a lot on my plate at the moment, but I will get to it.

I also returned my attention to the Multiverser Triple Play:  Horror supplement.  What I did was copy all the notes from the development forum to a document on my hard drive.  I was fighting a headache yesterday which is attributable to the fact that the disruptions of the day prevented me ever from getting a cup of coffee, and so I did not feel up to making all the checks as to what still had to be done with those notes.  However, it’s a step in the right direction, and as things appear now sometime after Ubercon I may be able to make progress on it.

I also provided an extensive response to questions about a developing temporal anomalies analysis of The Last Mimzy, which took probably an hour or so from today’s precious time but will mean a new page on the Temporal Anomalies site which might garner some traffic and interest in turn in the Multiverser books.

I’ve agreed to pick up the girlfriend of one of my sons tonight; he has agreed to help keep the dishes under control all weekend.  If he hasn’t got them under control before nine I guess I’m not going, and I’ll have more time to work, but I am hoping that he is sufficiently motivated by the desire to have her visit that he will get to them in time.

I’m also committed to a Collision concert tomorrow night, sans drums or major amplifiers, at the church coffeehouse.  They do this once or twice a year.  Brittany has a school assignment that requires her to be at another location fairly early, so we’re going to have to ask to be at the beginning of the night, but I think they’ll accommodate us.  Last night’s rehearsal went quite well, thank you, and I’m comfortable with our ability to do these two songs at a performance quality level.

I’m not as confident in my ability to finish everything else that must be done, however, so I’d better get to it.

–M. J. Young

Moments ago I was again reading the draft of Do You Trust Me? and I again spotted a needed correction; in making an edit just before printing, I had deleted one too many words in a string, leaving no sense in the sentence. It was simple enough to replace the missing word, which has been done.

Not yet done is taking a son back to his brother; he went with his mother on a middle-of-the-night shopping trip which short-changed her significantly on sleep (I had told her that I would take the boy shopping today, if necessary, but she felt that he wanted her with him, so that’s what was done). This trip is the more complicated, because one of our houseguests has some furniture that needs to be removed from a previous address, and the brother needs some of that furniture (and actually, we could use some chairs ourselves), so we’ll be organizing this as a truck delivery. This is in turn complicated, because the brakes on the pickup decided to go from leaking slowly to leaking rapidly over the weekend, so I’m going to be taking it into a shop tonight and will be renting a vehicle once again for the effort–Enterprise is even now on its way to get me. But you do what you must.

Finding myself alone last night, I turned my attention back to the temporal anomalies in Primer. I did more writing, in which I resolved a few more of the problems and reached some critical conclusions, but then being too tired to continue I retired to the bedroom, started the movie, and fell asleep in the first ten minutes. I awoke a few hours later, still alone, with the movie playing the menu screen, and restarted it. This time I was asleep before the opening dialogue, and I slept through to the alarm. I can’t say it helped my analysis, but that’s coming along pretty well.

There’s also been some discussion on the first of the Multiverser Triple Play collections, the horror group. My title Slasher Summer Camp is supposed to be a multiple-murder scenario in which no one knows who the killer is until it’s solved; but my crew tell me that if I call it “Slasher” it’s going to require that my villain wear a mask when he kills–and this is problematic, because part of the point is that even when you see the killer and the last victim together, you don’t know which is who unless you solve the mystery. A mask just ruins the whole thing. Of course, I’m thinking of this along the lines of Ten Little Indians, and not being a horror movie fan I’ve never really paid attention to all those nightmares on Halloween. I like the ring of Slasher Summer Camp, but do I really have to change the title to Seven Little Campers or something?

We’re working on resolving it. I’ll let you know if we change the title.

–M. J. Young

Having collected the input of some of the Valdron staff, I went back into the three worlds of the first Multiverser Triple Play–the horror one–and did a bit of tweaking and expanding to each of the worlds. I don’t know if they’re finished, but they’re a lot closer now. The tweaks have already been posted to the development forum, and so I’m awaiting comment there.

Fortunately Thursdays are usually light. I am expecting Brittany to appear late this afternoon, and I need to bring Baxter before that, so we can have our Collision rehearsal; but I have this nagging feeling my wife has already agreed that we will meet someone or be somewhere very early this evening, so the day has been squeezed. I’m not certain whether she remembers, but the person with whom she had the discussion has already left a message for her to call, so I think it’s on, whatever it is.

I had better keep moving.

–M. J. Young

Graveyard Greg: Who are you?

Unknown Zombie: I’m George Vasilakos, head Zombie Lord over at Eden Studios —
Artist/Designer/Dad.

GG: How did you get into the Gaming Industry?

GV: I started a gaming store after I finished art school. When a few of my
customers and friends formed a gaming company to make the Battlelords CCG,
they needed a graphic designer and art director (and some money). So I jumped
feet first into a small gaming company with big dreams called New Millennium
Entertainment.

The company didn’t do to well with Battlelords, but its second game
Conspiracy X did nicely. When NME went under, I aquired the rights to
Conspiracy X, found some investors, closed my store and started Eden Studios.

GG: I remember Battlelords…and speaking of gaming credits…

Give us your Gaming Industry credits–past and present!

GV: I co-authored D&D with Gary Gygax . . . before I came along it was called
Dungeons and Gophers . . . I set the bonehead straight and the rest is
history.

GG: Tell me you’re kidding.

GV: Just kidding . . . aside from running Eden Studios, I’ve done all the graphic
design and art direction on the Conspiracy X line, the layout and covers for
the WitchCraft line, and some freelance art for Pinnacle’s Hell On Earth RPG.
I also designed the Abduction non-collectible card game.

GG: Are you the Pumpkin King?

GV: No. I’m a mild mannered game designer/artist.

GG: Right now everyone is slavering for the newest RPG coming soon from Eden
Studios–ALL FLESH MUST BE EATEN. Sounds gross! Mind telling the uninformed
about the concept behind this creepy game?

GV: Unlike most traditional RPGs out there, ALL FLESH MUST BE EATEN doesn’t have
one set campign setting or world background. You are presented with numerous
“Deadworlds,” each with a unigue setting and reason why the dead are walking
about. This style of presentation allows gamers to play in any genre,
background, theme or manner they wish. Play a serious survival game, a campy
comedy horror game, a heavy supernatural game, a lighter, more “real” world
game — it’s up to you.

To me, the core of this game is the idea of being trapped and having to deal
with mindless smelly zombies and their insatiable hunger. It’s a game about
survival horror . . . did I mention I used to run a game store?

GG: How did the title come to exist?

GV: Well Christopher Shy, cover artist and co-concept creator of ALL FLESH MUST
BE EATEN, gets the credit for the final title. I was dying when he suddenly
spewed out the name. A game with a name like that is a guaranteed sell, I
thought to myself.

GG: I…see.

Were there other titles in consideration? If so, name a few!

GV:

• ERNEST vs THE ZOMBIES
• EAT THIS FANBOY
• CORPSE: THE ROTTING
• ZOMBIE: THE SLAVERING
• SOCK MONKEYS MARCH ON BROADWAY

As you can see, they just didn’t seem to have the same impact as ALL FLESH
MUST BE EATEN.

GG: You got that right!

Favorite Zombie music?

GV: Brittany Spears. Nine Inch Nails comes a close second.

GG: Did you do all of the writing for All Flesh?

GV: Heck no. I came up with most of the concepts and found people who are good at
writing to “flesh” it out. Richard Dakan gets first credit as he worked up my
admittedly sketchy descriptions for the various “Deadworlds” and zombie
creation. The game mechanics credits go to CJ Carella since we are using his
Unisystem, the same rules used for WitchCraft and Armageddon. The flavor text
and short stories get attributed to Albert Bruno III, a very talented horror
writer and old buddy of mine. The book also has a nice Forward by Shane
(Deadlands) Hensley about Zombies. Finally, there’s Alex Jurkat, my partner
in crime over here at Eden. As head editor at Eden, he cleans up everyones
writing, fills in the gaps and transitions, and organizes it all into a
polished product. That said, ALL FLESH MUST BE EATEN does contain my first
attempt at writing. I wrote the introduction chapter.

GG: Favorite Zombie food?

GV: Brittany Spears. Mexican food . . . behold the power of cheese and the All
Flesh Must Be Eaten Chocolate Bar. Yum.

GG: How did you come up with this crazy game, anyway?

GV: That’s a funny story actually . . . see I was on a “date” with a transexual
Vietnamese escort when I happened to spot Tom Hanks across the alley from me.
I said to my companion, “Hey that’s Tom Hanks!” Thing is he/she didn’t
understand a word of English and when he/she tried to speak with her mouth
full, it sounded like “Zombie games are the next big thing.” Who was I to
argue!

But seriously . . . I think AFMBE been something every gamer has wanted. I
know I’ve wanted a game like this since the first time I saw DAWN OF THE
DEAD. Once Resident Evil came out and brought those damn zombies back into
the light, it was only a matter of time before we saw a paper and pencil
roleplaying game based on zombie survival horror. I remember sitting in front
of my TV playing Resident Evil 2 coming up with initial designs for the game.
Someone had to do it and take the blame. So blame me.

GG: What is the best zombie movie you’ve ever seen?

GV: Titanic.

GG: Oooooooookay.

Worst zombie movie you’ve ever seen?

GV: The Brittany Spears Story.

GG: …

In your opinion, what makes zombies so scary?

GV: They look human but they’re not . . .
They cannot be reasoned with . . .
They have no jobs, no desires, no hopes . . .
They smell bad . . .
They are ruled by their undying hunger for more . . . more . . . more.

(Did I mention I used to run a game store that sold collectible card games?)

GG: Yes, you did.

Waiting at the 3rd tombstone is John Kovalic, creator of DORK TOWER. His
opponent is none other than JOLLY BLACKBURN, creator of KNIGHTS OF THE
DINNER TABLE. Both are famous for making people drop dead with laughter, but
the one who loses tonight will be fresh meat for the undead! Who wins, and
how do they achieve victory? (NOTE: Be as creative and funny as possible.
You want to add some cameos, go right ahead!)

GV: Well, first John “draws” a large black marker, and pens a Muskrat Pokemon
called Dorkachew. Then, Jolly dives behind a conveniently placed dinner table
and whips out a John Wick Gaming Voard. “No fair!” cries John. Suddenly a
battle beyond description ensues between the John Wick Voard and the
Dorkachew.

Awed by the spectacle, no one hears the shambling of a hoarde of zombies as
they enter the arena. Flesh is ripped from the bone as John and Jolly try to
escape. Stabbing at the undead with art tools, but to no avail, they cannot
stop them. It gets ugly really quick and no one is laughing.

When the dust settles and the blood dries, the only thing left “alive” are
the zombies.

GG: Shameless plug time! You can find your very own Gaming Voard at http://voard.tripod.com/Voard.htm

What kind of supplements can we expect for All Flesh Must Be Eaten?

GV: Pending any Y2K complications here at Eden, we hope to release Enter the
Zombie shortly after the mainbook’s release. This book strives to open whole
new vistas for your zombies-gaming enjoyment. It includes everything
necessary to bring together the thrills of Hong Kong action films and good
old fashioned flesh-eating excitement. This book will have detailed rules on
how to play martial arts zombies. It also introduces four new campaign
settings inspired by John Woo movies, Big Trouble in Little China and Mortal
Kombat. It should be a nice little book.

We are also working on Zombie Master Screen with a 48-page insert that will
come with new archtypes, equipment and an intro adventure. Finally, we have a
a pulp setting campaign sourcebook for AFMBE, currently entitled Pulp Zombie.
This book will introduce various magics and settings set in the 30s and 40s.

GG: Any last words before we send you back to your grave?

GV: Yes, I keep seeing posts and groanings that the gaming industry’s salad days
are behind us. That paper and pencil and dice are going to be replaced by the
modem, the internet and the graphics card.

I don’t believe that. I believe that the gaming industry is headed for a
shining new Renaissance, and new age of creative freedom.

And I believe that the gaming Voard (http://voard.tripod.com/Voard.htm) will
be the bridge that brings us to this new Golden Age.

Remember . . . all flesh must be eaten.

GG: …sometimes I wonder where I dig up these interviewees…

Halloween has just passed, so I thought I’d drop a line into the good people at Eden Studios and see if I could find out more about their upcoming game All Flesh Must Be Eaten. The first thing I found out is that Flesh will likely be in your local gaming store by the end of November. Originally, the release was set for October 31, but Murphy’s Law took effect right on queue in the form of artist troubles. Translation - a short delay until the new artist can produce.

Going into this, I really only had a few basic questions. Like anyone else, they generally centered around wanting to know what Flesh was about, and why I, as a gamer, should be interested. All I knew was that it is a game about Zombies. Well, that’s a no-brainer, right? In the words of Alex Jurkat, Eden’s editor-in-chief:

“…the game can be whatever you want it to be. There are eleven possible story backgrounds (rationales for the zombies and the world) and several ways to approach each of them. That’s essentially what the last quarter of the book is all about. There are three general themes to a zombie story… .

The first is learning about the rise of the zombies, fighting them, surviving them, and learning something about them (mostly the best way to stop them — say, shoot them in the head). That’s heavy hack and slash, fight-fest usually.

The second is discovering how the zombies came about, and how to defeat them. That’s more investigative and sneaky. It may include combat elements, but you have to avoid some of that. There’s just too many to fight them all. When zombies go down, there are always more. When the protagonists go down, they are just one less (and the zombies may be one more).

These two may be sufficient for most stories. The third part complicates the other two - intraparty conflict. That’s where the stress of fighting zombies causes people to crack and turn on each other. Obviously, this is the best way for the zombies to win, or at least significantly winnow the party. We put in a short discussion of this aspect of zombie stories, with plenty of warnings about how dangerous it was for party survival. Some may see that as the best way to tell a zombie story, however. So, if the group is mature enough to handle it without hard feelings (this is supposed to be fun gaming session, right) — go for it.

…(A)nyone who is a zombie fanatic (and there seem to be a great deal of them) should play this game. They can play out all their favorite zombie stories, and do things as they would like to have seen the characters do. It breaks ground by placing zombies at the forefront of the game. Lots of games have zombies, but few focus on them. The game is different than most these days because we do not try to present one specific, detailed uberplotline. Gamers need not worry about fitting their sessions into an overarching storyline where certain events are set in stone. We provide suggestions, … but the games are really for the GMs (we call them Zombie Masters) and players to script.”

There is a lot of info in there. All I could picture now was the Night of the Living Dead movies. BRAINS!!! As it turns out, these movies, and others like them are at the core of the inspiration behind Flesh. I like that, but is it enough to make this game stand out from the rest? When I thought of it, I couldn’t think of any other true zombie games. The only thing that comes close is GURPS Undead, and it’s a supplement, not a stand-alone game. So who’s idea was this anyway? When I was Eden’s webmaster a few years ago, I remember that Flesh was already an idea being bandied about. In George’s words, this is how it all happened:

“Well, I was playing Resident Evil 2 last October and I said to myself this would make a nice Conspiracy X adventure if you changed the bad guys and story around a little. I called Christopher Shy late that night and we talked about the game. As we talked about Resident Evil and Con X, the conversation slowly turned into a conversation about zombie RPGs and why the industry really doesn’t have one that just deals with the zombie genre. So at first we discussed doing it as a Conspiracy X alternate world setting but as the night went on it took on a life of its own. I remember Chris jokingly saying “why don’t we make a separate game and call it All Flesh Must Be Eaten”. I laughed for like 10 minutes. The name was great. Over the next few days, we fleshed out some concepts while watching all 3 of the Romero Dead movies for inspiration. That’s when I decided the game can’t be like most traditional RPGs and have a set storyline and history. There was just too many cool zombie genres I would want players to be able to play in. If we gave it one storyline, we would have to ignore too much cool stuff — and we would be imposing our concept of zombies stories on the players. So the game took on a life of having multiple “deadworld” campaign settings to choose from. Then over the following months I contacted Richard Dakan and told him our vision of the game and he began writing the various world backgrounds.”

George Vasilakos and Christopher Shy did the original creative work, defining the scope, direction, feel and focus of the project. George also put together the intro text on the zombie/survival horror genre. The core charters, which include such things as how to create a zombie and the eleven world backgrounds were written by Richard “Ricko” Dakan. Ricko has worked on many previous Eden projects, including many of books in the Conspiracy X RPG line - as well as done work on Deadlands, Star Trek, Dune, Kult and Mutant Chronicles. Al Bruno, an inspiring horror writer and long-time friend of George, wrote the fiction and archetype personalities. Lastly, Shane “Deadlands” Hensley graced All Flesh with an excellent forward about Zombies. Alex Jurkat did the editing, proofing, some game design, writing where needed, and a bunch of other development work. He pulled all the work of all the various authors together and smoothed it all out. Alex has been Creative Director for Eden since the beginning and has overseen the text side of things for all of Eden’s product.

On the art side, the cover art is done by Christopher Shy, who has graced Eden with his gorgeous covers in the past. Christopher also did a fair chunk of the interior art as well. He has done work for White Wolf, Propaganda Publishing, Gold Rush Games and The Apophis Consortium. Mike Osadciw of Battlelords RPG fame has been working with Eden for a few books now and added some gorgeous art as well to the project. A newcomer to Eden is Brad Quigley, whom George met at GenCon and says his portfolio “blew me away. So I put him on Flesh as a test and now he’s working on the Flesh supplement and various WitchCraft projects. A very nice style.” George did the layout, graphic design and a bunch of illustrations as well, not to mention a bit of writing which is a first for him.

I wanted to know more though, so it’s on to the system. From visiting the official website [ http://www.allflesh.com/ ] I did find out that Flesh will be using the Unisystem, developed by CJ Carella, who has written for Steve Jackson Games as well as a ton of material for Palladium. For anyone who has played the WitchCraft or Armageddon RPGs, this means that you won’t have to learn something new in order to enjoy Flesh. That’s a nice plus. When asked if he could say anything more about the game mechanics, Alex replied:

“The Unisystem is pretty straight-forward. CJ’s design philosophy for game mechanics is to be as unintrusive as possible. After the first couple of sessions, the mechanics should become second nature and fade into the background. He likes the focus to be on the story, not the rules. As for content, the most innovative thing to me is the Anatomy of a Zombie chapter. It allows Zombie Masters to pick and choose zombie powers and create their own unique nasties to through at players. Ricko ran through many aspects of a zombie, from its weak spot to its strength to its diet to its sense, etc. I then went through and added in game stats and a power level, so different features could be compared. In the end, you add up all the power levels and you get an idea of how serious a threat the zombie is. It’s a way for Zombie Master to keep their players on their toes. We then used that zombie creation system when running through the stats of the zombies in each world background. It came out very nicely.”

Something I didn’t find out on the site was whether Flesh will be supported beyond the main rulebook or whether it is a ‘one-shot’ sourcebook. Fortunately for all you zombie lovers out there, it is the former. There will be supplements. The first is Enter the Zombie, combining high action martial arts and the walking dead. The second under consideration is a magic supplement, focusing on zombies and different magic traditions, from ancient world to dark future. Another under consideration addresses Nazis, 1930-40s pulp and the undead, following up and expanding on the Mien Zombie background presented in the main book.

One more nifty thing - anyone who orders their copy direct from Eden will receive an All Flesh Must Be Eaten chocolate bar. Where’d they come up with that one?

“George was surfing websites for merchandising stuff (and) found a candy bar maker… All of a sudden it came to us - All Flesh Must Be Eaten candy bar. We were laughing about fleshy chocolate with a crunch all day after that. We did some pricing and talked to some distributors and everyone agreed it was a great idea. We were so psyched we didn’t even realize that the (then) planned Halloween release fit perfectly with the candy bar until one of our distributors mentioned it. That basically cemented the promotion.”

So, there you have it. That about wraps it up. For anyone interested, Flesh will be released as a 232 page, hardback, in a 7.5″ x 9.5″ format - the same size as Eden’s other Unisystem books, but with the added feature of hard cover.

One last note. I have not seen the manuscript for Flesh, and by extension have not played it. Hopefully, that will change soon. As soon as the game is released, look for a review right here on GO.

Ever since George Romero’s groundbreaking NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD was released in the late 60’s, zombies have held a special place in horror film history. Romero followed up this breakthrough film with the equally impressive DAWN OF THE DEAD, a film which ignited a horde of imitators. The zombie film as role playing game combines two of the hottest genres around: apocalyptic gaming and horror gaming. Not only are the zombies terrifying creatures, but in most films their arrival is associated with a general collapse of society as government proves incapable of protecting its citizens. When great-grandma Edith shows up to eat your brain, the first guy to the gun shop is most likely to live. Law and order be damned.

What we have here are the basic elements of a good story: there’s plenty of opportunity for conflict and motivated folks (read: the characters) have a chance to make a real difference in the world.

Researching the Subject

The best way to get a zombie apocalypse game going is to sit down and watch a few films. For the purposes of this article, I’m going to focus on NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and DAWN OF THE DEAD. These films are superior zombie films not only for their sheer horror and suspense but because George Romero also focused on the conflicts between his human characters, a necessary ingredient if you don’t want a game set in this genre to devolve into endless die rolls as characters hunt and kill zombies.

I Was a Teenage Zombie (and Here Are the Game Stats to Prove It)

Here’s what we know about zombies from NIGHT and DAWN:

• Zombies hunger for human flesh. They will shamble towards humans on sight and will continue to attack until destroyed or their prey escapes.
• Zombies have elevated strength. They are able to tear flesh from their prey with both their teeth and hands.
• Zombies have extremely limited cognitive ability. They have no capability to plan attacks or predict human actions. They tend to move towards the last spot they saw a living human and are determined pursuers.
• Zombies can only be destroyed by massive head trauma, such as a gun shot or bludgeon to the head. Zombies will ignore all pain, though of course blowing off their limbs might make them a little less effective.
• Any human bitten by a zombie will die and arise as one of the walking dead within 72 hours after the wound was inflicted. At the GM’s option, the human will not perish if the wounded limb is amputated up to 10 minutes after the human is wounded. Yup, you’re out of luck if you get a bit on your head or torso.
• Any human who dies with his brain intact, no matter what the cause, will arise as a zombie within 6 hours of death.

Translating This into Game Stats

First, don’t try working out stats for every zombie in town. There’s going to be thousands of the critters all over the place. Instead, keep a rough count of how many are after the players. Any successful attack is a head shot. Most games treat shots to the head as called shots and penalize them, but zombies don’t make any effort to shield their heads from harm. Also, their slow, jerky movements make them easy targets.

The Meat of the Issue

Zombies don’t make great villains. The zombies are more of a plot device than anything else. They just shamble around looking for food. Horrifying, yes. Dramatically satisfying, no. Your human characters are what will make this sort of game entertaining. So who do we call on to provide drama and tension? Good old reliable humanity

In the zombie apocalypse, only the strong survive. At least, that’s how a lot of people feel in Romero’s films. The characters could easily go that route, scrounging for food, ammo, and secure shelter while duking it out with anyone who gets in their way. Or maybe they’re in the army, or they’re cops, and they feel some sense of duty to protect and serve even as society collapses. Maybe their sense of duty is magnified as people need protection now more than ever. There’s a lot of story goals you can use. Here’s a few examples:

• Survival Uber Alles
  
  With anarchy in full swing, it’s every man for himself. In this case, the characters have pretty much given up on civilization. If they want to survive, they’re going to do it on their own. The characters may strive to build something out of the wreckage of society, a community to weather the zombie storm. Or perhaps the characters give up on society all together and simply seek an isolated place to eke out a living on their own. Whatever the case, they’ll face a lot of challenges. The government may actively round up anyone not in a refugee camp, especially if martial law is declared. Remember that a lot of other people will seek the same resources and hideouts as the characters. Sure, everyone may want to get along, but if there aren’t enough bullets/guns/cans of Spam to go around, things will get ugly, fast. A major theme in both Romero films is the fundamentally selfish and destructive nature of man. Nobody can get along as it is. With the zombies around, things are only worse.
• Serve and Protect
  
  In this story line, the characters are members of an organization, typically governmental, that existed before the rise of the zombies. Not only do the players have to watch out for themselves, but now they have to worry about saving others. There’s a lot of potential here for dramatic conflict. Perhaps the organziation that the characters work for is riddled with incompetence. Maybe politicians bicker and squabble while the zombies claim more victims, or the soldiers that are supposed to be evacuating the ‘burbs are too busy looting downtown. Keep in mind that protecting the defenseless does not necessarily mean the party has to wade into the fray both guns blazing. They could be relief workers, doctors at a hospital swamped with casualties, or the leaders of a small town trying desperately to come up with a plan to avert disaster. Take any real world occupation, add the zombie problem, and think of story lines that would logically follow.
• Rip Sh!t Up
  
  The ultimate beer and pretzels game. Pick your poison: outlaw bikers finally given the chance to act out Mad Max; suburban middle managers gone postal; religious cultists reveling in the apocalypse that finally decided to show up. Play it up for laughs, as the players abuse zombies and beat on other equally maladjusted survivors. The biker gang from the finale of DAWN is the perfect template for this sort of game. Shoot zombies. Loot malls. Dust off that copy of Car Wars and run down the zombies that ate Midville. Whoever gets overwhelmed and eaten with the most stuff stuck in their pockets wins!

Rules to Use

There’s a lot of games that are easily adaptable to a zombie movie game. GURPS works wonderfully with the genre no matter what slant you put on it. Call of Cthulhu is good for those GMs that want to emphasize horror over wanton destruction and character conflict. My personal favorite, especailly for a dramatic zombie game, is Unknown Armies. What makes UA good for a zombie game is its insanity rules, which give guidelines for insanity caused by isolation or self-doubt. The zombies themselves are not necessarily terrifying a la Call of Cthulhu. It’s the situations they force people into that tend to produce stress and strain. In both NIGHT and DAWN, the main characters have more problems dealing with the social and psychological reprecussions of the zombie menace than fear of the zombies themselves. Whatever set you use, I’d suggest going with a cinematic, rules light approach. The action in both NIGHT and DAWN is fast and furious. Don’t ruin the feel of the movies by getting mired down in complex rules.

Starting Your Game

This is where basing a game on a movie really plays off. Instead of sitting your players down and explaining what’s going on, set aside your first gaming session for a little work in film studies. I would suggest that you work with your players to figure out what tone you want the game to have. Run the game types I detailed above by them and see which one really catches their interest. Now, create characters and immediately put them aside. With their characters in mind, it’s time for your players to watch NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD and DAWN OF THE DEAD. If you don’t have time to watch both, I’d suggest DAWN, since the story is a bit grander in scale and thus gives a bit better big picture view of a zombie-infested world. At the end of the movie, your campaign is ready to roll. The players have a good idea about what’s going on, and, if they have any taste in horror movies, they’re pumped up to start kicking zombie butt. This is why movies are a great resource for campaigns. They immerse your players and set them up perfectly for your own masterpiece. So get out there, watch some zombie movies, and make your own unique mark on the genre.

Just remember, always shoot for the head!

Resources

• http://www.homepageofthedead.com
  
  Gives a good overview of Romero’s zombie trilogy. A wealth of fan fiction gives GMs plenty of inspiration. In particular, the piece titled FM-101-97 makes a great hand out for in-game use.
• http://www2.gol.com/users/noman/
  
  Features amusing write-ups of some of the zombies from DAWN OF THE DEAD. A good resource for those looking to add a humorous slant to their zombie game.

Gaming Outpost’s Graveyard Greg asked Shane Lacy Hensley, creator of Deadlands: The Weird West, how he came up with the Weird West RPG. Here’s his reply:

The deal is, I was at GenCon doing the freelancing thing. I had just completed work on Thunderscape for SSI and was working on some new TSR projects. One of the many cool things I saw at GenCon was a picture of an undead Confederate by Brom (it became the cover to Vampire’s Necropolis Atlanta). That image stuck with me during the long 14 hour drive home through the night. I frequently have neat ideas during this long trip after being surrounded by so much creativity at GC, but this one just wouldn’t die (literally!).
A few months later, I kit-bashed a system and ran a “historical” Civil War game. Or so my friends thought. At the end of the second session, I had them all caught and hung. They awoke in 1876 in the desert, in what eventually became the adventure from Book o’ the Dead.

Everybody loved the game and Charles Ryan of Chameleon Eclectic wanted me to publish it through him as I had Fields of Honor and the Last Crusade. I knew this would be a full-time gig if I did, though, and set about the arduous task of making Pinnacle a full-time company. I then flew Greg Gorden and Matt Forbeck down to help me put things together, and they decided they wanted to be part of the company as well. Greg was having personal problems at the time and bowed out, but came up with several key concepts before leaving (Fate Chips were one of Greg’s insights). He also hooked me up with Allan Nunis, who did a quick comic book page showing a gambler throwing cards as he cast spells. That became the huckster.

As for the system, I had the idea that I wanted the Trait to tell you what type of die to roll, and the skill would tell you how many. It just went from there.

The cards were used for initiative because we wanted a system that let most characters act once or twice in a round, but a gunslinger could get off several shots. But how do you do that without the gunslinger going first and killing everyone first? Our system lets you break down a combat into tiny fragments of time and simulates the fast action of a Spaghetti Western without making everyone else sit around and watch the gunslingers all night.

Fate Chips: I wanted a tangible reward for roleplaying and solving the adventure. Greg Gorden figured out how to make it work.

From there it was a trip to GAMA in Atlantic City, and then the debut of Deadlands at GenCon ‘96.

Shane Lacy Hensley started freelancing for West End Games, TSR, White Wolf, FASA, SSI, and every other major game company in the industry in 1992. He’s written 3 novels, over 50 game products, several card games, scripted two computer games, and of course, created the hit Deadlands. He’s a long-time resident of Blacksburg, VA, with his wife Michelle, and their incredible son, Caden Lacy.