This one is for The Maze, Scott, and HermitDave, and is a 100% RPG post inspired by my Influenza article.
I give you the Zombie Apocalypse RPG Trope Post!
Zombies are people, too… Okay, dead people, with poor verbal skills. And the only communication they understand is blowing off their heads.
– USA Network commercial for Night of the Living Dead
Stop being so pathetic! …Humans send robots to Mars. Zombies are baffled by doorknobs.– How to Survive a Horror Movie by Seth Grahame-Smith
The Real Pandemic
In 2010, humanity scrambled and achieved the near-miraculously vaccination (often at gun point) of 75% of the world’s population. The virus turned out to be benign. The conspiracy theorist had a field day… and a lot of science types looked like idiots.
Unfortunately, in mid 2011 the A(H1N1) virus recombined with new mutations of the Swine and Avian flu and a new, very deadly strain arose. A new pandemic started but this time no one wanted to get the vaccine and no government had the courage to impose it.
Things changed when the death tolls rose rapidly. Panic and civil disorder exploded. Mass Vaccination began again, through riots and armed conflicts. However, the conventional vaccine could not prevent infection.
Before the new pandemic broke out, the top vaccine manufacturers, grown fat with the profits made from selling the H1N1 vaccine, fell on one another like crazed jackals. Out of the corporate carnage rose GeneCore now the world’s sole manufacturer of vaccines and gene-therapy.
Faced with the threat of the new Flu virus, GeneCore proposed its experimental, non-FDA approved gene-therapy vaccine. The idea was to infect the body with a benign genetically-engineered virus that would reprogram all of the body’s DNA to protect it against the Killer Flu.
Mass vaccination, at least in the countries that could still afford GeneCore’s price, was started in late 2011. Protesters and conspiracy theorists were silenced, often violently.
Something was in that Vaccine’s virus… Something primeval, something almost evil.
54% of humanity had been vaccinated when it happened…
(fade to black)
In December 2012, 50% of humanity was dead, 30% had mutated into near-mindless cannibalistic predators and 5% were… something else…
Welcome to Zombie Apocalypse 2012.
The Game’s Setup
This 2012 Zombie Apocalypse idea is good for a short Post Apocalyptic modern campaign where most of the humans have become flesh-eating Zombies. What’s left of the world’s population hides in pockets all over the planet, trying to survive civilization’s collapse and the new predators.
PCs are not humans or zombies. They are part of the 5% that were mutated in something far better and worse, Vampires! With intact minds and prodigious powers, they need to feed on human blood…pure, unzombified human blood.
Thus, they must battle the hordes of zombies (and other mutants) and try to find humans to feed upon.
In terms of game system. I’d suggest using d20 Modern or World of Darkness. If you use d20 Modern, I propose you use Monte Cook’s World of Darkness for the Vampire PC Class (it works perfectly for that). You can also generic systems like Gurps or Champions but you may need to build the proper templates for PCs and adversaries. They all work.
Adventure Seeds
1) PCs “wake up” as starved Vampires in an abandoned hospital ward. The place is filled with Zombies. The PCs discover their powers as they fight through the hospital to find the hospital’s Blood Bank (or maybe a few hidden humans”. Great for a one Shot.
2) The PCs are newly created Vampires that have been enslaved by a Vampiric Coven that discovered how to successfully create new ‘members’. They must learn to play their captors against one another in order to escape. Aided by a few heroic human NPCs, they must then evade Zombie guards and Vampire enforcers to reach freedom into the blighted wilderness. This scenario works great for a more storytelling experience.
3) The PCs are virtuous adventurers seeking the ‘cure’ for their condition and must storm the Headquarters of GeneCore, held by a few Vampire Lords and an army of Mutated monstrosity. Great for players who want to play the internal struggle of killing humans to survive.
How about you? What cool ideas would you add to this setting? Adventure Seeds? Some monster concepts? Some other idea or cause for the Apocalypse? You tell me!
You could also have ‘the vaccine’ continue to cause mutations so that the PCs need to find a way to stabalize it before they become zombie-vampire-cannibals! Perhaps GeneCore has a hidden and heavily defended research facility that the PC must 1) find, 2) contact through the defenses and 3) convince the scientists there that they need work together with the PCs on a cure.
.-= Sean Holland´s last blog ..New Monster – Dragon Descendant (Template) =-.
Hmm. I think if I were to run this I would do something unusual. You can tune out here if you like. My brain works in strange ways.
In my world the failed vaccine that causes the zombies would be of human make. But with enough pushing the PCs might find out that it was originally based on vampire work designed to add flavors to blood. I’d buy some samples of several varieties of apple from the store and slice them up for the game. So the PCs would be able to bite someone and amidst all the usual drama and horror of eating people they’d get to hear how this one is a “granny smith”, that one’s a “red delicious”, etc. It just sounds like a fun thing to do for a Halloween inspired game. 🙂
@Sean: That’s what I’m talking about, great adventure idea!
@Lanir: That’s a great way of applying the idea, I love the ‘flavour’ part. Especially if the plot involves identifying people with the same flavour.
Having the Vaccine be a Vampire invention (assuming Vampires pre-dated the plague) is also very rich in potential.
GeneCore, cool… evil corporation names always have “core”.
I’m reminded of Last Blood, a webcomic where vampires protect a group of humans from zombies in order to preserve their food supply.
The adventure idea is quite cool! If I were in any position to do a game, I would try it. I also really like how you tied it in with the Mayan calendar kerfluffle.
@Kevin: Thanks, I was totally going for that!
@River: Yup, It’s fun when you can weave in current events with myth to create something ‘playable’. The 2012 apocalypse idea was first voiced by a commenter as a throwaway joke… it was a great jump start idea for the post. Add evil corporations and Vampires, mix and serve. 🙂
amusingly almost at the same time you posted this, i ran into this RPG, which has elements of zombies in a PA world.
p.s. i soooo want to play a zombie 😀
http://www.davidjrodger.com/yellowdawn.htm
Anyone see the Dollhouse episode that didn’t air? Epithet One? Interesting variation on this trope. Seems the brainwipe technology starts getting used to give people “anatomical upgrades,” then gets out of control. Add in the ability to wipe people remotely, even through wireless, and you have your “infection.”
The band is a group that hasn’t been wiped, but why? Is there a cure? Where? How?
Awesome,
after last weeks posts i was inspired to run a one-shot halloween game around the idea mentioned last week.
But instead of beginning the game after the full fledged infection i started with the players as themselves waking up to the ‘dawn’ of infection and they had to survive whilst escaping to a secure and maintainable area. Was a great night and one-shot.
The Vampire PC idea is awesome, especially the need to find human survivors only to feed off them, some of my sadistic players would enjoy playing wolves in sheeps skins with the human NPC’s only to feed on them later.
Very inspirational post.
Thanks Chatty
Scott
@Scott: I really wanted that Vampires fighting Zombies yet needing to drink off humans thing.
Plus, if I go for the Mayan calendar trope, I also had to go for the Heroic Vampire one too. I mean come on!
Excellent idea for a game, I do enjoy the idea of the players waking up as vampires and discovering their powers. Any tips on how to pull that off in a believable way? Really trying to get the players to understand that they don’t know what they are capable of and their new specialness.
Also thanks for killing my day with tvtropes links I barely escaped alive from that pit of information.
.-= Tyson J. Hayes´s last blog ..Welcome to Apathy Games =-.
@Tyson: It really depends if you want to surprise players or you want players to play the part of newly awakened Vampires. In a fully secret game I’d start without handing PCs their PC sheets until one realizes that they have physical/mental abilities beyond humans.
Then give them a character sheet each with only basic info. No powers.
You make cards for each powers and you hand them out as they use them. At the end of the adventure, if players want to explore the world more, you make new PCs and everyone chooses their own Vampire powers.
Otherwise, I’d give everything to the players and have them describe how they discover each player and how their character react to that discovery….
And all the time, have a ‘hunger’clock, slowly ticking down, making each vampire angrier, weaker and more fearful (i.e lower their attacks and defenses as well as their will/brains).
An interesting idea for a game, Chatty, although playing as a vampire is not to my normal tastes.
Could be cool for a one-off though.
.-= Colmarr´s last blog ..Cultural events =-.
Drenched in awesome sauce, just like I like it.
.-= Eric Maziade´s last blog ..On the road to Spellgu- postmortem =-.
This idea sounds very good. It’s a good scenario. You should definitly run this.
A game system you might want to look is All Flesh Must Be Eaten from Eden Studios. It is a zombie based game that uses the Unisystem.
I really do not know much about Horror RPGs, I only ever played Gurps Horror once or Twice. But I have heard about All Flesh, Dread and Unknown Armies.