Zombie RPG

Neither Savage World, nor D20 version, but the classic Deadlands version. If you plan in doing something ultra-realistic I also could suggest Twilight 2000. It offers an excellent combat system that integrates perfectly man vs. man, vehicle vs. vehicle and man vs. vehicle combat - something where many games fail miserably. You also have rules to treat diseases, distill fuel, etc.

Pick GURPS, it has absolutely fantastic After the End line for this shit specific, with pre-made tables for looting, encounters and what not. Nuff stuff.
Also, it's good to reach Low-Tech companion... 3? I think it was issue 3, about daily life and economy, as it has rules for making simple tools, building and stuff like that.

And don't panic. Both issues of After the End are like 30 pages long, and the Low Tech one is 35, while it's not mandatory.

If you plan doing some "tacti-cool" stuff, then Tactical Shooting, but that one is more suitable for badass operatives and mercs rather than civilians.

I've run a zombie two-shot (since players wanted to try again after dying in the end of the first one) using nothing but GURPS Lite and tables from After the End.

That pic reminds me why dorky kids and teens love zombie fiction so much

...

There's this indie zombie survival rpg/boardgame that is designed to simulate a zombie movie.

It's for one-shots, since in every game almost everyone dies one way or another, though I've heard someone played a campaign with it.

It's called Zombie Cinema, by some Finnish indie publisher.

I've used it to play a cookiecutter Zombie Apocalypse game, a game where the zombies were replaced with our Angry Grandmas looking to punish the unruly kids, Jurassic Park Helsinki, a game where the players were either newly dead souls queuing for a placement in Hell or Heaven or imp bureaucrats in the heavenly placement agency and in the place of "zombies" was the abstract difficulty of getting anything done in hellish government bureaucracy... Some other stuff, like Dorf fortress and Mad Max style games.

It's a fun game, easy to learn and takes about 2-3 hours to play one session.

Zombies are so 00's, rapefugees are more modern.

Implying that zombies aren't a substitute for minorities, and the zombie apocalypse isn't a cover for the upcoming race war.

I'm going through Infected!, and I must say that it seems pretty cool. You can find it in the appropriate thread. Don't look in the archive but in the thread.

...

use GURPS. GURPS is best

This user has the right idea, on top of whatever you choose to go with, I'd recommend at least one crusade/jihad/great holy war/religiously motivated conflict to add a bit of depth and a faction the party can either fight or join. If you go with this, I heavily recommend at least one prophet or high priest, and a nonviolent or opposing sect of whatever religion you go with.

Normally I would say GURPS, but Savage Worlds has actually got really good mechanics for mass battles. Monsters don't have hp, they have Toughness, and you have to beat the Toughness to kill the enemy. So you can use a bunch of minis and not have to track any HP.

My suggestions:

1) Buy a bag'o'zombies on amazon or something for 8 bucks. Bam you have 100 zombie miniatures

2) Buy or pirate savage worlds deluxe edition, should be in the PDF threads

3) Remove bennies from Savage Worlds, and use the gritty damage rule (so every wound is a permanent injury)

4) Track ammo, track food.

Alternatively, you COULD use GURPS... especially if you are doing "headshot" zombies, but I would make sure that the zombies just die at -1xHP so you don't have to make HT rolls for them constantly.

>Don't forget that the more a system is realistic, the slower it is.

Not at all. GURPS Lite runs very fast. Realistic does not necessarily mean tons of rules: it is a mindset more than anything else.

I wrote realistic because I don't know how to say it in English. What I tried to say is games that try to simulate real life, too much. Maybe the correct word is simulationistic.

>what mission/goal would you give your players if you didn't want to go the 'sandbox/surival' route?
go watch Z-Nation

the goal is get across the country and deliver this guy to the scientists that can use his immunity to cure zombieism

>go watch Z-Nation
Do I have to?

Not him and... well, yes and no.

Z-N is probably the only zombie fiction made in last 10 years that gets two important points:
- you can't have constant misery/torture porn
- after a while, there is no danger anymore, even with global outbreak

Here, I've just saved you from watching it, pointing out the stuff the other user wanted to explain, but failed. You need to have set goals, especially in games. And expect that as the "main plot" evolves, situation after certain point WILL get under control, unless everyone is killed. Just recall both versions of Dawn of the Dead - after locking the mall and cleaning the inside, there was literally no danger left, aside boredom.

This. The zombie apocalypse becomes pretty boring after a while when there's nothing else to do.

Thank you. I have a question for you both, since you both have the same point.
What time of the outbreak would be most dangerous for the players? Day 0? Years after? Just when shit started get scary?

It depends how the infection starts and how the zombies are. If it's during a violent epidemics, things will be very chaotic. Most people will die at that moment, probably also due to friendly fire. If you want alternative societies to build up, you'd probably have to wait months or a couple of years.

I briefly went through Infected! and the setting seems pretty neat with different factions and different types of zombies.

Years after? What "years after"? Have you ever seen a 3 month old carcass? It's literally sludge flowing down the bones.

If you want to handle zombie game, rememeber following:
- The longer after the outbreak, the more subdue the situation; after a while, things will go back to normal all by their own (recall 28 days later, where there instead of decaying corpses you had infected, who simply starved to death after two months to the last of them)
- Make it a localised outbreak - this way you create a VERY important element: hope. Because the help IS coming, it's just a matter of time.
- The same thing create a LOT more tension; dying in globalised outbreak is just another dead friend, but think about this - if only Jimmy wasn't bitten 10 hours before the evac chopper came for us, he would be still alive. Much more scary
- DO NOT make military evil or stupid; your players are expecting that, so by making military competent and good guys, you will throw them off-balance with their behaviour and maybe they will create a lot of pointless tension themselves; you know, the old and tried "poor communication kills"
- If the zeds are slow and gaiting ones, all the above works even stronger, because the zombies by themselves are not much of a danger and can be easily disposed; it's rather the fact you need to survive with them around that makes things hard

Personally, if you need to watch anything at all, it's 30 days of night. It's a vampire flick, but it perfectly captures the whole issue of having hope, surviving to certain point and most importantly - fighting boredom.

>Years after? What "years after"?
I was reading Infected! and there are plenty of 'years after'.
Thanks for the information. I am still trying to choose a system.

Also, State of Decay is a great source of how to handle the whole thing too (it's a vidya). It's VERY easy to secure your position, but if your goal is not staying in location X indefinitely, then you need to prepare to get the fuck out and/or figure out some other thing to get away from quarantined area before it gets nuked.
The DLC for it was even better, because in it, you are instead a military detatchment and it plays a nice spin on classic 'military is evil'. You have a highly prioritised VIPs to rescue. Helping other civilians, while noble, is hindering your assignment AND may doom mankind, because your job is to evacuate people that can actually cure or at least stop this thing.

Like a lot of people pointed out - GURPS.
And one user suggested Twilight 2000, which I support myself, along with GURPS.

If you plan to pith your players against humans - pick Twilight 2000.
If zeds are going to be the main enemy - pick GURPS.

I love this idea! My friends have just enough intelligence to roleplay zombies

Technically, a zombie isn't a dead carcass. There's still some cell activity as it can move and hunt. Maybe zombies don't decay as long as they're not put down for good. Maybe they regenerate if they consume flesh. In voodoo, zombies are not rotting corpses, but they are soulless bodies, closer to vampires. You could also have almost unkillable zombies that require complete immolation to die.

In Hell on Earth zombies are dead bodies inhabited by a demon (manitou). They're mean, crafty and deadly. They use guns, can drive, are agile, can regenerate, and you can only kill them by destroying their brains. Imagine a mix of 28 Days later zombies and the infected from Crossed. Luckily there are not too many of them.

Let's put it this way - if maggots are chewing on you, you are dead-dead. And if maggots are chewing on you, then the tissue they are in will be mush in next month.

Even if you give them some magic mumbo-jumbo, a dead body is dead body. It decays and decomposes. If they show signs of initial decomposing, then they are all well into complete process, as it's not something you can "stop" at specific point.

What if it's not a dead body? What if just the brain is all fucked up. What if infected virus prefers protein, but will do with anything else to sustain itself? What it makes infected omnivores? Eat grass and tree bark and shit? What about suspended animation? Like a hibernation process. Low-power consumption mode. Like in I am Legend the movie. They just idle during day unless something bumps into them.

Then they die out of starvation.
Or overexertion.
Or thirst, since they might eat, but not drink.

So either way - they sort themselves out

Eventually. Not in weeks or months tho.
If virus makes them preserve themselves to spread the thing.

Like he said - if they aren't dead, then they will die pretty soon. Not this week, maybe not next month, but eventually they disappear. It's just a waiting game.
And that's why zombie fiction absolutely crumbles after first month or two - becasue at this point whoever is alive, is perfectly safe, holled out somewhere and waiting.

Okay, but if you don't have the resources yourself. How do you wait it out?
I would also like to point out that now we are debating FUN vs. REALISM.

Human body needs daily 1.7 l of water and about 2k kcal to sustain itself. You would be surprised how easy you can get that, as long as it's not arid climate.

And it depends what you mean by lack of resources. Lack of food, shelter, water, other essentials? Lack of manpower?

Also, daily reminder that basic moat, as in - dig-in trench - is the best immaginable anti-zombie barrier. Especially is you use the earth from it to create mouds on both sides of it, making it even deeper.

>Any system you would advise on using?
Heard good things about All Flesh Must Be Eaten.
Never played it though.

What if the reason for zombie apocalypse is technological? Infection vector is nanomachine-based, though the nanos can't swarm outside of a body. Nanos can rebuild most types of tissue using air or soil, but not neurons, giving the zombies quite powerful regeneration. Zombies were created because of a glitch or a hack that causes the nanos to damage the brain, leading to psychosis/amok. Unless significant portion of their brain or peripheral nervous system is destroyed, they will keep coming.

Then, like in case of all kind of grey goo scenarios, you are fucked.
As in - completely fucked

It doesn't need to be a grey goo scenario, just make the nanomachines magically not work outside of human body - anti-grey-goo software limitation.
Of course you could have a BBEG researching a way to remove that limitation.

Zombies are boring, so play Red Markets.

GURPS Zombies for all your zombie needs (advice for how run a zombie campaign and how to create every type of zombie in fiction) and GURPS High-Tech for tons of gear as well more detailed rules for customizing said gear. GURPS After the End could also be useful but it's more oriented for one or two generations after the Zombie Apocalypse (the loot tables are very welcome though). Likewise, GURPS Horror is good if you're really going to crank up the Survival Horror in your zombie campaign. It also has a bunch of templates for everyday folks.

Just some advice though, if you're going to do a sandbox game, pick a small area and either make a map or get one off the internet. Then make a timeline of what happened in the area and what will happen. This really helps keep a semblance of progression in sandbox games.

Of course, you could just run a campaign with just the Basic Set. It already has pretty detailed rules for all of the above.

Put a personal spin on it, make them create themselves, get maps of your local area, print them off and draw on them. Mark off what shops and stores you have looted or been overun.

It sounds corny but it was awesome, we enjoyed the hell out of it doing it in Houston. It does not translate well to online play, but at a table it is the greatest thing ever.

Few rules
>No internet during play
>Create themselves, not idealized versions of themselves
>Keep it as real and hard as possible for them
>Maps, printed from interwebs for marking, sectioning off

Goddamn. I just looked up what crossed is and that seris looks fucking HARDCORE

The key word here is fiction.

>If it's fiction, then it doesn't follow basic laws of physics and chemistry
>Wizard did that!
Fucking hate this attitude

Perish the thought that fiction about the dead magically returning to life have magical elements to it...

So we voodoo zombies now?
Bring me some blond. We will sacrifice her and stop the evil blackfaced cultists from taking over the world

A zombie apocalypse is by definition unrealistic mumbo jumbo, pal (dead bodies cannot move). The reasons indicated in the posts above clearly indicate why a Walking Dead type apocalypse wouldn't work. Therefore you need to find reasons to make the mumbo jumbo work.

>making a zombie thread was a mistake.

Best thing is to make the zombies not be zombies but infected humans that act strangely (cannibalism, sadism...). They're fast, they're intelligent and cruel.

Crossed is terrible, it's just the F.A.T.A.L. of comics.

Then they're not fucking zombies

...

Who cares. Like I said before, the traditional Haitian zombie is not a rotten corpse walking around but a human that got poisoned, died, but woke up again - he most likely just went into a deep coma and woke up with most of his brain cells fried.

Read the 'wish you were here' crossed webseries. Its a very good representation of the infected human not!zombies are like.

What's it about?

I'm used to edgy comics.

...

The End of the World: Zombie Apocalypse had an online questionary you were supposed to fill and it would create you as a PC. Sadly, they seem to have taken it down.

Sadly, only the original run is any good.
(I've heard the webcomic is good as well but I haven't read it yet)
Just browse the covers of the rest and you get the best of them.

Agree. I read the original and the web comic and thought they were good but not great comics. Read a couple others and I gave up on the series.

I'm planning the same thing, generally. I plan on keeping it short and sweet with episodes, taking the group through the apocalypse and all its trials and tribulations. On that note, I recommend All Flesh Must Be Eaten.

On another note, Crossed is one of the most retarded and poorly-written pieces of schlock I've ever read in my life. The only popularity it gets is from its 2edgy4me cover art that draws in wrist-slicers.

Holy shit, I've hated Crossed for the longest time but I've never thought about that.

It literally is FATAL, from the porn and edginess to the shit writing.

This song sums up Crossed perfectly and I wouldn't doubt that this guy was a writer on Crossed.

youtube.com/watch?v=8TLlbVW-VA0

Only read one or two episodes. In one you have some survivors hiding in a basement and one of them is infected and kills all others and keeps some "souvenirs" from the women. It was super-edgy. In the other, a bunch of survivor are stuck on an island. Some boring stuff happens and then a group has to leave to find some resources. This one wasn't special and the art was less good, too. But I like the edgy covers.

Not OP, but I would also like to make a Zombie survival game (playing hours of Cataclysm DDA gave me the itch), and after reading the thread I'm still not sure what system should I use.
I would like it to be "realistic", but without the "one bite ur gone" part. Also something easy to play (my players have the attention span of a child), don't care if it requires ne to break my back.

Someone that made a game like that can give me some info?

GURPS. Like everyone else here mentioned.

Glad to see someone else thinking of this. I'm listening to the second playtest campaign right now and am super excited for the game to come out. Hope the wait won't be too much longer.

Yep. After looking in this thread i started reading the webcomic. It's okay, most of the entertainment comes from the situation itself

GURPS for zeds as main thread
Twilight 2000 if you plan to fight military OR be military

But mostly GURPS, since it can run zombies without effort, while Twilight would have some serious issues with it.

So GURPS it is
Thanks

There's a Twilight 2000 sourcebook for zombies.

All Flesh is significantly better, as others have said.

>Others
>me
Are you royality or just with multiple personality disorder

have your quest just be a destination, a long ass road trip to the rumored safe zone.

IDK which system would be best, but watch dead of winter videos for the setting. I know it's a tabletop on its own but the interactions and mission ideas are bretty gud, plus some strats go good enough to make it into any homebrew.

Whats the name for the sourcebook?

out of the apocalypse scenarios I've read and seen, crossed is up there in the most edgy fucked up shit

thye wont just kill ya if they catch you, they'll rape you, your family, your dog, then butcher you while you're alive OR turn you into one of them