On Zombie games

This material is largely not my own- rather, it represents what I've taken away from numerous discussions on the topic of zombie survival horror games, and in turn offer as advice to others. I've found myself repeating it enough that I figured I ought to just stop and write it all out. If you want an exhaustive discussion of all the different ways you can do things, there was an amazing thread in the d20 modern section of the wizards forums. If nothing else, it should still be in the archives...

So. Here's my primary recommendation: Have the zombie plague be a disease- spread by contact between body fluids, usually saliva to an open wound- that begins with the victim being flushed and irritated. This state builds up slowly and then escalates sharply, with the diseased flying into a berserk, adrenaline-fueled rage which lasts for several hours. Eventually the subject's body simply gives out, and they collapse, reviving as a body about half a day later. This has a few benefits for you as GM; it accounts for the torn-up condition of both the world and the zombies, while also giving you handy shock troops to shake things up.

And you always want to shake things up- give the players safety mechanisms and then take them away, never let them be sure a safe haven will last, have the zombie's vulnerabilities and abilities not be quite what they expect. (Note: At this point I started naming more examples of how you could do this and couldn't stop. I'll post it as a separate example in the next post). A lack of uncertainty and/or speculation makes it very hard to scare someone- don't be afraid to let the game evolve as characters, locations, and circumstances change.

Any gamer worth his salt will relish the chance to play in the most genre savvy ways he can imagine. If you'd rather have them assume the role of people who weren't geeky enough to already have a plan for dealing with zombie outbreaks, make sure everyone understands this going in. Personally, though, I relish savvy players- especially when details like the origins of the outbreak are left unknowable. Every time they circumvent a challenge, it's a chance for me to take another set of gloves off. Look at the direction they're trying to take and work off the challenges that goal will naturally entail. You want to hide in the wilderness? You'll need get your hands on camping gear and other supplies, then make your way out of the city. You want to stay out here? Then you'll need to make regular food runs, and any number of events could force you to move. . .

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10 Character Ideas

A villain successfully completed a ritual he found in an ancient tome; the ritual was meant to defend a long-lost civilization, but he instead intended to use it for his own fiendish ends. He interpreted the text as saying that the ritual would bestow upon him the powers and nature of a mighty warrior; this translation was technically correct, but lacked some important subtleties. Upon completing the ritual, the villain's mind was completely overtaken by that of a warrior who had agreed (out of patriotism) to have his spirit bound for use in the ritual's creation. The warrior was able to pick up enough from the villain's suppressed mind to determine the man's intentions and learn that his own civilization had long-since fallen (And get a decent idea of how to speak Common while he was at it). He could simply relinquish his control of the villain's body and move on to the afterlife, but that would be a bit of an anticlimax, not to mention it would mean unleashing a total bastard upon the world once more. No, he's going to stay in this body and live out the life he gave up when he was bound all those years ago.
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A psion who believes that she's dreaming and comes from another world, the details of which she can't quite recall "because I'm not awake". Almost certainly insane, yes, but it is odd that any efforts to figure out her past and where she came from produce nothing in terms of results. Still, in the end she's just a young woman with more psionic potential than her mind could cope with. That's why she occasionally uses words and then can't define them when asked what she means, words like "skyscraper" and "gun". All there is to the story, in the end.
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You wouldn't think it, but the common-born fellow in handwoven clothes before you is actually one of the greatest magical geniuses of his time. His defining character trait is humility; he's never sought recognition, never shows off his spells or prattled at length about the details of their casting. Nor has he ever gone out of his way to acquire magical knowledge or power. He casts spells in a minimalistic fashion without fanfare, and generally plays down any comments about his abilities as though he was just riding a horse or whittling a piece of wood. Perhaps he's even taken a vow of poverty (with GM-allowed exception for his spellbook, clothes and writing tools). His true genius is simply that his abilities match those of wizards who obsess over textbooks for years, with only his own occasional bits of research to fuel his development.
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A necromancer who has an outlook similar to that held by many doctors. He has great respect for the sanctity of life, but takes the long view with regards to his research. His ambition is discovering new, effective, non-evil way of prolonging one's life as a sentient being (whether or not this involves a living body). However, he's well aware that experimenting with life and death tends to attract mobs of torch-and-pitchfork wielding villagers. The solution: join a heroic adventuring party. You get a reputation for good deeds and powerful allies who'll stand by you if things go south. He's also found that adventuring tends to fuel his research nicely. So many adventurers tends to take for granted the extraordinary creatures, artifacts and enchantments they come across; but not this mage!
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A character who grew up poor and became involved in the criminal underworld, eventually working as a high-class enforcer for a powerful crime lord. At the same time, he had a better side in the form of his family- an elderly adopted grandfather and a younger sister, whom he always made sure were taken care of. Eventually, however, the crime boss decided to collect a bounty and send a message to his subordinate in one swoop; he forced the man to kill his grandfather by subtly holding his sister hostage. The enforcer made the hit, and did so mercifully and to the old man's face. He then trained himself rigorously and made a few other preparations over the course several months before sending his sister off to a far-off city and then immediately attacking and taking down his superior. Since then he has largely worked as a vigilante against the rest of the criminal underworld and others who similarly exploit the weak, playing them against one another using fear and intimidation as much as physical force.

They key for this character is that while good-aligned, he is not driven by righteous fury or empathy for innocent victims. Instead, he is simply sick and tired of dealing with those who oppress and seek to control all that is around them. He doesn't consider himself some grand hero, he just focuses on wiping out the next group of scumbags.
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A ranger/fighter/horizon walker-type character who's practically obsessed with cartography- the subtleties of surviving, navigating and fighting in a given type of terrain and the production of maps whose proportions are honestly accurate on a large scale. He's very intense about all this, giving it a great deal of thought and writing pages of notes in a tight, indecipherable scrawl. However, he also keeps to himself about it except to offer the occasional valuable suggestion (Max ranks in knowledge(geography) and (tactics), not to mention survival), so others tend to regard it as an impressively intellectual hobby.

The truth of the matter is that the character has grand ambitions- ambitions that involve leading armies to victory and conquering massive amounts of land. The notes he takes and books he reads tend to concern things like the logistics of supporting an army in a given environment and the specialized tactics available. He's always careful with his finances, building up gold for when the day comes to raise his forces...
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Once every ten years, a certain monastery selects one of their most promising members- one that has learned their teachings well but is still relatively young- and sends them out into the world. The purpose of this exercise is to test their disciplines and beliefs- not the mental strength of the disciple, but the worth of the teachings themselves. The monk sent out in this manner is afforded a unique status: he is free to do as he thinks best, though he is asked to return and report on an annual basis. After the space of a decade, he may return to the monastery once more if he wishes, and will be admitted regardless of how he has changed.

This is how the character came to leave his monastery a few weeks ago. Raised in the monastery for as long as he can remember, he marvels at the wonders of the world around him and, as is his duty, constantly reflects on how the lessons of his elders apply to his own experiences and strives to achieve new levels of understanding. (Said lessons can include buddhist doctrines, zen teachings, vows from the BoED, or whatever else you think might be interesting to try out. This is a case where the character is *expected* to evolve. Don't try to plan it out; have them keep an open mind and see where they go!)
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A fearsome swordfighter from the north with numerous wolflike tendencies- beyond the superficial things like a tendency to growl and a preference to hunt down his food, he also places great importance on supporting his "pack" (adventuring group) and working as a team. He is fully human; the animalistic nature is not genetic but mental, as his father was a werewolf. As a boy he wished that he was also a lycanthrope, but his father sharply reprimanded him for these wishes, instead urging him to recognize and emulate the values he admired in wolves without losing control over his own humanity. To this day he isn't sure he understands what his father was attempting to get across to him, but he has remained fully human in faith that the wisdom of his father's directions will become clear someday. Still, more and more he finds himself dreaming of discarding civilization and escaping to the wild.
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At a young age, the character (an only child) was taken by their dying parent across the country and into the desert, eventually reaching the lair of an ancient dragon. There, the parent identified the character as the dragon's great-great-great grandchild, and requested that the dragon take the character in rather than letting their own bloodline end with a helpless orphan dying in the street. The dragon accepted, his pride in his bloodline stirred more by his descendant's sheer chuptzah than anything else. Though perhaps statistically a normal member of their race (being 1/32nd dragon doesn't grant a ton of bonuses), the character has a very draconic set of views, including a tendency to hoard valuable items and speak in grand terms.
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In a medieval setting with a relatively realistic social structure, a soldier falls in love with a woman while on a foreign campaign, and she with him. Although relatively well-off, she leaves her household to return home with him and live a humble life with him as a farmer and her as a housewife. After some thirty years of happy marriage, the husband dies, and the children are all dead or gone. She sells the farm (or is forced to relinquish it if) and, approaching the age of 50, finds herself without a home or clear purpose. The role of a wandering hermit is one option, but she decides to try her hand as a low-key adventurer instead, drawing on her training as a warrior from her youth. It's an odd role in this culture, but she finds it enjoyable- the risk makes her feel more alive than she has in years.

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10 Campaign Ideas #2

One day while in a relatively remote area, the players come across tangled, easily climbable strands of vines that appear to be dangling down from the clouds. Assuming they bring proper supplies (food and hammocks, mostly) they should be able to make their way to the top in a matter of days. There they find a massive floating city, apparently abandoned and partly overgrown, with strange architecture they've never seen before. Almost immediately, their way back is lost- a storm rips away part of the vines, leaving them with no clear way down. What follows is a game focused more on exploration and investigation than combat. Searching for food, figuring out how to use strange artifacts, investigating the mystery of the city itself, making your way towards strange structures in the distance, fending off various more aggressive members of the ecology that's developed here (one that bears a close resemblance to the Elemental Plane of Air, with a good deal more in the way of birds), searching for another way down- and, occasionally, catching a glimpse of something across the rooftops or through a window that makes you suspect that you might not be alone after all...
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On top of a mesa lies a self-sustaining city (farms, functioning wells, etc.), ruled by a religious order which teaches that the mesa is a promised land given to them by the gods, and that this gift is what elevated them from a miserable life as primitive savages. Fog clouds permanently surround the mesa in all directions, concealing the outside world; on the ground a dungeonlike labyrinth extends off in all directions, perhaps forever. Some adventurous souls, gripped by the possibility of there being more to the world, risk exploring outwards through the labyrinth. If discovered, these explorers are executed as heretics. Still, those who know where to ask kind can find not only merchants dealing in adventuring gear but even a few brave souls who collect reports and draw up maps in an attempt to provide guidance and advice to successive generations of adventurers. Of course, such an individual could always be an agent of the religious order spreading misinformation, so don't get too cozy.

The truth is that the labyrinth and flight/sight-blocking clouds were both created hundreds of years ago as a defense mechanism for the city. Eventually a mad, isolationist king ordered the roads in and out removed, which in turn let the religious order acquire power through the use of magic to create food and save a starving populace. There were secret ways to the outside world, but any record of them has long since been lost or destroyed...
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In a world where orcs have become a recognized part of civilization (after a century of progress begun by a visionary leader similar to Obould Many-Arrows), a small counter-culture movement has emerged. The players are a part of a handful of orcs who argue that the orcish race is suppressing their primal nature and leading meaningless lives due to the peer pressures of civilization. Rather than living a cultured life as a noble gentleman or an honest job as a cratsman, they live as adventurers and draw upon their primal instincts to get the job done. Think of them as a cross between hippies, the Fight Club and Conan the Barbarian, with a slogan looted from NEXTWAVE; they're healing the orcish nation by beating people up.
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The short-sighted human perspective is that nature wants to simply tear civilization down. But nature is about survival of the fittest, and is more concerned with adapting to the circumstances. Just as weeds, gulls and rats thrive in a city, certain hardier breeds of nature spirits now seek to find a place in a developing city built on the land they're bound to. Dryads, Mephits, Sprites. . .exchanging past bonds for an attachment to a street corner or slum neighborhood, they band together and find a place in this new society by working as mercenaries or forming allegiances with the mortal races. Perhaps they fight to protect a small section of a city park, or perhaps they become more and more urban. Are they an an evolutionary dead end? Well, that's up to them.
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The players are adventurers and have normal adventures, with one small wrinkle: instead of being a part of normal society, they're a part of draconic society such as the one found on the continent of Argonessen in Eberron (draconic society, of course, doesn't usually bother with the activities of the lesser/mortal races). Where normal adventurers clear out warrens of goblins and engage half-fiends blackguards in the ashes of a battlefield, they take on strongholds of Storm Giants and engage Balors in battles that level forests. At the beginning of the game the humanoids are gathered into tribal nations of varying sizes, but over the course of the game (which involves century-long intermissions where the players hibernate in their lairs and attend to various personal concerns) a roman empire-like civilization comes into being; perhaps it might seek to hire their services, or capture them. Then again, if the players play their cards right they could be worshiped as gods...
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An experienced mastermind villain who successfully conquered a nation and ruled it for several years before being overthrown is back, and only the PCs have discovered his evil scheme. Though they foil his efforts, the nefarious genius is not so easily daunted and is soon back with another scheme, and another. . .

The truth of the matter is that after the man conquered the world he found himself irrevocably bored, and missed the company (such as it were) of the heroic individuals he once battled so much that he made arrangements to ensure their escape, knowing that it likely meant the end of all he'd worked for. He now appreciates how the world needs heroes- and believes that, in turn, the world needs villains in order to bring these heroes about. He is careful to avoid doing serious harm, except where he takes credit for/associates with the activities of real villains in order to sic the PCs (or other adventurers) on them. Perhaps one day he'll reveal the truth of his motives to he players; but probably not.
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Eberron campaign setting. The players were each one of the thousands of undead created by the Blood of Vol's necromancers to fight for Karrnath during the Last War. However, through accident, coincidence and/or unexplained phenomena each of them retained or gained sentience instead of being a mindless drone. Expected to play the role of the slave in the wake of the Last War, they have rebelled; the question is, what to do after escaping? Normal people might see them as horrific monstrosities, hated soldiers of an enemy nation, or even blasphemers against the teachings of Vol. For extra hilarity, have them inadvertently cause a schism with the Blood of Vol, leading Erandis Vol to demand their heads for screwing with her plans. They might find ironic allies in the form of warforged groups- though enemies on the battlefield, they now share a common place in society (or lack thereof).
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A potentially mad medieval genius convinces a king to fund his dream: a railroad. What makes this dream seem especially ridiculous is that the railroad would run through territory that people would normally travel through only with skilled guides and heavily armed guards. The PCs are hired to help fulfill the "guard" role, helping forge a path for the train in a similar tradition to real-world frontier adventurers. They may well find themselves negotiating pacts with tribal groups instead of just attacking them, or going beyond their station and arguing with the heads of the expedition about the proper course of action. And of course, the train is also a way of clearly establishing borders in favor of the king's nation, which can lead to lots of hostile forces and maybe some political intrigue...
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The PCs are D&D characters who find themselves in a post-apocalyptic modern-day world that's beginning to stabilize as a tribal culture. Perhaps they'll join one of the tribes and defend them; if the players seem concerned mainly with returning home, you could hint that the source of the apocalypse somehow cam from their own world, giving them the goal of figuring out just what happened here a century ago.
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The players are all hired as experts and consultants for a well-mannered contractor who is designing a dungeon, perhaps the first to be deliberately constructed in such a fashion. They are well paid for their services and sent on their way. Said contractor was actually working for an evil ruler who begins using the dungeon to oppress the populace by forcing innocents to proceed through it as an example to others. One or more of these innocents is a friend/relative of the PCs, which leads to them discovering their hand in things. The contractor, meanwhile, has found this to be his big break and is getting hired by many other sadistic, powerful individuals to construct bigger and better deathtraps. His conscience loses out against his greed, ambition and professional pride as a craftsman; he becomes more and more deranged, eventually using his amassed fortune to fund his own "research" into creating bigger and better dungeons- said research often involving tests with lots of victims. As his enablers, the PCs may feel obligated to stop him- and if not, he may come after them (either to rehire them or test his twisted designs against more capable prey). Though the man or woman steadily becomes more and more sadistically insane (eventually calling themselves the "Dungeon Master"), they always hold on to a sense of fair play; there's no point to a deathtrap where the prey doesn't have a chance.

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