Where fun isn't just in the sweet meats.

By Tim Hartin

• Introduction
• The Basic Rules
• The Zombies
• Vehicles
• Downloads

ZOMBIE ORIGINS

The origins of why the dead are reviving and attacking the living is left up to the Referee to decide. The following examples are just suggestions and are far from being the only possibilities.

ALIEN PLAGUE: Perhaps strange alien radiation bombards the earth causing the dead to rise from the grave. Or a meteorite crashes into the earth releasing an alien virus that animates the dead.

AFTER THE BOMB / RADIATION: The war to end all wars has finally happened. The world is a wasteland scarred by radiation and biological weapons. The survivors of this catastrophe now must deal with the dead who hunger for the flesh of the living.

SCIENCE GONE MAD: Whether it is scientists meddling with things that man was not meant to know, or the military trying to create the super-soldier, or an attempt to cure diseases that went wrong, science has unleashed the greatest horror known to the world - zombies!

SUPERNATURAL / THE LAST DAYS: Perhaps it is the End Times and the dead have risen and are taking their revenge on the living. Or perhaps Hell is full and the dead no longer have a place to go. The world has literally become a Hell on Earth.

KILLING ZOMBIES

Zombies are "killed" when their HP reach 0. This represents the final fatal shot (in most games this represents the head shot). Naturally, the Referee may determine special rules on how a zombie may be killed (ie only by fire, or Holy Water, or a biological agent, etc).

OPTIONAL RULE: A character may attempt to hit the zombie's head and go for an instant kill with a call shot. The attacking character's Survival Roll is at -1 die value.

e.g. A character with d8 Survival tries to get a headshot on a average zombie. He attacks with a d6 instead.

THE ZOMBIE BITE

All Zombies have an Infectious Bite attack. Should this bite score any HP damage on a survivor, then that player must make a HEALTH roll against the damage done or else the character will fall victim to the zombie infection.

e.g. A zombie bites a character for 4 points of damage. The character has d8 Health and rolls a 2. His character is infected and will become a zombie.

Any characters that do become infected will become zombies in the number of rounds based on their Health die value.

e.g. The above infected character now rolls a d8 and gets a 4. That means his character will succumb to the infection in four rounds and become a zombie.

OPTIONAL RULE: One possible optional rule when dealing with zombie infection is to allow no save should a zombie inflict any damage with its bite.

Or the Referee may apply a Task Modifier to the character's Health die value. Weak zombies have no modifiers, average zombies have a -1 die modifier, tough zombies a -2 die modifier, and unique zombies have a -3 die modifier.

SAMPLE ZOMBIES

A zombie needs a roll of 4 or greater to hit a survivor. Zombies can be divided into four "classes" of difficulty: weak, average, tough and unique. Here are a few examples of various types of zombies:

WEAK ZOMBIES: They are missing major parts of their anatomy (including one or more limbs) or are small animals. Survivors need a 2 or better to hit these zombies in combat.

Severely Damaged Zombie: Grip d4, Bite d6. MV 2, HP 6.

Small Zombie Animal (Bird, Cat, Dog): Bite d4. MV 3, HP 4.

AVERAGE ZOMBIES: They still have most of their major parts of their anatomy or medium-sized zombie animals. Survivors need a 4 or better to hit these zombies in combat.

Typical Zombie: Grip d6, Bite d6. MV 3, HP 10.

Medium Zombie Animal (Large Dog, Wolf, Wild Cat): Bite d6. MV 5, HP 7.

TOUGH ZOMBIES: They are zombies that have been augmented by either science (such as a military experiment) or by magic (such as a ritual spell). Survivors need a 6 or better to hit these zombies in combat.

Tough Zombie: Grip d8, Bite d8. MV 4, HP 15.

Large Zombie Animal (Bull, Elephant, Hippopotamus): Charge d8, Bite d6. MV 6, HP 18.

UNIQUE ZOMBIES: They are rare and few in between. These zombies represent individual undead like a zombie king or a mystical priest who has total control over his zombie nature. Survivors need a 8 or better to hit these zombies in combat.

Unique Zombie: Grip d8, Bite d10. MV 5 or higher, HP 20 or higher.

OPTIONAL ZOMBIE POWERS

Here are but a few samples that a referee could add to his zombies for something different, or even to help build Unique zombies.

Aquatic Zombies: Most zombies don't cope well with water, but this type of zombie is well versed within water. It will either walk along the bottom or swim (both have a MV of 3).

Digging Zombies: This type of zombie burrows under ground. It can dig through the earth (not rock) with a movement rating of 3. While this isn't the fastest means of transportation, it does increase the zombie's chances of surprise. Characters SURVIVAL TASKS are at 1 die value lower when checking for surprise.

Disgusting Odour: All zombies stink but this type of zombie exudes an exceptionally foul odour. The smell is so bad that any living characters within five feet of the zombie have to make a HEALTH TASK (vs the zombie's class) to avoid vomiting on the spot. A failed HEALTH TASK means the character spends his action vomitting and feeling queasy (no attacks are possible).

Fast Zombies: These zombies move with great speed and agility. Increase the zombie's MV to 6 or higher and increase their Grip die value by one level.

Independent Body Parts: This zombie's body parts continue to function as normal even if they have been severed from the zombie's body. Severed hands will continue to crawl, heads will continue to bite, feet will continue to walk, and so on.

    

Zombie Squad RPG and logo were created by Tim Hartin. The Zombie Squad RPG and logo are covered by a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License.