Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Lucien_Sadi 09-19-07, 03:56 PM	[Members of the Punahou D&D group, read no further.] I'm in the process of making a new low-magic campaign set in a world not unlike Resident Evil- that is, a supernatural disease that animates dead flesh has spread throughout the land, and the dead have taken over. I'm not planning on making the zombies smart; they won't have their own society, and they won't be making art or having feasts (except of the 'band of adventurers' type). My plan is to have the characters out in the mountains for around five weeks while the zed-virus spreads and decimates the population of the continent. Arond the time they return, there will only be a few survivors left who are not yet zombies. The players' equipment? Hunting knives/daggers, and supplies for camping. I'm definitely looking forwards to some good strategy-battle in the upcoming games. The first few adventures / levels will likely be survival-type adventures: securing shelter and supplies, foraging for weapons and armor, raiding to reduce the number of zombies in the area, etc. I'm drawing from Libris Mortis and BoVD (as well as some from Heroes of Horror), so there will be variety to the zombies. I may even end up making more variants, as even with the variants from LM there are only five zombie types. That's still in the works, though. As the characters go up in levels, they'll start to encounter necromancers and clerics who survived the initial disease. These now-powerful beings can control the undead around them, creating complex strategies or battle-plans whenever needed. What I need help with is making this campaign low-magic. The things I have in mind so far is cutting out Wizards and Sorcerers, and pruning the most visually impressive spells (summoning fiendish dinosaurs, making buildings fall over, massive pyrotechnics etc) from spell-lists. The party has a Paladin and a Bard, and the other characters will be fighting-type characters without spells. How would you do it? Oh, and any ideas for adventures are always great. :)
Danahan 09-19-07, 07:36 PM	To strike home the fear and horror of survival in a landscape of zombies, perhaps the PCs should start off with levels in the NPC classes instead. Just an idea. Perhaps, eventually the party discovers the original source of the disease. It could always be some evil artifact, or spell, but that's rather boring. How about if the progenitor of the disease is some strange undead monster (perhaps even just another zombie that looks like all the others) that somehow found its way to your world from some other place -- another world, plane, etc. Finding it could take years, but destroying it may be the only hope of saving the world. Once it is dead, the zombies begin to parish, and its up to the party and remaining survivors to rebuild civilization!
Lucien_Sadi 09-20-07, 12:55 AM	Excellent, that's something I hadn't thought of before. The NPC classes should work well. Thanks very much! I was wondering, though- what should be done with the DR 5/slashing? Should I leave it, tweak it, remove it? The major complaint is that since the campaign is comprised of mostly zombies, other weapons are in essence 'nerfed'.
Danahan 09-20-07, 10:33 AM	You could always get rid of the DR, but that's an easy way out. Better yet, you could use this as an opportunity to add even more flavor to your campaign. For some added flavor, you could have the surviving blacksmiths of the world starting to modify existing weapons to have greater affect on the zombies. Primarily, weapons that do piercing damage can now be modified to do slashing damage as well. For example, arrows can be modified with small blades so that instead of piercing any enemy's body, they whip past slashing at its skin. Even some bludgeoning weapons can be modified to deal slashing damage. For example, the spikes on a morning star have been replaced by slashing blades.
Gemstone 09-20-07, 12:04 PM	You could let your players build a base and have entire adventures situated around it... Perhaps the zombies smells the flesh and starts to travel there, as they realize there's food inside that castle. Maybe one of the survivors starts a cult inside and attempts to take power away from the PC's?
Pyrocidius 09-20-07, 12:22 PM	If you don't mind ending the campaign around level 10ish then it would be a great idea to finish the campaign with Expedition to Castle Ravenloft. Strad has about five different major motivations you can choose from, and one is spreading the zombie curse/virus. that would probably be the best final tie-in to stop the infection once and for all.
Lucien_Sadi 09-20-07, 01:16 PM	I was actually thinking of having this campaign go up in to higher levels, and perhaps even include uses for the large-scale combat rules given in Complete Warrior. As time passes, the zombies will become more and more organized under the lead of the necromancers, which will eventually end up in the undead forming a cohesive army to wipe out the last remains of the living. Defeating that army along with the remaining survivors would be the last adventure of the campaign, after destroying the object/person/creature/disease/what-have-you that's causing the zombies to be created in the first place. By the way, thanks for the idea about the blacksmiths! I had been thinking about changing the DR to 5/slashing or special material, but modifying weapons in an IC manner like reforging or technology advances seems so much easier (and more palatable) than introducing a deus-ex-machina way like a new material to bypass the DR. The modified weapons could even be rather rare to make them precious to the PCs, spawning entire sub-quests of retrieval if they're stolen by survivor-groups.
Danahan 09-24-07, 06:12 PM	You'll have to keep me informed on how the campaign goes. I would be very interested in hearing.
GoriceXII 09-25-07, 06:13 PM	Have you ever read Brian Keene? He writes a similar story though taking place in the modern age. There are three books so far in his series. Anyway in his books there is the neat twist of ALL life being subject to the spreading of the undead. At one point there is a 'war beneath the waves' that survivors on a boat adrift are witness to, where fish and sea mammals begin to be overtaken by undead of their own kind. Gradually species by species (except apparently insects and arthropoda) are overtaken by zombies. Another aspect is that apparently the zombies are a horde of evil spirits hosted in dead bodies, an army from another world, envious and longing to capture Earth.
Jürgen Hubert 09-26-07, 05:01 AM	I assume you have read "World War Z"? An excellent book that shows how a zombie plague would overrun Earth, and how humans would eventually fight back... Does your plague only affect dead humans, or dead animals as well? I am assuming the former, or else the survivors would have little chance...
Lucien_Sadi 09-26-07, 05:53 PM	I actually haven't read those books, but I'll swing by the library on my way home today and pick them up. The plague will affect humans at first, but eventually it will 'hop' to animals and other creatures. The spread amongst animals will be slower, though, so the survivor-groups will be able to stock up on food before the plague takes over completely. It's worth noting that a human zombie would not be able to infect, say, a wolf, and vice versa- they're different strains of the disease. Does anyone have any suggestions for various undead encounters I could run? I've changed my mind about having them start as NPC classes, just to make things a bit easier, so we'll be dealing with a party of perhaps five first-level low-magic players. My plans are to have them first secure a base of operations (a fortified house somewhere, or perhaps an inn) and then forage through the town for supplies and build up from there. Would random 'A zombie shambles around the corner and attacks!' encounters be best, or should I set up something more elaborate?
bloodtalon 09-26-07, 06:24 PM	play "FIDDLER'S GREEN" for playstation it is an older game, came out when LAND OF THE DEAD came out. kinda happened before the movie type. might help you out for the begining. if you have the time do each player a seperate session to get them to the base like that. so they start at home hear about the zombie infection and then hear there is a "army" base set up and each has to make it to the base. stop right before each one gets to the base and the meet up outside of it. going inside they find out the base was over run and now they have to grab supplies and run for thier first session together.
donut159 09-26-07, 06:37 PM	omg I am going to steal this idea so hard!!! If you have the zombie survival guide (great book) it should give you some ideas too.
Lucien_Sadi 09-27-07, 03:36 AM	I've read that, actually, but it tends to cover modern-day survival tactics and techniques. This is based in the D&D setting, and as such everything in the ZSG needs to be taken with a grain of salt. For instance, stocking up on rifles and ammo would transmute to crossbows and (slashing) bolts, food supplies would need to be heavily preserved to last, etc. The logistics are different in a medieval campaign than in a modern one. Another thing- if anyone has ideas for zombie variants, post them here! I've got all the Libris Mortis variants, but I could always use more ideas.
Jürgen Hubert 09-27-07, 04:26 AM	I actually haven't read those books, but I'll swing by the library on my way home today and pick them up. The plague will affect humans at first, but eventually it will 'hop' to animals and other creatures. The spread amongst animals will be slower, though, so the survivor-groups will be able to stock up on food before the plague takes over completely. It's worth noting that a human zombie would not be able to infect, say, a wolf, and vice versa- they're different strains of the disease. I would avoid making insects and similar small creatures susceptible to the disease, or else the entire ecosystem will collapse, and then the world is likely to be doomed unless some sort of mystical large-scale cure can be found. Restricting the disease to mammals at first would make sense, too. Does anyone have any suggestions for various undead encounters I could run? I've changed my mind about having them start as NPC classes, just to make things a bit easier, so we'll be dealing with a party of perhaps five first-level low-magic players. My plans are to have them first secure a base of operations (a fortified house somewhere, or perhaps an inn) and then forage through the town for supplies and build up from there. Would random 'A zombie shambles around the corner and attacks!' encounters be best, or should I set up something more elaborate? I really recommend reading "World War Z" again, because it will give you an excellent idea what life in a world overrun with zombies will be. An individual zombie shouldn't be a threat, and in World War Z you will likely see and hear an individual zombie from afar. But the problem is that there is rarely just one zombie. In that world, zombies (those who haven't lost their lungs and/or vocal chords, at least) emit moans when they detect prey, which in turn attract further zombies to the area. In some cases, this ultimately meant tens of thousands of zombies (although of course the average fantasy world isn't as densely populated as modern-day Earth, or even modern-day America). So one zombie is coming for you? Not a problem - you can kill him with a sword or shoot him with an arrow. Then you see three more shapes coming out of the fog. Still no problem - one might be able to bite you, but your cleric can easily cure that. Then ten follow. Still doable, but it will cost you some significant resources. Then fifty. And that's beginning to be too many. So you have to ask yourself if you look for a good defensive position - and risk being trapped there by a zombie horde - or run for it and hope that you can loose a horde of slow, but tireless pursuers... Of course, higher-level parties can deal with even large numbers of zombies. But it will still require them to expend some resources. And at this stage of the campaign, the focus shouldn't be on their own survival, but on how to protect and feed large numbers of civilian survivors, and finally to rebuild some semblance of civilization - which is no small task, even for experienced adventurers...
Danahan 09-27-07, 12:38 PM	Now, in order to make the zombies more frightful and flavorful, you could always add a few unique features to them. Perhaps, some zombies will only stay down if they have taken significant damage to the brain, heart, or spine. Others may have to be immediately cremated, or have holy water poured down their throats. Otherwise they slowly regenerate and rise again! Perhaps, some zombies can burrow, leap, swim, or climb. Some zombies may have acidic blood, a breath weapon attack, claws, or detachable body parts that move around on their own. The possibilities are endless! Since urban centers are probably little more than deathtraps with so many zombies wandering the streets, the PCs will probably have to find another way to travel. Are the sewers free of zombies? Can the PCs find a way to safely travel from rooftop to rooftop? Another idea would be that the PCs are forced to retreat into the rural countryside where they can establish a refuge center for survivors (an abandoned church, farm, mine, tavern, etc). But what happens when the refuge center reaches full capacity? Will the PCs turn incoming survivors away? What happens when the zombies “sniff” out the survivors, and start filing towards the closet source of flesh – the refuge center?
Lucien_Sadi 09-27-07, 05:19 PM	Now, in order to make the zombies more frightful and flavorful, you could always add a few unique features to them. Perhaps, some zombies will only stay down if they have taken significant damage to the brain, heart, or spine. Would that take called shots, or just a crit-roll? A zombie that only dies on a confirmed crit would be pretty nasty, but at the same time hilarious ("Oooh, 46 damage! You bury your axe into the zombie's chest with a horrible thump, then pull it out with a sucking sound. The zombie doesn't seem to care, and instead reaches forwards to devour your brains...") Also, logistics problem: I want to have a Arcane Keep (think mage's tower) deep in the mountains that the characters can go to if the bard wants to make CLW potions (they'll be needed, and worth their weight in platinum amongst the survivors), but I'm wondering how that would work in a low-magic campaign. Think I should have the Keep, or should I just throw some apothecaries into appropriately-sized cities?
Danahan 09-27-07, 08:43 PM	Would that take called shots, or just a crit-roll? A zombie that only dies on a confirmed crit would be pretty nasty, but at the same time hilarious ("Oooh, 46 damage! You bury your axe into the zombie's chest with a horrible thump, then pull it out with a sucking sound. The zombie doesn't seem to care, and instead reaches forwards to devour your brains...") Trying to hit the brain, heart, or spine in the midst of a battle should require a called shot. If you decide to use this idea, you should mix things up to keep the players thinking! Sure, they kill one zombie by destroying its brain, but the next zombie in line is totally unaffected by such an attack, because its heart must be destroyed. Also, logistics problem: I want to have a Arcane Keep (think mage's tower) deep in the mountains that the characters can go to if the bard wants to make CLW potions (they'll be needed, and worth their weight in platinum amongst the survivors), but I'm wondering how that would work in a low-magic campaign. Think I should have the Keep, or should I just throw some apothecaries into appropriately-sized cities? You could always have something like a mansion or castle in the mountains owned by a wealthy NPC. He has established a lab in his basement where he brews potions. The PCs could get in on the operation. He may even have them sell the potions on his behalf.
Mr. the Hun 09-28-07, 01:33 AM	Zombie variation is key. I'm running a massively edited version of Expedition to Castle Ravenloft right now, and the party that I'm DMing quickly got tired of fighting zombie horde after zombie horde. Keeping it fresh and exciting will be the challenge. Also attempting to vary between style of encounter will be crucial. There's only so many times zombies can shamble from the fog before it comes common place. If you need to, make your own species of undead, just for the sake of changing it up.
Lucien_Sadi 09-28-07, 01:48 AM	The zombies will begin to fall under the control of necromancers later (think organized zombie fighting units), so mixing things up won't be too difficult. It'll only take a few ambushes for the characters to learn not to just charge out into the streets, anyways. Sample encounters: The PCs are at the base, fortifying and checking stockpiles. Suddenly, the door bursts open, and in runs a frightened little girl who is hiding from the zombies. She, of course, manages to bring a few in, which the PCs summarily defeat. The girl weaves a tale about a besieged survival group, and of course the PCs go out, not knowing that the girl is actually a necromancer cleaning out the last pockets of resistance in the city... A small foraging party is sneaking through the city's alleys, attempting to locate supplies and other survivors. A noise intrigues them (DC 15 listen check, a scraping noise from the inside of a door) and they set about trying to find out what it is. (It's a zombie commanded to drag a sword over the floor repeatedly.) Meanwhile, the other zombies have been ordered to barricade the alleyway with crates and barrels... The PCs are out in the countryside, foraging and searching for food, when a dark cloud passes over the sun (DC 10 Spot to notice, 20 to identify). Turns out, it's a flock of infested crows. Panic ensues as the PCs run for shelter...
LefferDP 09-28-07, 08:15 AM	I would say you should have zombies that have massive amounts of HP but die on crits. So, it's possible to hack them to little itty bitty bits with standard attacks until they eventually die, or you can just get a clean strike in.
pigknight 09-29-07, 01:45 AM	A hint for your PCs: Zombies can only take 1 action in a round and can not charge. And bastard swords and tower shields are the way to go.
Lucien_Sadi 09-29-07, 01:50 AM	That's until we hit the fast-zombie variant. Also, the ranged weapons will make a dent in the PCs pretty well, even with tower shields. Did I mention that they have to scrounge/scavenge all their gear from already-looted towns infested with zombies?
MagicMouth 09-29-07, 02:52 PM	For even more variety, you could have the necromancers experimenting on the zombies to create more undead mutants (in other words, other undead creatures). So in addition to the variety of zombies you can throw in different monsters (Ghouls, Wights etc.) on special occasions to really shake the PCs up.
GoriceXII 09-30-07, 04:41 AM	I ran a zombie/apocalypse game 2 years ago and I took a lot of ideas from books and movies...here are some for setting ideas. 1. A castle or fortified small town run by a powerful warlord. While he keeps the community safe and fed, bands of undead roam the immediate countryside making it dangerous to travel without a heavily armed patrol. He now and then sends out such patrols with foragers or to bring him reports. Survivors who cannot defend themselves from his patrols are either forced to enlist if proper material or else are made into slaves. Most of the population is virtually enslaved, submitting to the whims of his warriors and expert advisors. Though he is a tyrant the prospect of life outside is daunting. 2. A larger town, well fortified and on an island in a large river (yes, this is Fiddler's Green!) that is run by a merchant council, though in reality the chief merchant runs everything. It is a venal, vice ridden town where people are glad to be able to survive with some prospect of sleeping comfortably every night, having a market and entertainments and so on. The area surrounding has been relatively cleared of undead but there are still roaming or sedentary bands that are dangerous. It is a rumored place by intrepid travellers, a sort of shangri-la. 3. A group of frightened survivors in a wizards' tower. The wizard for some reason is gone, and they don't know how the tower functions, though it certainly seems to have sufficient magical wards to keep the undead away. Nevertheless they don't dare leave and are going stir crazy. 4. A well defended community that is also a strange apocalyptic cult. There are strange rites to be done to enter the community, even as a guest, after which one is subject to the rules of the leaders, who are quite honest but also insane. They believe in rigid sexual purity, a sort of communal sharing of all resources, and in daily readings from scriptures. While the community is not heavily fortified it is in a very isolated wild place and the members are good hunters and trackers, experts in fighting undead. Extraordinary diplomacy would be needed to have them as allies but once they were they would be very effective. Their tests are not entirely fanatical imaginings; one reason for them is so that they can determine if people are really undead in disguise. 5. A surviving town that has no clerics left has made a deal with some more intelligent undead to stay alive. They have a lottery to give up victims, though they are much happier at giving up some unwitting outsiders. There is a special inn which is not far from the town wall where unwitting victims are advised to go. Other inns in town will be closed/nonexistant. The inn is rather ordinary but a welcome respite probably from the hell outside, and there are ordinary locals around drinking and eating. Of course at night the innkeepers' staff will quietly unlock certain doors and windows with a special key and then they all hide in the cellar till morning.
MagicMouth 09-30-07, 09:05 AM	You could have a look at the Undead Scourge and its grip on the realm of Lordaeron in the Warcraft universe. Not only to get inspiration on how to handle the Undead, but also how different people try to deal with the situation. For example, there is one organization called the Argent Dawn that tries to fight the Undead with research and discretion, and is open to races of different factions. Another organization is the Scarlet Crusade, which is filled with fanatics that "kill anyone they believe to be undead, any mortal they believe may soon be undead, any mortal they assume to be carrying the plague, mortals who stand between the Crusade and undead, and mortals who may sympathize with undead -- the latter being the way Crusaders tend to interpret any criticism of their methods." Also, very nice ideas, GoriceXII.
Edwin_Durock 10-01-07, 12:34 PM	A) the zombie enfestation is viral. i.e. EVERYONE has it to some degree. but like certain viruses it cannot act of its own force (for example aids. cannot actualy kill you but it can help other infections kill you) B) NO WIZARDS. and i do mean NO WIZARDS. sorcerer's are limited to 1/5 the max spells of their level and even then limited to max sorcerer level 5. no bards. clerics have limited spells and generaly are not seen unless someone's "infection" worsen's. druid's are likely now all zombies. paladin's would have picked up a sword and dropped thier spell's in hopes of defending the last great city's wall's with that half orc barbarian he was just insulting. also NO PSIONICS. this hurts as psions and soul knives are 2 of my favorite classes. but again you are creating a breaking point for the players. with no wizards they cannot learn arcane arts unless born into sorcery. so some will look for another route. psionics can be much like magic and will break your system if you allow to much of them. C) player's hit points automaticaly reduced by 2 each level (yes this will allow a player to get 0 or -1 hit points in a level.) this will ensure that the players want to take their time and do not get "overly bravado". if lou goes running out into the zombies after all and levels up but loses a hit point for it he may be in more danger than he thought. D) The gods are limited and mostly only necromantic. vecna. weejas. etc. most of the gods of good/light will actively oppose zombies enfesting their world. so you would end up with palor walking the earth destroying the zombies and ending your campaign a tad quickly. better yet. this is a time of no gods. they have abandond the people (also explains limited to no magics) E) Magic within metal breaks quickly. your players may look at that +5 sacred holy avenger and drool. but if they have to get it re'enchanted every 3 day's they will start looking towards that +0 glorious dagger of save my :censored: thats all for now. hope these few simple idea's help....lemme know what you think ;) Edit: remember. libris mortis and all the monster manual's (plus book of vile darkness) are your friends. take every idea you can get from every source...book movie friend billboard lap dance......to far?
Lucien_Sadi 10-01-07, 06:08 PM	There are actually no wizards, sorcs or druids, and the more impressive-looking spells have been stripped from the spell-lists of everything that remains. There are no monks or Psionics as well. Plus, since I'll be able to control what they get (since they're scavenging their gear), they won't ever get a keen vorpal holy scimitar or whatnot.
pigknight 10-06-07, 10:09 PM	You could have a look at the Undead Scourge and its grip on the realm of Lordaeron in the Warcraft universe. Not only to get inspiration on how to handle the Undead, but also how different people try to deal with the situation. For example, there is one organization called the Argent Dawn that tries to fight the Undead with research and discretion, and is open to races of different factions. Another organization is the Scarlet Crusade, which is filled with fanatics that "kill anyone they believe to be undead, any mortal they believe may soon be undead, any mortal they assume to be carrying the plague, mortals who stand between the Crusade and undead, and mortals who may sympathize with undead -- the latter being the way Crusaders tend to interpret any criticism of their methods." Also, very nice ideas, GoriceXII. Warcraft III/World of Warcraft are good examples of middle ages Resident Evil: Extinction style worlds. Add death knights, and liches.