I originally started this campaign kind of as a litmus test to see whether my PC's would enjoy a d20 modern game, and they took to it like a rat on a cheeto. They love this campaign, but I only ran it because I thought it would only be good for a few sessions, and I'm running out of ideas.
I've already started adding opposing resistance parties, intellegent zombies, and arch rivals, but I'm going to be up a creek here pretty soon if I don't come up with some new ideas...
...so I was wondering if you all could help me out and give me some encounter ideas that involving zombies, or opposing groups, or any kind of plot hook. Last week they journeyed out of their base of operations (the Pawnshop for the time being) and stocked up on supplies at the local Price Chopper while another group made their way to Walmart to get ammunition. This week they plan on trying to make radio aerials to plant on tall buildings so to give their radios more range.
Help me if you can, Thanks!
Tornado Alley...KC...there would be no warning.
:lightbulb
...wall cloud, skies darken, suddenly hail, pounding rain...then freight-train howl of wind...the building trembles, windows & doors burst in...debris swirling and whipping about, deafening sound...the roof tears away as the walls colllapse. then...quiet, stillness, and the sound of dripping water.
:evillaugh
injuries, as you see fit, or maybe do some Reflex rolls?
example: PCs make 10 REF checks and make everybody write them down, then compare to DC15 (DC20?) with amount missed is the damage taken.
An injury 5 points or more is a bleeder (odd) or broke bone (even).
if they had a vehicle, it is now a battered, twisted wreck.
Also, Lake City Army Ammunition Plant is a few miles down the highway, thought a great battle would be in order for when they're really desperate for ammunition, not to mention a BP storage plant for when their hard up for fuel.
like a Brewery.
It is a Role playing game after all,
and surely the party is not made up of characters that dont drink ;)
Once you get them thinking about getting the brewery running
then you have a whole bunch of logistics adventures to obtain, secure, and maintain the golden flow.
food & water can keep you alive,
but without beer it raised the whole Quality Of Life issue... might as well euthanize the party
Also, if they're in a city, there could be a fire. Nobody would be there to put it out, so the PCs would either have to loot a firetruck and deal with it, or run away, or find some other solution. They could receive a distress call and have to figure out if it was a trick or not. It could be a crazy motorcycle gang ala Dawn of the Dead (the original one) or someone actually in need of help.
You could set up a rival (but not violently so) gang that is competing for food and loot, and then have them get attacked and see if the PCs are willing to come to their rescue or not. I think intelligent zombies is a bad move, PCs will always wonder if they were actually killing pseudo-innocents this whole time, and zombies might start using guns; and really, the point of zombies is that theyre totally mindless.
Well, there not that intellegent to the point that they are using weapons, but there is one Zombie who seems to be smarter than the others and is leading them to a certain extent, and so far all he has done is organized a zombie ambush, which freaked the PC's out. They are actually planning on hunting him down (they call him "The Columbian" because he wears a blue COLUMBIA university hoodie) and re-killing him.
I too introduced "smart" zombies to a campain, my types was ispired by films like 28 weeks later and the game left 4 dead.
the one type an the one that actually scared the PCs was my "stalker", a Zombie, that is strong, moves fast, and can climb, when that is added to stalking humans, ambushing to kill or......even more scary, to wound and turn others into zombies.
I had a type of zombie, raging mad like the 28 days later ones, though these were able to use primitive melee weapons like clubs. They can too be sceary in large numbers.
One question though, how do you handle HP/Infection issues when it comes to combat?
One question though, how do you handle HP/Infection issues when it comes to combat?
Once I ran a zombie game, and here's how we did it: the GM would ask us for our fort modifier, and if we wanted to use an action point, and secretly roll the save. We never found out what the DC was, and you wouldn't know for a while if you actually got bit... it was pretty scary. At first we didn't know how the infection worked- obviously, if you get bit, you're exposed, but we didn't know how long you would have or if there was a chance of survival or anything.
One PC got bit early on, and another guy just shot him on the spot. We were all shocked. It was the middle of a fight with zombies, and he's just like "okay. I shoot Phil." After that, we would all try to keep it secret if we were bitten or not.
To keep the zombies threatening but fairly Romero-esque, we just played awful characters. 3d6 roll, and you had to place them in the order you rolled them. (first roll strength, second dex(?), etc.) and made a gentleman's agreement to try to make as unoptimized characters as possible at creation, but then go crazy afterwards.
The GM later told us how the disease worked: fort save DC20 to avoid it all together, and then every day after that you took 1d6 dex damage (early in the infection, he wouldn't tell you but subtract it from your rolls, later on he told you because your character would notice). If you hit 0, you went into a coma, and took 1 con damage every round (DC 20 to avoid, each round) till you died. 1d4 rounds later you reanimate. If you died at any point after being infected by other causes, you animate too.
Headshot rules: have to hit the zombie's AC as if he were three sizes smaller than he really is (usually, as if he were diminuative, so +4AC). Also, if you got him down to 0HP, he can only crawl around, and at -10 he becomes so beat up that he basically dies.
Other than that we used the typical zombie rules, but I think my GM upped their stats a little (especially spot and listen. I was the fast hero, and I got caught a lot) and gave them Scent.
Sorry for the massive post.
If they make the save then they are good to go.
I realize this may or may not be the best system, but I've never really ran a campaign like this before, so any suggestions from seasoned Zombie-Hackers would be welcomed!