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Hey everyone, I have had the most boring Sunday, so I was thinking of making a set of rules and back story/fluff for a zombie skirmish game as the thread title suggests. I have always wondered what a campaign/scenario based set of rules for a Zombie Survival Skirmish would be like. An example would be like the 'The Walking Dead' or the podcast/audio drama 'We,re Alive'.

So the big question is, what would you guys like to see in a Zombie Survival Game?

What I want to know is:
What would be a good reason for a Zombie Apocalypse?
What would be rules you want or would like to see in the rules?
Create some rules and let others critique your rules?
What types of zombies would you like to see? e.g. Spitters from Left 4 Dead or Floaters from Dead Island
What, if any factions, what would they be?

Thanks in advance for any input

Regards, Joshua

Have you read the All Flesh Must Be Eaten system? It's got a pretty cool campaign setup and character creation where you basically can play yourself (ie: If zombies happened, what weapons would you have. Where would you start? Would your family be in danger, etc.).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_Flesh_Must_Be_Eaten

Anyway in response to your questions:

What would be a good reason for a Zombie Apocalypse?
I generally think a mysterious reason is the best reason, mainly because Zombies are so incredibly implausible. I mean, there is the undead angle, but realistically is biting ever the best method of transmitting a disease? Do all the dogs in the world have rabies because one did?
So I'd go for the Mad Max approach of generalized collapse. People might have theories: bioweapon, radiation, aliens, etc. but nothing is for sure in the setting.

What would be rules you want or would like to see in the rules?
Lots of psychology stuff could be interesting. Sort of like the Sanity in Cthulhu games. I don't normally see this covered in zombie games, but part of surviving such a scenario would be mentally pulling through.

Anyway I'm kind of getting a mixed read here, are you going for a zombie survival game (I'd imagine sort of a zoomed in RPG with one player per character) or a zombie skirmish game (a dozen figures a side with objectives)?

I am kinda going for a hybrid game, a skirmish game with elements of RPG. I have always liked the idea of a game that you can upgrade your characters or down grade them if they take an injury or something. Also the idea of something like 'Planetary Empires' from 40k to run the campaign system, for example from city to outskirts to a highway to another city, a little like 'The Walking Dead' moving from a small town to Atlanta (A big city) to a prison.

Objectives would be like:
Get supplies from store, secure the store, survive for 2 rounds to gather supplies, then escape.
Or clear an area.

As for the background, I get what you mean in regards to the views of how a zombies could become real, I was looking to the source being a failed experiment, or a corporation determined on world domination using zombies (like Resident Evil), a unidentified element on the periodic table or lastly the virus was in us just waiting to be triggered.

Rules wise, your idea for the psychological factors the characters could get is a really great idea will put them in my idea rank.

Thankyou, Joshua

P.S. Me and a friend played Dinosaur Cowboys, such a great game, I take my hat off to you sir

Ah I understand now. As you know from Dinosaur Cowboys I'm a fan of the skirmish with RPG idea, as well as upgrading characters as they progress through a campaign. Really useful for letting people get attached to their characters without the depth and complexity in most full blown RPGs.

If you are intent on explaining the zombie menace I vote "biological weapon gone wrong". In today's world it's the most logical, and I could just see it being set off accidentally, maliciously, or by a traitor. Then the consequences of what the weapon has done would be far beyond anything the designers ever expected. I don't know if it'd be corporate or government level, and perhaps that could be left a mystery (unless you want a defined villain).

So beyond brainstorming the background and features, have you started on the rules at all?

I have only just thought of the idea yesterday

I was going to think of the rules while in boring lessons at school and when I got free time. A friend of mine is a gaming master so I asked him what he would like to see, one idea he said was that there should be different levels of buildings and an RPG element but with the super bowl coming up, he doesn't want to sit down and give me more suggestions for a while. So I came on dakka and posted this thread to get ideas from a worldwide and larger community of gamers.

Regards, Joshua

You should probably check out Two Hour Wargames' (http://www.twohourwargames.com/index.html) All Things Zombie. Has rules for creation, camopaigns, even solo play.

 jmurph wrote:
You should probably check out Two Hour Wargames' (http://www.twohourwargames.com/index.html) All Things Zombie. Has rules for creation, camopaigns, even solo play.

We played ATZ year for our annual Halloween Zombie Apocalypse game. It was alot of fun!
http://chicagoskirmish.blogspot.com/2011/11/escape-from-new-chicago-all-things.html

Interestingly, I actually preferred the next year's game where we used a modified version of "Blasters and Bulkheads" (a Goalsystem game). However, if you wanted the zombies to move independently without a GM or separate player to run them, ATZ would be the better option.
http://chicagoskirmish.blogspot.com/2012/10/carnage-in-new-chicago-our-2nd-annual.html

Like many games that we play, we simply took a game that we liked, and bolted on zombie mechanics. Basically just adding rules for...
-what kind of actions attract zombie attention
-Random zombie appearances
-basic stats for zombies.

To the OP,
I definitely recommend picking up ATZ and giving it a go. Even if just for ideas for your own game. Not to rain on your parade. If you've got a talent for rule writing, then go for it. I just usually find that someone else usually has written a basic set of mechanics that are better than anything I could think of and "bolting on" is often easier than "ground-up".

I'm inclined to aggree wit Eilif here, systems like ATZ and No More room in Hell offer enough free range customizing that you can really "bolt on" rules of your own to suit your needs.
However that's not intended to discourage you from creating your own "ground up" zombie game, by all means keep working at it, would actually be interesting to see what you've come up with.

I am currently working on a zombie wargame rule set. Its free via digital download. Link is in my sig. Its basically a skirmish game, though I'd like to add addition objective rules and more optional stuff.