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Zombie RPG help request - AFMBE

  • 06-05-2010 1:57pm
    #1
    Registered Users Posts: 2,394 ✭✭✭


    Need some input on the current AFMBE(All Flesh Must Be Eaten) RPG I'm running. I had not planned on the game being a long term thing but after the first time I ran it I knew I was in trouble as the group loved it...

    To start I tried something new - the players had no idea what was going to happen or what game we'd be playing. I just told them all that instead of our usual game session we'd have a gamers show-and-tell so bring your favorite weapon. The geeks I game with have either blade or firearm collections.... so they all brought their favorite stuff.

    When they got to my place to game I didn't have any books or anything out. They all sat down and got ready and then I started show-and-tell - everyone gave a little speech about what they brought and why it was important to them. Then the fun started...

    I pulled out my stack of game materials and started handing out character sheets as I explained to the players that "The game starts and you are all in my basement for our usual gaming session. You guys are playing along when the DM, me, has to run to the garage to grab a tray of snacks he left out there. He doesn't come back for a long time... what do you do?"

    At this point everyone had their character sheets and realized they were playing themselves - also at this point I described the radio broadcasts there were heard - namely that the dead were walking in parts of the country but our area had absolutely nothing to worry about...

    SO - needless to say - zombies arrived way ahead of schedule, I had been taken out by a zombie in the garage, and the Z's that had shown up outside were going to lay siege to the house . I gave everyone 20 minutes to run around my house and find anything they could use for gear or a weapon. They all wrote down what they found and that was their characters equipment list... it worked out great. They also got to use whatever weapon they had brought with them that night.

    They chose to shoot their way out of the house and escape via a truck and head outta town to a state park.

    I ran this game for a few weeks - I run a very loose game and did little planning, using the backdrop of World War Z for much of the time line and for many other ideas. The last game ended with the party being airlifted out of a college dorm area where they had done battle w/ some nasty survivors and discovered that government researchers had found a way to make regular zombies into SUPER zombies - and yes one of the characters managed to contract the SUPER zombie flu - though he really doesn't know that yet.

    The characters were all evac'd to the far SW corner of Wyoming..... the question now is - what do I do next? I had planned on that being the end of the game. Have them start the offensive to retake the US? Send them in to help out smaller pockets of survivors? I'm stuck and I've foolishly offered to run an all day game at the end of the month in celebration of one of our players being back in town and for Zombie Awareness Month...

    So after all that - does anyone have any suggestions, etc for what way to take the game.

    If you read this whole thing you are blessed with a large measure of patience... thanks!!


Comments

  • Registered Users Posts: 3,532 ✭✭✭Ginja Ninja


    First of all,that's an awesome Idea that I am totally stealing for a future RPG I'm going to run,you sound like an amazing GM.

    Campaign-wise,you could take it a few ways,depending on the party: Run a one shot session,with different characters[if it's the end of the campaign]
    The helicopter doesn't take them to a base,only a group of survivors,they had some fancy gear but aren't linked up with the government,they had to lie as the party seem like pretty compitent folks,people they can use.And proceed with a survival/stronghold scenario for a while.

    again,it depends on the world,one trick I've used is that there is a safe zone,but once you're brought to it,you have to earn your keep on the frontline,scavenging,or perhaps in a battle as might fit your story.

    or for just one session,put a slap of resident evil flash onto it,make some crazy ass super zombie monsters,give them game breaker weapons and let the players have fun with it.

    If you want to take the already been done approach[they might like to play out how they would have acted in this scenario] the chopper crashes,the pilot is killed,throw some wounds onto people[sprained ankle,broken arm etc.] and let them make there way on foot.I'm not sure how easy this is to accomodate in the AFMBE system,but it would be a bit of a curveball to let them play a situation in the middle of nowhere.Wilderness survial type thing rather than urban[I'm asuming your campaign was pretty urbanised?]


    just my 2 cents from RPG experience


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,394 ✭✭✭DakotaYoda


    Hey Thanks Ginga!

    I like the ideas... I think I'll be heading down either the "helicoptor crashes on the way to the Safe Area" or they make it back ok and are sent for support/recover some special person - make it a "men on a mission"-type adventure and let them arm up with about whatever they want. Make it a fun, blow the crap outta everything game for the players.

    Just not sure yet... :)

    I do believe the infected player will have a large role in the game. Thinking he'll have to make saves, ie resist the urge to chow down on flesh and if he does eat then he goes full-Z - still maintaining some control since he's a SUPER Z.

    We'll see...


  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,124 ✭✭✭Amhran Nua


    Have them slap a mosquito, but it keeps going, and on closer inspection it is zombified. Where did it come from? Who did it bite?

    Next the airspaces have been declared closed in order to confine the spread of the infection, and the chopper gets winged as various jets conduct an aerial battle nearby, one group trying to bring down an airliner the other trying to stop them.

    So the chopper comes down near an urban area, and the group find themselves helping a group of children trapped in a school, sorting out transportation and setting up a convoy to get to somewhere safe.

    They come to an area that's eerily deserted, more so than usual, and realise eventually that a nuclear power plant had a meltdown in the region a while back, and the place is unsafe, this is also a good cue to introduce the unusual zombified monsters.
    http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/nuclear/page/umtra/riverton_mill_title1.html
    http://wyofile.com/2010/03/the-sage-grouse-reader-poll-mini-nuke-plants-for-wyoming/


    Oh yes you're in Wyoming - use tornadoes!

    Thats a few off the top of me head! :D


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,394 ✭✭✭DakotaYoda


    I like the tornado idea - and that got me on to a dam breaking due to all the maintenance personnel being dead. Still natural disaster'ish :)

    I have settled on the party making it to the camp via the chopper and they are debriefed and set to work training search and rescue teams in the anti-zombie techniques they've developed.

    While in the camp they hear rumors of a private company somewhere in the US has possibly developed a vaccine and/or synthetic flesh to feed to zombies. Rumors are sketchy.

    A special team is brought in from Ireland - in WWZ Ireland is nearly untouched due to a variety of reasons, but it stands to reason there must be some serious zombie fighters there too - and they are sent to find this company's location. It just happens to be right near the dam mentioned above. They get into trouble and call for backup and in go the PC's....

    I'll bring back the Super Zombies, which the PCs have yet to fight really, include the already Super Z-infected PC, a dam breaking and I think we're in for a good time.

    Still open for any additional ideas though!!!


  • Registered Users Posts: 3,532 ✭✭✭Ginja Ninja


    DakotaYoda wrote: »
    A special team is brought in from Ireland - in WWZ Ireland is nearly untouched due to a variety of reasons, but it stands to reason there must be some serious zombie fighters there too - and they are sent to find this company's location. It just happens to be right near the dam mentioned above. They get into trouble and call for backup and in go the PC's....
    this just made me smile,thanks man.:D

    keep me posted on how this runs,I'm thinking about running a game of this next[college] year.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 7 turtlesdove3


    this just made me smile,thanks man.:D

    keep me posted on how this runs,I'm thinking about running a game of this next[college] year.

    Not a bad idea it sounds exciting. I hope it takes place.


  • Registered Users Posts: 651 ✭✭✭badgerhowlin


    Ireland to the rescue again!


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,394 ✭✭✭DakotaYoda


    Well, since I had grand luck here last time I thought I'd ask for any more suggestions for my zombie game.

    In the last game:

    A group of Irish mercenaries was sent in to a government lab to try and find a researcher named Breck Scott near the Homestake Mine lab in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and bring back any info on a cure he was working on. After making initial contact, contact was lost with the Irish Mercs, some of whom you might recognize: Pvt Kromdar, Sgt Nerin, and Lt Dolenz. :)

    The players took part in the Battle of Hope, see WWZ for more info, and were then immediately tasked with going to the Homestake Mine to search for the Irish and recover whatever they could.

    On the way to insertion via chopper, the PC's helicopter was shot down by a large group of secessionists that have setup shop in the Black Hills, WWZ mentions this also. They catch the PC's and tell them the government has kidnapped many of their people and are holding them in the Mine. If they want to get out alive they need to rescue these people and bring them back.

    So - the PCs head into the Mine/Lab area, find some new kinds of zombies and ultimately find the remaining Irish lad, Lt Dolenz, in addition to loads of computer data on cure research and some kind of locked safe. They did find the secessionist prisoners but opted to leave them since they felt the party was going to be attacked and wiped out no matter what they did.

    Choppers come in to evac them with no problem. They fly over the secessionist camp on the way out and see that zombies have over run it. They manage to save one person - Mr Richard Dawkins, :D., though only 1 person in the party knows who he is. He was trapped in the camp...

    They made it back to camp and the doctors tell them they brought back a cure that will most likely work on a person that has been bitten but will not help anyone already changed. It will take them time to develop it though.

    Other things took place as well but that is the gist of the story.... Oh - and although Lt Dolenz had a broken arm he found the Army Major that sent he and his team in with no intel and beat the living crap out of him.


    Xmas Zombies?
    For the next game I want to draw Xmas into things a bit. Also - one of our players will be joining us via Skype so I'm trying to make some special accommodations for him.

    My plans, as of right now are:

    The Skype player is going to wake up and find himself trapped in some kind of master control room w/ all kinds of screens, etc. He can talk to the party and keep tabs on them via aerial drone or satellites that still work but that is it. Have to work out details on this for sure. He may even be trapped in Santa/Elves main control room somehow where they keep tabs on all the kids of the world....


    I have 3 ideas for the main game and they are:

    1. Party dropped into the North Pole to save Santa from zombie invasion. Think zombie elves, reindeer and probably a ride in the sled...

    2. Party has to escort 3 scientists, aka Wise Men, to a camp to help with a birth of a baby born to a woman that is immune to the virus. A group of ranchers, aka Shepherds, come to help too. The farm is under siege. The survivors are holed up in a barn, aka manger.

    3. Gift of the Magi idea/example:
    Group 1 HAS a generator but no fuel
    Group 2 HAS fuel but no generator
    Group 3 HAS medicine but no fuel or generator.
    Disease reaches group 1 and 2.

    Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated! I am unsure which of the 3 ideas to pursue so let me know which one you prefer and expound with any ideas you may have for it.


  • Registered Users Posts: 994 ✭✭✭Mitch Buchannon


    2. Party has to escort 3 scientists, aka Wise Men, to a camp to help with a birth of a baby born to a woman that is immune to the virus. A group of ranchers, aka Shepherds, come to help too. The farm is under siege. The survivors are holed up in a barn, aka manger.

    Of the three listed i prefer idea 2 above.

    I had never even heard of a RPG before I read this thread. It sounds cool ! I imagine it like those games where college kids run around throwing nerf ball things a each other. I could be Very wrong on this though.


  • Registered Users Posts: 2,394 ✭✭✭DakotaYoda


    I had never even heard of a RPG before I read this thread. It sounds cool ! I imagine it like those games where college kids run around throwing nerf ball things a each other. I could be Very wrong on this though.

    I think you may be referring to Humans vs Zombies which, while being a LOVELY game I play as well, is a bit different. This particular game is played using the All Flesh Must Be Eaten game system. We drink beer, roll dice, and screw around a lot really. It's similar to games like Dungeons & Dragons.


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  • Closed Accounts Posts: 4,124 ✭✭✭Amhran Nua


    DakotaYoda wrote: »
    I think you may be referring to Humans vs Zombies which, while being a LOVELY game I play as well, is a bit different. This particular game is played using the All Flesh Must Be Eaten game system. We drink beer, roll dice, and screw around a lot really. It's similar to games like Dungeons & Dragons.
    Yeah those sorts of games can be a lot of fun. Completely different experience to say a video game.


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