Post Apocalyptic Zombie System Help

[Twichyboy]

Hello all, i've decided i wanted a break in DMing normal fantasy based campaign and decided to do what i've wanted to do for a while, and run a modern zombie apocalypse game and i need some help with a few things.

I want the game to be as realistic as i could make it, and wanted to include two things, energy, and stress, to handle energy i decided that i would be using the Call of Cthulhu d20 system of sanity for energy, instead using CON for WIS. ill probably have a similar system for hunger and thirst

With stress ill probably use a 3 point simple system (Relaxed, Normal, and stressed)

With health, i plan on doing D6+CON but leveling doesn't give you health and the health you have at the start is the only health you get.

one thing i really need help is modern settings, like how long across is a road in a city? how big are apartments, office buildings, and all the stuff like that?

Any suggestions? i'd really like to make the setting and mechanics get the whole fight for survival vibe and not be easy, and any ideas for "quests"?

Also death should come easy, so the harder the better, but i'd also like to keep it survivable for the lucky ones.

 

[Rune]

Excellent idea. However, you might need to tweak some classic assumptions from the genre. For instance, typically in zombie flicks, a bite means the victim will become a zombie. In Night of the Living Dead, it was not so simple. All the recently deceased were coming to life (for unknown reasons) and a bite would lead to infection, which would lead to death. This would probably be a better approach for the game, unless you want the lethality level to be very high.

Also, if survival is the game, resources must be scarce. Think Resident Evil on hard, rather than easy. Finding a gun is great, but if you only have a handful of bullets, you really have to be resourceful with your shots.

 

[Hand of Evil]

Some notes on zombies I always point out:

• They never sleep - they are always moving from one place to another. Those running from them have to rest and sleep, the longer they go without, the weaker they get. Even if you have a safe place, you have to get supplies. In game this means you have to keep track of both, the longer you go without the more stress you are under. This is why I will go to the coast and the sea!
• They are a herds - this is not just a swarm but a mass, the greater the mass the more damage it can do. Barriers, as door and such, will fall to that mass. There is math behind this.
• The simple weapon to use against a zombie is a shield and pick axe, block and ponk in head.

 

[Psimancer]

... you might need to tweak some classic assumptions from the genre. For instance, typically in zombie flicks, a bite means the victim will become a zombie....

Agreed - or... ok, this is going to sound ‘unrealistic’ (let’s just call it Cinematic :S), but maybe don’t treat standard HP loss as ‘damage’; at the end of combat, all HPs are recovered with a short rest (so HP = Exhaustion), and true damage (ie Bites, etc) only come from Critical Hits or Negative HP. For these, maybe use the Critical Hit tables from something like Warhammer Fantasy RPG/Dark Heresy/etc (and for additional realism, go for hit locations – which you may need for Zombie head shots anyway...)

... one thing i really need help is modern settings, like how long across is a road in a city? how big are apartments, office buildings, and all the stuff like that? ...

Roads: For simplicity, just treat a lane at 10ft wide (if using a 5ft grid).
Apartments: Check out websites for floor plans – Real Estate, Construction Companies, Malls, etc
Quests: Look at similar genre RPGs, eGames, books, TV and movies for ideas (off the top of my head):

• RPGs: All Flesh Must Be Eaten, Gamma World (any ed),
• eGames: Fallout (any version), Borderlands
• Books: Stephen King’s ‘The Stand’
• TV: The Walking Dead, Jericho
• Movies: Mad Max/The Road Warrior, Resident Evil, Any Zombie or Post Apocalyptic movie

Hope that helps...