"Stirring Up Trouble" - Zombie Appearance & Reinforcements

[SBRPearce]

So, for an autumn games day (the latest iteration of our local micro-con "Floor Wars"), I'm thinking of running a zombie game using Akula's rules. I'm assembling my Wargames Factory horde and priming the Plasticville tract housing I bought through Ebay, and I'm going over the rules so I know them cold.

I'd love any suggestions folks could offer on managing the flow of Zeds onto the board - from the edges, from sites already on the board, etc - and also on ways to make the rate of arrival connected to the players' actions. Since the players will be running safety forces trying to evacuate trapped civilians, driving down the street honking their horns to attract survivors will also draw every Zed for blocks, and opening fire en masse will be like ringing a dinner-bell for the ghouls.

Also, since the plan is to establish a cordon around an area, sweep it to locate survivors hiding in their homes and load them onto buses headed for Safe Zones, I'm planning a Search mechanism for scouting buildings (possibly stirring up or releasing pockets of trapped Zeds) and a mechanism for Commanding the refugees, who need to be coaxed, ordered and shepherded onto the transports. I think Commanding is an Action that only works on a dice roll, and some characters are better at it than others.

[Dr.Falkenhayn]

driving down the street honking their horns to attract survivors will also draw every Zed for blocks, and opening fire en masse will be like ringing a dinner-bell for the ghouls.

[Commander Vyper]

Take a look at Akula's rules for zombie movement re: noise.

For my games I have set spawning points that 'activate' at the begining of the zombie turn.

Additional rules:

At the beginning of each zed turn roll 1d6:

1d6   Result:
1-3   Attracted by human activity… more zombies shamble forth!
4-6   Your actions go unnoticed: no additional zombies for this turn…

If more zombies shamble forth this turn:

Roll 1d6:

1-6 = dice entry markers/point of entry.

Roll 1d6 (or 2d6 as discussed above):  Dice roll indicates the number of zombies arriving from that spawn point.

I've also added a 'zombie moan' rule... which again attracts more zeds.

Zombies in Close Combat: The Zombie ‘moan’.  

OOAAAAAAAAHHHHH! He could’ve said freeze! Or... base?

Zombies are known for being particularly talkative, but during close combat, (in a zombie activation turn only) the emotional content of the whole situation can really get to them!

When rolling during close combat, if a 6 is rolled by the attacking zombie, it will let out a moan.

The moaning attracts more zombies which may be moved in the same manner as zombies attracted by shooting, but can be moved once the combat has been completed rather than the next turn, (ie out of out of sequence, and testing only one additional zed per 'moan' at present).

And in a nod to Shaun of the Dead.... all the survivors have to remember to turn their mobiles off at the start of the game..... or RING! RING! 'Hello Noodle! Nah man I ain't got nuffink!' (mobile phone will attract all zeds within a 10" radius but the will not move until the next zombie turn).

Additional spawning points: You could also consider the following areas to add a little bit of flavour to your games:

•   The abandoned school bus or coach at the crossroads.
•   The sewer system: drains and manhole covers.
•   Large public buildings: (hospitals, schools, town halls, cinemas, shopping centres 
•   The emergency shelter: where everyone was told to head to?
•   Multi level spawning points: (apartment buildings, multi-storey car parks,   subways, (eat fresh eh? Or the Underground?).

Finally, when I've more than six spawning areas I like to break out the old D&D dice for fun!

Hope this helps.

The Commander

[Alien Dave]

Ambush Alley/Zombie uses 'hot spots' for zombie re-enforcements.  Think spawn points in online gaming.  Additionally, there are also 'pop-up' zombies, attracted by the sound of gunfire...

This is all very well, but in a recent game a resourceful player put one of his fire teams on overwatch and used the second fire team to attack a zombie mob.  The gunfire attracted the rest of the zombie hoard and the overwatch fire team blasted the zeds to mushy little bits  

Dave W

[SBRPearce]

This is all very well, but in a recent game a resourceful player put one of his fire teams on overwatch and used the second fire team to attack a zombie mob.  The gunfire attracted the rest of the zombie hoard and the overwatch fire team blasted the zeds to mushy little bits

Oh, I'm sure they'll try something like that. But that just pulls in more Zeds from outside the perimeter...

They'll be trying to hold the cordon against repeated wave assaults and ensure the area inside the cordon is clear of Zeds and locate, coax and move the civilians bunkered up in their apartments and homes... I don't think they're going to have enough troops to accomplish everything. Heh, heh, heh. </evil referee laughter>

[bigmanfran]

As a GM you can add extra zombies to an area if the game requires it or a player is a bit lippy and you want to make him cry.

[AKULA]

I'd love any suggestions folks could offer on managing the flow of Zeds onto the board - from the edges, from sites already on the board, etc - and also on ways to make the rate of arrival connected to the players' actions.

Basically whatever works for you - the rules were left intentionally simple to allow you to umpire it for maximum enjoyment.

 

A few spawn points scattered around the board (i find a max of 6 is plenty for even the biggest table), and either roll or add the casualties, where they will cause the most pain/enjoyment/embarassment.

Clearly the main dynamic of AR:SE is the activiation rules, so loud noises will draw in zeds from afar - and of course you can always use a Liche/Witch call it what you want.... 

Have fun!

[SBRPearce]

I'm messing with the idea of "Noise Markers" that get dropped at the site of whatever Donneybrook the players have caused. That stack of Noise remains throughout the Round, acting as a beacon to draw the murderous attention of the undead. At the end of the Round, when Knockback gets pulled, so do the Noise markers. (The total pulled at the end of the Round is the number of dice rolled for, um, "wandering monsters" - for those of us whose gaming careers go back that far...)

This also gives the players the opportunity to run away from the site of their latest indiscretion, hoping that the Zeds will go the wrong way.

I'm trying to devise a mechanism that keeps "grudge monsters" out of the equation, so I can just run the game impartially and let the players' own actions hose them into zombie-kibble.

PS: Akula - thank you for this system of rules. A one-sheet handout makes things go ever so smoothly, and the little skirmishes I've tried have been fun.

[abrelax]

Me and a friend of mine are currently working on a cooperative zombie miniature game called "Hjärnor", "Brains" in swedish. We don´t use a GM so all Zombie movement and Zombie spawning are handled by the rules. In short we handle the dead guys like this:

In the Zombie turn all Zombies on the board move towards the closest visible human, the closest soundmarker (put on the board when somone fires a gun, uses a chainsaw, starts a car or in some other way makes noice) or the closest human it can smell.

After all movemement (and Zombiefights!), add upp the total "heroiness" of the humans in play. We us the word PONDUS in swedish, wich an online translator translates to Authority, but i don´t think that´s really the word I´m looking for. Anyway, PONDUS is a Heroes "heroiness": the more games the heroe has survived, the more PONDUS does he get. An adult starts a campaign with 3 in PONDUS, a child with 1. PONDUS affects, among other things, both from how far a Zombie can see you and how many Zombies you attract when they spawn.

For each 3 points of PONDUS on the board we roll one die. Thats on average one die per hero, more if the heroes are experienced and less if there are any children.
Add one die for every soundmarker on the board.
Add one die for every bleeding hero.

Roll all the dice: for every 4+ a Zombie appears! If, however you roll a 6 you roll one more die, also spawning a Zombie on 4+. If you roll a 1 discard one of the successes.

Zombies are placed outside a random door of a random house in groups of around three.

[SBRPearce]

Abrelax -  PONDUS sounds like "Screen Presence" (to use a movie term) or "Mojo"... Does high PONDUS make you less visible to Zombies? (IE, an experienced Hero can sneak past the dead more effectively than his sidekick, who always seems to end up tripping over a trash-can and attracting every corpse in a three-block area)

I'm also playing with a mechanism that allows characters to try to Take Charge. The mission involves finding and moving terrified civilians, who will have to be coaxed out of their hiding places and who are prone to Flip Out, which can make trouble for the rescuers because A) it's Noisy and B) some of these people are armed. A character who successfully Takes Charge spends one Action that go making sure the Extras under his influence do what needs to be done. You can't make them fight, but you can at least make them move in the right direction, stay put if , or Shut Up.

[abrelax]

Mojo sounds a lot like PONDUS. That´s the word!

No, high PONDUS makes you more visible to Zombies, as with experience and self esteem you tend to care less about hiding. Fighting Zombies isn´t about showing off, it is about surviving at all cost. So: high PNODUS makes you more resilient to the Zombie virus, but it also makes you more tasty!

Unfortonuatly our rules are in swedish. Otherwise I cold have sent them to you when the´re done.

We have a simpler but similar rule in our Find the survivors-scenario: once you lokate them you have to comvince them that it´s safer to follow you than stay hidden in the closet. This roll is also based on PONDUS.