Fire vs Zombies?

[consectari]

My 2 regular opponents are both big fans of Left 4 Dead, so I'm incorporating many of the special zombies from that game into my miniatures games. 

One thing that throws them way off is that in L4D, fire is a very effective weapon against zombies.  I don't play L4D and have always believed a flaming zombie is just a more dangerous enemy. Only decapitation or serious brain trauma will stop zombies in my games.

Could the fire cook the brain and stop the zombie?  Would it take too long to be really useful?  Is it unfair to use the L4D specials, but not the fire?  Should I just change my game to be more in line with L4D?  Should I stick with my rules and let them wallow in their misinformation?

What to do?

[Cherno]

As the Zombie Survival Guide says, the only thing worse than a zombie is a zombie on fire!

Then again, keep in mind that L4D has infected rather than Romero shufflers, and that fire would also affect the zombies' vision and hence their ability to track humans.

[emperorpenguin]

As Cherno says, the L4D infected are just that, disease carriers, in this case a type of "super-rabies". Any kind of damage which will kill a human will kill them, so not your standard zombie

[Mr.J]

I'd say fire would eventually kill the zombie, not instantly, as you say a flaming zombie is more dangerous, but I think that eventually the fire would destroy it's body and brain.

[Hildred Castaigne]

In Night of the Living Dead the zombies were damn near terrified of fire.
One of them did catch fire and disappeared into the night, like a Chinese lantern.
But that movie also made no mention of brains and yet according to most folks that's what the zombies are after... 

Let's not forget Brooks was writing a work of fiction, on many things he had no experience of.
Of course it's not going to work out well if you throw a Molotov cocktail inside your safehouse.
Exercise caution, use enough accelerant and I'm sure your zombie will be cooked pretty quickly.

My dad and cousin are firemen, but for some reason I'm really reluctant to ask them what effect fire has on a human body.
I've heard enough of their horror stories... 

[zizi666]

IMO, zombies can't feel pain nor do they need air to breathe so fire wouldn't kill them.
As for fear, that would mean a zombie has emotions... NAH !
As most pointed out, zombies on fire are just walking torches, with teeth and nails, mind you.
Then again, if enough flesh and muscle gets burned you'd only have a skeleton and that's not a zombie in my book.
just my 2 cts.

[Bubbles]

If you want just say the zombies aren't dead and the muscles have just been burnt off or something. If you have ragers in your game then fire should be more effective against them.

[Malebolgia]

If headshots kill zombies, I can relate why cooking their brains works too. And it’s a cool gimmick! Throwing molotovs around to create small infernos…what’s not to like?

[Sangennaru]

Well, i think that zombies still have to breath, some kind of biology should be inside them, even if a little weird one.


MORE IMPORTANTLY: If you keep eyes open while on fire your eyes surface will be burned quite fast. If you try to smell while on fire your nose will be destroyed. So yeah, they will be walking torches with no senses.

random walking fires.

[Hildred Castaigne]

IMO, zombies can't feel pain nor do they need air to breathe so fire wouldn't kill them.
As for fear, that would mean a zombie has emotions... NAH !

I don't think it was out of fear that they avoided fire, more like a basic instinct.
Much like their instinct to eat, the instinct is their but not the mental process!

[Onebigriver]

In Night of the Living Dead the zombies were damn near terrified of fire.
One of them did catch fire and disappeared into the night, like a Chinese lantern.
But that movie also made no mention of brains and yet according to most folks that's what the zombies are after... 

I think it was the Return of the Living Dead films that introduced the whole brains thing. The zombie they capture in the mortuary in the first film says that she can feel herself decay and is driven to eat brains to ease the pain.

Fear of fire seems fair enough to me - vestigial animal extinct.

[mcfonz]

Also looking more towards traditional zombies and undead - fire or powerful light appears to be one thing that they can fear. However perhaps with time they can grow braver and approach it.

On a technical basis, due to my job I receive annual fire training. There are two points of that which I would like to note. Heat and flames tend to spread upwards, so even if the zombie was on fire at the waist it is possible that the flames would at the very least obscure their vision. Secondly depending on whether the zombies are the virus and air breathing type the flames will attack their throat due to the concentration of oxygen there - as happens with humans. So actually fire can kill pretty quickly if action is not taken such as dropping to the floor and rolling.

The zombies in L4D are not that clever and run around flailing before dropping down dead. You could do this in game and they move randomly perhaps causing things they touch to also catch fire on a d6 roll of 5 or 6 maybe?

[workerBee]

<snip>

Fear of fire seems fair enough to me - vestigial animal extinct.

Please, please, please tell me that was not an intentional pun!

Gracias,

Glenn

[workerBee]

Just a thought.  In real life flesh (well, living, never considered zombie flesh before), needs a highly flammable (old clothes perhaps) fuel to carry the fire I would think.  Burning fluid (gasoline for example,) that coats the skin would be a basis for burning zombies but short of napalm or gasoline or <some external flammable,> flesh itself, blisters, chars but I can't imagine it being a good source of fuel for fire.  I don't think human flesh spontaneously bursts into flame from a  torch/flare/lighter source.

Then again, as I type I think of the fats from BBQ'ing chicken igniting when I was cooking.  Is human flesh as fat laden as Chicken?  They never addressed that in Nursing classes...  Damn oversight I now realize!

Gracias,

Glenn

[Onebigriver]

Please, please, please tell me that was not an intentional pun!

Gracias,

Glenn

  Nope, a shameful malapropism.