EotD Multiplayer?

[Mac V]

Thinking of buying into the Empire of the Dead Kickstarter.

I'll be going it alone with the intent of providing the minis and set up to play with friends and possibly at conventions.

From reading through the book, it seems to me the game is mainly designed for a player to set up a force to bring to the game.

Just wondering if anyone uses the game for multiple players in this manner?

[Skrapwelder]

I used the rules at a convention. Each player had two models and I, as gamemaster controlled a horde of zombies running wild through the streets. I used a deck of cards to do initiative. Each player had a card in the deck for his faction and the zombies had two cards. At the start of every turn I shuffled the deck and play would commence in the order that cards came off the top of the deck. It worked out pretty well.

[Anatoli]

For multiplayer with only two faction split the miniatures between the participating players.

3+ factions could probably work but would be a bit tricky due to play order, 4 factions would probably work if you either pair them up into a "good vs evil" and activate 2 factions at a  time , or alternate between factions so that both sides move and do roughly equal amounts of stuff the whole time.

[fastolfrus]

We have often had "doubles matches" at the school club, and occasionally multi-player games.
The school club end of term party was one such.
We had 8 players on the EoTD table, busily eating crisps, sausage rolls, biscuits and sugary sweets (they always go for the healthy options).
So we needed something quick & easy with a free-for-all theme suited to an over-excited sugar rush.
The answer was a 4 x 4 table set up as parkland.
Lots of low features, bushes, rocks, bits of fence etc, large statue in the middle, park buildings in each corner.
Each player took 3 figures, an innocent, a rescuer, and a beast. (Good, bad, ugly?)
Innocents began in table within 6" of the statue. Beasts began 15" from the statue.
Everyone rolled for initiative each turn.
Order of play - Innocent first, then Beast, then Rescuer
Innocents (victims) and beasts were limited to moving 4". Rescuers arrived on table on turn 2, moving 4" but could run from turn 3 if someone raised the alarm.
It's twilight, so visibility is slightly limited, the limit being that anyone seeing a beast within 6" must take a reaction test - innocents failing the roll either faint, paralyse with fear, or run away screaming, rescuers failing the roll paralyse with fear, but rescuers getting a high roll immediately charge into combat (even if the beast in question belongs to the same player).
Objective for each player is to rescue their innocent (get them safely off table), and score a bonus if their beast can carry off an opposing innocent.

[fastolfrus]

Stats and things
Innocent:
move 4" cbt 2 mk 1 str 2 fort 2 att 1 wd 1 brv 4 arc 2, unarmed, fight in self defence only
Rescuer:
move 4" cbt 4 mk 5 str 3 fort 4 att 1 wd 2 brv 5 arc 2, light pistol, club
Beast:
move 4" cbt 5 mk 2 str 5 fort 4 att 1 wd 2 brv 4 arc 2, unarmed, cannot run except to charge into contact.
Anyone seeing a beast within 12" must test reaction:
1-2 faint, 3-4 run away screaming, 5-6  freeze, 10 or more charge into combat,
rescuers test at +4
Any innocent in contact with a beast automatically collapses unconscious, beasts fighting whilst carrying an innocent get a -1.

Curiously, any flesh wounds inflicted on a beast makes a finger fall off. A hideous clawed hairy finger like some kind of primitive beast....

[fastolfrus]

Background /fluff
The setting is the misty grounds of Horsell Park where a number of girls have vanished over the past few weeks.
The local police, aided by the Horsell Common Watch Volunteers, suspect foul play from the nearby Manor House, Bide-a-wee House, and the sinister Professor Watt and his sister Valeria.

No-one has witnessed the abductions, but all know that there is foul play at work.

Some believe that mannequins in local dress shops look just like the missing girls.....

How did it go? Utter mayhem.
Complete carnage as you would expect - only 3 of the 8 victims escaped, one rescuer was incapacitated by a fleeing gypsy girl (he tried to stop another player escaping and got beaten up by the innocent), one rescuer managed to charge into combat against his own beast and remove it from play,  one beast managed to capture an innocent who fainted, but then ended up in a 3-way combat against another beast and his own rescuer.
But a highly enjoyable hour and a quarter - several onlookers were slightly (well maybe more than slightly) bemused, and only 2 were old enough to have seen Carry on Screaming, but it seemed to go well.

Might be worth allowing the beasts a "rumours and gossip" special move