Great White Games/Pinnacle Entertainment Group

[Trigger]

So if i'm reading this right, in War of the Dead, in you just keep shooting a zombie with a pistol per say, and do enough damage to do wounds like lets say 5 wounds, they STILL are not Incapacitated unless you do a called shot to the head?

If it had 5 wounds from regular damage, and then you get a called shot to do 1 wound, is the zombie Incapacitated?

Just wanted a little more clarrification if I could or an example would be great. Thanks in advance.

[Lee_Szczepanik]

The Living Dead can only be Incapacitated with a successful headshot or by Severe Damage (see below). In the case of Extras, 1 wound is enough to put the ghoul down. In the case of Wild Card zombies, however, the characters will still need to do enough damage to Incapacitate it. The Living Dead ignore all wound modifiers, so a Wild Card zombie with 3 wounds continues to be effective until a headshot is made that pushes it to Incapacitated. The only exceptions are automatic weapons, area effect weapons, and flamethrowers.

So, you are correct. The 5 normal wounds would not stop them, but as long as that headshot did a Wound, it would put them down. It's basically the cinematic value you see in the films.

Basically, as long as that Headshot wound Incapaitates them (meaning it does 1 wound to an Extra or it does a wound to a Wild Card zombie and it already has at least 3 wounds before that), they are done. Keeping track of normal Wounds on an individual Wild Card zombie is really just so you know: "Poor bugger is shot all to hell and probably wishes he could fall down (3+ wounds). Oh, that Headshot hit and did a Wound. He's done, now."

I'm exhausted, so hope that makes sense.
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Lee F. Szczepanik, Jr.
Twitter: @Daring_News
http://www.daringentertain.com
Daring Entertainment Google+

[Trigger]

Perfect! Thanks. That's exactly what I was requesting.

[Jordan Peacock]

One thing I'd note here is that, so far as I know, this is kind of moot, because I don't recall any encounters calling for Wild Card shamblers or sprinters in War of the Dead. They're Extras, which I think is as it should be: You can riddle them full of bullets and they keep coming, but get in a good, single head shot and they go down, just like in the movies.

When my game went off the rails a bit and I felt the need to have some extra encounters featuring a "star" zombie that was a little more of a threat than the typical shambler, rather than making it a Wild Card, I would just modify the Henchmen rule from Slipstream: A "Competent" Extra is one who gets to roll a Wild Die. No extra Wounds, no Bennies, etc., but with the Wild Die he's more likely to make an impact with his sneak-attack, etc., before someone plugs him in the head. (But when he DOES take a double-barreled shotgun to the face, unless he's wearing a helmet or something, he SHOULD GO DOWN, I think, hence my avoidance of the extra Wounds. This is a Romero-style zombie, after all, not Jason Vorhees. )

Anyway, just my take on it.
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[Lee_Szczepanik]

[Trigger]

Thanks guys. I downloaded all the free content and purchased Chapter 1 and some other goodies. I am going to start next month at my local gamestore, Outpost 2000, where players will be playing themselves starting in that very area. I made some fliers and have got a huge response so far. I will have to cut the limit to around 10 players I think. Any more and it will be too much. Here is one of the flier clips.

[chitownroy]

Man Trigger I really need to move closer to you. I think it would be a blast to game in one of your groups. What do you do at your day job?

[Trigger]

[Lee_Szczepanik]

Sent you a PM with some good news!
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Lee F. Szczepanik, Jr.
Twitter: @Daring_News
http://www.daringentertain.com
Daring Entertainment Google+

[Trigger]

[Trigger]

If you’re going to run a zombie apocalypse role-playing game, you better be able to back it up with enough zombie miniatures!

[Zadmar]

Wow, must have taken you a while to create that lot!

I think I put together around 15-20 zombie trifolds, and used the burst templates for larger groups. Then I received a copy of the "Zombies!!!" board game, which includes 100 zombie miniatures, and just used those.

[Trigger]

[Trigger]

Since this topic shifted course to actual game play and what not, I changed the subject line.

I was asked a couple questions on the "How To Do" when creating this event at my local game store.

Well, first off, if you are going to play with a specific area, then it would be good to have gamers who are familiar with that area. This certainly isn’t necessary, but helps when everyone knows the name of the gas station and even the people who work there or who may have been turned into a zombie.

Second, if you’re going to have players play themselves instead of creating characters as normal, then I would put a cap on the die type that they can level to. I use Driving as an example as most people can easily grasp why I do this. Most gamers who are playing themselves will fall into the top three categories with a d6 being the cap. I do let players who are playing themselves give me a reason to increase something up to d8 but use careful judgment when doing. Another easy example is Shooting where it could go to a d8 due to military training possibly. Even if some traits go higher than d6, I would limit them to only 1 or 2 that do.

Driving:
Never driven before – No Skill
Learners Permit or under age – d4 Skill
Adult licensed driver – d6 Skill
Amateur or off road racing – d8 Skill
Semi-Pro racing (a couple medals) – d10 Skill
Pro racing (Sponsors) – d12 Skill


Third, get a map of the area for reference. You can go on several internet sites like Google maps and zoom into the area that you will be playing in to get a good layout of the terrain, buildings and structures. I had to Print Screen a couple shots and piece them together but in the end its well worth it. I also labeled each area I thought players could go into, or had some sort of significance like intersections (crashes), parking lots, buildings, houses, water tower, gas stations and so on. Knowing the names of them come in handy and if everyone is familiar with the area is a big help. Here is an example of the area I will be running in at Outpost 2000 (which is #3 on the map)



Fourth, I would say be prepared and have a good amount of miniatures if you are going that route along with a play mat or 2 to draw out areas that players may go into. I may in fact get some 1” inch square gridded paper and make templates of houses so I don’t have to always draw them out. I created a list for all the designated areas on my map with name, # of Zombies, # of Survivors and pertinent info in that area.

Fifth, what do players start off with as far as gear? Well, since my players are playing themselves and we are starting in a game store, they have what they have when they walk in the store. This will most certainly make the group try and work together or have to make hard decisions on who lives and dies.

Sixth, have fun with it!

These were just some of the top questions I was asked. Hope this helps.

[Trigger]

Here is a small example of the numbered map and Legend next to it for reference.

[chitownroy]

So my question would be how did the outbreak occur in your world?

[Jordan Peacock]

I have a somewhat different take on the scaling for Driving skill, at least as it pertains to my own games. If every character who can drive a car competently was forced to spend a d6 on Driving, that'd be a pretty big "character tax" for playing a modern character.

The way I've handled it for modern games is that basic driving skill for an adult is pretty much an "every-man" skill, along with the "skills" for knowing how to operate a light switch, turn on a TV, operate a microwave, use a telephone, etc. Granted, driving a car wouldn't be an "every-man" skill for a kid, but it's still the sort of thing that could be "picked up" with a bit of in-game training; I might give the player a Benny here or there as compensation for the added difficulty of not being able to do things that "everyone" else can (and good role-playing on the part of the player if I don't have to keep on stepping in as a GM and questioning things).

The actual Driving skill, however, I see as representing exceptional skill as a driver. In my WOTD campaign, I'd allow even a person who didn't allocate a point to Driving skill to manage to drive a station wagon as part of the convoy, but any time a skill check was called for (avoid crashing into that zombie!) he'd of course be making an unskilled check.

To my mind, anyone with Driving skill should be someone who has above-the-normal experience with driving. E.g., military experience driving a vehicle in combat conditions ... experienced truck driver who's been operating big-rigs for years ... licensed bus driver, etc., who's been through special training and certification ... sportsman who likes to go off-roading on the weekends ... kid who's participated in dirt-bike races ... etc. Most of the time in the game, Driving doesn't represent your ability to know how to start the car, follow traffic law, turn on your blinker, etc., but rather having the right instincts to speed up or slow down or veer when faced with a sudden hazard that might cause even experienced drivers to crash.

I only call for skill rolls when there's a reason to call into question whether even a hero might pass the test; there's no need to make rolls for "casual" situations.
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[Trigger]

Good point Jordon. That's another way to look at it. I'll keep that in mind.

[Zadmar]

[ogbendog]

I was in a game once where the GM used google maps and added custom markers and posted them.