So, I'd like to run a undead uprising / zombie apocalypse one-shot for my group. But my concern is how do I keep wave after wave of zombie encounters from dragging or being boring. Same enemies over and over ect... Any ideas? Thanks!
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Well there's all kinds of undead and myriad templates you can put on them. Throw some burning/bleeding/multiplying/what have you skeletons at them now and then, ghost bears and stuff like that.
Then you've got those not-technically-undead creatures from the negative dimension that I can't for the life of me remember the names of and you've got yourself a huge variety of enemies.
Basically an undead uprising doesn't necessarily mean it has to be a ZOMBIE apocalypse.
Take cues from different movies or games in the genre and change things up, rather than just using waves and waves shambling towards them. Have them walking through a morgue or hospital room when the bodies start going active, or grabbing at the dead cop's gun when he gets up moaning and biting. Also, vary the enemies. Have zombie animals, or bitten and desperate survivors, or military/police response units there to exterminate everything. And have there be tactics involved. The horde of zombies they need to distract or bypass to get to an important room or gather vital supplies, or even to grab at a chance to escape.
Also, start the group in a large location where they have limited supplies on hand but lots of stuff to improvise with: a hospital, university, etc. If the group are a bunch of heavily armed soldiers with a backpack full of survival gear there isn't as much of a danger from any individual zombie as if they are mostly ordinary people with a few incidental things on hand that need to scrounge everything else from the environment. Also, when they have little on hand you may see some excellent improvisation from your characters, be sure as the DM to be ready to go with odd plans at least in part.
If you are running an undead uprising/zombie outbreak scenario in a fantasy game though just design it as you would any one shot adventure. Put a variety of interesting enemy undead together, there are tons and tons of possibilities, and maybe put an intelligent one in there to lead the horde/uprising, then put your players in the path of what is going on.
And even if it is just about all zombies, a) create your own alternate zombie types, individualise them a bit (or a lot!), and b) think about situational encounters, where an overwhelming horde is approaching/must be held at a doorway while other PCs have to open locks, construct bridges, rig up traps, etc. Imagine a large chamber or open area, filled with 50+ (or some other undefeatable number) zombies that the PCs have to sprint through - zombies are always staggered, so they'll never catch them, but the PCs must weave their way through, taking AoOs as they go, perhaps dodging difficult terrain or natural hazards...
Also, chase rules could be interesting, although depending on the PCs' level zombies may be just too crap for chases.
The zombies aren't what makes a zombocalypse scenario interesting, but rather everyone's reactions to them. For example, zombies on trade routes diminish supplies creating tension like a siege- do you starve or brave the zombies? you can also play with the encounters so it's not always a straight-up brawl. Maybe you have to get some NPCs somewhere through zombie territory, so you have to balance which enemies matter vs. movement.
Don't just have all the encounters be zombies. Mix in encounters with looters, monsters taking advantage of the confusion, religious zealots, etc....
Another thing you can do is give them a time limit. Ten hours until the King's wizards finish casting the Nuke spell on the effected area, a huge fire has broken out and the PCs have to keep moving to stay ahead of it, there's a cure and the PCs have to search a number of buildings to find it, etc....
Oh yes, NPCs, nice one Lurk3r.
Seen the latest Walking Dead episodes? I won't spoil anything, but NPCs make great stories in these situations - can you trust them? Trust all of them, or some of them? They could be a great help, but they could also cause your death, either directly via murder or backstabbing, or indirectly through dumbass decisions/freaking out...
I'd love to hear what you come up with and how it goes for you lowew.
There's a good low level zombie pathfinder scenario, Among the Living. Either season 0 or season 1 (so it might be 3.5) It set in a Taldorian opera house, great for a one shot and lots of fun rping potential (nothing like a guy in a monocle getting chomped on by zombies!) Just enough plot to keep it interesting but mostly a zombie stomp.
Apocalypse zombies, nice! Didn't know they existed, that's a great suggestion.
Ah, found the ones I was thinking of. Nightshades, they're basically uber-undead. Would be interesting to have one as a final boss for the one-shot I'd think.
Even if the Zombies are all the same, dress them up. Missing arm, attacks less or less well. Missing foot, moves more slowly, 1 in 6 falls over, takes a turn getting back up. These also dress the point that they don't die easy.
Use terrain. They can't climb? So PCs climb! Great! Brilliant! Wait, there's a handicapped ramp? A parking garage?! And they've found it?
That next building is too far to jump, but there's a scaffold, and boards on it? Engineering check! And be quiet, we know noise draws them.
The unloved NPC has fallen off the scaffold bridge? Leave him! No, wait, he's going to scream... kill him? Rescue him?
Now they've gotten up the ramp, and they're trying to cross the plank of the bridge! Knock it down! Wait... They're falling off! They're all breaking each other! It's Zombi-mole'! It's AWESOME! Let's all cheer!
Wait, we hadn't explored this building yet. Bob went to do? Great! Hey, there's Bob. Bob? Oh no, not BOB! Crap, and there's a bunch following him...
How about corrosive zombies that do damage to the weapons that strike them?
1. I would give them a town or a fort or something they need to defend.
2. Give them time and resources they can use to beef up the defenses.
3. Give them NPC defenders they can lead/tell what to do.
4. When the waves come just RP the "Waves of Zombies" and how the NPC's/Traps/Defenses fare against each round. Its the background battle.
5. Have the Players be the elite fighting force that take on the advanced undead that break through.
This way you have the illusion of massive waves of undead, while the PC's only have to fight the smaller, more dangerous fights in between.
Me and my friends have been talking about doing a full campaign based on this, one thing we decided to do is start all the PC's off with commoner class levels. Their first level will be one of those, we felt it would give a more "real life" feeling and truly add some fear to the game. Once you start leveling up then you can jump into PC classes. I think starting out as a "Common" PC like this will add great terror and fun to the game. Death is real and can easily happen. Besides, Usually in a Zombie movie only one or two of the characters survive.
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Some ideas for a pure zombi apokalypse:
- let the zombies have two AC numbers. If you beat the higher one it is a hit to hp that can kill the monster. If you only beat the lower one it's a sunder vs. some body part that could remove one body part, like an arm or leg.
- always remember that there could be different races that turn into zombies. So mix small ones (gnome, halflings and children) with medium (most races) with some large ones (large races or mutants).
- To give the players some more options I'd have elemental damage do someting in addition to pure damage.
For Ideas:
Fire: always has a chance to set them on fire for one round. And double existing burn duration (or for a different take fire has a chance to make undead frightened)
Acid: Ongoing damage like the burning from fire.
Cold: As they don't have body heat to counter the cold they got a chance to freeze to the ground, entangling them for a round.
Lightning: Chance to stun for one turn as muscles spasm.
what level are they?
if they are high level you should have custom zombies created that scare the hell out of them. rust zombies would be scary as hell for a high level fighter lol.
the one issue with zombies in PF is that they are the most common enemy you go up against at low levels, so they feel like the generic enemy they should be facing. you may want to change the idea of zombies to something a little more scary like low cr deamons, devils, or abetrations in high numbers. things that will force them to run, like stirges.. /shudder a swarm of those things will make even a level 20 character run and hide.
ooo ooo zombie stirges, my god that would suck.
If your doing a zombie apocalypse(i've done one in 3.5 and it worked) you need to remember a few things.
1. Don't tell them its an undead themed game. Or you will run into a ton of Pally's, life oracles, undead killing clerics, and undead killing rangers. These break your game quickly. Just start a normal game when suddenly...zombies!
2.what else survived? The zombies are the ever present threat but NPCs, other types of undead(especially the nasty intelligent ones), monsters that can escape(magic, flying, burrowing, ect.) and any thing else that might be around to spice up the encounters.
3. how does the plague spread? In mine it was a bite dc 10 fort save that went up 2 every time you were bitten. That made combat a lot more risky and high stake then usual. Make a way to cure the disease in a pinch but if its hard enough to come buy(high lvl spells, rare ingredients, a combination of effects.) They will run in fear from even a few bitters. If your going this route though prepare back up chars pc death will be higher then normal
4. As many other people have said add templates and or just make up your own zombie abilities and types to spice things up.
You could stat out some NPCs so when one of the PCs dies that player can take over an NPC.
I played once in a game of call of cthulluh where the gm stattet out the whole village. When one PC died or went mad that player got to take the next char from the stack.
We had to save the world before all the villagers were gone.
In the end we had our party of 5 and 2 or three nonevil NPCs left.
In case anyone missed this post - I didn't know about these guys, good work MacGurcules!
If we're talking zombie apocalypse, be sure to use some apocalypse zombies. At very least give your zombies a bite attack with a pretty stiff infection penalty; need remove disease/curse or it does steady CON drain until you become one of them.
Pretty natural to mix in a big necromancer apocalypse cult, mistrustful survivors, frenzied animals/monsters, dwindling resources or any number of other things that might happen in any other disaster scenario, as well.
Make it Ironman D&D you clear the town, save folks traped in several different building, figure out why, fix it, In 1 days time with no rest or refill of powers spell. Or else mages guild will nuke the place form ordit.
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You'd want to add uncertainty about who's been infected. Don't let players roll Fortitude in the open. Devise some system to track their progression downwards. When a certain infection value is reached, the PC turns on the party.
PCs can use healing abilities/skills to reduce or eliminate infection, but this requires time to clean out wounds. Maybe it even does some damage (burn it clean), so excessive caution is unpleasant.
Slip information about a PC's condition to the player via notes; let the other players wonder if the player is really giving them full disclosure. Probably players are more sensible than in horror movies and tell each other everything. However, the other players may be paranoid, so even if player A tells everything, player B may suspect player A.
Also, determine what info to slip. Don't say "you've reached Stage III", say "you've taken 1 con damage again", without saying how much damage is the magic number for conversion.
i loved that scene in a recent Walking Dead where they are running around kicking major a$$ but then come across the zombies in riot gear. The looks on their faces when the usual combat styles didnt work were awesome! Depending on the PC levels, a few zombies in full plate could really slow them down.
Confusion and misdirection is definitely your friend as you make this interesting - the tavern bouncer has 3x normal HP so the party wonders why he's so hard to kill.....the zombie of the town beggar goes down in a single shot but explodes in gore (plague zombie or just add insects)......the town guard zombies are faster and still attacking you with their weapons (juju zombies)......even animals are infected as a swarm of zombie rats come out of the stables where they just finished eating an about-to-rise-again horse........maye a few infected townspeople that havent turned YET but are about to, adding the moral dilemma of whether to kill them or try to cure them........the first zombie the cleric kills in melee has a split second of clarity and says "thank you" as she dies (that'll give the good-aligned cleric something to think about).
And of course all the survivors are holed up in the least defensible building in town so the party is running ragged trying to keep it secure.....without rest to regain spells or channels.
And since the town priest is actually the one who has turned to evil and is behind everything he gets to subvert from the inside, unlocking doors and secreting killing/animating folks inside so the players are dealing with that also........
sounds like creepy fun, where do I sign up?
The biggest danger in a zombie Apocalypse is not the zombies, but other survivors.
That said, throw in a few Bodaks, they spread like zombies but are significantly stronger.
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As others have said, vary up zombie types - plague, spellgorged, unhallowed, apocalypse. Throw in some variant ones - wearing armor or carrying weapons. Use a few tougher undead - like the bodak mentioned above. And if you want them to have a final boss to beat - have the evil necromancer waiting at the end. Or maybe an undead zombie lord (see Undead Lord template in TOHC, or on d20pfsrd.com).
Sprinkle in some Zombie Lords and Skeletal Champions for some intelligent zombies, potentially using spells, feats, and class features.
I've often thought of running Zombie Apocalypse game but I want zombie that work like the Walking Dead where if they bite you then you turn into a Zombie. Problem is how do you do that in Pathfinder? I mean I want that fear of Zombies but if the player can just hack and slash through hundreds with no fear or infection that does work. At the same time I don't want players rolling a save or be turned every time a Zombie hits them.
I was thinking about using Wounds and Vigor from the Ultimate combat where wounds require a fortitude save or be turned. That might work.
I started to say treat it as a Disease but you said you didn't want them making saves every time. That's the route I would go - get bitten, make a save, if you fail you start taking penalties until you fight off the disease or reach a certain threshold, at which point you turn.
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As I learned from my days playing All Flesh Must Be Eaten (great game and all about how to make a successful zombie game) it all comes down to 3 basic rules you MUST follow to make a zombie adventure work.
1. Isolation - solitude breeds paranoia. If the players have a town full of npcs, shops, guildmembers, etc. then the pressure immediately comes off. Having anyone behind them supporting them gives them a sense of invulnerability and that breaks the siege mentality you want for an apocalypse event. The first thing you'll need to do is get them alone and under prepared. This is the reason most zombie flicks start first thing in the morning when the main characters are in bed. Start them all separate and at home (say right after a successful dungeon crawl) and have them work to re-connect with their party members against the horde as the town is swallowed in monsters and flames around them. Once they are together and on the run set the stage by describing the world they knew as fallen apart around them, hammer home how alone they are.
Once they've embraced the whole us against the world mentality you can introduce other NPC's, until then keep 'em alone and paranoid.
2. Resources - A well rested, armed and PC in a defensible location can easily handle a small army of zombies alone and be bored while doing it. The idea is to keep them from having 1-2 of those three options. Take away any 2 of those options and you have a party on the defensive running away from the horde and once they start running that sets the tempo of the adventure. Feel free to swap out which of the three options they have, give them a safe place to rest but they have to give up their arms to get there, in the morning their arms are gone but they are rested and have a defensible location and must scavenge new weapons.
Keep them off balance by swapping those 3 needs and the adventure stays fresh and exciting and regular zombies become a major threat.
3. Simple Goals - The last thing the party needs is a simple easy to comprehend but tricky to execute goal.
They need to get to place X in time (the fortified castle before it's sealed and they are trapped outside) or they have to repair Y (get the dirigible/ship fixed/fueled before the herd arrives and they can escape this overrun hellhole) or perform Y in time to prevent the horde from doing something (I like seal the tomb/canyon before the herd can escape and overtake the rest of the country/world).
Keep these 3 basic rules in mind when running your game and your players will be a lot more excited about the scenario.
Inspiration from Mathwei's post: shipwreck them on Zombie Island! They will probably not be rested, may be lacking some gear, don't have support to fall back on, and need to find a way off the island before they get eaten!
Perfect!
Make them fight Dr. Ned at the end and everything will be fine.
Each time someone takes damage that is one towards turning into a zombie . so with a 14 Constitution you get to get hit 13 * before you turn . Have some of npcs fight with them turn mid combat so they know it can happen but don't tell them why . I ran one of these way back in 2ed. The thought the key was give them goal and a time limit . Give them places to hide then take it way so the have to run again . Things like the zombies break through a window ,building catches fire or someone near by needs help . Also have things stashed around the town for them to fight that will help with the infection and hold them off . Stress that stealth before brawn is best it makes them think their way around town .
Oh and make them save every time they take damage even if does not mean anything .
A thing to remember is that Romero himself never called them zombies ... he called them ghouls.
Take ghouls, change paralysis for zombie phage / plague, as a starting point. The end result is not becoming a zombie but a ghoul. Throw on a "hunger" weakness for the ghouls and things get interesting. You want to get really nasty, bodaks as suggested above.