Re: [DL] Tap Dancin' Dead or Not Your Average Walkin' Dead (SPOILERS)

["Ben Rasmussen" <nyddoybdyle@hotmail.com>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Fantaphage" <zom-b@chipsnet.com>
To: <deadlands@gamerz.net>
Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2002 12:13 AM
Subject: [DL] Tap Dancin' Dead or Not Your Average Walkin' Dead (SPOILERS)


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> Stop
> Play fair
> Only look if you are a Marshal
> In case you didn't gather, this is a SPOILER!
> Look away if you are a Posse Member
> Escape now while there is still a chance
> Ruining the game for yourself is no fun at all
> So many thanks for heeding my warnings
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> SPOILER SPACE
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> I love zombies! My posse does too, and unfortunately they have seen enough
> movies to know that a person has to squeeze off a round or two into a
> walking corpse's festering noggin to turn it into the NON-walkin' variety.
> I'm currently designing an adventure with walkin' dead in mind, but I just
> know that the posse will be drawing beads, so I'm thinking of doing things
a
> little differently. I think that it would be a real treat to allow the
guys
> to blow some of the zombies brains out before realizing that shooting them
> in the head just isn't quite as effective as it is in the movies. With the
> help of other zombie resources and a few nightmares of my own, I have put
> together some ideas for "new breeds" of zombie that should keep posse
> members on their toes. A few of these ideas are from Eden Studios "All
Flesh
> Must Be Eaten", other sources, and of course zombie flicks, but a couple
> ideas are my own. I wanted to run them by the listserve and get other
> opinions. I definitely want the game to be balanced, but I also want it to
> be loaded with surprises at the same time. Hopefully these ideas will work
> without upsetting the game:

[Snipped all the nifty Zombies]

I too love zombies, as they're one of the 'creepier' supernatural aspects
thats pretty darn easy to slip in anywhere and requires little set up. Kind
of a Horror jack of all trade.

I get most of my zombie lovin' from the Resident evil games. They all may
not be that great, but ya got plenty of zombie action to love.

As for Deadlands, I monkey with zombies all the time. After the first few
games, I discovered the walkin' dead really ain't that dangerous unless
armed with a gun. And they're rather easy to take care of unless you're
dealing with like 20+ of the buggers actually acosting the PC's, and that
can be a mess to marshal.

My standard rules for the walkin' dead is to ignore extra damage dice, with
the reasoning, there just isn't anything 'vital' to hit. No heart, no lungs,
no gizzards, not like the dang thing is even really 'using' the brain. These
are zombies, not Harrowed which is a different critter. =)

I also require the head to be completely destroyed. I don't really have
anything hard and fast here and have been working on hammering something
out. Even a severed head usually leaves a dead body and a moaning head
(hello guts check!).

I have make shift grapple rules... they work but I'd like something better.
How universal are the wrasslin' rules in Lone Stars? Zombies just aren't
zombies unless they grab and try to chew on ya!

Last time I had zombies, I gave them armor of 1. It was a simple mechanic to
represent not harder flesh, but the fact the SOB's aren't bothered by
damage. Put a bullet through one's torso and you have a zombie with a hole
in it. Break it's arm and it now has an extra elbow.  In the end, my verdict
is out on this one. Those were some tough zombies but I think it was just
mean to do to the posse. But boy were they scared of 'em!

I've been meanin' to use zombies that vomit acid, ones that explode into
texas tummy twister type critters, one's that have stats you wouldn't expect
like way faster or stronger then normal, and ones that infect PC's with
nasty diseases (like turning one into a zombie). But since I just had a
scenerio that was zombie heavy, I figure I'll let the dead lie for a session
or two.


--
"Going to war over religion is like fighting over who has the better
imaginary friend."  - - Richard Jeni