Making the Most
of Your Zombies
September 13th, 2011
Hello everyone, and welcome to another exciting edition of Grave Plots, where we bring you new plot hooks and adventure ideas each and every week. This week is Zombie week here at Necromancers of the Northwest, and that being the case I'm sure you can all guess what we'll be talking about today – that's right, zombies.
Zombies are a true classic. Whether it's a horror movie, a sword-and-sorcery style fantasy novel, or a first person arcade shooter, the walking dead make their mark in media time and time again. Being such eternal and pervasive monsters, it should come as no surprise that zombies have managed to make a big impact in tabletop roleplaying. If you read my article often, then you will no doubt know I have something of passion (or maybe bad habit) for trying to put monsters that I feel have been marginalized back into the spotlight. And those of you who have been playing D&D (or really just about any tabletop roleplaying game with even a hint of sci-fi, fantasy, or horror elements) for any amount of time know zombies really don't need the help.
Most of us, in fact if I were a bold betting man, I might dare to wager all of us, have used zombies as monsters in our game or are planning on doing so soon. And if you’re anything like me, the actual at-the-table experience probably didn't quite match up to the vision in your head. After all, zombies are a big enough deal to be headline movie villains, but, as Alex explained yesterday, in D&D zombies are grunt monsters, mindless treasure guardians or minions putting their cold, expendable bodies between the PCs and the “real bad guy.” This is fine sometimes (okay most of the time), when we would rather focus our attention on the necromancer or ancient shrine which the zombies so perfectly complement. Other times however, we want the zombie headliners that fill seats at horror/thriller movies. So in pursuit of this lofty goal, let's talk a little bit about getting the most out of your zombies.
Zombies
There are a lot of different schools of thought about what exactly makes a good zombie (again, some of this was also discussed in yesterday’s Dark Designs). For that matter, there are a lot of hard-line opinions out there on just what makes a zombie in the first place. Naturally, there's just about a limitless number of ways to sub-divide and categorize the walking dead, and we just plain don't have time to do it here. So I'll keep it simple for you. As basically any zombie geek will tell you, all zombies fall into one of two categories: Fast or Slow. I'm not going to take a stand on which kind of zombie is better; both sides have their merits, and both can create a genuine zombie experiences at the table. The difference, apart from the obvious discrepancy in speed, is largely in the application: fast zombies are there to scare you, while slow zombies are there to be scary. Now, it might sound a little like that’s the same thing, so let me clarify.
Fast zombies scare you. They shock you; they move rapidly and have great force behind their movements. They inspire that adrenaline kind of fear, like when you're walking a calm street and suddenly you hear a car backfire, or like when a lunatic runs at you waving a lead pipe. These kinds of zombies are perfect for action-driven horror/thriller-type scenarios. They serve a double purpose, inspiring dread at what might suddenly come rushing out of the silence to accost our heroes. Regardless of whether you intend your players to be fighting off hordes of undead or running for their lives from a dozen or so screaming animated bodies, fast zombies are the way to go for the intense, high octane, thrill-seeking D&D group.
Meanwhile, it is the job of the slow zombie to be scary. They fill you with a sense of dread, of impending doom. They bring about that creepy, bone-chilling sense of helplessness and despair, like when you hear news of an encroaching forest fire growing steadily closer to your home and family despite the efforts of a veritable legion of fire fighters, or like the unnerving laughter of lunatic as he patiently crosses the parking lot softly tapping a heavy lead pipe against his palm. These zombies are a dramatic scene, probably the adventure climax. Their punch comes from your ability to instill a sense of wrongness (which shouldn't be hard; after all, there are corpses up and walking). Traditionally these monsters cannot be killed, though that may not be entirely appropriate to your game; I'll leave that up to you. Regardless, combat should not be the major focus of the slow zombie, making them perfect to be the climactic scene in a suspenseful mystery-type adventure.
Before you set out to make an adventure with a zombie focus, you should choose one of those major zombie archetypes to be the focus of your story. While one could include both slow zombies and fast zombies, it tends to ruin the effectiveness of both types and I wouldn’t recommend trying it. If you can't decide on a type of zombie you like, it might help to consider that the pace of game roughly corresponds to the type of zombie, with fast zombies making for quick-paced and exciting games, while slow zombies tend to be better suited towards more gradual and dramatic games.
Once you've picked your basic archetype, it’s time to start putting together the details of your adventure, starting with the star of the show: your zombies. Fast or slow zombies can still vary wildly in the details. For instance, you should consider their origin: how did they become zombies? Whether it’s a mysterious curse, an alien virus, or even just plain old-fashioned necromancy, where your zombies come from matters. It provides important flavor information for your players, who will no doubt be curious, and it helps set the general tone of what your adventure is all about. As long as we're considering origins, why not take a look at what your zombies had been in life? While this will prove exceptionally more important to the slow zombie adventures, adding another lair of drama and possibly playing a major role in the larger adventure, fast zombie guys should not overlook the importance of what your zombies had once been; after all, why limit yourself to simple human zombies when you could have the maddened and mindless corpses of, say, ettins bursting through mausoleum walls.
Next, decide on any cool powers you want your zombies to have. This is especially important for people who need to advance their zombies in order to make them a credible threat to the PCs. Be sure you keep things fun and fair; while it can be tempting to make zombies unkillable, I know from experience that such foes often prove to be more frustrating than interesting to the players who actually have to fight those monstrosities. On the other hand, zombies that repeatedly raise a short time after being killed can make for one heck of an adventure. Speaking of an adventure, you will need one in addition to cool, well-thought-out zombies; thankfully, zombies can be fit into many different types of adventures, so long as they have room for a little walking dead-inspired horror.
Well that's it for this week’s Grave Plots. I hope you found the preceding helpful in preparing for your next zombie-filled adventure. Until next time, allow me to wish you all the best in your gaming endeavors.