In the Zombie apocalypse a new generation has emerged.
One not defined by age but rather by its will to survive. These are the stories
of Generation Zed.
Zed Day 1: 6.20pm – Stephen Briers
Traffic was out of
control. The normal 10 minute drive home had taken ½ an hour. It was chaos on
the streets. Cars were crashed, the emergency response services were attending
accidents and the crazies were running around everywhere, attacking anyone that
they saw.
Driving home, Steve
notices that the crazies are attracted to his car. As he passes them they stop, look at the car and then charge it.
Approaching his flat,
Steve decides to park the car down the street from the pad and to dash the last
100 metres on foot. “No need to attract these crazies straight to my front
door” he thinks to himself.
Killing the engine,
Steve lets the car roll down the street. The lack of noise seems to reduce the
amount of crazies interested in the big green machine.
It doesn't appear to be
too bad here. Whilst Steve could see a few crazies there were also some normal
people. They didn’t seem to be aware of the danger they were in.
Getting quietly out of
the car, Steve starts to head directly for his pad.
Steve’s abode, from the
outside, appears to be a derelict two story warehouse. Built in the 50’s it
had laid dormant for many years. It used to be used by his grandfather, as part of
his logistics business to, store spare parts but, upon his death, it had been
given to Steve.
Whilst the building was still largely in disrepair, Steve had
begun to fix it up.
As he approaches the pad
Steve notices a woman searching through her hand bag and not watching
where she is going. She is walking towards two of the crazies!
“Situational
awareness” Steve thinks to himself. “You’ve always got to have situational awareness”.
Approaching the front
door Steve gets his keys ready. As he nears the pad he notices that the front
door is already open.
“Bastards” he thinks as he picks up the pace. Running,
he bursts through the door, Colt 45 and combat knife at the ready.
Inside are three
people, a well dressed man in a suit, a hobo and a woman.
“GET OUT” Steve roars.
“But, but those things
are out there” responds the man in the suit.
“I DON’T CARE”. Steve
points the Colt 45 at the man’s forehead and in a low menacing voice whispers
“Get out now, all of you, GET OUT!!!!”
“Please mister” pleads
the hobo.
Steve grabs the hobo by
the collar and pushes him outside. He then turns on the man and the woman,
shoving them out too.
Closing the door behind
him he locks it tight. Screwing up his nose Steve thinks “Great now the place
stinks like pi$$. Well, I’d better to a perimeter check”.
After checking the
downstairs lounge and the armory Steve heads up stairs.
Ascending, one of the
stairs creaks. Three shadows move silently towards him. As Steve steps onto the
landing he is charged by three crazies.
Steve
backs off and prepares to defend himself against the three zombies.
Before he can draw a
bead on them they attack him. Bringing the pistol down on the head of
one of the zombies, Steve is able to push it off.
Driving off his right
leg, Steve thrusts his combat knife under the chin of another, penetrating its
skull and killing it.
Then the third crazy is
upon him, snapping at him with its foul teeth. Steve pulls back and draws the
zed over his right leg, sweeping it off its feet. Turning he plunges the knife
into its head.
As the first crazy gets
up, Steve shuffles forward and kicks it with a side kick. It staggers and Steve
finishes it with a knife thrust to the skull. It slumps onto his bed and bleeds
out.
“Great”, exclaims Steve,
“I just did the washing yesterday too.”
Squatting on his
haunches Steve thinks “Holy hell, what is going on here? How did these crazy
muthas get in here?” Panting for breath, the big man had always preferred
weight lifting over cardio. “I’ve got to jog more.”
Suddenly Steve hears a shriek
from outside.
Moving to his front window he witnesses a dark scene on the
street. The woman that he’d previously seen searching through her hand bag was
on the ground screaming.
The hobo that he had evicted was standing over her,
pulling a crazy off her. The man in the nice suit is trying to help.
As they fight the zombies, two more zeds approach the group.
Shouting “Sod
this” the man in the suit runs off leaving the hobo to fight them off. The hobo
shoves the first crazy hard and it falls backwards, cracking its skull against
the pavement.
As the woman starts to
get up, the second crazy lunges at her and at the same time the third crazy
grabs the hobo. Shoving off his new attacker the hobo turns to help the woman
but he is too late.
As the zombie bites through her shirt into her stomach she
writhes in agony and screams. The zombie grabs handfuls of intestines and shoves
them into his mouth.
Horrified at what he’s just witnessed, the hobo doesn’t
see the zombie he had just beaten get back to its feet. It jumps upon the back
of the hobo and starts to tear into him. In less than a minute, the hobo too is
dead.
Out of the shadows more
crazies came, descending upon the hobo and the woman, feasting on their flesh.
Turning around, Steve
leans back against the wall. Sliding
down to his knees, he wipes the blade of his knife against his pants before
putting it back in its sheath.
“What the hell is going on” he thinks to
himself.
Well every good zombie story needs an arse and Steve is it.
In the end I was glad to get him home and safe. Whilst he might be the
cad of the story I still wanted him to survive.
Callus as it might have been to evict the three citizens, Steve was
never going to be able to effectively recruit them and, well, it was kinda more
in character to just throw them out, so he did.
What I did introduce in this scenario was a concept for some random
citizens to be on the board at the start of the game. I did this as I wanted
the board to more represent the first day of the apocalypse where not everyone
yet knows what is going on. I essentially rolled a random amount of citizens
(ie d6) and rolled to randomly place them (ie I divided the board up into 6
zones and rolled a d6) and then I had them walk in a random direction at 4
inches a move.
This created a lot more confusion on the board and a lot more targets
for the zeds to get after. Whilst it wasn’t my intent to make it a safer
passage for Steve, this was in effect what happened.
What eventuated was a bit of a side game. Whilst I didn’t focus on it
in the story (really only showing the final part via Steve looking out the
window), the woman just kept walking towards the zeds. When the first zed
charged her she screamed. I then gave each citizen a challenge rolling two d6
against their reps. If they passed two d6 then they would come to her aid, one
d6 they would just look (and take the test again in the next round) and if the
outcome was naught d6 then they would run away.
It was at this point that a couple of heroes and a couple of villains
emerged. I had rated all the male citizens as Rep 3 with no weapons and the
females and the hobo (who was drunk) as Rep 2 with no weapons. The man in the
nice suit and the hobo both had two passes and went to the woman’s aid.
Whilst she was knocked down in the first round of combat, the hobo (who
was closest) was able to close the gap and charge the zed, knocking it to the
ground. The zed got up and charged the hobo (who now was between the woman and
the zed), but the hobo won the combat round and OD it.
Now two more zeds were in range and they both charged. The first won
the combat against the woman and OD her. The second tied against the hobo. In
the next round the zed on the woman began to feast and both the hobo and the
man in the nice suit had to take a see the feast test. The man in the nice suit
fled, leaving the hobo to fend for himself. Surprisingly the hobo passed his
test and fought on.
At this point I was impressed. Here was this unlikely hero, fighting
against the odds (I mean let’s face it how much more against the odds can it
get, Rep 2 and unarmed). Perhaps he may become a future character in the story
I thought. If only he could break away from this combat then I’d have him run
to fight another day.
But this is where his luck started to run out. With a Rep of 2 versus
the Rep of 4 for the zeds, the hobo wouldn’t get another chance to activate. Whist
he managed to tie the next round of combat he was eventually overwhelmed and
was killed by the zed.
So I liked this concept and decided that I would use it for other Day
One encounters. Thus the beginning of Home Rules for Generation Zed.
That evening at the
Cold Hart Tavern, as usual, there is quite a mixed crowd of locals and travelers.
The food is excellent and the drinks are generous and good. There is a positive
mood. It has become well known that the feared gnoll tribe that had been
raiding has been annihilated and in the last two days three caravans had come
to the Burg without incident. Other monsters, such as lions and troglodytes
have also been defeated by heroes. There are 11 locals enjoying the evening, including
some that the party know such as Othmann (see Session 3) and Berowalt (various
sessions) and 5 caravan guards looking for work.
