Zombocalypse (Open Alpha, WIP)

Aug 16, 2015 1:15 am
Well, I think I should really start putting my stuff on here eventually, even if I haven't got a full working game yet, I figure I can still get feedback. So I'll start with Zombocalypse here for now. I might start a new thread for one of my other games later...

Character Creation

• Step 1, Primary Attributes
You first need to distribute the following dice; 1d12, 1d10, 2x 1d8, and 1d6, among the 5 following attributes. Do not roll the die; simply note the die type you put in each of the following Attributes.
For example; a strong, tough hero could have Meat 1d10, Grace 1d8, Guts 1d12, Brains 1d6, and Wit 1d8, while a fast and smart hero could have Meat 1d6, Grace 1d12, Guts 1d8, Brains 1d10, and Wit 1d8.

• Meat: Meat is a representation of your character's physical strength, vigor, and power. It is the "muscle" and the "meat on your bones". If something needs to be bashed-in, lifted, pushed, or shoved, Meat is called for.
What is Meat used for in game:
Determining Blood.
Determining Encumbrance.
Calculating melee damage.
Meat is the key attribute for melee Combat Skills.
Meat can be used in ranged combat with firearms to resist recoil.

• Grace: Grace is your overall nimbleness, coordination, agility, and dexterity. If something needs to be done quickly, with deftness, or with finesse, Grace is called for.
What is Grace used for in game:
Determining Speed.
Grace is the key attribute for ranged Combat,Skills.
Grace is the key attribute used for Acrobatics; the primary defensive skill.
Some Perks can make Grace more useful in melee combat.

• Guts: Guts represents your physical fitness and vitality. It is your metabolism if you will, which helps measure your overall toughness and fortitude. If something needs to be resisted or performed for a prolonged period of time, Guts is called for.
What is Guts used for in game:
Determining Blood.
Determining Death.
Determining Breath.
Determining Spirit.
Natural Healing.
Various rolls to resist injuries, diseases, illnesses, and infections.

• Brains: Brains is your mental attributes which represents knowledge, intelligence, willpower, and common sense. It is your ability to process information and rationalize things, and it can also somewhat equate to education, life experience, street-smart, and reasoning. If something needs to be observed, deduced, learned, understood, or explained, Brains is called for.
What is Brains used for in game:
Determining Spirit.
Determining Humanity.
Determining starting amount of Character Points.
Resist Fear and Despair.
Resist Deceit and Intimidation.
Brains is the key attribute used for most Knowledge, Medical, and Technical Skills.

• Wit: Wit represents, how charming and sociable your character is. A high Wit will make people feel at ease and comfortable around your character and can be attributed to any one or more of the following; charisma, good looks, empathy, or a strong sense of confidence or personality. If someone needs to be calmed, reasoned with, lied to, seduced, or otherwise tamed or coaxed, Wit is called for.
What is Wit used for in game:
Determining Death.
Determining Humanity.
Determining Relationships.
Wit is the key attribute used for most Entertainment and Social Skills.
Wit is the key ability used in helping other survivors regain lost Spirit.

• Step 2, Secondary Attributes
You then must figure out your derived attributes, this is usually done by adding a set number to one or more die roll from your primary attributes. A note on rounding; unless noted otherwise, Zombocalypse use mathematical rounding for fractions (i.e. Fractions of 0.49 or less are rounded down while fractions of 0.5 or more are rounded up). The derived attributes and how to calculate them are as follows;

• Blood: 10 + total of a Meat and Guts rolls. Blood is your overall health and the amount of punishment you can take. When damage is scored, subtract it from your Blood. When you run out of Blood, you faint and keep loosing more Blood until you reach your Death score, at which point you die.
To determine your Blood score, roll your Meat and Guts dice, add them together, and add 10 to this total. This will be your maximum Blood.

• Death: Total of Guts and Wit rolls ÷ 2 (rounded down) + 1. Death is the value of "negative Blood" you must reach in order to die, taking into account how tough you are as well as your will to live. Once you reach 0 or negative Blood, you faint and begin dying, loosing more Blood until someone either saves you, or you reach a negative amount of Blood equal to your Death score.
To determine your Death score, roll your Guts and Wit dice, add them together, divide the total by 2, rounding it down, and then add 1 to this total. This will be the amount of "negative Blood" score at which your character will die.

• Speed: 5 + roll of Grace. Speed represents your reflexes, reaction speed, and walking/running speed. It is used to determine initiative in combat and calculate your movement rate in meters.
To determine your Speed score, roll your Grace dice and add 5 to the total. This will be your Speed.

• Breath: 5 + roll of Guts. Breath represents your endurance and stamina. Things such as fatigue, hunger, illness, or overexertion will make you loose Breath. When out of Breath, you must rest for a while before you can do anything else.
To determine your Breath score, roll your Guts die and add 5 to the total. This will be your maximum Breath.

• Spirit: 5 + total of a Guts and Brains rolls. Spirit represents your overall resistance to intimidation, fear, depression, hopelessness, stress, boredom, etc. Things that can be hard on the psyche makes you loose Spirit. When Spirit reaches 0, despair has taken it's toll, leaving you insane or severely depressed, effectively taking you out of the game.
To determine your Spirit score, roll your Guts and Brains dice, add them together, and add 5 to this total. This will be your maximum Spirit.

• Humanity: 5 + total of a Brains and Wit rolls. Humanity is an abstract measure of how desensitized you are to all that madness going on around you, of how much of your humanity you managed to retain in all that senselessness. It also measures how others perceive you and can affect your Relationships.
To determine your Humanity score, roll your Brains and Wit dice, add them together, and add 5 to this total. This will be your current Humanity (it can increase above this score).

• Encumbrance: 3 + roll of Meat. Encumbrance shows you how much equipment you can carry without tiring yourself out or injuring yourself.
To determine your Encumbrance, roll your Meat die and add 3 to the total. This will be your maximum Encumbrance.

(Optional Rule) Fate Reroll
Since there's so many Secondary Attributes to be rolled, it is quite possible a character gets a subpar character because of many bad rolls. The Fate Reroll option gives the player the ability to reroll a single Secondary Attribute if he so wishes, keeping the second result even if it's worse than the first. Note that the Fate Reroll does not apply to Character Points or Relationship Points.
For more forgiving campaigns, give 2 or 3 Fate Rerolls, but no Secondary Attribute can be rerolled more than once. Another option would be to allow them for Character Points and/or Relationship Points as well.
Yet some other options is to allow the player to keep preferred result or maybe even allow a Secondary Attribute to be rerolled up to twice.

• Step 3, Hit Locations
After that, you must assign an amount of Blood to each hit locations. You must also calculate each limb's disable threshold which is 50% the amount of Blood allocated to each location (see the combat section for the effects of disabled locations);

Head: 25%.
Arms: 25% (rounded down) each.
Torso: 75%.
Legs: 50% each.

You will notice that all hit locations added together comes to 250%. This does not mean that the character actually has 2.5 times more Blood than what was rolled in step 2; if you take enough Blood spread across your various hit locations equal to your Blood total, you still faint (and possibly die of blood loss and shock if you reach your Death score)…

• Step 4, Skills, Perks, and Flaws
Finally you must figure out the amount of Character Points (CP for short) you begin with. The character starts with an amount of CP equal to a roll of Brains ÷ 2 + 10 (roll your Brains die, divide the total by 2, then add 10 to this total).
Skills cost 1 point per rank (max. 3 ranks in a single skill at character creation).
Perks cost 2 points each.
Alternatively, Character Points can be saved to be used later in game.
Optionally, you may select one or more Flaws to gain Perks on a 1 for 1 basis. There is no limit to this, but if you are not careful, you will soon find yourself with a character that is unplayable. As a quick rule of thumb, unless you were incredibly lucky when rolling your Secondary Attributes, you should stick to only 1 or 2 Flaws…
Last edited August 3, 2017 1:16 am
Aug 16, 2015 1:20 am
List of Skills by Skill Groups

Animal Skills
Animal Handling
Packing
Riding
Veterinary

Combat Skills
Acrobatics
Assault Weapons
Blades
Brawling
Clubs
Flails
Handguns
Hefted Weapons
Missile Weapons
Projectiles
Rifles
Spears

Craft Skills
Brewing
Carpentry
Cooking
Gunsmith
Leather Working
Metallurgy
Traps

Criminal Skills
Deceit
Intimidation
Lock Picking
Security Systems
Stealth
Traps

Entertainment Skills
Acrobatics
Acting
Athletics
Dancing
Instrument
Oratory
Singing

Knowledge Skills
Area Knowledge
General Knowledge
Language
Specialized Knowledge

Medical Skills
First-Aid
Medicine
Surgery
Veterinary

Social Skills
Deceit
Intimidation
Language
Persuasion
Teaching

Survival Skills
Athletics
Cooking
Orientation
Perception
Search
Stealth
Tracking
Traps

Technical Skills
Demolition
Driving
Electronics
Mechanics
Piloting
Security Systems
Specialized Knowledge

Skill Descriptions
Skill description follows this formula;
Skill's Name
[Attribute most commonly used for this skill/Skill group(s) to which this skill belongs]
Short description and relevant informations about the skill.

Acrobatics
[Grace/Combat Skill/Entertainment Skill]
This skill covers a large arrays of feats of agility and acrobatics maneuvers; balancing, tumbling, breaking a fall, swinging from a rope or chandelier, and more.
This skill can be used as an Entertainment skill to give Spirit back to an audience, either as a gymnastic competition, tight rope walking, trapeze, or other similar activities.
This skill can also be used in combat to dodge and weave attacks (see the combat section p.XX).

Acting
[Wit/Entertainment Skill]
Acting is the skill used to perform and play a part in a play. It is mostly used as an Entertainment skill.

Animal Handling
[Wit/Animal Skill]
This skill is used when dealing with animals, used to either train, tame, make them perform tricks, or sway them. Animals make good allies against the undead; their sharper sense allows them to detect the shambling horrors before human can.

Area Knowledge
[Brains/Knowledge Skill]
This skill represents generic knowledge of a locality and familiarity with a city's layout. It can be used to spot locations of interest and spot potential rumors and missions.
When using this skill to spot locations of interest, it generates Rumor Points based on your skill rank (see Using Skills in the Rules section on p.XX).
A supplies run mission costs 1 Rumor Point.
A scout mission costs 3 Rumor Points.
A food run mission costs 4 Rumor Points.
A weapons run mission costs 5 Rumor Points.
A survivors mission costs 7 Rumor Points.
A secure area mission requires 9 Rumor Points.

Assault Weapons
[Grace/Combat Skill]
This skill covers using semi-automatic weapons, sub machine guns, machine guns, gatling guns, and rail guns.

Athletics
[Meat/Entertainment/Survival Skill]
This skill is used for climbing, running, swimming, jumping, lifting, pushing, throwing, and any other athletic prowesses. This skill can also be used for practicing sport (usually to regain Spirit or avoid losing Spirit).

Blades
[Meat/Combat Skill]
This skill covers using knives, swords, machete, and a variety of straight-bladed weapons. When you reach skill rank 5, you can ignore the [Exhausting] tag of bladed weapons.

Brawling
[Meat/Combat Skill]
This skill is used for hand-to-hand combat (punching and kicking).

Brewing
[Brains/Craft skill]
This skill is used to brew alcohol which comes in quite handy to improve morale, make people forget about the horrors of this world, or simply dull the pain.

Carpentry
[Brains/Craft Skill]
This skill is used for building barricades and doors and overall repairing your sanctuary.
When using this skill to fortify your sanctuary, it generates Build Points based on your skill rank (see Using Skills in the Rules section on p.XX).

Clubs
[Meat/Combat Skill]
This skill covers using blunt weapons such as bats, crowbars, pipes, and nightsticks. When you reach skill rank 5, you can ignore the [Exhausting] tag of clubs.

Cooking
[Brains/Craft Skill/Survival Skill]
Cooking allows to prepare food, to make them more palatable and enjoyable.
When using this skill, it generates Cook Points based on your skill rank (see Using Skills in the Rules section on p.XX).
Turning something barely edible into something edible (negating the loss of Spirit) requires 2 Cook Points.
Making a meal regain 1 lost Breath will require 3 Cook Points.
Making a meal regain 1 lost Spirit Point requires 4 (5?) Cook Points.
Making a meal more filling, negating the need for 1 of the other meals of the day, requires 5 (6?) Cook Points.
Making the meal regain 1 lost Blood requires 6 (7?) Cook Points. (Cooking a Snack [could be the one that regains 1 Breath?], cooking a Meal, cooking a Feast???)

Dancing
[Wit/Entertainment Skill]
This skill is used to dance. It is mostly used as an Entertainment skill (to give Spirit back to an audience).

Deceit
[Wit/Criminal Skill/Social Skill]
This skill cover fast-talk, lying, disguise, seduction, and various means to deceive people. It is an opposed roll agains your target's Brains. For some NPCs, your GM might simply assign a TN to roll.

Demolition
[Brains/Technical Skill]
This skill is used for setting up and detonating explosives in an efficient manner.

Driving
[Brains/Technical Skill]
This skill is used for driving various vehicles such as motorcycles, cars, trucks, semis, etc. A skill roll is not required to just drive a vehicle under normal conditions but one could be required to avoid losing control after a collision, when attempting a stunt or intricate maneuver with the vehicle, or when driving under adverse conditions.

Electronics
[Brains/Technical Skill]
This skill is used for wiring, electrical systems, operating computers and other electronic devices.

First-Aid
[Brains/Medical Skill]
This skill allows you to quickly treat yourself and others of wounds, diseases, infections, and zombie bites while on the field. More serious treatments and long-term medical care are covered by the Medicine skill below instead.
When using this skill, it generates Healing Points based on your skill rank (see Using Skills in the Rules section on p.XX).
Healing 1 Blood required 3 Healing Points.
Stopping the bleeding requires 1 Healing Point.
Treating a disabled or destroyed hit location requires 5 Healing Points. (or cannot be used for destroyed?)
Treating an illness requires 4 Healing Points.

Flails
[Meat/Combat Skill]
This skill covers using flailing weapons such as nunchucks, lengths of chain, and whips. When you reach skill rank 5, you can ignore the [Exhausting] tag of flails.

General Knowledge
[Brains/Knowledge Skill]
This skill represents knowledge of a general nature that can be gained through basic education, personal experiences, and common sense.

Gunsmith
[Brains/Craft Skill]
This skill is used to clean, repair, and upgrade firearms.
When using this skill, it generates Build Points based on your skill rank (see Using Skills in the Rules section on p.XX).

Handguns
[Grace/Combat Skill]
This skill covers using revolvers, pistols, and other varieties of handguns.

Hefted Weapons
[Meat/Combat Skill]
This skill covers using weapons which consist of some sort of hefted head on a handle such as axes, hammers, and shovels. When you reach skill rank 5, you can ignore the [Exhausting] tag of hefted weapons.

Instrument
[Wit/Entertainment Skill]
This skill is used to play musical instruments (usually to give Spirit back to an audiance).
You must purchase this skill for each instrument you can play.

Intimidation
[Wit/Criminal Skill/Social Skill]
This skill represents the ability to intimidate, threaten, coerce, frighten, or demoralize opponents. It is an opposed roll agains your target's Brains. For some NPCs, your GM might simply assign a TN to roll.

Language
[Brains/Knowledge Skill/Social Skill]
Your character is considered to be able to speak, read, and write his native language (unless he picks Flaws that prevents him from doing one or more of the above) without ever needing to make a roll for it. The Language skill represents the study of a foreign language. When you pick this skill up, you must select a language for which it applies.

Leather Working
[Brains/Craft Skill]
This skill allows for crafting and repairing of leather goods, such as leather jackets which can make a good armor in a inch against the hordes of the deads, mundane items such as bags, or weapons such as whips.

Lock Picking
[Grace/Criminal Skill]
This skills is used for opening locked doors, padlocks, and cabinets.

Mechanics
[Brains/Technical Skill]
This skill is used for operating and repairing machinery.
When using this skill, it generates Build Points based on your skill rank (see Using Skills in the Rules section on p.XX).

Medicine
[Brains/Medical Skill]
Medicine represents long-term medical care on others. It is used when the medic has an infirmary to work with. For treatment on the field, see the First-Aid skill above.
When using this skill, it generates Healing Points based on your skill rank (see Using Skills in the Rules section on p.XX).
Healing 1 Blood required 2 Healing Points.
Stopping the bleeding requires 1 Healing Point.
Treating a disabled or destroyed hit location requires 3 Healing Points. (or 5 for destroyed but not lost limb?)
Treating an illness requires 3 Healing Points.
Treating a destroyed hit location (which did not result in death or the loss of a limb) requires 5 Healing Points. (?)

Metallurgy
[Brains/Craft Skill]
This skill is used to make or repair simple objects, weapons, and tools made primarily of metal.
When using this skill, it generates Build Points based on your skill rank (see Using Skills in the Rules section on p.XX).

Missile Weapons
[Grace/Combat Skill]
This skill covers using bows, crossbows, slings, and other archaic missile weapons.

Oratory
[Wit/Entertainment Skill]
This skill is used to tell or create entertaining stories, recite poetry, or just hold up an interesting conversation.

Orientation
[Brains/Survival Skill]
This skill is used to find one's bearing, know which way is north, avoid getting lost, and help find your way home.

Packing
[Brains/Animal Skill]
This skill is used to efficiently pack supplies onto a beast of burden. It won't allow it to carry more weight than it normally can, it will simply allow for more efficient placement of items, better distribution of weight, or to secure them better on the pack animal.

Perception
[Brains/Survival Skill]
This skill covers the 5 senses and is mostly used for seeing, hearing, and smelling zombies coming.

Persuasion
[Wit/Social Skill]
This skill covers convincing other survivors through diplomatic means as well as helping keep the morale up.

Piloting
[Brains/Technical Skill]
This skill is used for driving more complex vehicles such as tanks, helicopters, planes, etc. A skill roll is not required to just drive a vehicle under normal conditions but one could be required to avoid losing control after a collision, when attempting a stunt or intricate maneuver with the vehicle, or piloting under adverse conditions.
You must purchase this skill for each vehicle you wish to pilot.

Projectiles
[Grace/Combat Skill]
This skill covers using javelins, boomerangs, throwing knives, and other archaic thrown weapons. This is also the skill used to lob off molotov cocktails, sticks of dynamite, and grenades. When you reach skill rank 5, you can ignore the [Exhausting] tag of thrown weapons.

Riding
[Grace/Animal Skill]
This skill is used to ride a mount such as a horse, donkey, camel, etc. A skill roll is not required to just ride a mount under normal conditions but one could be required to avoid losing control after your mount has been spooked, quickly mounting or dismounting, when attempting have the mount perform a stunt or intricate maneuver, or when riding under adverse conditions.

Rifles
[Grace/Combat Skill]
This skill covers the use of using shotguns, rifles, carbines, and other similar large firearms.

Search
[Brains/Survival Skill]
This skill is used to find things or tracks, used mostly when scavenging for supplies or hunting for food...

Security Systems
[Brains/Criminal Skill/Technical Skill]
This skill covers disabling alarm systems, security systems, and hacking.

Singing
[Wit/Entertainment Skill]
This skill is use to keep a tune, hum a little jingle, or sing a nice song (usually to give Spirit back to an audience).

Spears
[Meat/Combat Skill]
This skill covers the use spears, polearms, or simple sharpened sticks. When you reach skill rank 5, you can ignore the [Exhausting] tag of spears.

Specialized Knowledge
[Brains/Knowledge Skill]
This skill represents knowledge in a specialized field of study such as chemistry, biology, botany, etc.
You must purchase this skill for each area of knowledge.

Stealth
[Grace/Criminal Skill/Survival Skill]
This skill is used to remain hidden and not be heard or seen, very useful for sneaking past zombies...

Surgery
[Brains/Medical Skill]
This skill covers major medical procedures that requires surgery. At the very least, it will require access to specialized tools, if not an operating room.
When using this skill, it generates Healing Points based on your skill rank (see Using Skills in the Rules section on p.XX).
Stop internal bleeding.
Remove a lodged bullet or shrapnel.

Teaching
[Wit/Knowledge Skill/Social Skill]

Tracking
[Brains/Survival Skill]
This skill is used to find, follow, and identify tracks.

Traps
[Brains/Craft Skill/Criminal Skill/Survival Skill]
This skill is used for building traps, whether for catching small game or killing zombies, it also covers the disarming of traps left by other survivors.

Veterinary
[Brains/Animal skill/Medical Skill]
This skill covers the treatment of animal injuries and sickness.
When using this skill, it generates Healing Points based on your skill rank (see Using Skills in the Rules section on p.XX). Those Healing Points are spent the same as the Medicine or Surgery skills, but for animals.
If used to treat humans (or another medicine skill is used to treat animals), the skill is performed at -2 and the amount of healing points are reduced by 2 per dice (min. 1 per dice).
Last edited August 3, 2017 1:22 am
Aug 16, 2015 1:26 am
Perks
Perks can be purchased with Character Points, costing 2 CP each. Perks give you some sort of advantage or an edge in some situations.
Some Perks have a special Key Benefit that can be activated by either spending a Karma Point (see p. XX for Karma Points) or giving the GM a Complication Point (see p.XX for Complication Points). Perks which have more than one Key Benefit can only use one or the other each day.

List of Perks

Agile: You are quite lithe and graceful. You can use Grace instead of Meat for Athletics, Brawling, as well as using weapons with the [Agile] tag (for both attack and damage).
Key Benefit: Once per day, you can fall prone or stand up as a Free Action.

Ally: You have an ally, someone to watch your back in those troubled times. Build an NPC (as you would a PC) but with slightly weaker stats (2x1d10, 2x1d8, 1x1d6) who will tie up at least one of your starting Relationship Points. Your ally will always grant you an additional +1 bonus more than usual when helping you out (see page XX for Teamwork).
If your ally dies, you will fall in a bout of depression, immediately loosing 1 Humanity Point. You the lose this perk permanently.
Key Benefit: Once per day, you can have your ally show up and bail your ass out of a tight situation, even if he or she had no reason to be there to begin with.

Charismatic: You have a personality that puts people at ease. You can change the Vibe you give others (see p.XX for Humanity), but can only maintain the facade for so long. After an amount of minutes equal to a roll of Wit, people interacting with you are allowed a Brains/Perception check contested by your Wit/Deceit to notice your true Vibe, gaining a +1 per step of difference beyond the first between your actual Vibe and your emulated Vibe.  For example, a Treacherous character decides to appear Amicable, after some time interacting with him, others are allowed a Brains/Perception check with a +3 bonus for a 4 steps difference against that character's Wit/Deceit to determine he's really Treacherous.
Pick an Entertainment Skill (other than Acrobatics). When rolling that skill, you may roll twice keeping the preferred result.
Key Benefit: Once per day when using Medical Skills you can roll both Brains and Wit, keeping the higher result. Or once per day you can maintain the facade of your false Vibe for an amount of time equal to 10 minutes times a roll of Wit and reduce the bonus others get to their Brains/Perception roll by 1 (min. 0).

Clear Thinker: It is very difficult to fool you. You gain a +2 on Brains rolls made when someone tries to lie to you, deceive you, or manipulate you.

Cheerful: You are an optimist and insist on seeing the upside of any situation. You gain a +2 to Spirit [Despair] checks (see p.XX for Spirit).
Key Benefit: Your cheerfulness can be contagious; once per day you can grant an ally who can see and hear you the same bonus.

Combat Reflexes: You do not shy away from combat like most people and are always ready for things to go wrong... Your Speed is considered 1 higher for initiative purpose only. Also you can always take a Minor Action when surprised (see Combat section p.XX).
Key Benefit: Once per day you can change grip or switch hand as free action.

Craftsman: You are a skilled craftsman. Pick a Craft Skill. When rolling that skill, you may roll twice, keeping the preferred result. Building or repairing equipment will cost you 20% less resources (min. 1).
Key Benefit: Once per day, you can reroll the number of Craft Points you produced, adding 1 to each die.

Danger Sense: You have a sixth sense alerting you of danger. If you are in danger without being aware of it, your GM will tell you that you have an "uneasy feeling", but you won't get any more information about the nature, source, or direction of the danger.
Key Benefit: Once per day, you can dodge one more attack in a round. Or once per day can gain 1 piece of insight about source of the danger.

Fasting: You do not require as much food as most people and can go on for longer period of times without food. You only need 2 meals per day. You can go on one more day without food before suffering the effects of starvation. You only need to eat 1 meal per day to regain Breath and Blood lost due to starvation.
Key Benefit: Once per day, you can skip all of your meals without it counting towards the number of days you can go without food. Unlike most other Key Benefits, this one cannot be use 2 days in a row and at least 2 days must pass between each uses.

Fast Learner: You have an aptitude for learning new things. When learning a new skill with a teacher, you gain a +1 bonus to your Brains roll to see if you learned the new skill that day. Also, choose a single skill; increasing that skill rank will cost you 1 less CP (min. 1 CP). (takes less time to learn??)
Key Benefit: When the GM gives you CPs, you can make a Brains roll, if you succeed you gain 1 more CP.

Fearless: You are very courageous. You gain a +2 on Brains rolls made to resist Spirit [Fear] checks (see p.XX for Spirit) and to resist Intimidation attempts.
Key Benefit: Once per day you can reduce the amount of Spirit you lose form a failed Fear or Despair check by 1 (min. 0).

Fit: You have an endless reserve of stamina, allowing you to keep going when everyone else must rest. You gain 2 more Breath. You can always fight for 1 more round without loosing Breath, and weapons with the [Exhausting] tag make you loose only 1 Breath per round of use instead of the usual 2 (not cumulative with the Weapon Master Perk or high Combat Skills) (?). [Maybe unlike the other 2, can ignore extra fatigue from injuries?]
Key Benefit: Once per day, you can instantly regain Breath as if you had rested for 1 hour.

Good Sleep: You have no problems going to sleep. You need 2 hours less sleep per night. choose one particular sound (the alarm clock on your watch, a zombie moan, a twig breaking, etc.), you can instantly awake from your sleep when hearing this noise (once made, this choice of noise cannot be changed), for all other noises you must roll your Perception -2 as normal. You also gain a +2 to your Meat roll made to remove grogginess. Finally, if awaken from your sleep, you can go back to sleep without any penalties, ill effect, or loosing sleep.
Key Benefit: Once per day you can instead need 4 less hour of sleep and set your "mental alarm clock", choosing an hour at which you will wake up, precisely at that time, not a minute later. Or you can choose to wake yourself up automatically without the need of a Perception check from any noises. On both cases, you will not suffer from grogginess.

Hard to Kill: You are extremely resilient, able to endure a lot of punishment and keep going. You gain 2 more Blood as well as a +2 bonus on Guts rolls to avoid having your limbs disabled or destroyed and to Brains rolls to resist Spirit [Health] checks. Finally, your Death value is increased by 1.
Key Benefit: Once per day, you can ignore the damage from one attack (as well as any side effect from that attack such as infection).

Healer: You are an accomplished nurse or doctor, capable of healing grievous wounds. You produce 5 more Healing Points when using First-Aid, Medicine and Veterinary, but only 2 when treating yourself.
Key Benefit: Once per day, you can reroll the number of Healing Points you produced, adding 1 to each die.

Killing Machine: You are a deadly combatant. You increase your weapon damage by 1 point.
Key Benefit: Once per day you can instead add an extra d6 to your weapon damage for a single attack.

Knowledgeable: You have amassed a vast amount of knowledge. Pick one Knowledge Skill. You can roll that skill twice, keeping the preferred result. Also, you produce +1 Rumor Points on a successful Knowledge Skill check when using it for hunting rumors of possible new missions.
Key Benefit: Once per day, you can reroll the number of Rumor Points you produced, adding 1 to each die.

Marksman: You are a crack shot, capable of hitting the target no matter the distance or the conditions. You gain a +2 on Meat rolls made to reduce or ignore the recoil of a firearm. You can also increase the RoF of a ranged weapon by 1 (but not when using Burst mode, see Equipment p.XX). You also increase the bonuses you get for aiming your ranged attacks (see combat section p.XX) by 1 total.
Key Benefit: Once per day, you can reroll the hit location when scoring a hit with a ranged weapon.

Martial Arts: You are trained in some form of self-defense technique or some form of combat martial art. You gain a +2 bonus to damage when fighting barehanded or with weapons with the [Martial Art] tag. You can also choose to inflict nonlethal damage on an opponent without taking the usual penalty. You also increase the bonuses you get for aiming your melee attacks (see combat section p.XX) by 1 total.
Key Benefit: Once per day, you can make 3 melee attacks per round as long as those attacks are performed unarmed or with a weapon which has the [Martial Arts] tag.

Nerves of Steel: You have an unbreakable Spirit. You gain 3 more Spirit.
Key Benefit: Once per day, you can declare that a failed Spirit [Despair] roll (so long as you did not rolled a natural 1, or 2 if you also are also a Klutz) was actually successful and that it served to harden you and bolster your confidence, allowing you to regain 1 lost Spirit instead.

Pack Mule: You are a veritable beast of burden, capable of carrying surprising amounts of belongings on your person. You gain 4 more Encumbrance, and a +2 to Guts rolls to avoid injuries while being overladen.
Key Benefit: Once per day, you can ignore the penalties for being overladen for a roll of Meat in hours.

Pretty: You are quite attractive. You gain a +2 bonus on Social Skills with other human survivors if they can possibly get attracted to you.
Key Benefit: Once per day, you can reroll a Deceit, Persuasion, or an Entertainment Skill roll.

Quick Healer: Your healing rate is above average, allowing you to recover from nasty wounds faster than everyone else. You always heal 1 more Blood (for free) per successful healing checks, you also gain a +2 to Meat rolls for natural healing.
Key Benefit: Once per day you can reroll your Meat roll for natural healing or grant anyone healing you 2 more Healing Points.

Scavenger: You have an eye for detail, allowing you to find things others overlook, which often come in handy when searching for supplies. You gain a +2 bonus on Search rolls when looking for supplies and you also produce 2 more Scavenging Points on a successful check.
Key Benefit: Once per day, you can reroll the number of Scavenging Points you produced, adding 1 to each die. Or once per day, you can find better quality items than usual; you gain a number of improvements equal to a roll of Brains, an improvement can be spent to…???

Scout: You are adept at living and getting along in the wild and your sharp senses make also you adept at reconnaissance, pathfinding, and trailblazing. You always know which way is north. Also, when declaring that you're Looking All Around, you suffer no penalty on your Perception rolls for doing so.
Key Benefit: Once per day, when in the wild, you can forage for food or trap small game to provide 1d3 meals. Or once per day, you can decrease the risk of an area by roughly 20% (encounter 20% less zombies, hazards are 20% less lethal, falls inflict 20% less damage, etc.).

Sneaky: You are an under handed-individual. You do not need to take a Minor action when flanking an opponent (it as a Free Action for you instead). Also, choose 1 Criminal Skill; you can roll that skill twice, keeping the preferred result each time.(?) (Looses 1 less Breath (min.1) for running long distances??)
Key Benefit: Once per day, you can can read lips. You must have a clear sight of the target(s)'s mouth(s) (which might require binoculars). A Brains roll will determine how much of the conversation you make out: A failed roll means you understood about one quarter of the conversation, a barely successful roll (succeed by up to 2 points) means you understood about half of the conversation, and any better success means you understood most or all of the conversation.

Swift: You are naturally quick. You gain a +2 bonus to Speed.
Key Benefit: Once per day, you can draw or reload a weapon as a Free Action.

Weapon Master: You are extremely dangerous with any sort of sharp, blunt, or pointy objects in your hands… You can make 2 melee attacks per round unless the weapon you use has the [Exhausting] tag. Also, melee weapons with the [Exhausting] tag make you loose only 1 Breath per round instead of the usual 2 (not cumulative with the Fit Perk or high Combat Skills).
Key Benefit: Once per day, you can reroll your melee weapon damage.

Flaws
Flaws are the dark counterpart of Perks. While Perks gave your characters some advantages or special abilities, Flaws grant your character disadvantages and hindrances. So why would anyone in their right mind take Flaws for their character? Well for starters taking a flaw allows you to take another Perk. Flaws are also good roleplaying tools, they give your character more personality.
The most perceptive amongst you might have noticed that Flaws tend to be a bit more "powerful" than Perks in that the defects they grant somewhat outweighs the benefits of Perks. This is done on purpose, to avoid power gaming.
Some Flaws have a special Key Hindrance that can be activated to either gain back a spent Karma Point or force the GM to discard a Complication Point. This may sounds self-defeating, but sometimes putting yourself in trouble on your own term might be more advantageous than whatever the GM has in mind...
To avoid this mechanic being abused, Key Hindrances are considered to work only if it puts the character or the party in some sort of risk of at least some risk of harm (at the GM's discretion).
For example the Klutz spectacularly failing a Stealth check in the safety of his sanctuary when there are no zombies around would not qualify to regain a Karma Point or force the GM to discard a Complication Point.

List of Flaws

Addiction: You have an addiction to some substance, be it alcohol, tobacco, prescription drugs, or illicit drugs. The object of your addiction costs at least 5 Scavenging Points to obtain, tying up those points in order to allow you to indulge in your addiction. Every day you skip your addiction you are at -2 on all actions until you can indulge in your addiction again.
Key Hindrance: Once per day, you can choose to overindulge in your addiction at an inopportune time. You need to make a Meat roll at -2 to avoid Over Dosing and taking Blood and Breath damage equal to twice the amount by which you failed your Meat roll. Regardless of success or failure, you'll be at -1 on all actions for 2 hours.

Age: You are either very young or very old. Lower two of your Primary Attributes by 1 die step (d12 to d10, d10 to d8, d8 to d6, d6 to d4). You'll have to recalculate all Secondary attributes and derived statistics from those Primary Attributes as if it rolled 1 less (min. 1) unless it's still above the maximum for the new die, in which case consider it rolled 2 less instead.
Key Hindrance: Once per day, you can opt to not be taken seriously because of your age, explaining things in such a way that other people will simply think that you just have an overactive imagination (if you're young), or that you're slowly loosing your mind (if you're old). Even on the best of results, only a single person will ever believe you.

Bad Eyesight: You have bad vision. Perhaps you lost your glasses, suffer from a form of partial blindness, suffer from tunnel vision, or you are simply missing an eye. You take a -1 penalty on all visual Perception rolls and ranged attacks. Aiming is more difficult for you, lowering the amount by which you can modify your hit location roll by 1 (meaning that you must spend one more Minor Action aiming in order for you to gain the desired modifier), your ability to make Called Shots remains unaffected (or increase TN by another +1? or 50% rounded down??). Also, when declaring that you're Looking All Around, your penalty to Perception for doing so increases to -3 (-2?) (-4 total with the normal -1 penalty to visual Perception rolls granted by this flaw). (?)

Bad Health: You have some health problem which makes you more frail than most. You have 2 less Blood and your Death is reduced by 2 (min.0).

Bleeder: You are very susceptible to damage. Whenever you take damage, you lose an extra point of Blood. Your Death value is reduced by 1 (it can be taken up to 0).
Key Hindrance: One per day when you’re wounded, the wound is critical and requires 3 more Healing Points to treat and bleeds for 2 Blood per round until treated.

Can't Lie: You simply cannot tell a lie and will always fail when telling a lie from whole cloth. You can still try to exaggerate or bend the truth, but will do so at -2 to your Deceit roll. You also tend to be a bit gullible as you also assume others are incapable of deception, and will suffer a -2 penalty to your opposed Brains roll made when someone lies to you or similarly deceives you.

Coward: You are easily scared, demoralized, and intimidated. You have 3 less Spirit and take a -2 on Brains rolls to resist Fear, Despair, and Intimidation.
Key Hindrance: Once per day, when you fail your Brains roll, you can choose to panic in addition of loosing twice the normal amount of Spirit. You either freeze up, cower in a corner, or flee in a random direction regardless of danger and personal safety.

Dependent: You have a dependent, another survivors who cannot effectively fend for him or herself and who you'll have to look after; children, elderly relatives, sickly adults, paraplegic girlfriend, etc. Alternatively, your GM might allow you to built your dependent as a PC but with weaker stats (2x1d10, 1x1d8, 2x1d6) and a free Flaw. Your dependent will tie up at least 2 of your starting Relationship Points.
If your dependent dies, you will fall in a bout of depression, immediately loosing 1 Humanity Point. You must then replace your dependent with another flaw (at the GM's discretion). The GM can also use Complication Points via your dependent. For example, your grandpa suffering from alzheimer might suddenly forgot about the zombie apocalypse and start making noise which attracts roamers, or your teenage daughter with sever ADHD might forget to close a door or keep a window shut…
Key Hindrance: Once per day, you may choose to have your dependent act in a specifically hindering way, such as the examples for the GM using Complication Points through dependents above.

Feeble: You are weak. Your melee damage is lowered by 2 points (min. 1). You also have 3 less Encumbrance. You will also automatically loose contested Meat rolls.

Glass Jaw: You have a low threshold of tolerance for pain meaning you cannot take a hit. You have 4 less Blood and take a -2 penalty on Meat rolls to avoid having your limbs disabled or destroyed. Your Disabled thresholds are reduced by 2 points (min. 1).
Key Hindrance: Once per day you can choose to get easily knocked out. Any hit inflicting 5 or more Blood of damage, or any hit on your head will make you fall unconscious for 30 minutes.

Illiteracy: Your character is illiterate. Aside from the obvious disadvantage of not being able to read signs and books, this means that your character cannot use journals, books, or magazines to regain Spirit… unless they have lots of pretty pictures. You also cannot participate in writing the diary and be the recipient of any bonus granted by the diary.
Key Hindrance: Once per day, you can choose to get in big trouble because of your inability to read warning signs, such as unlocking a door on which was scribbled "Zombies! do NOT open!!" or a power box on which is written "High voltage. Open at own risk.".

Klutz: Your character is naturally clumsy. A natural roll of 1 or 2 will always fail.
Key Hindrance: Once per day, you can choose to fail in a particularly spectacular manner, such as sneezing loudly or bumping a vase off a desk when trying to sneak by a horde of zombies or accidentally throwing your weapon out a 5th story window while trying to fend off a zombie.

Lecherous: You have a thing for pretty faces... You take a penalty of -2 on your opposed Brains roll when people to whom you may potentially be attracted to try to seduce you, flirt with you, or similarly manipulate you. Additionally, if can't get "any" for a while (at least a week), take a -1 penalty on all rolls from sexual frustration until you can get some action.

Lingering Wound: You have an old wound that won't heal properly. Healing your wounds and illnesses cost 1 more Healing Point than usual. You also take a -2 on Meat rolls made for natural healing or to see if you injure yourself while overladen.

Lone Wolf: Maybe you just "work alone", are just antisocial, or became emotionally cold after having witnessed so much senseless killing, but you tend to dislike hanging around people and they tend to reciprocate that feeling toward you. You can never benefit from nor grant others cooperation bonus or encouragement bonus from Karma Points, or have an Ally or Dependant. You also gain an extra Prejudice and have 1 less Relationship Point.

Missing Limb: You are missing an arm or a leg. Aside from the normal penalties for a destroyed limb, all hit location for that limb are redirected to the torso. Also, additional penalties may be implemented for actions your missing limb might make more difficult or downright impossible (as per GM discretion).

Overweight: You have love handles… lots of them! You have 1 less Speed, 1 less Breath, and 2 less Encumbrance. You will also have difficulty on fitting through some spaces, at the GM's discretion. On the upside, fat floats, thus granting you a +1 bonus on Athletics checks made for swimming.

Pacifist: You dislike harming other living beings. Whenever rolling damage on a living opponent, you hold back on your hit or aim for less vital areas, reducing your damage die (dice) by 1 category (d12 to d10, d10 to d8, d8 to d6, d6 to d4). If you ever kill someone else, or end up being responsible for their death somehow (through action or inaction), you lose 1 Spirit. Fortunately for you, such penalties do not extend to the undead... (You cannot make called shots to or aim for locations which could be lethal such as head or torso?)
Key Hindrance: Once per day, if you harm a person or kill an animal, you can choose to have the experience traumatize you, leaving you at -1 on all actions for 2 hours.

Phobia: You have a phobia; an irrational fear of something. When in the presence of your phobia, you must make a Brains roll to avoid loosing an amount of Spirit equal to the amount by which you failed. Regardless of whether you succeed or fail your Brains roll, you can either choose to be at -2 on all actions as long as you are within sight of the object of your phobia, or you can chose to scream which will have a Noise Rating of 3 and risks attracting zombies. You also have 1 less Spirit.
Key Hindrance: Once per day, when in the presence of your phobia, you can choose to automatically fail your Brains roll and panic in addition of loosing Spirit, taking steps that are directly detrimental to your party in order to get away from the object of your phobia as fast as possible. You will also automatically scream.

Slow: You are slow; slow to act and slow to react. You have 3 less Speed.

Slow Learner: You are slow to learn, perhaps you are lazy, incompetent, or have a learning disability. Whenever you gain CP, you gain 1 less CP (to a minimum of 1 CP). You also take a -1 penalty to Brains roll made to learn new skills.

Troubled Sleep: You suffer from some sleep-related trouble. Perhaps you have insomnia, or you suffer from bad nightmares, or have sleep apnea. You need 2 more hours of sleep per night. You also roll all your Perception checks to see if you wake up from a noise at an additional -2 (-1?) penalty. You also take a -2 penalty on Meat rolls made to reduce grogginess and will always suffer a minimum of 2 hours of grogginess. Finally, your sleep is not as recuperative as other people’s, always waking up with 1 less Blood and 2 less Breath regained than normal. (?)

Ugly: You are one ugly sunvabitch! You suffer a -2 penalty on all Social Skills checks made with other survivors. When using Entertainment Skills to give Spirit back to others, you will give them them 1 less Spirit back (min. 0). You also have 1 less Relationship Point (min. 0).

Unfit: You get tired quickly and easily making hard physical labor or carrying heavy loads difficult for you. You have 2 less Breath and Encumbrance. When losing Breath for fighting in melee, you lose 1 more Breath per round.

Conflicting Perks and Flaws
Although it should be blatantly obvious, some combination of Perks and Flaws will be problematic or simply won't accomplish much. Although there is no hard rule preventing character from taking them, other than common sense (players are free to waste their Perks after all), some Flaws will counteract the effects of some Perks.
As the GM, fell free to disallow any combination you feel are inappropriate in your games.
For example, it could be difficult for a character to justify why he's Fit and Unfit at the same time...
Last edited August 3, 2017 1:29 am
Aug 16, 2015 1:30 am
• Step 5, Relationships and Prejudices
Finally, you must figure out your relationships. Relationships can give you bonuses on rolls, but also come at some cost. Everyone has friends and family, and even in the zombie apocalypse (although, the definition of "family" can get stretched a bit during the zombie apocalypse...), it's hard going through all that hardship with other survivors without getting to know them, or even getting close to them…
Maximum Relationship Value: The maximum amount of Relationship Value you can have is based on a Wit roll as per the table below, you then add your Humanity modifier to this total (see p.XX, you can have a minimum Relationship Value of 0).
Wit Roll / Base Relationship Value
1 / 1
2-4 / 2
5-7 / 3
8-10 / 4
11-12 / 5

You can also begin the game with some relationships already established, but you cannot spend more than half of your starting Relationship Points (rounded down) at character creation and you must either have the other character's player permission, or the GM's permission in the case of an NPC, or take the Ally perk or the Dependant flaw.

Prejudices
Just like how Flaws are the dark counterparts to Perks, prejudices are the dark counterparts of relationships. The characters must pick a single prejudice. The character will be intolerant toward a specific group of people and will have trouble getting along and working with such people (see p.XX for the effects of prejudices). Prejudices can be taken from among the following categories;
Race: Blacks, whites, arabs, asians, etc.
Nationality: Americans, French, Irish, etc.
Religion: Atheists, catholics, muslims, jews, etc.
Sexual orientation: Straight, bi, gay, pedophiles, etc.
Age: Children, teenagers, middle-aged, seniors, etc.
Gender: Men, women, transgendered, etc.
Occupation: Lawyers, law enforcement, sex workers, etc.
Status: Poor, middle class, wealthy, homeless, ex-con, etc.
Education: High-school dropouts, college graduates, university students, etc.
Political: Liberals, conservatives, republicans, democrats, etc.
Other: Vegans, 9/11 truthers, feminists, MGTOWs, etc.
Last edited August 3, 2017 1:31 am
Aug 16, 2015 1:36 am
Basic Rules

• Making Rolls
When making a roll, you either simply roll your Attribute die (for a raw Attribute check) or roll your Attribute die + your skill rank (for a skill check), adding any applicable bonuses, and need to reach or beat a Target Number (TN for short) of 7 to succeed. A natural roll of 1 always fails.
In an opposed roll (also called contested roll), whoever rolls the highest wins (there are no set TN to beat). If the roll is a tie, highest skill rank wins. If it is still tied after that, highest Attribute die wins. If it remains a tie still after that, reroll.  In the case of survivor vs. zombie contested rolls, ties always goes to survivors.

(Optional Rule) Karma or Character Points Bid During Contested Rolls
In order to break a tied rolls during a contested roll, it could be possible to allow characters and NPCs to bid Karma and/or Character Points after a tie is announced. The winner of the roll then becomes the person who bid the highest amount of Karma Points on his rolls. If that is tied, then the person who bid the highest amount of Character Points wins. If it ends up still being a tie, then proceed as per the normal rules above.

• Difficulty
The base TN of 7 is used as a base for average-difficulty actions, but what about when attempting to perform an easy or difficult action? The table below provides the TNs for varying degrees of difficulty.

Difficulty TN
Very Easy 3
Easy 5
Average 7
Difficult 9
Very Difficult 11

Those TNs are mostly guidelines. A task that is somewhat easy could be TN 6, while a task that is extremely or insanely difficult could be TN 12 or 13.

• Using skills
The Attribute listed in the skill's description is the Attribute most often associated with that skill, but it is by no mean the only Attribute that can be used with that skill. GMs and players are encouraged to come up with creative combination of Attributes + skill formulas so long as they can be justified.
For example, the Driving skill could be used with the Grace Attribute to drive a car through a narrow gap at high speed, or Wit could be used with the Hamdguns skill to inspect your sidearm to make sure it is in working order or to see if a round is chambered.
Some skills or skill groups will generate special points when used to perform a certain action, those skills are;
Medical Skills used for healing and treating illnesses will produce Healing Points.
Search Skill to scavenge for supplies will produce Scavenging Points.
Craft Skills and some Technical Skills used to build or repair something will produce Build Points.
Cooking used to prepare meals will produce Cook Points.
Area Knowledge used to scout out an area, find missions and locations of interest will generate Rumor Points.
These all use the same mechanic, on a successful roll, they produce a number of appropriate points based on the character's skill rank as follows;
Unskilled: 1d4
Rank 1: 1d8
Rank 2: 1d10
Rank 3: 2d6
Rank 4: 2d8
Rank 5: 2d10
Points are spent on result as per the individual skill description.

• Teamwork/Cooperation/
Helping Each Other

When working together, the characters must choose a leader for the task. Each additional person helping the leader grants him their teamwork bonus (usually +1 unless modified by Relationships or Prejudices). The maximum number of people who can help the leader on a check is equal to the leader's used skill rank or the median value of his Brains die, whichever is more.
For example, if you have a Brains die of d8 and a skill rank of 3 in the skill you are using, then up to 4 people can help you.
When working together on a raw Attribute roll (ex: a raw Meat roll to move crashed vehicles out of the way), anyone can join. But when working together on a skill check (ex: a Search check to find supplies), then only characters who have this skill at least at rank 1 can participate.

• Learning new skills
In order to avoid having characters pile up a bunch of new skills at rank 1, a player wishing to learn a new skills must first find a teacher (someone with higher level skill than yours and at least at rank 3), before learning the new skill. You must then make a Brains check every day, with a cumulative +1 per day until the check succeeds, in order to learn the skill. This will make finding new survivors important… (require a period of at least 2 weeks before the check is made?)

• Breath
Breath is the amount of stamina your character has. As you perform various action, your character uses up precious energy, and when it's all gone, you run out of breath. When your Breath reaches 0, your character becomes exhausted and cannot perform any action until he can catch his Breath. The following actions will make you lose Breath:
Fighting in melee (see the Combat section).
Are overladen (see the Encumbrance section).
Perform a strenuous action (at the GM's discretion you could lose 0 or 1 Breath on a successful roll and 1 or 2 Breath on a failed roll).
Providing extra effort; you can voluntarily spend 2 Breath to gain a +1 bonus on a Meat, Grace, or Guts-based roll.
Sustained activity such as running, swimming, or forced march (at GM's discretion this could be as little as 1 Breath per hour or as much as 1 Breath per 10 minutes).
Skipping sleep; you will loose 1 Breath per 2 hours of sleep skipped.
When sick (see the Disease section).
When hungry (see the Hunger section).
Resting will allow you to regain some Breath; a 15 minutes break will allow you to recover an amount of Breath equal to a roll of Guts ÷ 2, a 1 hour rest will allow you to recover an amount of Breath equal to a roll of Guts (re-rolling any roll of 1 once), and a full 8 hours of sleep will completely recover all of your Breath (barring any flaws). Some conditions like sickness or hunger might prevent the recuperation of Breath; see their respective sections for more details.
Last edited August 3, 2017 1:34 am
Aug 16, 2015 1:40 am
• Spirit (Despair/Fear/Health)
Spirit represents your character's mental health. It is an abstract measure of his morale, happiness, courage, and sanity. It represents your ability to cope with fear, boredom, stress, and despair. Should it ever reaches 0, you will succumb to severe depression, having lost the will to live and go on in face of such hopelessness and senselessness that is a world where the dead come back to life to feed on the living. You may very well go irrevocably insane; commit suicide or jump into incoming doom; slip into a fugue state; where you refuse to eat, drink, sleep, or move; or simply go to bed one night to never wake up the next day… Whatever the case, a character at 0 Spirit is effectively out of the game.
If you lose half your Spirit, you become so stressed that it starts affecting your health, giving you a -1 penalty on Guts roll to avoid catching an illness, disease, or infection and healing from them. Also healing wounds requires 1 more Healing Point. Spirit will fluctuate wildly during the game, perhaps even more so than Blood because many things can affect it like fear, boredom, health, hunger, hopelessness, etc.
Make a Brains roll to avoid loosing Spirit in the following situations (the type of situation will be indicated in bracket for the purpose of certain Perks and Flaws);
[Fear] First time you get attacked by a zombie (ideal for a "beginning" campaign): lose an amount by which you failed the Brains roll.
[Fear] First time you see zombies feasting on a corpse (ideal for a "beginning" campaign, at the GM's discretion, penalties could be applied depending on the situation, up to a -2 penalty for a particularly gruesome scene or a loved one): lose an amount by which you failed the Brains roll.
[Fear] Seeing zombies feast on a corpse in a particularly gruesome manner (at the GM's discretion, penalties could be applied depending on the situation, up to a -2 penalty for lots of blood and gore or feeding on children, etc.): lose 1 or more points at GM's discretion.
[Fear] Seeing a friend or loved one being killed by a zombie: lose an amount by which you failed your Brains roll.
[Fear] Being surprised by a zombie or being stuck with one or more zombies in close quarters or unlit enclosed area (at the GM's discretion, penalties could be applied depending on the situation, such as being surprised by 3 zombies in a dimly lit sewer maintenance tunnel, up to a -2 penalty): lose an amount by which you failed your Brains roll.
[Fear/Despair] Seeing a large group of zombies at least 3 times as large as the party (particularly large groups or hordes can impose a penalty of -1 or -2 at the GM's discretion): lose an amount by which you failed your Brains roll.
[Fear/Health] Getting wounded: lose 1 point. Only the first wound in any given fight will incur this loss.
[Fear] Being confronted with the object of your phobia: lose 1 or more depending on severity of the phobia at the GM's discretion.
[Despair] Seeing a loved one coming back as a zombie: lose an amount by which you failed your Brains roll.
[Despair] Seeing a child survivor being killed by a zombie, coming back as a zombie, or as a zombie: lose 1 point (can be cumulative with friend or loved one being killed by a zombie or coming back as a zombie above).
[Despair] A day goes by where nothing happens to improve the survivor's situation (entertainment, shelter, supplies, etc): lose 1 point.
[Despair/Health] A day goes by where the character is in bad shape (wounds, hunger, sickness, etc.): lose 1 point (can be cumulative with the lack of improvement in your situation as above).

The following will automatically restore lost Spirit points;
Reading a book, magazine, diary, or notes, listening to music or watching a movie: restores 1 for literature (which can be used once each), 2 or more for music and movies (which can be used by more than 1 person at once and can be used multiple times but cannot restore more Spirit than the item's value and the GM is free to assign them a Noise Rating at his discretion).
Re-experiencing lost comforts such as a warm meal, a hot shower, a comfortable bed, a clean change of clothes, etc. It will restore up to 3 Spirit at the GM's discretion.
Intoxication via alcohol, tobacco, or narcotics will restore up to 3 Spirit at the GM's discretion, but will hamper the character's senses...
Improving your situation dramatically in a way that shows that there is still hope for the future, such as finding a new sanctuary, fortifying the sanctuary with traps or barricades, making a particularly bountiful supply run, turning back the attack of a horde, making peaceful contact with other survivors, saving a child survivor, growing crops, etc. It will restore 1 Spirit per improvement.
Use of the medicine skill, using Wit instead of Brains, can be used to restore lost Spirit following the same rule used for healing lost Blood…
Writing a journal or diary…

The following will regain lost Spirit points depending on their success;
Watching a performance or sporting event organized by other survivors will restore a number of Spirit points equal to their skill roll success margin. It works on the whole audience and participants.

• Encumbrance
Most item your character carries take up 1 Encumbrance Slot. At the GM's discretion, smaller objects could take up 1 Encumbrance Slot for whatever grouping (or fraction thereof) he deems appropriate (such as ammo which takes 1 Encumbrance Slot per 20 units), and very heavy, large, or unwieldy items could take 2 or even 3 Encumbrance Slots. Some will take even more.
You can carry more items than your maximum Encumbrance, overloading yourself. However, when you do, you risk loosing Breath, reducing your Speed, or suffering an injury (Speed loss is cumulative, all other use the highest penalty);
Up to max Encumbrance: no penalties.
+ 50% max Encumbrance: lose 1 Breath per hour, -1 Speed.
+100% max Encumbrance: lose 1 Breath per 10 minutes, Meat roll at +2 to avoid injury.
+150% max Encumbrance: lose 1 Breath per 5 minutes, -1 Speed.
+200% max Encumbrance: lose 1 Breath per minute, Meat roll to avoid injury.
+250% max Encumbrance: lose 1 Breath per round, -1 Speed.
+300% max Encumbrance: cannot move, Meat roll at -2 to avoid injury.
If a character rolls an injury, he loses an amount of Blood equal to 10 – his failed roll of Meat and risk spraining his ankle, throwing his back, or worse.

• Humanity
Humanity is a mix of reputation, the vibe you give off others, how hardened you are, and the loyalty you inspire in others. A high score means other trust you and look up to you, but it also means that they hold you to a higher standard, while a low score means people distrust you and would rather distance themselves from you…

Score / Vibe / Modifier
 0- / Bloodthirsty / -3
1-3 / Ruthless / -2
4-6 / Treacherous / -1
7-9 / Shady / -1
10-12 / Uncaring / +0
13-15 / Neutral / +0
16-18 / Amicable / +0
19-21 / Honest / +1
22-24 / Trustworthy / +1
25-27 / Honorable / +2
28+ / Faultless / +3

The modifier is applied to all Social Skills when dealing with NPCs, with the exception of the Deceit skill. In fact, on the Deceit and Intimidation skills, bonuses are not applied, and penalties become a bonus instead. This only applies to intelligent NPCs and not animals or zombies. This penalty also applies to your base Relationship Points to figure out your total Relationship Points.
In addition, penalties become bonuses (just like for the Deceit and Intimidation skills) on Brain rolls made to avoid loosing Spirit and any amount of Spirit you lose is lowered by an equal amount, to a minimum of 1; after all, once you have become desensitized, it's hard to be scared or shocked by anything anymore...
Finally, your Humanity modifier is used to calculate the maximum amount of Karma Points your character can have. Note that it is entirely possible for characters to end up with a maximum of 0 Karma Points. This is often a trope of the zombie apocalypse movie genre where people who act like total bastards eventually get what's coming to them, often in some gruesome poetic justice…

Things that will make you lose Humanity:
Killing another survivor in cold blood (murder).
Killing an infected survivor before he dies and rise again.
Robbing other survivors of their supplies.
Vile acts (torture, rape, child abuse, etc.).
Resorting to cannibalism to survive.
Leaving another surviver to die when you could have saved him or her (i.e. declining to render aid to someone in a life-threatening situation).
Ending a Relationship (see p.XX for Relationships).
If those acts are perpetrated on an ally, dependent, or someone you're in a Relationship with, you loose an extra amount of Humanity equal to the value of the Relationship.

Things that will make you gain Humanity:
Giving a proper burial to a dead body.
Putting yourself at risk to save the life of another (i.e. committing a selfless act by putting yourself in ham's way for the benefit of other survivors).
Sharing your supplies with other survivors.
Going out of your way to put down the zombie of a former friend or companion ("She doesn't deserve to be one of those things!").
Becoming the guardian/protector/caretaker of someone who can't take care of him or herself (this doesn't count for the dependent flaw at character creation, but would qualify for this flaw if you earn it later during play).
Writing a diary (see p.XX Diary).
(Social interaction with other survivors and succeeding at a Wit roll??)
Last edited August 3, 2017 1:37 am
Aug 16, 2015 1:44 am
• Karma Points
Everybody starts with an amount of Karma Points equal to 3 + their Humanity Modifier. This also determines the maximum amount of Karma Points they can have at any 1 time. Karma Points can be spent to achieve one of the following;
Reroll a failed roll.
Increase die to next highest step for 1 roll (d6 to d8, d8 to d10, d10 to d12, d12 cannot be affected by this).
Can spend a Karma Point to activate the special Key Benefit of a Perk instead of giving the GM a Complication Point.
Absorb (reduce) an amount of damage from one source or attack equal to a roll of Guts (min. 0).
Reduce Spirit loss by a roll of Brains (min. 0).
Regain Breath as if you had rested for 15 minutes (rerolling 1s once).
Give encouragement to another survivor who can see and hear you, granting them a +2 to one of their roll (if not prejudiced against the character, in the case of Relationships, the bonus is increased by the value of the Relationship).
Increase Speed by 2 for 1 round.
Give to or receive the cooperation bonus from someone against whom you are prejudiced.
[Take a hit for another??]

Karma Points are recuperated in the following manner;
When activating the special Key Hindrance of a Flaw, you can choose to regain a Karma Point instead of forcing the GM to discard a Complication Point
When you manage to increase your Humanity Modifier (similarly, lowering your Humanity modifier will make you lose Karma Points).
During certain plot points during an adventure, usually these will require the characters to go out of their way and take unnecessary risks to save other survivors instead of just taking the obvious safe and easy path, but other times these will be as rewards for surviving a particularly difficult part of a scenario.
As adventure awards.

• Character Points
Character Points can be saved up to be used in game to help the character during gameplay. They can be spent to help in certain situations.
Spend 1 CP to gain 2 more Healing Points, Scavenging Points, Rumor Points, etc.
Spend 2 CPs to gain a +1 on a roll.
Spend 2 CPs to gain an item improvement on a successful Scavenging roll.
Spend 2 CPs to heal 1 more Blood when healed.
Spend 3 CPs to absorb (reduce) an amount of damage from one attack equal to a roll of Guts (min. 1).
Spend 4 CPs to reduce Spirit loss by an amount equal to a roll of Brains (min. 1).
Spend 4 CPs to regain 1 spent Karma Point.
Spend 4 CPs to regain 1 Spirit when healed.
Spend 5 CPs to make the GM discard one of his Complication Point.
Spend 5 CPs to regain a Relationship Point. (or to increase Humanity by 1???)

• Relationships
Establishing a Relationship
To establish a relationship with another character, you must spend an entire gaming session or 1 week of game time (whichever is more) establishing the relationship. This time is spent interacting with and getting to know that person better.
When a relationship is established, both characters gain a new Relationship at a value of 1. a character can never have more Relationships with values exceeding his Maximum Relationship Value.

Increasing a Relationship Value
Increasing a value 1 Relationship to a value 2 relationship requires at least 2 game sessions or 2 weeks of game time (whichever is more) to establish. Increasing a value 2 relationship to a value 3 relationship requires at least 2 game sessions or 3 weeks of game time (whichever is more), they also need a Relationship at least at value 1 in common (a mutual friend).

Relationships come in 3 values;
Value / Description
1 / Acquaintance, friends, co-workers, classmates, good neighbors, etc.
2 / Lover, kin (aunt, uncle, niece, nephew, cousin, grandparents), close friends, etc.
3 / Immediate family (spouse, siblings, parents, children), life partner, etc.

Those description are pretty basic examples; nothing more than suggestions and guidelines. You could have a higher-value relationship with your best friend, or a lower-valued relationship with an estranged uncle for example…

Lowering Relationship Values
If your Humanity drops, and you must lower a relationship because your new maximum value is lower than the amount you have in relationships, you must lower one or more relationship right away. Perhaps your character has grown more cold and distant, or the way he is acting is scaring off his friends and loved ones, or perhaps you had a huge argument with someone and are no longer on speaking terms for a while…

Effects of Relationships
The level of the Relationship is the number of Relationship Points you have in a pool in which you or the person you are in a Relationship with can both take from each day. Once depleted, this pool of points will replenish on the morning of the next day. These points can be spent in the following manner;
Spend 1 point to gain a +1 bonus on an action.
Spend 1 point to take a hit for your relationship (you must be standing relatively close for this to work).
Spend 2 points to gain a re-roll on an action.
Spend 3 points to regain a Karma Point or maybe use a Karma Point without spending one.
Spend 3 to gain a +2 on an action.
In order for these benefits to be to be used, the person with whom you're in a relationship must either be present, or the action taken must be directly benefit or be for the betterment of the person you are in a relationship with (such as fighting to protect your relationship). Alternatively, if the person is not present, you need permission from the other character to do so. Either person in the relationship can take from this pool.
Also, when using the helping teamwork or the karma encouragement rule to help the person with whom you are in a relationship, you grant that person a bonus equal to your relationship's level.

Ending a Relationship
A Relationship can be ended at any time by one of the two characters involved in the Relationship simply by stating that they wish to end the Relationship. Both characters gain back the Relationship Points they had invested in the Relationship, and the character who initiated the end of the Relationship loses an amount of Humanity equal to the Relationship's value.

Relationship Ending in Death
If the Relationship ended by the death of one of the partners, the surviving one loses an amount of Spirit equals to the value of the Relationship. If one of the partners of the Relationship was killed by the other partner, the killer loses twice the value of the Relationship in Humanity in addition to the loss of Spirit.
If a character with whom you have a Relationship is turned into one of the dead or dies at the hands of the dead, you take a penalty equal to the Relationship value on the Brains roll to avoid losing Spirit (as per Spirit above).

• Prejudices
Effects of prejudice
A character takes a -1 penalty on social and medical skill rolls when dealing with an NPC against whom he’s prejudiced. When using Karma to give encouragements to someone he’s prejudiced again, a character will give only a +1 bonus, nor can a character can opt to use Karma to take a hit for a character he’s prejudiced against. When working together with a character against whom you’re prejudiced, you must succeed at a Brains roll to grant them a +1 bonus (unless the character opts to spend a Karma Point to automatically give a +1 bonus), on a roll of 1 you instead give them a -1 penalty. Finally, you can establish a Relationship with someone you’re prejudiced against, but it costs you one extra point representing the efforts you must make to overcome your prejudice.
You can regain a Karma Point or make the GM discard a Complication Point by roleplaying your prejudice in such a way that it puts you in trouble or creates friction among the party (be careful though as overdoing it might qualify you for humanity loss).

• Natural Recovery
After a full night of sleep, a character can attempt a roll of Guts to see if he heals. On a success, a character regains 1 lost point of Blood, plus an additional point of lost Blood for every 2 points by which he beats TN 7, up to his maximum Blood score.

• Sleep
Each character need 8 hours of sleep each night to fully recuperate their Breath and be allowed to make a Guts roll for the purpose of natural recovery above. A character can make do with only 6 hours of sleep instead, but he will take a -2 on his Guts check for natural recovery and will be at -1 to all actions for the next 4 hours (minus 1 per point of success from a Meat roll, TN 7, min.1 hour) from grogginess.
If a player needs to wake up during the night (from noise or a fight), that player must make a Perception check with a -2 penalty. Another player can take a Move action during combat to shake or slap the character away (works automatically, no rolls required), with the character suffering from grogginess penalty as normal.
If a player is woken up before he can have a complete full night of sleep and tries to go back to bed, he will require an extra hour of sleep for every such time he gets woken up.

• Diseases, Illnesses, Infections
Zombie bites, gun shots, and hunger are not the only hazards in a zombie apocalypse. With infrastructures gone, people will be more susceptible to infections and falling ill.
Whenever the players are exposed to disease or illness (staying out in the rain for too long, sloshing kneed deep in sewage water, searching a pile of dead bodies, etc.), the character must make a Guts roll in order to not get sick. Depending on the situation, the character could receive a -2 to +2 modifier on his roll (for example wading in sewage water with exposed wounds could net a -2, searching a pile of dead bodies using only rubber gloves and no other protection would be made at only -1, and staying in the rain for long while wearing a nice raincoat and warm clothing could grant a +2).
Now, there are too many real-life diseases, illnesses and infections to list them all here, so you can use the following generic rules to reproduce a lot of them. Simply pick one of more of the symptoms to represent the specific disease or illness the characters have contracted.
Loss of Breath or Blood (or both!), from 1d4 to 1d12.
Reduction of one or more attribute by 1 step (ex: d12 to d10 or d8 to d6) either temporarily or permanently.
Requires a Guts check at a set interval (days or weeks) to prevent further loss or reduction (could also have a -2 to +2 modifier).
Blindness or deafness, either temporary or permanent.
Penalties of -1 or -2 to some or all actions or rolls (ex: all mental actions or all Meat-related rolls).
Coma (the duration can be set or rolled).
Death!
The main exception to this is the zombie infection which is a very specific disease. If a player is bitten or scratched by a zombie (the attack must have made at least 1 point of damage), the player must make a Guts roll (no penalties for scratches, at -1 for bites) Each day, the player must make a Guts roll or have both its Guts and Brains be reduced by 1 step. Intense pains make all the actions at -1. At 0 Brains, the characters slips into a coma until he dies. At 0 Guts, the character is dead. He later rises as a zombie 1 hour later. There is no known cure for the zombie infection and as such, it is very much a death sentence. (this is not that kind of game!).

• Other Hazards
So, what about falling, drowning, and all that other good stuff you may ask? Well, it's right here!
Falling damage is 1d6 per meter fallen. If jumping down from a height, an Athletics check can be made to mitigate the damage, reducing the fallen distance by 1 meter per point the roll exceeded the TN of 7.
If drowning or suffocating, a character starts by loosing 1d6 Breath per round. Once out of Breath, the character starts loosing Blood instead. Note that this loss of Blood is temporary, and if the character is rescued before he dies, he will recuperate half of the amount of Blood lost to suffocation after a 15 minutes rest. If the character has not been dead for too long (a few minutes at most), he could be brought back via CPR (a First-Aid roll), but in such case, the character will only regain a quarter of the Blood lost to suffocation (the reanimation attempt counting for the 15 minutes break).

• The Diary
After each session, the players must write a diary to record their trials in the zombie apocalypse and as a testament that they are still alive (doing this between sessions, on their own time, is a great opportunity for this). This is a group effort and the players can proceed however they want (perhaps they vote for a record keeper in the group or they each write a few lines or a small paragraph). In order to have any effect, the diary must be at least 1 page long and be legible to the GM.
When writing the diary, the players must state certain facts as being true and underline them. Each facts can have 1 of the following effects. Choose one effect and who will benefit from the effect. In the case of a group of 5 or more players, choose 2. No effect can be picked more than once at a time and no effect can be picked 2 times in a row.
For example, the group writes the diary for the session and decide to underline the fact that the zombies have became somewhat slow and sluggish as of late. They then decide this will force their GM to discard on of his Complication Points.
Restore an amount of Blood equal to a roll of Guts.
Restore an amount of Spirit equal to a roll of Brains.
Increase Humanity by an amount equal to a roll of Wit.
Give one extra CP for the purpose of increasing a specific skill or buying a specific Perk or buying off a specific Flaw.
Generate Rumor Points equal to a roll of Wit.
Regain a Karma Point.
Make the GM discard a Complication Point.
Generate a rumor that can improve Relationship between 2 survivors.
(If I ever make a Fort Zombie campaign with this; turn a new survivor into a key??)

• Character Progression
After each gaming session, you can give your players a handful of CPs. The amount of CP you give them depends on many factors;
Give them 1 CP for surviving the session.
Give them 1 CP if they fought anything or if they avoided a fight through diplomacy or other means.
Give them 1 CP if they built or repaired anything.
Give them 1 CP if they added any survivors to their party (not counting new player characters who are replacement for dead ones).
Give them 1 CP if anyone in the party learned a new skill.
Give them 1 or 2 CPs for a particularly brilliant idea which helped the party greatly.
Give them 1 or 2 CPs for particularly good roleplaying or problem solving.

Spending CPs
To increase skill rank, you must spend a number of experience points equal to twice the new rank you're increasing your skill rank to (ex: from rank 2 to rank 3 costs 6 CPs). You cannot skip ranks (ex: you cannot skip from rank 3 to rank 5, you must still buy rank 4 before).
To increase your Attributes, spend a number of experience points equal to thrice the new die value. (ex: from d6 to d8 costs 24 CPs [3x8]). You cannot skip die steps (ex: from d8 to d12, you must still buy d10 first). Increased Attributes will not affect Secondary Attributes which are increased as follows;
To buy a new Perk, or buy off a Flaw, you must spend 5 CPs (with GM's approval).
To increase your Blood, you must spend 10 CPs per point of Blood you buy.
To increase your Death value, you must spend 8 CPs per points.
To increase your Speed, you must spend 7 CPs per points of Speed you buy.
To increase your Breath, you must spend 4 CPs per point of Breath you buy.
To increase your Spirit, You must spend 9 CPs per points of Spirit you buy.
To increase your Encumbrance, you must spend 6 CPs per point of Encumbrance you buy.
To increase your Humanity, you must spend (??)
Last edited August 3, 2017 1:40 am
Aug 16, 2015 2:00 am
Combat

• Attacking and Defending
Attacking an opponent consists of a basic skill roll. The attacker rolls the Combat Skill appropriate to the weapon used against the base TN of 7. The defender can roll Acrobatics to dodge the attack if he's aware of the attack and has any Minor Actions remaining, see Combat Round below.

• Hit location
When scoring a hit on an opponent, roll 1d12 to determine which location is hit;
12 – head
11-10 - left arm
9-8 - right arm
7-5 – torso
4-3 - left leg
2-1 right leg
In the case of animal opponents, simply read results of "arms" as "front legs", and results of "legs" as "rear legs".

• Effects of Wounds on Hit Locations
Each hit locations have 2 thresholds. When a location is disabled, it remains so for 24 minus a roll of Meat in hours.

• Head: If you lose 50% of your Blood at that location, you must succeed a Guts roll to avoid loosing consciousness, if you succeed, you still take a -1 penalty to all actions. If it reaches 0 Blood, you die.

• Arms: If you lose 50% of your Blood at that location, you take a -1 on Combat Skills. If it reaches 0 Blood, you must succeed at a Guts roll to avoid loosing your arm (and effectively gain the Missing Limb Flaw), if you succeed, you still loose the use of that arm for the normal disabled duration.

• Torso: If you lose 50% of your Blood at that location, you temporarily lose 2 points of maximum Breath and Encumbrance. If it reaches 0 Blood, you die.

• Legs: If you lose 50% of your Blood at that location, you loose 2 points of Speed. If it reaches 0 Blood, you must succeed at a Guts roll to avoid loosing your leg (and effectively gain the Missing Limb Flaw), if you succeed, you still fall prone and can only crawl around for the normal disabled duration.

(Optional Rule) Broken Bones
Using this optional rule, if a hit location gets disabled or if it gets destroyed but the character and the limb survives, there is a small choice that a some bones will be broken. When the location is disabled, the player can roll a Meat +2 roll to avoid having his bones broken. Wen the location is destroyed, but the character is still alive and the limb is not lost, the Meat roll is not made at -2. On a failure, some bones get broken. Broken bones means the disabled penalty for that location will last until the injury heals (as well as other possible penalties, such as having difficulty climb a ladder with a broken arm or leg, as per the GM's discretion), which will take 28 days minus a roll of Guts in days. The character may also need some sort of cast or splint (or maybe even complete bed rest).
Broken bones could also result from other dangers or hazards, such as a bad fall, or being too overladen.
If this option is used, Pack Mule will give a +2 bonus to this roll to avoid broken bones when overladen, and Glass Jaw will give a -2 on this roll.

• Called Shots
It is possible to make called shots to hit a desired specific location in combat by increasing the TN as follows;
Torso +1 TN
Legs +2 TN
Arms +3 TN
Head +4 TN
In order to hit a location without increasing your TN, see the Aiming option below.

• Combat Round
A combat round is an abstract period of time lasting anywhere from 3 to 10 seconds depending on the actions taken and the number of people involved in a fight. During a combat round, the characters can perform the following actions, in any order;

• 1 Skill Action: Making a single melee or ranged attack, using First-Aid, try to lift or push something, scanning the surroundings using the Perception skill to see if more zombies have been attracted by the fight, etc. A Skill Action consists of anything that requires the use of either a skill roll or a raw Attribute roll (with the exception of Acrobatics check made for the purpose of dodging an attack which requires a Minor Action).

• 1 Move Action: Moving up to your full Speed as well as some other movement-related actions.

• 1 Minor Action: Drawing or sheathing a weapon, loading a firearm, aiming, falling prone or kneeling/sitting, standing up from prone or from a kneeling/sitting position, handing off an item to another player, dodging an attack, looking all around, etc. Minor Actions are miscellaneous small actions that a character can take during a fight and which are not covered by Skill or Move Actions.

• Any number of Free Actions: Talking, taking an item that was readied or handed to you by another character, etc. Free Actions, like Minor Actions, are other small miscellaneous actions that can be taken during the fight, but unlike Minor Actions, Free Actions can be performed quickly or in such a small amount of time that they are, for simplicity's sake, considered free and do not count against a character's allotted actions during a combat round.

A character can sacrifice his Move Action to gain 1 more Skill Action in the round or vice versa. A character can also sacrifice his Skill Action or Move Action to gain an extra Minor Action (they can even give up both to gain 2 more Minor Actions), but the opposite is not possible.

List of action that can be performed in combat:
Action / Type of Action / Special
Administer First-Aid / Skill
Aiming / Minor / Can be taken multiple time
Climbing in or exiting a vehicle, mounting or dismounting / Move / Can become Minor Action with Acrobatics or Ride check
Climbing, crawling, swimming / Move / Movement is halved but can be increased with Athletics check
Changing grip, switching hand / Minor
Dodging or weaving an attack / Minor / Requires both an Acrobatics check as well as the free space to do so
Draw or sheathe a weapon / Minor / Limited by amount of free hands
Driving, piloting, riding / Skill
Drop an item / Free
Encouraging another survivor / Minor / Requires the expenditure of a Karma Point
Fall prone, kneel, or sit / Minor
Hand over an item / Minor / Limited by amount of free hands
Harrying a flanked target / Minor
Jumping / Skill / Still limited by Speed, if jump distance is longer than speed, jump gets resolved next round
Lifting, pushing, shoving, and other similar feats of strength / Skill
Look all around / Minor / Reduce movement and Perception checks by -2
Melee attack / Skill
Move 2 meters / Minor / Only if not using Move Action to move this round
Move up to your full Speed / Move
Opening or closing a door / Minor
Picking a lock or disarming a trap / Skill / Failure in disarming a trap may have undesirable consequences
Ranged attack / Skill
Reload a firearm / Minor
Retrieving an item / Minor / Limited by amount of free hands
Speak / Free / Can be Minor or Move Action if speech is long enough
Stand up / Minor
Taking a readied or handed item / Free / Still limited by amount of free hands

• Aiming
When aiming, you take 1 (or more) Minor Action(s) to make your next attack more accurate. You gain a bonus of +1 on your attack roll per Minor Action spent aiming, up to your weapon's Acc (see the equipment section p.XX).
You can even modify the result of your hit location by aiming. For each Minor Actions spent aiming, you can modify your rolled hit location by up to a like amount.
For example, if you spent 3 Minor Actions to aim, you could modify the hit location you rolled by up to 3.
There is technically no limitation on how long you can spend aiming other than the circumstances (with the possible exception of the maximum bonus you can obtain on your attack roll using your weapon's Acc); a long range sniper who's hidden can probably take all the time in the world to pull of a perfect shot, but a police officer shooting at an approaching shambling corpse probably can't afford to aim for too long before taking the shot…
You can even aim for melee attacks, but since you're going to engage enemies in melee (most likely the legions of the dead), spending too much time aiming is probably unwise…

• Looking All Around
Your character can normally only see what's in front of him (in a 180 degree arc). However you can declare that you are looking all around, taking the time to look over your shoulders from time to time, allowing you to see all around you (in a 360 degree circle). However, Looking All Around comes with two small drawbacks.
First, since you're constantly turning around to look behind you, your movement rate is reduced by 2 while you are Looking All Around. Second, it is still possible for something to go by quickly unnoticed while your head is turned, reflected by taking a -2 penalty to visual Perception rolls while Looking All Around.

• Nonlethal Damage
When fighting in melee, you can choose to inflict nonlethal damage on your opponent, by taking a -2 penalty on your attack roll. You inflict damage on your opponent's Breath instead of his Blood.
Once the target runs out of Breath (weather through nonlethal damage or exhaustion), You will inflict Blood damage instead. As soon as you inflict at least 1 point of Blood damage from a nonlethal attack on a target which ran out of Breath, it falls unconscious. For 12 minus a roll of Meat hours (minimum 30 minutes).
If the target already had Blood damage when you inflict nonlethal Blood damage to it, you cannot make it fall below 0 Blood.
Note that zombies are absolutely immune to nonlethal damage.

• Flanking, Blind Siding, and Swarming
A character can only keep track of 3 opponents at a time while engaged in melee. Any opponents above that are attacking the character's blind side (blind siding). Acrobatics checks made to dodge an attack from your blind side is done at -2.
Only up to 6 opponents can effectively engage a character in melee without getting in each other's way (3 in front, and 3 behind). However, some creatures (and zombies) will not care about such restrictions, in which case they'll be swarming the opponent.
At least two opponents can work together to flank a target. Doing so require that both attackers be on either side of the target and all flanking attackers must spend a Minor Action to harry the target. Defending from flanking attacks is done at -1 (possibly in addition to the blind siding penalty if one of the flanking attackers is in the target's blind side).
Creatures with the special swarm attack rule can...
Last edited August 3, 2017 1:48 am
Aug 16, 2015 5:34 pm
Equipment

• Weapons
Weapon Description

Note that the various statistics of each weapons are not set in stone and can be tinkered with as the GM sees fit. For example, if the characters find a titanium crowbar instead of a steel crowbar—which are lighter and more durable than steel ones—the GM could decide to increase the durability to 11 and remove the Exhausting special ability. Another example would be a player building a zip gun which will have statistics that are below what a normal firearm would have. This was done because of the vast variety of weapons, improvised or otherwise, one could potentially pick up to fend off the zombie hordes during a zombie apocalypse.
Also, it can be especially handy when it comes to firearms where models will differ greatly from one another, and the models listed here will be a very "broad and generic" estimation of what each major categories of firearms could look like and how they possibly could perform in the game.

Weapon description follows this formula;
Weapon Name: The exact type of weapon or item that character has found and/or is using.
Damage (Dam): The amount of damage the weapon does on a successful hit. For ranged weapons, this will be a set number of dice to roll, for melee weapons, this will usually be a set modifier to be added to a Meat roll.
In the case of firearms, damage dice can explode, which means that if a die rolls its maximum value, it is rerolled, and the result of the rerolled die is added to the total amount of damage the weapon inflicts. There is no limit to the amount of time a firearm damage die can be rerolled, so long as it keeps rolling its maximum value. Which makes firearms extremely deadly, and valuable, in this game.
Fatigue (Ftg): How much using the weapon will fatigue the user. This number will indicate how many rounds the character can fight in melee using this weapon before he starts loosing Breath. After that amount of "free rounds" has elapsed, the character will start loosing 1 Breath per continued round of fighting.
Durability (Dur): An abstract measure of how long the weapon can be used and abuse before finally breaking. When scoring max damage, the weapon's durability goes down by 1. Similarly, other abuse will lower the durability by 1 at the GM's discretion.
Encumbrance (Enc): The amount of Encumbrance points the weapon takes up.
Special/Tag: Special abilities or tags the weapon has. Some special abilities will have an asterisk (*) noted next to them. This means that a weapon may or may not possess this ability, at the GM's discretion. For example, the GM could decide that the character finds a kitchen knife, which is not balanced to be thrown. The list of special abilities or tags are as follows;
• [Agile]: The weapon can be used with the Agile talent.
• [Burst]: The weapon can be fired in burst, doing so uses 5 ammo, adds 1 die of damage, and also make its damage dice explode on second-highest result. Firing a weapon in burst more adds -3 to the weapon's recoil penalty. Firing a weapon in burst halves its RoF for the round.
• [Exhausting]: The weapon is bulky or awkward to use and exhausts the character faster. it costs 2 Breath per turn of use instead of just 1. However, a character that has the Fit or Weapon Master Perk or 5 ranks in the appropriate weapon skill will negate this penalty.
• [Exploding Die]: The weapon is very deadly and its extra damage die can explode like a firearm's.
• [Explosive:] Those weapons propel an explosive device to a distance, hence, unlike other firearms, they do not lose damage with range. It affects everything in the radius of the explosion. The redius in meter is equal to half the damage rolled.
• [Fuel]: The weapon requires fuel or power to use properly instead of ammo. After the weapon is fired, the character must make a fuel check to see if you managed the fuel efficiently. A fuel check is a Brains roll. After 5 such failures, the weapon is out of fuel.
• [Martial Arts]: The weapon can be used with the Martial Art talent.
• [Melee]: The weapon can also be used in melee adding the number in parenthesis to a roll of Meat for melee damage.
• [Noise]: The weapon is very noisy or flashy, much like a firearm. The number in parenthesis will be the weapon's NR (see Noise Rating below).
• [Reach]: The weapon has reach, allowing you to attack an enemy 2 meters away rather than needing to be next to it.
• [Recoil]: The weapon has greater recoil than usual, imposing a penalty of -2 per extra shot rather than the normal -1.
• [Spread]: The weapon damages all targets in a 45 degree angle, but loose potency quickly with range. For every range increments beyond the first, the weapon also takes a -1 to it's damage total in addition of loosing damage die (min, 1 damage).
• [Stacks]: The weapon's damage stacks if more than one are used at once.
• [Thrown]: The weapon can also be thrown at a range of 10 meters.
• [Tool]: The weapon was originally designed to be used as a tool. At the GM's discretion, in situations where it could be useful when used as a tool, this weapon will grant a +1 bonus on action rolls.
• [Wraps]: The can wrap around limbs, allowing to trip or disarm opponents with a contested Meat roll??
Accuracy (Acc): How accureat the weapon is when you try to aim with it. When aiming, you gain a +1 bonus to your attack roll, up to the weapon's Acc bonus (see combat section p.XX)
Range (Rng): The range (in meters) at which which the weapon can be thrown/fired. For each range increments beyond the first, the attack roll is done at -1 and the weapon's damage is at -1 die.
Ammo: The amount of munitions held in the weapon. Basically, the amount of shot one can make with the weapon before needing to reload it.
Noise Rating (NR): Noise Rating (NR for short) is an abstract measure of how much noise and/or light a weapon produces, how far away it can be heard or seen, and how susceptible it is to attract more zombies (a simple number that indicate both at how many kilometers the shot can be heard under ideal conditions (calm, cold, clear day in open fields), but also the bonus others can add to their Perception roll to hear or see the weapon when used).
If there are no zombies in the immediate vincinity, roll 1d12 under the weapon's Noise Rating. If the roll is below the noise rating, this will will be the number of zombies attracted by the noise who will arrive in that amount of minutes. For example, a character fired a gun with an NR of 6. The GM rolls 1d12 and the roll come up 2. This means 2 zombies will arrive in 2 minutes, atracted by the noise the gun made.
Rate of Fire (RoF): This is the number of shot a character can take with a ranged weapon in a round. If the character chooses to take more than one shot in the round (one attack roll per shot, unless firing a burst), each shot he'll make, beyoud the first will impose a cumulative -1 penalty on his successive attack rolls.
Firearm recoil can be lessend with a high Meat die. The amount of recoil penalty which can be negated are as follows;
Meat Die / Recoil ignored
d6 / None
d8 / 1
d10 / 3
d12 / 5

A Note About Firearm Ammunition
There is really no hard and fast rule about the types of ammo the firearms can use in this game. You can be as vague or as specific as you choose, simly stating that players find "ammo", or making dinstinction between the various calibers. But be aware that if you're too specific with the ammunition types, your players might end up being stuck using their firearms as glorified clubs.
There is technically nothing wrong with that if this is the sort of game you're going for (and the game is supposed to be ruthless and unforgiving anyways), but then again the game is going to be hard enough on your players as it is without the need to add even more difficulty to it.
If you are not too gun saavy (like me), simply use the default denominations of "pistol/handgun ammo", "rifle ammo", "shotgun shells", and "assault rifle/weapon ammo". This should work well enough, be an acceptable compromise to realism, and still make the game hard enough for players who are not too careful when it comes to conserving ammo.

Weapons Improvements
Some items and modifications are also available to improve the performance of some weapons when installed on them.
Bayonet: A long knife which can be affixed to the end of a rifle. Applying this to a rifle or assault rifle will give it the [Melee (3)] tag.
Laser Sight: Applying this to a handgun or, rifle, or a crossbow will increase its Acc by 2.
Sawed-off: Sawing off the barrel and stock of a shotgun will reduce its range to 3 and reduce its damage by 2. On the up side, it also reduce its Encumbrance by 1.
Scope: Applying this to a handgun or a rifle will lower the penalty for shooting beyond the first range increment by 2 (min. 0).
Suppressor: Unlike the movie silencers which reduce the noise made by firearms to a cat sneeze, real life suppressors only slightly reduce the noises made by firearms. Applying this to a firearm will reduce its NR by 1.

(Optional Rule) Strafing
Strafing is something which can be done with firearms which can be shot in burst mode and a flamethrower. When strafing, the character sweeps the barrel of his gun while firing it, sweeping an area as his sole action for the round (no movement either).
A flamthrower will affect eveyone in a 45 degrees cone instead of a straight line and require 2 fuel checks. A burst weapon will instead affect an area of up to 4 meters by 12 meters within the weapon's first range increment. Doing so takes up 10 ammo and forces everyone in teh affected area to make a Grace or Acrobatics check or take the weapon's damage lowered by 2 dice.

(Optional Rule) Stopping Power
In real life, firearms have somtehing called "stopping power", the ability that a gun has to simply stop a person shot by it in his tacks fro the transfer of kinetic energy from a bullet travelling at high velocity to a stationary (or nearly so, compared to the speed of the bullet) target.
If using this rule, [Stopping Power] is a tag added to firearms (and some bows and crossbows). When hit by a weapon with a Stopping Power, a target must succeed at a Meat roll at a TN equal to the median value of the firearm's damage die (ex: a light handgun would be TN 3 [6÷2=3] while a hunting rifle would be TN 4 [8÷2=4]) in order to remain standing up and avoid falling prone. Shotguns add 1 to this TN and burst weapons add 2. This TN is decreased by 1 for each range increment beyond the first.
If using this optional rule, Hard To Kill grants you a +2 to your Meat roll to resist a firearm's stopping power, and Feeble give you a -2 penalty for that roll.

(Note, I'll try to put in the bloody weapons table once I can make a table that actually look okay on here...)
Last edited August 18, 2015 9:10 pm
Aug 20, 2015 4:50 pm
Since we can't make tables yet, I'll try and post the weapons here and see how they turn out... The armors are still very much (WIP) so I won't be posting them here just yet...

Melee Weapons
Weapon Name / Dam / Ftg / Enc / Dur / Acc / Special/Tag

Bare Fists / * / 7 / N/A / N/A / +4 / Agile, Martial Arts
Large Flashlight/Rifle or Pistol Butt / -1 / 5 / 1 / 9 / +3
Whip / +0 / 5 / 1 / 8 / +1 / Agile, Reach, Wraps
Brass Knuckles / +0 / 6 / 1 / 10 / +4 / Agile, Martial Arts
Improvised Club / +1 / 5 / 1 / 8 / +2 / Exhausting*, Tool*
Knife / +1 / 6 / 1 / 10 / +4 / Agile, Martial Arts*, Thrown*
Improvised Spear / +2 / 5 / 2 / 7 / +3 / Reach, Tool*
Improvised Flail/ Whip / +2 / 5 / 1 / 8 / +1 / Exhansting, Reach*, Wraps*
Nunchucks / +2 / 5 / 1 / 8 / +1 / Martial Arts
Shovel/Entranching Tool / +2 / 4 / 2 / 8 / +2 / Thrown*, Tool
Clubs / +2 / 5 / 1 / 9 / +2 / Exhausting*, Martial Arts*, Reach*
Hatchet / +2 / 5 / 1 / 9 / +2 / Thrown
Improvised Mace / +3 / 5 / 1 / 7 / +2 / Exhausting*
Spear/Pitchfork / +3 / 5 / 2 / 8 / +3 / Reach
Machette / +3 / 5 / 1 / 9 / +3
Hefty Tool / +3 / 4 / 2 / 10 / +1 / Exhausting*, Tool
Fencing Sword/Short Sword / +4 / 5 / 2 / 10 / +4 / Agile*, Exhausting*
Axe/Pick / +5 / 5 / 2 / 8 / +1 / Exhausting, Tool*
Broadsword/Longsword / +5 / 4 / 3 / 10 / +2 / Exhausting
Two-Handed Sword / +6 / 4 / 4 / 10 / +1 / Exhausting
Katana / +6 / 5 / 3 / 8 / +3 / Agile, Martial Arts
Chainsaw / +2d6** / 5 / 3 / 9 / +2 / Exploding Die, Fuel, Noise (3)
* Bare Fist damage is Meat ÷ 2, rounded up.

Firearms
Weapon Name / Dam / Rng / Enc / Ammo / NR / RoF / Acc / Special/Tag

Hold Out Pistol / 2d4 / 5 / 1 / 2 / 4 / 1 / +1
Light Handgun / 2d6 / 10 / 1 / 10 / 4 / 6 / +1
Large Handgun / 2d8 / 20 / 2 / 15 / 5 / 6 / +2 / Recoil
Hunting Rifle / 3d8 / 30 / 2 / 20 / 6 / 1 / +3 / Recoil
Sniper Rifle / 3d10 / 40 / 2 / 20 / 6 / 4 / +4
Assault Rifle / 3d10 / 30 / 3 / 30 / 7 / 10 / +3 / Burst, Recoil
Hunting Shotgun / 3d6 / 5 / 2 / 2 / 10 / 2 / +1 / Spread, Recoil
Combat Shotgun / 3d8 / 5 / 2 / 8 / 11 / 3 / +1 / Spread, Recoil
Light Assault Weapon / 4d8 / 20 / 2 / 30 / 8 / 10 / +2 / Burst, Recoil
Heavy Assault Weapon / 4d10 / 20 / 3 / 50 / 9 / 10 / +2 / Burst, Recoil
Grenade Launcher / 2d8* / 20 / 3 / 6 / 12 / 1 / N/A / Explosive
Mortar / 2d10* / 30 / 4 / 1 / 12 / 1 / N/A / Explosive
Rocket Launcher / 3d10* / 30 / 4 / 1 / 12 / 1 / N/A / Explosive
Flamethrower / 2d6** / 5** / 5 / N/A / 8 / 1 / N/A / Fuel
* On all hit locations.
** Hits all enemies in a 5 meters line and on all hit locations, does not explode.

Other Weapons
Weapon Name / Dam / Rng / Enc / Ftg / RoF / Acc / Special/Tag

Thrown Weights / 1d4 / 10 / 1 / 4 / 1 / +1 / Exhausting
Throwing Axes/Kinves / 1d6 / 15 / 1 / 5 / 2 / +2 / Melee (2)
Bow / 1d8 / 60 / 2 / 8 / 1 / +2
Crossbow / 1d10 / 45 / 2 / N/A / 1 / +3
Molotov cocktail / 1d6* / 10 / 1 / 6 / 1 / +1 / Explosive, Noise (3)
Stick of Dynamite / 2d6* / 10 / 1 / 6 / 2 / +1 / Exploding Die, Explosive, Noise (11), Stacks
Grenade / 2d8* / 15 / 1 / 6 / 2 / +1 / Exploding Die, Exploxive, Noise (12)
Mine / 2d8** / N/A / 1 / N/A / N/A / N/A / Exploding Die, Noise (10)
* On all hit locations.
** On the hit location which stepped on the mine and one adjacent hit location at random.
Last edited August 20, 2015 5:04 pm
Dec 16, 2017 5:36 pm
Don't worry guys, I'm still working on this, but having tried to post the "weapons table" and seeing how much of a mess it turned out to be, I'll try to get a pdf done at some point in between RL and my other projects and link it here instead.

You do not have permission to post in this thread.