Zombies, anyone?

[Putraack]

I was brainstorming with myself over something to run this summer for my 13-year-old and his pals. One of the games I'd like to introduce them to is, of course, Traveller.

What themes? Zombies appear to be popular in the media this year (decade), could that be done?

Does anyone know of a treatment for the unliving in Traveller, Challenge/JTAS, or other?

Backup idea is to use the new 2300AD, and throw Kaefers at them. Those are spooky enough for me!

 

[Dragoner]

I made an adventure with them and uploaded it in the file library here:

http://www.travellerrpg.com/CotI/Discuss/showthread.php?t=24968

 

[Spinward Scout]

What themes? Zombies appear to be popular in the media this year (decade), could that be done?

Funny you should say that. This was on my Facebook feed yesterday.

http://furiousfanboys.com/2012/03/the-zombie-apocalypse-has-begun-in-africa

It's sad that it's happening. It almost sounds like they need some sort of medical steroid or something to 'snap them out of it'.

But I'm sure it could be used in Traveller. Even if it's just a background TNS article.

 

[Carlobrand]

There was an interesting Larry Niven story, if I recall: Night on Mispec Moor. Humans had settled a world where a particular variety of plant spread itself by infecting people and other animal species and remaining dormant until they died - whereupon it activated, re-triggered their body and lower brain functions, and used them to move to some ideal growing location, where they collapsed, gradually rotted as dead things are wont to do, and became excellent plant food.

The unlucky protagonist - a mercenary who survived a battle and found himself outside the walls of the town after dark - found himself amid wartorn corpses apparently rising up from the dead. Unfortunately, having died in battle, their recently deceased and therefore very damaged brains could only recall pursuing violence, so ...

 

[Whipsnade]

The unlucky protagonist - a mercenary who survived a battle and found himself outside the walls of the town after dark - found himself amid wartorn corpses apparently rising up from the dead. Unfortunately, having died in battle, their recently deceased and therefore very damaged brains could only recall pursuing violence, so ...

Not quite. The spore, fungus, whatever reanimates the bodies and moves them about to infect other hosts. The fact that the recently dead were mercs has nothing to do with it. How Niven's hero defeats the "zombies"...

Spoiler:

he uses an off-world broad spectrum antibiotic he had brought with him in the hopes he could make money as a mercenary corpsmen

... is typically and delightfully Niven.

Anyway, I'd avoid zombies like the plague - no pun intended - because everybody and his simple-minded brother are using zombies in everything they possibly can. Certain pathetic assclowns have even re-written Jane Austen to include zombies.

Zombies are to the last decade what avocado green and harvest gold were to the 1970s. In the very near future, people are to look back and say "What the f*ck were they thinking?"

Go with the Kafers for two good reasons. First, GDW built them with at least some attempt at realism. There are biochemical and cultural reasons for their behavior instead of the dead rising because of Plan 9, gamma rays, unknown disease 141, Hollywood can't think of anything original, etc.

Second, your 13-year-old and his pals are going to try to treat the Kafers like zombies because they don't know any better and that should make for some interesting gaming!

 

[AndreaV]

I was brainstorming with myself over something to run this summer for my 13-year-old and his pals. One of the games I'd like to introduce them to is, of course, Traveller.

What themes? Zombies appear to be popular in the media this year (decade), could that be done?

Does anyone know of a treatment for the unliving in Traveller, Challenge/JTAS, or other?

Backup idea is to use the new 2300AD, and throw Kaefers at them. Those are spooky enough for me!

Sadly I do, MgT's campaign guide goes into zombies at some length (along with dragons, goblins and other assorted fantasy staples). Only problem is you have to buy the steaming pile of feldergarb.

 

[Putraack]

Zombies are to the last decade what avocado green and harvest gold were to the 1970s. In the very near future, people are to look back and say "What the f*ck were they thinking?"

Well, there is that. I did manage to avoid the weepy vampires and brooding drow phases of the '90s, I can dodge this one, too. Maybe I should let them make up their own game for that. I keep encouraging that....

Go with the Kafers for two good reasons. First, GDW built them with at least some attempt at realism. There are biochemical and cultural reasons for their behavior ...
Second, your 13-year-old and his pals are going to try to treat the Kafers like zombies because they don't know any better and that should make for some interesting gaming!

Yeah, there is that, too. Kaefers kick ass, and the aliens in 2300 were among the most un-human I'd ever run into.

 

[rancke]

Infectious undead zombies have no place in Traveller, but drugged into near-mindless shambling zombies could work, as could infectious out-of-their-skull-with-fever zombies.


Hans

 

[Dragoner]

Anything has a place in Traveller, it is just a game system, why place limits on imagination? It kills the game.

 

[mike wightman]

The zombies could be animated by a disembodied psionic entity seeking a new host

 

[Spinward Scout]

Infectious undead zombies have no place in Traveller, but drugged into near-mindless shambling zombies could work, as could infectious out-of-their-skull-with-fever zombies.

How about techno-virus reanimated and mind controlled Army of the Dead zombies with power armor and energy weapons?

 

[MCEvans]

Infectious undead zombies have no place in Traveller, but drugged into near-mindless shambling zombies could work, as could infectious out-of-their-skull-with-fever zombies.


Hans

Don't forget about werewolves, vampires and ghosts
So along these lines there are some Amber Zones from JTAS and Challange
DA3 - Death Station, DA1 - Annic Nova could have this feel

 

[Dragoner]

I used a cyborg-virus, but it could be anything a GM wants it to be.

 

[aramis]

I used a cyborg-virus, but it could be anything a GM wants it to be.

A cymbeline chip that was adapted with a Neural Interface...

 

[Carlobrand]

Infectious undead zombies have no place in Traveller, but drugged into near-mindless shambling zombies could work, as could infectious out-of-their-skull-with-fever zombies.

Nonsense.

On an isolated medical research asteroid, a promising experimental medical nanobot, a treatment intended to repair the damage of aging in the body, appeared to have failed; patients injected with the nanobots died. The deceased patients were shipped off to the morgue - only to come to life later, brains poorly repaired, utterly psychotic, berserk fury, insensitive to pain and injury until blood loss or the destruction of brain or heart make it impossible for them to function.

You are trapped on the asteroid, in the docking bay. You and your crew were delivering supplies when things went bonkers. You haven't been able to reach anyone human in the base - all your information comes from the base computer. The vids that the computer shows you speak to scenes of carnage and chaos, survivors trapped in isolated chambers and berserk fiends wandering the corridors. You not only have to survive, you have to find a way to destroy the nanobots and persuade the base AI that you've accomplished that, because the base AI has implemented strict quarantine protocols and is programmed to implement sanitation protocols in 24 hours - which is a polite way of saying a nuclear device will totally eradicate the base. The AI refuses to open the docking bay doors and has warned that it will trigger the nuke immediately if you attempt to force your way out. The AI will help you within the limits of its programming, but it is only a computer - your fate is in your hands.

Well, at least you have your ship's locker.

 

[Spinward Scout]

a promising experimental medical nanobot, a treatment intended to repair the damage of aging in the body, appeared to have failed; patients injected with the nanobots died.

Sounds like something that could cause a glitch in an AutoDoc program. I wonder how the AutoDoc would react to a foreign nanobot.

 

[AndreaV]

Infectious undead zombies have no place in Traveller, but drugged into near-mindless shambling zombies could work, as could infectious out-of-their-skull-with-fever zombies.

Hans

I seem to recall a MT era TNS thread about a retrovirus turning people into mindless zombies. Anybody else recall the details? (I'm away from my trav library at the moment).

 

[Enoki]

Something like a rabies disease. It is a whole body infection and effects the cognitave portion of the brain making the infected person incapable of higher reasoning. The person is driven partially mad and wants to bite / eat uninfected persons. As the disease only effects humans....

You can add it causes the body much like hepatitus or jaundice to shut down various organs causing the skin to grey, sores and legions to form as the immune system stops working, etc. Progression of the disease could take hours to days to weeks depending on your choice of how virulent you want it to be.
If you go for weeks then the players have a chance to try and find a cure for those in the party that become infected......

Being bitten or coming in contact with a diseased person in some more than casual manner (getting splashed with their fluids in the mouth, eyes, etc., prolonged exposed contact like say by a doctor examining a dead one, or similar) transmits the disease.

Killing them requires a head shot to finish the neural activity left over. Hitting them anywhere else has limited effect as they don't feel pain or react to serious wounds.

You get zombies.....

 

[rancke]

On an isolated medical research asteroid, a promising experimental medical nanobot, a treatment intended to repair the damage of aging in the body, appeared to have failed; patients injected with the nanobots died. The deceased patients were shipped off to the morgue - only to come to life later, brains poorly repaired, utterly psychotic, berserk fury, insensitive to pain and injury until blood loss or the destruction of brain or heart make it impossible for them to function.

Nonsense. A body is an extremely delicate machine and 'dead' is another word for 'broken'. Muscles won't work properly if the blood doesn't flow and the lungs don't draw breath. Can you even induce muscle spasms with electricity in humans the way you can with frogs? In any case such spasms would be a) uncordinated and b) cease in a few seconds or minutes. And if you've been dead for 30 minutes, the brain is already destroyed.

Oh, and muscles and tendons are not immune to being severed. It tends to render them inoperable even in live people.


Hans

 

[Dragoner]

A cymbeline chip that was adapted with a Neural Interface...

Virus zombies.

The movie Virus also had pretty cool zombies

Though that is interesting, you possibly would have two consciousnesses wrestling for control. Though if virus had developed far enough, it could be like Saberhagen's Beserkers.