Infection Z ~ What's This?

I've been looking for a solo play zombie apocalypse game for some time and I've yet to find a truly solo game. I decided last year to write my own rules but I got to a certain point and lost interest. Recently I've been playing Rangers of Shadow Deep (which is solo fantasy) and I've really been enjoying the game. So, I decided to modify RoSD for a zombie apocalypse. How did this go? Let's find out.

I originally planned to do this post as a battle report but I think I'll do bit of an analysis of the results.

The rules I started writing were based on a Goal System with a few, but not a bucket of dice. I created a Zombie AI, and an overly complex NPC AI. But where I really got lost was in the scenario creation. I think I got a bit burnt out by the time I got to that part and didn't know where to go. Really, I got lost in complexity with my original idea getting buried in more and more unnecessary detail.

So, when I played RoSD I thought: Wow! This is simple but it works really well. And earlier this week I though: Can I adapt RoSD for my own private zombie games? So that's what I did.

I play tested the game yesterday and, while it worked, I think there was something missing. And that was Zombies! There needed to be a whole lot more zombies. As it was the little game I played had seven characters and maybe a dozen zombies. It was an exciting game with the characters only just surviving with three down and  one dead. But, as you can see from the photo's the streets are empty and it doesn't look right (well not to me).

What I think the problem is, is that the combat system in RoSD can be quite brutal and characters can be killed with a single blow. That's not so bad really because it makes even the most innocuous creature dangerous, but it can't be used for hoards of zombies because they'll just swamp the characters in turn one or two and kill them. While that sounds like a regular situation for a zombie apocalypse, it doesn't make for a good game.

The goal system I wrote has each character rolling a few dice with more added for weapons and situation etc. The average zombie gets one dice but the more there are the more dice you will add. One zombie has 1d6 and five zombies will have 5d6. So weight of numbers is important to balance the game and makes it easy to use plenty of zeds with characters needing to avoid them or running the risk of getting swamped.

One factor that I included, that I think gives it more of a zombie apocalypse feel, is the need to attain a Head Shot. My solution was to give the zed's no hit points but the characters had to get 18 or over on a d20 to get the head shot (adding combat and weapon factors to get here). They also had to win the fight in the first place. It worked okay but seemed a bit odd. I also included a rule that if the survivor characters won the fight but didn't get the head shot then the zombie was knocked to the ground. They would then try to get back to their feet in the last phase of the turn. I call it the Raising Dead Phase (which also incorporates dead survivors turning into zombies). This came directly from my original concept.

Having said all that I have learned quite a bit from playing RoSD and all of my recent writing and contemplation. One of the main things I've taken from RoSD is the composition of scenarios. I initially tried to make it so that any scenario could be created as any time for any reason with everything you could think of taken into account and possible - All with the roll of a few dice. That doesn't work. What I like about RoSD is that by writing a set of three or four short linked scenarios you can create a story arc that could take place over a single day, a few days or a couple of weeks.

So I wrote a short set of three scenarios that I called Day 1 that's all about escaping a city. It was the first of these scenarios that I play tested yesterday and, like I said, it worked but it was lacking.

So where to now? I think I'll go back to my original rules and do some heavy editing and re-writing. Simplicity in the basics is what I need and pretty much what I already have. But I have to develop a layer of complexity over the top that doesn't weigh down the basic mechanism. Let's see how I go.

P.S. All the terrain is card terrain, some are my own pieces but the majority of the table (the better pieces) are by World Works.