A Zombiemageddon Campaign Journal - Please read and comment!

[Mephibosheth]

1. How big in terms of population size is Dekhi? Have the PC unknowingly TPK their crew by holding up in the city during the first outbreak? Being penned in due to city walls with 50,000 zombies is a pretty dire place to be at level 1.

To be perfectly honest, I don't have an exact population count. It is a major city with a substantial population. 50,000 would definitely not be out of the question.

2. What kind of ruling class existed within to city before the outbreak? Was this a military state? Is there hope of an kings army returning to save the city or a castle which has been cleared of zombies?

The city as nominally ruled by a hereditary monarch, but the actual power was in the hands of a group of merchants, businessmen, and other major economic players who ran everything from behind the scenes, pretty much disregarding the official ruler and using a number of levers to influence his or her decisions. So far, we don't know whether there's a hope of rescue by outside forces. I suppose it's possible, though.

3. In your game zombies occur through changes in their biology, not like normal D&D zombies which are magically created, so how long can the zombies remain active, does rotting affect them so they are no longer functional after two weeks? or is it part of the virus that slows the rotting down allowing them to remain a threat?

We haven't had a chance to deal with issues like this yet in the campaign, so I can't really say. Sorry I don't have anything more helpful. The outbreak only started two in-character days ago.

4. Have you seen 28 days later? If so I was wondering how your virus work? Is the bite the only way to become infected? or is it in the blood? If so how fast would a change occur if it was just blood contact, IE a drop of blood in the eye like in 28 days?

I have seen 28 Days Later and enjoyed it thoroughly. How the "virus" (note, it may not actually be a virus) works is likely to be relevant to the long-term plot so I don't really want to get into it here. If you're really curious, send me a PM with your questions and I'll do my best to answer.

5. Lastly I was wondering about your port? Did the virus spread out of the town on ships, bitten people boarding ships? Entire crews becoming infected drifting the sea only to become shipwrecked on some unknowing nations shores? How long until other nation act to protect their kingdoms? Or is thing global and they are fighting it on their own turf?

No one knows that at this point. Like I've said before, the real extent of the outbreak will probably be dependent in part on how long the players want the campaign to last.

Note too that Dekhi is on a river, not the ocean. There's a lot of land between Dekhi and the nearest deep-water port. It is entirely possible for riverboats to carry the outbreak, but that hasn't become an issue yet in the campaign, given that we're still in the very early stages and the PC's have almost know knowledge of the scale of the outbreak.

I am really into your story here and hope you don't mind all the questions. I love zombie stuff so hopefully I can be of some use if you need brain storming. I wish I could have a DM to run a game like this! Great work!

Bendak Starkiller

I'm really glad you're enjoying these write-ups and I really appreciate the questions. I hope I've answered everything, at least as well as possible.

Well, you could always run with the "Man is the Real Monster" theme. In a lot of zombie movies, the zombies are just a device to bring about the sorts of horribleness in people. So, you could just have human or demi-human antagonists who are very much alive and well.

Also, since I've been playing Fallout 3, you could always deal in Post-Apocalyptic survival themes. In that case, they'd have more leeway to fight something other than zombies.

That's definitely an option, and zombie apocalypse campaigns inevitably have some of the "man is the real monster" built into them. The PC's have already had to make some difficult choices and the interactions between the party and other survivors (especially the people downstairs) will probably come more to the forefront in the next few sessions. However, you can only have so many encounters with groups of survivors before the verisimilitude of the campaign is ruined. If this outbreak is so deadly, why are we running into different groups of survivors every session? Ultimately, in order to preserve the believability of the scenario, zombies have to make up the great majority of the encounter, otherwise the zombie threat isn't as credible.

At this point, we're still very early in the outbreak. Issues of survival (acquiring enough food/water, shelter from the elements, disease, etc) will probably become more important goals in the future as time passes and resources available dwindle. Right now, the PC's still have a bit of food and a lot of casters available, so food and water aren't a problem. The will likely be running out in a day or two, though.

Mephibosheth