For the last few years I've been working on a pen and paper RPG involving zombies. What started out as a Resident Evil pen and paper game has grown into its own project, and I'm stuck. I need additional knowledge of those huggable lovable undead known as zombies. Of course I own the Something of the Deads, and the Resident Evil games and movies, and a few others like 28 Days Later. I'm currently tearing through The Walking Dead and even Marvel Zombies.

But I don't honestly know enough sources to really assemble a deadly, descriptive and entertaining cast of adversaries for Player Character's survivors. So I seek help from the forum. If you happen to know of a movie, poem, book, piece of art, anything depicting corpses, zombies, an apocalyptic world, viruses (layman's terms). Please, I ask that you post the title of the work, maybe the author, links if you can.

I thank you in advance for all your help, and hey, when I get the done, you'll be in the Special Thanks section. Plus, I've already decided to give the Rulebook to the game away for free when it's finished, so hey, if your into that sort of thing, I hope you'll also enjoy the finished product.

Well if you haven't seen 28 weeks later, I reocemmend that. My favorite zombie movie of all time. Also Diary of the Dead was good, and did something different with the virus I thought. It was airborn and you didn't need to be bitten to become a zombie, you simply had to die and the virus to reanimate them.

If you have Netflix, look into the Italian el cheapo zombie films. They're fucking excellent. Most of them are a Play it Now on Netflix.

Never thought I'd consider getting Netflix...but hell I don't have to have it for very long, thanks Creature Feature.

Mysterium, thank you for reminding me of Diary of the Dead, that's the one I haven't watched yet, completely spaced it somehow. Thank you.

Something I've always found interesting about zombie flicks.. no one in the movie wants to end up a zombie. I don't think I've ever seen one where someone intentionally infected themselves or sought out exposure for a purpose.

And they always deny that they have been exposed? Like that's going to stop them from turning into one.. like no one else in the film is going to notice they're drooling and trying to eat people's brains? Some extreme cases, they'll even do all sorts of bizarre things to prolong their denial. Like that one chick from Return of the Living Dead 3....

...actually.. now that I think about it.. her boyfriend did it on purpose! So, that would be the one where someone sought out to use zombie powers for a reason. And look how well it turned out for them!



The other constant has always been the method of killing zombies. I think it's always revolved around their heads..shot in the brain, decapitation, steak through the eye, etcetera. Without the basic instinct center of the brain powering their nervous system, they no longer have the impulse motivation to go on "living"..as it were. You could play off that a bit, maybe delve deeper into the "why" behind it.

Cause has been fairly limited as well. Military and/or medical experimentation. Viral and/or toxic contamination. I think "born without a soul" would be an interesting take on the idea.. though not sure how that would play out when you get into how it's contagious to others?

Anyway.. I'll be back with more spew later. That's enough for now.

She was fucking hawt in that film.

Throne777

Oh yeah. She was like the ONLY zombie I'd ever jump. Actually I liked that movie....and hate myself for it.

Don't feel bad Mysterium, I liked that movie as well...*sighs*

The whole reasoning behind the why of zombies is something I'm actually looking into. I'm not sure how deep into I'm going to delve in the core rulebook, or if I'll even decide on just one reason. There are a lot of different options at hand, and for the moment I've got a concept artist going away on a few different possibilities, deciding which would make for a better menagerie.

I think regardless of which version is ends up being, I truly need infection to be a large part of the game, the perversion of life is an important part of the genre, and I want the characters alive long enough to be able to play off that.

As far as the menagerie is concerned, a parasite infestation capable of causing mutations, after all, if a parasite can cause mental manipulations (such as toxoplasma gondii) perhaps it could cause physical mutations as well.

At the very least, I'm considering the idea of such a parasite interacting in a synergistic way with whatever is causing the zombie infection.

I don't know, I'm still in preproduction, hence why I need more things to research.

As for born without a soul, god how I love such an explanation. Or maybe, some sort of spiritual infection of the soul. I don't know, that may be one for a sourcebook.

...or a complete removal of the soul altogether.

I see you're going down the modern route what with viruses and everything but have you ever looked into the actual folklore about them from Haiti? The idea being that if you wrong a Voodoo practitioner they can turn you into a zombie, and the spell can only be broken by tasting salt. I read a case about a rich farmer who employed a mysterious stranger who promised cheap labour for his plantation as long as no questions were asked. The workers were brought in and the farmer noticed that they were somewhat slow moving, vacant and silent, but very good workers. The farmer's wife took pity on the workers and brought them out a dish of salty biscuits and water. As soon as the workers tasted the salt, they fell about moaning and wailing, and only then were able to tell the horrorstruck wife that their employer was a voodoo man who had enslaved them by magic.

The Wikipedia entry on Zombies is very thorough.

Here's an article about possible real life cases.

And finally a case often mentioned in paranormal literature.

I hope this adds an extra dimension to your work.

I do know a little bit about the folklore in Haiti, after all that is where the word zombie comes from. I'm not as familiar with the subject as I would like to be, but I hope to come closer to a mastery as the project moves forward. From what I have heard, similar stories like that are based upon true cases where a person was give certain poisons and then alkaloids, which brought the person back in the aforementioned zombie state.

Thank you for the links and your help in general.

As per your observation, I am indeed striving towards a scientific explanation. John's movies (Dawn of the Dead and fellows) have the soul version pretty much wrapped up. And while I will be at some point working on rules for such a game (different players want different things) I'm currently looking at what I feel will be the most widely playable menagerie of foes.

My concept artist is currently working with zombies on fire, and he seems to want to do a few others with other elements...I am currently however unsure as to whether such mystical things as cryokinetic powers will make the final cut. But, he's drawing them up, and eventually, I feel that we can use them. The Rulebook will most likely cover scientific explanations for zombies, but I definitely see the possibility of a sourcebook in the works to cover rules of a more spiritual nature.

Thank you yet again for your help and your opinions.

Working on a flaming zombie? Told you I was done with it lol. By the way, have you watched 'The Thing' yet? The alien is bad ass, for the whole every bodypart thinks for itself kinda way.

I wonder what would happen if someone with supernatural powers ended up becoming a zombie? Would they lose their abilities.. or would you have cinematic genius?

Return of the living dead, Dawn of the Dead, Night of the Living dead, Diary of the Dead, just to name a few gr8's. good luck to ya.

Actually Silver, that's something I've been wondering as well. While I don't think my Rulebook will cover it, I have been considering releasing a source book at a later date to allow players and gamemasters the option to cover more esoteric ideas such as zombies animating due to the lack of a soul and or metahuman capabilities.

Frankly, I believe it depends on what type of infection cause the zombie. I'm having trouble with the idea that a virus would have such a large control over the body to tap into such abilities. But an evolved parasite, or even programmable nanobots (which make an appearance in my zombie game as a way to combat the infection that does horribly wrong) could possibly control whatever part of the brain causes such supernatural manifestation.

But, as I said, something for later. For the initial game I'm striving to stay as close to scientific theory as possible given the subject matter.

Comic artwork by Dave Hartman: http://www.sideshowmonkey.com/

I'd call that trash zombie movie, not good zombie movie.

I have a DVD of Zombi 2 which is an Italian zombie flick from the early 80s. If you want it and are willing to pay shipping contact me at j.allberry@gmail.com

Is that the one where the birds spread it? The disease that is.

Actually Diary of Dead like I said took a new spin and I thought it quite interesting. There was some shotty acting and so forth but the general concept was quite unique compared to most other zombie movies coming out lately.

I have no idea. It's Beci's DVD and she no longer watches it since we have a copy on the file server. I have never watched it.