(Review) How to Survive Zombies If You're a Zero RPG by Sarah Cantwell and Jon Dufore

 Some folks want to be Rick Grimes, blasting through the apocalypse, like a crazed bad-ass.  Others want pile of body armor, weapons, so zombies are a mere complication.

But what about everyone trying to survive who don't necessarily have elite wits, wherewithal, and bags of holding containing arsenals with unlimited.  

In How to Survive Zombies If You're a Zero , you are playing fairly common folk, the "Zeros," using their own limited skills, and those of the folks they're forced to trust to get through day to day living. 

My first read-through gave me a very classic Cthulhu vibe.  The characters are normal people with nothing more than a fleeting above-average talent or equipment.  Most of the secrets man was not meant to know (i.e. zombie origin or cure) will always be out of their purview.  Rather, they are trying to survive, and if they die, their hopefully sacrificing themselves to a greater good for their friends and family, or perhaps for a different group  that will never know the true cost. 

Being A Zero:  I had to chuckle when in the first sentence of character creation mentions the only significant decisions a player needs to make is the character's "flavor".  We don't want the zeds suffering from a bland palette, do we? 

There are seven different stats, Smarts, Judgement, Attention, Force, Nimble, Speed, and Resilience.  Not only are they used for different survival techniques, but they influence weapons and attacks!  

The book does nice job keeping some role-playing essentials for first time players, or first time players in the zombie genre.  Is the character elusive, or wants to bash zombie skulls directly?  What personality or though process is this person going through during the apocalypse, as well as a yet another reminder that the characters are not heroes, that can (and probably will) die, and it will take teamwork and adapting to even have a chance for survival.

Builds:  Thirteen character builds are provided to differentiate your characters.  Medics, Planners, Survivors, and Skirmishers provided suggested weapons, as well as potential WITs (What it Takes) which will improve the character.  Some are situational bonuses to stats, or action checks, while others outright augment or change the rules.  Perhaps the only pages that were a bit overwhelming are the lists of nothing but potential WITs, with the caveat that, with experience, you can add your own WITS, using the guidance provided in the book. 

The System: The resolution system "Lumin d10 Tabletop RPG System/Zero System"   In this world where PCs are Zeros, unmodified checks start with a 50/50 chance of success... or failure.  Diving deeper into results, the lower the result, the worse things turn out, starting with a basic failure to a 1 or below, where Grim Consequence guarantee that things go from bad to horribly worse. 

Conversely the higher the roll, the luckier the group gets, with helpful breaks to incredibly lucky results.  Marginal rolls (4-5) can also become basic successes, but "At a Cost."  This ranges from wounds, fatigue, all the way from bleak complications to possible zombie infection!  

Really, the system is diverse enough that I could whip out a few zeros and try out things, but it correctly delves into more rules, covering initiative and movement (speed checks) and combat. One thing I love that adds to the Zero concept:  NPCs (usually zombies) win ties with PCs.  

Finally conditions are detailed, Toughness, Fatigue, Hunger & Thirst,  Infection, and Resting are all real issues in the apocalypse

Survival Gear:  I realized quickly that MacGuyver was not a Zero in the apocalypse.  True equipment is listed, but it is becoming scarcer each day, so a reliance on crafted equipment is an indispensable tool.  Crafted weapons, equipment, first aid, and armor are covered.  Scavenging items is also listed, including vehicles, drugs, and questionable food.  (If the zombies don't kill you, bad food prep might kill everyone).  

World Building: While there are samples in the book, it's up to the Zombie Master to collaborate with his group to build out a background for the game, as well as drawing lines.  A lot of games have ham-fisted safety tools into games that make some as uncomfortable with the idea as what the tools are trying to avoid.  This game does an excellent job inserting these concepts in multiple places, to make it seem cohesive to a new gamer, but present it to experienced gamers as "You usually do this unconsciously to your players, don't be jerk in a game with death, brains, and possibly a metric crap-ton of gore."   It's simple:  What is open and on the table, what topics should be dealt with gently, and what items need a minimal detail, an outright fade to black, or avoidance in the game from the beginning.  

The book does a good job detailing how to set-up a long running game into the apocalypse.  From a constant fight for survival against zombies, then the hordes, then the survivors, until communities can be built and the threats scaled accordingly.  

Finally, there's the zombies!   From zombie grunts to more elaborate kin, the focus is merging environment with quality and variety, for a challenging scenario.  

Ranger Station Reprieve is an introductory scenario for three hours.  The 25-pages cover the backstory, pre-gen PCs, and maps of the ranger station.  

The Appendix is a handy spot to collect all the zombie types (24!),  the templates for characters, and another listing the pseudo-daunting WITS for character improvement.  

I give How to Survive Zombies If You're a Zero four and a half gnomes out of five on the Gaming with the Gnomies Five-Gnome System.   This has been added to my short list of RPGs to get on the table whenever we have some face-to-face time.  

Znombies Ate the Half Gnome....

(Gamma World) This is Not a Test #39 - Level Six

Our heroes, the De Facto Explorers, plotting to end Protocal Gamma-6-Charlie from destroying the land outside Rho Facility, to aid the Hissers of Notex

================= 

Sneaky Pete: A mutated weasel scout.  Pete's telepathy and night vision take a backseat when he whips out his electrical powers.  

Sonny Helianthus: a sentient sunflower artifact examiner with trusted Restorationist ties. 

Slitheran Wurmtail (aka Squiggles): a mutated earthworm scout, in impromptu power armor, looking for trouble, and finding it often.  Previously "gave birth" to a litter of sentient earthworm babies, but recently has been subject to genetic testing and developed super-human strength, a more human body, and a thick coat of shaggy white hair.

Lathar Bracken: A pure-strain human from River Bend.  He's got the muscle, the face, and a mount for most encounters.  Lathar's trusty beast of burden, No Name, travels wherever he does. Looking for trouble in all the right places.  Recent jousting champion of Fair-Town and has been awarded... a peacock he has named Chambray.

RHA-9: A lab assistant piece of "Living Metal" that seems to have befriended the group... for now!

================

Pete and Lathar travelled back to the lab to retrieve Squiggles.  They found the furry worm conscious but still exhausted from his wounds.  He was equally intrigued with Sonny's plan to cancel the "call from the great beyond" 

Returning to level five, Sonny was still pouring over the information on the terminal.  

"Our buddy Ra is a RHA-9.  The 'Security Bots' downstairs are RHA-900s.  The living metal on level 6 are RHA-9000s armed with something called rail guns.  I'm tempted to send Ra up there, have him get shot up and self-destruct, and MAYBE that will be enough to take them out..."

Pete was a bit more positive, "Wait, you can teleport and the robots don't seem to acknowledge you as a person..."

"I know... I know..." 

"So you could possibly sneak up there, get passed the living metal, reroute the terminal, and teleport back?"

"Well, yeah, sneaking around like these fake plants these complexes like to have was my first idea.  I just have to rest a little longer to use that mutant power again."

Squiggles was confused, "Wait, why did you need to teleport?"

"Grenade."

"Oh.  So that's what woke me up earlier."

Lathar kept insisting that he needed to be up there, even hiding in the lift, but Sonny held quite firm; anyone else might get everyone else killed.

Sonny stripped down everything, save a belt and a holster for his flintlock pistol and a soiled towel they had found, heard a voice in his head.

"Sonny can you.." and the sunflower instinctively reflected the mental voice, but quickly realized in was Sneaky Pete's voice in his head.   Reopening the channel, it was agreed to keep communication open so the guys could get updates.

"Here guys," Sonny extended his fronds, "here's a few of my seeds, just in case."

"Seeds? What flavor are they?" Squiggles asked.

"No, not to eat, you dumbass.  To plant and create my descendants!"

Right before the lift doors shut with Sonny in them, he injected himself with the Three-Hour Energy syringe.  His mind completely cleared as the dual doors opened on level six.

Sonny already heard the living metal chirps and noises before the doors completed opening.  Sonny stood completely still.  Two massive pieces of living metal, each patrolling the open doors of the lift.  

RHA - 9000

The RHA-9000s furiously scanned the lift, but did not react to the sunflower standing inside.  Ultimately the living metals began slowly moving in the same direction, around the lift.  Noticing a door across from the lift, that did not appear on the maps, Sonny stealthily crossed the the hallway, swiped the silver keycard, and slid past the door before the living metal nearby stopped to notice. 

Sonny did not slide in, he slid OUT to the top of the mesa, covered in brush, there was a giant structure holding even bigger dish pointing up to the heavens.  The sunflower slid his roots into the metallic-tasting soil and waiting for a bit to see the living metal's reaction.

"Update, Pete.  I'm outside on top of everything.  Living metal is huge, but not on to me... yet."

He swiped the door, and quietly opened it.  The living metal were moving slow and methodically, ultimately stopping in the corner, but turned inwards towards the lift.  The sunflower played a subtle game of cat-and-mouse with the machines, throwing objects in the far corner, sending both of them away from the door.  

Sonny moved further away and came up a large panel of terminals in the middle of the hallway.  Between the panel and the wall was a barrel shaped living metal, furiously reading dials and pushing buttons.  Like the RHA-9000, it did not react to Sonny, although, as the sunflower moved closer, the living metal inched away, put within reach of what it was working on.  

Sonny found the terminal access and began trying to reroute the system.  After a half-hour of work, the terminal screen went blank.  

"Pete, check the terminal.  Did anything change?"

"One sec.... nope."

"Wait, the screen up here lit up in the corner.  Restart in 30:00, 29:59, 29:58,  I think we'll be okay in like thirty seconds.  Stand-by."

Thirty MINUTES later, the system came back online and ten minutes later, all access was rerouted to the terminal on level 5.  

Confirming with the weasel downstairs, Sonny let out an audible sigh and teleported to the terminal room before the RHA-9000s scurried toward the panel.

Another hour of work on the terminal, and Sonny successfully ended Protocol Gamma-6-Charlie.

Dr Sonny Helianthus - Teleporting Badass Scientist

With a collective sigh of relief, the group grabbed their belongings and head back down to the lab on level 3.  Most of the casual conversation with the group while Sonny was risking his life was in regard to taking RHA-9 home with them.  Everyone was on board, save Pete, who did not want things exploding.   Sonny placed the deciding vote to take Ra with them.  RHA-9 agreed to their order to follow them.  

As they packed up their spoils, they also thought about what they would demand from the Hissers for payment.  Sonny reinforced that better relations and any reward their willing offer was sufficient. 

Coming down to the entrance, that place items in the plastic tubs they had placed just inside the door.  Leaving the mesa, half of the Hisser village of Notex was destroyed.  Most of the walls have crumbled by the inbound objects, one tower was levelled, and half the garden were ruined.   The craters were numerous, and extended well beyond the village walls.

Lathar whistled for No-Name.  His stagon steed did not come running.  He whistled again.  Still nothing.  Pete tried to reach out telepathically, and could not sense the creature. 

Lathar slowly walked through the ruined section of the village, head down despondently kicking at loose rocks. 

No-Name the Stagon:  MIA

Pete took it upon himself to find tracks for No-Name, and he found a LOT.  After following all of the tracks of the animal panicking, the creature galloped off into the woods, in the general direction of home, or at least downstream.  

As Squiggles and Sonny finished packing, two Hissers appeared from the woods in the west.  One was Jovennia, one of the Notex Elders, the other, her bodyguard.  

She surveyed what was left of the village and spoke telepathically to everyone.  

"The Sky.  It is quiet. Is it done?"

Sonny replied, "Yes"

"I sincerely hope it is right.  You have lifted the curse.  Huzzah!"  

Jovennia motioned to the other Hisser, "Pay the flower."

The other Hisser handed Sonny a backpack full of gold bars, as well as another container holding a food replicator.

"We honor our debts, and this is what we can provide."

Sonny nodded approvingly, "This is quite acceptable.  I hope this can be a new path forward for your people and ours."

"Very good, we will need to weigh our options."  And with that, the Hissers departed.

GM Notes:  That last weeks have been completing a A Dish That Serves No One by Thom Wilson at ThowiGames.

In a case of "my players thought of it before me," with the new technology from the Hissers, Hoyce just started thinking that this planet was just a low-tech world in Star Wars, waiting for Ne'vets Aharo and the crew of the Pretio to arrive from the stars.

Next: #40 - The Search for No-Name

Game Day! - All Roads Lead