Need Help Statting Out Zombies!

[Garnfellow]

Greetings!

I am preparing to run my first ever Traveller game, and I am pretty psyched. The basic concept is the PCs visit a research station in which the scientists have been infected with self-replicating nanobots that have rewired their neural connections, turning them effectively into . . . zombies.

But how to stat these suckers up for Traveller? I want something fairly weak, that can be encountered in multiple numbers, and would have some sort of infectious attack. I'm still getting my arms around the Mongoose Traveller system, though. My first thought is to use the robot rules as a model. Anyone have any ideas? Thanks for the help!

 

[Zowy]

Good to high endurance...
Low stats for everything else.

Make em slow and dumb....

 

[Bygoneyrs]

I would give them high STR, END, and low INT, DEX

Also increase their HPs and give them some damage resistance modifier of maybe -2 to all damage rolls.

 

[alex_greene]

Treat them as a human-sized animal encounter.

Chaser, about 100 kg, Strength 2d6, Dexterity 2d6, Endurance 2d6+3, with Teeth and unarmed Melee as their only weapons.

Animal reactions: Always give chase, regardless of whether or not they outnumber the characters. Zombies ignore negative characteristic DMs, and do not check for fatigue.

Finally, their bite spreads the disease that animates them. Beyond the 1d6 damage, the character contracts the disease on any failed Endurance characteristic check. The progress of the disease is rapid, inflicting 1d6 damage per hour. If the character dies, he comes back 1d6 minutes after death as another zombie.

It'll be up to you to determine whether or not there exists a nanotech vaccine for the virus somewhere.

 

[Paladin]

Depends on the style you want. Do you want one shot one kill? One shot kills, but chance of getting backup? Burst kills several? Multiple shots to kill one?

Stats
Str 2d6
Dex 1d6 (unless you want I AM LEGEND movie style and then up it)
End 3d6
int d6
social 0

Personally, I'd give them a 1 shot, 1 kill style, but roll a D6 when put down to see if they can get back up. On a 1 or 2 they return with 1d6 hit points. A unit can get back up indefinite number of times. I'd go for setting their hit points to 2d6 so that you can make sure they "die" with a single salvo from a 3d6 pistol. You can justify the lower hit points than the 5d6 for the above stats based on their altered state. To me, the lower hit points allowing for greater carnage and the ability to get back up adds more suspense to the "chase".

alex-greene's damage/disease sounds about right.

 

[alex_greene]

Also, you can freak them out with the fact that they are essentially dead men walking. As I said earlier, they do not check for fatigue.

But they also do not suffocate under water or in a vacuum, and exotic atmospheres don't bother them. Gravity might slow them down, but it slows the characters down just as much.

As for getting around the thing, one suggestion for a possible cure could be radiation. The nanobots are just as susceptible to EMP as regular chips are, so the "vaccine" could be as easy as exposing a zombie bite wound to a mild dose of radiation, and a slightly bigger dose of radiation should be enough to cure a whole pack of them all at once.

I'd recommend a fusion blast, turret particle beam or meson spinal mount primary weapon as the most effective vaccine delivery mechanism under the circumstances ...

 

[Jeff Hopper]

As for getting around the thing, one suggestion for a possible cure could be radiation. The nanobots are just as susceptible to EMP as regular chips are, so the "vaccine" could be as easy as exposing a zombie bite wound to a mild dose of radiation, and a slightly bigger dose of radiation should be enough to cure a whole pack of them all at once.

I'd recommend a fusion blast, turret particle beam or meson spinal mount primary weapon as the most effective vaccine delivery mechanism under the circumstances ...

Or you could have the players attacking the zombies with modified microwave ovens...

 

[Garnfellow]

Everyone, thanks so much for the help. This has been extremely helpful.

 

[GypsyComet]

exotic atmospheres don't bother them.

I suspect Corrosive atmospheres will "bother" them, but not in the "Oh God I'm BURNING!" kind of way. They'll just degrade much faster than normal.

Not sure where a high HF component would fit in the Traveller codes, but it would sure clear up a Zombie problem quickly. The first six hours of pain won't bother them much, though what little muscle tone they have will rapidly vanish, but over the next twelve their bones will dissolve. Nothing says "what problem?" quite like an aggressive Calcium fixer...

 

[Garnfellow]

Do animals in Mongoose Traveller have hit points? I've seen Classic Traveller animals with Hits/Armor stats, but I didn't see this in the MongTrav book.

 

[kafka]

All Flesh Must Be Eaten had a SF supplement called All Tomorrow's Zombies...you might want to have a look at. I would not necessarily handicap DEX look the last Will Smith Zombie flick...they moved pretty fast. So possibly low END just no penality if they reach zero (assuming you play the Optional Rule).

 

[GypsyComet]

Do animals in Mongoose Traveller have hit points? I've seen Classic Traveller animals with Hits/Armor stats, but I didn't see this in the MongTrav book.

Because MGT animals have seperate STR, DEX, and END, they don't need a separate "Hits" stat like CT did.

 

[Garnfellow]

All Flesh Must Be Eaten had a SF supplement called All Tomorrow's Zombies...you might want to have a look at.

Cool. I've always wanted to check out All Flesh Must Be Eaten -- I've heard nothing but good.

I've read a couple of pretty positive reviews of All Tomorrow's Zombies, but there are a couple of things I would really be looking for: (1) does it have discussion of nanotech zombies? If I could mine it for more technobabble, great, and (2) does it have a decent advice section on combining sci-fi with survival horror?

 

[Joshua Bell]

I would not necessarily handicap DEX look the last Will Smith Zombie flick...they moved pretty fast.

In contemporary zombie aficionado parlance, this is the distinction between "shamblers" (classic Night of the Living Dead-style, moaning and stumbling) and "runners" (popularized in 28 Days Later)

 

[alex_greene]

Of course, you could have a "general" marshalling these forces against the characters, operating them by remote control, creating different strains of the zombie agent to generate different types of zombies: namely, "wall" zombies (tough, slow, march forward in a dense line of serried ranks of tough, hard to kill shamblers whose sole function is to suck up all the ammo), then runners to dart from between the ranks of the wall soldiers and harass the living until their morale wears down, and finally the tanks - whose job it is to just roll into the lines of the living and break them, allowing the runners to mop up all the opposition and turn their corpses into more zombies ...

Well, it worked for me in one of the WoD stories I ran.

 

[darktalon]

Not sure where a high HF component would fit in the Traveller codes

Almost certainly type C.

 

[GypsyComet]

Not sure where a high HF component would fit in the Traveller codes

Almost certainly type C.

As a general measure of lethality, sure, but HF is far, FAR worse in contact with living tissue, and can actually be contained or resisted by non-Calcium containing substances fairly easily. Barring pressure or temperature complications, a normal vacc suit with a little foresight in its materials choices should provide all the protection required for far longer than a C class atmosphere defaults to.

 

[Alan Hume]

cool idea
the all tomorrowss Zombies book for all flesh is pretty handy if you want ot go this route

 

[Captain Jonah]

As for getting around the thing, one suggestion for a possible cure could be radiation. The nanobots are just as susceptible to EMP as regular chips are, so the "vaccine" could be as easy as exposing a zombie bite wound to a mild dose of radiation, and a slightly bigger dose of radiation should be enough to cure a whole pack of them all at once.

So what you are saying is

"Nuke em from orbit, it's the only way to be sure" :twisted:

 

[alex_greene]

I was wondering when someone'd get it.