Preserved

Preserved

Somehow when you died, the virus didn’t lay waste to your flesh. You were left with a mostly normal appearance. You look human, and most people can’t tell you’re a zombie, unless they look very carefully. You can blend into society, somewhat, and with some practice, you can relearn to speak like humans, use tools like humans, even drive a car like a human. A wolf disguised as a sheep, you can merge with your prey, waiting for the right time to strike. 

Automatic Talents:

Blend In – Most humans don’t realize you are undead until you make it obvious. You can’t use items or speak (unless you have talents that allow you to), but you can walk around in public and not draw attention immediately. This ability is most-useful with crowds or groups of people.

Limited Motor Skills – You can manipulate simple objects, such as doorknobs or levers, and pick up items (though you can’t necessarily use items). You can’t throw items or use tools (unless a talent allows you to).

Statistics: 

HP: 14 + Resilience score at 1st level, +5 each time you gain a level. 

Ability Score Modifiers: None

Starting Humanity: 14

Class Skills (4): Acrobatics, Athletics, Charm, Intimidate, 

Item Use Talent Tree: You begin to recall how to use items.

• Tool Use: You gain the ability to utilize simple (and unpowered) hand tools and other small objects. This list includes (but isn’t limited to) hammers, crowbars, screwdrivers, wrenches, etc. You can even spend money! Use your imagination! Note: This does not confer the ability to wield weapons.

• Weapon Use: You can now use simple weapons.

- Requires Tool Use

• Fine Tool Use: You can now use tools that can require fine manipulation. This includes (but is not limited to) needle and thread, pen and paper, typewriters, anything that requires using individual fingers to use properly. Note: You can use various communication media, but unless you know another language (such as Human), you cannot write anything that non-zombies would understand.

- Requires Tool Use

• Machine Use: You can now use common machinery, though not skillfully. You can use hand-held power tools, jackhammers, and even operate vehicles (among other things); any powered objects that only require a couple of different actions at a time to use (for instance, a car only requires the use of a steering wheel and two pedals at any one time). Note: While you know how to operate a vehicle, this simply means you know how to switch from park to drive (and vice versa), how to steer, and how to use the pedals. You do not know proper driving rules (speed limits, traffic lights, lanes, etc) but you can at least stay on the road. You just know how to operate the machinery. Probably best to drive when no other traffic is around!

- Requires Fine Tool Use

• Improved Machine Use: You know the basics of “acceptable” machine use. You can stay within the lanes, follow traffic signals, etc. 

- Requires Machine Use

Language Talent Tree: You start to remember how to talk to others. 

• Crude Language: You learn a crude version of the Human language. You can speak to humans in very short sentences (little more than “Yes”, “No”, “I’m Hungry”, etc). You might often say “Huh?” or “What?” unless people speak to you slowly and carefully. You can pass as human, but most people will think you have a mental deficiency. You will not fit in at most places, where the mentally handicapped would be out of place, so be careful not to draw attention to yourself! You can converse for a number of minutes equal to 3 + your Preserved class level before people start to catch on. You are better off getting in and out before people start asking questions!

• Improved Language: You can now talk in mostly complete sentences and convey complete thoughts, though deeper thoughts are beyond you. You lack the ability to “small talk” as well as a number of human devices (such as sarcasm, joking, or persuasion). You can only speak directly and convey the message you are attempting to convey in the simplest manner possible. You can remain undetected while conversing for a number of minutes equal to 5 + twice your Preserved class level. 

- Requires Crude Language

• Perfect Language: You can now talk completely normally. People will never know you are a zombie simply by talking to you. 

- Requires Improved Language

• Power of Persuasion: You can now persuade others to do things for you. When you’re talking to a human, you may ask them a favor. They make a Willpower check or perform the action for you, with a DC set by the favor you’re asking for: 

DC Favor

20 Requires almost no effort - “Can I use your pen?”

15 Requires some movement - “Help me carry this?”

10 Requires effort or money - “Will you go buy a drill for me?”

5 Obviously dangerous - “Climb into that wood-chipper” 

+5 Seems completely harmless - “Will you go get my car keys from the other room?”

-10 Seems possibly dangerous - “Come with me into this dark alley.”

- Requires Perfect Language

The Zom-brat

Zom-brat

Tragically, sometimes children are killed by the ravenous plague. You are one of these children, killed in youth. Some might see this as an inconvenience; short arms and legs make hunting difficult. You see the truth of your position; people don’t want to kill children. You can manipulate your enemies, luring them into your trap, or you can simply hobble your prey, bringing them down to your level so you can feast. 

Automatic Talents:

Childlike Stature: You are small, which grants a +1 AC and +1 to hit against Medium-sized creatures. You also take a -1 penalty to speed.

Childlike Innocence: You gain a bonus to Charm tests for each level you take in Zom-brat.

Statistics:

HP: 12 + Resilience score at 1st level, +4 each time you gain a level. 

Ability Score Modifiers: -2 Strength, +2 Willpower, +2 Agility

Starting Humanity: 12

Class Skills: Charm, Intimidate, (in progress)

Mind Game Talent Tree: You trick people, using your childish looks as a weapon.

• Harmless Appearance: Enemies don’t see you as a threat, and ignore you most of the time. Each round, enemies must succeed on a Willpower test (DC 15 + ½ your level) or they cannot attack you that round. Once you attack a creature, the creature is immune to this effect until the end of the encounter. 

• Helpless Appearance:  Using your child-like frailty, you lure your unwitting prey out of hiding and into your reach. You gain the “Help Me!” Power:

Help Me!   No Recharge

Standard Action No Roll

Targets: One creature within 5 squares

Result: At the start of the target’s next turn, they make a Willpower Test (DC = 15 + ½ your level). If they fail, they spend their turn moving as close to you as possible and trying to calm you. They can take no actions other than to speak to you. At the start of each of the target’s turns, they can make a Willpower test; if they fail, the effect continues. If they succeed, the effect ends and they are immune to this effect.

Special: This ends when the target takes damage.

- Requires Harmless Appearance

• Frightening Appearance: Each enemy within 2 squares of you that can see you must make a Willpower test at the start of each turn. If the target fails the test, they must immediately move out of the range of this power. If they cannot move out of range of this power, they move as far as possible and then cower. You may suppress or resume this power as a minor action.

- Requires Helpless Appearance

• More Harmless Appearance: Increase the DC of your Harmless Appearance to 15 + your level.

- Requires Harmless Appearance

• Improved Helpless Appearance: Enemies automatically fail their first Willpower test against "Help Me!".

- Requires Helpless Appearance

• Improved Frightening Appearance: Increase the range of Frightening Appearance to 5 squares.

- Requires Frightening Appearance

• Defenseless Mastery: Increase the DC of all abilities in the Mind Game Talent Tree by 3. 

- Requires at least 3 talents in this tree, level 9

Low Strike Talent Tree: Being so short is tough, but you are great at bringing your prey down to your level. 

• Hamstring: Whenever you attack a creature’s legs, that creature is slowed until they receive medical assistance.

• Unexpected Strike: When you’re behind a creature and attack its legs, you deal an additional 1d6 damage for every two levels of Zom-brat you have. 

- Requires Hamstring

• Tendon Snap: Each time you would deal extra damage with Unexpected Strike, you may skip the extra damage to attempt to snap your enemy’s tendons. The enemy must make a Resilience test (DC = 15 + ½ your level); if they fail, they fall prone and cannot stand (until they receive medical assistance).

- Requires Unexpected Strike

• Improved Unexpected Strike: Increase the damage of your Unexpected Strike by one die size. 

- Requires Unexpected Strike

• Advanced Unexpected Strike: When you roll damage for Unexpected Strike, reroll any die that comes up with a “1”.

- Requires Unexpected Strike

• Improved Tendon Snap: When you attempt to snap your enemy’s tendons, you only skip 1 damage die of extra damage, instead of all the extra damage provided by Unexpected Strike.

- Requires Tendon Snap

Creepy Hunter Talent Tree: Knife in hand, you terrify people with your creepy appearance: an undead child wielding a cleaver is disturbing on many levels. 

• Knife Use: You can now use a knife. This includes knives, cleavers, daggers, or anything else that can be considered a knife. Ask your GM if you’re unsure. 

• Dexterous Strike: You can use your Agility in place of your Strength when determining your attack bonus with a knife. Strength still determines damage.

- Requires Knife Use

• Improved Dexterous Strike: You can use your Agility in place of your Strength when determining the damage of your attacks when using a knife. 

- Requires Dexterous Strike

• Knife Fighter: You gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls with a knife. 

- Special: You may take this talent multiple times.

- Requires Knife Use

• Advanced Knife Fighter: You gain a +1 bonus to damage rolls with a knife.

- Special: You may take this talent multiple times.

- Requires Knife Fighter

• Knife Mastery: Once per round, you may reroll either one attack roll or one damage roll made with a knife.

- Requires level 9, at least 4 other talents in this tree

The Bruiser

The Bruiser

Reborn to fight, you are the sturdiest of your brethren. Perhaps you were once a police officer, or a soldier in the military sent in to quell the undead uprising. Maybe you were just a common street thug that ended up in the wrong dark alley. In any case, you are the ultimate fighter. The body armor you died in protects your body, and you can relearn how to use your former weapons while your companions shamble around empty-handed. 

Automatic Talents:

Armor – You gain a +1 class bonus to AC

Weapon Use (single) – Choose one simple weapon. You are trained with that weapon. 

Statistics:

HP: 16 + Resilience score at 1st level, +6 each time you gain a level. 

Ability Score Modifiers: +2 Strength, +2 Resilience, -2 Agility

Starting Humanity: 8

Class Skills: Athletics, Intimidate, (in progress)

Armored Talent Tree: You learn to make better use of the armor you died in.

• Extra Armor: Your class bonus to AC improves to +2.

• Improved Extra Armor: You gain an additional +2 class bonus to AC.

- Requires Extra Armor

• Advanced Armor: You gain an additional +2 class bonus to AC.

- Requires Improved Extra Armor

• Bulletproof: You gain Resist Damage – Guns (2).

- Requires Improved Extra Armor

• Invulnerable: Once per encounter, prevent all damage dealt to you by one attack. You must declare this benefit after you know if the attack hit or missed, but before damage is rolled.

- Requires Advanced Armor

• Invincible: You gain Resist Damage – All (2).

- Requires Advanced Armor, Invulnerable

Weapon Skill Talent Tree: You recall weapon usage that you learned in life.

• Weapon Skill – Simple: The zombie learns to use all simple weapons.

• Weapon Skill – Moderate: The zombie learns to use moderate weapons.

- Requires Weapon Skill – Simple

• Weapon Skill – Guns: The zombie learns to aim and fire guns, but cannot reload or unjam them.

- Requires Weapon Skill – Moderate

• Advanced Weapon Skill – Simple: The zombie gains a +1 bonus to hit and a +1 bonus to damage with simple weapons.

- Requires Weapon Skill – Simple

• Advanced Weapon Skill – Moderate: The zombie gains a +1 bonus to hit and to damage with moderate weapons.

- Requires Weapon Skill – Moderate 

• Advanced Weapon Skill – Guns: The zombie can reload and unjam guns, and gains a +1 bonus to hit with guns. 

- Requires Weapon Skill – Guns

Rager Talent Tree: The plague has made you berserk, granting superhuman abilities, but at a cost to your body.

• Blood Frenzy: Once per encounter, after an adjacent enemy has taken at least 1 point of damage, you can enter a Blood Frenzy as a free action, which lasts for a number of rounds equal to (3 + your Resilience modifier): 

While in this Blood Frenzy, you gain a +2 bonus to melee attack rolls, a +2 to bonus melee damage rolls, and you take a -2 penalty to AC. While you are in this state, you cannot make ranged attacks or use spells, and you must attack the nearest enemy each turn; if no enemies remain, you must attack the nearest creature, even if it is a friend. 

When the Blood Frenzy ends, you are weakened and slowed for a number of rounds equal to the number of rounds you were Frenzied, minus your Resilience modifier. 

• Vitalizing Frenzy: While you are in a Blood Frenzy, you gain temporary hit points equal to your Resilience modifier at the start of each of your turns. 

- Requires Blood Frenzy

• Terrifying Fury: While you are in a Blood Frenzy, you have an aura of fear. You gain a +2 bonus to Intimidate checks. You can make an Intimidate check against each living creature adjacent to you, except one enemy of your choice, with a DC equal to (15 + the target’s level). For each enemy that you successfully Intimidate, that enemy must take a move action on their next turn to move their speed away from you, and they cannot move closer to you until the start of their following turn. Moving away from you as a result of this ability does not provoke opportunity attacks. 

- Requires Blood Frenzy, Trained in Intimidate

• Rein It In: You can end your Blood Frenzy as a free action during your turn.

- Requires Blood Frenzy, Willpower 14

• Boiling Blood: While you are in a Blood Frenzy, each time you take damage from a melee attack, each creature adjacent to you takes damage equal to your levels in Bruiser.

- Requires Vitalizing Frenzy 

• Extended Fury: Increase the duration of your Blood Frenzy by 3 rounds. The duration of your weakened and slowed condition is extended accordingly.

- Special: You may take this talent multiple times.

- Requires Blood Frenzy, level 5

• Tireless Rage: When your Blood Frenzy ends, your weakened and slowed conditions end 5 rounds sooner than the number of rounds you were in the Blood Frenzy.

- Requires Blood Frenzy, level 7

Zombies! The RPG

Alright everyone, this is my first post for this blog, so I'll just get right to it. This is where I will be posting updates for a homebrewed RPG I am working on. The name is not a final name, just a placeholder for now.

This game is based on many common conventions used in RPGs, but it uses a d20 system. I have drawn from Dungeons and Dragons (both 3.5 and 4e), as well as d20 Modern. This game is standalone, not a template to apply to an existing system.

The game has no "races" or "classes", but rather a "Zombie Type" which is more or less an amalgamation of both race and class. There are skills, but the list is short, and there are only 5 ability scores (unlike to 6 used in D&D).

In "Zombie!" players assume the role of a zombie; the recently-dead and reanimated. The world has been overrun with "The Sickness", a disease that kills its hosts, then reanimates them as zombies. Players can communicate in their own language of groans, moans, and body language, known collectively as Zombie, while humans communicate in Human. Yes, the game is meant to be simple to play and understand. I could have done way in depth and had dozens of human languages, with a dozen vernaculars for each, but I don't want that.

The tone of the game is sort of dark-humorous, funny but scary. There will be tense moments and silly moments. I will now take you through the basics of character creation.

Character Creation:

Step One: Determine ability scores
There are 5 ability scores in Zombie! which are outlined below:


Strength: Your Strength score is a representation of how physically strong your character is. Strength is used to determine how well you can fight in close combat (melee combat), as well as Strength-based abilities such as climbing, lifting, or breaking down doors.


Agility: Your Agility score is used to show how agile, dexterous, or coordinated your character is. Higher Agility means your character is better at things like balancing, using ranged attacks (like guns), or dodging attacks.


Resilience: Your Resilience score is a representation of how “hardy” your character is. A higher Resilience score means your character is better at resisting diseases and poisons, has better endurance, and can take a beating better than others. It also determines your starting hit points (HP).


Willpower: Your Willpower score is used when your character needs to fight off a mental attack, resist attempts to “charm” you, and so on. It is also important if you plan to play a character than uses psychic powers.

Humanity: Your Humanity score is a general representation of how “normal” you look. The more “normal” you look, the easier you can fit into society unnoticed. The less “normal” you look, the more frightening you are to humans and other living creatures. Unlike other ability scores, this score is determined by your class, and ranges from 0 – 20. Also unlike other ability scores, a higher number isn’t necessarily better than a lower one; a higher number simply means you can infiltrate your prey, while a lower number means you are better able to terrify and intimidate your prey.

Ability scores for most starting characters range from around 8 to 18. A normal human is about 10 in every stat (except Humanity), so you will be superhuman in most of your scores. An 8 is a little below average for a human, while an 18 is about as high as a human can expect to reach.

Now that you know what the ability scores are, you’ll need to generate them. You have two options for determining what ability scores your character starts with (as well as a variant rule that you’ll need to clear with your GM first!). Keep in mind, you are not assigning a score to Humanity, so you only need 4 scores, not 5:

Standard Set: Take the following numbers and assign each number to one of your abilities, any way you’d like: 10, 12, 14, 16

Point-Buy: Start with all of your scores as 10. You also have 16 “points” to spend, increasing your scores as you see fit. See the table below for point costs. To use the table, look at which score you want to buy, then spend that many points to get that score. You can reduce one (and only one!) score to either a 9 or 8 (instead of spending points to increase it). If you reduce a score to 9, you gain an extra point to spend; if you reduced that score to 8, you gain 2 extra points to spend.

Score	Cost
10	0
11	1
12	2
13	3
14	5
15	7
16	9
17	12
18	16

For example: Mike has chosen the Point-Buy system, so he starts with all scores as 10. He wants a strong character, so he spends 9 points to make his Strength 16, which leaves him with 7 points left. Since his character will be strong, he doesn’t need to be fast; Mike reduces his Agility to 9 and gets another point to spend, for a total of 8 points left. He decides wants to have a good Resilience, so he spends 5 of his 8 points on that, giving him a Resilience of 14. He puts his remaining 3 points in Willpower, giving him a score of 13.

Roll for stats (requires GM approval): In this variant rule, you will be rolling dice to determine what each of your scores will be. Roll 4d6 (that’s 3 six-sided dice) and ignore the lowest die roll. Total up the remaining three dice, and that’s your first score. Repeat this three more times, and you have your 4 ability scores! Assign them however you’d like.

Note: This method tends to produce numbers a little lower than average, but it can greatly unbalance a game. One player might have several scores above 15 and another might have no scores above a 12.

Step Two: Choose a Zombie Type

Here is a brief rundown of what each Zombie Type represents. Once you choose a Zombie Type, you remain that Zombie Type permanently. If you click the name of the zombie type, you'll be taken to the current talent trees (not all of which are completed).

Bruiser: Of all the types of zombies, you are most suited to front-lines, in the fray fighting. You get better defenses than most, and you can learn to wield weapons that other zombies can’t. You can also fly into a rage, increasing your abilities! Take this zombie type if you want to stand at the front of the pack, fighting head-to-head with your prey!

Hunter: Unlike most zombies, you aren’t slow and shambling. Your plague changed you, made you faster and more agile. You can run, jump, climb, and charge better than most humans can! You can snatch your prey and leap to the rafters, picking them off one-by-one. Or you might run up the walls and around the room, circling your prey and trapping them. Take this zombie type if you want to play a fast, nimble zombie.

Preserved: Something about the plague transformed you, but left you looking mostly human still. People tend to not notice your true nature, and you can blend in with normal humans. You can eventually “relearn” to talk, use tools and operate vehicles, and more! Take this zombie type if you’d like to play a master infiltrator that can live and hunt unnoticed amongst human society.

Zom-brat: You are a child zombie. Killed while still young, you are back and hungry for brains! Your child-like nature makes it hard for humans to attack you, since you look so innocent. You also can learn some weapons, and crippling attacks that leave your opponents immobilized while you feast! Take this zombie type if you want to fight low to the ground, or use your appearance to manipulate and confuse your prey.

Crawler: Your legs were eaten or destroyed before you came back to life. Left with no ability to walk, you drag yourself around searching for food. Many times, your prey is too distracted with your walking companions, while you crawl in for the kill! You can gain abilities to “piggy back” onto humans, you can climb up walls, and so on. Take this zombie type if you want a zombie that sneaks up on your prey, and sometimes even rides around on their back, forcing them to do your bidding!

Putrefactor: You have experienced an accelerated decomposition, which has left your body overrun by diseases and infection. You harness this sickness by turning it against your prey. You exude a cloud of toxins around you, and your bite deals extra poison damage. Take this zombie option if you want to spit clouds of poison, or infect your prey with disease that kills them rapidly.

Ringleader: You are a master of unlife. Through careful manipulation of The Sickness, you have infected yourself with a mutation variation that has given you strange new abilities. You can raise your own undead minions, heal undead, inflict pain on the living, and even cast spells. 

Shambler: You are the master of versatility. You may not excel in one area like other undead might, but you can draw skills from all types of zombies, making your own blend of powers and abilities. 

Click on the names of the Zombie Types for more information.




Step Three: Choose a Talent


As you level up, you gain talents and feats. 


At every odd-numbered level, you gain a talent from your class. You can take any talent in your Zombie Type, in any tree, as long as you meet the requirements. Unless stated otherwise, you cannot take a talent more than once. 


At every even-numbered level, you gain a feat. As long as you meet all the requirements for a feat, you can take it. Unless otherwise stated, you cannot take a feat more than once.