Zombie Apocalypse Original (incorrect) Premise

[pansophy]

Nice idea, but I would change the initial infection a bit.

It would be more sinister to have the virus initially be spread by contact only. So, in the beginning only the curious few people who went to examin the meteor are infected. As the virus would take time to adapt to the body, I would have them 48 to 72 hours before the first symptoms are shown (lethargic looking, absent minded, uncoordinated, etc). During that time, the "curious few" have the option to spread the virus further as they get in contact with other people.

And then the first mindless killings start. Maybe, in the beginning, people are still somewhat aware of theit surroundings, they still can interact with others - they only have blackouts (and this is when they kill). After some time, some days, they drop more and more into the mindless zombie state.

Doing it this way has some more nice side effects: the players at first think this is a murder investigation. Then, when the killings get more and more frequent, they might think of a serial killer. This is when the other meteors fall on Earth.

When the full blown Zombie epidemic comes through, the players may still think of this as a local problem, unless they make the connection with the meteors.

If you play it right and do not mention the meteor strike as a main thing, the players will make the connection between the events only when it is too late - and you trapped them into a nice horror setting.

It is a bit more sinister, more surprising and to me a more interesting plot.

[Max_Writer]

Yeah, that does sound more sinister, but realistically, I don't think it would work - at least not for an eventual worldwide (or even state- or country-wide spread). People are too quick nowadays to deal with pandemics and health departments and the like are too quick to react for it to start so slow (or at least for it to turn global in such a case). The authorities would catch on pretty quick and there's a good chance you'd end up with manditory cremations of the dead (like in "The Last Man on Earth") in order to stem the plague.

[seneschal]

True, but in Last Man on Earth the cremation order apparently came too late to prevent the inevitable disaster. Poor Vincent Price still found himself alone, despite the smouldering charnel pile at the dump. After all, enough healthy people have to remain to collect and burn the corpses, dodging zombies all the while.