Zombie Apocalypse - Deadworld

[Max_Writer]

I've started a game I named "Deadworld" (not realizing there is a comic by that same name) dealing with a zombie apocalypse (along with triffids and, soon, feral ghouls) using BRP.  My players are heading across North Carolina from the mountains to the ocean in the hopes of hiding out on the outer banks.  What I need are some casual encounters along the way to give the feel for the quickly degrading society of the United States circa June 2015 as the infrastructure of the country falls apart.

The basic premise of the game was a meteor shower that dropped tens of thousands of infected meteorites on the planet.  Each one dispersed, in a three-mile radius, an alien airborne pathogen that immediately killed everyone who breathed it in.  The airborne disease died very shortly afterwards due to the toxins in the atmosphere, but the bugs in the dead bodies then mutated, bringing them, essentially, back to life.  This bloodborne pathogen now tries to spread itself by biting living humans to create more hosts for itself.  The thousands of meteors that fell also caused physical damage (knocking out buildings and electricity and the like) further leading to the collapse of ... well just about everything.

Any ideas for short encounters - even something that could just be narrated as the players pass by - would be helpful.  I'm looking for things to creep them out as they make their way cross country.

[Mysterioso]

Encounters:

Feral animals. (Dogs are obvious but feral pigs could be more horrifying and dangerous. Rat swarms should work well too.)

Also, if you're going with Triffids, do something along the lines of The Ruins with rapidly growing, partially sentient Kudzu.

For simple narration:

Thousands upon thousands of bodies in the heat of North Carolina would produce something almost too vile to describe; even if reanimated, the dead would rot to almost melting quickly in the humid heat.  Besides disgusting atmosphere, it would very much impact water supplies

Chemical plants, etc. that have leaks, coal mines with fires, etc. due to not being maintained should provide some grim challenges.  For basic descriptions of infrastructure decaying, Google up pictures of abandoned sites within Eastern Europe for inspiration.

[Max_Writer]

Awesome!  Thanks.  This will help.

I also figure on a few small, fortified compounds.  I like the idea of a church with a sniper in the steeple, warding off anyone passing through.

[Mysterioso]

To play with the idea of good water being difficult to find, it could be a water tower.

[Max_Writer]

YES!  That's a great idea.

[Mysterioso]

Having a university (Duke?) where there are a cohort of academics trying to figure out what has happened and how to turn things around might be a good scenario, especially if that enclave is threatened once the characters get there. (Duke also has a lemur center in a different area of NC that could be used for some rather creepy zombie lemurs; "They're in the trees!")

There is also good material to be mined from the Walking Dead episode with the Hispanic Vatos gang that had banded together to protect elderly in their community. Not sure of my North Carolina geography in relation to where the characters are starting but maybe this could be redone with a part of the Cherokee reservation?

[Max_Writer]

Great ideas.  This group started in Boone, N.C. and decided to head for the coast in hopes that perhaps the Outer Banks might be safe/defendable.

[TRose]

 First thing . I am a John Wyndham fan. That being said , the Triffids being plants  Crits and hit locations  are kind of mute. Would take a lot to stop them. Except  for aimed shots to the head which was fairly easy to do in the book.

 My choice of hide out in a Zombie apocalypse would be a Grain elevator.. First you have concrete walls that are 5 to 10 foot thick. They are a Hundred or so feet high so good visibility over the local area.. And if you are lucky ,plenty of food , although corn meal might get boring after awhile.

Edited April 29, 2016 by TRose

[Max_Writer]

Great idea!  I always thought a great vehicle would be a combine and then just run the zombies down, though I've been told bones would probably jam up the mechanism.

I'm using the triffid stats from Malleus Monstrorum.  Impaling weapons (i.e. all firearms) do minimum possible damage.  I've also statted out the triffid guns:

Triffid Gun: Base 10%, DMG 1D6, Rng 10 yds, RoF ½, Mag 1, Hands 1 or 2, HP 12, Malf 98.

Notes - Silent.  No Impale.  The triffid gun fires a sharpened steel boomerang called a bolt, projected by a powerful spring.  If triffids are hit on the stem, it decapitates them and renders them harmless.

[TRose]

 Another place players might try to hole up in( At least I would) would be a Colonial or Civil war era fort.. Europe little better as they have  real  Castle. I have always wondered why no one ever hides out in Dover Castle  in England during a disaster movie.. I believe Fort Raleigh on Roanoke Island has a rebuilt wooden Stockade I believe from the pictures I seen  and being on an island might be a pretty good place to stay once you clear the Island. Fort Macon Is an Old brick and Mortar fort from the Civil Wa

 Years ago I remember in an other wise forgotten game supplement in an apocalypse world where the bad guys converted one of those mega dump trucks used in the coal mines into a battlewagon.

[Skunkape]

I agree, if you can find a fortified location that has high stone walls, for instance, a high security prison that had stone walls around the outside, you could always break up the stone ground inside the walls where it is open to the sky, you can plant crops, then you don't have to worry about walkers while tending your crops.