TLS Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 A few months ago I bought BRP. I've played Chaosium's games a little bit but never run one of them. I'm going to run a one-shot adventure in a few weeks; it will be a fantasy game. I'll use the Kingdoms of Kalamar game setting. So, I came up with a new type of critter as the main bad guy for the adventure: The Zombie King. The idea is that when a necromancer creates a zombie there is a slight chance there will be a mishap. The original spirit returns and inhabits the body. It is free-willed; not under the necromancer's control. If it touches a zombie it permanantly takes control. On the night of the full moon it can create a zombie of it's own from a handy corpse. It can sense anything any of its zombies can sense. Since I'm a newbie to BRP, what can you suggest about statting out this dude? Any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RosenMcStern Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 Sounds nasty. Other suggestions might be letting the ZK cast sorcery spells through its zombies under certain conditions (I would say dark moon rather than full moon) at double power point cost, or allowing it to regain power points under certain conditions. Quote Proud member of the Evil CompetitionTM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harshax Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 Since I'm a newbie to BRP, what can you suggest about statting out this dude? Any ideas? I think it is important to note, that the stats given in the book are for classic Romero Zombies - slow, stupid, and easily avoided. You could use the Zombie stats as is, but give them a normal range for INT and POW (or whatever the creature's INT and POW were in real life). Make them faster by giving them normal human movement. Give them armor (even with the 1/2 damage from most attacks, a happy ZK wouldn't risk getting killed again. Besides, old habits die hard.) as for other abilities . . . I'd give it a horrifying maggot spittle attack. Older ZK's might have a constant cloak of flies that make it harder to hit. And ancient ZK's might have decomposed enough to become Skeleton Lords. Quote And don't forget Realism Rule # 1 "If you can do it in real life you should be able to do it in BRP". - Simon Phipp Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dyvim Matt Posted January 19, 2009 Share Posted January 19, 2009 Why not use the Mummy's stats? Granted, I don't have the book with me, so I'm not sure how the mummy compares to zombies, but I figure most of the job would already be cut out for you, and a bit of fine-tuning can certainly take care of the rest. Just rename it a Zombie King and voilà ! What do you think? Quote Proud pen-and-paper roleplayer since 1991! Blood and Souls for Lord Arioch! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al. Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 I think Matthew the Dragon Lord has it. A Zombie is a shambling reanimated corpse with zero will and little co-ordination, a Mummy is a far more terrifying animated corpse with full memories and will. Of course it will not be swathed in bandages so it will look ickier but may not burn so well If the corpse is nice and fresh then it might look a bit like Bruce Lee's nipper....... Al Quote Rule Zero: Don't be on fire Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TLS Posted January 20, 2009 Author Share Posted January 20, 2009 Yeah, I don't mind if the regular zombies are "slow, stupid, and easily avoided" but they won't be flesh seeking zombies. They will be more like D&D zombies; magical automatons created by magicians as menial servants and mindless soldiers. They can obey simple orders. It will be the Zombie King that will be the improved version. He will have the same INT and POW as he had in life. The ZK has gradually aquired an army of zombie minions. Since he senses whatever his minions sense, he has an excellent intelligence gathering mechanism. After one group of his zombies has encountered the PCs, he can adjust his tactics to account for PC weaknesses. And, he can use a lone zombie as a scout to get immediate real time intelligence. Of course, he will equip his troops with whatever armor and weapons he can get. As for the mummy suggestions, I will read that part when I get a chance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solinor Posted January 20, 2009 Share Posted January 20, 2009 So a vampiric undead guy who creates zombies by touch instead of vampires by bite? Have you made what the character was in life up yet? I would say do that first then increase STR and CON by 1.5 or x2 and then add the abilities you described. Bring him to life through description after that. You stated a one shot adventure, how tough are the players going to be? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TLS Posted January 29, 2009 Author Share Posted January 29, 2009 So a vampiric undead guy who creates zombies by touch instead of vampires by bite? Have you made what the character was in life up yet? I would say do that first then increase STR and CON by 1.5 or x2 and then add the abilities you described. Bring him to life through description after that. You stated a one shot adventure, how tough are the players going to be? The players are not particularly tough. The characters, on the other hand, should be up to the task. I pre-generated all the characters. I designed them based on a heroic level game. In addition, I gave them each a "personality" background boost. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrk Posted January 31, 2009 Share Posted January 31, 2009 (edited) My Lord of the Zombies in my own campaign world is loosely based on the loa/voodoo demigod Baron Samedi. In a game I ran once, some PC's got into a fight with a group of cultist and lost a fellow adventure in the battle which they didn't have time to retrieve his body. A year later they went back to the same place and sure enough found their ex- comrade had been turned into a zombie. It kinda creeped out the player seeing this dead PC brought back as an undead minion Anyway, here's a great image of what I imagined the Lord of the Zombie would look like ( thank u Marvel ) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Brothervoddoo.jpg Edited January 31, 2009 by mrk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solardog Posted February 1, 2009 Share Posted February 1, 2009 In 42000AD there is still no rest from the living dead.>:-> Cadian Blood Quote It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is the most adaptable to change. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TLS Posted April 29, 2009 Author Share Posted April 29, 2009 Well, I could not get that group together. The personal schedules could not be rectified(dang-blasted work getting in the way of gaming). So, I plan to run it at Sci Fi Summer Con in June. It will be my first time GMing any kind of Chaosium RPG. I also plan to run all those mini-scenarios from the free BRP quick-start thing that is on the Chaosium website. If any of you live in the Atlanta area come to the con and play in my Zombie King game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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