Dead… and Back
Dead and Back is a game of survival in the face of the supernatural. It uses a dice pool system of resolution, a wound chart tracking how quickly you can run, and lets you push yourself to the limit – at the risk of turning on the other survivors. Combat is based on the power of your weapon versus the resistance of the enemy. Single zombies will go down with one or two shots, but there are rules for entire hordes as well. Furthermore, a simple set of guidelines are in place for designing your own creatures and running horror in general.
This first PDF contains only the rules. Additions to be released at a later date (hopefully soon), but until then, these rules should be flexible enough to handle whatever horror your care to throw at your players.
My envisioned setting revolves around a movement project to create undead super-soldiers to combat an alien invasion that goes horribly wrong. The players will be stuck between fundamentalist government enclaves, wastelands full of nano-tech zombies, and alien controlled zones patrolled by demonic power-armor.
Don’t forget: aim for the head.
A Lesson In Zombie Psychology
“We’ll be safe here for a few minutes. At least long enough to catch our breath.”
For a long while, we said nothing, the only sound our breathing, and then even that seemed to subside. It was as quiet as death, except for the fact that death itself was moaning and crawling around out there, somewhere beyond the door we were hiding behind. I tried for some conversation, my voice weak against the silence. “So what did you do before all this?”
“Painted houses.”
“Just houses?”
“Yeah.”
“Was business good?”
“It was getting better, now its getting worse.”
“Supernatural infestation tends to do that.” I replied with a weak smile.
“I just wish I knew what type of zombies they were?”
“There’s different types? What is this- Caskin’ Robins- 31 flavors of undead?
“No, no, its just a matter of where did they come from, and why are we so scared?”
“Were scared because a few hundred corpses are roaming the city trying to be come acquainted with our vital organs ? and as for me, I not quite done using them.’
‘Is that really it? They’re slow, dumb ? flammable. We can out think them, out run them and easily destroy them. If you watch they’re stiff jointed gait for a while, they’re almost comical.’
‘Zombies are something deeper than just trying to kill us. They are man’s pathos, our shadow. A necromantic curse that robs someone of their individuality and free thought shows just how much we value our minds, the only thing truly unique about us. Or perhaps they’re a reflection of us grasping something in sciences best left untouched, and showing how truly susceptible we are to folly. An unknown disease shows how a species that can touch the heavens with rockets is still not untouchable’
We’ve got brains, something they can only crave.’
Every endeavor of man is based on his brain ? memory really, and the lessons we have picked up over life, and through books, the centuries. Zombies are entropy, the antibrain. They’re inevitable. Empires fall, places change.’
Ultimately they are relentless. Demons can be excised with prayer and a little holy water, vampires are held at bay with a cross, the sphinx destroys itself if you guess it’s riddle. Given a lull in the fighting, soldiers of opposing armies would gladly swap cigarettes, and when the battle is on, a 6 ton tank can be stopped with a well placed beer bottle full of gasoline. Zombies, can not be stopped, a nightmare we can not awaken from and thus the downfall of all dreamers.”
“Wow. Thats really deep. I mean college dissertation material.”
“Unless of course they really are just nothing more than walking corpses. Then they can just be stopped with a shotgun to the head.”
“Could you take your hat off for a moment. I want to see if any chunks are missing from your cranium.”
Tags: Chainsaw Aardvark, Jason Kline
August 22nd, 2008 at 7:57 pm
I have been playing Role Playing Dice games since my dad introduced me to D&D about 6 years ago. Since then I have usually played the DM or such for the games I host, and I am very excited about running Dead and Back for the first time.
Ill let you know how it runs.