Dead Meat: The Last Resort

[UnSub]

This post is as much for me as anyone else - I'm using it to externalise my thoughts about my running of a recent Dead Meat game.

Outside The Game
Having come across a Dead Meat review on rpg.net I looked it up and liked what I saw. I've been playing with a group of player in mainly GURPS games for years but recently have been wanting something different. The big problem is that everyone knows the GURPS system, so trying to bring something else in is very hard. Add to that 5+ games running in parallel and limited time to play... cutting in is very hard.

I haven't had a heap of game-running experience (due to some of the factors above) but had some good ideas I wanted to try. Dead Meat leapt out at me as a good way to throw some of these ideas into a game. After a week or two of umming and ahhhing about doing it, I said I'd run a game if people were interested. They were and I set to work.

Backgaming
Dead Meat is all about the zombies. One-shot games are its strength. I tried to avoid the normal zombie cliches and thought I was a little bit original in setting it at an exclusive skiing resort (named the Elyssian Fields).

The zombies were raised by a combination of bored rich kids looking for thrills (NPCs) and hostile ice spirits that lived in the area (which I called Youka). Angry spirits + clumsy black magic = zombie carnage. The players could do what they liked, but I envisioned that the players would either all die or escape (as per genre conventions) so I planned a couple of exits for them.

Zombie-chow
The players were a little apprehensive when I presented them with 4 printed sheets of paper and said, "These are the rules", but when I explained what was happening they loosened up a little. I had every player develop 3 characters on paper and asked them to include a simple personality for that character. Hearing the term "zombie movie" raised some questions about what the personality should be, so I told them to think stereotypes if they wished, but also to think about who would be at a mega-exclusive ski resort.

When everyone had developed their characters I shuffled them and gave each player a character - the players all got a big laugh out of playing characters they didn't develop. Though there were a few too many exotic dancers and ex-porn stars for my liking... :-)

In the Game
We had the set-up and I asked the players to explain what they were doing and how they related to the other characters. There was the set-up, everything going wrong and the players being isolated while zombies prowled outside.

The players all did a great job of not metagaming, meaning I had to give them a reason to act. I had to turn off the lights and open the doors to force the players out of the lobby (where they were going to stay until help arrived). One of the players had their character refuse to believe what was going on and not leave the bar, so they ended up as zombie chow.

The characters split up and the individual groups started to engage in combat with the zombies they found. I had the zombies continue to get back up until the players started setting them on fire or decapitated them, but mostly the players just stepped over the fallen and kept going. Another character died (cinematically smashing a molotov cocktail over his head as he was overcome) before the players chose to exit the resort by driving away from it.

They got to the garage, made some smart decisions regarding their selection of vehicle and made their getaway. I gave a little summation along the lines that "a lot of people disappeared from the ski resort and no one believes your stories" which rounded off the game nicely.

Lessons Learned
One mistake I made was leaving player out of the game for too long. His character died and I couldn't find a way to bring him together with the rest of the characters (especially since they were involved in lots of combat). Next time I'll look at the clock and make my decision based on that moreso than in-game logic.

My other mistake was not placing the players under enough zombie pressure. They ran into zombies across the course of the game, but it was never a horde of them. It was a little bit weak for a zombie movie. My flaw was I expected the players to send their characters outside at some point which they never did. My "zombies hiding in the snow" shock just didn't get to be used!

As for my running the game, I was happy I managed to keep the players entertained. I came up with some neat stuff off the top of my head (if I do say so myself!) and feel more confident for the next game I will run. Because there will be a next time...

The System
Dead Meat is a great one-shot game system. It has a very simple games mechanic and makes combat and character action fairly quick. I was a bit confused on the damage system so I played it soft for the players - next time I'll be meaner about it (especially after I was told to "kill our characters more!" after the game). Next time we need a one-shot game I'm going to use it again. If v2 comes out I would strongly consider buying it due to the great experience I had with v1.666.

[Demonspahn]

Great post UnSub!  Dead Meat is a heap of fun for players and the GM as you have already discovered.  

Definitely wack a couple more characters next time---the players expect it!  :)   After one gets killed, be sure to keep the others in the same locale and occupy them with something else (maybe more zombies) long enough for the dead PC to "rise", then let that player roll for his mindless zombie as it attacks.  If your players have an ounce of competitiveness, this is a _huge_ load of fun.  I still have a player who brags about how his trapeeze artist-turned-zombie took out two more characters (killed one, wounded the other) before he was put down.  :)

Another thing that might help is I try to include some type of rationale for at least one or two intelligent zombies---these are good for seeking out the "hider PCs", opening doors or climbing things, cutting the power, etc., then leading the rest of the mindless horde down on the characters who choose cower in the dark.  It keeps the PCs moving.  

Sounds like you improvised well, though.  I think the rules support a free, easy and loose style.  Also, Kudos to your players for getting into the spirit of the game.

Be sure to post the next session summary here as well, whenever you run it.  It was a great read.  

Pete
(whose Dead Meat on an ocean/cruise liner session is scheduled for 10/31)

[UnSub]

Next time I will definitely have the "dead" characters rising - in this game I controlled the dead character zombies but next time I will let the players go for it against each other.

The next Dead Meat game will be a while off since we will have to cycle through everyone elses' games (or wait until someone is too hungover to GM!). For some reason I'm thinking of merging the Towering Inferno and Resident Evil together and see what happens. The characters start 40 stories up and the zombie virus contains spider DNA... hmm, that's a lot of cliches but it sounds sooo good... :-)

Spider-zombie (off the top of my head)

Whomp - 2
Zip - 3
Chunks - 3

- can cling / climb up walls and hand from ceiling
- can spit spiderweb from mouth; on successful "distance" whomp roll player loses zip points equal to number of successes; roll zip to avoid or whomp to tear off webiing; spiderweb can also block passageways
- Spider-zombies have a horrible appearance - distorted neck and mouth; teeth and fangs interject; disjointed limbs; dessicated and overstretched bodies
- Spider-zombies driven by a terrible hunger; the changes in their body have used a lot of energy and they seek food where ever they can get it.

Yeah, I think that would work! Better arm the players to give them a chance though!

[Demonspahn]

Sounds good!  Nice and creepy being stuck in a skyscraper and running into spider webs that block off escape routes.  

Just a note though, you don't have to stick with the zombie horde theme if you don't want to.  I think the rules would also support an "Eight-legged Freaks" type game if you wanted to use giant spiders and/or even near mindless spider/human mutations (so characters could still "come back").

Incidentally, if you have some questions as to how combat works, I can post what I have done in my games.  

Arming the characters is cool, might also work well if an "extermination force" was secretly sent in to deal with the bugs.  Characters could find guns and ammo, other supplies on dried husks within the webbing and begin to piece out the story.

Pete

[UnSub]

My current backstory for the game is the personas are on the observation deck of the Ursas Building, home to Ursas Special Research and Development Corporation. The players are knocked to the ground by a huge explosion that rocks the building, and by the time they get back up alarms are going off everywhere.

What Happened: Ursas SR&DC have been working on a number of retroviruses that seek to repair human illness at a genetic level. To get to their current stage there has been extensive testing and genetic manipulation of a number of creatures, mainly those of the insect world. An accidental production of this testing is a type 3 retrovirus that aggressively re-writes human DNA towards the features of a spider (hooray for mad science!). Mutation is very quick when it occurs (and I may throw in a Guts check because it would be rather gross to watch... think The Thing in terms of what it would be like).

The explosion was caused by a number of scientists becoming infected with the retrovirus and letting their incredilbly unstable experiments spiral into critical mass. The surviving spider-zombies have infected some other people and are slowly starting to spread within the building, using vents and ducts to get around.

As for zombies... I'm calling them that because they are driven by mindless hunger. I prefer using human / spider hybrids because that is even more ick than giant spiders. Especially when they try to talk...

The extermination force is a good idea - I may keep that for some NPCs (who may or may not get horribly eaten... :-)

And yes, I'd like to hear how you handled combat. Let's see where I went wrong!

[unodiablo]

HI Pete, UnSub,

Great stuff here! And Zombie movies are all about loading up the cliches! :)

Pete, I'd like to see a post @ how you handled combat... That's part of my re-working the game, making combat go faster, along with all resolutions. That way you can get to the icky stuff!

Sean

[Demonspahn]

Hi guys,

Sorry for the delay UnSub.

OK, as far as combat I think we do it pretty much as written.

When there is a group of characters fighting a group of zombies, we make one roll for each group.  

Ex. - 3 characters each with 2 Whomp dice and 3 extra dice for the various weapons in the group.  That's a total of 9 dice,  Each player rolls his own Whomp (+weapon, if any) and then successes are totalled up.  Successes = 3  

There are 10 weakling zombies, each with a Whomp of 1 so I roll 10 dice and total up the successes.  Successes = 7

Subtract the lowest number of succeses from the highest and thats how many _automatic_ Guts (or Chunks) wounds the loser takes.  In the example above, the characters take 4 Guts wounds but the players decide who in their group takes the wounds.  If the zombies have less successes, the GM decides which ones lose Chunks.  

This may seem like the GM has to roll "boatloads of dice" as I think you put it once Sean, but it's really not that bad.  The thing is that during an attack, more than half the characters usually run away if they can and only a few enter combat.  

I don't think I ever had to roll more than 12 dice at once and it was not a problem due to the plethora of d6's at our (and most) gaming tables, and that was only once when the characters were taken by surprise.  It's actually kind of amusing (in an "uh-oh" kind of way) for everyone to see all those dice go clattering and then pick out the successes.  Keeps the game light hearted and entertaining.    

Incidentally, I also make wounded characters roll their guts every other scene or so---if they get no successes they lose another point of Guts until they eventually die (and then come back to life!).  

Sometimes the characters encounter a "boss" zombie leading the weaklings.  So far in my games bosses have about 3 in every stat and there is usually only one of them at a time.  Characters may state they are trying to single out the boss(es) in melee combat.   If the characters roll more successes than the zombies, I roll 1d6 and if that comes up a 6 then the boss took the Chunks wounds with the remaining Chunks (if any) being distributed to the rest of the horde.  However, if the roll comes up a 1, one of the characters takes an automatic Guts wound (because he was so focused on attacking the boss).    


Ex. - four characters, each with a whomp of 3 and 2d of weapons (14d6 total) roll 7 more successes than the boss (3d Chunks) and 10 zombies (1D Chunks).  Roll 1d6, if it comes up a 6,  the boss is toast and 4 zombies go down as well.  If it comes up a 2-5, 7 zombies go down.  If it comes up a 1, 10 zombies go down but one of the characters takes a Guts wound as well.

I use Zip for ranged attacks.  

I do not allow characters to use Zip to dodge, only to run away.  If a group is attacked by a horde of zombies, and a character runs away while the others fight I usually don't bother to make a roll.   Otherwise, I decide how many zombies are going to give chase and then roll their Zip individually against the fleeing character's Zip.  

Looking back, this seems sort of convoluted but it actually is very easy in play.  Hope it helps.  

Pete

[unodiablo]

Hi Pete,

That does make sense... Where it bogged down for me in the past was all the opposing Zip rolls for defense. It's much more streamlined to have them choose between Zip and Whomp, and roll one large pool. (the new version focuses more on Persona interaction/help and individual player pool rolls, I wonder if you'll like the new method?)

If you make players use Zip for ranged attacks, they can't run away after using that dice pool as well, correct? That would also work better - the ones who stay and fight, esp with a gun, are the ones to get munched. Makes guns much less powerful. I tend to make guns rare or bullets very limited... Looks like you also cut out the multiple melee attacks with your player pool rolls.

That's why I'm going to leave the original version online after I publish the new version. Seems like everyone plays it a bit differently. One person sent me a version that was much more how I originally did v2, adding more tactical elements, armor, etc...

Thanks for the info!
Sean

(edited for clarity in 2nd paragraph)