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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36779 Posts |
 Posted - 22 Feb 2013 : 21:03:03
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quote:
Originally posted by sleyvas
I've watched Walking Dead. I love the show. I'd never do a "the entirety of faerun is faced with a zombie apocalypse" scenario, for the same reason I'm not interested in dragonlance. It would turn the world into a simple plot and my players would get bored. Now, that being said, I could see doing something like this in a regional campaign with lower level characters. The big thing there becomes the players can't teleport around, etc.... It would have to be some place where the surrounding countries wouldn't swoop in to aid the country (so, for instance, Thay... maybe Unther... Vaasa... the moonsea area... Dambrath...). I also wouldn't have mindless zombies.... ghouls more match what you see in the zombie apocalypse scenarios. Another option would be a horde of blightspawned (who change people into blightspawned and then eventually die and become juju zombies).
However, I can't stress enough, I'd only do this on a local scale for a short term effect. It'd get boring fast.
Indeed. If I was inclined to do some sort of zombie thing, it would be small in scale. I don't know whether or not I'd stick with zombies or scale up to some other form of undead; if I did go with zombies, there would be someone or something driving them. Really not keen on mindless undead.
Paizo has taken a page from Lovecraft and created a ghoul kingdom -- if I wanted hordes of undead, I'd more likely take that approach. |
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Edited by - Wooly Rupert on 22 Feb 2013 21:05:28 |
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Diffan
Great Reader
USA
4430 Posts |
Posted - 22 Feb 2013 : 22:02:06
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Hm, interesting concept.
Would I do it? Sure, as a stand-alone campaign that had no previous ties to anything we (our group) is currently doing in the Realms and perhaps considered a sort of alternate-history version. I'd definitly be High-level in scope of PC power level. I see the PCs being game-changers in terms of how they can effect the world and I can see them easily going to other planes in an attempt to find a cure or perhaps why the Gods haven't really stepped in an did anything about it.
But lets just say that for some reason a dampening field is surrounding Abeir-Toril and the gods really can't directly interfere except by granting prayers. How would it play out? For one, there would have to be a cause to the situation. Why are the dead coming back to life? For a game based around D&D, it's not hard to come up with a plausable excuse such as Artifacts, Epic Magic, the workings of a bad Deity, or outside influences like the Abolethic Soverignty or even something a little more "out there" such as a derelict spacecraft containing some sort of means for global radiation crash-landing on Faerûn.
So once you have your reasoning, you make the decision if it's something the PCs can stop and or contain. If it isn't and you fine with the world of Abeir-Toril being an Undead campaign world, then I'd suggest that it's not possible to stop and the people on the world have to deal with that, basing the campaigns around survivial. The undead, in this scenario, just become another obsticle to the story-arch and set the mood of the setting. They're not killing zombies with the intent of extinction, but rather just a means to get past to another part of the story. This is the route most Zombie apocalypse settings go, they become a part of the backdrop to the "true" story.
If it IS something that can be reversed, then I'd make it a mega-plot for the PCs to find the source, get help from deities, and stop it before undead take over every part of the world. I'd definitly start the PCs in the mid- to high-level range (perhaps 18th level and moving onto 30th) or if your playing v3.5 15th level and going to 20th + Epic level. This gives the PCs a sense of power that might at first seem over the top, but when compared to the scope of the problem, fits in nicely (Think Avengers or The Justice League).
I have done post-apoc campaigns before, namely using d20-Modern with the Resident Evil conversions and monsters which was a blast. But it was also very localized, centered around our groups survival in our hometown of Pittsburgh. The fact that the plague was world-wide really only added ambiance to the setting, not something that our group would attempt to "fix".
quote:
Originally posted by Wooly Rupert
What would cause zombies to simultaneously pop up in such widely separated geographic areas? Most zombie apocalypse scenarios start in one place and spread, not simulataneously happen everywhere. And if it is everywhere, why were the PCs not affected?
Actually, Night of the Living Dead as well as The Walking Dead are both examples of a non-virus based Zombie Apocalypse. There is no "infected" as people who get bitten just die faster. Anyone who dies, regardless of the reason, is raised as a shambling zombie (except those without an intact spinal cord). This has the effect of being a global problem without an epicenter or no time for it to spread as all the corpses just stand up all at once.
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Dark Wizard
Senior Scribe
USA
830 Posts |
Posted - 23 Feb 2013 : 01:43:37
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Wouldn't do it personally. Think the zombie thing is a bit overplayed at this point, but nothing's to stop it from being a fun one-shot. Set the world up like an Athas-ified Toril (in terms of atmosphere, utterly post-apocalyptic) with undertones of Black Plague era Europe. Go all out.
Doesn't separate it from any other similar fantasy setting getting the zombie treatment though. Really the zombie genre works best at least in an early modern era to contemporary modern setting. The theme shines when the modern world’s existing societal factors and the density of population contrasts with a suddenly devastated world reduced from some technological/globalized height. It’s the collapse from civilization that presents the creepy funhouse mirror from which we reflect. That is not present in the Realms or similar settings. There are vast wild regions, barbaric tribes, dark legions, cruel hordes, aberrations and eldritch horrors already in place, zombies is just another monster in the heaping pile of dangers fantasy characters face on a regular basis. It’s fun to see Joe the accountant from the suburbs become a survivalist badass, it’s interesting to see the sheep become the wolf and how he will fare in the pack that now passes for civilization or society. To a ranger or paladin or any adventurer really, it’s another day on the job. It might be a bad day, but nothing such characters haven’t gone through at some point. |
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The Sage
Procrastinator Most High
Australia
31701 Posts |
Posted - 23 Feb 2013 : 01:56:56
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quote:
Originally posted by Laeknir
Forgive me for thinking that this was a board for discussion, and that we are talking about a setting based totally in fantasy where anything can happen.
So practically every other scribe contributing to this discussion who has worked with your request, means nothing? You've had one scribe with whom you experienced problems. I think it's a little unfair to paint this site as being difficult for discussion when the rest of the discussion in this very scroll disproves your assumption.
quote:
It's one thing to say, "not for me" or "doesn't really work for me" but it's entirely different to judge it as "nonsense hype" or attack it until it's driven into the ground.
Where did I attack you idea? I simply said it wasn't for me. FOR ME. If it works for you, then it's fine. We all contribute perspectives from our own campaigns -- just as you've done here. Just because some scribes may not be enamoured with the idea doesn't make their perspective any less meaningful than your own.
I find the zombie apocalypse nonsense hype. That's me. I'm not saying that anyone else who is finding ways of using the concept to bring a new level of fun to their campaign is expected to believe the same as me. And, again, as I've repeatedly said, I kind have already experienced something like this in my Realms.
I'm not really sure how many different ways I can get this point across. I'm not attacking your idea. I'm saying it's not for me. But I'm happy to chime in with any cool tidbits I can offer... because like all discussions here at Candlekeep, one or another scribe [I'm looking at you, Markus  ] is bound to bring up something that "triggers" an alternatively fun little notion in my own mind.
quote:
But whatever. I've lost any enthusiasm for this. Move along. Thread has been killed.
I'm sorry you feel that way.
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But I don't see the need to "kill" this scroll. If the rest of the community wish to continue Laeknir's original discussion, then have at it!  |
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Candlekeep - The Library of Forgotten Realms Lore
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Scribe for the Candlekeep Compendium -- Volume IX now available (Oct 2007)
"So Saith Ed" -- the collected Candlekeep replies of Ed Greenwood
Zhoth'ilam Folio -- The Electronic Misadventures of a Rambling Sage |
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Dennis
Great Reader
9933 Posts |
Posted - 24 Feb 2013 : 08:16:33
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quote:
Originally posted by Ayrik
It's been tried in Thay anyhow, with little interest or success.
Zombies also have little appeal in a world populated by liches, vampires, and other exotic undead. They aren't even very exciting when made from mean monsters like beholders, giants, and dragons.
They might be better suited to horror-genre D&D, in one of the Ravenloft domains. Even then, it's less about the sheer magnitude of the horde than about the malign intelligence behind it.
Agreed. Besides, I prefer undead who are "intelligent." Anything less hardly appeals to me.
Thay may one day attempt some mass raising of the dead on a foreign land, like Rashemen (a land where so many Nars and Raumathari lay dead), and have those zombies obliterate the living. |
Every beginning has an end. |
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Markustay
Realms Explorer extraordinaire
USA
15724 Posts |
Posted - 24 Feb 2013 : 11:54:14
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I like zombies (now... I used to not), but I also like Vamps, liches, ghouls, etc. I also like Lycanthropes, and tons of other monsters.
For me, one of D&D's (and FR's by extension) greatest assets is that its not a 'one trick pony'. There are entire settings based around a single flavor - be it zombies, vamps, whatever - but I play D&D because I like to focus on the interrelationships between all those monsters. One of the things I loved about WoD is the politics behind the very different Vampire clans, and their ongoing conflict with the Lycanthropes - thats the kind of stuff I like to port into my Realms, where it has even greater potential because of all the different creatures we have.
My homebrew setting is based entirely on these relationships - everything has some sort of relationship with everything else, and some of them can be quite surprising (like when the Elf King falls to one knee before a forest Faun).
So if I were to do the 'Zombie thing' somewhere in my Realms, I'd make damn well sure how all those other species would react to it. Humanity would not be standing alone in the face of such a common threat (and normally contentious groups allying in a common cause is another theme I thoroughly enjoy - the Orcs really made the whole Empires trilogy for me). Do you think Illithids would just stand aside and let their food-source/reproductive thralls be destroyed? The monsters would be there, standing toe-to-toe with humanity fighting for their own survival. |
"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me" --- Dudley Field Malone
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Edited by - Markustay on 24 Feb 2013 11:55:33 |
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36779 Posts |
Posted - 24 Feb 2013 : 15:21:05
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quote:
Originally posted by Markustay
So if I were to do the 'Zombie thing' somewhere in my Realms, I'd make damn well sure how all those other species would react to it. Humanity would not be standing alone in the face of such a common threat (and normally contentious groups allying in a common cause is another theme I thoroughly enjoy - the Orcs really made the whole Empires trilogy for me). Do you think Illithids would just stand aside and let their food-source/reproductive thralls be destroyed? The monsters would be there, standing toe-to-toe with humanity fighting for their own survival.
Indeed. That was one of the points I tried to make. |
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Zombie Apocalypse in the Realms
