Standard zombie apocalypse games have been done to death (pun intended, and I'm not saying they still aren't fun).  My idea is a bit of a different one.  It's not meant to be a survival game where the characters are struggling to survive.  The characters would all be trained soldiers, most probably special operations types, and still with the surviving government/command structure.  For the most part, they wouldn't have to worry about food and ammo (though they might have a mission to secure a large cache of it).

Most of the missions would hinge on things related to the continued survival of the core government group, averting disasters which could make the already poor situation worse, assisting civilians in setting up safe havens, making sure that spare military equipment ended in the right hands (and removing it from the wrong ones), retrieving samples and equipment for research, I can go on and on with this list.

First, IF I were to run this, players would have to have a decent knowledge of how the military, soldiers, and specifically special operations units work.  I would have the players set their own tactics and general plans for the missions, they are operators after all.  That means with me running the game, the players would have to also have a decent grasp of tactics.  I wouldn't be opposed to answering questions or even offering some advice, but if I were GM'ing and the PC's were trying to remove some apple's hardware he had gotten from a base and was using to become a dictator (think the Walking Dead's Governor with better guns and more people) and the PC's decided that a frontal assault would be best...well duh.

Notice I left the system for last.  I did that because, well any system that fits the game could work.  Personally, I think Twilight 2013 is the best overall fit system wise, but if I ended up running the game it wouldn't be set in stone and I would help those that didn't have the rules.  There are other rules that could work and might even be some that fit better.
This message was last edited by a moderator, as it was against the forum rules, at 12:48, Wed 13 Aug 2014.

This game sounds all kinds and flavors of fun to me, but I don't have those rules and am only tangentially even aware of special ops and military tactics. So color me a 'maybe'.

When I read your thread title, I expected something different. This seems like the first part of a zombie apocalypses, mind you there is nothing wrong with that. In the comics we made at college, the "zombie apocalypse" Ended up being melded with society, having intelligent zombies. It was just part of the settings and the jokes.

You could go off early zombies where it's more an outbreak than and apocalypse,'and use the kind of zombie that rots like a corpse rots but what ever flesh they eat they regenerate....

And... Have the party be zombies who have ate enough brains that they are self aware and remember everything and are becoming "human" again. But they still have to eat flesh or they rot a set amount every so often. They can eat zombie flesh or animal flesh but it don't help much (and the zombie would have to be quite un-rotted its self) sooner or later they will have to face killing and eating human brains to stay self aware

In reply to Azraile (msg # 4):

That kind of has a certain appeal to it.

Almost sounds like you could use Night's Black Agents.

In reply to Runemage (msg # 6):

Never heard of it.

Edit:  Looked it up.  No, that's more investigational.  This would be much more geared to military ops.  Much more closer to Twilight 2k/3013.
This message was last edited by the user at 19:37, Sat 16 Aug 2014.

What about a setting where the ZA doesn't run rampant or is easily contained.  Like on an isolated Island like Martha's Vineyard or Easter Island?  The inhabitants watch as the world ends, but it doesn't really affect them until the supplies start running out and then decisions have to be made about how to continue on.

I've also liked the idea of reversing the roles.  As the ZA runs its course some of the zombies begin to regain a bit of intelligence.  The more people they feed on the smarter they get.  Those that don't feed begin to decay and eventually cease to function.  The players would play a pack of intelligent Zombies trying to stave off destruction by eating their fill!

OK, while I am not one to stifle creativity and new ideas I feel I must express my dislike of where this thread is going. I thought the OPs' idea of a military strike team fighting their way through the zombie apocalypse was fun and original, something that I have not seen before and which I might enjoy being part of, but this thing with playing a group of self aware zombies hunting the humans is NOT on my list of fun activities.

The Zeds are not supposed to be smart: they represent the destructive side of our current mass media consumer culture, where humanity is reduced to a shambling hoard of unthinking, uniform, ignorant, mouths with legs that destroy all happiness and original thought in order to make everyone just like them. That is part of what makes the Zombie Genre appealing to me, because unlike in the real world the Zeds are not heavily armed and able to think just enough to be dangerous, and there is no law enforcement to prevent you shooting them all.

Put another way part of the Genre's appeal is the ability to vent my frustrations with my friends and neighbors in a harmless, non-destructive way: you make the Zombie's smart and you lose that, because then they have the quandaries of things like "Is eating people to sustain my own existence the right thing to do?" and honestly I would not enjoy playing any kind of character who's answer was 'YES'.

So, if we are going to be going with this 'playing the zombies' thing: count me out.

In reply to Alexei Yaruk-Mundhenk (msg # 9):

I think that it fits into the premise of an alternative zombie game.  Nothing I would run, but maybe play in.  But I like coming at genre's from different perspectives.  Really neither type game is for everyone.

In reply to pfarland (msg # 1):

The special operations vs. the undead has a certain appeal to it...sign me up!  I have a familiarity with how various special operations forces work, and would recommend that the game focus on SFOD-D (aka, "Delta Force") construct.  Reference material is readily available - such as Eric Haney's Inside Delta Force.  Heck, you could even call it "Zulu Group"/"Zulu Force"/etc...to give a nod to the big "Z."

You can even tone it down from SFOD-D and use an Army Special Forces (aka, the "Green Berets") A-Team construct.  Once again, plenty of reference material out on the web about equipment and TT&Ps...

I would personally recommend using GURPS, since GURPS Lite (which is freely available) covers a majority of the skills used by special operator's, but that is just my opinion.

In reply to The.Angry.Man (msg # 11):

In regards to Gurps, I don't really know the system.

As for the operators themselves, I would let people play what they want.  Chances are the military would be disorganized.  If everyone was happy running as Delta it would be great, but everyone has their own favorites and it can be explained easily enough by serious enough loses.

Depending on where we are in the course of The Rise I could see us playing everything from a major city SWAT team, to a D.F. or G.B. group, to a mixed group of surviving elite troops and operatives, to simply a group of the survivors who at this point are ALL equivalent to special forces in terms of tactical knowledge and weapons training.

Personally I think I might prefer to play at either end of that spectrum, as the material I would need to research to be reasonably knowledgeable about the situation is more readily available. They also make slightly more sense for there to be a relative rookie in the group, which is a category that I will inevitably fall into.