ZOMBIE Boardgame project HELP wanted!!!

Trying to create horror in a boardgame is a lost cause... movies can inspire horror and fear, but boardgames can't. You can try for tension and frustration, which are possible in a boardgame.

You might look at a game called "Victoria Cross." It's the best zombie game out there, IMO. It's a block wargame about the battle of Rourke's Drift, where 100 British soldiers defended a small sandbag fortification against 4000 zulu warriors. During the battle, there were wounded British soldiers in a little hospital building, which the Zulus were constantly trying to burn down.

You'd probably have to play it to understand the correlation, but the essence is that a few people are defending a weak fortification from an unlimited number of weaker enemies that come in waves. Playing the British feels hopeless, as you watch your forces slowly dwindle, and as you lose ground little by little. There is a lot of tension involved... moreso than any zombie game I've played.

I agree, BaHotH does a great job with bringing on a horror feeling. If Arkham Horror had flavor text like that, it could bring a similar feeling.

-- Matthew

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Hey, as it is very visible I am new here. I like what is happening and I, as many others, have designed and still designing Zombie games. I have one that is fully functional, problem is: It's handwritten on paper and not in this PC.

Now, I might put the full file up later in time, but an idea for some more Character advancement in your game could be stats. The class idea is good(healer, fighter, etc), but leave classes to having their own abilities. The stats come into play and really affect game play in a more tense way.

Say you have three stats: HP, Move, and Inventory. Now, you give the players 15 points to put among these three stats. This makes for a more developed game without a ton of rules.

Inventory works rather simply, if the item or weapon takes 1 hand to use, it takes up one inventory slot. If it takes 2 hands, 2 slots. Ammo is also easy, every thirty shells use one slot, and every 15 shotgun shells uses 1 slot. Every day items can use up a single slot. From here you can make it to where, if the weapon or item is epuiped, it gives its inventory slots back. So, if you had 6 slots with a gun in one, your down to 5. Equip that gun and your back to 6. OR jsut keep it general, and anyhting on you takes up the slot. Sorry, ranted a bit there, ideas are flooding.

Move, well...This is how many squares you are able to move in a turn, and if using a Action Point system, 1 AP can equal your full move.

HP, this is where it can get different. In my game, I kept it simple. Zombies do one damage if they hit you, when your HP reaches zero, you die and turn into a zombie in the turns equal to your full HP.
You can also weave in a system to the cards that have been mentioned, you get bit...draw a card, you have this long.
OR, You get bit, roll dice equivalent to your HP amount, if it is higher than your current HP amount, you lose another HP point. The dice thing hasnt been in my head too long, so it's very rough. I personally like the card deal and my way of you just die after this much damage and return as a zombie after your HP Total in turns.

Sorry for the long post there.

Also, ideas for actions to spend points on.

Reloading
Move
Attack
Unjaming (Should take half your AP)
Search

You might want a Gun Jamming rulle, say they roll a 1 on the roll for their attacks. If you're using attack rolls. The one results in a auto miss, and the gun has a chance to jam, roll the die again and if you get a 1 or 2, the gun gets Jammed.
Gun jamming is always a bad thing in a zombie scenario.

Just my input, I like to ramble on, so I stopped myself here.

http://www.pm-production.nu/pmp/products/dead_walk_again/index.php

An older Zombie Game I found a while back, good ideas there.

And as for the zombie HP stages, yea. Good idea, but seems like it would turn into a burden later on in game play. In the game I made, your gun has a to hit roll, meaning this is the number on the die you need to get to hit. Anything that isnt a hit results in a useless shot. Seeing as how zombies dont mind being shot in the arm, cause it really doesnt affect them. A shot that hits, results in a head shot, and we all know what that means.
Rolls of ones are misses and have a Jam chance, see my previous post.

I mean, using the HP stages for zombies would put a bit more feel into the game, but it seems like it could be a lot of work.

I've learned that having a basic unit with different set healths doesnt really help much. When you have hordes of zombies, lets say just 35. Well, theres 35 with an assortment of different HPs, and if they are all the highest HP level, that's 105 different levels. Maybe it's just me, but it just sounds like too much.

In the way I posted, it's basically all or nothing. You hit to kill, or you don't much of anything.

Only time I incorperate a multi-level HP system is on Zombified players, Boss type enemies, and random annoyance enemies (Lickers or Hunters for RE fans). Then it's the same basic rule, with a twist, a hit does'nt kill, but does 1 point of damage to the enemy.

Might help to add that my Guns Have Rates of Fire, meaning multiple shots in a turn. Sure, sounds bad at first, but throw in a lack of ammo for the higher RoF guns and the shotgun rule is the most complex one I have.

Shotgun: As long as there is no range penalty, the shotgun automatically hits the target and two adjacent targets. If there is a range penalty, roll to hit. A sucessful roll knocks the target, and two adjacent targets, down.

My range penalties are basic also, if the target is outside the number of squares knwon as the guns range, you get a -1 to hit for each square past the maximum range.