Savage Last Night on Earth, Part Two

For GenghisCon XXXIV, I made good on an age-old promise: to Savage the excellent zombie board game, Last Night on Earth (LNOE). I've run the simple scenario three times now, and by all accounts it's a hit. For my second post, I'll go over how I handled the zombie enemy in the game.

I'll start out by providing the zombie stat block I used:

Zombie
Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4, Spirit d4, Strength d6, Vigor d4
Skills: Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d4
Pace: 1 (Running is Pace 2); Parry: 5; Toughness: 6
Special Abilities 
- Claws: Str+d4 
- Undead: +2 Toughness; +2 to recover from being Shaken; called shots do no extra damage (except to the head). 
- Weakness: Shots to a zombie’s head are +2 damage.

If you break open your trusty Savage Worlds Deluxe Explorer's Edition, you'll see this differs from the stat block in that book. I felt that LNOE zombies should do more damage but be slightly easier to take out. Also, there are cards in the board game that certainly allow players to sort of intimidate the zombies, so I dropped that. Finally, I slowed the zombies down and gave them a straight double move when they "run."

One thing I really love about LNOE is the cards the zombie player can use to enhance the zombies or mess with the players. I picked some of those and Savaged them, and then each time the players met a new set of zombies, I rolled a d10 and consulted my table to determine what their ability would be for that encounter. Here's the table with the Savaged cards:

1	Oh the Horror – Roll 2 Zombie Abilities.
2	Shamble – Zombies move d3 spaces. Running adds a d3.
3	Cornered – Zombies get +1 gang-up, to a maximum of +5.
4	I Feel Kinda Strange – If a hero takes one or more wounds, they make a Vigor roll. Failure causes an additional wound, which cannot be soaked.
5	Undead Hate the Living – Once per round, the GM or a Zombie Player may force a player to re-roll dice.
6	Uuuurrrggghh! – Zombies get a Wild Die.
7	“My God, They’ve Taken the…” – Zombies overrun a random building. It is lost.
8	New Spawning Pit – A new spawning pit forms at this location.
9	“This Can’t Be Happening!” – A random hero loses their Wild Die for this encounter.
10	Braaains! – Zombies get +1 to all attack and damage rolls.

One of the things I set up in the game is a player character would become a zombie if they were killed, which would give them one more chance to keep playing before they were completely killed out of the game. It never came up (though it came close once or twice), but here are the changes a player would make if they were killed and became a Zombie Hero (a Wildcard zombie):

• Undead add +2 to their basic Toughness
• Undead add +2 when attempting to recover from being Shaken
• Undead don’t suffer additional damage from called shots, except headshots, which are +2
• Undead Wild Cards never suffer from Wound Modifiers
• Undead do not suffer from disease or poison
• Pace –1 (Running adds a d2) 
• Remove all Hindrances and Edges 
• Remove all Skills, except Fighting d6, Intimidation d6, Notice d4 Claws Str+d4 

 Finally, I should note that since this was a convention game, I wanted to ramp up the tension as the game went along. I did this by ramping up the zombies. In hour one, the PCs faced one zombie per player. In hour two, they faced two zombies per player. Three in hour three. Four in hour four.


This game references the Savage Worlds game system, available from Pinnacle Entertainment Group at www.peginc.com. Savage Worlds and all associated logos and trademarks are copyrights of Pinnacle Entertainment Group. Used with permission. Pinnacle makes no representation or warranty as to the quality, viability, or suitability for purpose of this product.

Last Night on Earth, the Zombie Game is Copyright 1999-2013, Flying Frog Productions, LLC. This is a fan work and no challenge to that copyright is intended.