Dead Reign by Alien Rope Burn

"All zombies carry the Z-Virus, an infection created by Brulyx's dark magic."

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

Wikipedia has since had that summary removed.


Gasp!


Oh my.


How dreadful, I can't imagine what would possess you to write about such things. Where is the RPG that warns you about kitten content? Some kittens? Can we have a bit of that?


Well, I'd never let any child of mine play one of these terrible games!


My children are going to only play wholesome games like Little Wizards, No Thank You, Evil! or Witch Girls Adventures.



Dead Reign Part 0: "All zombies carry the Z-Virus, an infection created by Brulyx's dark magic."

Happy Halloween, everybody! And time for a scary tale, a tale, where you write a game... and it's taken by a ghost!... who publishes it as the primary author! OoooOooOOooo...

Well, okay, that's a bit of an exaggeration. Kevin Siembieda is no ghost. But Dead Reign, Palladium's newest RPG, hit a bit of a controversy right from the start. Created originally by Josh Hilden and Joshua Sanford, Dead Reign was intended as a zombie apocalypse setting and supplement to be used with Palladium's existing horror RPG, Beyond the Supernatural. There's a full F&F writeup for Beyond the Supernatural , but TL;DR the primary pitch is "Psychics vs. Monsters", with rules for "Ordinary Folk vs. Monsters" as well. Siembieda liked what Hilden and Sanford had written enough to offer to let them write a full game- the first since Palladium had nearly gone bankrupt a year before, and the last new game Palladium has published.

When the game released, though, there was a bit of a fuss. It turned out Siembieda's name was on the cover as the primary author, with Hilden and Sanford reduced to "additional ideas" and Hilden getting a "concieved by". The game had been heavily rewritten by Siembieda, and Hilden and Sandford felt that they had been robbed of the credit they deserved for it, saying so publicly. Siembieda retorted that he didn't feel their manuscript was up to snuff, and though he didn't want to rewrite it all, he had to, in order to create a better product. Of course, Siembieda has had a habit of rewriting contributor's work or adding his own material, to the point it's rare for a Palladium book not to have him as a credit. Case in point: do you know how I search for cheap used Palladium books? I don't search for "Palladium" or "Rifts". I search for "Siembieda" first.

Normally, when these rewrites happen, we don't get to see the original draft. However, Dead Reign is a bit of an exception. Hilden and Sanford had a preview published in Palladium's house rag, The Rifter, that gives us a glimpse of their original intentions. This will be a lot more summarized than my Rifts reviews, since the details aren't as big a deal, and we want to get to the weird and wacky bits a little faster.

Your Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse

So, how did Dead Reign originally look? Well, though based on Beyond the Supernatural, it downplayed the psychic and supernatural elements of the setting. Due to "low ambient levels of P.P.E." (Potential Psychic Energy, the source of magic in Beyond the Supernatural and Rifts), it didn't have much in the way of the paranormal- at least until the zombies start showing up. After which, much like Rifts, it's implied that the mass deaths start cranking up the world's magic potential due to the soul fallout. However, that's treated as a growing element rather than a sudden explosion, and supernatural powers are still extremely rare. As such, it says characters should be created using the "Ordinary Person" rules from BTS, but they get a small chance of psychic powers (about 15%) and may roll randomly for level (1d4+1) or insanity at the the GM's discretion. Normally I'd poo-poo random levels, but given the mortality rate of a game like this (and the fact that Palladium already has you rolling random for attributes), it's probably not a huge deal.


_{"Oh, my god, it's a walker- er- rage vir- er- wait, can I just call them zombies?"}

The Wave

On June 20th, 2012, Midnight EST (evil arises on US East Coast, apparently), a little early for the Mayan "apocalypse", every person on the planet is struck by nearly ten minutes of overwhelming pain and nausea, and millions die on the spot. A fair amount of damage is done when people lose control of vehicles or otherwise are endangered by sudden unconsciousness. Then, a few minutes later... every dead body that is not exterminated becomes one of them, it gets up and kills, the people it kills get up and kill! Most people get et, civilization collapses, people turn on each other in short order, etc. You know the drill.


_{"Nudge, nudge."}

The Truth behind the Zombie Apocalypse

So, there's the Umbrella Benford Group, who develops Unisane, which develops a cancer vaccine that prevents all cancer-

- okay, so there are cancer vaccines, but they're used to inoculate against viruses that cause cancer, not cancer itself-

Facts aside, the Benford Group offers the vaccine for free in Third World areas and at cost in developed countries, which nobody finds suspicious for some reason. However, thanks to the FDA being pressured by Big Pharma, the US adopts it more slowly than other countries (the authors clearly don't know how hard it is to get a drug approved in the EU, it generally takes a good deal longer). However, whether or not Unisane actually works turns out to be irrelevant (it does, if you're curious), as it's actually just a carrier for a magic enchantment to turn people into zombies. The Benford Group turns out to be a death cult that worships Brulyx, which sounds like a mouthwash to me but actually turns out to be a big evil "demonic entity". Ah yes. It's scarier when you add "entity" to the the description. I know I'm always scared of entities.


_{Didn't tie his shoelaces before dying.}

Zombie 101

So, These Zombies Are Different! Everybody's got to have a clever rationalization for zombies, and Dead Reign is no exception. Though zombies attack and bite, they don't gain sustenance from flesh. Instead, they feed off the P.P.E. of their dying victims, abandoning them as soon as death occurs to seek out new prey. Though they degenerate, they don't rot - though they can starve. Unfortunately, they can absorb P.P.E. from magical places of power (ley line nexus points from BTS) to keep themselves running. If they starve, they collapse and become normal corpses. If they eat more P.P.E. than they can store, the excess is absorbed byt Brulyx, who's gaining power in order to invade Earth. Like you do. They can attack and eat animals, but animals can't get infected. They require a person a day, which strikes me as having them run out of food quick unless magic spots are pretty common.

Speaking of which, zombies have the T-Virus Z-Virus, which is an infection created by Brulyx's magic. Any character bitten has to make a saving throw vs. magic (around a 70% chance of failure by default) or lose a single hit point per minute until dead. Those killed by zombies rise after 1d4 minutes and those killed by the virus rise after 1d6 minutes. Zombies get an Armor Rating, meaning pre-bonuses you only have a 25% chance of hitting or hurting them much of the time, and zombies can sense life energy at a short distance, so don't think you can hide. "The spell Turn Dead has no effect because zombies are undead." There's random charts for the number of zombies in an area and how an individual zombie might be pre-damaged upon an encounter. Then, we get several types of zombies:

• Slouchers: Your classic Romero slow zombie. They can be warded away with fire.
• Runners: Fast zombies that run. Only about 1 in 20 zombies is a runner.
  
• Thinker: These are smart zombies that retain their intelligence (due to having magical potential in life) and can command slouchers, but are still almost always consumed by their desire to feed. Potentially they could cast magic spells, but most are lacking any sort of education on it. About 1 in 2000 zombies is a thinker.

We also get bits about how man is the real enemy. In addition, the Cult of Brulyx (i.e. the Benford Group) is around, has knowledge of magic, and can command thinkers, and works to try and wreck any organized resistance to zombie primacy.


_{"Zombies? No, this is just retail."}

The Benford Group - the Past

So, there was this priest of Hades in Rome named Gregius Bonophat. Can we call him Phat Greg? I think we can. Greg had his temple destroyed by generic "barbarians" and went mad because Hades didn't have his back, and shouted out for power to gain vengeance. Naturally, due to being properly overdramatic, a voice was like "Hey, I'm Brulux - demon, not a mouthwash - I'll help you kill those barbarians, and then you can be my immortal puppet, deal?" Greg says this is the best deal he's ever heard, murders those barbarians, becomes an immortal puppet and puppetmaster, ends the Roman Empire somehow, etc. He gets into disease and creates epidemics like the Black Death, the Spanish Flu Pandemic, and other real disasters being trivalized here, but none of those were quite enough death to build a bridge to Brulyx. Eventually he became Louis David Benford I, formed the Benford Group, made a cure for cancer, and used that to create his big zombie-making ritual that feeds power back to its master. While Brulyx still isn't free, he can send demonic agents to be detailed possibly never. Now he just wants to round up the people who are left with the help of his army that's somehow both mercenaries and cultists (pick one, geez), and sacrifice them to his dark master. He's starting with Asia but also is interested in securing various places of power (as detailed at painful length in BTS).


_{"We'll be safe as long as they don't learn to walk around things."}

The Setting

Cities have become "Death Zones", naturally, and people are holding out in enclaves and stuff! Also PCs don't get to know this unless they have access to the "wireless web", which is presented as if we're supposed to know what it is. Do I have cyber the jack to get onto the wireless web? The world will never know.

• North America: Most of the US military was apparently A) involved in Middle Eastern quagmires and B) too cheap to Unisane its troops so a lot of the military survived and is under siege overseas. However, some of the US military has been able to transport refugees to Alaska, where presumably most zombies are going to freeze up. Winnipeg didn't get their shipment of Unisane in time and has survived. Denver has been partially reclaimed by survivors. And apparently some refugees and soldiers went south and have met up with Mayan wizards because the Mayans never forgot about the old ways oh fuck off-
  
• South America: Civilization fell apart, but apparently has devolved into tribes of scavengers and hunters, with some survivalists using the Amazon basin as a fluid defense against zombie attack.
  
• Europe: So people nearly got wiped out (it says "decimated" but not in the historical sense). But some survived in castles because it's cooler than surviving in anything else and Ireland managed to purge the zombies due to a relative lack of inoculations because... well, that's what it says in the script. Also some are on the Wireless Web and no doubt hacking the database.
  
• Africa: It's doing better than people expected because apparently the Sub-Saharan it has the highest concentration of guns... well, no. America does. It's always fucking America for guns, guys. Anyways, they may be able to become a powerhouse because they haven't forgotten the old ways oh fuck off-
  
• Asia: This is where Phat Greg is making his big assault, being based out of the fictional Aurora island in Indonesia, which is apparently where an ancient civilization locked away Brulyx. Meanwhile, a number of Indians traveled to Nepal where they're holding out in the Himalayas.
  
• Australia: Most have retreated to islands or inland. Some hear that Ayers Rock repels zombies!... but nobody returns from it. Hokay. I guess the old ways strike again.
  
• Antarctica: "It is known, however, that none [of the researchers] had yet been inoculated with Unisane." How would anybody know what? Oh, and apparently they've found ancient ruins more than 10,000 years old!... but it's just a rumor. Sure.
  
• The Oceans: People are surviving on boats! It says a fleet might be gathering to retake Hawaii.
  
• Space: So far the satellite network is largely intact. Also a NASA survivor says that even though people on the International Space Station were inoculated, they didn't seem affected by The Wave.

Finally, we get a description of the Wireless Web, which turns out to be a radio network and has nothing to do with computers! Well, that makes more sense, but I'm not going back and fixing my earlier misinterpretations. They keep it real. It also talks about a Daniel Gregory stuck in a New York skycraper who talks about the Benford Group being behind it all through Unisane but everything thinks he's a nut.

Most people have to go on foot because apparently gas ran out at the end of the first winter after The Wave. What the hell? There'd be a lot of gas left around with nearly everybody being dead, with it left in gas tanks friggin' everywhere. Well, Winnipeg is making ethanol. Good for them.

A lot of people are starving because food animals are scarce! Education is tough but people are trying to teach the children, because the children are the future! 15% of people are psionic now! People might learn to become wizards...


Actually, it will not!


Next: Siembieda takes over.

"I think of zombies as dinosaurs and us living and breathing humans as, well, human beings."

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

_{"Why aren't you going after him?! Look at that stupid goatee!"}



Dead Reign Part 1: "I think of zombies as dinosaurs and us living and breathing humans as, well, human beings."

Because dinosaurs are dumb and cold-blooded, see? In any case, the differences from the original pitch come immediately.

The Wave

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcuhlrmdTl4

The apocalypse starts with The Wave - an illness that sweeps out from Hong Kong with flu-like syptoms that spreads everywhere in the world. There are several possible explanations offered:

• Altucure and the Benford Group: Shortly before The Wave, the Benford Group developed a "vaccine that actually rewrites key sections of our own genetic code" to create immunity to many viral infections and cancer. Once again, that's not a vaccine, but the science isn't going to be sharp here. 47% of the world's population was inoculated at the time of the end, though of course the FDA was once again a bulwark against its usage in the US, and slowed its introduction. Once again, this is fairly ignorant of how the FDA actually operates compared to its peers. In any case, it remains a prime suspect.
  
• Pandemic: The Wave may have been caused by something unknown that Altrucure didn't protect against.
  
• Germ Warfare: Some germ warfare experiment by China, Korea, or Russia may have been used by some group or went out of control.
  
• The Wrath of God: "We surfed the Web, created electronic icons of ourselves, clamored for Internet pornography, and sought out fame and celebrity while millions starved, suffered, and died around the world every day." Basically, God was a bitter old mass murderer.
  
• Death Cults: A number of post-Wave cults claim credit (or credit their "dark master") for The Wave. It seems ridiculous, but, y'know. Zombies are too.

The exact cause will not be pinned down in this book, but it'll become clear that something supernatural is going on, at least.


_{"What is it, boy? Is it the Apocalypse?"}

The Zombie Apocalypse

The Wave, it says here, killed millions within 48 hours, and then a few hours later, every dead body that is not exterminated becomes one of them, it gets up and kills, the people it kills get up and kill! Mind, a 48 hour worldwide infection seems like a bit much for a virus, so maybe it's Altucure, maybe not? I'm pretty sure the truth is never revealed here. Apparently, the zombies ignore the sick, going straight for the healthy, and naturally everything falls apart. There's a lot of where Siembieda tries to present the "on the ground perspective" but all of you know the drill by now. The main unusual point is it gives a zombie's eye view at one point. They mainly see people as "light" or "life energy" they're driven to devour and kill for. The "light" doesn't just fuel one zombie, but actually refuels all the zombies in the vicinity when one dies.

This is looking like a magical explanation for zombies, but I'm reading this cold so I don't know. It's probably the "Potential Psychic Energy" as seen in other Palladium games, but we'll see.


_{"Not one of these mixed living / dead neighborhoods!"}

Who I Am and Where We Are Today

It's revealed that the text so far was written by "Brad Ashley" who's apparently a member of "the Reapers", and this is an excerpt of the "Reaper's Survival Guide". The Reapers print out copies of this whenever they have enough electricity, paper, and a working printer. Brad's the voice for most of the book. It's been five months since the apocalypse, and the US government has predictably collapsed. People are broken up into small groups of survivors, with a few trying to communicate via radios. Any city or town is essentially dominated by the dead, with perhaps twenty to thirty percent of the world's population left, with about forty percent having been converted to zombies, most of them in population centers. There's a lot less zombies in the wild, and most zombies don't seem to travel out from the cities, instead going "dormant" until woken by prey. However, it seems that they're spreading out over time.

The Wave seems to be over. Brad notes that unlike in the movies, zombie bites don't turn you into their body - zombies have to "drain you of your life energy" to turn you into one of them. Nice science, Brad. Still, their bites can cause lethal infections. Death by other means doesn't make you into a zombie. Being "nearly" killed by a zombie can make you into a "half-living", who gains some of the aspects of being a zombie but remain sentience. However, half-living who die rise as zombies.

Also, there's "Zombie Death Cults" that claim to be responsible, and some of them seem to be able to command zombies. The Reapers kill members of cults that seem to be responsible for their actions, then destroy the bodies just in case. They sometimes bring in victims and seeming innocents from the cults in, but put them on a short leash and keep an eye on them, just in case.

We get a fiction chunk about a reporter living through the initial Wave taken from the original pitch, but we can skip that, as it provides no new information.


_{"Put that down! You don't know where it's been!"}

The Dead Reign
_{More excerpts from the Reaper's Survival Guide}

Brad points out that cities, though filled with resources and supplies, are death traps due do the number of zombies - and to be aware of that before you try to sneak in. We then get some basic zombie facts.

• Zombies eat animals but animals can't become zombies. Generally, though, they prefer humans for whatever reason.
• They don't have body heat, so they can seem like a corpse and don't show up on thermal sensors.
• They "can see our life energy" "like an aura". At night apparently they can see this more clearly because sunlight... somehow... interferes with this? They can also sense it non-visually for about 15-20 feet, though it doesn't tell them where you care.
• Zombies are strong, don't feel pain or particularly care about dismemberment, but will don't from a headshot.
• They fear fire, but it isn't a vulnerability and get "braver" with numbers.
• They can respond to sound and their moan acts as a call to others nearby.
• They can go dormant and hibernate until they sense food again.
  
• There are several types, slow zombies (Slouchers), fast zombies ("Fast Attack Zombies" - really? You couldn't come up with something more creative, Siembieda?), flesh-eating zombies (wait, don't they all?), pattern zombies that relive some pattern from their life, Thinkers that have heightened (but not human) intelligence, and mock zombies that have enough intelligence to act human until they attack.
  
• Some don't look like corpses and a few retain a mostly human appearance.

We also get some other threats:

• Dog Packs and Feral Wild Dogs: Whether or not they attack, they can bark and attract zombies, steal your food, or attack any animals you have with you. It also mentions other wild predators can be out in the loose and also might be rabid. There are also rabid people. "Both have to be put down."
  
• People Predators and Retro-Savages and Bandits and Death Cults: I'm smashing some of these categories together because they're really part of the same notion. People can be bad! And some have given up modern technology, blaming it for The Wave, and attack people who use it or sacrifice them to zombies. And of course, there are bandits, raiders, and the aforementioned death cultists. Nobody's a cultist of gods or aliens or youtube personalities anymore, I guess. Just death cults.
  
• Places: ... like cities or "vehicle graveyards" can harbor any of the above dangerous things. This is fairly redundant. They suggest light, maneuverable vehicles like bicycles and motorcycles to get around, as opposed to vehicles which have trouble getting around roads littered with dead vehicles. Also, places might be decrepit and have rotting wood (In five months? really? You know buildings aren't papier-mâché, right, Siembieda?) or other dangers.

Secrets of the Dead

More words by Brad Ashley, our zombie apocalypse Erin Tarn, spouting more redundant nonsense, but then we get numbers:

• 74% Slouchers
  
• 10% Crawlers
  
• 5% Fast Attack Zombies
  
• 5% Flesh Eating Zombies
  
• 4% Thinker Zombies
  
• 1% Pattern Zombies
  
• 1% Mock Zombies

Most zombies turn green or ashen, and their flesh slowly decomposes. Sometimes their eyes glow! They don't need to breathe. Also, they always want to attack and eat you, but they survive off of-

Potential Psychic Energy, or P.P.E. Yeah, that tortured acronym is dragged up, like a metaphor for the undead. When somebody is killed by a zombie, their "P.P.E" (i.e. life force) is distributed to all zombies in a 300' radius, each according to his need but only if they work! Non-attacking or dormant zombies don't get the kill reward.



Sure, okay. We get the P.P.E. values of people (adults get 1d4+1, kids get 4d6+12, etc). As such, they go after kids first. Killing people heals zombies, energizes them, or "reverses decomposition", but they can live "1d4 years" without being fed, or far more (26 times longer) if dormant. They can see life about 1,200 feet away or 9,000 feet in the dark- well, that's over a football field even in the day. Total concealment will block their sight. Zombies rise in 6-12 minutes after death (apparently, it's quicker now than it was at the time of The Wave).


_{"No, seriously, I got this."}

I should note we're starting to get discussions of rolls and S.D.C. and hit points and d4s and none of that has been explained yet. We get a long-ass reiteration that zombies go straight for you (save for Flesh-Eating, Thinker, and Mock Zombies), moan to attract others, which can lead to a big "Convergence" of zombies swarming at you.


What the fuck is a melee round? I mean, I know, but then it says only a paragraph later-


Dead Redundancy is more like it. I'm having to skip shit-tons of things being stated more than once and I'm only on page 27. Convergences only really split after about 15 minutes of a lack of prey or food. There's an example of an attack where-


Wait, what the hell? They're using tactics now? How? Why? Well, no consistency in convergences, I suppose. We get a lot bit on how dangerous dormant zombies are because they can hide anywhere and pop up and give you a good jump scare. They won't see you if dormant, but can sense you in that 15-20 feet psychic zombie life force sensing radius.


_{Welcome to Nick Bradshaw, my least favorite Palladium artist. I think he'll be your least favorite, too.}

Several times it's gone on about having to kill zombies silently before they moan and attract others. This is pretty obvious at this point but I'm bringing it up because the book has emphasized it multiple times by now, but fuck, zombies can sense you from a football field away and automatically sense you a room away, so good luck with that! We go over zombie bites again, with the main new nugget being that some people think a zombie's bite will turn you into one and kill people who get bit. We get detailed percentages on how often a wound gets infected (10% if treated right away, 80% if ignored). We then get infection rules before any of the basic rules have come up, because this is Siembieda and Palladium. This ranges from minor inconvenience to a weakened and dying limb to a "zombie rot" which causes a deep tissue infection, coma, and death. Lots of numbers here, but that's the gist. You can make a saving throw versus infection, which halves the usual period - does that mean the lethal ones kill you twice as fast then? Also if you get zombie rot and survive you have a 10% chance of becoming a "half-living"-


Oh, fuck off.

Next: Everything you needed to know about zombies, restated over and over.

"Only Death Cult Priests and their human supporters, Thinker Zombies, Mock Zombies, and madmen would ever consider reattaching a severed head or limb to the zombie it belonged to."

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

Dead Reign Part 2: "Only Death Cult Priests and their human supporters, Thinker Zombies, Mock Zombies, and madmen would ever consider reattaching a severed head or limb to the zombie it belonged to."


_{"Oh, yeah! The eyes are last to rot! That's science!"}

Zombie Attributes

Zombies are dumb but can still open doors, turn the lights off, climb a ladder, or open a window... otherwise they'll just attack any impediments for hours at a time (or days, the book can't make up its mind), maybe only about 20 minutes if they can't sense their food. They don't work as a group (except those Fast Attack Zombies earlier, I guess) unless under the influence of Mock Zombies, Thinker Zombies, or "Death Cult Priests". Even so, they're not sharp, but can be directed to capture people by priests. They may use clubs and the like but only out of instinct. We get rules for warding them off with fire, which has a "Horror Factor" of 16 to them (no, we don't know what "Horror Factor" is yet).


_{"Off of my lawn!"}

They have doubled strength value, aren't bothered by heat or cold or breathing, and can't get sick or be poisoned. However, they can freeze up. They also get a "natural Armor Factor" of 14, i.e. you need a 15 or better on a d20 to hurt them, so you may as well always make Called Shots (14 or better). Not that we know what Armor Factor or what we roll to hit is yet, mind! We get a long list of how to damage the undead:

• Fire takes minutes to kill them, so it's not ideal.
  
• Punches and kicks only do 20% damage. What's 20% of 1d6? You better figure that out, because that's the rules here.
  
• Stabbing weapons do half damage and have a 60% chance of getting stuck. Yup. I guess zombies are filled with blu-tak.
  
• Chopping weapons and blunt weapons do full damage. Why does a baseball bat do around eight times the damage of a punch? I guess the lever effect is pretty strong.
  
• .22 and .38 caliber guns do half damage, or 10% damage to the head or neck. Why? Also, what's 10% of 2d6? Better figure it out, these are the legit rules.
  
• Shotguns, hollow-points, "explosive bullets", and machine guns do full damage.

We're referred to read up on the rules for Armor Rating, S.D.C., and Hit Points without a page reference.

Also, zombies are ugly and have guts hanging out unless they've fed regularly, but even if they pass for mostly living they still have the zombie shuffle and zombie moan and all that. They also have sharp hearing and smell, if the fact that they have a world-hacking cheat wasn't enough.

We get details of how their armor rating of 14 works. It's not actual armor, but reflects the fact that a lot of attacks won't hurt zombies, though when their S.D.C. of their main body is zero, their armor rating goes down to 7 and all of their attack values (attack, bonuses, strength, speed) by half. However, even if a zombie is downed by regular attacks, they'll get up after an hour again, and you have to destroy their brains or remove their head or burn their bodies to keep them down. The game also at least acknowledges that you always want to make called shots against zombies, since there's no drawback to doing so under these rules. We get S.D.C. values for each part (about 33-48 for the torso, 8-18 for the leg, 11-16 for the neck, 16-26 for the head, etc.). However, attacking the head or neck ignores all bonuses to hit and only hits on a 17-20, so it doesn't matter if you're a child who just picked up their first gun or a trained military elite fuck berets wolf squadron laser-sight bearing sniper, your both have the same accuracy! It also similarly doesn't matter if you're aiming or snap-firing, either. This is nonsensical bullshit, but let's go on. Removing arms reduces a zombie's number of attacks, legs reduces speed, but a helpful cultist or Thinker Zombie can help reattach a limb under certain circumstances. Or they can reattach the head and the zombie comes back after an hour. Zombies regenerate S.D.C. and hit points once an hour, but faster if they're feeding. The zombies' hit points are equal their Physical Endurance that, once again, we haven't had explained yet.

If you finally deplete their body or head S.D.C., congrats, you can attack their hit points, but only by attacking the same area. If you do triple the head's damage in a single shot, it's instantly dead, but given you need to do 48-78 damage in a single attack, that's not going to happen often enough for most folks to care.

Zombie Descriptions

We get the percentage numbers for zombies again, then actual stats.


_{"Everybody say 'brains'!"}

Slouchers

Your usual slow-moving swarm zombie. It says 74% of people who died in The Wave became these, forgetting that they said only half rose as zombies at all. Ooops. Most of their traits have already been described, but they get a Horror Factor of 13 here. Their life energy sense is written as 50 feet instead of 20 feet like in an earlier section, and even though it earlier said they can't track people by scent, we get an 18% or higher chance for them to track humans by scent (and given there are hundreds, some are going to make even an 18% chance). They don't need eyes to see, so don't try and Stooge them. As with most Palladium monsters, their stats are randomized and you're expected to roll each and every zombie up, I suppose. They can swing their arms for around 1d6+10 damage or bite for 2d6+10 (on average). They have a penalty to initiative, a big penalty on Perception rolls (despite the fact they can auto-sense humans, I dunno), and a small bonus to hit. They also get combat bonuses and an extra attack if you fail their Horror Factor because they "smell fear".


_{"Well, I still have my shades."}

Crawlers

... are slouchers minus legs, but can walk on their hands or drag themselves around, and hide in small places or crawl through places other zombies can't fit. Their stats are pretty much like Slouchers except they're slower but climb and sneak better. It notes they can't do jump kicks. In case you were wondering if a legless zombie could. They can't.


_{In 3D.}

Fast Attack Zombies

Your modern running Dawn of the Dead remake rage virus zombie. There's no way of telling them from slouchers until they run, though. It notes that they often work to corral other humans into the slouchers, velociraptor-style, even though we've been told they aren't smart over and over again. Stats are like slouchers (despite getting full statblocks, once again) except they're twice as fast as the average human or as fast as the average trained runner (around 15 MPH). Their big difference is that they get a special pounce attack that has a 50% chance of knocking you over or a 40% chance of pinning you no matter what your Physical Endurance or Physical Strength is, because fuck PCs. You can try and get free by sacrificing two attacks for a 15% chance of doing so (once again, irregardless of the human's Strength, Prowess, or Endurance). They can also just knock you over at 70% chance that once again ignores any strengths a human might have. They can also do flying kicks, if the GM wants kung-fu zombies.


_{-foot +arm}

Flesh-Eating Zombies

... are supposed to be slightly smart and cunning, and can plan ambushes and things like that, but usually work alone or in packs with other flesh-eaters because most other zombies aren't tactically minded. They can also retreat if they're overwhelmed, and prefer not being outnumbered. Often they'll tear off a limb to eat and run away, presuming their prey will die anyway at that point. They're faster than slouchers but not as fast as fast attack zombies (I hate typing that name, but there you have it) but have a slightly lower Armor Rating (12). But since you're probably trying to do called shots anyway...


_{"How'd I die? Well, I was caught with my pants down."}

Thinkers

Listed as a "Racial Character Class" even though it says they're "Not available nor appropriate as a Player Character." I guess that's so they can level up. They're smart enough to notice things like signs of human passage and other evidence, as well as recognize patterns, remember things, make plans, retreat, etc. They can also direct other zombies to the limit of their intelligence, and are often used as would-be officers by Death Cult Priests. They can also use guns and other simple machines at a penalty, but can't reload or refuel them and might keep firing away when they're out of ammo a few times before realizing there's nothing going on.


_{"When you're a zombie they let you do it. You can do anything."}

Mock Zombies

These are zombies that retain their human memories and refuse to believe that they're zombies. They'll even help humans on account of this, and often wear regular clothing or whatever. However, eventually they succumb to their hunger, particularly if alone with somebody. It's supposed to be a serial killer zombie analogue, and might use makeup or masks to hide their appearance. However, they're driven to feed more often to maintain a human-ish appearance. They don't work with other zombies or Death Cult Priests, and might even attack then to maintain their cover.


_{"Please don't bother trying to find her | She's not therrre"}

Pattern Zombies

These are the Romero sort that are aping whatever job or activity they did in life. If left alone, they probably won't attack, but they'll join in moan-driven calls to action all the same. Their stats are the same as a sloucher, but they get a full page writeup anyway, because this is Palladium.


_{Commercial Game Art.}

Using these Zombies in Other Game Settings

Because why assume this is your first Palladium game? Before we even have rules, it's noted you can use them in most-games as-is and gives some setting suggestions, but nothing too surprising, since most Palladium settings can accommodate the undead. Rifts gets detailed rules where they're amped up ridiculously. They don't have much M.D.C., but they do get some, and:

• Energy weapons do nothing to zombies. Apparently they're laserproof... yes, fire will hurt them, lasers will not.
  
• Rail guns do no damage unless they target the head or neck.
  
• Vibro-blades do one-third damage... wait, I thought chopping weapons did normal damage? Well, not in this case.
  
• Magic weapons do full damage.
  
• Fire does mega-damage to them, and plasma and magic fire do double damage.

Yeah, these rules don't make any sense, but even the normal rules don't make much sense! It notes the demons and deevils of the Minion War ( Rifts metaplot nonsense) might unleash zombies, or there might be a zombie plague in Rifts Chaos Earth like he originally planned and didn't have time for but you can use these rules until he does that story (he has not done that story as of this writing, so don't get your hopes up... or down).

Next: Time to reap.

"Captive women may be forced to have sex with him, impregnated, and their babies taken and fed to zombies or offered up in a weird sacrifice to an imaginary Death God or Lord of Chaos, or eaten by the mad cult leader himself."

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

Dead Reign Part 3: "Captive women may be forced to have sex with him, impregnated, and their babies taken and fed to zombies or offered up in a weird sacrifice to an imaginary Death God or Lord of Chaos, or eaten by the mad cult leader himself."

We've got a ways to go before we get to the recreational eating of your own child, so let's get through it.


_{"You've impaled me with a... log? Can the artist explain my situation?"}

Fighting Zombies

We're back to Brad Ashley and some quick tips a mother came up with that zombies hate. Actually, I've skipped a lot of Brad's jibber-jabber because it goes on and on, and fuck, we're not even a third of the way through the book! He goes on about a lot of nonsense like trusting your gut and "think fast" and "react even faster". Practical advice! He says to let people die if it's too much of a risk to save them, shoot zombies in the head, run away if you're facing a bunch, stay alive, keep on the move, shoot in the legs if you have to run, find ways to block their path or entrances, lay traps, pin zombies down, remove their arms if they grab a person, set fires to keep them away, etc. We get some rules tucked in the middle of an IC talk (like that it takes 50% more strength than a gripping zombie to pull somebody loose, so usually 2-4 people), using a shotgun to blow a zombie loose from its target, pinning zombies with crossbow bolts, trying to run through crowds, etc. Hope you're not skipping the fluff for the random rules tidbits shoved into it!

With that out of the way, we can move on to the other threats in this book. (Yes, we're still discussing all the bad guys before we've even seen a PC class.)


_{"Our God forbids a decent haircut!"}

Retro-Savages

These are presented as Christian extremists who think that the zombies are God's curse for technology and cities, and have reverted to a 19th Century agarian lifestyle. They're akin to the Amish, only they're averse to technology to the point where they'll feed you to zombies since that's what God put them there for, to murder people with digital watches. In fact, they prefer to capture survivors, tie them down, then sing psalms to attract zombies. Seems like a flawed plan, but they're flawed in general. At best, they'll drive off outsiders at gunpoint or gunshot. It's a bit odd to have this - whackjob baddies - being one of the few acknowledgements of Christianity in a Palladium game. And they're everywhere, somehow. I mean, what are they gonna do, spread the word by radio?

We get stats for them and a lot of handwaving as to what skills they get. Because this is a Palladium game, you're expected to build each one individually as a character, in a system that's really, really bad for that.


_{"Don't look trustworthy? Why would you say that?"}

Death Cults

First, we have "terror cults", which are usually organized around a central leader who uses a combination of fear and monopoly on some resource to gather a following. They're generically "half-crazy" and might think they're gods (because just about every other villain Siembieda writes is a megalomaniac) or worship some generic evil god from the evil god bin. Also, half of them are cannibals that eat outsiders.

We get a percentile chart, where they can be:

• Military or paramilitary guys that use their combat skills and weapons to intimidate and run a community.
  
• "Evil half-living" who has found out how to get zombies to follow them and uses that to protect a group of people she or he exploits.
  
• A mock zombie teamed up with some thinkers that use that to keep a group of people safe and have them lure or capture people for food.
  
• A "lord of chaos" (fucking seriously?) who is unspecifically mad and obsessed with death or immortality, which no leads to literal blood baths, cannibalism, torture, the aforementioned rape and baby-munching. Horror movie shock material in NPC form.
  
• A self-appointed messiah that runs things through charisma and fear of the outside world.

_{"Let your unbathed stench empower Brulyx!"}

Next, we get the "Zombie Death Cult of Brulyx", which is familiar to those who read Part 0 here. They claim to be a 12 millennia old secret cult (not so secret anymore, I guess) that worship Brulyx, Lord of the Dance Dead. They claim to have been hanging around since Atlantis waiting for the day "death would reign". And there's the fact that their priests can boss zombies around, so there's that, which is making them a growing influence on... wherever your PCs are, I suppose. They don't seem so bad at first glance, given that they don't expect members to do more than work for their meals and supplicate themselves before Brulyx.

The key is that Brulyx services are designed to drain the P.P.E. of their followers and feed all the local zombies, which is what gives them power over them, since the zombies (somehow) recognize them as feeders. They have to be careful, though, since they can only control so many zombies and if too many congregate, they might turn into a hungry swarm instead. Most Death Priests manage to avoid this because... they're professionals or something... I guess? Also they're all over even though it's only five months after the apocalypse because



However, the Brulyx cult has a secret plan once they get enough OT levels, which is:

• Maintain the zombie population through their rituals or even by piecing them back together.
  
• Convert a bunch of followers to help feed their rituals with P.P.E.
  
• Take over urban centers where other survivors can't approach them. (That seems to make it hard for them to recruit, but they presumably have an outreach.)
  
• Finally, pen in humans like cattle to feed to zombies! They haven't started this yet.

Ultimately, they want to use zombies as a tool to rule the world, and grow huge mustaches to twirl while they're at it. Doesn't seem necessary, honestly, they have a pretty sweet deal going, and it if wasn't for the final part of their plan, there wouldn't be any reason to really consider them evil at all (aside from just being beneficially manipulative). They're also a bit odd in that they seem to have the only form of magic acknowledged in the game.

We get a Death Priest O.C.C., and it reminds us again they may seem nice now, but in a few years they'll be putting people in the munching line for zombies. As such, they're plotting to remove "reapers" (i.e. militant survivors that hunt zombies) and organized communities so the dead can rule the earth. They can command zombies or protect a small group from undead aggression. Also they can have "1d4 pencils or a mechanical pencil". Choose wisely, death priest! You can't have both!

Next: Classes! Character creation? No, that comes later.

"Doesn't matter what the character was before the Zombie Apocalypse, he's a Shepherd of the Damned now."

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

Dead Reign Part 4: "Doesn't matter what the character was before the Zombie Apocalypse, he's a Shepherd of the Damned now."

Put the italics down, Siembieda. Put them down for your own good!

Characters

Time for character classes before we know any of the rules. Palladium editing: it may involve a dart board. Usually, when I do these sections for Rifts, I like to detail the odds of playing each class, but as we'll see later, Dead Reign is slightly softer on players in terms of meeting attribute requirements, and there's an alternate character generation method I'm not going to be accounting for here that makes qualifying much easier if it's used.


_{"It turns out your forehead keeps growing after death! It's true!}

The Half-Living
_{An optional post-Zombie Apocalypse O.C.C.}

Chance of Playing: 100%, if your GM permits it.

Yes, we start with an optional class that might not be allowed by GMs. That's so very Palladium. As mentioned before, sometimes somebody nearly gets killed a zombie and survives.




Clear and concise rules language.

So, you come back looking like one of those original zombies, with an overuse of eyeshadow, pale complexion (even if you're melanin-intensive?), and a 69.8 temperature that makes you literally cooler than everybody else. You get bonuses against heat, cold, poison, and disease, and only need to feed half as often. In addition, you can eat raw meat if you're into that. It gives you 50% more strength, and get ignored by all but the smart-ish zombies, but humans might mistake you for a zombie. You can sense zombie moans like a zombie but with a slight delay, and regenerate slightly when somebody near you dies. On the downside, you lose Speed and Physical Beauty, think fire bad, get penalties all over when you're not around humans to ground you, and become a zombie when you die. Oh, and you lose 30%-80% of your elective and secondary skills. Round up? Round down? Choose randomly or select skills? Work it out for your damn selves, customers, this is Palladium. At least it says directly that if you don't want to become one in the course of play, the GM should just let you survive normally. Player choice? In a Palladium game? Heavens to Betsy.

Of course, if you create a Half-Living from scratch, you use a completely different set of rules, because this is Palladium, and I'm not going to cover them because fuck it, who cares? Short version: you're trading out most of your skills to become a zombie-themed superhero, take it or leave it. That is, if your GM allows it! They can tell you no.


_{Give the dog a (still animate) bone.}

Hound Master
_{A post-Zombie Apocalypse O.C.C.}

Chance of Playing: 13%, or 31% if your GM is nice.

So dogs are awesome because they're man's best friend and can "sense the supernatural."


The latter of which would be useful if those people existed in the game! In any case, these are people that try and rescue and train canine survivors (since zombies feed on them all the same if they can). Their main goal is to rescue wild and or feral dogs, with the twofold notion of using them to assist fellow survivors and to get dangerous dogs off the the streets. This can be via rescue, or if they can't be tamed, just putting wild dogs down. This goes with a lot of talk about how dogs are awesome that should seem familiar if you're read any of the dog boy material in Rifts.

Hound Masters get the special ability to try and ward away feral dogs, "dog first aid", and train dogs in a variety of areas from guard animals to zombie-sensing dogs, but only one area because you can't teach an old dog new tricks! They also get a free dog sidekick with an extra dog every 3 levels except for 15th, because why reward years of Hound Master play in a really lethal game?

We also get dog rules. Did you now "well trained and behaved dogs" have good alignment, misbehaving dogs have selfish alignments, and wild dogs have evil alignments? Well, there is no way in which this will ever matter. They actually have shit for durability and a single zombie punch can send them into needing a doggie doctor, but they do have access to special pounce and grab attacks that work irregardless of the defender's strength, but at least that works in PC's favor this time... unless they're wild dogs attacking, which use the same rules.

Ultimately, it's a pretty neat class for a zombie game... but hobbled by predictably dodgy Palladium rules.


_{Playing little league, apparently.}

Reaper
_{A post-Zombie Apocalypse O.C.C.}

Chance of Playing: 38%, or 63% if your GM is nice.


These are the bikers from Dawn of the Dead if they were good guys and not just total shitheels. (I suspect the Joshes' original version were just total shitheels.) The name came from a biker gang from Chicago who survived the "Battle of Chicago", whatever the the fuck that was (they helped a bunch of people escape Chicago from zombies, apparently). But they had Brad Ashley, who writes and widely distributes the self-aggrandizing but kinda helpful Reaper's Survival Guide and so other bikers have taken up the name. Kev has always been a bit stuck on the idea of people that do good and "roam the land like knights of old", even though that's not something knights fuckin' did, so these are your Cyber-Knight equivalent, only with less cyber and more motorcycle. They're focused on zombie murder and just trying to clear out zombies wherever they reasonably can.

They get to negate any penalty for attacking from a bike with a one-handed weapon, can fix motorcycles, have special lore skills for death cults and reapers. We get a long-winded description of their tactics, which boil down to hit 'n run or doing tactical stealth missions against zombies. They're more focused on killing zombies and death cults than rescuing people. So maybe they're a little shitheel.


_{"Wait, did we forget to commission art for this class? Well, we can just stuff something vaguely related in, good enough."}

Scroungers
_{A post-Zombie Apocalypse O.C.C.}

Chance of Playing: 39%, or 52% if your GM is nice.

There isn't a lot more to this class than the title implies - they're traders and do repairs, as well. As such, they're just the thief archetype, good at sneaky stuff, social stuff, and fixing things. There isn't much else to day. They get a free bike! Oh, no, not the motor type. The pedal type. They're literal BMX bandits.


_{To be fair, I think Michael Mumah is probably the best artist in this.}

Shepherd of the Damned
_{A post-Zombie Apocalypse O.C.C.}

Chance of Playing: 100%

These are survivors that go into cities and try and find and rescue anybody still trapped there - either for free or for a fee. Many specialize in a single city or region and learn it extremely well. Though they're competent fighters, usually they're just looking to bug out. Like Scroungers, they don't get any particular "special" abilities, just getting a bunch of survival skills as the vague rangers of this game, only without the cool double weapons or ranged combat options.


_{Mumah's art has a comic book style that fits the idea of a Palladium zombie game really well...}

Soldier
_{An post-Zombie Apocalypse O.C.C.}

Chance of Playing: Varies based on M.O.S., from 100% to 14% (23% if your GM is nice)

We've got thieves, cavaliers, rangers... what else? Oh, yes. Fighters. These are ex-law enforcement and ex-military professional sorts, and they get special bonuses versus zombies. Their special deal is that they get to pick an M.O.S. (Military Occupational Specialty, but the book doesn't explain that, nor does it use term correctly, G.I. Joe file cards were more accurate than this...) like "Demolitions Expert", "Law Enforcement: Undercover", or "Special Ops: Commando". Each has a different attribute requirement but basically just serves as a skill package. Mind, your M.O.S. doesn't affect your equipment, so you can be a "Communications Expert" with nothing more than a walkie-talkie or a beat cop who has a bunch of grenades.


_{... except for whatever this mess is, yikes.}

Survivor
_{A post-Zombie Apocalypse O.C.C.}

Chance of Playing: 100%

This is your everyday person catch-all sort of class. So if you want to play a heroic line cook, this is where you start. You can also play a child. Technically, you can play a baby! You still roll 3d6 for attributes, baby, get an occupation ("he's a real doctor!"), and then get et by a death cultist. Survivors get an optional rule where they might have skills at a higher level (1d4), but those skills don't advance until you level up to that level as a Survivor, because a 4th level Factory Worker or a 4th level Landscaper (these are listed occupations you can pick) could somehow break the game or something? "Look out, he's got an extra 15% chance at gardening, the sky is falling!" I guess a Paramedic or a Professional Driver might be better off, but still. It's not the big deal the game makes of it.

Oddly, there's overlap with the soldier, where you can be a cop or even a SWAT trooper under either; you'll get better skills as a Survivor but better combat bonuses as a Soldier. There's 42 different occupations and I won't list them all, but they range from useful (Extreme Sports, Hit Man) to less so (Housekeeper, Store Clerk). Unlike the soldier, it notes that you might have the tools of your trade, but if your GM's a dick, you don't get them. That's Palladium, forcing the GM to make two judgement calls over what's supposed to be the most basic goddamn class. Well, I'll play my Extreme Sports Baby, nothing in the rules is stopping that (though the GM decides if I get a helmet).

Next: Shit, a Brick.

"Sexy faring, comfortable riding position, and a chassis that tells you, 'You can do anything stud, just keep on leaning.'"

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

I'm not sure speaking to friends and co-workers about zombies counts as part of "research".

Dead Reign Part 5: "Sexy faring, comfortable riding position, and a chassis that tells you, 'You can do anything stud, just keep on leaning.'"




_{Remember, you can only hit the head on an unmodified 17-20!}

Notable Resources

We're back to the Reaper Survival Guide and more Brad with some tips on getting crap. He points out you can try and use your skills as a trade for resources, for one. Next, he brings up the utility of phone books, forgetting that phone books were seriously getting scarce even by 2008. Atlases and guidebooks are also useful, though you generally have to wander into urban areas to find them.

He emphasizes that normal street cars are of little practical use, but might have resources (tools, fuel, parts) or could be used as a weapon or distraction. However, he warns against "car graveyards" and points out zombies will just punch right though windows if you try and hole up i a vehicle. However, trucks have greater utility, especially when reinforced with things like a winch, armor, and weapon ports. He also suggests a fuel pump to siphon fuel from abandoned vehicles, despite "car graveyards" apparently being breeding grounds for GM fuck-you surprise hordes.

Gasoline stations, hardware stores, industrial parks, factories, and museums are all covered for their resources. In cities, wide open areas with long lines of sight (wait, wouldn't that make it easier for zombies to see you, since they see humans better than vice versa?), like sports facilities, auditoriums and theaters, and parks are recommended. Pawnshops, pharmacies, shipping facilities, and airports are also cited as some of the few reasons to venture into cities. Skyscrapers are noted as a potential place to hide or escape since most ground-level zombies won't venture beyond the first few floors, but also have a variety of risks from attracting human predators to trying to maintain heating.

Rural communities have at times managed to fend off zombies and become "Safe Haven Communities", but many are hostile to outsiders (or may be outright baddies like retro-savages or cultists). Still, some are genuinely good people, or at least willing to trade, and he encourages you to help them out.


_{Remember, you can only hit the head or neck on an unmodified 17-20!}

Weapons & Equipment

And now we switch to Nick "The Brick" Vicovsky, possibly named for what he shits, it doesn't say. He used to be a jerk biker asshole, but became a decent biker asshole by joining The Reapers and learning an important lesson about what family means, or something. He offers commentary during the upcoming section most of which I'm probably going to skip because I've still got over a hundred pages left and you can't pretend you care about his opinion on the Dodge RAM 350. I'll leave you in suspense.

Oh, and first thing we get around to is bizarrely referring us to the Heroes Unlimited GM's Guide of all things for more guns, or the slightly more relevant Compendium of Contemporary Weapons (the compendium was written 15 years before this was written, so I promise it was and is anything but contemporary). Everything gets a $$$ value but it's pointed out this is just for barter reference and that money doesn't matter so much anymore.

Unlike other Palladium games, firearms are divided into caliber (which determines the damage, from 2d4 at .22 caliber to 1d6 x 10 at .50 caliber) and their general type (which determines the range / magazine / fire rate) rather than getting a big long list of guns. There's also a variety of special ammo types, most of which add damage in different ways. There's "The Brick's" frankly irritating commentary, like:




We get rules for explosives (half damage to zombies and knocks them over), which are good for slowing down crowds of zombies but isn't likely to take them out without major booms. Fire weapons get their own section - flamethrowers, molotov cocktails (with a warning that having flaming zombies running around has consequences), incendiary grenades, flares, etc. There's crossbows which somehow do full damage even though spears and bows don't, because this game hates physics or loves crossbows, one of the two.


_{Remember, you can only hit the neck on an unmodified 17-20!}

Then there's melee weapons, which boil down to "use the biggest weapon you're allowed to use for your strength", as some heavy weapons have strength requirements. Some weapons have a % chance to get stuck in a zombie, so you can avoid those, and some weapons require 2 attacks to use, which is almost never worth it since you're not likely to one-shot a zombie. As such, the best weapon is the battle axe - it does as much damage as the chainsaw without the noise, won't get stuck in zombies, and has no strength requirement (despite weapons with a strength requirement that do less being plentiful). The game makes a big deal about katanas being awesome zombie-killing weapons so you can be Michonne from The Walking Dead, but the stats don't back it up - a lead pipe or crowbar does as much damage as a katana. Oh, and a Bo Staff does "2D46" in a bit of a typo, and quarterstaves do more than long staves. Is that right? Staves? Staffs? Well, in any case by the actual rules unless you gang up on a zombie going melee will probably just get you killed unless you're heavily armored, since zombies have that Armor Rating and do as much damage with a punch as tougher survivors do with the biggest melee weapons.

Armor gets its numbers, most of which is trading sneakiness for protection, with leather armor being adverted as the prime means of protection (the game even gets it bonus armor against zombies for no stated reason). There's also stats for skateboard pads and bike helmets, if you want to fight the undead to the max extreme. We go on with the laundry list of optic devices Palladium loves to death, generators, electronic devices, radios, and survival gear.


_{"How'd I light this cocktail? I have no idea!"}

There are stats for vehicles though this game doesn't have detailed rules for using them. We have horses, bikes, and skateboards (don't seem practical but the game still thinks skating is rad). The game waxes more mastibatorily over motorcycles, and I don't feel like I'm picking on the book when I say that:


It poo-poos street bikes as being risky and dangerous, cruisers as being too heavy to pick up after a spill, choppers as being style over substance, and suggests making heavy bikes into bobbers if you can. Enduros and dual sport bikes are held up as the ideal, with dirt bikes being good for offroad but otherwise full of drawbacks. We get information on protective wear and fuel, including suggestions on fuel life and using fuel stabilizers. Comparatively, other vehicles barely get any attention at all. We get four pages on motorcycles and two pages on: cars, trucks, planes, balloons, helicopters, personnel carriers, and tanks. Hell, skateboards get more attention than all cars. Campers aren't covered at all, oddly. I don't know why cars and trucks are picked on for being vulnerable when motorcycles offer no protection at all, but there you have it.

Next: A horde of slavering tables.

"Game Masters, noodle around what exactly the problem is here."

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

Dead Reign Part 6: "Game Masters, noodle around what exactly the problem is here."


_{"Welcome to White Castle, what can I get you?"}

Adventure Ideas

Nope, still not to the rules yet! Instead, we get "101 Random Scenarios, Encounters, and Settings" to roll a d100 on to get a random event from. This is actually credited partially to Hilden and Sanford. Of course, if you realize that means there's a scenario you can't ever roll, well tough, the book cares not. Some entries are just variations on a theme - there are 9 entries that boil down to "there's a crashed truck, what's inside?", 3 entries on "you hear a baby crying!", 5 entries that are "you run into a dazed individual on the road" (always lone, always dazed), etc. Shit-ton of bait-and-switch stuff, as to expected after all the Rifts adventure books I've- oh, those aren't published yet. Well, suffice it to say most are "possible source of resources, but surprise zombies!" No way I'm covering them all, let's roll ten times instead and see what I get.

• 64%: There's a freighter offshore with a sign that says "Life ship. Taking survivors. Come aboard." (Bait) Unfortunately, the ship is now filled with hundreds of zombies, even though it's in working order. (Switch)
  
• 44%: There's a power plant with lights on! (Bait) It turns out it's being maintained by pattern zombies. However, there's a good number of zombies (about sixty) wandering around the plant and parking lot. (Switch)
  
• 29%: The PCs find a crashed airliner with only a few slouchers inside, and it hasn't been stripped. (Bait) However, the noise of going through it will attract zombies from the nearby highway. (Switch)
  
• 13%: There's a crashed truck with canned goods spilled out! (Bait) However, there are flesh-eating zombies eating the crew. In addition, any noise will draw more zombies. Then wild dogs attack. (Switch)
  
• 43%: There's a dead body holding a sign that says "I need a ride. Don't worry, I'm not a Creep." (Bait) It's an obvious mock zombie who will thank them for stopping if they do. (Wink)
  
• 10%: A camp is over the hill. (Bait) But it's a community under attack by about 70 slouchers, but they have about two dozen defenders for the PCs to support. (Switch) If they get rescued, they'll be decent folk looking to find or form a Safe Haven.
  
• 78%: There's a sad, injured dog! (Bait) But there are a few flesh-eating zombies chasing the dog. (Switch)
  
• 19%: Another crashed truck! (Bait) But there's a crawler pinned under it, and it'll try and moan to attract other zombies. (Switch)
  
• 90%: There's a radio broadcast the players can track down to a fortified building! (Bait) It doesn't reveal what's inside, dangerous or otherwise. (???)
  
• 49%: There's a sloucher little girl. (Bait) I'd think the PCs would just kill her, but it presume they don't because she's "cute as a button". She's revealed to be a mock zombie that will attack if she hangs around too long. It says "she could become a valuable weapon in fighting the walking dead" but I'm not sure how unless you keep her supplied with meaty kneecaps.

_{Well, no living dead, anyway.}

Entry "101%" is a description of various jobs the PCs could be doing for a "safe haven community", from rescue to recon. Then we get "Random Zombie Encounters", which is mostly rolling randomly to get a random allotment of zombies. 5% of the time, it's a sexy lady that turns out to be a mock zombie! Damn you, sexy zombie! Actual sexy zombies as a thing - mostly women, as if you needed to ask with this author - will be in a supplement. 5% of the time it'll be "1d6 x 100 Slouchers"! We also get "100 random corpse searches", so let's try rolling for five of those:

• 56%: MP3 player (loaded with 1000 country music tunes).
  
• 55%: 14 silver dollars (rare and valuable), each in a plastic container.
  
• 66%: Backpack full of camping gear, including a small flashlight, compass, roll of string, pocket knife, and package of peanuts.
  
• 57%: Tarot cards and a manga-sized role-playing game.
  
• 67%: Pair of good quality binoculars and an empty thermos.

Man, treasure tables, amirite?

Next: I complained about not having the rules yet. I stop complaining.

"It's not Superman or the X-Men fighting zombies, it's you."

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

Dead Reign Part 7: "It's not Superman or the X-Men fighting zombies, it's you."

Game Rules

144 pages into the game, we get a "what roleplaying is!" primer.




If you're seen most Palladium games before, it goes into the usual "Imagine the scene! Imagine your character! What do you do?" bit, but instead of a thug / mutant animal / Zentraedi robbing somebody, there's a spooky laughter in the basement you're in. Actually, I realize the text of investigating a monster in the basement is mostly just copy-pasted from Beyond the Supernatural. We get descriptions of the various hobbyist dice (it uses all of the usual except d12s), and it refers us to get books from Barnes & Noble, Waldenbooks (whups, out of business), or Borders (whups, out of business), or a comic book shop. You'll need paper, pencils, and a place to play! It's a clunky section but at least it bothers, I guess? That may not seem like an accomplishment, but I've seen enough modern games that presume this isn't your first RPG rodeo and offer no introduction or advice. At least it tries.


_{"I'm a gas mask astronaut! Nobody's getting at my brains."}

Character Creation

Most people familiar with Palladium will be familiar with this - even though Rifts Ultimate Edition had introduced new mechanics like bonus attribute points for low rolls and low attribute penalties three years before this, we're back to usual 1990s-era Palladium character creation for whatever reason. So let's do this, and do it quick:

Step 1: The Eight Attributes: Roll 3d6 eight times down the line for each attribute, add an extra 1d6 if you roll 16+, get a bonus to something if you get 16+. No rearranging or adjusting or anything like that. Intelligence Quotient gives a bonus to skills. Mental Endurance gives a bonus on saves against psionics (not in this game), insanity, or horror. Mental Affinity gives a % chance to make people trust or fear you. Physical Strength grants a bonus to melee damage. Physical Prowess gives bonuses to attack or defend. Physical Endurance gives a bonus to survive coma or death, on saves against poison, and against magic (not in this game). Physical Beauty gives a % chance to charm or impress. Speed determines your maximum movement rate (we get a speed chart that tells us that 22 Speed = 15 MPH). We get encumbrance rules and rules on throwing things and then move on to step two.

Step Two: Understanding Damage Ratings: First we talk about armor ratings, which are a rating you have to beat (not tie, how intuitive!) on your d20 attack roll to hit an armored target. We haven't covered strike (attack) rolls yet, but once again, the organization here probably involves a dart board. We get a recap of how this works in regards to zombies, in case you missed it the first two times. And here I bet you thought because it said 'character creation' we'd be dealing with that! Nope! It's time to discuss S.D.C., or "Structural Damage Capacity", which we all have, being structures and all. I'm pretty structural myself. Damage to S.D.C. is just supposed to be flesh wounds, or-


Uh, Siembieda, you do know all of those sports use protective padding, right...?

Anyway, remembering this is a character creation section for a moment, PCs get a very modest amount of S.D.C. compared to other Palladium games - less than 20, which means one or two 1d6+10 zombie punches will put you into emergency territory if you haven't been buffing up. Hit points are your bloody injury zone, and are equal to your Physical Endurance + 1d6 per level. Below 0 hit points, you're getting into the coma zone. We then go on to describe the S.D.C. of objects. Can I play a wooden door? No, but this section meanders between rules for the game and character creation like a zombie who's eaten the contents of a Friday night drunk tank, continuing to editorialize:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FYTc55nGEI

We get the full injury recovery rules: 2-4 HP and 4-6 S.D.C. per day, it doesn't say if both recover at the same time or separately. There's rules for recovering from comas (using a liberal definition of the word "coma" to mean "any unconsciousness", blood loss at low HP, etc.

Step Three: Choosing an Occupation and Skills: Now you can choose an Occupational Character Class (O.C.C.)., i.e. just class with some words bolted on. Each has minimum attribute requirements, but Siembieda throws a bone to players this time by saying if you miss the requirements by a class "by a point or two" the GM "should" let players bump up the necessary attribute to match. O.C.C.s often provide:

• Attribute or combat bonuses.
  
• A base Potential Psychic Energy rating (only really useful here to determine what I would call your "Z.Y.F.", or Zombie Yum Factor, since this game... doesn't have psychics, potential or otherwise)
  
• O.C.C. Skills (which are fixed skills your class gets, usually with a bonus), Elective Skills (skills you choose that get a bonus if your class favors them), and Secondary Skills (skills you choose that get no bonuses).
  
• What equipment and money you start with.
  
• How much XP it takes to level up.

Even though multiple O.C.C. characters exist in other Palladium games, they're explicitly banned here, though the Survivor O.C.C. effectively uses the dual-class mechanics (where one "class" is your former occupation and the other is the Survivor class).

Step Four: Alignment: Though it says "All character must select an alignment.", but I'm not sure why. They have literally no mechanical impact and only serve as a vague roleplaying guideline at best - and aren't that useful as a guideline to begin with, because they're ancient, arbitrary guidelines originally designed for a D&D knockoff. There's two "good" alignments (Principled and Scrupulous), two "selfish" alignments (Unprincipled and Anarchist), and three evil alignments (Aberrant, Miscreant, and Diabolic), but I can't emphasize how little they matter. Other Palladium games at least have some corner cases in which alignments matter (though they rarely do, even there), but Dead Reign has nothing. But it does have...


Yes, the two paragraph screed railing against that terrible neutrality that Siembieda has been plastering in his core books for two or three decades still in here, as if anybody ever cared nearly as much.


_{"I know, I know. I should quit."}

Step Five: Character Advancement: We get two full pages going on and on about why a experience system is important, which is odd, given it's hardly a controversial notion. It's extremely rare to find a game without some sort of experience system, after all. And it's a doozy of a ramble.


That's a lot to quote, but I wanted to get you the full, galling, ironic effect of having a man describe at excruciating length about how much he's improved while serving up the same decades-old experience system he adapted from AD&D. This is just a part of it - his meandering about the importance and realism of XP does not begin or end there. In any case, in the system itself, gaining levels improves all skills and hit points by default, and usually gives some class-dependent benefit like new skills or extra bonuses. XP is granted arbitrarily by the GM based on vague guidelines the game provides based on accomplishments, with rewards between 25 and 700 XP. Levels take a few thousand XP at the low levels and tens of thousands of XP at the high levels. More powerful classes gain levels more slowly at early levels but actually speed up towards higher levels, bizarrely, and what counts as a powerful class is extremely arbitrary. The Shepherd of the Damned, for example, is the 2nd slowest leveling class in the game for no reason I can discern. (The 1st is the Half-Living.)

Optional: Quick Character Creation: So next we get an optional system where you either roll or pick off a following table of attribute spreads (like 9+1d6 or 20+1d4) that are supposed to speed things up by directing you to relevant classes for those attributes. However, this table displays a hilarious lack of awareness of the 3d6 curve, easily offering over 30+ points of attributes on average over somebody who rolls 3d6 "down the line" Palladium-style. Once again, the "low" attributes are 9+1d6 instead of 3d6. In addition, they do nothing to fix the primary cause of slowness in the Palladium system - recording your skills and their level, which remains as awful as it's ever been.

Ways to Round Out Your Character: And now we get the usual random list of tables to roll on, like:

• Alignment: Good and Selfish only, 25% chance of each.
  
• Sex: Literally biased towards guys with a 60% chance of being male. Nothing LGBT, for the record.
  
• Age, Build, Height: Nothing weird here.
  
• Birth Order for Humans: There's no other species in the game, but sure.
  
• Environment Growing Up: 40% chance of being rural, when in fact about 15% of Americans classify as rural. Fact-check!
  
• Survivor Family Loss: You can't roll your way out of having lost family, sorry! This is Zombietown.
  
• Relationship to Teammates: Actually a useful table to create hooks between characters! A Palladium first?
  
• Special Aptitude Bonus: A special bonus your character gets only if you roll on the other random determination tables save for the ones that follow. I guess Kevin really, really wants you to random roll your shit. All of the bonuses are pretty strong, or at the very least none are entirely crap, from bonus attacks to extra skills to attribute boosts.
  
• Outlook on Earth's Future and Disposition are extra optional and it says players should never be forced to random roll their personality. But if you want to, they're here for you.

_{Nick Bradshaw!}

Lastly, we have Insanity... but this is long enough. Insanity gets its own update.

Next: "Go crazy?" "Don't mind if I do!"

"Get down. Get down! They're bombing us! Bin Ladin's here...the terrorists are..."

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

Dead Reign Part 8: "Get down. Get down! They're bombing us! Bin Ladin's here...the terrorists are..."


_{It's pictures of zombies all the way down.}

Insanity


These are the words of somebody who knows that... "I didn't get it right, but what does it matter! It's just a game!" Well. We're also told "97%" of players use and enjoy the insanity tables and that they're "appropriate, realistic, and fun". How does it work? Well, when exposed to a trauma (there are guideliness, but it's ultimately a GM call, the player rolls and if they don't get a 12 or higher, they roll on random tables to see what insanity they get. The nature of the trauma doesn't influence this. So let's see what we get!

• A mother sees her son eaten a zombie, and fails her save vs. insanity. She becomes "reborn", which reverses her alignment and makes her roll on the disposition table. Let's randomly roll her alignment to begin with: Principled. Instead she becomes of Diabolic alignment and turns into a "Wild Man" with no regard to her own safety or risk.
  
• A man is tied out and left to be eaten by zombies by Retro-Savages, and narrowly escapes, but fails his save against insanity. He becomes a hypocondriac.
  
• A child is captured by a death cult and gets to watch them spike a live baby into the sacrifice endzone, and fails his save against insanity. He gets a phobia... against... female zombies.
  
• A woman chops off her own infected arm and survives, and fails her save against insanity. She becomes homicidal whenever she gets angry.
  
• A kid remains isolated in a basement for years, surviving on canned food and well water, and fails her save against insanity. She develops a fear of animals.
  
• A man is forced to murder all of his family after they're turned into zombies, and fails his save against insanity. He becomes a recluse and gains an aversion to crowds.
  
• A woman is buried alive for several days and survives, and fails her save against insanity. Afterwards, she goes berserk when exposed to violence.
  
• A man is half-eaten by zombies, but is saved and survives. He develops an evil "Hyde" personality that takes him over now and then.
  
• A man combines mushrooms and the zombie apocalypse, amping up the scare factor and fails his save against insanity. Hey, it days "drug based hallucinations thare are particularly terrifying" count as a trauma, so let's see what we get. The character thereafter develops short-term amnesia when exposed to any traumatic stimulus.
  
• A woman is possessed by the ghost and fails her save against insanity. Mind, ghosts in this game, but it counts as a traumatic stimulus listed, so maybe it does? She then becomes addicted to unspecific drugs that make her impulsive.

Therapy and counseling over a period of at least three months can cure madness, but the actual chance of a cure isn't doesn't depend on the medical skill of the psychologist - it varies between 30-39% for a total cure, but in the case of phobia there's a small chance of them getting worse and psychoses becoming phobias.

There's also addiction, which gives a random personality modifier regardless of the addictive substance (so you can be a coke addict that becomes withdrawn or get hallucinations from a cigarette). There's penalties for being "wasted" that are regardless of being drug that puts all your rolls into the shitter, and rules for going through withdrawal (takes 6 months for all drugs) and gives decreasing penalities that make you essentially useless but get more manageable by the third week.

Combat Rules


STEP 1: Determine Initiative

So, you roll 1d20 and add your bonus from Physical Prowess. In case of a tie, both people re-roll their dice. However, a "Sneak Attack" or "Long-Range Attack" automatically wins initiative. What if there are two Long-Range or Sneak Attacks? Well, work it out yourself! You re-roll initiative every round. It doesn't mention it here, but you get a certain number of attacks per round you can "spend" on attacks or defense.

STEP 1: Attacker Rolls to Strike

Attacks roll 1d20 plus bonuses (from Physical Prowess, weapon proficiencies, hand-to-hand, class bonuses, etc.). A roll of 4 or higher is needed to hit, but unless it exceeds the Armor Class of anything they're wearing, you subtract the damage from the S.D.C. of the armor (or do no damage, in the case of zombies). Unmodified 20s always hit and do double damage, unless the defense does a Parry or Dodge that rolls a 20.

STEP 3: Defender May Parry, Dodge, or Entangle

Parrying doesn't use an attack, but Dodging does use up an attack (clear terminology, there). Roll 1d20 plus bonuses (from Physical Prowess, hand-to-hand skills, etc.) and try and tie or beat the attack roll. Parrying, however, can only be used against melee attacks, and you waive all bonuses if you try and parry a weapon bare-handed. Dodges can be used against anything. Entangling lets you snare the attacker's weapon or arm with the same roll, only this element is pretty well forgotten and almost nothing provides a bonus to it. It doesn't mention it here, but the person grabbed has to make a dodge against the entangle roll to break free, but when they do it in the combat order isn't mentioned.

STEP 4: Attacker Rolls Damage

You inflict damage equal to your weapon damage + Physical Strength damage bonus for melee weapons, and just plain damage for ranged attacks. Damage is dealt to S.D.C. unless the target has that depleted, at which case it goes to hit points. You can attempt to "Pull Punch" and do less damage (as little as you wish), but you have to roll an 11 or better to do so.

STEP 5: Defender May Attempt to roll wth Impact

If the attack was a blunt weapon or explosion, you can roll 1d20 plus bonuses (usually from skills or classes) to try and tie or beat the attack roll. If so, they do half damage. No rule against zombies rolling with impact, for the record.


_{"If you're gonna die, die with your boots off?"}

Combat Sequence

... is confusing. As written, basically the highest initiative person attacks, and then whoever they were attacking gets to go, back and forth until their attacks are used up, then the next person goes. The game presumes that fights essentially break out into duels, which doesn't seem likely in a horde of zombies vs. survivors scenario. However, he suggests pausing after 1-2 attacks each round and switching to the next player to build "cliffhangers" and "excitement", but it also seems to imply that the GM might want to just blow off the initiative order entirely. It's worth noting that the actual combat sequence is pointedly unclear and this is my most generous interpretation of it.

Hand to Hand Combat

Hand to Hand skills give bonus attacks (even for firearms, apparently) and a variety of combat bonuses that are level-dependent. If you don't have a Hand to Hand skill, you get bonus "non-combat" actions that can only be used for actions unrelated to attack or defense like picking up an item or driving or whatever. It's not well defined. We get "Basic" which is some undefined basic skill in fighting, "Expert" which is supposedly what cops, soldiers, and "thieves" learn. "I rob houses, it's really helped my right swing." We have "Martial Arts" which is even better and gives you a bunch of special moves. There's "Assassin" which I guess is what you get at the Hitman Academy, and it has slightly fewer attacks and more damage. Lastly, there's Commando, which is the most badass because it lets you do a dodge without using an action... wait, no, it gives a bonus to "Automatic Dodge" but doesn't grant that ability. Oooops. Palladium.

You can get get special moves from these like a "Body Block" (50% chance to knock people down, more if you're extremely strong), Body Flip (does damage and makes your opponent "lose" the initiative, whatever that means, and eats an attack of theirs), a "Critical Strike" (a widened crit range), a "Death Blow" (does damage directly to hit points, but costs two attacks and requires a specific range to get the damage, like 18-20, doesn't work on zombies), "Karate Kick" (more damage), "Leap Kick" (does even more damage, costs two attacks), "Paired Weapons" (lets you do two attacks for the price of one, but you then have to spend actions to parry for the rest of the round), "Power Punch" (doubles rolled damage for the cost of two attacks, doesn't count your damage bonuses, a fat sack of crap), "Simultaneous Attack" (lets you give up your defense to hit your foe at the same time), and others.

Horror Factor

When a foe has a "Horror Factor", it means they're scary. You have to roll a d20 + bonuses (usually from Mental Endurance or your class) and equal or beat it. If you fail, you "lose initiative" (doesn't really detail what this means, again), lose an attack, and can't defend against the creature's first attack that melee round. It notes that GMs can assign a Horror Factor to a situation (like the scene of a sacrifice) as well arbitrarily.

Perception Rolls

One of the few really new mechanics since my Rifts review, this lets you make Perception rolls to notice things. It's rolled with a d20 plus bonuses (usually only from classes written up after the mechanic was devised, no attribute improves it). The difficulty is 4 for something "easy", 8 for something "moderate", 14 for something "challenging", or 18 for something "difficult". Noticing a zombie takes a hilariously high 15, and it's 17 to notice somebody sneaking up on you. If you have a skill like Detect Ambush or Prowl, this can modify the roll into a roll-off between the two characters involved, with a +1 for every 10% of skill you have. This seems to mean a zombie trying to sneak up on you will actually have much worse odds than if they don't? It's not clear, since there seem to be two mechanics for the same thing.

Ranged Combat


You need a weapon proficiency to do aimed or called shots with a gun. Specifically, Physical Prowess and Hand-to-Hand bonuses (save for the extra attacks) don't apply to modern weapons, but presumably apply to bows and the like? It's not clear. In any case, weapon proficiencies grant you a growing bonus (around +1 to +7 depending on the weapon) as you level up. You can do an "aimed" shot that adds +2 to hit but takes two attacks. Any called shot has to be an aimed shot, but waives the bonus unless you use three attacks. Firing bursts halves your attack bonus, and firing "wild" (like from a moving vehicle, losing a Horror Factor roll, while running, etc.). There's penalties for hitting somebody moving, called shots are required to hit anybody partially behind cover, etc.

You can only dodge gunfire, but only count bonuses for Physical Prowess or from your class, not from skills. You're -10 to dodge a gunshot within 10' and -5 to dodge if it's within 50'.

We get a tirade about how you might accidentally shoot a friend or bystander if you're not careful, but there are no rules for this and can move on.


_{About the only Bradshaw art I like is the jokey stuff.}

Game Rules for Zombie Combat

A lot of this is just reiterating stuff from previous sections (Palladium doesn't use chapters to organize its books), also noting it that's deliberate, at least, that survivors have more attacks than most zombies and to make sure the players use up all their attacks. It reiterates you should switch players between actions but there's no guidelines for this.

We also get told that you automatically hit if your gun is pressed right up against a zombie's body, but there's no actual guidelines about how survivors get to do that. It suggests that you force a d20 roll on the player (auto-miss on a 1, crit on a 20) as if this game didn't have enough dice rolls in combat. If the gun is only about 2' away or less it gets +7 to hit the main body or +3 to strike at the head or neck (by RAW this is meaningless because those rolls ignore all bonuses... but the intentions are clear, at least?). At 15' or less you get +2 to shoot the body and +1 to strike the head, neck, or limb.

Finally we get a suggestion that if a player has a question there isn't a specific rule for, you just roll d20, a 1-10 means no and an 11-20 means yes. "... it is fast, fun, and fair." Is it?

We get a long section on various game terms, and sandwiched in there are rules for vehicle crashes, a diatribe on how death is handled (players should work up backup characters and should "take it calmly", but that a good GM should offer PCs options to avoid dangerous situations), being knocked down, skill rolls (roll under their percentile value), Sneak Attacks (sneak up using Prowl or an ambush, avoids any active defense and the attacker "has initiative").



_{This beautiful piece is printed in B/W almost too small to see, probably because I think it has a Glitter Boy in it.}

It finishes a section pointing out it's largely compatible with other Palladium games and that if you want magic or psionics, you can incorporate them from Beyond the Supernatural. In general, the rules are done more tightly than previous Palladium games from the last century, but it's still a mess that requires the GM to fill in a lot of gaps in the system.

Next: 30 pages about skills.

"This is the ability to make the opposite sex melt with desire."

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

Dead Reign Part 9: "This is the ability to make the opposite sex melt with desire."

Skills are % based, usually from 15% to 98% (so a margin of error always exists), and based on your class. As aforementioned, each class has its Occupational skills (fixed skills, often with a bonus), Elective Skills (skills selected by the player, but with some categories gaining a bonus based on your O.C.C.), and Secondary Skills (skills selected by the player with no bonuses). Some others, like Physical Skills, grant bonuses to physical attributes, secondary stats (usually S.D.C.), or combat rolls. Similarly, Weapon Proficiencies usually grant a bonus ot attack with the weapon in question. Each character is assumed to have basic math, proficiency in their native language, and the ability to drive a car. (Even Extreme Sports Baby.) A few skills are more restricted unless the class notes it - a lot of advanced Electrical, Mechanical, and Medical skills, any Military skills, a couple physical skills (being an Assassin or a Commando, mainly), and some heavy modern weapon proficiencies. Secondary skills are even more restricted, though the listing starts to get really arbitrary there - why is W.P. Slingshot not available as a secondary skill, but W.P. Axe or Chain are?



Skills level with the character, and their starting % (usually between 20% to 60%, or more like 30% to 80% for a class skill) is specific to each skill in question, and the amount they improve by is also to specific to the skill. This is part of what makes character creation in Palladium so onerous, because these aren't included in the skill listings under the class, requiring you to write down all your skills and any applicable bonuses, then cross reference it with the skill list, then take any physical skills and total the bonuses you get from those, and do the same for weapon proficiencies, and some skills grant bonuses to other skills as well... it's the kind of thing that would be fixed just by putting the reference table in a more accessible area, standardizing skill percentages, nixing cross-skills, or including the base skill rating under a class' skill list, but no. It does none of that.

Skills can be penalized by around -5% to -75% (!) based ond exhaustion, bad tools, distractions, a "pressure situation" like "working in front of a superior, critic, or pretty girl". A lot of the more severe "pressure situation" penalties (like "important to get the job... done right" or "failure means there will be serious consequences") seems like they'd come up a lot in a game like this, and starting skill odds are pretty bad to begin with. Doing thing while "scared" or "seriously wounded" can pretty much kill most chances of using a skill at all. There's also a penalty for trying to use unknown or alien technology, but that doesn't exist in this game. Ooops. It's also not clear that if you would have skill bonuses that push you over 100% if that would negate penalties, or if something would be above 98% with bonuses it's capped there.


_{Most of the art in this section is reprinted from the Rifter article, so this is the "new" stuff.}

Skills are divided up by category, so I'll tackle them one at a time:

• Communication Skills (18 skills): This originally was just communications technology (derived from older military games where radios were a big deal) but now includes some things like writing, languages, or some arbitrary social skills (Barter, Performance, Sing, etc.), making it a mashed up skill category.
  
• Domestic Skills (11 skills): Though this is usually "skills not useful to adventurers" category, I suppose things like Brewing, Cook, Fishing, and Recycle might see new use in this specific setting. Still, I'm not sure Housekeeping or Wardrobe will ward off the zombie menace.
• Electrical Skills (5 skills): For electricians and computer repair experts, as if those two skills are actually related. (Tangentially, yes, but not usually.) There's "Basic Electronics" and "Electronics Engineer" which do the same thing, only the latter skill is better and only available to certain classes. It also includes "Robot Electronics", which would be interesting if this game had any robots or rules for them. I guess you could fix up Roombas or something.
  
• Espionage Skills (14 skills): Has the vitally important Detect Ambush and Detect Concealment skills, but Disguise, Forgery, Impersonation, and Undercover Ops aren't as much use against zombies. "Look at my ID! It says ZOMBIE." Well, Forgery starts out at 20% success rate anyway. Also includes being a Sniper, for some reason. I guess only spies know how to snipe; the military seemingly doesn't teach it here.
  
• Horsemanship Skills (3 skills): What used to be "Cowboy Skills" in Rifts, because once there was a supplement with cowboys in it. We get rules for horses slapped into here, and you can get melee bonuses and special attacks while on horseback (but not motorcycleback, you can only do charge attacks from a horse). The various uses of the Cowboy skill (herding, roping, lassoing) take up a half-page. There's also a skill for Exotic Animals, in case you want to ride a llama or elephant against the zombie horde. It helpfully gives the penalties for riding demonic horses should, you know, be playing a different game.
  
• Mechanical Skills (9 skills): Vehicle repair, locksmithing, making weapons or ammo (separate skills, yes), or "Robot Mechanics" for those who want to make drone strikes on zombies. There's "Basic Mechanics" and "Mechanical Engineer" once again that cover the same field, only the latter is just better if you have it available.
  
• Medical Skills (12 skills): This includes everything from First Aid to Paramedic (same skill, latter's better), and Medical Doctor for some reason requires at least four other skills as prerequisites, and many skills here require 2-4 prerequisites. Did you know Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Science are separate skills? Well, they are in this bloaty bloat bloat of a system. Also includes some more alternative medicines like Brewing: Medicinal or Holistic Medicine. Lastly, this is where you'll find your CSI skills.
  
• Military Skills (14 skills): Includes select military vehicles (helicopters, jets, APCs, tanks), knowledge of camouflage, demolitions, "Military Etiquette" (there is no regular Etiquette skill), detecting traps and mines, etc. A catch-all of military stuff that's not already covered by other categories.
  
• Physical Skills (23 skills): As mentioned before, these often grant bonuses in addition to or instead of having a % chance of success. Hand-to-Hand skills often cost as 2 or 3 skill picks, which considering how ridiculously good they are is a bit cheap. Boxing remains the god-skill it always has been (grants a bonus attack), though Acrobatics and Gymnastics have been nerfed into the floor (they used to grant +1d4 to Physical Prowess apiece, now it's only +1) since they were one of the reliable ways of buffing your combat bonuses. Still, it's possible to boost a fast character quick enough to be superhuman (if not much) by stacking skills, and those looking to survive more than 2 or 3 zombie punches can buff their S.D.C. here. Also includes "Prowl", the essential skill for sneaking past people, including the undead. It starts at 25%.
  
• Rogue Skills (17 skills): Your various criminal skills from picking locks to streetwise to gambling and so on. The skill percentages in this section are particularly abysmal, usually around 20% to 30% - the game really, really does not want you to do "bad" stuff, apparently. Notable is Safecracking, which gives a penalty if you don't have a decent Mental Endurance (because Mental Endurance applies to being perceptive here and nowhere else), or Seduction, which is about the only social skill that's boosted by a high Mental Affinity or Physical Beauty... by a paltry amount. It starts at 20% and being the most beautiful, most charming person anybody could ever be up that to 28%.
  
• Science Skills (16 skills): Hard sciences (astronomy, botany, chemistry) not including physics, and soft sciences (anthropology, psychology) not including sociology. Also, Parapsychology is a science! Also so is developing Artificial Intelligences, so you can develop the AI that informs you the only way to eliminate the zombie infection is to eliminate the source: humanity. Thanks, Mr. AI. If only I had a better than 30% chance to develop you correctly, Mr. AI! Well, this explains Ultron.
  
• Technical Skills (24 skills): Your catch-all "civilian professionals that don't fall into any other category" category, from dog breeding to firefighting to gemology to history to meditation to rope works. Yes. Use Rope is back, but now you only have a 30% chance to tie that knot. Palladium characters: "I have to tie my shoes at least 3 or 4 times before I get it right, and I'm a professional. Velcro is popular in our world." Also, Whittling is here. "Ever since the zombies arrived, I've had a lot more time for it."
  
• Transportation Skills (16 skills): Vehicles, from canoes to skateboards to water skiing. On, and cars and planes too, I guess, anything non-military. Also has a newer "Combat Driving" skill that gives bonuses while fighting from a vehicle and reduces a lot of the penalties. Still, "Water Skiiing & Surfing? "Our secret to survival is that zombies can't surf, ho-dad!"
  
• Weapon Proficiencies (22 skills): This is divided into ancient weapons (which gives you bonuses to strike, parry, or sometimes disarm, often on entirely different advancement tracks) and modern weapons (which just grants bonuses to hit and negates nonproficiency penalities). It also throws in a number of random rulings like weapon ranges, damage, and ammo, and very simplified burst rules (you can't do spread attacks, just expend more ammo for more damage). There's also Paired Weapons for doing paired attacks, Grappling Hook for batmanning, and Trick Shooting for doing fancy stuff like firing from a moving vehicle or one-handed, but it shakes its finger and reminds us this is a very rare skill and you can't use it with a bazooka.
  
• Wilderness Skills (13 skills): Your roughing it sort of skills, but also includes herding, fasting, and... dowsing. "... by using a divining rod or my more scientific and logical means." I'm pretty sure only one of these works unless we're playing Beyond the Supernatural, but maybe there are two types of magic in this world, Brulyx ceremonies and waving a stick at the ground.

_{Where's the 3-page writeup for this with four concealed mini-missile launchers, Palladium? My heart is broken.}

Yes, that's right, the game has well over 200 skills, with a more than a fair deal of redundancy and niche garbage. I mean, I'm sure somebody can come up with a use for Whittling & Sculpting, but I wouldn't count on it to save me from slavering hordes or angry cultists, but maybe your little carved pony will touch the heart of a "retro-savage". Just maybe.

Next: The creators return, and we finish this.

"They're just animated dead, right? Wrong."

posted by Alien Rope Burn Original SA post

Dead Reign Part 10: "They're just animated dead, right? Wrong."

And now the giant-sized conclusion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uo3eg1ws7Sc

Epilogue

The book ends on a one-page epilogue from Josh Hilden, Joshua Sanford, and Kevin Siembieda in that order. Hilden talks about his father showing him Night of the Living Dead at age 10, and how he hopes he can share the feelings of dread and terror he felt that night with the readers. Sanford talks about how frightening zombies can be, due to their unrelenting nature but potentially familiar faces. And finally, Siembieda takes up the lion's share of the page, discussing the origins of the book. He brings up that Hilden and Sanford saw it as a small sourcebook for Beyond the Supernatural, but he had them develop it into a full game and then "took that premise and those ideas and recast them". He discusses that they've done post-apocalypse settings before (for the record, After the Bomb, Rifts, System Failure, Chaos Earth, Splicers, and arguably Robotech: the Invid Invasion are at least six post-apocalypse games they've published). He snorts at people who say it's all been done before, and his retort to that is no, zombies are scary and represent our primal fears and symbolism and-


He did not, however, love the manuscript, though there's only a hint of the fact that there was an extensive rewrite in the book itself. The book ends here with an advert for The Rifter, a character sheet, and then a Palladium house ad for all of their major games at the time. But there's one last part of the story.

Another World of Zombies


In The Rifter #45, due to fan interest, Siembieda published some more of the original manuscript that Josh Hilden and Joshua Sanford wrote with their permission. I actually didn't discover this article until partway through my review, but on reflection, it makes a good bookend to it. So let's see what we've got.


_{Who ordered the zombie melt?}

Almost Tomorrow

We get a fiction chunk that's actually reprinted from both The Rifter #40 and Dead Reign and I'm skipping for a third time. The details of The Wave remain here as they were in the original pitch - people get inoculated with Unisane, are killed by The Wave, and rise again as zombies. Everything falls apart. The big change here is that there's a group of people called the Survivor Information Network that reveal the plot by the Benford Group, the use of Unisane to create the zombie plague, their worship of Brulyx, and corralling survivors for sacrifice. The ironic effect is that many survivors who hear only become more paranoid and it keeps organized resistance against Brulyx cult from uniting.

A full timeline is presented, starting with the suspiciously round 10,000 B.C., where Brulyx first tries to conquer the Earth, but is defeated by the "Lost Civilization" and "an alliance of elder gods and spirits of light". Unfortunately, the ensuing cataclysm creates a polar shift that wipes out almost all signs of the Lost Civilization. Phat Greg joins up with Brulyx (now correctly in Greece, given he's a priest of Hades, and not Rome as originally stated). Most of the rest is a laundry list of Greg's crimes:

• He engineers the Antoine Plague in Rome.
  
• He creates the Bubonic plague.
  
• Travels to North America and wipes out the last descendants of the Lost Civilization.
  
• He then gives the world the Spanish Flu.
  
• Greg helps the Nazis rise to power and then takes their stuff.
  
• And lastly, he creates the Benford Group and leads them to their zombie apocalypse.

Most of the timeline details post-apocalypse events around the world, and there are a few new onces. A Russian general leads part of the Russian army north to liberate and protect "Arkangel" (Arkhangelsk, technically). The Australian government retreats to Tasmania where they form "Free OZ". North Korea launches nukes across Asia for undisclosed reasons, which allows the Brulyx cult to take over. Ireland (who, as you may remember, kicked all their zombies out) and Free OZ form a base in South Africa because... reasons, I guess. The Brulyx Cult teams up with the "Hell Razors", whatever they are. There's a clash between the forces of Brulyx and "the Mountain Warriors of the Indian Redoubt". That's actual India, FYI. Then Free OZ fights off an attempt by the Brulyx forces to land in Australia. There's not much explanation

We get a recap of the Unisane plot, but it's already covered in The Rifter #40, so skip.

The Cult of Brulyx & The Benford Group

We get a fiction chunk where Greg sacrifices a follower who becomes an Thinker zombie as a result. Most of the following information was already included in The Rifter #40, again, as it goes over Greg's origins and the whole Unisane plot to raise people as a zombie P.P.E. network to bring Brulyx over to our world. I wonder why he wants to come over so bad. "Fucking region protection means I can't watch my favorite anime in this dimension! If I have to murder your whole world to just come over and watch Love Live!, I will!"


_{Seriously I don't see what the big deal about Earth is.}

So the Brulyx Cult's big goal is to conquer the world, round up everybody into death camps, put them to knife, and welcome Brulyx to anime heaven. Or something. They're looking to separate people into two camps: tools and sacrifices. As mentioned before, they're looking to seize mystic sites like the Nazca Plains or Stonehedge (where the demons dwell, where the banshees live and they do ne'er well). Look, I have to make jokes and references because the text is like:


Eyyyy how about about that human extermination and rape camps, I guess most of the human race being murdered in a dark ritual and then rising to consume their loved ones wasn't quite grim enough. Not quite. There are also Brulyx cultists and commandos sent out to either claim resources or just assassinate whoever they assassinate.

The Supernatural

We're reminded that, as in the original pitch, 15% of the surviving human population is psychic now. There's a throwaway reference to apparently hints of the supernatural leading to a "Salem Mystic Festival" in 2010 and 2011 which doesn't matter at all, but it's brought up here. It points out that magic and psionics can be used to give survivors an edge over zombie hordes. However, the downside is that the increased magical power also let Brulyx draw his demonic servants to his world, but it still takes a lot of power to draw them here. As such, the Brulyx cult keeps a tight leash on any demons they can bring over.

Speaking of which, time for some demons!


_{"A lot of people make that mistake, Shuma-Gorath is my cousin."}

Crawling Maw - Lesser Demon

Also known as "Satan's Starfish", this is a 10'-15' collection of tentacles that prefers water but also moves at like 14 MPH on land, which makes me wonder if they run on their little tentacles or roll around like wheels or what. Their bite contains "the dreaded Z-Virus" but unless you've read The Rifter #40 like I have, that won't mean much. There's also a typo for their damage (I presume it's supposed to be 1d6x10, not 1d610) and are basically supposed to be the "demonic version of a rabid dog" only this thing can probably tear though all but the most heavily-equipped or prepped. group of survivors readily with its eight attacks a round and a bite that can easily instakill an unarmored PC (with a save or die to boot).


_{The incredibly strange creature who stopped living and became a mixed-up zombie.}

Jigsaw Zombie - Lesser Demon

This is a mashup zombie where Brulyx cultists frankenstein a body together and then summon a demon to animate it. They can thusly take spare body parts and replace them, but honestly for all the trouble they aren't that different from normal sloucher zombies. The main difference is that blowing off their head won't kill them, you have to destroy the body. Mostly just feels like a gotcha surprise for PCs, but it's not any nastier than a normal zombie otherwise, and is even understatted compared to most with a mere Physical Strength of 8.


_{Skulls in skulls.}

Necro-Golem

This is like the above jigsaw zombie, but can just pack on zombie flesh to become a big flesh-putty monster, which mainly just lets it double its S.D.C. and recover by slapping corpses on itself. It's mostly just a really tough zombie with a gimmick, it's actually understatted compared to the main blocks from Dead Reign with a Physical Strength that doesn't give it a damage bonus, making it something of a paper tiger. Or a... ham tiger? Some kind of not actually scary tiger.


_{"Did I just shit a zombie? I need to see a doctor! This is alarming!"}

Organ Grinder - Greater Demon

This is "the most powerful of Brulyx's minions", being a 25'-55' worm, and is pretty damn tough, but also has a genius I.Q. and is "always thinking 4 moves ahead", but it probably doesn't need to given it has 10 attacks a round with 1d6x10 bites and can command sloucher zombies. It also can eat people and shit out zombies, which we're given rules for, but there are no rules for how they swallow people in the middle of a fight. They have a ridiculous Horror Factor of 18, more than many gods in other Palladium games, and get "all wilderness" skills. That means that they are masters of that old-time skill Whittling and Carving. Unfortunately, they have no arms to whittle with, no doubt leading to their demonic rage.


_{"The naked conquest of your world begins!"}

Brulyx - The Fallen One

Originally a demon in service to a "elder god" or a "great demon", Brulyx was originally a beautiful, angelic-looking being until he tried to take over Earth for INSERT_REASON_HERE. Only a bunch of gods and the Lost Civilization were able to team up and lock him in his home dimension at great cost. However, Brulyx contacted some greater eeevil power to help him free himself, and that eeevil power then made him into a god, albeit one that looked less like a beautiful flower and more like a melty corpse. "Wait, if I'm a god, why do I look like a melty corpse now? Don't get I get some say with my godlike-" "EVIL MEANS UGLY, READ THE SCRIPT." As we know, he empowered Gregius, and Gregius had apparently gotten the portal to let him out, but "someone or something" stopped him, and so Brulyx is seeking the last magical oomph to enter our world.




He gets an actual statblock of this time, with most stats well into the superhuman or maximum range of 20-30, except for Physical Beauty which is the pits and Speed which is average. He's a "12th level Dark God" who can see the invisible, turn invisible, teleport, walk around in the cold in his barest of skivvies, is immune to poison and disease, and has as much S.D.C. and Hit Points as a literal battleship, so you better bring your 16" inch guns if you want to throw down with him. Oh, and he can dimensionally teleport if he ever gets free, so like most Palladium evil gods, can just fuck off if he ever thinks he's losing a fight, and unlike Rifts characters, most Dead Reign characters are still going to think fireballs are pretty special when it turns out he pretty much laughs off your lightning bolt and fires back with any spell in Beyond the Supernatural, plus any Necromancy spell (not included in that book, look to other Palladium games for that) or most psychic powers with thousands of P.P.E. and I.S.P. to fuel it. Basically, if he comes over, mere Dead Reign or Beyond the Supernatural characters are proper fucked and should probably check and see if the cult of Brulyx still has openings in its pawn or minion departments.

The idea that he's the pawn of a greater evil is mildly interesting but isn't likely to come up in the game. Ultimately, he's a painfully generic evil god guy of which Palladium already has a litany of, and there's not much that makes him stand out.


_{Oh, hey, it's Bill O'Reil- er. Gregius.}

Gregius

Gregius Bonophat, known by his street name "Phat Greg" (my name, not the book's), gets a slightly more detailed background here. He was a priest of Hades with a happy family at a temple just outside of Athens when generic Northern barbarians attacked! They held out for over two weeks but the temple fell, and his acolytes dragged him out to save him. When he came back to the temple, his family was dead, he went crazy and killed his acolytes. Then the camera zoomed out and he cried out for a power to grant him vengeance. Brulyx, despite being in another dimension, hit Gregius up on interdimensional Skype and Phat Greg traded up free will for immortality and a bunch of dead barbarians. He's had some regrets and doubts since but figures at this point he no longer has a choice in what he does.

Greg gets his own statblock, with ridiculous high-end stats you'll never roll, complete with superhuman Mental Affinity and Physical Endurance, and S.D.C. equal to that of a truck. A 20th level "Priest of Brulyx" (no such class), he's no physical powerhouse, but he can turn invisible, regenerate, and gets all spells and over a thousand P.P.E. He also has all Necromancy that, once again, isn't detailed in Dead Reign or Beyond the Supernatural. I know it's in Rifts World Book: Africa, so if you take that and convert it back to S.D.C., I guess you'd be alright? I mean, if you have stacks of Palladium books on your shelves.

That's it for Dead Reign! No curtain call, we can move on to my last word.


_{Pretty sure they're all dead, buddy.}

Dead Reign vs. Dead Reign

Should you care what I think after all this, congrats, this is where you get to hear about it! After having read and reviewed both The Rifter articles and Dead Reign itself, here's the blunt point I'm going to make: I don't think Siembieda was wrong in rejecting the manuscript. The original pitch is, frankly, heavily derivative of the Palladium playbook in Beyond the Supernatural, Nightbane, or Rifts, with an relatively dull supernatural conspiracy that makes the Umbrella Corporation look nuanced by comparison, backed by a pair of cookie cutter baddies... and Siembieda is absolutely right that the whole plot distracts from the notion of zombie survival horror. Worse, it reads like a Rifts Lite with a lot of the same elements but without rifts, dragons, or mecha - basically, anything that makes Rifts fun.

That being said, Siembieda handled it unprofessionally, which seems to be a habit for him. There's no excuse for the manuscript to be that far along without him being unaware of the contents, especially when a chunk of it was printed publicly in The Rifter as promotional material. Scrapping an entire manuscript six weeks before a publication date is a disastrous move to make for the quality of a book, and the sloppy book that came out (even for Siembieda) is no doubt in part due to that. He's right when it came to the direction of the book, but ultimately the disaster is the result of his review process - or the lack thereof. Comments from other Palladium other authors, as well as comments by Siembieda itself, show this as a pattern that's been going on for quite some time. And the idea that he should act with surprise and shock at the Joshes' reaction is practically farcical. In addition, just because it's probably a better game doesn't make it a good game.

Ultimately, it lacks a lot of the "Palladium flair" save for some of its odder zombies we'll see later on. It's just not that different from any other conventional zombie RPG, and that's a real problem when the Palladium system is its main differentiating factor. Though there are some kernels of neat ideas, like mock zombies, hound masters, or the Brulyx cult of the main book, ultimately it lacks a most of the oddball ideas that can make a Palladium game stand out - and without that, well.

I guess it's got Brad Ashley.

THE END.

Or is it?...!

YES, IT IS.