ZOMBIE SPECIAL QUALITIES

Some zombie varieties have special additional qualities related to how they were created and how likely they are to spread their condition to others. A zombie can have a special quality regardless of whether it is a baseline zombie or an exalted zombie (meaning a zombie reacher, zombie nightstormer, or crowned shambler).

Infectious Bite: A victim damaged by a zombie's infectious bite must succeed on a Might defense roll or contract a virulent disease (level 8) that rarely goes into remission on its own. Every twenty-four hours after the initial bite, the victim must succeed on another Might defense roll or move one step down the damage track. While the disease is active, normal recovery rolls aren't sufficient to move the victim back up the damage track. If the victim dies while infected or because of the infection, he rises as a zombie 1d6 days later. (Some infections work in hours or even minutes instead of days, though those kinds never appear in recursions that operate under the law of Standard Physics.)

Singularitar Shell: In the recursion of Singularitan, human bodies have become living shells for the distributed intelligence calling itself Singularitar. The original minds have been burned out, and a copy of Singularitar has been installed in the meat as wetware. The copies are imperfect but intelligent enough to spread themselves, usually by whispering a coded phrase into a victim's ear or by looking the victim in the eye. The "transfer and upload" takes about one minute to complete. If the process is undisturbed (and a victim fails an Intellect defense roll), this creates a new Singularitar zombie.

Quickened: A zombie that "rises" from a quickened human (or one born of a spiraler—a normal person addicted to spiral dust) resists attacks gained from focus abilities, revisions, twists, and moves as a level 5 creature. A quickened zombie's eyes (or empty sockets) glow with purplish fire. Quickened zombies can operate under the law of Standard Physics.


Zombie 3 (9)

Early Access

Zombies are humans transformed into aggressive, hard-to-kill murderous cannibals with no memory of their former existence. Depending on a zombie’s origin, the reason for its transformation varies. A zombie might arise from an undead curse, a psychic possession, an AI meatware overwrite, a viral or fungal infection, a drug overdose, or something else. Regardless of how the transformation happened, the result is much the same: a creature whose humanity has been burned out and replaced with unquenchable hunger.

Zombies aren’t intelligent, but enough of them together sometimes exhibit emergent behavior, just as ants can coordinate activities across a colony. Thus, zombies alone or in small groups aren’t an overwhelming threat for someone who has a baseball bat or can get away, but a horde can outflank their foes or coincidentally create a trap that prevents a few from escaping.

Some kinds of zombies can create zombie animals. Zombie animals are generally 1 level higher than the normal creature, and otherwise have the normal zombie abilities and weaknesses.

Motive: Hunger (for flesh, cerebrospinal fluid, certain human hormones, and so on)

Environment: Almost anywhere, in groups of five to seven, or in hordes of tens to hundreds

Health: 12

Damage Inflicted: Minor wound

Movement: Immediate

Modifications: Dodge as level 2

Combat: A zombie never turns away from a conflict. It fights on, no matter the odds, usually attacking by biting, but sometimes by tearing with hands made into claws by the erosion of skin over its finger bones.

A group of five to seven zombies can make a single attack roll against one target as a level 5 creature, inflicting a moderate wound.

A zombie is hard to actually kill. If an attack would reduce its health to 0, it instead is reduced to 1 health, unless the character used a level of Effort on the attack specifically to dispatch it. This level of Effort does not ease the attack roll or add extra damage; it only ensures that the zombie's health drops to 0 and it stays dead. The GM should tell the players that to kill the zombie, they’ll need to use a level of Effort. The player has to figure out if their character’s attack is likely to bring the zombie to 0 health and therefore it’s time to use the level of Effort.

A character can use a minor or major effect from their attack to make sure the zombie stays dead, even if they didn’t use Effort to confirm the kill.

Reviving zombie variant: Instead of the player having to use Effort when the zombie would be reduced to 0 health, the zombie dies normally but revives a round or two later with 1 health, and stays dead if killed again.

A zombie can see in the dark up to short range.

Some zombies have additional abilities or weaknesses, such as the following.

Interaction: Zombies groan when they see something that looks tasty. They do not reason, cannot speak, and never stop pursuing something they’ve identified as a potential meal, unless something else edible comes closer.

Use: The characters are asked to clear out a space that once served as an old military depot. The appearance of zombies sealed in the area comes as an unpleasant surprise.

GM Intrusion: The zombie’s limb comes off, animating as a separate level 2 zombie that attacks the character.