Top Five Zombie Apocalypses for Gaming!

I was a fan of the Zombie Apocalypse genre long before it was the latest fad. In fact I was a an from as far back as George A. Romero’s ‘Day of the Dead’, which made its appearance way back in the 80’s. Here is my personal list of Zombie Apocalypses that would make excellent role-playing games.

Over the past decade, the whole Zombie craze has skyrocketed. There are great books, television and movies, and then there are some not so great and downright terrible choices. I won’t go into detail about the various offerings I think are terrible, as each and every one of us has different tastes and likes.

There are a lot of great games out there to use, and I would recommend D20 Modern, Year of the Zombie (IF you can find a copy, seems to have gone the way of the dinosaur), GURPS, Pathfinder, End of the World, All flesh must be eaten, and numerous others.

Here is a list of my favorite books, comics, movies and so on that I believe would make excellent worlds to use for a campaign based during a Zombie Apocalypse, and my reasoning behind my choices. Please note that my list is in no particular order!

1. Black Tide Rising by John Ringo – This zombie apocalypse does not have undead. The victims are turned into ravenous, naked zombies, but they are still human and as such are susceptible to the environment and are far more vulnerable than traditional zombies. It does not make them any less dangerous however.  The reason I choose this as my number one is Mr. Ringo has a great way of detailing the logistical problems one would face during the apocalypse and how to deal with lack of trained personnel and people doing things on the fly. And the books are a lot of fun.
2. World War Z by Max Brooks – ignore the movie. To me the only thing that the movie had in common with the novel was the title. Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed the movie as a zombie apocalypse all on its own. The novel deals with stories originating during the apocalypse, the origins and how the various survivors coped. It deals with every aspect of the war against the undead and even the aftermath. Excellent material for all phases of a Zombie Apocalypse.
3. The Walking Dead – both the television series and the comics. Especially the comics. This is more like the classic George A. Romero zombies, as there are nothing special about them, they are just slow, mindless eating machines. As a small group they can be dealt with, but if you get a bunch of them in one area, look out! It deals with every aspect of the apocalypse – other survivors, lack of resources, internal conflict and so forth. The later issues of the comic also depict how people are coping with lack of modern conveniences and re-discovering old skills that have all but disappeared.  
4. Rot and Ruin by Jonathan Maberry – This started out as a four book series written for teens, but has since grown to six novels with two ‘prequels’ to the series having been written. It takes place 15 years or so after the apocalypse and shows how people have learned to cope and what they have done to get by since the dead began to walk. It is written from the point of view (not the prequels) of a group of close friends, who are all under the age of 20. There are excellent villains as well, and how Mr. Maberry deals with the way the zombies are viewed shows an entirely different light on the subject. If you have kids that would like to play in such an environment, this series makes excellent source material. And there is even a five issue comic series available.
5. Dawn of the Dead – the remake. This movie really took the concept of the fast zombie and brought it to horrific (un)life. The apocalypse destroyed the world in a matter of a few days, instead of weeks or even months as many other sources would have. The reason is because of the fast zombies, which made them all that much more deadly. Even a couple of fast zombies could make short work of survivors, who would not even have much of a chance to run. World War Z the movie used them as well, but that’s another way to look at them. The only real saving grace is that the zombies were really affected by rot and decay, so the survivors would only have to try and outlast them. It would make for a very intense and probably short-lived campaign.

Chris Van Deelen is the author of the Skirmisher Publishing LLC sourcebook  Creatures of the Tropical Wastes  sourcebook, co-author of its  Wisdom from the Wastelands  game supplement and contributor to the  'Sword of Kos: Hekaton'  Anthology.