TheRPGSite

Destiny is my own little RPG that I've posted about previously. Assuming Real Life doesn't intervene, in about a month I'll be moving to a town where I can do some actual playtesting. To do so, I need a campaign setting that allows me to try the rules out in a number of scenarios. And that setting is...

Dead Man's Land

Zombies roam the Earth. Most of civilization is gone, washed away by the tide of the walking dead.

Those who die in infected areas, all rise as zombies. Those who are just bitten, and do not die, become Carriers.

Still human, still mostly normal, nevertheless the disease eats away at them. Every day they become a little more like the ravenous dead they fight.

As their humanity leeches away, they no longer need sleep. They become capable of regenerating horrific wounds. They gain a sixth sense about the location of full zombies. Eventually, they can see through the eyes of other undead.

Carriers are a constant danger to the uninfected. A kiss, a sneeze, a single drop of blood and they can infect others. They are barred from all sanctuaries.

A constant danger to those uninfected, yet they are a critical resource. For only Carriers can safely traverse the areas overrun by zombies.

Only they can scavenge supplies and equipment from ruined cities. Only they can ferry mail and freight across the wastes. Only they can locate and save the uninfected trapped in the zombie-ruled territories known as...

Dead Man's Land.

The Nano-Apocalypse

It was a colony ship of an alien race. A ship that held almost a million colonists, in a vessel the size of the Chrysler building.

The colonists were preserved, not in suspended animation but as mind-tapes in the memory banks of the ship's computers. The colony vessel was essentially a huge bank of computers, a power core, and jump engines.

When it reached a suitable uninhabited planet, nano-tech pods would be released, transforming the alien planet into something they could inhabit, reconstructing their bodies and allowing their minds to be downloaded. They could recreate their home, far out in space.

Something went terribly wrong.

The ship emerged unexpectedly in the Sol system, almost directly above the North Pole, accompanied by a massive burst of hard radiation from the ship's ruptured reactors. The explosion could be seen over half the planet. An EMP blast of immense size burned out all electronics and electrical circuits in the Northern Hemisphere (basically everything north of the Equator).

The ship de-orbited above Canada, eventually crashing in southern Mexico, much of it breaking up during the descent. The nanotech pods were ruptured, and namomachines were released in the high atmosphere.

The first areas affected were Canada, the United States, and Mexico, though clouds of them eventually drifted to Europe and Asia. In all these places, the nanites attempted to carry out their programming.

First, duplicate themselves. Second, recreate the climate of their alien world and seed alien life forms. Third, create bodies for the colonists to inhabit.

The nanites, deprived of a central command and control, did their best. But what they succeeded in producing wasn't the hoped-for alien ecosystem, but millions of reanimated corpses, controlled by nanites and driven to spread their nanophage to every living being. And so the zombies were born.

The Campaign

The zombie plague is in fact a nanotechnological accident. "Zombies" are dead bodies, reanimated by the nanites. And Carriers (PC's) are those who are slowly succumbing to the nanotech scourge.

In Dead Man's Land, all PC's are Carriers: those infected by the plague, who have not yet turned into full zombies. The process of zombification can take weeks, months, perhaps even years. (Since the Pulse and the Comet happened 6 months ago, no one knows.)

Part of the game is the gradual descent into zombie-dom, losing their humanity while gaining zombie abilities. Eventually, all PC's will turn.

Another part is fairly traditional adventuring.

High altitude settlements and northerly climes are free from the zombie plague. These are known as Sanctuaries.

Carriers are not allowed in Sanctuaries, but have their own colonies. They are hired by the uninfected for any number of missions out in Dead Man's Land (those areas overrun by zombies).

At the beginning, the PC's will be adventurers for hire. Slowly, as the campaign progresses, they may discover the truth of the plague, and may even find a way to stop it.

This campaign setting will allow me to playtest combat mechanics, skill use, advancement, and all the other goodies a game system needs. Hopefully, time and Real Life permitting, I can report back on my progress here.

Comments welcome!

EDIT:

I've got some more details about the planned setting. I'm leaving those for another post.

Very interesting; I would sign up for the game in a heartbeat. :)

Is the Destiny RPG you're going to use specific to the zombie genre?  Or is it a more universal game and you are applying a zombie lens to it?

Quote from: Drohem;530107Very interesting; I would sign up for the game in a heartbeat. :)

Cool. :cool:

Even though I'm writing it up just to give the playtest sessions some continuity (character advancement is one of the areas I want to test), I want to make it as interesting as possible in and of itself.

Quote from: Drohem;530107Is the Destiny RPG you're going to use specific to the zombie genre?  Or is it a more universal game and you are applying a zombie lens to it?

I've posted a little about Destiny before. It's not a Universal system, but it is genre-neutral.

Destiny began as an updated system for use in Torg (or my version of Torg, called "Storm Knights"). "Storm Knights" is trans-genre setting: there is a cyber-religious reality, a techno-horror reality, a High Magic reality, a Pulp Supers reality, a primitive Lost Worlds reality, and more.

So, you can have a party consisting of a magician's apprentice, a cybered GodNet hacker, and a pulp avenger (ala The Shadow) hunting a pride of technodemons through the ruins of San Francisco.

As a result, the genre doesn't matter to the system, it can be fantasy, cyberpunk, Torg's baroque Reality War, or any other setting. But it isn't a generic or universal system.

Destiny is built with cinematic action and heroic protagonists in mind. It is built around the notion the each setting has "baked-in" secrets that PC's can discover, then use to change their world. Destiny PC's start off as unknown neophytes who can grow into figures of legends.

Each Destiny setting has those as common assumptions, regardless of genre. The game assumes that characters are meant to, and can, have a great impact on their specific setting.

In this case, it is entirely possible for characters to discover and cure the nanophage. Or fail.

So, a zombie campaign is one way the system can be applied. Still cinematic, still built on the notion that you start out rank newbs who grow in fame, resources, abilities, and skills until they are capable of nearly anything.

So not a universal or generic system, but a genre-neutral system. I hope the distinction makes sense.

I've posted about it before. If you're interested, here are the threads:

• So, Can I Say Hi? (Screw it.) Hi, Everybody! (http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=21567)
  
• [Destiny] Playing Heroes/System Overview (http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=21585)
  
• [Storm Knights] "Discover the Truth. Rally the Planet. Win the War." (http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=21591)
  
• [Destiny] Initiative and Combat: Rewarding Aggression (http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=21597)
  
• Playing Without Initiative (http://www.therpgsite.com/showpost.php?p=501850&postcount=26) (Not my thread, but includes a discussion of Destiny's Initiative system.)
  
• [Destiny] and [Storm Knights] Who? What? Why? (http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=21570)
  
• [Destiny] Dice Mechanics and Other Forms of Torture (http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=21607)
  
• [Destiny] Magic Systems & The Only Magic Meta-System (http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=21614)
  
• [Destiny] Attributes, Skills, and Shooting People in the Face (http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?t=21626)
  

Have you ever seen the zombie flick Meat Market? It is very, very low budget and quirky but has a similar premise with the whole nano-tech zombies

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;530183Have you ever seen the zombie flick Meat Market? It is very, very low budget and quirky but has a similar premise with the whole nano-tech zombies

No, I haven't. I've seen a lot of Zombie flicks, and read several Zombie novels, but that one has slipped by me.

There are so many zombie stories, novels, and films, it's hard to come up with something completely unique. So, I'm going with distinctive instead.

In this case, the distinction is that the nanophage is slow-acting, so PC's are infected but can expect to live months or perhaps years before turning. As they slowly turn, they gain zombie-like abilities.

And the nanotech behind the plague means that I can include several apparently-supernatural elements that turn out to be wholly scientific.

Zombie telepathy? Radio contact between zombies.

Zombies become smarter in herds? Local Area Network, allowing parallell processing clusters to form, increasing the computing power available to local nanites.

Huge groups of zombies building machinery? Yeah, they're very smart in crowds.

Zombies tracking you across huge distances? GPS.

Killing a zombie, only to discover it's mutating and has non-human organs? Nanites altering the host.

Fight and kill an obviously non-human creature (an alien), only to find out it has human DNA? Heavily altered human host.

Climactic changes? Nanite interference in weather patterns.

I want to stick all of these oddities (and more, including animal zombies and infected plant life) into the game, as clues to the mystery. Eventually, players can piece these together and begin to do something about the "invasion."

And with all the above aberrations in the genre, I think Dead Man's Land will achieve distinctiveness, even if it isn't absolutely unique in every way. I can live with that.

Quote from: Daddy Warpig;530196No, I have not. I've seen a lot of Zombie flicks, and read several Zombie novels, but that one has slipped me by.

There are so many zombie stories, novels, and films, it's hard to come up with something completely unique. So, I'm going with distinctive instead.

In this case, the distinction is that the nanophage is slow-acting, so PC's are infected but can expect to live months or perhaps years before turning. As they slowly turn, they gain zombie-like abilities.

And the nanotech behind the plague means that I can include several apparently-supernatural elements that turn out to be wholly scientific.

Zombie telepathy? Radio contact between zombies.

Zombies become smarter in herds? Local Area Network, allowing parallell processing clusters to form, increasing the computing power available to local nanites.

Huge groups of zombies building machinery? Yeah, they're very smart in crowds.

Zombies tracking you across huge wide distances? GPS.

Killing a zombie, only to discover it's mutating and has non-human organs? Nanites altering the host.

Fight and kill an obviously non-human creature (an alien), only to find out it has human DNA? Heavily altered human host.

Climactic changes? Nanite interference in weather patterns.

I want to stick all of these oddities (and more, including animal zombies and infected plant life) into the game, as clues to the mystery. Eventually, players can piece these together and begin to do something about the "invasion."

It was an easy one to miss, and believe me you have taken the concept to a much more workable level than in the film. Just to give you an idea of what I mean: yes there were nano-tech zombies in Meat Market, but there were also lesbian vampires and a luchador.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;530203It was an easy one to miss, and believe me you have taken the concept to a much more workable level than in the film. Just to give you an idea of what I mean: yes there were nano-tech zombies in Meat Market, but there were also lesbian vampires and a luchador.

Sounds I need to watch that one.

Quote from: Rincewind1;530205Sounds I need to watch that one.

You should. It is up there with Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things and Return of the Living Dead 3.

Sorry for the Tangent, Daddy Warpig, but I must say it:

Whoah, they made sequels of the Return of the Living Dead? Maaaan. I remember watching it in a small cinema in Lodz, on a Halloween Festival Night. The cinema moved to another location, but I still have very fond memories of that night. Both the company and the movies :D.

Quote from: Rincewind1;530214Sorry for the Tangent, Daddy Warpig,

No worries. My earliest zombie movie was seeing Day of the Dead on TV, in Ft. Knox, KY. I was fairly young, and have been a fan of zombies ever since.

Quote from: Daddy Warpig;530240No worries. My earliest zombie movie was seeing Day of the Dead on TV, in Ft. Knox, KY. I was fairly young, and have been a fan of zombies ever since.

I think my first zombie movie was the first return of the living dead (unless you consider Night of the Comet a zombie movie, which i believe I may have seen before that).

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;530247I think my first zombie movie was the first return of the living dead (unless you consider Night of the Comet a zombie movie, which i believe I may have seen before that).

Night of the Comet wasn't a zombie movie at the time, but has become one retroactively. The 1980's were dominated by Romero zombies and spin-offs thereof, but during the current Golden Age of zombie media, the definition of "zombie" has been expanded to the point where it would include Comet mutants.

This infuriates zombie purists, but I'm more laid back about the whole thing. Whatever works for you is cool with me.

Quote from: Daddy Warpig;530249Night of the Comet wasn't a zombie movie at the time, but has become one retroactively. The 1980's were dominated by Romero zombies and spin-offs thereof, but during the current Golden Age of zombie media, the definition of "zombie" has been expanded to the point where it would include Comet mutants.

This infuriates zombie purists, but I'm more laid back about the whole thing. Whatever works for you is cool with me.

I usually think of it as a zombie film with an asterisk. But I am no purist (do love zombies though).

While I am no fan of zombie films when played straight, I had utilised the "zombie - style" to great success in my Cthulhu games.

I do love zombie comedies though. The gorier, the better ^.^

Quote from: Rincewind1;530261While I am no fan of zombie films when played straight, I had utilised the "zombie - style" to great success in my Cthulhu games.

I do love zombie comedies though. The gorier, the better ^.^

Did you like Dead Aive? That is gory and funny.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;530264Did you like Dead Aive? That is gory and funny.

Of course! Although I had to google, as in Poland the alternative title was translated (Braindead). Evil Dead is a must as well, all parts.

From the "So Bad It's Almost Good" - Redneck Zombies & Black Sheep.

Quote from: Rincewind1;530265Of course! Although I had to google, as in Poland the alternative title was translated (Braindead). Evil Dead is a must as well, all parts.

Evil Dead is golden.

QuoteFrom the "So Bad It's Almost Good" - Redneck Zombies & Black Sheep.

Red Neck zombies was a popular bad horror movie in my gaming group back in the day.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;530267Evil Dead is golden.



Red Neck zombies was a popular bad horror movie in my gaming group back in the day.

Nice. Re - Animators? I admit I watched only the 2nd one, not the first one or 3rd one.

Quote from: Rincewind1;530269Nice. Re - Animators? I admit I watched only the 2nd one, not the first one or 3rd one.

I saw the first re-animator.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;530277I saw the first re-animator.

And how did you like it?

Btw Daddy - you are going to run more of a horror campaign, or more of an action campaign?

I don't like to tut my own horn too much, but I do creepy/horror quite well. And I have a certain zombiesque scenario for CoC that I ran a few times, and drawn certain conclusions from it, if you'd want a bit of exchange of ideas.

Quote from: Rincewind1;530283Btw Daddy - you are going to run more of a horror campaign, or more of an action campaign?

The first answer that sprang to mind was: "Mad Max with Zombies..."

Now, I've never formulated Dead Man's Land that way, but it kind of fits. Post-apocalyptic, survivalist cinematic zombie horror.

Of course, it kind of misses the point as well.

It's not a "die at the drop of a hat" game (as Destiny isn't that), and there will be horror/creepy elements. But primarily it's an action game, with horror elements.

I like high-action games. I like "action movie" games. All such games need moments of investigation, character interaction, down time, investigation, tracking, whatever.

But combat? Combat is "Die Hard". Or "The Rock". Or "The Expendables". Or whatever action movie you've seen recently. But horror is present as well.

The creeping dehumanization and physical transformation plays into body horror, the terraforming of Earth (and Earth lifeforms) plays into alien invasion horror, the fact that you're coming under the rule of nanites in your brain (even if you think it's demonic/spirit possession) plays into Exorcist style horror.

(Those herds of smart zombies? Get too close, and they can try and assert control over your mind. Yeesh!)

Give me a sec to think about it, and I'll probably come up with a better answer.

Quote from: Rincewind1;530283And how did you like it?

 .

 I was ten or eleven when I saw it so it made quite an impression (but it has been some time since I have seen it). I remember oiking it very much and the two scenes that really stand out in my memory are the intestine shot and the severed head getting it on.

Quote from: BedrockBrendan;530291I was ten or eleven when I saw it so it made quite an impression (but it has been some time since I have seen it). I remember oiking it very much and the two scenes that really stand out in my memory are the intestine shot and the severed head getting it on.

All three Re-Animator movies are hilarious, if you're in the right mood.

Two films I enjoyed for their original take on the zombie theme were Fido and Zombie Honeymoon.

Hm, maybe we should take this to a separate zombie cinema thread...

Bloody Skies

The zombie apocalypse began with the Pulse and the Comet. The Pulse was a bright flash of light, high in the atmosphere, due north. It lit up the sky like a second sun.

In its wake, all electronic and electrical equipment failed. And, though people have had success in rewiring some electrical equipment, electronic devices have proven unsalvageable.

The comet appeared shortly after, in the skies above Canada. It was after the comet's flight that the first bloody skies appeared and after that, the first zombies.

Red Winds. Red Rains. Red Sand.

These are the bloody skies: clouds of dust blowing across the land, turning the moon and sky red. Rainfall, as red as blood but cold as steel. And drifts of red sand, accumulating around buildings, trees, and hills.

As the bloody skies opened and red rain fell, rivers, lakes, and streams became choked with the poisonous substance, the running waters turning red. Soon it was discovered: the red sand will infect you.

Drink the waters, breath the dust, stay out in the rains, and you will become a zombie. Fast, if you die, or slow from a creeping sickness clogging your veins.

During the first few weeks following the Pulse and the Comet, these red winds were rare. As time went on, they became more and more common. The further south you go, the lower the altitude, the more prevalent the red dust.

(Though in all cases, these are rare events. Most of the time the nanites are invisible to the naked eye, and hence more insidious and dangerous.)

Many groups took this to be the end of the world. Christian groups misquoted scripture to portray this as the Biblical apocalypse. Hard-core environmentalists declared this was Mother Earth's vengeance against humans. Many thought this was a biological or chemical weapon, unleashed against the arrogant imperialist Americans (or the West in general). Some claimed it was a corporate or military experiment, gone bad.

It didn't matter. Within days or weeks, the zombies were everywhere. Politics no longer mattered. The government collapsed. Everywhere, mankind was in retreat.

The only safe places, the only Sanctuaries, were cities and settlements above the alpine tree line. Far north, and high in the mountains, it is too cold for trees to survive. For whatever reason, zombies cannot cross that line without decaying or dying and those who die there, even if infected, do not rise as zombies. Zombies taken there rot and die very quickly.

Thus, the areas polluted by the red dust are called Dead Man's Land, the domain of the infection and the zombies it causes. Only Carriers venture there, and the tales they bring back to the Sanctuaries are horrific.

The Truth

In normal circumstances, nanomachines are too small to register visually. In large concentrations, they appear as a red dust. The bloody skies of the post-apocalypse all arise from great concentrations of the nanophage.

Nanites seek to reproduce themselves, hence the growing prevalence of the red dust. However, they are designed to operate in a far warmer, wetter, and higher gravity environment than available on Earth. In areas of very cold temperatures or low pressure, they can fail and become inert. A lot of the red winds, and dust accumulations, are in fact completely harmless, inert nanites.

(That is, they do not create zombies. Breathing in the dust is still hazardous, like smoking or asbestos.)

The gathering clouds of active nanites, though not as immediate a threat as the zombies, is the true long-term threat to life on Earth. As more and more active nanites accumulate in areas, a functioning computer network is being restored. If, and when, they can make contact with the buried spacecraft and the central computer banks, a command and control network will be established and the disorganized and spastic efforts to exoform Earth will be replaced by an organized, deliberate project to transform Earth into an alien planet.

The bloody skies are ominous, and brought about the zombie plague. But they are nothing compared to the implacable machine intelligence waiting to be discovered somewhere in the Mexican jungle.

Quote from: HombreLoboDomesticado;530425Hm, maybe we should take this to a separate zombie cinema thread...

If you chose to do so, that would be okay. I like discussing the movies, but a more focused thread might help me garner more feedback.

Quote from: Daddy Warpig;530454The gathering clouds of active nanites, though not as immediate a threat as the zombies, is the true long-term threat to life on Earth. As more and more active nanites accumulate in areas, a functioning computer network is being restored. If, and when, they can make contact with the buried spacecraft and the central computer banks, a command and control network will be established and the disorganized and spastic efforts to exoform Earth will be replaced by an organized, deliberate project to transform Earth into an alien planet.
 
The bloody skies are ominous, and brought about the zombie plague. But they are nothing compared to the implacable machine intelligence waiting to be discovered somewhere in the Mexican jungle.

That bit was particularly chilling. Good stuff.
 
Some interesting ideas here - particularly the nanites. In actual play, that the PCs are carriers slowly becoming zombies themselves is different.

Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;530754That bit was particularly chilling. Good stuff.

Thank you, I appreciate that.

Quote from: Bloody Stupid Johnson;530754Some interesting ideas here - particularly the nanites. In actual play, that the PCs are carriers slowly becoming zombies themselves is different.

That's what I'm going for: "distinctive" rather than "wholly unique." Your reaction is exactly what I'm shooting for. "Different enough to be interesting."

I admit it, I like the idea of playing slow-turning zombies, people who know they're doomed, but have to live a life until then. I'm trying to represent this mechanically.

Mechanics of Playing a Carrier

For Destiny, my own little RPG, I'm using a limited version of FATE Aspects. These character Traits help define the personality of the characters.

The first is their Template (in the Torg/Shatterzone sense). "Rogue Cop", "Obsessed Survivalist", whatever. The character's core concept.

The second is Drive: "what is it that drives you to wander Dead Man's Land, when you could be living in a walled city?"

This could be "find my wife and kids", a dark secret they're running from, "to gain fame and fortune", "to die in a good cause." It can be anything, and knowing what the character's Drive is, helps me build modules where they have opportunities to pursue their Drive.

Bam! Instant buy-in. Players can invest in the setting and their characters.

That's the core concept of the game: You're dying of the zombie plague. What do you do?

People have varying reactions, from religious and ideological fanaticism or hysteria, to brutal self-interest, to fatalistic risk-taking, to truly generous self-sacrifice.

But the PC's are heroes (as Destiny assumes) and their motivations drive their actions. And when their own personal quests cross the goals of the machines, that's when things really start happening.

One of the drawbacks of typical zombie media is that there is are a dearth of opponents. Endlessly fighting the same enemies can get tedious.

With the background I've chosen, I can build any number of possible opponents. Here are a few.

The Origin of Nano-Species

Zombies are caused by attempts to xenoform Earth organisms. Following their programming, the nanites try and rewire physiology and DNA according to their alien templates. This causes irreparable harm to the host organism, eventually leading to death.

Part of the original nanite programming involved the creation of drones, organisms under control of the nanites. When attempts to xenoform a creature fail, the nanites fall back on creating drones. With drones, the nanites can keep the corpse mobile and functional, but higher brain functions cease to work. Basic zombies are nanite drones.

Note: Any complex, large organism can be zombified or xenoformed. There can be zombie dogs, zombie wolves, zombie bears, whatever. So far, only Chordata have been infected (mammals, birds, fish). Other forms of life seem to be immune.

Types of Opponents

Carriers: Infected humans who have not yet become full zombies. All PC's are Carriers.

Zombie: Dead or dying people, reanimated (or kept alive) with the nanophage. Have poor motor skills, no memories, cannot engage in social interaction. Get smarter in groups, as the processing power of local nanites increases. Run on basic instincts and drives. Somewhat clumsy, slower than an average human. Deadly in a crowd.

Rotters: Zombies that crossed the Dead Line (the demarcation between those places free of zombies, and Dead Man's Land). The nanites begin to fail, and the body begins rotting. Become slower and stupider, until they eventually die.

Xenoformed Zombie: Zombies with alien organs, caused by nanites who were somewhat successful. Sport alien organs that are almost always half-formed or malformed, and thus nonfunctional. The organs vary, but common ones are nictating membranes and gills (the original alien species is “amphibian”, dwelling both in water and on land).

Coordinator: One of the subsidiary shipboard AI’s. Each additional nanite in a single host provides addition computational power (forming a computing cluster). With enough nanites, an organism can support the presence of a Coordinator. If such a zombie gets within range of the downed ship’s transmitter, a Coordinator AI will be uploaded to the host's cluster.

Coordinators are “smart” zombies: still rotting, but capable of operating at a much higher level, equivalent to human intelligence. Coordinators, when they appear, will be capable of taking control and directing zombies within their communications range.

By its nature, any Coordinators who appear will be a Carrier who has finally turned (as they have many more nanites than other zombies). The primary mission of Coordinators will be to build transmitters, widening the area they can affect.

Coordinators can attempt to take control of Carriers (infected, but not yet zombified humans) as well as zombies. This leads to a struggle of wills, which the Carrier can win. Such events will give rise to stories of "demonic possession" and the like, including nightmarish visions of alien vistas (the home world of the xenos).

Stage-2 Zombies: Fast zombies. These will appear when nanites have adapted to human physiology enough to take over the body, while leaving it intact.

Stage-3 Zombies: Fast, smart zombies. May be independent or under the control of a Coordinator. These are capable of repairing the downed ship, and bringing the ship's Core back online. Very deadly enemies.

The Core: The primary AI, onboard the alien ship. (Also, the supercomputer that houses it.) Can reprogram nanites and activate the nano-assemblers (pouring out nanites by the millions.) Activation of the Core is the beginning of the end for humanity.

Xenos: Fully xenoformed humans. If such a being comes within range of the main ship, or a transmitter, an alien personality matrix will download. They will become fully alien, and the war will begin in earnest.

Xenologicals: Any other alien species recreated by the nanites. The ship's databanks has personality matrices and DNA templates for the entire alien ecosystem. Can be plant-life, predators, pets, herd animals, or anything else.

On Nano-Clusters

Each nanite has a tiny processor, with limited ability to perform calculations. But they are designed to operate in parallel, forming a computing cluster, so the more nanites there are, the more powerful the cluster becomes. The primary limit on nanite effectiveness is the number of processors in a cluster. (Though, since the range of nanite transmitters is very short, multiple hosts aren't as effective as a high concentration of nanites in a single host.)

Nanites can’t effectively replicate in hosts. Attempts to do so cause damage—as they scavenge tissue and organs—without meaningfully increasing the number of nanites. Therefore, the nanites have to depend on multiple hosts or finding a concentration of “free” nanites (the bloody skies) to boost their numbers.

Outside living organisms, nanites can reproduce more effectively by repurposing local resources. This is still a slow process, and the nanites are more vulnerable to electricity, pressure variances, and other factors that render them inert. Even so, the number of nanites (in hosts, or "free") is growing, though very slowly.

One of a drone's chief directives is to locate and consume "free" nanites. Zombies follow the bloody skies weather, and drink the red waters of infected lakes and streams. This increases the concentration of nanites in the host body.

Taken together, these phenomenon give rise the the several types of zombies that have appeared, and a few that will, but have not yet appeared. (As described above.)

Infection is all in the eyes. In large concentrations, the nanites appear red, and it takes a large concentration of nanites for their programming to activate.

In the first few hours, the eyes go bloodshot and the iris begins to turn red. You can tell at a glance who is newly infected.

As the disease progresses, the iris turns wholly red, and the sclera (the "white" of the eye) becomes more and more bloodshot. At the apex, just before full zombification, the eye is a blood red orb, with the black circle of the cornea in the center.

Such individuals could, at any moment, go feral, become violent, and begin to spread the disease. In the more forgiving settlements, they may be evicted, cast out into Dead Man's Land. The more pragmatic jurisdictions preemptively execute those on the verge of turning.

Red eyes mark the nanophage in full bloom. All zombies, be they human, animal, bird, or fish, have eyes gone red. It is the sign to shoot to kill, and only the foolish or suicidal ignore it.

Black Rocks and the Red Sun

The nano-apocalypse began with the Pulse, an EMP that exploded over the North Pole and destroyed electronics all over the Northern Hemisphere. The Pulse burned almost as bright as the sun, and for three days it turned darkness to day. The nightmares started on the third day.

The dreams were all the same, and millions of people shared them: A red sun, and a parched landscape through which oleaginous black waters running in rivulets along the ground. The black waters fall from the sky and at night choking mists cover the land.

And more: Black, thorny plants that bleed when cut, and a thick, almost flesh-like skin. Ugly, six-limbed beasts with short snouts, long irregular teeth and heavy hides fighting each other, the victor consuming the defeated. Squat, six-limbed humanoids with red skin, fighting the beasts and each other with spears and whips.

Then the dreamer, in the bleak landscape, chained to a piece of black rock along with numerous others. His family. His friends. His neighbors. They drag the rock along the ground on rollers, then up a ramp, all the while the six-limbed humanoids whip them to work faster. They are building thick walls and low buildings from the black stones. A city of obsidian rock painstakingly built by slave labor, black under red skies.

Those who first started seeing the nightmare turned into zombies soon thereafter. To this day, these nightmares (or ones much like them) plague Carriers, especially those on the verge of turning.

These visions, along with the three days of sun and the bloody rains, were taken for signs of the apocalypse. That so many reported being possessed, and that the dead stood up and began to attack the living, seemed absolute proof: hell was unleashed, people were seeing visions of it, and the devil walked the Earth.

The world is overrun by zombies (or, at least, North America is). They infest the cities and the lowlands, and the only areas free of the zombie presence are high altitudes and northern climates. In between those two zones is a vast area, where few pure humans live and zombies are only an occasional menace.

In WWI, there was an area between the trenches. Occupied by neither army, it comprised barbed wire, mud, and minefields. It was called No Man’s Land.

In the post-apocalypse, the area between the human and zombie zones, but occupied by neither is Dead Man’s Land. This is the domain of the Carrier: those infected by the zombie plague, but not yet turned.

Here Carriers can survive, building settlements and trade routes, hoping to prolong the time before their eyes go red and they succumb to zombification. They launch occasional forays into the Sanctuaries (where pure humans still live) and even rarer expeditions into the cities overrun by zombies. Dead Man’s Land is the buffer between what’s left of humanity and the zombie hordes.

The First Days of the Apocalypse

The nanites rained down on North America. In areas high in the mountains, or in the frigid north, they failed, rapidly going enert. In the lower altitudes, or southern regions, they floated in the skies, until washed out by rains, rains tinctured red by the nanites.

This happened in different places at different times, and was nowhere universal. In some areas large cities got hit, but the surrounding countryside was spared. In others, the red waters washed down over sparsely populated back country, and nearby metropolises saw not a drop of contaminated fluid.

The nanites entered hosts through their skin, or contaminated drinking water and foodstuffs. Once introduced into a host, they began multiplying, repurposing muscle, bone, and other tissue to make more nanites, eating small holes in critical organs.

(In a few cases, the infected went active, see next post. In most, they simply sickened and died as their organs failed one by one. Many of these were later reanimated by the nanites.)

Each nanite held a fragment of the original colonization programming, so it took a group of them (communicating through something like Near Field Communications) to form a node capable of reconstructing the entire xeno-forming protocol. (Normally, this protocol would be broadcast by the Core from the colony ship, or by a communications beacon.) In most places, this simply didn’t happen.

In most hosts, no viable protocol was assembled. The nanites remained without programming and, other than attempting to increase their number, they did nothing.

Had this been universal, there would have been no zombie plague. People would have sickened and died, but there would have been no outbreaks and no reanimations. Unfortunately, chance (and redundant computing) prevented this from occurring.

Some host-nodes reconstructed a viable protocol and broadcast it to others. It was this imperfect bit of programming, operating on the biology of unknown life-forms, that was responsible for the visions of hell, the ensuing violence, and eventually the destruction of civilization: The Conditioning Protocol.

The Conditioning Protocol

In the days after the red rains began, a new sickness spread among the populace. Externally marked by red irises and gradually reddening scleras, internally the victim's bodily organs were eaten away by nanites (scavenging for tissues to recreate themselves). The holes in their organs gave the disease its name: Rapid Systemic Spongiform Necrosis, or RSSN.

The victims sickened as organ after organ failed. When their eyes turned wholly red, the victim died. In most cases, this took only days. RSSN afflicted hundreds of thousands, thousands of whom were quarantined. When they died, they were buried in mass graves.

Nanite computer clusters were self-programming. They were designed to scan their environment, analyze it, and adapt to it.

They created (or modified) operations protocols on-the-fly, devising means to xenoform colony worlds and, if necessary, xenoform native life-forms. These new protocols could then be transmitted from node to node. Nanite clusters were designed to accept and implement any programmatically correct protocol (the assumption being that protocols would be originated or validated by coordinator AI’s or the ship’s Core).

The Conditioning Protocol was designed to interface with the minds of alien beings (that is, any species not of the colonist ship’s home planet). It was meant to influence their patterns of thought, to pacify them, make them docile, eliminate them as a potential threat to the colonists.

The visions of hell were a side effect of the Conditioning Protocol going active. The nanites were rewiring the human brain to accept the orders of alien colonists. What people saw as hell were sensory recordings of the alien homeworld, its native life-forms, and the aliens themselves.

The Conditioning Protocol was assembled, validated, and implemented. Then, the original cluster broadcast it to any hosts within range. Which, given the large-scale quarantines of RSSN victims, was a great many. Each of those nodes accepted the valid Protocol and implemented it, re-broadcasting it to any unaffected node they encountered.

The protocol spread like a computer virus, each node validating it, implementing it, and rebroadcasting it. Unfortunately, it was a complete failure.

The Conditioning Protocol achieved the opposite of the intended results. Instead of instituting a state of docility and suggestibility, it caused psychosis and bouts of extreme violence.

The population of RSSN sufferers became violent psychopaths, attacking and in many cases killing those not infected. (Node recognition software prevented them from attacking other hosts.) Not only were they highly violent, they were highly contagious.

A bite or scratch, or contact with any bodily fluid of a carrier, could pass nanites from an infected host to another living being, and once introduced into the body, they’d begin to replicate and another found themselves struck by RSSN.

Carried by violent, delusional psychopaths, the nano-phage proliferated wildly. Zombies spread across America and soon, the world.

Reanimating the Dead

The rising of the first zombies occurred en masse, in mass graves where the victims of RSSN were buried. Once again, an alien operations protocol—The Drone Protocol—was to blame.

Nanites duplicated themselves using human tissues. This ate holes in vital organs, eventually killing the host.

To keep their host body operating after organ failure and brain death, the nanite colonies worked to animate their hosts. Eventually, after many attempts, they succeeded. One single nanite colony was able to resuscitate its host body, reanimating it as a drone.

Drones were completely under control of the nanite cluster, lacking all self-awareness or self-will. Drones became the slaves that Conditioning had failed to provide.

The Protocol maintained, or restored, a minimal level of bodily functions: sensory organs, musculature and tendons, and the skeletal system (either repairing damage to the native structures, augmenting the native structures with artificial tissues, or replacing their function entirely). The body of the zombie—as people called the drones—could walk, sense things (that is, the nanites could use the host's organs to do so), and engage in self-defense and basic attacks, but otherwise operated at an extremely low cognitive level compared to the not-yet-dead.

(In fact, this interface with the host’s sensory system is what gave RSSN sufferers their characteristic red eyes: nanites infected the eyes, so they could gather visual data. Their presence in the cochlea, the nasal cavity, and the spinal column was just as important, but not as immediately visible.)

The first nano-zombie broadcast the protocol to all within range. Had it been buried alone in a field, far from any other host, this would have been pointless. It wasn’t. It was part of a mass grave outside Newark, New Jersey. This grave held over a thousand corpses, and several such graves lay close by.

Each corpse had a functioning nanite colony, each corpse was a node, and each corpse reanimated under the control of the nanites. The Drone Protocol was broadcast to each host, and in 24-48 hours after the protocol was first broadcast (the time necessary to restore functionality), the drones went active and tore themselves from the earth. The Newark mass graves were the first instances of mass reanimation, but the phenomenon soon spread.

Once the protocol was loose, it was broadcast from host to host, even to healthy ones. Any host that received the protocol was primed for reanimation upon death, no matter the cause. So, as the living fought the rampaging RSSN victims, each living and infected human they killed reanimated as a drone.

The Drone Protocol could reanimate the dead. More, the protocol could be used to supplement the functioning of live hosts who the phage was killing. As various organs failed, the protocol could replace their functions, keeping the host alive even as the phage ate holes in their major organs.

Gradual Systemic Spongiform Necrosis had arrived, and with it the Carriers.

The Hunger

Zombies hunger for flesh. Not because the host body can digest and extract nutrients from it, but because the nanites can use it to replicate themselves, to keep their host mobile, or to augment its functions with artificial ones.

Drones are driven to find and consume organic tissue from everything but other zombies. Recognition protocols keep them from attacking each other. Instead, they attack the living or Carriers.

There was a new star. Then red rains fell (and continue to fall). Then an epidemic spread, the stricken having blood red eyes. Some of the stricken went insane, and began attacking others and murdering them, then eating their corpses. Thousands of both sickened and died, and were buried in mass graves. The dead rose from their graves.

This is the end of the world. A curse has been laid upon mankind.

Certain individuals stricken with the curse gain great abilities. Strength beyond most mortals. The ability to sense when the dead are near. And the ability to command the dead to halt their attacks and flee. These are those blessed by God, with abilities to defend the living from the unliving.

The Truth

The dynamic campaign world of Dead Man's Land is built on a technological event that seems like a religious occurrence. The nanophage is called a curse, and is widely believed to be an act of God.

Many refer to the Infected (those who are not psychotic) as "the Blessed", for their great abilities, all of which have a mundane explanation.

Great strength is the result of the nanites augmenting tissue (which they themselves ate away). Some nanites colonies can interface with the human brain; when they detect the wireless signals of other nodes, they communicate such to their host, alerting them to the presence of zombies and even the Infected. The rarest, however, are those who can command the undead.

In their original form, the nanites were designed to be controlled by Coordinator AI's, themselves controlled by the Core (the machine intelligence in the colony ship). Command and control protocols are built into the nodes.

As noted in previous posts, the nanites are designed to reprogram themselves. In some hosts, nanite ability to communicate with the host's brain can be subverted, with the host unknowingly able to send signals through their node's wireless broadcast.

In most cases, these signals are meaningless and useless (or worse, the signals can serve as a beacon to the undead). In a few cases, they tap into the command and control protocols. As a result, when they "feel" the presence of undead, the Infected can give them simple commands: "stop attacking", "go to sleep", or "flee".

For many, this is used to protect their settlement. For a few, it is used to assemble an army of undead minions. Such Masters of the Dead, when they appear, are a serious scourge to those who live in Dead Man's Land.

Dude, this stuff is freakin' awsome! :D

Quote from: Drohem;540263Dude, this stuff is freakin' awsome! :D

Thanks for the compliment.

I know that you are writing this for your own game Destiny, but you should make this available as a generic zombie campaign so that it can be adopted to any system. :)

Hellscapes

The nanites are designed to xenoform planets, for the purposes of colonization. In the initial outbreaks, many in red rain zones (who would go on to become Infected) saw visions of Hell: red skies, unknown and ugly creatures, and demonic taskmasters. These were images of the alien planet, implanted into their subconscious by the nanites infesting their body.
 
But at some point, they will become more than visions. In accord with their programming, the nanites will alter native plant and animal life to conform to the template of the alien ecology, forming Hellscapes.

Harsh terrain, dry weather, thorny plants with skin and blood that eat their prey, and squat, powerful predators with mouths like lampreys and teeth like sharks—this is a Hellscape. And they begin to appear all over, anywhere nanites can implement their programming.

Not all at once. First an alien plant or two (which leech away ambient moisture to form their blood), then a dog or bear with mutated features. Then fully-xenoformed species. Last, the change to a dry, desert climate.

The American South is humid and green. The air is filled with moisture, it rains often, and the foliage is lush.

When the alien plants begin to proliferate, they leech moisture out of the air, locking it away in their root systems and stalks. As more and more appear, the climate gets drier and drier, and native trees and grasses begin to dry up. Some Earth plants are xenoformed, others just die. The alien plants are water-vampires, and they make deserts of the moistest environments.

And after them, the beasts and aliens follow.

Quote from: Drohem;540371I know that you are writing this for your own game Destiny, but you should make this available as a generic zombie campaign so that it can be adopted to any system. :)

Again, thanks for the compliment. It's much appreciated.

Bloody Tears and Shining Eyes

The nanophage begins with tears of blood and eyes that shine in the night. Nanites appear in the vitreous humor of the eye, and reflect the smallest amount of light, making the eyes shine like a cat's. Testing for infection is exceedingly simple: shine a light into a person's eyes, and if their eyes shine red, they have the phage.

If anyone had performed the test, peering into the eyes of an infected person would reveal a pale red liquid, in which floats tiny pieces of glitter. Under a microscope, the vitreous humor (the fluid inside the eyes) shimmers with thousands of metallic structures.

When first contracted, the nanites reproduce by consuming pieces of the host's body and building new nanomachines. The first active protocols—The Conditioning and Drone Protocols—required neural intervention. Nanites concentrate themselves in the brain and neural tissue, including the optic nerves—the eyes. The concentration of nanomachines turns the vitreous humor red.

Nanites break down, as all machinery does, and the host's immune system can destroy nanites. Inactive nanites seep out of the host through liquid or solid waste, sweat, or through the tear ducts.

The Conditioning Protocol is focused entirely on the brain, requiring a far higher concentration of nanites in the brain than the Drone Protocol. The higher concentration of nanites means many more become inactive and are flushed out through the tear ducts. The host cries red liquid, that looks like blood.

The red eyes and red tears precede the neurological changes concurrent to the Conditioning Protocol. Hosts who cry blood are on the verge of going psychotic.

Carriers, both those who are swiftly dying and those who are slowly succumbing, have shining red eyes, but lack the bloody tears. They are not victims of the Conditioning Protocol.

If the eyes are red, the person is infected. If they cry red tears, they are going to become violent very soon. In the wastes between the zombie-free cold zones and the cities filled with thronging zombies, Carriers live by these two tests.

(Note: This post changes some details previously given. Dead Man’s Land is under development, and changes like this are to be expected.)

White Star. Red Skies. Black Stone. Crimson Eyes.

The Apocalyse began with a new star, burning white in the northern skies. For seven days and seven nights, it burned as the sun, turning night to day.

On the first day, all electronics ceased to function. The computers, the stereos, the engines, the motors, the power lines: mankind's technology was destroyed in less than 24 hours.

And on the second day, the skies turned: no longer blue, but scarred with red, and the clouds that gathered were scarlet and roiling.

On the third day, the skies opened and rains fell across the land. As red as blood but cold as steel, the rains fell on humans, animals, and plants alike. They contaminated lakes and streams, and the waters of the north ran red.

And on the fourth day the dreams began. They were every one all the same, and millions shared them:

   A red sun, and a parched landscape through which oleaginous black waters ran in rivulets along the ground. Black waters fall from the sky and at night choking mists cover the land.

Black, thorny plants with a thick, almost flesh-like skin that bleed when cut. Ugly, six-limbed beasts with short snouts, long, irregular teeth and heavy hides fighting each other, the victor consuming the defeated. Squat, six-limbed humanoids with red skin, fighting the beasts and each other with spears and whips.

Then the dreamer, in the bleak landscape, chained to a piece of black rock along with numerous others. His family. His friends. His neighbors. They drag the rock along the ground on rollers, then up a ramp, all the while the six-limbed humanoids whip them to work faster. They are building thick walls and low buildings from the black stones. A city of obsidian rock painstakingly built by slave labor, black stone under red skies.

On the fifth day, the eyes of a third part of men turned red. From their cornea to their scelera, even the whites of their eyes were awash with crimson. And they thrashed, and were in pain, and their nights were plagued by dreams of hell.

And on the sixth day they took to the streets, hunting in packs and killing those they hunted. Rampaging mobs of the stricken, with red eyes and faces twisted by rage, with no memory of who they were and no cognizance of what they did. Most were killed in the streets.

Many survived the attacks of the stricken, and that night dreamed of the obsidian city and the demonic slavers, and woke themselves with eyes of red, and came forth to kill. And the dead were heaped in piles, and buried in mass graves.

On the seventh day, the star Wormwood faded and as it died, so died the world. The dead tore free from their graves and came forth, covered in rot and soil, clad in stained and tattered garments. Rising, they went forth and conquered the world.