Its Palladium and another zombie apocalypse based setting. Is there to particularly recommend it over others?
It's one of the cleanest versions of the Palladium rules and the setting detail is, as always, cool. Every sourcebook introduces a few new types of Zombies, many of them being quite creative.
Quote from: Nerzenjäger;1019811It's one of the cleanest versions of the Palladium rules and the setting detail is, as always, cool. Every sourcebook introduces a few new types of Zombies, many of them being quite creative.
I have to agree the settings are the Palladium thing. :)
I'm also intrigued by the description of a cleaner version of the system.
On the negative side of things they make it very hard to to the classic trope of shooting a zombie in the head like one sees in the movie. Which is a staple of the genre. Unlike says All Flesh must be eaten no create your sown zombie rules are provided. Sure one can houserule it yet it's something that should have been in the core book.
The random tables alone are worth the money. I'm blah on the setting (it's OK), completely ignore the system (not my cuppa), and yet own everything they've done for the line.
The random tables of stuff you find...pretty much anywhere is awesome.
Dead Reign is my favourite zombie game.
Sidestepping the usual issues some people have with Kevin or the Palladium megaversal rules, I love the internal consistency of the world it presents. It gives the Referee a lot to use regarding what the zombies are, how they act, what happens when they can't feed and so on. True, this means it isn't a "shoot the slow flesh eaters in the head" zombie game, but there are quite a few of those already. I like the Dead Reign has a huge variety of zombies; becoming more horrid and terrifying the further into the apocalypse you get.
Played as described, Dead Reign is deadly. Probably the most unforgiving Palladium game since The Mechanoids. The zombies are nightmares to fight in large numbers, and the rest of the world can be just as dangerous. How much this appeals depends on you and your group. My first group basically went into shock when the first session saw all but one character killed. After that, they had a lot more respect for the undead!
The supplements are not essential but are fairly good expansions on the core book, with the exception of Graveyard Earth.
Quote from: sureshot;1019828On the negative side of things they make it very hard to to the classic trope of shooting a zombie in the head like one sees in the movie. Which is a staple of the genre. Unlike says All Flesh must be eaten no create your sown zombie rules are provided. Sure one can houserule it yet it's something that should have been in the core book.
Or maybe it's an RPG rather than a movie reenactment game.
Quote from: Dumarest;1020461Or maybe it's an RPG rather than a movie reenactment game.
False equivalency. The problem is not the game not reenacting a movie, it's more that the system is not designed for anything other than the fantasy base it was created in the first nearly 40 years ago.
The Palladium system has called shots IIRC, what's the issue?
Quote from: CRKrueger;1020490The Palladium system has called shots IIRC, what's the issue?
It does, but I don't remember (Honestly, I don't) if called shots do extra damage. I don't remember if it does.
Even with called shots they made it very difficult to target a zombie head. Im not saying it should be easy yet its also unnecessarily difficult as well imo.
Quote from: sureshot;1020496Even with called shots they made it very difficult to target a zombie head. Im not saying it should be easy yet its also unnecessarily difficult as well imo.
So an honest question to help myself remember: What do Called Shots do? As a result of success.
I don't have my rulebook infront of me but I think you need a 12 or better and they are minus 4 or 8 and take two actions to complete: one to aim and one to shoot. And they are pretty much instadeath what happens is you do full damage to SDC and half damage directly to hit points and get to roll on a table. They either die or our out of combat. It's just hard to do.
I know shows like TWD make head-shots look easy, but shouldn't they be rather hard?
Quote from: Ras Algethi;1020512I know shows like TWD make head-shots look easy, but shouldn't they be rather hard?
Yeah, with a pistol, pretty damn hard.
Quote from: CRKrueger;1020513Yeah, with a pistol, pretty damn hard.
Unless you practice regularly. Two shots center mass... "body armor!"... one shot to the head. :D
Sure specially trained folks might be good at it, but for most people hitting the head at anything other than close range is going to be hard (under combat conditions).
Quote from: trechriron;1020514Unless you practice regularly. Two shots center mass... "body armor!"... one shot to the head. :D
Oh yeah, there's people who can do it all day under range conditions. At 15yds with my friend's pistol I shoot the best, if you give me three rounds, I'll hit the brain once probably. 25yds forget it. Under zombie attack conditions, probably not that good. :D
I have zero interest in zombie games, but from what I've seen Dead Reign is probably one of the best.