XRPG: Core Rulebook

[BeyondTheGr4ve]

This is the core rulebook for Xombie: The RPG. No one is allowed to post in this topic but BeyondTheGr4ve or administrators. This rulebook is the result of the valiant recovery efforts of both Ares and Wasabi after the forums went down. The original text document was covered in code, and they took the time and effort to clean it up. Thanks guys, the XRPG community is in your debt.
If anyone finds chunks of code still imbedded in the file, send me a PM telling me where it is, and I’ll go in for an edit.

Click here for Version 2 of the XRPG.

XOMBIE: The RPG
V 1.11

Created by Peter Joel Marcantel. PM me if you catch discrepancies/contradictions/spelling or grammatical errors in the rules.
Alpha Testers: Jonathan Ting, Emily Mukahari Russell, and Paul
Beta Testers: Jonathan Ting (GM), Emily Mukahari Russell, Robert Sparenberg, Collin J. Griner, and Geoffrey Lawson

Version History:
V 1.11: 9/8/06
--Assist Actions from XRPG: Dead Meat have been incorporated into the combat section

V 1.10: 2/18/06
--Cannibal defect added (suggested by OpenConstant)
--Burst of Rage attribute added (suggested by Evil-Samurai, refined by OpenConstant)
--Field Medic Skill added (suggested by OpenConstant)
--Clingy defect added (suggested by gogglehead)
--Psychosis Defect added (suggested by Mac in Black)

V 1.9: 1/11/06
--All references to the Approved Characters thread have been (hopefully) deleted. If anyone finds one I missed, please let me know.
--Section 11 was slightly revised due to the aforementioned point, plus OpenConstant’s new position was acknowledged.
--Vicious Attribute and Poor Shape both added (contributed by NiGHTS)

V 1.8: 6/22/05
--NEWBIES, CHECK OUT THE NEW SECTION 11, “GETTING STARTED”!
--Limit to how many weapons you may switch between in combat (see new paragraph in Weapons section) to prevent Gunbunny/Soul of the Sword abuses (thanks to NiGHTS and OpenConstant)
--Characters may only have 2 Defects to prevent Min/Maxing abuses
--Healing/Decay rules simplified by measuring general “game time” instead of posts
--“Finishing Blow” changed to “Death Blow” since that's what we were all calling it anyway
--ATK bonus of Variants replaced by Body bonus to reflect toughening of tissue instead of increase in fighting ability
--Well Preserved Variants now get bonus time before their next injection
--Costs of Martial Artist and Brawler both lowered
--New sub-section “Plus and Character Weapons” in the “Weapons” section
--New Attribute, Weapons Master (thanks to NiGHTS)
--Weapon Connection is now a Skill instead of an Attribute
--The Sample Character section has been updated (finally)
--Sample Battle section has been updated (finally, again)

V 1.7: 5/2/05
--Brawler now accepts the full bonus of Super Heavy Melee weapons (Thanks to TimThe1st)
--Gunbunny's Flair earned now rounds up instead of down
--Gunbunny updated; given a sub-ability, Overkill

V 1.6: 4/16/05
--Level-up section revamped (including stat costs)
--Weapon Connection Attribute changed to only allow for 1 Connected weapon (prevents insane stacking)
--Victory Awards addressed
--Berserker Attribute added (requested by every angsty member here)
--Weapon Connection lowered to 2 (tentative).

V 1.5: 4/11/05
--Weapons bonuses updated
--New Skill, Brawler, submitted by NiGHTS
--Martial Artist and Gunbunny updated
--Soul of the Sword now allows free actions of drawing/sheathing
--Trustworthy Attribute opened up a little more
--Weapon Connection Attribute revamped

V 1.4: 3/30/05
--Clarifications of Traits
--Added Bad Luck and Phobia Defects
--Zombie Bane made more powerful
--Minor spelling/wording corrections
--Soul of the Sword Attribute made more powerful

V 1.3: 3/28/05
--Martial Artist Skill revamped
--Goody Two-Shoes now gives a 1 point Character bonus
--Obsessed Defect retooled
--Opened up Knowledgeable Trait a little more
--Perceptive Attribute updated slightly to make it more powerful, but cost 1 Creation point
--New Traits: Scavenger (Submitted by friedbrains), Bumbling, Decay of Muscle, Decay of Mind, Well-Preserved, Dead Like Me, and Jumpy
--Showoff Defect slightly changed
--Addiction, Desecrator, Monologue, and Sickness Defects given higher Creation bonuses

V 1.2: 3/20/05:
--Monologue Defect changed slightly to accomodate inner monologues/flashbacks (Traits section)
--Skills Traits split from Attributes Traits (Traits section)
--Revamp of what constitutes an Action (Combat section)
--Reconfigured “How Strong is Strong” (Character Creation)
--Enacted 2 Defect limit throughout rules.

V 1.1: 3/18/05:
--Gunnbunny now negates Synapse requirements of Light/Heavy Ranged weapons upon character creation.
--Acrobatic given +1 Flair bonus.
--Martial Artist lowered to 1 Creation point.
--Desecrator Reworked

V 1.0: 3/4/05:
--First Rules Released

This document was made to translate Xombie, the animated Flash cartoon of James Farr, into a Play By Electronic Mail (PBeM) Role Playing Game to be posted on the Xombie forums. The core ideas on how to handle massive hordes of enemies, as well as descriptive fight scenes, comes from the Wushu core rules by Daniel Bayn ( http://bayn.org/wushu/index.html ), with heavy modifications by myself to better suit a slightly more technical RPG, as well as accommodate the PBeM format, under the Creative Commons License that he has so generously provided.

I am in no way associated with James Farr or his creations. All copyright privileges of this world and the Xombie Franchise belong to him. I’m just a fan looking to have a bit of fun for a couple of months with other fans. If you’d like to use these rules for your own game, please email me to let me know, and I’ll gladly let you post them to play on your own message boards, but don’t just rip them off!

The rules and world presented here are my understanding of how things work in Xombie. The series hasn’t been completely released yet, so we’re always learning new things. That’s why you see a version number next to the title. As more episodes come out, I’ll be able to modify the rules and setting of this RPG to reflect the official setting more accurately. If you have an opinion on how things are different, feel free to drop me a line by private messaging me on the forums (BeyondTheGr4ve), and if I think you make a valid point, I’ll consider changing up the rules. Something we all have to understand here is that there can almost never be a truly, absolutely literal translation of a franchise into a game. Some liberties have to be taken to make things fun for the players. If somebody messages me and says “[insert character] didn’t [insert action] in the story!” I will discard their message and mock them. If players come face-to-face with characters from the show (unlikely), the GM should role play the characters as close to their personalities as they can.

To be honest, the only essential sections for players are 2, 3, 4, and 5. These chapters will give you the bare basics of the game required to get started. The other sections should be read by anyone considering to be a GM, but players should also read them for further detail into how the game is run.

CONTENTS
1. Setting
2. Creating Characters
3. Combat
4. Flair
5. Leveling Up
6. Let’s make a Xombie
7. Weapons
8. Traits
9. Sample Character
10. Sample Battle
11. Getting Started
_________________
See where it all began: the Supply Run.
Want to see that Xombie movie? Fight the good fight.
Pre-order Xombie: Dead on Arrival today!

[BeyondTheGr4ve]

1.SETTING: There are always zombies outside

The Xombie world is set on post-apocalyptic planet Earth. An outbreak of the germ Necrosis causes the dead to rise in search of living flesh, and humans must barricade themselves inside technologically advanced fortress cities. There are a myriad of automated weapons locked and loaded, ready to bring down absolutely anything that tries to get into the cities, so it should be fairly safe on the inside. It’s the folks in the devastated badlands that have to worry about survival. Survivors are probably few and far in-between, living in small nomadic groups, or barricades and bunkers of their own.
Perhaps they were forced to flee their cities when they were overrun, or maybe they lived in the rural areas, and couldn’t make it into the big fort-cities before they were surrounded with weapons. They may be biker gangs who actually relish the new situation, with only the strongest on top, and no law enforcement to hold them back. In any case, they must practice constant vigilance, or become vittles for the next hungry pack of undead that they come across.
They certainly have their work cut out for them: the land appears to have been scorched, so food rations growing from the Earth are probably not very nutritious. There’s probably meat to be had if adventurers can track down living animals, though the prospects look pretty bleak, since we know that animals are affected by the Necrosis virus as well. Your best bet is to either try to trap birds, or look for canned goods in the ruins of abandoned buildings (or try and steal it from other survivors, you jerk).
We know that there are robots running around, ebony machines with blue glowing circuits, but that’s about all we know. While we don’t know their purpose as of yet, they can apparently be specialized for certain tasks, such as reconnaissance or combat. Reconnaissance robots are apparently advanced enough to use some sort of radio or satellite transmission technology, with which they can signal other robots to them, or use hover jets to fly around and spy on people with cameras. The combat robots have an aiming laser, so it’s assumed they can fire projectiles, most likely energy weapons. We have yet to see the exact capabilities of these things, but Episode 6 should be very enlightening.
_________________
See where it all began: the Supply Run.
Want to see that Xombie movie? Fight the good fight.
Pre-order Xombie: Dead on Arrival today!

[BeyondTheGr4ve]

2.CREATING CHARACTERS: It’s alive!

Characters in Xombie are meant to kick ass and take names, and with all that rotting booty roaming around they can keep occupied for quite some time. It’s up to your Gamemaster (GM) whether they want to run a survival horror campaign or a brawler, but I feel that one of the show’s best draws is the crazy-cool combat, mowing down dozens of zombies at a time. This style of play will be reflected in these rules, so players should try to build characters that could do at least some good in the fray.
The stats that we’ll use in this RPG are Synapse, Muscle, and Body.
Synapse relates to brain function, specifically how fast and well you can act and react to your environment, your concentration, and your general mental capabilities.
Muscle is the strength of your sinews, tendons, and muscle tissues, and regulates your strength and general hitting power. It also reflects your character’s fighting ability, even if they aren’t particularly physically powerful.
Body is your current overall physical condition, this game’s version of Health Points. I didn’t name them Health Points, since some of the characters aren’t amongst the living anymore. It seemed like a bad choice of words. When your Body reaches 0, you’re rendered immobile until you’re either patched up by a friend or have time to heal. If you’ve got a bloodthirsty GM, you’ll die and rise up in two to three minutes to attack your friends.

Next comes equipment. Though most players will only have access to common items that they can find lying around, such as a tire iron, steak knife, or shovel; more esoteric weapons, like a parking meter, helicopter propeller blade, or a scythe may be employed if the player’s character could wield it. No players except for former cops or military personnel should start with firearms. Firearms are rare and hard to come by in the wastelands, and should only be earned through roleplaying, unless your GM approves. A list of possible items and their costs is available in Section 7, Weapons.

Players are given 7 Creation points with which to start out their character. Points are divided into the three categories of Synapse, Muscle, and Body, and anything left over can be put towards purchasing equipment (Section 7) or Traits (Section . Each stat must have at least 1 point. No more than 3 body points should be allowed to be put on a character when they are first created.

How strong is strong? Muscle is used for things other than combat. It’s also a general measure of your fighting ability. Here’s an idea of how strong your character is:

Muscle 0: Joe Nobody. You may not be a 90 pound featherweight, but you wouldn’t be a match for our heroes. Best stay in your cellar until the whole “end of the world” thing blows over.
Muscle 1-2: Normal. You’re in good shape, and you could probably run an obstacle course and come out fine. This usually comes from running around in a world full of predators rather than special training.
Muscle:3-4: Athletic. Wether it be from special training or a lifetime of fighting, you’re body is in great shape. You could complete the New York City marathon without killing yourself.
Muscle 5-6: Olympic medallist. Your body is very well toned. Obstacle courses can be tackled regularly, and you can handle endurance trials without a problem. You chuck most people around like a sack of potatoes (up to several feet).
Muscle 6-9: Body builder. You’re cut like rock and it shows, or maybe you’re slender and you just know how to apply force where it’s necessary. You can break through cinder block after cinder block with your bare hands with minimal effort.
Muscle 10-15: Dirge. Arnold who? Built like a freakin’ meat tank, you could wrestle lions into submission with your bare hands. Undead lions at that. Anyone around you with any sense at all knows that you’re a badass. Even body builders get nervous if you look ‘em in the eye.
Muscle 16-20: Unstoppable juggernaut. If you’re muscular, you’re abs are cut like diamonds. You have to get your clothes custom made or they’ll rip at the seams if you flexed. Lifting and throwing small cars like a shot-put is entirely within your power. If you’re not muscular, then your blows are so precise, so deadly, you’ll make Shinobi crap his pants. Throwing you into a wall-to-wall room of zombies ends with some very thinly sliced pieces of green meat.
21 or Greater: Demi-god. Blades bounce off your muscles, or perhaps your wiry frame moves so fast that you can bat most bullets away. You can either lift an SUV over your head or jump 15 feet in the air while front flipping 5 times, depending on your fancy. You are beyond good, beyond great. You 0wnz0r. Entire legions of zombies have probably met destruction at your hands, and it may well take a stadium full of the undead to bring you down. Or one super god-like mecha forged from the unholy unity of zombie and machine which stands over 30 feet tall and comes armed with lasers, buzzsaws, and seven types of missile. GMs will probably actively to try kill you to get your character the hell out of their game, or never let you become this strong.


Traits can also be purchased from the list in Section 8. Positive Traits (Attributes) can enhance the general skills of a player, resulting in bonus roles or other benefits to many situations, combat or otherwise. Negative Traits (Defects) will result in penalty rolls for a character, and will often force the player to act a certain way. For example, a character with the Addiction defect for nicotine constantly craves cigarettes, and if she doesn’t get them, she can start becoming irritable, or the GM might occasionally penalize her in combat.
The benefit to selecting Defects, is that you’ll get bonus Creation points, on which you can spend on the three primary stats, or an Attribute.
Every character has a choice of up to four Traits, and must have at least 1 Defect. A character may only have 2 Defects.

Physical descriptions of your character should also be submitted: what they look like, how they dress, skin, eye, hair color, and all that good stuff, just for kicks.

Variants vs. The Living
Many players may want to be amongst the undead themselves as a Variant, a zombie that has retained the capacity for human thought, but who can’t remember anything before they “came back.” This could be a bit of a touchy subject, since technically Variants are a “million to one” anomaly, according to Nephthys. This makes the odds that a party of Variants running around would be statistically impossible, but personally I have no problem fudging the chances for gameplay purposes. Other GMs might not be so forgiving, and only allow one Variant in the party, or ban them completely. Just chalk it up to a mad scientist (“You think someone did this to us.”) or the supernatural (“I prefer to think the gods smiled on us.”). In either case it will be up to the GM.
There are certain advantages that Variants have over the Living, and vice-versa. Unless a player specifies otherwise, their character is Living.
Living characters must eat and drink, breathe air, and do all of the other things that common sense says that humans must do to keep on going. Their bodies also have the ability to gradually heal themselves over time. Every 12 hours (in game time) that they aren’t in combat, they get one Body point restored, up to their maximum. If they are treated with first aid or other types of medicine, they can restore Body points up to their maximum capacity immediately, depending on what type of treatment they received.
Variants are another case entirely. They don’t need to eat, sleep, or breathe. Their muscles have been hardened due to rigor mortis, and have become strong as steel, though still mobile thanks to the Necrosis germ, resulting in a free Body point upon creation, and as a zombie, they have an uncanny ability to sense the nearby living. They are immune to every biological poison, and don’t have to worry about radiation sickness or other pollutants which could be hazardous to normal living tissue. They do have some pretty major drawbacks, though. First off, they must constantly inject themselves with embalming fluid, at least once every 6 hours. If the injection is skipped, then they quickly begin losing motor functions, and rot away, losing one Body point every hour after their missed injection, to a minimum of 0 Body points, which results in total immobilization until they are submerged in a vat of the fluid and allowed to soak for several hours in game time. In addition to all of this, a Variant will be seen as a threat by any other being it comes across. Robots and humans will always shoot first and ask questions later. Children (like Zoe) may be able to accept them, as youngsters are far more open-minded than their hardened elders, but any human over the age of 11 will immediately be hostile or fearful of the player. Variants that receive medical attention will not get healed, but must instead inject additional embalming fluids into themselves. 1 injection restores 1 Body point. To make things even worse, they should only be allowed to carry a limited amount of injections on them (say, 4 or 5 per campaign). If they run out, they had better find a morgue soon.

Personally, I think that players shouldn’t be allowed to play characters that have any connections to the main characters portrayed in the cartoons. This should nip stuff like “this guy is a Variant who keeps his memories, and he’s Dirge’s long-lost brother and wants to find him, then he falls in love with Nephthys, but goes evil and kills Zoe.” in the bud. What should be important to this game is keeping the feel of the cartoon, mowing down hordes of zombies in a post-apocalyptic world, without interfering in it.
_________________
See where it all began: the Supply Run.
Want to see that Xombie movie? Fight the good fight.
Pre-order Xombie: Dead on Arrival today!

[BeyondTheGr4ve]

3. COMBAT: Shovel swingin’ 101

Now the fun stuff! The fight scenes in Xombie are over-the-top festivals of goop flying all over the place, plowing through hordes of the undead against laughably impossible odds. I’ll say it again: this combat style was not made for survival horror. While you probably don’t want to go looking for too much trouble, if trouble shows up, you can kick its butt.

The original basic concept on how to deal with large crowds of weak enemies originated in “Wushu: The Ancient Art of Action Roleplaying” by Daniel Bayn, and I’m using it under the Creative Commons license he so generously released. I’ve heavily modified the rules to my own tastes. Also, these rules are tailored to the format we’ll be staging this on, i.e. the RPG board at xombieforum.com . Because of the nature of the board, actual timeframes for how things are accomplished will almost definitely vary depending on what group is playing, thanks to differing posting schedules.

The basic formula for a fight is simple:
[Player Attack - Threat Level = Results]
Although there might seem like a lot to read in this section, there’s really not much to it. I’ve included a lot of details to try and deal with as many situations as I can think of because it is possible that I won’t be the only GM running a Xombie RPG game. If you feel intimidated, you can always refer to the last chapter (Sample Battle) to see how things work.

When the players enter a combat situation, the Game Master will alert everyone by posting “BATTLE!” as the subject line of her set-up, or by typing "COMBAT!!!" in her post. This will let players know its time to jump in and start crackin’ skulls. The players and GM take turns posting. On the first day the GM will post the surrounding scene and actions of the baddies, and the next day (or days, depending on posting schedules) all of the characters will post their actions or reactions. The players don’t have to post in any particular order. The day after the players post, the GM reports the resolution of any dice rolls and the next actions of the enemies. Continue like this until the battle resolves, which shouldn’t take more than a week for skirmishes, but may take longer if the GM brings out the big guns.

For every Synapse point a character has, they can perform 1 Action in combat. But what exactly constitutes an Action?
------------------------------------
-5 to 10 seconds of player movement that culminates in affecting an active enemy.
Instead of
“Shaun crouches [first action], then jumps at a zombie [second action] and kicks it in the chest [third action].”
Try
“Shaun crouches, then jumps at a zombie and kicks it in the chest [first action].”
Instead of
“Shaun decapitates a zombie [first action], grabs its head [second action], lights it on fire with his cigarette [third action], and then throws it at a bunch of other zombies [fourth action].”
Try
“Shaun decapitates a zombie [first action], grabs its head, lights it on fire with his cigarette, and then throws it at a bunch of other zombies [second action].”

-Affecting something in your environment that is attached to the scenery. Picking up and throwing a rock wouldn’t count as its own action. Flipping a giant lever to start a conveyor belt would.

-Sheathing or unsheathing a weapon of any variety (not required if your character has a weapon drawn before battle), or readying a Heavy Ranged or Super Heavy Ranged weapon to fire by cocking the trigger, reloading clips, charging a plasma rifle, or loading rockets into your bazooka, etc. A character may only have one active weapon during combat unless they possess the Dual Wield ability.

There are a couple of things that don’t take up an action. Moving within 5 yards (15 feet) of your character will not take up its own action.
Talking will not take up its own action unless it is obscenely long, like with the Monologue Defect.
Doing a pose or gesture that doesn’t affect your enemies, party, or environment will not take up its own action.
----------------------

ASSIST ACTIONS

Assist actions are used to directly aid yourself or other players. All Assist actions require the sacrifice of 1 Actions, meaning it is automatically graded as 2 Flair.

============================
Human Shield: You can choose to leap in front of an ally. If that ally fails their Synapse vs. Threat roll for their current post, you will take the point of Body damage instead of them.
Inject Embalming Fluid: If you have access to a tube of embalming fluid, you may either inject it into yourself or another player. In either case, the target must be a Variant. The embalming fluid immediately restores +1 Body towards the character’s maximum Body total, and depletes the tube, as per normal injection rules.
Toss Item: Throws a weapon or item you have equipped to one of your allies, who can catch and begin using it any time after your post. Catching an item does not count as an Assist, and inflicts no penalties on the catcher.
Use Item: Using an item for non-combat purposes during combat (opening a computer file, flipping a switch, turning a key, picking a lock, cutting the wire before the bomb blows, etc). Using an item in this way also subtracts 1 dice from you Synapse roll.
=============================

Using an Assist is similar to using normal Actions, but they must be demarcated as such, so that your GM knows that you are using them:
“‘Shaun tosses the key to Paul. ‘Quick! Open the front gates!’ [Action 1, Assist: Toss Item]
‘I’ll cover you while you get it open!’ He dashes in front of his teammate and takes up a guarded position. [Action 2, Assist: Human Shield]”

There are two types of enemies, Horde and Named. Horde enemies are masses of opponents. These guys are meant to die in droves, and their corpses will litter the battlefield after a fight. They don’t really put up much of a challenge, but can occasionally get lucky and wound a player. Named enemies are more unique enemies that constitute an actual threat to the player. These represent bigger monsters or especially lethal opponents, and usually only attack the players to spice things up a bit.

=====================================

Player vs. Horde
Horde enemies attack in crowds, swarming in from all sides. Good examples are the zombies first seen in episode one, and the smaller clown zombies in episode three.
GMs will command the horde very loosely. The focus here is on the players, while the GM is more like a referee, making the dice rolls at home, setting the scene, and blowing the whistle on any illegal play. When she narrates a fight along the lines of “the zombies close in, their hungry moans filling the air,” she’s doing just fine.
Each horde of zombies represents a crowd of a general size, but an indeterminate number. Instead of saying “There are twenty-six zombies shambling over the hill,” say “there is a small pack of zombies shambling over the hill.” Crowd sizes are measured with the Horde number, which act as the general well-being of a group of zombies. If a Horde’s number is 10, then they’re a small rabble of zombies, while 150 would a street-filling crowd with standing room only.
Normally, RPG players attempt to make an attack, roll to see if they succeeded, have the GM roll to see if the monster defended it, and then resolve things to get the results. Over a message board, this would be pretty time consuming, so we’ve simplified things here.
In battle, a player has as many actions as he has Synapse points, and can use all or none of them. The player may make only one post between the GM’s posts during combat, so there can be no taking an action, waiting to see what another player does, then taking another action. Additionally, players don’t have to roll to see if they’ve succeeded in their actions against a horde. If the player takes an Action and says “I grab a zombie’s skull, snap its neck, then kick it away,” then that’s exactly what has just happened. Of course, we must keep things at least semi-reasonable. If the player says “I sprout wings, fly fifty feet in the air, then rain down missiles from my hidden chest launchers,” then the GM can Veto that action, effectively resulting in automatic failure. Players who think that an offence has come up that should be Vetoed by the GM should Private Message her immediately. If the majority of players (75%) are making protests, the GM had better have a good reason for not Vetoing.
There are an unspecified number of enemies in a horde because the players may come up with all sorts of number combinations when dealing with zombies. If you have to constantly keep track of the exact body count, then things could get boggy. Since players won’t have to worry about the actual number of enemies they’re killing, they can be more flexible with how many zombies they’re killing per turn.
The actual damage is tallied like so:
Roll a number of 6-sided dice equal to your character’s Muscle points, then add your Synapse points to that, and any weapons bonuses to that. This number equals the Player Attack.
If Shaun of the Dead has Muscle 3, Synapse 2, then he will roll three dice, and add two to that number. If he used a weapon (Section 7), such as a Tire Iron which gives him +1 in combat, then he will add one to that number as well.
Subtract the Player Attack from the Horde points of a crowd. The lower the Horde points, the thinner a crowd is getting. When the Horde points reach zero or less, all of the enemies have been dispatched, and its time to go on. Of course, some types of zombies are more dangerous than others. To represent this, Hordes have a Threat Level. The Threat Level is the number of 6-sided dice the GM rolls in the Horde’s defense. A threat level of 1 is appropriate for most hordes, while Threats of 2 or 3 should be reserved for more dangerous situations. Normal humans are next to nothing compared to our heroes. Tough guy gangs armed with nothing but brass knuckles or blunt weaponry are harmless, Threat 0. Gangs of zombies just crawling out of their tombs are easy pickings, Threat 1. Zombies shuffling from the depths of a nuclear power plant that had a meltdown when the world collapsed are extremely dangerous to be around (radiation poisoning/acidic blood/venom oozing from their wounds), and so have a Threat of 6 or more. The GM will have to try and find the right Threat level for her party: not so hard that the players actually want to run away, but enough to inject a bit of tension into the game.
Using the formula [Player Attack - Threat = Results], if the Results number is positive, subtract the number from the crowd’s Horde points. If the Results are negative, the player takes one point away from their remaining body points. If the Result is 0, nothing happens. So what’s the point of taking multiple actions when Strength seems to play the biggest role in battle? Flair points. But we’ll talk about that in just a bit in Section 4.

Player vs. Named
Sometimes a GM might feel the need to shake the players up a bit. That’s when she breaks out the big guns:
“The dust settles. Eviscerated clown zombies lie around your feet like deflated balloon animals. Then you see him, a giant joker, eight feet high. He’s dressed in a blood-stained muscle shirt, which barely contains his bloated white form. The small pale eyes stare at you hungrily, as lips pull back to reveal comically large yellow teeth. Big Smiley has arrived.”
The GM has just introduced her players to Big Smiley, a 400 pound walking meat tank that will definitely give the heroes a run for their money. Big Smiley is a Named enemy. That is, he is unique enough to warrant capitals and his own moniker to express his separation from the Horde of clown zombies the players have just wiped out. Now the GM gets to a take a bit of the spotlight back.
Named enemy fights should be more memorable than “zombie gets through your defenses and bites you on the leg. Lose one Body point.” If the Results hit the negative numbers here, a more appropriate line would be “Big Smiley swings his fist with the force of a runaway pickup truck, sending you flying across the fairgrounds, through the windshield of a hearse, and out its back door. You bounce, then skid to a stop on your back, dazed. Lose one Body point.”
Instead of Horde points, Named enemies actually get their own Body points. They still have a Threat level, which represents how dangerous they are, but instead of 1 to 3, a Named should have a Threat of 5 or more. When a player wins, subtract ONE Body point from the Named’s total Body points. Versus a party of 5 players, a Threat 8, Body 10 Named enemy could cause some serious pain before it’s finally taken out.
Unlike Horde combats, in which severed limbs and decapitations are a mile-a-minute, the PCs are not allowed to do a “Death Blow” until the Named has its Body reduced to 0 or less. The player that reduced the Body points gets to finish them off in whatever cool or dull manner they would like to. See Section 4 for possible complications.

Player vs. Player
Inevitably, players are going to want to beat each other to a pulp. Maybe they just want to spar. Maybe they’re in it to the death. Whatever the case, things can definitely get sticky if player characters decide to go at it in the middle of an adventure. Inner-team combat can slow the gameplay to a crawl if two PCs decide to go at it mono-a-mono, resulting in other PCs getting bored on the sidelines, and a GM with a headache. Most GMs will probably ban PC combat in their campaigns altogether. This is why I recommend pit-fights.
Pit fights are side threads specially sanctioned by a GM where two PCs are allowed to beat the living tar out of each other, refereed by a sponsoring GM. They take place like any other fight, except that you can’t earn Flair points to go towards leveling up your character (Section 4). Instead, Flair points earned will be added to your next Attack number. Pit fights are essentially an alternate universe where players fight for bragging rights or just plain fun. If the two players could schedule the event properly with their GM, then an entire fight may take just one or two days.
Cups and tourneys are also an option, but such an undertaking would require some careful coordination.
If players feel the uncontrollable need to go at it in the middle of your campaign, a “First blood” rule would be best. Whoever loses a body point first loses. Use this formula:
[Attacking Player Attack - Defending Player Attack = Results]
If the number is positive, the attacking player wins. If the number is negative or zero, the defending player wins. No Flair should go towards leveling, lest Player Killing tears the campaign apart.
_________________
See where it all began: the Supply Run.
Want to see that Xombie movie? Fight the good fight.
Pre-order Xombie: Dead on Arrival today!

[BeyondTheGr4ve]

4. FLAIR: It’s all about style

There’s a certain something that the fights of Xombie possess. Call it what you will; style, panache, or just plain coolness. The brawls have the characters leaping around, performing physically impossible stunts, or doing things that make no sense at all to do in the middle of a fight. Why does Dirge spin his shovel in his hand just before a fight? Why does he flip 12 times in the air when a jump would be safer? It’s because he’s got Flair.
Flair points are awarded for stylish execution of actions, and can be traded in to purchase additional stats (Section 5). For every action a character makes in battle, they receive one Flair point, just so long as they do something that affects an enemy. Having characters talk in the middle of battle doesn’t take up an action, and is not rewarded with Flair. If a character says:
“I punch a zombie, then run forward and punch another zombie”
That’s two Actions, since 2 active enemies were affected.
But honestly, where’s the fun in that? Dirge doesn’t just punch zombies, he really let’s them have it! The more creative your actions are, the more Flair will be awarded.
Shaun of the Dead has just run into a mob of ghouls. He has two Synapse points, and posts as follows:
“I draw my sword, slice one zombie in the head, turn around, then punch one in the face.”
Ho hum. He gets 2 Flair, but the GM isn't too impressed by his generic actions. If he had said
“I draw my sword like lightening, the blade slicing through a zombie’s skull, decapitating it. I then spin around, crushing a zombie’s face in with my bare hands, its juices running through my fingers, and dribbling onto the damp ground below, the smell of death wafting from the cavity.”
Better. The GM awards 2 points, and 3 points for that nice little description.
But what if he had said:
“My sword flies from my sheath with the speed of lightening, it’s razor-sharp blade carving an undead skull neatly down the middle, the brain halves exposed in the moonlight. My body spins like a whirlwind as I catch a nearby ghoul in the face, then crush it with my bare hands, causing the head to burst like a ripe tomato under a mallet, the glistening purple juices spraying over my fingers, dousing everything within three yards with brain matter, and filling the area with the stench of decay. The headless corpse falls to its knees, then slumps at my feet, a pool of the violet liquid oozing from its stump.”
Now we’re talking! 3 points and 4 points!
The more descriptive and cool an action is, the more Flair it should earn. Notice how I added description about what was happening to the body parts of the zombies. These extra details don’t count as actions in and of themselves, but rather enhance the drama of the fight, making the action just good enough to earn that extra point or two.

Judging how many Flair points to give out is tricky. GMs should probably announce in their first post how tough they’re be on the players. Here’s a general guideline:
1 Flair point for basic stuff. Punches, kicks, or swings of melee weapons. Doing something besides standing there and blinking.
2 Flair points for something more interesting. Driving upper cuts, roundhouse kicks, a lightning-speed slash.
3 Flair points for something with some pretty good description in it. Describing how the upper cut whistles through the cold night air, the roundhouse kick snaps a zombie’s spine, causing it to bend over backwards at a grotesque angle, or the blade of your sword reflects the moonlight as you stab a ghoul in the heart, then runs black as the foul liquid trickles down the steel.
4 Flair points should be awarded for either an especially sweet death, or an especially amusing show of ingenuity on the player’s part. Using objects around you, particularly those the GM perceives as relatively harmless, to kill a zombie in stylish way will definitely put you up for consideration of a 4. An example would be throwing a zombie against a light socket on the ceiling, which shatters the bulb and impales its skull against the bulb’s glass fractures, which traps it there and causes the zombie’s head to burst into flames, it’s wild eyeballs exploding in their sockets from the heat.
5 Flair points should be given out with very great care. This means that the player has come up with something totally unexpected and especially noteworthy, something that could be shared with other people and make them go “wow,” even if they have no idea what you’re talking about. Especially creative uses of non-lethal items to finish off an enemy in an incredibly gory manner are the best. GMs should make a special announcement if a player earns 5 Flair, then award them 2 Xombie points (Section 5). If a GM gives 5 Flair points more than a couple times per campaign, they’re probably going too soft. They may very well not give away any at all.

Keep in mind that players can do all sorts of cool moves, but they should try and keep the believability limiting their actions to how strong they are (see above Muscle numbers). A player with Muscle 1 who tries to rip a zombie in half with his bare hands should get slapped with a Veto.
Also, their creativity is tied directly to how well a GM describes a scene. GMs should fill a scene with enough props to be interesting to fight around, even if they may not seem useful in combat. The aforementioned light bulb death couldn’t have happened if the GM hadn’t said that there were naked light bulbs jutting from the ceiling of the scene.

When a player dishes out an awesome Finishing Blow to Named enemies, they get a special bonus. Death Blows are especially over-the-top deaths reserved for unique Named enemies. All the GM has to do is alert the player that they’ve earned a Finishing Blow against the Named by private message, email, or board post. The actions of the PC should result in an especially stylish (re)death scene. Here there is no Player Attack roll. Simply take as many actions as your Synapse allows, plus two, kicking ass or looking cool. You can take less actions if you’d like.
Unlike actual combat, the player will not get a certain number of Flair points per action, but will instead be judged on the overall style in which he or she finished up the scene. Play up the drama, pose, do a little dance, have bats fly overhead or the clouds part to shine the full moonlight on your lone hero standing atop the Named’s butchered corpse. Whatever. The whole shebang is then judged on the scale of 1 through 5 Flair, and awarded accordingly. GMs ought to listen to input from the other players in the group to help determine the outcome.
It should be noted that normally players are not allowed to describe what is going on in their environment (unless they are physically interacting with it), lest it interfere with a GM’s plan. For dramatic reasons, this rule can be bent during a Death Blow so long as whatever is happening doesn’t directly affect any characters besides the player doing the Death Blow and remains believably grounded in the Xombie universe.
Finishing the scene by saying
“The orange glow of flames from the burning gas station bathes the party in an orange glow, the shredded corpse of the zombie gorilla at my feet. I spin my twin pistols and when I holster them, a gas tank erupts behind me, sending up a tower of flames, framing my tall figure against the hellish light.”
kicks ass. I’d give it a 3.
Saying
“The orange glow of flames from the burning gas station bathes the party in an orange glow, the shredded corpse of the zombie gorilla at my feet. I spin my twin pistols and when I holster them, a gas tank erupts behind me, sending up a tower of flames, causing fiery demons to rain down upon my friends, melting the flesh from their bones as they scream in agony. I steal their wallets, then aliens fly over and beam the cadavers aboard for anal probing.”
would get you smacked in any game you were in. Something like that causes you to lose the Flair points you would have normally earned from a Death Blow, and may even get Flair taken away from your total stock. If additional idiocy continues, it’s definitely within the GM's power to start taking points from your actual stats. Have fun, but don’t be a jerk.
Inevitably when several players post while fighting a Named, the Named may technically already be “dead” by the time another player posts. When this happens, give the player that is desecrating the corpse the normal Flair points they would have earned as if the Named were alive, but alert the player that actually killed it that they get to do a Finishing Blow.
A player doing the Death Blow should post “DEATH BLOW” in their post’s subject line to let everyone know what’s going on.

Players should constantly be changing up their moves. If they repeat the same moves over and over again, give them less Flair.
_________________
See where it all began: the Supply Run.
Want to see that Xombie movie? Fight the good fight.
Pre-order Xombie: Dead on Arrival today!

[BeyondTheGr4ve]

5. LEVELING UP: Becoming a l33t d3wd

Yes, here it is. Flair points work like the Experience points of many other games. After earning enough, you’ll go up in level, and when that happens, you earn a standard number of Xombie points (XP). Xombie points will usually be earned through leveling up, but a GM may feel that it’s appropriate to give them away after an especially hard battle with a Named, or simply issue one per every week the players keep playing so long as they’re still contributing to the campaign. Of course the GM is responsible for keeping track of all of the points, but players should also keep a record to give themselves an idea of where they are growth-wise.
The amount of Flair needed to achieve a level is calculated by multiplying the requirements of the previous level by 1.5 and rounding up the nearest whole number. To save you some time, I’ve calculated the levels most players will ever get to.
Lv1: 0 points. Default. You’re a real danger (whether you know it or not), and can take on several people at once if pushed right.
Lv2: 4 points. +1XP
Lv3: 6 points. +1XP
Lv4: 9 points. +2XP
Lv5: 14 points. +3XP. Badass. Take on a crowd of zombies without thinking twice.
Lv6: 21 points. +3XP
Lv7: 32 points. +4XP
Lv8: 48 points. +4XP
Lv9: 72 points. +5XP
Lv10: 108 points. +6XP. Zombie scourge. This is Dirge’s level. A horde of zombies or killer raptors can be defeated in 5 minutes with little problem (maybe a broken dog or two).
Lv11: 162 points. +8XP.
Lv12: 243 points. +10XP.
Lv13: 365 points. +14 XP
Lv14: 548 points. +14XP
Lv15: 822 points. +16XP. Practically invincible. You laugh in the faces of giant black robots with lasers.
Lv16: 1,233 points. +18XP.
Lv17: 1,850 points. +20XP.
Lv18: 2,775 points. +22XP.
Lv19: 4,163 points. +25XP.
Lv20:? 6,245 points. +30XP. Pathetic. You don’t get outside enough, and should turn off your computer to go get some fresh air and vitamin D.

Just to clarify, the points listed are the number you have to earn to get to that level from the previous level. If I’m a Level 3, I need 9 Flair points to reach Level 4. Extra Flair points that go over the amount needed to reach a level are carried over to the next level’s requirements. If I’m a Level 3 and have just earned 10 Flair points (yea, right), then I become Level 4 and will only need 13 points to reach Level 5.

To add 1 point of Muscle, you’ll need 4 Xombie points.
To add 1 point of Synapse, you’ll need 5 Xombie points.
To add 1 point of Body, you’ll need 7 Xombie points.

Unless you tell your GM through private message or email that you are adding new points to your stats, the new stats WILL NOT BE RECORDED. It is very, very important that both you and your GM have the same numbers on your character, or nasty disagreements might break out. If you forgot to tell your GM why your numbers have suddenly changed in combat, your GM might very well ignore the new numbers and just use the ones on her last recorded version of your character.

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VICTORY AWARDS

After a fight, a GM should give out Victory Awards to her players. Victory Awards are nods to the players, a pat on the back for a job well-done. Victory Awards are completely up to the taste of the GM. Here are a few suggestions:

Still Alive:? Flair equal to 3 multiplied by the Threat of the enemy to all survivors.
We All Made It:? Only hand this out if no players were KO''ed during the fight. +1 Flair to all players who survived multiplied by the number of players.
Best Roleplaying:? A +3 to +8 Flair bonus to whoever stayed in character the most, or who had the best lines.
Most Stylish:? +5 Flair to the player who delivered the most interesting fight scene.
Jackie Chan Award:? +5 Flair to the player who showed the most creative use of the scenery
Heroic Victory:? After a Named fight, each surviving player gains +1 Xombie point.
Campaign Completion:? +3 Xombie points for completing a campaign from beginning to end.
Treasure Hunter:? +1 Xombie point for every secret treasure discovered or special sidequest completed during the campaign.
_________________
See where it all began: the Supply Run.
Want to see that Xombie movie? Fight the good fight.
Pre-order Xombie: Dead on Arrival today!

[BeyondTheGr4ve]

6. LET’S MAKE A XOMBIE: Braaaaaaiiiiiins

Players can go ahead and skip this part. GMs who have just landed this gig should listen up.
If your players had nothing better to do than “go to X spot to get X item,” your campaigns would be duller than dirt. This is why the gaming gods have blessed us with zombies. Hordes and hordes of disposable flesh and limbs to hack through with no guilt about actually killing a living being. Your players are probably expecting wave upon wave of green-skinned all-male zombies popping out of the soil, funeral clothes barely covering their emaciated frames as the lumber slowly towards their next meal. And so it shall be. However, GMs may feel the need to spice things up a bit by making “subb-species” of zombies for a more interesting setting.

There are a few traits zombies of James Farr-world seem to have in common, and should probably be kept consistent for all sub-species. First off, they smell the living, and can detect their general presence from dozens of yards away. If living beings are quite a ways away and don’t make any noise (such as calling out “Hello?” to a seemingly empty graveyard), they can sneak by alright. However, once they get a whiff of any non-zombie, they mindlessly converge on them.
The same seems to be true for Variants. Though Dirge is technically a zombie, all ghouls in the area converge on him with no distinction, but never seem to attack their own. Maybe they can sense sentience. Perhaps some supernatural power dictates what they should do. Most likely they’ll just attack any moving thing that doesn’t say “gahhhhg. It’s not like a real reason is needed anyway.
The zombie germ, Necrosis, does not appear to be as viral like most other zombie lore. There has never been any mention of a bite or scratch turning human in Xombie. Nephthys instead suggests that anyone who dies will eventually come back, so long as the brain is left intact. While the black saliva of a dead man probably isn’t something you would want in your bloodstream, a bitten player shouldn’t worry about getting a lobotomy from one of his own party members.
Now for some fun.

Generic Zombies:
They are meant to be mowed down. Wave after wave destroyed for your twisted delight. Everyone knows what a run-of-the-mill zombie looks like: thin green skin, tattered clothes, etc. Good for a quick 1 or 2 round battle.

Clown Zombies:
“Even dead, clowns are annoying.” Dirge was able to take out his frustrations on these giggling ghoulies, so why shouldn’t your players? Balloon pants, rubber noses, orange hair, and those damned horns they like to honk make clowns a fearsome foe, even without Necrosis.

Animal Zombies:
Necrosis is an equal opportunity germ. Even the animal kingdom isn’tsafe from undeath. Zombie sharks in the water, zombie tigers at the circus, zombie wolves in the woods, zombie apes in the jungle, or flocks of zombie pigeons in the city. You’ve got as many options as your surroundings. For some reason, all zombiefied animals seem to be able to move quite well.

Irradiated Zombies:
During whatever caused the world to end, who knows what disastors might have happened to our most sensitive nuclear plants? Glowing zombies are probably a good indication that there’s some very hazardous materials nearby.

Botulism Zombies:
Holy frijoles! A crowd of survivors was able to barricade themselves inside a packing plant that shipped out freeze-dried Mexican food. They survived for days on double-stuffed bean burritos and spicy rice con-carne before the food began to rot when the power-plants shut down. When you’re starving, you’ll eat anything, and it wasn’t long before food poisoning set in. Now that they’ve come back from the dead, they have the most severe case of gas you’ll ever see.
The methane produced from the foods in their guts has combined with the unholy rot-gases of a zombie, making for one explosive release. Imagine if one of these wins in a combat. Instead of saying “a zombie is able to bite you,” how about “a zombie belches loudly in your face, rocketing a cloud of fire from its throat, and leaving the stink of refried beans in the air. Lose one Body point.”
The gases inside these things are so volatile, they may very well blow up for no reason! Of course one might wonder what would happen if you lured them into a building and set it on fire…

Ultra-rot Zombies
The trick to avoiding a fight with zombies is to be aware of them before they’re aware of you. No problem here. Zombies smell bad. They can range from a musty odor to the full-on stink of decay, but Ultra-rot zombies smell even worse. Much worse. Like you better have a gas-mask or you’ll have no choice but to gag for ten minutes worse. Even Dirge would wrinkle his non-existent nose if these things were around.
Through a mutation of the billions of bacteria living their bodies, Ultra-rots produce a stench so foul that they will never ever be able to get the drop on their opponents: the air will carry their nefarious stench for miles around.. But that’s not all.
Any physical object that touches them (tire irons, swords, baseball bats, fist, feet, anything) will get coated in the muck of their bodies, which can slough off at even a slight touch. The object will stink and stink REAL bad until it’s soaked for several hours in formaldehyde, tomato juice, rubbing alcohol, or some other powerful anti-bacterial. This probably won’t be too good for weapons, especially those that may rust or jam if liquids get on them.
If anything biological touches the skin, an immediate clean up is recommended (within an hour). Any cuts or pores are liable to get infected, and while the stench eventually wears away, the bacteria can leave some ugly scars and colors in its wake. Blotchy green or blue patches will stay with the character for many years to come, and may never actually go away.

Well, there are a few samples to get started on. Have fun introducing your own zombies that haunt a particular game. Players can find out a lot about what happened in an area by the dead that are left behind in it.
_________________
See where it all began: the Supply Run.
Want to see that Xombie movie? Fight the good fight.
Pre-order Xombie: Dead on Arrival today!

[BeyondTheGr4ve]

7. WEAPONS: This is my boom-stick!

Okay, so you’re dude is one bad mother. He’s survived the first twenty years of zombie infestation and he’s gonna make sure he’ll survive the next twenty. He’s got brains, guts, and a mean hatred for the undead. What’s he missing? That’s right, a weapon. Only the most fool-hardy challenge a throng of zombies bare-handed, and quite frankly your character shouldn’t be one of them.
Truthfully, the dynamic rules allow for your character to do quite well with just his hands and feet, but no serious hunter of zombies fight barehanded. Fighting with weapons is just plain cooler than standard punches and kicks, and they can give you a few advantages outside of combat, like hunting or chopping wood. Here’s a list of some common and esoteric weapons that you could probably find lying around the world of Xombie. GMs should consider letting players come up with their own, so long as it’s grounded in this world’s reality and the players can justify why their characters would have it. Weapons are listed along with the character points that they cost to have equipped on their character from the moment of generation.
Characters may only use one weapon at a time in combat unless they buy the Dual Wield Attribute (Section 8, Traits). Switching weapons in combat takes two actions: one to get rid of the first, and one to ready the next. If weapons are switched in the middle of combat, then only one Flair point is awarded for each action.
If a weapon has a Combat bonus, the bonus only comes into play once per post it is used in, not how many times it was used in the post. Stabbing a zombie three times with a sword adds +1 to your Player Attack, not +3.
If you switch between weapons during a single combat post, you get the bonus for each weapon you have used in your combat post, up to two weapons per combat post. If you have the Dual Wield skill, you may switch between 4 weapons during a single combat post.

Light Melee
Cost: None
Combat Bonus: None
Requirements: None
A standard issue knife or its equivalents aren’t hard to come by. Pocket knives, steak knives, and small combat knives can be wielded by just about anyone, are portable, and can’t run out of ammo. Of course other relatively light things such as small trashcan lids, thick encyclopedias, or paper fans can be fit into this category just as easily.

Heavy Melee
Cost: 1 character point
Combat Bonus: You receive a bonus your Player Attack score equal to half of your level (rounded up). For example, if you were Level 6, you would get 3 bonus Player Attack points. If you were level 7, you would receive 4 bonus Player Attack points. If your character was not generated with the weapon, they receive +1 to their Player Attack.
Requirements: 1 to 3 Muscle points, depending on the weapon
This can cover quite a large variety of objects. Baseball bats with nails in them, shovels, billiard cue-sticks, small chainsaws, fireplace pokers, and swords of all shapes and sizes belong here. Hard to come by and specialized weapons, like steel-plated combat fans, tonfas, or one-handed chopping axes also fit this category.

Super Heavy Melee
Cost: 2 character points
Combat Bonus: You receive a bonus your Player Attack ck score equal to your level. For example, if you were Level 5, you would get 5 bonus Player Attack points. If your character was not generated with the weapon, they receive +2 to their Player Attack.
Requirements: 4 or more Muscle points, depending on the weapon
Very unconventional weapons that would require a great deal of strength or special skills to wield. Helicopter blades, 7 foot chains with giant links, multi-bladed glaives the size of your arm, parking meters, basketball goals, or steel girders belong in this category.

Light Ranged
Cost: 1 character point
Combat Bonus: You receive a bonus to your Flair score in combat equal to half of your level (rounded up). For example, if you were Level 6, you would get 3 bonus Flair points for your combat post. If you were level 7, you would receive 4 bonus Flair points. If your player was not generated with the weapon, they receive +1 to their Flair.
Requirements: 2 Synapse points
Ranged weapons require great aim and the mental fortitude to be able to use them effectively under the stress of combat. Light ranged weapons use physically propelled ammunitions that were meant to be sent flying under the player’s own skills. Slingshots, boomerangs, ninja stars, or throwing needles are good examples.

Heavy Ranged
Cost: 2 character points
Combat Bonus: You receive a bonus to your Flair score in combat equal to your level. For example, if you were Level 5, you would get 5 bonus Flair points for your combat post. If your player was not generated with the weapon, they receive +2 to their Flair.
Requirements: 2 Synapse points
Heavy ranged weapons use ammunition that doesn’t rely on strength to send them flying, such as handguns, shotguns, rifles, or laser guns. For dramatic purposes, players are always assumed to have unlimited ammo while in combat, reloading every couple of posts for authenticity’s sake. Yes, it bends the laws of reality, but in most movies you’ll see the hero fire off dozens of bullets from one clip of ammunition and won’t complain about it, so there. A GM might find that they just can’t stand this and put a strict limit to the shots you can have in on your person. Warn the players if you’ll do this in your campaign. More obscure weapons, like harpoons or 3 foot long boomerangs, also qualify.

Super Heavy Ranged
Cost: 3 Character Points
Combat Bonus: You receive a bonus to your Flair score in combat equal to 150% of your level (multiply your Level by 1.5). For example, if you were Level 6, you would get 9 bonus Flair points for your combat post. If your player was not generated with the weapon, they receive +10 to their Flair.
Requirements: 3 Synapse Points, 2 or more Muscle points, depending on the weapon
It’s time to pull out the big guns. This weight class includes rocket launchers, bazookas, flamethrowers, or any other weapon that has self-propelled ammunition. Super Heavy Ranged weapons will rarely be allowed to be equipped by players at the start of the game, since many of the items are hard to come by, and would generally be an awarded item (finding a bazooka deep in a zombie-filled military bunker, for instance). These weapons may also pose a danger to other players in cramped quarters, so the use of explosive or incendiary weapons might be banned if the fight is taking place in a room or hallway, to reduce gameplay headaches. Unlike Heavy Ranged weapons, Super Heavy Ranged have only got a limited number of uses that the GM must specify when the item is created:
“You see a bazooka on the floor. Six rockets lay by its side”
or
“You see a flamethrower on the floor. The tank’s dial reads that it’s half empty; good for about 4 bursts.”

Players who want weapons (this should be just about everyone) may have to get them approved by the GM to make sure it won’t unbalance things too much. GMs have the final ruling on the stats of weapons, as well as what category they belong in.

PLUS and CHARACTER WEAPONS
Unless a character comes created with it, most weapons are considered "props" in the game to be used and discarded for dramatic purposed. However, sometimes a GM may wish to gift players with an especially potent "Plus Weapon" as a reward. These weapons have bonuses on them, such as "Baseball Bat +3" or "Assault Rifle +5". A GM will tell her players the name and bonus of the weapon when they aquire it. They offer bonuses like a regular "prop" weapon, but add bonuses according to their type (Attack for Melee weapons and Flair for Ranged weapons). These bonuses can reflect especially fine craftmanship, potency, or some other signifigance.
Character Weapons are especially rare gifts from the GM. Instead of acting like props, it's as if these weapons were with acharacter upon their creation, giving them full bonuses. They can usually be aquired after winning a battle with a Named enemy, and can also have bonuses. For instance, let's say that the party has just defeated Bling-Bling Bogie, a whacked-out zombie pimp. One of the Player Characters picks up the zombie's walking stick, and the GM posts as such
"You are surprised by the weight of the pimp's walking stick, and find that the gold-plated exterior is disguising a heavy iron core. You have aquired the Heavy Melee Character Weapon, Staff of Bogie +3!"
Remember that Character weapons are very rare, and should be given only as a reward after a difficult ordeal.

Other Gear
Players can start the game with more than the clothes on their back and a weapon. A doctor would be expected to have a first aid kit, a motorcyclist would probably have a gas can, a hobo would have a bottle of booze, or a high school student may carry a pack of cigarettes (disgusting habit). Items like this that don’t offer combat bonuses are free, so long as the player can justify having them. A skateboarder wouldn’t have access to a spacesuit. Limit the players to one or two pieces of personal gear.
_________________
See where it all began: the Supply Run.
Want to see that Xombie movie? Fight the good fight.
Pre-order Xombie: Dead on Arrival today!

[BeyondTheGr4ve]

8. TRAITS: It takes all kinds to make the world go round

Traits are skills or personality facets a character has when they are created. Traits help flesh out a character in the minds of other players. There are three kinds; Attributes, Defects, and Skills. All players have 4 slots for Attributes and Defects, and must fill at least 1 slot with a Defect.
Attributes cost Creation points (Section 2) to add to your Traits. They provide benefits to your character during gameplay, and usually have something to do with a character's personality.
Defects grant you additional Creation points when you add them to your Traits. They can hinder your character during gameplay. You may only have 2 Defects maximum.
Skills are abilities characters may have prior knowledge of, or learn over time. Characters can have an unlimited number of Skills, and can even purchase them during the game with Xombie points.
You may not purchase 2 or more of the same type of Attribute, Defect, or Skill.

Here’s an easy way to picture your slots:

Attributes/Defects:
1) Defect
2) Empty
3) Empty
4) Empty

Skills:
Empty

These are a few samples. Players are free to think up their own and submit them to their GM for approval. If BeyondTheGr4ve approves a Trait, it might even wind up in the rulebook!

--------------------------------------------------------------

ATTRIBUTES:


~Berserker:
Costs: 2 Creation points
This character does not know when to quit. They have deep resentment or anger in their hearts, probably the cause of some past trauma. Instead of carrying their emotional baggage around with them, they’ve decided to throw it at whatever ticks them off. A Berserker character may continue to fight for 1 combat post after they have been ruled KO’ed by the GM, fueled by a blind rage to tear their enemies apart, minus 1 Action, which is spent falling over dramatically (Flair +0).
Example:
Shaun has just reached 0 Body from a zombie bite. He has a synapse of 3. His next post reads:
[Berserker Post]
“I tear a zombie’s limb off[First Action], shove it through another’s ribcage[Second Action], then succumb to my wounds and pass out[Third Action]”
Berserk characters get a bonus to their Character Attack equal to their Muscle stat (disregarding penalties from Defects).
Once a Berserker post has been finished, the character is KO’ed as normal: their Body is 0 until the end of combat. If the character is a Variant, 2 shots of embalming fluid must be administered to revive them.
A character can NOT earn the Death Blow to a Named enemy through a Berserker post.

~Burst of Rage
Cost: 1 Creation point
This character is always simmering. Even if they may seem calm on the surface, if their allies fall, they will be overcome with a Burst of Rage! During a combat round, whenever another player’s character is KO’ed by an enemy attack, he gets a temporary boost of 1 extra Muscle dice. This bonus is cumulative for every party member that is KO’ed, but it will only be effective for the first time they are knocked out in the combat round. If the ally is revived mid-fight, the Rage fades, and the bonus can not be gained until the next combat round, even if the ally is knocked out again.

~Good Luck
Cost: 0 Creation points
Luck is that intangible something that can nudge fate ever so slightly in the character’s favor. Every once in a while, the dice on the player’s rolls may be shifted a point, one way or another. If they just needed one more point to avoid taking damage in combat, the GM could fudge it a bit. If their character flips a coin, it’s just a bit more likely it will come up in their favor. They might just be the one that happens to find the one car that works in a junkyard AND has half a tank of gas left. The GM is discouraged from revealing when Luck has played a part in things, and should only take it into account every once in a while.

~Intimidation
Cost: 0 Creation points
The ability to put up a tough front, even if you’re actually got the soul of a fuzzy pink bunny. Even rough-types may back down from a fight if you stare them down. Intimidation can be used to get people to do things against their will
“Gimme your sandwich, wussy.”
Or motivate them if you affect an air of authority:
“Evacuate the city right NOW!”
Other player characters are not affected by this trait. As heroic-types, they can see right through it.

~Knowledgeable
Cost: 0 to 1 Creation points
Some characters just know a lot. They may come from a profession of teaching, or work in a particular field. Either way, the character is likely to know things about a given situation that the other players don’t. The player must specify what type of knowledge they possess. General knowledge like the lay of the land or Western history takes 0 Creation points. Extensive anatomical knowledge of the human body or complex physics would count as 1 point. If the GM decides that there’s something in the environment that a Knowledgeable player would know about, they should Private Message them with the info. What the character does with that information is up to them.
Knowledgeable can represent a wide range of skills, from auto-mechanic, to rocket scientist, to the occult, and it can be assumed that the appropriate skills will come with it. For example, an auto-mechanic obviously knows about cars, and if the player encounters a broken vehicle, chances are he’ll know how to fix it (provided he has the proper tools).

~Open-minded
Cost : 0 Creation points
Living characters automatically distrust, fear, or outright hate the undead. Open-minded characters will at least pause if one starts talking to them and will even listen. They may not ever actually like them, but at least they won’t try to fill them full of lead at the drop of a hat. Taking the Open-minded attribute also means that players can get away with acting against character type. If Shaun is from City A, a city that hates all of the people from City B, he’ll listen to what one of them has to say before jumping into a fight. Open-minded people are also more likely to change their habits and accept new knowledge.

~Perceptive
Cost: 1 Creation point
Perceptive players will notice their surroundings better than other players. They may notice a glimmer in the distance, the muzzle of a gun poking from the crack of a doorway, or learn to read NPCs’ motions, which can help them to see past lies or other facades. At any point in time, a player may Private Message the GM to request the remaining Horde points of a crowd of enemies, or the remaining Body points of a Named enemy. The GM must respond with the truthful numbers. A GM should be notifying a Perceptive character about their environment on a constant basis. Whether or not the player decides to share this information is completely up to them.

~Soul of the Sword
Cost: 2 Creation Points, character must be equipped with a sword-like weapon upon creation
From birth, this character has displayed an uncanny aptitude with sticks, bats, and shovels. Objects such as these seem to spring alive in their hands, and they often spin them around, throw them up in the air and catch them in their toes, just for fun. They may add +1 more Flair for every Action that they use their sword in combat up to their level number.
Example:
Shaun is Level 3, with 4 synapse.
Shaun: “I slice a zombie in front of me, a zombie behind me, a zombie to my left, and a zombie to my right.”
He gets a bonus +3 Flair added to his total earned Flair.
Characters with this Attribute may draw and sheath their sword without using up an Action (even 2 at a time if they have the Dual Wield Skill).
Players who wish to justify crazy-cool sword fights should get this attribute.

~Trustworthy
Cost: 0 Creation points
Whether it’s a winning smile, a gentle voice, or a charismatic personality, this character is immediately deemed trustworthy by non-player characters. They somehow feel that they can confide in them telling them hopes, dreams, or private secret passages around an automated defense system. A trustworthy Variant can even sway the minds of the Living to not kill him on sight, though he would have to talk pretty fast.
A Trustworthy character can be very persuasive, and sway the minds of NPCs not just to confide in them, but to believe what they say as well. Trustworthy characters are great mediators.

~Vicious
Cost: 0 Creation Points
Your were just born mean, or maybe you have a will to survive in this world that burns brighter than others, or perhaps it’s just plain stubbornness. Whatever the case, when met with opposition, you’re able to muster just enough gumption to come out on top.
When this character ties an opponent in combat, they win instead. Winning is considered to be exceeding the opponent’s attack roll by 1.

~Weapons Master
Cost: 3 Creation Points
Normally weapons take training to get used to. Not so for the Weapons Master. Any weapon that she picks up gets the full bonuses of a weapon as if they were with her upon creation.

~Well-Preserved [Variants Only]
Cost: 1 Creation Point
For being dead, she certainly looks good. The effects of Nekrosis have slowed down her decay to the point that she can pass as a perfectly normal human being, unless she is closely scrutinized. The decay has slowed so much that she only has to inject herself with embalming fluid every 12 hours, instead of the normal 6. While her body may appear human, if a living person gets too near, they may notice certain things, such as her unblinking eyes, the unhealthy tinge of green to the flesh, and maybe even the faint odor of embalming fluid. Well-Preserved Variants can interact normally with other placers and Non-Player Characters, even if the humans don’t have the Open-Minded Attribute. Only suspicious or observant people will immediately notice something is wrong.

~Zombie Bane [Living Only]
Costs: 5 Creation Points
You’d never know it by looking at him: he’s picked last for sports, has an oppressive job, and goes home to a lonely one-room apartment. This man’s true purpose in life will only be revealed when all seems lost to the earth. This man is a Zombie Bane. Zombie Bane is the concept that even seemingly useless, average guys can rise up to the challenge and kick ass. When the undead rise, for some reason this guy can put them back in their graves with astonishing ease. Even if he has no weapons training, anything within arm’s reach can be used with incredible effectiveness. Any time he’s fighting zombies, he gets +3 to his Player Attack roll, and +3 Flair. If applied against the undead, he can use any weapon that can feasibly be used by one person, and automatically gets the bonuses of said weapons (see Weapons, Section 7) as if they were created with him.
If he ever ties his Character Attack with a Horde or Name’s Threat Level, he rolls 1 6-sided die, and adds that to his Character Attack.
The downside is that as soon as the zombies are cleared out, he becomes your average Joe once again. He’ll refuse to carry any conventional weapon (guns/swords/grenades/etc.) unless he has trained in them.

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DEFECTS:
Every hero has to have a weakness. In Xombie: the RPG, almost every weakness your character uses to fill a slot of their Traits grants them an additional Creation point bonus. Some not-so-bad weaknesses don’t give them any bonuses, but can be used to fill the required amount of Defects for their character generation. Most of these Defects deal with attitude or personalities. If a GM feels that a player isn’t playing according to their character, they should give that player a warning. Further infractions may warrant deducting a Xombie point or two from that player.
Many Defects subtract from a player’s Character Attack or Flair points. The minimum number that these can be reduced to is 1.
A character may only have TWO Defects.


~Addiction [Living Only]
Bonus: 2 Creation points
She didn’t read those posters in the nurse’s office at school, gave in to peer pressure, and now here she is, addicted to the stuff. Wether its through cigarettes, alcohol, or a tin of snuff, she has to fulfill her body’s craving for the poison, and “The Patch” or some other substitute just won’t cut it. She needs a good smoke (or drink, whatever) at least every two hours, but certainly doesn’t mind lighting up after a battle or just when she’s nervous. After two hours, she’s start getting irritable, and after 5 she loses 1 Character Attack point and 1 Flair point in battle. If she goes 8 hours without a cigarette or swig of alcohol, she’s just plain mean, and may go to lengths to get a smoke that would put her in danger. Her hands start shaking, and she gets a splitting headache, resulting in losing 2 Character Attack points and 2 Flair points in battle. A character going through withdrawal symptoms probably snaps at NPCs, or may carelessly start trouble at the wrong moment when out of battle.
Characters with an Addiction are expected to have at least several hours-worth of their poison of choice on them when first generated. A carton shoved up a sleeve, or a bottle of bourbon hidden in your vest pocket work just fine. See “Other Gear” in Section 7

~Bad Luck
Bonus: 1 Creation point
Things just don’t seem to work well for this character. Maybe he broke a mirror or maybe he’s not on good karmic standings, but the bottom line is he seems to be jinxed. He might overlook some important clue, step in something disgusting, or wake up on his wedding day with a giant wart on his nose.
In combat, things are a little more serious. Sometimes there are close calls that he just doesn’t get out of. If he is one Character Attack point away from losing a Body point or tying a Threat, some random occurence almost always distracts him at a fatal moment. If zombies surprise the group, chances are he’ll be on the recieving end of the worst attacks.
As with Good Luck, GMs should never let the player know for sure what kind of affect Bad Luck directly has on the afflicted character.

~Bumbling
Bonus: 2 Creation points
This character is clumsy. They may have two left feet, or maybe they just have poor hand-eye coordination. Whatever the reason, whenever they roll a 1 in Combat, they must subtract 1 from their Character Attack.

~Cannibal
Bonus: 3 Creation points
Not all Xombies can resist their most primal nature, and in desperate times some humans will do anything to survive. You are one of those who have succumbed to your dark desire for the flesh of the living. You are Addicted to human flesh, but its withdrawal symptoms are much more harsh on your now-diseased constitution. A character with the Cannibal Defect must eat half a pound of fresh flesh (any living thing killed less than ten minutes ago) every 24 hours, or automatically lose 1 Body point, which can only be regained by eating a pound of fresh flesh. One pound will restore 1 Body point lost from hunger, but will not restore Body points lost by any other means.
Any living humans or animals feel a distinct agitation near you, no matter how they would treat other variants, even if they don’t know of your habits. In addition, Cannibals can recognize each other from the smell of blood wafting from their pores.

~Clingy
Bonus: 2 Creation points
It’s tough in this new world, and survivors can be few and far between the fortress-cities. Is it any wonder that there are those who develop emotional reliance on others? Those who are Clingy can’t bear to be alone for to long: they start panicking, having abandonment issues, and can eventually be reduced to nervous wrecks. If they find themselves separated from the party, or all of their party members have been knocked out in battle, they suffer a -4 Flair penalty in combat. Clingy characters will do everything in their power to make sure that they are not by themselves, and may resort to questionable methods (stowing away, stalking, lying, etc.) to ensure that they won’t be left behind.

~Cowardly
Bonus: 4 Creation points
Any player in his right mind will try to maximize their character’s potential, but for those that want a special challenge, they can be Cowardly. A cowardly character will avoid a fight at all costs, and even during one is so scared that they may constantly flub their attacks. To represent this, they receive a -3 penalty to Character Attack and a -3 penalty to their Flair during battle. Some GMs may rule that this type of character would ruin their campaign, so a Cowardly character should have some helpful Attributes to make a contribution to the party (like First Aid or Perceptive).

~Decay of Muscle [Variants Only]
Bonus: 2 Creation points
Variants face the inexorable fact that every second of their new lives, they are rotting away. For the full details of how to represent this, see the Character Creation chapter (Section 2). Unfortunately, these guys have got it even worse. Not only do they lose 1 Body point per skipped injection, but they temporarily lose 1 Muscle point as well! Injecting embalming fluid will restore 1 lost Muscle point per injection, just as it restores a lost Body point. Fully immersing themselves in fluid for several hours completely restores lost Muscle points. Muscle point can only be lost to a minimum of 1.

~Decay of Mind [Variants Only]
Bonus: 2 Creation points
Not only is this Variant’s body rotting away, but his brains are going soft too. When he misses his injection of embalming fluid, he temporarily loses 1 Synapse point, in addition to his 1 Body point. This can be restored by injecting embalming fluid into himself, and will restore 1 point per injection (or fully if they are completely immersed in the fluid for several hours). For the full details of rotting away, see Section 2.

~Desecrator
Bonus: 4 Creation points
Once a zombie stops moving, smart heroes just go on to the next one. Not so with the Desecrator. For whatever reason, she feels the need to keep mutilating the same body over and over again. She won’t be completely satisfied until it’s just a lump of decaying jelly, and she doesn’t mind taking the extra actions to do it.
Actions are normally defined by feats done in combat against an active enemy. The Desecrator must waste one Action mutilating the corpse of an already disposed enemy, and label it as their Desecrator Action. For example, if Shaun were a normal with three Synapse, his post might read:
“I decapitate a zombie [first action], punch a zombie [second action], then kick a zombie. [third action]”
With Desecrator, it might run:
“I decapitate a zombie [first action], punch a zombie [second action], then rip that zombie’s jaw off with my bare hands and giggle maniacally. [Desecrator action]”
A player only receives +1 Flair from a Desecrator Action, or +2 if it is exceptionally interesting.
A player’s Character Attack is subtracted by his Muscle stat, to represent the wasted attack.
Desecrators have also been known to relieve themselves on tombstones, just for kicks.

~Dim Bulb
Bonus: 1 Creation point
No offense, but he’s not exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. We all know him: the dumb jock, the punch-drunk boxer, or perhaps even that “special” kid whose mom makes him wear a helmet. The simple fact is, he aint too bright. While your character may not run into walls, he certainly seems to miss a lot of the obvious. What’s even worse is that the people around him can tell, whether it be from his simple speech, crude clothes, or the thin line of drool that trickles down his chin. His lack of keen reasoning skills doesn’t necessarily impede his ability to fight, but he’ll certainly take the direct approach. Dim Bulbs probably won’t be carrying around combat yo-yos or katana swords; too pansy. Parking meters or planks of wood with nails sticking out of them are more his style.

~Goody Two-Shoes
Bonus: 1 Creation point
You’re a straight arrow through and through. You have a moral compass and sense of duty that dictates every action you take, for better or worse. You have a code of honor, that you will not deviate from except in the direst of circumstances. While this may not necessarily forbid you from plowing down zombies at 80 miles an hour, you won’t kill a human intentionally, no matter what. Drinking, gambling, and smoking are almost always forbidden. Characters of this type are usually bound to a code of religion, such as preachers or devout church attendees, but maybe working as the head of the local orphanage has softened them up. Whatever the reason, you can always count on them to do “the right thing” no matter how annoying it is.

~Gun Shy
Bonus: 2 Creation points
Whether it’s from a traumatic experience or sensitive hearing, this character can’t stand it when guns go off. The louder a gun’t blast, the worse she flinches. Any time a gun is used nearby (even by her own companions) she cringes. If she’s in combat, she’ll receive -3 from her Player Attack for that post. If not in combat, she’ll probably just wince. Since this Defect reflects more of a fear of guns themselves rather than the noise they make, even a nearby silenced gun activates this Defect.
Gun Shy characters may not possess the Gunbunny Skill.

~Jumpy
Bonus: 3 Creation points
Sudden loud noises affect this character, causing them to jump when startled. If a loud sudden noise happens nearby (loud gunshot, crash of glass, etc) during combat, they lose -3 from their Character Attack.

~Monologue/Inner Monologue
Bonus: 4 Creation points
We’ve seen it before: the villain has the hero on the ropes, no chance to escape. All he needs to do is pull the trigger and his arch nemesis is gone for good. And what does he do? He delivers a ten minute speech on how screwed the hero is, and by the time its done, they’ve either escaped or been rescued. Well, sometimes heroes can be guilty of this too. For whatever reason, before they start fighting, the character feels the uncontrollable urge to spout about a paragraph’s worth of dialogue (4 lines minimum). Maybe they’re a preacher, and feel the need to read the undead their last rites, or maybe they want to pep talk the group. Whatever the case, when the GM announces a combat situation, this character’s first post will ALWAYS be a speech of some sort that only count for 1 to 3 Flair points. A 3 Flair point speech should definitely be more than the minimum 4 lines, and really ramp up a player’s character (be it cheesy, funny, or serious).
Of course, some characters may be more introverted. That’s what triggers an Inner Monologue. They suffer all of the effects of the Monologue defect, but the dialogue takes place internally. Perhaps they have a flashback to their past, or maybe they must weigh the consequences of their actions. Whatever the case, they simply think their monologue instead of speaking it.

~Obsessed
Bonus: 1 Creation point
Here’s an interesting one. Most people have goals in life, but this character may let their goals dictate their life. Maybe they’re focused on vengeance for a slain loved one, upholding their honor, or collecting all of the Hyper Battle Monster cards. They will go out of the way to achieve their goals, and may even put their own life or the lives of their comrades in danger, if they feel that it would culminate in achieving their goals.

~Paranoid
Bonus: 1 Creation point
Simply put, this player doesn’t trust anyone. They might be hell-bent on their own survival, or think that everyone else has it in for them. Either way, they won’t confide any secrets that they don’t have to, and probably won’t follow orders unless it’s obvious something bad would happen to them if they didn’t.

~Physically Disabled
Bonus: 1-3 Creation points
Injuries can happen all of the time in a world ruled by the undead. People can lose hands, chunks of their faces, or even whole limbs in battle. Maybe they were just born that way. Whatever the case, a physically disabled person has a deformed body that affects their combat prowess and day-to-day life. The severity of the deformities would determine how many bonus points and what kind of penalty points they get.
A character who has had an eye gouged out would still be able to see and interact with the word around them, but wouldn’t be able to interact with it on the level that they once could. 1 bonus Creation point. -3 penalty to Flair points in battle.
Someone who has had their arm chopped off and can now only fight one handed is at a serious disadvantage. 2 bonus Creation points. -1 Muscle point.
If they’re restricted to a wheel chair because their legs are completely paralyzed, they would get 3 bonus Creation points, -2 Muscle points, and find it extremely difficult to get around the Xombie world.

~Phobia
Bonus: 1 to 2 Creation points
Phobias are fears which a character may harbor. The list is long: spiders, darkness, heights, sharp objects, etc. Whenever a character encounters the subject of their Phobia, they immediately recoil in horror before they can compose themselves. Players must specify what they fear when listing this Defect.
During combat if a character encounters their Phobia, they immediately lose 1 Character Attack per every 1 that they rolled if their Phobia is worth 1 point. If their Phobia is worth 2 points, they lose 2 Character Attack for every 2 and 1 Character Attack for every 1 that they roll.
Example: Shaun has a 2-point Phobia of darkness.
GM: “Shaun has entered a dark room, and is overcome with fear. Several zombies attack!”
Shaun: “I punch one in the head, kick one in the shin, then head-butt one.”
The GM rolls 3 dice for Shaun’s 3 Actions. They come up as 2, 1, and 5. The zombies roll a Threat of 6. Any rolls below 2 are discarded, leaving Shaun with 5 for his Character Attack.
GM: “Shaun is filled with horror, and fights badly. The darkness seems to close in around him, and a zombie is able to overcome his weak defenses and bite him! Lose 1 Body point!”

~Poor Shape (Living Only)
Bonus: 3 Creation Points
Smoking, Asthma, or just not getting enough exercise has caused this character to have little to no endurance. The longer he has to throw his all into a fight, the weaker he’ll get. Poor Shape imposes a cumulative penalty on characters, and may be represented by coughing and wheezing if the character likes. Each turn after the first in combat, a -1 penalty is imposed. This penalty is not cumulative form battle to battle. If one battle leads into the next, such as coming straight from a horde battle into a named fight, the penalty resets. This represents the character getting a second wind, and helps to balance game-play.
For Example, Shaun has the Poor Shape defect. When he enters combat with the horde, he begins getting tired. On the first turn of combat, he’s still energetic enough, so he has no penalty. On the second turn, he’s already started to weaken, so he gets a -1 penalty. Turn 3 he’s starting to get pretty sluggish, so he gets slapped with a -2 penalty. Turn 4 he’s taking a -3. So on and so forth until he either falls unconscious or combat ends.

~Psychosis
Bonus: 3 Creation points
This character is losing their grip on reality. Though it may manifest under normal social situations, it becomes blatantly obvious when they are under stress. For every combat post the character makes, the GM rolls 6-sided dice. On a 1, they PM the afflicted character with a hallucination that they are experiencing, and the character must spend their next post acting accordingly. Hallucinations might include swarms of insects, the revival of dead loved ones, loss of limbs, or other nasty experiences.
The character need only post one to three sentences of reaction. Their Flair is reduced to 1 for that post, and they suffer a -2 penalty to all Muscle dice rolls (to a minimum of 0) for the post. If the combat ends before the afflicted player would get to carry out their Psychosis post, it will be carried over to the next combat, and be their first post will be the Psychosis post.
Mac has 3 Muscle and the Psychosis Defect.
Mac: “I slash a zombie from top to bottom with my bowie knife, reach in the chest cavity, break out a rib, and then use it like a boomerang to take out one at a distance. The boomerang skewers the zombie’s head as pressurized brain matter spurts from both sides.”
Mac’s Teammates: “I beat up the zombies!”
[The GM rolls a dice for Mac’s Psychosis and it comes up as a 1. He PMs Mac with a hallucination.] Mac: “AAGH!! The snails are taking control of my brain! I don’t want to live in slavery!”
Mac’s Teammates: “WTF?” [Mac’s GM had sent him a PM saying that a giant snail was grafting itself to his brain stem. Mac acted accordingly, but still got to roll his 3 Muscle to defend himself from the Horde. However, all thee of those rolls will suffer a -2 penalty, for a grand total of a -6 penalty to his Character Attack.]

~Showoff
Bonus: 3 Creation point
Wherever she goes, this character wants the spotlight on her. She may yearn to become a movie star some day, or desperately seek approval. She’ll try everything she can to get attention: if she can’t impress you, she’ll try to disgust you. In battle, she’ll go so far as to always waste the first action of any combat post posing in as cool a form as she can. Of course with her attitude, it always comes across as forced, and only nets her 1 or 2 Flair points.

~Sickness [Living Only]
Bonus: 2 Creation points
Didn’t eat your vegetables? Especially malnourished? Smoke way too much? Inhaled the gasses of rotting flesh all of your life? You’re susceptible to the Sickness Defect. Characters are constantly pale-looking, coughing, sneezing, and breaking out in hives. They may not be able to keep solid foods down for long, and wounds take longer to heal. First Aid used on them doesn’t restore a point of their Body until 1 post after it has been applied, and instead of naturally healing a lost Body point every 4 non-combat posts like a normal human, they heal a body point every 6 non-combat posts.

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SKILLS

Skills represent abilities that your characters can learn over time. In the “real” world, these skills could take years to master, plenty of time for the undead hordes to catch up to you. In this RPG, all you have to do is send a Private Message to your GM and purchase them via Xombie Points! You can have an unlimited number of Skills.


~Acrobatic
Costs: 1 Creation point or 5 Xombie Points
An acrobatic player is quick and limber. They can pull off somersaults, back-flips, and the like with no problems. Players who would like to pull off moves where you jump around a lot should purchase this attribute. Players get +1 Flair in a post if they did an acrobatic feat (flipping, tumbling, spinning gracefully and punching, etc).

~Brawler
Costs: 1 Creation point or 5 Xombie points
This character is probably built like a meat tank, and practices a brutal hand-to-hand form of fighting, the ancient art of “beatin’ da crap outta somethin’”. Even while unarmed, they receive Player Attack bonuses as if they held a Heavy Melee weapon. They can’t be disarmed unless a limb is severed (dis-ARMed...heh heh). They also receive an additional bonus if they are equipped with a Light Melee, Heavy Melee, or Super Heavy Melee weapon.
They will temporarily lose the bonuses of this skill if they wield any Ranged weapon during a post.
Characters with the Physically Disabled Defect may not take the Brawler Skill if the Defect affects their arms or legs.

~Dead Like Me [Variants Only]
Costs: 5 Creation points or 25 Xombie Points
This Variant is so immersed in their new undead existence that they can pass as a normal zombie among a crowd of ghouls. This goes far beyond just walking the walk and talking the talk: they have found a way to suppress the mystic beacon that draws zombies to feed on the living. They may fearlessly tread through an infested city, or walk across an undead-ridden shopping mall with ease. In combat, so long as they don’t make a post which involves attacking their fellow undead, they do not have to worry about being attacked themselves.
As soon as they do display any aggression, the veil is dropped, and they will be attacked as normal for the duration of combat. Named zombies can’t be fooled by this ability.

~Dual Wield
Costs: 3 Creation points or 15 Xombie Points
Normally, players can only use one weapon at a time in combat, but the player who Dual Wields displays the remarkable ability to use two at once. Every time they use two weapons in a post during combat, they receive +2 Flair, not to mention getting the bonuses for BOTH weapons used.

~First Aid
Costs: 2 Creation points or 10 Xombie Points
This character probably has a previous history in medicine, herbal treatment, or anatomy. They know how to patch up other players that have been wounded, and will even get Private Messages from the GM if a plant in the area is known to be especially good for injuries, or if certain things that are lying around have any medical merit (only if the character would know about it). When not in combat, and if they have the supplies necessary, they can restore 1 point of Body per 4 of a GMs posts (on the board) to any non-Variant player. Variants are dead, and have their own ways of dealing with damage (Section 2: Variants vs. the Living). Supplies needed depend on the wound, but could include materials for splints, bandages, salves, special herbs, or other medicines, as specified by the GM.

~Field Medic
Cost: 1 Creation point, or 5 Xombie points
Requires the First Aid skill
Some people can patch up wounds. Some people can fight. Some people can do one while the other is happening. Sometimes, there is nothing more important that getting a man back in the battle before the zombies kill everyone, and that is why field surgery was invented. As a post that takes all of a character’s Actions, a Field Medic can ‘patch up’ another player who has been KOed. A character who is patched up regains 1 Body instantly, and can begin posting again in combat the next round. During the round in which the Field Medic is patching up another character, the injured character is in no danger, but the Field Medic is. The GM makes a normal roll for the Medic against the Horde’s Threat, except giving the Medic a -4 to his Character Attack for it. If the Medic is injured, it does not keep him from finishing the patching up. If the Medic is KOed, however, the other character remains KOed.
For the “patch” post, a Medic is awarded 2 Flair for each of his Synapse points, plus 2 bonus Flair if the KO’ed character was revived successfully.

~Gunbunny
Costs: 3 Creation points or 15 Xombie points, Character must be equipped with at least one gun upon creation.
Sure police officers or members of the armed forces receive combat training in the use of their weaponry, but this gal has a natural talent for blowing things away. She can put her guns on full auto, do a back flip in the air, and each bullet will find its target. Players who want to justify over-the-top gunplay should have this Attribute.
She gets +1 Flair in combat for half the Actions she fires her gun, rounded up.
Example: Sue fires her gun at least once per Action, using 4 Actions. She gets +2 Flair as a bonus. If she fires at least once using 7 Actions, she gets +4 Flair as a bonus.
Gunbunny negates the requirements of Light and Heavy Ranged weapons.
During combat, she can draw, holster, and reload her guns without having to spend an Action doing it (both if she has Dual Wield).
Once per combat, the Gunbunny can enter Overkill mode. They must announce at the start of the post that they are using their Overkill. During this post, any Ranged weapon that they fire recieves a bonus as if it were a Super Heavy Ranged Weapon. They receive the Gunbunny bonus Flair for every action instead of the normal half. On their next post, they must subtract their Muscle and Synapse values from their Attack.

~Martial Artist
Cost: 1 Creation points or 5 Xombie points
Your hands should be registered as lethal weapons. You’ve trained extensively in the bare-handed art of smackdown, and scoff at weaponry. Any time you fight with your bare hands, you get +1 to your Character Attack in combat for every unarmed Action that causes a hand or foot to make a harmful impact against an enemy. This is a great Attribute for characters who don’t want to worry about lugging around equipment.

~Scavenger
Cost: 1 Creation points or 5 Xombie points
If a player searches a particular area of their environment (a trashcan, zombie’s body, etc.), they have a chance of obtaining something which may be useful to them, such as a lighter, map, half-eaten hamburger, etc. What’s more, their penchant for dumpster diving has gained them a slightly sturdier digestive system, so they can east discarded food that is several days old without fear of the normal bowel-shaking consequences. How high of a chance they have depends on the GM’s discretion. If a player searches a pile of garbage bags, they probably won’t get something very good, but if they search a Named body, they might get a great item.
Players must actively say that they are searching a particular area of the environment to receive the benefits of this Skill (whereas a Perceptive player automatically notices something unusual).

~Weapon Connection
Costs: 2 Creation Points or 10 Xombie points
Some knights, criminals, or hunters have been known to become so attached to their weapons that they seem to have developed a connection with it; an almost spiritual bond with their particular gun or sword. Characters with this Attribute have given their weapon a name, and will always fight with it if given the chance. So long as they fight with this weapon they get a +1 bonus to their Player Attack in combat.
When they use their Connected weapon, they gain a bonus one weight class above what the weapon would normally give:
A Light Melee weapon counts as a Heavy Melee, a Heavy Melee counts as a Super Heavy melee, and a Super Heavy Melee increases the bonus by 150% (multiply level by 1.5).
A Light Ranged weapon counts as a Heavy Ranged, a Heavy Ranged counts as a Super Heavy Ranged, and a Super Heavy Ranged increases the Flair award by 200% (multiply by 2) instead of 150%.
They will never, ever part with this weapon, even if it means passing up a better one. If Shaun would have to give up his favorite pool cue to carry around a rocket launcher, he’ll stick with the pool cue. Popular names: “Zombie Killer” “Bled Fang” “Mr. Stabs-a-lot” and “Mr. Bllastey”
Weapon Connection will only apply to ONE specific weapon, which the player names as soon as the Skill is purchased. To have another Connected weapon, you must pay for Weapon Connection again, one payment per weapon.


--------------------------------------------

That’s it for the Traits! Choose a couple from the list, or okay one of your own from your GM. Characters should always check to make sure the GM is alright with the Attributes/Defects they have selected, lest it mess up a GM’s campaign in some way. If GMs decide to add a player’s custom Trait, Private Message me (BeyondTheGr4ve) on the Xombie forums (xombieforum.com), and I’ll consider adding it to this section, though I may tweak the numbers and description a bit.
_________________
See where it all began: the Supply Run.
Want to see that Xombie movie? Fight the good fight.
Pre-order Xombie: Dead on Arrival today!

[BeyondTheGr4ve]

9. SAMPLE CHARACTER: Shaun of the Dead

Here’s an example of how to post your character in a thread if you’re looking to play a game. GMs will sift through character posts and pick the ones that they would most like to work with. If a GM has posted a particular game setting that you would be especially interested in, Private Message or email them to make a special request that you be included.
Here we’ll have our player, Joel, create the character Shaun for a game. Yes, I am basing him off the “Shaun of the Dead” movie. No, I wouldn’t encourage GMs to let anyone else make a PC from an already established character. I wrote the rules, so only I get to fudge it on the examples. Booyah.

The GM has posted the following message:
“I’m opening up a game to any newly generated characters. I need 5 players. I will post as the GM every 3 days. During the game, accepted characters who have not posted before I post the next round of play are subject to my control.

Beginning Difficulty: Easy

Estimated Campaign Time: 5 to 6 weeks

Setting:
The zombie madness has been going on for two years now. One of the cities the characters have taken refuge in has just had its outer parameters breached by the walking dead. The military units that have set up posts here have gone to fight off the hordes, but are quickly losing ground. The characters have been hiding together out of necessity in an abandoned cellar, which is well stocked, and even though they didn’t know each other before everything went downhill, over the past several days they’ll come to be familiar with each other. Tuning in to a random frequency on a radio they found in the cellar, they hear a message over the military band. Some ships are planning to secretly leave the city’s dock to head to islands out at sea where zombies haven’t shown up yet.
The characters must cross a city that is quickly falling to the ghouls, get to the docks, and sneak aboard one of the ships.

House Rules:
1. No Physically Disabled defects
2. No Obsessions Defects
3. Characters probably won’t die if they get to 0 Body points. This is an easy game, so you’ll just get knocked out for a few posts.
4. No Variant characters. They wouldn’thave made it through the military blockade yet.\r\n\r\n

Flair Points:
I’ll give away 1 and 2 pointers freely. For 3 points you’ll need some good embellishment. 4 point actions have to have good grammar, especially good descriptions and a cool death that was set up by a previous action. No one has impressed me enough to get 5 points yet.”

Okay, so we have 7 Creation Points to work with. Joel envisions Shaun as a guy that worked in a dead-end job before this whole mess started. He has probably been running around a lot, but still wouldn’t get past 1 Muscle point. As for Body? Forget it. Shaun’s ribcage is visible through his shirt. 1 point for Body. Synapses? Well, he’s been known to think quickly on his feet. We’ll give him 2 Synapses.
So our boy currently looks like this:

Body: 1
Muscles: 1
Synapses: 2

Species: Human [as opposed to Variant]

He’s got three points to play around with. Every Saturday, he always visited his favorite pub for a few drinks and a game of billiards. When the bar closed down for obvious reasons, he decided to take a billiard cue-stick as a souvenir. He pays one point to come equipped with a Heavy melee weapon. Even though it isn’t “Heavy” weight-wise, it’s got a longer reach than a machete, and isn’t found lying around in most areas. He has 2 points left.

Now that Joel thinks about it, maybe Shaun has some hidden potential after all. He decides he wants the Zombie Bane Atribute. That -5 points, and he only has 2. He has spent 3 more points than he is allowed. He decides to take the Gun Shy defect, which will give him 2 bonus points. He has 1 point to go before he can get Zombie Bane.
Joel decides that from a life of getting kicked around at the office, Shaun thinks that the whole world has got it in for him and gives him the Paranoid defect for 1 point.

Remember that characters can only be created with 4 Attributes/Defects, and he already has 3 (Zombie Bane, Gun Shy, and Paranoid).

Now he has 1 spot left for Traits, but no more Creation points to spare. Rather than make things difficult, he decides to just get one 0-point Attribute. He decides that Shaun is Knowledgeable about the important landmarks (like shops or streets) around the city, since he’s lived here all of his life.

Shaun’s final stats look like this:

“Name: Shaun
Level: 1
Age: Early thirties

Body: 1
Muscles: 1
Synapses: 2

Weapon: Billiard cue-stick (Heavy Melee)

Attributes: Zombie Bane, Knowledgeable (City landmarks, 1 point)
Defects: Gun Shy, Paranoid

Appearance: Wears a white button-down shirt and a work tie, which he never takes off. Pleated work pants. His white shirt obviously has some red ink stains from a pen he once kept in his breast pocket. Blonde hair, blue eyes, and fair skinned. His chin always has a bit of unkempt stubble on it.

Bio: Kind of eccentric, but generally good natured. Can become a bit nervous if things start heating up, but under pressure he can really shine. His paranoia comes from his years of working at a dead-end job in a department store. After years of taking abuse, he seems to think the world in general has it out for him. Every Saturday he used to play billiards at his favorite pub, the Winchester, and have a few drinks to help ease his troubles. When the owners announced they were closing the pub to hole up at home, he decided to take his favorite cue-stick with him. His apartments have become a danger zone thanks to the nervous gun-toting tenants. He has set out to find a place to hide in the city.”

There you have it. Notice how Joel detailed Shaun’s Bio enough to let us know about the character, but left it open-ended enough that he could fit into other campaigns if he wasn’t accepted into this one, or wanted to continue using Shaun after this one was done. The GM sees the character sheet on the boards, decides nothing in it would deviate from her intended setting, and invites Joel to join. Once she has all of the players she needs, the GM will post in her thread that she has filled the roster, and will start her campaign on Saturday.
_________________
See where it all began: the Supply Run.
Want to see that Xombie movie? Fight the good fight.
Pre-order Xombie: Dead on Arrival today!

[BeyondTheGr4ve]

10. SAMPLE BATTLE: The mean streets

After a couple days of set-up and roleplaying, the GM has decided to introduce the characters to their first battle. For simplicity’s sake, Shaun’s fighting is the only one recorded here. To help the GM keep track of multiple player characters at once, players should post the names of their characters as the subject line in their post. Anything that appears in brackets shows dice rolls or numbers calculations that the GM is making at home, or notes specially made for this example. Things like this normally wouldn’t appear in a post. Players should remember to clearly label the numbers of their Actions, so the GM can tell them apart. Some players put them in brackets while other may actually put numbers next to them and put them as their own separate lines.

GM’s Post:
“Subject: BATTLE!!!

The distant fire of machine guns and screaming causes Shaun to flinch, and reminds him that you don’t have much time before the city is overrun. There’s nobody in the streets. It seems that the sane ones have barricaded themselves in their homes and are hoping for the best. The place is trashed: broken bottles glisten on the ground as wads of newspaper tumble through the street. Shattered windows tell of the looting that swept through here. It doesn’t look like anything in the small shops of this area would be of use to you. A small car is crunched against the corner of one of the brick buildings, the hood crumpled by the impact. A stop sign is bent at an odd angle next to a yellow fire hydrant, as though it took a beating. Someone has sprayed “Future!” in giant red letters across one of the walls, and left the can of paint on its side nearby on the sidewalk.
Then you hear them. They come slowly around one of the street corner to your left: zombies! Their skin has been shot full of holes, a signal that they’d found an opening in the parameter. They shuffle slowly towards you, decaying skin glistening in the noon sun. There don’t seem to be that many, a small group. What do you do?”

[The zombie group being small, the GM decides to give them 10 Horde points with a Threat of 1]

Joel’s Post
“Subject: Shaun

My Zombie Bane takes over and I yell “Let’s get these blighters, boys!”
As one of them approaches me, I hit it over the head with my cue-stick (First Action), then jam one end into a zombie’s eye socket (Second Action).
“Cue-ball, corner pocket!”

[At home, the GM rolls one 6-sided dice for Shaun’s muscles. It comes up 2. She then adds his Synapse points (+2) and his bonus for his weapon (+1). His Character Attack is currently 5, since 2+2+1=5. With the Zombie Bane Attribute, he receives +3 to his Character Attack, so his new total is 8, since 5+3=8. She judges that the military gun fire is too far away to trigger his Gun Shy Defect. The GM rolls one dice for the Threat level of her horde (Threat 1). It comes up as a 4. Shaun damages the Horde for 4 points, since 8(Character Attack)-4(Threat)=4(Results).
She judges that for Flair, he’ll receive 1 point for his first action, and 2 points for his second, giving him 3 Flair points. He then gets 3 bonus Flair points for his Zombie Bane Attribute. His total Flair is now 6, since 3+3=6.
She notices that Shaun has earned enough Flair to go up to level, and has 2 extra points to go towards his next level.]

GM’s post:
“Subject: BATTLE! #2

Shaun’s Results: 4 damage to the Horde, 6 Flair points awarded. Shaun has gone up to Level 2! He Gains +1 Xombie Point! 4 points until the next level.

The zombie group has significantly decreased, but keeps on coming, crunching broken glass under their unfeeling feet. Their black tongues lolling hungrily to the side, they moan in yearning.”
Shaun’s post:
“Subject: Shaun

“That’ll teach you blighters to close my favorite pub!” I shout. I twirl my pool cue around, which bats away several ghouls (First Action), then jam one end at the skull of a nearby zombie like I’m hitting a billiard ball. Its head snaps back, making a satisfying crack against the cranium of one directly behind it. The momentum causes a spurt of green goo to fly out as they topple like dominoes (Second Action).”

[The GM rolls Shaun’s Muscles and gets a 5, then adds 2 points from the Synapses, 1 point from the cue stick weapon, and 3 because of Zombie bane. 5+2+1+3=11, so Shaun has a Character Attack of 11. She rolls the crowd’s Threat level, and they get a 3.
11-3=9. The Horde takes 9 damage, more than enough to get rid of the 4 points it had left.
She figures the Flair as 2+3 for his actions, then grants him the bonus for his Zombie Bane. 5+3=8. Counting the 2 points he had left from his last level-up, he now has a total of 10 Flair points. It costs 6 points to get to Level 3, so he has 4 left over.]

GM’s post:
“Subject: VICTORY!

Shaun’s Results: 9 damage to the Horde, 10 Flair points awarded. Shaun has gone up to Level 3! 5 points until the next level.

These zombies were no match for you. Their bodies are strewn across the street, cracked skulls and all. The sidewalks are covered with foul-smelling ichors, and already flies are beginning to buzz around the corpses. An especially loud gunshot in the distance makes Shaun flinch, reminding him once again that time is running out. The docks are about a mile down the streets the zombies came from. What do you do?”

[Of course this was the first battle these characters have ever participated in. Most of them are probably on their third level by now, and are getting the hang of how things flow in this game. They might be getting confident, maybe even a little cocky. But that’s alright for the GM. She knows they’ll mow through dozens of zombies on the way to the docks, and maybe pick up a couple of sweet weapons on the way. But that’s okay. She knows that when they get there, there’s going to be a big surprise waiting for them.
What is it? A horde of zombie sailors? The Dock Scourge, a giant Threat 9 Named zombie squid? Maybe they’ll catch the last boat, just as it’s setting off only to discover that they had a better chance of surviving on land after all. The choices are endless. Have fun!]
_________________
See where it all began: the Supply Run.
Want to see that Xombie movie? Fight the good fight.
Pre-order Xombie: Dead on Arrival today!

[BeyondTheGr4ve]

11. GETTING STARTED

Still unsure of how to play? If, after reading the rulebook, you’re still confused, ask one of the XRPG Gatekeepers to help. A Gatekeeper is a forum volunteer who assists players with their characters. When you first post your character, a Gatekeeper will look through it and send you a Private Message if your character’s statistics are wrong. They will work with you on figuring out how the XRPG works, and help you make the most of your experience here. The current Gatekeepers are:
Destroyer1990
Freek
Wild Karrde
Zeubenelginubi
Zorlock

Of course, you could always ask a question to the general community via the N00b Questions thread.

Currently, an FAQ is being developed using the Xombie Wiki.
_________________
See where it all began: the Supply Run.
Want to see that Xombie movie? Fight the good fight.
Pre-order Xombie: Dead on Arrival today!