Looking for suggestions - Cool special powers for zombie clowns?

[scarydk]

(09-04-2012 06:41 AM)goodcop2000 Wrote:  Staypuft, if you get around to doing a scenario based on clowns I have a suggestion for you for mood music. I have a couple of cds from Nox Arcana and they are very good - this particular one has a carnival theme.

carnival music

Awesome, Goodcop2000. This reminds me of the score to a particular scene of the Monkey Island series where the villain LeChuck has constructed a carnival for hiring new recruits to his undead army. Love it. Could fit in neatly as a plot for a custom scenario using clowns and freaks of all kinds.

[PJON]

Why would anyone, ever be scared of a friendly little clown ? Aren't clowns, jolly and happy,...whimsical even ?

zombielover77 Wrote:
hello staypuft
luv the idea of zombie clowns as for special powers they could have one called "CHILDHOOD FEAR" so if a zombie clown moves into a heroes square the hero players space with a clown they cant move away unless a 4,5 or 6 is rolled beacause the clown fear has got to them i know i wouldnt be happy with zombie clown beside me.

I do support this concept though.

scarey clowns ??? I never heard of such a thing before

---

...ohhh and there is always Jo Jo as an insirpation

Invasion From Outer Space, The Martian Game Game by Jason C. Hill

Dancing
May ignore any wound on the D6 roll of 5 or 6.

See Also: Jo Jo

Invasion From Outer Space, The Martian Game
Retrieved from "http://flyingfrogwiki.com/ffpwiki/index.php?title=Ability:Dancing"
Categories: Invasion From Outer Space | IFOS Ability

[zombielover77]

what do you mean clowns arnt scary pjon...have you seen the film IT by stephen king and ronald mcdonald is a scary ass clown too they freak me out i was at a kids party once with my ex and a clown got in my face i had to leave the party lol i think he could sense the fear and homed in on me uugghhhh

[Phantaskippy]

L4D Clowns chase heroes and squeak, drawing other zombies to them, and thus to you.

I could see them as a Grave weapon Zombie with an ability that if they are affected by Zombie hunger the Zombie player may roll a d6 and choose that many zombies to move an extra space, so long as they move toward the clown, or the people near it. That would be pretty sick and "OMG kill that clown now!"

Alternately you could take a clown car approach and (again as a grave weapon zombie) have the Clown able to have one zombie spawned on it instead of at a spawn point, that's a carbon copy of a grave dead, although using it in grave weapons would be super awesome.

You could also make it obnoxious and super tough, have it ignore wounds on certain dice roll and have 2 HP, but the hero gets the same chance if Clown wins, I think this idea is from KCFOS?

You could also make clowns a grave dead zombie type, use the L4D archetype.

As a special scenario I would make a combo game with IFOS and base it off Killer Clowns from Outer Space. That would be pretty bizarre, basically use the IFOS circus tent outside the town from LNOE with LNOE characters. Heroes would need to destroy the ship(tent) with explosives before the clowns got too many townspeople. You could have the zombies and the clowns separate, clowns w/o hunger searching for townspeople using the number tokens and then taking them to the ship, where they would spawn as Zombie heroes, or as another clown. Clowns would have to be tough to fight, while the heroes would have to be boosted at the start.

[scarydk]

(09-04-2012 06:00 PM)zombielover77 Wrote:  what do you mean clowns arnt scary pjon...have you seen the film IT by stephen king and ronald mcdonald is a scary ass clown too they freak me out i was at a kids party once with my ex and a clown got in my face i had to leave the party lol i think he could sense the fear and homed in on me uugghhhh

Think she's being ironic. The pic should tip you off. Pretty darn scary if you ask me.

Btw I totally agree with you. Clowns are the scariest supernatural creatures to have walked the earth. To think that some hospitals actually hire those monsters to wander the corridors. Oh the horror!

[StayPuft]

(09-01-2012 04:25 AM)vikinglad Wrote:  I like this as a Grave Dead sorta option: a pool of 7 clown zombies that always have a certain power. I also like the frozen in place until a 4+ is rolled idea. It is a bit more interesting than just -1 fight dice.

Ooo! You've just given me a neat idea that I'll explain at the end of my post here...

(09-01-2012 09:59 AM)zombielover77 Wrote:  i must admit the -1 to fight dice is a bit harsh i was just showing my own personel fear of clowns lol.
also i would be quite cool if someone could make like a fun fair centre board for the game that the clowns could spawn from not sure how that would work as ive never made any sections before but that could be another option for some other carnival/fun fair zombie type options like bearded lady,ring master with his top hat and tails, clowns, mutated zombie strongman etc or have i gone too far

That would be AWESOME! I love carnivals, and even better when it is an evil carnival. LOL!

Though, I will say this...

Apparently Invasion From Outer Space takes place at a carnival, and the carnies are the heroes. So, IFOS does kind of have that sort of stuff handled, they just are the heroes, not the enemy. Though, I have not yet played that game, so I don't know who all the carnies are. They may not have the bearded lady, clowns, etc. I don't know yet.

(09-04-2012 06:41 AM)goodcop2000 Wrote:  Staypuft, if you get around to doing a scenario based on clowns I have a suggestion for you for mood music. I have a couple of cds from Nox Arcana and they are very good - this particular one has a carnival theme.

carnival music

Awesome! Thanks. Yeah, I've heard some of their stuff before. It should be quite appropriate. ;-)

Anyway, so the thought I had...

How about if, much like the Grave Dead, the Zombie Clowns could have a certain set of powers. You roll to find out. But, since they are clowns, they like to clown around... hence you roll for a different power every time they fight. So, say for example (we can change the specific numbers if we want, just getting the idea down)...

- A roll of 1 means the hero is not afraid of clowns (or at least not this time) and the fight proceeds as a normal fight.

- A roll of 2 means the hero is a little afraid and therefore suffers -1 on his/her fight dice

- A roll of 3 is a power we have yet to determine (maybe wisdomknight's idea, but I'm still not sure what he meant)

- A roll of 4 is another power we have yet to determine

- A roll of 5 means the hero is frozen with fear... the fight proceeds as normal, but the hero then cannot move again in the very next hero round (meaning, if the fight took place during the hero round, they cannot move in the next hero round, if the right took place in the zombie round, they cannot move for THAT coming hero round).

- A roll of 6 means the hero is so afraid, that they run and/or hide and therefore the fight does not take place. (They stay in that spot, but no fight happens, and they can move in the next round).

Again, the difference being that you don't roll once at the beginning to determine their power. You roll every time they fight to see what their power is for just that fight. What does everybody think?

Also, any suggestions to fill in the last two powers? I'm at a loss to come up with anything that isn't too similar to the Grave Dead stuff.

EDIT: Not sure how I missed that there was a second page to this thread now. Continuing below...

Just noticing the second page. Hmmm... liking what some of you have added...

Okay, so maybe the roll of 4 could mean that the Zombie Clown is in a particularly bad arse mood and cannot be wounded in that fight. The hero could still win the fight (it could be fended off) but the clown cannot be killed in that fight.

Then, the roll of 3 could be the L4D-like idea wisdomknight and Phantaskippy explained. So, maybe that power could be that because of the Zombie Clown's squeaky shoes, D6 zombies are allowed to move one more space, as long as it is towards the Zombie Clown. Also, as long as it is not ignoring Zombie Hunger. In fact, I would say that, if a zombie has already moved, but is now adjacent from a hero, you CANNOT move them into the hero. I think it would be a little too overpowered if you could. Also, thematically, their zombie hunger would probably cause them to be more so focused on the hero they are trying to get to, and therefore they wouldn't notice the noise from the zombie clown. So, you could only move zombies not already adjacent to a hero.

Again, anybody have thoughts on that overall idea?

[zombielover77]

(09-04-2012 06:23 PM)scarydk Wrote:  

(09-04-2012 06:00 PM)zombielover77 Wrote:  what do you mean clowns arnt scary pjon...have you seen the film IT by stephen king and ronald mcdonald is a scary ass clown too they freak me out i was at a kids party once with my ex and a clown got in my face i had to leave the party lol i think he could sense the fear and homed in on me uugghhhh

Think she's being ironic. The pic should tip you off. Pretty darn scary if you ask me.

Btw I totally agree with you. Clowns are the scariest supernatural creatures to have walked the earth. To think that some hospitals actually hire those monsters to wander the corridors. Oh the horror!

i see the pic now.... earlier when i was reading post the pic of pjon wasnt there lol i must say lot prettier than ronald mcdonald and not as scary either but never the less still a clown

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liking your style staypuft i like the fact that you roll a dice every time they fight as like u said their crazy clowns and cant be predictable cant wait to use some zombie clowns

[Phantaskippy]

Totally agree Staypuft, the clown could only move zombies not effected by zombie hunger.

I like the randomness of the rolling dice before a fight, but if you did it then the squeaky shoes should allow zombies next to the fight to join in. I would do this only with the dice roll before each fight, if it was a constant ability it shouldn't be able to do it.

-1 to their fight dice result would be wicked, really wicked. It would completely neutralize the Garden Shears and Meat Cleaver, and really hurt the circular saw and Sledgehammer and if optional in the Zombie player's choice could be used to eliminate doubles. I'd rather that just remove one of their fight dice.

You could have a rock-paper-scissors fight option too, one dice each, no weapons, no bonuses from cards. Hero wins and the clown dies (nothing can save it), Clown wins and the Hero must take a wound, discard an item or lose their move action the next turn.

With all this awesome stuff you might want to give the clowns a chance to ignore ranged damage on a roll check, either 5-6 or 4-6 depending on how powerful you want them to be.

I'd do a setup like:

1. Clowning around: Hero can choose to fight clown or not. Clown will not initiate fight.
2. Childhood fear: Hero is afraid of Clowns, roll 1 less fight dice (min. 1)
3. Rock Paper Scissors: one dice each, no modifiers or abilities. If the dice tie you re-roll. Hero wins and clown dies. Clown wins and Hero may choose to take a wound, give clown two items(discard) or discard one card from their hand to have the clown roll again and restart fight. (if you want you can actually rock paper scissors fight the player instead of dice rolling)
4. Squeak Squeak: D6 zombies may move an extra space immediately toward Zombie clown, may join fight, but may not move onto another space with hero or ignore zombie hunger.
5. Surprise! Clown explodes: all Heroes in space must take a wound, discard an item or lose their next turn.
6. Sillyness: Clown pretends to chase you, Hero moves one space immediately, all fights are cancelled and the Heroes turn immediately ends. (cannot move onto another space with zombies, if all surrounding spaces contain zombies hero stays where they are but no fights occur, turn ends.

1 and 6 are mostly benefiting the Heroes, 5 and 3 give the hero nasty options to deal with, 4 gives the swarm effect, 2 is a more standard fight penalty.

I weakened 3 a bit, my original idea was they had to discard their entire hand (not items) instead of having those options, but that would be really harsh.

I really like this idea, now I want to get those miniatures and IFoS so I have the circus board. My wife hates clowns.

[StayPuft]

Awesome! Thanks again everybody for your input. Thanks as well to Phantaskippy for your additions!

I think I agree with you on having it be one less fight dice instead of -1. I also like that you threw in some extra thoughts on powers. So, we actually have more than 6 ideas now, meaning anybody deciding to do this themselves can pick their favorite 6 and use that for the dice roll.

Has anybody ever put any kind of a rules template together for something like this? I'd love to use a template to officially jot down the rules I am going to use if and when I incorporate our new Zombie Clowns along with our ideas here. That way if I bring it along to my gaming group, or play with friends, we can have official rules set.

I'm also thinking, just like with the Grave Dead, the Zombie Clowns should cost you two regular zombies. For example, if you are about to spawn 4 zombies, you could choose to instead spawn 2 Zombie Clowns if you want.

[zombielover77]

[quote='Phantaskippy' pid='31262' dateline='1346847809']
Totally agree Staypuft, the clown could only move zombies not effected by zombie hunger.

I like the randomness of the rolling dice before a fight, but if you did it then the squeaky shoes should allow zombies next to the fight to join in. I would do this only with the dice roll before each fight, if it was a constant ability it shouldn't be able to do it.

-1 to their fight dice result would be wicked, really wicked. It would completely neutralize the Garden Shears and Meat Cleaver, and really hurt the circular saw and Sledgehammer and if optional in the Zombie player's choice could be used to eliminate doubles. I'd rather that just remove one of their fight dice.

You could have a rock-paper-scissors fight option too, one dice each, no weapons, no bonuses from cards. Hero wins and the clown dies (nothing can save it), Clown wins and the Hero must take a wound, discard an item or lose their move action the next turn.

With all this awesome stuff you might want to give the clowns a chance to ignore ranged damage on a roll check, either 5-6 or 4-6 depending on how powerful you want them to be.

I'd do a setup like:

1. Clowning around: Hero can choose to fight clown or not. Clown will not initiate fight.
2. Childhood fear: Hero is afraid of Clowns, roll 1 less fight dice (min. 1)
3. Rock Paper Scissors: one dice each, no modifiers or abilities. If the dice tie you re-roll. Hero wins and clown dies. Clown wins and Hero may choose to take a wound, give clown two items(discard) or discard one card from their hand to have the clown roll again and restart fight. (if you want you can actually rock paper scissors fight the player instead of dice rolling)
4. Squeak Squeak: D6 zombies may move an extra space immediately toward Zombie clown, may join fight, but may not move onto another space with hero or ignore zombie hunger.
5. Surprise! Clown explodes: all Heroes in space must take a wound, discard an item or lose their next turn.
6. Sillyness: Clown pretends to chase you, Hero moves one space immediately, all fights are cancelled and the Heroes turn immediately ends. (cannot move onto another space with zombies, if all surrounding spaces contain zombies hero stays where they are but no fights occur, turn ends.

1 and 6 are mostly benefiting the Heroes, 5 and 3 give the hero nasty options to deal with, 4 gives the swarm effect, 2 is a more standard fight penalty.

I weakened 3 a bit, my original idea was they had to discard their entire hand (not items) instead of having those options, but that would be really harsh.

I really like this idea, now I want to get those miniatures and IFoS so I have the circus board. My wife hates clowns.
[/quote

awesome rule set phantaskippy awesome concept staypuft cant wait to see this up and running just hope i can withold the fear of zombies clowns on the board to actually play lol nxt mission find some 28m clowns to convert for the game