TheZombieGame.com Forums

[edit, Rei, Saeko and Alice have been updated]
Hello, recently re-discovered the site and thought I'd share what I've been working on. First off I got a batch of custom heroes. Just thought them up today at work so haven't had a chance to play test them at all.

To start us off, we got some of the characters from the excellent manga/anime series "Highschool of the Dead" (before you google it, be warned that the fan service is of an ridiculous amount, but there is good plot there).

Kohta Hirano, The Gun Freak
Start: High School
Special Rules
GUN NUT - Once per turn, when rolling to see if a gun is out of ammo, may re-roll the die.
YOUTH - May give up a Move Action to Fully Heal.
Keywords: Student-Strange-Male
Two Wounds

Rei Miyamoto, Childhood Sweetheart
Start: High School
Special Rules
SOJUTSU - Starts the game with Custom Weapon - Broomstick Spear. Instead of Searching, may discard the top Hero Card to pick up a new Broomstick Spear.
BROOMSTICK SPEAR - Item - Hand Weapon - Hero may roll an extra Fight Dice, breaks on 1 or 2 (Discard). Zombies beaten in a fight may be moved up to one space.
YOUTH - May give up a Move Action to Fully Heal.

Keywords: Student-Female
Two Wounds

Saeko Busujima, Kendo Club Preisdent
Start: Gym
Special Rules
KENDO CLUB - Starts the game with Custom Weapon - Wooden Sword. Instead of Searching, may discard the top Hero Card to pick up a new Wooden Sword.
WOODEN SWORD - Item - Hand Weapon - Double Handed - If the Hero rolls a 6 on any of their Fight Dice, the Zombie is instantly killed. Also, the hero may roll an extra Fight Dice, breaks on a 1 or 2 if used.
YOUTH - May give up a Move Action to Fully Heal.
Keywords: Student-Female
Two Wounds

Takashi Kumuro, Young Leader
Start: Highschool
Special Rules
READY - Starts the game with Baseball Bat.
LEADER - Students on the same space as roll an additional Fight Dice.
YOUTH - May give up a Move Action to Fully Heal.
Keywords: Student-Male
Two Wounds

Alice Maresato, The Innocent
Start: With any Hero
Special Rules
WORTH PROTECTING - Heroes on the same space win fights on ties.
JUST A KID - This Hero cannot use weapons and may not be the target of "This Could be Our Last Night on Earth."
HIDE - May cancel any fight she is in on the roll of 4+ (before Fight Dice are rolled).
FRAIL YOUTH - May give up a Move Action to Fully Heal on a 4+.
Keywords: Student-Female
Two Wounds

and to round off my first post, my versions of Shaun and Ed

Ed, The Roommate
Start: Diner
Special Rules
BLISSFULLY UNAWARE - This Hero ignores Zombie Cards on a 4+.
Keywords: Male
Three Wounds
"We're coming to get you Barbara!"

Shaun, Of the Dead
Start: General Store
Special Rules
PLAY ZOMBIE - Instead of Moving normally this Hero may move d3 spaces and ignore any zombies on spaces he moves through. He must still, however, fight zombies in the space which he ends his move.
DILIGENT - May take a wound to cancel any Zombie card in play on a 4+.
Keywords: Male
Three Wounds
"The zed word. Don't say it."

That's all for now, next post will feature my two different sets of custom zombies. Questions, comments, constructive criticism welcome.

I had to google search what a Bokken was, lol.

There are templates on there to give those Hero a physical form. Theres also weapon templates for your bokken and spearbroom. Although you coudl just use the pushbroom and it would be a special spear is that particular character had it.

If you don't have any photo editing software to do so. You can download GIMP. Its free and other members of TZG could show you how its done.

Shaun is the best

Yeah, I'll definitely have to take the time and learn me some GIMP. I'll play around with it tomorrow on my day off. The reasons I chose to represent the two custom weapons in this way are: A) I don't have to worry about monkeying with the hero deck and trying to match card quality FFP uses, 2) these characters have had extensive martial arts training, therefore they are a lot more dangerous with these weapons compared to someone without training. I'll probably make up weapon cards for these anyways, just for ease of reference.

First, double handed weapons USUALLY don't break. That's the bonus for only getting one. Second, one fight dice doesn't merit a double handed as many one handed weapons have an extra fight dice AND something awesome. Seeing as how you say can't be used more than once, I'm going to assume it's a baseball bat... I'd say make it so 6 slays instantly as a standard, Activate and get an extra fight dice and breaks on a 1, 2, 3

Beyond that Alice is a student that doesn't have heal. I see she dodges fights like a champ(2+ is... Super OP in many scenarios that require heroes to hunker down). I'd make her one wound not 2 and add heal a hero on a 4+ at end of turn.

Bokken is basically baseball bat+ as it does everything and more. Wins on ties is huge. Which is why so little allow it to happen. Having that on a weapon that adds many fight dice is pretty rough. Factor that and it can always be searched for is a billion times more useful than the Revolver that the sheriff has. To be honest, you have it backwards. Bokken (based off ability, not actual weapon itself) should be double handed and the spear should be single.

I understand it's more of an anime high school theme and that actual templated cards would showcase that more... but I see these characters getting the jump early on and keeping zombies easily at bay. As you have three people that start the game with a weapon, all of which have a baseball bat's super stats (You do know that the bat is one of the best weapons in the game?) and that can pretty much search for it. 80 fight dice and wins on ties certainly skew it in heroes favor. If you upgrade zombies though, they'd balance. Say 2 fight dice for zombies to start?

Thanks for the input, I'll definitely have to work on the weapons and Alice. I had originally thought of just giving her one wound but it seemed like it would only take one bad roll and her player is out of the game. I'll change her dodge to a 4+ and give her a modified youth, may give up a move action to fully heal on a 3+. The reason she didn't have it in the first place was because the character is 9yr old, if not younger, so it made sense to me that she wouldn't be able to bounce back from a fight as well as the older kids.

It's funny that you should mention tougher zombies, cuz tonight I have for you two different groups of special zombies. First the obligatory Left 4 Dead zeds, and special zombies based off The Zombie Hunters (yes, another damn comic). My Left 4 Dead zeds are based on the special infected cards I found on Board Game Geek, but modified for my own nefarious purposes. First, the ground rules for both groups:

Playing with Left 4 Dead Special Infected

•Special Infected count as zombies for all purposes of game play. Cards that affect zombies affect Special Infected.
•Each Special Infected has a spawn value. When spawning zombies you may instead choose to spawn a Special Infected. The spawn value is the number of spawn points it costs to place a Special Infected. For example, if you roll a 4 to spawn zombies you can spawn four regular zombies or spawn a Hunter (spawn value of 2) and two regular zombies, or any combination thereof.
•Special Infected count as a regular zombie when rolling to see if new zombies can be spawned.
•There may never be more than three Special Infected on the board at any time.
•There may never be more than two of the same type of Special Infected on the board at any time.
•Special Infected may not be place with cards that do not actually "Spawn" zombies. (Such as "My God, They've Taken the..." or Surprise Attack.)
•Special Infected abilities marked with an * may be canceled in the same manner as Zombie Cards (including Zombie Fight Cards), when canceled they resume at the beginning of the next Zombie Player turn.
•Some Special Infected have abilities that require the hero roll an Agility test. To do this roll 1d6 and if the result is equal to or higher than the number of the hero's wound boxes the test is passed.

Now that that's outta the way, the Left 4 Dead zeds:

Witch
Spawn Value: 4
Fight Dice: 3
Movement: 0 (1d3)
Hits: 3
RARE- You may only spawn two Witches per game. Only one Witch may be on each board section at any time.
DESPAIR- When spawning, place the Witch on any square on the board. If the sun track marker is in the Black she may move 1 space during the Move Zombies phase, otherwise she may not move AT ALL until activated.
ENRAGED- At the end of the zombie turn roll a d6. On a roll a 6+ the Witch is activated and may move normally.
LONESOME- Every time a Hero moves through the Witch's space or a space adjacent to the Witch roll a d6, adding two to the result if a Hero moved through her space. On a 6+ the Witch is activated. The Hero's movement ends and the Witch immediately moves toward and attacks that Hero.
SHAME- If the Witch kills a Hero, she flees. (Is removed from the board.)

Boomer
Spawn Value: 2
Fight Dice: 1
Movement: 1d3
Hits: 1
CUNNING- Not affected by Zombie Hunger.
VOMIT*- Range 1. Each Hero in the target space makes an Agility test, if the Hero fails the Agility test place a Bile counter on the Hero's card.
BILE-All zombies up to three spaces away are affect by Zombie Hunger towards Heroes with a Bile counter, if a zombie would be affected by Zombie Hunger by more than one hero, it must move towards the one with the Bile counter. At the end of the Hero turn roll 1d6, on a result of 4+ the Bile counter is removed.
POP- If a Boomer dies on a square occupied by a Hero(s), place a Bile counter on their card.

Hunter
Spawn Value: 2
Fight Dice: 2
Movement: 1d3+1
Hits: 2
CUNNING- Not affected by Zombie Hunger.
POUNCE*- If the Hunter ends it's movement in a space with a Hero it didn't start out in, that Hero rolls one less fight dice.

Smoker
Spawn Value: 2
Fight Dice: 1
Movement: 1d3
Hits: 2
CUNNING- Not affected by Zombie Hunger.
TONGUE*- Range 3. Hero makes an Agility roll subtracting one from the result, if failed place that hero 1d3 spaces closer to the Smoker. That Hero may not move on their next turn.

Tank
Spawn Value: 4
Fight Dice: 3
Movement: 1d3
Hits: 3
RARE- You may only spawn one Tank per game.
RESILIENT- Ignores a wound on a 4+.
GOD AWFULLY TOUGH- Any weapon or ability that "instantly kills" a zombie, only wounds a Tank. The Tank cannot us "RESLILENT" to avoid this hit, however.
TRAMPLE- Any Zombies in a space the Tank moves through take a wound on a 2+.

Spitter
Spawn Value: 2
Fight Dice: 1
Movement: 1d3
Hits: 1
CUNNING- Not affected by Zombie Hunger
BURNING GOO*- Range 2. Hero makes an Agility test, if failed receives a wound. Place a Goo counter on the space occupied by the Hero.
GOO- Whenever a Hero moves into or ends its turn in a space occupied by a Goo counter that Hero receives a wound on a 5+. At the beginning of the Zombie Player's turn roll a d6 for every Goo counter on the board. Goo counters are removed on a 3+.
PUDDLE- When Spitter is killed place a Goo counter on the space occupied by the Spitter.

Charger
Spawn Value: 2
Fight Dice: 1
Movement: 1d3
Hits: 2
BULLRUSH*- If a Charger ends it's move in a space with a Hero it didn't start out in, it rolls an extra fight dice. If the Charger wins the fight that Hero is pinned and may not move until the Charger is dead.

Jockey
Spawn Value: 2
Fight Dice: 1
Movement: 1d3
Hits: 1
CUNNING- Not affected by Zombie hunger.
AGILE*- When targeted by a ranged attack the Zombie player may add or subtract 1 from the roll.
RIDE 'EM COWBOY- When a Jockey wins a fight, the Zombie Player may immediately move both the Jockey and Hero 1d3 spaces. The Jockey may not ride Hero's through walls.

My main goal with these guys was to make it a lot tougher on the heroes, but not impossible for them to find a way out. Hopefully I was able to convey this. We've play tested these guys once and it was a blast. Tank was tough to take down, took a lot of team work and two flare guns, but it was definitely a fun challenge. Also Johnny, whom my group has a BAD history with, finally redeemed himself by crowning the witch (double sixes with a meat cleaver) Now for The Zombie Hunters zeds.

Basilisk
Spawn Value: 3
Fight Dice: 2
Movement: 1d3
Hits: 2
MIMICRY- When sharing a space with regular zombies the Basilisk may not be targeted by ranged attacks. The Shotgun is not affected by this ability.
RED GLARE- Range 2. On a roll of 5+ the targeted Hero is paralyzed and may not move until another Hero ends his or her move in the same space.

Berserker
Spawn Value: 3
Fight Dice: 3
Movement: 1d6
Hits: 2
SADISTIC- Every wound a Berserker inflicts counts as two on a roll of 4+
LEARNING- Before a fight roll a d6, on 5+ the Zombie Player may take any Hand Weapon in the Hero's discard pile and use it during this fight. Return the card to the discard pile after the fight.

Howler
Spawn Value: 2
Fight Dice: 1
Movement: 1
Hits: 2
LULLABY- Heroes within one space of the Howler roll one less fight dice.

Hunter
Spawn Value: 2
Fight Dice: 2
Movement: 1d3+1
Hits: 2
CUNNING- Not affected by Zombie Hunger.
STEALTHY- Heroes may not shoot at Hunters more than one space away from them.

Mercy
Spawn Value: 3
Fight Dice: 1
Movement: Special (1d3)
Hits: 2
WATCHFUL ANGEL- Heroes and Mercy's never engage in fights. When in the same space as a wounded Hero the Mercy may follow that Hero and move with him during the Hero Move phase. Heroes may not heal in any way while a Mercy is following.
PROTECTING ANGEL- When the Mercy's followed Hero fights zombies the Mercy adds one to his fight dice.
COMFORTING ANGEL- When the followed Hero takes his last wound that Hero automatically becomes a Zombie Hero.

Spitter
Spawn Value: 3
Fight Dice: 1
Movement: 1
Hits: 2
ACIDIC GOO- Range 4. Target makes an Agility test. If failed the target takes a wound.
INFECTIOUS GOO- When wounded by a Spitter, put a Goo token on the Hero's card. When this Hero takes his last wound he automatically becomes a Zombie Hero.

Hopefully I was able to convey the zombies well through their stats. Lemme know what you think.

Oh, almost forgot, I would guess each group is around OOOO on the dots system if anyone wants to use them.

*whew, long post...

I would say fully heal any hero, not just her. (As with only one wound to float, fully heal = 1 wound box) And think of it this way, she's not actually healing so much as inspiring "Hey big brother, you can do it... for me?" throws a cute pouty face that no one can resist and boom they are up and fighting.

I hear what your saying, but if I give her the ability to fully heal someone then that would just make her Super Becky. I'm quite fond of random hero drafting so ideally I'd just be able to throw these heroes in the draft pile and they'd mesh well with the others. I'll be play-testing a lot of these guys on Wednesday so hopefully I'll have a better idea of how these guys perform in game.

I'd MUCH rather have a 100% heal on 33%-50% of my wounds than 50% chance to heal 100%. Sam is about the only one that benefits more so from the fully heal.

I present to you, an incredibly clumsy and ham-handed attempt at a hero card. My GIMP-fu is incredibly feeble, so I just made do with MS Paint.



On a somewhat related note, has anyone ever tried making card templates for Magic Set Editor? If I was halfway decent at any kind of code I'd give it a try, but unfortunately I can't even code myself a sandwich...