Welcome to Gaia! ::

ever since Necromunda days I loved shotguns!
gotta make a scout squads armed with these for my marines one day

You have no idea how long it took for that to happen. gonk

Back in black. blaugh

That was what? 2 weeks? =P

The important question, is when do you go red?

Let's keep it raven for now. I'm not a big fan of gingers myself, with exception of one or two.

I take it you think its a bad idea.

How about green? mrgreen

.... Have any of you seen the "Galactic Soldier" REI, by the way?

Seeing as most of the posting happens in this thread these days, here's something we've been working on for a bit now: rules for a zombie skirmish game. These are the basics, dealing with moving about, shooting things, hitting things and running away. Scenarios are being worked on now, but thoughts on the rules would be greatly appreciated.

What you need:
- A model that represents every player partaking in the games
- A good pile of zombies (thirty or so are good, but more is always better and more hectic!)
- A dozen or so six-sided dice
- Suitable models or counters to represent vehicles, buildings and other in-world objects

Our heroes.
Every zombie scenario needs its heroes and this is where the players step in. Each player has a model with the following stats:

Standard move: 4”
Run: 8”
Melee hit: 5+
Ranged hit: 5+
Escape roll: 4+
Hit points: 2
Equipment: Two items (choose from ranged weapons, melee weapons, support items)
Skills: Choose one

Movement.
Moving is an important part of the game. You can’t remain at one point all the time or you’ll become zombie chow. All players, or humans for that matter, have a basic movement speed of 4”, which represents a cautious movement speed. If need be players can also run, doubling their movement speed to 8”. Running however, forces you to forego your ability to shoot or perform other tasks, you’re just too busy flapping your arms and pumping those legs! Exception to this is when you make a running move into base to base contact with one or more zombies. If that’s the case you were most likely charging at them, allowing you to engage them in melee combat. If that wasn’t the case, hello? Why did you run into the open arms of a zombie in the first place?

Combat - Ranged:
Next to moving, hurting things is the most important thing. You can either kill a zombie with a ranged weapon or a melee weapon. Seeing as shooting is the safest way of disposal, we’ll look at that one first. Ranged weapon entries are broken down into the following segments:

[Weapon type] – [Range] [Rate of fire] [Special rules if applicable]

For example: Pistol – 12”**, akimbo

The pistol is the standard weapon of choice and a perfect emergency weapon. It has a range of 12", can shoot twice and thanks to the "akimbo" rule, can be dual-wielded and thus, produce four shots per turn.

So, if zombie hunter Blodwynn were to face off against a horde of zombies she'd get to shoot twice per turn with her pistol, meaning two D6 rolls. Depending on the character's ranged scare, which in most cases is 5+, zombies are killed when you roll a 5 or a 6 when shooting. (For those wondering, we've done away with the "roll to hit, roll to wound" system and instead settled on one roll for hitting and killing the opposition)

Combat - Melee:
Now for the crazies who want to get up close and personal there are options as well. First off, you need to move into base contact or within 1” of one or more zombies to attack it. As with ranged you need to roll a 5+ to hit a zombie in melee combat. Depending on the weapon type (light, normal, heavy) you get a set number of attacks per turn, along with any other modifiers that can be found in the armoury section.

Example: Zombie hunter Vikki is armed with a katana, which is a normal melee weapon (two attacks per turn, meaning she needs 5's to kill). She charges at a trio of zombies, moving into base contact with them and rolling two D6's, requiring a 5 or a 6 to kill a zombie.

When removing casualties try to remove those in base to base contact with the attacking model first.

Escaping from melee combat.
It might happen that you’ve been charged by zombies or you’ve bitten off more than you can chew! If that’s the case instead of performing melee attacks you can attempt to break free from the attacking zombies. Upon making a successful roll the player must move 8” away from the zombies. Note that the player may not move through the mob but must instead head into the direction that is clear. Should the player be surrounded then the escape move is made where there are the least zombies.

Hit points.
Hit points represent how much damage a model can take before it goes down. Most human models have two hit points, though some might have more due to a special ability or just being plain tougher than others.

Equipment.
Each model has two equipment slots that can be filled with anything they like. Equipment can be chosen from three different sections: Ranged, melee and miscellaneous equipment. At least one of the equipment choices has to be a weapon, be it melee or ranged. You can’t run about the game unarmed and defenceless now can you?

Ranged weapons.
A player can have up to two ranged weapons and may alter between these every other turn. You may not use two weapons at the same time unless it is explicitly stated.

Pistol – 12” **, akimbo (Finding a second pistol will double the RoF of the model, the second pistol will take up the second equipment slot)
Shotgun – 8” **, +1 to ranged when firing at a target within 4”
Assault Rifle – 18” ***
Sniper rifle – 36” *, 2+ to hit
Molotov cocktail – 6” *, small blast, fully covered models hit are automatically killed, partially hit models are killed on a 5+

Melee weapons.
A player can take up to two melee weapons if choosing to. As with ranged weapons the player can swap weapons between turns but cannot use both weapons in the same turn. Melee weapon entries are broken down into the following segments:

[Type] [Attacks] [Special rules if applicable]

Light melee weapon (***, -1 to melee)
- Bottle
- Hammer
- Knife
Normal melee weapons (**)
- Baseball bat
- Crowbar
- Katana
Heavy melee weapon (*, +1 to melee)
- Axe
- Hockey stick
- Sledgehammer

Miscellaneous equipment.
First-aid kit: Requires Medic skill. Allows for recovery of one lost hit point per treatment.
Toolkit: Requires Engineer skill. Allows for repair of vehicles, machines and fortification of buildings.
Body armour: Allows for the re-roll of successful zombie hits.

Skills.
Skills represent prior experience or abilities that are there to give the player an edge against the undead hordes. Maybe you were a regular visitor of the firing range or an avid fencer, those skills will come in handy now more than ever. Each player starts with one of the following skills listed below.

Ranged.
Gunner: +1 to ranged rolls (5+ becomes 4+)
Double Tap: Doubles the rate of fire of a ranged weapon at half range

Melee.
Slayer: +1 to melee rolls (5+ becomes 4+)
Quick Hitter: +1 melee attack regardless of weapon type

Movement.
Marathon Runner: +1” to normal moves, +2” to run moves
Ninja: Allows movement closer to zombies, the player is not spotted unless within 6” of zombies, discharging a weapon will still reveal them though
Escape Artist: The escape roll is 2+

Misc.
Beefy: +1 hit point
Medic: Grants med-kit
Engineer: Grants toolkit
Driver: Allows the character to operate any land-based vehicle at full capacity

Gaining a skill.
Players can pick one skill at the start of the game and another one at the end of the first scenario.

Zombies.
Standard move: D3+1”
Melee hit: 6+
Hit points: 1
Activation: Zombie hordes become activated when they hear gunfire within 24”, see prey within 12” or hear certain loud noises such as explosions or dramatic trigger events
Hordes: Zombies enter play in hordes of D6+4, maintaining a coherency of 2” with one another
Drag them down: For every extra zombie in with a player attacking zombies gain +1 to their melee attack roll (two zombies in base contact gain +1, three zombies +2 and so on)
Feeding frenzy: When a horde of zombies manages to kill a player in melee combat they will not move for D3 turns as they consume the body

Revenant.
Standard move: 4”
Ranged hit: 5+
Melee hit: 5+
Hit points: 4
See revenant type below for gear and special rules

Pick one of the following Revenant types before the game starts or roll a D6:
1 – 3: Viking revenant! Armed with an axe (heavy melee), chainmail armour and a shield (re-roll successful hits). Also has the "Berserker" skill: Upon losing two hit points the revenant always moves at full speed towards the nearest player character and does double the amount of melee attacks.
4 – 6: Nazi revenant! Armed with a pistol (12” **) and has the "Fatherland" skill: Upon reaching his last hit point the Revenant drops his pistol and pull out a clutch of stick grenades, pulling the cords on all of them. The Revenant has one turn left and will move at double speed towards its nearest prey, detonating at the end of its turn. Place the blast template over the Revenant, killing all fully covered, zombie and prey alike, outright by the blast. Partially hit models lose a hit point on a 3+