resident evil\ rifts stlye

[Sir Logan69]

i was planning to gm a rifts game based on resident evil with a rifts story backdrop..i have the maps from the game...i know there are zombies listed in conversion book dark conversions....what i wanted to know is what would be the rules for turning a pc into a zombie after being bitten by one of these nasty buggers....i cannot find any listing in the books on this....i also would like if anyone has any idea's for this type of adventure..
like the corperation that started all this...here on rifts earth..etc

thanks again for all your input

sincerly
sir logan69

[Killer Cyborg]

Zombies on Rifts Earth have 150 SDC, but are only hurt by magical energy attacks, normal fire, explosives, and silver.
Electricity does 1/2 damage, as do lasers, particle beams, and "similar energy weapons.

Really, I don't know why they bothered.
An SDC creature that takes 1/2 damage from mega-damage energy weapons is still toast... Well, unless they only take 1-2 points.
While a bunch of zombies might be a threat to a couple of vagabonds, the only way for a serious party of PCs to be threatened by them is if the zombies are armed and armored with Mega-damage gear.
Zombie attacks only do SDC unless they have weapons, so they're not likely to bite anybody (and it doesn't spread that way in Rifts anyway).
Besides, the zombies are toast unless they have MDC armor, which would likley include a helmet.

If I wanted zombies to pose a serious threat to a party, here's the scenario I'd run:
-A powerful mage has discovered a "new" Spell of Legend that turns any corpse within a certain area into a zombie under that mage's control.
-The mage has cast this spell on a large town, small city, or military complex, then attacked it with Shadow Beasts and other summoned monsters (also, maybe poisoned the water supply...)
-The PCs are either hired to kill this mage, or they need something in the infected area. Either way, they have to make their way to the center of the place.
-Maybe the place is a CS base, that way most of the zombies will already be armed and likley armored.
-If the zombies kill anybody, they are likely to do it with their MD weapons which means that not much will be left of the body. This is okay, because the body will regenerate and rise once it's at full HP (unless the head is severed and such).
-There is no limit to the number of zombies a mage can control, so there could be hundreds or thousands of them depending.
-Zombie dog-boys or other mutant animals might be neat...
-Maybe the mage is a powerful Techno-Wizard who has actually built a machine that powers this spell. Destroy the machine and the dead stop rising...

[Killer Cyborg]

Also, look into Necromancers from Rifts: Africa.
Maybe instead of literal Zombies, you could use Animated Dead.
Or both.
The necromancer spells like "Fragile Bone to Stone" and "Fradile Bone to MDC Bone" say that they can work on animated skeletons and animated dead. There's nothing that specifically says the spell can be used on zombies, but there's nothing that says they can't.
That alone would make your zombies tougher; Fragile Bone to MDC Bone would make a zombie's skeleton MDC.
When the spells are used on Animated Dead, they affect the overall SDC of the corpse, so there is no real reason to believe that this wouldn't also be true of zombies.
So a MDC Boned Zombie would have 150 MDC.
Have that spell worked into the Spell of Legend or Zombie Machine or whatever if you want your party to be in for a fight.

Or just use the spell with Greater Animated Dead... they have 75-210 SDC (depending on size), so that could be turned to MDC.

They'd still do SDC damage without a weapon, though...

[MADMANMIKE]

NEMA troops against the Xombies from Nxla's first invasion would do the trick. Lexington KY would be a pile of eerie ruins, maybe your characters have full EBA and can have a running gun battle while D-shifting all over the place. Nothing like logs or chunks of metal (silver?) dropping out of the sky at random.

For Rifts it might be more fun to have Coalition troops trapped with only vibro-blades in the middle of a ruined city where a powerful necromancer has found out about them and decide to toy with them.

..More of the RE feel would go in the Chaos Earth game with the Militia men wearing the Armored vest. Then there's the chance of injury not as present in EBA.

..I ran a little interlude in my rl game last week with Xombies; Since the PC's were in a world where tech didn't work, they broke out the AK's (using my 5SD to 1MD house rule), and still had to resort to grenades to take them down. Oh well, they ended up in Center when that was done...

-Mike >8]

[BookWyrm]

Also, you could toss in that the Necromancer is a rogue Vanguard member who slaughtered everyone at the CS base &, with the help of a not-too-savory Techno-Mage, plans to wipe out the players, believeing them to be advance CS/Vanguard mercs....

[dakota]

You need to check out 'All Flesh Must Be Eaten' by Eden Press. It's a pure zombie game, with ideas for what cause the zombies in the first place a point based system to determine zombie abilities[like level of contagion, speed, vulnerabilities, etc] and multiple zombie scenarios. I'm pretty sure you could convert it over for Rifts with a minimal of work.

No need to try out a new system for a good RE game, BTS worked quite well when I ran one a while back. In rift, on the otherhand, Zombies aren't much more of a threat than rats or mosquitos.

[MADMANMIKE]

..Alright, I'll give you that as printed, Zombies can be quickly killed with MDC energy weapons...

..But unless the head and body are buried separately, they will completely regenerate within 24 hours..

..I've always just read the hit points as being like that of a Vampire, in regards to energy weapons, they do hit point damage, not SDC/MDC...

..That makes them the threat they should be, SD/MD ratio regardless..

-Mike >8]

[Zer0 Kay]

Rifts Earth really isn't suited for a Resident Evil style campaign. The impact of zombies in the world just doesn't hit as hard. You get a " Oh, look, a zombie." BAM!

Now in a modern setting, where zombies "don't exist" Your party can get a much more startled reaction. It's like "Holy Monkeys, It's a fraking zombie!" and panic fire ensues.

Resident Evil is a game where shock value is a key. The time I ran a game of RE for some friends. The best parts were when the players stood with a shocked face trying to comprehend what they were seeing. First, was the deserted town. Then the first of the zombies. Then they tried to leave town and I blew out the only route out of town that they knew of.

It was a matter of keeping the players off balance and not knowing what was about to jump out of the next doorway.

Just like in the game.

You can still get shock value if the Zombies are spontaniously generating and multiplying in say Chi-town (from a magic virus) or Lazlo (from a nano virus).

[Zer0 Kay]

i was planning to gm a rifts game based on resident evil with a rifts story backdrop..i have the maps from the game...i know there are zombies listed in conversion book dark conversions....what i wanted to know is what would be the rules for turning a pc into a zombie after being bitten by one of these nasty buggers....i cannot find any listing in the books on this....i also would like if anyone has any idea's for this type of adventure..
like the corperation that started all this...here on rifts earth..etc

thanks again for all your input

sincerly
sir logan69

I'd roll vs. Coma/Death.

[Rahmota]

For some ideas on Zombies and stuff relating to them you might try finding and reading the Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks (Mel Brooks' son). I forget the library code on it but I plan on buying it someday as it is scarily funny. Written in the same way as most survival manuals it talks about how to deal with Zombies, why they are so dangerous, how they are produced and how to defended against the four levels of zombie outbreaks. I checked it out at my local library and definately have some of the ideas floating in my mind now for a modern day game.

[Killer Cyborg]

For some ideas on Zombies and stuff relating to them you might try finding and reading the Zombie Survival Guide by Max Brooks (Mel Brooks' son). I forget the library code on it but I plan on buying it someday as it is scarily funny. Written in the same way as most survival manuals it talks about how to deal with Zombies, why they are so dangerous, how they are produced and how to defended against the four levels of zombie outbreaks. I checked it out at my local library and definately have some of the ideas floating in my mind now for a modern day game.

Already got my copy.
I actually had a thread on it a while back, in the BTS forum.

[Rahmota]

Sorry about that I dont check that forum too often so I missed it. Still its a good book and has some neat ideas. I'll go check your thread in a few.