Zombie Hero -- A New RPG

The following is a pencil and paper RPG I made, based on Billy Butcherson and the Earth Angels RPG. Copy and Paste this onto a word processing program such as Microsoft's WordPad, and print out.

Zombie Hero

Zombie Hero is inspired by the character of Billy Butcherson (Doug Jones) from the 1993 Disney movie, Hocus Pocus. It is based on my “Earth Angels” role-playing forum on my messageboard, Hocus Pocus, Billy Butcherson: https://hpbillybutcherson.forumotion.net/forum.htm, except there are no Guardian Spirits or Protected One{s}. It is just the Zombie.

Zombie: This is your character. He or she is a dead body, brought back to life by some means. He or she is intelligent and has a free will. The Zombie comes from all walks of life. Example: Billy Butcherson

Zombie vs. zombie
As you may have noticed, I've been using "Zombie", instead of "zombie" when describing Billy, and those like him. You've probably wondered why I capitalized the "Z" in "Zombie".

Billy is not your average movie/video game/RPG zombie. He's intelligent, peaceful (although he will fight if necessary), and has no intention of eating anyone's brains or flesh (which he would probably find very disgusting). I treat Zombies like Billy like a race (hence, the capital “Z”), meaning that there might me more of them.

When referring to Billy, or any Zombie like him, please use the capital "Z". Any other kind of zombie can be referenced as normal, with "zombie".

Hit Points: This is how much damage your Zombie can take before being taken out of action. After 15 minutes, all damage is completely healed, and your Zombie is back in the game. To get the Zombie’s Hit Points, add his Strength, Dexterity, and Stamina together.

Attributes: Roll 2d6 for each attribute.
Strength: How strong your character is.
Smarts: How intelligent your character is.
Dexterity: How agile and nimble your character is.
Stamina: Helps determine how much damage your character can take.
Charisma: Your character’s personality. A Zombie needs all he or she can get.
Magic: Each Zombie has a measure of whatever power that brought him or her back to life. Only if the Zombie has a high level of Magic (10-12) can he or she use magical spells.

Zombie Powers and Weaknesses
All Zombies have the following Abilities/Powers and Weaknesses, regardless of who the Zombie is, and where s/he comes from:

Abilities/Powers:
Regeneration: Wounds heal instantly unless an object is embedded in the wound. The wound will heal normally if the object is removed. The more serious the wound, the longer it will take to heal. No healing will take more than 15 minutes. All decomposition stops, and may even reverse itself to a small extent.

Note: A Zombie's vocal cords and muscles will take longer to heal after resurrection (up to a week). Until then, the Zombie's voice will be gravelly and their movements jerky and stiff. After a week, both the voice and the movements will be up to normal human levels.

Superhuman traits: Zombies are stronger, faster, and eventually, more nimble than your average human. Add +2 to Strength, Dexterity, and Stamina.

Low Pain Level: Zombies have a low pain level, and even agonizing pain is barely felt and can be ignored. It can, however, be annoying if the Zombie is concentrating on a task.

Warm skin: Unlike most undead, a Zombie's skin is warm to the touch, not cold. This called, "The Warmth of the Soul", and is an indication that there's a "good soul" within the Zombie's body.

Retains Memories/Old Skills: The memories, knowledges, and skills that the Zombie had in life is retained in his/her unlife, and can be used even if it is thousands of years between the Zombie's death, and his/her "awakening". These should be listed according to character type. (i.e., Pirate, Cook, Soldier, etc.)

Weaknesses:
Modern Life Knowledge: Unless your Zombie was only recently deceased, he or she will not know much about the "modern world". In time, however, the Zombie will learn. Adding "Modern Life Knowledge" to the Zombie's skills will represent this new knowledge. This includes modes of speech.

Frightening Appearance: Even relatively beautiful/handsome Zombies will still have the pale skin (shrunken tightly to the bones), sunken eyes, and soiled and torn clothing of the grave. This will give anyone seeing the Zombie a sense of fear.

Skills:
Skills can be anything that a person can learn. Most are related to the Zombie’s former occupation. The Zombie can also learn “modern” skills, as well. However, the Zombie will never start with any modern skills. All skills add +1 to any task, depending on what Attribute is used.

Other Powers:
Some Zombies can have powers on top of the ones that all Zombies have. Clear any new powers with the Game Master before you give them to your character. Some powers can upset a campaign. And be ready to explain how your character received the powers. Roll 2d6 for each power. This works the same way as the Attributes.

Magic:
Magic is a special power. As stated earlier, only characters with a 10 or more in the Magic Attribute can use Magic. With Magic, a character has access to all powers. But as such, it is very powerful. To offset this potential unbalance in the game, a character may only start with a number of spells equal to the character’s Smarts score. The player may add one spell per level he/she attains. All spells use the Magic Attribute for determining results.

Equipment:
Each Zombie starts with the clothes he or she were buried in (time of death and burial, as well as financial and social status will determine style), as well as in “grave goods” he or she may have been buried with (especially true of Zombies from tribal societies, or very early civilizations, such as ancient Egypt or Greece). This will be all the Zombie starts with, so choose carefully. The Zombie may, however, acquire other items and equipment throughout the course of a game, including a base of operations.

Weapons:
If Zombies are armed with any kind of weapon, it will be one that the Zombie is familiar with. A pirate Zombie may wield a cutlass, a flintlock pistol, a dagger, and maybe even a hook hand. A cook Zombie might have a meat cleaver or some kitchen knife, while a soldier will use swords, axes, spears, guns, etc., depending on historical era.

Here is a small list of basic weapons. If the weapon you want is not listed, try to match it to the closest on the list. Game Masters may expand this list, if they so wish. To get a roll of 1d3, roll 1d6 and divide by 2. Range is in feet.

Weapon	Damage	Range (short/medium/long)	Ammunition	Cost (in dollars $)
Club	1d3	none	none	free
Knife	1d3	10/20/30	none	1 - 10
Sword	1d6	none	none	15 – 100
Axe	1d6	none	none	15 – 100
Spear	1d6	10/20/30	none	3 – 15
Bow
Short	1d6	10/20/30	1	5-10
Long	1d6+2	20/40/60	1	5-15
Composite	1d6+4	40/80/120	1	15-25
Crossbow
Hand	1d6	10/20/30	1	5-10
Light	1d6+2	20/40/60	1	15-25
Heavy	2d6	4080/120	1	50-100
Flintlock
Pistol	1d6	20/30/60	1	5-500
Rifle	1d6+2	30/40/70	1	10 -1000
Modern Gun
Pistol	1d6 +3	40/60/120	6-12	5 – 500
Rifle	1d6 +4	80/120/240	2-24	10 – 1000
Laser *
Pistol	1d6 +5	160/240/480	Unlimited	5 Million – Billion
Rifle	2d6 +5	240/480/960	Unlimited	10 Million – Billion

*Lasers are experimental, and thus, very expensive (Millions and Billions). It is unlikely that your Zombie will have one of these unless he is either given one, or he finds it somewhere.

Combat:
Combat in Zombie Hero is simple. Depending on what type of weapon being used, the attacker uses either his Strength Attribute, or his Dexterity Attribute. As a rule, any weapon that is swung, stabbed with, or slashed with (such as clubs, knives, swords, etc.), use Strength. For a weapon that is aimed, (bows, pistols, rifles, etc.), use Dexterity.

Example: Billy Butcherson is fighting with another Zombie. Both are armed with a gentleman’s sword (1d6 Damage). Billy also has the fencing skill (he was taught fencing as a gentleman when he was alive in the 1650’s-1660’s), and a Strength of 9. His opponent does not have the fencing skill, and has a Strength of 7. Thus:

Billy Butcherson: Str: 9 + 1 (fencing skill) = 10 Fencing Sword: 1d6
Opponent: Str: 7 Fencing Sword: 1d6

Billy must roll his fencing (10) or under on 2d6 to make a successful attack on his opponent. His opponent must roll his Strength (7) or under on 2d6 to block Billy’s attack. Billy rolls a 5 –well under his fencing skill. His opponent rolls a 7 –he barely blocks the blow of his more experienced foe. No resolution to the battle. Each may roll again. Billy rolls a 7 –still under his fencing skill. His opponent rolls an 8 –just over what he needs. He fails to block, and Billy’s thrust gets through. Billy rolls 1d6 and gets a 5. His opponent has to deduct 5 Hit Points from his total.

A roll of 2 is always a success, while a roll of 12 is always a failure. If Billy got a 2 on his fencing skill roll, then the sword would have slipped easily past his opponent’s defenses, no matter what the opposing Zombie would have rolled. Consequently, if Billy had rolled a 12, he would have missed with his thrust, and his opponent would have gotten in a free hit.

Battle with missile weapons (bows, pistols, rifles, etc.) and with magic are handled the same way. Just replace the Strength score with Dexterity or Magic.

Experience Levels

Experience Levels and Experience Points work like this:

At the end of an adventure, Game Master will roll 2d6 for each player. The result is the base number of Experience Points (XPts) each player will receive. They can also receive additional XPts for the following:

XPts. Event
1 Using Skills
1 or 2 Using unique or clever ideas to deal with various situations.
1 Reaching a goal
1 or 2 Good Roleplaying
1 Participation
1 Anytime the GM thinks is good/right.

Experience Levels Chart
Level Points
1 0-100
2 101-200
3 201-300
4 301-400
5 401-500
6 501-600
7 601-700
8 701-800
9 801-900
10 901-1000
For Experience Levels over 10^th Level, add 100 to each additional level (i.e., 11 = 1001 – 1100; 12 = 1101 –1200; 13 = 1201-1300; etc.)

Other Characters:
You can create other characters –including mortals—with this system. Just roll up the character as usual, and ignore the powers and weaknesses.

Adventure Ideas:
Here are a few adventure ideas to start you off. The Game Master will need to flesh them out, of course. Zombie Hero can also be integrated into your favorite paper and pencil role-playing game. Just translate the stats into that of the RPG you are using.

1. Awakening: The Zombie first awakens from his eternal sleep. How was he awakened? (magic, divine command, science, etc.) What is their reaction to the awakening? What do they do?

2. Explore: The Zombie explores his surroundings. Where is he? Does he meet anyone? How has the world changed since he died?

3. Protector: The Zombie becomes a protector to a specific mortal. Who is the mortal? Is she famous? Or is she a regular person? What dangers do they face? Does the mortal have powers of her own?

4. Public: The general public now knows about the Zombie. How does the public respond? Are they afraid of the Zombie? Is the Zombie afraid of them? Or does the Zombie becomes friends with the public?

And here is the character sheet for the game.

Zombie Hero Character Sheet

Name:____________________________
Race:_____________________________
Hit Points: _________________


Attributes: (Roll 2d6 for each)
Strength: ________ Smarts: _________ Dexterity: _______
Stamina: ________ Charisma: _______ Magic:_________

Powers and Weaknesses (See rules for details)
Abilities/Powers:
Regeneration: 1d6
Hit Points per turn. No healing will take more than 15 minutes
Superhuman traits: Add +2 to Strength, Dexterity, and Stamina.
Low Pain Level:
Warm skin:
Retains Memories/Old Skills:
Weaknesses:
Modern Life Knowledge:
Frightening Appearance:

Skills: (adds +1 to Attributes)







Weapons:

Weapon

Damage

Short/Medium/

Ammo

Make sure to leave plenty of room to list skills and weapons. List possessions and money on the back.