| From: | GRANITE granite@**.net |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Shadowrun Of The Living Dead [Kinda Long] |
| Date: | Sun, 21 Feb 1999 21:59:13 -0700 |
me..By the way..If I'm your GM..Be ware [EGMG]
> The fall of Earthly civilization is the true story, and how the
>characters deal with it is my goal.
All in all I like the idea..and could really sink my teeth into it..but
in my opinion..making it a global crisis is too much..You might as well
play a different game if you want to kill all the people in SR
[Might as well play something post holocaust]..So my biggest piece
of advice is..tone it down..Make it a new problem that can more or
less remain localized..For instance I would not make it communicable
to a living host..Only to dead ones..And to follow is how I would
explain some of your concepts as well as some advice:
BASIC CONCEPTS
>1.) The Probe:....... A Corp (I have next to no information on any of
>the Corporations so I have had to leave this part vague)
It doesn't really matter which one..Make one up..or possible use one
that truly exists today..Or use one mentioned in SR2 or any of the
source material you have available..any of them will serve your need...
>2.) Pandora's Box: The characters in my Campaign are hired by
>someone (another thing I have left vague at this time because I need
>some help with it)
I give the same advice as above..as it doesn't really matter unless you
are wanting to make them into a major employer of your runners..For that
matter keeping this information away from the runners could actually
help to heighten their tension..Lots of false leads and dead ends to
frustrate them..
>3.) Astral Infection: This is a concept that has become something of a
>pet project of mine (there are just so many possibilities).
I agree Astral space does need to have a lot more inhabitants.
>...... When the probe disappeared something happened to
>it (this is purposely left vague because it lends to the horror of
>it all),
I don't like vague..After all the players don't need to know..only the GM
does..
Here i s what I would do:
1] Horrors live in a plane of existence that finds its physical location
in space. Some astronomical event has occurred that allowed the horrors
temporary access to the physical plane wether by Horror design or
coincidence..the location of the event Somewhere around Saturn..Since
even a vehicle has an aura of sort so does the sat/probe the
Horrors used their immense power to plant seeds of destruction within
the sat/probe.
2] If you don't like Horrors...The sat/probe passed through a cloud
of Astral creatures..one of the properties of these creatures is they
are drawn to an aura with a void of some sort. They sensed a similar
void in the sat/probe and a small number of them [AS compared to the
entire cloud] inhabited the sat/probe..thus hitching a ride..This
causes a surge through the entire system and an auto homing sequence
that returns the sat/probe the earth orbit..The aura of the sat/probe
is not satisfying to them and will not sustain them..thus they
develop and aversion to inhabiting vehicles..
Either way: The astral creatures are nearly microscopic in size..Once
they are brought to earth by whatever Corp that recovers the sat/probe
from orbit the runners make their play for it..In the course of the run
your PCs kill someone near the sat/probe [don't give them a choice].. As
soon as there is a dead person in the area the creatures are drawn
strongly to the body and they leave the sat/probe and inhabit the dead
body.
>4.) The Living Dead: The Infected Astral interacts with the brain
>matter of he recently deceased
Once inside the dead body they begin channeling energies from the astral
plane into the brain this causes the body to animate in a most primitive
manner..This also activates some very basic cogitative functions..Not
really being able to think above the level of a really stupid dog...but
simple reactions and sentence structure becomes possible giving rise to
statements like
"Brains..Brains..They are so sweet..Hungry..Brains.."ect...
This function becomes increasingly difficult as the corpse decomposes
and runs out of rotting nutrients giving rise to sentences like
"Guuuurhh....FFrrrgggg...Gaaakk..RRRRRRRR"
> (I will explain how and why this happens and why it doesn't happen to
>the living later) reanimating the body.
Only a relatively recently dead body can be animated due to a more or
less viable nervous system..this is also why they do the dead guy
shuffle...deteriorated nervous system..
The creatures seek the void left when that which makes a living person
alive leaves..The creatures are drawn to the astral presence of the
dead body and seek to fill the void left by the death..The longer a
person has been dead the more faded the astral presence and the less
appealing a host for the astral entities..Until finally the body is
no longer suitable as a host...
>This Living Dead body craves the flesh of the Living and will gorge
>itself (even if it has no stomach).
The body is doing whatever it can to can to keep its nervous system
viable..Brain tissue offers the greatest amount of the things that
allow the dead body remain viable..The digestive system no longer
operates in the same manner as it did before..rather as the tissues
decompose the constituent parts are absorbed..However this occurs at a
rate that is slower than the need for the nutrients [for lack of a
better word] can be satisfied. this unbalanced rate gets farther and
farther out of balance the longer the body has been dead..making them
more and more voracious..however once the body will no longer function
they go into a period of inactivity accompanied by a stupor..and even
rigor..after a period of time has passed that is long enough to have
dissolved the rotting flesh and built up the needed nutrients in its
system it can become active again..this works best if the Zombie had
packed its stomach and intestines with flesh and brains before it went
into the stupor..And the black ichor that seeps from a wounded Zombie
is a product of the putrefying flesh it has consumed..This seeping
ichor is also an attractive food source for other Zombies..that is why
Zombies will sometimes turn on one of their wounded...They cannot
sense the ichor in the same way they can living flesh thus they do
not hunt their own kind..However the astral critters do sense the
spark of life and this translates to a food source for the Zombie..
Note: A digestive system is not necessary for this to occur for
that matter if a Zombie is left in contact with rotting flesh this
will also regenerate the Zombie..This is not as efficient..but it
works..This is also why even a zombie without a midsection will
continue to attempt to gorge itself..
>Any person dying in an Infected area will rise again as the Living
>Dead, and
To kinda keep the Astral Critters contained this is how I would do it...
Anyone dying in the vicinity of a Zombie may become a Zombie as well
but only if the current creatures inhabiting a Zombie are prepared to
multiply. this occurs relatively slowly [this also allows the problem to
remain small and to be contained] And it occurs only if the critters
notice the dead body or in rare and dangerous cases [for the critters
anyway] they may decide to migrate to what they hope is a better
body..[they are not making cogitative decisions..rather instinctive ones]
IF the critters have been in ta host too long they become configured to
that host and it becomes more or less unsuitable for a different
host..It is still possible to transfer but it my only work for a short
time and then environment can become non-viable..
And it takes a good number of these creatures to animate a host
Zombie..I would say that not less than 2000 of the creatures and up
to 20,000 creatures could live in a single host all working to power
the host in order to feed off of the energies it created as it
consumes living flesh...
>anyone bitten (or something similar) will die a painful
>death and rise as one of the Living Dead shortly.
This would be due to serious infection with any number of diseases
associated with both the living and decaying dead flesh..Instant
infection..If you don't get help quick..you will wish you had..
And then you can consider what happens when the Astral Critters
invade a cybered body..Or perhaps one that was able to cast magic in
life..In this case I would only allow it to cast raw power with a
more or less random chance of striking anything..as well as taking
physical damage -every- time it did so..basically the raw power
flowing from its hands burn its hands to ashes a little at a
time..until it only has stumps...And I would allow this to occur
rather rapidly..
>5.) Breakdown: As time goes on and the Living Dead begin to
>outnumber the living......
I wouldn't go this far with it..I would make it a problem that they
would run into every now and then..Giving you the element you are
looking for [Horror] without destroying those things that make Shadowrun
a world we all love and enjoy...But of course..it is your game in the
end and you ultimately do what you want..
As others have said I think it would ultimately turn into a 'How many
Zombies can you kill slaughterfest' and that sort of thing gets old
fairly quick..But it could be a nice break form your everyday run
though..Give your players a chance for some mindless violence once in a
while..
I suppose that should be enough... :)
--------------------------------GRANITE
"Rock Steady"
