You are on your own. The Army is MIA and our government is gone! There are no communications of any kind. Cities and towns have gone dark, and zombies fill the streets. The dead have risen and it would seem to be the end of the world. Help me, Mommy!
UPDATE: Dead Reign™ Sourcebook 3: Endless Dead™. This is another book that is coming along nicely. We are still waiting for the finished cover, but artist, E.M. Gist says it is his personal favorite of them all, and that’s saying quite a lot considering how great the other covers have been. Much of the interior art coming in is jaw-dropping amazing. Nick Bradshaw is a mad man, and he and Mike Mumah have taken their art to a new level. As for the new source material? Zombies like you have never seen them, 7 new types of them, 5 new survivor O.C.C.s including the Wheelman and Zombie Hunter, vehicle armor rules, many encounter tables, adventure tables, what the military is doing and more. 96 pages of gruesome goodness. At this point, the book is going to slip into an early December release. We’re thinking around December 12.
what I like Zombies 7 new types of them 5 new survivor O.C.C.s vehicle armor rules what the military is doing!!!!!!!!!!!!yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!! hope to see army, marine , nay or air force O.C.C but not going to happen
let your YES be YES and your NO be NO but plz no maybe
cornholioprime wrote:SEVEN new types of Zombies?!?
yes get your shot gun with silencers on
shotguns. with silencers.
really? i admit i never tried a silencers, so i guess i should keep my mouth ****, but would that REALLY work?
I've seen the plans for a supressed single shot shotgun, There is the Clandestine-12 modified supressed Remington 870, and recently Red jacket Firearms added a supressed Saiga-12 to their lineup. So yes you can supress a shotgun...heck the German's supress Artillery.
Me I'm a fan of using an M21 sniper Rifle and a truck with a supression table* built into the back. park it in a nice target rich inviroment and headshot away without the zombies noticing you and then drive to the next hunting spot.
*basically a giant supressor mounted on a table, while not as good as an integral firearms mounted system it does have the advantage of being able to dampen the sound of anything up to a .50 BMG without modification.
"Having met a few brits over here i wonder about them. The Military ones I met through my dad as a kid seem to be the most ruthless men on the planet..." -Steve Hobbs
Apparently you can supress any shotgun if you have the time, tools, and training.
"Having met a few brits over here i wonder about them. The Military ones I met through my dad as a kid seem to be the most ruthless men on the planet..." -Steve Hobbs
well to my thinking with the ploriferation of sound supressors with both the Military and the Civilian shooting community...Zombies are in alot of trouble. With a worldwide outbreak and a virtual decapitation of government there would be nothing stopping someone with the knowhow to build supressors. I don't have to speak on the advantage of not having a gunshot become a dinner bell.
Now about the Military's plans for getting rid of the Zombie menace. Well remember the end of Shaun of the Dead? basically once the military gets organized the zombie menace will get crushed by what can only be described as total extermination.
Now I can see massive hords streaming from the city but that is what napalm and cluster bombs are for.
Your typical soldier is disaplined and knows how to shoot a rifle. Plus they know how to use the sorts of firepower that most people can't imagine.
While some people have argued with me about the wisdom of blowing the hips out of swarms of zombies with a machinegun I view it as a delaying tactic. basically the machinegun is used to slow the swarm while riflemen pick off the downed zombies.
There is a really good reason that human wave attacks were dropped in western armies after WW1.
"Having met a few brits over here i wonder about them. The Military ones I met through my dad as a kid seem to be the most ruthless men on the planet..." -Steve Hobbs
well in WWZ they had the same thing they called it a sything effect and latter they issued single shot rifels and trained there solders to aim at the head. Plus they used Special incendiary rounds (Propelled Incendiary Explosive or PIE rounds, also known as "cherry pies") were developed, to aid in decontamination by burning most of the zombie's brain matter when it was shot the first time. These rounds create an extremely small explosion inside the skull, ensuring a headshot would destroy the brain.
The issue is that the average rifleman is not trained in head shots combined with how difficult it is to achieve one at any real range against something like a zombie. A slow shambler and you might manage a headshot at a decent range if you are a halfway decent marksman. Getting 10 out of 10 from even a well trained sniper against something that is moving around and a semi-unpredictable manner is going to be damned hard at a distance.
10,000 zombies against 200 rifleman no trained for headshots and you are probably going to overwhelm the rifleman, especially if we aren't talking really slow moving zombies, but ones that can move at even half normal human running speed. Urban environments and that sort of thing are going to be really nasty.
Generalized explosives and fragmentation isn't going to be nearly all that effective against zombies, that there will be some effect. Willie Pete also is going to be of very limited effectiveness. Napalm and thermite are going to be the most effective, but keep in mind you are going to have to ensure pretty much a complete burn. Based on my limited knowledge of napalms implementation in Nam, there are many, many people who died in Nam not from being completely consumed from napalm, but because they died from severe burns and secondary infections from the burns. So a napalm tank that might have killed 500 humans in a big "swarm" might only kill 100 zombies in that same swarm, the rest are just going to be a little crispy around the edges.
That doesn't mean that I don't think the military might be able to tackle it, but it would take a very rapid and firm (IE killing a lot of the real people along with the zombies in highly infected areas) response from the world's militaries to contain it. A lot of fire bombing all major cities within the first few days, setting up fortified safe zones, etc. Possibly even nuking some of the worst infected areas (multiple times to help ensure proper kill of the zombies within).
GAR0351 wrote:I don't have my books handy...is 96 pages the norm for the last two source books that came out? But, as always, I am excited to see a new release. 7 new zombies types is always good. Helps keep the PCs on their toes.
Here's hoping the new zombie types aren't just "fast attack zombie, with knives!" and "mock half-zombie... thinks it's alive, but looks zombie-like, when it really is a zombie!"
Interested to see what the "Walking Mass Grave zombie" will be like - sounds nasty.
Northern Gun Weapons Technician, R&D Department Reading: Savage Worlds / Savage Rifts Playing: Nothing U_U Advocating: A free, super-slick .pdf of Palladium's core system with sample characters and scenario My Dead Reign Character Sheet Palladium Books RPG Google+ Community
Rockwolf66 wrote:Me I'm a fan of using an M21 sniper Rifle and a truck with a supression table* built into the back. ...*basically a giant supressor mounted on a table, while not as good as an integral firearms mounted system it does have the advantage of being able to dampen the sound of anything up to a .50 BMG without modification.
Hi there, Rockwolf66,
do you have a link for the suppression table.
(NB: Just looked this up: There is even a French sniper rifle that uses 0.50 BMG, the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PGM_Hécate_II]PGM Hécate II[/url], cool name, huh?, and the American Barrett M82 / M107, latter also the German G82.)
Rockwolf66 wrote: (NB: Just looked this up: There is even a French sniper rifle that uses 0.50 BMG, the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PGM_Hécate_II]PGM Hécate II[/url], cool name, huh?, and the American Barrett M82 / M107, latter also the German G82.)
can u repost again plz ??:(
let your YES be YES and your NO be NO but plz no maybe
Rockwolf66 wrote: (NB: Just looked this up: There is even a French sniper rifle that uses 0.50 BMG, the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PGM_Hécate_II]PGM Hécate II[/url], cool name, huh?, and the American Barrett M82 / M107, latter also the German G82.)
can u repost again plz ??:(
Just copy the actual link and paste it in a new browser window; works fine.
"He who commands the kitchen commands the ship." -C. Magewind, Ley Line Rifter and self proclaimed "Best Cook in the Three Galaxies"
"The question is not why the mechanoids kill the humanoids, but only why nobody did it sooner." -Killer Cyborg
(NB: Just looked this up: There is even a French sniper rifle that uses 0.50 BMG, the [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PGM_Hécate_II]PGM Hécate II[/url], cool name, huh?, and the American Barrett M82 / M107, latter also the German G82.)
Cheers Hendrik
Basically it's a varient of the sound traps used by gunsmiths when testing firearms. Years ago I saw the plans for a shooting bench that supressed the noise of the firearm being used. It wasn't a NFA item because it wasn't mobile. in the case of the devise i am describing due to it being mounted on a vehicle it would be a NFA devise. Thus I am not going to give out the details online.
"Having met a few brits over here i wonder about them. The Military ones I met through my dad as a kid seem to be the most ruthless men on the planet..." -Steve Hobbs
Grell wrote:It will be out after it goes to the printer!
ahhhhh !!!!!!!!!!!i know i know thanks Grell sorry need book now for the club this week that's why
In likelihood, I'd expect it shortly after the New Year if we are lucky. Lemuria is now (friggen finally) getting Kevin's full attention and I think he said this was next before Vampire Sourcebook (or maybe it is Vampire Sourcebook first?). At any rate, Lemuria, if we are lucky might hit the printer the end of next week (if we are really, really lucky) and if DR SB3 is mostly done and really is just going to be a few small rewrites and additions by Kevin, might only take another week or so to hit the printer, getting there right before Christmas and back around New Years.
With traditional delays and all that (I still honestly expect Lemuria to hit the printer before the end of the year now that Kevin seems to honestly be working on it, despite earlier claims) I'd think maybe around MLK weekend for a back from printer is more realistic, but probably before the end of January as a worst case unless Vampire Sourcebook is going first (even though all the material is "done" basically, I can't see a week or two to clean it up, put in MORE additions and rewrites, etc to get to to the printer).
Palladium makes nice character sheets and allows a lot of room for creating a lot of depth in there characters and stories for ropeplay.
Personally I am quite happy with Dead Reign and I don't think it has any major flaws. They kept it quite concise and didn't include any unnecessary information.
I am hoping they will expand the setting and give new info and material with any new books they produce.
Some people have been talking about adding vampires, psionics, things from System failure.
Personally I have some doubts about whether you can include "everything" in a game with limited resources and time for people to play.
Possibly the GM should decide what he or she wants to include in a game- vampires, cyborgs etc etc and should be given some sort of sheet where they tick a box with stuff they allow or don't allow.
Vampires Yes Zombies Yes Cyborgs No Psionics No Undead Yes Mecha No
thank U most have ask lately to add vehicle which I can but most of my team right now are running they have been really running most high ways are block and roads in city and urban area they been running from the city to urban area from NY, NYC to the NY, Bronx area is the first part of the RPG game so far
they dont know it but the Bronx area has been block as well !!! they havent look at the boats so far and two player have boats skills and haven sat down to think !!!
let your YES be YES and your NO be NO but plz no maybe
azazel1024 wrote:The issue is that the average rifleman is not trained in head shots combined with how difficult it is to achieve one at any real range against something like a zombie. A slow shambler and you might manage a headshot at a decent range if you are a halfway decent marksman. Getting 10 out of 10 from even a well trained sniper against something that is moving around and a semi-unpredictable manner is going to be damned hard at a distance.
10,000 zombies against 200 rifleman no trained for headshots and you are probably going to overwhelm the rifleman, especially if we aren't talking really slow moving zombies, but ones that can move at even half normal human running speed. Urban environments and that sort of thing are going to be really nasty.
Generalized explosives and fragmentation isn't going to be nearly all that effective against zombies, that there will be some effect. Willie Pete also is going to be of very limited effectiveness. Napalm and thermite are going to be the most effective, but keep in mind you are going to have to ensure pretty much a complete burn. Based on my limited knowledge of napalms implementation in Nam, there are many, many people who died in Nam not from being completely consumed from napalm, but because they died from severe burns and secondary infections from the burns. So a napalm tank that might have killed 500 humans in a big "swarm" might only kill 100 zombies in that same swarm, the rest are just going to be a little crispy around the edges.
That doesn't mean that I don't think the military might be able to tackle it, but it would take a very rapid and firm (IE killing a lot of the real people along with the zombies in highly infected areas) response from the world's militaries to contain it. A lot of fire bombing all major cities within the first few days, setting up fortified safe zones, etc. Possibly even nuking some of the worst infected areas (multiple times to help ensure proper kill of the zombies within).
10,000 zombies against 200 rifleman get air support gunship or attack ground jet fighter
let your YES be YES and your NO be NO but plz no maybe
I think the main problem of us vs. them would be that democratic government (rightly) (should) try to save "their" people from plagues and violence but not at the expense of the "innocent".
Now, it would definitely take a while for a government in any of the western countries to react really "decisively" (as in all out violence) if it also has a change to kill voters, err, citizens. I think it would be days, at least, before a government would employ troops to mow down "ill citizens" or, even if they have realized that they are not merely sick but not curable, risk to take down the good with the bad. Use of napalm or nuclear weapons in such a situation ... I think that would be a long time before it came, if at all.
That said, it would be very interesting to look into the various government plans, in so far as available, regarding pandemic action plans and coordination. As weird as zombies would seem to a rational (non-roleplayer) government official, it is logical that it would be treated just like "any other" pandemic. Whether that works or not, but "when you don't know how to deal with it, go by the book".
azazel1024 wrote:The issue is that the average rifleman is not trained in head shots combined with how difficult it is to achieve one at any real range against something like a zombie..
10,000 zombies against 200 rifleman get air support gunship or attack ground jet fighter
Well as far as what azazel thinks he should tell it to the Marines after Falujah. There were units accused of war crimes because they were shooting armed insurgents in the head from several hundred meter's away. The reason it happened was because they were useing low powered optics and could spot gunmen in windows and engage them with much higher proficiency than with iron sights.
As far as for Fire and Explosives they are simply amazing at damaging and destroying the human body. Thermite is useless against Zombies themselves as its pretty much placed and set alight(No real blast radius although it will depending on how you use it burn through or weild almost anything.) Napalm or White Phosphorus might not be instantly fatal to a zombie but it will set anything flamable on a zombie on fire(Heck, it will cause human fat to combust and make some zombies burn like candles till there is only ash left). Basically White phosphorus because it burns as long as it has phosphorus left will easily burn down to the bone and keep burning. This means that while WP is a lousy immediat killer of zombies it is good for weakening a horde of zombies or breaking contact with one. As far as napalm goes You will quickly see fourth and fifth degree burns on the zombies and there is a high likelyhood of getting a zombie that cannot effectivly moove because of the damage napalm does to the extremities. There is a reason you see burned cadavers in a "Boxers" Position. the heat causes their tendons and ligaments to shrink.
As far as explosives go some of my information is out of date as there are currently ongoing studies of blast waves and what they do to the human body but the gist of it is this. Explosions do horrible things to the human body and things like urban enviroments with all of their enclosed space is the worst place to experiance the cuncussion of an explosion. I know of one incedent in the 1960s where a couple of British Trainees were in a wargame and inside a machinegun bunker that was buttoned up. A single grenade simulator killed them. Now that was a very small ammount of explosives. a 0.43 pound charge of TNT(as in a M3A1 concussion grenade) is enough to kill everyone inside a typical urban room. Do you really think that someone faceing a horde of zombies will only use a 1/2 pound charge? Nope the ones who have training with explosives are going to potentially whip up multiple larger charges in an area that maximizes blast potential. they are not going to use small demo charges in the middle of open fields. they are going to use charges in such a way that the zombies are litterally crushed by the blast effects.
Plus Zino is right you won't get a company of Riflemen fighting a horde. you will have support elements grinding the hodre to a pulp and then that rifle company will just mop up(possibly litterally if the combat engineers have had time to prepare).
"Having met a few brits over here i wonder about them. The Military ones I met through my dad as a kid seem to be the most ruthless men on the planet..." -Steve Hobbs
I never said a headshot was impossible, or that a good marksman could manage one. However, with experience, hitting even a slowly moving target at a good distance the size of a head with a rifle is NOT easy. It is possible, but not easy. Now imagine several thousand of them shambling toward your group of a couple of hundred soldiers. I'd imagine there would be a lot of headshots. Would there be enough out numbered 100 to one, that the soldiers would have enough ammo, get a high enough percentage of hits and have enough time to take them all down? Probably not is my guess.
Support elements, well MGs aren't terribly accurate and would likely burn a lot of ammo trying to mow them down with headshots. It would also take a resonable number of rounds to "disable" a zombie without a head shot (sure the occasional really accurate one might head shot, decapitate, sever the spinal cord, blast legs off, etc). Explosives likely would be effective, but at much smaller ranges. Grenade fragmentation will generally not penetrate a skull. The explosive content of a standard fragmentation grenade is lethal from the concusion out to I think about 7-10ft, likely less to a zombie where damaging organs isn't going to stop them (muscle damage isn't very high from concusion and I don't know how much damage there would be a brain, inside of a skull from blast concusion, some, but I bet it is much better protected than internal organs are).
I am not attempting to say that a rifle company absolutely could not destroy a zombie horde of 10,000 zombies. I am saying "a sure fire win" it almost certainly would not be. The support elements that a rifle company would normally have also likely would not be sufficient to turn the tide. A rifle battalion with a heavy weapons company organic to attached probably wouldn't have a hard time against 10,000 zombies. Throw in artillery and it is no contest. However, even against well armed, well prepared and well trained forces, numbers of 100 to 1 are daunting at the very least, and possibly overwhelming unless the human forces have some kind of errected defenses.
In an urban area it would be harder on the humans most likely. Less room for engagement, if they have to go house to house to clear them you have even more difficulties, etc.
WP wouldn't tend to be very effective. The WP fragments tend to be small, so they likely would not disable large muscle groups completely, and it would take them impacting the head to have a chance of burning through a skull (and I don't think WP burns hot enough to burn through bone, and likely wouldn't be enough overall heat to cook a zombie brain inside of an intact skull). Napalm would be a good choice, but it would still take a little bit to cook a zombie enough to disable them. Maybe only a minute or three, but it is not instantaneous. With a human, the sheer trauma and pain will instantly incapacitate them, and kill them within a few seconds most likely. A zombie might well survive as a walking candle for anything from a minute or two to several minutes before being disabled and later burned up.
Flamethrowers and napalm would be good reintros to the battlefield against zombies. At least employeed from a military stand point. Though neither is likely to be instantly fatal to a zombie, you can quickly cover large numbers in inevitably fatal fire. You'd have to have tactics of advancing flamethrower units, light up the zombies, and then pull the flame units back and let the zombies burn out. A static line of defense probably wouldn't be a good idea (unless behind flame proof medium high walls).
azazel1024 wrote:I never said a headshot was impossible, or that a good marksman could manage one. However, with experience, hitting even a slowly moving target at a good distance the size of a head with a rifle is NOT easy. It is possible, but not easy. Now imagine several thousand of them shambling toward your group of a couple of hundred soldiers. I'd imagine there would be a lot of headshots. Would there be enough out numbered 100 to one, that the soldiers would have enough ammo, get a high enough percentage of hits and have enough time to take them all down? Probably not is my guess.
Support elements, well MGs aren't terribly accurate and would likely burn a lot of ammo trying to mow them down with headshots. It would also take a resonable number of rounds to "disable" a zombie without a head shot (sure the occasional really accurate one might head shot, decapitate, sever the spinal cord, blast legs off, etc). Explosives likely would be effective, but at much smaller ranges. Grenade fragmentation will generally not penetrate a skull. The explosive content of a standard fragmentation grenade is lethal from the concusion out to I think about 7-10ft, likely less to a zombie where damaging organs isn't going to stop them (muscle damage isn't very high from concusion and I don't know how much damage there would be a brain, inside of a skull from blast concusion, some, but I bet it is much better protected than internal organs are).
You said that they are difficult on a moving target and that the Military is not trained to aim for the head. The second is true while with modern firearms training and optics is debatable. There have been cases within the past decade of units in the US military being accused of war crimes because they were shooting insurgents in the head from hundreds of meters away. Now a "fast zombie" is only a fast as a living human being. meaning that they are the first undead to be cut down. Machinegunners are not trained to go for the head they are trained to aim for the hips as those sorts of injuries kill mobility of massed troops. There is a reason that massed infantry charges are no longer persormed by any sort of legitimate millitary in the world...it kills too many troops for too little gain. Thus a trained MG team will turn a hoard of fast zombies into a group of crawling targets that are fairly easy to hit with optics. As far as explosive cuncussion goes it takes very little to cause brain damage. As far as fragmentation devices go even if they do not instantly kill a zombie they do maim and weaken the zombie. Then again I do see the air force using a munitions dispencer to start dropping the equivlent of a bouncing betty set to go off a about 5'6" in height.
"Having met a few brits over here i wonder about them. The Military ones I met through my dad as a kid seem to be the most ruthless men on the planet..." -Steve Hobbs
ScottBernard wrote:Uh, yeah. Because thats what we really needed.
Yup. I mean really, how many zombie types can you have until it gets dumb? But I digress. It's the Romero-ist in me that's speaking. I like my zombies slow and dumb without any "Mutations".
Next after Lemuria supposedly. Lemuria has at least a week until it sees the printer, hopefully no longer than that. So as soon as it is done, DR Endless Dead. We may run in to another Lemuria (I am going to start calling it that) where the books is "nearly done", Kevin finally gets his mits on it and READS the darn thing and turns our he spends a year doing rewrites and additions to it before it sees print.
However, may I be proven right for once, it sounds like this one should be pretty quick to turn around in that most everything is written and even some editing done. I doubt we'll see it before the end of March, but we might actually see it hit the printer before April Fools day.
