I’m working on an encounter for an upcoming session and could use some advice. The idea is the players get back into town and discover it’s been overtaken by zombies. For now, the plan is to try and get the players to run from one location (a safe house or garage) to the other side of town to the airship dock while avoiding/fighting off zombies. I did a once over on the chase rules in the DMG, but it’s for more of an urban setting.
Anybody have ideas for trying to run through a horde of zombies?
Run each one as a minion like 4e. Lower their AC some if you want as well. Any hit on a to hit roll will kill a zombie. Also you might want to lower the zombie damage some as well. This way if a PC gets surrounded they wont take to much damage, giving them a fighting chance. Maybe limit how many can attack a PC at once. If you look at a grid there could be as many as 8. Cut it back to 3 or 4. In a case when they are surrounded just have them make a strength or dex related check the see if they can break away from the un-dead mob. You could even give them advantage on their check depending on if or how many they may have taken out around them. As far a running away from the mob do something like best 2 out of 3 or even 3 out of 5 ability checks. You know, have some stuff in their way that they need to get around. Just depends on how long you want the encounter to go. In any case it sounds fun.
Thanks, this is some good stuff. I like the STR check to burst out of a mob. There might be something in building a table, like one for each stat. Strength to break away or take damage. Dexterity you’re either get a free dash or half speed. Wisdom to find something to block the path and slow the zombies for a round. Maybe Charisma to inspire comrades for something.
Don’t assume your players will actually run. Players hate to run. They may just try to stand and fight. You need to give them a reason (ideally a heroic one) to run instead of staying and trying to free the town from this zombie plague before it spreads.
Don’t assume your players will actually run. Players hate to run. They may just try to stand and fight. You need to give them a reason (ideally a heroic one) to run instead of staying and trying to free the town from this zombie plague before it spreads.
You are correct about players not running. My current group would totally run right into the fray like a bunch of loons. You really need to come up with something creative so the players understand that this is something that they will need to do. Somehow come up with a reason that this would very well mean certain doom if they went the stand and fight method.
Players HATE to run away. You have to give them a reason. That's incredibly difficult in most groups.
They will totally jump into the fray and see how many zombies they can kill. If there are innocents in danger, they will hold the line to keep the zombies away from them.
Even if you have a giant zombie or scary mystic zombie, they will gravitate towards it to they can be heroes and kill it.
One thing I haven't tried but will be willing to, would be give them World War Z zombies. If they bite you, you turn into a zombie in 12 seconds (2 rounds). Have some guards or townspeople get overrun and then turn into zombies. That will scare them.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
Players HATE to run away. You have to give them a reason. That's incredibly difficult in most groups.
They will totally jump into the fray and see how many zombies they can kill. If there are innocents in danger, they will hold the line to keep the zombies away from them.
Even if you have a giant zombie or scary mystic zombie, they will gravitate towards it to they can be heroes and kill it.
One thing I haven't tried but will be willing to, would be give them World War Z zombies. If they bite you, you turn into a zombie in 12 seconds (2 rounds). Have some guards or townspeople get overrun and then turn into zombies. That will scare them.
I really like the WWZ idea (and here is the But) But on the off chance that the zombies do catch up or somehow the players decide to engage you to put the DM in a box to run with that 12 seconds to a zombie if any damage made. Maybe have a low DC to resist the change so that it makes sense where a commoner would not be able to resist the bite and change but the adventures have more of a chance. Still, it's a dangerous situation of the players take any damage even if they are running.
All I can come up with is the volume of zombies that the players face is such an insurmountable amount that there is no choice but to run. Zombies on the street, zombies on top of buildings, zombies come out of doorways. Plus you can make some of the zombies of different types from common to city guards, etc to define there are different types of zombies in the collective. Just this mass amount of zombies where the visual is so scary that players 'should' not think engaging the fight.
Players HATE to run away. You have to give them a reason. That's incredibly difficult in most groups.
They will totally jump into the fray and see how many zombies they can kill. If there are innocents in danger, they will hold the line to keep the zombies away from them.
Even if you have a giant zombie or scary mystic zombie, they will gravitate towards it to they can be heroes and kill it.
One thing I haven't tried but will be willing to, would be give them World War Z zombies. If they bite you, you turn into a zombie in 12 seconds (2 rounds). Have some guards or townspeople get overrun and then turn into zombies. That will scare them.
I really like the WWZ idea (and here is the But) But on the off chance that the zombies do catch up or somehow the players decide to engage you to put the DM in a box to run with that 12 seconds to a zombie if any damage made. Maybe have a low DC to resist the change so that it makes sense where a commoner would not be able to resist the bite and change but the adventures have more of a chance. Still, it's a dangerous situation of the players take any damage even if they are running.
Yes of course, 5e doesn't have "No Save" mechanics, nor "Save or Die" mechanics.
Round 1 - Get bit, make a CON (low #) save, on a fail, you're in excruciating pain. If you pass, good to go.
Round 2 - If you failed the first, CON save again, if you fail, you're a zombie. If you pass, good to go.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
Don’t assume your players will actually run. Players hate to run. They may just try to stand and fight. You need to give them a reason (ideally a heroic one) to run instead of staying and trying to free the town from this zombie plague before it spreads.
You are correct about players not running. My current group would totally run right into the fray like a bunch of loons. You really need to come up with something creative so the players understand that this is something that they will need to do. Somehow come up with a reason that this would very well mean certain doom if they went the stand and fight method.
"Like a bunch of loons"--love that! Mine too. Although I do it too as a player!
Heroic reasons: get a lone innocent survivor to safety, or an item (or researcher) critical to the cure
Yeah. The not running is an excellent point. The story so far is them returning from a quest with news that the town will be invaded (adding a ticking clock). The leader will ask them to help round everybody up for an evacuation on the airship (the only way out of the settlement). While doing so, one of the NPC’s they have previously rescued from a dungeon will make a heel turn, revealing to have been aligned with the slime zombie cult and “activating” the zombies.
The idea being this would trigger a fight to waste time while the zombifoed townsfolk collected outside and the invaders approached. Once the fight is over, they’d go outside to find the town overrun by multiple forces. I’m hoping the increased stakes triggers a flight response.
I think the key to making the PCs to run is to make sure they don't actually have to see it as running away -- they're just running towards something and have a time limit. Also, it only takes a small number of tedious zombie fights (don't make an individual zombie fight that scary, just make there be potentially lots of them) for players to go "Wow, this is annoying, let's avoid them."
I’m working on an encounter for an upcoming session and could use some advice. The idea is the players get back into town and discover it’s been overtaken by zombies. For now, the plan is to try and get the players to run from one location (a safe house or garage) to the other side of town to the airship dock while avoiding/fighting off zombies. I did a once over on the chase rules in the DMG, but it’s for more of an urban setting.
Anybody have ideas for trying to run through a horde of zombies?
Run each one as a minion like 4e. Lower their AC some if you want as well. Any hit on a to hit roll will kill a zombie. Also you might want to lower the zombie damage some as well. This way if a PC gets surrounded they wont take to much damage, giving them a fighting chance. Maybe limit how many can attack a PC at once. If you look at a grid there could be as many as 8. Cut it back to 3 or 4. In a case when they are surrounded just have them make a strength or dex related check the see if they can break away from the un-dead mob. You could even give them advantage on their check depending on if or how many they may have taken out around them. As far a running away from the mob do something like best 2 out of 3 or even 3 out of 5 ability checks. You know, have some stuff in their way that they need to get around. Just depends on how long you want the encounter to go. In any case it sounds fun.
Thanks, this is some good stuff. I like the STR check to burst out of a mob. There might be something in building a table, like one for each stat. Strength to break away or take damage. Dexterity you’re either get a free dash or half speed. Wisdom to find something to block the path and slow the zombies for a round. Maybe Charisma to inspire comrades for something.
I’ll need to go back and give NADDPod a new listen. There are a few dash encounters in the show.
Don’t assume your players will actually run. Players hate to run. They may just try to stand and fight. You need to give them a reason (ideally a heroic one) to run instead of staying and trying to free the town from this zombie plague before it spreads.
You are correct about players not running. My current group would totally run right into the fray like a bunch of loons. You really need to come up with something creative so the players understand that this is something that they will need to do. Somehow come up with a reason that this would very well mean certain doom if they went the stand and fight method.
Players HATE to run away. You have to give them a reason. That's incredibly difficult in most groups.
They will totally jump into the fray and see how many zombies they can kill. If there are innocents in danger, they will hold the line to keep the zombies away from them.
Even if you have a giant zombie or scary mystic zombie, they will gravitate towards it to they can be heroes and kill it.
One thing I haven't tried but will be willing to, would be give them World War Z zombies. If they bite you, you turn into a zombie in 12 seconds (2 rounds). Have some guards or townspeople get overrun and then turn into zombies. That will scare them.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
I really like the WWZ idea (and here is the But) But on the off chance that the zombies do catch up or somehow the players decide to engage you to put the DM in a box to run with that 12 seconds to a zombie if any damage made. Maybe have a low DC to resist the change so that it makes sense where a commoner would not be able to resist the bite and change but the adventures have more of a chance. Still, it's a dangerous situation of the players take any damage even if they are running.
All I can come up with is the volume of zombies that the players face is such an insurmountable amount that there is no choice but to run. Zombies on the street, zombies on top of buildings, zombies come out of doorways. Plus you can make some of the zombies of different types from common to city guards, etc to define there are different types of zombies in the collective. Just this mass amount of zombies where the visual is so scary that players 'should' not think engaging the fight.
Yes of course, 5e doesn't have "No Save" mechanics, nor "Save or Die" mechanics.
Round 1 - Get bit, make a CON (low #) save, on a fail, you're in excruciating pain. If you pass, good to go.
Round 2 - If you failed the first, CON save again, if you fail, you're a zombie. If you pass, good to go.
"Sooner or later, your Players are going to smash your railroad into a sandbox."
-Vedexent
"real life is a super high CR."
-OboeLauren
"............anybody got any potatoes? We could drop a potato in each hole an' see which ones get viciously mauled by horrible monsters?"
-Ilyara Thundertale
"Like a bunch of loons"--love that! Mine too. Although I do it too as a player!
Heroic reasons: get a lone innocent survivor to safety, or an item (or researcher) critical to the cure
Yeah. The not running is an excellent point. The story so far is them returning from a quest with news that the town will be invaded (adding a ticking clock). The leader will ask them to help round everybody up for an evacuation on the airship (the only way out of the settlement). While doing so, one of the NPC’s they have previously rescued from a dungeon will make a heel turn, revealing to have been aligned with the slime zombie cult and “activating” the zombies.
The idea being this would trigger a fight to waste time while the zombifoed townsfolk collected outside and the invaders approached. Once the fight is over, they’d go outside to find the town overrun by multiple forces. I’m hoping the increased stakes triggers a flight response.
I think the key to making the PCs to run is to make sure they don't actually have to see it as running away -- they're just running towards something and have a time limit. Also, it only takes a small number of tedious zombie fights (don't make an individual zombie fight that scary, just make there be potentially lots of them) for players to go "Wow, this is annoying, let's avoid them."
Maybe if I can frame it closer to “get to the airship while the zombies and invaders duke it out” that would be more enticing.