Zombies Shuffle Back Home: My Reacquisition Of SPI's Dawn Of The Dead Game

Back in 1980, I was 13 or 14 years old and was just starting to discover what my hobbies and interests were going to be. I liked monster movies, and board games, and late night TV, and other campy-type entertainment. I hadn't yet discovered RPGs, but I was beginning to discover boardgames. But not just games like Sorry or Monopoly and Scrabble. I was starting to fiddle around with wargames. Even though I wasn't interested in combat or world history, I loved the simulation aspect of moving little chits around a map and rolling dice for outcomes. Names like Avalon Hill, Metagaming, and Steve Jackson were on my radar.

One day, I stopped by the local toy shop and saw what would become one of my deepest gaming loves: SPI's "Dawn of the Dead" boardgame (1978). Now at that age, I don't think I'd seen the Romero classic yet, but I had a friend with a Fangoria subscription, so I knew alllllll about it. A game that simulated a horror movie with cannibal undead? My mind reeled at the idea and I plunked down all of my pocket money for the game. My brother (who was likely 9 at the time) had no interest in the game, and we lived out in the country, so neighbors and local kids were nonexistent. But this game had a SOLO mode! I could play AGAINST the game. Once again, my eyes were opened to gaming possibilities I never dreamed of.

Flash-forward 8 or 9 years later. I'm now in college. My well-loved and well-played copy of DotD went to campus with me, still complete (though the box was held together with tape by now). The campus game center was my second home, and by now I had discovered D&D, Call of Cthulhu, and other RPGs, so boardgaming happened a lot less for me. I had a bit of money troubles (as all college kids do), and the gamestore owner - knowing of my DotD game (and its collectible value even back then) - made me a generous offer. So I sold it off without regret. Ok, a LOT of regret. 

Over the years, this game's always been in the back of my mind. I loved playing it. Sure, there are a ton of solo zombie boardgames now with better production, better rules, and deeper gameplay. Hell, you can even download and create your own fanmade DotD game, if you wish. But I really wanted to get this back in hand. Recently, I had a stack of trade-ins at Noble Knight - one of my favorite online gamestores - and they had a used copy of DotD available. That's all I needed to know. My trade-ins were sent in, approved, credit was was spent, and now I have SPI's Dawn of the Dead back in hand - where it shall remain.

I plan to spend the next few weeks getting reacquainted with the game and trying to keep Fran, Peter, Steve, and Roger safe from the zombie hordes invading the Monroeville Mall. And the game will have a place of honor on my shelf next to other cherished games from my youth: Mayfair's Family Business (1989), Mayfair's Encounters (1982), and Dark House's Dark Cults (1983).

[GameHack] Build A Better Zombie Horde For Escape: Zombie City

As part of International TableTop Day, I wrote an overview of Escape: Zombie City. Now, I really like this game a lot, but to be frank, the zombies that came with it are a bit lacking.

First up: many other zombie boardgames comes with actual zombie figures for use with play. Cardboard cut-outs placed into plastic standees strikes me as a bit cheap-looking. (Also, the player and van figs are physical wooden props, so why not the zombies you fight/flee from? My other issue was that the coloring used to differentiate the power of the zombies (red, yellow, and green) was applied very lightly. As a guy with severe color-blindness, this made the zombies nearly impossible to identify during the heat of play. I needed zombies that were RED, YELLOW, and GREEN. So I decided to Build a Better Zombie Horde.

If you're color-blind, these are identical -- except for the numbers, of course.

I know there are many places online where you can buy ready-to-go zombie figures for use with other zombie games. (The Bag O' Zombies for use with Zombicide comes to mind.) But for this project, I didn't want cookie-cutter zombies who all looked the same; No, I wanted an assortment of different zombies in different poses who stood just a touch bigger -- the size of little green Army men, in fact.

I did a bit of searching online, I found a 60-piece zombie playset filled with an assortment of undead -- just what I was looking. I then gathered up some white poker chips, epoxy, plastic primer, three tubes of acrylic paints, and some double-sided foam tape.

My staging area for my soon-to-be-released zombie horde.

First I sorted out 20 zombies in interesting poses I liked, then I glued them to the poker chips for a stable base. After dusting them with the primer, they held the acrylic paints well.

A few zombies both pre-painted and post-painted.

For the fist/bat icons, I scanned a few of the original figures, then trimmed the icons down in size (removing the "X" as superfluous). I printed them onto thin cardstock, covered them with a layer of clear tape (to protect the imagery), then stuck them to the bases with foam-backed double-sided tape. This both "lifts" the icon up for easier reading, as well as adheres to the irregular shape of the poker chip base.

Compared to the originals, I like my zombies a LOT better for gameplay!

 And my Escape: Zombie City "new-and-improved" zombie horde is ready to storm the table!

During gameplay, you'll need to draw these blindly out of a box rather than the cloth bag provided with the game, but I think these are going to see a lot of use in future games!

[Int'l Tabletop Day Review] Escape: Zombie City by Queen Games

Welcome to The Savage AfterWorld and International TableTop Day! We're participating in a multi-site "Boardgame Review Bloghop" today, so zip down to the bottom of this post to see who else is participating. And now, on with my overview!

Most boardgame enthusiasts by now have probably heard about and/or played Escape: The Curse of the Temple by Queen Games. This frantic, real-time, dice-rolling, adventure game is great fun for would-be Indiana Jones-types as they hurriedly roll dice, explore the tomb, retrieve the treasures, and try to get out alive before time runs out! But what if you prefer "less Raiders" and "more Living Dead"? Well Queen Games' recently released Escape follow-up will slake that zombie hunger!

 Escape: Zombie City is Queen Games' newest entry in their real-time, dice-rolling, exploration-and-escape game series, and it has quickly become a favorite in the Sniderman household. Gameplay is similar to the first Escape game (explained later), but in Zombie City, the game is divided into two distinct phases. (First, you'll want to pop in and play the enclosed CD soundtrack which acts as both a 15-minute timer as well as a nifty ambiance soundtrack.)

During the first phase, players spread out from their church stronghold into the zombie-infested city. While running through the streets and exploring the town, you'll need to scavenge up several specific items necessary to escape: first aid supplies, food, weapons, etc. During all of this, zombies are rising from the grave, attacking the players and wandering the streets back to the church. If three manage to enter your home base, your base is overrun and you lose immediately! So simply avoiding the zombies isn't enough -- you'll have to destroy them, spending valuable time in the process.

The red and blue players team up to fight a red zombie while the white player contends with a yellow zombie that popped up on the new area he entered. (No thanks to the zombie card shown!) Meanwhile the green zombie is just one step away from walking into the church to the right!

Every five minutes of real-time when the zombies groan with hunger, you must race back to the church to both drop off found supplies and take shelter from the undead horde. Fail to do so, and you lose the use of one of your precious dice for the rest of the game! Hopefully during the chaos, you'll be able to find the road that leads out of town as well as collect enough supplies to make a run for it! When (and IF) you do, phase two begins...

During phase two, you load up the beat-up church van and try to drive out of town. At this point, the streets are overrun with undead, and the players must now fight together as a team to get themselves, the van, and all of their supplies to the exit ramp and out of town. Movement slows to a crawl as EVERY player must successfully move along with an extra movement rolled for the van. Any zombies you encounter must be fought rather than bypassed or fled from. And by this time, you have a scant few minutes before time runs out!

The yellow van is loaded with supplies and ready to head out to the exit in the upper left of the photo. But the road out of town is loaded with zombies! Good thing they're escaping, as two zombies managed to enter the base as shown in the lower left next to the zombie card pile.

Like its predecessor, each player constantly rolls five dice, attempting to make matches that will allow them to perform actions. Matching a pair of "getaway" icons allows you to reveal and place a new city tile or enter an area previously exposed. "Fist" and "bat" icons let you scavenge for necessary supplies and attack the zombie hoards. Be careful, as "panic" icons become locked and unusable unless you can unlock it with a "caution" roll. It sounds simple enough until that looming 15-minute countdown begins, then it becomes a frantic dice-rolling free-for-all.

Complicating things are the zombies and the zombie cards. With each new street section exposed, a player must draw a new zombie card. Some cards cause one or all zombies to move toward the church. Some cards cause a zombie to explode out of the ground in the section the player's now in. And other cards cause zombies to pop up throughout the city! There are also injury cards -- such as a broken arm (you must play with one hand only) or bitten by a zombie (lose a die). Also zombies come in three strengths. The weak "green" zombies are easily defeated, needing three fists or bats to put them down. Moderate "yellow" zombies need four fists/bats to stop them, and the hearty "red" zombies require all five of your dice to show fists or bats. With the stronger zombies, you'll need other players to run to your aid as you can then combine your dice if you're in the same section. However, while you pool your fighting resources, you lose time scavenging for supplies. And the clock is always ticking down.

rawwwrrrr...grooooannn....unnngghhhrrrr

Unlike Escape: The Curse of the Temple, Escape: Zombie City adds a new dimension to the gameplay as the gameboard is now alive (in a manner of speaking). Players are not just trying to gather supplies and escape to win...now they must also defend their base from an ever-approaching -- and ever-growing -- zombie horde. And as the timer ticks down, more zombies enter the game, staggering towards the church, cutting off the players' hope for Escape! If you enjoy the quick-paced exploration mechanic of the original game, Escape: Zombie City adds a great new element with the approaching relentless zombie horde as well as horrifying zompocalypse theme to the game. Good luck, and try not to get eaten!

Be sure visit these other International TableTop Day "Boardgame Review Bloghop" participants!

Channel Zero – Thunderstone by Alderac Entertainment

Fractalbat – The Hills Rise Wild by Pagan Publishing

The Gibbering Gamer – Dragon Dice by SFR (formerly TSR)

Random Encounters (From Ohio) – Nano Bot Battle Arena by Derpy Games

Troll in the Corner – Star Realms by White Wizard Games

The Savage AfterWorld – Escape: Zombie City by Queen Games