Z-Busters? (and Malago)

I finished Jonathan Maberry's Patient Zero over the weekend. Saul had enjoyed it and suggested I gave it ago and it wasn't bad at all. A mix of zombies, fundamentalist terrorists and Special Forces trying to contain an outbreak made a nice change from the usual post apocalypse background and more of a 24 than Walking Dead experience.

It struck me part way through that this was all perfectly gameable and my thoughts returned to my fledgling ideas of converting Scudbusters into a vehicle for zombies versus SOF. Scudbusters, if your are unfamiliar was originally published by Gauntlet Publications in the nineties and pitted the SAS against a table controlled random Iraqi enemy in a series of Gulf War scenarios. The campaign system using a deck of playing cards is elegant in its simplicity and I have used it in other games so clever is it.

I think the mechanisms are simple enough to develop into other genres (I have previously pondered using it as a framework for resistance fighters in Nazi occupied Europe) and the idea of setting SOF loose on missions during the early days of a zombie outbreak could be a lot of fun, their ability to undertake missions successfully being reduced as a campaign progresses and their friction level is worn down by the ongoing stresses and strains of battle.

I haven't got the time to spend on this now but it may be a project for 2014...

Gromit of the Day:

Malago