Zombie Games Are Almost Never About Zombies

While I was writing a recent article, The Zerg Rush (An Underused Combat Encounter), I started thinking about zombie games. Because whether you're running an All Flesh Must Be Eaten game, a Dark Horizons campaign, or something else that involves hordes of the walking dead, it's important to remember a truism of the genre.

Namely that the best zombie stories are never really about zombies.

So... existential dread and the death of human community? That's way worse than zombies...

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Zombies Are The Means, Not The End

From Night of The Living Dead, all the way up to The Last of Us, zombies have become a staple of the horror genre. They fill movies, TV shows, comic books, and of course tabletop RPGs. They're some of the most standard enemies you can face in most fantasy modules, and even some sci fi ones, and there are entire games dedicated to zombie apocalypse style setups.

In these stories, the zombies are the means (or one of the means) you use to tell the story in question... but in the really good stories, the zombies are never the end your players are striving for.

We are the mirror you hold up to show society, and one's own humanity.

Let me take an example from popular fiction to explain what I mean, here. The book World War Z: An Oral History of The Zombie War is a collection of interviews and accounts with people who lived through this horrifying conflict, and it immerses the reader in this fictional time and place. It tells us the stories of civilians who hid out in the wilds, of politicians who tried to respond to the crisis, of soldiers on the front lines, and of people who were just average, working stiffs who were just trying to rebuild their communities in this horrifying new world. It's a fantastic read, and well worth all the praise it receives. The film based on the book, though, is a generic action movie that gives us a single perspective of a single character who ends up being the doctor that finds how to beat the virus, and to save the world by removing the zombies entirely.

Do you see the difference between these two things?

As an alternative example, take my All Flesh experience that I talked about in The Best Zombie Game I Ever Played (Where Nothing Happened). To recap, the game was set in Northwest Indiana, and our characters were all perfectly normal people caught up in a zombie outbreak. The goal of this single session was for us to get to an extraction point, and escape the infested region. The purpose of the storyline, though, was for characters who didn't know each other to develop connections, to learn to work together, and to pool their abilities to overcome threats while developing a bond together. You could have replaced the zombies with an army of aggressive black bears, an outbreak of any other disease, or even a natural disaster like a flood or a massive fire, and the story still would have had those elements front and center.

The zombies were not the point of the game, they were merely the factor that facilitated the characters' needing to come together to save themselves. This is, I would argue, the way zombies are supposed to be used. Because they are dangerous, yes, but they shouldn't be just a monster. Not only that, but opposing them, defeating them, eradicating them, shouldn't really be the point of the game.

So before you run a zombie game, ask what the purpose of the zombies are and what are you going to use them for?

Are your zombies the factor that led to certain world changes, leading to crumbling societies so there are now warring tribes of people trying to scrounge for resources? Are they a representation of empty consumerism, showing that to overcome them people have to move beyond selfishness, and to embrace a community in order to survive? Are they representative of how you can lose loved ones to cult mentality, or how hard it is to let go of people who've become toxic and don't want to get better, showing people who have to fight against those they once held dear? Are the zombies being exploited for gain by some powerful faction, showing how those with a vicious mindset will do anything, no matter how terrible, if it means maintaining power?

In most of these cases, the zombies could be replaced with a slew of other things, and the stories would still be poignant, and the games would still have challenges to overcome, while dripping with drama. The story isn't, at its core, about just caving in skulls and running over shambling corpses that have been reanimated into a shuffling, groaning parody of life.

I mean, you should have those things, but that shouldn't be as deep as it goes, or things are going to get really repetitive really fast!

Resources For Your Zombie Games

It's tough running a good zombie game. If you need some help with the heavy lifting, might I suggest checking out some of the following supplements to give yourself a couple of handy cheat sheets?

- 100 Descriptions For Modern Zombies

- 100 Descriptions For Modern Zombies II (all good zombie products need sequels)

- 100 Transmissions To Hear During The Zombie Apocalypse

- 100 Sights To See During The Zombie Apocalypse

- 100 Improvised Weapons To Find During The Zombie Apocalypse

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Moon Pope Monday. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

The Zerg Rush (An Underused Combat Encounter)

When we think of combat encounters in TTRPGs, we tend to think in terms of specific numbers, strategies, and environments. This is only natural given that so many times it can be tough to balance out what kind of encounter is a challenge for your players, versus what is going to be a cakewalk, versus what is going to be complete overkill... and that's before we take into question experience points, gear and loot if they win, and so on.

However, because we so often have tightly-scripted encounters, we forget that sometimes it can be extremely fun to face a combat situation that's full of total chaos where players can really cut loose with a lot of their abilities, but which still rewards smart strategy and tactical planning.

I'm talking, of course, about the zerg rush.

They're everywhere! Fire at will!

Before we get into the nitty gritty this week, don't forget to sign up for my weekly newsletter to get all my updates right in your inbox. Also, if you've got a bit of spare cash that you'd like to use to help keep the wheels turning, consider becoming a Patreon patron! Also, be sure you're following all of my followables, check out my LinkTree.

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They Just Keep Coming!

Even if you're not a Starcraft player, chances are good you've heard the term zerg rush before. It comes from the insectoid zerg faction, creatures reminiscent of both the tyranids of Warhammer 40K, but also of the bugs of Starship Troopers. Some players would build up as many warrior units as they could, and mass rush them over the enemy lines. While individually these creatures were weak, en masse they were a serious threat that would take stiff resistance to stand against. Over time the term grew to refer to basically any game where a mass frontal assault using overwhelming numbers was the strategy employed.

The reason I've had this particular strategy on my mind is that I've been sitting down and planning short-form missions for my RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic. Some of those missions involve tracking down enemies out in the wild, some require getting hold of particular documents, and others require kicking in the doors and going in guns blazing! At least one or two, though, are going to deal with the squad of troopers being given a location to defend and hold.

And when that happens, a zerg rush is a great way to keep things feeling tense, and to keep your players on their toes.

You can use practically any enemies you want for this...

Now, it doesn't matter if you are using the vespoinds in Army Men, goblins in traditional Dungeons and Dragons, or you want to send hordes of undead at your survivors in All Flesh Must Be Eaten, there are several key things to keep in mind in order to make defending against this kind of assault a thrilling encounter, rather than a tedious or frustrating one.

- Firstly, the players must have some kind of location to defend. Even if it's just a set of interlocking trenches on one side of No Man's Land, or a tumbledown castle with a wall full of holes, they need to have some kind of defense to make up for their lack of numbers.

- Secondly, the enemies need to be relatively weak as individuals. A single zombie, a single goblin, or a single Vespoid is not a great threat... but a dozen of them? 50 of them? A hundred? These are the sort of numbers that can make players sweat when they start closing the distance.

- Thirdly, players need to have the resources to fight this battle. If there are only a dozen arrows between all the bowmen, and there are 75 enemies approaching, that is not going to be a fun time; it's just going to feel unfair. You don't need to give them infinite ammunition along with rocket launchers, the ability to constantly replenish their spell slots, etc., but make sure that your players have enough tricks up their sleeve (whether it's calling in air support or artillery fire, or the sorcerer has a handful of fireballs and lightning bolts) to make a big show of things, but not so many that they can drop those big bombs every turn with impunity.

- Fourthly, the rush should be dynamic. Even if the enemy you're facing isn't known for strategy, it's important to divide the PCs' attention at least somewhat. For example, if they're guarding a fort, and the rush comes from two fronts, they now have to weigh the odds of which direction to focus more of their attention and firepower, redirecting and moving organically as the battle develops. If part of the rush breaches a gate, they have to weigh defending that position and stopping other gates from receiving the same treatment, and so on. If the party is just holding a narrow cave mouth, then it's just going to be a martial in the gap, bowmen and casters behind, and that can get boring quickly because it isn't changing. If the rush loses momentum it becomes a slog, and no one finds that fun.

- Fifthly, and this one is optional, consider doing a zerg rush in waves. Keep a counter in front of you as a GM, and every X number of rounds, bring in fresh numbers, or a force from a different direction. This keeps your players on their toes and helps stop you from getting too overwhelmed moving such a massive force as one. And, as a final piece of advice, it helps if the rush has limited ability to actually hurt the PCs from a distance. This allows the PCs to at first attack with impunity, but as the enemy draws nearer, and starts to press them, suddenly the threat becomes much more real than it was a few rounds ago!

There are a lot of different ways you can go with a zerg rush encounter. For example, you can have the rush continue for a certain period of time, requiring players to simply hold it back until a ritual is complete, the dawn breaks over the horizon, an air strike can swoop in, etc. Alternatively, the rush might be stopped by destroying a particular figure, such as the necromancer commanding the undead, the hobgoblin generals directing their troops, or the hive mind of a vespoid force. Or it might simply end when enemy morale breaks, and too many troops from their side have been lost.

With that said, it's important to make sure you budget the time for running something like this, and that you have some kind of loss condition if the rush does actually overwhelm the PCs. For example, can they withdraw to a narrow retreat that will save them from the foe, but put them in different danger (like retreating through underground tunnels haunted by other, dangerous creatures)? Will they be captured instead of killed if the rush overwhelms them (such as if the necromancer has plans for them that would be upset by them getting mostly eaten by a horde of zombies)? Is the rush more focused on retrieving a hostage (like a bandit leader being freed by his gang) than it is on actually fighting the PCs?

Sometimes the rush actually goes the way the antagonists want, which is something you need to plan for before you do it so that it doesn't just spell game over if the dice go against your players.

As a final reminder, if you're a fan of tactical tabletop games, and you want to try a ridiculous setting that evokes that gung-ho, anything goes feeling of a backyard game of make believe with your entire toy chest, then consider picking up your copy of Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic, along with the two supplements that have been released for it so far, Army Men: Threat Assessments, and Army Men: Medals of Honor!

Like, Follow, and Stay in Touch!

That's all for this week's Crunch post. To stay on top of all my content and releases, make sure you subscribe to my newsletter at the bottom of the page!

Again, for more of my work, check out my Vocal archive, and stop by the Azukail Games YouTube channel, or my Rumble channel The Literary Mercenary! Or if you'd prefer to read some of my books, like my dystopian sci-fi thriller Old Soldiers, my hardboiled gangland noir series starring a bruiser of a Maine Coon with Marked Territory and Painted Cats, my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my latest short story collection The Rejects, then head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, and now Pinterest as well! To support my work, consider Buying Me a Ko-Fi, or heading to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron. That one helps ensure you get more Improved Initiative, and it means you'll get my regular, monthly giveaways as a bonus!

That One Time a DM Gave My Table a Bait-and-Switch on a Zombie Game

I've been at my share of tables, and I've heard some great pitches for games over my life as a player. There was one particular incident, though, where the DM's pitch to my group was just a little too perfect. A little too practiced. Like he was baiting a hook, and just waiting for us to bite before he jerked on the hook and started trying to reel us in.

What We Were Promised

To set the scene, my group had been playing Dungeons and Dragons for a while. We'd had a couple of promising campaigns just fizzle out on us, and we were all looking for a change of pace to re-ignite our spark. After talking among ourselves, we decided we wanted to try something we hadn't done before; a horror game, of some variety. That was when one of the group (the DM whose campaigns had largely fizzled, which should have been the first red flag) piped up and said he could run us through a zombie survival game.

I've got an idea that I think will be great!

Now that got our attention. We were a little leery at first, but every time we brought something up, he nodded and said that sounded like something he could totally do. A game that focused on challenge and survival, instead of being about some save-the-world plot? Sure, no problem. A game set in an urban environment? That shouldn't be an issue. A game where combat would be something we should try to avoid, and where smart decisions would be more likely to see us through? Absolutely, no problem. Lastly, we specifically said we wanted something akin to the setup of All Flesh Must Be Eaten, where we'd be in a setting reminiscent of something like Night of The Living Dead or The Walking Dead (this was around the time the original comic was being praised to high heaven, and long before the series came out).

He said he could do it in D20 Modern, and that was a compromise we were all to happy to make.

What We Were Given

Honestly, we were pretty excited at this point. We took a week or so putting together an eclectic cast that included a sociopathic anarchist, an auto mechanic with some severe mental disabilities, and a homeless woman who suffered from paranoia and mild schizophrenia. We were pretty interested to see how they could work together, and even if they could work together once the dead started walking.

And at first, things were pretty solid. We were all in our respective homes or workplaces, and things started going wrong. There were sirens across the city, fires were starting, and gunshots. Then through a confluence of events, our three protagonists find themselves on the street where they come face-to-face with their first zombie hoard.

Thinking quickly, the sociopath convinced the auto mechanic to help him hot-wire a police van. They get it ready to roll, and weigh down the gas with a brick, sending it down the street as a distraction. The van plowed into the crowd of the walking dead, buying the three of them time to make good their escape down a side alley. They get enough distance to breathe a bit, make their introductions, and to all agree that they saw the same thing.

And that was when the first big red flag showed up.

She looked sort of like this.

From around the corner a woman stepped out, gun leveled at the party. She saw what they did, and after checking to be sure they were all still human, told them to get to the local precinct where they could hole up. When they get there, they're to tell the sergeant on duty that Jill Valentine sent them.

Surprise, You're in Raccoon City!

We are not a big video game crew, but even we recognized the reference. We all looked at each other, just to make sure we heard it right, but we silently agreed to let it slide. Maybe it was just a reference, or an homage, and we couldn't really blame the DM for putting in a little Easter egg or two.

Unfortunately, we quickly realized that we were not playing a zombie survival game that happened to have a clever Resident Evil reference or two in it. We were just in a straight-up Resident Evil game.

We knew this because about ten minutes after Jill ran off into the city, we were treated to a cinematic of a creature that looked remarkably like Nemesis stomping off in another direction, roaring and firing off a massive cannon. On the other hand, it was going in the other direction, so we figured maybe the game could be salvaged. After all, a story about all the people who aren't main characters in the franchise trying to hole up, help other residents, sneak around, etc. at least had the potential to be the kind of game we talked about in the pitch meeting.

That was not, of course, what we got.

Jesus Christ, initiative AGAIN!?

What we got was a balls-out, run-and-gun, monster-filled rendition of a video game, retold in tabletop format. By the end of the first session we had fought lickers, dozens of zombies, whatever those mutant dog creatures were, and had at least one run in with the Nemesis creature. We'd been armed with rocket launchers and grenades, Semtex, detonators, machine guns, body armor, and a rifle that shot lightning. We had met precisely zero other humans who weren't named characters from the video game, despite being in a massive city where this outbreak supposedly happened a few hours ago. There was no attention given to stealth, social skills, etc. It was a game entirely based on kicking in doors, hucking explosives, and machine gunning monsters.

Exactly the sort of game we had said we didn't want at the outset. And having all of it wrapped up in the licensed property of an action game with monsters in it rather than an actual horror game with atmosphere and subtlety just added insult to injury. It was the only session of that campaign we played.

DMs, Listen To Your Players

This is not the only time I had something like this happen to me, but it is the most memorable. In some instances it was because the DM figured that they could do whatever they wanted because no one else was willing to sit in the chair, and people would rather play a bad game than no game. Other times they figured that players would be so hooked on this new game that they wouldn't care it was nothing like the game they were originally pitched.

In all of these circumstances, it never worked.

If you're a DM, and you pitch a game to your players, be honest with them. That first pitch session is establishing a social contract with your players. If you break it by promising them one thing and then giving them something else, they aren't going to trust you. And nine times out of ten, they're going to walk away from your table.

Because it doesn't matter how delicious the pizza you served them is. They ordered ice cream, and ice cream is what you promised to deliver.

Next Time on Table Talk!

With so many games paused thanks to the pandemic, my Runelords tales are on-hold for the time being. But hopefully I can keep sharing a few amusing asides like this week's tale until we can finish out the last of that campaign. So stay tuned, and I'll see you next time on Table Talk!

For more of my work, check out my Vocal archives, as well as the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio where I help out from time to time. Or, to check out books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife or my recent short story collection The Rejects, head over to My Amazon Author Page!

To stay on top of all my latest releases, follow me on Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter, as well as on Pinterest where I'm building all sorts of boards dedicated to my books, RPG supplements, and greatest hits. Lastly, to help support me and my work, consider Buying Me A Ko-Fi, or heading over to The Literary Mercenary's Patreon page to become a regular, monthly patron! Even a little donation can have a big impact.

The Best Zombie Game I Ever Played (Where Nothing Happened)

Thanks to the holiday happenings, my gaming schedule has been all up in the air recently. Because of that, one of the fellows at my table volunteered to run us through a kind of introductory one-shot for a game I've often admired, but never actually gotten to play... All Flesh Must Be Eaten!

Because zombies never really go away, do they?

The experience I had with this system was fast, fun, engaging, and in this case enough to make me plan to add more of it to my future gaming schedule. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

Small Town Evacuation

The game opens in a lowercase "c" Midwestern city; the sort of place that's not quite big enough to be a suburb of a place like New York or Chicago, but which still has a sizable population. The zombies have been steadily growing, but worse than the walking dead are all the other accidents and breakdowns that have been straining the local government at the seams. Keeping people safe is important, but so is providing medical care, finding food, putting out fires, and evacuating the living so the military can come handle the undead infestation.

Which is, of course, when things go awry.

The protagonists seated round the table have become part of the local safe zone established by a task force of national guard, police, and relief workers. A former furniture outlet, the fencing keeps the undead at bay... or has for the past week or so. One of the residents, a Samoan dancer and occasional biker named Leilani has been trying to figure out her next move in this situation. A recent friend she's made is a huge man named Otis, who fixed cars before this all went down, but who is a little lost without his medications and his strict schedule. Lastly, Richard Freeman, an African American firefighter who's been pulling doubles ever since this mess started to prevent his city from burning down.

It's just as one of the engines are dropping off supplies when the unthinkable happens... the fences come down, and the living dead start shambling into the compound!

While the hoses get turned on the horde to slow them down, and small arms fire cuts into the walking corpses, everyone else gets pushed out the rear exit. The area behind the outlet is still clear, and people are scattering. Some of them just run, terrified now that their safety net is gone. Others are trying to figure out where to go, but seem too afraid to stop moving. These three find themselves clustered around a table with maps, and where a radio is broadcasting a public service message.

Residents must get out of the city in the next 24 hours. At that point the armed forces will arrive, and they will begin exterminating the threat. For their own safety, residents need to follow the approved routes to an extraction point. The three of them look at each other, look at the maps, and that's when Richard says, "All right... we'd better hoof our asses over to the hospital."

The Easy Way, or The Hard Way?

Looking at the maps, Otis frowns, nodding to himself as he traces a route with his finger. "This goes right by where I work," he said. "There might be a car there we could borrow?"

With the ruckus going on in the building getting louder, Richard nods, and Otis leads the way down a side street just as the pounding on the doors starts to reverberate. By the time the zombies make it out into the rear of the former warehouse, though, their quarry is several blocks away, out of sight, and hustling along as quietly as they can.

Those weren't there when I left...

They found the auto garage where Otis works (or worked, it's hard to tell) in fairly short order. Tucked off the main roads, the place only has two bays, and a small lot of cars that need to be repaired, as well as a few repo tows. The front door's glass has been smashed in, but Otis unlocked the door with his key, and they stepped inside.

The first thing they smelled was blood. Stepping carefully around the desk, they found the manager on the floor, a gun in his hand, and a hole in his head. Trying to shield Otis from the sight, Richard checked the pistol, then handed it to Leilani when she said she knew how to use it. Otis stepped into the back office, a little shaken, but looking for keys. Sadly, it looked like all the readily drivable cars were gone, and only a few of the ones who needed repairs were still there.

They could get them working, but it would take time.

With the daylight fading, and everyone trying to get to the extraction zones, it wasn't worth the time to wait. The hospital was only a few miles from where they were, and if they cut through the smaller living area of town they could save some time. Even if it meant jumping a few fences.

Stop For Supplies?

While the cadre ducked down side streets that didn't have a lot of traffic, keeping their eyes on windows, and making sure their profiles were small, they opted to duck through a small strip mall. There was a pawn shop and sporting goods store on one end, and a drugstore at the other. With the daylight fading, they had some choices to make.

Well, at least looters aren't gonna eat you.

The drug store was open, the power out. After a quick listen, and a fast check to be sure there weren't any trigger-happy shoppers or shambling horrors, Leilani and Richard split up and snatched the things they were likely going to need; medicine, batteries, bandages, some hand tools, some dense packs of protein bars, water, and a few hefty backpacks to carry them all in. Otis offered to help carry, but he grabbed a couple of comic books for when he got somewhere safe again.

The shopping trip done, they were passing the sporting goods store when they heard the siren's song of weapons. Baseball bats, helmets, reinforced gloves, rifles, handguns... all of it was right there. Provided they could get inside, of course. Richard was looking for the place to kick, when the light inside caught his eye; the emergency power was on. A backup generator meant that the alarm would go as soon as the door got smashed in, or any damage occurred to the wired windows. Leilani took a turn all the same, trying to persuade the locks to open. She had no dice, though, and when something around the corner bumped into a trash can, they didn't stick around to see what was sneaking up their back trail. They were only three quarters of a mile from the hospital, and if they got a move on they might be able to get out of town sooner rather than later.

It's Quiet... A Little TOO Quiet...

Guys... you think that sign's for us?

 As they approached the hospital, the sun was just dipping below the horizon. Up on the roof they could see a helicopter coming in for a landing, the blades just starting to slow. Down on the ground there were half a dozen squad cars with their bubble lights going... but no cops in sight. Not a one. Leaning into a car, Richard checked the radio. Nothing. No one answered signals, and nothing appeared to be going out. Popping the trunk, he found a riot vest, a shotgun, and a brace of shells. Taking a moment to slip into the kevlar, Leilani did a quick circle of the perimeter... all was quiet outside, and nothing was moving inside. As far as she could see, anyway.

Opting to go in through the side entrance for the ER, they found the doors juttering, and the floors covered in blood. Puddles of it were dark and stagnant in the waiting room, but sodden streaks went down the hallways. Quietly checking the directory map with a penlight, Richard traced the route they needed to take to get to the stairwell. It should go straight up to the roof, right to the whirlybird, which was where they needed to be.

So they ran.

They were about halfway down the hallway when the zombies who'd been just out of sight in the nurses' station heard them, and started to give chase. As their pounding footfalls rounded the corner, other heads began to lean into the corridor. EMTs and police officers, teenagers and soccer moms, all turned by the hungry dead came after them with the snuffling, shuffling, hungry snarls of monsters from a nightmare.

They made the stairwell half a hall ahead of the horde, and Richard paused just long enough to chock the door with an ax blade before they started up the stairs. The zombies managed to break through, but it bought the cadre enough time to get a few floors head start. While there were other snarls and grunts coming from the other hallways through the open emergency doors, they were far away, and not a problem at the moment. Panting, Otis hit the rooftop door hard, the three of them bounding out into the night. The chopper pilot, halfway through a smoke, jumped when he saw them.

"Get us in the air!" Richard bellowed at him. Before the door had time to close, Richard and Otis both grabbed a heavy equipment rack, straining with their backs and shoulders. It rocked, then toppled, hundreds of pounds ramming against the door. The zombies were pushing and scrabbling, but before they could get the door open more than an inch the three survivors were into the chopper, and heading out into the night sky.

Not A Single Combat Roll (Which Suited Us Fine)

While I've heard a lot of stories about All Flesh games that were high-octane runs through blasted cityscapes, or last stands against armies of enemies as parties of diehard survivors fight for their lives, this particular game did something very special for me as a player... it rewarded the smart choices of the group.

Ah ha... I see what you did there. Very well.

The fellow running this game went through all of our choices, and pulled back the curtain on what would have happened had we done things differently. Firstly, by sticking around the starting area to grab maps and listen to the broadcast, we figured out where we needed to go, and how we needed to get there. And we booked it fast enough to avoid a combat. Then, when we went to the garage, we didn't waste time going into the back lot, or digging around in the bays, where we might have run into additional dangers. When we hit the strip mall we kept things fast and quiet, and we didn't smash open any windows, or trigger any alarms that would have quickly summoned a few squads of curious zombies wondering what all the racket was. We chose not to go right into the main lobby of the hospital (more of a lucky choice than anything else), and instead of crawling through the bloody hallways we just went for the goal before the enemy could shake themselves up to react.

At first he was apologetic that he hadn't just forced encounters, but we'd made all the smart moves, and he didn't want to punish us for sidestepping the threats in what was supposed to be a survival game. However, as I said at the time, I felt far more accomplished for outsmarting the challenges and getting to the destination in one piece than I ever would have felt for just fighting my way through a huge pack of zombies just because.

I might be unique in that, but it's something I wish more DMs would keep in mind; if your party is making the smart moves, don't punish them for it... just keep things tense with skill checks and atmosphere, and let them see just how far they can push their luck!

Next Time on Table Talk!

This week we had a bit of a break, but next time we should be back to the Sandpoint Companions, and their adventures in the Runeforge! So, make sure you come back for the next installment of Table Talk!

For more of my work, check out my Vocal archives, as well as the YouTube channel Dungeon Keeper Radio where I help out from time to time. Or, to check out books like my sword and sorcery novel Crier's Knife, head over to My Amazon Author Page!

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