Zombies & Murders & Mysteries, Oh My!

This year at GenCon, Dante, Vanir & I participated in a Zombie Murder Mystery night with Yax from Dungeonmastering.com (special thanks to Avatar Art for hosting).  It was a crazy fun time, partly due to the excessive amounts of Root Jack consumed at the table, but mostly because it was a fun game.  And now, Yax & Nicholas have published the game, so you can host your very own Zombie Murder Mystery!

Basic Run-Down

The Zombie Murder Mystery starts as an all-out bidding war!  Everyone bids for basic stats and special powers.  After the bidding concludes, the game begins.  You’re all gathered at a remote mansion, and you discover that someone here is summoning an army of zombies… it’s someone in this very room!

The game continues as you hunt for clues to discover the identity of the necromancer.  And it ends when you figure out and kill the necromancer, or the ritual is otherwise stopped or completed.

Impressions from the Play Testing

OMG! What a fun game!  The rule set is very light, so there’s really nothing to get in the way of roleplaying, which is really the focus of the game.  Either you’re busy trying to figure out Who’s the Most Evil of Us All, or you trying to keep everyone from figuring out that it’s you!

There’s pressure to figure it out soon (or delay them just a little bit longer), because as soon as the ritual is completed, BAD THINGS will happen.  This kept things moving forward, which was instrumental as the Root Jack took over the brains of some of our players.

We played with a mixed group: some of the players were old friends we’d roleplayed with before and some where new friends.  I think this added a little extra fun because it really made me pay attention to everyone, instead of just basing my game on what I knew of my friends; I could guess what Vanir was thinking, but I had to put a little extra work into guessing what some of the other players were thinking.

It’s a Crazy Good Time

I highly recommend the Zombie Murder Mystery for anyone! It’s a lot of fun, and I think there’s some good re-play-ability in it, as the story will change every time as a different player is the necromancer.  The GM portion of the rule set also gives you some ideas on how to include your own elements, so as GM, you can change the details of the game and keep it new.

You can read more about the game and purchase it here.  Enjoy… but as the game says… Trust No One!