Yesterday was a great day for feedback for my Wrath of Zombie campaign setting! I talked with quite a few people and garnered some really good insight and also came up with a few new ideas that I have added to the beta or am working on currently to be added at a later date.
Quite a few things have changed in the beta from when I put it live on Tuesday. Here is a list of some of the things have that have been changed or added:
Changed Character Sheet and 5 Pregens have been fixed and are back up!
Added Beast Master to Edges
Added Table of Contents
Grit has been removed from Wrath of Zombie*
Survivor’s Guilt (Hindrance) has been changed to Survivor (Edge)*
Dependant (Hindrance) has been changed to Dead Weight (Hindrance)*
Added information about “Feel” of a Wrath of Zombie campaign setting
Currently in Works
2 Written Adventures
*= Thanks to Pinnacles Forums for help in these matters!
As there have been a few changes and there have been alterations to the character sheets, I am putting them up on this post (fresh). There will most likely not been an update for the beta until I get a bit more feedback and playtesting done myself.
The reason that these changes have been posted is that they were either substantial or vital requirements.
Again, always looking for feedback!
If you download anything, just shoot me a comment (this helps me estimate the traffic) and then you can reach me at my email (ihaveangerissues-a-t-g-m-a-i-l.com) .
Thanks again!
These have been updated as of 07/20/11. Here is the update notes.
Wrath of Zombie Survival Horror RPG v3
Wrath of Zombie Character Sheet v3
Wrath of Zombie Character Sheet Merc v3
Wrath of Zombie Character Sheet Psychic v3
DIY RPG Productions 
I’ve been checking out your game, and there’s a lot I like about it (and a little bit I don’t). I’m just going to lay my opinions out for you to take away what you will. Nothing is intended as personal, so please don’t be offended if I don’t like some bit.
I’ll try to cover things (roughly) by section.
Character creation:
6 Attribute Pts – I like the mechanic, but find the justification far fetched (ie affected by radiation). Why not just say “only the fittest have survived this long”?
Heroic End – this is a cool concept, but I think you need to flesh it out a little bit. How do you have a heroic end when you die from a failed Infection roll in a public restroom? Maybe this could be a (Background?) Edge: you were just destined to go down fighting (if you have the Edge and die from infection, the PC is allowed to play on until the next zombie encounter)
Hindrances:
Dead Weight – This seems like a pretty unattractive Hindrance to me (maybe it’s the name – it feels hard to care about someone if they’re just a dead weight). You could soften this to ‘Dependent’ (ie wife, child) and allow them to have some useful non-combat skills, just not quite useful enough to offset the strain of looking after them day-to-day.
*Note – I’ve just read that this actually was Dependant, and was changed. Oh well, to each their own…*
Edges:
Clairvoyant – I love the feel of this “class”: sensitive souls, who have been rubbed raw by a world gone septic. I can see many a cool plot hook being dangled via the Clairvoyant’s sixth sense…
Money:
Chits – I don’t really see the need for this: in a post apoc world where most are reduced to foraging, would we really revert to using currency? I’d be more inclined to stick to a dollar value for items, but make all transactions either traded or worked for.
It’s hard to imagine ordinary metals being that scarce that they would become a currency unit.
Or, you could make the bullets themselves the currency. This could create some interesting choices for PCs: do I barter away the resource that I need to protect my life? Likewise, petrol: maybe a gallon of fuel = 10 bullets.
Gear:
Cleansing Pot – just plain cool. Or, this could be a way to work the ‘Healer’ archetype into the setting if you wanted to – he knows how to make it, he knows how to use it.
Powers:
Invisibility/Obscure – these are just too Arcane/Fantastic for use in this setting, IMO. Psychic powers like Telekinesis and Telepathy are okay, but making things invisible? You’d have to come up with a fairly solid technological rationale for this, and even then, you risk losing a lot of ‘grit’…
Infected:
You started off by saying that a zombie bite is as good as a death sentence, but the infection rules mean that you can take several and keep on going
Example – Vig d6, bitten (and failed the Vig roll) 5 times = 5 infection points – but at what in-game penalty?
And if you can heal from the infection and lose the Infection points, why is the world in such a dire state?
I think these rules are far too lenient. You want players to always take fighting zombies seriously? Make Infection a single Vigour roll – they’ve got Cleansing Pot, and if they fail they can always spend a benny and reroll…
Monsters:
Wilds – This could be confusing (i.e. is it a contraction of Wild Cards?). Easier (and more evocative) to just call them ‘Ferals’.
Gassers – really cool. And if you shoot or pierce one, they erupt in a Medium Burst Template of rot gas…
Brutes – why an exo-skeletal shell? Here’s the place to use your ‘radiation-affected’ idea – they are mutants, thickly layered in coarse muscle: strong and tough.
Deviant – I’ve always felt that there was a need for a sentient, higher caste zombie, and tying them to the Psychic is a nice way to pull it off. And it opens the way for enemy motivations that are more complex than just “braaaiiinnns…”
Organisations:
Scrappers – I see these guys as being a band of nomadic Gypsy looters, stripping buildings, selling the salvage, and generally thieving their way across the country. They’ll rip you off, and by the time you’ve realised it, they’re gone. Do you leave the relative safety of your own patch to go after them? (Could depend on what they took from you – resources, pride, your only child [imagine what that could fetch…])
You say the elderly are regarded with trepidation – how about a “Logan’s Run” style organisation, that goes around forcibly euthanasing senior citizens? They even want to kill the old man you’ve heard of who taught himself to read, and has spent the last 10 years working on a breakthrough in [insert useful topic here] that could prove useful against the infection.
Hope you find something helpful in this, and keep up the good work.
J Gregory
Thanks for taking the time for a really thoughtful post. I am currently updating Wrath of Zombie and I will look at your suggestions thoughtfully! When I do my next posting on Wrath of Zombie (hopefully VERY soon) I will explain why some of the changes were made that you pointed out.
Thanks!