So most of us know the groups that we will either be playing with or running for.

We also likely know a little of our own or others zombie plans.

What are these for you, and how (if you're a GM) do you plan on messing with these plans and putting other challenges in front of them?

Right. My house is biggest and sturdiest and near a big food shop with an easy back entrance that we don't even need to leave my street to access. Gather water, food and weapons, in that order 1st. Then come to my place. Organise a watch system with sensible times, with decent workout times to build fitness. Share skills. I was a military EMT. Share that. My friend is a mechanic. Share that. If we happen to come across gun style weaponry give it to me, as I'm the only individual to have ever handled and fired one in a stress situation. No zombie movie crap either. Kill or be killed. Get upset after it. IF survivors want to join our group they can enjoy invasive searches and potential lockup until they're trusted. Do what it takes ultimately, use dirty weapons and tactics if we must and stay in a small, tightknit and trustworthy group. Prepare the house as necessary and only go out when we need to. (That's the plan. Many smaller situation specific plans and what weapons to use etc but I could write pages upon pages about all that )

As GM I can have my house unavailable, the town practically overrun. Military takeover forces us to an unfamiliar environment and setting before the quarantine zone falls apart and we must survive there.

Depends wich town we start the adventure in, because I live just about within blast range of a nearby chemical plant. If something where to happen there and it would explode, we'd be in a right mess. Not neccesarily TPK right from the start but I doubt our group could stay at my place, safe as it is. So now we go from a possible siege scenario to the group trying to get away from what will likely be half a town on fire, quite possibly with still a bunch of (burning) zombies shambling about.

That's how you run an apoclypse scenario: Start by blowing up the town!

Actually with chemical plants your town is generally more in danger of fires breaking out and toxic smoke covering the town, unless they tend to deal primarily in explosive compounds. Hope you have a gas mask handy, or can hold your breath long enough to get one!

Since I will be the running this for my group, and will start it at the very beginning of the zombie apocalypse, I will present the most likely plans and some complications I will toss the player's way:

Where we game at is barely defensible, although with some quick reactions by us we could get it passable (plywood over the windows, boards over that to help prevent the inevitable pack of zombies breaking through, etc.). There's a military surplus store within a couple miles of the house. Sounds good, until you realize that most people have seen The Walking Dead or similar shows, and it's going to be first come, first served (and second place in this race may just mean first to get shot).

Assuming they get there, and survive the shootout at the military surplus, they can get their equipment and weapons (if they're thinking at all, they'll take more than just weapons). Hopefully for them, they will take a variety of weapons (pistols with high capacity magazines, shotguns with both shot and slugs, and military styled sporting rifles for those longer range shots; after all there have been many types of zombies in movies:

1. Living Dead original movies - slow moving, but tons of them; they'll need lots of ammo.

2. Living Dead remakes - Ok, they'd better be prepared; zombies with the physical capabilities of Olympic level athletes? The universe hates you, Mr. Gamer!

3. Return of the Living Dead movies - Ok, now the Universe really, REALLY hates you with a passion, and is determined to wipe you out! Same outstanding physical capabilities as the remake zombies, shooting them in the head (or even putting an axe in it) just ticks them off, and the only way to get them to stop chasing you is to dismember them. It doesn't kill them, but without an intact body, it's more difficult for them to get you. You can kill them, via incineration, but that just releases the chemical that made them back into the atmosphere to make even more zombies!

So our intrepid band of gaming survivors has chosen a wide assortment of weaponry to cover a range of zombie types, and survived the other panicked people also trying to get weapons and equipment, now the fun begins when the police (remember it's at the very start, emergency services and communications would not have broken down quit yet) show up to confront the looters who are breaking the martial law imposed curfew. Oh and since they know where the alarm is coming from, they've brought back up and came loaded for bear!

Fortunately for our band of survivors, there's a grocery store nearby (on the same street as the surplus store); although there will be panicked buying, and more than a few arguments solved via violence, they should be able to get a good amount of food (and if they're smart at all, bottled water). Moving together, with that much weaponry, mostly they should be able to get what they want, with minimal physical conflict (emotional conflict is another matter; plenty of opportunity for them to decide whether or not to help an elderly person or mother with crying children). Hopefully they are clever enough to purchase food that will not spoil quickly.

Now they need to get back to their vehicle; hopefully they chose one that can actually hold everything they got, plus the passengers! Also, I hope they were smart enough to leave guards with the vehicle, otherwise some panicky citizen just stumbled onto a bonanza of weapons and equipment! And the fun (for me) just continues on from there!

Plot Idea:

Act 1: Get stuff

Act 2: Don't Die

Act 3; ???

Finale: Profit Survive

Epilogue: Rinse and repeat.

The Underpants Gnome Apocalypse?

well depending on how the apocalypse starts i live about a block from a cemetery and one of my player's lives 2 blocks farther.

My group is just a bunch of average Joe's. Nothing special about any of us except one i guess one is in the Viking group so maybe he knows how to use a sword or something and i think he said something about being able to use a bow.

I know one thing though i will likely do something to transition the game into the next apocalypse as the books come out. It may not be right away but it will also depend on their release schedule for the product for how quickly they come out with each book.

Living in an 3-story apartment house with sturdy walls and quite secure doors, I was thinking I'd start to take possession of the highest apartments, and start opening up the walls between them with a sledgehammer, giving me (us?) ample space to move around and prepare things. Yes, it'll look like ass, but it'll work. Being able to move around the entire building 360 degrees will probably turn out to be useful.

Living in Sweden, whilst my brother's include both gun enthusiasts and an arms salesman, it's not really realistic for me to start arming myself too well. I doubt water will be a real problem, once I can start pulling the bath-tubs out onto the many balconies around here. As long as the streets don't get utterly swamped with zombies, I should be able to get a hold of a barrel and chop down a few trees for fire and warmth - hopefully I won't set the house on fire as I'll have to convert one of the living rooms into a kitchen/heating room.

Honestly I think I could hole up here for quite some time before I even really need to leave or go scavenging, although that wouldn't really stop me from preparing to.

Assuming we're here and that my friends are too, I'd actually be so well off I'm fairly sure we could raid other villages for resources within a year and practice premeditated cannibalism within 5. Herdin' herdin' herdin'.

I am thinking to run this at a con in the spring in Philadelphia.

Act 1: The Con - Patient zero is in the con's room (say the opposite corner). The players must fight and flee. It would certainly makes quite an opening. To make it believable, the zombies would need to be fast a la World War Z. The players would have to escape or find a place to hold out.

Act 2: The Suburb/Neighborhood - When getting out of the con, the players realize this wasn't the only epicenter. They knew the player who first got sick. He recently flew in for the con through the airport. The disease has spread through the city (and potential other major cities that Philly is connected with by airport). Where do they go? What do they do? Some players may be locals, some not. They may have a vehicle to get to, but where to go?

Act 3: Long Road Ahead - They can either go toward the coast (lots of population, harder) or the countryside/remoter part of the PA state. They meet zombies obviously, but more importantly other groups of survivor, corporate teams, church choirs, etc... yet it's all for yourself world, who to trust?

For Act 1 and 2, I think I have a pretty good idea of what I could so as I can reckon the con location and neighborhood. Act 3 is however a lot more into the air, and I would need to think it through.

I really like the con idea (our GM is gonna use that aswell) It solves a lot of problems: No worries about how did you all get there. Theres no splitting the party when every player would try to go to their families. Not having to deal with loved ones/family being eaten by zombies. No "home court" advantage. No starting in a fortiable house full of food and guns.

Added bonus: Getting eaten by zombified cosplayers.

That's the way I wanna go: Having my guts ripped out by a zombie princess Leia,

The Con idea is very good, even excellent. Of course there's a few cons out there where the zombies would be at a disadvantage.