How do you prepare for your sessions? It seems quite possible that this game is the hardest game to prepare for since your players will know the surroundings very well... however you can use this as one of the game's strengths as well.

What I do is, I prepare encounters and npcs seperate from the physical locations.

What I mean is the following: I prepare a set-up where things get out of hand in the starting location and then have the players roam the area free. I will have npc's, enemies and other tests prepared but I haven't attached them to a specific location. I use general words like squares, shopping streets, ports, bridges, subway stations, etc. but keep them very global and free from detail so as to basically add such a layer to any area the players visit.

However what you need to remember is to be descreptive enough in your encounter to not make it seem improvised. Use details from both the actual location as well as from the preparation you did. In this way you generate a smooth game where in it seems as if you have prepared an entire sandbox of a city for them to play around in.

For example for one of the games I prepared I wrote a scene in which a large lady NPC religious fanatic would be in a town square screaming her head off about the apocalypse. Shouting loudly about people having to repent for their sins and in doing so drawing the walking dead ever closer to her.

In the actual game my players went to hide in a restaurant neighboring a square where in actuality there is a large fountain. I picked up the NPC and had her wade into the fountain while shouting her nonsense bringing in zombies to kill her afterwhich she shambled along out f the bassin and right toward the restaurant where the players hid. It was the final scene and it played out a dream.

I hope this will be of help to some of you. If not then I hope it was an enjoyable read. And, again, if not then sorry for the long read!

Yeah planning for this game is really tough compared to other RPGs. For example in the FFG Star Wars rpgs I can dump my player on some made up planet in a made up jungle and the only info they have about the area is what I tell them. They can go off piste of course but it's easy to sign post things and push them in the desired direction.

In this we're playing in our own home town. If i want my players to go left they might know that road better than me and go right. I want them to run away and they decide to hide in a building or something I forgot was there. In the first and only session I played I started in somewhere confined - the London Underground system and planned a few encounters there. It became very obvious that after a short while my players would just leave the train and get above ground. Once they do that I literally had no idea what they'd do. Of course I had some ideas but it really was me making it up on the fly. Basically you do have to do what OP says. Link NPCs and events to lose ideas or locations. So don't link this amazing NPC you've invented to a specific restaurant just link it to any random building your PCs find.

One thing I also found in the first game is that killing off players loved ones works when you have little else to do. My players fled to one of their houses much quicker than I anticipated so, to give them something to do I just killed off one of their dads. I'm sure I can't just keep doing this forever and will have think of more interesting things on the fly but for now, in the early zombie carnage, it worked quite well.

Yeah I had to write an outline "If A happens then B happens" etc... in general terms, I also made plans for several different building they could go to (like the local gun and ammo store etc..).

The OP approach is how I usually handle these types of games. Generate a list of encounters with general guidelines and queue them up when the time is right. Have a few daytime encounters in the bag and some night/dark tunnel/overcast in the woods types of events ready to go. Just be sure to add some good creep factor ones. Not everything should be an obvious bad guy or zombie... imagine how people go bonkers and play it up!!!

So the lady walking through the town square pushing a stroller... that's a zombie baby in there or one of those realistic dolls that the adults play with (those creep me out more than the zombies truth be told). She's totally oblivious to the zombies walking around her, she's just singing a lullaby until she goes bye bye under a horde.

Wild or rabid animals, you can drop those in anywhere.

The mark of preparing for an area they know well, just means they can visualize the devastation even more and it really brings it home. Make sure to demolish their favorite eatery. Having a roving band of bikers chilling in the old daycare... replete with some crying kids or women begging for help.

It's a dark world out there come the apocalypse, very dark indeed.