Encounter Ideas

By Vinge, in Zombie Apocalypse

So, It has been suggested on here in a few places that TEotW is suited for encounters that can be made in advance and then "placed" in front of your characters. It can be pretty difficult (if not impossible) to anticipate your player's movements so I think this approach is really the way to go. Bearing that in mind I figured it would be helpful to post contained encounters that other GMs can mine for ideas or just use as written. Since everyone probably plays a little differently and GMs may be running different scenarios (voodoo/ pandemic/ homebrew) anyway feel free to go into as much or as little detail as you want. I think it is the concept for the encounter is more useful to other GMs rather than just posting stat blocks. So anyway I thought I'd kick it off:

Setting: Small City in Canada,

Scenario: Under the Skin (Parasite Zombie Apocalypse),

Location: Intersection downtown - in front of city hall (or any other important position),

Timeframe: One week post outbreak or later,

Description: Amid the wreckage of a police and military last stand two tanks sit abandoned. A layer of fresh snow covers the scene- partially obscuring the mounds of bodies and debris which litters the area. The two tanks retreated here as their fuel ran low and served as the lynch pin for the military's ill fated final defence of the city. The tank turrets are spun to point at each other. The desperate crews attempted to shoot the swarms of infected off each other's hulls using their machine guns. Although they were safe from the infected pounding on the hatches; both crews became trapped and either froze to death, starved, or committed suicide.

This is an excellent area to find military grade weapons and equipment. It may even be possible to salvage the tanks if an abundant high-quality fuel source was discovered.

As many as a dozen to a hundred infected lay dormant under the snow or in the immediate area.

Edited by Vinge

In the UK one of the hardest things for us to do is get our hands on a weapon so I had to create an encounter where my pcs could obtain some firearms. I came up with an encounter where the group stumbles across the aftermath of a zombie attack on a police riot squad. The police had lost the fight (obviously) and their riot van was overturned and surrounded by a number of zombies, the van is loaded with riot gear and possibly other weapons so the group needs to make a choice. Is the chance to grab some armor and weapons from the van worth the risk?

Same thing here in Denmark. But my players have relatives who hunt. The scene where they were going through a relative's already sacked house trying to find those weapons was priceless. Pure zombie apocalypse.

Oh, and those rifles are bolt action and cumbersome. Great for realistic roleplaying.

Setting: Small City in Canada,

Scenario: Under the Skin (Parasite Zombie Apocalypse),

Location: Roadway

Timeframe: One week post outbreak or later,

Description: A box truck sits here abandoned, the dr iver side door is open and the key is in but nobody is around. The back of the truck is literally jam packed full of infected- they come spilling out if the back doors are opened. The infected are jammed so tightly together that they are unable to move or pound on the sides of the truck, so they may come as quite a surprise to anyone opening the back doors.

Setting: Small City in Canada,

Scenario: Under the Skin (Parasite Zombie Apocalypse),

Location: Tight alley in urban downtown

Timeframe: One week post outbreak or later,

Description: This alley seems normal at a casual glance but if more carefully examined a viewer can detect traces of blood in the pavement. A gang lies in wait on the the adjacent rooftops- ready to throw bricks at anyone who enters the narrow alley below. The gang has been doing well robbing the bodies of scavengers and may even post signs offering shelter with which to lure folks into the alley.

Edited by Vinge

If anybidy has seen Zombie Nation, there is a scene in one of the episodes that i liked alot.

Scene: anywhere on a road.

The players are traveling on a road. They could be in a car or on foot, doesnt matter.

The players notice several zombies standing in the road,blocking their way. Upon further investigation they see some of the zombies are chained to rubble, you could make them roll logic tests here. Turns out its an ambush. Gangsters have dressed themselvs up like zombies, and chained real ones in the road to "hide among." The gansters surround them wanting their stuff.....

Shopping street/ highrise district.

Mayhem in the streets, crouds of paniced people fleeing from zombies, police trying to protect them...

(so far still standard)

Now add falling people and zombies !

Terrified people throwing themselves out of office block windows rather than get eaten alive by the living dead.

And the zombies mindlessly shambling after them, attracted by the human pray several story below.

Now you are running for your life! Well you would run if the street wasn't full of people. Sudddenly youcfeel shards of glass raining down on you. Afew feet behind you something large crashes to the ground splattering you with gore. It was a man. When you look up you hear the desperate wail of a woman as she jumps out the 7 story window. you close your eyes before she hits the street and all you hear is the sickening noise of her inpact. "Zombies! " Someone screams and you open your eyes as more figures fall towards the ground. It is a rain now. The walking dead are raining out of the overrun office buildings to either side of the swamped street. Some land on top of peole, clawing and biting. Others burst like biological bombs of infectious filth whne they burst on the pavement. Worst of all: Some of them are still mobile: Limping and crawling...Towards you!

Small recreation lake inside the city park.

Panicked people try to find a safe refuging n the middle of the pond on small recreational boats and water vehicles.

The normal tranqual waters are fillied with frantic swimmers and submerged/floating zombies, trying to crawl into the packed rowboats.

The dead are everywhere! The city park is full of people fleeing in ll directions. You quickly look around for an exit from this scene of bedlam. Here you spot a family of four up in the branches of a tree, surrounded by zombies. safe, but trapped without food or help. There you see a german shepperd and a zombie snapping at eachother before the dog gets pulled apart. Quickly you keep moving before the gouls start chasing you. As you near the edge of the small lake you hear frantic splashing. A group of rowboats has made it to the middle of the lake in a desperate attempt to flee the zombies. People try to swim towards them. Most of the tiny boats are already dangerously full. Then a swimmer gets pulled under! The zombies are in the water!

you watch as a man tries to fend of a pack of soaking wet horrors with his oar even as his girlfriend is pulled overboard.

Nowhere is safe.

This is some good, creepy stuff. Keep it coming.

Okay You asked for it:

You have made it to a nearby army base, mere minutes before the dead caught up with you. You don't want to look. All you hear is the shattering of heavy machine guns, the screams of your fellow refugees and the moan of the walking dead. You don't want to look at the hordes of undead pushing towards the chainlink fences and rolls of barbed wire that are all that stand between you and their cold dead hands. Instead you look at the SAW gunner next to you, his face contorted in a mix of stoicism and fear. You see his lips move but you can't hear what he's saying. But you can lipread well enough: His lips go "die muthafukka die! die muthafukka die!" Then you see his exprecion become one of terror and convulsion... And you look around.

The dead have reached the barbed wire fences. They are caught in it, wrapped up in it... But it doesn't stop them or even slow them down. They know no fear, no pain and so they wade trough razorwire coils as if it was less than a bramble thicket. The barbed wire rends and tears their decaying flesh, tearing whole strips of skin away as the zombies scramble trough.

The undead are now even more hideous to look upon: flayed horrors with strips of dead skin hanging from arms that are almost bare bones. The horrific wounds make even the hardend soldiers around you squirm. And worse of all... The barbed wire isn't stopping the dead. They are at the chainlink fence now, they start to push...

Edited by Robin Graves

Yes! Just in time you are being airlifted out of a refugee center, just as the zombie horde bears down on it. There are many refugees still on the ground but you and your friends are already onboard the helicopter. As the heli starts to rise you see the zombies swarm towards a group of soldiers manning some makesift barricades. The soldiers are good. Each shot is a headshot and the .50 cal mowes away anything at headhight.

Then the zombie children burst from the ranks of the walking dead, the shots from the surprised troopers go over their heads. In a heartbeat the little ghouls or on the barricade, clawing at the soldiers. One falls screaming, a little girl biting into his face.

The other soldiers beat back and bludgeon the zombie kids, but it's to late. In the moments it took to dispose of the anclebiters, the rest of the horde has surged forward and slams into the unfortunate soldiers. They quickly dissapear under the zombie pile.

Edited by Robin Graves

Setting: Small City in Canada,


Scenario: Under the Skin (Parasite Zombie Apocalypse),


Location: Downtown Street,


Timeframe: One month post outbreak or later,


Description: A gang of despicable bandits have thrown a captive in a cage (one for dogs) and hung it out a window with rope and cables. The captive has attracted a huge horde of zombies who crowd around under the cage. The zombies are starting to pile up and the cage is just out of reach. While all the zombies are distracted the bandits are quickly and quietly looting the area. The captive is crying for help desperately but it is only attracting more undead. Unless someone intervenes it won't be long till the zombies can reach the cage...