Some of my players in my Age of Rebellion game wondered if the would encounter zombies from Project Blackwing. while im not opposed to the idea, i dont know how i would go about integrating them into play any thoughts?

I'm unfamiliar with Blackwing.

Is this the "plague" that the Empire hit Anoat with?

1 hour ago, Mark Caliber said:

I'm unfamiliar with Blackwing.

Is this the "plague" that the Empire hit Anoat with?

It's a zombie plague from a Legends novel. It didn't even really do anything original with zombies, it just put them into AGFFA with the Empire as Umbrella Corp.

As I recall it even showed up in Star Wars Galaxies. To be honest, it was one of the less well written Star Wars legends books in my opinion. Really it seemed like an attempt to cash in on the viral zombie craze happening at the time. The Rakghouls were honestly a much better done idea on the same general theme.

While not exactly what you're looking for, you might enjoy this adventure called Ice Station Zulu from one of the d20 radio hosts as inspiration. It has some Rakghouls in it.

8 hours ago, Hchar said:

As I recall it even showed up in Star Wars Galaxies. To be honest, it was one of the less well written Star Wars legends books in my opinion. Really it seemed like an attempt to cash in on the viral zombie craze happening at the time. The Rakghouls were honestly a much better done idea on the same general theme.

Agreed.

Admittedly, one of the biggest problems with the first of the two SW zombie books was that it had Han Solo and Chewbacca, who the readers knew were going to survive, which took a huge bite out of a lot of the drama/tension of "who's going to survive?" that the zombie franchise relies upon.

I've used rakghouls a couple of times in my games, and they've always left a mark on the players. They're just different enough from the typical portrayal of zombies that players don't just dismiss them as such, but hit enough of the zombie tropes to make them unsettling. Especially if the PCs have the rotten luck to be present when one (or more) infected succumb and transform into fresh rakghouls.

Of course, technically, they’re not “ zombies ” in the first place anyway. Zombies don’t eat people or infect theming turn them into more of their kind. Ghouls do . Zombies are “undead” slaves created through “magic”. All of the “walking dead” you see in those so called “zombie” movies are ghouls not zombies. In fact, even George Romero, the writer and director of Night of the Living Dead, referred to them as Ghouls in the movie and its script.

@R3dtitan , I'm actually planning the same thing for a campaign with my mates. My idea (because my players are a bunch of scavs) is for there to be a distress beacon for a station out in the far reaches. They board, make their way deep into the facility while finding clues about what's going on, only for the zombies to break out of their containment or whatever, forcing them to fight their way back out. It's a pretty basic plot line, but it should be good fun. If you want to add a bit more risk, maybe have them try to prevent the spread or deal with the zombies before they break out? Maybe throw in a few scientists to rescue, or if they're feeling sinister maybe steal a strain of the virus for a larger mission.

If you wanted something a bit bigger maybe have a big outbreak on a planet post apocalypse style, and have them try to survive or make a dash back to the ship.

9 hours ago, Rabobankrider said:

@R3dtitan , I'm actually planning the same thing for a campaign with my mates. My idea (because my players are a bunch of scavs) is for there to be a distress beacon for a station out in the far reaches. They board, make their way deep into the facility while finding clues about what's going on, only for the zombies to break out of their containment or whatever, forcing them to fight their way back out. It's a pretty basic plot line, but it should be good fun. If you want to add a bit more risk, maybe have them try to prevent the spread or deal with the zombies before they break out? Maybe throw in a few scientists to rescue, or if they're feeling sinister maybe steal a strain of the virus for a larger mission.

If you wanted something a bit bigger maybe have a big outbreak on a planet post apocalypse style, and have them try to survive or make a dash back to the ship.

Thats a good introduction to i hope you have a blast with it, because i probably will do something similar to be honest

To be fair there's only so many ways to work a zombie setting effectively for rpg stuff, hope it goes well!

If I can make a recommendation: If you're going to have a zombie-like outbreak, don't do it on a ship/station. While the tight confines may seem to make it more tense, the ability to seal hatches and isolate parts of the ship/station (an absolute necessity when fires and atmospheric leaks are a possibility) means that any reasonably smart players can reduce the tension considerably. More importantly, it raises the question of why didn't any of the NPCs take such steps. Maybe it's just me, but I despise the idea that only PCs can accomplish anything, so plots that resolve around everybody else making dumb decisions--which are very common in zombie movies--turn me off right away.

Instead, I'd suggest setting it on a newly started open-air colony with a few dozen homesteads. Bonus points if the zombie infection comes from the source of the homesteads' pride (a crop farmed, animal ranched, or resource mined).

32 minutes ago, HappyDaze said:

If I can make a recommendation: If you're going to have a zombie-like outbreak, don't do it on a ship/station. While the tight confines may seem to make it more tense, the ability to seal hatches and isolate parts of the ship/station (an absolute necessity when fires and atmospheric leaks are a possibility) means that any reasonably smart players can reduce the tension considerably. More importantly, it raises the question of why didn't any of the NPCs take such steps. Maybe it's just me, but I despise the idea that only PCs can accomplish anything, so plots that resolve around everybody else making dumb decisions--which are very common in zombie movies--turn me off right away.

Easy fix to that dilemma is that something happened to the ship/station systems, especially a central control that inhibits if not outright prevents the ability to do just that. Perhaps the station was built by the lowest bidder (which can mean a number of 'oversights' in the name of cutting costs and coming in under budget), the ship/station owner has been lax on keeping things repaired and up to code, or the inspector in charge of ensuring everything was up to stuff was bribed to overlook such minor lapses (this last one works especially well for the Empire, which is notably corrupt, though Old Republic isn't much better, just perhaps a bit less open about being corrupt). All of these are things the PCs can find out as they try to survive.

Being able to set up blocks, temporary or otherwise, is a part of the zombie movie experience. After all, we have Dawn of the Dead taking place in a shopping mall, a confined space that does offer some measure of shelter, even if only for a little while before the zombies find a way to circumvent the block.

There's also the subversion in that the zombies in question aren't all mindless automatons shambling about for their next meal. in SWTOR, they introduced rakghoul fiends that were larger and most importantly smarter than the typical rakghoul, and as such might well be clever enough to find ways to circumvent the ability to seal off parts of the ship/station. Perhaps one of the "zombies" has a high-ranking code cylinder that lets them instantly override any such seals, and one or more NPCs can chastise the players with "don't you think we already tried that?!" when they suggest "why don't you just seal off areas XYZ to keep the monsters contained/out?"

Ship/station still under construction can be another alternative.

49 minutes ago, Darzil said:

Ship/station still under construction can be another alternative.

That made me think of the DSII, which made me think of Endor, which made me think of Ewoks...

Imagine a zombie virus infecting those little buggers and you're stuck with a downed ship in the forest. Can't stay at the ship, the Imperials are coming, so you run into the woods. Then you find out that the poisons the Empire released to kill off the Ewok vermin didn't exactly kill them off...

3 hours ago, HappyDaze said:

That made me think of the DSII, which made me think of Endor, which made me think of Ewoks...

Imagine a zombie virus infecting those little buggers and you're stuck with a downed ship in the forest. Can't stay at the ship, the Imperials are coming, so you run into the woods. Then you find out that the poisons the Empire released to kill off the Ewok vermin didn't exactly kill them off...

6 hours ago, HappyDaze said:

That made me think of the DSII, which made me think of Endor, which made me think of Ewoks...

Imagine a zombie virus infecting those little buggers and you're stuck with a downed ship in the forest. Can't stay at the ship, the Imperials are coming, so you run into the woods. Then you find out that the poisons the Empire released to kill off the Ewok vermin didn't exactly kill them off...

Heh, think they made a scenario for Battlefront 2 similar to that idea. One person starts out as an Ewok, everyone else as stormtroopers. Everyone that dies becomes an Ewok.

I would be tempted to run that as a one off for a larger than normal group, but rather than PC Ewok replacements have the slots in initiative switch over with each death.

When I had my players encounter the virus 2 Halloween seasons ago, here's how I incorporated it:

One player (a con artist/thief) had been looking for clues that would lead her to a long-lost fabled treasure. She'd gotten coordinates of a planet already, and found that it was under total Imperial quarantine - quarantine so tight that the planet had even been scrubbed from star charts and all records - so she finally brought the rest of the crew into the loop of her treasure hunt (having to promise them a cut, now, of course). They found the planet blockaded by automated heavy-duty Imperial defense satellites. Making their way to the surface (damaged by the satellites), they discovered the reason the planet was quarantined: it was the crash site of the Vector (the ISD from Death Troopers ). Hijinks ensued.

Since the ultimate fate of the Vector was never revealed, it's super easy to have it crashin the location and conditions that best suit your needs.

Another good fan-made Rakghoul module you could run is Quarantine Quandary from the Shadow of the Broker series. It is written for two parties to play simultaneously, but I was able to cut the station in half and just run it for my group of four EotE players. This one is based on a space station, but there is an enemy intellect controlling computer systems, so the PCs won't just be able to lock themselves in a safe room and wait it out.

On 11/5/2018 at 3:15 AM, jendefer said:

Another good fan-made Rakghoul module you could run is Quarantine Quandary from the Shadow of the Broker series. It is written for two parties to play simultaneously, but I was able to cut the station in half and just run it for my group of four EotE players. This one is based on a space station, but there is an enemy intellect controlling computer systems, so the PCs won't just be able to lock themselves in a safe room and wait it out.

Interesting. thanks for the link

What if we were to combine 2 viral diseases into 1? Such as the Rakghoul Plague and the Blackwing Virus? The end result would be rather interesting I think