The Dead and the Doomed

by Brendan Conway

This place is a sanctuary. A goddamn fortress. It’s my home, where I would come to hide from… well… the hungry public. It was safe. And it’s still safe.

You want in? You’re going to follow my rules. That starts with leaving those weapons at the door…

— Olivia Allerby, former movie star, 27 days after First Rising

The Rising

It’s too much to hope for that anybody would be able to explain where the dead came from. What it is that let them stand up and shamble into homes. But that doesn’t matter. The Rising has spread across the world, reaching into every corner with undead hands, and now the walkers, the shamblers, the risen, the biters—the zombies—are everywhere. They fill the city, and they roam the wild. Folks might find safety for a few moments…but never for long. Not without strong walls and plenty of ammo, and even then, it’s a fragile thing.

The Manor

That’s where a place like the Manor comes in. It’s a big house—huge, really. It has fences. Security measures. A back-up generator. It’s well-stocked with supplies. It’s defensible. Any survivors who knew of the Manor eventually found their way to it. They arrived at its gates in ones or twos or threes, and they requested entrance. They requested safety. And those in the Manor gave it to them…albeit reluctantly.

And that’s where this small community has found itself, just as winter gets started. A bunch of people, stuck in this Manor together as it gets colder outside. It’s only a matter of time before somebody can’t take the pressure—of zombies, lack of supplies, other people, the cold, everything—any longer and snaps. And everyday folks are finding out that the Manor maybe isn’t really as safe as they thought. And that its supplies aren’t quite infinite. And that maybe all they’re really doing here is delaying the end.

Setting Creation

As a Quick Start Adventure, The Dead and the Doomed has everything you need to jump right into a zombie-ridden Fate one-shot game. Unlike other one-shots published in the The Fate Codex, The Dead and the Doomed is designed to create a single session of zombie movie-like play instead of a new campaign.

Before you start, discuss the broader setting with your group. Talk about what the characters know about the Rising. The Dead and the Doomed assumes that you’re playing a few months after the dead started to rise, but there are holes in the story that your group should fill in. How did the infection spread? Why did the government fail to respond? What rumors have spread about the disease?

After getting the most basic elements down, create your Manor. Then go through the current and impending issues, selecting an impending issue that sounds interesting.

Defining Your Manor

When you play The Dead and the Doomed, you define the particulars of your Manor. The following is always true about your Manor:

• It is isolated. The Manor is outside dense urban areas.
• It is palatial. The Manor is huge and has plenty of space in it for lots of people.
• It is protected. It has defenses that make it reasonably safe.

The Manor also has four defining aspects:

• The location aspect refers to the Manor’s geographic location and important nearby assets and dangers.
• The supplies aspect refers to the Manor’s most valuable or abundant supplies.
• The security aspect refers to the Manor’s primary defenses, whatever makes the Manor a good place in which to take shelter.
• The weakness aspect refers to the Manor’s inherent problems that threaten the struggling community or expose it to harm.

One at a time, each player gets to choose one of the four types of aspect for the Manor: location, supplies, security, or weakness. Each of these aspects is always present while within the Manor. PCs can invoke them for an appropriate advantage, and the GM can compel them when they cause trouble.

Populating the Manor

NPC residents of the Manor are simple Fate Core NPCs with three aspects: a high concept, motivation, and methods. The high concept is the same as it is for PCs, a general statement about who the NPC is, summarizing the most obvious and relevant elements of who they have become since the apocalypse. The motivation aspect is a statement about what drives the NPC in this particular situation. The methods aspect is a statement of the means by which the NPC pursues their motivation.

A simple way to think of how these three aspects connect is to think of the high concept, motivation, and methods as answers to the following questions, in order:

• Who are they?
• What do they want?
• How do they get it?

Go around to each player one at a time, and have them name an NPC who lives in the Manor, choosing the NPC’s high concept, motivation, and methods. After the players choose these three aspects, fill out the NPC by choosing a single skill column for the NPC, and a single stunt. A skill column is a set of four skills, one each at Great +4, Good +3, Fair +2, and Average +1. Then give the NPC stress and consequences as normal for Fate Core characters.

There are certainly other folks who live in the Manor; the GM can add them to the setting as needed with the same kinds of aspects and skills.

To get started quickly, here are a couple NPCs set up in advance for you to use.

Current and Impending Issue

Explain and talk about the current issue, which is The Cold, Empty Winter. Have the players name at least two faces for the current issue, or use the two provided faces. These faces must be other residents of the Manor.

Then ask your players as a group to choose from one of the two available impending issues: Oncoming Horde or Dwindling Supplies. Have the players fill in two additional faces for their chosen impending issue as well, or use the provided faces.

Current Issue: The Cold, Empty Winter

The cold is here, and the snow is on its way. With the arrival of winter, it’s harder and harder to leave the Manor. Refugees keep showing up, looking for warmth and safety and shelter, and that’s only going to stress the Manor, its resources, and its people further and further. The decision has to be made soon—is this the place where you’re going to survive for the length of the winter? Or are you going to leave now and take your chances in the cold, trying to find somewhere better?

Faces:

• Vernon Elleswood, a local retiree who heavily advocates hunkering down for winter.
• Shaundra Teek, a mother of two children who believes that running to the government (somewhere) is the only route available.

Impending Issues

In addition to being caught in The Cold, Empty Winter, there are a number of other impending issues that might occupy the PCs, including:

Oncoming Horde

Since society collapsed, zombies have clumped together into greater and greater groups, hordes gripped by a strange feral intelligence that makes them more dangerous than usual. The biggest horde anyone has ever seen is on a path directly to the Manor’s front door. Whether or not the Manor can survive this onslaught depends on the newly formed community within its walls.

Faces:

• Leah Pruitt, the young woman fleeing from the horde, bringing news of its approach.
• Captain Richard Aimes, former military leader who wants to make a stand against the horde.

Dwindling Supplies

The Manor is going through supplies more quickly than normal. Maybe the survivors just didn’t have as much as they thought, or maybe the colony is using up too much. The worst-case scenario is that someone is secreting away a personal stockpile in the event that anything goes wrong. One way or another, the Manor isn’t going to last for long without more supplies.

Faces:

• Branson Crawford, former groundskeeper of the Manor.
• Nita Santiago, a doctor from the area who knows where to find more supplies.

Zombies!

The zombies in The Dead and the Doomed follow the same rules as in Rob Wieland’s piece, All Fate Must Be Eaten. Although zombies are a constant, looming threat, the focus in the game is on the interpersonal conflicts against the backdrop of the zombie crisis instead of zombie killing. See that essay, earlier in this issue, for more information about using zombies as environmental threats.

The zombies have five aspects representing their traits. Some aspects are known to PCs at the start of play, and some have yet to be discovered. Choose your own or use the sample provided.

 

Don’t hesitate to add more zombie aspects to the undying hordes, especially if PCs are investigating how the zombies work. It’s rewarding for the PCs to discover new weaknesses in the walking dead!

Character Creation

The Dead and the Doomed is written for Fate Core with changes described below. When players are creating their survivors, they start with a character seed from the list below. Players should tailor the character seeds to create high concepts specific to their characters. For example, if a player picked the character seed Celebrity, then they might choose the high concept Famous Movie Star.

Character Seed

Each player chooses a character seed from this list:

• Celebrity
• Kid refugee
• Cop
• Criminal
• Paper pusher
• Grieving parent
• Survivalist
• Scientist

The character seed is directly tied to each character’s motivations. Each character seed comes with three possible motivations that will determine the character’s secret goals and intent in The Dead and the Doomed. For more on motivations, see New Extra: Motivations.

After each player has chosen their character seed and their high concept, they each roll a single fate die in secret and cross-reference the result with their character seed’s motivation, listed below. Each player writes down their motivation on an index card and keeps the card face down in front of them.

Aspects

The Dead and the Doomed uses the aspects offered in Rob Wieland’s essay earlier this issue. Characters each have a high concept, a trouble, a survivor aspect, a friction aspect, and a link aspect. For more details on these aspects, see Rob Wieland's essay. If you are using the pregenerated characters from this quickstart, you will only have friction aspects and link aspects to fill in.

During character creation, create a high concept, a trouble, and a survivor aspect for each character. Leave friction and link aspects to fill in during play.

Skills

Characters in The Dead and the Doomed have a standard skill pyramid peaking at Great +4. The Dead and the Doomed uses a modified skill list from Fate Core (page 97, Fate Core). The full skill list is as follows:

• Athletics
• Burglary
• Crafts
• Deceive
• Drive
• Empathy
• Fight
• Local Knowledge
• Investigate
• Physique
• Provoke
• Rapport
• Shoot
• Stealth
• Will
• Science
• Survival
• Leadership

The only skills removed from the original list are Contacts, Notice, and Resources. The new skills are Science, Survival, and Leadership. Lore has been replaced with Local Knowledge, specifically referring to your familiarity with the area surrounding the Manor.

New Extra: Motivations

In The Dead and the Doomed, each PC has a motivation, an underlying motive for their actions during the game that drives their efforts and plans. Sometimes, motivations will be positive, but some characters have motivations that are outright destructive or nihilistic. No one can know for sure what motivates their fellow PCs, until those PCs reveal their true intentions.

Players determine their characters’ motivations during character creation. Each player rolls a single fate die—SECRETLY—and checks their result with the character seed motivations below. Each player writes down their motivation and goal secretly on an index card, and then keeps that index card face down in front of them.

At any time, a PC can choose to reveal their true motivation by taking an overt action directly in line with their motivation and flipping over their index card. When a PC reveals their true motivation, it becomes another aspect on their character, with two free tags on it. When a PC tags their motivation for those first free tags, they get +3, not +2.

In The Dead and the Doomed, all PCs have goals. Explain to the players that these goals are their motivations, the things that they are trying to accomplish over the course of play. Just as it is your job as GM to play NPCs to their motivations and desires, it is the players’ jobs to drive towards their PCs’ goals. In the end, as long as each PC is driving towards their goal, you’ll have a game of interesting interpersonal conflict, regardless of whether or not anyone actually achieves their goal.

Character Seed Motivations

Here are the motivations for the different character seeds offered in The Dead and the Doomed.

Celebrity

+ Gather a Cult of Personality. Goal: Get a majority of the Manor (over half) to agree to follow and protect you.

0 Be Alone and Fortify the Manor. Goal: Have no more than 3 other people left in the Manor with you, and have the Manor be ready for winter.

- Cut a Murder Manor Video. Goal: Record the people in the Manor dying one by one, until you have footage of at least 5 deaths. You sicko.

Cop

+ Make the Manor as Safe as Can Be. Goal: Reinforce the Manor by keeping zombies away and creating at least two new aspects referring to the Manor’s safety. Expel any dangerous human elements.

0 Seize Control of the Manor. Goal: Have everyone left in the Manor agree to follow your lead, and get rid of anyone who would dissent.

- Take Vengeance Upon [INSERT OTHER PC’S NAME HERE]. Goal: Make another PC pay for what they did to you or yours before the apocalypse.

Criminal

+ Ensure the Manor Obeys You. Goal: Have everyone left in the Manor agree to follow your lead, and get rid of anyone who won’t.

0 Be Forgiven for a Crime from [INSERT OTHER PC’S NAME HERE]. Goal: Get somebody to forgive you for a crime that you committed against them from before the apocalypse.

- Turn the Manor into a New Stronghold. Goal: Collect supplies and ammunition from the environs, enough that the Manor can withstand nearly any hardship, and fortify it with at least one more aspect referring to security.

Grieving Parent

+ Adopt a New Surrogate Child. Goal: Pick out someone to be your new surrogate child and take care of them, making sure they are safe and protected and have no physical consequences by game’s end.

0 Sacrifice Yourself for the Others. Goal: Die, epically, heroically, saving the others in the Manor, even if it means you have to manufacture the catastrophe.

- Adopt a Zombie Child. Goal: Find a zombie child and then take care of it, bringing it to the Manor and keeping it safe. And feeding it. You monster.

Kid Refugee

+ Find a Strong Guardian. Goal: Have somebody else strong and capable declare they will take care of you, and put an aspect on them related to them feeling responsible for you.

0 Save Your Loved Ones. Goal: Find your family or friends in the areas surrounding the Manor, and get them entry to the Manor.

- Obtain a Zombie as a Pet. Goal: Figure out how to make a zombie harmless enough that you can keep it safely, and then do that to at least one zombie, keeping it somewhere in the Manor. You weirdo.

Paper Pusher

+ Prove Your Value by Saving Them. Goal: Heroically save the lives of the other denizens of the Manor through some dramatic act.

0 Form a Strong Bond. Goal: Form a strong connection with another person in the Manor, and put an aspect on them relating to how they will never leave you.

- Feed Someone to the Zombies. Goal: Be the direct cause of someone else being caught by and eaten by the zombies. You wacknut.

Scientist

+ Figure Out the Zombie Plague. Goal: Determine all aspects of the zombies that are available to discover, and discover a useful weakness.

0 Organize a New Society. Goal: Have new, concrete rules about how the Manor organizes and runs itself. Add a new aspect to the Manor relating to its organization.

- Experiment with the Zombie Plague. Goal: Get someone infected with the zombie plague, and then test them in myriad ways (electrocution, lighting them on fire…).

Survivalist

+ Form a Hunting Gang. Goal: Get at least 3 other people to join up with you in a gang that takes what it needs and isn’t afraid of committing violence.

0 Create a Secret Cache of Supplies. Goal: Take supplies from the Manor and secrete them away for yourself in a place where no one will find them.

- Thin the Herd of the Manor. Goal: Make sure the Manor has no more than yourself and 3 other people in it by any means necessary.

Game Structure

The Dead and the Doomed will be driven primarily by PC motivations butting up against each other, by the constant pressure of zombie attacks, and by NPCs and their own motivations. This is a one-shot about a community in conflict, not a zombie hunting adventure.

Use compels to ramp up the tension and keep the PCs’ lives stressful. Compel the weakness of the Manor. Compel the PCs’ own aspects. Compel the zombies’ aspects to have them appear at inopportune times. Your story in this game doesn’t come from following a pre-charted plot so much as it comes from keeping all characters involved constantly under pressure.

Here is a simple structure for approaching the game, cutting it up into three acts. This structure is here just to give you a starting point for how to get into The Dead and the Doomed. Use it as fits your game.

Act One: The First Attack

Everything begins with the Manor under attack by zombies who pose a threat to the Manor’s supply cache or defenses. Use the weakness aspect of the Manor to determine how the zombies could be threatening. Pressure the PCs into dealing with the zombies and protecting the Manor, but avoid a huge conflict. Instead, use the pressure of this opening attack and its consequences to draw attention to the NPCs and their goals. Give the PCs time to pursue their own agendas as well.

Act Two: The Impending Issue Approaches

If there seems to be a lull in the action, compel the impending issue to generate more pressure. Make the oncoming horde appear on the horizon, or make an NPC come running through the Manor screaming about how the food supplies are ruined by leaking water. Make the impending issue a major threat, but don’t forget to have the NPCs push and pull in different directions with their own goals and motivations. Zombie attacks in this section of the game can be useful, but they exist here to keep up the tension.

Act Three: It All Falls Down

From Act Two on, ramp up the tension. Keep the pressure on. Eventually, NPCs or PCs will start taking rash, dangerous actions, and that’s when everything should start exploding. The impending issue should come to a head, with the oncoming horde arriving, or with NPCs stealing what few supplies remain to ensure their own survival. Violence breaks out. Compel aspects like crazy. Watch everything burst into flame. See who survives the fire. +

Sample Characters