The loops you encounter while playing define the feel of every roleplaying game. Consider the combat loop in Dungeons and Dragons. After rolling initiative, everyone — players and opponents alike — takes turns choosing actions to resolve the battle. If the action is crowded, this may be an exhausting process, but it’s utterly predictable.

Let’s look at a Barbarian and Wizard fighting a few zombies. There’s almost no way the zombies would precede our heroes in initiative order (not with their -2 Dexterity modifier). But if we assume some zombies remain after the party has their way, they’ll close to melee distance and attempt to slam mindlessly into either the beefcake or brainiac. At the top of the next round, the Barbarian will need to decide who to kill.

Even as an experienced game master, I’d have difficulty imbuing this scene with much tension. “It’s only zombies,” you say. They’re only ¼ CR monsters. But in a movie, a fledgling barbarian and neophyte wizard encountering a clot of zombies would hit hard. Why does it feel like simple cannon fodder in Dungeons and Dragons?

I think the answer is there’s no dread. On the Barbarian’s turn, the zombies are standing around tapping their rotting feet, waiting for their turn. Sure, they may have previously whacked the Wizard with a rotting arm, but that was last turn.

To achieve dread, we need something like this:

In front of you a shambling corpse snarls and swings back its arm preparing to strike, while ten feet to your left a second unholy cadaver has gripped your friend, the Wizard, and looks ready to take a bite out of them with its rotting teeth.

What do you do?

One thing I love about the Legend in the Mist system we’ve been playing is I set the scene, including describing the threats facing the players. They choose how to react to them. In this case, the Barbarian can only respond to one of the threats. Whatever they choose, someone gets attacked. That’s tension. That’s a decision that matters.

A conversion of the classic D&D zombie follows (you can also use the Waken Sentry from the Hearts of Ravensdale book, but it’s more of a bog zombie).

Shambling Corpse

Aggressor

The person in front of you is not well. Really not well. Dead flesh droops off their cheekbones and worms wriggle in and out of where their eye once was. They’re slow but unstoppable. It would be so much worse if they were fast.

Heroes will often encounter more than one shambling corpse at a time.

Limits

  • Harm 2
  • Escape 2 (countered by Paralysed)

Tags & Statuses

  • Unnaturally strong
  • Too damp to burn–2

Threats & Consequences

Arise That corpse… over there… did it just sit up and look at you?
The shambling corpse rises from the ground and approaches the hero (receive Paralysed–1).
The corpse is closer than you thought! It drags itself over and wraps a hand around your ankle (receive Paralysed–2).
Slam The cadaver shuffles closer to you… it swings its arm at you…
Although rodents have been gnawing on its muscles and bones, it hits surprisingly hard (receive Wounded–2).
You step back at the last second to avoid being clubbed by the thing’s arm and instead are raked by its claw-like fingernails (receive wounded–2).
Fortune smiles on you! You jump back avoiding the thing’s swing, but step on something… soft (New Encounter: another Shambling Corpse).