Kickstarter Countdown, 2…Two Kinds of People

There are two kinds of people that may want the Return of the Living Dead Cinematic Sourcebook in their game collection(s). These two kinds are:

1. People who love zombies and/or Horror and/or Return of the Living Dead. 
2. People who hate zombies and/or Horror and/or Return of the Living Dead.

Now, if you fall into the first camp, I don’t have to convince you. But if you fall into the second camp, my job is a lot harder. I got to thinking about this from a Facebook conversation: what would someone who doesn’t like or isn’t interested in zombies and/or horror get out of this book? I think it comes down to this: 

If you create your own scenerios and campaigns, there are many interesting scenarios across genres where there is a threat that a) cannot be destroyed (at least initially) and b) progressively takes over some aspect of our body, mind, or soul. Threats like the White Walkers and wights of Game of Thrones, the mutant Family of The Omega Man, the power of the One Ring. Trioxin. The threat might be a plant, disease, chemical, magic, or parasite. It might arise from something that happens on Earth, or it might come from an alien planet or another dimension. Trioxin zombies are only one permutation of this trope.

You might want to use a similar trope in your own setting. So, one of the reasons that you might want to buy this book–even if you will never face zombies in roleplay–is that Nick and Goober did an amazing job in creating rules and character options that could go into analogous scenarios in other genres and settings. For example, the way that they deal with “Zombification” could be adapted to apply to any process (like a disease or a parasite) that progressively takes over characters and turns them into something that is not themselves.  The rules for how to contain, immobilize, and even control zombies could be similarly adapted to allow for heroes to combat analogous challengers in other genres. 

I also like the fact that Nick and Goober provided a way for PCs to play a character that is progressively affected by the [insert cause here] or as one who has become a [insert foe here]. And I particularly like that they have given these PCs ways to resist the bad parts of whatever has affected them or what they have become (a struggle faced by many superheroes and vampires). I could see these rules being used as a model, adapted and/or expanded to provide really interesting opportunities for character development, especially over longer campaigns, in other genres. 

So, even if zombies and horror are not your thing, your thing might benefit from our thing in ways that make both our things happy. So check out the kickstarter and give it some thought. You can always get in the Pledge Manager, sign up for Evil Kid at a buck, and pick up a digital ($15) or physical ($30-$50) copy of the Return of the Living Dead Cinematic Sourcebook as an add-on.  It may just turn out that, after reading it through, you’ll think, “Well, maybe I don’t hate all zombies….”