[Bobrikov]

Looking how the snowball is rolling at the settings topic on zombie survival, compiling the lore on into a single topic ought to make it a bit more easier to manage.

Let's start with the possible opposition as the world of fictional undead can be quite cosmopolitan

The Undead Menace

*Romero Zombies - When Hell is Full, the Dead Will Walk the Earth.*
When you die, you will come back a mindless ghoul with one purpose, one desire and one wish - to eat live, human flesh.

- Caused by global pandemic, anyone who dies, reanimates
- Severe injuries (bites) from zombies are usually 100% fatal
- Zombies are slow but have infinite endurance
- Zombies lack intelligence
- Destruction of the brain or decapiation of the head is the only way to stop one.
- Injuries to the rest of the body will do naught, you can blow off the legs and the zombie will continue to crawl if possible.
- Immune to pain
- Compelled to eat living flesh
- Memories from previous life affect the behavior of the zombie (Presents a security risk, see Stephen from Dawn of the Dead (1978))
- A single zombie is a minimal threat to a calm survivor. As soon as they form a mob it becomes hairy

*Russo Zombie - Reanimation through man made chemical weapons*
Reanimation of the dead by 2-4-5 Trioxin or other equal substance.

- Caused by a virus.
- Zombie bite will infect the victim.
- Zombies are strong.
- Dismemberment will create roving, zombie body parts.
- Vulnreable to brain damage
- Burning the zombie will cause the virus to spread with the smoke.
- Compelled to eat living human BRAINS!
- Intelligent to a degree, sadly most of the undead brainpower is busy on acquisition of BRAINS!

Resident Evil Zombies Something - The mutant horrors from Japan
People turn to undead zombies biohazard due to man made killer virus.

- Zombies will often "evolve" to create harder gameplay (Weak Zombie -> Crimson Head -> Licker -> Tyrant -> Blond haired tentactle horror)
- Include in other variants born from mixture of Spanish hivemind parasites, Blob-virus, Zombie-virus and Übermensch-Virus.
- Usually the reason for spreading the viral biohazard is quite deep below the waterline (RE5 gave us the oh so original Kefka Wesker who simply wanted to be a God)
- People will also turn into all forms of bodyhorror if needed to uphold the RuleOfCool.
 
-Violent strain of "The Virus" - 28 Days/Weeks later, possibly L4D
Deadly strain of "The Virus" wrecks havoc on earth.

- Victims are actually simply infected instead of reanimated, thus it's not a true case of zombie infection.
- The infected are usually fast and berserker.
- Virus spreads via bodily fluids, even minor cuts are enough to warrant an infection. Getting puked on by a infected is also a one way ticket to scrappy land unless the victim is immune.
- The infected appear to have no desire to consume human flesh or any other nourishment, thus they will die out from starvation
- As the infected are alive, they can be killed by conventional means. Headshots are a must due to the berseker nature though.
- L4D spices things up with mutated infectees, going for Gene Simmons tongue monsters, Parkour horrors, steroid pumps, bloated pusspiles and creepy girls with sharp fingernails.

Will add the Brooks zombies later on thursday, they are pretty much like Romero zombies except they are based on a virus which spreads via bodily fluids and the history of the virus spans beyond 60,000 BC. Other alternative types of zombies would be nice to add in here as well, gives perspective on things.   

[Bobrikov]

Other topics of interest. 

Mostly just descriptive headlines now, I'll try to reword my TL:DR posts to more humane terms and add them here. Hopefully others will bring in their wisdom here as well.


- Survival
   - Food and Water
   - Equipment
   - Abilities
   - Skills
   - Resources
   - Fortification
   - Mental fatigue and dealing with it
   - Other needs
   - Evasion and stealth
   - On the move
   - On the defence
   - Other items of importance
   - Transportation
   - Deadling with time and seasons

- Combat
   - Melee
   - Ranged
   - Viability of weapons on the long run
   - DIY solutions
   - On the offence
   - VS Zombies
   - VS Other survivors
   - Strategies
   - Noise managment
   - The many faces of the undead
      - Regular undead,
      - Legless undead hiding in debris or grass,
      - Underwater undead,
      - Frozen undead that thaw out for summer.
      - Massive flocks of undead migrating from continent to the other by walking at the bottom of the sea

- Terrain
   - Urban
   - Rural
   - Forest
   - Mountains
   - And the rest of the globe

- People
   - Fellow survivors
   - Hostile opposition


But yes, like Vince put it, what features do expect and more importantly why? Chainsaws might feel fun for a while but when you toss in the heavy weight, the heavy fuel consuption, the loud noise and the equal risk to chainsaw your own leg off the ChainsawGood goes to ChainsawBad rather quick.

[Vince]

One interesting aspect is adapting to the brave, new, zombie-filled world. Basically, there are 3 distinctive goals:

- kill 'em all - you're bad enough dude to liberate the planet from the zombie menace
- let's get the hell out of Dodge - implies that the outbreak is local and if you travel far enough, you'll eventually go back to the way things were.
- it aint much but it's home - there is nowhere to go, so you either adapt or die. In other words:

Welcome to Ravenholm

Ravenholm had a great atmopshere. Suspended walkways around and between buildings, observation points with supplies, pulleys, blade traps, etc. Father Grigori didn't lock himself in a shelter, waiting for the zombies to breach his defenses. He adapted and if we follow the traditional "zombies aren't fast, they don't jump like wild cats, and they sure as hell can't climb buildings" zombie concept, this approach makes sense and should be explored.

What if there is nowhere to go? What if the zombies are everywhere and here to stay for awhile (very hard to kill, natural mummification to preserve bodies, freshly bitten "recruits", etc)? The ground level becomes permanently unsafe. People can live in and travel between high-rise buildings with destroyed staircases. Gardens on top of the buildings, crude solar/wind energy generators, etc. Hunters who risk going down and explore buildings and stores looking for valuable things to trade. Highly paid messengers traveling between cities and delivering news and mail. Different communities dealing with the new world in different ways. Schools - failing attempts to preserve knowledge and teach new generations of wondrous things of the past. New religions. New ruling bodies. Old hate. Great setting for a sandbox RPG, I think.

[Hector]

Get the hell out of Dodge could potentially be a goal in the case of a worldwide infection as well: rural areas are likely to be less dangerous than urban areas due to the reduced number of people (and thus reduced number of zombies).  As to weapons, they should be limited to what is available in an urban area, and 90% should be improvised.  If you're very lucky, you might find a gun that someone else hasn't already taken.  Sports shops will contain crossbows and archery kits, which are at least better than nothing.  Chainsaws should be an option, but they shouldn't be the best option by any stretch.

As already mentioned in the settings topic, most characters should start with few relevant skills, most of those skills should be bought in packets rather than individually (since most skills will be taught alongside other things) and they should be improved through use.  One can learn the basics of a skill from a book (on a percentile system, I'd probably limit it to around 15-30%, depending on how academic the skill is), but to become good at something requires actual practice.

As to the people, well, there are many ways one could respond to such an event.  Some would adopt a siege mentality, and happily gun down anyone who isn't one of them just in case they might have been bitten.  Others would try to help whoever they could.  Some would try to form a group with the notions that there is safety in numbers and that human society needs to be maintained as much as possible.  Yet more would just sit in a corner and get eaten.  Some people might even enjoy their new lives, acting as hunters in this entirely new situation.  Of those, some might limit themselves to taking out zombies while some might just take take it as an excuse to go on a killing spree with no chance of getting caught.  The PC could be any of these, or even a mixture.  Some militaries would go to infected areas and launch napalm without any regard for civilian casualties, while others would try to evacuate the civilian population first.

[Fryjar]

The ground level becomes permanently unsafe. People can live in and travel between high-rise buildings with destroyed staircases. Gardens on top of the buildings, crude solar/wind energy generators, etc.

This would be a great setting imho, where you could come up with very creative and unique places.
Imagine a Wall Street like district, where life is restricted to the skyscrapers, which are connected by huge rope briges.
Nevertheless, even if one is concerned about diversity, there is no need to overuse this one idea. I can imagine, that in more rural territories, simple barriers would do the trick too, maybe in combination with living quarters in regular houses, that are only accessible via ropes.

Concerning the virus or the zombies itself I would like to see a setting, where the back story around the virus is a bit more robust than in most of the movies or games. If you somehow tie the origin to water for instance, then this could spice up the setting a bit.
I liked the idea in Return of the Living Dead, where rain could spread the disease and reanimate the undead. A setting, were infections from zombies are not the main problem, but a sudden rain shower could cause a panic could create a lot of interesting situations.

Also I see no need, why one should restrict oneself to a single kind of zombie or virus. Why not go with different viruses (or mutations of the same base virus), which alter in their effect on the victim, their contagiousness and the methods to cure it?
Here the medicine skill could come into play, as it could in some cases cure the disease or at least deter its effect until one reaches a settlement where one can be treated properly. Also a lore skill about the effects of the different viruses and its weaknesses sounds logical.
If not all of the viruses are contagious, this would even open up an interesting concept/skill: Taming the non contagious abominations, which could then fight for you or which are maybe buyable in certain specialized shops.
This would even open the door for faction dynamics: Some could embrace the disease and use the zombies/mutants to fight the zombie threat, while other factions just rely on humans and have in turn superior weapons/inventions. 

Regarding skills, I would really like to see a very diverse "technology" or crafting system, like the one which was used in Arcanum. Restricting oneself to a single mechanics skills to modify or create electronic devices would be a wasted chance imho. I think raising one of several mechanics skills should allow you to create or modify devices in a straightforward way. But it would be interesting to find/buy recipes for really flamboyant inventions or modifications, which can only be put to use with the appropriate base skills. These could also be tied to factions, which offer exclusive access to some of those recipes.
Here, one should watch out not to fall into the trap that Arcanum did, where a lot of points in the subdisciplines were simply wasted, as a lot of the high level devices could be simply bought or created by your companions. To fix the latter, just create enough sub disciplines, rely heavily on recipes, or restrict the number of followers to a reasonable low number.

[Vince]

Nevertheless, even if one is concerned about diversity, there is no need to overuse this one idea. I can imagine, that in more rural territories, simple barriers would do the trick too, maybe in combination with living quarters in regular houses, that are only accessible via ropes.

Of course. The "high rise" settlement is only one example, which is why I suggested a sandbox setting. Other interesting settlements ideas are:

- sewers - hard to gain access to, easy to defend, water, can grow mushrooms and moss

- island of ships - anyone read The Scar yet? zombies can't swim, so any dwelling far away from shores should be safe. A settlement made of different ships would be cool to explore. Fishing's gotta be good.

- oil rigs - same logic

- mountain settlements, especially the ones that can be reached by cable cars

- military bases - always a popular choice and they tend to be well defended and have plenty of ammo and trained personnel.

- castles - just look at this eye candy. It's still waiting for its chance to serve the mankind one last time. 

- Junktown-like settlements with junk-make walls and moats.

[Anonxeuix]

Some very interesting ideas in here! I had a list somewhere of certain elements that could be used in a Zombie RPG (I'm dying to play one), I'll post them here if I manage to find it.

This thread could be the start of something big...!

[royen]

Heh, remember The Raft from Snow Crash? Something like that would make a memorable destination...

And maybe some kind of CDC bunker where they'll send one guy in a hazmat suit out to talk to you and trade medical supplies for samples of either infected zombies or immune survivors ... ooh, moral choice

[galsiah]

One interesting possibility would be to use the process of infection/zombification to blur the line between life and death (or life and zombiedom). Having near-instant zombification might give more tension, but I think it could be more interesting as a gradual process.

For example, something like this:
Infection is ubiquitous in the game area - airborne / in-the-water-supply....
Infected humans can remain fit indefinitely, so long as they're well-nourished, well-rested, uninjured....
The infection slowly takes hold over anyone weakened / malnourished / injured / sleep-deprived, with a wide variety of effects (not exclusively negative).

Mild symptoms can be reduced by rest and food.
Heavy symptoms are only reversible by rare/extreme means - e.g. by consumption of certain chemicals only available in rare medical equipment, or in the fresh flesh of a healthy infected creature (cue some pseudo-science concerning antibody-type-things).
If left unchecked, infection will eventually lead to complete zombification.


With this type of setup, infection can be inevitable and have a wide variety of interesting effects, without triggering reloads. The eat-healthy-infected-flesh-to-reduce-symptoms approach has quite a bit to recommend it too. For a start, it explains the origin of the zombies' desire for living flesh in a logical fashion that makes them a little more human/pitiful. It also adds another dimension to confrontations with other groups of survivors: killing a few of you does them no good; killing all of you does them little good; taking most/all of you alive allows them to cut you up and eat you over a period of weeks. [[Perhaps the infection could prevent death anyway - but clearly take a huge hold on any character who was 'killed', as he recovered; eating a couple of survivors might get the 'dead' character back to a passable state, if done quickly enough.]]

There's also the possibility of flesh-eating / blood-drinking within the player's party. E.g., after a difficult encounter where the new guy is badly injured, does another character offer him some blood to mitigate the effects, or do you cut your losses, slice him up and eat him? Naturally, cannibalism might have implications for morale, but then so might having to watch a friend progressively lose control of his body and his mind.

With a slow zombification, there'd be many possibilities for different effects on characters, both physical and mental. An obvious one being partial zombification of injured limbs - e.g. a zombified arm could leave the character stronger, less able to handle tools, and less physically appealing; a zombified leg might leave the character less able to manoeuvre or run fast, but with greater stamina.

I think that some intra-party conflict might well be a good way to handle the PC's leadership skills. Rather than having a specific limit on the number of allowed party members, you'd increase the likelihood of panic/conflict/disobedience... as the party got larger. So a PC with low leadership abilities would be free to team up with a large number of characters, but shouldn't be too surprised to find that Dave cut off Jack's arm and ate it after a fight, leading Jane to panic and run off into the night. Clearly such conflicts have the potential to be highly annoying, rather than highly interesting, so arbitrary limits aren't necessarily a bad idea. I just think that it's more interesting to use a natural limit where things become increasingly likely to go horribly wrong as the party grows.


Anyway, the specifics needn't be anything like the above, but I do think that a slow descent is worth considering over instant death / zombification.

Another general point to consider is the possibility of having death/zombification of the party be eventually inevitable. Players might more readily enjoy the process of a horrible, drawn-out tragedy if they know real success was never possible.

[Bobrikov]

Sorry for a late reply, entrance exams are death.

Regarding skills, I would really like to see a very diverse "technology" or crafting system

A must have if I may say. The world has gone kaploodie, any proper industry is gone for good with the possible exception of few select locations where the remnants of authority "might" be building for the final offensive to reclaim the world. Broken gear won't be replaced by the manufacturer, you can't walk to S-Mart for a new one and there won't be any new shipments to replace empty shelfspace. Just look around your own house and name any item that was manufactured within 100 miles / 160 km of your current location. Shipping food, guns, ammo, drugs and other equipment from other continents is a big no-no when the whole network of logistics falls appart.

Thus you have to make do with what you already have. Resources for the DIY-person are plentiful and while looting is dangerous, the gains might just even it off. Explosives, weapons (The Lobotomizer from WWZ as an melee example), replacement parts, new gear, fixing up the old junk, silencers for ranged weapons, etc. Find someone who knows how to handload rounds and life gets suddenly a whole lot easier (and cry yourself to sleep when playing ironman and the said enthusiast dies before passing his knowledge upon others).

- castles - just look at this eye candy. It's still waiting for its chance to serve the mankind one last time.  

Aye, especially considering that once the world is fully taken over by the dead, survival pretty much turns to medieval siege warfare (minus siege weapons). Diseases would spawn problems in such enviroments though but gameplay wise I feel they would be rather difficult to convey "fairly" in a small party or a singleplayer game, great material for quests though. If the game would be something like X-COM in nature then they would easily make a serious threat to the player.

- Junktown-like settlements with junk-make walls and moats.

How about a modified Jiayuguan Pass built out of steel shipping containers? Would most likely make some of the senior people cry out on the eternal abuse of high-def warehouse props but it would be rather viable strategy against mindless undead hordes. The real fortress was considered a deathtrap for any enemy stupid enough to assault it, soldiers armed with crossbows would rain death from all sides if you could make it beyond the exterior wall and even then you would be stuck inside the mini-maze, stuck between the walls under a hailstorm of bolts and arrows. The container fortress would be quite dependant on location though, as you would need contrainers and a crane for construction (construction sites or harbors).

[Brian]

A zombie RPG could definitely hold a lot of potential. I think the best time frame to set it in is the period shortly after society starts to break down from the zombie outbreak. You're not stuck in the "what's going on?" phase of Night of the Living Dead, and you're not so far out that most of the survivors have succumbed and the only people left are in isolated bunkers like Day of the Dead. Dawn of the Dead, I think, is a good place to start - there's still quite a few people left, some pockets of law and organization, and people still have hope that someone will roll in and save them.

Some zombie discussions involve people discussing their "zombie plan", which is their plan of attack should a zombie outbreak occur. Some people take these very seriously - way too seriously. I've seen a lot of them that involve "getting my family and friends in cars, hitting the Costco, and holding up in there until it blows over." Well, that sounds ideal, but what about the fifty other people that thought of that? Seems like now you have other people AND zombies to contend with. Say you all come to an agreement about sharing the space - what about that one person that looks bit? They're traveling with someone else - do you tell them, "sorry, you'll have to leave your mom outside?" I think the thing that is interesting about the concept is the human factor. Zombies are slow and somewhat easy to dispatch, but humans might shoot at you. Zombies are predictable, humans aren't.

I'm wondering what kinds of places seem like a safer bet than heading for the Costco or the mall or the military base. What are the "hidden" places that no one would think about looting, but hold enormous amounts of resources to help weather a zombie apocalypse. Some thoughts are:

Shipping containers/warehouses - Pro: There could be anything in there. Con: See Pro.
Farms - Pro: Most of them are set up to be self-sufficient, full of food. Con: And someone might still be living there.
Private Airfields - Pro: Most people don't even know where they are and they have gas tanks. Con: There's not much there outside of gas.
The Zoo - Pro: Some of the food is quite edible by humans, even if it's gross. Con: Some of the animals may have gotten out.

Anyone have a hidden place that they would hit up?

[Vince]

Some people take these very seriously...

It helps to be prepared.

I've seen a lot of them that involve "getting my family and friends in cars, hitting the Costco, and holding up in there until it blows over." Well, that sounds ideal, but what about the fifty other people that thought of that?

Actually, it does not sound ideal. Costco will be a death trap. First, not 50, but 500 people - at least - will rush to Costco. That's an out of control crowd. By the time the crowd will organize itself, infections will spread through unisolated bitten people, perimeter will be breached, and it will become a bloodbath. A great location to visit in an RPG though. "OMG! Look at these dumb bastards, or what's left of them. They thought that going to Costco will be a good idea. Well, come to think about it, I'm glad that they are gone. Natural selection strikes again!"

Even if the crowd will be smaller and more manageable, it's still a death trap. It's a big concrete box in the middle of a huge parking lot, filled with zombies who don't lack patience and don't have anything better to do. So, you either die in Costco, one way or another, or step outside and be eaten.

I'm wondering what kinds of places seem like a safer bet than heading for the Costco or the mall or the military base. What are the "hidden" places that no one would think about looting, but hold enormous amounts of resources to help weather a zombie apocalypse.

Getting as far away from Toronto (big city - a lot of zombies, a lot of looters and crazed survivors) is probably the best bet. Overall, I think one's survival chances will be determined by dumb luck and how close one is to specific pockets that actually do have a very high chance to make it through. Like a a fire station, for example. It has:

- Axes
- Personnel well trained to use axes and act decisively during crisis
- Fire suits with breathing apparatus
- Medical supply and various tools in the garage
- Heavy trucks
- Firepole - an easy to defend, zombie-proof access to the second floor (once the stairs have been destroyed)

I'm not sure if firefighters have access to guns. If they do, then it's simply unfair to zombies and everyone else.

Edit:

Another great and flavor-filled location is a Hells Angels Clubhouse. It has:

- bikers with guns and chains - what's not to love?



- well defended clubhouse - article

"The three-storey stucco building, behind barbed wire on a corner lot in a residential neighbourhood, is painted in the Hells Angels' signature red and white and features a “Hells Angel Nanaimo” stamp on the knocker and the Death Head logo on an exterior wall.
...
Police allege the house was renovated to suit the specific purposes of the Nanaimo Hells Angels Motorcycle Club, such as “maintaining a high level of secrecy over things that occur within the clubhouse” with fortifications such as reinforced exterior doors, wire meshed fencing and a lack of windows on the ground level, plus at least eight security cameras."

No windows on the ground level, reinforced steel doors, walls with barbed wire... Do the bikers know something we don't? Is the zombie apocalypse nigh?

- bikes, guns, drugs

[Hector]

- bikes, guns, drugs

Some of which likely have some medicinal use as well.

[Bobrikov]

How about equipment itself? Typically in an RPG the difference between gear and weapons is just stats and special effects which go up in geometric progression for most of the time. For a survival game you would have to measure up the weight, space and utility rating of any item you intend to take along. Specially the utility if the game has say, destructibile enviroments.

A small comparison with different melee items.

Balisong / Butterfly knife
+ Small and lightweight, fits easily in a pocket.
+ Good for cutting and stabbing.
+ Excellent for any precision knifework.
+ Easy to use.
- Durability depends heavily on material and manufacturer. Cheap balisongs WILL break on use when you least expect it.
- Small size is a major drawback in melee combat.
- Useless for breaking doors, walls or anything of the sort unless you are against a fusuma (paper walls / doors).

Machete
+ Ranks medium in size and weight, easy to carry around on belt.
+ Good for cutting and slashing.
+ Moderate reach for melee combat.
+ Good for going through chipboard doors and walls, any sturdier obstable will demand more time and effort.
- Durability depends heavily on material and manufactuer, poorly made machete will bend and break from the impact abuse.

Crowbar
+ Ranks medium in size and weight, difficult to carry around due to shape. (Either in hand or backpack)
+ Good for bashing and stabbing.
+ Moderate reach for melee combat
+ Superior in prying things appart.
+ Today most crowbars are manufactured from titanium, making them lightweight and durable.

Sledgehammer
+ Supreme king of all things related to bashing.
+ Moderate to excellent reach depending on model.
+ Good for going through chipboard, wood, drywall, masonry and thin concrete.
- Heavy and large, difficult to carry around due to both size and weight (Hands or backpack)
- Requires moderate strength to use it as melee weapon or deconstruction tool.
- Easily causes exhaustion.

Crowbar might appear to be one of the best weapons, lightweight, durable and you can stab a zombie in the eye and destroy the brain easily (with the long end). Sadly it's rather cumbersome to carry around as it's pain in the ass to hang on a belt due to the length and design as it will usually just slip off from normal baton belt holder. The best benefit of a crowbar is its ability to pry things open instead of simply destroying them though (resources for fortification). On the opposite corner sledgehammer is one of the best solutions for deconstruction when you are in a hurry and you need fast results, the problem is that it pretty much nukes anything it manages to touch (less resources for fortification) and drains you empty fast.

And that is just a few select melee items. The much loved chainsaws are good for killing and deconstuction, household items can be effective in a hurry, and entrenching tools are also quite dangerous in proper hands (the WWII soviet model has a martial arts booklet dedicated to it and the modern spetsnaz machete comes to mind). Dead Rising (the xbox version) is also a nice example of melee weapon abuse against undead masses.

And speaking of weight and size...

Inventory managment

What would you see as the method for this?

- The Basic STR*?= Max carry weight (Fallout)
- Tetris inventory with limited amount of space (Diablo)
- Limited amount of slots that can carry one of any item. Chainsaw takes one slot, tootpick takes one slot. (Dead Rising)
- Mixture of tetris slots with STR for carry weight (X-Com, Jagged Alliance)
- JA2 1.13 inventory where clothes / armor / equipment affect the tetris slot space and STR*? covers max carry weight (JA2 on 1.13)
- Other, if you have an example, post away.

I would myself like what 1.13 mod did with JA2. If you are wearing a pair of jeans, shirt and regular sneakers you have inventory slots from hands and the possible pockets on your jeans that can take small items. Get a backpack and the slotspace skyrockets. You can't remove or place items on the backpack as fast as you could in the pockets of your jeans though, which won't a problem when you are having a calm moment but gods have mercy when you need to reload and all the spare clips are in the backpack. (Could you guys wait for a sec, I need to scour my bag for AARGH!). Which brings us to the other bits of clothing. Get a hold of a backpack + hunting vest and then you are cooking with gas. Any items you won't be needing for a while can be stuffed into the backpack (food, crowbars, tools, first aid kits, etc) while the hunting vest grants quickslots which you can access instantly. Stick those spare clips to the vest slots and no more hazzle with bags while reloading.

Other tactical equipment can be used to aquire more quickslots. Leg holsters, better vests, larger backpacks and beltbags for starters. Excessive slot hoarding ought to have drawbacks too to balance it. Poor equipment can easily hinder your mobility and excessive weight will also slow you down and any loss in speed is more points to the zombie team. The item managment with the quickslots can also pump up the motivation to plan ahead, do I stick my sidearm to the backpack so I can have more ammo for my primary OR do I drop off a few clips to make room for a secondary weapon incase my primary jams during an intense fight?

Possible vehicles would act as mobile inventories, like the car in Fallout 2. No need to haul all those rocket launchers, machine guns and packs of beef jerky all by yourself. Depending on vehicle, party members should eat inventory space too (vans, trunkless cars). Do I boot Bob the crapshot to make room for extra supplies or do I forfeit a once in a lifetime opportunity for proper loot over a crapsack survivor?

The decisions, the drama. All that from just planning an equipment loadout.

[Samurai Jack]

Like a fire station, for example. It has:

- Axes
- Personnel well trained to use axes and act decisively during crisis
- Fire suits with breathing apparatus
- Medical supply and various tools in the garage
- Heavy trucks
- Firepole - an easy to defend, zombie-proof access to the second floor (once the stairs have been destroyed)

I'm not sure if firefighters have access to guns. If they do, then it's simply unfair to zombies and everyone else.

Edit:

Another great and flavor-filled location is a Hells Angels Clubhouse. It has:

- bikers with guns and chains - what's not to love?

- well defended clubhouse - No windows on the ground level, reinforced steel doors, walls with barbed wire...

- bikes, guns, drugs

I think this is the right approach. Instead of wondering how some random groups manage to survive, you should take groups that will most likely survive - firemen, bikers, military, construction workers (on a site), and trace the post-apocalyptic development and conflicts. What all these groups have in common are strong men in their prime, command structure, access to a large variety of offensive and defensive equipment and well defended or easy to defend "shelters". These men will form the power core, the ruling body, if you will, and civilian survivors will fall in line and do whatever they are told to stay in such groups and be protected.