by Brian S.

Roe and Skott Kilander

A big hearty thank you to our playtesters: Jen Shaffer, Kathryn Earwood, Matt Zeilinger, Joe, and Harvey. (Harvey's my imaginary friend. He played the humans a lot.) A huge colossal prop goes to the artists who helped us visualize Zombie Plague: Justin Gordon and Wesley Street. A mega giganto gracias goes to Gina McIntyre for her inspiration and support. She is cooler than Danzig. A super deluxe shout out to our homeys in Gas City, Indiana, Ben and Jeff Rodman of Fortress Figures. These guys are two of the most amazing craftsmen in the miniatures industry. Ben has singlehandedly sculpted the entire Zombie Plague range and Jeff has used his superlative mold-making skills to cast some of the best rotted flesh weve ever seen. You are hereby ordered to go directly to www.fortressfigures.com and partake in the magic of the Fortress Experience. Also to The Game Preserve and Game Times we give thanks. There are so many other people who in some small way helped with this project that in the best interests of our national forests we have decided to limit the space we use for thanking people. Hey, we have a Republican President in office so lets not give him any reasons to take a chainsaw to Yellowstone. Suffice it to say that if you are one of the people we dig, you should know it and go ahead and give yourself a mental hug. Youve earned it. Zombie Plague is a Hackwerks Games Production. Graphic Design by Kathryn Earwood. Additional Illustrations/Character Designs by Justin Gordon, Ben Rodman and Wesley Street. All images and text copyright 2001 Brian S. Roe and Scott W. Kilander, unless otherwise noted. Permission is granted to download and print out as many copies as you want, and to distribute them wherever youd like. You can photocopy, modify, draw all over, mail to a friend in Tanzania, burn it, spit on it, etc anything concerning the game Zombie Plague. But the stuff still came from our craniums. So no matter what, you cant say YOU made the game. And always remember kiddies, Gamers are the coolest people on the planet! Email Hackwerks at hackwerks@hotmail.com Tell us what you think, what you know, what you like, and what you hate. Bon Appetite!!

Watch zombie movies. Eat Jiffy-Pop. Drink Tang. These are the things that make me happy. Zombie movies tell stories about absolute terror. In most of them the entire world has become corrupted by hordes of rotting, walking cadavers. No place is safe, at least not forever. Eventually the zombies will break down the door and munch your guts like a fresh pan of Jiffy-Pop. But is this a reason to give up?! Heck no! The thing Ive always loved about zombie movies is the sheer determination that the main characters usually have in the face of such an onslaught. Its better to go down swinging a blunted chainsaw than just to give in. I hope you choke on 'em! Another thing I dig is miniature gaming. Superior in everyway to collectable card gaming, better than role-playing or video games, miniature gaming is still the one arena I always return to. I love my PS2 but Ill never forget the first game of Warhammer 40000 that I ever played (back when it was good). Skott K and meself talked about a game like Zombie Plague for years over many a cup of bad Dennys coffee. Some things changed but the basic concept remained intact. Make a simple to learn game about bashing zombies and have cool figures that you can use with it. Simple. Weve tried to stick to this idea with pretty good results, I think. With the growth of the Internet new areas of gaming can be explored. We can publish a game for free and let the gamers who want it use the power of their own printers to get it. We can continue to build the game as suggestions come in. We can make a game that grows. What you hold in your grubby mitts is the first publicly shared version of this concept. Fortress Figures is providing official ZP miniatures. Fortress will continue to support Zombie Plague so you should support them. We hope that this system works for all parties involved especially the gamers. Have fun with this, please. A couple of other things. Fortress makes cool 1 square bases that work perfectly with ZP. You can use these or cut up mat board to make square bases. These are just easier to use. Fortress also produces many other miniatures that can be used to add spice to ZP. Lots of little Brainworms and Bog Monsters and such. And if Ben releases Artemis Jones soon she would make a cool addition to your character figure collection. Any mistakes or stupid editing problems are completely Brian and Skotts responsibility. Kathy did the best that she could. Keep watching the web and make sure you are stocked up on Tang and Jiffy-Pop. Brian and Skott

Welcome to Zombie Plague. HUMANS VS. ZOMBIES: Youve got two options with ZP you can play the Humans, or you can play the Zombies. Humans are fast and can use weapons, while the Zombies are slow as molasses but have much greater numbers. YOU make the call!! If playing with more than 2 people (which is, in fact, recommended), everybody takes a split of the available sides 4 people playing, 2 play Zombies and 2 play Humans (for example.) SETUP: Layout the 6 board pieces (preferably so that they all match up but hey, its your game, too.) The Human player(s) pick a side to come in from (if they cant agree, mock their lack of teamwork and choose a side randomly). Place the humans on the 1st row of squares on that side. Then place the zombies on the opposite edge. Ta-Daaa! VICTORY CONDITIONS: For the Humans: Search every searchable square, barricade ALL the windows and doors, and ensure that there are no zombies inside the house. Once thats accomplished, you win! For ye Zombies: Kill the humans.Nuff said! PLAYING THE GAME: We recommend mounting the item cards onto some cardboard so theyre not transparent. Same goes for the board and the barricade tokens. just so their sturdier. Basics: The Human Player always gets the first turn. Humans have 4 Action Points (AP) each. Every turn, they may perform up to 4 APs of actions. Simple, eh? Zombies have 2 APs each. Yes, they are a lot slower. But there are also a lot more of them. Total number of Zombies on the board is limited to four times the number of human figures. Example: 2 human players, up to 8 zombies on the board at a time. Each zombie turn, add one zombie to a randomly determined table edge, unless of course the zombies are maxed out. The following actions cost 1 AP each: Move directly forward 1 square Move directly backward 1 square Turn 1 facing left or right Barricade 1 squares worth of a window or door Attack (with bare hands or a weapon) Search a Search square Note: Zombies can only move forward 1 square, turn 1 facing, and attack. Thats it. Period. And they can only do it half as fast as a Human.

SO

HERE S A LITTLE CLARIFICATION AS TO WHAT THESE THINGS MEAN :

Move 1 square forward just that. As you may have noticed, the Zombie Plague board is set up on a 1 inch grid all movement (and attacks) happen along these grid lines. The direction your character is looking should be clear on the figure and if not, should be marked clearly on the base (on the figure, or the cardboard stand-up, or the token, or the nickel you get the idea). No turns, no diagonal movement, nothing like that. Also, anything on the board that looks like an obstacle (couch, toilet, shrubbery, coffee table, etc.) IS an obstacle and cannot be crossed or moved onto. If most of a given square is filled with an object of some kind, that square is still off-limits. Use your best judgment. Move backward 1 square likewise, fairly obvious. This is a backstep without changing your facing. If the zombies are getting closer, you can move back and keep attacking with a ranged weapon. But the attack costs its own AP. And of course, this wont help you if youre backed against a wall. Zombies cannot move backwards, they have to turn around to move in the opposite direction. Hey, it sucks to be dead. Turn 1 facing left or right, 1 facing. 2 APs to turn 180 degrees. 4 APs to turn all the way around and do a little dance although if thats what youre doing, perhaps youre playing the wrong game. Barricade a window/door Each square being barricaded costs 1 AP. If its a 2-square window, then you have to barricade 1 square, turn, move, turn again, and THEN barricade the other square. Place a barricade token over the window or door. Once an area is barricaded, those pesky zombies cant get in until they have 4 zombies lined up on the other side. Thats right kids, 4 zombies (connected by solid squares, no diagonals, although it does not have to be in a straight line) will take out the barricade at the start of the NEXT zombie players turn, for no AP cost. They just move right through it. Note that this is the only way a barricade can be destroyed directly. Attack with/Fire a weapon you may only attack the square directly in front of you, or the first occupied square in a straight line from you if using a firearm of some kind. Weapon cards have their own modifiers printed on them well get to those shortly. Attacks work differently for humans and zombies. To resolve attacks you can use a 6-sided die, or if youre maniacal like us, you can print our die templates (coming soon!) out onto a label sheet and then affix THAT to the dice. We think its worth the effort. Youll need at least one die, preferably one for each player.

HUMAN ATTACKS: Roll ye 6-sider 1 OOPS! Unless using a weapon that gives specific instructions for an OOPS result, you lose the rest of your APs as you struggle to regain control of your weapon (or keep from hitting yourself with it, or stop slipping on the mutilated zombie innards underfoot the possibilities are near limitless.) If youre using a firearm, an OOPS indicates that youre out of ammo. 2 MISS 3 MISS 4 MISS 5 Body Shot! The zombie is pushed back 1 square from the direction of the attack. This push may move a figure sideways thats fine, since it was an outside force and not the zombie itself that did the moving. Also, if the pushed zombie ends in a square occupied by another zombie, THAT zombie gets pushed the same direction, just as if it had also suffered a Body Shot. This continues for as long as there are zombies in a line, although if the movement is blocked by an object, then the push is useless. Unfortunately a Body Shot doesnt really hurt a zombie, it just keeps em away. 6 Head Shot! As every horror movie aficionado knows, they only way to kill a zombie is to destroy the brain. SPLAT!! Remove the offending zombie figure, and count your lucky stars that theres one less in front of you. Then pick your next target. Firearms give a certain number of squares that the attack can reach, but the attack itself uses the same 6-sided die and the same result chart, modified by the text of the weapon card, of course. If a human is NOT armed with a weapon, they roll as normal. If the result is a body shot or head shot, Roll again. If the second roll is the same as the first, then execute the results of the attack. Otherwise, it counts as a miss. Hey man, have YOU ever tried to destroy a zombies brain with your bare hands!? We have, and we can tell you that it aint easy. ZOMBIE ATTACKS: Again, roll ye 6-sider: After you roll, roll again. If the second roll is the same as the first, then the human has taken a Wound (optionally, just roll 2 dice and look for doubles). When a human has been wounded, move them 1 square directly back from the attack (unless blocked by a wall or obstacle,) as they fall back in shock. When a human is wounded, they (the human) roll a die. On an OOPS, theyve been zombified. On anything else, theyre fine, and theyre still fighting. If zombified, replace the figure with a zombie. That players out. But by all means let em play the zombie their character just turned into.

Search for an item to search, a human must be directly adjacent to the search square the ones with the big X in em. They also have to be facing the square theyre searching. For the paltry cost of 1 AP, they can draw a Search Card from the deck. Aaah, search cards. Weapons, medicine, random nonsense, and unexpected zombie attacks any of the above are possible when you draw a card. Youve been warned! Of course, for the humans to win, they have to search every square on the board Each character can only search each search square ONCE, but multiple characters can search the same square in the course of the game. All that matters for a human victory is that each square has been searched by someone. With regard to items, you can only hold 1 weapon at a time, but you can hold any number of non-weapon items until needed. If youve got the pistol and you draw the shotgun, youve gotta make a decision as to which one to keep (not much of a decision, admittedly.) Incidentally, when you discard a weapon, no one else gets it. If youre using a weapon, it has to be one that youve drawn from the deck yourself. Items and Stuff: There are a bunch of happy little things that can be drawn from the Search pile. Some are not-so-happy. Thats the risk you take. A lot of times youll want to get every human to search every search squarethats how you get better weapons and items. But you also get surprise attacks, smashed barricades, and more zombies. Sometimes you just gotta take a chance. Weapons and items you hang onto. Other cards take effect immediately when drawn, and are then discarded. If by some twist of fate you run through the whole deck in the course of some mammoth game, too bad. No more goodies for you!

Barricade markers: barricade barricade barricade barricade barricade barricade barricade barricade barricade barricade barricade barricade barricade barricade barricade

HERES

THE BREAKDOWN :

Kitchen Knife: Kills zombies on a 6 (Head Shot) Baseball Bat: Kills zombies on a 5 or 6 (Body or Head Shot) Hockey Stick: Kills zombies on a 5 or 6 (Body or Head Shot) Chainsaw: Kills zombies on a 3,4,5 or 6. If you roll an OOPS while attacking with the Chainsaw, you take a wound instead. Roll a die; on another OOPS, the zombies have got ya! Make peace with your god, and replace the human figure with a zombie figure. Pistol: Fires up to 5 squares. On an OOPS, out of ammo. Pistol is then useless. Rifle: Fires up to 10 squares. On an OOPS, out of ammo. Treat as baseball bat (kill on 5 or 6) Shotgun: Fires up to 5 squares, and 3 squares wide (also hits the row on either side.) Anything within those 15 Squares is in rangeroll a separate attack for each. Humans can get hit too, if theyre too close to the target, so look out. On an OOPS, out of ammo. Treat as baseball Bat. Double Barrel Shotgun: Same as Shotgun, but ignore the 1st OOPS rolled. Ammo: Reloads a weapon (or nullifies an OOPS result when firing a gun.) May be held until needed. Med-Pak: Heals a wound (or nullifies a wound as it occursno need to roll for zombification/injury). May be Held until needed. Power Drink: Gives user 8 APs for one turn. Use it at the start of your turn. May be held until needed. Car Keys: Get these and get to the car, and VOILA! Youve escaped! Of course, your human buddies may not be fast enough to make it out but hey, thats what you get for being slow! Spend 4 consecutive APs next to the car door without becoming zombie munchies, and youre in. SURPRISE!!: A Zombie appears next to the search square (or as close as it can given which squares are already occupied). This zombie does NOT count toward the maximum # of zombies in play. If this zombie is killed, draw another card. Stench of Fear: All zombies get double APs on their next turn only, as the aroma of terrified food wafts across the board. Dead Resident: Place a bonus zombie anywhere in the house, in an unoccupied room. This zombie does NOT Count towards the maxi mum # of zombies in play. Smash!: Zombie player may destroy a single chosen barricade (1 square) immediately. Remove the barricade From play. Lucky Coincidence: Erect a barricade for free immediately. This barricade can be located anywhere that you could normally barricade (i.e. you cant use it on the garage door.) Eureka!!: Draw 2 more cards.

OPTIONAL RULES: Weve done everything we can to make this a fairly balanced, simple game. Given that the designers both come from wargaming backgrounds, we may not have made it as simple as we would have liked. Oops. The point is, once you download or print these files, its YOUR game, too. Please feel free to modify or ignore any and all rules that appear here. Make up your own. Dont like the map? Make a different one! Use some other map with a grid! Play on a map with hexes if you like! Think we were remiss at not including the all-powerful Cheese Grater in with the weapons? Make a card for it, and put it in your games. The point is to have fun with it. That having been said, here are some simple rules options that we cooked up, but didnt think were vital to the core of the game. Use at your discretion. Roadkill Fortress makes a lil zombie dog miniature, affectionately known as Roadkill. The figure takes up 2 squares instead of one. We have no allowance for this in the game, so heres our fix: The figure only takes up one actual square on the board. If theres a question as to which of the two it is, go with whichever ones best for our favorite zombie dog. If someones shooting at him, and the front square is in range and the back square isnt, then count that as hes NOT in range. Capisce? How boring! variant If during any turn no attacks are made, searches conducted, or barricades either erected or destroyed, then place a bonus Zombie anywhere in the house in an unoccupied room. This Zombie does not count towards the normal max # of zombies. But when this ones killed, you dont replace it either. We like this one; it makes mincemeat out of slow-thinking human players. 3 turns without anything happening? So thats 11 zombies versus 2 humans, and at least 3 of those Zombies are already in the house. Good luck to you. Car Keys go jingle-jangle-jingle We debated about what to do with the car keys item. Here are some further options for you: You can only get out with the keys if all the human players can make it to the car (the goody-two-shoes version) OR roll a die when at the car, on anything other than a 6 it wont start (the horrormovie standard option). With the 2nd option there, you can try to roll again every turn to get the car started but if 4 zombies line up anywhere against the car, youre toast.