Inspiration: Jungle Zombies

With shows like The Walking Dead and movies like Shaun of the Dead, and the upcoming World War Z flick sure to fan the flames of zombie mania, an indie film concerning the same subject matter may seem like a rehash of the same subject matter.

However, this movie -- Di Ingon 'Nato -- seems to suggest otherwise.

Based on the trailer above (subtitled for people like me who don't speak Bisaya -- the local language spoken in Cebu in addition to Filipino and English) it seems to really showcase some of the inherent differences that a change in location -- particularly a non-first-world country -- will make to the basic zombie formula, such as:

• lots of trees that block sight (some of which are mango trees -- Cebu has some of the sweetest mangoes in the world)
• reliance on both science and syncretic beliefs (religion, superstition, and magic)
• lack of a lot of modern conveniences (the lady in orange shown carrying a large corrugated metal pan with clothes in it is going to wash her clothes at the local water source)
• roads that don't go straight, but follow the curvature of the land, resulting in many blind spots
• communication issues (cellphone signals blocked by mountains, phone cables to expensive to roll out to the poor rural areas because of the lack of a paying user base)
• and so on.

What will it inspire? Well, aside from an obvious Romero zombie-inspired campaign, perhaps a different look at how monstrous infestations might be handled in places that are familiar with the modern world but don't have access to all its conveniences.

As a quick aside, Di Ingon 'Nato is translated in the disseminated materials as meaning "Not Like Us". The connotations of the phrase, however include spirits, ghosts, and demons. In fact, some I've talked to actually think of it as a noun, rather than a phrase, used to indicate that there are inhuman things lurking in a given place.

Plague Zombie research

Of course, I believe this is one of the EABA
books I don't own yet. This, and a few others.

I recently finished Max Brooks's "World War Z", and all throughout I was thinking about what an RPG campaign would be like dealing with that kind of situation.

Naturally, I didn't think of a modern day setting, but a traditional fantasy setting outbreak of these kinds of plague zombies and a Fading Suns husk outbreak.

So far, my research has netted the two following links:

• http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/Zombie_Rules_(D20_Modern_Variant_Rule)
• http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/188172-zombie-plagues-your-campaign-setting.html

And I of course remember the EABA setting Dark Millenium. Here's a short blurb from it:

As Europe entered the 11th century, millennial fever became all too real. On the thousandth anniversary of the death of the Son, evil opened a doorway into the world, and all Hell literally broke loose.

The first seal in the Revelations of St. John has been broken, but not in the way people thought. The dead have risen, but they are hungry for the flesh of the living!

It all starts with the plague zombies of course, and how to stat them out for RPGs like Labyrinth Lord, Castles & Crusades, and Fading Suns.

Next, you have to deal with rules that handle things like called shots ("shoot them in the head!"), the fact that any portion of the body still connected to a still-function brain and brainstem will still move ("erm, that half-zombie's still crawling towards us..."), issues about liquid to liquid transference causing infections ("did you, or did you not get some of that zombie muck on your open cuts and wounds?"), and the incubation and transformation of the infected into more zombies.

And then you deal with possible cures in the setting, and their limitations. Does cure disease work? Up until what point will it stop working? In an outbreak, must all clerics use up their cure disease slots? Can clerics turn plague zombies, and if so, are they considered the equivalent of regular zombies? Will a fireball really destroy all zombies in a given area, and if not, how do you determine which ones had their brains fried, and which ones are still marchin' on?