"Zombies are the new Vampires." - True Blood
Funny quote and mostly true. Thanks to the various "Dead" and "Resident Evil" movies, not to mention new TV shows, Zombies have never been more popular.
Actually I have never cared for Zombies. Sure I enjoy them as much as the next horror guy, but I'd rather read about ghosts, vampires or almost anything else really.
Same is true for games. But I have to admit that one of my favorite games is
All Flesh Must Be Eaten.
WotC may have D&D and White Wolf has the vampires, but when it comes to wipping out hordes of the walking dead then you need this book and Eden has it.
All Flesh Must Be Eaten (AFMBE) is THE premire Zombie roleplaying game. Everything you need to know is here and it uses the fantastic Unisystem game system so beginners can play it fast and pros still enjoy it. Plus it is 100% compatible with all of Eden's games like "WitchCraft", "Armageddon", "Ghosts of Albion" and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". With the d20 conversion guide in back, it is also compatible with tons of d20 games.
I enjoy it because it is so flexible. The power rating can be altered to suit your mood. So street level normals armed with baseball bats to gods walking the earth again.
What makes AFMBE so nice is the collection of Dead Worlds that Eden publishes for it. And like the core book, these are also compatible with other Eden games.
All Tomorrow's Zombies takes AFMBE and makes it Zombies...IN SPACE!! And in Cyberspace and all sorts of "SF" tropes with zombies thrown in. An excellent "Zombie World" book from Jason Vey and Eden. If you like AFMBE and are a fan of Sci-Fi then this is a must buy. Even if you don't then there are plenty of high tech devices to use in other games, such as Conspiracy X.
Pulp Zombies is a collection of Pulp Era Deadworlds. This one focuses on the two-fisted action adventures of the 1930s. A special emphasis is given on the mystical side of the pulps and of course Nazi Zombies.
Enter the Zombie is Kung Fu action theatre at's its best. Emulate the action from Enter to Dragon to Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon to the latest John Wu film to Big Trouble in Little China. There is more though too. Expanded Chi powers, role-playing in mytho-historical Japan and China or the streets of Hong Kong and San Francisco. Plenty of options for characters, players and Zombie Masters.
Fistful o' Zombies where the Quick and the Dead are often the same thing. Plenty of new character archetypes for a wild west game. Whether the wild west of Clint Eastwood or Gene Autry. New qualities and drawbacks and plenty of weapons from the time. I use this along with other Victorian era games. The gem though in this one is the conversion notes between the original Deadlands game and AFMBE.
Zombie Smackdown. I was not sure what to think about this one. But I am glad I got it. I am not a fan of Professional Wrestling, but the mix of wrestling and zombies is too cool to pass up. Plus there are plenty of good rules for matches and even Luchador wrestlers. You can do your Santo-inspired character justice.
Dungeons and Zombies brings D&D to the Classic Unisystem fold. There are rules for using more WitchCraft like magic in your AFMBE game. This book covers all the tropes including many new races such as elves, dwarves, halflings and orcs. High Fantast, Low Fantasy. King Arthur and Lord of the Rings-style play. Combine it with WitchCraft to get a full range of magical abilities. Combine with Terra Primate for tons of new adventure ideas and races. And of course use the AFMBE-Revised appendix to converst any d20 information you need. Far more flexible than most d20 based fantasy games. Really well written and one of my favorite Dead World books from Eden.
ARRGH! Thar Be Zombies! I'll admit I am not a fan of pirates. I enjoy the recent round of pirate movies, but that is the exception rather than the rule. What makes this book so good is that pirates and zombie just seem to go together well. And while I may not be a fan of pirates I am a fan of ghost ships crewed by zombies. So I use this in a modern WitchCraft game instead. The ship to ship battle rules are great and provide an extra layer when using them with All Tomorrow's Zombies. The voodoo in this book is a short hand version of the Vodun from WitchCraft, but still nice to have.
One of the Living is something akin to a "Players Handbook" for AFMBE. The focus is more on new skills, qualities and drawbacks for the characters; not so much for the zombies. Though there is plenty of Zombie Master only information. In particular is how to run long campaigns instead of the one shots that AFMBE are really good at.
Worlds of the Dead: A Collection of Deadworlds is a collection of smaller "Dead Worlds" that don't have enough material for their own books. Great for a starting idea, fleshing out an game of your own or adding to one of the other Dead Worlds from the other books. Since it is also 100% compatible with Eden's other games, they can be added to those as well.
Atlas of the Walking Dead. Part Monster Manual, part scholarly overview of the myths of the world. Full of creatures including some I had never heard of (and that is saying something!) A must have for any of the Dead Worlds or any of Eden's other games. If you are a Zombie Master then you need this book. If you play horror games then is one of the best works on various zombies you can buy.
Book of Archetypes, Book 1 and Book 2. Pre-generated archetypes for AFMBE, but usable in any Eden Unisystem game. Players can use these as starting points for characters. Zombie/Game Masters can use them as pre-gens, NPCs or anything they set their mind too. Over 30 archetypes in each book plus new qualities and drawbacks.
With these you will be ready for the upcoming Zombie Apocalypse.
