Zombies in Vegas
GenCon 2004 Demo
Games of Universalis will often wind up dragging in a fair number of
cross genre elements. We've seen zombie westerns, zombies in space,
even zombie ninjas (yes, ninja with an "s", its somehow more
appropriate that way). This group wasn't messing around. The
very first Tenet out of the gate was one word, "Zombies".
The Tenet phase informed us that this game would involve zombies, Las
Vegas, a brothel, an ancient curse on the city, a bus load of convicts,
and of course...the King.
The first scene begins on a dark highway. The convicts have just
taken control of the bus when they stop to pick up a lone hitch hiker in a
white sequined jump suit. Its the King. He needs a ride.
He suggests stopping off at a great place he knows on the way where the
girls are all clean and real friendly.
When the bus arrives at the brothel they see a big sign that says
"No Elvises allowed". The convicts demand to know why,
they're all down with the King.
The madam explains about an ancient curse that lays on the city.
Many centuries ago an evil tribal shaman put a curse on a kingdom that
used to be located here
so that the people's king would turn into a zombie. The curse
had laid dormant ever since that ancient kingdom collapsed. But now
it has become active and is once again turning the people's king into
zombies. There's since been a rash of undead Elvis impersonators
plaguing Vegas.
Jack Quick the New York Pimp don't wanna mess with no zombies.
He's all for getting back on the bus, leaving off Elvis right here and
high tailing it out of the state in a hurry. But the rest of the
convicts overrule him. After all, the girls are clean and friendly
and Elvis offered to pay for everyone, he really is the King.
As the convicts all make their way into the brothel, we see one lone
convict still on the bus. Carl the Cannibal locked in a cage.
Even his fellow convicts weren't about to let him out. Carl coughs
up a paper clip, opens the door to his cage and makes his way alone down
the dark highway.
Inside the brothel the girls really are clean and friendly and soon the
convicts have all dispersed to private rooms. Jack the Quick is
being hit on by a girl named Cinnamon. But Jack is totally
smitten. Its not just about a "Quick" roll any more. This is the
girl he's always dreamed of. So while the rest of the convicts are
off getting busy, Jack is talking too much, and Cinnamon is getting bored.
Suddenly, Jack sees Elvis down the hall. He is leaving one of the
girl's rooms. He is covered in gore and shambling slightly as he
crosses the hall and enters another room.
Now we discover that the Elvis hitch hiker really was hit by the
curse. It also happens that in the close quarters of the bus
ride, all of the other convicts were infected too, and they're all
starting to turn into zombies.
The hookers are ready for them. This has happened before and they
all have guns and weapons nearby.
Jack screams like a girl.
When Zombie Elvis enters the room across the hall he catches a
shot gun blast to the head from the girl inside. The convict in bed
with her promptly chews her throat out. There's a huge gun
fight. Bullets fly everywhere. The brothel is all shot to
hell. Jack screams like a girl.
Cinnamon draws a big ass pistol from her purse and begins blasting
away. Blood and gore fly everywhere. Jack screams like a girl.
Jack grabs Cinnamon and knocks the gun away. He's turning into a
Zombie too. He gnaws Cinnamon's leg off at the thigh. Cinnamon is
loosing buckets of blood but manages to get to her gun and blow Jack's
head off.
Jack dies screaming like a girl.
Finally the last of the zombie convicts are
put down.
Alone in the night Carl the Cannibal is walking down the dark
highway. He starts to shamble.
The end.
Featured Effect, Big Complications:
Of course the big fight at the end was one giant complication. The
major Components were Zombie Elvis, the Zombie Convicts as a single group
Component, Cinnamon the bad ass hooker, and the brothel prostitutes as a
single group Component.
Interestingly one player wound up in
control of Cinnamon and the Convicts while another wound up in Control of
Elvis and the prostitutes. We decided to use a the alternative dice
pool method that lets each player keep and roll their own Dice Pool.
Thus we wound up with the above 4 main pools plus each of the other
players had a small pool of their own.
In the end, the Prostitutes won.
Interestingly, the same player who was spending Coins for Cinnamon would
later be also spending Coin for the Convicts; and the same player who was
spending Coins for the Prostitutes would also be spending Coins for Zombie
Elvis.
It appeared like a hugely confusing tangle
at first, but by carefully keeping each pool separate, remembering which
Components went into which pool, and then narrating each pool one at a
time in the proper order, the whole Complication got narrated out quite
nicely.
---Ralph Mazza
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