Our Zombie Run mini-game
 

I was working on a few props earlier this week when my wife remarked that she was surprised I hadn't come up with a Zombie game yet. (I like zombie movies)

I realized this was true. So the other day when we played some dusk/night games at our field we tried ZOMBIE RUN.

Here were the basic rules:
People take turns running a gauntlet of "Zombies" to reach the escape point. The human ("Runner") is armed with one sidearm and ONE magazine (or AEG and one locap works too). The runner wears a red glowstick, cause as we all know zombies can sense the living...

Zombies only have to touch the runner to infect/kill them. Shooting a zombie stuns them for 5 seconds. Shooting a zombie in the THIGH kills them instantly (hey, we'd all rather use headshots for realism but I'm sure we want to keep our teeth...)

The Zombies of course are all the other players (unarmed, naturally).

For fun you can mark the furthest point the human gets to as a "high score" and see if anyone can beat it or win.

Here's how it worked out for us:

The human started out in the field about 100-150 meters from the church (the "safe point" to reach). The zombies (everyone else) started near the church.

The Church (this pic was not taken the night we played. I tried to take some pics but the camera saw nothing but blackness due to the lack of light.):
(EDIT: Sorry - lost this pic. It is no longer available.)


Now, here's the thing. Once it was twilight out, our field was layered in THICK mist and fog. It made the game very memorable.

And the church with the green glowstick-lit doorway looked pretty creepy in the mist, frankly.

The zombies could easily home in on the red light the human wore because as we all know zombies can sense the living...

No one made it QUITE all the way to the church but some came really close to making it.

The mist was cool because you couldn't see anyone very well unless you were close but the zombies could see the red indicator clearly and could easily home in on the player.

As zombies we all made excellent moaning/groaning noises, too.

I'd love to try it again, maybe with some small variations if needed (2 runners at once, or one human in the church to provide some backup for those last few dozen critical feet, etc) We had a total of 8 players (1 runner, 7 zombies) and I think that worked pretty well.

that is absoloutley awesome.

That looks eerily like a scene from Night of the living dead... the country and the church and all.

This is bloody brilliant, well done Don!

I wanna play so bad!

Yeah I was there. It was a brillant game and the couldn't of worked out better then that low mist/fog. Pretty rare this time of year in our parts.

Wish it could of been videoed haha It was rush trying to run the gauntlet of the Undead Horde!

Seems an exciting game...

really want to try...

Its been done. Only we used headshots for instant kills.

Memorable may not be the most appropriate word.

best quote: "ZOMBIES DON'T TAKE COVER!"
edit:does anyone have the vid?

Well we were wimps and it was really dark and we were shooting people from like 4 or 5 feet so we thought it safer to make it so only right thigh shots killed the zombies as to save everybody from having welts all over our handsome faces. :-)

You can have your headshots.

Is there a video? If not just more of a game overview.

Right on! i love Zombie movies also. That would be hell cool to make to make an airsoft day outta it. :kill:

Here's an idea i think the humans that are still alive wear should wear a green glow stick around their neck so it would be easyer for the zombies to spot them. and possibly they could wear face masks, cause i know i'd get to into it and think i'm really in a Zombie Apocolypse

EDIT :: It's gotta be at night! Muhahah

Great idea.

War-Lock

I had a small video camera, but unfortunately there was nowhere near enough ambient light for it to actually pick up anything. It only picked up blackness so I didn't bother.

Well, if you check the writeup the human wore a red glowstick (some people used red lamps on their gear) so the zombies could "see" them even in the dim light, and make a beeline for them easily.

Don, I forgot to ask, how many zombies were there in relation to the runner? (just curious about the odds)

Also, one mag...one pistol...what's the ruling on single versus double stacks? Single stacks to emulate "nightmare" level? ;) Single stackers have got to do some serious dekeing (sp?) around the undead...I love it.

There were ~8 zombies and 1 runner. We weren't too concerned about the ammo - nobody ran out anyway. In the fog we could only see the zombies when they were about 15-20' away, so there wasn't enough time to shoot them all when they all of a sudden appeared out of the fog... it was usually take a few shots and then boot it! :0)

Nic

A helmet cam from the runner in a game like this would be awesome!

Like midgetspy says. We didn't get very down and dirty with nitty gritty rules. Some people without sidearms just used their AEGs on semi with a locap (if they had one). It was all in fun. No one ran out anyway, likely due to the very limited visibility.

Were there anti camping rules to prevent the zombies from congregating around the door?

Maybe the headshot rule would work if everyone wore a big lunky motorcycle helmet. The pellet impact would make a nice loud THWACK to indicate a headshot. Heck, play with the visor taped down as eye protection so it'd fog up and make the zombies eyesight blurry.

I really like zombies movie to and your game look really cool.
Could the zombies run or if they can just walk slowly ?

Nobody camped the church. We knew that wouldn't be cool. hehe

We had it so the zombies could run. If you had enough zombies though you could probably make a rule about walking.

We played in the open I think another great variation would be to play in the trees when its not quite a dark out. (just so you wouldn't trip all the time and kill yourself).

Have it so the Zombies can only walk but the beauty part is in the trees it would be very easy to hide and pop out of no where on the unsuspecting humans.

Hell you could even make like a small party of soldiers who must make it thru the Zombie infested woods.

So many great variations on the theme is possible.

I for one was skeptical at first because I am not a big fan of fantasy or sci-fi scenerios but I admit I really got into the game.

I have nothing new to add, except that almost a year later, this is STILL the coolest concept for a specialized airsoft game I have ever seen.

I'm still encouraging you boys to come up with equally good scenarios!

Damn the pic isn't up anymore :(
I wanted to see it :( hah.

But hmmm, would be cool to set up a big game day event of this nature...

*ponders ideas.

We tried it out a couple of times but the ratio of zombies to shooters needs to be tweaked. Also night would be the best time for a game and having buildings is good too.

If you have more than 20 people not everyone may get a turn as a shooter.

The other thing is safety, charging a pistol or AEG on semi can hurt. I took 2 to the head and 1 to the arm at the same time, needless to say I dropped fast.

It is a fun scenario tho, People should keep tweaking it.

wow it sounds exciting, although if the zombie and human ratio could be like 1 to 10 or more, it'll be even better!

This kind of scenario requires that each player trust the other to NOT aim high.

If they'll get so whigged they'll start really making headshots, they shouldn't be playing.

This sounds great! only ish i had been there to own all the zombies :-D

Older threat, but I've got a relatively good idea probably thought of anyway. Just use paintball masks and hopefully keep the back of your head covered. That's the easiest thing to do for when your a zombie. But there is always the chance that the goggles might fail at one part, it really depends on what type of gear everyone brings.

This would be so awesome to try! Hmm it would be best if you could have a few shooters though. That way they would probly end up freaking each other out even more, than when a zombie pops out of no where (behind a tree or building) its even more histerical.

Also if someone could get a camera with night vision, or even strap a red flash light beside the camera on there helmet (red so you can still see in the dark) that should illuminate enough for the film to work, at least like 10 feet infront of the person.

some o those ol zombie movies had the them of zombies with memorie so why not arm a few zombies with 1 or three rounds, combined with the foggy visors could mak a fun game more interesting.

spiesandmercs.com zombie variant (comming soon to site)
 

Your zombie game sounds fun, ill have to try it at some point.


We developed a zombie variant for the spies and mercs gameplay(spiesandmercs.com), and in it we use a barn at night, and all people but 1 start out as unarmed civilians. the civilians go to a point about 50 yards from the barn and wait. the zombie before the game starts takes 3 guns with flashlights and weighted backpacks with glow rings on them (crazy ironic that you use them to) and places them throughout the barn (not necessarily hidden) then sets of a sound to signal the game has started. We use an air raid siren playing on loop (10 minutes of silence, then siren goes off again) on an mp3 player. You will know why it loops later.

When the siren goes off, the zombie must go to his respawn point (usually 50 yards outside the barn oppisate the human spawn) and the humans all run to the barn to find weapons as soon as the siren sounds. Chaos insues. If the zombie is shot he goes to his respawn point and comes back. If someone is taged by the zombie, they are "infected" and as the next siren starts to wind down, they must turn undead. Now remember that an infected human does not have to say if he is infected, but can deny it and turn then tag everyone he can before being shot.

Once anyone dies, by being shot, they go respawn as a zombie and the horde grows.

Humans lucky enough to find guns should protect unarmed civilians to reduce the number of zombies, but doesnt have to.

We use the glow rings a little differently than your game, if an armed civilian gets the glowring pulled off of his back by anyone (including humans) he becomes instantly infected and drops his gear then starts taging people.

In the end, everyone dies, but thats part of the whole zombie appocalypse mistique dont you think?

So that humans dont just hide, or imitate zombies to live, they could use glowsticks to if you want.

Remember, anything goes so armed civilians can when infected start shooting everyone, unarmed civilians can pull glow rings, anything can happen.

This sounds complicated but that adds to the suspense of the whole thing, You dont know who to trust, you dont know if a mercs going to freak out and start killing everyone, you dont know where the zombie is at, and especially unarmed civilians freak out and spew vulgarities the whole time. EXTREMELY INTENSE GAME.

That definitly soundslike fun

So, as we get closer and closer to Halloween, I was kinda hoping a zombie game would pop up again. I suppose if it's not posted by now, there's nothing in the works? Shame, this really looked like fun. ^_^;
Did anyone have any other horror themed game scenarios planned?

Down in windsor we will be having zombie fest as per usual :)

here is the scenario this year:


Location: Paintball Wilderness

Date & Time: Sunday October 29th, 6PM-Midnite

Kit Requirements:
- full paintball mask.
- personal flashlight.

Scenario:
We are celebrating Halloween with our annual Zombie Fest. Anyone is welcome to attend.


The impossible has happened. Hell is full, and the living dead now walk the earth. All modern nations were quickly overwhelmed by this epidemic and now there are only small pockets of resistance left. The undead hordes are hungry and need the flesh of the living to survive.
Essex County was hit particularly bad and there is very little living left. Out in the woods, one man stands alone, but has a chance to safe himself as he has discovered the location of an ancient antidote to the epidemic. It awaits him in an abandoned Amish village that borders a forest. The village was built above an Ojibwa burial ground, where 600 years ago an Indian Shaman discovered an herbal antidote for a very rare disease that took over fallen warriors - living-death. Time is running out for this survivor though, as the undead can sense his flesh, and are being drawn to his location. The night has crept in, and his only hope is to find the antidote and find a place to barracde himself in until morning arives . . .

Surivor Objective: 1 survivor with sidearm with 1 extra mag will start at fort cracker. Surivor must locate designated building in the village (marked with glowsticks) and find the antidote. Once antitdote is found then it must be brought to the chemical bunker for safety. Zombies will be stunned for 5 seconds when shot. Zombies cannot run. Survivor will be wearing red glow stick as the zombies can sense the living flesh.

Zombie Objective: The rest of the players will be zombies. They have no weapons. They cannot sprint. Their goal is to feast on the flesh of the living. If the survivor is touched by a zombie, the zombies have won. If shot, zombies will fall to the ground but can get back up in 5 seconds to resume their hunt for flesh.

Most of this game will take place in the village and we may have multiple rounds, each person taking a turn at being the survivor. we will bring a shoulder cam to catch the footage.

Costumes are encourage but not required.

You should post this in the ontario games thread, I would LOVE to play this, I'd drive to windsor for that (how far from Mississauga to windsor?)

My problem is a sunday night, not good for me, I realize the Sat. and even the Fri. will be booked with partys but what about the week after on a friday or sat. night?

If I don't make it please post how it went!

yea good idea shrike i just figure no one wants to drive down here hehehe :) we plan to host 2 large events in windsor for 2007, but ill see if anyone wnats to come out to this game !!

yea unforunately sunday is the only day that works for us, and saturday is the GTA airsoft con so dont want to overlap events

Nice idea! that would be cool if there was 50 players (25 on each team) then everyone only has one side arm with one clip, zombies can kill and pick up the weapons.

But the amount of stealing would be mad.