"Here you go Jacobs, have fun!" Sergeant Brandon handed Pvt. Jacobs a Colt 45 and a flashlight. Jacobs looked over at the muddy VC tunnel at his feet, then back at Brandon.
He complained, "This is bullshit, Sergeant! It's Washington's turn!"
Corporal Washington interrupted a drag on his cigarette, "Fuck you Jacobs, I did it last time!" He rolled his eyes and returned to his smoke.
"No you didn't, Williams did!"
"And he never came back, so he doesn't count! Besides, even if he did come back why would it be my turn again you broke di--"
"Uh, guys..." FNG, the radioman, was slowly stumbling backwards, looking toward the treeline. The rest of the squad turned to see, postponing their argument.
Jaws dropped. A forgotten cigarette tumbled from Washington's mouth and expired in the mud. Just ten yards away, staggering out of the woods, was a squad of bloody, mangled VC. The marines watched in horrified silence as more and more emerged from the trees, US soldiers in the mix. A low, gurgling groan reached their ears.
The sergeant was the first to recover his senses. A blistering hail of M-16 fire met the advancing horde, but to no avail. The rest of the squad followed his lead while Jacobs grabbed the radio. For every one zombie that stayed down, three got back up and five joined the growing mass.
"Bigbird, this is Pokieman! We've got unknown enemy contacts at 42B-9A, requesting immediate extraction! Bigbird, do you copy?!" Jacobs frantically worked the radio antennae, trying to get a clear signal.
Finally, the radio crackled to life. "Solid copy Pokieman, nature of enemy, over?"
"They're like, fuckin' zombies or something! We need help! Over!"
"Roger Pokieman, Puff the Magic Dragon is overhead, we'll redirect and give the order, ETA 10 seconds, out" The radio went silent.
Moments later, a C130 came into view. The sky thundered as a stream of lead tore through the shambling zombies, sending blood and bits of gore flying. The marines cheered Puff on as he belched death onto the foe until the bullets stopped falling. They looked up just in time to see the plane erupt in flames and go down. A tiny object fell out of it and plummeted to the earth.
With a tremendous crash an armored motorcycle landed on the ground, ridden by a leather-harnessed and Mohawked Road Warrior. He looked momentarily at the marines, then raised his machine pistol and opened fire, coldly gunning them down before they knew what to think.
And to this day, no one knows just what the fuck happened.I should clarify. This will not be some kind of retarded Vietnam/Zombie mashup. I've just gotten into the habit of prefacing my games with bits of ridiculous fiction.
What's actually going on is that I have two games here I'm interested in running. One is All Things Zombie, a wargame set a few years after the apocalypse. The other is FNG, a wargame set during the Vietnam War. I couldn't decide which I liked more, so I gave you guys that option. Both games are using essentially the same ruleset, and both will be played similarly, although there's a lot of differences in what goes on, obviously.
In ATZ, each player will control a hardened survivor, two years after the world was overrun by zombies. You'll start out with a secure safehouse and organize raids for supplies and recruits. People you meet can be recruited, if you manage to avoid a gunfight. Recruited characters won't be player-controlled, but you'll be able to give them orders.
The ultimate goal is to survive until the zombies rot themselves out. At first entering the city will be suicide but after a while the zombies will spread out, making the city slightly less dangerous and the rest of the world much more dangerous. If you last a really long time the military will start taking the world back and you just might be able to brag that you survived the end of the world.
Maybe.
Rules-wise, FNG is similar to ATZ. Setting and tone is a lot different, though. In FNG, each player will control an officer in a US army platoon operating in Vietnam. Instead of choosing what missions you'll go on, you'll be assigned missions. Sometimes it'll just be your squad with no support, sometimes you'll be working with several squads or even the whole platoon. The goal is to survive 12 months and be sent home.
As in ATZ, surviving twelve months in 'Nam is no mean feat.
Which sounds more fun? I can give more details if they're needed.
You won't need to know the rules. Basically, any players active on a map will be asked what they do, where they go, and the like. I'll work out how that will go down in the rules and give you the results. This may last several turns or you might be inputting new orders every turn. If the situation changes drastically, I'll interrupt your actions and give you a chance to change orders.