Last Night

by evilrobotshane from ACOG

When night begins to fall on the sleepy town of Woodinvale, the shadows and fog rolling in bring with them more than just a chill shiver. A living nightmare erupts as the once-peaceful community is overrun with the restless dead ... scratching and clawing their way to the surface with an insatiable hunger for human flesh. Now only a handful of unlikely Heroes are left, banding together to fight for their very lives. On a night that never ends, the only thing worse than death ... is becoming infected.

Last Night is a game of survival horror, pitting a rotating team against zombie all-comers in turn. A small group of survivors stands against the undead horde, armed and equipped with little but their wits. Around the town are the items they'll need to fight back and complete their mission, but with often-conflicting motives, sacrifices and difficult decisions will need to be made.

Each group will be given a random mission from a set, with each member having a randomly-selected special ability and personal goal. Complete all personal goals and the mission and you're home free! After each game, another group gets a go, and everyone else plays the zombies.

No non-protective airsoft gear will be allowed into the game - if you want a gun, maybe there's one in the police station, or there could be a bat in the school gym? (this includes radios, grenades, torches and all that jazz)

Because everybody will get a chance to play in both roles (hero and zombie), civilian clothing will be appreciated and full face protection is mandatory (you might well want all-around protection too). Because you shoot 'em in the head.

Preliminary rules guidelines

  • Zombies can't move faster than walking speed.
  • Zombies can't really use any equipment, nor pick up equipment except from a dead hero or other zombie. Vague memories from life will allow some equipment to be used in a very simple fashion, no more complicated than pressing a switch - flicking a torch on and off but not using it for navigation, firing a cocked gun into the air or at the ground, keying a radio and saying "uuuuuuuuuhhhhhh" into it.
  • A hit to the head instantly kills a zombie, at which point they can go and respawn. A hit to a leg disables that leg so the zombie can only crawl. A hit to an arm disables that arm so the zombie can't use it to attack heroes. A hit to the torso means the zombie has to sit down and can't move around, just attack what's within arm's reach. An injured zombie player can choose to go and respawn at any time they're not in combat, although if carrying equipment they should wait thirty seconds before going to respawn.
  • Heroes can attack zombies only by shooting them with an airsoft gun or by hitting them with a sanctioned close-combat weapon (rolled-up newspaper). Nothing else may be used to hit a zombie, and breaches of this rule will be taken very seriously indeed as injury could occur if we start pistol-whipping people. No barreling through people, shoving, body-checking, head-butting or any other aggressive physical action outside the very specific allowed attacks will be permitted.
  • Zombies can attack heroes by touching them with their hands (so if you sign up to play this game, you're consenting to being grabbed at). Two zombie hands touching a hero simultaneously cause a bite. Four zombie hands touching a hero simultaneously cause death.
  • In the event of a bite on a hero, after five minutes the hero will become a zombie (if they manage to escape). For these five minutes, they are immune to further bites but not to death.
  • In the event of death, the hero falls to the ground and the zombies responsible feast on their delicious internal organs for thirty seconds (act, don't do). The hero remains on the ground for five minutes after death, after which time ressurecting as a zombie according to all zombie rules. Any carried equipment not looted by heroes during the five-minute down-time is retained.
  • Heroes can take equipment from wherever they find it, although it may not be grabbed from a hero or zombie who's still alive.

In case anyone's interested, this is based on the pretty spiffy board game Last Night On Earth.