Say “Living Dead”, and people jump straight to George Romero‘s classic and groundbreaking (pun) Night of the Living Dead.
The sequel, The Return of the Living Dead, was a dramatic creative shift. There’s a tabletop Kickstarter in the works to bring us a TTRPG, and Geek Native’s been lucky enough to interview lead writer Nick Lowe.
Playable zombies?
Some readers might think “Night of the Living Dead” but “Return of the Living Dead” is a very different movie. Can you take us through the important differences?
The Return of the Living Dead is a sequel to the George Romero movie in which Night of the Living Dead exists both as a film and a real-world event. The film establishes early on that Night of the Living Dead was inspired by an incident in which a chemical, 245 Trioxin, leaked into a hospital morgue and reanimated the dead. Somehow, George Romero heard of the event and used it as a basis for his movie. He was forced by the government, however, to omit certain details, which is how The Return of the Living Dead cleverly explains why its zombies are so different from the Romero ones.
Which leads me to one of the biggest differences between the two movies – the zombies. Romero’s zombies are relatively mindless, at least until the third movie where he introduces the idea of an intelligent zombie. In contrast, the Trioxin zombies retain their sentience and memories of their past life. In essence, they are still people and are capable of the full spectrum of human thought and expression. A Romero zombie may pick up a brick and smash a window open. A Trioxin zombie can call itself a cab and eat the driver when they arrive. Trioxin zombies can talk, they can run, they can pretend to be alive to trick their victims – like in the iconic “send more paramedics” scene from the first movie.
Another big difference is that Trioxin zombies are almost indestructible. In most zombie media, you can destroy a zombie by destroying its brain. That doesn’t work with Trioxin zombies. You shoot one in the head, and it will keep coming. Chop its head off, and the body will still lunge at you. Every single piece of a Trioxin zombie is animated and aware, and ready to kill you. Trioxin zombies also eat brains exclusively. This is because they feel an intense pain – the pain of being dead. Eating brains is the only way to make this terrible pain go away.
Another important difference is tone. Night of the Living Dead has an intense bleakness to it. The Return of the Living Dead has a more fun, chaotic tone. It’s often described as a “Horror Comedy” film, though that was not Dan O’Bannon‘s (director) intention.
How are you getting that tone of “punk rock energy” into the RPG experience?
The tone of the game isn’t something that is set in stone. The joy of a roleplaying game is that the players can use it as they see fit. If you want to run a gloomy post-apocalyptic zombie rpg with our book, you absolutely can. You could also run something more comedic and slap stick or go full on survival horror. We don’t try to set a particular tone with the game, though it is littered with quotes and easter eggs from the movies that should help players get the overall vibe of the setting. I think it’s important to note that our RPG isn’t just based on the first movie, we also draw upon Parts 2 and 3 – both of which differ in tone from the original and each other. Part 2 has a more comedic tone and it’s played for laughs, something that the first movie isn’t. Part 3 is more serious and somber in tone, with a tragic fairy tale romance at its core. The only constant is the presence of Trioxin. We are giving players and game masters all the tools they need to tell their own stories in the Living Dead universe.
That being said, we have plenty of new options for players to help them dive into the world. Most are based on characters from the films, so we have new backgrounds, professions, and classes such as the Punk Rocker, Mortician, Paramedic, and more. You can also play as a Living Dead character.
The Return of the Living Dead is adapting Everyday Heroes. Is that right and are game mechanics being tweaked for either the dark comedy or the horror?
Yeah that’s right. Return of the Living Dead is written for use with Everyday Heroes and by proxy, all the supplements, settings, and adventures that are compatible with that system. Everyday Heroes is built for creating character and scenarios based on movies and so I feel it’s the perfect fit for Return of the Living Dead.
Mechanics wise, the bulk of the new rules are focused on Trioxin and the zombies that it creates. One of the more difficult aspects of the film to gamify was the indestructible nature of the zombies. But indestructible doesn’t mean that they can’t be defeated. When you fight a zombie in our game, you can shoot it, chop it to bits, set it on fire, drench it in acid, run it over with a car and it will keep coming. The current system is that Trioxin zombies can still function as normal when at 0 hit points. What does happen however, is that the zombie’s stat block can change depending on the nature of the damage it is exposed to. We currently call this system Overexposure, and it has a chance of occurring under certain conditions, such as when a zombie reaches 0 hit points or a critical hit is scored against it.
To give you an example, lets say you use a flame thrower against a zombie and reduce it to 0 hit points. What can happen in that situation is that the zombie can switch over to a new stat block – a Burned Boner, which is basically a zombie on fire. You were fighting a Trioxin zombie, now you have to deal with a burning skeleton that can inflict fire damage on you and is still no closer to being dead. Another example would be your classic decapitation. Chop a zombie’s head off and now you have two separate stat blocks to deal with – a Headless Corpse and a Dead Head. Chainsaw a zombie in half and now you have a Half-Corpse and a pair of Leg Shanks – both of which will now to try to kill you. I’m sure you can already see the potential that this system has for both horrific and comedic moments in play.
And of course, player characters can also become exposed to Trioxin themselves and become fully playable zombies.
What sort of scenarios or campaigns does the system and setting support best?
As I mentioned above, Return of the Living Dead can be used for a variety of games styles and campaigns. We are including four pre-written scenarios in the book to help groups with a launch pad for telling their own stories. Three of the adventures are written by me and I’ll give you an overview of each:
Typical Army Fuck-up tells the story of the 1969 Trioxin spill that started everything. In the Return of the Living Dead world, this event is what inspired George Romero to create Night of the Living Dead, something that was covered up by the US government. Players will get the opportunity to portray alternative versions of the characters from Night of the Living Dead. For example, Barbara is a playable character, but she has been reimagined for the story. In the scenario, she is the head pathologist working at the Pittsburgh VA Hospital when the Trioxin spill happens. Her brother Jonny is an ex-criminal now working as the hospital handyman. We also have Ben, who is a soldier from a nearby army base. The scenario is a full-on zombie outbreak in the city of Pittsburgh with the characters trapped at ground zero. There are also easter eggs and references to Night of the Living Dead that I hope fans will enjoy.
Children of the Living Dead is a rural horror scenario set in the 1970s. The characters are college kids on a road trip in the Appalachian wilderness who happen to stumble upon a zombie cult in the isolated town of Crampton’s Hollow. Many years ago, a Trioxin canister found its way into the community and the chemical’s ability to reanimate the dead caused a religious movement to form up around it and the zombies. Since then, members of the town have been luring strangers into the basement of their church to feed their brains to the zombie head of the cult. This scenario has shades of Texas Chainsaw Massacre and other rural horror movies. It was a lot of fun to write, and I think players will enjoy it.
Lastly, Send More Paramedics is set during the events of the first movie. The players portray paramedics and cops called to the Resurrection Cemetery after the first set of paramedics goes missing in the movie. From there, it’s a race against the clock to escape the zombie horde and skip town before the nuclear missile hits Louisville.
Are there specific Classes, Archetypes, Backgrounds, or Professions within the Everyday Heroes system that are recommended for creating characters suitable for a Return of the Living Dead campaign? Are new ones being created specifically for this setting?
The game will run with any characters created for Everyday Heroes. Because the system is universal across Evil Genius Game‘s other scenarios, there’s nothing stopping you from mixing it with say – The Crow, or Escape From New York. That being said, we do have plenty of new character options in the book that are designed specifically for use in Return of the Living Dead. Firstly, we have the new Living Dead Origin. This is our playable zombie option and acts in a similar manner to how race/species works in other RPGs. Meaning that you can select Living Dead as your Origin and then play a Martial Artist, or a Commando as well.
We have three new classes. The first two are based on elements of Return of the Living Dead Part III. There’s a new Wise Hero class, the Postmortem Technician, basically a “zombie wrangler”. This is someone who works for Darrow Chemical or the army and is knowledgeable in Trioxin and zombies. They come with a docile ‘pet’ zombie fitted into an exoskeleton that they can use as a weapon, but also as a meat shield. There is also a new Strong Hero class, the Rageful Dead. This is a Living Dead class that is based on the character of Julie Walker. The Rageful Dead is a zombie that can channel the Pain of Being Dead into a weapon. They’re a little bit like a berserker, they’re essentially an undead engine of destruction. Lastly, we have the staple of all 80s horror movies – a new Agile Hero class, the Final Girl. This class combines strong instincts and levelheadedness with an ability to survive against all odds. The Final Girl also gets bonuses against Monster type enemies, which includes zombies.
Apart from that we have new backgrounds – Army Brat, Punk Rocker, Punk Poser, and others based on characters from the films. We also have new professions, so you can play as a mortician, a paramedic, or a medical supply warehouse worker. Again, these options are all based on characters from the movies.
Considering Return of the Living Dead has a strong cult following, how are you involving or engaging with the existing fanbase during development?
I’m active in a few Living Dead communities and I’ve been sharing details of the game in those spaces. I’ve also been looking at working with some Return of the Living Dead podcasts and YouTubers to see if we can get an episode discussing the game. If anyone is reading this and would like to have me or someone else from Evil Genius Games on their platform to discuss the project then please reach out.
Can you (will you?) say if the game ties into any of the movie’s 40th anniversary activities?
In all honesty, I know nothing about what Living Dead Media have planned for the 40th anniversary, other than the new film that Steve Wolsh is directing and releasing later this year. Obviously, we wanted to get the Kickstarter up for this year as part of the film’s 40th anniversary celebration, but beyond that I’m afraid I know nothing. I do know that Steve is a great guy and he’s incredibly passionate about Return of the Living Dead, and I can’t wait to see what he comes up with for the fans this year.
Quick Links
- Kickstarter: Return of the Living Dead.
