How to Run a ZOMBIE APOCALYPE in DUNGEONS & DRAGONS | DnD 5e Homebrew

[@NazirNorth]

Ahoy, everyone! I hope you all enjoy this one. Let me know if you plan on using this in your campaign! You can find all of the variant rules, homebrew stat blocks, and supporting descriptions here on Reddit: www.reddit.com/r/DnDHomebrew/comments/1cf6mfx/bringing_the_zombie_apocalypse_to_dd_with_the_nox/ Cheers, Nazir

[@jglaab]

Love the special infected, especially because they can be great set pieces that the characters might glimpse before encountering them in combat. Imagine the fear of being in a building when a beast crashes into the building across then wanders off. Also the mob of undead is so clever, kind of want to use it like a living boulder in an indiana jones style trap. "the door is locked but from around the corner behind you you can hear the pattering and squishing of dozens of decaying feet"

[@NazirNorth]

Haha! Yeah that's how I see it, especially the gargantuan horde, more of a trap or hazard than a typical "monster".

[@ScarletVecna]

thank you so much! I am making a whole infected continent with aberrant flesh zombie type vibe and I needed inspiration.

[@NazirNorth]

Sounds awesome. Hope this helps you out!

[@oskarwilander3890]

Thank you. I NEEDED this! The swarm mechanic will be so useful, I had the same though but can’t make a balanced stat block to save my life

[@NazirNorth]

No problem. Hope it helps out!

[@takanobaierun]

Not a big zombie apocalypse personally, but I like how much thought you put into that!

[@NazirNorth]

Cheers! It was a fun one to make. It is a bit overdone in modern media though! Felt like it could do with a 5e take though.

[@Choomy8542]

In earlier editions of D&D, ghouls were the ones who created more of themselves via disease, oddly enough! But I love this virus concept!

[@NazirNorth]

Interesting, I'll have to take a look at the older ghouls then!

[@brandondoane332]

This is really cool though. I especially like the hoards.

[@NazirNorth]

Cheers! I figure it's a lot easier than trying to manage 10+ individual zombies as the DM if you want that horde experience.

[@BlackOtter9]

I love the idea of stage 3, awesome play on some classic horror tropes!

[@NazirNorth]

Cheers! Yeah, I really wanted to work that in there somewhere. You always have that one person in zombie movies who hides their bite mark, or just straight up didn't even notice they were bit in the first place.

[@ChristnThms]

Brilliant concepts. I particularly appreciate the careful thought process of this encounter.

[@NazirNorth]

Thanks!

[@ChristnThms]

@@NazirNorth I clicked the link in the pinned comment, which took me to reddit. I'm not going muck around there. Is there anywhere else I can find the blocks you show in the video?

[@NazirNorth]

@@ChristnThms It's just on Reddit for now I'm afraid. I'm currently working on organising all of my homebrew and I'm hoping to get an online collection set up soon.

[@DestroyerHivePro]

Great ideas!! The swarm idea is very interesting for dealing with large volumes of enemies

[@NazirNorth]

Thanks! Yep, it just makes perfect sense here. No DM wants to manage dozens of individual zombies in combat!

[@anderslundtoft2315]

LOVE the Left4Dead idea

[@NazirNorth]

Cheers! Had good fun making this one.

[@jimappleton6042]

Great idea. Looking forward to using in my next game.

[@NazirNorth]

Thanks! Hope it works out for you!

[@georgecook83]

There’s a Hunter spookin’ around out there!

[@NazirNorth]

Haha, yeah, spot on!

[@AlexFoobar104]

I'll have a one shot with your rules on friday. Can't wait! great work, thanks a lot :)

[@NazirNorth]

@@AlexFoobar104 Amazing! Hope it goes well! :)

[@AlexFoobar104]

@@NazirNorth Thanks man :) I just had a question pop up in my head. How would a zombie mob react to Turn Undead? On a failed save, would you rule the whole mob just runs away? Or just parts of it and it becomes a smaller horde? I'm trying to wrap my head around what would be the most enjoyable rule in such a situation. I don't want my players to just remove what is supposed to be a big obstacle with one action but of course especially in an undead themed session that skill, that's specifically tailored against undead, should do something impactful as well. P.S.: They won't have Destroy Undead at least, not at the level we are going to play

[@NazirNorth]

@@AlexFoobar104 That's a great question! Hordes are normally treated as a single creature for spells and other effects, so I think the direct interpretation would be that Turn Undead affects a whole horde (making it pretty powerful!), although you could also make situational rulings - maybe reducing the horde's HP to reflect that some zombies are running away, but not all of them, for example.

[@AlexFoobar104]

@@NazirNorth Thanks! I think I will do that and steal some BG3 logic from Destroy Undead and be like "Turn Undead deals xd4 (no idea how many yet, but something significant), so you reduce the size of the horde". If it goes below the threshold it will turn it into a smaller horde or just some stragglers. It sounds really cool to have a lvl 17 cleric turn a few hundred zombies but it's also a bit out of place for my lvl 4 clerics :D

[@eliasscorsone3220]

I ran a game where the zombies did this. Instead of a single virus, I gave characters a die roll for number of days before they turned - which only I knew for sure - but each additional bite reduced the number by X days. I think stages like yours would work fine, if it's a certain number of in-game days until they turned. I also gave all the zombies a scream to call others. My influences were WWZ the book, and a video game about Vikings who were fighting off hordes of undead. Cleric undead healing the zombies, etc. Maybe 20 years old or so, idk.

[@NazirNorth]

Sounds pretty cool! WWZ is such a great book too, along with the Zombie Survival Guide.

[@interessant222]

That are some great ideas i will implement at my table thank you for letting me experience this ❤️

[@NazirNorth]

Cheers! Hope it goes well for you, can't wait to run more of this stuff myself too!

[@KingStark815]

Definitely using these stats for a campaign I’m planning! Thank you sir!!

[@NazirNorth]

@@KingStark815 You're welcome! Hope it works out for you :)

[@skullservant8486]

I saw this on r/UnearthedArcana!! Good stuff man, definitely made me want to DM a new campaign set in this type of world. Love it.

[@NazirNorth]

Cheers! Glad you liked it!

[@kythian]

I play a bunch of RPGs, but not D&D. (I went from 3.5 to Pathfinder when the Great RPG Schism happened.) However, all of the principles behind the design and development of the lore really got my mind chunking along. Great video, even if it is in a D&D wrapper. 😂😂😂

[@NazirNorth]

Cheers! I think a lot of the flavour here could probably be adapted to other systems easily enough and still capture the apocalyptic theme.

[@rorybeckstrom9602]

Love this

[@NazirNorth]

@@rorybeckstrom9602 Cheers!

[@noobztvgaming]

im def thinking about A horde campaign

[@NazirNorth]

@@noobztvgaming Yeah, I think an undead only campaign, which is survival-focussed could be great!

[@thomaspedersen6661]

would love to try a one-shot with this one

[@NazirNorth]

I think it lends itself really well to a one-shot or short campaign format, as you wouldn't definitely have some player deaths.

[@negatron313]

The OSR game Hyperborea have basic infectious zombies. They bite on a 1-in-4 chance to bite on a hit it is infected, it is a rather quick process lasting like half a day or maybe an entire day. It is only cured by Cure Disease. Which is luckily more accessable at lvl 1. In combat the zombies will try the overbear and dogpile living beings while in groups, otherwise when alone they strike and bite. They can be ordered while controlled to use simple striking tools. The lastest adventure released with the 3rd edition, Late Trapper's Lament, is kickstarted by an evil priest's irresponsible use of zombie minions creating a zombie animal.

[@NazirNorth]

Seems interesting. A 25% chance sounds pretty brutal!

[@negatron313]

@@NazirNorth, the attack still has to land. Multiple classes can cure diseases through acestral spirit magic, natural medicines, worship of gods, and more; even if some are limited by per day or per week. The setting is brutal, it is survival horror D&D meets Lovecraft and Conan.

[@Vampster19CockedD20]

Was that jockey. The stalkers a jockey isn't it....

[@NazirNorth]

Ooh, very close but not quite! It is one from L4D though.

[@UltraDonny5000]

I really like the mechanics of these zombies but I think they would be even cooler if they were possessions instead of a plague. This would open up role-playing opportunities between the animating entities and the players. You would also have a way to mix up encounters and scale them up.

[@NazirNorth]

I think that could be cool as a different kind of take on this theme (more like a curse, or the 5e ghost's possession ability, but able to replicate itself somehow).

[@jamesrizza2640]

This is excellent stuff, the only thing I am concerned about is the hit points of the individual specialists, especially if they are part of a mob or horde. But still great stuff. I was actually thinking of using the mob as a hazard when you shortly stated the same thing.

[@NazirNorth]

Thanks! I understand the hesitation on the special infected HP pools. They are balanced for their CR, but they still probably punch above their weight if accompanied by their zombie allies - on their own they wouldn't be so bad to take down. The herald in particular is very high on HP, but the way I see this is something to be used as part of a bigger encounter for much higher levels of play (not as a solo boss for Tier 2 play, for example).

[@jamesrizza2640]

@@NazirNorth I am going to keep the specialist between 45 and 75 hp except for beast. If they are with the mob or a hoard and used judiciously, it should provide a stiff challenge to players. Think on this, they have to notice these different zombies within the horde. I can see the beast being spotted relatively easily but the others not so much.

[@NazirNorth]

@@jamesrizza2640 Yeah, it's a fair point! There is certainly a spike in how tanky they are compared to the basic zombie.

[@ThePlayingMantis437]

I love this

[@NazirNorth]

Thanks! It was good fun to design too.

[@leventolcer2749]

it d be disgustingly fun if launcher can throw other zombies :D

[@NazirNorth]

Haha! Yes, truly horrific!

[@coreycoffell6219]

Timely advice, what about a time limit? Higher lvl...more efficient murder hobos have to kill alot in a time limit or that mistake i made sends them into abomination mode...

[@scottforsythe37]

Out of curiosity, what happens if you cast Revivify between death and reanimation?

[@NazirNorth]

It will have no effect. I've mentioned this specific scenario towards the end of the virus rules. Only a wish spell can save them at this point.

[@scottforsythe37]

@@NazirNorth I remember that ruling, but what I'm curious about is if only Wish can stop the infection, yet they don't get the opportunity to rise as an undead naturally, does Revivify create a still-living Nox zombie? Or does it just fail altogether (based on you saying "no effect") because internally the body is too damaged to resurrect?

[@NazirNorth]

@@scottforsythe37 Fair point. Yes, I would say the spell fails as though you had selected an invalid target (so material components and the spell slot are not wasted, it simply doesn't work). The intended effect is that from Stage 3 onwards, the outcome (zombification) is inevitable, short of using a wish spell.

[@anderslundtoft2315]

The only "problem" is the CR. Its gonna take a big while before I can use this at my players ;)

[@NazirNorth]

That's fair! This probably isn't early game stuff (especially the special infected, as they're pretty tough)!

[@zimattack9994]

Have this idea for a zero campaign the pc play sidekicks like guards novice wizards and claric they get a pull of like 20 npc to pull from and they play dering the beginning of the outbreak there goal is to survive and try to save as many npc as possible and any they save are moved to the main campaign were the pc play there character two months after the out break investigating what happened to the port city

[@NazirNorth]

Sounds pretty cool! Could be a good campaign setup (or a one-shot).

[@coreycoffell6219]

Raise Zombies as contingent?

[@coreycoffell6219]

Cursive

[@NazirNorth]

Not too sure what you're suggesting there. Are you referring to contingency (the spell)? That wouldn't work with something like Animate Dead as the chosen spell has to have a casting time of one action. Could be neat thematically though, hitting some trigger which automatically raises the dead to defend you.

[@coreycoffell6219]

​@@NazirNorth yeah I'm just brain storming, I got an minor undead problem, and thought it might be a nice partying gift. But raising on the way through the dimension door works just fine for my purposes... reoccurring villains, go figure.

[@coreycoffell6219]

"You gonna use all those zombie eyeballs?"

[@coreycoffell6219]

How many armless zombies does it take to pull a carriage?

[@brandondoane332]

If you can't stop the bleeding then you probably won't survive for 1d4 hrs lol

[@NazirNorth]

Haha! Yeah, fair point. That's meant to be more for flavour though (not like they are bleeding to death).

[@brandondoane332]

@@NazirNorth i gotcha. It just jumped out to me when I heard it lol. Still really cool all and all.

[@malkavthemad4249]

Why use D&D make post apocalypse zombies when there are tons of zombie apocalypse Roleplaying games, like All Flesh Must Be Eaten for example. It actually covers the disease transmission vector among many others and has rules aet up in such a way that zombies have a realistic chance at killing people at any point of the game instead of leveling up too much to be threatened by zombies.

[@NazirNorth]

Totally agree that there are already some great systems out there that aren't D&D that do zombies really well. Monster of the Week actually offers a great format for zombie survival too and is one of my favourite non-D&D systems. But, there are still plenty of people, myself included, whose gaming groups mainly play 5e, so that's who this is for.

[@AncientRylanor69]

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