Zombies, Vs Shedim Options

[20thCenturyFox]

Hi

What's the difference between a zombie and a shedim? I don't have any of the 'comet' books so i need some direction.

The reason i ask is that i need some 'kick arse' zombies for an upcoming game and the zombies and corpse-cadavres in the critters book just don't do it for me.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

20th

[Kanada Ten]

Shedim are, well more horror move zombie like than Zombies.

Voodoo houngans summon spirits into the bodies of the dead with the permission of the Loa (angelic-like servants of God - Totems) and command them about. If a Zombie goes free it becomes a Corpse-Cadaver. Those can be bound again and so on.

Shedim are spirits from another metaplane. They require a vessel and have a variety of powers. The vessel is a body of any creature that is not currently inhabited by a "soul" though they prefer metahuman hosts (a lot). Master Shedim are the only thing that can control regular Shedim. Shedim can have nasty powers (like regeneration, death-aura, paralyzing fear) and are generally, Night-Of-The-Living-Dead things.

The CAS doesn't see much difference between the two (though houngans hate Shedim) and have put a bounty on anyone that raises the dead.

Shedim exist to make more hosts; Zombies exist to obey their summoner.

[ Spoiler ]

Unless, of course, Shedim are obeying their summoner, too.

For the record, Year of the Comet contains information about Shedim, and Threats 2 has Master Shedim.

[Large Mike]

I think it would probably take something extra-special to control, let alone summon, a shedim.

[Kagetenshi]

[Mimick]

20th:

Zombie 101

Corps Cadavres: Suck. All you can do is beef up their stats a bit as needed, but don't expect your average player to do much more than waste a shotgun shell.

Zombies as summoned by a houngan: Little more interesting, but pretty much the same thing as a corpse cadavre without the weaknesses. Basically just a summoned spirit that inhabits a body, the force determines how intelligent they are and beefs up their stats somewhat.

Grande Zombie: Zombie that escapes it's summoner's control and becomes a free spirit. Gets some free spirit powers, and must sustain itself by eating metahuman flesh not unlike the wendigo. Usually horrifically intelligent and more of a behind the scenes monster, these fraggers can ruin someone's day if you use them right.

The Shedim: Little parasite type spirits that fly around the astral looking for corpses or vacant bodies (aka: astrally projecting characters) to inhabit. These suckers are a real pain in the ass because they can pop up almost anywhere, including your recently dead chummer. It's their powers that make them scary, because they have a special type of the Fear power called deathly aura that renders characters immobile instead of making them run away blindly (like in horror shows where they just stand there with wide eyes). Depending on what you need them for these guys can be typical shambling zombies or you can beef 'em up with powers (try regeneration and turn that troll's smile upside down) and malicious intelligence.

Obviously I haven't covered these all in complete detail, but this should help you choose the right zombie to eat the right brains.

(EDIT: forgot to mention the shedim are mildly allergic to sunlight, so they tend to only pop out at night or inside buildings - gotta give the players a break sometime)

[TechnoDruid]

The Shedim out of YOTC are pretty neat. I've done a couple of full campaigns using them. But, let us not forget the Master Shedim out of Threats 2... <grins ever so wickedly...)

[Mimick]

That's just a cruel concept I haven't gotten around to yet. (more of a "wtf is going on" kinda campaign than a "no ammo, low on gas, hours til' dawn")

Soon, soon... :evil:

[20thCenturyFox]

Thanks for the low-down.

I'm planning on making my zombies a little faster than normal, and difficult to put down ... i want the players to have to have to lop off legs and heads to stop these babies. (probably give them regeneration-like ability where they're only killed on a 2 or less on a D6 with a deadly wound ... higher for more effective hits. They'll keep their wound mods as well). I'm thinking more like 28 Days Later, but certainly undead. And ofcourse, there's going to be hundreds of the little bleeders!

When they get that 'friends' in combat bonus then they'll start to get the decent hits in...

Can't wait until the ammo starts to run dry...

[Darkest Angel]

That certainly sounds like regular Shedim you want then rather than Zombies or Corpse Cadavres.

[Kagetenshi]

Give them some old-school armor and woodsman's axes.

And then have the Dwarf run around chucking molotov cocktails.

~J

[Sunday_Gamer]

Can't the cleric just whip out his/her holy symbol and turn them?

=)

Sunday

[Mimick]

Well, consulting the ol' Hacklopedia of Beasts you could just spring some good old fashioned JuJu zombies on your players.

They're fast, they can climb walls, they're fairly intelligent for walking corpses (sinister intelligence, hate all living things, can use weapons), and it takes magic weapons to harm 'em (even then they only do half damage).

Hmmm...

[Kanada Ten]

[Crimson Jack]

I'm gonna make some turbo zombies in honor of the Dawn of the Dead remake. File them away for a Halloween adventure or something. :grinbig:

[darloth]

I recently (as a GM) had an NPC cast animate at force 8 on a corpse...

Since the animate spell works until said corpse is basically in many, many bits, this creates a much more damage resistant 'zombie' than most of the above...

Of course, it has limitations, but if you're looking for a zombie effect, don't limit yourself to things which are 'zombies' by their description... Perhaps a cyberware effect as well (a few nearly-braindead cyberzombies with trauma dampners, platelet factories and/or pain editors would maybe work?)

[Large Mike]

Also, zombies, historically, were heavily drugged and oft-beaten people. So using heavily drugged and oft-beaten people is also an option. See if you can make your players puke by revealing that they were still normal people underneath all that after they've splattered a half-dozen of them all over the wall.

[Darkest Angel]

[Kesh]

[Kagetenshi]

If you still play, there's a group of people (several of them Dumpshockers) who meet semiregularly in The Great Devoid for either coop or some multiplayer action. You're welcome to join in if'n ye' want. I'll need to get some tips from you as to proper Thrall use, as I can never deal with the fact that everything but Wights can outrun them.

(We now return you to your regularly scheduled topic)

~J