I heartily agree with this statement, it's a wonderful book.

More on topic I'd sugest using an ordo maximus (see threats 1) altered variant of the Hmhvv versio that gives Loop Garou and Fomorians.

Nah. The virus thing is overdone. Do it with nanites.

Toning down the probability of infection (or having a longer waiting time) is also good for realism: if the virus is too efficient, it won't be able to spread and will quickly die.

Especially if they are flesh-eating zombies : if flesh eating zombies are any good, they don't leave enough time to their victim to turn into zombies. If they aren't, they would get killed before being able to turn to many people into zombies.

Funny you should mention that. I'm just about to run the last session of a World War Z game using the non-Magic and non-Cyber bits of SR3 (Heresy, I know). And after that, just because it was so fun, I'm probably going to try to start up a new campaign in the same setting.

Back on topic, Shedim are nice, but aren't they a little easy to explain as soon as someone gets an Astral gander at one of the 'zombies?' Sort of takes a lot of the horror away if you know that you're fighting spirits who just happen to be using the bodies of the slain (or absent) as vessels. Now a good virus or nanite infection... who knows what's causing the shamblers to do their shambling thing. Plus, it's a good excuse to have the "disease" spread by contact between bodily fluids.

To put some of that always-desirable moral difficulty into the game, have those bitten/gouged/whatever start to get flu-like symptoms and have to make an extended Body Test with a threshold based on the damage level sustained and duration of an hour or so. If they make the threshold before they hit X hours, their symptoms fade and they recover, but if they don't... hello new zombie. Or, alternatively, have the virus make a Rating extended test (maybe based on the level of wound taken), with a threshold equal to the target's body (or half body, given all those freaky huge Trolls and Orks wandering about). If the virus/nanites make the threshold before the subject gets proper medical attention... mmm... brains...

Exactly. Shedim are scary, sure, but they're Shedim. They're a known quantity. The old "if it's got stats, I can kill it" mentality from D&D. The players can classify them, so they aren't as lightly to be frightened of them. Now, of course, the characters may be scared out of their wits (along with other less savory things to be scared out of or have scared out of you), but if the players aren't at least a little bit spooked too, it's just not going to be as effective. I do like the idea of Shedim taking advantage of the Zombpocalypse to snatch up a few bodies, especially if some of the Shedim don't have masking--the players get a gander at them, and then think that those walking dead who they can't see as Shedim merely have masking... then they start reacting differently than Shedim-inhabited corpses usually do.

Did that with a GURPS Cyber-scenario..
..Nanoware bomb in the middle of London.

Interesting place, after that

At least 1 of the Sr novels deals with a "Corp makes zombie virus, so they can profit from the cure" storyline.

In effect, you want to run the ShatterGraves area [or Cannibal Sector, for those of you who know SLA industries] as a 'play area'..
..Enjoy your stay !!


Alternatively, why play zombies as shamblers ??
Have more fun by having the Corp spec-ops as nanoware zombies - Tharkold nanoware reanimates dead people and there's a Space Gods infecton that could have the same effect [both from TORG].

I remember a Chill story where a company was using zombies as cheap data entry staff..
..How's that for a nice surprise for your team ??

Have the zombification spread in a virus-like manner using the widespread nature of those lovely wireless connections..
..And you thought accepting the spam/porn/trojan payload from a botnet was the most that could happen !!

Or, in a magic-rich world..
..Why wouldn't there be magical infections to induce zombie-like behaviour, linked into an Astral Space being [Nestene Consciousness or Yetis, anyone ?? [both from old Dr Who]]

aw shit . .

Shedim + cybermancy + handwaving some rules = ?

Let's just say a brilliant nanoscientist and his corporate research team were working on a form of nanite with full functionality, that could self-replicate independent of secondary cyberware like a nanite hive/facilitator etc. he succeeds, but on the eve of his breakthrough he heard distinctly familiar ominous music and something went TERRIBLY WRONG.

Somehow, these new nanites, with the Gemini function keyed in, broke out into the nearby community and turned the general population into mindless raging killers, who transfer the replicating rage gemini nanites through the injection vector, which probably includes bites and maybe even scratches.

You'll probably want a secluded location like a town in the desert, a remote country town in the nan or the yucatan, a large village in uganda, or maybe even a settlement on one of the islands in Puget sound or the Carribean League. And the best part of this, is that if you can think of a real, usefully sized town or locale, use something like google earth to find sattelite pictures and use that as a map given to your players.

hell, can some-one suggest me a location + satellite image? I wanna do it myself.

Nah.

I'd have the triggering effect be sexual arousal, which is far far more frightening a trigger.

For opposition, blood is far more fearsome a trigger. But, for the possibility of being infected oneself, one simply can't beat sexual arousal for the horror it would produce and one certainly can't beat it for the global social changes a true epidemic will work.

Picture it: a small sleepy town, not unlike the Mayberry of Andy Griffith or the Mayfield of the Beaver Cleaver. Two hormonal all-American kids drive up to Lover's Lane and have a park. Kissing turns to fondling; Fondling turns to tearing and bitting and ripping. They're found in the morning, apparently mauled to death by wild animals, but their car is locked from the inside. Of course, the investigation soon reveals what they did to each other, but it doesn't reveal the reason that they did so until it is far too late.

And in a wholesome upper-middle-class family home, Mommy and Daddy decide to push their beds together for the night. When little Suzy, intrigued by strange noises, asks "Daddy, why are you hurting Mommy?", the result is not the incredibly awkward birds&bees talk that usually follows from such questions; Mommy and Daddy rip her apart and violate her corpse before finishing each other off.

Of course, it is hardest on those who survive the rage and have time to calm down, having brutally murdered their lovers and worse.

As it spreads, sex must be abolished in all of its forms. Even sexual thoughts are outlawed, because it is sexual thoughts that lead to arousal and arousal that leads to uncontrollable rage. All people must wear full burqas when in public; any show of skin or hair risks producing arousal and is thus illegal. Porn is outlawed, as are all other depictions of the human form. All touching is illegal; any physical contact between two human beings for any reason is a crime, because physical contact can produce arousal. Masturbation is, of course, punishable by death. People are not allowed to cohabitate; even parents and children must live in isolation from one another. Human reproduction as we know it becomes impossible. Even artificial insemination is problematic due to the need to collect sperm. Cloning becomes the norm. Personafixes that suppress sexual desire help, but aren't perfect. Every now and then a woman gets wet or a man springs a boner; such unfortunate individuals have to be put down.

Then you have to outlaw sleep as well.

not since augmentation, he doesn't neccessarely *g*

make the trigger becoming tired . . everyone becomes tired some time . . and if they don't . . you knock them out and voila, instant raging zombie O.o