Zombie ApocalypseThat's right, Zombies. No, not Shedim. Actual Zombies... though the Shedim may be involved. At this point, no one knows for sure. They just know that some kind of Awakened Virus (not a HMHVV strain, though) has been causing the dead to rise almost as soon as they hit the ground and start attacking anything alive with a mindless fury that makes a feral Ghoul look positively civil by comparison. They're missing the Ghouls' limitations, though... like the ability to suffer from hunger, pain, or fatigue... since these Zombies actually
are dead (aka, treat them as nonliving organic objects for Stun damage and any other tests). Fortunately, though, they
are bloody stupid and rather less contagious than Ghouls, but the disease runs its course much faster (stats as Ghoul, but Injection vector through their bite only; deals 1P, unresistable, every <Body> minutes until dead. Becomes a Zombie <Body> minutes after death. The disease
can be cured, but only via magical means... including the natural immune functions of individuals with a Magic attribute).
The plague hit a few weeks ago, and since then the entire district has been locked off like another Bug City until a cure can be found. The Virus and the chaos and death have created a Mana Warp that has rendered most Magic useless in the area (possibly with an exception for Voodoo mages
), and nobody is willing to destroy that much property with a conventional assault. Needless to say, though, this isn't happening in the Barrens; the zombies wouldn't stand a chance against the animals that live there. The sheep in this neighborhood, though, have fallen in droves; less than one person in a thousand is still alive.
Your players have been hired as disposable assets to get in there to try to scout out what's going on, identify and rescue survivors, find the source of the Virus and, if needed, eliminate it... on a per-objective "bounty" basis, of course. On the up side, you've got a Megacorp backing you with regular supply drops (at least at first) and no cops to come after you. On the downside, you've got a zombie horde and whatever is behind it to worry about, you'll be swarmed with a sea of Zed-Heads if you get spotted, you're supposed to avoid property damage as much as possible... oh, yes, and it's a one-way trip until/unless the plague is ended.
How will you deal with the survivors that don't trust you? How far will you risk your neck for information? Once you have the info, will you go for the bonus payday and take it out on your own or call in the Corp soldiers to deal with it?
SystemBe a bit generous, since noobs wouldn't get a job like this; I'd go with errata'd Karmagen (w/ free Knowledge ala BPgen) using a nice hefty 1050 Karma build that has most of the CGen stat caps taken off... effectively, 750 BP characters that have reached the 150 Karma mark, with an extra 150 Karma to represent material gains and favors gathered during that time... and Mages will need the extra Initiation to be able to do anything effective through the BGC. Also, relax the availability for starting gear (say a blanket 20 or 24, with no Restricted Gear quality), since not only would they have their previous gear but their corporate "sponsor" will be paying their down-payment in military-grade equipment and normally-forbidden software.
Lifestyles won't be used, since the team isn't exactly in a place where Nuyen matters much. They get their means of survival via support drops in the form of food, medical supplies, and extra ammo (regular and flechette only), as well as any specialty gear or ammo the team decides to buy using the balance earned from rescues, info gathering, and other sub-objectives. Needless to say, though, things requiring surgery aren't gonna happen unless you find a functional Cyberclinic in the middle of all the mess. Depending on how things go the drops may or may not continue through the whole campaign, which would require constant Survival checks... though I'd allow the PCs to buy the hits if they had the forethought to get their pools high enough to do it.
