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Arrgh! Thar Be Zombies! (2010)
Date Reviewed: 05-31-2011
Critical Kobold Rating:
(5 out of 5 Dice)
Ahoy! Undead off
the port bow!
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Emilio
Caravazzo moved quietly through the pre-dawn jungle of the small
unnamed island, the white sand softly whispering under his boot
steps. Soon he came upon the small clearing beside the freshwater
spring, and heard the rasp of shovels working on the sandy earth.
Peeking from the foliage, he saw Captain Morago and two crew from
the galleon Harpoon working in the pale light of the coming
dawn. There was a thump as one of the spades struck the
buried wooden box that Caravazzo knew would be there.
Morago
laughed, a throaty rumble, and directed his pirates to lift the
chest from the hole. Caravazzo slipped out of the tree line like a
shadow, behind the dark-skinned buccaneer captain. As the deck rats
hefted the creaking box up, Emilio drew his saber, and with one
fluid motion drive it through Morago’s back until the hilt struck
the pirate captain’s body. Emilio prepared to yank the saber free
as Morago fell, and he drew his flintlock pistol to deal with the
first pirate mate before the second could act. That had been the
plan.
But
Morago didn’t fall.
“Oy,
Caravazzo,” he drawled, rolling the r’s as he always did in his odd
islander accent. “Ya don’ be disappointin’ me. I suspected ya would
be showin’ yaself here.” Emilio’s eyes widened, and his surprise
loosened his grip on the saber, allowing Morago to turn and face
him. Morago gave no sign of discomfort at the two feet of steel
still protruding from his chest. No blood soaked the pirate’s tunic.
And Emilio gasped when he saw that Morago’s eyes were smoldering
pinpoints of green light in his deathly pale skull. |
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“Ya should not a-be followin’, swab,” the captain said, almost
apologetically. “Ya no gon’ like what ya see.”
The sun
crested the horizon at that moment, and dappled light cut through
the gnarled trees. Emilio saw the two pirate lackeys were also
emaciated ghouls, taut grey flesh pulled over sharp boney features.
Their eyes flickered green as well. They dropped the chest on the
sand, and with a kick broke the aged wooden lid open. Inside was a
hundred pounds of silver Spanish ingots, and a skull. One of the
zombie crewmen grasped the skull, and the two deck rats then headed
back towards the
Harpoon,
ignoring the silver.
Caravazzo
realized he was standing numbly, pistol in hand, facing the undead
Morago on an unmapped island hundreds of miles from the nearest
port. His mind spun. Was every pirate on the
Harpoon undead?
How is it he had never seen Morago or the men looking like walking
corpses in the months he’d sailed with them, been spying on them?
“Ay, so
mahny questions ya have, amici,” drawled Morago, as he pushed the
tip of the saber back into his chest, until the heavy weapon fell
from his back. ”Ah know. I too was like ya before… before tha curse
that afflicts me an’ mah crew.” The Caribbean captain’s eyes burned
brighter, and he raised a hand in front of Caravazzo, his bone
fingers curled into an odd gesture. Emilio felt like he was watching
a scene in a play, and was dimly aware that his own hand, with the
pistol, was raising to his head.
“Ah’ll
explain ever-ting to ya, Caravazzo… now that ya a-be joinin’ us for
good.” Emilio tried to scream as his own finger tightened on the
trigger, and the flintlock’s boom sent birds flying into the morning
sun.
Arrgh!
Thar Be Zombies! is the latest addition to Eden Studio’s
All Flesh Must Be Eaten
line of zombie-licious fun. Powered by their sleek Classic
Unisystem engine, the A!TBZ! sourcebook provides a treasure
trove of material for role playing your undead apocalypse on the
high seas. Everything a crew needs to run a ship-based campaign is
included, plus some nifty material to add to any other All Flesh
Must Be Eaten setting. A word of warning: you need the AFMBE
core book to play, because character creation rules aren’t included
in this sourcebook.
A!TBZ!
makes a vibrant Age of Sail setting circa the 14th
through 17th centuries come alive (so to speak, heh heh!)
Players can be explorers, pirates, smugglers, privateers, scalawags,
merchants, navy officers, or even haunted seamen cursed to ply the
sea lanes for eternity, among other adventurous jobs. As always with
AFMBE books, if you really want to ignore the zombie trappings,
well, me bucko, the remainder of the goods offered here will allow
you to play a more historical seagoing or cinematic swashbuckling
game just fine. So hoist yer jib sails, me hearties, and trim your…
mizzen masts on… uh… the fo’castle, as we explore the goodness in
this tome!
To get
you in the mood to swing from the mainmast and cut down a zombie
boarder with your gleaming cutlass, Arrgh! opens up with a
brief history of piracy in the real world, with some dates and
real-world pirate biography notes. A rundown on the Pirate Articles
of government and national letters of marque are covered, as well as
some of the pirate hotspots of the world around the16th century.
There are simple notes on the various sea-going nations, and a
realistic look at society and the harsh everyday life most cultures
endured during these years; in your game, disease, illness,
starvation, and even medical care can be just as likely to kill a
crew as a broadside of cannon fire from a zombie pirate galleon!
Naturally, Arrgh! lays out some new game material. New
Qualities such as “Born for the Sea” and “Sea Legs” can tweak your
sailor into an impressive man of the world, while Drawbacks such as
“Landlubber” will mark you as a fish out of water to anyone on the
docks. A handful of new Skills also hone your character’s talents,
such as Navigation, Seamanship, and Florentine fighting style (two
rapiers are better’n one, my little musketeer!)
Obviously, the big draw will be the nautical and piratey equipment.
A description of flintlock weapons, tools, and goods common to the
era are provided, as well as a brief explanation of exchange rates
of currency being plundered (doubloons, farthings, Louis D’Ors.)
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Nothing good ever comes
of something like this. |
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There are complete rules for creating ships of the sea, outfitting
them with mighty cannons (eight kinds!) and loading them with booty.
A dozen example ships are provided for those who want to get right
to the plundering. (“Ahoy, Cap’n! Off th’ starboard bow thar be… a
Viking longship?!”)
Naval
battles and boarding actions are covered with an elegant
ship-to-ship combat system, which includes options to simulate
common strategies for sailing skirmishes such as tacking,
broadsides, and stealing wind. More advanced optional rules include
environmental factors such as currents, tides, and wind direction
and speeds, which can add an extra bit of complexity to your fight,
if you’d like.
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Your
ship’s entire crew, which could possibly number in the scores (or
even more than one hundred for massive galleons), can be represented
by a generic set of group stats, Qualities, and Drawbacks instead of
as many individual NPCs, which makes running exciting fight scenes
easier. This is useful for mano-a-mano combat on deck in
boarding actions between opposing ship crews, and in larger mass
combat scenarios involving several ships. Crews are also rated on
their ability level, so an inexperienced “Wet B’hind th’ Ears” crew
of shanghaied wharf rats will have penalties to more complex duties
such as combat maneuvering, whereas experienced “Vet’ran” crews of
bloodthirsty buccaneers will have bonuses to ship operations. These
group crew Qualities are purchased by the captain using character
creation points, either during char gen or with XP gained from play.
But let’s
not forget about the zombies and other supernatural sailors roaming
the seven seas! There are Qualities that may be assigned to ghostly
ships or their damned crews, allowing them to become incorporeal, or
fly, or run silently, or even drain the essence of any living being
who steps aboard. Perhaps nightmares herald the approach of the
cursed vessel, or a sinister black fog precedes an attack by a foul
band of ghoulish privateers. There are enough spooky characteristics
to create dozens of unique evil zombie or ghostly enemies for your
players to run afoul of.
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Salty sea air can
really dry out the pores. |
The
spellcasting of the setting is based on vodou magic (“voodoo” to the
layman), and is examined more closely in this sourcebook than in
some prior Unisystem books where this island magic has been
mentioned. For those who dabble in the supernatural arts, the
history and customs of traditional vodou are detailed in A!TBZ!
along with a list of Rituals that may be manipulated with this
potent mojo. Some legendary gods, figures, and spirits from the
vodou traditions are described, with suggestions as to how they
might work their way into a game setting. Using mystical essence is
always more fun when the creatures granting the power may show up to
ask for a favor in return…
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Arrgh!
wraps up with a few chapters offering Dead World campaign outlines
for your game. There’s a standard “zombies infesting the world”
setting, centered on the Caribbean isles, with some voodoo hijnks at
the core of the problem. The Spanish Main is the setting for a
campaign about some undead shenanigans in the New World, centered
around some Aztec legends and a ghostly cursed pirate fleet. For
some Asian flavor, there’s a campaign set in 18th century
Vietnam, as three brothers vie for control of the country against
each other as well as against formidable neighboring nations. (Add
the material from the Enter the Zombie sourcebook, and this
campaign could be an amazing wuxia adventure!) My personal favorite,
however, has to be the fantasy sci fi world of the Dark Sea setting,
where brave sailing crews navigate ships animated by magic to soar
through space, traveling nebulae spanning several solar systems, to
visit exotic planets, where they find zombies who try to eat their
brains! A fun and very different campaign setting as well as an
obvious homage to one of the most popular and bold role playing
lines of decades past.
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So you
see, me hearties, Arrgh! Thar Be Zombies! delivers the goods!
So quit yer dallyin’, ye wobbly-legged deck monkey, and stow yer
gear! Th’ tides a’comin’ in, and we set sail to capture that
villainous pirate Grey Lucious a’fore he strikes at any more o’ the
King’s treasure ships! What? No, ye sotted drunkard, I’m sher th’
rumors that Lucious an’ his crew was already killed off the shores
of Tortuga last season are just so much bilge! Why, his ship was
seen jus’ last week, slidin’ away into that odd bank of fog not far
from this very port…
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