gatharion
07-25-2006, 02:05 PM
Conceptually the Zombies!!! games by Twilight Creations are very fun. After all you are running around killing zombies! :D
However! In practice they are often not so much fun as the games tend to get bogged down in nearly agonizing repetitive turns. :(
Furthermore they simply lack a certain amount of common sense. Namely, why the heck are you competing with the other players? One would think that the massive undead hordes would serve as enough incentive to work together. :mad:
Latey I have been much enamoured with cooperative games such as Arkham Horror and Shadows Over Camelot and it occured to me that Zombies!!! could be done as a cooperative game.
I do not own Zombies!!!, but I do own the spin-off Zombies!!! MidEvil and its expansion Castle Chaos, AKA The rip-off Army of Darkness Game.
Below are my rules, as typed up by my beautiful wife, for playing MidEvil as a cooperative game. We tried it out last night for the first time and it was WAY more fun then either Zombies!!! or MidEvil normally are. From the first turn to the last it was pretty exciting. I'm sure that similar rules could be implemented for regular Zombies!!! and it's expansions.
If anybody tries these out please let me know how it went. Feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Modded Rules for Zombies!!!: MidEvil & MidEvil II
(Cooperative game)
Object of the game:
You and your friends find yourself back in time, in a world infested by creatures both evil and dead. To get back to the present, you must work together to get to the graveyard, find the Necronomicon, and return it to the castle before the skeletons kill you all!
Game setup:
Follow game setup as outlined in the Zombies!!!: MidEvil 2 rules, with the following exception:
Shuffle together the rest of the Event cards. (do not deal 3 to each player)
Turn sequence overview:
1. Draw a tile from the tile deck.
2. Attach the map tile to any legal space on the current map.
3. Combat any skeleons on your current space.
4. Roll a six-sided die, the result is your movement roll.
5. Move up to the number of spaces indicated by the movement roll.
6. Combat any skeletons encountered while moving.
7. Draw one card for every new map tile your pawn entered during the turn.
8. If you did not fight any skeletons, you may choose to draw an additional card.
9. Play any “Play Immediately” cards
10. Move one skeleton from every map section (see “Skeleton movement” for more info).
11. Discard or play (if you can) down to 3 cards.
After discarding event cards, the turn is over and play proceeds clockwise around the table.
Placing map tiles:
Follow map tile placement as outlined in the Zombies!!!: MidEvil 2 rules.
Skeleton combat rules:
Follow skeleton combat as outlined in the Zombies!!!: MidEvil 2 rules.
Player combat rules:
Player combat does not exist in this version of the game. Instead, if you end your movement in the same space as another player, you may share or trade items in play (but not cards or skeletons).
Player movement rules:
Follow movement as outlined in the Zombies!!!: MidEvil 2 rules.
Event card rules:
*Event cards are one of two types: “Keep” cards and “Play Immediately” cards (see appendix for a list). “Keep” cards go into the player’s hand, and “Play Immediately” cards go into effect when they are drawn. On “Play Immediately” cards, “target player” should be understood to refer to the player who drew the card.
*You may only play one event card per round. This means from the beginning of your turn to the beginning of your next turn. “Play Immediately” cards do not affect the “one card per round” rule.
*Cards already in play in front of you also do not affect the “one card per round” rule.
*You may never have any more than 3 event cards in your hand at the end of your turn. If you have more than 3, you must discard down to 3 cards at that time.
*When an event card violates the normal rules of the game, the card supersedes the rules.
Skeleton movement rules:
*At the end of your turn, move one skeleton from every map tile that contains at least one skeleton.
*Skeletons move only one space and may not move diagonally.
*The black skeletons move two squares (and must move two squares, if possible) and may not move diagonally.
*Skeletons move toward the closest player.
*No individual skeleton may move twice. If a skeleton moves into a new map tile, a different skeleton must be moved for that map tile. If there are no other skeletons, then no skeleton moves for that tile until the next turn.
*If a possible move allows a skeleton to move onto a player, that skeleton must be moved onto the player.
Winning the game:
To win the game, one of the players must get the Necronomicon from the graveyard (or another player) and take it to the center of the “Castle 3” tile.
Losing the game:
The game is lost when the last skeleton is placed on the map and the skeleton pool is empty. You and your friends are overwhelmed by the skeleton hordes and lose your chance to return whence you came.
Additional rules:
Follow additional rules as outlined in the Zombies!!!: MidEvil 2 rules, with the following addition:
After the last map tile has been placed, the following happens: each turn, instead of placing a map tile, you roll a die and place that number of points of skeletons in the graveyard. If the graveyard is full, then no skeleton is placed. During skeleton movement, if a skeleton can move out of the graveyard, he must.
Appendix 1: “Keep” cards
Axe
Bone Soup
Catapult
Crossbow
Explosives
Give me that before you hurt yourself!
He’s one of them!
Horse
I’ve got the gun!
Look...nothing in my hand!
Lost
Mace
Polearm
Short Bow
Swing and a Miss
This is my BROOMSTICK?!?
Uh...Nevermind
We can take them!
What?!?!
What am I gonna do with that!?!?
Yoink!
Appendix 2: “Play Immediately” cards
All’s Quiet
Ashes to Ashes
Buckethead
How many did you say there were!?!
I ain’t that good!
I will crush you!
It’s Just a Flesh Wound
Peasant Uprising
Protect the wall!
Storm the wall!
The Peasants Are Revolting
They’re All Mine!
To the pit!
You Got Nothin’!
You Shall Never...
You Stay There!
Appendix 3: Card text alterations
The Peasants Are Revolting: read “This cards stays in play until a player uses a life token in combat. That player must discard half their remaining life (rounded down). Discard this card.”
You Shall Never...: read “Until the end of your next turn, no player may ‘pick up’ the Necronomicon from the graveyard.”
You Stay There!: read “If you are inside a building, you may not leave that building until you roll a 3, 4, 5 or 6 and may only roll before your movement phase each turn.”
The cards “My Precious” and “It’s All About Me!” are removed from the game.
However! In practice they are often not so much fun as the games tend to get bogged down in nearly agonizing repetitive turns. :(
Furthermore they simply lack a certain amount of common sense. Namely, why the heck are you competing with the other players? One would think that the massive undead hordes would serve as enough incentive to work together. :mad:
Latey I have been much enamoured with cooperative games such as Arkham Horror and Shadows Over Camelot and it occured to me that Zombies!!! could be done as a cooperative game.
I do not own Zombies!!!, but I do own the spin-off Zombies!!! MidEvil and its expansion Castle Chaos, AKA The rip-off Army of Darkness Game.
Below are my rules, as typed up by my beautiful wife, for playing MidEvil as a cooperative game. We tried it out last night for the first time and it was WAY more fun then either Zombies!!! or MidEvil normally are. From the first turn to the last it was pretty exciting. I'm sure that similar rules could be implemented for regular Zombies!!! and it's expansions.
If anybody tries these out please let me know how it went. Feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Modded Rules for Zombies!!!: MidEvil & MidEvil II
(Cooperative game)
Object of the game:
You and your friends find yourself back in time, in a world infested by creatures both evil and dead. To get back to the present, you must work together to get to the graveyard, find the Necronomicon, and return it to the castle before the skeletons kill you all!
Game setup:
Follow game setup as outlined in the Zombies!!!: MidEvil 2 rules, with the following exception:
Shuffle together the rest of the Event cards. (do not deal 3 to each player)
Turn sequence overview:
1. Draw a tile from the tile deck.
2. Attach the map tile to any legal space on the current map.
3. Combat any skeleons on your current space.
4. Roll a six-sided die, the result is your movement roll.
5. Move up to the number of spaces indicated by the movement roll.
6. Combat any skeletons encountered while moving.
7. Draw one card for every new map tile your pawn entered during the turn.
8. If you did not fight any skeletons, you may choose to draw an additional card.
9. Play any “Play Immediately” cards
10. Move one skeleton from every map section (see “Skeleton movement” for more info).
11. Discard or play (if you can) down to 3 cards.
After discarding event cards, the turn is over and play proceeds clockwise around the table.
Placing map tiles:
Follow map tile placement as outlined in the Zombies!!!: MidEvil 2 rules.
Skeleton combat rules:
Follow skeleton combat as outlined in the Zombies!!!: MidEvil 2 rules.
Player combat rules:
Player combat does not exist in this version of the game. Instead, if you end your movement in the same space as another player, you may share or trade items in play (but not cards or skeletons).
Player movement rules:
Follow movement as outlined in the Zombies!!!: MidEvil 2 rules.
Event card rules:
*Event cards are one of two types: “Keep” cards and “Play Immediately” cards (see appendix for a list). “Keep” cards go into the player’s hand, and “Play Immediately” cards go into effect when they are drawn. On “Play Immediately” cards, “target player” should be understood to refer to the player who drew the card.
*You may only play one event card per round. This means from the beginning of your turn to the beginning of your next turn. “Play Immediately” cards do not affect the “one card per round” rule.
*Cards already in play in front of you also do not affect the “one card per round” rule.
*You may never have any more than 3 event cards in your hand at the end of your turn. If you have more than 3, you must discard down to 3 cards at that time.
*When an event card violates the normal rules of the game, the card supersedes the rules.
Skeleton movement rules:
*At the end of your turn, move one skeleton from every map tile that contains at least one skeleton.
*Skeletons move only one space and may not move diagonally.
*The black skeletons move two squares (and must move two squares, if possible) and may not move diagonally.
*Skeletons move toward the closest player.
*No individual skeleton may move twice. If a skeleton moves into a new map tile, a different skeleton must be moved for that map tile. If there are no other skeletons, then no skeleton moves for that tile until the next turn.
*If a possible move allows a skeleton to move onto a player, that skeleton must be moved onto the player.
Winning the game:
To win the game, one of the players must get the Necronomicon from the graveyard (or another player) and take it to the center of the “Castle 3” tile.
Losing the game:
The game is lost when the last skeleton is placed on the map and the skeleton pool is empty. You and your friends are overwhelmed by the skeleton hordes and lose your chance to return whence you came.
Additional rules:
Follow additional rules as outlined in the Zombies!!!: MidEvil 2 rules, with the following addition:
After the last map tile has been placed, the following happens: each turn, instead of placing a map tile, you roll a die and place that number of points of skeletons in the graveyard. If the graveyard is full, then no skeleton is placed. During skeleton movement, if a skeleton can move out of the graveyard, he must.
Appendix 1: “Keep” cards
Axe
Bone Soup
Catapult
Crossbow
Explosives
Give me that before you hurt yourself!
He’s one of them!
Horse
I’ve got the gun!
Look...nothing in my hand!
Lost
Mace
Polearm
Short Bow
Swing and a Miss
This is my BROOMSTICK?!?
Uh...Nevermind
We can take them!
What?!?!
What am I gonna do with that!?!?
Yoink!
Appendix 2: “Play Immediately” cards
All’s Quiet
Ashes to Ashes
Buckethead
How many did you say there were!?!
I ain’t that good!
I will crush you!
It’s Just a Flesh Wound
Peasant Uprising
Protect the wall!
Storm the wall!
The Peasants Are Revolting
They’re All Mine!
To the pit!
You Got Nothin’!
You Shall Never...
You Stay There!
Appendix 3: Card text alterations
The Peasants Are Revolting: read “This cards stays in play until a player uses a life token in combat. That player must discard half their remaining life (rounded down). Discard this card.”
You Shall Never...: read “Until the end of your next turn, no player may ‘pick up’ the Necronomicon from the graveyard.”
You Stay There!: read “If you are inside a building, you may not leave that building until you roll a 3, 4, 5 or 6 and may only roll before your movement phase each turn.”
The cards “My Precious” and “It’s All About Me!” are removed from the game.