Electronic Road signs part 2

I have just made some road signs for printing out.

 Each road sign is 4cm wide by 3 cm high.

So far I have the following signs:

If anyone has some other ideas for road signs I would be happy to hear them.

I also have the signs in a PDF for printing - if I can find a good file hosting site for a PDF I will provide a link for anyone wanting to download them.

In the mean time, I am happy to email them to anyone asking for a copy.

EDIT: those using the PDF I made please note: the sizes are not 4 cm by 3 cm.... in the process of making a PDF the images seen to have shrunk a little, so please measure them when making signs using the PDF.

Electronic Road Signs

Having seen the electric road signs with zombie warnings I want to make at least one for my zombie games.

This is the normal usage for the signs:

And this is why I want to make one:

After a quick "Google" I found an "Electric Road Sign" font that is perfect for the sign.

 I will use the font in orange with black background, and try to design the sign carrier to allow actual signs to be swapped around to give me multiple choice with what is on the signs.

Those wanting the font can download it here:

http://www.dafont.com/electronic-highway-sign.font

Power to survive the zombie apocalypse

As part of some scenery for my game, I want to make some solar panels.

 The panels, and items needed for its up keep, can be the objective of a scenario or two, but once in place they can provide the survivors with some power for making life a bit easier... until they are forced from their stronghold that it.

So, I will print out some solar panel images and glue them on to card and create a bank of them - either glued on to the roof of a building, or on frames.

 I have included them here for anyone wanting to use the idea to make their own - just rescale them to the size you need, print them out and use them how you see fit:

And here are some photos of how they could be used:

I hope someone finds this idea useful.

Vehicle of Vengeance - snow plow

There are rules for vehicles in "No More Room in Hell", and you can upgrade them to become more lethal in a hostile situation.

This snow plow is being sold on ebay, and I thought it would be a great one for running down hoards of brainless dead.

Pimp it up a little to include blades and a crows nest for a machine gun and you have a 'nice ride'.

 I wont be buying the snow plow for a while, but if I change my mind, I hope I will be able to get one should the need arise.

Diecast cars

I have been browsing through ebay looking at the 1/43 scale diecast vehicles for use in the game.

 I think I should have a couple of vehicles before I start designing roads for the gaming area - that way I wont make them too small or too big, and thus save myself a bit of time and grief.

 As I was looking at a pick up truck that I want to use as part of a scenario (more on that below) I noticed that the one I was looking at was only 1 of 1,000 made. I chuckled to myself wondering what collectors would think if they knew what a 'collectors item' was being used for instead of keeping it in it's box in a pristine condition.

As for the scenario - a pick up truck (or similar) is placed in a central position on the gaming area and a minimum number of items must be placed in the back before the pick up can be driven off to safety.

 Basically it is a scrounging scenario, where a minimum of supplies are needed - say two ammo, two food, a first aid kit and so on per survivor figure before the conditions are me and the truck can be driven to the stronghold.

 If all buildings are searched and not enough goodies have been collected, then the truck may be driven off.

 Of course you have to contend with zombies and other survivors trying to keep you away from the goodies you find, making a guard important... but where do you put the guard so that they wont be eaten by zombies?

 Hmm - I might have to make a bill board that can be climbed. Park the pick up at the base of the bill board and keep the hoards at bay.    

Fire arms and Zombie Grave Yard

When ever a firearm is fired in "No More Room In Hell" a d10 is added to the "Dice Grave" which is then rolled at the start of the next turn for zombie reinforcements. (p.35 of the rule book)

 This means that once the shooting starts it is more likely that you will be surrounded by a zombie hoard sooner than later.

 Bows and Ninja stars have the "quite" rule, which means when used they don't add to the "Dice Grave".

 Browsing over the Hasslefree Miniatures site, I noticed a lot of figures with suppressed weapons, which had flicking through the rule book to see if there was a rule on suppressors on firearms. There isn't, at least, not that I could find.

So, I figure any weapon fitted with a suppressors are counted as "Quite" according the rule on P.11 and P.35.

 To prevent every character from having suppressed weapons, I would also impose the rule that a) only figures with weapons that have suppressors on them gain this rule, and b) a suppressor counts as special equipment and costs 20 POINTS.

Kameko and Kamiko - Part 2 - Special rules idea

As mentioned in the previous post about these Japanese exchange students, I wanted to have some special rule for the pair of them.

 An idea came to me while watching an episode of "The Walking Dead".

Kameko and Kamiko special rule: as long as the twins are in close distance to each other (say within 2") each gains the other's primary attack  during the turn. Thus, Kameko gains a ranged attack with a pistol using Kamiko's weapon and skill rating, and Kamiko gains Kameko's melee attack with a sword and skill rating.

 This give you two ranged attacks or two melee attacks for the twins instead of one of each.

 If they are out of the 2" range from each other, then they loose this special ability.

The Walking Dead

I have been watching "The Walking Dead" TV series online - we don't have it here on TV in Australia, but I found a great site that is hosting it for free.

 The second episode is a ripper - offers great ideas for a zombie campaign, as well as plenty of scenery ideas.

Those wishing to watch the show online: walking dead

 The only thing to watch out for is annoying pop up scams and dodgy links that lead you to believe that they are the links to click on to watch the show.

 Apart from that - awesome.

Trailer park building part 1

I tried my hand at making a prototype trailer this morning - I am not too happy with the results.

 I am using corrugated card, and it is a bit to flimsy to work with. I might go back to using other base materials and use the corrugated card for the roof only.

I might cut down on the length of the trailer too - at this stage it is 17cm long... I might reduce it to around 14 cm, and make the door a bit smaller.  I went with a larger door in my prototype based on how big they looked in the photos, but I think it is too big.

All the doors and windows will have card behind them and frames over them on the out side to cover up the cut marks when making them... but if I go to another method of making the trailers, then I will only need to put frames over the windows and doors instead of cutting them out.

 The walls definitely need to be thicker to allow for gluing and for added stability.

Zombie Survivors - Japanese Exchange Students Kameko and Kamiko

I have wanted an excuse to get a couple of the Eureka Miniatures 'Kung Fu School Girls', and I think a zombie game is the perfect place for them.

I will make them twins - exchange students from Japan when the world went bad.  One will have a sword (great in melee) and the other will have a pistol (for when the sword in out of range).

 Some kind of special rule will be made up for them - something along the line of they can not be separated, as well as a bonus to make up for the fact they have to stay together.

Kameko and Kamiko 

(two different spellings of the same name... ideal for twins)

Trailer park

"No More Room In Hell" has "Survive!" locations that allow players to search for useful things during a game... sometimes not so useful things can turn up.

 I thought it would be fun to set a game in a Trailer Park... plenty of scenery and cover, as well as places to search.

 I did a quick "Google" to find a couple of photos as a guide for scratch building some trailers and came up with this particular one:

I have some corrugated card, so I will draw up some plans and see if my modelling skills are up for making a few of these.

Iron Ivan Games "No More Room in Hell" rules

My Iron Ivan Games rule book arrived a few weeks back - just in time for me to have a quick read before I had to go away for a bit of time with my second job.

 I have given the rules a read over a few times and I like them.

 The rules allow for campaign play and has several types of zombies that can be used in the game, including "Crawlers: which are zombies with out legs... perfect for the Mantic Games plastic zombie figure pack.

 Killing zombies is a lot harder than killing non zombies in the game - i will definitely have at least one sword carrying character in my survivor group, if not two or more.  Chainsaws are marginally better than a sword, but the sword doesn't run out of fuel.

The 'Zombie Hunter' survivor skill is also a must, as this makes it so much easier to kill a zombie, doubling your chances in most cases.

Also, I will be borrowing a rule or two for zombies from "All things Zombies": in "No More Room in Hell" all zombies not in melee move towards the closest human, regardless of if they are hidden. I will be using the "ATZ" rule that any zombie further than 12" from a human will move towards the closest gun fire, or continue to move in the direction they were already heading in.

I also want to use a card system for initiative - a deck of cards containing one card per survivor, a zombie card (all zombies move on this card) and a few others, such as blank cards (so you can't card count), event cards, and maybe a "turn ends" card to add suspense to the game if your survivor didn't get to move during the turn and the zombies are drawn first next turn.

I dare say I will come up with a few other house rules, and will post comments when I think of them.

Plastic zombies?

I am seriously contemplating getting a couple of packs of the Mantic Games plastic zombies. Each pack allows the buyer to make 30 zombies - but I think this includes the leg less ones (which is ok by me) and the ones without a torso (not so ok by me).

A Comment on the product page of the zombies on the Mantic games web site say "As an added bonus it lookss likein stead of 30 zombies, there are infact enough parts to make 40 from each set - false advertising at its best!"


If this is the case, them 60 - 80 zombies should be enough for my game... I hope.


 On some forums people have "complained" that the zombies are wearing tattered rags for clothing, thus making them useless for modern zombie games, but I don't see a problem with it - these zombies could be ones that have been rotting in graves six feet under, or they have been catching their clothes on sharp objects as they shamble around.


I can always flesh out these zombies with more modern ones to add a bit of character.


Edit - I have ordered two packs from Wayland Games in the UK, so given a few weeks, my zombie hoards should start to rise in number.