Welcome to 2021, Year of the Rising Dead

Two-Gun Pixie Presents:

LEGENDARY

GAMING

021 – Welcome to 2021,

Year of the Rising Dead

"Listen up, you lousy bastards!" A wad of spit slaps against the blood-stained, broken statue of Louis Skolnick, punctuating the statement. "I knew John Carver. He was a friend of mine. He died in glorious battle defending the town of Montagar." A puff of cigar smoke hits the air like a bullet. "I won't shit any of you. Most will fall tonight, some will survive. All will go down as legends and heroes true. Even if you die know that your families and their families to come will be safe from this oncoming tidal wave of rotting flesh, grasping hands, and gnashing teeth." The crowd look up to their leader and cheer with revolvers and pistols high. "Tonight we will mourn our dead but tomorrow we shall celebrate our living!" Delia raises her mystical twin revolvers, Snowflake and Dewdrop, to the air and fires off a volley of arcane blasts as she looks down at the assembled masses of survivors at this way-point in the Nerd Wasteland. "This shall not end off as a slaughter of you survivors but as a true...

Zombie Massacre

Designer: Mark Wright Publisher: Lunch Break RPG Published Date: October 1st 2016 Manufacturer Suggested Player Age: 12+ Number of Players: 2 - 8 Average Play Time: 15 minutes Game Type: Adventure, Post-Apocalyptic, Survival, Zombie Game Mechanics: Dice Rolling, Push Your Luck, Item Management MSRP: $14.99

From the Publisher: Battle the living dead and survive the apocalypse in the year 2021! Zombie Massacre is a dice based game with a usable scorecard and a game card used for character profile and object storage. The available weapon upgrades makes zombie massacre more entertaining in how a player can more powerfully attack the hordes of zombies on their way to victory. The game can be played by two or more people, who not only fight the hordes of zombies but can also determine how hard it is for other characters to do the same. The zombie hordes are there and you have the weapons, Happy Hunting!

The Box: Two-Gun Pixie did not receive a boxed version of the game. We were emailed a pdf to print and play. Therefore we have no idea if the box is sturdy and dependable or shoddy and deplorable.

The Components: Being a pdf the only components are the pages printed out. These include a copy of the rules, a character sheet, and a score sheet. You will need to supply your own pen/pencil along with some dice; 4-sided (d4), 6-sided (d6), two 8-sided (d8), 10-sided (d10), and a 20-Sided (d20).

Goal: The players decide on a point score for victory conditions. 20 is a great score to test the game with for your first play through. The first player to kill zombies and collect the required amount of victory points wins the game. YAY!

Set-Up:

As stated in the components section, you'll need to have some dice handy; d4, d6, 2d8, d10, and a d20. It will help if the d8s are different colors. Each player will have to fill out a simple character sheet. The most important thing to decide (besides choosing your character's totally kick-@$$ name) is which of the three classes you will be playing. The basic difference between the three classes is when you can claim a Character Coin and what special bonuses those Character Coins allow you to access. You can choose to be a Revenge class, Humanitarian class, or a Rogue class.

• The Revenge class allows you to use one of your collected Character Coins to interfere with another player’s hunt by rolling your attack die and subtracting your score from theirs, potentially causing them to miss their head shot. Also, you become the next player to act even if you were not in line to be next. • A Humanitarian character's coin will let you make another player assist you in combat. Only the Humanitarian player gets the points. • If you decide to be a Rogue the Character Coins you receive give you the ability to jump into the combat of another hunter who failed to take out a zombie. You roll your attack die and add it to the failed roll. If you finish off the zombie you get the points. Now you're ready to play! So, get out there and massacre some zombies, nerds!

Game Play: First player is decided by who is oldest. Turns follow clockwise after the first player. Each player begins with a 6 Shot Revolver. This gun is represented by the d6 when you attack zombies. Zombies use the d8 in combat. Before combat begins the attacking player roles the Weapon Upgrade Die (the d20). Consult the Weapon Upgrade Chart on the bottom of your character sheet. In most cases your roll will be your Upgrade Point score. In some cases you will have a choice of taking the points or an item. These items include Character Coins, a hand grenade, brain matter, a smoke bomb, or ninja throwing star. These items assist in combat. Up to 3 items can be stored in your character's backpack. Next you roll your Zombie Shot Die (d6), until you upgrade.

Another player rolls the Zombie Head Shot Die (d8) against you. If you roll higher the difference becomes your Zombie Dead Points. At this point you need to decide if you want to Total your points or if you want to push-your-luck and continue to battle. You do not roll your Twenty-Sided Weapon Upgrade Die until the start of your next turn but you do roll your Zombie Shot Die against the Zombie Head Shot Die again. This continues until you cash out and total your points or you fail. If the Zombie Head Shot Die rolls higher than your Zombie Shot Die you fail. When you fail you Do NOT gain the Weapon Upgrade Points and you, obviously, gain no Zombie Dead Points.

Weapon Upgrade Points increase your attack. The represent better guns, AKA better Zombie Shot Dice. When you get 100 Upgrade Points you get an 8 Shot Pistol which uses the d8 Zombie Shot Die. When you get up to 200 Upgrade Points you get a 10 Shot Shotgun that uses the d10 in combat.

The items have various effects. The hand grenade lets you clear out a combat. No Zombie Dead Points are awarded but you can continue to your next combat instead of passing the turn if you fail. The brain matter allows you to add 2 points to your Zombie Shot Die roll. Smoke bombs are used to sabotage your opponents attack. You roll the d4 and subtract that number from their attack. If you decide to grab the Ninja Throwing Star you get to add 1 point to your Zombie Shot Die roll. A fine balance exits in this game between managing when to use your collected items and when o hold on to them.

The first player to reach 20 points (or whatever amount of points that you all have decided upon before starting) wins the game.

Final Thoughts: Back in August 2GP reviewed another print & play game by Lunch Break RPG called Shark Island. If you have played that game or read our review of it then you have more than a basic understanding of how this game plays as they both use practically the same engine. First of all let me say that the Twenty-Sided Warriors and I all enjoyed playing Zombie Massacre. We actually enjoyed it more than Shark Island. I'm quite sure that this will hit the table more frequently than its sharp-toothed aquatic predecessor has. Our biggest problem with Zombie Massacre is the same as it was for Shark Island. It is almost completely driven by the random roll of a die. Other than actually rolling the dice it feels like you, the player, are doing nothing. There are no decisions to be made in this game. You simply roll a couple of dice each turn and consult a chart to see what happens. Well, to be honest that is not entirely true, just true-ish. Because of the game's use of point tracking it is possible to upgrade your gear which will let you roll higher numbered dice than the d6 you access from the beginning of the game. In this manner to have a little bit of strategy in the sense that you have to make a choice as too whether you will keep your Upgrade Points to get a better gun or cash some to get one-shot items. Another thing that we all found annoying it's the terminology of the game. Zombie Shot die, Zombie Head shot die, Zombie Dead Points, Zombie fish sticks, Zombie ballroom dancing... OK, in all fairness I made up those last two. But that is how this game feels. Kind of like the old Adam West Batman TV show. Bat Shark Repellent, Bat Cough Drops, Bat Wallet, Bat Magnifying Glass. This is OK for a campy TV show but when you are playing a game - especially for the first time - this gets confusing real fast. They really should have just stuck with basics, Hunter die, Zombie die, Victory points.

An interesting aspect of this game is that there are three different classes to choose from. Each of these three can slightly bend the rules in their own way. Unfortunately, to use your class power you are at the mercy of the dice. If you don't roll your class' ability you never get a chance to use it. I have, thus far, played this game with 2, 3, and 4 gamers. In none of these games were our characters able to activate our class abilities more than once a game. In one game no one was able to get a class power to activate. Another problem with this lass ability system is that you have to sacrifice victory points in order to gain a use of your ability. Overall we did enjoy playing Zombie Massacre even with the problems I just mentioned. Why? Because it was a fun filler game. It's not trying to be a big, epic game. It’s a quick game you can play in a few minutes. This truly is a lunch break game. Will this jump to the top of our go-to filler game? Probably not due to the heavy amount of luck and lack of deeper strategy but it is still a fun game none the less. This game may appeal more to families than hard-core tabletop gamers but even they should enjoy Zombie Massacre as a fun diversion or even a quick filler game to play while waiting for the rest of the gaming gang to show up. Also, if you enjoyed Shark Island then I'm willing to bet that you'll enjoy Zombie Massacre as well.

Two-Gun Pixie Rating System 0 Pixies = I Want My Money Back! 1 Pixie = Not Planning To Play Again 2 Pixies = Might Play Again 3 Pixies = Will Play Again 4 Pixies = Common Game Day Request 5 Pixies = Can’t Get It Off The Table!