Brains (2008-2009)

Original Blog
http://brainsgame.wordpress.com/

Concept
I wrote Brains in 2008 and finalized it in 2009. The game pits a handful of Humans against a horde of Zombies in a classic apocalyptic scenario. The rules are quick and simple to allow maximum replayability with minimum complexity.

I played the game with 28mm minis and inexpensive plastic zombies from “Big Bag of Zombies” (from the “Zombies!!!” chain of games), and used old Mordheim terrain for my table.

Players move around the table, search for items, and kill zombies. Combat was pretty simple and fast, using 2D6 to hit, and 1D6 to resolve. Melee combat was brutal and would either result in the human losing life, or the zombie being killed, regardless of who initially attacked. The game had a concept of “Heroic Moments” that could be used to achieve something far beyond the norm. The equipment system was well fleshed out, with some interesting weapons, healing items, and gear for utility.

Lessons Learned
This was one of my simpler/rules light games, which I enjoyed, and was a refreshing change from the massive RPGs I had ended up with most of the time. The game flowed well, and I played it many times with friends.

The biggest flaw was that at most 1 zombie (or rarely 2 with shooting + melee) would be killed by player, per turn. This led to a rather predictable gameplay cycle. I tried to remedy this shortcoming in my second zombie game Cornered. Otherwise the game plays well enough, with the biggest limitation being either the players win handily, or get overrun. There didn’t tend to be a lot of exciting, tense middle ground.