Anyone that knows me knows that in addiction to being a role playing game addict, I am a board game fiend. I have quite a large selection of board games in a myriad of topics but because of the personal interests of me and my wife, two large subcategories of games have emerged in this collection – pirate games and zombie games. Since there was a lot of interest by my group to play these zombie games, we hosted a zombie and dip night a few weeks ago.
The night started with junk food and dip at my dining room table as we decided which game we where going to play for the evening. We decided on one of my newest games and the only one where the survivors are supposed to work together to reach a common goal – Last Night on Earth by Flying Frog Productions. The Game started well with me playing the zombies and my wife and three friends playing survivors. We started with the basic game, and the players goal was to kill a certain number of zombies before sun set. The players quickly became well armed from searching the near by houses and begin blasting away. We quickly determined that while the cops revolver gave him a slight edge at the start of the game, it was nothing compared to the power of the shotgun. And in the end, while wounded, a few survivors cleverly set up an ambush in the corn field where I had trouble seeing them, but the farmers daughter had an advantage and could pick the zombies off.
Bolstered by this success, we chose to upgrade to the advanced game and drew the mission protect the mansion. My friend Rob chose to play the zombies this time and I got to play the towns nurse (once more I am the healer). Our goal was to keep the zombies out of the mansion in the center of town. Right from the start it went bad. Rob rolled well and was able to spawn a large number of zombies which went right for the house. The house was guarded by only me as my friends frantically searched for weapons. I was wounded trying to fight off a pack of three zombies and had to run away to find aid. Failing to get aid, I desperately tried to get the three out of the house and was killed. At the same time, the town sheriff, who had been defending the back porch, was also killed and rose as a zombie hero. Drawing new players, I got the priest and my other friend Daria got the local jock. We quickly ran to help the remaining two players who had managed to kill the zombie hero but were beginning to be overwhelmed by the mob now in the house. As we ran in we made a last ditch effort to stop the last zombies from entering the house and ending the game, but to no avail as two of us were wounded and two were killed. There Where No Survivors
To raise the spirits and end the night on a high note we watched Shawn of the Dead.
The party was so much fun we plan to have a revenge of the zombie night soon and this time I am prepared, as I bought a zombie survival kit at a local sci-fi convention.
~Chris Baldi The Healer~
~March 18, 2008~