The Zombies of 668 Axe Avenue!

Terror! Zombies! Horror! Axe Murderers!

The Zombies of 668 Axe Avenue! is a board game I am currently creating; the rules in their entirety are here presented for comment, after some short commentary, and anyone is welcome to try it out and give me some responses.


The Story:

The Campbells, a mild-mannered shotgun wielding family, have just moved into their brand new house on 668 Axe Avenue! One evening, zombies attack the hapless family. Not to be caught by surprise, the family calls out to the local brooding, dark, and dangerous forest to request the aid of a group of psychotic axe murderers in killing the zombies off. But the Campbells didn't take into account the bloodlust of the murderous mischevious madmen, who go berserk and start taking down the Campbells blindly along with the zombies! Oh my!

The Idea:

The idea for the game was inspired by the games of Cheapass Games, champion of the common gamer. Their games consist of logical, creative, and amazingly fun pieces which cost $2-10, consisting of cheaply made materials with which to play. The most influential game from that lot is The Great Brain Robbery. Also, it may seem evident, ideas were taken from old and bad horror films, hence the title.

The Gameplay of the Sides:

The sides should all be even in chances of winning (it hasn't been balanced at all, so ...). They all should be fun to play, and allow for some creativity and strategy. Most importantly, none of them should be too tedious to play, or too basic with not enough strategy compared to the others.

  • The Campbells are intended to be slow and defensive, though still able to hold their own. They should be slow, but smart, and should have reason to fear the zombies and madmen.
  • The Madmen must be the scary of all the sides to face. They must move swiftly, kill huge amounts, and be generally frightening. The madmen should be a nightmare if met in the house, but rather weak outside (the house is close quartered, the outside is spacious).
  • The Zombies must give a sense of always impending doom. They must seem like they're about to overwhelm everything. They must not be too cumbersome or tedious to play.

The following are the tentative rules for the game, which I will update as they change, along with comments at the bottom of this page.

The Zombies of 668 Axe Avenue!

Rules of Play

General:

Players:

The game is designed for 3 players. One player commandeers each side. The zombies move first, then the humans, and finally the madmen, then turns continue in this sequence from the beginning.

Two players can play a variation, with one player controlling both humans and madmen. This player's goal is to have one human escape and kill all of the zombies to attain victory. In this variant, the zombie player should start out with additional packs (not sure about the specifics).

Movement:

On any given turn, all instances of that player's unit can move or attack, unless otherwise stated.

Game Board:

The game board consists of an outer room, winding around the house, which is the outside. The house itself consists of 9 7x7 rooms, along with the "outside" (really one large room - which is used when calculating which zombies are attacking whom), around the house.

Setup

In the four corners of the house are placed a corpse (see below) (in the outer corners, one space away from both walls). 4 other zombies are in the room. Outside the house are placed 6 zombies, plus 3 zombies in front of each of the house's exits. In the center of the house start 4 humans and 3 madmen. The non-corner/center rooms each have a doorway to the outside 3 spaces wide (the corner rooms don't have exits except into other rooms.

The outside is diamond shaped (in comparison to the house), with only a single square at the house's corners, expanding to 10 squares thick in front of the doors to the house.


Zombies:

Goal

Kill the Campbells off, then escape with a surviving pack (have a pack move off the game board).

Packs

Packs cannot move, and produce one zombie per turn, created at one of the four adjacent squares around the pack. Packs are placed in the 4 corner rooms (see the description of the game board. Once all Campbells have been killed, Packs can either move one space or put out a zombie on any given turn. Packs may not produce a zombie when a madman is adjacent. Packs count as one zombie when counting for killing purposes.

Movement

Zombies can move up to 2 spaces in any one direction.

Attacking

Zombies automatic are "attacking" any non-zombies in the room along with them. There is a "kill threshold" of 6 zombies; after the threshold is met in any one room, all non-zombie characters are killed. After any Campbell is killed by zombies, its body becomes a new pack.


Madmen:

Goal

Kill all zombie packs and Campbells.

Movement

Madmen are the extremely fast killers of the game. Their strength relies in combinations and speed. Madmen can move in any one direction as far as they would like, so long as they don't pass through a wall or another character.

Attacking

Madmen attack by moving into the square of the victim, and removing the unit. Madmen on any one turn can string together sets of kills. That is, so long as there is another unit to be killed vertically or horizontally, the madmen may take that additional move, on and on, until the madman wishes to stop or there is nothing more to be killed. The catch is that kill must not be of adjacent units. For, example, take the following zombie-madman configuration:


M1

X1

X2X3

M1 (the madman) could kill X2 (X1 -> X2) since no two units are adjacent. However, killing X3 requires M1 to first kill X2, then X3, two units which are adjacent.

Attacking the Campbells

Madmen can only attack Campbells when there is two or less zombie packs. Humans are killed in the same way zombies are killed, except a madmen can not attack again having killed a Campbell until the next turn.

Attacking Packs

Madmen can only kill packs once all zombies in the room have been killed. A madman adjacent to a pack prevents it from produce a zombie.

Special

Madmen can use their turn to chop away at the wall, removing the wall to allow access to better chains or zombies. They may not put walls back up after they have removed them. They also can take down walls which humans put up.


The Campbells:

Goals

To have one surviving Campbell escape (move off of the game board).

Movement

At the beginning of the Campbell player's turn, she rolls 3 6-sided dice. This number is how many squares the Campbells can move amongst the four of them. The Campbells can move or shoot at anytime in their turn, this includes moving, shooting, then moving again. The Campbells can move in any direction at any point in their move (that is, they don't have to move in a straight line).

Attacking

The Campbells attack by firing a shotgun in any of the four directions. Shotguns blasts travel in a line down the column or row (not passing through walls or units) and kill the first thing they strike. All adjacent units to this unit are killed, as are those adjacent to that unit, and so on (every unit killed kills all units in the four spaces around them, and so on). The Campbells can only kill packs if there are no zombies adjacent to them (and they don't "conduct" the kills of shotgun blasts). If a Campbell shoots something adjacent to itself, that Campbell is killed.

Attacking the Outide

Campbells adjacent to the outer walls can kill any cluster of units on that side of the house (they are shooting through the windows).

Special

Campbells can put up walls linearly with other walls (that is, walls can only be made between rooms). They may put up walls in doorways. They may NOT take down walls they have put up. If a human walls themselves in with no madmen to get them out, they will die. Any adjacent room which has 6 or more zombies in it is considered walled for the pusposes of deciding if the humans in a room is killed. This does NOT count the outside "room".