Two Lone Zombies
April 24th, 2015
Pittsburgh 68, Shuffling Horrors
“Two lone zombies by the apple tree,
A Postman came upon them and then there were three…”
Thus begins the grim, little nursery rhyme on the back of the Shuffling Horror: Pittsburgh 68 box. In game terms, the Two Lone Zombies are the weakest zombie card in the playing deck. The card’s face value is 2 and, to succeed their attack, they must roll a two or less on a pair of dice (which means they only ever succeed by rolling Snake Eyes). Not very likely.
A 1-in-36 chance for those of you who like to play the odds.
There’s many great scenes from zombie flicks where the lone zombie prevails – so this fits in perfect with the cinematic flair of the Shuffling Horror system. In George A. Romero’s classic “Dawn of the Living Dead” (1978) the character Roger is trying to hotwire a truck when a lone zombie shuffles up and bites down on his leg. More recently, in the Walking Dead TV series, it was a lone zombie who snuck up on a distracted Tyreese and grabbed hold.
Less zombies does not mean less danger!
An additional kicker in Pittsburgh 68 is that whenever any zombie attack rolls snake-eyes, the victim is instantly zombified, immediately becoming an active zombie card under the control of the Zombie Master (the person running the game). This applies to all zombie attacks, but is most shocking when it occurs at the hands of the least effective zombie in the deck. Some players get a good chuckle at that.
From a game standpoint, it gives the Zombie Master that glimmer of hope that, even if they have only one attack to play on their turn, they still have a chance to “go viral”. This zombification rule also allows some unexpected plot twists to enter the movie.
Even the weakest zombie can do great things…
