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Zombies are inherently cool. George Romero called them the blue-collar movie monsters- vampires make elaborate plans to entrap their victims, werewolves are deeply conflicted over their dual identities, zombies just want a little nosh. And so they've burst onto the scene with ALL FLESH MUST BE EATEN, a cool little game allowing you to role-play in a world like that of your favorite living dead horror movies. The players themselves don't actually play zombies (except in one suggested setting, more on that later), but they sure have to face off a lot of 'em.

Characters come in three categories- Norms (slightly above average folk, for 'realistic' campaigns), Survivors (a bit more on the level of Bruce Campbell in ARMY OF DARKNESS), and Inspired (slightly less powerful than Survivors, but with mystical abilities to compensate). Character generation is reasonably swift, with easy selection of your standard attributes, skills, equipment, plus qualities and drawbacks a la GURPS. There are also templates to help.

The best part is left to the GM (or ZM- Zombie Master- in this case). Chapter Five of this book is devoted entirely to creating and customizing your own zombies- easily the game's most fun feature. Soon after getting this game I was whipping up stats for Kandarian demons, Romero's NOTLD gut-munchers, the unkillable talking brain-eaters from RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD, and insanely powerful "Space Zombies".

But wait, that's not all! Call now and you also get Chapter Six, Worlds in Hell, which provides you with not one, not two, not five, but ELEVEN separate campaign concepts complete with zombie stats, background info and adventure seeds. They range from "Rise of the Walking Dead", the traditional NOTLD-inspired scenario, to alien invasions, WWII, medieval times, post-apocalyptic zombies (you need Survivors for this one, I guarantee), and even one based on the Biblical account of the last days. And the one I mentioned earlier? "Rebirth Into Death" has souls getting reincarnated as zombies thanks to a glitch in the cycle of life. Your PCs are zombies, and they have to survive in a world that prefers to shoot them in the head.

The basic "Unisystem" is actually a collation of various methods of task resolution, but the main dice-rolling method has a fixed "success" number to roll on a D10 adding and subtracting modifiers, attributes, etc. Pretty basic, and task resolution and combat run smoothly.

There are only a few problems. The organization strikes me as slightly poor- it was hard to find the main task resolution system, as the chapter lists the alternative methods first. In general you'll want to do some close reviewing of the rules before your first session, because searching for things can be a bit tricky. I'm still not sure whether a single shot from a sniper rifle can really sever a zombie's leg (unless it's a hollow-point bullet). There isn't much on generating individual adventure scenarios- basically this is for experienced GMs. Finally, the balance between horror and humor, so eloquently achieved in DAWN OF THE DEAD for one, is a bit less successful here- the swings between moods are more drastic. But perhaps that's inevitable. In any case, to paraphrase Frasier Crane, what's better than a perfect game? A close-to-perfect game with a few flaws to pick at all night.

Overall, this is a solid and long overdue entry in the RPG field. Eden already has a hit on its hands, having sold out the first printing of this book, and it's easy to see why. Finally you can stop trying to work your own personal EVIL DEAD 2 scenario into a CALL OF CTHULHU campaign where it doesn't quite fit, and just set up a good old-fashioned zombie adventure. It's the simple pleasures that are always the most satisfying.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 4 (Meaty)

All Flesh Must Be Eaten
Author: George Vasilakos (primarily) Category: game Company/Publisher: Eden Studios Line: All Flesh Must Be Eaten Cost: 30.00 Page count: 232 Capsule Review by Evan Waters on 05/10/00. Genre tags: Horror	Zombies are inherently cool. George Romero called them the blue-collar movie monsters- vampires make elaborate plans to entrap their victims, werewolves are deeply conflicted over their dual identities, zombies just want a little nosh. And so they've burst onto the scene with ALL FLESH MUST BE EATEN, a cool little game allowing you to role-play in a world like that of your favorite living dead horror movies. The players themselves don't actually play zombies (except in one suggested setting, more on that later), but they sure have to face off a lot of 'em. Characters come in three categories- Norms (slightly above average folk, for 'realistic' campaigns), Survivors (a bit more on the level of Bruce Campbell in ARMY OF DARKNESS), and Inspired (slightly less powerful than Survivors, but with mystical abilities to compensate). Character generation is reasonably swift, with easy selection of your standard attributes, skills, equipment, plus qualities and drawbacks a la GURPS. There are also templates to help. The best part is left to the GM (or ZM- Zombie Master- in this case). Chapter Five of this book is devoted entirely to creating and customizing your own zombies- easily the game's most fun feature. Soon after getting this game I was whipping up stats for Kandarian demons, Romero's NOTLD gut-munchers, the unkillable talking brain-eaters from RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD, and insanely powerful "Space Zombies". But wait, that's not all! Call now and you also get Chapter Six, Worlds in Hell, which provides you with not one, not two, not five, but ELEVEN separate campaign concepts complete with zombie stats, background info and adventure seeds. They range from "Rise of the Walking Dead", the traditional NOTLD-inspired scenario, to alien invasions, WWII, medieval times, post-apocalyptic zombies (you need Survivors for this one, I guarantee), and even one based on the Biblical account of the last days. And the one I mentioned earlier? "Rebirth Into Death" has souls getting reincarnated as zombies thanks to a glitch in the cycle of life. Your PCs are zombies, and they have to survive in a world that prefers to shoot them in the head. The basic "Unisystem" is actually a collation of various methods of task resolution, but the main dice-rolling method has a fixed "success" number to roll on a D10 adding and subtracting modifiers, attributes, etc. Pretty basic, and task resolution and combat run smoothly. There are only a few problems. The organization strikes me as slightly poor- it was hard to find the main task resolution system, as the chapter lists the alternative methods first. In general you'll want to do some close reviewing of the rules before your first session, because searching for things can be a bit tricky. I'm still not sure whether a single shot from a sniper rifle can really sever a zombie's leg (unless it's a hollow-point bullet). There isn't much on generating individual adventure scenarios- basically this is for experienced GMs. Finally, the balance between horror and humor, so eloquently achieved in DAWN OF THE DEAD for one, is a bit less successful here- the swings between moods are more drastic. But perhaps that's inevitable. In any case, to paraphrase Frasier Crane, what's better than a perfect game? A close-to-perfect game with a few flaws to pick at all night. Overall, this is a solid and long overdue entry in the RPG field. Eden already has a hit on its hands, having sold out the first printing of this book, and it's easy to see why. Finally you can stop trying to work your own personal EVIL DEAD 2 scenario into a CALL OF CTHULHU campaign where it doesn't quite fit, and just set up a good old-fashioned zombie adventure. It's the simple pleasures that are always the most satisfying. Style: 4 (Classy and well done) Substance: 4 (Meaty)

All Flesh Must Be Eaten