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The name's Davenport. I review games.So the other day I hear these shufflin' steps outside my office door. Then comes a shufflin' knock.
(Don't ask me how a knock can shuffle. This one did.)
I open the door, and there stands a mummy.
"Hi," he says. "I'm a mummy."
"Yeah, I can see that," I says. "The bandages were a dead giveaway. So… what're you doin' here?"
"The Eden guys sent me over. They've got a new book they want reviewed for All Flesh Must Be Eaten. It's the Atlas of the Walking Dead!"
"You're not a zombie," I says.
"Oh, I see," he says – which I think was a lie, 'cause I could barely see his peepers through all them bandages. "You think All Flesh Must Be Eaten's only good for zombies. Well, this is the book…" – he holds up the book – "that'll put that myth to rest. With this baby, you get all sorts of undead creatures from all over the world! Mummies ('natch), vampires, ghouls, pontianaks…"
"Great car," I says. He ignores me.
"…revenants, shuten-doji…"
"Gesundheit," I says. "But I still don't get it. What's with all these critters in a zombie game?"
He sighs, sendin' up a cloud of dust. (Which was a pain, 'cause my maid wasn't due in 'till…well, ever.) "Look, do you see the word 'zombie' anywhere in the name 'All Flesh Must Be Eaten'?"
"No," I says.
"Okay then," he says, all satisfied with himself.
"Do you eat flesh?" I says.
"Uh… no…" he admits, pullin' out a character sheet and givin' it the once-over. "I have 'Who Needs Food' under my 'Sustenance' stat."
"So, what're you doin' in All Flesh Must Be Eaten, then?"
"Look, buddy…"
"And what about dogs?"
"Huh? Oh… yeah, there're a couple of undead dogs in the book…"
"No, I mean, is there a dog supplement for the game comin' out? Dogs eat flesh. Seems to me they belong in the game more than you do."
"You're cruisin' for a cursin', pal…"
"Sorry, buddy. This's a kid-friendly review. No cursin'."
Content
Atlas of the Walking Dead presents a sizeable bestiary of the undead – human and animal – followed by a huge list of new Zombie Aspects.
Creatures
Each write-up includes opening fiction, a general description, game stats for the creature and any alternate forms it may have, descriptions of similar creatures from elsewhere in the world, and several story ideas. Some are just another variation on the zombie theme, while others have little in common with Romero's finest other than being undead.
- Aztec Mummy: A south-of-the-border variation on the pulpy favorite, this one noteworthy for its optional power to shapeshift into a tarantula and/or a vampire bat.
- Civitateo: Another Central American offering, this one a witchy broom-riding corpse of a noblewoman who died during childbirth, favoring children and pregnant mothers as victims. Alternate versions from around the world include Ireland's Banshee.
- Draugr:
Drowned Vikings who've come back from the grave bigger, heavier, stronger – and deader, of course – than before. How cool is that? Similar land-based versions fall under the same header. Interesting powers include raising fogs, sinking into the earth, and (rarely) shapechanging into such bizarre forms as flayed bulls, broken-backed horses, or demonic cats.
- Femme Fatales: One of the more global and generic categories of creatures, this covers all of those undead whose physical appearance attracts rather than repels. One of the two adventure seeds suggests the obvious manifestation – a gorgeous vampire – although the example creatures tend to be more exotic, like Scotland's Baobhan Sith and India's Rakshasi, the female form of the Rakshasa.
- Gaki: A delightfully weird offering from Japan – a flesh-, blood-, or soul-eating undead creature that can take the form of a grotesque, malnourished humanoid, a cloud of black smoke, or a heatless ball of fire.
- Ghoul: This is the ghoul according to its Middle Eastern and Indian roots – either a demon or a corpse possessed by a demon that feeds upon both the dead and (occasionally) the living. Interestingly, the shape-changing Rakshasa of India appears under this heading. I was somewhat disappointed that the Lovecraftian ghoul does not, but that type isn't really undead anyway.
- Gothick Vampire: The vampire of movies and literature rather than of folklore, these are the guys and gals with all the flashy powers and optional angst. Note that despite all of those powers, the vampires found in both WitchCraft and the Buffy RPG would, pound for pound, mop the floor with these guys.
- Gyonshi: Speaking of vampires, here we have the Chinese hopping variety. I'm pretty surprised these things weren't included in Enter the Zombie, but you don't deserve to own that supplement if you haven't at least thought about throwing hoppers at your kung fu badasses.
- Mummy: And if the Gyonshi are a must for Enter the Zombie games, that goes double for mummies when it comes to Pulp Zombies. Like the Gothick Vampire, however, the baseline Mummy as it appears here is a little underpowered – especially if you plan on pitting one solo against those over-the-top Legendary Heroes.
- Penanggalan: Any of you who ever owned the Fiend Folio know the drill: a Malaysian female vampire type whose head and guts separate from her body and go flying about looking for victims. (Didn't know they could use their hollow, thread-thin tongues to feed on the blood of a fetus in a pregnant woman's womb, though. Ick.)
- Pishtaco: (I can't help reading that as "fish taco.") This Andean undead creature rises at night to feed on victims' body fat. Yummy. These guys aren't any tougher physically than a living human and have very little in the way of special powers beyond putting their victims to sleep. That, combined with the fact that shambling hordes aren't their style, makes them questionable "survival horror" material.
- Pontianak: Another weird one. These are the stillborn offspring of the Malaysian version of the Civitateo who rise as undead were-owls and hunt other children to eat their guts.
- Revenant: Present in legends around the world, revenants are those who rise from the dead to complete unfinished business. Of all the creatures in the book, they're probably the closest to standard zombies, and hence the most applicable to "survival horror" scenarios. (So long as the PCs are the objects of their rage, that is, or at least in the way of it.) They don't really hold a candle to the Relentless Dead in WitchCraft, though.
- Shuten-Doji: Like the Pishtaco, this ugly-but-cultured Japanese vampire isn't generally that much tougher than a human, aside from its nasty claws and ability to tranquilize with its flute-playing. And since they're loners, these creatures are about as far from survival horror as you can get.
- Vampire: What do you do when your players become jaded to the "usual" sort of vampire? Why, you spring upon them a vampire from the original folklore. They aren't charming, they can walk during the day, and staking them through the heart is only useful if you're pinning them to the ground – in which case, you'd better take the opportunity to finish them off quickly. These would be good survival horror opponents were it not for the fact that they don't generally "spread the love" themselves. Instead, they're spawned by specific circumstances, such as having led evil lives or having had a cat jump over their graves.
- Voodoo Zombie: Just as the Vampire entry above represents the folkloric origins of the creature rather than their popular image, these are the "real" zombies – victims of evil voodoo priests who raise them from the dead as pitiable slaves. Could work for survival horror, so long as you aren't worried about the zombies being particularly tough.
- Vrykolokas: Something like a flesh-eating Greek version of the folkloric vampire, but a better choice than the former for survival horror due to its ability to create more of its kind as well as to arise from special circumstances. Among the more interesting variations on the latter: a werewolf in life may become vrykolokas in death. What a lovely surprise for monster hunters who think they've dealt with the furry threat to the town! (No, not that kind of "furry". You know damn well what I meant…)
Appendix
Undead Animals
One thing that’s always bugged me about the zombie rules in AFMBE is the fact that Weak Spot Dead Points bear no relation to the size of the zombie. When I learned that this supplement would contain undead animals, I'd hoped it would address that issue. No such luck. Nevertheless, there are some interesting critters here.
- Baital: A bat-like creature from India than hangs out (literally) in burial grounds. I find it of particular interest in that it's not a generally malevolent creature – a nice curve ball to throw at players who've decided that if it ain't human, kill it.
- Balbal: A gliding ghoul-thing that replaces corpses it swipes with duplicates carved from… banana stalks…?
- Eng Banka: A Malaysian creature that's just your basic(?) undead soul-sucking domestic dog.
- Hminza Tase: Burmese ghosts or demons that possess living animals rather than humans.
- Hound, Vampiric: Either the wolf/dog form of a vampire, or a wolf/dog that's become a vampire.
- Jaracaca: A Brazilian snake that feeds on the milk of a nursing mother while putting its tail in the baby's mouth to keep it quiet. Ooookay…Not that this isn't a legitimate creature of folklore, but I have no idea how to build an adventure around it. (Nor do I see how it qualifies as being "undead".)
- Kaibyou: A Japanese two-tailed vampiric kitty-cat that can take the form of its victims.
- Pelesit: It just keeps getting weirder… This is a Malaysian spirit that possesses the body of a cricket and invades the body of a victim to cause suffering, death, and ranting about cats. (I couldn't make this stuff up. Well, I could, but they'd haul me away.)
- Segben: A hornless, smelly, goatlike thing from the Philippines that hastens the death of the sick and can kill by biting someone's shadow.
- Strix: I'm sure we all remember this annoying critter from D&D, although the folkloric version from Europe was apparently more like a bloodthirsty owl than a giant furry mosquito whatzis.
- Yashi: A big Japanese vampire bat created when a woman dies with a heavy burden of anger. Also works for the traditional B-movie giant vampire bat. They sometimes hunt in packs, so there's some survival horror material there.
New RulesWell, make that new rule really – for holding your breath. Okay, so it's not exactly a reason to rush out and buy the book, but hey, it's bound to come up sometime.
New Zombie AspectsWith the exception of Enter the Zombie's contributions, I wouldn't really have considered AFMBE to have been a very power-oriented game up to this point as far as the zombies are concerned. After all, they're zombies. There are only so many variations on being hungry, hard to kill, and stinky.
But by casting aside any adherence to the "zombie survival horror" theme in favor of a far more general "living dead" concept, the game opens the door to an array of more exotic, flamboyant, and folkloric powers. (Of course, they still managed to come up with some more hungry/hard to kill/stinky powers as well.)
Weight: Dead Weight Weight: Life-Like Weight: Withered Corpse Spreading the Love: Circumstance Spreading the Love: Ritual Spreading the Love: Surgery Barrenness Blindness Cannot Cross Water Compulsion
Don't Answer That! Emotional Instability Enslaved Evil Eye Fear
Feed by Touch Fits Fly Fog Hop
Horrific Appearance Hover Invisibility Living Form Madness
Natural Armor Need to Feed: Constantly Need to Feed: Hourly Night Stalker Night Vision
No Pain Obsession Obsessive-Compulsive Possession Prohibition
Rage Repulsion Restricted Activity Shapechanging Sharp Tongue
Slaves Sleep Stealthy Straight and Narrow Sympathetic Feeding
Tough Decisions Tranquilize Unkillable Weak Constitution Weak Spot: Charm
Weak Spot: Salt Weak Spot: Silver Weak Spot: Sunlight Withering As eclectic as this selection may be, I think those hoping for a self-contained list allowing for the creation of any sort of monster, undead or otherwise, will be disappointed. In concert with other books in the line, though, it certainly helps in that regard. I mention this not because the book was designed to serve that purpose, but rather because I often hear of how many people use Zombie Aspects for that purpose.
New Qualities and DrawbacksSecond Sight
The Gift allows characters to sense the presence of unseen supernatural forces. Those with Second Sight can actually see those otherwise unseen forces. Given the more folkloric abilities of the creatures in this book – including invisibility – featuring such a power here makes perfect sense.
Style
The cover image is both creepy and thematic, the interior pictures of the monsters look great, the game fiction introducing each creature is effective, and the writing overall is up to Eden's high standards. The layout also matches those standards, although things do get a little cluttered in the undead animals section. As for typos, I only caught one "(SEE P. [?])" reference.
One addition I'd have liked to have seen would have been a table summarizing all of the zombie powers published thus far for easy reference. It's a tribute to just how fluff-free this book is that I can't think of anything I'd have removed to make room for such a table, however.
And as always, Eden provides a solid index.
Conclusion
Once again, I have to look at an AFMBE product from the perspective of how it might be used. While that may seem self-evident, as I've pointed out above, there aren't that many creatures in this book that lend themselves to "survival horror" so much as they do to more traditional horror roleplaying. If you're looking for new forms of undead hordes with which to overrun the world Dawn of the Dead-style, then, I suspect you'll get a lot more use out of the new powers than you will out of the new monsters.
I can see using this book if you're running more of a monster-busting campaign – especially a global one – so long as the monsters are all variations on the living dead. To that end, it would be perfect. (Yes, you can use the powers listed to create non-undead, but if you want to do that, why are you playing AFMBE in the first place?)
Then, of course, there's the option of importing these creatures into other Unisystem games. For that, again, this book would be almost ideal. I say "almost" because these creatures were created using a system that pretty much assumes an individual monster will be a member of a horde; as such, they are individually weaker by default than the average WitchCraft or Buffy RPG beastie and will require some buffing up (pardon the pun).
Nevertheless, the objective of this book was to use AFMBE mechanics to create undead monsters from around the world, and it does this in fine fashion. So, if the concept of a global bestiary of the living dead using Unisystem mechanics appeals to you, this supplement will not let you down.
SUBSTANCE:
- Setting
- Quality = 5.0
- Quantity = 5.0
- Rules
- Quality = 5.0
- Quantity = 5.0
STYLE:
- Artwork = 5.0
- Layout/Readability = 4.0
- Organization = 4.0
- Writing = 5.0
- Proofreading Penalty = <0.5>
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