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It's About Those Movies
The designer has been very explicit in objective and system. Rather than being "just another zombie game", the mechanics and conflicts that occur in a variety of films, novels, computer games etc "Zombies, cannibals, infecting aliens, mind-controlling vampires, body-stealers, soul-eating parasites and more", but which have a common thread; (a) there is an overwhelming mass of mindless enemies (b) they are infectious and (c) you are in a small group of hardy survivors against the horde.
The GM in the game is the CiC (Cannibal in Charge) and PCs are referred to as Survivors. The game progresses through Scenes where each player narrates their action until an conflict occurs that isn't resolved between the participants. At this stage there is a Showdown. The players draw cards from a standard deck and engage in a simple trump mechanic to determine success or escalation. The winner of the Showdown narrates the outcome and in combat Showdowns (usually due the presence of Threats, such as zombies) there are additional effects based on weapons. Sometimes Threats can be damaging to the mind, such as encounters with the walking dead, demons from another plane, aliens etc. In these circumstances the player can push their character's abilities, but at risk to the character's sanity which may see the Mad Half take over which requires negotiation!. Between Scenes characters can use Survival Tokens to heal, repair their inevitably damaged psyche, and acquire new equipment.
Mechanical conflicts in the game are resolved with a standard deck of cards. Suits are ranked Spades high, Hearts, Clubs and Diamonds (although as a hardened 500 player I found no problem using that game's ranking), Aces, face-cards, then numbers. Jokers are ultimate trumps and immediately win a Showdown unless another Joker is played right away. Cards are either in the deck, the discard pile, play pile or in the player's hand. At the beginning of every Showdown, players are dealt a number of cards equal to the appropriate Characteristic which are then played through. At the end of the Showdown, the cards from the play pile are counted to determine the results, and then placed in the discard pile.
You are a Survivor
Naturally enough, characters should be appropriate for the setting and scenario planned by the CiC. The next step is to pick an archetype which, in comic survival, is the equivalent of a character class ("Samurai with Katana", "A Knife-Wielding Ninja"). After that they build a basic character concept ("I am Yamado Taro, a master chef, and little do they know, but I’ve seen this happen before, and we’re all doomed"). Ever player has at least two goals, one defined by the scenario ("Survive the Zombie Infested Village") and one defined by the player ("Find saba fish for Emperor's sushi").
The four Characteristics, a combination of skill and ability, for a Survivor are Kill, Savvy, Grit and Cool. Kill is the active characteristic used for winning combat Showdowns, Savvy is the active characteristic for winning Showdowns based on brains and perspective, Grit is the passive characteristic that protects a character from Hurtin' or Infection and determines the number of Survival Tokens, and Cool is the passive characteristic used to set the number of points in each of the five stages of your character's Crazy-Go-Psycho meter. In character creation the player ranks these values 1, 2, 3 or 4 for their Survivor. Personal gear and weapons are determined by the character's Savvy slot (Savvy*2) or, with an optional rule, an Ally (counting as two items of equipment). Of course, an Ally could have equipment of their own - but presumably not other allies. Finally players draw a random card from the deck which determines their character's "Mojo" a special ability from a table (e.g., "Balls of Steel: Substitute Cool for Kill or Savvy").
After character creation every player must choose another player who plays their Mad Half. Whilst the rules state that no single player can be the Mad Half for more than one other player and each player must choose a different Mad Half for their character, this obviously does not work for an odd number of characters. Once chosen, the player selects a Psychotrigger for their character which hands over control to the Mad Half. This trigger can be an obsession, an addiction, or any form of minor or major psychological disorder.
Finally, a number of secret votes are made by the players. Those who win the vote receive an immediate 8 Survival Tokens. The questions are: Which character will die first? Which character will betray the others first? Which character will be turned by the Contagion first? Which character will reach Stage Five Madness first? After character generation is complete the CiC begins with "the Cold Open"; a variation of "Where were you when the Zombies attacked?"
The Rules
The cardbased rulesystem consists of two main tests; a Quickie test and a Showdown test. The former are used when there is a chance of an event occurring according to the player's narration ("Are there any fish in this pond?"). If the CiC calls for such a test and the player draws a number of cards equal to an appropriate characteristic ("Test your Savvy"). If any of the cards are "faces or aces" (or jokers as wild), the test succeeds and the number of faces or aces can denote additional successes ("Wow, three face cards! You've found a school of fish"). Either the CiC or the player may narrate the successes or failures of the Survivor. Basically each point of a Characteristic gives a 33% chance of a success.
The second mechanic, the Showdown, begins with an explicit challenge by a Survivor either against another Survivor or more typically against the CiC, especially if they've just decided a Zombie has ripped your survivor's head off. Players take turns, one after the other, playing increasingly higher cards and adding bits of narration in a process of constant escalation until there is one winner. Each character receives a number of cards equal to the appropriate characteristic which, not surprisingly, is often Kill. One piece of gear can be activated for another card, and for each rank of Savvy, one additional item of gear can also be included. One can choose to sacrifice an item of gear for a four-card bonus, something which my playtesting found too easy to abuse as gear can be recovered between or during scenes, especially with narrative success leading to Facts. If more cards are required one can negotiate with their Mad Half for additional cards.
Once a winner is determined, each card in the pile can be translated into a point of Hurtin' to the winners opponents, varied by weapons and other effects. For each Ace or Face in the pile, the winner can exchange them for Facts or more Survival Tokens. The example in the game describes the diffusion of a bomb resulting in a Fact that allows access to the C4 and blasting materials for later use; again I refer to the problem of the four-card bonus for voluntarily destroying an item of equipment in a Scene. Players cannot narrate the death of another Survivor as a Fact as long as the Survivor has some Characteristic scores left; they can be harmed, even seriously crippled, but not killed. Note that this (as shown in the actual play example) is a winner-takes-all mechanic - the winner applies the Hurtin' to the losers and receives none in response. As should be clear, there is a dichotomy in Showdown strategy; if you want to win big (and you think you have the card to do so), let the narration continue to the bitter end, as there will be more Facts on the table. If you want to limit your suffering, play a high card early and thus limit the number of Facts on the table.
When Survivors win they typically apply their Hurtin' against the Threat score of a pack of zombies; each point of Hurtin' eliminates part of the Threat. When applied against Survivors, each point of Hurtin' reduces a Characteristic rank. A Survivor may spend a Survival Token to test a Grit Quickie to nullify a single point of Hurtin' and, of course, negotiations with the Mad Half is encouraged. Extra Survival Tokens can be spent to restore lost Characteristic ranks between scenes. Characters are expected to die, just like the movies, but new Survivors can be quickly generated (Infected Survivors are interesting), or an ally can be promoted to a main role.
Game Resources
Equipment in CC is defined as either Gear or Weapons. Gear, if convincingly narrated, can be activated in a Scene for a single card bonus, or it can be Sacrificed for a four-card bonus. Some items of Gear have a Juice value, basically anything that can run out. In any Quickie or Showdown where the highest card played is lower than the Juice value, the item is unavailable until more Juice is acquired. Naturally enough, Situational Gear can be temporarily acquired if appropriate to a Scene; in an office you'd expect to find chairs, desks, staplers etc. The CiC can take away Gear between Scenes but this will cost them Adversity Tokens. Different items of Gear take up a number of slots, based on Savvy, to determine how much a Survivor can carry about. With Weapons, these may have a 'draw bonus', extra cards in the start of a Showdown, a Hurtin' bonus, dealing extra damage if the Survivor wins the Showdown and a Juice cost, plus some have special modifiers.
Allies are treated a special item of Gear. They can be activated without cost, but only have a single Characteristic and a value, e.g., a SWAT team ally has Kill-4. As Gear, Allies can also be sacrificed in a blaze of glory, with the Survivor receiving twice their Characteristic rank in bonus cards. Of course, Allies can also become Infected.
Survival Tokens are also a resource, as Survivors watch their Characteristics go down, and they become progressively under control of their Mad Half. Survival Tokens can be used for Grit Quickies to resist Hurtin' and Infection and Savvy Quickies to stop Gear from running out of Juice. Between Scenes, and with variable cost, they can also be used to acquire new Gear, recharge Juice, recover lost Characteristics, remove Crazy-Go-Psycho points, or remove a step of Madness. Survival Tokens are usually individual, but there is also a Survival Pool which can be contributed towards at extra cost. If one Survivor kills another, they receive the personal stash of Survival Tokens. If the CiC kills a Survivor, they get to add that value to their own Adversity pool.
The Mad Half as well can be considered a resource. After all, they provide bonus cards even if they will send you crazy. The Madness system has four components (i) negotiation, (ii) the Mad Half, (iii) the Psychotrigger and (iv) the Crazy-Go-Psycho meter. When bonus cards are negotiated, the Mad Half with demand a narrative cost, and a cost on the CGP meter. The Psychotrigger acts as a representation of the Survivor's insanity that the Mad Half should insist is incorporated into the narrative cost. With the CGP meter ultimately the Survivor may find that their Mad Half is the player narrating the character's actions. The CGP meter can also be adjusted by scary events in the game, independent of the Mad Half.
Running the Game
The mainly descriptive and advice-based chapter on being the Cannibal-in-Charge gives quite good recommendations on introducing new players, style, scenario design and plot development through Scenes. This is a huge section of the text, dealing with a variety of alternative devices along the game's theme (hive aliens, mind-controlling religions, madness spirits, pasta monsters etc), non-combat Threats, conflicts without Threat
Mechanically it also includes methods of increasing the Threat and Adversity values at each Scene with the recommended version is an increase that is significant and somewhat random, and end-of-Scene bonuses for the Survivors. As can be quickly determined as the game progresses from Scene to Scene the abilities and quantity of tokens available to the Survivors increases as does the Threats and Adversity pool; the latter is used to purchase the former i.e., from the Adversity pool, the CiC selects 'zombies' of various Threat values. The quantity of cards drawn by a Threat depends on a descriptive value; Fodder receive two, Hindrances receive three, Miniboss four, and the end-of-game "Boss Monster" gets five (plus the "Bigger than Bad" gets six or more). Threats can also have Gear to further enhance their abilities.
Finally, there is the delight of Infection (and about time, too!). The contagion is any sort of infection, a zombie-inducing disease, an alien larvae, the gradual slide into madness etc. The mechanical elements are Vector, Effects, Threshold, and Antidote all of which are pretty much self-descriptive; how you get it, what it does, when it does it it, and how you get rid of it. Allies, of course, are Infected at a far greater rate than Survivors, who tend to go in a slow and tragic decline. A range of sample Infections are provided to give the CiC an array of ideas. Finally, there is a good dozen scenario seeds followed by a sample scenario, "The Zombie Apocalypse is Now", which is a series of semi-linear Scenes that concentrate more on action than explanation - which can be left to the individual CiC.
Summary
Cannibal Contagion is an enjoyable game that stays true to the design goals. It's fun, easy to pick up, and has some very nice features for player interaction and character conflict. The scope, of course, is quite narrow both in terms of what characters can and can't do and the environment they interact with. Others elements are inevitably dealt with a lot of hand-wavin' and impromptu rules; the game is about "comedic survival horror" and not really much else. It is firmly located in the beer-and-pretzels one-off genre of games and should be seen in that perspective, which it achieves admirably.
Style: 1 .5 (layout) .8 (art) .8 (coolness) .7 (readability) .5 (product) = 4.3
Substance: 1 .3 (content) .4 (text) .8 (fun) .6 (workmanship) .4 (system) = 3.5
