We’ve been playing a Zombie survival-horror game of Troika. Now I’m all fired up about the Living Dead!
I want to memorialize our first session, but I also want to talk a little bit about an idea the experience inspired in me for making the Living Dead a little more interesting.
Play Report!
Our buddy Ryan, of Gravy Boat Games, has put together a Troika hack for a three-session romp through some Zombie chaos.
Gabriel played Kenney Litwick, a soldier and sociopath.
Josh played Dr. M. D., a rather dubious doctor.
Chelsea played Sal, a disgruntled line cook.
Jackie played Ms. Buckley, a local high-school gym coach.
And yours truly? I played Nicky Nadeau, a construction worker and bibliophile, who talked like a New York stereotype.
We hit some classic tropes. We looted a high school for books, supplies, and medicine before mercy-killing a bitten survivor. This led us into conflict with their caretaker, who was also pretty unceremoniously murdered by Private Litwick. We saw a great mass of birds approaching, and (imagining an incoming horse) we decided to flee.
In the back half of the session, we looted a police station for radio parts. Although we found it in the control of sketchy raiders, diplomacy ultimately carried the day, and we got out with the stuff we needed. We even got grenades.
We took a last-minute detour to a nearby gas station, where we were accosted by a zombie with an extra-long mutant tongue. Kenney was almost pulled out of a second story window, but ultimately managed to get free and survive, mostly due to some quick knife work from Sal. Old Nicky was not so lucky; I had him climb onto the roof to ambush the mutant around the same time Sal got around to tossing one of those grenades. I bailed off the roof, luckily avoiding the blast, but the impact with concrete killed me. A shame! I had big plans for my builder.
Ah well. Game continues next week, and I’m already stoked on my new character: an Outdoors Enthusiast.
Zombie Design
One thing I thought worked really well in Ryan’s game was the zombie design. I think he dropped the Living Dead Skill by 1 (and maybe dropped Stamina a bit too), but counterbalanced it by having them deal pretty heavy damage. There were also two ways to get infected:
- Ending a zombie combat with less than half Stamina made you scratched. This was curable, but scary. It also made everyone feel like they had half their normal HP, which helped add to the fragile feeling without actually bumping mortality too much.
- If a Zombie rolled max damage on their melee attack, you were bitten. This was invariably fatal.
I really liked both rules. They paired well with the low Skill, high Damage design. The Zombies felt slow, vulnerable, and outsmartable, but also extremely dangerous. An excellent combo for the genre.
My Pitch for Troika Zombies
Long story, short: I was feeling inspired.
One of the things I really like about zombie fiction is the persistence. I love crawling zombies, with their legs blown off. I love the one armed flailers. I love the bit in Cabin in the Woods where the detatched hand accosts them in the elevator.
So, how can we capture the magic of the fractional zombie in our home games? Preferably without making things too complicated.
Step 1: Living Dead get half their normal stamina.
Step 2: When a Living Dead dies, roll this table to find out what happened to them. Make a new Living Dead, also with 6 Stamina, and the modifications shown on the table. When they die, they’re dead dead.
Half-Lives of the Living Dead
1 – Legless – This Zombie moves at half-speed, loses 1 Skill, drops to 0 Initiative (minimum 1 for the whole group), and gains +2 Stealth.
2 – Headless – Decapitation doesn’t stop the Living Dead! Without this vulnerable part, they gain +1 armour.
3 – Armless – Yet not harmless. -1 Skill.
4 – Jawless – Reroll natural 6’s on your damage rolls.
5 – Just a Hand – Instead of dealing damage, when this Living Dead hits a character, they lose 1 Skill. They may get it back by prying off the hand; roll vs Strength.
6 – Zombie Rage – Shredding their body has only made them more dangerous. They gain +1 Skill, but do -1 damage.
And that’s my pitch! Admittedly, it as yet untested; I hope to give it a whirl the next time I get a Hand of God group fleeing through Jgigji Town. If you play it before I do, let me know what tweaks you’d make and post ’em below. In the mean time, read some more blog! Here’s d66 NPCs from a few weeks ago, and here’s our 2025 round-up, with tons of Troika content in there. We also write adventures! Check out Drawn from the Margins.