All Flesh Must Be Eaten: Difference between revisions

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'''''All Flesh Must Be Eaten''''' is one of the most popular and well known gamelines produced by ''[[Eden Studios'']] for its Unisystem roleplaying game, even compared to its [[Licensed Game|RPGs inspired by]] ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'', ''[[Angel]]'' and ''[[Evil Dead|Army of Darkness]]''.
 
All Flesh Must Be Eaten, typically abbreviated as "AFMBE", is a [[Survival Horror]] [[Tableroleplaying Top Role Playing Game]]game based around the concept of a [[Zombie Apocalypse]]. Extremely modular in both character design, creature design and setting design, this has contributed to its surprising levels of popularity: not only did the corebook eventually receive a "Revised" edition with rules for converting from Unisystem to [[D20 Modern]], it spawned two books containing nothing but premade character archetypes, three books of collected fiction, a world of pre-made settings, and an array of other sourcebooks as well. These include mixing zombies with [[Pulp]], [[Wuxia|Kung-Fu]] and [[Gun Fu]] action, Westerns, [[Science Fiction]], pirates, conventional fantasy and ''wrestling''.
 
While All Flesh Must Be Eaten prides itself on its flexibility for budding [[Game Master|Game Masters]]s (called "Zombie Masters" in the game's lingo) to create their own world, the corebook naturally comes with an extensive list of deadworlds (settings) for a game to be set in. Each of the subsequent sourcebooks also include several deadworlds as well, to better showcase their rules.
 
The Revised edition of the AFMBE corebook includes rules for converting the game from Unisystem to [[D20 Modern]]. The "Fistful o' Zombies" sourcebook, covering western themed zombie games, has rules for converting to [[Deadlands]].
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* ''Until The Ending Of The World'': The Rapture has come, and those who were not good enough to go to Heaven, but not evil enough to go to Hell, have been given a chance to prove themselves worthy by fighting against the hordes of the walking dead now storming across the world, evil spirits unleashed as part of the End of Days.
* ''Dawn Of The Zombie Lords'': The world has been conquered by the undead armies of a number of incredibly powerful necromancers, who now rule over seperate territories.
* ''Rebirth Into Death'': The mystical and highly complicated system that determines where souls are reincarnated into after their death has broken down, and now humans are being reincarnated in their own corpses -- ascorpses—as fully intelligent, but still flesh-craving, zombies. The catch is, players will ''roleplay zombies'' in this one.
 
 
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== Enter The Zombie ==
* ''Hard Boiled Corpses'': A high-ranking member of China's Communist Party, Colonel Tsai Hsing, has decided to take inspiration from the urban legend of the CIA having created crack cocaine and introduced to the poor black communities of America. His team, "Operation: White Thunder", has created a new ultra-potent version of heroin by, among other things, cutting it with toxic waste from China's nuclear power plants, which they are flooding the steets of Hong Kong with in the hopes that it will kill off all drug users and dealers, thusly solving the organized crime problem. But those who don't die swiftly from using White Thunder proceed to die and come back as intelligent zombies, still hankering for their dopamine fix -- iffix—if they can't get White Thunder, they go after human brains instead. Now Hong Kong is shaping up into a war between the police (who want to stop all the murders), the Triads (who want dead guys to stop killing them and taking their drugs), the Black Ops (who want to contain this problem and find a way to get out of this mess intact) and the Zombies (who just want to get their fix). Loosely inspired by traditional [[Gun Fu]] Hong Kong [[Heroic Bloodshed]] movies, such as those of [[John Woo]].
* ''Flesh Eaters in Little China'': In the Little China district of San Francisco, the evil sorcerer Hung Shao has been quiet for centuries, content to surround himself with zombie slaves and make a fortune off of zombie-equipped sweatshops. But recently, he got greedy, and flooded the streets with his undead minions in hopes of openly conquering the city. But then he got distracted when he discovered one of the plants he needs for his immortality elixir has gone extinct. His attention diverted from the war to instead trying to find a replacement medicine, the assorted martial artists and sorcerers of Little China are now striking back against the necromancer. Derived from ''[[Big Trouble in Little China]]''.
* ''Once Upon A Corpse In China'': In ancient China, rivalry between martial arts schools has taken a very deadly turn. Livid at the skill of the Flowering Lotus School, and incensed that it openly accepted and trained women in the martial arts, the five most locally powerful schools of the martial arts (the Striking Snake, the Golden Tiger, the Striking Crane, the Flying Dragon, the Fighting Monkey) banded together to murder its teachers and destroy the school. Now the five Li Sisters have returned as vengeful zombies, and are working to raise an army of martial artist zombie women, and with them slay all the men in China. Already, the Striking Snake school has fallen... Inspired by generic "chop-sockey" high-flying kung-fu-action films.
* ''Undead Kombat'': Centuries ago, a group of Persian mystics discovered that the souls of those who had slain at least 20 people were trapped in limbo, and could be resummoned as undead warriors. However, every 25 years, these zombies would need to destroy and consume the essence of another zombie, lest they return to oblivion. The mystics established a tournament, held once every 24 years, in which their stables of undead warriors would duel to feed themselves and winnow out the weak -- nowweak—now, in the modern era, not only has this tournament become the obsession of the mystics, a new trial run is being held. For the first time, powerful living warriors are being allowed to compete. Inspired by ''[[Mortal Kombat]]''.
 
 
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* ''Zombies, Inc.'': The [[Doc Savage]] like "Pinnacle of Humanity", a legendary adventurer and crusader for justice named Zaxor, has discovered a formula that returns the dead to life. The discovery drove him insane, and now he seeks to create a huge gang of his unusually intelligent zombies to form his own global crime empire.
* ''They Want Our Women!'': A Deadworld with its tongue firmly planted in its cheek, the earth is invaded by [[My Brain Is Big|huge-headed]] [[Little Green Men]] from Mars with evil technology, freaky psychic powers, an obsession with JELL-O and the burning desire to [[Mars Needs Women|kidnap all of humanity's women to turn them into brainless zombie-slaves]].
* ''[[War of the Worlds]], Part II'': Aliens have recently visited earth, abducting and reanimating human corpses as part of their whimsical experiments. Satisfied, they dump the corpses into earth's orbit and leave -- unawareleave—unaware that their experiments have made the zombies tough enough that they can ''survive re-entry into the atmosphere''...
* ''The Chinese Menace'': A Chinese "[[Yellow Peril]]" criminal mastermind named Kang Ming has finally carried out his most audacious plan yet, secretly distributing rice tainted with black magic to Chinatowns across America. Those Chinese people who eat it are transformed into psychotic blood-drinking zombies that only attack those who lack Chinese blood; only by failing to drink blood for four hours does the spell wear off and they return to normal.
* ''The Maltese Zombie'': For over a century, the wealthy Gustavus family has secretly owed their success to their possession of an ebony statuette depicting a walking corpse, a black magical relic from Malta that can animate the dead as slaves to whoever holds it. But now the statuette has been stolen... and they want it back.
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== All Tomorrow's Zombies ==
* ''The Cybered Dead'': In a world of [[Mad Max]] post-apocalyptic desolation in between huge cyberpunk mega-cities, the megacorporations control all. In this twisted world, when the dead first started to walk, the megacorps tried to control them, cybernetically enslaving them to artificial "hive brains", though that failed and now hordes of cybernetically modified dead roam much of the world. But some unscrupulous megacorps still try and take advantage of things...
* ''The Cycle of Death'': The looming energy crises were solved when India made startling advances in the fields of bio-engineering and nanotechnology. However, these advances have brought with them dangers. Most notably, the as-yet-undiscovered existence of a mighty psychic entity, born of a growing telepathic network amongst humanity and the mental thrashings of which spawn vile entites of pure psionic rage encased in dead human flesh -- theflesh—the "demons" known as Asuras -- andAsuras—and a deadly type of nanobots known as Pil3/s, or "Legion", that exist only to infect human bodies, dissassemble them for the raw materials to make more nanobots, and spread, still wearing a ghastly pastiche of the body they were made from.
* ''Cyber Marines and Death Scenes'': All contact has been lost with MR-372, an alien planet that humans have colonised and which is the source of a remarkable bio-energy source that is of great importance to the human race. [[Space Marine|Space Marines]]s sent to investigate have learned that the planet has been invaded by the Acridians, a biotech using race of dimension-traveling insectoids, carnivorous, brutal, war-like and bloodthirsty beings that ravage and conquer dimensions. They have already slaughtered the human inhabitants of MR-372, draining their spinal fluid for an aphrodesiac and recreational drug and converting the corpses into zombie slaves. Loosely inspired by [[Doom]] and [[Alien]].
* ''Virtual Armageddon'': In a world ravaged by a vicious virus that targets the central nervous system, massive numbers of people are abandoning their bodies to escape to a huge virtual reality world called "Neutopia". However, this sanctuary is proving a deadly trap; the victims of the Norepinephrine Targeted Misfire Syndrome are rising as deadly zombies in real life, and the combination of their depredations and the strain caused by the mass emigration of humanity is causing the system to begin breaking down. Which results in many of the virtual humans being corrupted into "Lo Res Zombies", who exist only to corrupt other virtiual humans into more of their own kind. Zombies in reality, zombies in the system, and it may not be long before the system breaks down utterly.
* ''Death of the Alliance'': A [[Space Opera]] setting where the Zothian Empire has fallen under the leadership of a powerful and depraved necromancer, the Emperor Krauss and his chief henchman, a fallen Mystic Knight now called the Dark Lord Garth. Their armies of zombies, equipped with advanced technology, have crushed the Thraxian Empire and their Mystic Knights, long a force for peace and equality in the universe. Now the resistance is rising up to try and defeat the evil Zothians. Obviously a pastiche of ''[[Star Wars]]''.
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== Worlds of the Dead ==
* ''Aces High: [[World War I]]'': When Baron von Richthoven, alias The Red Baron, is shot down in January 1917, his restless soul refuses to stay dead and he rises as an undead pilot, determined to continue fighting for his beloved Fatherland. His existence, and the strange curse that lets him instinctively resurrect any member of his "Flying Circus" as a fellow zombie pilot -- onlypilot—only when they have been destroyed a second time, truly killing them, is a new pilot inducted into the Flying Circus -- haveCircus—have furthermore goaded the Germans to put into usage the diaries of [[Frankenstein's Monster|Baron Frankenstein]], retrieved from a castle in Switzerland. Only the revenant of Richard Raymond-Barker can slay the undead Red Baron, but the other German undead are not so bound by destiny.
* ''Blighted Isle'': The great potato blight that caused widespread famine in the Ireland of 1846 has taken an even worse turn in this deadworld. The blight has infected the earth of Ireland, meaning that any human buried in it is animated by the twisted fungus as a ravenous organ-eating zombie. And because of the actions of some insane Irish escapees in trying to infect an English graveyard with the same polluted soil, the whole island has been barricaded in an effort to keep the dead trapped on the island -- alongisland—along with all of the people who are still alive.
* ''Dead Men and Derring Do'': In 1640, France, the much-hated Cardinal Richelieu discovered a profane alchemical formula that granted him immortality -- atimmortality—at the cost of needing to feed upon human hearts. His own guards, horrified by the undead monster he had become, betrayed him, but they couldn't destroy him -- insteadhim—instead, binding him in an iron face-mask, they sealed him away in the deepest cells of the Bastille, hoping he would never be free. But, twenty years later, well-meaning swordsmen broke into the Bastille and freed "[[The Man in the Iron Mask (1998 film)|The Man in the Iron Mask]]", and the Cardinal feasted upon their flesh and that of the prisoners, releasing a horde of zombified prisoners upon the streets of Paris. Realizing he could control these monsters, Richelieu now seeks domination over every last man, woman and child on the planet -- livingplanet—living or dead.
* ''Tales of the Walking Dead: [[Arabian Nights]]'': In 796 AD, when the ambitious Vizir to the Sultan Ibn Madhi of Amman offers his own daughter's hand to the bride-seeking royal, the young girl runs out into the desert and beseeches the spirits of the sand to save her from marriage to such a brutal man. Discovering a jinni bound in a ring, she barters its freedom in exchange for an unstoppable army that will destroy not only her hated would-be groom, but the entire Islamic Empire. Amused by this idea, the jinni agrees, calling to lesser jinn and having them possess the nearly ten thousand victims of the Sultan, raising them up as an army of the walking dead that destroy Amman, then lope off into the dunes in pursuit of their goal.
* ''The 47 Gaki'': On December 15, 1748, the 46th anniversary of the day that forty-six of [[The 47 Ronin]] were forced to commit [[Seppuku]], they arise as powerful undead, determined to topple the former Shogunate and conquer Japan with an army of their own walking dead minions.
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* ''Dial Z for Hero'': A deadworld parodying the [[The Golden Age of Comic Books|Golden]] and [[The Silver Age of Comic Books|Silver Ages of comic books]], where people who have died have mysteriously been returning as super-powered undead heroes and villains.
* ''Our Zombies At War'': With the aid of necromantic lore devised by the Thule Society, [[Adolf Hitler]] created a massive army of zombies and used them to conquer much of Europe, only to bog down in a stalemate with the Soviet Union when they created their own armies of psychotronic zombies. The year is 1940. Germany and Russia's zombie armies have been butchering each other ceaselessly, with no end in sight. Both powers are courting the United States of America, which remained out of the war, while America is secretly exploring its own zombification methods, the super-soldier program known as Project West.
* ''The Dread Menace'': The Communist threats to America in the 1950s led to America destroying itself, thanks to Project SPEx -- aSPEx—a Special Projects and Experimentation group intended to fight against Communism of all kinds. Their wonder drug, the suggestive influencing toxin known as Neuro-Thene-12, turned out to damage the brains of those exposed to it so badly that they became mindless, insatiable, violent killing machines... but only after it had already been deployed over wide areas. And as the drug bonds to the glandular system, any fluid transfer between the "zombies" and a living person spreads the toxin further...
* ''Peace, Love and Zombies'': The [[CIA]]'s "Project: MK-ULTRA" went down no less than three routes in reviving the dead. Group A used radiation to enhance a rare virus first discovered by the Werhmact near the end of [[World War II]], injecting this into living victims to strong, bloodthirsty, brutal, uncontrollable zombies that could spread their condition by biting. Group B used research into Voodoo to create a chemical compound that would bring back a recently deceased body as a docile, inoffensive, simple-minded walking corpse. Group C used a chemical process perfected in the 1920s by [[Re-Animator|a little-known Massachusetts physician who disappeared under mysterious circumstances]], creating fully intelligent zombies -- whozombies—who needed to feed on human brains. Group C organized a break out, and the three types of zombie have since scattered across America.
* ''Sweet Zombie Treat'': In the 1990s, the heir to a once-wealthy icecream company used black magic to contact the spirit of the company's founder, his grandmother, and received a new recipe for an icecream that was both low-calorie and ultra-delicious. The only problem is that people who eat it and die come back as zombies, still addicted to that ice-cream... and perfectly willing to rip it out of living peoples' guts to get it.
* ''Welcome To Whimseyville'': The dark secret of the popular themepark Whimseyville is that all of its "animatronic" characters are actually zombies, created through chemically preserved corpses animated by computer chips in their brains. Perfectly harmless... Except for the fact that Hurricane George has recently blown past, scrambling the programming in the zombies and leaving them increasingly hungry for fresh meat and belligerent.
* ''A Not-So-Perfect Storm'': On a small island southwest of Jamaica, a medical research team has accidentally reanimated the dead buried on their island, just as a mighty hurricane comes along...
* ''Parallelium'': The time has come when the boundaries between the worlds of Earth and Parallelium, a fantasy world where many monsters -- includingmonsters—including armies of the walking dead -- roamdead—roam, have grown thin, allowing residents of one world to cross over to the other.
* ''Immortality'': A world where the zombie apocalypse has destroyed the old society, but few yet realize that the zombies walk amongst them in a more literal fashion. The walking dead are the souls of those who died, for the afterlife is mysteriously barred to all, and by feeding on the stuff of the soul, zombies can disguise themselves as living beings.
* ''Panacaea'': A world where the titular Panacaea, a combination of nanotechnology and adaptive genetics, has eradicated all illness, deformity and disease. The problem is that those who die are revived as killer zombies, but Recycling Inc. has found a way to make even these creatures useful.
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* ''The Dead of Space'': Aboard the slower-than-light "sleeper" colonist ship, the Papa Legba, systems malfunctions and space radiation have created a mutated fungus in the cryopods, creating walking dead that seek only to devour human flesh.
 
{{tropelist}}
 
=== This work includes examples of: ===
* [[Apocalyptic Log]]: A game can certainly have plenty of these pop up. The opening fiction for the corebook in both editions is one of these of a scientist documentating his own succumbing to the zombie infection.
* [[Attack Its Weak Point]]: If the zombie doesn't have the "All" weakspot, you ''need'' to do this if you want to kill it.
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* [[Kill It with Fire]]: Fire is pretty good at burning things up, especially if they have the Fire weakspot. On the other hand, zombies can do it right back to you with their "Spew Flame" special aspect.
* [[The Lifestream]]: This is basically the secret behind life and death in the "Rebirth into Death" deadworld. It's also going wrong, which is why there's a [[Zombie Apocalypse]] in the first place.
* [[Magic aA Is Magic A]]: While all forms of supernatural powers use the same power source (Essence) and the same rules, there is a considerable difference between the Inspired, Magic Users, Chi Powered Martial Artists, and Psychics.
* [[Mystical Plague]]: PHADE is what happens when a mad necromancer raises the corpse of a girl who had AIDS and died of drug overdosing, then slept with it.
* [[Never Say "Die"]]: As per the films of its origin, heroes never really die in "Singing Cowboys"... ''unless'' a zombie kills you. Zombies didn't read the script, and they don't know that white hats only ever get knocked out and taken hostage...
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* [[Our Monsters Are Weird]]: Very weird indeed. Atlas' entries on animals that are either undead or have undead-like traits are particularly strange, including the likes of the Jaracaca (a Brazillian snake that sneaks into houses so it can suck the milk from the breasts of lactating women) or the Eng Banka (a decaying dog that steals human souls).
* [[Our Vampires Are Different]]: In addition to the fact that any monster built with the zombie creation rules and feeding on blood or souls can be portrayed as a vampire, Atlas of the Walking Dead includes a large number of vampires. Most obviously are the Gothick Vampire (vampires as popularized in modern culture, ala [[Dracula]] or [[Carmarilla]] or [[Interview With a Vampire]]) and the Vampire (vampires as the bestial, rapacious, gluttonous corpse-predators from European mythology), but there are also the likes of the Gyonshi, Penanggalan, Shuten-Doji and Vyrkolokas.
* [[Our Zombies Are Different]]: Very much so.
* [[Picky People Eater]]: The Menu aspect of zombie creation allows a Zombie Master to specify if the zombie simply eats flesh indiscriminately or goes for specific meals. Specific options in the corebook are blood, brains, organs (or "sweet breads) and souls.
* [[Psychic Powers]]: Both ''Pulp Zombies'' and ''All Tomorrow's Zombies'' feature these, though slightly different in each version -- mainly in the list of powers available. Pulp Zombies features Clairvoyance, Mind Control, Psychokinesis, Pyrokinesis, Read Mind, and Telepathy. All Tomorrow's Zombies has Biokinesis (which divides into Healing and Harming powers), ESP (which divides into Clairvoyance and Remote Viewing), Mesmerism, Pyrokinesis, Telekinesis, Telemagery (a power also seen in ''[[Terra Primate]]'') and Telepathy (which divides into Reading and Sending).
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[[Category:Tabletop Games]]
[[Category:Zombie Stories]]
[[Category:AllTabletop Flesh Must Be EatenGames]]
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[[Category:Tabletop Games of the 1990s]]