In the first installment of The Zombie Papers, we analyzed some of the elements in horror; zombie horror, specifically, but applicable to a more general “survival horror;” that zombies are best at. Themes like viral infection, mob violence, and even comparing/contrasting a zombie’s anatomy to that of humans are all useful tools with which you can scare the hell out of your players. This time we’ll be looking at a few of the ways D&D addresses the issue of fear; means within the 3.5 rules to bring your own zombies to “life;” and finally, at our discussion’s conclusion, specimens inspired by movies, books, games and the like will be presented in D&D stats.

The word means different things to different people. In today’s world, “zombie” is often taken as a metaphor for the nearly mindless white-collar cubicle slave¹. In Vodou religion, the word can refer to the hapless, dominated victim of a sorcerer. Many think the whole “the dead rise to consume the flesh of the living” thing was a fresh innovation of the last century, but the Sumerian princess Ishtar first mentioned zombies after being slighted by Gilgamesh². It seems almost as long as we’ve been writing things down, our dearly departed have been waking up and moaning for a quick bite to eat.

Whatever you call us, be it GMs, DMs or some other M, the best of us draw inspiration from the everyday world around us. It comes as no surprise, then, that when zombies are quickly supplanting Dracula and other iconic characters as the quintessential horror movie monster, the transition should begin to affect our games. Zombies are everywhere: there are comic books, movies, novels, songs, video games and even modeling websites³ incorporating everyone’s favorite dead cannibals. In the 21st century, it seems that Western civilization has zombies on the brain (pun definitely intended).

Here we will discuss numerous topics, starting with an analysis of why zombies are scary and why they work so well in literature and cinema. In a second installment, the “crunchy bits” of Zombie Horror will be explored, including template adaptations of zombies from cinema and literature.