Chapter 24 — Ashfall Dead (Zombie Demo)

Part VI — Starter Worlds

A walkthrough of the zombie survival starter.

Setting

Society has snapped in half. A safehouse, a handful of survivors, and the dead walking the streets. You scavenge, negotiate, hide, and decide who gets saved when there isn’t enough of anything.

Contents

Element	Description
Safehouse Lobby	Starting zone — barricade door, supply shelf, radio
Abandoned Gas Station	Loot zone — fuel pump, counter, storage room
Overrun Street	Hostile zone — roaming dead and broken glass hazards
Hospital East Wing	Boss zone — infection risk, collapsed ceiling, medicine cabinet
Hospital Rooftop	Lookout zone — signal fire, binoculars, helicopter pad
Dr. Chen	NPC — medic, wits 7, hospital supply-run quest
Rook	NPC — scavenger, fitness 6
Sergeant Marsh	NPC — military leader, nerve 6, fitness 6
Shambler	Enemy — slow, tough (hp 12, nerve 10)
Runner	Enemy — fast, fragile (fitness 7, hp 8)
Antibiotics	Item — reduces infection by 25
Survival	Progression tree — scrapper → cool-headed / last-one-standing

Ruleset: zombie-minimal

Stat	Role
Fitness	Strength, endurance, melee effectiveness
Wits	Awareness, scavenging ability, problem solving
Nerve	Courage under pressure, fear resistance

Resource	Range	Notes
HP	0–30	Physical health
Stamina	0–20	Exertion pool, regens 1/tick
Infection	0–100	Zombie virus, starts at 0, climbs on exposure

Unique verbs: barricade (fortify locations), scavenge (forage for supplies).

How the Systems Interact

1. Dialogue — Dr. Chen briefs you on the hospital situation. Accepting the medicine run sets the hospital-mission global flag. She explains the infection mechanic in-world.

2. Environment — Two hazard types: roaming dead drain stamina (representing exhaustion from evasion), infection-risk zones raise the infection counter for human entities only.

3. Cognition — The zombie hunger presentation rule makes undead perceive all living entities as prey. Zombies have nerve 10 (fearless) but wits 1 (mindless).

4. Combat — Two enemy archetypes: shamblers are slow but tough, runners are fast but fragile. Different tactical challenges from the same combat system.

5. Factions — The survivors faction groups all friendly NPCs (medic, scavenger, leader) with 0.6 cohesion, reflecting the fragile trust of desperate allies.

Install

npm install @ai-rpg-engine/starter-zombie

import { createGame } from '@ai-rpg-engine/starter-zombie';
const engine = createGame(42);