When DCeased was announced a lot of returning fans were a little disappointed to learn there would be no playable Zombie mode to match with Marvel Zombies. Now of course there are a number of reasons for this; they’ve been explained elsewhere if you’re interested. As for myself, I say there’s always reasons not to do something. I think a bunch of us want to do it anyway. So this is my effort, over the coming months, before the Kickstarter ships out I will have posted playable rules for every Zombie Hero. You can mix them with your Marvel Zombies, custom up some rules to run them in DCeased missions, or just laugh at how bad my ideas are. Lots of people have some cool ideas for how to make these characters. These are just mine.
My customs are designed to feel balanced next to existing designs. They are designed with simplicity in mind; simplicity is what makes Zombicide so fun. I also design my customs to match the sculpt of the model and the version and powers that are presented there. In designing custom playable Zombie Heroes I have developed the term “Militia” as a shorthand to mean Trooper, Guard or Specialist. All cards were made using Wuxyteo’s card creator, which is pretty great.
Okay and I’m back on my Zombicide business again! This time coming to you with one of the first designs I made for this project; Victor Zsasz. I actually did a couple versions of him before settling on this one. At first I didn’t want to make him too strong because his super power is basically “knife and no meds” but honestly that puts him a whole knife above a lot of Batman’s enemies. Plus I think in some ways the Zombie plague is sort of a great equalizer. That and if he’s not fun nobody will play him. So lets see what has become of the man who thought he was playing Zombicide in real life and keeping track of his danger level on his flesh with a knife!
To start his basic attack favors accuracy. Zsasz was always kind of a one one one killer, so 2 dice hitting on 3s seems a good fit. At Blue, Body Count is his signature ability. It gives you a not to be underestimated ability to reroll your Carving Knife attacks and uniquely allows you to set your Hunger wherever you want when you achieve a new Danger Level for the first time. This represents Zsasz tracking his kills and getting amped up as the body count rises. At Orange he starts looking out for more dangerous prey, getting free moves when a Super Hero spawns and extra Move actions while they are nearby. You can use this to prey on weak Super Heroes as well as to run away if something like a New God shows up in the neighborhood. Finally at Red, Zsasz does what a lot of mostly mortal guys do at high level and gets really good at filtering Zombie Traits. Undead Psychopath gives him a free Trait every turn (this does not count against the once per turn Gain a Trait limit) and allowing him to draw 2 and pick the best every time he gains a Trait. Zsasz always thought the world was full of zombies he needed to free with his blade. And now he’s right, but he’s on the other side of the problem. You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a zombie I guess.
