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.
At last we come to The Martian Manhunter. This one I probably redesigned the most. He’s just such a versatile character with so many crazy powers that it is hard to nail him down to just a few. In his sculpt like most of the DCeased Zombies he is pretty feral and letting his shapeshifting powers go wild. In the end I decided to rely on the way he was presented in the old Justice League cartoons for inspiration. So he is a very flexible character, but for all those options he is a little starved for resources. In playing him you should feel like you have the tools to handle most situations, but can’t always afford to bring them all to bear. This starts right from his Blue ability, which lets you phase through doors like other ethereal characters, although not infinitely. You can also use this ability to phase away from crowds, alternatively you can use it to strike from a range. But you can not ghost away and then do a ranged attack in the same turn; at least not with this ability. At Orange he gets to bring the full suite of his total anatomical control to bear, growing exactly the limbs and powers he needs for a situation as long as he has traits to burn. Finally at Red he has the classic telepathy mind scan which you can use to help control incoming enemy groups a little.
And with that the Corebox Zombie Heroes are ready to hit the street and eat some brains. Next up I’ll be doing the Arkham Asylum box Zombies. See you soon!
