cr ked dice

Crooked diCe Game desiGn studio presents

a zombie skirmish spin-oFF For 7tV

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There are only five of us now; three of us didn’t

make it when we ran into them on the other side

of the stream.

I swear I can still hear their screaming, even

though they will have joined the dead and

begun to walk. We saw the lights of a cabin when

we reached a low rise a while back, and decided to

make for it. Now the darkness is closing in, and

these endless trees could be hiding them.

We are all shocked and exhausted but we must

keep going. The trees are thinning out and I can

see lights ahead ...we’ve almost made it ... A farm!

Surrounded by bushes but with lights on, there

must be other survivors there. No, not bushes –

the house is surrounded by dozens of zombies,

trying to break in. I can hear their moans even

this far away, they sound so close.

They are among the trees! Shambling over dead

wood, we are surrounded...

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by Graeme Dawson, Karl Perrotton and Carl Stoelzel

Published by Crooked Dice Game Design Studio

Background material: Karl Perrotton, Helena Nash and Carl StoelzelDesign and Layout: Karl PerrottonMaps: Graeme DawsonEditing: Helena NashCard stock terrain: Carl StoelzelPhotography: Karl Perrotton

For more information contact:Crooked Dice Game Design Studiowww.crooked-dice.co.ukmail@crooked-dice.co.uk

Crooked Dice Game Design Studio237 Tweed CrescentDundee, DD2 4DP

Dedicated to our own little monsters: Jack the Knife, Ot-Bot and Katie Stegosaurus

Crooked diCe Game desiGn studio presents

a zombie skirmish spin-oFF For 7tV

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Some things surprise you. Like a rotting hand bursting from the earth. Or waking up to find the Zombie Apocalypse has started without you. Tch.

So we were wonderfully surprised to uncover a horrific masterwork in Carl Stoelzel’s Creature Feature. Carl had applied the action:engine to the horror genre covering universal monsters and crime-solving teenagers. But best of all he had some great zombie material that we thought perfectly captured the gross-out gore-fests we loved too.

So with his kind permission, we fed this through the Crooked meat-grinder and added our own heady mix of human brains and survival instincts and worked up some rules and scenarios for a Hallowe’en release.

This release provides a cut-down version of the action:engine rules for new players plus new mechanics for zombies to get your All Hallows Eve off with a swing.

A massive thank you to Carl for his initial inspiration and allowing us to develop his material. May you always find a cabin in the woods with a working lock.

Karl & Graeme, October 2011

ContentsZombieville USA 5

What is 7ombieTV? 7

Quick Play Rules 8

Zombie and Survivor rules 15

Cast Creation 18

The Survivors 19

The Zombies 24

Casting Couch 26

Special Effects 28

Episode Guide 32

Episodes 37

Programme Guide 44

Cabin Fever 51

Appendices 58

Miniatures and Scenery 68

PRoLoGUeSa

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At the height of his success, 7TV supremo Sidney Barron was looking to expand. His phenomenally successful stable of series like Department X, The Man From 2000 and The Daredevils were the talk of playgrounds and public houses the length and breadth of Britain, but for a visionary impresario like Barron, the big prize had always lain over the Atlantic – the untapped American market.

Whilst his core programmes had met with some limited critical success across the pond, a truly transatlantic smash hit had continued to elude 7TV throughout the 1960s and 1970s. Admittedly, classic Department X episodes such as the risqué A Dash of Sulphur had garnered a certain notoriety among late-night viewers from Rhode Island to Oregon, but these remained guilty pleasures enjoyed by the few, rather than the mass-market breakthrough Barron was looking for.

That tantalising foot in the door finally came about almost by accident. A Midwestern film distributor, looking for a cheap means of boosting his declining drive-in revenue, bought a job lot of 7TV reels with the intention of putting them on as cheap B movies before the main feature. They

contained a round dozen episodes from Barron’s 60s anthology Tea-Time Thriller, including such gems as Mayfair 3939 (US: Don’t Pick Up!), The Worm Keeper (US: They Crawl!) and Farmer John’s New Wife (US: Squeal Bride, Squeal!), and proved a runaway word-of-mouth success with hormonal teenagers and horror-hungry film buffs alike.

News of the success of the revival across American drive-ins and fleapit movie houses eventually made its way back to Barron, who instantly put his writers to work on a whole new series of chillers to cement their fledgling transatlantic toehold, and his lawyers to work renegotiating the rights to Tea-Time Thriller. Heading up the new production company would be Sid’s son Michael, then a twenty-something media brat eager to prove himself as a producer in his own right. Recognising the same restless ambition of his younger self, Barron Senior gave Michael carte blanche to do whatever he needed to crack America once and for all. Who knows if he suspected just how far his prodigal son would go?

Given free reign, the younger Barron applied himself to the task with all the zeal of a missionary journeying into heathen lands. His youth proved to be an advantage, as he soaked up American culture and trends like a sponge, but it was his instinctive eye for what would sell to a Vietnam-weary, post-Summer of Love generation which made the newly-minted Barron Pictures a near-instant money-making machine. Fresh thrillers and outright horrors pictures like The Psychotics, If You Go Into The Woods and Deathroute caught the eye and imagination of an audience with an increasingly dark taste in movies.

While the inevitable criticism of conservative media-watchers and god-fearing parents raged outside the gates of Barron Pictures, Michael applied himself ever more keenly to the job of catering to his lucrative market, and if blood and gore was what they’d pay for, then he would ensure they got their money’s worth.

zombieville, usa by HELENA RODINGS, Splatterhouse Magazine, April 1994

IF YOU GO DOWN TO THE WOODS

BARRON PICTURES PRESENT

BARRON PICTURES PRESENTS A 7TV PRODUCTION A HENRY YOUNGER PICTURE JUNE COLLINS RALPH GATES

“IF YOU GO DOWN TO THE WOODS” MUSIC BY BERNARD JAMES SCREENPLAY BY JORGE ROMEO

DIRECTED BY HENRY YOUNGER PRODUCED BY MICHAEL BARRON EXECUTIVE PRODUCER SYDNEY BARRON FILMED IN TECHNICOLORDISTRIBUTED BY BARNA ARTISTS

STEREO WHERE AVAILABLE

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By the mid-70s, a definite sub-genre had begun to emerge from the Barron oeuvre. Starting with the seminal Invasion of the Dead, the zombie flicks struck a chord with the public, and Barron was quick to respond with a steady torrent of shambling undead offerings. Characterised by black humour, thinly veiled political allegory and of course scenes of censor-baiting terror, the zombie series would prove to be Barron’s greatest success story, and its ultimate undoing.

Movie-goers of the time were pressed into their seats by such offerings as the desperate strangers fleeing The Walking Plague, the post-apocalyptic Zombieville, USA, and the tense psychological drama of The Last House On Earth. The casting of relative unknowns, the bucking of certain heretofore sacrosanct plot elements (The hero is – gasp – black! Nobody survives!) and the eye-popping make-up and effects proved to be a winning formula for the studio, who continued to strain their audience’s nerves – and the patience of censors around the world.

Eventually matters came to a head with the now infamous Zombie Drill Eaters in the early 1980s. The advent of the video cassette market, and with it the so-called video-nasty in the United Kingdom, had put the low-budget horror genre on a collision course with authorities both in the U.S. and Britain, and with unfortunate timing, Zombie Drill

Eaters proved to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. Newspapers on both sides of the Atlantic screamed to Ban This Filth and Save Our Children, and no amount of cinephiles contending that Zombie Drill Eaters was a sharply observed morality play on the Cold War clothed in Kensington Gore could contend with apocryphal tales of a schoolchild who had microwaved his little brother’s head because ‘that’s how you kill zombies’.

And so the story of Barron Pictures came to an end, perhaps fittingly, in a savage orgy of blood-letting, albeit a metaphorical one at the hands of the popular press. By today’s standards, we might view the zombie series as mild, even camp, but they were for their time on the absolute edge of western cinema, responsible for some of the most memorable scenes of the 70s and 80s, like the unnamed cop of The Walking Plague handcuffed to a moaning undead perp and the sole survivor of The Last House On Earth staggering out into the blessed morning sun, only for the shadow of a clawed hand to fall across her face. The outrage may have faded, but the nightmares endure.

BARRON PICTURES PRESENT

BARRON PICTURES PRESENTS A 7TV PRODUCTION A HENRY YOUNGER PICTURE BAMBI DAYE

“ZOMBIE DRILL EATERS” JULIE EGDE IRENE HINDLE MICHEAL ELWICK SCREENPLAY BY JORGE ROMEO MUSIC BY BERNARD JAMES

DIRECTED BY HENRY YOUNGER PRODUCED BY MICHAEL BARRON EXECUTIVE PRODUCER SYDNEY BARRON

FILMED IN TECHNICOLOR

DISTRIBUTED BY BARNA ARTISTS

STEREO WHERE AVAILABLE

BARRON PICTURES PRESENT

BARRON PICTURES PRESENTS A 7TV PRODUCTION A HENRY YOUNGER PICTURE AMY LEIGH CURTIS KIRK RUSSELL “ZOMBIEVILLE U.S.A” GAYLE ROSS HELEN SANDWICH SCREENPLAY BY JORGE ROMEO MUSIC BY BERNARD JAMES

DIRECTED BY HENRY YOUNGER PRODUCED BY MICHAEL BARRON EXECUTIVE PRODUCER SYDNEY BARRONFILMED IN TECHNICOLOR DISTRIBUTED BY BARNA ARTISTS STEREO WHERE AVAILABLE

FROM THE MAKERS OF ‘THE PSYCHOTICS’ AND ‘INVASION OF THE DEAD’

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This release brings the world of zombie horror to 7TV. Players control either a disparate group of survivors or a horde of shambling undead. As a survivor, you must use all your skills and pray your luck holds, for if you die, you will become one of your zombie opponent’s number.

7ombieTV provides a number of pre-generated characters suitable for play, as well as rules for the zombies and other horror-specific rules you’ll need.

Also included are four episodes and cardboard terrain which will test your survival skills to the limit. These episodes are also suitable for playing solo if you want to pit your wits against the unthinking hordes alone.

And finally we have included new Event cards and some new Scavenge cards to provide a much needed edge against the undead horde.

This release is based on the Creature Feature horror rules originally written by Carl Stoelzel. If you liked this, check them out here:

http://www.crooked-dice.co.uk/zombie.html

What Is dIffeRent In 7ombIetVThese rules use the core action:engine mechanics in the 7TV core rulebook. However to best reflect the genre and maximise your enjoyment, there are some variations and new rules to give your games that authentic undead feel!

7ombIetV GLossaRyAs a set of rules based firmly on the TV and film genre, 7ombieTV has renamed several game terms to better reflect the source material, for example:

l The value of your squad is expressed as Ratings.l The type of squad you choose is referred to

as a Show.l The models within your Show are the Cast.l Your Cast is made up of Stars, Co-Stars and

Extras.l Your models’ extra abilities are defined

as Special Effects.l And finally, the scenarios you play are called

Episodes.

Survivors and ZombiesBefitting the genre, the standard 7TV terms Heroes and Villains don’t tend to be used. Instead we’ll be discussing Survivors (and sometimes the Living) and Zombies (or Undead). Simply think of these as Heroes and Villains and you’ll be alright. Possibly.

“mommy and daddy dIed. then they Came baCK.””” Little Jonny, The Walking Plague

What Is 7ombIetVSa

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QUICK PLay RULesAll the basic mechanics of 7ombieTV are explained in this chapter. The fundamentals of model profiles, actions, combat and environmental effects are collected below.

They are also suitable for teaching the basics to new players. If available a reading of the 7TV main rulebook pages 12 to 37 is also handy beforehand.

the PRofILeMost models in the game are different – you would expect a desperate survivor to handle differently to a mindless zombie and the rules reflect this. Each model has a profile – a set of statistics which let us see how fast, strong or intelligent they are – as well as special effects, star qualities (where applicable), information and weapons. Each stat can go from 0 (not applicable) up to 10 in most cases, although higher values are possible in extreme examples. The statistics used in the game are:

Movement (Move)A model can move this distance in inches each time they take a Move action, through unobstructed terrain. Models with a Move of 0 cannot move at all. There is no maximum Move value.

Defence (Def)The higher a model’s Defence, the less likely they are to come to harm. Factors include their natural toughness, armour and thick skin or hide. Models with a Def of 0 cannot be harmed by physical attacks because of their lack of substance.

HitsA model can only be wounded a number of times equal to this number before they are removed from play. There is theoretically no maximum value for this stat.

Strength (Str)Strength is used in melee (physical combat) or when performing other feats of brute force. Models with a Str of 0 are non-corporeal (i.e. they don’t have a physical form).

Agility (Agi)A high Agility represents – both bodily manoeuvrability and manual dexterity. Good Agility allows a model to avoid falls and other perilous situations where more clumsy types would suffer.

Intelligence (Int)Possessed by the finest minds both on the side of law and order and the underworld, Intelligence has often made the difference in numerous encounters. A model with 0 Intelligence is considered mindless.

MoraleHigh Morale indicates bravery or sheer recklessness. Models with a Morale score of 0 never need to take Morale tests for any reason – they are either totally fearless or have otherwise been conditioned to keep fighting no matter what.

Special Effects & Star QualitiesAny special rules the model might use are listed here. Most models in 7ombieTV utilise special effects – special rules which define their abilities in the game. One type of model - the Star - gains unique star qualities, most of which are very powerful.

InformationThis section gives some background details on the model in question.

WeaponsThis section lists any weapons (close combat or ranged) the model might possess and gives the following information:

Range The maximum distance the weapon can be used.

Hit The basic number required to score a hit. This is shown on each model’s profile.

Strength The Strength of any hit caused.

Notes Any special rules the weapon may have.

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