October Suggestion: Zombie Theme

[Cunning Cartographer]

With Halloween next month I thought something typically monster themed might be nice, but instead of it being any and every monster I went straight for zombies because they're awesome. I don't want to give any potential ideas in case someone thinks "Damn that's what I was going to do but now you've mentioned it!", but anything zombie related could/should/would be fun.

[PencilGoddess]

What about a map of a zombie's withered arm and hand, or his ugly, rotting face?

Just my $.02

[Cunning Cartographer]

If it can be turned into a suitable map format and isn't simply a drawing of a zombie arm/face then I'd see no reason why not

[rdanhenry]

Wouldn't that just be any map. Plus some zombies. It might be better to use a monster that's not the go to all-genre monster for so many. Because you can really just map anything... with zombies. Mall... with zombies. Police station... with zombies. Ocean liner... with zombies. Cemetery... with zombies. Spaceship... with zombies. The OK Corral... with zombies.

And because zombies just shamble through, maybe with a little killing and minor property damage, they don't really have much logical impact on the map. I like the monster type specific map idea. I just think zombies are not one of the better choices. I mean, I'd even take vampires over zombies, and they're at least as overused. At least, a "mall with vampires" map would logically invite vampire-specific changes. (E.g., the queue at Hot Topic waiting to be converted, new construction to block off the sun through the skylights.)

[Cunning Cartographer]

Depends what type of map you are going for. If you are going for a battlemap then I'd say a zombie encounter changes the dynamic altogether (at least it would for me personally as a DM); slow moving creatures that you fight in hordes ([Minion] or [Swarm] mobs) so terrain would play a massive factor. They are mindless creatures so creating bottleneck areas on a map would work for a zombie, where they wouldn't work for a vampire/werewolf. Regardless I think if you focus on a battlemap then most of the time the monster you are using could be interchangeable anyway; Mall/Police Station/Ocean Liner/Cemerety/Spaceship ... with Vampires/Werewolves/Ghosts/Swamp Creatures. If zombies are a threat that were known about then suitable anti-zombie defenses could play a major part on a map, battlemap or otherwise.

That said, I'm fine if the higher powers saw this and thought "a monster/halloween theme is a good idea" but didn't focus on zombies