My New, Infectious Obsession With Zombies Just Came Out of Nowhere, And I Have no Idea why

[UberScout]

As of August 26th or so, I have had a really, REALLY strong interest in zombie stuff. The whole zombie apocalypse type of setting, it just makes for some fantastic opportunities for role-playing. From childhood, I have had sort of an on/off/on again obsession with surviving in a zombocalypse situation, and tabletop roleplaying has been a big thing for me too, so when i found a really easy to use, simple to understand roleplaying system for zombie settings, called "All Flesh Must Be Eaten", and learned the basic ruleset, I was taken aback by just how engaging zombie role-playing is! And its not just that either; Maddog was so proud of me for donating plasma for him that he let me get Dead Rising 4 while it was on sale 75% off, and i havent stopped playing it since!

I've been running practice campaigns in AFMBE alongside my gameplay of the above, and I think I get more immersed in the latter than the former. Whats cool about AFMBE is that it runs on the UniSystem, which is designed to have its rules modified for whatever's happening.

I've been running a simple campaign that involves a simple settlement-building system I invented for the game, with resources to manage and stockpile, typical zombie apocalypse-style settlement stuff.

I know its a horrific setting, but it just takes my mind off everything, you know? Having a bad day, take it out on the living dead, I always say.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

Have you read World War Z by Max Brooks? A phenomenal sci-fi novel written as a historical account. And I happen to like that Brooks recognizes that zombies would have a low energy metabolism.

 

[Suzette]

Denver has an annual Zombie crawl around Halloween. It was cancelled for 2020. I don't know if it's on this year but you can read about the 2019 event.
PHOTOS: Hundreds of Zombies invaded the 16th street mall in downtown DenverPHOTOS: Hundreds of Zombies invaded the 16th street mall in downtown Denver

 

[Aspychata]

I love the game Zombie Ate Your Brains. But it's very elementary.

Maybe you could become a professional gamer? It's good you and Maddog are getting along. Hope your mother is okay or in a better place. It seems that you are doing great. Alright, its a zombie right kinda of day☺

 

[UberScout]

She's doing great, Aspychata. A lot better since the cancer started.

Hah, you got that right! I always had a thing for fighting waves of the undead

 

[UberScout]

Have you read World War Z by Max Brooks? A phenomenal sci-fi novel written as a historical account. And I happen to like that Brooks recognizes that zombies would have a low energy metabolism.

I have seen the movie, but those zombies were too fast for my liking. I'm more used to the "walker" kind thats slow and just kinda shambles around; that's the kind that are in my AFMBE campaign, I wanted it to be as close to The Walking Dead as possible, my mother loved that show when it was in its heyday and being a cancer patient, I like her to feel as safe and acknowledged as possible because I feel like not involving her in conversations about my special interests just seems too much like leaving her out, and I dont want that. Still, this zombie campaign is just my way of telling her "I want you to see that I still remember things you like because i care about you and you having cancer reminded me how much i need to care about you".

It's just a language that isn't spoken, to me and my family.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

I have seen the movie, but those zombies were too fast for my liking. I'm more used to the "walker" kind thats slow and just kinda shambles around; that's the kind that are in my AFMBE campaign, I wanted it to be as close to The Walking Dead as possible, my mother loved that show when it was in its heyday and being a cancer patient, I like her to feel as safe and acknowledged as possible because I feel like not involving her in conversations about my special interests just seems too much like leaving her out, and I dont want that. Still, this zombie campaign is just my way of telling her "I want you to see that I still remember things you like because i care about you and you having cancer reminded me how much i need to care about you".

It's just a language that isn't spoken, to me and my family.

You are so kind. The care you show now will be a strength in the future. But the movie was a pale imitation of the book. Read it, you will not be disappointed.

 

[Misery]

I have seen the movie, but those zombies were too fast for my liking. I'm more used to the "walker" kind thats slow and just kinda shambles around; that's the kind that are in my AFMBE campaign, I wanted it to be as close to The Walking Dead as possible, my mother loved that show when it was in its heyday and being a cancer patient, I like her to feel as safe and acknowledged as possible because I feel like not involving her in conversations about my special interests just seems too much like leaving her out, and I dont want that. Still, this zombie campaign is just my way of telling her "I want you to see that I still remember things you like because i care about you and you having cancer reminded me how much i need to care about you".

It's just a language that isn't spoken, to me and my family.

I'm just gonna second what @Gerald Wilgus said: The movie is nothing like the book. It was one of those instances where they just tacked the name on to make a bland movie sell more tickets.

The actual book was incredible. I'm honestly normally not into zombie stuff, and it's specifically because it's usually so bland and predictable. Nobody ever does anything creative with them. But that book, that one did it. There's no other zombie story like that one.

Definitely check it out.

Ah geez, now I wanna read it again myself, been quite awhile.


Also just for the record I do agree with the walker VS runner bit. The whole bloody point of zombies is that individually they're not too dangerous but they come in enormous groups and they can take quite a pummeling before going down.

Though there's ALSO the "infected" vs "true undead" bit, that one usually bugs me more. These days it's always "infected" which never seems very zombie-like to me. Whatever happened to long-dead corpses crawling out of their graves and going on a (very slow) rampage?

 

[Booknerd515]

You're not the only one with a sudden interest in that though mine's more minor and seems to be related to Resident Evil. Previously before things about the pandemic started I got an extremely intense interest in pandemic-related things to the point where I would spend hours online researching stuff. Now I keep getting nightmares about zombies (which I never think about because I used to have a terrible version of kinemortophobia-a fear of zombies that used to give me panic attacks, but apparently I...don't have that anymore somehow). I never used to think about flying zombies dropping on houses before (I've rarely seen or read any zombie-related things) but sometimes I literally can't get that image out of my mind. It's worried my parents so much since before I rarely ever talked about zombies that they let me get over 30 books in the past week. The only thing that worries me a lot is that one of my online friends is very into Resident Evil as some of the ones I have seen in my nightmares are from that universe. So you can imagine just how freaked out I got when I saw a research company's logo in Wuhan, Hubei Province of China was similar to one in the series-which I'm really hoping is just a coincidence.

 

[ucrenegade]

We are in the zombie apocalypse now look at all the brain dead people in society. The undead zombies is Hollywood and obviously fake so people don't see what real zombies look like but they are everywhere especially on social media.

 

[Kevin L.]

I have had autistic obsessions manifest themselves out of nowhere and consume my personality for a few years until another one replaces it.

To me, it seems like the "earworm" phenomena, where a song (sometimes a stupid, repetitive nursery rhyme) plays over and over and over in your head until you listen to it several times to "exorcise" it.

Autistic people are prone to epilepsy and seizure disorders, so I've often wondered if an obsessive, repetitive, all-consuming interest may be the result of a neurological circuit in the brain constantly feeding back on itself in a loop.

There seems to be a similar dynamic in PTSD (I was a paramedic for almost 12 years, so I know--firsthand--about PTSD), so I wonder if things like seizure medicines should be explored for autistic obsessive interests . . . if they interfere with daily life and/or management of finances (ie: as in my case, like being unable to pay rent, since all of my money was going toward buying material for a stamp collection).

 

[Raggamuffin]

I burnt out on zombie stuff in my early 20's. What I find most intriguing is the behaviour and psychology of the survivors. Zombies return humans to an almost animal state - they eat to survive.

Whereas the sadistic nature of what antagonists get up to? Sometimes it has you rooting for the zombies.

I think it's why I gave up on the Walking Dead and refused to watch any of the spin-offs. It's just extremely depressing to watch. Also the formula was boring - find a safe place > lose a safe place. Vicious circle that I no longer wanted to be a part of.

I seem to recall starting the World War Z film and switching off promptly as it had no real build up. Went from 0-100 within a short space of time. I don't like that in zombie films. From the clips I've seen it took the sprinting infected to a whole new level of over the top CGI tomfoolery.

My favourite zombie film is Rec. I haven't seen anything else really challenge it. Sure, it didn't bring anything fresh to the table. But it was an incredible film.

Ed

 

[Sherlock77]

Not my car, but perhaps coming soon to a zombie movie

 

[Lemon Zing]

https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/best-zombie-movies/

Take your pick!