Make-Believe Games will release founder Mark Rein-Hagen’s new roleplaying game
I Am Zombie in August. Rein-Hagen is the creator of
Vampire: The Masquerade, its associated
The World of Darkness games, and designer of
Ars Magica (with Jonathan Tweet).
The initial products will be the I Am Zombie Field Manual and the I Am Zombie Playkit. The Field Manual is a 288-page hardback survival guide and world book. MSRP is $40.00. The Playkit includes two decks (108 cards) of ID Cards, 8 "Brainz" Dice, Bump Chips, a 32-page Axiom System book and a character journal.
I Am Zombie is a horror/survival roleplaying game that casts players in the role of self-aware living half-dead, also known as Toxics. The Toxics are victims of a disease, known as the Scourge, which produces Odium, a compound which transforms the disease-carrier into a mindless zombie as their body rots, but it also granting them physical prowess. Players must control their Odium to retain their humanity. The infected must also fend off the CDC and BLEACH, a militarized disease control agency that wishes to destroy the disease, and its hosts.
The game utilizes the Axiom system, a streamlined roleplaying game system that is described as simple enough for beginning roleplayers, but dynamic and intricate enough for experienced players to enjoy. Character creation is handled by a Character Cards deck, which allows players to pick 5 cards which list occupations, Zombie Cartels, Rackets, Lineages and Syndromes. The cards include attributes and skills, and when a player takes damage (accumulating Odium) they flip the card to reveal its "Zombie" side. During the game, various colored dice (D6) are used to determine various the outcome of various feats, based on the statistics on the character cards.
If players don’t wish to use the Character Cards, they can use traditional character sheets. There are also Bump Chips which can be used to add a level of strategy to the game. The storyteller can use the poker-chip sized Bump Chips as rewards for players, which can be used in various situations to add emotion and depth to interactions.
The game was initially funded via Kickstarter in June 2013. The campaign raised $35,528 from 387 backers.
Make-Believe Games stated that I Am Zombie is the first of its "Xenocosm" universe of properties, which it plans to expand to include alien abduction (Xenofactor), military Special Forces (Bleach), secret society (Null Foundation), dark fantasy (Iron Oath), and space opera (Epoch) RPGs.
