Zombicide: Black Plague Review

I'm sure there must be a local Fattie that can help you out with a Kickstarter MD pledge (I could as well, but I'm pretty sure you don't want to add the shipping costs from Canada).

Thanks Almalik!

CMON actually got in touch with me and said I didn't miss the late pledge. They just took it down until the pledge manager goes up in a couple of weeks. Once the PM is up I can proceed to shower them with money. Hooray.

Egg Shen wrote: This is almost mass market style Ameritrash. It feels like a long lost Games Workshop and Milton Bradley collaboration that never was. I mean that as the HIGHEST compliment possible.

I'm kinda, sorta in the market for Heroquest to play with the kids. Is this friendly for the younger gamer and how much would I be looking at dropping if I were to consider this instead?

Visuals are R-rated. Lots of blood and choppin' off heads. So there's that.

Better off with D&DAS for kids, I think.

The medieval setting makes a big difference to me, I'm sick of the gritty, urban zombie thing.

I think this is the main reason I can't fork the money for Black Plague (in addition to its price). Without the contemporary setting, it's just another action rpg for me, but only with zombies, which is among my least favorite type of enemies in a fantasy setting.

Mr. White wrote:

Egg Shen wrote: This is almost mass market style Ameritrash. It feels like a long lost Games Workshop and Milton Bradley collaboration that never was. I mean that as the HIGHEST compliment possible.

I'm kinda, sorta in the market for Heroquest to play with the kids. Is this friendly for the younger gamer and how much would I be looking at dropping if I were to consider this instead?

Good thing Barnes chimed in because I was ready to be all, "eh, it's not THAT bad...they'll probably be fine". Don't take my advice though, I don't have kids so I have no idea what they'd be OK with. I think the most violent stuff is on the box and in the rule book. I'd say the zombie spawn deck is probably PG-13 with cartoony, yet gruesome zombies. Also, in the the search deck there are "ambush cards" that feature a severed bloody zombie hand. So yeah, it's got some nasty content hiding within it for sure.

If I was 10-13 years old I think this game would resonate deeply. But I was a typical 80s "monster kid" who was always fascinated by creatures, monsters, and things that go bump in the night. Your mileage will certain vary.

Alright, so I've not played Zombicide since vanilla, which I disliked greatly. After a Tyrants of the Underdark preorder than went south (and amidst a slew of "meh" impressions), I put that money into a copy of Rue Morgue. No idea what to expect. What else should I get if I like it?

Toxic City Mall is all you need. You get an additional 4 new characters, plus "zombivor" figures for the original characters, which come with the character sheets, so effectively 10 more characters to play, you get UltraRed mode weapons, some other new weapons, the toxic zombies (which add a lot to the actual game aspect), new missions and map tiles etc.

If you want more variety after that, a box of the Berserker zombies (Really Angry something I think it's called) and maybe zombie dogz.

Hey JEM, what's the good word on Angry Neighbors? Does that add anything worthwhile?

I just bought the tile set (three measly tiles) for like $7. No way could I justify over $40 for it, so I don't know, really. I just wanted to be able to home-brew as many of the online missions as possible. I want to try the one where you have to herd fatties into a hole, but only fatties.

JEM, does Toxic City Mall have new scenarios in it, and if so, do they require tiles from other sets? I'm really digging Rue Mogue and definitely want to dig deeper.

The 12 included scenarios are split between those that use one or more Season 1 tiles and those that use Season 2 tiles. So there's no S3 support as such, but I was able to switch in some alternative tiles and make it work. I did end up buying the S1 tile set for $12 to make my life easier and to open up more mission options from the web.

You can download all the rule books at this link:
zombicide.com/en/game-rules/

So you can look at the maps and see if you can make them work.

You can also check out a lot of new missions on this site:
zombicide-missions.com/

Even with the homework required to make the included missions work I think TCM is a great option- with the "zombivor" figures for the original S1 characters you get the full sheets for them so coming from S3 you get an extra 10 characters, toxic zombies, which add a lot tactically to the game, new weapons and ultrared mode (which I haven't tried, honestly). I got TCM for $35, and the zombies and characters alone were worth it.