Quest Line · Original Adventure · End of the World: Zombie Apocalypse
One-shot
Three days after the dead started walking, the power's gone out and your safe house is running dry. The QuickStop grocery store six blocks away still has supplies—you saw someone leave with canned goods yesterday. But the streets are filling with walkers, and you're not the only survivors getting desperate.
Player Characters: In End of the World, players portray themselves in the apocalypse. Before starting, discuss comfort levels with zombie horror, interpersonal conflict between survivors, and potential character death. Establish what skills and resources each player realistically has—don't let anyone claim Navy SEAL training unless it's actually true.
Tone: Gritty survival with moments of dark humor. The undead are slow but relentless. Other survivors are unpredictable.
Content Warnings: Zombie violence, potential body horror, survival desperation, moral dilemmas regarding other survivors.
Choose the hook that best fits your group:
The Baby Needs Formula: Someone in your group is sheltering a neighbor's infant whose parents didn't make it. The formula ran out this morning. The baby's cries could attract walkers.
Medication Timer: One character needs prescription medication (insulin, anti-seizure meds, immunosuppressants—player's choice). There's maybe two days left. The QuickStop has a pharmacy counter.
The Radio Message: Your emergency radio crackles to life—someone at the grocery store says they're organizing a supply run to a safer location upstate. They're leaving at sundown. That's four hours from now.
The players begin at their safe house—an apartment, suburban home, or small business they've barricaded. It's early afternoon, overcast, unseasonably cold. They can see the QuickStop's faded blue sign from an upper window.
What They See: Smoke rises from three different points in the neighborhood. Four walkers shuffle through the intersection at the end of the block, circling a wrecked delivery van. The street is littered with abandoned luggage, trash, and at least two unmoving bodies. No living people visible, but curtains move in several windows. Someone's watching.
The Route: Six blocks, roughly half a mile. Players must choose:
Encounter: Whichever route they choose, they'll face 2-3 walkers at a chokepoint. Walkers have roughly 6 HP each, move slowly, and attack at difficulty 2 (Physical+Dexterity to dodge, Physical+Strength to shove or strike). The key tactical lesson: noise attracts more. Gunfire brings 1d6 additional walkers within two rounds. Quiet takedowns (difficulty 3) keep things manageable.
Social Encounter: As they navigate, someone calls down from a second-story window—a man in his 60s, scared. "You're going to the store? Can you bring back blood pressure medication? I have batteries to trade—AAs and Ds, two packs." Players decide whether to make promises to strangers.
The grocery store's front windows are broken but the metal security gates are partially lowered, creating a three-foot gap. The parking lot has six walkers spread across it, and one very fresh corpse—shot in the head, still wearing a backpack. The loading dock in back is quieter but the door's locked.
Entry Options:
Inside the Store: Emergency lighting casts everything in dim red. The place has been ransacked but not emptied. Shelves are toppled in aisles 3 and 4. There's a metallic smell and buzzing flies near the meat department.
The Other Survivors: Three people are already inside:
The tension is immediate. Jade levels her tire iron: "Store's claimed. We got here first." She's bluffing—they're terrified—but they've stacked supplies by the back door.
Negotiation or Confrontation: Players can:
Complication: Mid-negotiation, a minivan screeches into the parking lot. Four people pour out, armed with baseball bats and a hunting rifle, clearly intent on looting. They start pounding on the security gate. The noise draws every walker in two blocks. In 2-3 minutes, there will be 15-20 walkers surrounding the store.
Decision Point: Do the players:
The walker horde presses against the building. The security gate groans under their weight. Everyone inside must decide: fort up or flee.
Scenario A—The Siege: If players let the newcomers in or try to wait it out, the security gate has maybe 10 minutes before it fails. The group must work together:
The siege becomes a pressure cooker of personalities. The newcomers' leader, Ray, demands the group share supplies equally. Marcus refuses to leave without enough for his sister across town. Someone will suggest sacrificing someone to distract the walkers.
Possible Endings:
Scenario B—The Quick Exit: If players grab and run immediately, they can escape through the loading dock before the horde fully forms. They get their priority supplies but leave the other survivors to their fate. They'll hear screaming as they flee. Functional success, moral cost.
Scenario C—The Alliance: If players successfully unite everyone (difficulty 3 Social check plus roleplaying), the nine survivors work as a coordinated team. They create a noise distraction at the far end of the parking lot (car alarm), then convoy out in the minivan and any other working vehicles. Everyone escapes, and the players gain allied NPCs for future scenarios.
Marcus Chen — Methodical college student, carrying his little sister's inhaler. Wants to get medication and return to his sister before dark.
Jade Williams — Exhausted restaurant manager, protecting her crew. Trying to keep Tyler and anyone else she considers "hers" alive.
Tyler — Twenty-something with more courage than sense, pharmacy tech at Walgreens. Knows what medications are valuable for trade or medical use.
Ray Kowalski — Aggressive middle-aged contractor, armed and scared. Wants to establish dominance because he thinks that's how you survive.
Elena Rodriguez — Quiet woman from the minivan crew, former EMT. Trying to keep Ray from doing something stupid while finding antibiotics for an infected wound.
Pace the Tension: Start with cautious optimism, escalate to dread, peak at the standoff. Use the walker threat as a timer—players can't deliberate forever.
Make Walkers Dangerous in Numbers: A single walker is manageable. Three are a problem. Ten are lethal. Emphasize their relentlessness, not their speed.
NPCs Have Goals, Not Scripts: Marcus won't abandon his sister's medication. Ray will escalate to violence if he feels disrespected. Let these motivations create organic conflict.
Reward Creative Solutions: Players zip-tie shopping carts to create a barrier? Great. They use the PA system to draw walkers away? Excellent. Say yes when possible.
The Moral Weight Matters: In End of the World, survival often means hard choices. Don't let players forget what they've done—or who they've left behind.
Supplies Acquired: Depending on success level:
Character Development: Award experience for facing fears, making hard choices, and working as a team (or surviving alone). In End of the World, growth comes from trauma.
Story Rewards:
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