# All Things Zombie: Better Dead Than Zed *Created:* 2023-08-20, *Modified:* 2026-10-05 ![[All Things Zombie - Better Dead Than Zed (cover).jpg|600]] ![[All Things Zombie - End of Days (cover).jpg|600]] Day One of the outbreak, before you can tell the living from the risen — that's where **All Things Zombie: Better Dead Than Zed** starts, with a simple question: can you survive the first thirty days? It's Two Hour Wargames' flagship zombie apocalypse, an "RPG Lite" that keeps going past the survival part into rebuilding the world, this time with you in charge. The zombies are the opening act; what you do once the world is yours is the rest of the show. ## Setting Like the whole THW catalogue, it refuses a fixed world: you are whoever you were when the outbreak hit. Whether you're a military man, a cop, a survivor, or a ganger matters as much as where the apocalypse found you, because on Day One nobody can tell the living from the risen. The game runs in real-life terms — confusion, chaos, and missing information are the actual obstacles — and your most dangerous enemies may turn out to be your neighbors, or your friends. It plays solo, cooperatively, or competitively, as a one-off or an ongoing campaign whose goal is to take the world back, one barricade and one bullet at a time. ## Mechanics Under the hood it's the standard **Chain Reaction / THW Reaction System**: **Reputation** and the **2d6 taken-versus-Rep** roll, with **Stars** (your plot-armored characters) and **Grunts** (the mechanical masses), plus character classes, Attributes, and the period Lists (Military, Police, Survivor, Civilian, Ganger). What makes it a *zombie* game is everything layered on top. ### The Zed Zombies are their own thing: they have a Rep and no weapons to speak of, spawn at game start and as the game goes on, and are drawn by gunfire and noise — the louder you fight, the more shamblers show up. In melee they feast, and there's a "Harry, are you okay?" moment for when the human you just shot at starts acting wrong. The easy-to-hit rule and auto-kill make the undead dangerous in numbers rather than individually. ### The Apocalypse Toolbox Beyond the core is a genuinely thorough post-apocalyptic sandbox: barricaded buildings, vehicles that may or may not start ("the car won't start!" and the bootlegger turn are both here), running down pedestrians, bashing and ramming, and reaction tests for everything from a car alarm to a shotgun blast. Recovery, looting, and the search for weapons and tight ammo round it out. ## Editions - **All Things Zombie: Better Dead Than Zed** (2009) — the original core; the edition this note is anchored on. *In the library.* - **All Things Zombie: Reloaded** — the revised core, THW's standalone refresh of the line. - **All Things Zombie: Final Fade Out** (2012) — the standalone follow-up that carries survivors past the outbreak, adding skills and deeper Star-and-zombie interplay. *In the library.* - **All Things Zombie: Evolution** (2018) — the reworked standalone core (2HW-1025), shipping card-stock counters and two battle boards. *In the library.* - **All Things Zombie: End of Days** (2021) — the latest standalone core take on the world's true end: Stars, Sheeple, Gangers, Fame & Fortune, and the run to retirement. *In the library.* ## Supplements *All in the library unless noted.* **Related standalone** - **Fade to Black** (2015, Lock 'n Load Publishing) — a boxed standalone ATZ game with map, counters, and player-aid cards. **Campaign books** - **The Big I** (2016) — the first scenario book for *Evolution*: stand at the crossroads of the "Big I" — aliens and Area 51 to the north, the horde to the east, the Night People to the west. - **Haven** (2009) — the police-and-civilians book: your pre-outbreak self (cop, ganger, survivor) handles domestic calls, quarantines, and the arrest shift that goes wrong as the world falls apart. **Scenario supplements** - **Mass Hysteria** (2013) — you command the forces defending one of the city's areas from the advancing wave — save lives, kill zombies, secure the area. - **Hospital 911** (2014) — clear the hospital floor by floor — elevators, elevator surprises, SWAT intervention — and hold it. - **I, Zombie** (2010) — a scenario/expansion book folding in new rules — fast move, vehicles and encumbrance (shopping carts!), new reaction tests — across its scenarios. - **Tales of Dread** (2014, Jay Mackesy) — adds special zeds (Brute, Chaser, Glider, Siren, Slither, Spooker, Stalker), challenges, traps and distractions, and optional rules like elevated ranged attacks and meeting zeds in rooms. - **High Rise to Hell** (2013) — a six-strong crew (Carol, Gina, Nate, Pete, Sam, and you) clears a high-rise floor by floor — day parts, elevator and stair surprises, random events, and the crowded 12×12. - **Origins – All Things Horror** (2009) — the horror supplement: field agents and newbies running radio-net teams against the supernaturally weird. **Play-aids & reference sheets** - **Zombie Deck** — the card deck adding new items and weapons — baseball bats, composite bows, crossbows — from the Risks & Rewards rules. - **Deck** — the **End of Days** card deck: HOME location cards, GOODS item cards, and KNOCK KNOCK encounter cards, each carrying the PEF table. *In the library.* - **One-Page Tables** (2006) — the weapons tables on a page. - **Boulter Loot Table** (2009) — the loot/equipment find table. - **Horses in All Things Zombie** (2009) — mounted play. - **Points for ATZ 2** — equipment point costs. - **'Mo' Better' All Things Zombie** (2005) — quick-reference sheet. - **ATZ Quick and Easy** (2015) — the quick-and-easy digest: the full weapons table and ranged-combat table on a page. - **ATZ FFO Quick and Easy v2** (2015) — the Final Fade Out quick-and-easy weapons & ranged-combat digest (v2). - **ATZ Updates** (2016) — errata/updates sheet. - **ATZ Tabletop Convention Play** (2018) — the tabletop-convention rules: move ATZ off the 12×12 board and onto a full table measured in inches, with terrain, area-based PEF and zombie generation (urban/suburban/rural), multi-player activation dice, and random events — a hidden zed bursting from a closet, the "dead" one standing up again, a barking dog chased by the horde. Same undead corner, faster crowd: **Dead Heat** — *The Game of Professional Zombie Racing* (THW) puts the zombies on the racetrack. *In the library.* ## References - [All Things Zombie: Better Dead Than Zed — DriveThruRPG](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/61492/All-Things-Zombie-Better-Dead-Than-Zed) - [All Things Zombie: Reloaded — DriveThruRPG](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/129014/All-Things-Zombie-Reloaded) - [All Things Zombie: Final Fade Out — DriveThruRPG](https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/58815/All-Things-Zombie-Final-Fade-Out) - [All Things Zombie: End of Days — Rebel Minis](https://www.rebelminis.com/allthzoendof.html)