Dead Reign

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Dead Reign is a Zombie Apocalypse themed setting for the Palladium roleplaying system, and can be best summed up as Palladium Books' answer to All Flesh Must Be Eaten.

Dead Reign takes place 5 months after the events of "The Wave"; a mysterious and probably magical plague that ravished the world, before vanishing as those who perished of the sickness rose as murderous zombies. Roughly 20% of humanity survived, and is now fighting to survive in the face of the legions of the undead.

Zombies in the world of Dead Reign are at once familiar and different. The zombies spawned by the Wave are spiritual parasites, feeding on Potential Psychic Energy, rather than flesh and blood - though there are mutants (called "Flesh Eating Zombies") who like to snack on warm flesh, zombies actually feed by killing living creatures and absorbing their P.P.E as they expire. They also perceive the world by sensing P.P.E, which makes them a lot harder to hide from, even though the vast majority are stupid shambling corpses. To take them out, destroy the brain or set them on fire. In fact, they actually need to feed on P.P.E regularly or they'll slowly starve to "death" and rot away, so if humanity can somehow survive for about 40 years, all the zombies will die out from hunger. Of course, that doesn't help you in the here and now.

Splatbooks

A total of 8 books exist in the Dead Reign line; a corebook and seven splats. Each splat usually includes at least a couple of new zombie varieties in addition to whatever's listed here. Listed in numerical order.

Civilization Gone: Covers the major dangers of the post-Wave world that aren't zombies. Namely, diseases, the weather and, of course, your fellow man.

Dark Places: Covers traveling in the post-Wave world.

Endless Dead: New OCCs, vehicles, and a guide to what the military looks like in the post-Wave world.

Fear The Reaper: History on the Road Reapers, the heroic motorbiking zombie killers.

Graveyard Earth: An overview of what the whole world looks like since the dead rose.

Hell Followed: Major conspiracy theories, what happened to the government folks who didn't get killed, relief centers and natural disasters.

In the Face of Death: An in-depth guide to what the overrun cities of the post-Wave world look like and how to survive in them.

Zombies in Dead Reign

Naturally, you can't have a zombie apocalypose without zombies, so Dead Reign has plenty of variety of the shambling bastards to throw at your party. But you might be wondering: how do they work?

Well, it's implied that the zombies are somehow supernatural; there's a villainous cult of demon worshippers running around who are able to control them to an extent. The zombies began with something called "The Wave"; a mysterious, fast-spreading plague that devastated society. Then, suddenly, out of nowhere, all the people who died from The Wave got up and started killing, and the Wave-disease just up and vanished.

Dead Reign zombies feed on soul-stuff - or Potential Psychic Energy, as Palladium calls it, not flesh. To become a zombie now that the Wave has ended, a living human needs to be killed by a zombie, who then sucks out their soul; this causes the body to get up and start killing. It also neatly explains the "if zombies want to eat human flesh, why do so many victims of zombies become zombies instead of being eaten up" question; the zombies don't want your flesh, they just chew you up and maul you with their claws because that's what they have to kill you with. Once you're dead, the zombie has fed, and you become a zombie 2d4+4 minutes afterwards.

This also means there's no "zombie plague" in the traditional sense popularized by rip-offs of Romero's films. A zombie bite is dangerous, because it can give you a potential lethal necrotizing (fancy way of saying "flesh-rotting") infection if you don't clean the wound, but that's really not that supernatural. Seriously, human bites are prone to all kinds of nasty infections even when the biter isn't a rotting corpse. So the only way for zombies to reproduce is if they directly kill somebody; being bitten isn't a death sentence so long as you get away alive and get medical treatment.

This need to feed on P.P.E means that zombies have a sort of metabolism, and they will eventually starve without feeding, though they can prolong their survival by entering a state of dormancy.

For the most part, zombies are mindless killing machines, with only two really strong instincts; an aversion to fire, which they recognize as being able to kill them, and responding to a full-throated cry (or "zombie moan") by snapping awake (if they were dormant) and immediately going towards the moan, because that's the signal for "prey".

To kill a zombie, you need to destroy the brain or burn the thing. Zombies don't feel pain from bodily trauma, and can actually regenerate slowly by consuming P.P.E, though they are still subject to the obvious limitations that they can't grab things with removed hands or walk on legs that've been shot off.

Now that we've summed up the basics of the zombies as a whole, let's talk specifics, shall we?

Slouchers are literally the standard zombie of the Dead Reign world; 74% of the entire zombie population is made up of Slouchers (or variant Slouchers, as later splatbooks will elaborate). There's not a lot to say here; these are the vanilla, the standard, the mooks, the basic model. Obviously, these guys are from the Dead Reign Corebook.

Crawlers are zombies that have been reduced to, well, crawling along due to extreme physical damage. Most commonly, these are zombies that have had their legs broken or removed, or which have been severed in half at the waist, but at its most extreme end, Crawlers can be a dislimbed torso and head or even just a head and a spinal column. They're not really any smarter than Slouchers, but their need to crawl along combined with their usually reduced physical mass means they are, inadvertently, a lot sneakier than the usual zombie. They're often found in dark corners, narrow spaces, and tunnel-like structures - large pipes, sewers, drain tunnels, crawl spaces, air ducts, heating vents, and the like. Probably 10% of all zombies that are active today have become Crawlers. As one of the "default" zombie variants, you'll find the rules for these in the Dead Reign Corebook.

Fast Attack Zombies are a Zombie Aberration - an abnormality from the rules of the Sloucher and its physical variants. Making up 5% of the zombie population, these zombies don't just lurch and shuffle along, they run. Also, they scream instead of moaning, but that's just icing on the cake. Weirdly, they tend to try to harry humans and leave the killing to the Slouchers and other slowpokes they tend to be interspersed with, and nobody knows why. As one of the "default" zombie variants, you'll find the rules for these in the Dead Reign Corebook.

You remember that bit about zombies in Dead Reign eating souls, not flesh? Well, that's not as ironclad a rule as you might hope. Flesh-Eating Zombies are Aberrations that, whilst they still fundamentally feed on P.P.E, are also addicted to the taste of warm fresh meat. Faster than Slouchers, but not as quick as Fast Attack Zombies, Flesh-Eaters are also smarter - not fully sapient, but with enough bestial intelligence to stalk, observe, and even climb to higher spaces to better spot prey. Fortunately, they are rarely encountered in large groups - the average "pack" will be about 1d4+2 members - and they don't cooperate with Slouchers. Also, they're cowardly, and prefer to only attack when they see a clear advantage, like outnumbering their prey at least 2 to 1. Unfortunately, Flesh-Eaters stop eating once their prey animates as a zombie, which means the victim is usually left intact enough to become a Crawler or even a Sloucher. 5% of all zombies rise as Flesh-Eaters. As one of the "default" zombie variants, you'll find the rules for these in the Dead Reign Corebook.

Thinkers are one of the more dangerous of the Aberrations because they have higher cognitive abilities; their lore compares them roughly to chimpanzees in level of smarts. This means that Thinkers are aware of their surroundings, which means they can notice patterns and changes - for example, they can figure out that three new motorcycles being outside a ruin means there are three humans somewhere nearby, and if the engines are still warm, then they must be close. They're also smart enough to use simple weapons and tools, even guns - though mercifully they're not smart enough to do more complex tasks like repair or reload. Finally, their most terrifying attribute is that they are natural zombie leaders, able to crudely command the dumb-dumbs around them; go there, stay here, hide, drag this, push that, stuff like that. They're still not a match for humans in terms of raw brainpower, but their smarts and their ability to technically make the other zombies around them smarter can be a very nasty surprise. Oh, and they also make great lieutenants for necromancers or smarter zombies, because they can naturally understand their commands much better than the stupid zombies can. They only make up 4% of the population, but that's still 4% too many. As one of the "default" zombie variants, you'll find the rules for these in the Dead Reign Corebook.

Mock Zombies are the rarest and strangest of all zombie aberrations, mercifully being barely 1% of the undead population. See, a Mock Zombie is a zombie that has somehow retained its full human intelligence, which has resulted in it going absolutely mental. It's in complete denial of the fact it's undead, and will do everything it can to convince you of its delusion... but it still needs to feed, so if you fall for its claims, it will try and eat you. Not helping is that a zombie which feeds often enough will actually regenerate damage to the point they can be surprisingly hard to tell from a sickly living person... As one of the "default" zombie variants, you'll find the rules for these in the Dead Reign Corebook.

Pattern Zombies are another super rare Aberration, making up 1% of all zombies. These are zombies who've somehow retained enough memory of their human lives to become caught up in a "loop" of that memory, causing them to endlessly reenact that memorized activity until they are distrubted either directly or by the moans of nearby zombies. If actively hunting, they're only as smart as your standard Sloucher. It's just creepy to watch them. As one of the "default" zombie variants, you'll find the rules for these in the Dead Reign Corebook.

Juggernauts, introduced in the splatbook "Civilization Gone", are the zombified remains of big boys and giga-gals. Running the gamut from the morbidly obese to bodybuilders, weightlifters, and anyone who had a job in a field emphasizing uncommon strength or bulk, Juggernauts are basically Slouchers on steroids. They're dumb as your average zombie, but they're a lot bulkier, and that means they're stronger and tougher. Oh, and don't presume all that bulk makes them slow - a lot of people have made that mistake, and paid for it with their life!

Trash Crawlers are a variant of the common Crawler introduced in "Civiliation Gone". They're basically Crawlers who have really been run through the ringer, inadvertently picking up so much detritus that they are basically semi-mobile trashheaps. That gives them a layer of camouflage on top of the sneakiness that being so much smaller already offers, which makes them all the more dangerous - that pile of garbage or mound of leaves might actually have a hungry half-zombie in it, waiting to rip out your femoral artery!

Pretty Zombies are a zombie subtype from "Civilization Gone" defined by their good looks; not only were they attractive women (or men, but women seem to be particularly likely to come back this way) in life, but whatever happened to kill them didn't leave too many marks, so unless they're really starving, they can often pass for a living person at a casual glance. Like Pattern Zombies, they retain a few memory fragments, enough to give them compulsive grooming behavior that helps them further lure in human victims, but they're not as "loop-locked" as Pattern Zombies. Most Pretty Zombies have the stats of Slouchers, but they can also be found in Fast Attack and Flesh-Eating variants.

Bug Boys, introduced in the splatbook "Dark Places", are Slouchers who have become absolutely infested with parasitic or scavenging insects, such as cockroaches, flies, lice, fleas, bedbugs, ticks, gnats and mosquitoes. Naturally, this means that not only are they extra gross to look at, but they're particularly nasty to get into hand-to-hand combat with, as doing so puts a fighter in range of being swarmed by their hungry little friends, which are disgusting, distracting, and potentially diseased. These zombies are particularly common in warm, moist environments.

Worm Meat are variant Bug Boys covered in squamous carrion-eating inverterates; maggots, slugs, leeches and carnivorous worms infest them and busily gnaw away at their ever-regenerating flesh. Not only are they even grosser than their cousins, but they are far more virulently infectious than regular zombies; if you get hit by a Worm Meat, clean and disenfect the fucking wound. Dying of gangrene or Zombie Rot is a nasty, nasty way to go. And their little friends carry the same vile sicknesses too, just to make your lives that little bit harder. Worm Meat appear in the splatbook "Dark Places" alongside Bug Boys.

Sewer Crawlers are a Crawler variant that has adapted to hunting almost exclusively in the sewers and storm drains of the world, where they both clamber around and float through all the nastiness that has built up down there. This means their attacks are as toxic as those of a Worm Meat. These little bastards show up in the splatbook "Dark Places".

Impersonator Zombies are a variant of the Thinker Zombie. Roughly as intelligent as Thinkers, Impersonators are more solitary, perhaps because of their unique intelligence focus: they are smart enough to be able to imitate the cries of human beings, even going so far as to tailor their audible lures to wherever they are hiding - an Impersonator lurking in a child's bedroom will make itself sound like a kid, whilst one hiding in a ruined retirement village will pretend to be some old person. Unlike Thinkers, Impersonators are very antisocial by zombie standards, and are disinclined to listen to necromancers or Thinkers unless they are given instructions to do what they do best - set up a trap for witless human prey, or lure humans into a given site. Impersonators appear in "Dark Places", the second Dead Reign splatbook.

Blowfish are a Sloucher variant introduced in "Dark Places", the second Dead Reign splatbook. These are Slouchers who, for whatever reason, have been immersed in water for so long that even the zombie healing factor can't cope, causing them to bloat up into soggy, slimy horrors like any waterlogged corpse. Mechanically, they're identical to Slouchers, save for being much harder to grab or hold onto.

Zombie Amalgamations are an entire category of zombies introduced in Dead Reign's 3rd splatbook, "Endless Dead". As the name suggests, these are zombies who have been physically melded together in some way, compounding their dangerousness.

• Fast-Slow Zombies are what you get when a Sloucher or Juggernaut and a Fast Attack Zombie are somehow melded together, resulting in an undead that is constantly tripping over itself as its two components lumber along at different speeds, but unable to separate themselves.
• Fused Zombies have been either burned with fire and acid only to then meld together into once awkward mass ("Scorchers") or which have been stuck together by foreign objects - handcuffed together, impaled on the same length of wood, tangled together by barbed wire, etc ("Chained/Tangled/Bound Zombies"). They cooperate better than Fast-Slow Zombies do, so but luckily they're slow.
• Multi-Zombies are a combination of multiple different zombies fused together by regeneration gone wrong. Variants include the "Double Sloucher", "Triple Sloucher", "Octopus Sloucher" (Double Sloucher with multiple functioning extra arms), "Hydra Sloucher" (4-8 zombies fused into one), "Multi-Crawler" (1d6+2 Crawlers and/or variant Crawlers fused into one) and the "Sloucher-Crawler Combo" (1d4 Crawlers melded to a single non-Crawler, usually a Sloucher or Juggernaut).
• Parasite Juggernauts are Juggernauts who have had 1d4 Crawlers or undersized Slouchers (usually kids or midgets) fuse to their bodies, creating a singular entity.
• Twin Speedsters are what happens when two Fast Attack Zombies are melded together, which also makes them more aggressive.
• Walking Graveyards are the biggest and scariest of the Amalgams, being what happens when a mess of dozens or even hundreds of zombies fuses into a single unholy mass. Most of them are the result of improper mass disposals.

Silent Slouchers are Sloucher variant from "Endless Dead" who can't emit the Zombie Moan. Usually, this is due to obvious physical damage, but some of them just... don't moan. Whilst this means they can't summon backup, it also makes them much stealther - and often creepier.

Spare-Parts Zombies are a "smart zombie" (Thinker, Impersonator or Mock Zombie) variant from "Endless Dead" who have figured out they can use their unfeeling, regenerating bodies to augment themselves. These are divided into two subcategories; "Junkyard Zombies" augment themselves with metallic scrap for arms and armor, impaling themselves and bolting shit to their bones, whilst "Frankensteins" harvest arms (and sometimes legs) from other zombies and graft them to their own body to boost their abilities.

Terror Zombies are a zombie amalgamation featured in "Don't Fear the Reaper", and are what happens when a Mock Zombie gets melded to one or more other zombies. These crazy bastards initially try to exist in denial, but eventually they go nuts in one of three ways; becoming consumed with blind rage, developing multiple personlities, or becoming sadistic serial killers filled with hate for normal people.

Armored Brutes are a zombie abberation featured in the splatbook "Hell Followed" who have heightened intelligence compared to other zombies... at the very least, they're smart enough to both wear some kind of (usually improvised) armor and use solid tools, and also to use simple but deadly strategies and tactics, making them much more effective at actually trying to kill humans they encounter than regular Slouchers. Luckily, they are almost always encountered alone (save for perhaps some local Slouchers), and have never been seen in groups larger than three.

Cannibal Munchers are a weird mishmash of the Flesh-Eating Zombie and the Pattern Zombie introduced in "Hell Followed"; not only are they obsessed with eating meat, they're so obsessed with doing so that they'll even eat other zombies just to try and satify their compulsion!

Dead Mound Giants are a variation of the Walking Grave from "Hell Followed" who have achieved a whole new level of horribleness. Not only do they actively absorb other zombies into their collective bulk, but their amalgamated flesh visibly restructures itself into a nightmarish semblance of a partially formed undead giant. These horrors contain multiple undead brains, which fight ceaselessly for control over the fused body.

Dead Weights are regular Slouchers that somehow got trapped up high. Then, with the typical zombie mindless fearlessness, they'll step off of their high perch to try to get at food they spot below. Assuming they don't land atop of you in the process, you then have to deal with a particularly ghastly sort of Crawler, because sadly too many zombies who make the drop fail to inflict enough trauma to their brains to kill themselves. These guys show up in "Hell Followed".

Kidnapper Zombies are a particularly weird and twisted form of Thinker Zombie introduced in "Hell Followed". These zombies have somehow deduced they can actually gain more nourishment from human victims by slowly torturing them to death over a prolonged period of time, releasing a much larger and steadier stream of Potential Psychic Energy. So, rather than simply trying to grab a human and maul them to death on sight, they instead stalk humans with the hope of catching them alone so they can drag them away to a hidden lair and begin torturing them.

Screamer Zombies are a dumber variant of the Impersonator introduced in "Hell Followed". Similarly to Pattern Zombies and their imitation of a memory they no longer understand, Screamers are constantly crying out, whether that is shouting various statements at the top of their lungs or just wailing, weeping, groaning, whistling or otherwise making noise. They're not smart enough to deliberately use this to lure prey, but their cries can attract curious human survivors - which isn't good, especially since their constant hollering also tends to attract plenty of regular zombies too!

Seeker Zombies, introduced in "Hell Followed", are zombies with much higher tracking and sensing abilities than the standard zombies, as well as far greater determination to track whatever attracts their attention. They're no smarter than your standard Sloucher, but that obsessive focus means they often tend to be the vanguards for zombie hordes.

Shopping Zombies are a Pattern Zombie subtype introduced in "Hell Followed". As their moniker suggests, they have imprinted on the memory of collecting and carrying stuff, or specifically the act of shopping. Whilst this usually leads to Shoppers carrying a lot of junk, they seem to have an instinct for homing in on valuable things, so spying on Shopping Zombies can lead you to valuable supply caches, especially if you follow them to their inevitable lair, which is where they place everything they gather during one of their "shopping trips". Also, the thieving bastards are usually the ones who nick any gear you may drop or temporarily leave behind in your explorations!

Swimmer Zombies have spent so long in the water they have actually figured out how to swim, adding a whole new threat to bodies of water, ships and coastlines. These guys show up in "Hell Followed".

What do you get when a zombie manages to get itself doused in biological waste, toxic chemicals, or nuclear material? Why, you get a Toxic Zombie of course! Though largely identical to Slouchers, these have the added hazard of being so full of harmful materials that even being in their presence is dangerous. If a zombie seems to be actively avoided even by carrion-eaters, it might just be a Toxic Zombie. These guys show up in "Hell Followed".

Nobody quite knows what the deal is with Vandal Zombies. Introduced in "Hell Followed", these zombies form small, tightly knit and territorial groups that stick close to a specific area. But, every so often, they go on fits of random destruction, smashing up everything around them until they just get bored of it or they spot prey.

Occupational Character Classes

If you're familiar with anything that Palladium has put out, you know how these work. Obviously, these are all mundane in nature, but given that RIFTS is a thing, it's funny to imagine what might happen if you stir more supernatural O.C.Cs into the pot.

The Half-Living would probably be characterized as a Racial Charcter Class in other Palladium games. These are people who were reduced to near-death at the hands of zombies, but somehow rescued before they could fully die and rise as one of the dead. This is both a blessing and a curse; the Half-Living are much more tolerant of heat, cold, disease and poison, can absorb P.P.E from dying humans and animals, and can even walk safely through the ranks of the dead. The downside? Aside from pale skin, black circles around the eyes, stiffened movement and a crippling need to be around humans, the Half-Living also have to live with the fact that when they die, no matter how it happened, they'll rise as a zombie within 1d6+6 minutes. Oh, and most living people treat them like shit. This O.C.C is found in the Dead Reign Corebook.

Hound Masters have realized just how useful dogs are in a post-zombocalypse world, and so have dedicated themselves to recruiting, breeding and training loyal dogs to aid themselves and others in the fight against the undead menace. Also to reduce the dangers posed by the packs of turned-feral stray dogs now running wild in the wilderness. This O.C.C is found in the Dead Reign Corebook.

Road Reapers (or just Reapers for short) claim membership in the first major anti-zombie survivalist organization, a biker outfit who have rededicated themselves to preserving humanity as modern-day knights on mechanical steeds. As such, this O.C.C focuses heavily on combat and survival skills, alongside using and maintaining motorcycles, a valuable asset in a world where cars have become too bulky to be routinely usable. This O.C.C is found in the Dead Reign Corebook.

Half merchant and half thief, Scroungers specialize in pilfering the ruins of humanity to find things that can either be cobbled together into immediately useful gear or which are valuable enough to be worth trading on. It might be easiest to think of them as the Skill Monkeys of the default O.C.Cs. This O.C.C is found in the Dead Reign Corebook.

Shepherds of the Damned are some of the noblest souls left in this hellish world; people who have dedicated their lives to finding and rescuing the other surviving members of humanity. Not to slaying zombies, that's what the Reapers do, but to finding the living and getting them to safety. This O.C.C is found in the Dead Reign Corebook.

Soldiers represent the surviving members of military and law enforcement, who have adapted to using their skills to survive in the post-Wave world. It's up to the individual Soldier what they put their talents to use for, but most dream of establishing safe zones and/or wiping out as many zombies as possible. This O.C.C is found in the Dead Reign Corebook.

Survivors are your Average Joes. These are the regular working stiffs who managed to not die during the rise of the undead, and intend to keep on living. Whether they're just trying to get to a safe zone to regain some sense of normality or they're taking an active stand against the dead, this is the generic "everyman" O.C.C of Dead Reign. This O.C.C is found in the Dead Reign Corebook.

Sentinels, introduced in the third Dead Reign splatbook "Endless Dead", are the specialist scouts, first responders and rescue agents of the post-zombocalypse world, usually working on behalf of an existing group of survivors or teamed up with other specialists, such as Hound Masters and Shepherds of the Damned. They specialize in mobility as much as stealth.

Survivalists, introduced in the third Dead Reign splatbook "Endless Dead", were people who believed that something was coming to fuck civilization over before it actually happened, and took every step they could to prepare themselves to weather the storm when they came. Folks aren't laughing any more. Now they're the leaders, teachers, and even prophets of post-Wave survivor groups... which has gone to a lot of their collective heads.

Wheelmen, introduced in the third Dead Reign splatbook "Endless Dead", used to drive for a living before the Wave - truckers, highway patrol, cops who managed to get away in their cars, bus drivers, taxi drivers, construction vehicle workers, delivery guys, ambulance drivers, even farmers and former racers and stunt drivers. Now they are modern-day nomads, using their skills to drift from place to place. Some work in tandem with zombie hunter bands suchs the Road Reapers as supply vehicles or rolling HQs, others just try to survive by staying mobile, often partnering up with Scroungers or even becoming full-on traders.

The name Zombie Hunter may seem like a bit of an oxymoron; after all, by definition, anyone who is fighting to preserve humanity in this Post-Wave world is going to hunt zombies at some point. What earns this O.C.C from the third Dead Reign splatbook, "Endless Dead", its moniker is its focus: professional Zombie Hunters are devoted to the war against the undead. They don't care (too much) about rescue, resupply, rebuilding, they care about dealing with the central issue. Namely, the need to put down every last shambling, crawling, moaning undead bastard there is. This is the anti-zombie combat master of the O.C.Cs.

Zombie Researchers, introduced in the third Dead Reign splatbook "Endless Dead", were educated souls in the pre-Wave world, and now that the dead walk, have turned that intelligence to answering the question of why the dead walk. The smartest ones make that phase one in a plan to ultimately figure out the answer to "how do we make them stop", but of course you have the eccentrics who just want to know for knowledge's sake.

Drone Masters, introduced in "Hell Followed", were pioneers in the art of remote-controlled robotic drones before the Wave, and have now turned their talents to good use in surviving. Whilst not foolproof, almost all zombies will ignore drones, which can be used as far-ranging scouts... and perhaps even assassins, if you can equip them with weaponry.

Federal Emergency Managers are agents of the pre-Wave American government who now serve still-surviving enclaves of bureaucracy. Their primary mission is to preserve and advance "The Continuity of the Federal Government"... basically, to try and keep the idea of the US government alive in hopes of one day actually restoring it to power. This O.C.C was introduced in "Hell Followed".

Free Spirits are similar to Survivors, except for one thing: their indefagitable sense of optimism and compassion. Whilst often perceived by more bitter, cynical or traumatized individuals as raving loonies, the Free Spirits are perfectly sane - they just prefer to look on the bright side of life, and seek to inspire humanity to hold onto hope. This O.C.C was introduced in "Hell Followed".

Naturalists represent those people who have focused on learning the skills needed to survive in the wilderness, which is honestly a pretty smart decision considering that a) most of the zombies are clustered around the urban environment, and b) there's only so much salvage and preserved food, so eventually it's going to run out. This O.C.C was introduced in "Hell Followed".

There are Road Reapers. There are Soldiers. There are Zombie Hunters. And then there's the One Man Army. These are the guys who have decided "enough is enough". Through sheer grit, determination, and a fuckload of guns and explosives, they are determined to start taking the world back for humanity. This O.C.C was introduced in "Hell Followed".

The One Percenter was amonst the richest and most powerful people in the world before the Wave. Now they have to struggle with a world where all their money, all their political connections, all their social clout, everything that made them "special" is either gone or absolutely worthless. But they often have a hoard of practical wealth too - land, fuel, ammunition, guns, medicine, food - and the smart ones learn how to leverage that to rise to the top in a rebuilding world.

Introduced in "Hell Followed", the Zombie Prophet O.C.C moves away from the relatively hard sci-fi of the rest of the setting. These individuals have learned that Potential Psychic Energy exists, and that it is central to the existence of the zombies - they know zombies feed from it, starve without it, and this has compelled them to explore its mysteries in hopes of unearthing the secrets behind the Wave. Which has paid dividends by teaching them how to manipulate their P.P.E field to become temporarily invisible to zombies. The downside is that almost all Zombie Prophets don't condemn the zombies as evil, which makes them almost as popular as necromancers.

The last splatbook, "In the Face of Death", introduced several O.C.Cs specifically for kids who have managed to survive in the post-Wave world.

• Rat Runners specialize in getting around quickly, exploiting their small, nimble bodies and intimate knowledge of the terrain to manuever in ways that many adults are hard pressed to match, making heavy use of parkour and similar athletic skills. They often serve as couriers and lookouts for the groups they run with.
• Urban Explorers are the young scouts of the Post-Wave world, taking advantage of being smaller, stealthier and more manueverable to locate even the most well-hidden or obscure resource caches and hot spots.
• Zombie Nerds are smart kids who are fascinated by the undead, and do their best to learn everything important about them. Don't mistake this for the abstract scientific knowledge of a Zombie Researcher; this is practical knowledge, gained through observation and confrontation. Unfortunately, familiarity can breed complacency, which can be their downfall.

Finally, the very last O.C.C invented specifically for Dead Reign is the Masked Lunatic Hero. Originally appearing as a concept with several NPCs based around it in "Hell Followed", it was promoted to a playable O.C.C in the final splatbook, "In the Face of Death". Masked Lunatics have gone, well, a little crazy, and have completely immersed themselves in a new fictious persona of a hero who stands up to the undead. This is usually a superhero, but not always; classic pulp and literary heroes like knights from the Arthurian Mythos, Robin Hood, or masked saviors like Zorro and the Scarlet Pimpernel also become a basis for this delusion. Masked Lunatics don't have superpowers in the technical sense, but usually have special abilities born from their dementia, such as berserker rages or lightning reflexes. The sourcebook also discusses in brief the idea of crossing over Dead Reign with Palladium's Supers RPG Heroes Unlimited or the RIFTS splatbook Heroes of the Megaverse.