"Would zombies have weapons?" Topic

I think they would still hold on to whatever was in their hands when they …turned(?).
A zombie in a business suit clutching a briefcase would be cool.

And, what if they truned while behind the wheel of a car? It wouldn't last long, just until it ran out of gas. There are some comic scenes in World War Z where zombies are trapped in cars they are unable to goet out of.

The 'turning' would have to be very quick and untraumatic….

Heading to casualty to get this bite stitched up… jump in the car, pull away, fade out for a moment, 'die' at the wheel, reanimate without crashing, and suddenly BAM: Zombie at the wheel!

As an idea, it's great fun. I picture the process of death-by-infection and reanimation as being a bit too drawn-out and traumatic for it to work, though.

Same goes for items held at death – that's actually a very rare occurence. (So much so that it's considered an indicator of a 'staged' death scene.)

I like the idea of some zombies being 'gifted'… to the extent of trying door-handles, and using heavy objects as bludgeons. Nice little surprise for the survivors!

The only problem is that most of the agreed type of zombie has to die before coming back as a zombie, so it would be hard for them to die clutching something and then reanimate without letting go of it.

Who says zombies can't retain some bit of intelligence and be tool users? Mindless zombies are the norm but it would be fun to have a gun-toting zombie crank off a round at random or try to use a car.

One of the latest Zombie movies had a Zombie learning to use a gun. So why not?

In 'Return of the Living Dead' the zombies use police radios to call for more police, who they then eat.

In large part it may well depend on how they are reanimated. Magical zombies may retain some knowledge of previous skills, perhaps even enough to use them, or may be 'given' skills by the magic user. Zombies reanimated by a virus probably would not retain any previous skills. IMO, of course.

Well, the very first zombie seen on-screen in Romero's Night of the Living Dead picks up a rock to smash the car window, so why not?

I gave my zombies flamethrowers and chainsaws. Just to even things up a bit…

Making Zombies too smart takes all the romance out of being Zombie. Their terror lies in shambling, unrelenting numbers… not so much weaponized individuals…. which is territory the "Terminator"/"Predator" movies exploited.

After a while their fingers would fall off so they wouldn't be able to pull the triggers.

Judging by the number of zombies I've encountered through my life, tool use isn't out of the question!

It's a game, thus first of all it's up to you! From the hordes of clumsy, lumbering snail-brained brutes to the super-smart vampire (just another extreme type of undead) there's a wide palette to choose from.

Depends also, at least for the choice of minis, if you are 'fantasy / magick' inclined or favor a minimum 'scientific likelihood'. Animated skeletons -able to move without muscles, to see without eyes and to coordinate their actions without brain- obviously belong to the 1st realm; but so do vampires without body temperature, heart beat and mirror image: and the zombies with deep wounds, visible guts or lungs which are produced in miniatures by almost all manufacturers… Mere dessication would paralyze them soon.
Which implies that 'undead' CAN be killed: their tradition of 'invulnerability' comes from their ignorance of pain. Think of the Black Knight in 'Holy Grail': when the creature you hit a number of times keeps crawling toward you on its blood-dripping stumps, in the panick you really think you'll never get rid of it….

To merely move 'zombies' -as any living animal body- need functional eyes, (a residue of) brain, muscles and thus a functional circulatory system to provide oxygen and glucose, eliminate carbon dioxide, functional lungs… seemingly the digestive system of zombies always remain functional (well, at least the 'entrance' extremity: in the same way as Sartre's characters are ever vomiting but never defecating, zombies are always shown eating but never… eliminating (then, it's also the case for living Presidents, Queens and Pope so maybe it's not significant ).
Thus 'credible' zombies must look relatively 'unharmed', the blood covering them coming from their preys, not from themselves. That's why I argue it's up to each of us to 'do the make-up' of their zombies TMP link .

'Credible' zombies can have, imho, two different origins:
- 'Voodoo': a combination of drugs and mesmerism,
- 'Matheson Model': a highly contagious disease (applies not only to 'I'm a legend', but also to 'Brain Dead', 'Resident Evil' and '[Rec]1'). The parasite modifies deeply the behavior of its host to its own advantage (numerous examples in 'The Real World'), by drastically either *decreasing* his / her intellectual capacities (traditional 'zombies') or *altering* his/her 'ethics / values' ('vampires': what is traditionally referred to as 'losing own soul').
While in the 1st 'Voodoo' case control probably implies some brainwashing and thus moronic state, the 'disease' can have any effect you wish for on the maintenance of skills and ability to learn new ones. Then, regardless of their 'origin', to be self-consistent 'clumsy, slow-moving' zombies would *at best* be very poor shooters…

There has been a trend in more recent movies for zombies to retain some basic memory of what they were. Left alone after all the primary food sources disappear they either go dormant or try and repeat their old daily routine. In The Walking Dead when the mother from the family that rescues the cop comes to the door and tries to get it, it is because at some level it remembers it lived there. In another movie (the Dennis Hopper one whose name escapes me) the one zombie from the gas station is still responding to the bell at the pumps and trying to refuel cars. Usually the memores take some time after the infection sets in to start to come back. It is also why they all go to the mall in Dawn of the Dead. In the remake they mention that all the zombies are there because that is where they went when they were alive.

The Zombie Handbook also mentions that it is possible, as a zombie, to plan attacks and other actions, though coordination with others leaves a lot to be desired.

Transformation usually takes from 10-90 minutes, depending on the strain of infection, so the odds that a zombie could die behind the wheel and the transform and still be driving seem pretty remote. Locked in the car, sure. Driving, not so much.

The Zombie Handbook has great info for why zombies do what they do, why the eat what they do, and how long they can last.

Zombies do not have the brains to operate most weapons. Carrying around handy items yes, M60 Machine guns? I think not, but then again I do have a brain.
VR
James Mattes

Nope.
Dead is dead. Loss of 90% of motor skills.
Slow moving.
Uncommunicative. Just moans.
Maybe clutching something in their hand when they died, but it end there.

Kinda like the DMV…

In my world, that is…

No. But I realize that the OFM is just goofing on the subject.

Depends on what movie/ book they're in ;))

Zombies have about as much a chance to wield a weapon as a hippie does to hold a job and pay taxes.

The Walking Dead TV series had some zeds using rocks to smash glass doors on a building (Episode 2), and the first cemetary zombie in NOTLD uses a rock to try to break the car window.

Other than that, the zombies in my games do not use weapons.

Good 'hard SF' approach of the nature / origin of zombies: link

Wow…. I like that write up… I think I will ahve to use that in some future games. The Type A vs Type B "Runner" Zombie.

Now if only zombie miniatures would paint more zombie miniatures…

Well, sure, they'd lose most of their thinking capacity, but what if it started out as an especially smart person? What if Albert Einstein became a zombie? would he be able to communicate with other zombies? Would he be able to operate small hand-tools or negotiate a doorknob on his own? I think he could.

And what if two such zombies teamed up, say, Albert Einstein and Enrico Fermi, together as zombies. I bet they could operate crew-served weapons. One could do the relatively simple task of aiming and shooting and the other could do the task of feeding ammo belts, at least until the weapon jams up. All that stuff is designed for someone with an 8th-grade education to figure out, so a couple of Summa Cum Laude zombies should manage. And if they were joined up with a third smart zombie? Let's say they tracked down and bit Steven J Hawking while he's rolling around helpless in his wheelchair. I bet the 3 of them together could figure out how to drive a car AND fire a weapon mounted on it. Or a tank. They'd be hell on wheels.