"C.O. of boomer during a zombie apocalypse, what do you do? " Topic

This is my proposed background for a series of games, that will have two levels. A nearly RPG where the commander and staff plan and decide what to do, and a series of 'skirmish games' playing out the actions of 'landing parties.' I thought of making it an Amphibious Ready Group with MEU embarked, but they would likely have been ordered to land the Marines to help protect and evacuate civilians by sea. That would also be interesting, and give the players access to much more powerful weapons and landing forces, the boomer scenario limits the options a lot mmore. A SEAL platoon would give them much more options and could be explained by an exercise?

Skipper: Your Nuclear power submarine is three months into a six month patrol when word of a strange virus epidemic dominates the media and communications chanels. The National Command Authority, not understanding the source and believing it to be a bio-warfare attack goes to DEFCON 1 and orders you to avoid contact.

Over four months you listen as media outlets report city after city being overrun, the media and more slowly land based military communications go silent. You know the USS Alabama, docked and took aboard dependants, and provisions, before putting back out to sea. Last communications from her, was that they had infected aboard and thought they were going to be able to contain them with watertight bulkheads in the forward half of the ship. That was two weeks ago, she has not since responded to radio calls.

You know the contagion, believed to be a rabies mutation, results in "fast zombies" who retain a level of intelligence but act completely irrationally and attack unifected humans ferociesly with an intent to infect them. They don't seem to communicate among themselves but will pursue uninfected in 'packs' or 'mobs.' They will employ simple tools, bolt cutters, hammers, levers, and there have been very rare reports of use of more complex use of tools, including driving cars, but these are unconfirmed.

The disease can be transmitted through any type of fluid contact, and has a incubation period of between 8 hours and 5 days. It seems that at least 10% of the population is immune to the disease, it's not certain, but is believed that they can remain 'carriers.' The vast majority of the infected die within thirty days, but some are known to have survived at least three months.

You know there are bands of survivors ashore either held up in fortified areas or mobile groups and are in radio contact with several. They have to be ruthless to survive and are extremely unlikely to allow face to face contact with strangers. There are several well known stories of survivors being rescued, only to have the virus spread among the rescurers.

Very little communications, and no direction is coming out of the national command authority. You may be the Senior Officer left alive. You are running out of provisions, you have two months worth of food remaining, at reduced rations. You have a modest small arms locker, and a few zodiac boats aboard.

You've had communications with Ham Radio operators on remote islands, but they are understandably terrified of contact with the outside world, having survived due to their isolation.

What now skipper?

I love this setup! This would make a great roleplaying/skirmish campaign, with eventual "civilization-building" potential as well.

All I can think of is that one book about a sub that goes to Australia (I think that was it) after a nuke exchange.

that was made into a movie striker.

On the Beach by Nevil Shute

There were two movies I can think of:

On the Beach : Nuclear Fallout gradually envelops the world and bears down on the last of humanity in Australia.

Virus: A flu-like illness wipes out the population of the earth except for the crew of a British submarine and the research bases at the Pole.

Virus is available to watch on Youtube Movies from free, not great but worth a look IMHO.

The Novel World War Z had an story arc about this. It was interesting in that at one point some of the Zombies were beating on the hull of a sub which was sitting on the bottom.

they would have to go after food when it runs out and a sub need lots of parts and service after only 4 months at sea.

CRACKING scenario set-up!

First priority is to establish communication with other naval vessels.
Hang the "avoid contact" order.
The monitored signals clearly show that whatever the thinking behind the no contact policy was: it didn't work.
A vessel afloat has a good chance of remaining uninfected, unless it was tasked to carry refugees, take casualties, or otherwise assist in some way with the situation on-shore.
Failing contact with US vessels, I'd make the same attempts to contact foreign naval vessels and civilian craft.

Short term goal of this would be to see what resources we could put together between us. (Although, four months into the outbreak, our sub is likely to be in much better shape than anything else at sea.)

Long term goal – a large vessel or vessels anchored offshore, in a location with mild sea conditions will be a far more secure base than any on-shore facility ever could.

Absolute desperation goal – piracy.
If we happen across a container ship with a load of canned food and a crew who dosn't want to share, we're going Somalian.

N.B. – obviously, we avoid contact with vessels which have been in contact with the infected. Even if they came through unscathed, the survivors may still be carriers.

In the event we don't get make contact with any vessels at all, we look for non-responding vessels and board them.
Volunteers only, NBC gear and dencontamination before re-embarkation.
Anyone wounded by/wrestled with/made unnatural love to by the infected… don't get back on the boat. Quarantine isn't enough. They may get through the incubation period just fine, but still be a carrier.

Making our first foray on a ship rather than shore limits the amount of infected we're likely to meet, and the layout of a ship makes it possible to make areas secure as we pass through them, in a way you can't do on-shore.

When we make our first recon on-shore, we're going to Alaska.
Somewhere conditions are harsh enough that the weather and climate will have done the work for us.
The infected will have died of exposure, unless simple tool use extends to stopping to put on a wooly hat before charging after those fleeing 'normals'. Even if they've bunkered down indoors, the infected probably haven't kept generators running or changed the propane cylinders.
(for that reason, we avoid anywhere that appears to have power.)

Again, volunteers only, same protocol as the boarding parties. They go in on a zodiac – which drops them off then waits a short distance offshore.
They go in at night, using NVGs. We can see in the dark – they can't.

Eeerm… that's as far as my thoughts have led me. It'll do for a start, anyhow.

The High School of the Dead response was to have all nuclear powers fire off their nukes at rival capitals, some of which resulted in High Altitude Nuclear Explosions in above a number of cities, thus making everything worse… and this was around Z-Day +3.

To add a bit to Norman's ideas: Make the other-than-US ships be Chinese or Russian just to add that additional level of tension (especially if the other ships are also boomers). {I'm not normally into the Zombie thing, but even for me, the OP's scenario could be a lot of fun….).

Obviously first priority is to recover the Alabama and purge it of infected (by scuttling if necessary but hopefully not). That solves the supplies and parts problems raised by others (or well enought to get sub docked somewhere defensible anyway).

As far as rebuilding civilization, first priority is breaking radio silence to begin regular broadcasts of quarantine and water purifying procedures. Since zombies don't use radios, and maximum incubation period is 5 days, and a person with adequate water can go without food for 5 days if necessary, quarantine procedure is pretty straightforward.

Further the infected die out after 30 days and (apparently) the already dead don't reanimate.

Lot of work but civilization can be recovered!

You missed the big one, Ceru…

…it's the carriers that are the killer in this scenario.

Sure, the quarantine procedure is five days, but… what then?

Let that apparently normal, came-through-quarantine-just-fine guy back on the boat?
5 days later some guy who drank from the same glass is barricaded in the reactor room wearing the XO as a meat suit!

Sure, the infected die off in thirty days, but… what then?

Join that happy, welcoming community of survivors who've put together a thriving settlement at a Hawaian beach resort?

5 days later, some SEAL who got a welcoming kiss from an unsuspecting carrier runs through the children's dorm dual-wielding chainsaws!

As long as there are carriers, there'll be fresh outbreaks. And as far as we know, there's no way to tell who's a carrier.

Nice idea :)

Depressing, no thanks :(

Yes, I did miss the implication of the carriers. Thanks for pointing that out.

Norman-D-Landings: Lots of good ideas there. I think that most of them will get injected into my scenario, either as radio messages from a Sister Sub, or recommendations from an NPC aboard the Sub. I'm thinking that the "Chief of the Boat" should be an NPC who can help provide guidance to the PCs.

Coastal2: Thanks, they will definately make contact with a Russian Sub.

Ceru: Thanks, recovering the Alabama will be recommended. Not certain it's a good idea, but it will be strongly recommended by the cheif of the boat.

Who cares about all the tactical / combat / emotionally detatched By-the-book BS. The interesting angle is the human reaction. What about the crew, surely they have families at home. The skipper may have a mutiny on his hands. The skipper may even crack himself.

If this was an RPG I was running I would create dossiers for all the PC's, including fake family photos. In the 'motives' section for each PC I would definitely emphasise their love of their families and friends. Massive XP penalties for anyone who doesn't bring that out in play somehow.

How about clues that even suggest that a civillian scientist aboard the USS Alabama may have something to do with the outbreak. Perhaps he has a cure that could save the families of the crew, perhaps it's all some kind of psychological experiment and there is no outbreak.

An RPG should be all about how the PC's react, not the tactics of how they survive.

Ian