"Zombie laws" Topic

I've been wondering if Zombie laws (not rules) are the same in different stories. For instance vampires can't come out in sunlight. Can animals such as cows, dogs, cats as well as primates become zombie animated? I wouldn't want it that way but I'm not writing the rules. On Walking Dead Rick mentions winter could slow them down, to me I would have them frozen if cold enough but warming them up would re-animate them all over. Why aren't flies the worst enemy of zeds instead of the living or is that something that isn't in play? So basically my question is does every author re-write the laws or are they more or less set?

My mom once told me that when she was a little girl, she sneaked a peak at her uncle's monster/pulp/weird magazine (she didn't remember the title.) A zombie story in it said zombies could only attack you in your house if you had a door facing the north.

They'd walk in the north door, attack, kill/eat you and then walk out the south door. She remembers this scared the hell out of her because her house had a north facing door.

To tack on to your main question, I wonder who was the first to write about zombies? … on to Wiki!…

Edit: Oh, of course: voodoo.

Even Vampires don't have one set of Laws. Dracula walked around in daylight with only a diminuation of his "supernatural" abilities.

The "Laws" of any creature/monster are up to the sole discretion of the author/screenwriter. Compare and contrast the zombies of "Night of the Living Dead" with with "ragers" from such films as the "28 somethings After" series (or even "Dawn of the Dead").

The same author may even change (or ignore/forget) "laws" he made up (Compare and contrast "T.Rex relies on eyesight – don't move" in Jurrasic Park 1 with "T. Rex relies on smell" in JP 2…

28 Days Later weren't zombies, just ask the director…ugh.

Max (son of Mel) Brooks book Zombie Survival Guide started out as a joke. It ended up quite frankly becoming cannon in a lot of zombie circles. He even addresses a lot of the differing ways zombies behave in different movies. Plus, the book is totally hilarious in a I-wrie-this-in-a-deadly-serious way.
He followed it up with World War Z. I can't say enough about how well written that book was.

vampires can't come out in sunlight

No, they sparkle, honest.

OR, if they drink enough fairy blood they are OK too, until it wears off and then they become a crispy critter.

The movie Zombie as we know them now, were created by Romero and (Russo?) for the film "Night of the Living Dead".
It was not intended to create a popular on going subset of the Horror genre. In other words, no rules except those needed to give the monsters in the film some consistency in their behavior.

Authors like Max Brooks are very similar to fans of other cult movies and TV shows. They extrapolate. Look at the detailed ship plans that came out when Star Trek became popular. Some fans are often consulted due to their knowledge of previous films or episodes. George R R Martin freely admits to consulting with some on-line fans when he looses the thread for the 'Game of Thrones" series.
As to gaming rules, do what pleases you. Since it's all make believe, how can you be prosecuted for making stuff up?

link

Zombies with a "shelf-life", and more to worry about than just wandering around looking for people to bite. It would change the dynamic of a campaign. Of course, it would also give those nasty humans/player characters hope!

NWMike, thats the funniest thing I've read in a while

"NWMike, thats the funniest thing I've read in a while"

Agreed. It was funny, weird, and insightful. Just quantifies how much disbelief we have to suspend, when dealing with zombie fiction.

That whole site looks like a (bookmark) keeper.

Duck

Great article.

Did you guys notice this snowman monster…yikes!

It is a McFarlane toy, so way big…way funny though in the right setting :)

In our world, we use the Dan O'Bannon zeds. You can't kill what's already dead and the fresh dead move just as fast as their living counterparts. The only thing we change is that they can't talk and they want to eat all of you and not just your brains.

You better be in shape, in a vehicle or have a large caliber weapon preferably belt fed in our battle with the undead.

Brian

Ah … just "Nuc'm from orbit, it's the only way to be sure."

Oh dear lord, is the "nuke them from orbit" becoming a meme?

To be sure.

What do you mean "becoming"?

corporalpat, ok, so I'm pointing out the horse is leaving the barn when in fact he already went to college, got married, immigrated to Australia and opened a restaurant.

To paraphrase the Joker, "… I just like the way it sounds …"