Zombies are a staple in the horror genre, so much so that I personally feel that we’ve been slightly over-saturated with them in the last few years. It takes a special or different take on the classic zombie story to well and truly get me invested in those kinds of stories nowadays. But my personal proclivities aside, they’re still big business in Hollywood and other mediums for the genre.
Zombies and other types of undead creatures also have a strong presence in many tabletop roleplaying games. In fantasy settings you have necromancers commanding armies of the walking dead and animated corpses stalking the halls of long forgotten tombs and dungeons. Games set in a modern time line have the benefit of being able to borrow from any of the various sources out there.
Science fiction on the other hand…sometimes gets lost in the shuffle. There are only two real representations that I can think of in recent history – two Star Wars novels now in the Legends timeline and the Mass Effect video game series which featured “cybernetic zombies” as antagonists throughout the series.
However, that doesn’t mean that they don’t have a place in science fiction. In fact it’s just the opposite, and many forum posts online (especially around this time of the year) of GMs looking for zombie stats for their Star Wars games proves that. Now, game stats for zombies are pretty easy. Unless you’re doing something different with them, they’re pretty much mindless, shambling, animated corpses that can take a beating and can (depending on the literature you subscribe to) turn others into zombies with a bite. That’s not that hard to replicate on paper, and I’m confident that every GM for FFG’s Star Wars roleplaying game is capable of coming up with a stat block for them. Instead, I’m going to talk about several ways to bring these kinds of creatures into your game.
Now Star Wars does have the rakghoul, and while that is a good stand-in, I’m talking about the more “classical zombie” that you can find within the genre.
Patient Zero
The most common trope in modern zombie literature has a place in Star Wars as well. Biological weapons or viruses (either lab-created or naturally-occurring) are creating these creatures, and it’s infectious and able to be transmitted to new hosts. Biological functions break down – organs fail, flesh rots, and the host body dies. But the virus keeps the body moving, providing just enough impulse to the brain to keep transmitting. Destroy the brain and you destroy the threat from that particular creature. With so many worlds still yet to explore in the Star Wars universe it stands to reason that a new, undiscovered virus or plague is out there, waiting for a hapless explorer to unleash a new outbreak on the galaxy.
Cyber-Zombies
Just like the Reapers create the husks in the Mass Effect series, I can easily see a group of aliens in the Star Wars universe creating servants by effectively turning them into machines that they can control by implanting them with a multitude of different cybernetics until they are effectively no longer human. This is the most radical departure from the classical “walking dead” motif, but I also think it’s one where the GM can have the most fun. These people were once humanoids. Can they be saved or are they irrevocably changed by this process? What abilities might their cybernetics give them?
Sith Sorcery
The fantasy genre has necromancers and modern games have Voodoo cults. Star Wars has the Force. More specifically it has Sith Sorcery. For millenia, many Sith have been known for twisting the normal processes of life to serve their own purposes with the Dark Side of the Force. The Sith Lord Exar Kun mutated the native Massassi of Yavin IV into hulking creatures that he could use as soldiers. Even Emperor Palpatine had creatures that he experimented on and changed to suit his own purposes. It only stands to reason that at some point, some Sith Lord experimented on humans, perverting them with the power of the Dark Side until they were no longer recognizable. Or maybe they were able to find a way to animate the dead bodies of their foes (and fallen allies) to allow them to continue fighting. There are still many mysteries about the Force that we don’t know about. This is another one you can have fun with, giving these creatures unique abilities powered by the Force. And I think the FFG system is the system to do this in.
Symbiote
Even in the modern age there exist flora that are capable of infecting other creatures and taking them over, turning them effectively into zombies. O. unilateralus or the zombie fungus is probably the most well known of these types of fungi. Who is to say that in the vastness of the Unknown Regions there isn’t a fungus that is capable of altering the behavior of a human or humanoid host, taking over its mind and turning it hostile towards those not infected by the fungus or spore.
Alternatively, maybe it’s not a fungus. Maybe it’s a creature. In the Unknown Regions sourcebook for Star Wars Saga Edition, a creature known as the Mnggal-Mnggal exists on a planet within the Unknown Regions of space. It is amorphous and shapeless, existing in what are known as “pools,” just waiting for a hapless creature to wander close enough to it. Once that happens, it lashes out, forming pseudopods or fanged maws to attack and infect the target with bits of the greater whole, which then consumes the innards of the creature, eventually filling the entire creature, now an empty shell with the Mnggal-Mnggal which it now can control for its own ends. A new outbreak of the Mnggal-Mnggal due to a hapless explorer making an emergency landing on the creature’s home planet and exposing his crew to it could kick off an entire campaign as the PCs must race to contain and eradicate the threat.
Ben Erickson
