Part 1: Human After All
There is no blueprint for constructing the perfect game of Humans Versus Zombies; but designing a game with a strong yet flexible framework can support a hefty, unforgettable experience. We here at Gnarwhal Studios hope you have experienced the pleasure, nay, the joy of an immaculately run game. It is an unforgettable experience. The end of a good game should bring back those capricious tingles you felt as a kid at summer camp: the air seems healthier, the world a bit brighter. And even if you don’t know everyone’s names, you still grew an inexplicable bond with all the other kids. We here at the Studio wish every game could give you this feeling. But they don’t. Not all the time. And we want to help you fix that by helping you improve the way moderators run games of HvZ. Because when it comes down to it, it is the moderators and their game plan that decides whether a game goes down in history—or in flames.

If we’re going to make some suggested improvements we’d better first convince you, dear reader, that there are some problems with the way games are often run. Let’s identify some problems, shall we?
First of all, HvZ is a game best run by the players. It’s easy to mistake Moderators as the force that moves the game, but the engine that drives the game is done completely by the players and actually requires no Moderator intervention. Mods are necessary in order to smooth things out but add little to the actual motion of the game. Some HvZ scenes have a lot of Moderator intervention and we want to make it clear that sometimes this can be an amazing thing. But for newer and less adept Mod squads, the mentality that the game’s administrators should be highly involved in intricate missions and plot devices can become exponentially cumbersome to carry out and awkward if not down-right frustrating for the players. It’s easy for Mods to bite off more than they should and start acting all Big Government in the self-sustaining world of HvZ. Mods often begin to want to control the game, to attach an intricate plot, insert Non Player Characters (NPC’s), and make complicated albeit awesome missions that players can only complete by having direct, in-game moderator guidance. Sometimes this works and we don’t want to demonize those who do it. If you can pull these off, you’re a champ. But when Moderators try to harness and direct the inevitable forward motion of the game, that game takes on a mentality of being led through a pre-designed story than it is about a sandbox gaming experience. And we think that the sandbox is really the spirit of HvZ. What we need then is a system that ensures players can be given interesting, even intricate missions without the hand-holding of what is called Chaperone Moderation.

The second problem is related to the first but with a twist. When a Moderator is iron-fisted about their game design, the game is bound to break. That epic night mission where you told the Humans they would need three groups of twenty players for it to be completed was dashed when the Original Zombie tagged half the Resistance in the first six hours of the game. Now you’re stuck with having to change your poorly-planned rules mid-game not only disappointing the ravenous Horde but also diminishing the on-your-own appeal that the HvZ sandbox inspires. This On-The-Fly Moderation makes a Mod squad look incompetent and, like Chaperone Moderation, gives a sense that the Humans do the job so “daddy” has to come to the rescue and make their little game fair again. It might not seem like a big deal on paper, but play a couple of games where the Humans, surrounded on all sides mid-mission, are suddenly granted immunity by a chaperoning Moderator so they can make it to the declared mission area and you’ll have a Horde calling for not only the Humans’ brains but the Moderators’ too. We need a system that eliminates gives a sense that the game is in the hands of the players and the players alone. While any Moderator could sweep in and interfere at any moment, there should be little need for any Mod to be with the Humans while they complete their missions.

The third problem is almost inevitable at least once in a while. Sometimes even the best HvZ communities sprout some bad, bad seeds. We can all agree that the game is all about teamwork. It is universally understood that one person can bring down an entire game. And we don’t mean the kind of well-meaning stupidity that gets games in trouble games like when a guy crashes his home-made hang-glider into campus security’s patrol car. We mean when players act selfishly to “win” the game for themselves. Specifically, when a game’s end condition relies on all the Humans or all the Zombies to be dead, one player can drag out the game for days on end, well past the point of enjoyment for everyone, hiding and avoiding normal life—which is exactly the opposite of the spirit of the game. Call us idealists (we’ve been called worse), but we think games are best when everyone has a good time from beginning to end. If that means sacrificing yourself in some epic fashion of your choosing, so be it. Because HvZ, whether you like it or not, is not a game about who wins or loses but what reputation you can earn for yourself. Everybody wants to be remembered and respected and this game and others like it offer that opportunity. But when a player tries to use the dynamics of the game to “win,” not even he himself has real, honest-to-goodness fun. We need a system that prevents selfish players from ruining everyone else’s fun.

Last but not least is a subtle problem with our beloved pastime. Did you ever notice that playing as a Human is somehow exciting and yet as boring as playing Runescape? Remember how you were almost grateful to be a Zombie because then you could do something? That’s because HvZ is actually two games in one. You heard right. In a classic game of HvZ the Zombies are constantly in a game of “race against the clock.” Ask anyone in the Horde how swiftly the 48-hour feed countdown passes. You share a meal and all of a sudden it’s the next day and you have 10 hours left before starvation. Time is ticking. Zombies have to hunt! But Humans play a different game called “don’t play the game and win.” Technically speaking, the people with the highest chance of winning are the ones who also win the “Anne Frank Award” at the awards ceremony some games hold after the last brain has been munched. For Humans, hiding equals winning. But it’s also boring as sin. And despite the hefty rewards given to players who brave the undead storm during missions, no one, I repeat, NO ONE, has ever made a mission more worthwhile to complete than staying locked away, bored but winning, in your personal Zombie-Free Zone. Except for one. We need a system that changes the game for Humans: to get them out of their hidey holes and into the great blue yonder where they can be viciously mowed down by the Zombie Horde—I mean so they can at least try to achieve a victory condition.

Part 2: Aerodynamic
But fear not, dear reader, veteran HvZ theorists have been hard at work coming up with solutions to these most fundamental problems of the mechanics of our beloved game. And we are proud to announce that a consensus has been reached on how to solve the four problems described in part one.

The solution is called The Mission Tree.

Those of you who are familiar with games like Civilization, Starcraft, or Eve Online are also familiar with the concept of the “Technology Tree.” For those not familiar, Tech Trees operate a bit like the way colleges organize their courses: You must first complete Bio 101 and 102 before you may take Bio 200. Take a look at the imaginary Mission Tree below.

Remember at the end of Part 1 that there was one mission that got players out of hiding? It’s called the Helicopter Mission: a mission designed to be hard, long, and usually fatal but if completed, ends the game. As described by Josh Harris in a previous article on our site, a Helicopter Mission brings a sense of closure to a game. Interest in playing diminishes in relation to the number of players at an exponential rate toward the end of the game. Players complain that games do not end with a bang but rather a whimper.

The only thing that inspires players out of their caves is a chance at getting off the island, so to speak. Usually Helicopter Missions are declared as the Humans’ numbers dwindle and the Moderators heavy-handedly decide to end the game. But what if every mission was directly related to everyone’s survival? Would that get you out of your room and into the fight? Damn right it would. The relationship between effort and victory will inspire Humans not only because it gives them a reachable goal but also because it gives them something to do. It turns their game into a race against time as well except where the Zombies rush against a counting-down clock, the Humans rush against an increasingly carnivorous Horde racing against the clock. By instituting an endgame it gives the Humans an indirect clock to race against and thus finally makes missions worth going out for.

But a Mission Tree doesn’t do only that. It also prevents a single player from winning the game for him or herself by being a holdout. While Moderators choose (before game, preferably) whether the Helicopter Mission will end the game entirely or just rescue the successful participants (and allow the game to peter out a la “classic style”), either decision negates the “victory” of that lonewolf. Not that things should get to that point: by forcing players to accomplish missions in order to unlock a victory opportunity, you may find that a strong sense of teamwork becomes part of your players’ culture. While this is to be tested in the wild, here at the Studio we believe this will give more incentive for casual players to join in with hardcore Humans and for the most intense Resistance members to reach out and build the necessary relationships with less committed participants.

The application of the Mission Tree appears to prevent player-side problems and encourage even more teamwork than a classic game of HvZ, but does it prevent Moderator-induced difficulties also? With perhaps a change of culture on the parts of those Mods, yes. Just by implementing a framework for game design does not stop a Mod from suddenly inventing a Cafeteria Tray of Invulnerability or some such On-The-Fly Moderating nonsense. But with a little preparation before the game begins, there becomes less of a need to chaperone Humans during missions, less opportunity to intervene out of pity or “fairness,” and an emphasis on well-designed, well-explained missions posted for all to see. Missions should be viewable to players well before-hand so that they (some, at least) have time to plan their routes to a mission area and avoid the need to be bailed out by a Moderator for the sake of “fairness.” The players’ fates are in their own hands if they are given the guide to winning the game at the outset and left to their own devices with how to do it.

Finally, the use of a Mission Tree practically eliminates the need for Chaperone Moderation. With a Tree in place, the game runs itself with Moderators being used for, well, moderating and ensuring that mission objectives have been successfully met. That’s it. Their jobs are hard and hectic enough; the Mission Tree reduces their workload, focuses their attention, and increases their efficacy. This game style does not, however, limit the storyline of a game. It does make integrated plots determined more by the timing of the Resistance, however. Instead of Moderators having the leisure of adding in story elements at their leisure, particular care will have to be given to keep up with the potentially swift pace of the Humans completing their missions. (There are ways to slow the game down subtly, in a very ‘hands off’ sort of way such as by restricting the attempts at a mission to specific times of day. In this way, you can pace a Tree so that, if done perfectly, will take a minimum amount of time to complete and so will not be able to be finished in a single day.) Right now, Moderators tend to own the game. It’s their plot, their missions, their wouldn’t-it-be-cool-if ideas. But players want to own the game. So do the right thing and give it back to them.

Remember though, those mission conditions have to be defined clearly. Like Windex clear. It is our suggestion that the Mission Tree be posted in an open safezone, such as a cafeteria, well before the start of the game. It could also be put online on your game’s website if you have one. Below/linked from each Mission on the Tree should be a detailed description of what is supposed to occur at each mission and under what conditions the mission will be considered “complete.” If a mission is not completed, the Mods may choose to reset the objective or leave the objective half completed and available for another set of Humans to attempt it. This is where Moderators with good acumen (that’s a GRE word, go look it up) come in. While you may be able to get away with some “minigame” missions such as a timed King of the Hill mission where a moderator will need to be present, the most compatible missions are ones where there is evidence of the effort. Let’s say an objective is to build an 8-foot tall windmill with free spinning blades at a certain location that can only be assembled onsite between 6 am and 6 pm. The windmill is either there or it’s not. It is best missions that use binaries like this. In this way, Moderators and players can easily keep track of their progress down the Tree.

Part 3: One More Time
Believe it or not, there are fundamental flaws to the World’s Greatest Game Humans Versus Zombies. But through careful pre-planning and a new approach to the game, Moderators can effectively reduce the effort they put in to pushing the game along and have more time to focus on setting up later missions, plot events or theatrics, and-oh yeah- moderating any complaints from the players. Mods have enough work to do. On-the-fly mission design, a strategy of game-running that makes virtually no one happy, should become a thing of the past except in the rarest and most unforeseen situations. Because the onus for well-designed missions is shifted to the pre-game phase then, Moderators would be wise to prepare and rehearse fair, completeable missions before the game begins and to inspect their descriptions for loopholes and ambiguities. Once a sound Mission Tree is implemented, the risk of self-centered players ruining the game is essentially eliminated, players are more inclined to work together and take responsibility for their planning and actions, and the Humans’ game is transformed from a “wait and win” game to one where participation paves the road to salvation.
The Mission Tree is not an end-all solution. Throughout this article I have referenced multiple times where the Tree should encourage a certain kind of stance Moderators should affect: one of steadfast adherence to a well-designed, achievable game-plan reviewed and designed well ahead of time. They should be rather hands-off when it comes to missions. The Humans are supposed to be fighting for survival and not complaining to Moderators to get them out of a sticky situation. There will be exceptions. I have discovered that we are human after all, and to achieve a more aerodynamic game of Humans Versus Zombies, Moderators should implement a well-designed Mission tree to make their games lighter, stronger, smoother… and better.

Resistance Schmesistance

-Adam Longwill

There’s tons more info on their site and guidebook.

Currently, the following schools have expressed interest. They are currently getting rosters from these schools and all of that should be solidified by March-ish.
- SUNY Binghamton
- Bowling Green
- Ithaca
- Goucher
- Ohio Northern
- Penn State Brandywine
- Slippery Rock
- University of Pittsburgh

If you aren’t listed above and are planning to attend, please have a single representative from your school email john.mortara@urbangaming.org.

We just set up an amazon store. Also, let us know if there is anything that you would like to see on there.

Thanks,
The HvZ team

[...] What happened during Humans versus Zombies was interesting, unexpected and wholly incredible: A disparate group of people from all social circles and points of interest collaborated and played a game together. I met people with whom I’d have no occasion to talk were it not for this game, and I think that I’ll do a decent job of staying in touch with them.

Leaders rose to the top. Consider the sociology of this: In a completely arbitrary environment, people rose to positions of leadership based not on income or popularity or looks, but on raw ability to adapt and excel in a game nobody had played before.

These people are the people we want to be politicians. They’ve shown they have the goods, in whatever geeky (but completely awesome) way you like, and they’ve shown a remarkable ability to adapt. Crazy how fun imitates life.

Legends grew. I’m sure everyone who reads this knows the name, if not the face, of sophomore Nick Spengler, the man who, it is said (probably incorrectly) wrapped socks around his hands and beat the zombies back with bare fists. You know of sophomore Mike Lanni, who wore a Spartan helmet to the final battle and kicked ass and took names until the last moments of battle. And you’ve heard of junior Darrin Policar, the pirate captain of the zombies. Seriously, within one week, we created a mythology.

Most importantly, in a “life” or “undeath” struggle, we realized what it takes to stay “alive.” We learned, by necessity, to work in groups, either human or zombie. We walked around campus with a healthy eye for what was going on and, in the words of fellow player and sophomore Kate Hayden, we took part in a “delightful exercise in situational awareness.”

Thanks, Aaron! That’s why we love Humans vs. Zombies too.

We’re working on a new community film project, and we need you to take a few minutes and tell us how Humans vs. Zombies has affected your life.

To be eligible for funky fresh merch please send a copy of your iReport submitted video or post it in this thread!

Truman State’s Fall 2008 game of Humans Versus Zombies is the stuff of legends. While many moderators find it difficult to run even the most barebones game, Truman’s Cody Sumter and his band of moderators created what would go down as the most complicated, well-designed, and exhausting implementation of plot and missions Humans Versus Zombies has ever seen.

When John Mohr, a shaggy-haired fraternity member of Phi Sigma Pi, answered the knock on his dormitory door late one night, he wasn’t expecting two students on the other side, dressed in black, to take his picture with a burst of flash, hand him a piece of paper, and walk away without saying a word. His surprise and confusion lead him down the rabbit hole, into an alternate world created by Truman’s moderators. On the paper was a website address. The site turned out to be RebuildOurFuture.com, a PR site for the Syrner corporation that had been mandated by the government to oversee the quarantine, cleanup, and protection of a small Missourian town..

The fall 2008 round of HvZ at Truman State was the fourth in a continuing series of games following a single plot. Each round continued the story of Kirksville, the location of one of the nation’s deadliest zombie outbreaks. There were recurring themes, twists in the years-long plot surrounding the reclamation of the town, and, perhaps most remarkably, recurring characters. “The game was on a four year story line.” explained Mckenna Peters, a newer player wearing camouflage pants and proudly brandishing her balled-up socks and maverick with pride. “The first game had a little story. The second game had a little more that elaborated on the first, and the game I played, last semester [fall 2008] and this semester [Spring 2009], were the completion of that story line.”

On the Syrner corporation site, Mohr was able to apply for a job with the company. He could choose to be a part of the security squad, be an information technology specialist, construction/maintenance worker, particle physics scientist, or join the research team. He, of course, chose security. In a place like Kirksville, there is no such thing as too many guns.

Sumter looks back and laughs at the unprecedented attention to detail. “Not everyone wants to partake in the plot of the game. They’re just in it to run around and have fun. However there are a number of people who want to be involved in the plot—to the point of making an alternate reality for themselves.” And an alternate reality was indeed made.

At the outset of the game, during the mandatory orientation meeting, a few manila folders were handed out to random people in the sea of eager players. A few of them had messages scrawled on the back cover of John Mohr’s. It read “come to the bell tower at 10:30pm. Tell no one.” John, of course, told everyone.

The players expected only a little bit of plot to whet their appetites at the outset of the game. What ended up happening blew their minds. Outside the bell tower were a pair of speakers connected to an iPhone. As Mohr and his band of nervous Syrner Corporation security officers approached it, the phone began to ring. When John answered, the Human player on the other end was ecstatic that someone had finally answered. Mohr didn’t recognize the caller’s voice and asked who he was and where he was calling from. “I’m calling from Goucher College” said the Human. John relayed the message to his crew and looking in his folder, he and his long-distance compatriot realized they each had pieces to solve two missions going on simultaneously in each of their HvZ games. Never before had two games connected like this let alone depended on each other remotely for success.

Truman’s moderators had given John Mohr five locations on Goucher’s campus and the Goucher moderators had given their caller ten locations in Kirksville where clues were hidden. After each clue was found at Goucher, a call had to be made to Truman State where John Mohr could tell them the next location. After all the Goucher locations were found, they discovered a website address which they communicated to Mohr. At each location in Kirksville, there were puzzle pieces. Putting them all together gave them the lyrics to the song “Jenny” made famous by the refrain “8675309” Which, it would turn out, was the password to a website discovered by the Goucher players.

“It was absolutely crazy.” Laughed Mohr, reflecting. “When we got this cryptic e-mail at the end of the mission, I was ecstatic.” The storyline continued and carried the Resistance into the next day’s missions.

Cody Sumter agrees that the game was crazy—or as he put it in a recent interview “downright insane and we should not have attempted it.” Sumter decided that the fall 2008 game was going to be the best there ever was. His passion for great game design lead him to start planning months in advance. “We came up with a general story we wanted to tell.” And using that story, he and his band of moderators began designing missions that not only got the Humans out in the open by giving them small rewards, but also changed the course of the story.

The plot meandered forward. The Zombies numbers swelled. The missions, activities usually only designed well enough to get terrified Human players out of the safe zones, were not only tied in to the game’s plot, but were also designed in such a way that the outcome effected the storyline that was sent out in e-mails to all the players. “

In one mission, the Humans had to locate and defend a number of computer ‘nodes’ around Truman’s massive campus. But the zombies had to do the same thing. Unknown to either group was the significance of each of the nodes.

“[We eventually understood] we could clearly lose things if we lost [a certain] node. One of the nodes we lost was outside communication. A node no one knew about that was at the far, far edge of campus where no one goes. If we had lost it, the Zombies could have sent out fake e-mails and so they could have set up ambushes to kill humans. I heard about this after the mission and was like ‘holy crud, we could have been massacred!’” Said John Mohr.

There were three or four possible endings to the game. Each ending could be reached by multiple paths through a choose-your-own-adventure type of story board Sumter had set up. Each mission’s success or failure changed conditions that might result in a particular ending. “In the first mission… each node had a particular function. If the zombies could go to the node and solve a puzzle, they would infect the node that would change the outcome of the game. The results of the first mission set the framework for later missions.”

But even the best laid plans of mice and mods often go awry. For all the careful work that Sumter and company had put into the design and pacing of the game, the Zombie Horde had only one thing on their minds: brains.

“We had some of the most amazing zombies that semester.” Said Sumter. “Drew Clark was one of our OZ’s. At least three or four times he changed his outfit.” And because so many of the 300 players were new, not a lot of people knew who he was. The first day ended in a massacre. “’Hey, there are these nodes across campus, don’t let any of these fall to any of the zombies.’” Mohr exclaimed, ruefully thinking about the first mission. “That mission might be ok on the first day, but with 120 zombies…” he trailed off.

What none of the moderators expected was the unrivaled success of the Horde. Truman starts their games off with between three to five Original Zombies, keeping the total a secret to further a sense of paranoia.

And even while Humans were dropping like flies, the Resistance still wanted to go outside their safe zones and play the game. All thanks to the incentives of fascinating missions and a storyline that the players truly felt a part of. Arron Hustead, one of the final remaining Humans in the game, believes this is the most effective way to keep Humans interested in game play, even if the risk increases of you dying. After all, he said, the game is about having fun and, of course, “an epic death.”

Hustead explained what he meant by referring to Truman’s second game. “[The Humans] shot down their escape helicopter on purpose.” And why would they do such a thing? “Their helicopter was being used by the antagonist of the game to escape with the zombie virus to infect the world. The humans all died, but they ensured that the virus would not escape.” explained Sumter.

So even with their deaths imminent, the Human players struggled to save the world from total annihilation. “It was rather epic. The remaining twenty or so humans held off the zombies just long enough for the rocket to be ‘fired.’ I think the last human fell maybe five seconds after they completed their objective.”

In the fall 2008 game, however, the humans did not have the luxury of such an existential quandary. Because the Horde had decimated the Resistance so quickly and so few Zombies had starved by the final day of the game, the Humans were forced into only one possible plot ending: activating a cryogenic hibernation chamber that would allow them to outlast the Horde. The Humans had a mission earlier to get an Electro-Magnetic Pulse weapon that would instantly neutralize the Horde. That failed. They also had the opportunity to instantly turn on a backup generator to immediately power on the cryostasis machine. But again the Horde blocked the Humans’ efforts. The only option left for the last twenty Humans was to “building hop,” powering up the generator by reaching various checkpoints around campus while the Horde tailed them. “Final missions aren’t usually this intricate, they’re more run for your life.” Explained Sumter. And a few Humans did end up making it into their cryo-pods, essentially winning the game for themselves and their fallen Resistance comrades.

To Sumter, plot and missions are tightly bound together. “A plot helps unify the stories and the game. Why are you doing what you’re doing? Not everyone will care, but some will. A plot lets results of a mission have repercussions throughout the game. With a plot, there are reasons for why the missions exist. [The missions] are results of the actions of the players.” And the missions and the plot should all be about having fun in their make-believe, zombie-infested world.

Truman State’s fall 2008 was an unprecedented endeavor. Unmatched in its scope and density, the moderators manufactured a world that spanned four rounds of Humans versus Zombies, allowing players to step into a rich alternate reality. But the game’s background and plot were not empty calories. Sumter’s firm belief in giving plot-based rationale for having a particular mission ended up catapulting the experience from being just a game to something far more rich and textured. It was a monumental effort to organize. But players and moderators alike reaped the benefits “The more people understood the depth of the game, the more they appreciated it.” Mckenna Peters admitted about the game. “That game has set a bar.” She said. How high is that bar? Arron Hustead answered. “A potential ten. To have a ten you’d have to match that.”

In the fall of 2008, Goucher College’s Human Resistance won its third game of Humans Vs. Zombies, its second in a row, and just as with the previous victories the mood was far from celebratory. Human victories inevitably create a divide within the player community that Zombie victories do not. Where a Zombie victory unites all of the players under the brain-craving banner of the Horde, Human victories divide the player base into survivors (winners) and infected (losers). This schism manifests itself in name-calling, accusations of cowardice, and disunity. The Zombies are unhappy that they have been kept out of the winner’s circle and relegated to a mass of losers. However, the Humans cannot really enjoy their victory. In a game where respect is the ultimate currency, those who chose to outlive the Horde end the game with empty wallets (or worse, in debt).

Now some would take this to mean that the only good game of HVZ is a game where the Zombies win, and I have spoken with game-theorists who believe that a game of HVZ should be a well crafted Kobiashi Maru, a scenario that the Humans cannot win. But I don’t think the divide between winners and losers is really the root of the problem, and I don’t think a game is much of a game if it’s not possible for both sides to win. Most every other sport or game ends with a winner and a loser, and although the losing side or player is disappointed, if the game is well-played, both sides will leave the field feeling mutual respect. The reason Human victors receive so little respect from their Zombie counterparts is that their win-condition is so anti-climactic as to leave everyone frustrated with the result.

The parameters of HVZ most resemble Danny Boyle’s zombie flick 28 Days Later, which ends with the protagonists hiding out in the English countryside until the infected starve to death and rescue teams can be sent in to help. While this ending sounds incredibly boring, it works in the film where time can be manipulated and the viewer jumps from seeing the characters escape from crazed militants to seeing them happily rolling out a massive “Hello” sign to help aerial search teams find them. However, in a game of HVZ, the Zombies are forced to play out an agonizing forty-eight hours in which they fruitlessly hunt until they have all starved to death, and the ending of the game is as boring as it would have been to watch Jim and his friends wait in their cottage for the infected to die out.

But compare that ending to the sequel 28 Weeks Later in which the human survivors have to get to an escape helicopter before London is firebombed to prevent the spread of a newly risen rage infection. The “Helicopter Mission” derives its name from scenarios like this which can be seen in other films like Resident Evil: Apocalypse, Cloverfield, and Predator, and even in video games such as Left 4 Dead and Dead Rising. The purpose of the mission is to bring a game of HVZ to an action-packed and definitive conclusion. If the Humans have to get to the helicopter to win the game and avoid being wiped out by an imminent firebombing, they cannot wait around in their rooms. They will have to be out in the open to survive, and this will give the Zombies ample opportunity to tag them.

The “Helicopter Mission” has never been implemented in an official game of HVZ at Goucher College, but at Truman State it is a matter of course.

Cody Sumter is the mastermind behind Truman’s games of HVZ, having moderated three of the four played. Though Goucher has seen twice as many games, no moderator team has ever attempted a game ending mission. At Truman there hasn’t been a game played without one.

“During our first game we realized that towards the end we had one of two options. We could either allow the game to progress to completion, which most likely meant that we would have absolutely no activity for forty-eight hours, or we could use a final mission to bring a definite and memorable conclusion to the game.”

The “Helicopter Mission” also solves the problem of a game threshold, the point at which the game goes from being fun to boring. “We were noticing late in the game that while players were enjoying the game they were ready for it to end,” said Sumter. “Zombies found it tedious to spend hours outside, only to spot a handful of humans throughout the day. The remaining humans were approaching the point where they wanted to be done with the paranoia.” With an ending mission to look forward to, Zombies do not have to spend hours of their time trying to hunt a small group of survivors. Furthermore, Humans who do not participate in the final mission can be considered deceased at the mission’s completion (or lack thereof), so the Zombies don’t have to waste their time trying to find people who aren’t really playing the game.

Despite its name, the “Helicopter Mission” does not necessarily have to involve a helicopter, or even any type of escape craft. Its job is to create a climactic final conflict in which the Humans and the Zombies face off in combat, and whatever storyline the moderators want to put behind it is entirely individual. The missions Sumter has engineered range from the traditional helicopter evacuation to the humans trying to active a cryostasis lab and freeze themselves to outlive the outbreak.

“It doesn’t have to be an escape mission, in fact, I would discourage people from attempting to run the same final mission every semester. I argue for a conclusion, not necessarily an escape.” This philosophy was well illustrated in Truman’s second game, in which the Humans’ final mission was to shoot down the helicopter of the escaping antagonist.

The problem of an anti-climactic ending eliminated, the players at Truman seem to simply enjoy the game and remained unified as a community through its conclusion. “I would say that when we do our jobs as moderators well [the players] are satisfied with the outcomes regardless as to whether the humans complete their final mission,” said Sumter. As such it ultimately doesn’t matter that there are “winners” and “losers” because the game is well constructed and well played.

This past spring some players and moderators at Goucher organized HVZ Day, a day long mission spree designed to get players into the mindset of the upcoming Game 8. The Humans ran around for several hours on a scavenger hunt while the Zombies picked them off slowly. The scavenger hunt culminated in a last stand where the Humans had to hold their position for half an hour to complete the mission. It ended with a very video game-esque moment in which the final Human ran around the field without a gun or darts, avoiding tags, and constantly checking his watch until the time had run out, and he completed the mission and won the game. Despite the fact that the Horde lost and that there was a lone surviving Human winner, everyone was happy with the way the scenario ended and congratulated the Human on his success. And the reason everyone was so happy was because it was fun.

“The point of the game as a human is to shoot zombies, not sit in your room,” said Grant Knud-Hansen, a player at Goucher. And this is the sort of ending that the “Helicopter Mission” achieves. If any Humans survive, it will be because they out-gunned, out-maneuvered, and out-played their Zombie opposition, traits that will earn that same opposition’s respect. Where players can congratulate each other on their athleticism in dodging or tagging, their teamwork and organization, or just their plain skill with a Nerf gun after a good final battle, it’s hard to think of anything complimentary to say to someone who has hidden in a safe-zone and avoided any type of confrontation for two days, except maybe that he smells remarkably good for not having showered. Possibly more importantly, what good stories can you tell about a game that ends with nothing happening for two days?

“You are creating a narrative through the game. Would you rather end it with a whimper or a bang (regardless of results)?” asks Sumter. “Remember, your players are already creating stories through the game. Every day is a struggle for survival, every walk to class a novel in itself. How can you make those stories even better? Give them an fitting conclusion.”

Materials:

Tools:

Alright, I will do my best to break this down, but if I lose you feel free to leave a comment and I will get back to you as soon as possible. We have to work together to defeat the Zombie Horde!

Barrel Replacement

1. Open that bitch up! Be sure to note that when you take out the 3 screws that hold the cocking handle in, there is another screw under that that holds the gun together. Once you have taken the gun apart, as always, make sure to keep track of all screws and springs. I personally like to use film canisters to hold these small parts. Now, take out the turret, this is our first area of interest.

2. You will need to get your screw driver (or some sort of tool used for prying) and get between the grey piece and the turret. I am referring to the front of the turret, which is what is being shown on the picture above. Be careful when doing this because there is a small spring and another orange nub on the back that holds the rod in and you want to make sure they don’t go flying off (as seen in the picture below). If you lose the spring though, you can replace with it with a spring from a pen. Take out the two sets of 3 screws that are on each side of the turret in order to pull it apart. Once that is done, you can see the air restrictors, which you can throw away, we don’t want them! (they are the orange prongs, chuck them and the other crap under them).

3. Alright, so right there you have essentially taken out the air restrictors, which you have already accomplished on a nite finder in the last mod write up. We are going to take this to the next level. Barrel replacement! As marked by the black line on the picture below, Take your hack saw and cut right on that line. Try to be clean and do a straight cut, it will make life easier down the road. You are basically cutting off the old barrels to make room for our new CPVC ones. To make these new barrels, take your rod of 1/2 cpvc and mark 6 segments of (2) 3/4 inch pieces, which you will then cut with your pipe cutter or hack saw if you have a good eye, but the pipe cutters always give you a clean easy cut. This next part pretty much requires a dremel, or you could even put a dremel bit on a drill, if that’s all you have. Anyways, dremel out the inside of both the back and front pieces of the turret until the cpvc can fit into both.

(In the 4th picture above, I use a blade to carve out the inside of the lip of the barrel so loading the dart will be a lot easier and won’t rip up the foam).

4. When dremeling the plastic, make sure not melt the plastic. This can sometimes happen but it is important not to deform that original mold or the turret might not fit back together. If it starts to get a little hot, just work on another barrel well, while that one cools and go back to it. As you can see in the 3rd picture below, the cpvc does not come out to the edge of the turret face, this is so when you load a suction cup or tagger dart, there is room for the head of the dart so it doesn’t stick out and jam your gun. Also, with this barrel mod, you no longer have to cut off the ends of taggers since there is now more room at the bottom of the barrel for the dart!

Alright, so you have the turret properly dremelled and your 6 cpvc barrels made and carved out for easy loading. Here comes the satisfying part. Take your Plumbers Good and squeeze out a little bit into the barrel well, then taking the rear of a barrel, twist it into the barrel well so that the Plumbers goop is evenly dispersed to ensure a 100% air seal and stability. You do not have to jam the barrel all the way into the well! About half way is just fine, and will make this easier. Do this 6 times, and put the barrel sheath back on, but make sure all the screw holes are properly lined up before you put the turret face on. It might take some adjusting but it will fit back on assuming you dremelled it correctly to fit over the cpvc. Once that is on, put the screws back into the turret and your barrel replacement is done!!

This mod alone adds a tremendous amount of range to your maverick, but why stop there?

Russian Roulette

1. This next mod is commonly known as the Russian Roulette Mod What it accomplishes; it allows the turret to pop out all the way which makes reloading a dream compared to only having 2 barrels exposed at a time to reload. Not to mention you can spin it and slam the turret back it, which in my opinion looks badass before you shoot up some brain starving creatures.

Onto the mod: As you can see in the picture below, Both grey pieces that are on both sides of the turret have these nubs on them which stick out. Where I have colored them black is where you need to cut. Almost any cutting method will work, I just used the sander bit on my dremel. The other picture below is the end result. That’s all you have to do! Very simple.

You think we are done here? Guess again.

2. It is hard to find a good spring to use for a spring replacement without having to go completely out of your way, so we are going to strengthen the present spring using those 2 pennies I mentioned in the materials list. Take your hot glue gun and put a drop of glue between the pennies, making a sandwich. Take this 2 cent sandwich and glue it to the little plat form in the back of the gun where the spring sits. This will increase the compression of the spring giving it more force. You do not want to put any more then 2 pennies in there or else the gun will not be able to cock. The reason being that the plunger tube won’t have enough room to move back and reach the catch. There you have it! This mod alone will slap on a couple extra feet to your ranges.

Now a big question I get for write ups is “what are the ranges?” well This time I have them for you! To ensure that they are legit I will describe the testing conditions to eliminate any variables.

Conditions:

First I used a stock maverick to make a comparison to make things a little interesting. All of these ranges were taken by holding the gun flat, NOT ANGLED.

Out of box:
Shortest shot=22ft
Longest shot=28ft

Modded:
Shortest shot=38ft
Longest shot=42ft

The better air seal and cpvc even increase the accuracy which I didn’t notice till I saw some of the stock maverick’s shots glide slightly to the left and right. Needless to say this Maverick Overhaul will result in one hell of a firearm that will leave zombies strewn across the campus and a smile on your face. Thanks for reading!