100 NPCs to Meet In The City After The Zombie Apocalypse

Systemless Supplement by Azukail Games

When the dead drag themselves out of their graves, the cities are usually one of the first places to be written off. They’re jammed full of people, which means there’s a risk from both the living and the dead, and supplies will run out faster than they might in other places. However, while a lot of folks head for the hills, there are plenty of people who stick it out. Not only that, but there are going to be people who find the wilds aren’t for them, and they’d rather brave the chaos of the concrete jungle.

If your campaign takes your players into a major American city, they might meet some of the following people. Whether they’re friends, antagonists, useful contacts or just background members of a survivor community is largely up to you, and how important you want to make them in your game. So without further ado, let’s meet the folks who’ve managed to survive (and even thrive) in this strange new world!

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Here are some sample results:

• Gladys Harrington: Gladys is a legend in the city. While most people think she’s completely off her rocker (something they’re quite correct about), that hasn’t stopped her from her antics. A senior citizen driving a souped-up golf cart with a tiny truck bed, a scarred football helmet covering her blue hair, Gladys cackles her way through the streets as she “patrols” to deal with the living dead using either an old target shooting pistol, or her late husband’s varmint gun. Gladys has drawn hordes of hungry corpses away from vulnerable people, leading them like a pied piper down the streets, and she’s probably put down a hundred or more of the rotting things at this point. Age is catching up with her, though, and it’s only a matter of time until she goes out in either a blaze of glory, or a single, absent-minded miscalculation. Most folks who’ve met her, though, are betting on the former rather than the latter.
• Harry Glen: Harry was a real estate agent whose star was beginning to set when the balloon went up. He had keys, security passcodes and he knew which empty properties were good places to lie low at. So he rabbited, grabbed just enough supplies to settle in for a few days, and started waiting. The waiting got bad, though, and sooner rather than later people started begging him for help… so Harry did what he knew how to do, and started matching people with the houses that would best fit them in this little neighborhood block. Harry accidentally built the survivor community of the Palisades, and even though his skill set isn’t terribly useful in this terrifying new world, the people he helped save have made it clear he will always have a place among them.
• Carrie Holtz: Carrie was a construction worker on her way to becoming a foreman when her site was overrun by zombies. Carrie herself was up the structure on a barely-framed floor, well out of the reach of the things swarming around the base, eating most of her crew. While she waited to see if the things would move on, it soon became clear that Carrie would have to get herself out of this situation. She managed to rig up a grappling hook, and to fire it onto a nearby rooftop using a pneumatic air tank, clambering over to the other building hand-over-hand. Since then, she’s managed to stay one step ahead of trouble, especially since her abilities are always in-demand among communities trying to build a place to live in this terrible world.
• Darius Grant: Born to a single mother who dropped out of high school, Darius didn’t have a lot of opportunities growing up. He did what he could to pick up work, but it wasn’t long before the only bosses he could find were the gangs who ran his neighborhood. It was on their orders that he joined the national guard, funneling his money back to them, and teaching them everything he learned from the army. It was going well, until he was deployed overseas. For his part, when he got back home, all Darius wanted to do was put his head down and scrape on by. He was working nights at a stand-alone convenience store when the first wave of zombies rolled into the streets. The store had been built like a pillbox, so Darius locked it up, fortified the door as best he could, and settled in to wait. It took nearly a month before he made contact with a roving patrol, who helped exfiltrate him. The little convenience store has been renamed The Lighthouse, and it’s been manned as a forward position for the community… Darius does everything he can not to take those shifts, though.
• Trudy Giacomin: Born “Gertrude,” Trudy was a rebel from day one. With her buzzcut, tattoos and softball scholarship, Trudy was looking forward to getting out of her small town and starting a new life in the big city. She was a sophomore when the dead swarmed the campus, and she barely managed to swing her way out. She was grateful for all the cardio conditioning her coach had put her through, because it let her stay one step ahead of the horde. She even managed to escort some of her fellow students to safe rooms… and to find the courage to kiss her crush. She and Shelly have been a couple for a while now, and the two of them have even managed to start a youth team to keep the kids in their community engaged and ready to run when the need arises.

100 NPCs to Meet In The City After The Zombie Apocalypse is available through DriveThruRPG in PDF.

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