Left 4 Dead is a fun game. It isn’t an incredibly deep game, but what it does have, it has in spades. This intense shooter is ripe for some sort of tabletop game. While an RPG would be fun (and my pick for system would either be All Flesh Must Be Eaten or Savage Worlds,) there is something about a tabletop miniatures game that appeals to me. It requires no prep time, can be played relatively quickly, and focuses on lots of frantic combat. My go-to game for that right now is Warhammer 40K.

Left 40K Dead

This is essentially a modified version of the Kill Team rules.  (You can find these rules in PDF for free over at Forgeworld in two parts.)  The modifications are presented in a a modular fashion.  You can pick and choose between these modules as you like.  It is not the intention of these modules to re-create the game in a tabletop format–instead, these modules should be viewed with the caveat “inspired by.”  I can’t speak to the game balance of any of these modules, as none of it has been playtested yet.

(Note that none of the listed weapons have an AP rating, and none of the profiles have an armor save.  This was intentional.)

Setting Up

The main change for setting a game up is that the adversaries for the game will be infected.  The should be placed in a similar fashion to a standard Kill Team game.  You could easily use any of the Kill Team scenarios as the objective of the game.  There is an additional scenario, that we will call the “L4D” scenario, that should be made available.  The objective of this scenario is two-fold:  First, the kill team must come within 4 inches of the central objective.  When this occurs, the horde is allerted (see “Alerting the Horde” below.)  The kill team’s objective now becomes to escape the table.  They can only do this by entering a safe room.  As part of setup, a 4-inch section on one of the table’s edges should be designated as the safe room entrance.  Use vehicle boarding rules for getting in to the safe room.

Characters

Our survivors are tough-as-nails.  They’ve just watched the world fall to pieces.  They’ve had to fight their way through hordes of infected just to get where they are today.  Survivors count as independent characters–each moves and shoots of their own volition.  The survivors have a multi-wound profile, which breaks from one of the core rules of Kill Team, but for a good reason:  the kill team only consists of 4 members.  Since each survivor is independent and has multiple wounds, it is possible to divide the team up between multiple players.  Here is a survivor profile:

Name	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A
Survivor	4	4	3	4	2	4	2

Survivors start with a one of the following weapon packages:

• Pistol (12″, Str 3, pistol) and close combat weapon.
• Shotgun (12″, Str 4, Assault 2.)
• SMG (24″, Str 4, Rapid Fire.)

Infected

The infected are not much more than close combat machines.  The antagonist player starts with 8 groups, each consisting of 3 models.  The infected profile is as follows:

Name	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A
Infected	3	–	3	3	1	3	1

Infected are fearless.  When an infected dies, collect it into a dead pool.  At the start of the antagonist player’s turn, if there are 3 or more infected in the dead pool, the antagonist may pull 3 infected out of the dead pool to form a squad.  This new squad enters from a table edge of the antagonist player’s choice.  One squad may be formed per turn.

Alerting the Horde

Sometimes the survivors will make a lot of noise.  This may be linked to an unfortunate accident, like setting off a car alarm, or may be a necessary part of completing a mission.  Whatever the cause, the survivors have just managed to call the attention of every infected in the area.  When the horde is alerted, every infected squad on the table becomes active and remains active until killed.  New infected squads that enter the table after the alert do so as an inactive squad.

A simple rule for car alarms:  If the target of a shooting attack is within 2″ of an alarmed car, there is a chance the alarm is triggered.  For every die in the shooting attack that misses, roll another die.  If any of these dice come up 6, the horde is alerted.  (For example, I fire an Assault 3 weapon at an infected standing next to the car.  Only one of my to-hit dice pass.  Now I have to pick up the two dice that missed and test if the stray shots hit the car.)

Advanced Infected

The boomer, smoker, and hunter are all forms of advanced infected.  They have developed specialized features and attacks that make them more problematic than your average infected.  Each advanced infected operates as an independent character.  They may join up with a squad of infected if they like, but this is really only useful for providing fodder to keep the advanced infected alive.  The antagonist player starts the game with 4 advanced infected in their reserves.  These models use the normal reserves rules (rolling at the start of each turn to see if they can be deployed.)  The antagonist does not have to specify the type of advanced infected in reserve–he chooses the type of each advanced infected as it is deployed.  The one exception to this is that only one of each type may be present on the table at a time.  (If there is one of each type on the table at the start of the antagonist’s turn, just skip the reserves roll that turn.)  Advanced infected enter the table via the deep strike rules.

Advanced infected have the same profile as normal infected, with these exceptions:

• Hunters are considered jump infantry, have 2 attacks instead of 1, and have a T 4.
• Smokers have a BS 3, T 4, and a ranged tongue attack (24″, Assault 1.)  If the Smoker passes its to-hit roll it has grappled the target.  This does no damage, but the target is moved 1D6″ towards the smoker and is considered to have failed a pinning test.  On the smoker’s next turn it may decide to maintain the grapple.  If the grapple is maintained, the target is again moved 1d6″ towards the smoker, is again considered to have failed a pinning test, and the smoker checks for a wound with S3.  A smoker may not move, shoot, or assault while it has a grapple.
• Boomers have a BS 3, T 4, and a vomit attack (range 12″, Assault 1.)  If the boomer passes its to-hit roll, the horde is immediately alerted.  Boomers also explode on death.  If a survivor is in close combat with a boomer when it dies, the horde is immediately alerted.

Weapons and Equipment

During setup, the antagonist places 6 loot tokens around the table.  During play, if a survivor comes within 4″ of a loot token, they may search that loot token instead of shooting.  If they do, remove the loot token from the table and roll a die:  on a 4+ the survivor has found something.  Roll another die:  1 – Pills, 2 – Med Kit, 3 – Molotov, 4 – Pipe Bomb, 5 – Propane Tank, 6 – Weapon.  The survivor may pick up the loot, or may immediately give the loot to another survivor within 4″ of himself.  Each loot type is explained below:

Pills: A survivor may hold one stash of pills at a time.  When the survivor suffers a to-wound roll, the pills can be discarded to re-roll a single to-wound die.

Med Kit: A survivor may hold one med kit at a time.  Instead of shooting, the survivor may discard the med kit to heal a wound.  The survivor may heal this wound from himself, or from any other survivor within 4″.

Molotov: A survivor may hold one molotov or pipe bomb at a time.  A molotov may be thrown up to 6″ away and is a S4 blast weapon.   Because the molotov is thrown, it only scatters 1D6″ instead of the normal 2D6″.

Pipe Bomb: A survivor may hold one molotov or pipe bomb at a time.  A pipe bomb may be thrown up to 6″ away.  Pick your target and roll scatter dice.  (Like a molotov, the pipe bomb only scatters 1D6″.)  Mark where the pipe bomb lands on the table.  During the antagonist’s next turn the bomb flashes and beeps loudly; any infected within 12″ of the pipe bomb that are not in close combat must run towards the pipe bomb to investigate.  At the end of the antagonist’s turn, the pipe bomb explodes in a S6 blast.

Propane Tank: A survivor may hold one propane tank at a time.  While holding the propane tank, the survivor may not shoot.  At any time during the movement phase, the survivor may put the tank at their feet or, as a shooting action, the survivor may throw the tank up to 6″ (like the molotov, the tank scatters 1D6″.)  During a shooting phase, any survivor may target a tank.  If the survivor passes their to-hit roll, the tank explodes in a S5 blast.

Weapon: The survivor has found a weapon.  The survivor may drop their current weapon package for a new one.  The survivor may choose:  Assault Shotgun (12″, S4, Assault 3), Assault Rifle (24″, S4, Assault 2), or a Sniper Rifle (36″, Heavy 1, Sniper.)

Boss Infected

Boss infected are the terrifying peak of the infection’s mutations.  Only one boss infected should be deployed per game.  It is up to the players to decide when and how the boss infected shows up during a scenario.  In the suggested L4D scenario, the boss infected might show up the turn after the kill team reaches the central objective.  Boss infected profiles are as follows:

Name	WS	BS	S	T	W	I	A
Tank	4	3	5	5	2	3	1
Witch	4	–	4	4	2	3	2

Tank: The tank may throw large chunks of debris  (12″, S4, Assault 1.)

Witch: The witch has claws that are rending and the fleet to foot ability.

Tags: 40K, Alternate Rules, House Rules, Kill Team, Left 4 Dead, Zombies

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 at 8:49 pm and is filed under General, Rules Ideas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.