Living dead and creepier constructs are commonly raised by and therefore susceptible to supernatural forces.
For zombies created deliberately through weird science other than alchemy, or accidentally by radiation, space dust, etc., these flaws are rarely appropriate and thus safely skipped. Fantasy zombies, in contrast, frequently suffer from failings in both of the following categories.
Holiness
Divine power – express or channeled through the faith- ful – is traditionally baneful to evil zombies, living or undead, regardless of how they were created. Depending on the setting, any zombie may qualify if it has Dependency (Sanctity) linked to dark gods, a Destiny entangled with a spiteful motivation, or just lots of nasty mental disadvan- tages such as Intolerance (The Living). Such monsters might have any or all of the following:
Functions and Detects as Evil [0]: This feature suits classic black-magic zombies (but possibly not those raised by “gray” or “white” magic); cursed zombies brought about by negative emotions, unhallowed ground, or unpleasant unfinished business; most fantasy or horror “evil dead”; and possibly all undead and/or zombies in set- tings where the gods object to such entities. It doesn’t inflict direct harm, but means that sacred weaponry will be extra-effective. Use this when such armaments’ extra potency is strictly a property of the attack, governed by a Bane enchantment (GURPS Magic, p. 62), an Accessibil- ity limitation (p. B110), or similar. If artifacts bearing the opposite “charge” exist, and are managed by controls like Limit spells (Magic, p. 68), then this also means that the zombie can use such things.
Vulnerabilities: Truly unholy zombies might suffer extra harm from sanctified weaponry that isn’t specifically imbued with an attack that switches on against evil foes. As holy hand grenades and blessed blades are relatively rare in most settings, price this as Vulnerability (Blessed Weapons ¥2) [-10], (¥3) [-15], or (¥4) [-20]. This makes taking extra damage a property of the zombie.
Weaknesses: Evil zombies might be harmed by close encounters with the sacred. For a particular exorcism or prayer, or the will of someone with True Faith, this is Weakness (Specific Ritual or True Faith; 1d/minute) [-10], (1d/5 minutes) [-5], or (1d/30 minutes) [-2]; this suits the evil dead in horror, who generally require some research to defeat. For contact with holy water, use Weakness (Holy Water; 1d/minute; Variable, -40%) [-12], (1d/5 min- utes) [-6], or (1d/30 minutes) [-3], where Variable works as explained under Weakness (pp. 65-66). A few zombies may be harmed by hearing any prayer or by contact with anything holy, which is Weakness (The Holy; 1d/minute) [-40], (1d/5 minutes) [-20], or (1d/30 minutes) [-10]. Rarely, horribly evil zombies are harmed merely by being in areas with any “good” sanctity at all, and thus cannot stray from places of darkest evil; this is Weakness (Sanc- tity; 1d/minute) [-60], (1d/5 minutes) [-30], or (1d/30 min- utes) [-15]. In all cases, 1d/minute is the best fit to the fiction but by no means the only option.
Zombies with any of these flaws are especially likely to have Can Be Turned By True Faith [-1], if not a full-on Dread of the things that can harm them; see The Zombie Mind: Fears of the Fearsome (p. 81).
Magic
Magic is a common defense against zombies raised by necromancy – anything with Dependency (Mana) qualifies – and often against the undead in general, particularly in tra- ditional fantasy settings. This can lead to a number of traits: Affected as Dead [0] and Affected as Living [0]: These fea- tures don’t introduce “flaws” as such, but they do specify what magic affects the zombie. In settings without magic, skip these traits. In settings with magic – whether it draws on mana, sanctity, or something else – it’s best if all zombie templates note one or the other, to avoid confusion about what will and won’t work.
Vulnerabilities: Magical zombies in fantasy RPGs are often extra-susceptible to magic weapons. Unless such artifacts are exceedingly common in the setting, treat this as Vulnerability (Magic Weapons ¥2) [-10], (¥3) [-15], or (¥4) [-20]. Zombies that can’t tolerate destructive magic at all might have Vulnerability (Magic ¥2) [-40], (¥3) [-60], or (¥4) [-80], which amplifies injury from magic weapons, spells, alchemical elixirs, being punched by magical golems, and so on.
Weaknesses: Particularly weak zombies may take injury from the spells listed under Affected as Dead or Affected as Living, as the case may be, and conceivably from other spells. For one specific, widely known spell, this is Weakness (Spell; 1d/minute) [-10], (1d/5 minutes) [-5], or (1d/30 minutes) [-2]. For a whole college of magic, go with Weakness (College; 1d/minute) [-20], (1d/5 minutes) [-10], or (1d/30 minutes) [-5]; for fantasy RPG zombies, this most often means the Healing college. A zombie that takes dam- age from any magic being cast on it or in an area around it, probably because it’s magical and this disrupts its animat- ing force, has Weakness (Magic; 1d/minute) [-40], (1d/5 minutes) [-20], or (1d/30 minutes) [-10]. As with Weakness to holy forces, 1d/minute is usual across the board.
Purifiers
Some forces that aren’t innately supernatural have occult significance as “purifiers”: things that erase or wash away evil or the unnatural. All of these are strongly linked to real-world traditions, and thus suit horror undead best. Zombie-makers may want to skip this section for sci-fi and hack-and-slash fantasy monsters, and for zombies that are alive rather than undead.
The most common examples:
Fire: Fire purifies in the obvious way – through destruc- tion. Vulnerability (Heat/Fire ¥2) [-30], (¥3) [-45], or (¥4) [-60] suits historically inspired zombies of all kinds, notably the undead in most Asian, European, and Central American lore, as well as supernatural horror zombies inspired by these. Weird-science horror zombies, deliberate or acciden- tal, often pointedly lack this disadvantage. This isn’t tied to the zombie being dried out, and doesn’t imply Fragile (Combustible) or (Flammable).
Salt: Another ancient purifier, held to symbolize “light solidified” and “the action of fire” in European occult teachings, and universally prized for its capacity to keep food safe and wounds clean. In Vodou, it reminds the zom- bie of its sense of taste and hence of life, laying it to rest.
Traditional Vodou zombies must taste the salt; this is Weakness (Salt; 1d/minute; Difficult to Administer, Inges- tion, -100%; Irreversible, +100%) [-20]. In cinematic and comic-book settings with firearms, blasting the zombie with rock salt or even a salt-filled hollow-point bullet will suffice, and counts as Vulnerability (Salt ¥2) [-20], (¥3) [-30], or (¥4) [-40], given how common salt is.
Sunlight: The sun represents life, the power of God, and everything that fire does. It burns some movie zombies – even ones that seem to be neither supernatural nor undead – like it does vampires. This is Weakness (Sunlight; 1d/minute) [-60], (1d/5 minutes) [-30], or (1d/30 minutes) [-15]. Usually, 1d/30 minutes is more than enough; anything faster greatly reduces the zombies’ utility as monsters.
Water: Water rinses away filth and is perhaps the most common purifier of all. Few cultures lack this tradition. Generally, the water has to be moving to do its job, and only harms truly evil beings, usually undead or solidified spirits. This is Weakness (Running Water; 1d/minute) [-40], (1d/5 minutes) [-20], or (1d/30 minutes) [-10].
Zombies with such failings often have a matching Dread or Phobia of whatever it is that harms them; see The Zombie Mind: Fears of the Fearsome (p. 81).
Science!
Mad science, rubber science, weird science . . . call it what you will, but it often leads to zombies. Fortunately, it offers ways to deal with zombies, too.
Antiserums and Cures: Constructs and mutant super- soldiers created using serums can often be killed by spe- cific antidotes synthesized using the same research. This is also how most “cures” for infected and infested zom- bies work – they don’t restore the victim to normality, but simply kill him. If injected, this is Weakness (Antiserum or Cure; 1d/minute; Difficult to Administer, Injec- tion, -50%; Irreversible, +100%) [-15], and thus a death sentence for the zombie. If it can be delivered as some sort of aerosol, it’s usually Weakness (Antiserum or Cure; 1d/minute) [-10], necessitating prolonged exposure to kill the zombie. Finally, living weird-science zombies might have Unusual Biochemistry [-5] instead of or as well as Weakness, foiling attempts to use existing medicine to cure them.
Biochemical Weapon: Zombies created by infection, infestation, mutation, serums, toxic waste, and so on often have sufficiently weird biochemistry to be extra-sen- sitive to plagues and chemicals. If these are harmless or merely irritating to ordinary people, use the rules for anti- serums and cures, above. However, if such things are gen- uinely deadly weapons, that’s Vulnerability (Biochemical Weapon ¥2) [-10], (¥3) [-15], or (¥4) [-20]. The -20-point version is truest to cinema: the anti-zombie plague weak- ens and staggers non-zombies but slaughters zombies (say, seven one-day cycles that do 1 HP apiece, so most people lose an inconvenient 7 HP but zombies suffer a fatal 28 HP).
Loss of humanity is a key element of zombification. If decisions made so far about the zombie’s nature have yielded a template that includes the Inhuman meta-trait (p. 70) or several disadvantages discussed under The Zombie Mind: Scrambled Brains (p. 74) or Appetites (p. 79), then the zombie is already fairly inhuman. With -20 points or worse in Berserk [-10*], Bestial [-10], Bloodlust [-10*], Low Empathy [-20], and Uncontrol- lable Appetite [-15*], it will engage in enough unfeeling savagery to seem a monster.
To amplify absence of empathy, or to make this the reason for the zombie’s lack of humanity, start with Low Empathy and add Killjoy [-15] or No Sense of Humor [-10]. This especially suits the stone-faced, serum- or drug-fueled living zombie, who theoretically possesses the physiological capacity for emotion. It also works for hatred-driven revenants.
To dial up monstrosity, tack on Intolerance (The Living) [-10]. This can’t easily be blamed on “brain damage,” “survival instinct,” or “bad drugs,” and makes the zombie purposely hateful. This is a classic trait of the evil dead – corpses and solidified spirits alike – and of cursed zombies driven by smoldering vengeance or a god’s anger. Adding Odious Racial Habit (Eats Humans) [-15] never hurts.
Conversely, a few hints that zombies used to be peo- ple – the minds of whom might be going insane behind those staring eyes – can add a dramatic edge in a cam- paign where zombies aren’t merely targets. The sim- plest way to “humanize” a zombie is to be conservative with the disadvantages above. A template with IQ-2 and Slave Mentality as its sole mental traits will yield unfor- tunate victims, not seething monsters.
Zombie-makers seeking an active measure to “humanize” zombies will find Glimpses of Clarity [-1] tailor-made for the job. It troubles the zombie in a way that suggests that it was once a normal person while remaining minor enough not to dominate the zombie template – or the action. It particularly suits living zombies (who are technically still people) and solidified spirits (who customarily recognize their homes and descendents).
Zombie Motivation [-1 to -15] is sometimes useful, too. Carefully worded and added to an undead tem- plate, it can give a zombie that retraces its steps in life. The zombie’s actions serve as a reminder that it was once a person.
All of the above mostly applies to a zombie with an attribute modifier no worse than IQ-4. One with an average IQ of 5 or less will seem more beast than per- son, regardless of its disadvantages.