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For something like the 60's, easy enough, yeah. For something like Victorian England, there would need to be some significant changes to the backstory (a modern wonder-drug produced by big-pharma...) and to some of the character types (the book is narrated by a member of the Reaper O.C.C., a motorcycle gang). The basic premesis of zombies rising and humans fighting back, however, is adaptable to any setting you like.

My thoughts are that you can play Dead Reign in any time period as long as you are willing to do the work.

DR left the reason for the zombie plague up to the GM and players. They present several reasons from an evil demon to a wonder pill of modern medicine. It's up to gaming groups to decide.

So, with enough homework you could play DR in any time period. Wild West? Sure..maybe the zombies are a curse by the natives who are trying to stop the encroachment of settlers. Far Future? Maybe some virus gets developed and it turns people into zombies and so now the players are trying to contain it. Victorian England? Not very familiar with that time setting... maybe the fay have laid a curse on the people? Or rats spread some strange disease?

My ideas aren't very original. Sorry.

But with enough thought any group can put together a good background and reason for the zombies and create a fun setting for some good ol' adventuring. But the Gm and group are going to have to decide what o.c.c.s, weapons and game crunch are going to make it into the game or have to be imported from other PB lines.
Can it be done? Yep. But it's going to take some work but the results would be worth it and fun.

30's or 40's easy, Nazi Paranormal exprimentation went awry and they unleashed the zombie plague. Heck, if you want to twist the story line and setting enough, maybe the Nazi's unleashed the zombies and can partially direct them. Maybe not so much control them, but selectively unleash them in areas...kind of like a big brain hungry biological weapon.

Most of civilization has collapsed, but the allies have some safe havens, especially islands, and some military left and are fighting back against the Nazi's and their zombie hordes (Nazi's kind of replace retros and bandits in this case).
-Matt

What if everyone who fell victim to the Black Death, got back up again with a hunger for human flesh?

A middle Ages Zombie bash is definately out there...

Braden Campbell wrote:What if everyone who fell victim to the Black Death, got back up again with a hunger for human flesh?

A middle Ages Zombie bash is definately out there...

Nice, I can see lots of possibilities here. A copy of PFRPG along with dead reign would go a long way...just ignore the magic/psionics or limit it severly depending on what you want to do or are trying to do.

No more crusades to the holy lands, we are crusading to rid cities and kingdoms of zombie infestations.
-Matt

If you want to segue in to DR that sounds like a good way. It does change things up a little bit in that instead of simply being a survivor of the zombie plague doing your best to survive, you are a bunch of power players who (I assume) make it through and are probably trying to find a way to revert the plague and or stop the zombie menace as a whole.

Of course that doesn't mean that wouldn't be a lot of fun to play.
-Matt

Yeah, little late to the party (didn't have DR books until just recently), but let's see...

WWI. Imagine the field day a Death Cult would have with thousands of people dying in mass human charges against machineguns, and the resulting havoc one could wreak (average person 2-8 P.P.E. upon dying, x 1,000 people dying at once = 2,000 to 8,000 P.P.E. up for the taking).

Roaring 20s. Bad hooch, Typhoid, or similar diseases, spark the Wave.

1929, Stock Market Crash - 1930s. Dust Bowl/Depression. Spin it that the Dust Bowl effect was caused by a failed attempt to bring Brulyx in. Now, as the U.S. "dies", the zombies spread out from the Midwest.

1930s-1940s, WWII. Nazi occult members work on a way to breed/create the perfect super soldier, and either it works (and is controlled), or it goes horribly wrong and gets loose.

1950s. Military experiment with ways to have soldiers survive nuclear fallout or an atomic blast, and accidentally create something that gets loose. Not one to tell the public anything, they try (and fail), to capture the escaped test subject(s).

Korean War. Super soldier experiment, or a mystical cabal trying to win the war one way or another.

1960s. Bad drugs. Just bad trips man, bad trips. Those damn protesters and hippies.

Vietnam War. A variation of Agent Orange reacts badly with the troops and the Malaryia<sp> medication they're given. Or a Vietnamese cabal tries to use a magic super weapon to win against the U.S./South Vietnam, and it goes horribly wrong.

1970s. The Oil Embargo wasn't really about oil, it was about halting a tainted supply of fuel that caused the dead to rise (caught before the fuel was imported in huge effects).

1980s. Since Cocaine was a huge drug, have a bad batch mixed with some type of chemical, kills the host, rises as a zombie, and goes on an eating spree, making more. (Seriously, cocaine factories in South America are basically chemical pits).

1990s. Gulf War Syndrome was a nice way for the government to say that something happened in the war, and now, the returning civilians/GIs are dying, only to rise again. Or even the fall of the Berlin Wall of 89. The Wall was more than just a physical barrier, it was a metaphysical barrier and now, the dead have crossed over.

1999-2000. Y2K bug. Remember the mass hysteria about that? People clamoring "It'll be the end of the world!", and buying stockpiles of goods? Yeah. What if they were right, and the mass belief (the unintentional expenditure of their P.P.E.), caused people to die, and rise again?

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.
Book came out this year, movie for next year.

A graphic novel Pride and Prejudice and Zombies comes out I think 5/5/10.