“Hey! Hey! Do the Zombie Stomp!”

Okay. So that’s Ozzy but it’s still a cool song. The Zombie Stomp never really took off like the Monster Mash or the Transylvania Twist but don’t short it. It’s damn cool. Cool enough to be a game. That’s right. I’ve been inspired to make a game, a board game, by Ozzy Osbourne himself.

Actually, this is all a lie. Well, not all of it, just the Zombie Stomp! part. It’s still a game. But Zombie Stomp! has a much to do with Ozzy as Java (that’s a programming language for all those non-techies) does with coffee. The only thing they have in common is the name.

Imagine if you will a subluminal ship deep between the stars. A skeleton crew mans the ship while the colonists slumber thoughtlessly in cryogenic suspension. But, of course, something goes wrong. A strange artifact impacts the ship and the folks in cryo wake up with a craving for braaaaiiiiinnnnnssssss.

Zombie Stomp! is a game of this particular space horror. Two players face off—zombies vs. humans — on a game board that is the deck plans of a deep-space colony ship. Pawns representing humans and zombies are placed across the board as the players try to eliminate each other.

The rules are simple:

• Humans run two squares.
• Zombies shamble one square.
• Move one pawn per turn.
• Humans may move two pawns one square on a turn.
• An attack counts as one.
• Zombies go first since no one expects a zombie attack.

If there is an attack, each side rolls a six-sided die:

• High roll wins.
• Ties are just that: a tie. Try again next turn
• If the winner is a zombie, the human pawn becomes a zombie pawn.
• If the winner is a human, the zombie is removed.

I’m not sure how balanced this game is, so I plan to do some play-testing to see who wins more often. If there is an imbalance, I’ll give the zombies or the humans the advantage of winning a tie and see what that does.

I plan to produce a PDF containing the rules and the game-board once play-testing is completed. There might be a few surprises in there. We’ll see what I can come up with for you.

This game could easily be played on a chess board. Take eight white pawns and place them at one end of the board. Take eight black for the other side and just start playing. You’d need at most eight additional black pawns to play in case the zombie get lucky.

In fact, why don’t you play some games on a chess board—or some other board of your devising—with your buds and tell me about it in the comments. I’ll incorporate your feedback into the game, maybe include some of the boards, and give props to everyone that helped.