Carnival Zombie | OVERVIEW

The ancient manuscripts speak of a Leviathan: a gigantic creature lies on the lagoon’s muddy bottom and the foundations of Venice rest on its back. The manuscripts all agree on its sepulchral sleep and on its inevitable awakening one day which will shake the city from its muddy roots: the vitrified stilts supporting it will be crushed and the city will crash into the seething sea from which the monster will emerge...
There will be signs however. It is written that the Venetians will take notice of the Leviathan’s tremors and will be able to escape the monster which will regain his freedom by precipitating into the sea a city by then abandoned. But there were no signs. What nobody knew was that the Leviathan was no longer alive. For centuries, the city lived and flourished on a corpse’s back...
Now this corpse has begun to awaken, and with it the dead have risen from the lagoon.

Setting

In Carnival Zombie the players guide a Group of Characters fleeing Venice towards the mainland, far away from the terror emerged from the lagoon and unleashed on the Carnival’s teeming crowd.
Carnival Zombie is a cooperative game for 1 to 6 players that win or lose together because the game itself is the opponent. The Group of Characters must leave the city making their way through putrescent hordes of Infected. The players must however hurry: the Leviathan on which rest the foundations of Venice is awakening and it’s only a matter of time before the city sinks into the dark waters of the lagoon.
Each game is divided into several Nights and Days. During the night the characters take refuge behind improvised barricades to withstand the assaults of the Infected. During the day they move through the city shaken by tremors, when the Infected are called back by the groans of the Leviathan in the abyss, to move and free their abyssal master from the stilts nailing him down to the lagoon’s bottom.
The characters have several ways to leave the city, but little time to achieve it. Moreover, their path will be hindered by Bosses, the most relentless servants of the Leviathan.

Goal of the game

The Players have two ways to win the game: flee Venice or kill the Leviathan.
Killing the Leviathan is very difficult and requires a bit of luck to recover an ancient artefact, whereas fleeing is the most direct way to win.
There are three ways to leave the city: run towards the mainland on the Freedom Bridge pursued by the Infected; navigate the dark and foggy waters of the lagoon by boat, trying to arrive on the shore before the boat is sunk by the dead swarming underwater; contact from St.Mark’s bell tower the airship pilot to get picked up at dawn on St.Michael's island.