Running Missions

This is the bread and butter of being a moderator - it's the most obvious job you have and the most fun.

There's not a lot of strategy involved, but we do have some tricks that can help you give the best experience to your players.

Strategies for Missions

Your players depend on you, the moderators, to be unbiased, trusted sources of information. Be honest with your players, and give them enough information before missions to make good decisions.

If the humans "out-smart" a mission by finding a loophole or doing something you never expected (and trust us... this WILL happen), you have to roll with it. It's always tempting to change the rules in these circumstances, but we think that makes the game less fun for the humans. If the humans develop a strategy that works, no matter how sneaky, they should be rewarded with a mission win.

Obviously this is different if either side finds an exploit that they can use repeatedly - in such a case you are expected to keep the game fair and fix the rules. Give players plenty of notice of a rule change and explain your reasoning.

The same goes for changes due to safety. In one memorable game at Goucher College, the rules were amended mid-game to ban cars after an accident was narrowly averted.

A Sneaky Mod is a Safe Mod

The humans aren't the only people who get paranoid in HvZ. You have to bring your spy skills to the table to plan good surprises for your players.

Important: If your zombies are clever, they will follow you (the moderator) around to find out where you're setting up missions. They will press their ears against the door of your room and spy on you.

Be secretive. Get your friends who are not playing the game to help you set up missions. The less everyone knows, the more fun the missions will be.

Step 9: Run Your Missions

So after a few days of quiet suspense, kick off your missions by communicating with your players in the most secure way possible.

The HvZ SOURCE software allows you to e-mail only human players or only zombie players, which is a great way to get information out about the game.

Other schools have used phone calls, tv ads, websites, and campus radio announcements to launch missions.

Obviously once your mission begins, Mods should be stationed anywhere there are players. If there are huge epic battles, Mods can help clear up confusion by directing stunned zombies to stand off to the side and monitoring their stun times.

Mods should also be available to give the humans their mission reward afterwards, and in cases of low zombie morale, throw an awesome zombie party to get them fired up.

Next: Must You Be Such a Little Bitch?!