All Flesh Must Be Eaten

Characters in All Flesh Must Be Eaten use a point-buy system, but different characters get a different (unequal) amount of points. "Norms" (regular people) get the least, while "Survivors" (people with combat abilities) get the most.  "Inspired"  characters (ones with supernatural abilities) are in-between, but actually get a few less skill points than Norms.

Point-spending begins with attributes: Norms get fourteen points, while the other types each get twenty.  AFMBE attributes are essentially the same as in Dungeons and Dragons (AFMBE has Strength, Dexterity, Constitution and Intelligence), but Charisma and Wisdom have been replaced with Perception and Willpower.  Attributes range from 1 to 6 (with a 2 being average), and each point spent buys one level ... except level 6 (which costs three points).

Next come "Qualities", which are similar to D&D feats, providing various in-game benefits such as Fast Reaction Time or Photographic Memory.  Norms get only 5 points of qualities, Inspired get 10, and Survivors 15.

After picking qualities a character can optionally gain up to ten points, which can be spend on anything except attributes, by taking drawbacks.  Drawbacks include various options (eg. Cowardly or Paranoid) which limit the character's behavior in some way.

Finally all non-Inspired characters finish by buying skills, which cost 1 point per level until level 5 (and 3 points per level after that).  The game includes a lot of skills, and players can further buy specializations in a skill by spending a point (giving them a +2 bonus to that skill when the specialization applies).  Survivors get 35 skill points, Norms get 30, and Inspired characters get 25.

The final stage of creation is only for Inspired characters, as those characters have to select "metaphysic" powers, ie. miracles.  Such miracles cost 5 points each, with each character getting 15 points to spend.  There's a relatively small list of powers (in the core book at least), ranging from healing, to divine vision, to supernatural strength.

All Flesh Must Be Eaten offers several variant mechanics (such as a deck-based or completely dice-less options), but if you stick to the core rules every check is either a "Task" (which uses a skill and an attribute), or a "Test" (which only uses an attribute).  An example of a Task would be driving a car (Driving + Dexterity), while an example of a Test would be a fear check (which uses no skill, only the Willpower attribute).

To complete a Test/Task you roll a d10 and add the appropriate attribute and skill (or, in the case of a Test, the attribute times two).  If the result is nine or higher (after any other modifiers) the Test/Task succeeds.

If the d10 rolls a 10 it "explodes" with another d6 (ie. you add a d6's result to the 10 already rolled).  If that d6 rolls a 6 it too explodes, and if that d6 rolls a 6 it ... well you get the idea.  However, if the d10 rolls a 1 you instead subtract a d6, and if that d6 rolls a 1 it also explodes.

The game provides a table modifiers to assign based on the action's difficulty, and also provides a table to determine the degree of success (based on how far over 9 the character rolled), if warranted.

Initiative in All Flesh Must Be Eaten is determined by the Zombie Master (ie. GM), not by a die roll.  Basic instructions are provided (eg. ranged attacks before melee, thought-based supernatural attacks before ranged, surprise before anything else), but this ultimately it's a "ZM" decision.

Combat is arranged into 5 second turns.  A character can take a single action on their turn, or they can take a second at -2, a third at -4, and so on.  The only exception is that characters in melee combat can make both one melee attack and one defense action without penalty.

Melee attacks use the appropriate skill (Brawling, Martial Arts, or a weapon skill) plus Dexterity, and ranged attacks instead use a ranged weapon skill (plus Dexterity).  Melee attacks can be parried (using the appropriate melee skill plus Dexterity) or dodged (Dodge + Dexterity); ranged can't.

Ranged weapons get penalties or bonuses based on range (and do more damage at close range), and both types of attacks can suffer penalties from lighting.  Ranged weapons can fire multiple shots at increasing cumulative penalties: not only does this add damage, but the target of multiple shots has to make a Willpower roll to do anything except cower.

When a character is hit, if they are wearing armor they can make an armor check and reduce the amount of damage by the result.  After that, if there is any further damage and the character was shot, that damage is doubled.

Characters have a number of Life Points, and when damage reduces these down to 5 or less they start taking penalties to actions.  At 0 life points they are reduced to semi-consciousness.