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You mature at the same rate as if you had Short Lifespan (p. B154) without affecting the frequency of aging rolls. This is a 0-point feature, but up to 5 levels are possible:

You treat very thin atmospheres as thin, thin as standard, standard as dense, and dense or superdense as unbreathable; you may have a noticeably large chest. This feature includes eye adaptations so that Vision penalties are similarly shifted. If you want greater precision, assume that the character’s native pressure is 0.7 atm.

This feature has an opposite effect to Low-Pressure Lungs: you treat atmospheric pressures as one stage lower.

This prohibits attributes more than 2 below the template’s average, except for the effects of age. In addition, it prohibits Bad Grip, Bad Sight, Colorblindness, Dwarfism, Dyslexia, Epilepsy, Gigantism, Hemophilia, Hunchback, Innumerate, Neurological Disorder, Night Blindness, No Sense of Smell/Taste, Non-Iconographic, Numb, Short Attention Span, Slow Healing, or Susceptible to Disease – unless any of these can be explained as the result of accident, disease, or maltreatment, and there is a good reason why the victim has not had the damage medically fixed.

This prohibits Berserk (Battle Rage), Chronic Depression, any Compulsive Behavior with a self-control number of 6, Delusions, Fanaticism, more than two levels of Fearfulness, Flashbacks, Guilt Complex, Kleptomania, Low Self-Image, Lunacy, Manic-Depressive, Megalomania, Nightmares with a self-control number of 9 or less, Obsession, On the Edge, Paranoia, Phantom Voices, Phobias with a self-control number of 9 or less, Pyromania, Sadism with a self-control number of 6, Split Personality with a self-control number of 12 or less, and Trickster with a self-control number of 9 or less.

This works much as on p. TS135. Note that variants of some models of cybershell may have some such “prohibited” feature engineered in at the factory, and it’s just possible that a competent engineer with a full workshop could add some of them at a later stage. However, GMs shouldn’t permit characters with cybershell bodies to sidestep this limitation easily; variant models should be plausible commercial designs, and custom modifications should be tricky and expensive. An Unusual Background such as “custom-built variant for an eccentric rich buyer” or “unsuccessful concept/showpiece design” might justify some more exotic variants. Likewise, a physical disadvantage would logically be fixed at the next workshop visit – unless the job would somehow be incredibly expensive, or the problem is a side-effect of some custom work. Also, machines may gain the Maintenance requirement, or suffer increased Maintenance frequency requirements, if they are wearing out or have been badly damaged in the past. Taboo advantages are now all physical advantages (including Absolute Direction and Detect), and also increased Appearance levels. GMs may permit one or two levels of Acute Senses to represent better sensory processing as opposed to better sensory organs. ST and HT are also generally fixed; a cybershell will often have a fixed DX modifier, but DX is primarily determined by the operating infomorph. Taboo disadvantages are now all physical disadvantages, plus reduced Appearance levels, any reduction in written comprehension of your native language and anything that shares the same script, Addiction, Cannot Learn, Dyslexia, Gluttony, Innumerate, Non-Iconographic, Post-Combat Shakes, Short Attention Span, Sleepwalker, and Unnatural Features.

Taboo advantages for this feature are any modifiers to Will not included in the racial template, Animal Empathy, Common Sense, Cultural Adaptability, Danger Sense, Empathy, Fearlessness, Gadgeteer, Higher Purpose, Intuition, Language Talent, Plant Empathy, Rapier Wit, Social Chameleon, any Talent, Unfazeable, and Versatile. Taboo disadvantages are now any modifiers to Will, and all mental disadvantages except Bloodlust, Confused, Gullibility, and Impulsiveness – unless anything is included in the racial template. Quirks are not taboo.

From the zombie’s viewpoint, many definitive zombie traits amount to tradeoffs – the upsides and downsides cancel out. When recording these on templates, note cost as 0 points. However, the GM is welcome to charge a premium (in $, energy points, or character points, as applicable) to zombie-makers who want to give their creations such features.

In settings where magic exists, undead zombies are by default immune to the spells Death Vision, Sense Life, Soul Jar, Steal (Attribute), and Steal Energy, but vulnerable to Control Zombie, Pentagram, Sense Spirit, Turn Zombie, and Zombie Summoning. This tradeoff is a 0-point feature. If a walking corpse is immune to the first list of spells and some from the second list, combine Affected as Dead with suitable Unaffected by (Spell) perks (p. 57).

Supernatural abilities – especially spells – affect living zombies exactly as they do anything else alive. Affected as Living is a feature intended to remind the GM that a given zombie is not undead, and thus isn’t susceptible to Control Zombie, Pentagram, Sense Spirit, Turn Zombie, or Zombie Summoning. It is affected by Death Vision, Sense Life, Soul Jar, Steal (Attribute), and Steal Energy, though. If it’s immune to some of these latter spells and undeadaffecting spells, combine Affected as Living with relevant Unaffected by (Spell) perks (p. 57).

Prerequisite: No Fatigue. Rarely, a construct or an undead zombie without an FP score can still “redline” itself, pushing past its normal limits at the cost of structural integrity. This feature allows such creatures to use extra effort by spending HT instead of FP. Lost HT can only be restored via Repairs (p. B484); each HT point restored is a separate major repair. For appropriate repair skills, see Maintenance (p. 62).

In some settings – fantasy worlds in particular – Good and Evil are objective, tangible forces. They can serve as triggers or filters for exotic advantages and disadvantages (e.g., DR with Limited, Evil, or a Weakness to the mere presence of Evil), spells (such classics as Detect Evil and Protection from Evil), supernaturally imbued artifacts (whether “Only Evil people may wield the power of the Dark Crown!” or “+5 damage against Evil”), and so on. A common trait of the undead and conceivably all zombies in such backgrounds is that they count as Evil in this sense. It doesn’t matter who created them, what cause they serve, or how they behave… they’re canonically Evil. This is considered a feature because it helps as often as it hinders. On one hand, the zombie can freely enter Dark Places where Evil damages those who don’t serve it, and can be equipped with Evil items. On the other, it takes harm from the powers of Good even though it has no special Weakness or Vulnerability. At the GM’s option, this feature can be a prerequisite for both Desecrator (p. 55) and Can Be Turned By True Faith (p. 66), or even automatically imply both.

Many zombies can transmit their “racial” template to anybody who isn’t already the same kind of creature. If the original gains allies – however fleeting – then that’s a clear advantage for the zombie; see Dominance (p. 51). If it creates new slaves for its master, then that’s cause to raise the template’s point total to keep the zombie-lord honest; add an Affliction as explained in Pestilence and Affliction (p. 56). And if the result is rivals who seek to compete with or even exact vengeance on the particular zombie that created them, that’s a disadvantage; see Infectious Attack (pp. 61-62).

In most zombie fiction, however, transmissible zombification results in none of these outcomes! Zombie attacks simply generate more mindless zombies, who exhibit no special loyalty or antipathy toward their maker. At best, they might offer zombie-hunters additional targets, taking a little heat off; at worst, they might get in the way or overtax the local supply of tasty brains. Thus, as terrifying as this effect is, it shouldn’t affect the zombie’s point value.

For an extensive discussion of how zombification might spread, see Spreading the Fun (pp. 124-129).

Prerequisites: At least two of Doesn’t Breathe, Doesn’t Eat or Drink, Doesn’t Sleep, and Immunity to Metabolic Hazards, or meeting the conditions under Internal Energies (p. 80).

Most supernatural zombies never tire or weaken, and thus don’t lose FP. This could be seen as a side effect of such creatures’ typical advantages – Doesn’t Breathe, Doesn’t Eat or Drink, Doesn’t Sleep, Immunity to Metabolic Hazards, and so on – except that there are effects that cause FP losses that these things can’t prevent, such as attacks that inflict fatigue rather than injury. Being exempt from all involuntary FP drains would be an advantage, something like Immunity to a “Very Common” hazard, for 30 points.

Balancing this is the fact that such zombies can’t spend FP, either – even if they want to! Extra effort is off-limits to them; their listed stats (ST, Basic Move, etc.) specify hard maximums. Moreover, they cannot use FP to energize advantages, skills, or spells. While they can theoretically possess such capabilities, powering these gifts calls for an Energy Reserve (GURPS Powers, p. 119). A human-scale FP supply would cost 30 points as an Energy Reserve, making lack of such a thing an effective disadvantage worth -30 points.

For zombies, these effects always occur together. The combination is a feature worth 0 points. Reflect this by giving zombies who have it an FP score of “N/A.” It’s up to the GM whether non-zombies can buy the separate parts, and at what costs.

Prerequisite: Cannot Learn (pp. 58-59).

Zombies with Cannot Learn are incapable of manipulating or processing knowledge in complex ways. A logical consequence of this is an inability to use any skill based on IQ, Will, or Per. While such a prohibition is a major limitation from the viewpoint of a character who becomes a zombie, it’s only a minor postscript to Cannot Learn from the perspective of the template, and thus just a feature.

If the GM allows playable zombies and feels generous, he might permit players to use the points from lost mental skills to pay some or all of the template cost (if positive), or to add optional or mutant zombie abilities (if negative).

This feature is standard for inanimate objects – and for corpses. Those who possess it cannot have Allies, Claim to Hospitality, Clerical Investment, Contact Group, Contacts, Debt, Dependents, Favor, Legal Enforcement Powers, Legal Immunity, Rank (any kind), Security Clearance, Tenure, or an individual Reputation.

Beings with Taboo Traits (Social Position) can possess certain social traits, though – all of them fixed and inalterable by them, though perhaps not by external forces. These include Duties that the subject is capable of fulfilling; Enemies or Patrons who’ve taken a personal interest for some reason; Independent Income, if a “legal person” provides it; any collective Reputation, Social Regard, or Social Stigma that’s standard for that class of entity; and Wealth, which might exceed the customary Dead Broke in rare cases. Status is a special case. Treat it as “N/A” most of the time – objects (including dead bodies) hold no social rank in most societies. If some formula or rule absolutely requires a number, assume that it’s 0.

Not all undead zombies are embalmed or otherwise preserved. Those with this feature will eventually stop looking nearly human and start rotting, stinking, and attracting flies. Will Become a Skeleton Not all rotting zombies are sufficiently magical or well-preserved to keep their decay from progressing to its logical conclusion. Those with this feature will eventually lose their fleshy exterior and become skeletons.