Get ‘em while they’re hot! By that I mean the following: open up the larger versions below, print them off and put them up on your door.

Want to make your own poster? Send it to us and we’ll add it to the list!

Are you tired of the plain bandannas that WalMart sells? Do you want to help support our game? Well, we’ve teamed up with the Printmaking Club to bring you a full line of custom bandannas to be sold at the April 6th orientations. The profit from every sale will be split, meaning that every purchase brings us one step closer to paying for that rescue helicopter.

Want a sneak peak? That’s what I thought.

Clearly they aren’t quite done, but I think you can see the awesomeness.

Another season, another mod squad. Let’s meet them, shall we…

Cody Sumter is the last of the Mohicans. Having brought the game to Truman State with Dale Pahls in 2007, he is all that remains of the original mod squad. He has moderated for every game except the Spring of 2009. That semester, players signed a petition stating that they would boycott the game if Sumter did not take a break and play with them for one semester. His fear of playing was vindicated when he was zombified on the first mission by Kevin McGarrah, after which he hunted down three of his own kills.

He is dedicated to (and some would say obsessed with) integrating a cohesive choose-your-own-adventure style narrative into the game. He believes that each mission should have a direct impact on the story that then changes the course of the game, and that each decision the players make should matter. Ultimately, he is so very proud of what this game has become, and the players that have made it what it is: an experience in leadership, teamwork, social networking, problem solving, exercise, loyalty, self sacrifice, and fun.

This will likely be his last semester moderating, as graduate school beckons. Having been accepted, he will likely be in Cambridge, MA starting at MIT in the fall. He has to make that decision by April 15…

Mike Solomon is returning for his 4th game on the mod squad and we await his full mini-bio, once school stops crushing his soul.

Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies. Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies.

Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies. Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Kittens Puppies Puppies.

Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies Puppies.

Annie Froeschner is taking the stage for the 2nd time this semester, having played for many games previous, including making it to the final stand in the Spring of 2008. However, because she is in San Fransisco right now, the rest of her bio will have to wait.

Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino. Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino.

Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino. Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino.

Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino. Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino.

Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino. Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino Dino.

Mike Bova Conti (or just Bova as he is better known) started playing Humans vs. Zombies in Spring ’08 and has not looked back since.  Rarely missing a chance to be a part of the game, Mike was either standing in the front lines of the Humans, blasting his way through the Horde, or doing his best to run them down to munch.  Every semester he was killed at about the midpoint of the game, giving him equal experience on both sides.  He has also attended a mission at Mizzou as a Human.

Bova is not only an HvZ enthusiast but a Nerf enthusiast.  He has offered his modding services and sold guns throughout much of his HvZ career.  He is frequently consulted about weapon selection and helped to recruit (and was one of) the mod gods of Fall ’09 and Spring ’10.

Finally, he shares Cody’s philosophy regarding missions and seeks to come up with new and creative mission ideas, that are hopefully pleasing to the players.  This will be his only semester moderating, as the real world looms closer, but he may resurface in future games (because HvZ is in his blood and you can never be too old for Nerf).

Spring 2010 will be Jason Marth’s first semester as a full moderator, having previously filled the roles of mission mod, mod god, and player. Other than running the bi-annual HvZ Training Camp, his main foray into HvZ extra curriculars was the co-founding of the failed squad “DPS-Adins.” Despite the group’s predictable decimation, he still holds the team philosophy close to his heart- “play hard, die harder.”

Marth applies the same philosophy to moderating the game. Humans vs. Zombies is not something to be done half way. This is something he get pumped about, and wants the people around him to be just as excited. He wants the players to be engaged in missions, barely slipping into the safety of the dorms, and looking forward to letting more foam fly the next day. He wants war stories. That said, if there’s something you think ought to be in the game, he wants to hear it! The message to get here is, he has fun when players have fun. So go have fun. Yippee-ki-yay, motherfraker.

MOD GODS

Shawn Shawn Shawns
Bobby Shawn Sanders
Michael Shawn Chapman

MISSION MODS

Jocelyn Nebel
Blake Mueller
Eric Bozarth

MEDIA MODS

JW Vineyard

-October 25, 2008-
-Humans: 95 Zombies: 191-

No escape. No cure. One hope.

They didn’t know what it was, but the op assured the humans that if they followed his instructions, he would show them a way out. Meeting in Ryle they found general directions leading to the location of one of three generators that they would need to activate for the op. Splitting into three groups they spread across campus. Jeremy Hellwig, Mike Merrit, and Topher Hasset’s group managed to find the first location in Kirk Building. Solving the next clue they called the other humans – the second generator was in West Campus, but their fate lay in Kirk. For while they were solving it, the horde had descended, surrounding the entire building. They made a choice – they would attempt to draw in as much of the horde as they could, giving the other teams more freedom to complete the mission.

Jocelyn Nebel, Arron Hustead, Eric Bozarth, Michael Miller, and the rest of the group split into two. Half would race to West Campus while the second half would secure Barnett. Tailed by a contingent of four zombies they made it into West to discover the last generator was in Barnett. By this time Josh Hirner’s group was trapped in Ophelia Parish, and so it was up to the West group to meet back up with its Barnett half.

Finally, all three generators were on their way to warming up, but they still had one location left. Following it they entered Grim Hall to find a message from the op:

Posted to op.rebuildourfuture.com following the completion of the mission:

Let me tell you a story…

Many years ago, a global pandemic was about to wipe out all human life on earth. Scientists were at a loss for how to stop it. Then a man showed up; he claimed to have developed a cure. He was brilliant with technology, charismatic, and cunning. The world believed his story, they needed to believe his story.

He founded a technological empire on that fame… you know that man, and his empire.

Some bought the tale… attaching themselves to the man who saved humanity. They went to work for him, knowing not that he himself had not developed the cure.

Some of us were not so convinced. We knew this “miracle cure” was a set-up, but there was no way to come forward with the information. We planted ourselves in his organization, so one day we could expose him, and whatever he was doing with his “cure.”

I and another, who had placed himself in the military branch of the company, were about to move. After the 2008 incident, we knew we had little time, but we still had no evidence. Until a cure was found for that “Ebola” outbreak. The cure was smuggled outside the company, and when it was examined by our researchers, we were shocked. It was the same cure as before. Moreover, it was unlike any cure we had seen before. It was alive. Not in the way a retrovirus is alive, but it was made of tiny, moving, replicating, molecular machines. This was our proof; more was going on.

We built our case over the next five years.

By late summer 2013, our man in the military had just been given a new assignment, and we were ready to bring the company down… then the “Supervirus” was released.

That was three days ago now… Our plans were foiled; but we gained a new ally.

A researcher who went to the company to “cure” the Ebola virus of 2008 came to see that her cure was manipulated, implanted with the same nanobots we had seen before. She finally came to see what we had already known…

An army was being formed…

The nanobots could be controlled by the company, used as a personal private army. Their leader would be the research subject of the past five years… the last living infected being from 2008. He too was ultimately controlled by the company, however.

He infected others, and they others, and now it spirals out of control…

They are smart, and they can use their nanobots to controls machines and computers…

And so began the Kirk Standoff.

-October 24, 2008-
-Humans: 154 Zombies: 146-

Day 3 was rainy. Day 3 was relaxed. Day 3 was bloody. In that order.

The kills slowed through the first half of the day as weather kept everyone, but the most hardcore, inside. By early afternoon it cleared and for a while, there was peace. For an hour and a half the hunting and running stopped, as both humans and zombies enjoyed the free food and activities of Oktoberfest.

Such peace was to be short lived, as the humans raced to Centennial Hall at 6pm to meet Dr. Reinhurst for a mission. When they arrived they found her wheelchair-bound research assistant instead. The Doctor was close to a cure, having discovered that Captain Greg Wayne, the missing man singled out by the op, was the original zombie. The nanobots in his body were controlling all other zombies. If the humans could stun Wayne, and take the research assistant to him, they would be able to extract a sample that could be used for a cure. Further, because the nanobots in Wayne were original to Reinhurst’s research it was possible to detect his position every 10 minutes.

The zombies were smart. They knew of the humans’ plans. They knew that if they were able to zombify the research assistant, Dr. Reinhurst would have no choice but to surface – making one of the human’s most valuable assets vulnerable. And so they prepared. They would find him. They would protect Wayne. They would win.

The human force split into 4 groups. A small 6 man team to move the assistant to secure outdoor location, a 10 man cell to scout for Wayne, a two large squads to strike at Wayne and divert any zombies from discovering the research assistant’s location. The scouts quickly discovered a swarm of 40+ zombies coordinating in Red Barn Park. Calling for backup they secured another 15 to 20 to attempt to bottleneck the zombies at the bridge. Unbeknown to them, they had actually found Wayne, amidst the swarm.

However, they would not have a chance to make an advance as they were called back to McClain (where the research assistant was located) – a second swarm of the zombies had found them. Then there was blood. Waves of 30 zombies rushed in. Many fell, including John Mohr. Evacuating back to West Campus they attempted to protect the assistant in the courtyard, but it was only a matter of time before they would fall without backup.  All it took was a zombie through the courtyard doors to stealthily take out the assistant while they focuses on the horde in front of them.

Upon that news the rest of the swarm rushed with Wayne to West Campus. With him safe, it was time to feast.

And feast they did. As 45 more zombies joined their ranks that day.

-October 23, 2008-
-Humans: 209 Zombies: 91-

Around 3pm, after nearly an entire day of silence, the op sent an urgent request for the survivors to meet Major Freeman that afternoon to assist Dr. Kathleen Reinhurst.
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When the humans arrived Freeman quickly brought everyone up to speed. Reinhurst had discovered that the very nanobots she had helped develop to stop the virus were somehow being used to spread the current outbreak. These zombies were smarter, faster, and more organized then their predecessors.

Further, she had discovered that they were going straight for Syrner’s core systems, specifically the Communication Grid, Research Database, Security Systems and Sensor Array. They had begun locking down the nodes but that would take another hour and they didn’t have that long before all systems would be compromised.

The humans’ mission was simple: go, find the nodes, and prevent the zombies from infecting the systems they would need if they were to survive. They had an hour. They quickly found the 4 nodes, surrounded by zombies attempting to breach the security protocols – each protocol represented by a different puzzle. At the BNB node the zombies attempted to solve a sudoku puzzle, the Sunken Garden node a cryptogram, the Red Barn Park node a logic puzzle, and at the West Campus node the zombies worked to win a chess game against a holographic opponent.

After an hour of fighting to take and protect the nodes the humans retreated to safety. They had secured all nodes but the one linked to the Communications Grid. Without it they would not be able to contact the outside world for assistance and there was no telling what the zombies would do now. However, there was still hope of survival with the three other systems intact.

That evening a very select number of players who had been in communication with the op received text messages that simply said “You will be receiving a mission email soon. Zombies won’t know. Speed and stealth is a must. Please help. –OP”

Then, at 11:30pm an email to all human forces was sent out. A shipment of heavy weaponry had made it into the city before the full quarantine had been enacted and was sitting in the Pershing parking lot (courtesy of the op). If the humans could make it there and transport the crates to the Barnett facility the op would be able to “reallocate” one of the them for use. By 11:45 several human squads descended on the parking lot where they rendezvoused with a handful of Vulcan wielding Sryner associates and by 12:10 they had transported all the crates, unlocking automatics.

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Player of note:
In the node mission zombie Kelsy Parker successfully completed the Sunken Garden node (the cryptogram). While many zombies contributed to that solution, Kelsy completed the last few leters moments before the human forces retook the area. This single event prevented the humans from being able to contact the outside world, cutting of all possibilities of a rescue.

-October 22, 2008-
-Humans: 300 Zombies: 0-

By morning, it was apparent that something was wrong. Everyone was on edge, but continued on with their routines. Then the violence started – seemingly normal residents attacking others. Initially the reports were few and scattered, but it quickly spread. Those that had been attacked were soon turning on others.

The infection spread fast, much faster than it had 5 years before. By the end of the day nearly a third of the residents had turned.

-October 21, 2008-

That evening marked the 4th and final orientation for the game. The room was packed as Mark L. Thompson IV (President of Syrner) started off the presentation. After welcoming the newest recruits to Kirksville the stage was handed off to Col. Victor Solomon, Maj. Lucian Freeman, and Dr. Kathleen Reinhurst. After a short security briefing from Solomon and Freeman and the signing of non-disclosure agreements Dr. Reinhurst explained to the audience a breakthrough five years in the making. Using highly advanced nano-bots her team had discovered that it was possible to temporarily control the infection. While not a cure, such a treatment could keep the infection in check.

During the presentation manila envelopes were passed out to the players. The envelopes contained a welcoming letter from Syrner’s president along with several pages of in-game information. A percentage of the players also found slips of paper that simply read:

Magruder Clocktower Court Yard
10:00 pm
Bring only those you trust…

50 individuals approached shortly before 10. Many brandished nerf guns and socks. When they entered MG2001 they found a cell phone, speaker system, phone number, list of confusing location (“The Suicide Room,” “The Sundial,” “The Old Incinerator,” etc), and a list of 10 coordinates. At 10pm player John Mohr called the number to discover that it connected him to Goucher’s game. The confusing locations were determined to be for locations at Goucher and so they were transmitted to them.

The coordinates were determined to be for locations around Kirksville. Five teams of ten were formed and dispatched to investigate two of the locations each in the pouring rain. Returning from across the city they brought back plastic containers that each contained puzzle pieces with something written on the back. Once the glow in the dark dinosaur puzzle was complete the message was clear:

Jenny, I got your number.

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Completion of Goucher’s end of the mission revealed the website op.rebuildourfuture.com Presented with a password field the players quickly realized that they needed to input 8675309 to gain access. Here they were introduced to the op with a warning: YOU FOUND ME.Listen to me if you want to live.Not everything is what it seems in City 17.Cpt Wayne is not dead.In City 17.Infected.Cured.Controlled.Reinhurst doesn’t know.Not good.I need your help.Will you follow me?op@rebuildourfuture.com

Player of note:
During this mission John Mohr took charge of the communication between Truman and Goucher – ensuring the smooth flow of information between the two schools. Because of this he managed to stay dry through the course of the mission. Kudos to you, sir.

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Player of note:
McKenna Peters was the first individual to make contact with the op through the listed email address. With the help of John Mohr they laid the inroads for much of the later communication with the op. Also, for the record, there appears to be no photos of McKenna playing HvZ on facebook and thus a generic picture shall be used!

-October 16, 2008-

Though the game was still several days away many players received a knock at the door late in the evening. When answered they received a small flyer and their picture was taken. The mysterious flyers had little on them and simply linked to rebuilourfuture.com – A Syrner Corporation project.

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Players that logged on were given a first glimpse at what was to come. The year was 2013 – five years after a new strain of the “Ebola virus” had emerged in Kirksville, MO. With the complete decimation of the area’s population, it was time to rebuild. Immediately after the incident Syrner Corporation, a SHARP subsidiary, successfully negotiated complete control of the cleanup and rebuild project. Through rebuildourfuture.com they were now recruiting the world’s top scientists, engineers, and security personnel to work to change the world at the state of the art facilities being built out of the ashes.

Player of note:

The first player to submit their information to be considered for a position with Syrner was Michael ‘Hogey’ Hogard. Hogey believed his qualifications for a research position included experience in the laboratory, years of study in the sciences, and previous experience studying the 2007 outbreak. To describe himself he simply put “Will do what I must because I can.” Touching words to our cold dead hearts.

Zombies on the left, zombies on the right, Violette Hall straight ahead and a nerf gun in my hands.