CREDIT: BROOKE FOSTER
Role-play group Dystopia Rising filled Victoria Park with zombies during a demonstration to attract new players. Leader Dylan Row and a new member fight off a zombie during a demonstration.

Victoria Park was filled with zombies on October 20. But don’t start hording canned food and weapons just yet. The invasion was a demonstration by a horror survival roleplay group called Dystopia Rising as part of a Forest City Comicon.

About 30 people dressed in zombie and hunter costumes made their way to the park with handmade weapons. The swords, axes and sticks used to hunt the zombies are called boffers. They were completely safe and made from PVC pipe and covered in foam.

Dylan Rowe, leader of southern Ontario’s Dystopia Rising chapter, said it was a good experience.

“This is a really good escape,” Rowe said. “It’s fun it’s stress free and it gives a bit of an adrenaline rush.”

The group regularly gets together to take part in role-play games. Once a month, they trek to a campsite that has been set up in preparation for the zombie apocalypse.

“You set up, sign in and then the game starts,” he said. “Sometimes you get the feeling of real fear. But when it gets too much, since this is all for fun, the staff will tone it down.”

Everyone picks and creates their own character from a number of different professions and strains. There are many different kinds of zombie hunters and many different kids of zombies. Each character has different abilities and skills.

“For new players, we run a game where they are clearing roads and come across the campsite or settlement to ease them in and for them to get a feel for the game,” Rowe said. “At the start, your character is not completely helpless but they aren’t the kind of person that goes around crushing zombie heads together with your bare hands.”

A team of writers creates the story lines in advance.

“In our last plot there was a mad scientist creating psychic zombies,” he said. “We had to find his lab, find him and destroy the zombies.”

During the entirety of the weekend the players work as a team to complete one detailed plot. Often times, story lines need to be continued over multiple events.

Rowe said that every player is unique and has different reasons for joining the group.

“I got into role play because I just wanted to try it,” he said. “I wanted to get into something new and I figured it would be a good way to meet people.”

Many of Dystopia Rising’s players are former military members who have posttraumatic stress disorder. Rowe said the game is found to be extremely therapeutic for them.

“You would think that putting someone with that kind of problem in this situation would harm them, but it does the exact opposite.”

When zombie characters attack, hunters use their weapons to defend themselves. The game is action packed and thrilling.

The crew is currently in the process of moving to a more suitable campsite, but the next event is expected to take place mid-November.

If you are interested in getting involved, check out Dystopia Rising North’s Facebook page at facebook.com/groups/dystopiarisingnorth.