[Free RPG Day 2026] Plaguebearer – Core Rulebook Preview

Now in its nineteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2026 took place on Saturday, June 27th. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Unfortunately, due to vagaries of International Customs, Free RPG Day in the UK did not take place until Saturday, 22nd August.

This review is possible due to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham.

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Quick-starts are a means of trying out a roleplaying game before you buy. Each should provide a Game Master with sufficient background to introduce and explain the setting to her players, the rules to run the scenario included, and a set of ready-to-play, pre-generated characters that the players can pick up and understand almost as soon as they have sat down to play. The scenario itself should provide an introduction to the setting for the players as well as to the type of adventures that their characters will have and just an idea of some of the things their characters will be doing on said adventures. All of which should be packaged up in an easy-to-understand booklet whose contents, with a minimum of preparation upon the part of the Game Master, can be brought to the table and run for her gaming group in a single evening’s session—or perhaps two. And at the end of it, Game Master and players alike should ideally know whether they want to play the game again, perhaps purchasing another adventure or even the full rules for the roleplaying game.

Alternatively, if the Game Master already has the full rules for the roleplaying game the quick-start is for, then what it provides is a sample scenario that she still run as an introduction or even as part of her campaign for the roleplaying game. The ideal quick-start should entice and intrigue a playing group, but above all effectively introduce and teach the roleplaying game, as well as showcase both rules and setting.

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What is it?
The Plaguebearer – Core Rulebook Preview is the preview of, and quick-start for, the fantasy version of Zombicide Chronicles: The Roleplaying Game. Published by CoolMiniOrNot and Guillotine Games, Plague Bearer: Dark Fantasy Roleplaying is the roleplaying adaptation of Zombicide: Black Plague, the medieval adaptation of the board game of Zombicide, 2nd Edition, which of course, is given its own roleplaying game with Zombicide Chronicles: The Roleplaying Game.

The Plaguebearer – Core Rulebook Preview is a twenty-eight page, full colour booklet.

How long will it take to play?
The Plaguebearer – Core Rulebook Preview includes the scenario, ‘Night Hunt’, which can be played through in a single hour.

What else do you need to play?
The Plaguebearer – Core Rulebook Preview needs at least twelve six-sided dice per player.

Who do you play?
The Plaguebearer – Core Rulebook Preview includes five pre-generated Player Characters. The consist of a Hedge Witch, Executioner, Pilgrim, Zealot, and Town Guard.

How is a Player Character defined?

A Player Character in Plague Bearer: Dark Fantasy Roleplaying is defined by his Attributes, Proficiencies, and Actions. Attributes and Proficiencies are rated between one and three and laid out on a grid with Attributes along the top and the Proficiencies listed down the side. The three Attributes are Muscle, Brains, and Grit, and Proficiencies, whilst the Proficiencies consist of Athletics, Combat, Magic, Perception, Survival, and Wit. In play, the Proficiencies are cross-referenced with the Attributes to give an Action, for example, cross-reference Magic and Muscle gives the Sense Action; Magic and Brains the Cast Action; and Magic and Guts the Ward Action.

A Survivor also has three Talents across three Tiers, though initially, he only has access to the Tier One Talent. During play, if he inflicts a critical strike or loses any Hit Points, he will increase his Fervour, representing the increasing intensity of the situation, and gain access to the Tier Two and Three Talents.

How do the mechanics work?

Mechanically, Plague Bearer: Dark Fantasy Roleplaying is simple. A player cross-references a Proficiency with an Attribute to give an Action, the combination of values for the Proficiency and the Attribute give the number of dice to be rolled for the Action. This generates a base dice pool which ranges in size from two to six dice, but to this can be added bonus dice for the right equipment, support from allies, and the situation. Penalties such as being impaired, suffering from fatigue, or facing NPC opposition can reduce the number of dice a player has to roll. A roll of one is always a failure, but any roll of six is counted as a Success with one Success counted as an ordinary success, two Successes as a superior success, and three Successes as an outstanding success. If an Action is favoured, rolls of five also count as Successes. A player can choose to force a success by converting any results of five into sixes and Successes. This inflicts Strain on the Player Character and if done too often, leads to fatigue and a reduced number dice he rolls in a dice pool (though not in combat as adrenaline kicks in).

How does combat work?

Initiative in Plague Bearer: Dark Fantasy Roleplaying uses its Initiative Cards, but for the Plaguebearer – Core Rulebook Preview, the Game Master must construct a deck from an ordinary deck of playing cards. Otherwise, combat uses the same mechanics, with only one success needed to hit and weapons inflicting a fixed amount of damage. Combat consists of ‘Opening Shots’ of ranged combat, followed by proper Combat Rounds of melee combat. Zombies are attacked in speed order, from the slowest to the fastest, unless the Survivor takes the Aim move. Damage needs to be enough to kill a zombie in one go, or not at all, and some of the zombies, like the Abomination, can withstand more damage than most weapons can inflict. In this instance, the Survivors need to master their weapons with the right Skills. Zombies attack and automatically do damage in the Combat Rounds with the Game Master not needing to roll. Armour provides protection, but can be damaged. Another option is that the Survivors can take the Evade move.

Most zombies have a Toughness of one and can be dispatched with a single hit, so if a player rolls multiple hits, his Survivor can destroy multiple zombies. Others though, have a Toughness of two and a Survivor must inflict two hits in one go to destroy them. Stronger Adversaries have both Toughness and Hit Points and will need to be hit multiple times to destroy them.

How does magic work?

Two Survivors can cast spells. One has access to a Fire Bolt scroll, the other to a Fireball scroll. It is not clear whether these are single use only or if they ned to be held to cast from, though the artwork depicts both casting magic without needing to use their scrolls directly. There is no discussion of magic in the Plaguebearer – Core Rulebook Preview.

What do you play?

The world of Plague Bearer: Dark Fantasy Roleplaying is one of the Old Kingdom brought low by Necromancers who raised undead hordes from cursed graves and corrupted the lands. Long deserted bar the crunch of zombies staggering, grasping, and searching for prey with bloodshot eyes, the Survivors scavenge what the dead left behind and the zombies impede access to. With no labourers and no farmers, a new threat has arisen—famine, and at the start of ‘Night Hunt’, the scenario included in the Plaguebearer – Core Rulebook Preview, the Survivors are hungry and looking for food. When they come to the rescue of a farmer, she reveals she knows the whereabouts of a cache of food hidden away to avoid paying taxes on it. However, before they can carry it out of the nearby forest, the Survivors must defeat a horde of zombies and a giant-zombie-owl-abomination! It can have up to two attacks per round and is a fearsome opponent.

However, as much as ‘Night Hunt’ is action-orientated, it is short and will completed in an hour. If the Game Master has access to the scenario, Death Out of the Stars, she can possibly combine the two for a longer session.

Is there anything missing?
Yes. The Plaguebearer – Core Rulebook Preview does not have any rules for fear which would seem necessary for a horror roleplaying game, and really needed a discussion of magic as it pertains to two of the Survivors.

Is it easy to prepare?
Yes. The Plaguebearer – Core Rulebook Preview is easy to grasp and prepare.

Is it worth it?
Maybe. The Plaguebearer – Core Rulebook Preview includes everything for a very quick demonstration, but anyone wanting more of an experience beyond combat or a chance to explore the setting will be disappointed. For an hour, the Plaguebearer – Core Rulebook Preview is fun, but it is all combat and no world.

The Plaguebearer – Core Rulebook Preview is published by EDGE Studio.

Hordes & Haven

Road to Haven is a campaign for Zombicide Chronicles: The Roleplaying Game, which is based upon the collaborative board game, Zombicide: 2nd Edition. Published by CoolMiniOrNot and Guillotine Games, this introduces a new mode of play for the roleplaying game—‘Campaign Mode’. This introduces the concept of missions connected by a one or more plots and by recurring NPS—‘Non-Player Survivors’. In the case of Road to Haven, the number of missions is short, just ten, and the plots are not complex. Ultimately, what Road to Haven does is provide a continuing motivation for the Survivors—as the Player Characters are called in Zombicide Chronicles—to do more than roam the city in search of food and supplies to scavenge. The main plot concerns the location of a secret military base called ‘Haven 3’, which might be located somewhere in the city. If the Survivors can deduce its location, they can hopefully find it, open it up, and once inside determine if is safe from the zombie hordes outside. That truly would be a haven! However, discovering this information will not be easy. A secret military base is secret for a reason and even before the apocalypse, very few people knew of its existence. Of course, since the apocalypse and the rise of the corpse cortège, even fewer people know! Can the Survivors get lucky and find the one person surviving who does know? This is not the only problem that the Survivor will have to deal with in their quest for answers. There is also something causing the zombies to mutate weirdly and if it spreads, it is going to make life for everyone still alive in the city—let alone anywhere else—a whole lot harder. Plus, there are other Survivors, and Survivors being Survivors, they often come with their issues, some of them left over from before the apocalypse.

The Road to Haven: Campaign Book actually does a bit more than just present a campaign. It introduces a total of eight new Survivor Archetypes. Of these, four are ready to play, meaning that the players can pick from these or those from the core rulebook and that they also serve as replacement Survivors or NPS. These four are the School Teacher, the Mortician, the Surfer, and the Firefighter. The other four are first encountered as NPS in the course of the campaign and once the scenarios where they first appear have been resolved, they are ‘unlocked’ and can be played as Survivors. These four are the Conspiracy Theorist, the Urban Climber Girl, the Social Worker, and the Exotic Dancer. The other thing aspect about the campaign that is ‘unlockable’ is knowledge about the Zombies. Early on in the campaign, the Survivors will discover a dossier of notes about the zombies called, ‘Anatomical Guide to Zombies’. This depicts the various types of zombies and their potential weak points. As a Shelter Action carried out between missions, a Survivor can attempt a new training action, ‘Compile the Anatomical Guide’. This requires a Survivor to consider the zombies fought by the group in the previous mission. His player then rolls an Education Check and for every success, the Survivor identifies a ‘weakness point’ in particular type of zombies. Once all of the weakness points have been identified, the Survivors can replace ordinary dice with Mastery dice they attack that type of zombie.

The campaign will also have the Survivors facing off against some nasty zombified monsters in addition to those found in Zombicide Chronicles: The Roleplaying Game. They include several twisted animals and a zombie centipede that splits apart! Many of the new zombie threats are connected to the campaign’s secondary plot about the mutant zombies. In addition, the campaign can also be modified by ‘Campaign Events’. These can be used by the Game Master to modify individual missions with seemingly random events. Some are helpful, such as an unexpected cargo drop by a military aeroplane, or weird, such as an eclipse, but others are also tied to the main plot of the campaign itself. All of them are optional, but a lot of them are fun—the idea of fighting zombie hordes in the middle of an eclipse is never going to be less than memorable.

The campaign opens with a standard Supply Run-style mission. When the Survivors rescue an NPS called ‘Tinfoil’, he tells them about a secret he has discovered—a radio broadcast! This, he thinks, is coming from a secret bunker and if it is still intact, it means it will have supplies and it will be safe. However, he does not know where it is, and since there is no Internet anymore, there is no easy way of finding out! Confirming the existence of the bunker and determining its location form the main strand of the campaign. It will take the Survivors to various locations across the city, including a library, the old city zoo, and an ‘exotic’ nightclub… In the process, the Survivors will also encounter some oddly mutated and much deadlier zombies. The question is, is there something affecting the zombies and twisting them into much nastier versions? Of course there is, and investigating this forms the basis of the second of the three plot strands in Road to Haven. Both this and the third strand are much, much shorter than the campaign’s main plot to find the hidden bunker. When the Survivors do find the hidden bunker, they will also discover secrets so dangerous that they could destroy the world and the campaign with it...

All ten missions in Road to Haven are presented in the same format. This begins with an introduction and a detailed description of the locations, a set of floorplans, details of the events that will be triggered during the mission, and descriptions of the adversaries and NPS who will be encountered during the mission. Objectives are also outlined and what happens next is discussed in the in the aftermath. The event descriptions can be quite detailed, but it does feel slightly out of order to have them after the location descriptions rather than before.

In terms of setting, the city in Road to Haven can be a generic city as in the core rulebook for Zombicide Chronicles: The Roleplaying Game or it can be set in the city of the Game Master’s choice. With its preponderance of guns, it is not as easy to adapt to anywhere outside of the USA.

Physically, Road to Haven is big, bold, and in your face. It is heavily illustrated with lots and lots of cartoon style artwork, decent maps and floorplans, and fully painted shots of the city. The book is well written and easy to read.

As a campaign, Road to Haven is short and uncomplicated, the latter meaning that it is relatively easy to run for the Game Master and the former that it can played through in as little as ten sessions (though it will probably take a few more). As the first campaign for Zombicide Chronicles: The Roleplaying Game, it completely suits the big, bold cartoon world of the roleplaying game and the board game it is based on.

[Free RPG Day 2024] Death Out of the Stars

Now in its seventeenth year, Free RPG Day for 2024 took place on Saturday, June 22nd. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. This included dice, miniatures, vouchers, and more. Thanks to the generosity of Waylands Forge in Birmingham, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day.

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Death Out of the Stars is a scenario for Plague Bearer: Dark Fantasy Roleplaying. This is the fantasy version of Zombicide Chronicles: The Roleplaying Game. Published by CoolMiniOrNot and Guillotine Games, Plague Bearer: Dark Fantasy Roleplaying is the roleplaying adaptation of Zombicide: Black Plague, the medieval adaptation of the board game of Zombicide, 2nd Edition, which of course, is given its own roleplaying game with Zombicide Chronicles: The Roleplaying Game. The scenario is short, playable in a single session, and can be played using the Plague Bearer Quickstart Rules, which also has the six pre-generated adventurers needed to play. Death Out of the Stars can also be run as a sequel to ‘Blood and Wine’, the scenario in the Plague Bearer Quickstart Rules or simply be inserted into the Game Master’s campaign.

Death Out of the Stars begins en media res. The Player Characters—or Survivors—are on the run, being chased by a large horde of the undead, their only route forward being to cross a wooden bridge to Nahum Island. Fortunately, the wood of the bridge is rotten and collapses under the weight of the charging corpses, dashing them onto the rocks below. Unfortunately, the wood of the bridge is rotten and collapses under the weight of the charging corpses, trapping the Survivors on the island. The island is heavily wooded and with its steep cliffs and rocky shores, would be to be ideal holdout against the cadaver cavalcade which has arisen elsewhere in Wulfsburg. Unfortunately, the island too seems bereft of the living, although its undead strangely bloodless when compared to those of the mainland—grey of pallor as if drained of colour and wasting away to dust. Similarly, buildings are rapidly deteriorating and collapsing into piles of dust. Consequently, it looks like Nahum Island is not the refuge that the Player Characters might have hoped that it would be. They must face more zombies—even if they are different to the ones across the water—and discover what is happening on Nahum Island before making their escape, ideally after having dealt with the problem.

Horror fans may well recognise the reference in the scenario’s title and Death Out of the Stars certainly has a Lovecraftian feel to it. If one half of the scenario is the cosmic horror of H.P. Lovecraft, the other half is the corruptive influence of Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, as if a lump of Warpstone had fallen from the sky. This gives the scenario an unsurprisingly grim tone, far less cartoonish than that of Zombicide Chronicles: The Roleplaying Game. Still, as befits a scenario set within a Zombicide setting, there is still scope for bloody—or in this case, dusty—action.

Physically, Death Out of the Stars is very well presented. The scenario is decently written and both the artwork and the maps are excellent.

Death Out of the Stars is a weird and creepy scenario in between the blasts of sword swinging, mace bashing action as the Survivors hold back the members of the cadaver cavalcade and try and work out what is going on on Nahum Island. It is a pleasing shift of tone from the often-cartoonish style of Zombicide Chronicles: The Roleplaying Game and is a solid addition to any Plague Bearer: Dark Fantasy Roleplaying campaign.

[Free RPG Day 2023] Zombicide: Chronicles Free RPG Day 2 Mission Booklet

Now in its sixteenth year, Free RPG Day for 2023 took place on Saturday, June 24th. As per usual, Free RPG Day consisted of an array of new and interesting little releases, which are traditionally tasters for forthcoming games to be released at GenCon the following August, but others are support for existing RPGs or pieces of gaming ephemera or a quick-start. Thanks to the generosity of David Salisbury of Fan Boy 3, Fil Baldowski at All Rolled Up, and others, Reviews from R’lyeh was able to get hold of many of the titles released for Free RPG Day, both in the USA and elsewhere.

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It is more common for roleplaying games to get turned into board games, for example, Exalted: Legacy of the Unconquered Sun for the Exalted roleplaying game from White Wolf Entertainment and Grand Tribunal, the board game set in the world of Atlas Games’ Ars Magica, but that trend is on the turn. Root: The Tabletop Roleplaying Game from Magpie Games is based on Leder Games’ Root: A Game of Woodland Might and Right, whilst the popular Zombicide board game from CMON Global Limited now has its own stand-alone roleplaying game in the form of Zombicide: Chronicles – The Roleplaying Game. For Free RPG Day 2021, CoolMiniOrNot and Guillotine Games released the Zombicide: Chronicles Free RPG Day Mission Booklet. This contained a trio of short scenarios which can either set up or continue a post-apocalyptic campaign in which the dead rise, walk, shamble, or even run, and want to munch on your brains. However, it did not contain any rules from Zombicide: Chronicles—for that the Zombie Master needed to download the Zombicide: Chronicles Quick-Start, which has everything necessary to play through the three scenarios in the Zombicide: Chronicles Free RPG Day Mission Booklet. This is also the case for the Zombicide: Chronicles Free RPG Day 2 Mission Booklet.

The Zombicide: Chronicles Free RPG Day 2 Mission Booklet contains two scenarios rather than the three of Zombicide: Chronicles Free RPG Day Mission Booklet from Free RPG Day 2021. They will work with either the Zombicide: Chronicles Quick-Start or the full rules from Zombicide: Chronicles – The Roleplaying Game. The first of the two missions in the booklet, ‘Car Crush’, is the longer and the more detailed—and is the better for it. The scenario begins with the Survivors encountering Reginald, a chauffeur—who happens to be an English chauffeur for a well-known rapper in the pre-Zombicide Chronicles world—in a spot of difficulty. His limousine’s battery is flat and needs replacing, but he is surrounded by zombies. If he can get a replacement battery, he can get to a source of food and supplies that has yet to be scavenged. Can the Survivors help? Thankfully, the chauffeur has stopped right outside the perfect place to find a replacement battery: Monster Joe’s Used Auto Parts. The rest of the mission is a sandbox adventure set entirely within the confines of a junkyard. Which just happens to be full of zombies because the Mob used ‘Billy Boy’, Monster Joe’s enormous car crusher, to dispose of bodies. Unfortunately, the Mob has been using it for years and whilst that was not before the apocalypse, after an apocalypse when the undead have arisen to walk the earth and feed on the living, it definitely is! This results in a great set-up with members of the corpse cortege ready to leap out of partially crushed wrecks and the junkyard’s car graveyard. It being a junkyard, it has towering piles of well, junk, and scrap, some of them noteworthy and interesting some not, and it has dogs to discourage would be thieves and intruders, and some of these are, of course, zombie dogs.

‘Car Crush’ details nine locations, each one a set-piece of its own. In addition to this, there are a trio of events which add flavour and a little pathos to the whole affair. The scenario also serves as a prequel to Road to Haven, which is the first campaign for Zombicide Chronicles. To play that, Reginald should survive the mission and drive the Survivors to the Shopmarket, which marks the start of the campaign proper, where they will be able to resupply with food and perhaps even run into Reginald’s boss, Adam W. Clever. Even if the Zombie Master decides not to run the scenario as part of the Road to Haven campaign, this is a really fun scenario which plays up to the classic tropes of American junkyard, right up to including links with the Mob.

Where ‘Car Crush’ was more open and had more of a freeform feel to it, the second mission, ‘Oliver Twisted’ is more constrained and tactical, and as the title suggests, it involves children. It is also the shorter of the two. It also assumes that the Survivors have access to a Shelter and have made contact with other Shelters such that the Survivors possess a radio and a codebook which enables the various occupants of the Shelters to communicate with each other in secrecy. Unfortunately, the Survivors have had their copy of the codebook stolen—and stolen by children, no less! So to enable the Survivors to remain in contact with the other Shelters, they need to retrieve the codebook. Which means finding the children, who all turn out to be orphans with a strong distrust of adults. Plus, the one orphan who stole the codebook has been kidnapped by the ‘Devils’, a band of soldiers who have holed up in the upper levels of a city block. Worse, they have surrounded it with zombies! This sets up a tactical situation in which the Survivors—none of them trained soldiers—have to assault or break into hideout occupied by trained soldiers. Whilst there is some roleplaying to be had between the orphans and the Survivors, ‘Oliver Twisted’ primarily consists of combat and stealth, and it lacks the inventiveness of ‘Car Crush’. Not every scenario has to be quite as inventive, but ‘Oliver Twisted’ is just merely okay.

Physically, Zombicide: Chronicles Free RPG Day 2 Mission Booklet is well presented, the artwork, all cartoonish zombies and Survivors, is decent, and the one map in the booklet does the job very nicely.

If the Zombie Master wants two more Missions for Zombicide: Chronicles – The Roleplaying Game, then Zombicide: Chronicles Free RPG Day 2 Mission Booklet will give her that. If the Zombie Master is planning to run Road to Haven, the first campaign for Zombicide: Chronicles – The Roleplaying Game, then the Zombicide: Chronicles Free RPG Day 2 Mission Booklet is exactly what she needs. Either way, the Zombicide: Chronicles Free RPG Day 2 Mission Booklet includes two Missions which are decent, but one of which is a lot more fun and inventive than the other.

Cartoon Corpse Cracking Action!

The rise of the dead and the zombie outbreak has been visited again and again in board games and roleplaying games that the concept has become a cliché and the question has to be asked with each new game, “What makes this zombie game different?” such that a playing group will pick it up and play it. So the question is, “What makes Zombicide Chronicles different?” As the name suggests it is based on the boardgame of the same name, Zombicide, in which the players control the fate of the ‘Survivors’ as the zombies rise up, infect their town, and they fight back, becoming ‘Hunters’, taking the violence to the corpse cortège… This is no Deadof Winter or The Walking Dead where every day is a desperate battle for survival—and that is even before the survivors encounter any zombies! Instead, Zombicide is a game in which the players ‘team up, gear up, level up, take ’em down’ and batter, slash, hack, and shoot the members of the cadaver cavalcade and it is this sensibility which is brought to Zombicide Chronicles: The Roleplaying Game.

Zombicide Chronicles: The Roleplaying Game is published by CoolMiniOrNot and Guillotine Games as part of the successful Kickstarter campaign for Zombicide: 2nd Edition. It is designed as both a standalone roleplaying game set in the Zombicide universe and a roleplaying game which is compatible with Zombicide, 2nd Edition, so that the cards and the dice and more can be used with the roleplaying game. This compatibility does lead to some oddities with regard to terminology if the players have experience with other roleplaying games. If they are coming to the roleplaying game after playing the board game, then this is not an issue. If however, they have not, then a little adjustment might be required.

A Survivor in Zombicide Chronicles: The Roleplaying Game is defined by his Skills, Attributes, and Proficiencies, and through the combination of Attributes and Proficiencies, his Actions. Skills are actually special abilities, which work under particular situations, for example, ‘Born Leader’ enables a player to give another player an extra Support Action in combat or ‘Beak-in’, which enables a player to get past standard locked doors or windows without any noise or specialist equipment. There are three Attributes—Muscle, Brains, and Grit, and Proficiencies—Athletics, Attitude, Background, Combat, Perception, and Survival—are categories in which a Survivor can specialise. Attributes and Proficiencies are rated between one and three and laid out on a grid with Attributes along the top and the Proficiencies listed down the side. In play, the Proficiencies are cross-referenced with the Attributes to give an Action, for example, cross-reference the Background Proficiency with the Brains Attribute to get the Education Action or the Perception Proficiency with the Grit Attribute for the Scout Action. It is Actions that might be seen as skills in other roleplaying games.

To create a Survivor, a player first selects an Archetype. There are twelve of these, each with a favoured Proficiency, Attribute, and four starting Skills. They include a BMXRider, a Hacker and Boxer, Bus Driver, Resourceful Foreman, Postwomen, and more…There is, of course, a boxed set of miniatures for the twelve archetypes, which would enable the player-created Survivors to be used in conjunction with the board game. All come with a name, a quote, and a suggestion as to why a player might pick that archetype. The player selects four starting Skills and four favoured Actions (these are underlined on the sheet), and assigns ratings of one, two, and three to his Survivor’s Attributes. He sets two Proficiencies at three, three at two, and one at one. The Survivor also has some gear—a readied weapon, a holstered weapon, and the contents of a backpack.

Alternatively, a player can instead create a Survivor from scratch, ignoring the Archetype step, though they are fun. This would free a player to choose all four of his Survivor’s favoured Proficiency, Attribute, and four starting Skills. A set of tables provides options for the Survivor’s Prologue—when he first heard of the outbreak, firsts aw a zombie, his first Zombicide, and more. The process is quick and easy, and defines the Survivor in broad strokes.

Stanley Redfield
Occupation: Reformed Burglar
Level 0
Habit: Rolls a cigarette, but never lights it. Had to give up for health reasons.
Looks: Unshaven, shifty, and balding
Hit Points: 4
Stress: 6

SKILLS
Break-in, Is That All You Got?, Precision, Mindfulness

ACTIONS – Muscle 3 Brains 2 Grit 1
Athletics 2 Stunt Sneak Endure
Attitude 1 Appeal Convince Hearten
Background 2 Security Education Contacts
Combat 2 Fight Shoot Cool
Perception 3 Spot Evaluate Scout
Survival 3 Scavenge Tinker Heal

GEAR
Pistol, crowbar

When did I first hear about the outbreak?
My brother-in-law died and I heard he came back from the dead…

When did I first experience the outbreak?
My neighbour’s dog wouldn’t shut up, and when I went to investigate, the crotchety old witch nearly ripped my damned arm off…

When was my first Zombicide?
I helped clean up the neighbourhood. Not like the cops were coming…

What happened to your significant others?
I ain’t heard from my son. I sure hope I can find him and he is okay.

What did I take with me?
My cell phone. Need to find a charger for it though…

What did I leave behind?
My favourite book, Angels & Demons

How did I meet the other survivors?
Yeah, one or two were friends.

Mechanically, Zombicide Chronicles: The Roleplaying Game is simple. A player cross-references a Proficiency with an Attribute to give an Action, the combination of values for the Proficiency and the Attribute give the number of dice to be rolled for the Action. This generates a base dice pool which ranges in size from two to six dice, but to this can be added bonus dice for a Favoured Action, equipment, and the difficulty of the situation, which can increase or reduce the number of dice to be rolled. This can increase the number of dice up to a total of twelve, and any dice after the first six, are rolled as Master dice. Zombicide Chronicles: The Roleplaying Game has its own dice. These are six-sided dice, marked with a Zombie Head on the one face and a Molotov Cocktail on the six face, but ordinary six-sided dice can be used instead just as easily. The basic dice should be all one colour, whilst the Master dice another. When rolled, results of the Molotov Cocktail count as Successes. Only one success is required for an Action to succeed, but multiple Successes rolled improve the outcome. If a Zombie Head is rolled on a Mastery Dice, then the player can reroll it once. If there are more Zombie Heads than Molotov Cocktails (or ones versus sixes), then Trouble can ensue, such as a weapon being dropped or friendly fire in combat!

For example, Stanley Redfield is out scouting downtown and discovers a pharmacist which has only been partially looted. There are zombies moving around and he wants to break in without alerting them. His player selects the Security Action, which effectively means he is cross-referencing his Muscle of three with his Background Proficiency of two. This gives him a base dice pool of five dice, but since Security is a favoured Action, this adds one Bonus Die. The use of his crowbar also adds another Bonus Die. Which means altogether, Stanley’s player is rolling six dice and one Mastery die.

Combat uses the same mechanics, with only one success needed to hit and weapons inflicting a fixed amount of damage. Combat consists of ‘Opening Shots’ of ranged combat, followed by proper Combat Rounds of melee combat. Zombies are attacked in speed order, from the slowest to the fastest, unless the Survivor takes the Aim move. Damage needs to be enough to kill a zombie in one go, or not at all, and some of the zombies, like the Abomination, can withstand more damage than most weapons can inflict. In this instance, the Survivors need to master their weapons with the right Skills. Zombies attack and automatically do damage in the Combat Rounds with the Game Master not needing to roll. Armour provides protection, but can be damaged. Another option is that the Survivors can take the Evade move.

One advantage a Survivor has in combat is that he can inflict Stress on himself in return for turning a failed roll into a Success. Whether this is possible depends on the weapon and its Accuracy value, and the number rolled on the dice. For example, the fire axe has an accuracy of four plus. If the player rolls just numbers on the dice rather than Zombie Heads or Molotov Cocktails, he can check the numbers, and if any of them are four or five, he can take a point of Stress to turn it into a Success. Stress though is a finite resource and there is a limit to how often a player can use it. Once his limit is reached, a Survivor will need to find a way of relieving his Stress.

All weapons have an Accuracy value like this. The ranged weapons in Zombicide Chronicles are the generic pistol, shotgun, and so on, but the melee weapons are more individual—baseball bat, chainsaw, katana, kukri, and more. They all have their own cards in the board game which can be incorporated into Zombicide Chronicles: The Roleplaying Game.

As play progresses and a Survivor rolls Successes, he accrues Adrenalin. This is tracked and as it rises, he can use more and more of his Skills (or special abilities). Adrenalin is also gained for achieving objectives. The Skills are rated either Basic, Advanced, Master, and Ultimate. At the beginning of a Mission, a Survivor can use just his Basic Skills, meaning that he gets better and better as the Mission proceeds.

Zombicide Chronicles: The Roleplaying Game is played in two phases—the Shelter Phase and the Mission Phase. The Shelter Phase is when the Survivors plan and prepare the situation in their current shelter and nearby, including checking for supplies (if they have insufficient supplies, the Survivors will suffer Conditions in the Mission Phase), gathering rumours, making things, studying or training, and creating and defending a shelter. The Mission Phase is when the Survivors go out and perform the mission itself. Various types of missions are discussed, including going on a supply run, exploring, making a rescue run, and more. This is combined with the ‘World of Zombicide’, which describes the various districts and locations of an archetypal city and takes up the last third of the Zombicide Chronicles: The Roleplaying Game. Although there is no actual scenario in the roleplaying game, the ‘World of Zombicide’ has plenty of ideas and NPCs for the Game Master to use.

In terms of zombies, Zombicide Chronicles: The Roleplaying Game has its own ‘Zombipedia’. There are four base types of zombie—Walker, Fattie, Runner, and Abomination, and these are typically organised in play into hordes which the Survivors will need to take down. The Game Master can customise these though to add variation, and several mutated and animal zombie types are also included. There is good advice for the Game Master on running the game, including suggestions on how to set the right tone for her players, though this is a horror game after all.

Physically, Zombicide Chronicles: The Roleplaying Game is big, bold, and in your face. It is heavily illustrated with lots and lots of cartoon style artwork, decent maps and floorplans, and fully painted panoramas of the city. The book is well written and easy to read.

There are any number of zombie-themed roleplaying games, but with its simple mechanics and cartoon zombie action, Zombicide Chronicles: The Roleplaying Game is easy to pick up and easy to play. The compatibility between Zombicide Chronicles: The Roleplaying Game and the Zombicide: 2nd Edition board game means that there is plenty of potential for cross play between the two. So, the various equipment cards and map tiles from Zombicide: 2nd Edition could be used with Zombicide Chronicles: The Roleplaying Game to play out the action of the Mission Phase, but equally, the Survivors created using the Zombicide Chronicles: The Roleplaying Game could be used to play through the content in Zombicide: 2nd Edition. However, given that potential for cross compatibility, there is no advice on how to do that, which is an odd admission since the roleplaying game was funded as part of the Kickstarter for the board game.

Zombicide Chronicles: TheRoleplaying Game is a grim—but not dark—post apocalyptic roleplaying game with genre elements and a setting of the ‘World of Zombicide’ that will be familiar to most gamers. This does not stop it from delivering fast-paced, big, zombie-fueled tension and action.