The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Game

The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Game
Developer	Free League Publishing
Price	$57.99 (Core Rules) $39.99 (Starter Set) $29.99 (GM Screen)
Release Date	November 28th, 2023

The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Game is a tabletop RPG based on AMC's The Walking Dead. The game is made by Free League Publishing, who has also developed tabletop roleplaying games for other IPs such as The Lord of the Rings and Alien.

Description

The Walking Dead has always been about characters facing impossible choices in an unforgiving world. In The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Game, you enter into the world of the dead and must face these choices head on. You can do this at any point in the timeline – encountering familiar faces and locations, or new ones – but the hardest choice will always be the same: Who are you going to be? We have seen many stories set in The Walking Dead Universe – now it's time to see yours!

In The Walking Dead Universe RPG, you will play as people struggling to survive in a hostile world. Exceptional challenges can appear from anywhere – from the lack of essential supplies, from conflicts brewing within the group, from hidden construction flaws in your safe haven, or from approaching walkers hungering for your flesh.

Development

The game was officially announced on November 17, 2022, after Free League Publishing and AMC Networks Publishing began to co-produce the game. Nils Hintze served as the lead designer of the game, while Tomas Härenstam, Free League Publishing's CEO, and Mattias Johnsson Haake both served as project managers on the tabletop. The team collaborated closely with key figures behind the franchise, including Scott Gimple (Chief Content Officer of The Walking Dead Universe) and Mike Zagari (Head of AMC Networks Publishing), who provided guidance on canon and mechanics.

Haake, and Härenstam served as editors as well as project managers. Martin Grip designed both the cover art and assisted Gustaf Ekelund in designing the interior art of the book. The game's graphic designers were Christian Granath and Dan Algstrand, and the various maps included in both the rule book and the starter set were produced by Kevin Baussart and Christian Granath. Matt Kay wrote and designed the solo mode.

The rules of the RPG were based on Free League's acclaimed Year Zero Engine, but it was uniquely developed and tailored for The Walking Dead Universe. They also loosly borrowed the stress mechanic from Alien: The Roleplaying Game, which ties the characters' psychological state and their choices directly to their performance and the world's threat level. The game was designed to focus on the human drama and impossible life-and-death choices, with combat against walkers aimed to be quick and brutal, and not overly complicated. The threat meter was a new function made specifically for the RPG; its purpose is to track the threat of walkers in any given area the players are in.

The game launched on Kickstarter in Spring 2023. The campaign went live on March 14, 2023, and was highly successful, rapidly surpassing its goal. All backers received early PDF access to the complete Roleplaying Core Rules book shortly after the Kickstarter ended and backers who pledged at the Deluxe Bundle tier or higher received a special limited edition of the rulebook, adorned with a special cloth binding and a unique graphic print. The game went into retail release on November 28, 2023.

Reception

The game received generally positive reviews from both players and critics. The game holds an average buyer rating of 4.7 out of 5 on Amazon and DriveThruRPG.

Critical reception from gaming publications was more mixed. GamesRadar+ awarded the RPG a score of 3.5 out of 5, praising its presentation, maps, and implementation of the Year Zero Engine, but criticized its reliance on player secrets and melodramatic elements, which the reviewer felt could disrupt cooperation between players.

Wargamer gave the game a more negative review, describing it as lacking “meat” and comparing it to “a walker that’s been rotting for too many days. Its bones and muscles (the core mechanics) are sturdy enough to keep it shambling, but a lot of its vital organs have gotten lost along the way.”

Game Modes

There are three ways to play the game – Campaign, Survival and Solo Mode.

In Campaign Mode, you play several sessions that form a wider story together. Your goals and choices, and the result of your group efforts, create the storyline. The two types of campaigns are free play and season play. In free play, you keep playing until you find a good ending to the campaign and in season play, you decide how many sessions will encompass your storyline.

In Survival Mode, you play one or two sessions. You are faced with a dangerous prewritten situation that needs to be handled immediately. Survival Mode scenarios often feature locations and characters from the TV series, you will use pre-generated characters instead of creating your own.

In Solo Mode, you brave the world's dangers alone, with only a handful of NPC survivors to help you.

Roleplaying Starter Set

The Roleplaying Starter set includes everything you need to set-up and play a game. It includes ten red die, ten black die, a threat meter, a condensed rules book, The Wolves' Den - Survival Mode Scenario (Featuring the The Wolves from the TV Series), a map of North East Georgia, three adventure maps showing locations in The Wolves' Den Scenario, There are a total of ten pre-generated character sheets. Four depict Gabriel, Michonne, Carol, and Glenn. Whereas the other six are original characters. This includes: Cecil/Cecilia Hart, Ally/Isaac Ibrahim, Blosson/Salomon Singh, Terri/Terry Lee, Bonnie/Rooster Coates, and NPC Lisa Harley.

Roleplaying Core Rules Book

The core rules book details how the game works, although a condensed version of the rules is found in the Roleplaying Starter Set. Throughout this book, are glimpses of roleplaying scenarios and the dearly departed monologues depicting Hannah and her group.

GM Screen

Additonally, you can purchase the gamemaster's screen. A landscape screen, featuring Martin Grip’s art on the outside and a host of useful tables on the inside, while keeping the gamemaster’s plans hidden from the players.

Actual Play Series

On November 17, 2022, Free League announced that an actual play would be filmed by AMC Digital Studios and eventually find its way onto the studios’ various distribution channels. Free League worked directly with Scott Gimple to create an original story for the liveplay that would potentially include characters throughout the television universe, promising it would be rewarding for fans old and new. This would consist of a livestream showcasing the cast and crew playing the tabletop.

Free League stated the following regarding the liveplay: "If the stars align (literally and figuratively), tuning into every Liveplay episode to discover which fan-favorite characters, settings, and events might appear should be part of the fun. We’re hoping that fans will be surprised where the story goes and who comes to roll the dice with us in one way or another."

As of 2025, the liveplay has not yet come to fruition.

Gallery

Trivia

• This game confirms the names of Bud, Nick, and Ham from the television series.
• The RPG features three groups from the television series: these are the Living, Woodbury, and the Wolves.
  • As well as these three, it includes Arnold Grant, a police officer from Grady Memorial Hospital, and Cyndie from Oceanside.
• Throughout the Roleplaying Core Rules book numerous characters are quoted from the TV Universe. These include Rick, Merle, Judith, the Governor, Hershel, Daryl, Gabriel, Bud, Carol, Abraham, Michonne, Dale, Negan and Glenn.
  • Interestingly, Rick is quoted twice and Judith is quoted four times whereas the others are only quoted once.
  • In the condensed rules found in the Roleplaying Starter Set, Rick is quoted twice, whereas, Gabriel, Carol, Judith and Dale are quoted once.

External Links

• Free League Publishing Official Website