Role-playing Game Review: ‘The Walking Dead’ Universe from Free League Publishing

The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Game from Free League Publishing transports players to one of the most-beloved IPs of the last generation and challenges them to survive in a devastated world. Robert Kirkman’s comics series came to life through AMC’s The Walking Dead TV show with its cult following. Now, gamers have a chance to test their own luck on the tabletop against the undead and, even more terrifying, the living.

Strongest Together

The Walking Dead Universe RPG focuses on the deepest theme of the show: We are strongest together. Players work to create individual characters for themselves with Drive, the reason they work to survive an apocalyptic landscape; Issues, the complexities that give us human struggles; and, most importantly, Anchors, who are their deepest connections in the group. These interactions will drive the role-playing with character goals and moods while also holding a wide range of potential for improvisation.

In addition to individuals, the players co-create a Haven, the playing group’s base of action, which can develop over a long campaign with resources and a coordinates-based map showing useful discoveries like gas stations, hospitals, and grocery stores.

Threat Level

Beyond the social interactions that empower the game with pathos, it also captures the struggle and terror of the show perfectly. Its mechanics are based on the drama-rich zombie world where every day is filled with danger. An overall Threat Level shows how much danger is imminent, a level that can easily be raised by something as simple as a loud noise. In an environment where any slip can mean death, players can gamble by “pushing” a roll to reverse a failure, but this will raise the Threat Level even more for future danger.

Handful of Dice

In actual play, The Walking Dead Universe RPG uses six-sided dice, and there is nothing quite like rolling a massive handful of these. Sixes are counted as successes, meaning players will want to add dice with their Attributes, from the environment, or by helping each other.

Rather than getting bogged down in numbers calculating a single die roll, players keep a pool of dice handy and grab what they need. This is especially true in combat, which is often the murkiest of play for RPGs. Rather than hit points, characters have only three slots of Damage from being hit before they are Broken. At that point the character is unable to act, whether unconscious or simply too hurt, and it is up to others to save them through first aid. Even if the character is stabilized for the time, they may survive with long-term injuries or even succumb to lethal wounds later, giving time for dramatic last words.

Deep World-Building

The sleek gameplay of The Walking Dead Universe RPG fits well with its deep world-building. The Starter Set gives a condensed rule book, a pre-made adventure (“The Wolves’ Den”), and ready-to-play characters including favorites from the AMC show like Carol, Gabriel, and Glenn. Its box also holds a stock of custom dice and a Threat Meter wheel showing danger from walker attack.

The expanded Core Rules book gives even more background for exploring the world of zombie-ridden northern Georgia. It includes another adventure, “The Golden Ambulance,” and a wealth of tables for rolling just about anything, from descriptive flavor to walker’s past or visible wounds to random scrounging and even weather.

Plenty of Flexibility

The Walking Dead Universe RPG provides flexibility for any kind of player. For those looking to do one-shot adventures, “Survival Mode” makes objectives and locations straightforward, often giving scenarios straight from the show. Gaming groups who want to keep going with character development and Haven-building can enjoy the multi-session “Campaign Mode.”

There is also “Solo Mode” for single play where anyone can team up with a handful of NPCs against the wild, generated by rolling dice for a “Luck Oracle” acting much like a Magic 8-ball to answer story questions as well as plenty of tables to show outcomes.

Whichever way they go, players will never predict what happens next as they seek to survive The Walking Dead Universe RPG.