Forget “The Walking Dead,” this is just a solid zombie RPG | RPG Review
Vložit
- čas přidán 12. 07. 2024
- The Walking Dead Universe AMC Roleplaying Game CORE RULES on DrivethruRPG:
bit.ly/TheWalkingDeadRPGCoreR...
The Walking Dead Universe AMC Roleplaying Game STARTER SET on DrivethruRPG:
bit.ly/47yee1w
Get The Walking Dead Universe AMC Roleplaying Game on Amazon (affiliate):
amzn.to/40ToiQb
Read that interview I did with Tomas Harenstam:
thaumavore.substack.com/p/her...
[Thanks to Jesse Folk for the dice images]
_________________________
✅All my stuff ✅
www.thaumavore.com
🔮Dave Thaumavore’s RPG Links🔮
(purchases help the channel!)
open.substack.com/pub/thaumav...
📦My Amazon Shop📦
(purchases help the channel!)
www.amazon.com/shop/davethaum...
------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------
Patreon Supporters
Regnant Thaumavorians
mawburn -- bit.ly/gaslandsdice
Uncle Jay Razz
Epic Mike -- www.SuperMapsAndLegends.com
Lordship Thaumavorians
William Davis
Savant Thaumavorians
Targrus
Allen Varney
Karel Doleček
Nick Louie
Daniel Goupil
Iron Mandarin
Nawid Ayobi
Adam Pawlicki
Ian Rugg
Keith
Nathan
Padde
Walter
Mr. U
Raye Leon
-----------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------
Support the channel
Patreon: / thaumavore .
Thaumavore Community
Newsletter sign-up: bit.ly/ThaumavoreNewsletter .
Dave’s Publications
Fluxfall Horizon, a parallel Earths RPG bit.ly/Fluxfall
Age of Snakes, an Index Card RPG expansion bit.ly/AgeOfSnakes
The Turnip Knights, a D&D 5e and Index Card RPG one-shot bit.ly/TurnipKnights
A Book of Witches, a rules-agnostic guide to all things witches bit.ly/ABookOfWitches - Hry
Support the channel by joining my Patreon! www.patreon.com/thaumavore
Sign up for my newsletter! bit.ly/ThaumavoreNewsletter
I ran a 6 episode season of Walking Dead using the Beta rules. One of the best role-playing experiences I and my players have ever had. And the sudden death system was initially greeted with suspicion, before we all realised it absolutely *makes* the game what it is. It's the game's superpower, and supremely cinematic. The finale of our final episode saw one of the most beloved PCs get bitten in the throat by a walker; they sacrificed themselves to save the group.
And you're absolutely right about the walkers, they're boring in the best possible way. They're an annoyance, an obstacle with just enough threat to create genuine tension at the table. The human survivors are where it's at!
The thrill of death around every corner is what makes this game shine. The same with Alien RPG. Character death does not have to be a bad thing, as long as it creates an interesting story. And so far in my campaign 4 sessions now, no characters deaths and I did give them a story point for a free success on any roll, but they never used it yet. These rules force the characters to make every move count. Far superior I think then just walking around fighting and destroying everything they meet.
Yeah. I agree. The deaths in the comic and on the show drive the narrative. It wouldn't feel like The Walking Dead if I felt safe from death. I think the random table helps put that into context, honestly
I ran a 6 episode campaign - there were no less than 4 main character deaths in the campaign, and every single one brought gasps of horror! It replicates zombie films perfectly, that sense of constant tension, my players never quite able to relax.
Yeah! I don't think death has to be meaningful in a sense that it was perfectly scripted to a specific situation. It likely works better in this genre when it comes as a total surprise to players and GM alike. The meaning comes in, when the players and GM work with the situation from there and of course from building up the emergent story and the character's place in it up to the moment of death.
Agreed, at around the 14 minute mark, Dave, I think, completely misses this point, and is heard to be advocating for essentially giving your players plot armour. I for one find this awful in a ttrpg: the idea that my actions have no meaningful consequences because the GM doesn't want to interrupt their carefully crafted story is a massive turn off. If I want a prewritten story, I'll read a book.
That title is exactly what convinced me to back, and I ended up using to convince others.
"Huh, neat, but I'm not really a Walking Dead fan... ...wait a sec, ignore walking dead as a license. It's a semi-grounded zombie apocalypse game built on a rock-solid core system developed by a company that has proven time and again they can modify that rock-solid system in ways that expertly evoke the vibe and style of wildly different things."
..
Indeed. If it was a no-name publisher, I would have noped out instantly at the sight of the TWD and AMC branding.
Loved the overview. I wonder how well this would play as a solo game
Re: the damage table for walkers.. It looks harsh, but it captures the feel of zombie horror. I have seen tons of scenes in movie and shows where everything is going great. The characters are confident in what they are doing or feel safe and out of no where someone gets their throat ripped out. This threat creates a instant scare for newbies and ongoing dread for long term survivors. I think it is great. Definitely want to talk to your players about it before starting. If I wanted a more "heroic" game with longer lived characters i would just give them luck tokens or a luck stat that lets them avoid one shot kills a couple of times.
For the Critical Table, it calls to roll 6d6 and the severity escalates with a greater total. I'd judicially call for 1d6 for something mild and escalate up to 6d6 only if its truly a save or die situation. Or add a D for every injury/hit you've taken, wearing the character down as they court their own death.
That’s a good solution.
Do you mean d66 with mild results from 11-16? If so, an interesting way to allow the fiction to flow. I think a d36 would keep some tension going, leaving the possibility of a real injury. So, step d36, d46, d56 & d66 for mild to horrific.
Dang it, I gave this one a pass because I never got into AMC’s The Walking Dead on AMC. But this review is making me want to try it!
When I opened the book, I said this is the Twilight 2000 I have been looking for.
Yeah, way more streamlined than T2K.
@@DaveThaumavore that and it's not so relevant to recent events
I can respect this comment so much, might push me to buy now. Thank you
This is a blast playing solo or coop with a friend btw. The tools and tables you get to create a world and different sections and all the tables for places, random encounters etc are incredible for solo players.
Free League is just killing it. Dragonbane became my favourite fantasy RPG, Twilight 2k basically owns the survival genre, and this looks like it will be a great thing to steal more survival rules from.
TWD(U) is so good. A slender book compared to ALIEN, The One Ring, etc... but so much packed into a shorter volume. The lack of lore means there's a maximum of game info here, unlike ALIEN, The One ring, etc. AND TWD(U) comes with a solid solo mode in it. Really innovative approach to zombie RPG (zombies as environmental threat) as well as the whole approach to NPC management seems like something I will want to bring to other YZE games.
Twilight 2K was more the child of its lineage... crunchy, bullet-counting, hex-based grognard whatever.
TWDU is so much more about relationships and pressure. I know others wish there were more (especially the fans of the TV show who want better answers & lore), but TWDU truly moves the dial for Year Zero Engine/Free League IMO.
We played a few sessions using the 2nd or 3rd beta PDF and this game absolutely rocks as a zombie RPG. The Horde size and Threat levels work quite well as the background threat everywhere, while the game focuses on Human v. Human and Human v. Nature. The mechanics for zombie attacks are quick but still scary and don't require the GM to run a slugfest round by round.
Love the company, love its products. I wish the organization was a bit better. But bar none these are works of art in their physical presentation. I really admire how each system tailors itself to bring the feeling of the setting to the game mechanics. I know they have done 5E versions of games, but every time I read through them, I'm so glad they have their own systems. I kind of wish Brancelonia would have gone with their own system. The world they present reminds me of a Free League setting with added humor.
I like this sytem for exactly that reason. I don't have to play Walking Dead Universe game. I can play any zombie apocalypse game and introduce any element I want. It can be a virus, it can be alien invasion, it can be Gates of Hell opened and released all the damned, I can even put in sorcerers and cultists whos necromantic magic suddently started to work and everything got out of control. Porting magic from other FL games in the forms of talents isn't any problem.
As a huge TWD nerd that’s into all the spinoffs, I love this book. It’s just enough TWD to get a taste of the show’s vibe but enough to do whatever you want with it. Great overview as well.
What comes to mind with the random crits is that you could perhaps use it as a random prompt for narration. The walker itself is unlikely to just stick it's fingers in and pierce the heart of the poor character. Instead it might make the character stumble into a sticking object nearby.
😅 In beginning to look forward to cracking my box open. I didn't want to go through the pdf's that much so it's going to be a fresh experience. The box is in the pickup point just today but I might just have it packed for Christmas. 😁
The way I see it, walkers are just a force of nature in this setting that makes surviving just a little bit harder than it would otherwise be. I think the rules indicate this pretty well, based on your review. On the other hand, there were variants in later seasons and I have understood that spin-offs might have even more but I am not sure of that.
That Rick Grimes impression out of nowhere made me crack up.
Foreal though, finally a good zombie RPG.
All Flesh Must Be Eaten is pretty good
Really like this review! You give a well structured opinion of the game.
I really like the core rulebook myself. I haven't gotten into the starter set yet.
Keep up the good work.
I bought this game recently and as GM i cant wait to see the face of my friends when they will eventually meet the characters of twd series, and be part of the story. 😂
You praise it after all, Dave hahaha.
I will wait for one of my friends to run this.
I love this system as my DM motto for years has been “Three weeks of preparation followed by three hours of panicked improvisation”
As i GM, i sometimes pickup a critical injury that fits. But my players prefer when they roll so here's a D66 homebrew rule here. Whenever i need, the first dice (tens) is determined by threat lvl. Then i go RAW when threat lvl 3 is reached.
Randomness in the walkers attacks is fair. A single walker should put fear into a pc for the chance of death or else it would be no scary moment in facing a single walker
Your Rick impersonation sounds more like Shane 😂
Damnit!
Shane was so much better a character, especially in the show
Critical injuries table. I am reminded of how a GM friend of mine would handle gaining hit points when characters leveled up. The player would roll their die for the hit points they would add in the open while the GM would make the roll in secret. The player then had a choice to go with their roll or use the unknown roll of the GM.
That method has an interesting element of the unknown to add to the tension, and allows players a better chance to not die. Besides, since the GM's roll is in secret they can always turn an instant death roll into something else more compelling to the character and/or story.
I really enjoy the Year Zero engine games, and this looks awesome! Can't wait to run for a group, or even solo!
The crit table text does mention if a result doesn't make sense to choose a different option that makes sense in the shared fiction. I read the entire book during the KS. It is awesome.
Just got mine in mail today. Can’t wait to run this.
Played a demo at Pax Unplugged but the shortness of the session meant we glossed over a majority of the rules and mostly narrated through things like initiative.
However, I noticed that stress dice in TWD Universe accumulate much faster than in the Alien rpg.
That Rick impression was spot on 😂
Thanks!
Awesome!
We are massive fans. My wife has watched all 12 seasons about 5 times. I agree the sudden death mechanic is a little too harsh sometimes, for example if you wanted to play a long campaign. But as people comment above, the fact that this random chance of just dying very suddenly is what makes it Walking Dead and not just some narrative first Zombie game. As player this rule system supports the Ooc meta game mentality. Players won’t just think “oh well I’ve got 55 hp I’ll just run in” , the rules mean they will need to be cautious , only test / scout / fight when they have no other choice.
The only thing I didn’t like wen running was that when people have zero Stress they can’t “mess up” in any way, so they are pretty safe and can try things with little fear of it going wrong. But once they have a little stress things start to ramp up pretty fast.
Thanks a lot for your reviews Dave, I hope you’ll review the game I’m working on one day.
Isn’t it 11 seasons?
@@pnilsson7446yeah I think you’re right but there’s also Fear the WD and the new world one and Dead City and the Daryl one , it goes on
O.g your rick impresion sounds like wayne wilson doing a rick grimes impression and i am dying
just finished reading it cover to cover, excellent Zombie RPG, really answers havens missing from AFMBE, and makes encounters better in this game over Twilight 2000. simple fast combat, emphasis on psychdrama action narrative more than any other recent game.
After the initial creation of characters, all are free to pick talents from other archetypes (p 28 in the core book).
Did I say otherwise in the video? If so, please include a timestamp.
I got the impression that that you indicated that talents are what separetes the archetypes. But an archetype can pick other archetypes' talents after creation; this is not the case in many other Free League games.
I would still have bought Year Zero Zombies!!! Also a great IP.
I have two zombie games that have survival gameplay implemented. One is outbreak undead, the other is this. Guess which one is easy to learn and isn’t hard to use.
Im a fan of the Year Zero Engline based games and flipping through this book reinforces that - admittedly though I'd like some mote crunch. Not alot but enough that you can make your character more customized and tailor to you
I don't know if this particular game is for me, but this continues to sell me on trying more YZE games besides just Tales From the Loop and its successor.
I love that its hardcore and you die easy. Thise are the most fun rpg/ttrpg
Thank you for your insight, Dave!
Are you planning to review Outgunned full rulebook, Dave?
Thanks! I don’t have plans to cover the full rules for Outgunned.
I originally backed this specifically to tweak it into a The Last of Us RPG, so I'm definitely vibing with the video title alone. It needs some tweaking, of course, but it works!
I do wish the book had a bit more meat to it, however. What it has works, but there isn't much to it.
This is a great game and I have run it several times at big national conference events as one shots as well as a short official club short campaigns. The brutal damage tables are standard for FL games and it is nice to have an additional Walker table for attacks as it adds a little extra spice and variable lethality, The walker attack table is very different to the other damage table and very thematic.
However it does feel that there have been lots of compromises made in game development, I don't know why, but potentially due to licencing, the walking dead universe is a very live product, more so than any other FL licenced games.
So to add to game play, add the threats and base building from Mutant Zero, add the panic table and additional damage table from Alien and the travel, random encounters and additional combat from Twilight 2000 and Twilight Urban, This will give you a full game.
The Walking dead game feels like a great supplement rather than a finished product A great Supplement, but a supplement all the same. It has a page count of 165 pages, where MYZ is 255, Vaesan is 240 and LOTR is 235, so as a core book TWD is 100 pages short and it shows.
Yeah, I think I would be prone to blend/mod this with adaptations of Project Zomboid. Interesting review, thanks for the video.. Carl...
13:55 This was always a problem with the year zero engine. It focuses a lot on character stories and development yet its really easy to get yourself killed.
I think it's more a problem with how unwilling or intimidated some GMs are to relinquish creative control of those stories to the players' choices, and consequences.
Boromir still had a great story even though the Orc archer rolled a crit and killed him. It doesn't matter that he wasn't able to complete his personal "story" to his own intended end, it was all about what he was able to do with the time he had allotted.
Still waiting for the Kickstarter rewards from Fria Ligan.
Did you get a review copy as backers haven’t received anything yet?
They are shipping right now.
I backed at digital and used only the PDF for this review.
Id run a game 500 years after the show because why not
I had the same concerns as you had regarding AMC's involvement and was equally relieved when the game's final form was so good. The threat level and mass combat systems are particularly interesting and seem very well crafted. And if anyone thought Free League's Alien RPG was too lethal, wooboy! This game is DEADLY. Back-up PC sounds practically mandatory. As ever, great review and thanks for circling back to this one.
If I wanted surprise players with zombie apocalypse start scenario, what year zero book could I use to „cover my tracks” so to say?
Tales From the Loop, ther reason being that it establishes a sense of normalcy and routine in the players' game world, which can be dramatically contrasted by the chaos and survival themes of a zombie outbreak. The game's mechanics support exploration, problem-solving, and dealing with threats in inventive ways, skills that would transition well into a zombie survival scenario. But be mindful that TFTL and TWD have different game mechanics.
@@DaveThaumavore thanks, I was also thinking if a Year Zero Mini could do the trick just to create characters and skills. And present players some options from TWD without giving them the book.
So Zombicide chronicles might be a better option to play ?
Im fan of the show but i pledg for the Havens rules... and got disapointed. To simple, to short, it looks mechanicaly do not mutch and realy dont have mutch examples. About the rest it looks fine, not something i could not done with Twilight 2k but i like the theme and the tables.
If we want a more controlable but still random table rolls, roll 2 dices and pick the better result.
Me and some friends just started playing the game.
But we are not sure on how to do a stealth attack on a single walker?
Can anyone explain that?
If we could just get Free League to provide PDF's with book purchases. Please guys?
I was so sure about this game, but this helped me decide to not get it. So far every Free League game turned out to be something I'm not actually interested in when looked at more closely, even though I like many or even most of the basic concepts. I just don't like the _game_ part.
Interesting that they didn't use the step dice system from Blade Runner and T2K4e
Because of the stress system (like Alien) d6-pool works much better
@@pnilsson7446 that makes perfect sense! Haven't read Walking Dead rpg (and may have missed it in the video, as I was listening while cooking at the time) so I didn't realize it had the Stress system! Thanks for pointing that out
For myself and friends, bitching about how consistently stupid the actors strategies where in the show was most of the fun of that show.
Thus I'd want to play someone who could rally folks to make spears and armour and other basic accessible strategies, to see how far and how effective these ideas could take one towards getting a functioning community up and running.
The rules you outlined here do not even come close to allowing for nuanced strategic walker combat resolution.
Yeah this game does still skew towards sudden death rather than rewarding clever planning. You’d need a crunchier system for that.
is this a solo game or needs DM
I've never understood the appeal of the zombie attack setting. Still, excellent review.
Wonder how much work it'll take to convert it to a The Last of Us game
You’d have to completely rework how the zombies work, probably using a more traditional approach.
Korl
Korrrl
:) D
Great review, terrible Southern accent 😂
Not a Southern accent. Rick Grimes accent.
If only the walking dead TV show followed rule #5 and #6 we'd never been sitting around a whole ass season looking for a little girl everybody knew was dead.
Spoilers...
But in the last season of TWD walkers learned to climb. Maybe AMC wants to forget that episode.
It's called TWD universe because it's taking place in that setting...? (I don't get the distaste for it)
The rules are the typical dumbed down detail free nonsense that you see around a lot these days. As for the actual game... it's just mind numbingly boring and waaaay too lethal. If you don't mind lazy simplistic rules and losing a character every week, then I guess you might like it... if you like character building, action packed combat and fun... look elsewhere. I'd actually rather play Resident Evil the Boardgame than this. Very disappointing.