Tommy's Take on Zombie World

A novel concept: An RPG featuring zombies!



All snark aside, Zombie World has a couple of unique hooks that caught my eye during their Kickstarter, so I decided to check it out.

DISCLAIMER: This is a review of the physical product. A Roll20 version exists as well. This is the full Kickstarter version, so it includes the Kickstarter stretch goals, all of which I have mixed in with the core box. For what it's worth, nothing on the Kickstarter says it's exclusive, so buying the print version (plus expansions) should still net you everything. Also, this review was not comped. I paid for it with my own money.

ESSENTIAL INFO:

• Boxed set
• $24.99 for the core set or $59.99 for the full set.
• 36 page rulebook.
• Black, white, grey and red.
• Enclave playmat.
• Gamemaster playmat.
• 8 character playmats.
• 8 Basic moves playmats.
• 1 dry erase marker.
• 110 cards in the core.
• Farm Expansion with 55 cards.
• Mall Expansion with 55 cards.

ZOMBIE (POWERED BY THE) APOCALYPSE

So Zombie World is a card-based zombie apocalypse RPG based on the Powered by the Apocalypse system that has become quite popular since its introduction in Apocalypse World. The key difference? It's card-based. Like, the whole thing. Now, I have no inherent bias against card-based RPGs, what with one of my all time favorites - Marvel SAGA - being card-based (and Savage Worlds using lots of cards).

It also does away with the Playbook set-up of most Powered by the Apocalypse games, in favor of a handful of key features dealt by card draw. Task resolution is also handled by card draw. The game can be set up as a one shot, or an ongoing campaign, but be aware: there will be turnover in the characters. In fact, characters are meant to be so temporary that the game's character playmats are laminated and meant to be written on with a dry erase marker.

CARD DECKS

The bulk of the game is in the card decks, so let's take a look at each.

ENCLAVES

• You pick an Enclave - the home base of your merry band of survivors. A few of these locations will feel very familiar to zombie fans: A hospital, a farm, an amusement park, a prison and a roving caravan.
• Each enclave has two features, such as the Hospital having Medical Facilities (which can be used to attempt to treat someone's grievous wounds) and The Lost Ward, where the dead are stored, or The Farm having a trapped Perimeter and Fields you can work for food.
• Each Enclave also has a list of Scarcities, Surroundings, Population and Advantages, features that the group can decide applies to their enclave (like your Caravan having a mechanic in it, your hospital lacking weapons, your prison having strong fences or your amusement park being on the outskirts of a small town). 
• The Enclave Playmat includes a Move: Foraging for Supplies, and a chart for spending found gear for supplies.
• The Advantages deck has cards based on resources of the enclave. These each have a Move you can use, like a Water Source requiring you to draw Survival and leaving the possibility that you accidentally draw something back home, or even the water source becoming soured. Checking Strong Fences may lead to the discovery of a betrayal (and not in a good way), or it may properly barricade your Enclave. If you have a Supply Hoard, taking that move may get you exactly what you need...or may reveal a thief in your midst.

CHARACTER CREATION

• The character playmats are dry erase (like all other playmats in the game).
• Each character has four stats: Savagery (your capacity for violence), Soul (your ability to connect with people), Steel (your ability to keep calm) and Survival (you ability to survive your circumstances). Assign an array of 3, 2, 2, 1 to the four stats to fill out you character.
• Each character gets a randomly dealt Past card, a randomly dealt Trauma card, and the choice of two Present cards.
• Your Past is who you were before the zombies.
• Your Trauma is how you cope with the fall of society.
• Your Present is your current role in the Enclave.
• The Past and Trauma are played facedown, hidden from the other players, but the Present is played face up.
• Relationship cards are dealt out to the players, connecting their characters in positive and/or negative ways.
• Population cards are dealt out as controllable NPCs for the players to use, to fill out the squad

PAST, PRESENT AND TRAUMA

• These decks help decide who you were, who you are, and what you mean to the Enclave.
• Your Past is dealt to you and kept facedown until you reveal it to the other players.
• You get a bonus to certain card draws once your Past is revealed. Like an ex-Mortician gaining +1 when handling dead bodies, a Trapper gaining +1 when hidden in a natural environment, or a Musician gaining +1 when trying to get someone to go along with an illicit scheme.
• Each "Reveal" is thematic: a former PI may take on a mystery for someone, a Sheriff bringing a perp to justice, or a Fugitive revealing to someone when and how they escaped.
• Your Trauma is also dealt randomly and kept hidden from the group.
• Once revealed, your Trauma has an effect you can benefit from. Someone who is Compulsive can clear Stress when trying to swipe from others, the Cowardly gain +1 to their Soul and clear Stress when convincing someone else to propose a plan, the Meek can clear Stress by giving in to others and can appease people with Soul.
• You pick one of two randomly drawn Present cards, and play it face up.
• This card give you a bonus, plus gives you a means of clearing Stress.
• A Diplomat has +1 Soul, and clears Stress when she makes a deal. An Inquisitor gains a new move for interrogation, and clears Stress when they do so. A Strategist gets to draw +2 on their next move when making a plan, and clears Stress by organizing people into action.
• These are all just examples, of course. There's plenty of cards in each deck.

NPCS ARE PEOPLE TOO

• The Population Deck is full of named NPCs that pop up in your enclave. 
• They each have a name, a role, skills and equipment.
• For instance, the Spiritual Leader Lionel Carpenter has all the trappings of a holy man, or you can recruit the Dog named Sam and rely on his scavenging (or violence). Or maybe you have befriended the Burglar Virginia Kempf, utilizing her stealth and thieving tools.
• The character playmat has a move in which you direct your allies, with bonuses based on whether or not they have the appropriate skills or equipment.

IT'S FATE

• No, I didn't get Fate confused with Powered by the Apocalypse. There's a Fate deck in the game.
• This is used for two things: determining relationships among characters, and revealing neew complications whenever time passes.
• Some relationships (randomly drawn) include: The two of you care about a third member, and you have to determine why; the two of you blame each other for the death of an enclave member, and you have to decide what happened; or the two of you have an intimate relationship, and you have to decide why it's hidden.
• When Time Passes, a complication occurs. This includes events like your surroundings spawning opposition (maybe a new gang of survivors has taken over the local police station), two of your enclave members have gone missing, a scarcity becomes very acute or external forces arrive, demanding one of your Advantages.
• Time Passes is what you do to set up a scenario, and then play from there to see what happens, as Powered by the Apocalypse games do.

HOW YOU DO STUFF

• The Survivor Deck runs the core mechanic of the game, rather than dice.
• You draw a number of cards equal to your relevant stat, plus or minus any modifier, and take the best result.
• A Miss is very bad. Your action fails, the GM tells you how.
• An Edge means you succeed, but there is some kind of cost or complication (often spelled out in the move being used).
• A Triumph is the best possible result of whatever you were attempting.
• An Opportunity is up to you: You can take a Miss, or you can turn it into a Triumph by making Stress.

ZOMBIES HAVE TEETH

•  The Bite Deck is where things get really scary. When you deal with zombies, you draw the top card and see what happens.
• Safe means you're safe. Something Breaks means...something breaks. More Zombies means you've attracted more dead to the area. Escalation means your current circumstances have gotten much worse. But Bite means you're bitten...and your character will die, and soon.
• The Bite Deck only gets reshuffled when the Bite card gets drawn. Every time a card is drawn from the Bite Deck means the clock is ticking for you and everyone else.

MOVES

• The things you do are based on Moves, which are provided on handy reference cards.
• Moves include things like Get In Someone's Face, which is trying to back them down. If that doesn't work, Turn To Violence.
• You can also attempt to Help or Interfere with another PC, which lets you draw cards based on the number of face up cards they have (so the more they have revealed to the group, the easier you can affect the outcome of their actions.
• There are more Basic Moves, which should cover most situations.
• But there are Zombie Moves, like Fight a Swarm of Zombies, attempt to Fool the Dead, or Flee from them.
• Even attempting to Dispose of the newly deceased can have consequences. Most of the Zombie moves provide the possibility of Bite deck draws...which isn't good, but which is surely going to happen.

THEMS THE RULES

• The rulebook is only 36 pages, making it the most concise PbtA rulebook I've ever seen.
• This is obviously in part because of how the information is spread out between the books and the cards. 

PRESENTATION

• Everything *mostly* fits in the box (a little bulging with the expansions, with the box lid not sitting all the way down).
• The black and white aesthetic clearly evokes The Walking Dead, which isn't bad (and is obviously intentional).
• I like the Powered by the Apocalypse system, and was super intrigued at the implementation of it in this genre.
• Characters don't feel quite as "unique" (mechanically) in Zombie World as they do in other PbtA RPGs, due to the lack of playbooks, so the onus is on the players to take the Relationships and the three Identity cards (Past, Present and Trauma) to help inform how the characters are different from each other.
• What could have easily felt like a gimmick instead feels like a really cool implementation of both a tired genre and, honestly, a tired game system. I'd love to run this, whether as a one shot or as a campaign (limited or ongoing).