The Walking Dead Universe RPG Review – How Many PC Deaths Await You?

Walker slaying and gruesome death await you in this Walking Dead Universe RPG review

Free league are fast becoming a household name in the RPG community. Have they got another hit? Find out in this Walking Dead Universe RPG review. The Swedish publisher is famous for releasing high quality, easy to learn, quick to table, and most importantly; fun RPG games. Also renown for acquiring big budget IPs, they have done it again with the acquisition of AMC’s The Walking Dead TV series.

Free League and AMC’s; The Walking Dead Universe RPG Review

Free league have created some big name IPs into great RPGs. The Lord of the Rings, Blade Runner, and Alien to name a few. Their latest attempt is the Walking Dead series from AMC. I was a fan of the show for a long time myself, but fell out of love with it in the later seasons. 

In this Walking Dead Universe RPG review, I will be covering only the core rule book in digital format. If you have seen any pictures online, you will already know the art work and presentation is stunning. Even a brief glance will make it clear that this is a Walking Dead product. The book is laden with quotes and images of the show’s main cast, despite the fact that early in the book, they encourage you to not copy the TV show in your games. Free League are industry leaders in quality books right now, I am certain this hold true for the physical book as well.

The game uses the Year Zero engine for the moment to moment gameplay. Players have four attributes: Strength, Agility, Wits, and Empathy. Each of these attributes has three skills associated with them.  Players also select an archetype, this determines your talents and starting equipment. Whenever you need to roll dice to determine the outcome of something, you roll D6’s; equal to the relevant attribute, skills, and any extra dice from your talents. If you roll any sixes, that counts as one success, and you seldom need more than one six to succeed a check. You can push rolls for a better chance at succeeding, if you are willing to take on stress to your character.

You may have guessed that combat in this game would be brutal, and you would have been correct to guess so. Combat comes in three distinct flavors: Duels for small scale fights, brawls for larger group fights, and walker encounters. Combat is quite a methodical affair, and is quite an easy mechanic to pick up. The problem I have with combat in this game is that you are often at the mercy of dice rolls.

Of course combat involves dice, it is what happens if you get hurt I have the biggest issue with. If you ever take too much damage in the game, you have to roll on a critical injury table. This table is ruthless, and if my math is correct, there is a 12.5% chance of your character dying. Now I like brutal games, I think there is one game, that I won’t name, that has spoiled RPG players with super powerful characters for too long. This is a character driven RPG first, and this table seems to detract from that vision a lot.

Fight the Dead Fear the Dice Rolls

On page 12 of the book, there is a list of the core principles of the Walking Dead Universe RPG. This is my favorite part of the entire book, anyone can pick this up, read around 150–200 words and know if this game is for them. More publishers should look at doing this, it would save me so much reading time. The core principles are:

1. Do Whatever it Takes to Survive
2. Death is Inescapable
3. You Are Never Safe
4. You Are Not Alone
5. You Are Telling a Story
6. Fiction Comes First

When you make characters in this game, there is a heavy emphasis on your PCs relationships and background. The game wants you to explore this, learn more about your character, let them go on a journey, and of course develop. Then there is the brutal combat, dangerous tables, and walkers that can tear you to shreds in an instant. The GM will need to do a lot of work to edit this game to make it perfect for their group. This may not be a con to some people, for me, it was. 

While Playing the Walking Dead Universe RPG for the review, I couldn’t help but notice the potential this game has. This game is amazing, if you are a Walking Dead fanatic, this game is a slam dunk for you and your group. Even if you hate the Walking Dead series, this game is still a great zombie game, a hallmark of geek culture. If you are willing to tinker with the rules, or rip some out and put them in other games, Free League might have made the best Zombie RPG blueprint available to GMs here. I am already planning to take the zombie combat rules, and put them into a Dragonbane zombie mini campaign for my friends.

Don’t Dead Open Inside

If dark themes of zombies, and bountiful player death isn’t your jam; this is not the game for you. Free League have done a great job recreating the Walking Dead TV series. They are fast becoming my favorite publisher, and that is because it is clear they love what they produce. Respect has gone into both its source material, and fans of the show. The product is high quality, the art work is beautiful, and the game works. There is a minor disconnect between the rules as written and the game’s core principles, but with a bit of input from the GM, this problem is easily fixed. 

The Walking Dead Universe RPG is out now and can be bought direct from the Free League Publishing website here.