Road To Hope

ROAD TO HOPE
A post apocalyptic game, Sparked by The Resistance,

designed by Brian Miranda (damage_control_16 on
itch.io)
THIS IS A PLAYTEST VERSION (VER. 0.50) 1 of

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PREFACE
Road to Hope is a game that is based off The Resistance
System created by Grant Howitt and Christopher Taylor.
If you have feedback, you can either fill out the survey
here https://forms.gle/8J1miGG3cCH8ySbu8
CW: Strong language, violence, body horror, plague, abuse of

authority, mentions of torture, and psychological horror. I can
assure you that there is no mention of sexual assault.
EVERYTHING IN THIS PLAYTEST IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE

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Update Log (.50 to .51)
● Fixed typos and grammar issues throughout the game
● THE DOOMSDAY PREPPER
○ Changed the name of the Requiem Ability to MEMORIES
○ Revised MEMORIES
● YOUNGBLOOD
○ Revised GOING BEYOND THE LIMIT
○ Changed the name of DID I CATCH YOU FUCKERS IN A BAD
TIME to THE LONG GAME
○ Added a new Major Ability IN PLAIN SIGHT

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INTRODUCTION
Road to Hope is a post apocalyptic TTRPG, with rules
based off the Resistance System (created by Grant Howitt and
Chris Taylor)
The world wasn’t always like this. The average person’s

life was to wake up, go to work, maybe get a chance to enjoy
some hobbies, hang out with loved ones, sleep, and repeat the
cycle. The average person had a roof over their head, could
reliably get food, and their biggest challenge of the day might
be asking for a raise or finally talk to that cute person who
sits across from them on the train ride home.
Then The End happened. An infection turned people into monsters
and despite humanity’s best efforts, civilization fell apart.
Now, an average person’s day is to wake up, find supplies, fight
off a few monsters and a few people, and pray that they don’t
die somewhere in that equation. And if they’re lucky, they find
an unoccupied building with an intact roof to sleep under. And
for you, a Survivor, that has probably been your life for
several years now.
Then you started hearing rumors of a city called Hope.

Apparently, they have it figured out. Some rumors say they have
a few city blocks secured. Some say they have been able to
reliably produce food. Some say they are slowly reclaiming land.
Some crazy rumors even suggest that they have found a team of
doctors working on a vaccine. But you’ve heard this story at
least a dozen times. And every time, the “sanctuary city” turned
out to be a fraud at best, and a death trap at worst. But the
rumors of this city persisted. The rumors kept spreading. And

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for one reason or another, you've decided to risk your life to
follow up on these rumors.
The road ahead is long and dangerous. But you’ve made it

this far.

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SUPPORT TOOLS
Road to Hope is a brutal game. It takes place in a
desolate, post-apocalyptic land ravaged by monsters and humans
that can be just as nasty as the monsters. Meaning, this game
has the potential to deal with sensitive topics or delve into
content that might be uncomfortable to some. I strongly
encourage you to play this game with support tools, even if
you’re playing with friends that you have known for ages. Here
are two tools that I highly recommend using. These are tools
that I personally use in all my games.
The X-Card
The X-Card is, to put it very simply, a giant metaphorical
red button you can press that pauses play once things get
uncomfortable. Introducing it to your players is quite simple.
In an in-person game, you can have an index card with a giant X
on it. You then tell your players something to the effect of
“Hey, this game might get into some uncomfortable territory. If
at any point you start to get uncomfortable with how the game is
going, you can simply tap or raise the card. We will pause and
redirect the scene, take a break, or even talk about how we
should proceed with the scene instead.” In an online game, you
can give the same spiel, but can have players either type a
giant X in the chat, say “X or pause” during play, or DM the GM
if they want to remain anonymous. An important thing to keep in
mind is the person who invokes the X-Card is not obligated to
explain why the thing made them uncomfortable. Just respect
their wishes and redirect. Even if no one is using the X-Card,
it never hurts to check in with the players about how they’re

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feeling, or even giving players a heads up about some
potentially tough subject matter before it officially comes into
play.
The X-Card was created by John Stavropoulos, and you can
read more about it here: http://tinyurl.com/x-card-rpg
Lines and Veils

Lines and Veils is a way to let the group know ahead of
time what topics should be handled with care, or are outright
off the table. Lines are topics that you do not want in the
gamer at all. Veils are topics that, while you don’t 100% mind,
are topics you want handled with care. This can include only
being okay with the topic at hand happening off-screen, only
okay if not a major focus, or maybe you just need a heads up of
it happening. Now, keep in mind that Lines and Veils is a living
document; meaning, over the course of the game/campaign, players
are allowed to add topics as a Line/Veil. Just like with X-Card,
players are not obligated to explain why a topic makes them feel
uncomfortable.
There are many other support tools out there, so I

encourage you to use the ones that work for you.

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HOW TO PLAY THE GAME
The game revolves around building pools of dice to take
actions. You build pools by having the appropriate Skills and
Domains. Some abilities may allow you to add dice to your pool.
Failing actions or getting a mixed success causes you to take
stress to a resistance.
Skills
Skills are what the name would suggest; they are types of
actions that the PC’s can take. Anyone can make rolls for skills
that they don’t have, it just means they’re not as good at it.
Having a Skill means the PC is proficient in it.
There are nine skills. They are as follows:
● Analyze- This skill allows you to make sense of a
situation, analyze information given to you, or simply try
to come to a conclusion using your smarts.
● Care- This skill is to heal someone's wounds or to
emotionally comfort them. May also be used to make sense of
anything relating to medicine.
● Command- This skill is about using your words to get what
you want, whether it’d be persuasion, deceit, or threats.
● Endure- This skill is about withstanding pain or other
harmful forces.
● Hunt- This skill is for tracking something or someone down,
as well as chasing them down.
● Kill- This skill is about using violence to end someone or
something’s life.

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● Rig- This skill is about breaking or fixing things, or even
building something.
● Sneak- This skill is about hiding or making moves under the
radar.
● Traverse- This skill is about traveling through unknown or
dangerous territory. Can also be used to maneuver under
pressure
Domains
Domains are broad areas of knowledge about certain types of
terrain, factions, and/or trivia of said areas. Just like with
Skills, you can still roll in areas you don’t have a domain for,
you just won’t be as good as someone who is knowledgeable about
the subject. There are 7 domains. They are as follows:
● Bunkers- This domain concerns itself with areas meant to
withstand the apocalypse or other harmful scenarios. This
may also be applicable to the factions who built them
● Cult- This domain concerns itself with cult-like factions
and the people who are entrenched in them. This also
applies to traversing through their territory.
● Infested- This applies to dealing with areas swarming with
Infected, as well as areas that are actively harmful due to
the Infection.
● Militia- This domain concerns itself with dealing with
military-like factions or government-run factions
● Raiders- This domain concerns itself dealing with bandits
or factions that have adopted a very twisted version of
darwinism.

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● Settlements- This domain concerns itself dealing with areas
where people have set up shop and are trying to call home.
● Wild- This domain concerns itself dealing with natural
terrain, such as forests, deserts, as well as areas that
nature has reclaimed.
Knacks
If you are to gain a Skill or Domain that you already
possess, then you would gain a Knack. A Knack is a very specific
area of expertise within your Skill or Domain. An example would
include “Using military weaponry” for a Kill Knack or “Dealing
with the CDC” for a Militia Knack. A skill may only have one
Knack, but you may spend a minor advancement to change a Knack.
The primary benefit of having a Knack is gaining mastery on
the action. It also signals to the GM what kind of scenarios
you’re interested in seeing.
The Basics of Rolling

During play, the GM may call for a roll. The roll will
usually be called for when the PC is making an action that risks
failure or negative consequences. The success of an action is
determined by rolling a pool of D10’s. You build a pool like so:
● Start with a D10, for sheer luck
● Add a D10 if you have a relevant Skill
● Add a D10 if you have a relevant Domain
● Add a D10 if you have mastery on the action (Mastery does
not stack)

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● Add a D10 if another PC with either the Domain or the Skill
is helping with the action. (Main catch is if the PC
rolling suffers stress, so does the helper(s))
● You can never roll more than five dice at a time
Then you roll. You only count the highest die rolled. If
the action was Risky, you remove the highest result and count
the second highest result. If the action was Dangerous, you
remove the two highest dice and count the third highest result.
Then, compare the result to this table:
● 10+ is CRITICAL SUCCESS. If you are dealing stress to a
target, increase the die size by one (max D12)
● 9-8 is SUCCESS. Your action succeeds
● 7-6 is a MIXED SUCCESS. Your action succeeds, but at a
cost. Take stress
● 5-2 is a MISS. Your action fails (or even succeeds, but at
a cost that significantly outweighs the benefit) and you
take stress
● 1 is a CRITICAL MISS. You fail and take double stress (roll
the die and double the result)
If, through difficulty, your dice pool goes down to zero or

less dice, roll a D10. The result is downgraded (Success becomes
mixed success, mixed success becomes a miss, and so on and so
forth)
Regardless of the result, the GM will narrate the

consequences of your action and, if applicable, will tell you
how much stress you take to which Resistance. Then, the GM rolls
for Fallout. The GM adds up all the stress you currently have
and then rolls a D12. If their result is equal to or under your

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current Stress, you take Fallout. If higher, then you don’t.
(More about Fallout later)
Resistances
Resistances are a way to quantify what is at stake whenever
you make an action. This game has a total of 5 resistances the
PC’s need to keep in mind. They are as follows:
● Blood- This is your physical well-being; getting injured,
hit, shot, or just being exhausted is enough to incur Blood
stress.
● Grit- This is your mental well-being; witnessing or
committing horrible acts, as well as learning some
uncomfortable truths are enough to incur Grit stress.
● Luck- This is how damn lucky you are; pushing your luck,
incurring bad karma, or barely making out of a bad
situation alive can incur Luck stress.
● Supplies- This is how well-equipped you are; using ammo,
having food go bad, or losing your backpack can all incur
Supplies stress.
These four resistances are the PC’s personal resistance;

how much a PC incurs in Blood stress has no bearing on the other
PC’s. There is a fifth resistance, but what makes this one
unique is that the entire party shares it. It’s called:
● Camp- This is the well-being of your camp; having unsettled
conflicts amongst the members, suffering attacks, or
outright losing members can all incur Camp Stress.
Having Fallout in any of these Resistances can mean

different things. Speaking of which:

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Fallout
Fallout is an effect (usually negative) that the player(s)
have to deal with. Fallout happens when a player fails a Fallout
Check. Fallouts are divided into three tiers: Minor, Major,
Critical.
● Minor Fallouts are, more or less, inconveniences that the

player has to deal with. They are usually taken care of
almost immediately or can (relatively) be easily resolved
● Major Fallouts are dangerous issues that the player has to
deal with. These Fallouts are going to take a lot of work
or resources to take care of and, until then, life is going
to get a lot more difficult.
● Critical Fallouts usually spell the end of the PC. They are
either killed, face a fate worse than death, or just simply
can’t be with the group any longer.
If players fail a Fallout check, the GM compares the result

of the D12 to the PC’s total stress. If it’s 1-6, they suffer
Minor Fallout. If it’s a 7-12, it’s a Major Fallout. GM’s may
combine two appropriate Minor Fallouts to make a Major one. They
may also combine two appropriate Major Fallouts to a Critical
one. This is the only way a PC can get a Critical Fallout.
Player death is optional.
When a player suffers Fallout, they clear a set amount of

stress, depending on the level of stress they suffered. On a
Minor, the player clears 4 stress. On a Major, clear 8. If the
player survives suffering Critical Fallout, clear all stress.
That said, the PC’s can null some stress by using their
Reserves (Called “Free Slots” in Spire). You can use a Reserve

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to absorb some of the incoming stress to an appropriate
Resistance. The Reserves are not counted when rolling for
Fallout. Once that Reserve is used, you can’t use it again until
you refresh it. Reserve Slots are the first slots to be used,
and the last slots to be refreshed.
Example: If Bill has 2 Blood Reserves and takes 5 Blood
Stress, he only takes 3 Blood Stress because the 2 Reserves
absorbed some of the incoming stress. Later in the session, he
takes 4 Blood Stress. since his Reserves have already been
used, he can’t benefit from them and takes the full 4.
You can refresh stress by using certain Archetype abilities

or by using Care Equipment, which is further explained on page
24. A much riskier method to refresh stress is by Pushing Your
Limits
Push It To The Limit

When a Survivor has at least 12 points of stress, it is
guaranteed they are going to get a Fallout. It is really only a
question of whether it is going to be Major or Minor. However, a
player does have one option. Once per session when a Survivor
hits 12+ stress but before the GM rolls for Fallout, the player
may declare they’re going to Push Their Limits. They roll a D10.
If they roll an 8 or above, they clear D8 Stress. If they roll a
10, they clear all stress. A 7 or lower results in an automatic
Major Fallout. A player can only Push Their Limits once per
session.

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FALLOUT EXAMPLES
This is not a definitive list of Fallouts. You are strongly
encouraged to come up with your own. Camp Fallout examples are
shown in the CAMP section of this doc. These examples just focus
on the personal resistances.
BLOOD FALLOUT EXAMPLES:

● LIMP (Minor)- Your leg is injured. Any actions that require
fine or quick movement are made with increased difficulty.
Additionally, if there’s ever a question of who arrives
last to a scene, it’s you. (Ongoing)
● TORN ROTATOR (Minor)- When you inflict stress with a melee
attack, roll two stress dice and take the lower result.
(Ongoing)
● STUNNED (Minor)- The enemy got the best of you. You can’t
help on any other actions until it is your turn again, and
any Endure actions are made with increased difficulty. Once
it’s your turn again, clear the Fallout (Instant)
● BLEEDING (Minor) You are losing a lot of blood. At the
beginning of each situation, take D4 Blood stress.
● BATTERED (Minor) You just took a nasty hit, and it is
taking you for a whirl as you try to get it together. The
first action you make is Dangerous. The next is Risky.
Finally, you’re back to Standard and you resolve this
Fallout (Instant, Ongoing)
● TINNITUS (Minor) Your hearing has been damaged. Any
actions that involve carefully listening to something,
including your surroundings, are made with increased
difficulty.

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● DISARMED (Can also be Supplies) (Minor) You lose grip of
your currently equipped weapon or gear. If you act fast,
you might be able to get it back (Instant)
● BROKEN ARM (Major)- Your arm is broken. You can’t use any
two handed equipment. Additionally, any actions involving
your arms are made with increased difficulty or are
outright impossible. (Ongoing)
● BROKEN LEG(Major)- Your leg is broken. Any actions
involving quick movement or involving heavy use of your
legs are made with increased difficulty or are outright
impossible (Ongoing)
● DAMAGED EYE (Major)- One of your eyes is very busted; you
can’t see out of that eye. All Ranged attacks, unless very
up-close, are at least Risky. Additionally, any actions
requiring use of depth-perception are also made with
increased difficulty. (Ongoing)
● UNCONSCIOUS (Major) You are knocked unconscious. You will
regain consciousness when your group sets up camp, you
leave the current destination, or you make it to the next
destination, whichever comes first. (Instant)
● OUT THE SCENE (Major) (can also be Luck). You are attacked
in such a way that it takes you out of the scene. Examples
include: you’re kidnapped, thrown off a building, fall off
a moving vehicle, etc. (Instant)
● DYING (Critical)- You are going to die soon. Make your
final action with Mastery (and it’s also done in Standard
Difficulty, regardless of the circumstances), or fight off
your fate and lose something in the bargain (Instant)
● BITTEN (Critical)- You are bitten. You are going to turn in
a few hours. If your bite is on a limb, you can try cutting
it off with an Endure + Infested (Without proper equipment,

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it is a Dangerous action. With equipment or help, it’s
Risky. With help and proper equipment, it’s Standard.) It
has to be done a few minutes after the bite. If the bite
happened anywhere else or if you failed the roll, it’s game
over. What you do in your final hours is up to you.
(Ongoing)
● SHATTERED ARM (Critical)- The damage, simply put, is FUBAR.
You are losing sensation, you are becoming dehydrated, and
the arm is looking really nasty. This will slowly kill you
unless you amputate your arm. If you’re amputating your own
limb, it’s Dangerous Endure + Infested. If you don’t at
least have some proper equipment, it’s out of the question.
If someone else is doing this, Risky Care + Infested with
proper tools, Dangerous otherwise. Failing this will kill
the patient.
SUPPLIES FALLOUT EXAMPLE

● WEAPON JAM (Minor)- Your firearm is jammed. It can’t be
used for the rest of the situation. (Ongoing)
● MORE THAN YOU BARGAINED FOR (Minor)- You’re not scraping
by, but you’re definitely running dry. Lose Supplies
Reserves until you get a chance to restock at a Settlement
or Camp. (Ongoing)
● OUT OF AMMO (Minor)- Your current weapon type is out of
ammo. You can’t use the gun (or guns like it) until you get
a chance to restock at Camp or at a Settlement. (Ongoing)
● LOST BACKPACK (Major) In the midst of all the chaos, you
had to leave some things behind. Lose all equipment and
resources except your most recently used weapon/equipment.
(Instant, Ongoing)

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● NASTY HIT (Major) You break your melee weapon beyond
repair. You definitely bashed that guy’s head in, though.
(Instant)
● URGENT REPAIRS (Majo)- Your firearm needs to be repaired at
Camp or a safe location before you can use it again.
● DOWN TO SCRAPS (Major) You have the bare minimum of
everything, and you have to make what you have left last.
Increase the difficulty of the Venture (max Dangerous) and
lower the stress you deal to the Venture by one step (min.
D4). This Fallout is resolved once you restock at Camp or
at a Destination (Instant, Ongoing)
● UNPREPARED (Critical) Your mag goes empty, your pipe bends,
your rope breaks, the straps of the backpack snap. Your
luck runs out, and are met with a swift, but bloody fate
(Instant)
GRIT FALLOUT EXAMPLE

● ODD REACTION (Minor) You react to something horrifying in a
very concerning way. PCs who witness this take D4 stress to
Grit. If no friendly PCs are around, but friendly NPCs are,
take D4 Camp stress. (Instant)
● ON EDGE (Minor) You are at your brink. Lose your Grit
Reserves (Ongoing)
● SNAP (Minor) You do or say something you shouldn’t have.
Not so bad that everything goes to hell, but enough to
cause some complications (Instant)
● STRESS EATER (Minor). You start eating your rations to keep
your stress at bay. At the beginning of each situation,
take D4 Supplies stress. (Ongoing)

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● SHELL SHOCK (Minor). Fighting for your life has taken its
toll on you. Whenever combat kicks off, immediately take D4
Grit Stress. (May upgrade to PHOBIA or PACIFIST)
● SCRAMBLED (Minor). You are out of focus. You can’t gain
dice from Skills. (Ongoing)
● PARANOID (Minor)- You are convinced that your allies will
be the death of you. You can’t help nor receive help on
actions. (Ongoing)
● OVERTHINKING (Minor) Your anxiety is forming insidious
fears. At the beginning of each situation, you have to make
an Analyze roll, Domain is GM’s choice. The info you
receive on a success may not be immediately useful.
(Ongoing)
● MEMORY HOLE (Major)- When the group has the chance, tell
the player receiving the Fallout to step out of the
room/voice chat. Everyone else needs to agree on something
this person did. When you resume play, everyone is going to
act like you did something that you have no memory doing
● HALLUCINATIONS (Major) You are seeing and hearing things
that aren’t really there (Ongoing)
● PACIFIST (Major) You can’t bring yourself to take another
life. Any action made to kill a living being is made with
increased difficulty. Whenever you do kill someone or are
complicit in a killing, take D6 piercing Grit stress.
(Ongoing)
● PHOBIA (Major) You are now deathly afraid of something,
most likely the source of this Fallout. Interacting with
this Phobia is made with increased difficulty. Any stress
caused by interacting with the fear is a die size higher.
(Ongoing)

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● ANALYSIS PARALYSIS (Major) Just like OVERTHINKING.
Additionally, lose your Analyze Skill and all Analyze rolls
are at least Risky. (Ongoing)
● CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE (Critical)- You break. You start
screaming, and you make a run for it, never to be seen
again. (Instant)
● NUMB (Critical)- You become a husk of a person; any action
made to kill someone is made with mastery. After the
situation, assuming you’re not dead, you can’t find it in
yourself to continue. You disappear from Camp the next
morning. (Instant, Ongoing)
LUCK FALLOUT EXAMPLES

● FOREBODING (Minor) Something bad is going to happen to you
soon if you don’t take care of business. (Can be upgraded
to DISASTER)
● AMBUSH (Minor) You are caught in the middle of an ambush
set up by one of the nearby factions or Raider groups. Play
your cards right and you might get out of this alive
(Instant)
● OLD FRIEND (Minor) When you arrive at your next
Destination, you will be greeted by someone from your past.
At best, they are not happy to see you. (Instant)
● SNATCHED (Can also be Supplies) (Minor) One of your pieces
of equipment is gone. Either you dropped it, it got stolen,
or is broken when you reach for it. (Instant)
● SWARM (Minor) The next area you go through is crawling with
Infected. Either cut through or look for another way
(Instant)
● LOST (Minor) You don’t know where you’re going; add a D6 to
the Venture (Instant)

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● DISASTER (Major) The bad thing you were warned about? It
happens. (Instant)
● BACK FROM THE GRAVE (Major) Someone who you could’ve sworn
you killed is back. And they’re out for blood
● SEPERATED (Major) You are separated from the group, either
because you got way too ahead or a complication happened.
Regardless, you better regroup fast. (Instant)
● NOT WHAT I HAD IN MIND (Major) The next Destination you go
to is very different than what you or your group were
anticipating, often in a bad way; it’s swarming with
Infected, there’s someone there you really don’t want to
see, or maybe the people running the place are way worse
than you could’ve imagined. (Instant)
● DEAD WEIGHT (Major) One of your allies is infected. They
were either recently bitten or they’ve been hiding it from
you. (Instant)
● SOL (Critical)- Your luck was bound to run out. Take any of
the Critical Fallouts, not just Luck. (Instant)

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EQUIPMENT AND RESOURCES
If you’re going to travel across the desolate wasteland to
the City of Hope, you’re going to need some gear. By default, it
is assumed that each PC has ammo for the firearms they have, a
sleeping bag, and a couple of rations on them. You don’t need to
individually keep track of all of that; that is taken care of
through the Supplies Resistance. Through Fallout, you might
suddenly not have food, ammo, water, or other basic gear. More
specialized gear is represented through Equipment and Resources.
EQUIPMENT:
Equipment, usually, can inflict or heal stress. There are
three different types of Equipment: Weapons, Healing, and
Traversal. Those pieces of Equipment have a die size attached to
them; the die size represents how much Stress it can inflict or
heal. Equipment can’t go any higher than a D12 and it can’t go
any lower than a D4, even through buffs or debuffs. The die size
has different implication for each type of equipment, but the
general rule is this:
● D4: Unarmed or low quality
● D6: Civilian
● D8: Specialty
● D10: Exotic
● D12: Serious Shit

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INVENTORY:
Players have four equipment slots. Kill, Care, and
Traversal Equipment all take up one slot. Resources worth D6 or
more will also take up a slot. Equipment or Resources with the
Large tag take up two slots.
Players can spend a Minor Advance to increase their

carrying capacity by 2 (bringing the total slots to “six”)
WEAPONS:
Weapons are exactly what it says on the tin can… weapons.
Firearms, melee weapons, throwables, or just about anything that
can be used to take another life. Here are some examples below.
● D6: Baseball bat, lead pipe, kitchen knife, pistol, recurve

bow, nail gun, shotgun
● D8: Sledgehammer, “Poor-man’s axe” (baseball bat w/ a saw
blade), sniper rifle, pistol w/ hollow point rounds,
chainsaw
HEALING:
You’re going to get hurt… a lot. If you’re not getting
chased by zombies, you’re getting shot at by cultists. If it’s
not that, it’s witnessing your best friend getting mauled alive.
And if you’re going to stay alive, you’re going to need some
care. By default, self healing is a Risky Action. Healing
Equipment can only care for Blood and Grit. Supplies and Luck
can only be healed through abilities or finding resources.

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● Blood
○ D4: Ripping clothes and using that as makeshift
bandages
○ D6: Basic medical supplies, like alcohol and bandages
○ D8: Something a doctor or army medic would have
● Grit
○ D4: A hug, a pep talk, a slap to the face while
yelling “Snap out of it!!!”
○ D6: Alcohol, over the counter pills, weed
○ D8: Serious fucking drugs or ongoing therapy
EQUIPMENT TAGS:
Most equipment have tags attached to them. Some are
positive and some are negative. Most are only applicable to the
PC’s equipment, but some might fit an opponent's gear.
Positive
● Brutal: When rolling to inflict, roll an extra die and take
the highest result. Brutal can stack. If you managed to get
Brutal three times, for example, then you’d roll four dice
and pick the highest when inflicting stress.
● Piercing: The stress inflicted ignores any protection the
target has.
● Double-barreled: Just like Reload, but can be fired twice
before needing to reload.
● Ranged: The weapon can be used at a distance
● Extreme Range: The weapon can be used at really long range
● Point-blank: When used very up close, the stress die goes
up a step (max D12). If used at long range, it goes down a
step.

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● Poison: Whenever the poisoned target acts, they take D4
Piercing stress until the end of the situation.
● Immobilizing: When hit, the target is stuck in place for a
while.
● Potent: When rolling to heal, roll an extra die and take
the highest result. Potent can stack. If you managed to get
Potent three times, for example, then you’d roll four dice
and pick the highest when healing stress.
● Smoke: The point of impact explodes with a cloud of smoke.
This is more of a narrative effect; the GM might grant
bonuses (or penalties) on a case by case basis, usually
mastery.
● Stunning: You may opt to not inflict stress. Instead, the
target(s) is dazed, reducing their difficulty to Standard
until they gather their bearings. (Only works against
living beings)
● Spread: Any targets near the main target may also get hit
with stress. The stress they suffer is half the stress the
main target suffered, rounding up (a minimum of 1.)
● Full-Auto: Mark D4 Supplies Stress to gain mastery on rolls
made with the weapon for the rest of the situation
Negative
● Dangerous: This piece of equipment is dangerous to use.
Whenever you deal max stress on the die (e.g. roll a 6 on a
D6), take D6 Blood Stress.
● Loud: This weapon makes a lot of noise, risking attracting
unwanted attention. (All firearms, unless stated otherwise,
are Loud)

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● Rare: The ammo for this gun is rare. Whenever you deal max
stress on a die (e.g. roll a 6 on a D6 weapon), take D6
Supplies stress.
● Reload: The weapon needs to be reloaded after a few shots.
Basically, this tag can be invoked if the GM wants to make
your life interesting.
● Limited [x]: The equipment can only be used an X number of
times before it is all used up or breaks beyond repair.
● One-Shot: This weapon takes a lot of time to reload, so it
can only be used once per situation.
● Unreliable: This equipment is prone to malfunctions.
Whenever you roll a miss with this, you can’t use it for
the rest of the situation.
● Large: This equipment is notably large, taking up two
equipment slots to store it.
● Very Large: This piece is very large. You can’t store it
away at all; you have to physically carry it with you if
you want to keep it.
RESOURCES:
Resources are the primary way you keep you and your Camp
alive and thriving. Resources are, simply put, gear or supplies.
Resources come in 4 sizes:
● D4: Bare minimum supplies or something very commonplace.
● D6: It’s uncommon, usually takes some work to get.
● D8: Specialty gear, not uncommon in a military bunker.
● D10: Very, and I mean very rare.
Resources come in 4 main categories:

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● FOOD. Exactly what it says on the tin can; food to fuel
your body and keep you moving. Canned food, meat, dried
goods, all that good stuff. (this also includes water)
● PARTS. If you need to fix something (and there’s plenty of
shit to fix), you’re going to need parts; screws, bolts,
car batteries, gun parts, etc.
● MEDICAL. You may have your own personal reserves, but
sometimes, you either need to treat a serious injury or you
need more than enough to cover an entire camp.
● AMMUNITION. In a world where a lot of things are trying to
kill you, it wouldn’t hurt to pack some heat.
WAIT, WOULDN’T SOME OF THESE RESOURCE TYPES FALL UNDER SUPPLY

STRESS?
Here is what sets the resources apart from personal

Supplies stress; you are setting these Resources aside for
something else. Whether you’re setting it aside for someone
else, as a potential way to barter for something better or
something you really need, or maybe it is just emergency
supplies. In that spirit, Resources is a way to take care of a
situation (whether it’d be a Fallout, or needing to trade),
without immediately eating into your own personal supplies. In
short, it is a “break glass in case emergency”
Resources can be used in three main ways:

● Bartering.
● Healing Stress
● Healing Fallout

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BARTERING:
With the fall of civilization came the fall of the economy.
Some guy tried to get bottle caps as the new form of currency,
but that never really kicked off. So now, most settlements and
people barter. Bartering is quite simple; go to someone who is
selling something. Ask the GM what’s available to purchase. If
there’s something you want, ask the GM how much is going to
cost. The cost comes in the form of a die size. In general, D4
is for very common goods, D6 is uncommon, and D8 is rare. Most
stores will not be selling any equipment or resources valued
higher than a D8. Anyways, after the cost is declared, you have
options. You can straight up trade one of your Resources or
Equipment of equal value or you can haggle. Haggling is going to
a Command + Current Domain (usually Settlement.) If the merchant
dislikes you, the difficulty will be increased to Risky. If you
get a full success, you bring the cost down a die size. If you
get a mixed success, you don’t decrease the cost, but you can
still get the item for the original cost. If you fail, the GM
has options. Either you still get the item, but at a higher cost
(out of spite), you get the item, but it’s lower quality, or
maybe you don’t get it at all (also because of spite). Or the GM
does something different altogether.
Below are some guidelines for how you might determine the
cost of something (these are just guidelines; feel free to use
as much or as little of what’s provided):
● D4: The equipment does or heals no more than D4 stress and
has no more than one positive tag
● D6: The equipment does at least D6 stress and has no more
than two positive tags

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● D8: The equipment does D6 or D8 stress. If D6, can have no
more than three positive tags and must have at least one
negative tag. If it’s D8, it can’t have no more than one
positive tag and needs at least one negative tag.
If you're trading for resources, the general rule is this:

the size of the resource always matches the cost of it, unless
the vendor/Settlement is currently going through a shortage of a
particular resource (For example, D6 Ammo might cost D8 if the
settlement is going through an ammo shortage.) If the Resource
is a Specialty Resource, the cost automatically goes up a step.
If it comes with a negative tag, the cost goes down a step.
HEALING STRESS:
If you don’t have Care equipment or are running low on
supplies, you can just use up a Resource to heal some stress.
The catch is that when you use a Resource this way, the Resource
is gone. The stress you can heal depends on what kind of
Resource you’re using. Ammo and Food can heal Supplies Stress
and Medicine can heal Blood or Grit stress. That said, you’re
going to have to play this by ear. You can make an argument that
morphine can heal Blood and Grit, and the player just has to
choose which stress they’d like to heal. But there is no way a
splint is going to help with Grit. Another thing you’ll have to
play by ear is if a Resource can be used during a Venture or
needs to be done at Camp or a Settlement. You can definitely
reload your weapons on the spot in a couple of minutes, but
you’re going to have to go to a Settlement with a workbench if
you’re going to fix your gun.

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One more thing to note; if you use Resources to heal during
a Venture, you will incur a D4 Bane.
Alternatively, you can donate the resources to the Camp.
This is the only way you can clear Camp Stress, outside of
special abilities.
HEALING FALLOUT:
Healing Fallout, outside of certain abilities, is usually
done through resources. Granted, some Fallout just takes care of
itself through the fiction or has a limited effect. But most of
the time (and especially Major Fallouts), you’re going to need
some gear to take care of it. The general rule is this: Minor
Fallouts can be cured with at least a D6 Resource and Major
Fallouts can be cured with at least a D8. If appropriate, the GM
might require that a Fallout needs to be cleared with some
outside help (usually the help of someone outside your Camp, or
a Camp member with a specific expertise.) One last thing to note
is that you need to be somewhere safe to take care of Fallout of
any kind. Usually, that will just be your Camp, but it can also
be a friendly Destination. And, just like healing Stress, you
can also donate Resources to take care of some Camp Fallout if
it makes sense. Donating some guns won’t mean much if Little
Timmy has been missing for three days.

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RESOURCE TAGS:
● Uncomfortable: It can’t be stuffed into your
backpack/whatever bag your stuff is in.
● Taboo: Carrying this is gonna get you, at best, some weird
looks from some folk. At worst, hostile behavior.
● Deteriorating: If not consumed or handled soon, it will
become useless or destroyed.
● Valuable: This equipment is highly sought after even by
normal standards. Many are willing to barter and even more
are willing to kill for it.
● Beacon: There’s something odd about this item; it keeps
attracting weird and often dangerous attention.
● Fragile: It can break if not handled with care.
● Niche: Not everyone is going to accept this as payment when
bartering.
● Volatile: If this breaks or is mishandled, someone might
get hurt.

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TRAVERSING AND DESTINATIONS
Once upon a time, traveling was relatively easy. Just get

in your car, fill up on gas, and drive. And if that wasn't an
option, you could use a rideshare or taxi app. And if you can’t
justify spending the funds and if your city gave a tiny bit of a
shit, you could use public transportation. If we’re talking
different states, you could either drive or straight up fly
there with a plane. Planes!
But that was before the world became a desolate wasteland

infested with zombies and humans who would not hesitate to kill
you for a box of granola bars. So now, traveling consists of
walking, scavenging supplies along the way, and occasionally
finding yourself in a life threatening situation. To travel from
Point A to Point B, you are going to need to Traverse. And to
Traverse, you will need to go on a Venture.
A Venture consists of traveling from one Destination to

another. How do you actually Traverse? Well, the party elects
someone to lead. It’s often the person who is best equipped for
that sort of thing, but you never know. Then, the GM declares
what Skill and Domain to roll with, and the difficulty of said
roll. The roll will usually be Traverse + the Domain(s) of the
Venture. Then, they roll. If they succeed, they roll with the
stress die of their Venture Equipment (or D4 if they have no
equipment.) If they get a mixed success, they still roll how
much stress to inflict, but they also suffer stress as a result.
And if they fail, the PC doesn’t inflict stress to the Venture
at all, but is instead hit with a bad situation and suffers
stress as a result. Now, what stress to inflict on the PC if

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they suffer stress on a Venture roll, regardless if it was a
success or not? Well, it depends really. Here are some examples:
● BLOOD: The path was physically demanding, you are suddenly
under attack, something collapsed on you (or beneath you)
● GRIT: You are traveling during a time sensitive situation,
you are traveling somewhere very perilous (i.e. on a beam
from extreme heights, sneaking past infected, etc.), you
are shaken by the sounds of strange creatures in the
distance.
● LUCK: The path was longer than you thought, you ran into
someone you’re running away from, you are going in circles
● SUPPLIES: Your rope breaks, you consumed more water than
you realize, your bag falls into a hoard of zombies
Then you repeat the cycle until the Venture is finished.

How do you know when a Venture is finished? When you start a
Venture, the GM decides how much stress the party needs to
inflict on the Venture before it is considered “complete.” This
is called “The Venture’s Resistance.” The GM may choose to make
this number known to the players, or keep it to themselves. A
few more things about Ventures:
SECURING THE ROUTE:

Your party is responsible for caring for a camp of people
and part of that responsibility is keeping their travels as safe
as possible. So, it behooves you to secure the route. Basically,
you need to make sure the path from Point A to Point B is
(mostly) safe to cross through. Some paths don’t even need
securing. Just know where to go and boom, you’re good. Most
routes, however, are going to have something making travel

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difficult. A nest of zombies, a bandit camp, the area is
infested with spores, the place is a minefield, the buildings
are liable to collapse, etc. Until the party takes care of the
issue, the path is not considered Secure. Once a Route is
secured, the Venture resistance is cut by half. The world is a
dangerous place, and any measures you’ve set in place to
mitigate the danger aren’t permanent. But on the plus side, you
don’t suffer any penalties from Traversing through a Secure path
with your camp.
OPTIONAL RULE: Now… if you’d rather not deal with needing

to go through the work of traversing through a Secure path and
risk dragging things on, you can make it a cut to black. Once
the path is secured, the party can basically not worry about
traveling through it and just get on with the next scene at said
Destination. Now, I still recommend having the Secure Path be at
risk of collapsing via Fallout, if appropriate.
Now… you could say “Securing the Route is too much work for
me, we’ll just take everyone with us and hope for the best.” And
your party is well within your right to do so. Maybe you’re in
the middle of a time sensitive situation, maybe Camp has been
recently attacked and can’t risk leaving them stuck in one
place, or maybe you’re feeling overconfident. Problem is,
traveling with such a large group comes with risks. For
starters, the difficulty of the Venture automatically goes up a
step (max Dangerous.) Secondly, and this is probably the most
important one, you are at greater risk of incurring Camp Stress
and/or putting Camp members at risk via Luck or Camp Fallout.
The sniper bullet that would’ve hit you had you gone with just
the party might now hit your best friend.

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With that being said, it’s not like you aren’t allowed to
bring anyone with you on these Ventures. You can bring one or
two NPC’s with you without being penalized. But when you bring
half or the entire camp with you, issues start to arise.
BANES AND BOONS

If, during the Venture, the party does something that would
immediately make Traversing through the path a lot more
complicated or difficult, they may incur a Bane. A Bane, in
mechanical terms, is when the GM rolls a die (D4 for minor
inconveniences, up to a D12 for serious screw ups) and adds the
result to the Venture’s Resistance.
Conversely, if the party does something to make traversing
through the path a lot easier, the GM might reward the party
with a Boon. The player rolls a die size, determined by the GM,
and subtracts the result from the Venture’s Resistance.
RESTING:
Sometimes, you need a minute to catch your breath. You can
certainly do that, but just know you’ll incur a Bane as a
result. A Bane is a die that the GM rolls, and adds the result
to the current Venture For doing some healing, you’ll incur a D4
Bane. Anything more complicated might a bigger bane.
ABANDONING A VENTURE:
There will be moments where you bite off more than you can
chew, and need to GTFO ASAP. The resistance for going back is
going to be the stress you’ve already dealt divided by two. For
example, if you’ve already dealt 12 stress on a Venture before
abandoning it, the stress you need to inflict to return would be
6. There is no shame in admitting you’re in over your head; many

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lives have been lost as a result of people refusing to swallow
their pride.
DESTINATIONS:
A Destination is a place or noteable landmark. Usually,
there are people at a Destination, but that’s not always the
case. A Destination can really be anything; a library, a bandit
camp, a small settlement of people, a funny looking statue, a
bunker, etc. Destinations aren’t inherently neutral; depending
on the fiction established or player choice, a Destination of
people might be welcoming, they might be suspicious towards you,
or they might even try to kill you on sight. Regardless, all
Destinations have Domains attached to them. Domains might tell
you what kind of people live there, as well as what the
environment is like.
● Bunkers: It’s exactly what it says in the tin can; a
heavily reinforced area, usually underground, that was
meant to withstand all sorts of punishment. It could also
be areas that were built with the knowledge that shit was
going to go down, like well secured compunds or very
elaborate safe rooms or secret passages.
● Cult: The area is run by a cult. They all fervently worship
someone or something, and they all abide by very strict
rules in pursuit of their devotion. Cults aren’t inherently
evil, they’re just different and often strange.
● Infested: Areas that are actively harmful. It might be
filled with infected areas, might have nests or breeding
grounds for monsters or zombies. It might just simply be
swarmed with zombies. People usually aren’t living in areas
with these domains, but hey, stranger things have happened
in the wasteland.

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● Militia: Areas or territories run by some paramilitary
faction. The faction in question might actually be run by a
local or federal agency, or it could be a faction that
adopted military tactics and/or gear.
● Raiders: Say what you will about Cults or the Military;
they have easy(ish) rules to understand and follow. Raiders
are very violent factions that have embodied
pseudo-darwinism, and will often go to any levels to
survive. That said, not all Raiders are the same. Some
might have no problem acting as highwaymen and robbing and
killing people they encounter on the road, but draw the
line at cannibalism or hurting children. Some might even be
redeemable
● Settlements: These are areas where people have set up shop
and live. Settlements can range from a small family that
are holed up at a church to a small community of a couple
of dozen folks. Settlements are usually combined with
another Domain, but that’s not always the case. Maybe it’s
a democracy, a hunter-gatherer sort of system, or maybe
they’re just winging it.
● Wild: These are areas that are mostly in nature, or areas
where nature has reclaimed the land. Just like Infested, it
isn’t so much a Domain that represents a group of folk, but
rather an environment. Dense forests, beaches, deserts,
mountains, anywhere where you are deep in the heart of
Mother Nature.

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CAMP
Overview:
Your Camp consists of a group of people that you are
responsible for in your travels. For one reason or another, your
party is often looked to when it comes to making big decisions,
fetching supplies, and securing routes. These people are
hereinafter called The Camp. At the beginning, the people in
your Camp will be at least the same amount of NPCs as the party
size. All Archetypes will come with at least one prompt for an
NPC that lives at The Camp. More people can join the camp
through play.
Despite the fact that you are responsible for The Camp,
they aren’t 100% helpless. These characters, just like you,
survived several years of the apocalypse. Most of them can take
care of themselves. By default, all NPCs in the camp can handle
a weapon and know basic survival skills.
The only stress you can recover at Camp is Supplies. Once

per session, each PC may refresh D6 Supplies. You may also take
care of Supplies Fallout. Take D6 Camp Stress to remove a Minor
Supplies Fallout or D8 Camp Stress to downgrade a Major Supplies
Fallout.
Camp Stress And Fallout:

Never forget that your Camp is made up of people wanting
the same thing as you: hope for a better tomorrow. But they will

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also face trials, tribulations, and often be pushed beyond their
limits. This is represented through Camp Stress.
Camp Stress is a Stress that all PC’s share, but it does

not count towards their individual Fallout. While regular
Fallout presents problems that the individual has to deal with,
or sometimes the party has to deal with, Camp Fallout are issues
that the entire Camp has to deal with.
PC’s incur Camp stress by using camp supplies (as opposed
to personal supplies), putting the Camp in danger, losing NPCs,
morale going down, etc. Here are some specific examples below,
as well as a recommended die size
● D6: Revealing your Camp location to dangerous people,

taking extra ammunition from the reserves, Camp morale
going down.
● D8: Suffering an attack at the Camp, hastily taking down
camp and losing supplies in the process, someone at the
Camp suffers a serious injury
● D10: Someone from Camp dies, losing vital survival
equipment, you find out the City of Hope isn’t real
Just like individual stress, you roll for Fallout whenever

the group suffers Camp stress. If the result is less than or
equal to your current Camp stress, take Fallout and clear an
appropriate amount of stress.
Here are some examples of Camp Fallout:

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● AMMO SHORTAGE [Minor]: You gotta make every bullet count.
Whenever you take Supplies stress as the result of using
ammunition, roll for stress twice and take the higher
result. [Ongoing, need Ammo Resource to resolve]
● QUESTIONS [Minor]: One or more of the camp members has
difficult questions about your group’s recent actions.
[Instant]
● SICK [Minor]: One Camp Member is very ill. They can not be
used for Camp Actions. If forced to act, remove one die
from the Camp Action pool. [Ongoing, need Medical Resource
to resolve]
● SMALL WORLD [Minor]: A dangerous NPC you meet has a
connection to a camp member. [Instant]
● DIVIDED [Minor]: Two or more of the camp members are
butting heads. Either pick a side or nip this conflict in
the bud ASAP. [Ongoing]
● PLAGUED [Major]: Damn near everyone at Camp is sick. All
Camp Actions will have one die removed. If you still have
this Fallout when leaving the Region, take D8 Camp Stress.
● LOW SUPPLIES [Major]: You’re running low on provisions. You
can’t Resupply at Camp. [Ongoing]
● UNDER ATTACK [Major]: Some dangerous people have found your
Camp and have launched or are going to launch an attack
soon. Get ready. [Instant]
● MISSING [Major]: Someone from Camp has gone missing. They
couldn’t have gone far. If you deliberately choose to leave
them behind without at least conducting a proper search,
take D8 Camp Stress or D10 Stress if the NPC is a minor.
[Instant, Ongoing]

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● LEFT BEHIND [Major]: While packing up to move, you left
some equipment behind. Every party member gives up one
piece of equipment. [Instant]
● CHALLENGED [Major]: Someone in the camp is challenging your
position and are working towards replacing you or getting
you kicked out. At the end of every session that you don’t
have this Fallout resolved, take D6 Luck Stress. [Ongoing]
● EXILED [Critical]: One or more party members have been
exiled from the Camp. The players can either retire or
continue to play as normal. You would just now have to earn
back the camp’s trust [Instant, Ongoing]
● WIPEOUT [Critical]: When the party members come back to
Camp, several of the Camp members have died and/or are
severely injured. [Instant]
● GONE [Critical]: Someone from the camp has died or left the
Camp for good. [Instant]
● TRAITOR [Critical]: One of the Camp members has or is going
to betray the Camp. The GM can either give you a session or
two to try to suss out who the traitor is or may have you
discover this info when it is already too late. [Instant,
Ongoing]
Camp Actions
If there is something you want Camp members to take care of
while the Survivors are taking care of other business (or maybe
you just want to delegate tasks that you can’t be bothered to do
yourself), you may make a Camp action. You may delegate multiple
Camp members on a single task, but you only need to make one
roll. Building the pool works as follows

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● Start with 3 D10
● Subtract a D10 is there’s an ongoing Major Camp Fallout
● Subtract a D10 if this task involves them moving two or
more Destinations away from the Camp
● Subtract a D10 if any of the Camp members thoroughly
distrusts the PC giving this task*
*If you try to weasel out of this consequence by having a

different PC give this task, you will need to roll Command +
Settlement before you can give out this Camp Action. Any stress
incurred from this goes to Camp.
Then roll and check the highest result. It is just like

rolling any other action.
Also, be realistic about what camp members can and can’t

accomplish. You can send some camp members to scout a nearby
Destination for potential threats, but some camp members might
not be able to perform open heart surgery if they don’t have
experience in medicine.

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CHARACTER CREATION
Building characters isn’t anything too complicated. It goes
as follows:
● Choose an archetype. I strongly encourage that there are no

duplicates amongst the party, but I won’t be at your table
to stop you
● Give them a name, pronouns, and a description
● Answer the Intro Question and Bond Questions for your
chosen Archetype.
● Choose three Minor Abilities and one Major ability to start
● (Optional) Roll the trinket table. It has no mechanical
benefit.
There are seven archetypes you can choose from.

● The Compass. A person who has held onto their principles
all this time, and hanging onto them is their greatest
strength. Play a Compass if you want to tackle your
problems by trying to do the right thing, no matter the
cost.
● The Doc: Trained in medicine, either from a cushy school
before The End or from the blood soaked streets of the
apocalypse. Play a Doc if you want to tackle your problems
with medical expertise and compassion.
● The Doomsday Prepper. They have been preparing for The End
long before people realized it was coming. This commitment
has paid off. Play a Doomsday Prepper if you want to tackle
your problems with foresight.

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● The Engineer. An expert at fixing and inventing. All they
need is time and some parts. Play an Engineer if you want
to tackle your problems with technical ingenuity.
● The Penitent. A former member of a raider gang, they bring
to the table knowledge of the many brutal gangs of the
wasteland, and the expertise that comes with it. Play a
Penitent if you want to tackle your problems with violence.
● The Shield. A person who is unofficially the leader of the
camp, and has taken the task of caring for the camp very
personally. Play a Shield if you want to tackle your
problems with authority
● The Youngblood. They either grew up in The End, or were
really young when The End started. Growing up in such an
environment has taught you what you need to know to
survive. Play a Youngblood if you want to tackle your
problems with audacity.
●
Advancements
There are two types of advancements; Minor and Major. Minor
advancements get you Minor Abilities and Major gets you Major
Abilities. To get a Minor Advancement, you must have given
someone hope for a better tomorrow. If you give multiple people
or an entire faction hope, you gain two Minor Advancements. You
can only earn up to 2 Minor Advancements per session. To gain a
Major Advance, you need to survive a Season.
What constitutes “giving someone hope” is something that
needs to be determined by the table. But the general rule is
that it needs to be something meaningful. For example, giving

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Sophia hope that she can reunite with her family is enough to
warrant an advancement.
GM NOTE: When a PC gives a character hope, make sure that
is shown in the fiction. Maybe a person who is quite apathetic
towards the struggles of others suddenly puts their life on the
line to save someone, or maybe you get someone to finally
abandon their quest for revenge so they can focus on what they
do have, rather than why they’ve lost.
Requiem Abilities
The End has taken everything from you without warning, and
you were forced to adapt. Otherwise, it would’ve cost you your
own life or the lives of your loved ones. And for the past
several years, your life has been reacting to whatever disaster
came to your doorstep. You knew The End has taken many things
from you; your old life, your loved ones, your passion projects,
but there was one thing you couldn’t have expected it to take;
full control over your own destiny.
But what if… what if you could stare life straight in the
eyes and say “You know what… fine! If this is how I go, then so
be it! But I will not let you take everything I’ve worked so
hard to maintain!” That is a Requiem Ability.
Requiem Abilities are powerful abilities that, in exchange
for your life, give your surviving party members some benefits
that they keep for the rest of the journey. To activate it, you
need to declare that you’re going to sacrifice yourself. Or, as
the beginning of all the Requiem abilities say, declare that
you’re going out on your own terms. Upon activating the Requiem
Ability, you take narrative control of the situation. You
narrate how your character sacrifices themselves to ensure the

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survival of the rest of the group. After they’ve said goodbye,
the following happens:
● Once you die, the remaining Survivors and Camp Members
survive the situation, no matter the odds.
● Your Archetype Specific Ability activates. Read it to the rest
of the group.
● Choose one Survivor. This Survivor should be the one your
character was closest to (but not necessarily one that they
liked the most). They can have one of your abilities,
including a core ability.
● This death does not incur a penalty when rolling to travel
to the next Region
However, there is a catch. You can’t just start the first

session with “I’m going to die to save my friends!” You need to
spend a Major Advance to “unlock” the ability to use your
Requiem Ability.
There is an exception to this rule. If you have not
unlocked your Requiem Ability by the time you reach the final
Region, your Requiem Ability is automatically unlocked.

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Trinket Table
These are trinkets; keepsakes of your previous life before
The End. You may either choose one that you like or you can roll
a D20. They are purely for flavor (and even be the basis for
characterization), and provide no mechanical benefits.
Or maybe you’re creative and find a way to use a locket to

murder someone, I won’t be there to stop you.
1. Dog tags from your time in the military

2. A wristwatch, which was your last birthday gift
3. A wallet, with your ID, two bucks, and a picture of a loved
one (name them)
4. A stylish hat
5. A stuffed animal (name them)
6. The ring you were going to use to propose to your partner
(name them)
7. A graduation ring
8. A movie ticket
9. A charm/keychain from your favorite show
10. A necklace, depicting your faith
11. A flask containing what remains of your good liquor
12. A self-help book
13. A journal containing your drawings
14. An engraved pen
15. A stylish denim vest
16. A signed baseball
17. A really worn out stress-ball
18. Medical ID bracelet
19. A foreign passport

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20. Your lucky D20, and character sheet from your TTRPG game
that never started

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Meet The Compass
The End brought out the worst in people. People have had to go
to desperate measures to survive; robbing, mugging people,
ignoring pleas for help, even resorting to outright murder to
ensure their own safety. Some people take no pleasure in it,
some people are way too into it, and several others are just
resigned to this reality. Yet, despite all of this, you continue
to hold yourself to a higher standard. This is all you have
left.
CORE TRAITS
Domain- Settlement
Skill- Endure
Resistance- +2 Blood, +2 Luck
EQUIPMENT:
Choose 1
● An acoustic guitar (Care Grit D8, Large)
● Medicinal herbs (Care Grit D4, Potent)
● Claw hammer (Kill D4 Brutal)
INTRO QUESTIONS:
● Who were you before The End?
● Why do you value your Moral Principle?
● You had to break your Moral Principle once; why couldn’t
you live with yourself afterwards?
● You’ve gotten someone hurt because you followed your
Principles. Who did you hurt?
● Why are you risking your life to go to the City of Hope?

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BOND QUESTIONS:
● You helped this NPC cope with a death recently. How did
their loved one die, and how did you comfort them?
● You got into a fight with this PC over an ethical dilemma.
What was the dilemma and how was it resolved?
CORE ABILITY:
MORAL PRINCIPLE [*]. This oath is what is barely keeping you
together. But holding onto these Principles gives you hope and
willpower. Create a moral principle your character abides by
(examples: never kill the living, Infected are people too,
always give to the helpless, etc.). Work out what this principle
is with the GM. So long as you are following this principle, you
may do one of the following per session:
● After taking stress, don’t roll for Fallout
● Make a Command Roll with Mastery, so long as the action is
in regards to your Moral Principle
● Ignore ongoing Blood and Grit Fallout for a situation
If you break this Moral Principle, immediately take Grit Fallout
(Whether it is Minor or Major is GM choice). You can not benefit
from this ability or other abilities marked with [*] until you
have properly repented.
MINOR ABILITIES:
● GIVING TREE. You go above and beyond for your allies, even
at the cost of your own health. Gain the Care Skill. Once
per situation when the person you’re Helping takes stress,
you may declare the person you helped doesn’t take stress
at all. However, you will take the stress your ally

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would’ve taken instead. You must decide to use this ability
before the GM rolls for stress.
● NO GOOD DEED GOES UNPUNISHED [*]. Your kindness, while
noble, is too good for a world like this. If you cause
issues for yourself or your allies because you fervently
followed your Moral Principle, refresh D8
● KNIGHT IN BLOODY ARMOR. A Shield was once as idealistic as
you. You are starting to understand how they became jaded
Take a Minor Ability from the Shield Archetype.
● STUBBORN SOB [*]. What you lack in skill, you make up for
by having the audacity to try anyway. Gain +2 Grit
Reserves. Once per situation, you may opt to use the Endure
Skill instead of the Skill called for by the GM. If you do,
though, any stress you take as a result goes up a step.
● JUST KEEP SMILING. A kind smile, even while holding back
tears, is enough to give someone hope in this hell. Gain
the Cult Domain. If you fail a Care roll, you may take
double stress to still heal your patient. You must decide
this before you roll to take stress.
● BETTER PART OF VALOR [*]. You can always try to live to see
another day. Gain the Sneak Skill. Hiding from people or
monsters hunting you down is always Standard difficulty for
you.
● TAKE NO PLEASURE IN IT. You’d rather not resort to such
matters. But even you understand that it sometimes comes
down to it. Gain +2 Grit Reserves. Once per situation,
whenever you take stress to any resistance other than Grit
as a result of committing or inciting a violent act, you
may transfer the stress to Grit instead.
● THE WHISPERER. Your aura of positivity is so strong, not
even animals consider you a threat. Gain the Wild domain.

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Non-infected animals will not immediately attack you or
alert others to your presence. However, once you make it
clear that you are a threat to them or their master, all
bets are off.
● DOING YOUR BEST. Gain one of the following skills: Analyze,
Care, Command, Endure, Rig, Sneak, Traverse. You may take
this advance more than once
● FINDING HOME. Gain one of the following Domains: Bunkers,
Cult, Infested, Militia, Settlements, Wild
● LEGENDARY WILLPOWER: Add +1 to any of your personal
reserves. You may take this advance more than once.
MAJOR ABILITIES:
● ACTING UNDER FIRE. You are at your most effective when your
heart rate is through the roof. When you have at least five
marked Grit Stress, roll with Mastery during combat.
○ RELENTLESS. Once per session when you hit +12 stress,
immediately refresh 3 stress and don’t roll for
Fallout.
○ VENTING FRUSTRATION. Once you hit the ACTING UNDER
FIRE requirement, your first attack gains the Brutal
Tag
○ NUMBING IT OUT. Once ACTING UNDER FIRE activates,
subtract 1 from all incoming Blood Stress.

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● LEAD BY EXAMPLE [*]. Getting others to follow your lead is
a herculean task. But it is a task worth pursuing. Once per
session when an ally follows your Moral Principle, they may
use any of your Minor Abilities once. Only one ally can
benefit from this per session.
○ PLACE YOUR FAITH IN ME. When your ally follows your
Moral Principle at a cost to themselves, they refresh
D6.
○ IMITATION IS FLATTERY. Two allies can benefit from
LEAD BY EXAMPLE per session.
○ LEARNED FROM THE BEST. Your ally may use one of your
benefits from MORAL PRINCIPLE.
● SONG OF WARMTH [*]. A moment of respite, a moment of peace.

You have learned to make the most of it, and remind others
that life is worth living. Once per session, tell the camp
a story. (a light story, a story about the Pre-End, a
defining moment from your life, etc.) Everyone who
participates in the story refreshes D6 Grit or Luck Stress,
including yourself.
○ YOU MATTER. Once per session when you tell an ally why
you value them as a camp member, you downgrade their
Grit Stress down one level (Major to Minor, Minor to
cured)
○ MORAL OF THE STORY. You may declare that your story
has a moral to it (examples: “Better to ask for
permission than forgiveness”, “Don’t think, feel!”,
“Let them live to see another day.”, etc.). When an
ally attempts to follow the moral, they get mastery on
their first action. If following the moral to a T gets

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them out of a charged situation or prevents a
catastrophe, you and the ally refresh D6.
○ MELT YOUR WORRIES AWAY. Increase the refresh die for
SONG OF WARMTH to a D8.
● THE POWER OF HEART [*]. No matter what your camp goes

through, you remind them that you need each other to make
it to The City of Hope. Gain +2 Camp Reserves.
Additionally, any actions you make to resolve Camp Fallout
without violence is made with mastery. (inciting or
threatening violence will also negate this benefit)
○ I WON’T LET YOU DOWN. Once per session, you may reroll
a Camp Action. You must take the new result, even if
it is lower
○ KEEPING THE BAND TOGETHER. When you played a major
role in resolving an ongoing Camp Fallout, refresh D6
for Minor and D8 for Major. You may only benefit from
this once per session.
○ HARD WORKER. You may spend Grit or Blood stress to
refresh Camp Stress.
● CAST THE FIRST STONE. You will risk your own life if it
means resolving this without bloodshed. Once per session
when you are committed to resolving a charged situation
peacefully, you may roll with mastery. However, any stress
you incur as a result of your efforts goes up a step (max
D12). If you choose to give up on resolving a situation
peacefully, take D6 Grit Stress and you lose the effects of
CAST THE FIRST STONE for the rest of the situation.

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○ NOT FOR LACK OF TRYING. If you fail to resolve the
situation peacefully, despite your efforts, you ignore
all stress from the first attack you suffer in the
situation.
○ I LOVE YOU, BROTHER. If you refuse to fight back
against a violent enemy and allow yourself to be a
punching bag, your allies gain mastery while your
opponents are distracted.
○ ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. When you are being used as a
punching bag, you may be able to get a bystander to
defend you or turn against your aggressor. Roll Endure
+ Cult. On a success, a bystander intervenes on your
behalf. They won’t automatically turn into your
friend, but it’s a start.
REQUIEM ABILITY:
FOLLOW THE LIGHT. Your heart has been through too much. You
followed your principles till the end. And as easy as it would
be to break them, you stuck by them. It saved some lives, it
complicated some lives, but you know in your heart it was worth
it. When you go out on your own terms, all your allies gain the
following Knack: Command- Preaching and practicing your Moral
Principles. Your ally still gets this Knack, even if they
already have a Command Knack. If your ally resolves a situation
by following your Moral Principle, they refresh D8 (once per
session, per ally).

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Notes on Compass Abilities
● If by the end of the first session or so, you don’t feel
happy with the Principles you chose, you may change what
they are with no worries; just discuss it with your GM. If,
however, you want to change what your Principles are in
accordance with the fiction, then discuss with your GM
about that. If both of you come to a consensus, then the
change happens and life goes on.
● What “properly” repenting means is going to be determined
between you and the GM. You don’t exactly need to undo your
mistake, you just need to find a way to make it as right as
you can.
● For TAKE NO PLEASURE IN IT, threatening people with
violence counts as “inciting violence”
● For ACTING UNDER FIRE, all actions made in combat work;
fighting, fleeing, trying to stop the fight with your
words, etc. But once you leave the fight or people put
their guns down, you lose the benefit
● For ACTING UNDER FIRE, the stress count also applies to the
reserves. So if you have all three of your reserves marked
and have two of your regular Grit stress marked, ACTING
UNDER FIRE will still activate.
● For SONG OF WARMTH, participating in the story just simply
means engaging in the story. That can include sharing a
similar story, asking questions, teasing the storyteller,
etc. TOverall, don’t be too stingy with the definition of
“participating”
● For MORAL OF THE STORY, The ally can only benefit from the
story that you told in the current session, not a story you
told in a previous session. If the story was told close to

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the end of the session, the benefit carries over to the
next session.
● HARD WORKER gives you options with refreshing Camp Stress.
If you don’t have Resources and don’t want to use Supplies,
Grit or Blood can work in a pinch. What that looks like in
the fiction is that you are doing chores for the camp;
keeping watch, taking extra shifts, checking up on
everyone, hunting for food, etc.
● When you give an ally an ability of yours via the Requiem
Ability, they do not need to abide by a Moral Principle if
they choose an ability marked with *.

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Meet The Doc
Before The End, doctors were in abundance. You could find a
major hospital in big cities, maybe a clinic in a small town,
and there was no shortage of aspiring medical workers going to
med school. When it all went to shit, however, doctors became
increasingly rare. People like you are in high demand and
whether you realize it or not, you are the difference between
life and death.
CORE TRAITS
Domain- Infested
Skill- Care
Resistances- +1 Supplies +2 Grit, +1 Luck
Equipment
Get a medical kit (Care D6 Blood Limited: 3) and choose one of
the following:
● 9mm pistol (Kill D6 Ranged, Reload); Empty syringe
● Hatchet (Kill D6); Painkillers (Care Grit/Blood D4 Potent
Limited: 3)
INTRO QUESTIONS:
● What kind of medical worker were you before The End? Or was
it something you had to learn during the End?
● How do you manage the stress of day-to-day life in the
apocalypse?
● Who was the first person you couldn’t save?
● Why are you risking your life to go to The City of Hope?

130
BOND QUESTIONS:
● You are caring for a person who is either sick or injured
at Camp. How did they become injured, and why do you feel
responsible to care for them?
● You met a PC when they were knocking on death’s door. Why
did you risk your life to help them?
CORE ABILITY:
GUARDIAN ANGEL. Keeping these folks alive is your sacred duty.
Once per session when you’re at Camp, you can remove a Minor
Blood Fallout or downgrade a Major Blood Fallout to a Minor for
someone, including yourself. If you’re outside of Camp or a
friendly settlement, you can only remove Minor Blood Fallouts at
the cost of incurring a D6 Bane
MINOR ABILITIES
● EARN YOUR KEEP. Your appearance is an answer to someone’s
prayers. Gain the Settlement Domain. When you first enter a
populated Destination (including hostile), you may learn of
someone who is in dire need of medical help. If you help
them out, there might be a reward or other boon.
● BURST OF RELIEF. Surviving a trip to death’s door often
gets people high on adrenaline. Gain +1 Blood Reserves.
When you heal someone with Blood Care equipment and bring
them down to zero, the patient may use the excess to
recover Grit Stress. The inverse is also true (Excess
stress from a Care Grit may heal Blood)
● TAKE THE EDGE OFF. You know the right drugs to use to keep
yourself cool. Gain the Bunker Domain. Once per session,
you find some prescription drugs (Care D4 Grit, Limited: 1)
when you walk into a medical facility, such as a hospital,

130
pharmacy, or EMT truck. Additionally, self healing Grit is
no longer Risky for you.
● COMBAT MEDIC. A life for a life; a bargain you’re all too
familiar with. Gain the Kill Skill. When you are defending
the injured or helpless, your attacks gain the Brutal tag.
● LET’S GET OUTTA HERE. You can shake this off; your patient
needs more help than you do. Gain the Endure Skill. When
you are helping people escape a charged situation, subtract
1 stress from all incoming harm while you’re actively
escorting them.
● MEDICAL MALPRACTICE. Want to know the great thing about
being knowledgeable in a specialized field? Most people
will just believe you. Gain the Command Skill. Once per
session, you can automatically convince someone/ a small
group of people about anything regarding medicine, even if
what you’re saying is not true. If you lie to a person and
they find out about it later, you can not use the same
ability against them, even in a different session.
● NOT TAKING CHANCES. Equipment can be replaced. Human lives
can’t. Gain the Rig Skill. Once per session, you may give a
piece of Blood or Grit Care Equipment the Potent Tag. You
may only use this equipment once before it is no longer
usable. You can’t give the same piece equipment the Potent
tag again.
● FAST LEARNER. Gain access to one of the following skills:
Analyze, Care, Command, Endure, Kill, Sneak, Traverse. You
may take this advance more than once.
● IN HIGH DEMAND. Gain access to one of the following
domains: Bunkers, Cult, Infested, Militia, Raiders,
Settlements. You may take this advance more than once.

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● HIPPOCRATIC OATH. Add +1 to any of your personal reserves.
You may take this advance more than once.
MAJOR ABILITIES
● ARCHANGEL. “Do no harm.” You’ve broken that oath a long
time ago. But the lives you saved in the process of doing
so more than make up for it. Gain either MARTYR COMPLEX
(from The Shield) or BIG BAD WOLF (from The Penitent.)
Additionally, if you suffer Fallout in the process of
protecting someone, the stress you inflict against
adversaries goes up a step for the rest of the situation.
○ I’D DO IT AGAIN. Once per session, if you take Fallout
because you defended someone, you may clear all marked
stress
○ I’LL SAVE YOU. Once per session, you may choose an NPC
at a scene. Declare you’ll save them no matter what.
You get mastery on all actions pursuant to defending
them for the situation. If they die, are captured, or
are otherwise “taken out”, take D6 Brutal Grit Stress.
○ MARCH ON. When escorting someone in critical
condition, the stress you inflict on Ventures go up a
step
● COMPASSION. Even the most wicked of men was once just a

normal person, with hopes, fears, and loss. When face to
face with a hostile human adversary, you may roll Analyze +
Settlement to ask one of the following questions: Who or
what is pulling your strings? - Who are you protecting? -
Who hurt you? - What emotion is driving you? On a Critical
Success, you may ask two questions. Gain mastery on the
first action you take to act on the answers.

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○ JUST TRYING TO SURVIVE. If you defuse a charged
situation after using COMPASSION, refresh D8. You may
only refresh this way once per session.
○ EMPATH. Once per session when you roll a miss on
COUNSELOR, you may choose to turn it into a mixed
success. However, the incoming stress you receive is
going to be Brutal. You must choose to use this
ability before the GM rolls for stress.
○ YOU’RE STILL THERE. You can use this ability on folk
who recently turned.
● COUNSELOR: People don’t just need you to heal their wounds;

they expect you to help them heal from the trauma. After
healing someone (either with equipment or with the use of
an ability), you may allow your patient to transfer D6 Grit
stress to you. If you suffer Fallout as a result of this,
roll with mastery for the rest of the situation. You may
only use this ability once per situation.
○ BEDSIDE MANNER. After rolling for the transfer of
stress, you may divide the result by two (rounding up,
min. 1 stress.) Take that much stress instead.
○ JUST IN THE NICK OF TIME. Your patient may transfer
Luck stress instead of Grit
○ BE NOT AFRAID. You may use your GUARDIAN ANGEL ability
for Grit Fallout.
● PREPARED TO DEFEND. You know when your people need you.

Once per session when someone is in trouble at a scene
you’re not in, you may suddenly enter the scene, so long as
it is slightly possible for you to do so. The first action
you make upon your arrival is done with mastery.

130
○ EMT. If an ally is suffering Blood Fallout when you
arrive, you may quickly patch them up. Upon doing so,
your ally ignores the Fallout for the rest of the
situation.
○ GET DOWN! If an ally suffers Blood Stress, you may use
PREPARED TO DEFEND to intercept the attack at the last
possible minute.
○ EMERGENCY EVACUATION. Upon your arrival, all allies
get mastery in trying to escape for the rest of the
situation
AN ANGEL GETS THEIR WINGS. You’re tired, exhausted, and pushed

to your limit. But if you could go back, you’d do it all over
again; Keeping these folk alive has been your sacred duty, and
you will soon be relieved from that duty. You can rest now;
you’ve earned it. When you go out on your own terms, it is
revealed that you’ve been training one of your camp members to
heal and care for people. Once per session, one PC can heal
themselves with GUARDIAN ANGEL. Additionally, any Care Rolls
made at Camp are always done with mastery.

130
Notes for the Doc
● The big thing to keep in mind with GUARDIAN ANGEL is that
time passes. Patching up some serious wounds doesn’t happen
in just a few seconds
● When using GUARDIAN ANGEL outside of Camp or a friendly
settlement, you must not be in any immediate danger.
Patching people up also takes time, so understand that a
situation may develop while you do your work. If using
GUARDIAN ANGEL in hostile territory, you don’t incur a
bane, all that happens is time passes
● BURST OF RELIEF also works with abilities that let you heal
Blood or Grit stress off an ally. This ability also works
on yourself.
● LET’S GET OUTTA HERE only applies when you’re actively
escorting them or defending them as they try to traverse.
Once you abandon them, get separated from them, or your
focus completely changes, you lose the benefits of this
ability.
● For I’D DO IT AGAIN, clearing all marked stress includes
your Reserves.
● For YOU’RE STILL THERE, how you learn this info is more
based on clues rather than reading body language. You may
be a bit more liberal about what the questions are. For
example, the question “Who is pulling your strings?” can be
interpreted as “what faction or settlement did you belonged
to?” or “do you have any loved ones?”.

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Meet The Doomsday Prepper
While everyone was enjoying their lives, you were getting ready
for war. For one reason or another, you knew that the End would
come knocking on your doorstep. People thought you were
delusional, and would dismiss your warnings. But then The End
actually arrived, and you were prepared for it. Several years
later, and you are still standing. But make no mistake, you have
struggled just as much as everyone else.
CORE TRAITS:
Skill- Analyze
Domain- Bunker
Resistances- Supplies +3, Luck +1
Equipment: Choose 1
● Crossbow (Kill D6, Ranged, Silent, Reload)
● Shotgun (Kill D6, Ranged, Point-blank, Reload)
● Nice Hunting Rifle (Kill D8, Ranged, Rare, Loud)
INTRO QUESTIONS:
● Why did you believe the apocalypse was going to happen?
● What did you sacrifice to become as prepared as you did?
● When living in the bunker, how did you cope with the
isolation?
● Why did you leave your bunker?
● Why are you risking your life to go to The City of Hope?

130
BOND QUESTIONS
● This PC was one of the first folk you met when leaving the
bunker. Why did they take a chance on you, and what did
they end up sacrificing in the process?
● You’ve met this NPC before joining this group; they tried
to break into your bunker. What injury did they sustain
because of this?
CORE ABILITY:
BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY. In The End, you understood that taking
time to prepare can mean the difference between life and death.
Once per session, you may either expend a Resource or suffer
Supplies stress. (the die for supply stress can be any die
between D4 and D10) Roll the die, and set that die aside. During
play, you may use that die to replace a result on an action or
on a stress die (including incoming stress). If this die goes
unused by the end of the session, take that much Supplies
stress.
MINOR ABILITIES:
● FONZY. You don’t always have the luxury of time to make a
proper repair. Gain the Rig Skill. Once per situation when
a piece of equipment malfunctions, jams, or just acts up,
you may slam it to get it to work one more time before
needing a proper repair. You can’t use this ability twice
on the same equipment until you repair it
● PAYING IT FORWARD. While you have not been out in the
wasteland for as long as everyone else, you’ve still
gathered valuable experience that you share. Gain the Care
Skill. Once per session, you may trade a Domain or Skill
with another PC. This benefit lasts for one situation

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● EASTWOOD. Everyone tends to pack heat these days. Gain +1
Blood. Once per session when you take Blood stress, ignore
it. Reveal how you were prepared for that attack.
● IN THE EYE OF THE STORM. It is often when you are at the
brink of total ruin that everything begins to make sense.
Gain +2 Grit Reserves. Once per situation when you take
Major Fallout or greater of any kind, ask one question
about your situation. The GM will answer honestly. Gain
mastery on your first action when acting on this new info.
● HUNTER. You had a knack for hunting long before people were
forced to learn it. Gain the Wild Domain. Attacking an
unsuspecting target gives your attack the Piering tag
● WON’T LET YOU DOWN. You have not been with people for so
long. You won’t let fate take them away from you, like it
did everything else. Gain the Settlement Domain. Once per
situation when an ally gets a miss on an action, you can
help them and have them re-roll their dice. You do not need
to have their Skill or Domain like you normally do.
● TINKERER. You’ve had a lot of time to kill. Gain any Minor
Ability from The Engineer
● IMPROVISE. Gain one of the following Skills: Analyze, Care,
Endure, Hunt, Kill, Rig, Sneak, Traverse. You may take this
advance more than once
● ADAPT. Gain one of the following Domains: Bunker, Infested,
Militia, Raiders, Settlements, Wild. You may take this
advance more than once.
● OVERCOME. Add +1 to any of your personal reserves. You may
take this advance more than once.
MAJOR ABILITIES:

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● BUNKER DOWN. There were many others like you. And if
they’re even half as savvy as you are, you can benefit from
them. Once per session, you may declare there is a bunker
nearby. What the bunker has is up to the GM, but know that
there will be an obstacle to overcome there. Clearing out
the Bunker will either get you a Boon, Secure a Route, a
piece of equipment, or a person who can help you on a task
you or your group are currently undertaking
○ RESUPPLY. When you clear a Bunker, you always get to
refresh D6 Supplies, in addition to other benefits. If
you’d like, you may give this refresh to an ally
instead.
○ LAST RESORT. When you are in a location with the
Bunker domain, you may declare it has a self destruct
mechanism. You’ll need a key to activate. You may also
choose to forcefully activate it with a Risky Rig +
Bunker roll. If you miss, good fucking luck.
○ READ THE USER MANUAL. When you’re inside a place with
a Bunker domain, you may list one feature this place
has (secret exit/passage, hidden compartment, secure
location, etc.) Taking advantage of this feature for
the first time gives you or an ally mastery.
● BEST FRIEND. Many people come and go, but your best friend
will always be by your side. You start the game with a dog
(or find and adopt one by the time you take this advance).
Once per situation, you may make a Hunt, Analyze, or Kill
action with mastery as you and your best friend work
together. If you use your dog in an attack, they count as a
Kill D8 Brutal One-shot weapon

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○ SIC’ EM. Once per situation when you try to use your
dog as a way to intimidate someone and fail, you may
instead have your dog attack them and escalate the
situation. You avoid marking stress by doing this.
○ BLOODHOUND. Once per session, declare that you are
looking for a person. Traversing to find them gives
your equipment the Trusty Tag and attacking them gives
your weapons the Brutal tag. You can’t have more than
one person “marked”
○ LOYAL TILL THE END. When you suffer Critical Fallout,
clear all stress and Fallout. You wake up and see that
your best friend dragged you to safety. They pass away
in your arms. Immediately gain a new Major Ability.
You may also use this ability to nullify someone
else’s Critical Fallout.
● CRAZY PREPARED. Better to have it and not need it, than to

need it and not have it. Once per session, reveal that you
have a non-unique piece of equipment on you to deal with
your current situation. You need to have a free equipment
slot to use this ability. The equipment can’t be Kill or
Care equipment.
○ HOLDOUT PISTOL. Once per session, spend D6 Supplies
stress to reveal that you had a backup pistol or knife
hidden on you. The weapon is Kill D6 Unreliable. Roll
with mastery when you first use this weapon. The
weapon is broken beyond repair at the end of the
situation or when you roll a miss, whichever happens
first.
○ EXTRA MUNITIONS. The first time you take Supplies
stress in a situation, don’t roll for Fallout.

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○ PACK MULE. Gain an extra equipment slot. Additionally,
you no longer need to have a free slot to produce
equipment from CRAZY PREPARED. At the end of the
situation, either give up the new equipment or throw
something out you currently have.
● SHARING IS CARING. You tend to have more than enough. No

harm in putting it to good use. Once per session, you may
help an ally refresh Supplies stress. Have your ally
refresh D6 Stress (or D8 on a Crit), and then roll Care +
Bunker. On a success, you don’t mark stress. On a mixed
success, mark D6 Supplies stress. On a miss, mark D8
Supplies stress
○ CARRYING FOR TWO. Once per situation when an ally
takes Supplies Stress, you may mark an equivalent
amount instead as you immediately share your supplies
with them or reveal how you had a contingency for this
(whichever makes more sense)
○ BAREBONES. When you take Supplies Fallout, roll with
mastery for the rest of the situation.
○ STRATEGIC RATIONING. The cost to cure a Supplies
Fallout for an ally is always one step lower for you
(min. D4). If the die cost is D4 by default, roll
twice and take the lower result.

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Requiem Ability:
MEMORIES: You wake up everyday wishing you were wrong. You wish
that you just grew up old, bitter, and with a bunker full of
food and weapons that you were never going to use. But you were
right; The End did happen, society did collapse. But maybe
someone will find your old home, and that it will give them hope
to keep moving. When you go out on your own terms, the Survivors
learn the location of a place important to you (e.g. your
bunker, your old home, your old place of employment, etc.) When
the party makes it there, they gain valuable insight about who
you used to be as a person. Everyone gains the following ability
[Name of Doomsday Prepper] INSIGHT: Even from beyond the grave,

they are looking out for you. Once per session, ask the spirit
of the Doomsday Prepper of an issue you are facing. They will
give you their honest piece of advice. The first action you take
in following their advice is done with mastery. If following
their advice gets you out of a jam, refresh D8 stress.

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Notes for the Doomsday Prepper
● The idea with BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY is that it is assumed
that you prepared for a certain situation. It’s how you
turn what would’ve been a weak attack into something
devastating, or turning what should’ve been failure into a
success. It is because while everyone else is playing
checkers, you’re playing chess.
● For WON’T LET YOU DOWN, you still take stress if the person
you’re helping suffers stress.
● For BEST FRIEND, you may learn some extra info that you
normally wouldn’t get. A dog’s nose is a powerful tool
● For SIC’ EM, how a situation escalates will depend on what
the situation started. If guns weren’t pulled out, now they
are. If guns are out, someone fires. If someone is already
firing, someone gets seriously hurt. But regardless of how
a situation escalates, your target is deathly afraid of you
now.
● For BLOODHOUND, you can only “mark someone” if you have
something to work off of; a name, a picture/drawing, a
personal object, etc. Otherwise, you won’t be able to track
them
● For PAY IT FORWARD, everyone may choose the same or
different perks.

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Meet The Engineer
Before The End took everything from humanity, a good chunk of
the world was a largely industrialized place. Every day, there
seems to be a new machine or invention being introduced to the
world. Now, damn near none of it works and what does work is
being fought for. Much like the Doc , someone with your skillset
is highly valued. Build away, and save the damn day.
CORE TRAITS
Skill- Rig
Domain- Militia
Reserves- +2 Luck, +2 Supplies
EQUIPMENT:
Get a Monkey Wrench (Kill D6) and choose one of the following:
● Magnum (Kill D8, Ranged, Rare)
● Sledgehammer (Kill D8, Brutal, Tiring, Large)
● Molotov (Kill D8 Brutal Spread One-shot)
INTRO QUESTIONS
● How did you learn your skillset?
● What was the unfinished project you were working on before
The End?
● What is the craziest thing you’ve built, and why have you
had trouble recreating it?
● What non-productive hobby have you taken up to kill time?

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BOND QUESTIONS:
● You and this NPC met scavenging the same area for
resources, and almost got into a fight about it. Have ya’ll
buried the hatchet?
● You’re currently making a trinket for this PC as a way of
saying “thank you.” What is it, and what are you thanking
them for?
CORE ABILITY
POST-APOCALYPTIC ARTIFICER. You are highly trained in the art of
destroying and creating. All you need are tools and time. You
are always carrying a toolbox with you, and you are constantly
surrounded by things that need to be fixed or bypassed. Once per
session, you may spend a Resource (Parts) to do one of the
following:
● Deal stress against a Venture equal to the amount rolled

● Recover Supply Stress equal to the amount rolled
● Give a melee weapon the Brutal tag for the rest of the
situation
● (D8 Resource or higher) Make a pistol silent for the rest
of the situation
● (D8 Resource or higher) Reveal that you have a non-unique
piece of equipment or tool on you

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MINOR ABILITIES:
● WHAT’S YOURS IS MINE. Parts are rare, so you either take it
now or pray to god that you’ll be given another chance.
Gain the Raider Domain. When you are fighting over a
Resource worth at least D6, your attacks gain the Brutal
tag.
● HOARDER. You stuff your bag with as much as you can, at the
cost of your body. Gain the Traverse skill. You may carry
more than your limit. One over limit makes tasks requiring
fast movement Risky. Two over limit increases all incoming
Blood Stress by 1 step (max D12). You can’t push yourself
any further than that.
● SOS. Paramilitary factions make use of barely working
radios to communicate, request help, or simply pass on some
news. You use this to your advantage. Gain access to the
Militia Domain. Once per session, when you find radio
equipment and try to tune into the channels, you may ask
one question about the Venture or Destination ahead.
● MASTER OF UNLOCKING. You know your way around a lock. Gain
the Sneak skill. Aside from mechanical doors (automated
doors, doors requiring an access card, etc.), you have
little to no trouble silently unlocking doors.
Additionally, silently unlocking doors under pressure is
always Standard
● SHREWD NEGOTIATOR. Everyone has a price. Gain the
Settlement Domain. Once per situation, ask the GM what a
person wants more than anything right now. Roll with
mastery on your next action when acting on this info.
● WORKPLACE HAZARD. You’ve handled infected material, or
scavenged through hoards of dead bodies for your creations.

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Gain the Infested Domain. Handling infected or biohazardous
material is always Standard for you.
● TRUST ME, I’M AN ENGINEER. Gain one of the following
Skills: Analyze, Command, Endure, Hunt, Kill, Rig, Sneak,
Traverse. You may choose this advance more than once
● BUILDING BRIDGES. Gain one of the following Domains:
Bunker, Cult Infested, Militia, Raiders, Settlements. You
may choose this advance more than once.
● DOUBLE CHECKED. Add +1 to any of your personal reserves.
You may take this advance more than once..
MAJOR ABILITIES
● HELL RIDER. It wasn’t easy, but you were able to get a
motorcycle up and running. You start with a motorcycle (or
fix one up by the time you take this advance.) Your
motorcycle functions as traverse equipment (Traverse D6,
Trusty, Loud). If you hit someone with your bike, it is
(Kill D8, Brutal, Loud, Dangerous). Your bike can carry you
and one other passenger. Your motorcycle does need fuel to
work, and can be a target for Luck or Supplies Fallout.
○ HERE COMES THE CAVALRY. Once per session when you make
a dramatic entrance using your motorcycle (at least
Risky), refresh D6 stress.
○ BATTERING RAM. You modify the front of your bike with
a sturdy(ish) metal shield that functions as a weapon.
The weapon is (Kill D10, Brutal x2, One-shot)
○ MODIFIED EXHAUST. You may produce a cloud of smoke
surrounding your bike at will. This will make a lot of
noise, however.

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● REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE. One man’s trash is your next
invention. Once per situation when a piece of equipment
breaks, you may spend a few minutes to convert it to D6
Parts.
○ ONE MORE. When you break a melee weapon, you get one
more use with it. It gains the Brutal tag for this
last attack.
○ MORE THAN THE SUM. You may combine two pieces of D4
Kill or Care equipment of the same type, and upgrade
it to a D6.
○ RATION. Once per situation, you may not expend a use
of a Limited Equipment, so long as you roll a die size
lower. If the equipment is already at a D4, roll twice
and take the lower result.
● SHOPPING LIST. For many people, all scraps of metal start

to blend together. Not for your trained eye, and you make
sure the others know. When you are making a Camp Action
involving looking for specific parts, add a die to the
pool.
○ LENDING MY TOOLS. When making a Camp Action involving
building or repairing equipment, inventions, or other
machines, you may transfer any incurred Camp Stress to
your personal Supplies stress. You may only do this
once per session.
○ TEST DRIVE. Once per session, you may give up a piece
of equipment to the group to subtract 2 stress from
any they may incur from their Camp Action. If they
don’t incur stress at all, you get your equipment
back. Otherwise, it’s gone for good.

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○ LUCKY FIND. Once per session when you’re making a Camp
Action, you may remove a die from the pool. If the
Camp Action still succeeds, they come back with D6
Parts. If the action is a critical success, it’s D8
parts.
● SHOTGUN SURGEON. There are many shotguns like this one, but
this one is yours. She is your best friend, and she’ll keep
you alive. You get a combat shotgun. This shotgun may
require repairs as a result of Fallout, but it can never be
broken beyond repair. You refuse to let a beauty like this
go to waste. The shotgun is Kill D6, Point-blank, Reload.
○ DRAGON’S BREATH. You know how to make incendiary
shells. The stats are Kill D10, Spread, One-Shot.
○ BUCKSHOT. Your shotgun has an alternate form: Kill D8
Ranged, Brutal, Rare, Reload
○ BAYONET. So long as you are holding your shotgun, your
unarmed attacks are Kill D6.

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Requiem Ability:
PASSION PROJECT: Deep down, you wish the things you built
weren’t for killing or just to survive. You wish things were
different. But for what it’s worth, your inventions have saved
the lives of your allies countless times and even in death, they
will still look out for them. When you go out on your own terms,
it is revealed that you were working on an impressive invention
(even by your own standards.). The Camp works together to finish
your invention. Work with the GM on what this invention is

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Notes for the Engineer
● Dealing Stress to a Venture using POST APOCALYPTIC
ARTIFICER means that you bypassed a problem by fixing
something up, tinkering around with what you have, or by
destroying something with technical ingenuity.
● For SOS, the GM is not obligated to give you a straight
answer. However, their answer must be honest and they must
tell you how you can get a straight answer, such as
pointing you to a direction or a person.
● Without this MASTER OF UNLOCKING, you’d need to roll to
unlock most doors. With this ability, you only need to roll
when you’re under some kind of external pressure, such as
being chased or when you’re sneaking around hostile
territory.
● For HELL RIDER, while your bike can be a target for
Fallout, your GM can never destroy the bike beyond repair
or permanently take it away from you without your consent.
● Without WORKPLACE HAZARD, handling infected or other
hazardous materials would either be outright impossible,
will require an action of Risky or Dangerous, or come with
a stress cost. With this ability, you don’t have to worry
about that.

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Meet The Penitent
You used to ride with a group of Raiders. You did many
awful things that still keep you up at night. For one reason or
another, you left the group and found yourself with this Camp.
Whether you want to believe it or not, this group is your chance
at redemption.
CORE TRAITS:
Domain- Raider
Skill- Kill
Resistances- +2 Blood, +2 Grit
Equipment- choose one

● Double barreled shotgun (Kill D6 Point-blank, Double
barreled, Reload)
● .38 Revolver (Kill D6, Ranged, Reload); Bowie knife (Kill
D6)
● 9mm pistol (Kill D6 Ranged Reload); Flask of cheap liquor
(Care Grit D6)
INTRO QUESTIONS:
● Why did you kill your first living being?
● Why did you join a gang of Raiders? And what kind of group
were they?
● Why did you leave your Raider group?

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BOND QUESTION
● This NPC still doesn’t trust you. Why is that?
● This PC has some history with your old Raider gang. How
have your gang wronged them?
CORE ABILITIES
BAD KARMA. You’ve incurred a lot of bad karma during your time,
and you’re no stranger to the powers above trying to settle the
score. Once per situation when you take stress to any resistance
other than Luck (excluding Camp), you may transfer it to Luck
instead. When you take Luck Fallout, roll with mastery for the
rest of the situation.
MINOR ABILITIES
● BIG BAD WOLF. You are the baddest bastard in the room, and
you make sure your enemies know this. Gain the Command
Skill. Once per situation, you may force an enemy’s
attention away from an ally and onto you.
● BULLSHIT DETECTOR. It takes a liar to know one. Gain the
Analyze Skill. When you suspect someone is lying to you,
roll Analyze + Raider. If they are lying, they take D6
stress as they start to crack. If this brings them to 0
Resistance, they confess and/or attempt to flee… and fail
while doing so.
● DIRTY FIGHTING. You don’t always have the luxury of having
a proper weapon. Any old sharp thing will do. Gain the Rig
Skill. Once per session, you can make an improvised melee
weapon, so long as you have a few minutes (Kill D6 Brutal
Fragile). When you fail an attack action, the weapon breaks
beyond repair.

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● PUPPET MASTER. Doesn’t matter what banner you’re all
“united” under; there’s always a power struggle. Gain the
Cult Domain. Once per session, when you enter a settlement
or meet a faction for the first time, you can figure out
who is really in charge. When you first act on this hunch,
roll with mastery.
● PERSONAL DEMONS. No matter how far you run, your past will
always catch up with you. Gain the Settlement Domain. When
you enter a settlement, you may declare that someone from
your old Raider group is here. They may be willing to help
you. There are no guarantees they are as remorseful as you
(though that can change)
● AIR OF AUTHORITY. When you walk into a room, you have an
aura that lets people know that you are not to be trifled
with. Gain the Militia Domain. Once per session, declare a
room under your protection. Your enemies will instantly
recognize you as the biggest threat, but your allies
subtract one from all incoming Blood and Grit Stress. This
benefit lasts for a situation.
● TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN. Had things played out
differently, maybe you would’ve never sunk to the depths
you did. Get a Minor Ability from The Shield.
● BEEN THROUGH IT ALL. Add +1 to any of your personal
● DONE IT ALL. Gain access to one of the following skills:
Analyze, Command, Endure, Hunt, Kill, Rig, Sneak, Traverse.
You may take this advance more than once.
● SEEN IT ALL. Gain access to one of the following domains:
Bunkers, Cult, Infested, Raiders, Wild. You may take this
advance more than once.

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MAJOR ABILITIES:
● CAT BECOMES THE MOUSE. You’ve trapped enough suckers in an
ambush to recognize when you’re about to be in one. Once
per session, declare that you are about to walk into a trap
or ambush. You don’t decide whose trap you’re walking into.
Your first action against this ambush is made with mastery.
○ THE TRAPMAKER’S ART. When you disable a trap, gain an
appropriate D4 Resource (Parts or Ammo, GM choice)
○ UNWITNESSED ADVOCACY. Once per situation, you may
declare you retroactively already had a trap set up.
Then roll Rig + Raider. On a success, you got em. Your
trap deals D6 Stress
○ PREDATOR. If you roll a 1 or 2 on the stress die on
attacks made from an ambush, trap, or sneak attack,
re-roll.
● I’LL MAKE YOU HURT. You used to torture people for

information. When you have someone at your mercy and are
willing to follow through on your threats, you may ask one
free question. They will answer you honestly. If you want
more questions answered, take D4 Piercing Luck stress per
question.
○ QUIT STRUGGLING. If the prisoner tries to escape or
fight back, roll with mastery when trying to put them
in their place. Stress incurred from this will go to
Luck.
○ MY WAY OR THE HIGHWAY. You may torture someone to
carry out a task for you. Choose 2: They do the task
right down to the letter; They don’t tell anyone what

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you did; You don’t leave any visible, permanent
wounds. Regardless, take D6 Luck Stress to use this
ability
○ BETTER THAN THIS. Once per session when someone is at
your mercy and you choose to be merciful (with no
ulterior motive), refresh D6.
● ONE OF THEM. They don’t know you’re on a path to

redemption. You can use it to your advantage. Once per
session when you come across a group of Raiders, you may
declare that you know one of them. Then roll Raider +
Command. On a success, you ended on at least somewhat good
terms. Things between you and the Raider group are good…
for now. Your allies, on the other hand, are a different
matter.
○ I CAN VOUCH FOR THEM. You may choose to make the ONE
OF THEM roll Risky in exchange for having the Raiders
be cool with your allies (for now) on a success.
○ REFORMATION. Get mastery when trying to convert the
Raider you know to a path of redemption.
○ AS ROMANS DO. So long as you are within eyesight of
your allies, the stress your allies suffer while
interacting with your old Raider crew goes down a
step.
● BLOODY, BLOODY BAT. She has stuck by you all these years,
and has taken the lives of many people unfortunate enough
to cross your path. You have an improvised weapon made out
of a baseball bat and other deadly additions (e.g. nails,
barbed wire, sawblades, etc.). The stats are (Kill D8
Brutal, Tiring.) Give this weapon a name

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○ CALLING THE SHOT. You may give your bat the Piercing
tag for your next attack. After you roll for it, your
weapon turns to a normal bat with these stats (Kill
D6)as the weapon’s additions break loose. It goes back
to a D8 by spending D4 Supplies stress to rig it back
up.
○ HARBINGER OF DEATH. Once per situation, you may
declare that someone you’re talking to recognizes your
weapon. Gain mastery on your first roll against them
○ SHE’S NOT YOURS. When someone disarms you from your
weapon, your unarmed attacks become Brutal.
● CYCLE OF VIOLENCE. You’ve made several enemies before

turning over a new leaf. You’ve wronged someone a long time
ago, and they and/or their loved ones will go to any
lengths for revenge. Once per session during a charged
situation, you may declare your Hunters appear. This might
cause enough chaos to give you a chance to flee or turn
things around, but you now have a new problem to deal with
regardless. If you get them to forgive you or give up their
quest, gain FORGIVENESS. If you kill your Hunters, gain
VIOLENCE BREEDS VIOLENCE
○ VIOLENCE BREEDS VIOLENCE. Hatred breeds hatred. You
may activate this ability once per session after
brutally killing a living being. All other human
opponents are frozen with shock and take D6 Stress,
giving you or your allies an opportunity to act
uncontested. If you leave any survivors, THE CYCLE OF
VIOLENCE begins anew.
○ FORGIVENESS. Killing is an easy thing to do; turning
the other cheek is what takes true willpower. Once per

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session when you have a chance to enact violent
payback and turn it down, refresh D8. If the person
you spared still tries to attack you, their stress die
goes down a step (minimum D4)
Requiem Ability:
PENITENT SAINT. You will never undo the atrocities you’ve
committed. That is something you’ll have to carry on your soul
for the rest of your life. Still, you never let that stop you
from atoning for your sins. When you go out on your terms, you
disappear from the situation. Everyone thinks you are dead or
worse. For the rest of the campaign when someone takes Major or
Critical Fallout, a Survivor may summon you. You return as the
Penitent Saint appears and inflict 20 stress against the
adversary responsible for it. You fight by your allies’ the rest
of the situation. At the end of the situation, they draw their
last breath and finally pass away. Whether you are redeemed or
not is between you and the powers above.

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Notes for the Penitent
● For BIG BAD WOLF, your ally is not always immediately off
the hook. If you catch your enemy’s attention while your
ally almost got caught sneaking, they’re fine. But if your
ally was about to be bashed to death with a crowbar and you
activate this ability, you only have a few moments before
things spiral out of control. Regardless, your ally makes
their next action with lowered difficulty or with mastery,
depending on what makes more sense in the fiction.
● For BULLSHIT DETECTOR, this only works if the person is
knowingly and actively lying. Omitting info or passing info
they think is true won’t be caught by your detector.
● If you plan on picking up I’LL MAKE YOU HURT, clear it with
everyone. Torture is not badass, it a cruel and an
intimately violent act. A default rule in my games in re:
to torture is that it is never shown on screen. For
example, the scene opens up with a tied person and the
torturer with a crowbar. The scene fades to black, and it
opens up to the victim cleaning themselves up in front of a
mirror. If this is still too much for the group, don’t
include this move as an option.
● Luck stress incurred from MAKE YOU HURT can result in
Fallouts related to the victim (yes, victim) falling
unconscious, dying, refusing to cooperate any longer, their
allies coming in to rescue them, the victim escaping, or
even the victim properly fighting back.
● For CAT BECOMES THE MOUSE, this ability also works when
your attackers are right in front of you (i.e. they invited
you to their hideout, only to jump you with a golf club)

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● For CALLING THE SHOT, you need a few minutes to rig the bat
back up
● SHE’S NOT YOURS applies to all weapons, not just your bat.
● When a player summons you via PENITENT SAINT, they ignore
the Fallout and refresh all their stress.

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Meet The Shield
For reasons that you don’t fully understand, people looked to
you as a leader. When trouble comes to their doorstep, they look
to you. When people need to settle a dispute, they look to you.
When all hope is lost and it seems like you’re at rock bottom,
they look to you. Can you live up to the task?
CORE TRAITS:
Domain- Settlement
Skill- Command
Resistances- +3 Grit, +1 Luck
EQUIPMENT (Choose one)

● Double-action revolver (Kill D6 Ranged Brutal); A baton
(Kill D6)
● Makeshift medkit (Care Blood D6); Fire Axe (Kill D8 Brutal
Tiring)
● Bottle of Whiskey (Care Grit D6); Sawn off shotgun (Kill
D8, Ranged, Rare)
INTRO QUESTIONS:
● Who did you let down? And what price was paid as a result?
● How do you feel about often being thrust into leadership?

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BOND QUESTIONS:
● You saved this NPC’s life and they are insistent on paying
it back. What price did you pay to ensure their survival?
● You and this PC knew each other from before The End. What
is the most surprising thing about how they turned out?
CORE ABILITY:
HEAVY IS THE HEAD. You take every failure to heart, both your
own and those of your folk. Once per session when you or anyone
else takes Camp Stress, you may opt to take it to Grit Stress
instead. If you take Fallout because of this, refresh D6 Camp
Stress.
MINOR ABILITIES:
● MARTYR COMPLEX. Your passion for these people will
ultimately do you in. Gain the Endure Skill. Once per
situation, when an ally within arm’s length is about to
take Blood stress, you take an equivalent amount instead.
● PEACEMAKER. Your commanding presence can get people to put
their guns down, at least for a while. Gain the Cult
Domain. Once per session, when you walk into a charged
situation, you may roll Command + Cult. On a success,
people will put down their arms for about a minute or so
and hear you out. No one can engage in a violent action
during this time.
● SHARP TONGUE. Why hurt their body when you can hurt their
spirit? Gain the Militia Domain. When you succeed on a
Command roll, you may have your words inflict D6 stress.
You won’t cause chaos in a populated Destination this way.
If you bring them to 0 Resistance this way, they either

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flee (and fail), are discouraged and give up, or cower
down.
● DIY SURGERY. You take it upon yourself to try to keep
others alive, even in spite of proper equipment… or
training. Gain the Care Skill. Once per session, you may
spend Supplies to have the patient temporarily ignore an
ongoing Blood Fallout (D6 for Minor, D8 for Major).
● STAND BY ME. Now, more than ever, it is important to reach
out to others and rely on each other. Gain the Bunker
Domain. When you first enter a new populated Destination,
you may declare there is someone in here who is willing to
help you on your current mission. (They’ll usually want
something in return)
● IT COMES DOWN TO A FIGHT. Situations, unfortunately, often
come down to a fight. Unfortunately for your opposition,
you’re no pushover. Gain the Kill Skill. Your unarmed
attacks are D4 Brutal, Stunning.
● THE FRONT LINE. Gain access to one of the following skills:
Analyze, Care, Command, Endure, Hunt, Kill, Rig, Sneak,
Traverse. You may take this advance more than once.
● TO PROTECT AND SERVE.. Gain access to one of the following
Domains: Bunkers, Cult, Infested, Militia, Settlement,
Wild. You may take this advance more than once.
● DEFENDER. Add +1 to any of your personal reserves. You may
take this advance more than once.

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MAJOR ABILITIES.
● I AM JUSTICE. An enemy inside your Camp is far more
dangerous than any infected or raider. It is your duty to
weed them out. If you publicly punish a Camp member for
perceived wrong-doing, downgrade an appropriate Camp
Fallout (Major to Minor, Minor to no Fallout) OR refresh D6
Camp Stress. Regardless of the choice, take D6 Luck stress
in return.
○ NEVER MY FAULT. You may use I AM JUSTICE a second time
during a session. You automatically take Major Luck
Fallout as a result when you do this.
○ FALL GUY. When you are directly responsible for issues
your Camp is going through, you may roll with mastery
when trying to pin the blame on someone else. When you
choose to do this, any incoming stress you suffer is
at least Brutal D6 Luck.
○ TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN. Gain the Raider Domain,
and take a Minor Ability from The Penitent.
● SHIT HAPPENS. Wise folk know to fear the wrath of a gentle

man. Once per session when you take Grit Fallout (including
Critical), you may ignore it until the end of the
situation, when it comes back like a wrecking ball.
Additionally, your attacks gain the Brutal tag for the
situation
○ NEVER GETS EASIER. When someone you care about is
seriously injured or killed in front of you, you may
activate SHIT HAPPENS, even if you didn’t suffer Grit
Fallout. This counts against the once per session use.
○ I BITE BACK. You may use SHIT HAPPENS when you suffer
Blood Fallout

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○ SEEING RED. You may increase your outgoing stress die
by one step when you activate SHIT HAPPENS. When you
do so, all actions that aren’t made to hurt someone
are at least Risky until the situation ends.
● A PROMISE TO DO BETTER. You refuse to let their deaths be

for nothing. Gain +2 Camp Reserves. If a Camp member dies
or permanently leaves camp, gain +1 Camp Reserves. If you
killed the Camp member, directly or indirectly, you do not
benefit from this ability. If multiple Camp members die in
a single session, you still only get +1 Camp Reserves. (You
can never have more than +5 Camp Reserves)
○ LOOKING AFTER YOU. Once per session, you may
permanently get rid of one Camp Reserve to negate one
instance of incoming stress or to turn a missed roll
into a 10
○ IN THEIR MEMORY. Once per session, ask the GM “Would
[name of dead or retired camp member] approve of
this?” If they answer yes, you get mastery on your
first action. If they answer no, you refresh D6 when
you change course and act in a way they would approve.
○ FORGED IN FIRE. Other PC’s may use LOOKING AFTER YOU
and IN THEIR MEMORY.
● UNITED WE STAND. You let others lean on you, even if you

have your own issues. Once per situation when someone near
you takes Major Grit Fallout, you may have both of you take
Minor Grit Fallout instead.
○ PEP TALK. Once per session, you may have an ally
ignore a Grit Fallout for the rest of the situation
after giving them a pep talk.

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○ WE MADE IT. When you complete a Venture to a
Settlement, choose someone, including yourself, to
refresh. Die size depends on the Destination. D4 is a
ransacked store. D12 is the City of Hope
○ INSPIRING. Once per session, an ally may use one of
your Minor Abilities, even if you’re separated.
● STREET JUSTICE. With society completely collapsed, it is up

to the common folk to balance the scales of justice. When
you learn about an injustice done to an innocent person,
gain mastery when you Hunt them down or try to Kill them.
Additionally, refresh D6 when justice is served
○ MY PEOPLE COME FIRST. When justice is served on behalf
of a Camp Member, roll twice for refresh and take the
highest result. If you roll doubles, refresh the sum
of both dice.
○ REHABILITATE. If you make things right without
inflicting or threatening violence on the offending
party (including their loved ones), clear a minor Luck
Fallout or downgrade a Major Luck Fallout (either your
own or an ally who helped you)
○ LOCAL HERO. If you deliver justice on behalf of a
Settlement, they will reward you with a boon of some
kind

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Requiem Ability:
MY EMPIRE OF DIRT. You are only human. You were never meant to
hold such an important responsibility; you were just supposed to
live a normal and peaceful life. But you didn’t. And yet, you
stepped up to the plate and became a beacon of hope. And your
sacrifices, pain, tears, and blood were not in vain. When you go
out on your own terms, cure all Camp Fallout and refresh all
Campo Stress. Additionally, whenever the Camp takes stress,
subtract 2 stress from the result.

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Notes for the Shield
● You don’t have to be in the same scene as an ally to use
HEAVY IS THE HEAD.
● If an ally would like to engage in a violent action, they
must take D4 Grit Stress before rolling. If they succeed in
their action, the benefits of PEACEMAKER are nullified.
● Getting an NPC down to 0 stress with SHARP TONGUE does not
automatically make them your best friend, or get them to
give up on their big ambition or plan. It just means, for
the scene, they cave in, change course, or stop fighting
for now
● For I AM JUSTICE, the key phrase is perceived wrongdoing.
Even if the camp member is innocent, so long as you can sow
doubt, this ability will still work.
● For A PROMISE TO DO BETTER, Camp Member death includes
other PCs. With the GM’s agreement, Camp Member death may
include the death of a beloved NPC who is not associated
with the camp.
● When other PCs use LOOKING AFTER YOU and IN THEIR MEMORY,
each PC has their own limit. E.g. if you use the once per
session of LOOKING AFTER YOU, a different PC can still use
the ability.
● For INSPIRING, your ally can only use abilities that you
have. This does not grant them the increased Reserves,
Skills, nor Domains.
● All PCs can benefit from INSPIRING in a single session
● The Luck stress you incur from I AM JUSTICE can result in
Fallouts related to the group growing distrustful of you.
Here is a sample Critical Fallout if you abuse this power
too much.

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SHATTERED SHIELD (Critical Luck): Most of the Camp has had
enough of you and believe you are more trouble than you’re
worth. At some point in this or the next session, the Camp will
abandon you, leave you to die, kick you, or take justice in
their own hands. Regardless, you are retired. (Instant, Ongoing)

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Meet The Youngblood
Many of the people around you tell you stories of how life was
like before; going to the movies, eating at restaurants with
friends and family, and their everyday issues were things like
“man, I hope I can get this laptop before it sells out.” You
don’t know what it was like cause this life is all you’ve known.
Growing up in this environment has made you resilient, for
better or worse.
CORE TRAITS
Domain- Settlement
Skill- Sneak
Resistance- +2 Grit, +2 Luck
EQUIPMENT (Choose one)
● Butterfly knife (Kill D4 Brutal)
● Brass knuckles (Kill D4 Stunning)
● Poorly made pipe bombs (Kill D4, Spread, One-shot)
INTRO QUESTIONS:
● Were you born before or after The End? If before, what do
you miss about the Pre-End? If after, what Pre-End thing
baffles you the most?
● How old were you when you first took a human life?
● Who or what was someone important you lost?
● Do you think the age of the undead will ever end?
● Why are you risking your life to venture to the City of
Hope?

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BOND QUESTIONS:
● This NPC grew up in the same settlement or camp that you
did. What happened to their parents?
● This PC is pretty cool. You hope to be at least be a little
like them when you get older. How do they feel about that?
● This character is your caretaker/parent. How do they try to
connect with you?
CORE ABILITIES
FINDING A KNACK. You’re still trying to find your own place in
this brutal world. At the beginning of each session, choose an
ally you’re looking to for guidance. You temporarily gain one of
their minor abilities for the session. At the end of the
session, lose the ability. You can’t choose the same ally
back-to-back.
DOESN’T FALL FAR FROM THE TREE. Everyday is an opportunity to

learn something. Once per session, ask the ally you’re looking
up to for guidance for advice about an issue you’re dealing
with. If they give you an honest answer, gain mastery on the
first action you make to follow this advice. If following their
advice gets you out of a jam, you and your ally refresh D8.
MINOR ABILITIES
● RAISED IN HELL. You’ve quickly adjusted to the brutal and
unforgiving landscape. Gain the Infested Domain. Stress
incurred as a result of witnessing or committing a
horrifying act of violence counts as one die size lower for
you (To a minimum of D4)
THIS IS A PLAYTEST VERSION (VER. 0.50) 100

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● THIS HOLE WAS MADE FOR ME. Being youthful means being fast
and small. Enjoy it while you still can. Gain the Traverse
Skill. Moving through small or tight spaces, even under
pressure, is always Standard difficulty for you.
● CHILD OF THE CORN. You’ve joined a cult or two. The prayers
are still stuck in your head. Gain the Cult Domain. Once
per session, you may pray and beseech any power listening
to refresh D4 Grit or Luck Stress for you or an ally.
● PEER PRESSURE. Even though the world is falling apart, kids
are still kids. Gain +1 Luck Reserve. Once per situation,
you can get a kid (≤16)to act against their best interest.
No promises whether or not they’ll snitch on you if things
go sideways
● REBELLIOUS SPIRIT. You’ll grow out of it… probably.
Hopefully. Gain the Raider Domain. Once per session, go to
an ally and ask them for advice about a problem you’re
facing. If they give you an honest answer, roll with
mastery on your first action when you go the complete
opposite direction. Refresh D6 if this bites you in the
ass.
● WOULDN’T KILL A KID. Most people aren’t complete monsters;
attacking a kid is still attacking a kid. Gain the Endure
Skill. Once per situation, you may inflict D4 stress to
someone who just physically harmed you. The enemy must be a
sentient human being. If this brings them to 0 stress, they
surrender or flee with a guilty heart.
● RATS IN A CAGE. You’ve been surrounded by Infected for as
long as you can remember. This is nothing. Gain +1 Grit
Reserves. Once per Venture, you find a place where you can
catch your breath for a few minutes without issue or
incurring any banes.

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● TOUGHER THAN YOU LOOK. Add +1 to any of your personal
● SCHOOL OF HARD KNOCKS. Gain access to one of the following
skills: Analyze, Care, Endure, Hunt, Kill, Rig, Sneak,
Traverse. You may take this advance more than once.
● ALWAYS MOVING. Gain access to one of the following domains:
Cult, Infested, Militia, Raiders, Settlements, Wild. You
may take this advance more than once.
MAJOR ABILITIES
● SLIPPERY LITTLE SHIT. You have an uncanny ability to make
your problems someone else’s issue. Once per situation,
when you take stress, you may declare that a different PC
or friendly NPC takes it instead.
○ I'M JUST A KID. Gain mastery when talking out of a
mess that you caused
○ CLOSE ONE. Once per session when you fail a roll, you
may re-roll your pool. You have to take the new
result, even if it’s lower.
○ NO HARD FEELINGS. The PC that you use SLIPPERY against
rolls with mastery for the rest of the situation if
they take Fallout.
● RISE FROM THE ASHES. You’ll pay them back, with interest.
Once per session, you can fake your death after taking
Blood Fallout. Roll with mastery until the situation ends
or until your opposition learns of your bluff, whichever
happens first. If you try this again with the same
opposition in a different session, they will not fall for
it again.

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○ YOU KILLED A KID. When you make your presence known,
all of your opposition take D4 stress when they are
both shocked and mortified by their actions and your
survival.
○ ADRENALINE RUSH. Upon activating RISE FROM THE ASHES,
you ignore the effects of your Fallout until the end
of the situation.
○ THE LONG GAME. Instead of the regular effects of RISE
FROM THE ASHES, you may opt to stay “dead” for the
scene. For the rest of the session, you may make a
dramatic entrance in a different situation, so long as
it is even slightly plausible for you to show up. Your
sudden arrival gives your ally an opportunity to act
uncontested. ADRENALINE RUSH and YOU KILLED A KID
will be in effect for that scene, if you have those
abilities
● GROWING UP. Don’t lament growing older; dying of age is a

luxury nowadays. Take a Major or Core Ability from an
Archetype not in use as you grow into yourself.
○ QUICK STUDY. Gain the core Domain and Skill from the
unselected Archetype.
○ NEW TRICKS. Gain a minor ability from the unselected
Archetype.
○ HARDENED. Gain +1 reserves to all resistances, except
Camp.

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● FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT. You have no fucking idea what
you’re doing, but the others don’t need to know that. You
may spend D4 Luck to act as if you had a skill or domain
you don’t actually have. This benefit lasts until the end
of the situation.
○ IN TOO DEEP. Once per situation when you are making a
Dangerous or Risky roll with a Skill or Domain you
don’t have, you may decrease the difficulty by one
level at the cost of increasing any incoming stress by
one step.
○ DOUBLE DOWN. You may use FAKE IT TILL YOU MAKE IT
twice per session. Spend D6 Luck for the second time
you use it.
○ GOING BEYOND THE LIMIT. Once per session, you may take
an action with 5 D10s. On a Crit, take no stress. On a
success, take D4 stress. On a mixed success, take D6
stress. On a fail, take D8 Stress.
● IN PLAIN SIGHT. The Infected are just like animals. And if

you know their behavior, you can use it to your advantage.
If you have a few minutes and some fresh Infected bodies,
you can use their blood and guts to camouflage yourself.
You suffer D6 Grit stress in the process of doing this. You
may disguise your allies, but each participant also suffers
D6 Grit Stress. So long as you don’t make any sudden
movement or provoke an Infected, you will not be attacked
by them. If you want to make an action that risks
provocation, you’ll have to roll for it (at least Risky).
This camouflage only works for one situation.

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○ MEAT SHIELD. If the hoard you’re hiding in gets hit by
ranged attacks, subtract 2 from all incoming stress.
○ MASTER OF PUPPETS. You may try to direct where the
hoard goes with a Command + Infested roll.
○ THIS IS NOT MY BLOOD. You may apply yourself with
infected guts during combat. As soon as you land a
kill on an infected, roll Sneak + Infested, You may
increase the difficulty up a step to apply the guts to
one nearby ally.

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Requiem Ability:
DEATH OF INNOCENCE: You were robbed of a childhood. You were
robbed of your innocence. Your experiences should belong to
hardened soldiers in war, not children. Deep down, every adult
you ever encountered, killed, and saved wishes that you just
lived a normal life. I’m sorry: sleep now, and may angels sing
you to your rest. When you go out on your own terms, the current
conflict immediately ceases; rival factions set aside their
differences, personal enemies bury the hatchet, your group’s
crimes are forgiven, the faction leader finally comes to their
senses, etc. If the situation was mainly about dealing with the
infected, the news of your death will have the same effect at
the next destination or when setting up camp.

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Notes on Youngblood
● First and foremost, clear your age with the group. By
default, the Youngblood is assumed to be between 10 and 17.
And while you’re at it, discuss what levels of harm or
danger you’re okay with NPC children being in, and what is
okay to be on screen and what should stay off screen.
● For FINDING A KNACK, you do not gain the
Ability/Domain/Reserve increase associated with the ally’s
minor ability.
● THIS HOLE WAS MADE FOR ME also works when you’re in a dense
crowd, a cluttered room, or a crawl space. And the Standard
difficulty applies to all abilities when moving through
tight spaces, not just traverse (sneaking through an air
vent, running from a monster, etc.)
● For WOULDN’T KILL A KID, the stress is inflicted
automatically, you do not need to roll for it
● If you choose to pick up a Major Ability through GROWING
UP, you may spend your Minor Advances to unlock the Minor
Upgrades for that Major Ability.
● For DEATH OF INNOCENCE, the examples of resolved conflicts
are exactly that: examples. You are encouraged to come up
with your own. GM, I recommend asking the player what they
hope to resolve with their death.
● Your allies also benefit from MEAT SHIELD if they’re in the
hoard

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DESTINATIONS, ADVERSARIES, AND
OTHER STUFF FOR THE GAMEMASTER (GM)
As of now, there aren’t any premade destinations or any

elaborately made premade adversaries. In future playtest docs, I
will have some destinations that you can use or take inspiration
from. That said, I have provided step-by-step instructions on
creating your own destinations. I will also give you a list of
“generic” destinations, and possible issues they might be
facing. I will also give you templates for adversaries, both
human and monstrous.
DESTINATIONS
To make your own Destinations, have the following:
● A name. It can be as fancy as “Dallas Quarantine Zone” or
as simple as “The Hotel”
● Domains. What domains are applicable to this Destination.
That will usually be determined by the faction that
controls the Destination and/or the nature of the
environment of said Domain.
● Default Stress. If the PC’s are to ever incur stress while
here, the default stress will usually be the amount that is
at stake. Of course, circumstances may dictate that they
end up suffering more or less.
● Description. What is this place, exactly? Who runs it, why
is it important, what is known about it, etc.
● Notable NPC’s. If applicable, there might be some big dogs
that your PC needs to keep in mind

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ADVERSARIES
To make your own Adversaries, have the following
● A name, if applicable
● Description
● Domain(s). This is either the domain of the faction they
rep or the domain they’re often found in
● Difficulty. This is how difficult it is to fight them
● Resistance. This is how much stress they can take before
being defeated
● Equipment. This is what weapons or gear they carry with
them.
● Motivation. This is what drives the adversary. While a
suggestion, it can give you an idea of how they might
respond in a situation. Remember, most people aren’t the
“fight to the death” types; they want to stay alive to see
their goals come to fruition
Generic Destinations
● Underground bunkers
● Stadium repurposed into a settlement
● Shantytown
● Wooden bridges and structures built on skyscrapers
● Infested convention center
● Generator room in a sewer system
● Suburbs
● CDC or giant labs
● Airports
● Sections of a city under martial law
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● A town of wooden cabins
● Mall, with certain sections closed off or barricade
● Government buildings
● Gated communities
● Universities
What issue is a Destination currently facing?
D12
1. Two people are fighting for leadership
2. Supply shortage
3. Someone is infected
4. The population is increasingly getting sick
5. Faction is at war with another faction
6. Population owes fealty to a nearby Raider group
7. Faction is going through a civil war
8. People keep leaving
9. Destination was recently swarmed by Infected
10. A key member of the faction is missing
11. A storm passed by and wrecked the place
12. The leader(s) has become tyrannical

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Adversaries
The adversaries aren’t exactly fully fleshed out
characters, rather they’re templates. They’re divided into two
categories; human and Infected.
Some adversaries have armor. The way armor works for

adversaries is that they negate that much stress from any
incoming attacks. For example, if you roll a 5 on the stress die
against a Soldier (2 armor), they take 3 stress total.
HUMAN
Generic Survivor
Trying to survive, just like you
Resistance: 5
Armor: None
Difficulty: Standard
Equipment: Baseball bat (Kill D6)
Soldier
Highly trained and hardened by wars before and after The End.
Resistance: 7
Armor: 2
Difficulty: Risky
Equipment: Semi-automatic rifle (Kill D8, Range, Rare,
Full-Auto)

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Hunter
Are at their deadliest when operating from the shadows
Resistance: 6
Armor: 1
Difficulty: Risky. Goes to Standard once the Survivors know of
their position
Equipment: Crossbow (Kill D6, Reload); Hunting knife (Kill D6
Brutal); Bear traps (Kill D4, Immobilizing, Brutal, Limited:
[X])
Machine
They are cold, brutal killers.
Resistance: 10
Armor: 2
Difficulty: Risky, goes to Dangerous once they’re down to 3
Resistance
Equipment: Sledgehammer (Kill D8, Brutal, Tiring); Sawn-off
shotgun (Kill D6, Brutal, Point-blank, Double barreled)
Archangel
They keep their allies alive
Resistance: 6
Armor: 0
Difficulty: Standard, goes to Risky when they’re actively
defending their allies

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Equipment: Double action revolver (Kill D6, Ranged, Reload);
First Aid Kit (Care Blood D6, Limited: 3)
Armored Vehicle
A repurposed military vehicle
Resistance: 12
Armor: 3
Difficulty: Dangerous
Equipment: A gatling gun (Kill D10, Spread, Piercing); Getting hit
with the vehicle itself (Kill D10, Brutal x2)
Table: Enemy Trinkets

If you want to drive home that everyone in this world is
just trying to survive, just like the PC’s, humanize them. Give
them names, have them react when their allies are killed or
injured, and give them drives.
You can also give them a trinket that humanizes them. When
the PC’s are looting their bodies, you may opt to give them a
trinket. Here’s a table
D12
1. Engagement ring
2. A child’s drawing
3. A journal, detailing their journey to The City of Hope
4. A bag of candy. The bodies of their allies each have a
piece of candy in their belongings
5. A bottle containing a very rare prescription drug. The
person this belonged to looks sick
6. A love letter

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7. A stress ball
8. A symbol of their faith
9. An artbook
10. A notebook filled with song lyrics
11. A picture of their family/loved ones
12. A toy/stuffed animal

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INFECTED
Now, your regular Infected (i.e. generic zombie) can either
be your typical slow and mindless type, or the vicious fast
types. Regardless, these guys aren’t really a threat by
themselves (unless you’re trapped with one by yourself.) They
really only become a serious threat when they are in packs.
Generally, you don’t need to roll to kill a single Generic
Infected unless you are trapped with one by yourself and/or the
Infected was someone you used to know and care about.
You will need to roll to take on a Pack of them. A pack can
range between 4 to roughly a dozen. How difficult it is will be
determined on several circumstances, just like any other
adversary. For packs, they count as one enemy, for the purposes
of inflicting stress to them. You bring a Pack’s Resistance to
0, you take down the entire pack.
Swarms of zombies are a different story. I’m talking about
the “there are so many zombies, there is no point in counting”
kind of swarm. You can’t exactly kill them. Yes, you can still
engage and shoot or bash or whatever, but you and your party
will never defeat a swarm with standard methods. In short,
they’ll need to be creative. (Explosives, use of vehicles, have
overwhelming numbers, etc.)
Special Infected, even with one by themselves, can be an

issue. I’ll provide a few samples, but I encourage you to get as
crazy as you like for them. You can be as simple as “zombie
animals” to as crazy as “this is basically a monster straight
out of Resident Evil.”
Special Infected are optional. If you want the main focus

to be “humans trying to make the most out of a bad situation”,

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then more power to you; stick with mostly or exclusively
Standard Infected
Generic Zombie
Resistance: 3 (Instant kill if hit with a Critical Success)
Armor: 0
Difficulty: Standard by themselves or in small numbers, Risky in
Packs, Dangerous in Swarms
Equipment: Unarmed attack (Kill D6); Bite (Kill D10, Brutal)
Special: Even if the zombie tries to “bite” the Survivor, they
are not infected until they inflict the Critical Fallout
INFECTED. If you use bite, but they don’t suffer fallout, you
can narrate it as the bite not being deep enough to tear through
their armor or it was just a close call, but was still wounded
in the scuffle. Or maybe the close call was exhausting.
Remember; Blood Stress is also exhaustion, not just wounds.
Pack of Zombies
Resistance: 4-12 (1 Resistance = 1 zombie)
Armor: 1
Difficulty: At least Risky, goes down to Standard once they’re
down to 3 Resistance.
Equipment: Unarmed attack (Kill D8, goes down to D6 once at 3
Resistance)
Special: For Swarm, do not give them a Resistance. They are
Dangerous in a Swarm, and their stress goes up to a D10

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Blight
Radiated zombies, capable of spitting acidic bile.
Description: The zombie has glowing, green sacs growing out of

their chest and throat. Their screeches sound gargled, and are
not as loud as their standard zombie counterparts.
Resistance: 5
Armor: 0
Difficulty: Standard
Equipment: Acidic bile (Kill D6, Brutal)
Special: Can target Supplies stress with their attacks. This is
flavored as the acid hitting their gear and damaging it
Tendril
A zombie with a tendril
Description: At first sight, looks like a normal zombie.

However, their jaw is missing, and one of their arms is slightly
longer and heavier; they tend to really lean their weight to
that one arm. The longer arm has tendrils growing out of their
fingernails.
Resistance: 7
Armor: 1
Difficulty: Standard, Risky once they have someone in their
grasp
Equipment: Tendril (Kill D6, Range, Immobilizing); Unarmed
attack (Kill D6)
Special: As a Minor Blood or Luck Fallout, you can have the
Tendril capture and separate a character from the others.

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Zombie Dog
The Infection, unfortunately, can also infect animals
Description: A dog with bloodshot eyes, missing patches of hair,

and their mouths are stained with blood. They have a monstrous
growl and have demonic-like barks
Resistance: 5
Armor: 0
Difficulty: Standard, is Risky when traveling with other Zombie
Dogs
Equipment: Bite (Kill D6 Brutal)
Special: Can make a lot of noise, and bring unwanted attention
with their loud barks; killing one quietly will require a roll
(Kill or Sneak + Infested or Wild)
NOTE: Some people really like dogs and don’t really want animals
getting harmed in their games, even zombified ones. If you plan
on using this enemy, clear it with your players first.
Goliath
If you see one of these, run. And if you can’t run, shoot and pray
Description: 10 foot tall monstrosity, their skin is ripped and

is mostly made up of putrid muscle. Their face is barely
recognizable as human anymore.
Resistance: 12
Armor: 3
Difficulty: Dangerous, Risky once down to 4 Resistance
Equipment: Unarmed attack (Kill D8, Brutal); Throwing boulders
or vehicles (Kill D12, Piercing, Brutal x2)

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THE LONG YEAR AHEAD OF YOU
No matter where in the world the City of Hope is located
in, your group knows that you’re not going to get there
overnight, and you’re definitely not going to get there
unscathed. To properly frame this journey, Road to Hope is
divided into four Seasons.
What is a Season?
Seasons is how Road to Hope frames the journey from the
start of the game, all the way to The City of Hope. Since it is
assumed the group will be traveling a really long distance to
get there, it can get quite daunting to play session after
session without ever really knowing how much closer you are to
Hope. Plus, this system is not really built for really long
games. Seasons help guide the group through this journey.
A Season is divided into 3 sections:

1) The Journey (you skip this for the First Season)
2) Escaping The Region
3) Having a Moment of Silence
The Journey
Life in the apocalypse is, to put it lightly,
unpredictable. No matter how prepared or hardened you are, the
odds of something going horribly wrong is never zero. To
represent this, the Survivors need to make a “Journey” roll
before starting a new Region (with the exception of the first

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Region.) Like everything else in here, it all starts with
building a pool.
● Start with 4 D10

● Subtract a D10 if at least one Survivor is suffering an
ongoing Major Fallout
● Subtract a D10 if the Camp is suffering at least one
ongoing Major Fallout
● Subtract a D10 if the Camp is barely keeping it together
(i.e. at each other’s throats, distrusts almost all the
Survivors, suffered serious loss at the Region, etc.)
● Subtract a D10 if at least one person from Camp (including
the Survivors*) died or left the group on bad terms**
● Add a D10 if a Survivor Went Out On Their Own Terms
● Add a D10 if you’re finally going to make it to the Final
Season; The City of Hope.
● Once you’re done building the pool, roll.
* If a Survivor died by Going Out On Their Own Terms, you do not

suffer a die penalty
** “Leaving the group on bad terms” also includes (but not
limited to) going missing and not finding them, leaving them
behind, they betrayed you, or them going AWOL
After you roll, you only count the highest die. Compare the
result to the following table:
● 10 is a CRITICAL SUCCESS. The Camp and Survivors downgrade

their Fallouts, and refresh D8 stress. You start in a
better position

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● 8-9 is a SUCCESS. Each Survivor can choose to either
refresh D6 Stress, or downgrade a Fallout of their choice
(including Camp). You start the Region in a better position
● 6-7 is a MIXED SUCCESS. You start the Region in a neutral
position. You also take D6 Camp Stress.
● 2-5 is a MISS. You start the Region in a bad position. You
also take D8 Camp Stress.
● 1 is a CRITICAL MISS. You start the Region in a bad
position, and you take double Camp stress (roll D8 and
double the result)
You might be asking what I mean by positions. In short,

positions tell you how the Survivors start the next Season. In a
better position, it means that at least what can go wrong has
not gone wrong (yet.) And, if it makes sense, you may start the
Region with some sort of advantage or edge. A neutral position
means that you are starting the Region in a tricky place, but
not all has gone to shit. Could be better, but could be worse. A
bad position is… exactly that, what could go wrong, did go
wrong.
EXAMPLE: The Region is a Casino and Resort in Oklahoma. When the

Survivors get here, they realize way too late that the place is
swarming with Infected.
● Better Position. You found a safe place inside the Resort
that you can Camp out in with very little risk of being
swarmed by Infected
● Neutral Position. You found a safe place, but you don’t
know how much you have before it becomes compromised. You
need to secure a safe place to set up camp ASAP.

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● Bad Position. The group got separated when you rushed
inside the Casino. You need to find a safe place NOW! And
pray that you reunite with the others soon
And what happens if you suffer a Camp Fallout in addition

to starting off in a neutral or bad position? It means that the
situation got much worse. Let’s take the same example:
● Neutral Position, Minor Fallout. Your group used damn near
all their bullets while rushing to the attic. Whenever you
suffer Supplies stress as a result of using a ranged
weapon, roll twice and take the highest result
● Neutral Position, Major Fallout. You make it to the attic.
And you do a headcount. And one person is missing
● Bad Position, Minor Fallout. You lost your flashlights in
the rush. Until you are able to create a source of light,
Traversing around the Casino is going to be at least Risky
● Bad Position, Major Fallout. One of your Camp members is
unconscious; they lost a lot of blood. Better hope this
Casino has a nurse’s office.
Now, what is the point of this? Well, for starters, this

emphasizes that traveling is incredibly dangerous, and going to
the City of Hope is an inherently risky journey. Second, it lets
you cut right to the chase. Instead of playing out how the group
approaches the new region, which risks drawing things out, you
can just do the Journey Roll and jump right into it.
Another thing you might be asking yourself is “alright, but
why bother with the position thing and stress in the same roll?”
Let’s start with explaining “why stress?” This just simply
measures how well your group has handled moving from Region to
Region. In this journey, they no doubt ate food, drank water,

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used weapons, and suffered some mental strain. So by the time
the action has started, either their day went from okay to bad,
or it went from bad to really bad.
Now “why position?” This makes sure that something always
happens, even if no Fallout occurs. It’d be boring if you rolled
a miss, took the stress, but got off scott free because you
barely passed the Fallout check. Remember: something always
happens.
Escaping The Region

When play starts, you are going to be inside of a Region. A
Region is a location that your group is currently at, and where
a lot of the action is going to take place in for about 1-3
sessions. A Region can be anything; it can be a city, a small
town, a neighborhood, or even a single location, like a college
campus, a mall, or a national park. Each Region is going to have
a challenge or a problem that the group needs to address before
they’re able to move onto the next region. The obstacle can be
something as simple as “We need to get out of here alive.”
However, in the apocalypse, things aren’t always this easy;
there’s often going to be something standing in the way between
you and Hope. Here are some examples of what Obstacles might be
present in a Region. Don’t feel locked down to this list; you
are strongly encouraged to come up with your own Obstacles.
SAMPLE OBSTACLES
● Half of the Camp is deathly sick, and can’t keep moving.
You’ll need to either hold out and hope they get better

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soon, or you’ll need to scavenge this city for any
remaining medical supplies
● There is a dangerous storm passing by, and you can’t move
through it. However, you’re almost out of supplies…
● Several of your Camp members got separated when you were
ambushed. You’re not going to leave them behind, right?
● You’re “locked” inside of a casino and resort; there’s a
sea of undead outside, and just bum rushing outside would
be suicide
● The Settlement that took you in paid a great cost just to
save your ass. They aren’t letting you leave until you’ve
evened the score
● Your RV is busted up to all hell. You’re going to need to
scavenge the land for tools and parts to repair this
● This is the city that you last saw your parents before The
End. You have to know their fate
● You’ve been captured by a violent faction on-sight, and
stripped of your gear and supplies
How the Survivors choose to address an obstacle is up to

them. Some have obvious solutions, but that is often not the
case. Take the “The Settlement that took you in” Obstacle for
example. Sure, your party can look them dead in the eye and say
“Sorry ‘bout all the damage our arrival caused, but sucks to
suck.” You still need to get out of this region, you will have
to deal with them folk, and who knows what kind of people they
become after experiencing loss.

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A Moment of Silence
After you address the challenge or obstacle in this Region,

you are done with it. You narrate the group successfully (or
“successfully”) overcoming their challenge and then you
transition to “a Moment of Silence.” A Moment of Silence is a
scene or set of scenes of the characters between Seasons. Maybe
they’re on the road, they are making a quick supply run, or
they’re camping in for the night. These are, as the name would
suggest, quiet scenes. The Survivors, for just a moment, aren’t
in immediate danger. You can use these scenes to give the
characters a moment to reflect about their most recent
encounters, explore how the Survivors are changing, how the
NPC’s are reacting to the group’s actions, a way to explain how
a character picked up a new ability or whatever, and (most
importantly) a moment to breathe.
To not make the transition between the Region and Moment of

Silence so abrupt, try narrating a montage between your current
Region and the next one; explain how the season is changing, and
some glimpses of how some of the camp members are growing as
folk (for better or worse.) Try handing the players the reins a
bit; ask them how they’ve been faring the travel, and what’s on
their mind, or even some business they were up to.

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Hope Region
A question you might be asking is “what does arriving at
Hope look like? Does the scene just start with the Survivors
arriving at the gates? Does the scene start with the Survivors
outside the city where Hope supposedly is?” The official answer
is “whatever is more interesting to you!”
The City of Hope

So… what is the City of Hope? That is a good question.
Officially, the only real answer I have is “It is a rumored city
that apparently has it all figured out. They are growing in
numbers, they are reclaiming more land from the Infected, and
some even talk about how they’re gathering scientists to work on
a cure.” Key word: rumors. I strongly encourage all of you to
make up your own details about what the City of Hope exactly is.
Get your players in on it too; at the beginning of play, go
around the table and ask each character to share one rumor they
heard about Hope. And throughout play, if you have an
opportunity to introduce a new rumor or develop an already
existing one, jump right at it.
And while we’re talking about details regarding Hope, you

might also be wondering where the City is exactly? Another
excellent question that should be worked out amongst your table.
In my playtests, I have been stating that the City of Hope is in
California, but you do not have to set Hope there if you don’t
want to. I’ve made it this way because I want Hope to be sort of
setting agnostic; you can set Hope anywhere in the world and it
should still work.

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With all that out of the way, another question you probably
have: what do I do when we officially arrive in the City of
Hope? I only have one answer: do NOT pull the wool over their
eyes. A common trope in a lot of post-apocalyptic media is that
everything sucks! The kind stranger turns out to be a cannibal,
the “friendly” settlement is actually run by violent cultists,
your best friend is actually a monster, etc. And I am by no
means saying that is inherently bad writing. Like, I am a sucker
for media where their purpose is to make me feel miserable. For
this game, however, it is not appropriate. Before the journey
started, your Survivors have no doubt experienced loss; they
used to have a relatively normal life, and that was stripped
away from them without warning. Their loved ones died, some of
their loved ones suffered a fate worse than death. Their sense
of self was most likely shattered, they have developed a
plethora of psychological issues, and the list goes on. And
that’s before the game has officially started. And during their
journey, you will no doubt have thrown them through the ringer.
So to have them endure all of that, and end the game with “Hey,
you know that rumored City of Hope?! It was all a lie! It’s
actually a death camp run by tyrannical leaders, and all of your
loss and sacrifice was for nothing! The game is over, see you
next week to discuss the next campaign?”
For some folk, that would be frustrating.
Now that’s not to say that Hope is perfect when they get
there; maybe by the time they get there, Hope has recently
suffered a devastating attack or storm. Maybe they are at the
brink of going to war against another faction. Maybe another
complication has happened, and the group has arrived just in
time to help out, or at the very least get caught in the mess.

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Think of it like this; for the entire journey, the group is
faced with a tough question: why risk my life for this rumor?
Some of these Survivors might’ve heard about the “sanctuary
settlement” a few times, but have been burned. Maybe the
sanctuary settlement was run by tyrants, maybe the settlement
had a lot of in-fighting that grew too unstable, maybe it was
wiped out by an attack. So… why bother? And during the journey,
these Survivors will face challenges that should make them
consider just turning around and going back. Or to just cut
their losses, and try to make something of wherever Region
they’re in. Or just… give up… and die right there. But they
don’t! They push on! So when they finally arrive at Hope, they
should be emotional about the fact that Hope is real! And yes,
it’s not perfect. But you know what, nothing is ever perfect!
But this city: they finally have something worth fighting for!
In short: The first 3/4ths of the game is about the group
pushing through by clinging onto hope. The last 4th is them
finally having hope, and fighting for it.
That said, I’m not going to be at your table to enforce

this rule (or any rules, for that matter.) If you want to go all
in on the bleak aspect of this setting, I won’t stop you. Just
two things to keep in mind:
1) Tragedy starts having diminishing returns. If you beat

people over the head with “this sucks, that sucks,
everything sucks”, it starts to lose all its impact. And
then it becomes annoying or worse: Boring. This is also
just general good GM/storytelling advice; you gotta pace
and space out the quiet moments, the triumphant moments,
and the tragedy. (This is why a Moment of Silence is
important)
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2) The player’s actions become meaningless. I know I sort of
already mentioned that, but it bears mentioning it again:
if you have your players go through the ringer, and tell
them in the end that it was all for nothing, you’re going
to risk making the players feel like they’ve wasted several
weeks of their life.
Ending The Campaign

The story ends when the conflict at Hope is resolved,
whatever that may look like. Then, one by one, have characters
narrate an epilogue.
For surviving characters. Ask them what they are up to in Hope?

Or are they leaving for something else.
For characters who died. Ask them how their memory carries on.
For beloved NPCs. Narrate short scenes on what they are up to
And finally, show how Hope keeps developing, and how the rumors
spread throughout the land. And then, thank everyone for telling
an amazing story.

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Thank you very much for reading this version of Road to Hope.
Stay tuned for future updates!

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Road To Hope

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ROAD TO HOPE

A post apocalyptic game, Sparked by The Resistance,

THIS IS A PLAYTEST VERSION (VER. 0.50) 1 of

CW: Strong language, violence, body horror, plague, abuse of

EVERYTHING IN THIS PLAYTEST IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE

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The world wasn’t always like this. The average person’s

Then you started hearing rumors of a city called Hope.

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The road ahead is long and dangerous. But you’ve made it

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Lines and Veils

There are many other support tools out there, so I

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The Basics of Rolling

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If, through difficulty, your dice pool goes down to zero or

Regardless of the result, the GM will narrate the

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These four resistances are the PC’s personal resistance;

Having Fallout in any of these Resistances can mean

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● Minor Fallouts are, more or less, inconveniences that the

If players fail a Fallout check, the GM compares the result

When a player suffers Fallout, they clear a set amount of

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You can refresh stress by using certain Archetype abilities

Push It To The Limit

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BLOOD FALLOUT EXAMPLES:

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SUPPLIES FALLOUT EXAMPLE

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GRIT FALLOUT EXAMPLE

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LUCK FALLOUT EXAMPLES

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Players can spend a Minor Advance to increase their

● D6: Baseball bat, lead pipe, kitchen knife, pistol, recurve

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Resources come in 4 main categories:

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WAIT, WOULDN’T SOME OF THESE RESOURCE TYPES FALL UNDER SUPPLY

Here is what sets the resources apart from personal

Resources can be used in three main ways:

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If you're trading for resources, the general rule is this:

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