MOVIE NEWS – The Walking Dead campaign from Alien and Blade Runner RPG creators launches on Kickstarter next month.

These wandering corpses refuse to rest in peace. The walkers will soon appear on the tabletop, courtesy of Free League and The Walking Dead Universe RPG. The Kickstarter (see below) will launch soon, on 14 March. Although the finished game will not be released until this autumn, the rulebook will be available in parallel with the crowdfunding campaign.

The Swedish publisher and developer Free League is quite prolific and has recently become synonymous with quality adaptations of such renowned franchises as Alien, Blade Runner and Tales from the Loop.

I don’t have as much time for TTRPGs as I used to, but even when I don’t have time to play, I sometimes just stare at the books, which are all significant, dense volumes. The design team’s pedigree suggests that The Walking Dead Universe RPG will be another game worth paying attention to. The team also includes designers, writers and artists from the Alien, Blade Runner and Tales from the Loop adaptations and the excellent Symbaroum, Vaesen and Twilight: 2000 games.

It’s a survival RPG romp, of course. Free League promises high stakes and stressful adventures where players will “not only have to hone their physical skills, but also explore deeply what makes them tick”. There can be no zombie apocalypse without emotional and mental anguish.

A spin-off of Free League’s Year Zero engine will fuel this, though it looks like we’ll have to wait until next month to find out exactly how it’s been adapted for the new setting.

AMC’s original The Walking Dead TV series is one of the genre’s biggest hits. As for games, Telltale’s adaptations are also highly regarded. With that kind of history, a TTRPG is still a very tempting prospect. I look forward to making terrible decisions that will undoubtedly piss off my peers.

Source: Kickstarter