Description
Zilight! Dark Ages, softback solo zombie survival game, by Stephen Hart
“Aargh… brains!
Okay, who doesn’t enjoy a good zombie movie/show/game?
The person at the back who just put their hand up can leave now. The rest of you… grab a regular pack of cards and some d6 and come with me to the apocalypse.
This is a complete gamebook. No other purchase is required to play (well, you need a regular deck of cards and some d6 dice but that’s all.)
THE GAME
Simple, fun and fast… and deadly.
Turn a regular playing card, look up in the book what the card means and make choices about how you are dealing with the situation presented by the card.
Which weapon do you use to fight the eight zombies who shuffled around the corner? Do you accept the quest from the king? Do you fully explore the temple for supplies or just dash in for a quick look around?
Medical supplies aren’t all you need. Everyone is hungry in the apocalypse. Find food or starve. (Starvation reduces your health.)
Risk vs. reward is at play throughout the game.
Combat is resolved with a simple d6 based combat system. Whilst simple, it offers player choices such as which weapons to use – loud weapons are powerful but can attract more zombies, do you use your dog companion in combat (they stay safe until you use them in combat), or do you try and flee? (The more injured you are, the harder it is to flee.)
PLAYING
- You use a regular deck of cards and turn over one card which is your day card
- What suit the day card is determines it’s type: Diamonds = Locations to explore, Hearts = People to meet, Spades = Adversaries to fight or hunt, Clubs = Equipment
- Look up the card in the game book and make choices about what you do based on the details.
- Resolve those choices whether that’s combat, interaction, exploration etc
- Day ends – rest, repair your armour (if you dare( eat (maybe feed the dog if you’ve found them), heal
- New day dawns, draw a new day card
(Survive for 28 days to win although other win conditions are included as well.)
With a simple discard mechanism, surviving the apocalypse gets harder the longer it goes on!
As long time zombie fans we’ve put in all the classic aspects of the uprising that we could manage:
- Noise is dangerous: Doing something loud can attract more zombies
- Humans can be more dangerous than the undead: Sad but so true!
- Moral choices: Do your morals still apply in the undead world? We won’t judge you if you don’t rescue that trapped family but your friends might…
- Searching for supplies: Food, medical supplies, ammo, weapons
- The perils of going hungry: You really need to eat each day.
- Hunting food: Rabbit stew anyone?
- The dangers of searching locations: Specifically do you search thoroughly (more risk but more rewards) or quickly (less risk but less rewards)?
- It gets worse: The longer the apocalypse goes on the fewer the resources and the more frequent the zombie attacks
And new in this edition of Zilight?
Lot’s of things make this even bigger, better and different from the predecessors:
- Plague zombies
- Plague as a dangerous condition (optional – it can be ignored for a simpler game)
- Someone who is alive, then dead, and then comes back
- Choice of starting characters
- Repairable armour
FEEDBACK
Here’s what the play testers had to say:
Loved the original, this is even better!
Plague zombies, yuck.
What? You’ve made it harder? Do you hate your customers? (Yes, that was real feedback. You, reading this now, know I don’t hate you, but I also know you like a challenge… Try the zombifying king this time. he makes the zombie tiger from the first game look easy…)
To keep it a slim, easy to play game we kept out some rule options that can add complexity, because we know some gamers like complexity we have included five optional rules that you can choose to add in.
SOLO AND WITH COMPANY
This has been designed as a solo game. It is perfect for solo journaling or it can be played straight through as a regular game.
To our great surprise, during game testing, people who played it in pairs, or even groups, also had an incredibly good time. The moral choices that you get to make – do you accept a quest to save the child or deliver the much needed supplies or do you walk on past?
Games take roughly 30-40 minutes (assuming you survive that long).”
Additional information
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