I came across. Well that’s not entirely true, I was reading my Facebook feed when there was a post by a (non-attending) member of Fenland Gamers on one of the board gaming groups I belong to. The post had photos from a first ever RPG session that their gaming group had been playing. The system they had been using was zombie apocalypse themed, which got my attention. But even more so when I read the brief post that accompanied the photos, and noticed on one of the photos they were using a street map of Wisbech.

What RPG used maps of Wisbech? I was very curious.

So it was off to our spying masters Google to find the answer.

It turned out FFG had published a series of source books themed around the end of the world. Each book was self contained, and dealt with a specific theme. Obviously one was zombie apocalypse themed, another was alien invasion themed (think War of the Worlds), then there was a machines taking over the world as a theme (think Terminator) and finally one called wrath of the gods (think Cthulhu, Four Horsemen).

You could play these books by themselves, or as some weird over arching campaign.

Naturally I got a digital copy of the Zombie Apocalypse rule book.

It’s made interesting reading so far. So what you are getting in the rest of this post are my impressions/thoughts on the rules having not played it yet.

If you are familiar with the Genesys/Star Wars system then a lot of the rules for The End of the World series will be strangely similar to what you are used to. In fact I’d go as far to say it’s a stream lined version of that system.

Like the Genesys system the emphasis is on narrative. But thanks to the stream lining, it’s also a game system that is designed to be picked up quickly. Which fits in with the premise that it’s been designed to be run as a one shot or mini campaign (using the five provided scenarios or just two or three). This isn’t meant to be one of those RPG campaigns that runs for months or years. Although there is nothing stopping it from being so. But if that was your aim I’d probably move over to the full Genesys system, so you have access to such stuff as vehicles.

Character creation is very simple, and quick, compared to other systems. And this is where it differs greatly from other RPGs. You are playing yourself in this game. Or a version of yourself. So when it comes to assigning values to one of the three categories, each with two characteristics (one offensive and one defensive) you are meant to do it realistically. After everyone has done that the group votes secretly on each players assessment, and they are possibly adjusted based on the result of the vote. You also get a chance to add specific features that are personal strengths and weaknesses. Plus there are traumas! You can see this can get deeply personal. And they recommend people only use stuff they are comfortable talking about in public. Your starting equipment is what’s in your pocket and in your immediate surroundings.

The only equipment you need are d6 dice. They recommend having two different coloured dice. This system resolved around a dice pool. You get positive dice and negative dice, hence the need for two colours. Based on the task/activity and the appropriate skills being used you get a certain number of positive dice. The DM will then based on several factors like difficulty of task, conditions, etc add a number of negative dice. These get rolled. Dice with the same number of both types cancel each other out. So a positive two will be cancelled out by a negative two. Then as long as you have a positive die that is lower or equal to the characteristic being tested means you succeeded. The more that did the better you did achieving the task. The number of negative dice left irrespective of value determine just how much stress your character takes because of that task.

That brings me into it is possible to die in the game. Mainly by gaining stress, which can be turned into trauma! But that too can kill you. There is a healing ability to get over the traumas you have. I like how they have implemented this system. It’s not too complicated and can be explained quickly.

This game has the potential to go into areas of a persons life that they will find difficult. The whole setting is your locale. People you know will die. Locations you know will become dark, scary places. That may be too much for some people. It’s here that I feel that a good dialog between players and DM is super important. Players should be communicating where their red lines are, areas that the DM should avoid. After all it’s meant to be a fun experience for everyone.

I definitely want to run this as a one shot. Thanks to my getting stuff ready for Last Days I have some painted zombies to use. I still have other stuff to paint, such as the cars, character figures. But I have bits that will hopefully help add to the experience. I’m so glad I stumbled across this system. It does look fun.

If you too are interested in The End of the World, it’s easier to get the pdf of the rules from the likes of DriveThruRPG. Naturally the physical version is “between printings” and although copies can be found online to purchase, they are tending to fall into the £40 plus bracket. Which is a bit of a mark up reflecting its out of printness.