The Walking Dead Universe Starter Set review: "Death, dice, despair… all it needs is more depth"
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The Walking Dead Universe Starter Set
A TTRPG from the publisher of games like Mork Borg based on the post-apocalyptic Walking Dead may not sound like a hope-filled gameplay experience. However, when The Walking Dead Universe RPG hit Free League's Kickstarter back in 2023, I was plenty hopeful that it could bring an intense zombie tabletop experience that would put classics like All Flesh Must be Eaten to shame.
Many of the best tabletop RPGs provide accessible beginner boxes to get new players properly embroiled in the system and setting. How does The Walking Dead RPG Starter Set fare at achieving this? Let's find out!
The Walking Dead Universe Starter Set: Features & design
4 maps and 9 character sheets (including sheets for Glenn, Carol, and Gabriel as featured in AMC's The Walking Dead)
40-page condensed rule booklet and a 16-page 'Survival Mode' scenario
10 d6 base dice, 10 d6 stress dice, and a threat meter
Beyond its bold red and black accents on its dice and threat meter, The Walking Dead Universe Starter Set is dominated by greys, greens, and browns. These muddy hues are evocative of a looted army surplus store, the natural landscape of Washington, and the ashy color grading of the AMC TWD series. Chef’s kiss, Free League. When it comes to creating a set that is aesthetically pleasing and bang on theme, you’ve done it again.
Style is delivered in spades, but what about substance? In taking inventory of what’s included, you’ll find plenty of game elements to enhance your experience as a new player.
The most essential of these is the rule booklet, which delivers a heavily stripped back version of The Walking Dead RPG's Core Rulebook. It may be 120 pages shorter than the Core Rulebook and omit things like extra lore, solo play instructions, information on character archetypes, and lots of roll tables, but it certainly has the essentials and it delivers them with the same gorgeous illustrations and smart layout. Everything you need to run your first campaign is in there, provided you're satisfied with not rolling up your own character.
There are nine pre-constructed characters to choose from, three of which are characters featured in AMC's The Walking Dead. Each sheet has information filled out in a faux-handwriting, which is a really charming touch. Thankfully, this is also printed in a more dyslexia-friendly font on the other side of the page. (A welcome sign that Free League are not about to sacrifice accessibility for aesthetics.)
What they may have sacrificed on however is the character portraits. While each of the canon characters are represented in dynamic, painterly full-body portraits, the other six pre-cons make do with a simple written description of their physical appearance. This may be a result of the fact that players have freedom to play any of their non-canon pre-cons as a man or woman. So, unlike with Alien: The Roleplaying Game, each character sheet would call for two portraits.
Chef’s kiss, Free League. When it comes to creating a set that is aesthetically pleasing and bang on theme, you’ve done it again
One area of The Walking Dead Universe Starter Set where art definitely isn't lacking is its maps. There are three small maps showing areas relevant to the Survival Mode scenario and two larger maps of North East Georgia and South West Virginia respectively. These are not particularly necessary for play given that the system very much encourages theater of the mind. However, they're valuable illustrative tools that can reused for multiple campaigns and, thankfully, the excellent quality means it'll hold up across all those sessions.
The Walking Dead Universe Starter Set: Gameplay
Accessible system that's very easy to run or play
Character secrets add a lot of spice to roleplaying
NPC rules are confusing
The Walking Dead Universe RPG uses a slightly modified version of Free League's Year Zero engine, which is worth diving into more when reviewing the system's Core Rulebook.
In the meantime, what I can say is it's exceptionally easy to get to grips with and can be pretty much summed up in four sentences:
1. Roll some dice and if you get any 6s, you did the thing successfully. Good job!
2. If your character has Attributes, Skills, or Gear which make them better equipped to do the thing, you get more dice.
3. If your character is freaking out, they get stress dice.
4. Roll a 1 on a stress die and awful things happen.
There is obviously a little more to it but for our purposes, that'll do. You can put these mechanics to practice by playing through the Survival Mode one-shot included with the set.
The scenario, titled The Wolves' Den, opens with a betrayal. Two members of your party have eloped and decided to take a car carrying heaps of supplies as their wedding present. You start tracking these thieving lovebirds but they're nowhere to be found and have been seemingly been kidnapped by – you guessed it – The Wolves.
This cult-like band of raiders from Season 5 of The Walking Dead should be the big bad of this campaign, but they feel tragically underutilized. You don't meet a single Wolf until you're over halfway through the scenario and it doesn't seem as though any significant foreshadowing happens up until this point. For much of your playtime, it will feel like the main antagonists are the two double-crossing lovers who should have been your allies.
Some of the preconstructed characters also sport pretty gnarly secrets which necessitate them secretly working against the interests of other players. These range from homicidal intentions to plans of abandoning their fellow survivors, and can make for some majorly tense roleplay moments.
Secrets are double edged sword, though. While they can make for fascinating drama, having players be constantly suspicious of each other can undermine any desire to truly cooperate, and adopting an 'every man for himself' perspective is one sure fire way to lead to a character death. As Glenn Rhee once said, "We can make it together. But we can only make it together."
When you factor in the length of these adventures, it's hard not to feel short changed.
There are plenty of NPCs in the scenario (friendly and otherwise), but bizarrely, NPCs don't come with much, if any, information regarding their dice rolls - I saw only one instance where you're given the number of dice used for an opposed roll in a specific situation. This is a seriously significant oversight that had me second-guessing my own understanding of the game's engine. How, exactly, could I put together an accurate dice pool for NPC actions or contested rolls without knowing each character's Attribute stats? In each case, I shrugged it off and took a wild guess.
Unfortunately, the answer to this mystery lies in the Core Rulebook: a product that is sold separately and that the majority of Starter Set owners wouldn't have access to. Turns out, NPCs don't have Attributes and instead work off four d6s plus their Skills modifier. My guesses were close enough, I suppose. (Editor's note: We later reached out to Free League for clarification on this, and they confirmed that NPC stats not being included was a mistake that will be updated in the Starter Set's next printing.)
NPC descriptions are not only mechanically sparse, but also lack what I would consider pretty crucial characterization notes. Every member of the Wolves, from the lowest of pawns to Owen, the group's leader, is described within a single sentence. Sure, there's a lot to be said for a GM's creative freedom, but not having a clearer picture of Owen's particular brand of jittery, nihilistic villainy is nothing but a missed opportunity in my book.
In general, despite offering a competent introduction to the game's world and mechanics, the included scenario is pretty woefully underdeveloped. Then again, I suppose there's not a whole lot that can be fit into one gameplay session and 16 pages. For reference, the starter set for Blade Runner: The Roleplaying Game came with a 56-page campaign, while The One Ring Starter Set offered 31 pages. When you factor in the length of these adventures, it's hard not to feel short changed.
Should you buy The Walking Dead Universe Starter Set?
It might sound ridiculous, but the real stars of this set are the lovely maps and custom dice which alone retail at $40. Obviously, any d6 can work as a stand-in for these so if they really don't catch your eye, you may find the Core Rulebook a better place to start with this system.
However, buying the Starter Set is a total no-brainer for those who want an intro to a gritty, rules-light TTRPG, pretty dice, and a whole load of extras in a box that'll make a pleasing addition to any collector's shelf.
