A Walking Dead RPG is shambling over from Free League Publishing. It seems it’ll be a while before you get to play it – zombies are notoriously slow-moving after all – but The Walking Dead Universe Roleplaying Game will be hitting Kickstarter in Spring 2023. As you’d expect, it’s a post-apocalyptic sandbox style game where you’ll face “impossible life and death choices” and struggle to “survive and thrive in this new world order”.
Free League has partnered with AMC Networks for The Walking Dead Universe RPG, which suggests it’ll be closely connected to the television series rather than the original comics. The game’s writer is Nils Hintze, the man behind some of Free League’s best-loved titles, including Vaesan and Tales from the Loop. The publisher has also teamed up with Genuine Entertainment, with which it’s previously collaborated on projects such as the Alien and Blade Runner RPGs.
According to its newborn website, The Walking Dead Universe RPG will let you put yourself in the world of the Walking Dead at any point in the timeline. It’ll feature “familiar faces and places, and brand-new ones” and uses an adapted version of the core D6 version of Free League’s Year Zero Engine.
To demonstrate (and generate some buzz about) its new title, Free League’s working with AMC on an actual play series to show off The Walking Dead RPG in action. Apparently, it’ll feature “original events pulled from the series’ writers’ room”, “intersect with core story elements” and its players – whoever they end up being – will “cross paths with a familiar face or two”. There’s no hints as to a release date for the series just yet though.
As The Walking Dead TV series draws to a close with the Season 11 finale airing this weekend, it seems a fitting time to announce the upcoming RPG. “We have seen many stories in The Walking Dead Universe, now it’s time to see yours,” says the game’s website.