So, I made a tabletop role-playing game! 😊
You can download the PDF of the first edition here: Survival: A Mini-Game of the Zombie Apocalypse
I am incredibly thrilled. After 40 years of playing games, I’ve finally published one of my own. It might be a mini-game, but I made it, and holding a finished project feels great.
I’ve tried to write a TTRPG almost since I started playing. My first attempt was a superhero game that used letters to classify powers and had corresponding tables with rules for each, a weird hybrid of Marvel FASERIP and AD&D 1st Edition. I tried again in 10th grade and in college, then gave up for many years. Recently, I’ve taken three or four stabs at it but never quite completed a game. MUGeS, a system I playtested a few months ago, was the closest to “finished” I had gotten, but I still wasn’t completely satisfied.
Then inspiration hit. I dreamt about the core mechanic, got up, and wrote the foundation for Survival: A Mini-Game of the Zombie Apocalypse that same day. As I wrote, almost four weeks ago, I had watched the latest Resident Evil movie, and the ideas were fresh in my mind.
I am very thankful to my friends for their feedback. Michael, aka the Stargazer, gave me invaluable notes and inspired the game’s resource-management rules. He also took a stab at the layout, which influenced the game’s final look. Two other friends, Luis Miranda and Luis Alvarado, provided great feedback, inspiration, and proofreading.
Special thanks to my longtime friend and talented artist, Elias Meléndez (@gambitsink), for drawing the cover. It is exciting to put this game together with support from my friends and to feature a cover by a Puerto Rican artist whose work I’ve enjoyed so much.
Games don’t exist in a vacuum, and this one draws on varied inspirations. Michael’s own Warrior, Rogue & Mage, with its elegant simplicity, and The Black Hack, with its Usage Die mechanic, immediately come to mind.
As I’ve mentioned in recent posts, publishing something for my 40th anniversary as a gamer is special to me. I wanted to contribute to the community and leave behind something I created that I hope some of you get to use and enjoy at your tables. Thank you all for your continued support through the years.
My friend Felipe is already hacking the game, and I am excited to see what he does with the ideas.
I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences with the game. Feel free to leave a comment here, reach out via social media (Facebook, Instagram, Discord, Threads, or Bluesky), or email me. I’ll greatly appreciate it!
