Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game Rulebook

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

• Object of the Game
• Components
• The Cards
  • Main Objective Cards
  • Secret Objective Cards
  • Survivor Cards
  • Item Cards
  • Crisis Cards
  • Crossroads Cards
• Game Board
• Game Setup
• Round Order
• Player Turns Phase
• Player Turn Actions
  • Actions That Require an Action Die
  • Actions That Do Not Require an Action Die
• Resolving Crossroads Cards
• Rolling for Exposure
  • Spreading a Bite Effect
• Colony Phase
• Adding Zombies
• Killing Zombies
• Adding Survivors
• Killing Survivors
• Exile
• Winning and Losing the Game
• Voting
• Card Text
• Roll a Die
• Gameplay Variants
• Main Objectives
• Credits

Object of the Game

Dead of Winter is a semi-cooperative game. Players work together toward a common main objective, but each player also has a secret objective of their own. Only players who have completed their secret objective when the game ends will win — so there can be multiple winners, a single winner, or no winners at all.

The game can end in one of three ways:

• The morale track reaches 0.
• The round track reaches 0.
• The main objective is completed.

Components

• 10 Dual-Sided Main Objective Cards
• 24 Secret Objective Cards
• 10 Betrayal Secret Objective Cards
• 10 Exiled Secret Objective Cards
• 30 Survivor Cards
• 5 Player Reference Sheets
• 1 First Player Token
• 25 Starting Item Cards
• 20 each of Police Station, Grocery Store, School, Gas Station, Library, and Hospital Item Deck Cards
• 20 Crisis Cards
• 80 Crossroads Cards
• 25 Wound Tokens
• 20 Helpless Survivor Tokens
• 20 Food Tokens
• 20 Noise Tokens
• 20 Barricade Tokens
• 6 Starvation Tokens
• 2 Track Markers
• 30 Zombie Standees
• 20 Zombie Tokens (use if you run out of standees)
• 30 Survivor Standees
• 60 Plastic Standee Stands
• 1 Colony Board
• 6 Location Cards
• 1 Rulebook
• 30 Action Dice
• 1 Exposure Die

The Cards

Main Objective Cards

Each main objective card describes:

1. Name — the name of the main objective.
2. Setup — how to set up the board for this scenario.
3. Goal — the task(s) that must be accomplished to complete the main objective.
4. Time — an estimate of how long the objective will take. Short = 45–90 minutes. Medium = 90–120 minutes. Long = 120–210 minutes.

Main objective cards are dual-sided: a standard side and a harder "hardcore" side.

Secret Objective Cards

Each secret objective card describes:

1. Name — the name of the secret objective.
2. Goal — the task(s) you must accomplish in order to win the game.

You may not reveal your secret objective card to other players. A typical secret objective requires that the main objective be completed and some additional personal condition be met (for example, ending the game with a number of a particular item type in your hand).

Betrayal secret objectives represent a survivor actively working against the colony. Exiled secret objectives represent the reaction of a group of survivors to being exiled.

Survivor Cards

Each survivor card shows:

1. Name — the survivor's name.
2. Occupation — the survivor's occupation before the apocalypse (no game effect).
3. Influence Value — the survivor's place within the colony hierarchy.
4. Attack Value — the survivor's proficiency in a fight.
5. Search Value — the survivor's proficiency at finding items.
6. Ability Location — the location the survivor must be at to use their ability.
7. Ability — a unique effect the survivor has on the game. If a number precedes the ability text, that ability requires spending an action die of that value or higher.

Item Cards

Each item card shows:

1. Name — the name of the item.
2. Symbol Type — one of 7 item types: Weapon, Fuel, Education, Food, Medicine, Tool, or Survivor.
3. Ability — the effect the card has when played.
4. Location — the deck this item card starts in at the beginning of the game.

Some item cards have an Equip ability. Some have a Waste Pile ability that is played when a survivor moves. Event item cards are removed from the game when played instead of going to the waste pile.

Crisis Cards

Each crisis card shows:

1. Name — the name of the crisis.
2. Prevent — the type(s) of items a player must contribute to prevent the crisis. The number of contributions required equals the number of non-exiled players.
3. Effect — the negative effect that happens if the crisis is not prevented.
4. Optional — players may contribute additional cards (beyond those required) to gain a specified bonus effect, often gaining 1 morale.

Crossroads Cards

Each crossroads card shows:

1. Name — the name of the crossroad.
2. Trigger — italicized text describing the event that must happen for the card to take effect.
3. Options — the choices offered when the card triggers.

Some crossroads cards have mature themes and are marked with a special symbol; players may remove those cards before playing.

Game Board

The game board is made up of 7 locations: the colony board and 6 location cards.

Colony Board includes: the colony name, numbered entrances, entrance spaces (where zombies and barricades may be placed), survivor spaces (where survivors may be placed), the morale track, the round track, the food supply, the main objective space, the waste pile, the crisis deck, and the crisis contributions area.

Location Cards each include: name, survivor spaces, entrance spaces, an item deck, noise spaces (only 4 noise tokens may be placed at any single location during a round), and item symbols (ordered left to right by likelihood of finding items of that type when searching there).

Game Setup

1. Place the colony board in the center of the play area and place the 6 location cards around it.
2. Each player collects a player reference sheet.
3. Choose (or randomly pick) a standard main objective. Place its card in the main objective space and set up the board according to its setup instructions. (The rulebook suggests "We Need More Samples" for a first game.)
4. Shuffle the non-betrayal secret objective cards and set aside 2 (facedown) per player. Return the rest to the box. Shuffle the betrayal secret objective cards and add 1 of them (facedown) to the set-aside non-betrayal cards; return the remaining betrayal cards to the box. Shuffle all the set-aside cards together and deal 1 to each player. Return the remaining secret objective cards to the box without looking at them. A player cannot reveal their secret objective card to other players.
5. Shuffle the crisis cards and place the deck on its space on the colony board.
6. Shuffle and make decks of the survivor, exiled objective, and crossroads cards, and place them off to the side. (Optionally remove mature-themed crossroads cards first.)
7. Shuffle all the starter item cards and deal 5 to each player. Return any remaining to the box.
8. Separate the remaining item cards into decks by location. Shuffle each and place it on its corresponding location card.
9. Deal 4 survivor cards to each player. Each player keeps 2 and returns the others; re-shuffle the survivor deck.
10. Each player makes 1 of their 2 survivors their group leader, placing it in the respective space on their reference card.
11. The other survivor is placed in the player's following.
12. Add the corresponding survivor standees for each player's survivors to the colony (placed on the dashed circles in the "Colony Occupants" section of the colony board).
13. Separate the remaining standees and tokens within easy reach.
14. The player whose group leader has the highest influence value receives the first player token and takes the first turn. Use the blue track marker for morale and the red marker for rounds.

Round Order

Dead of Winter is played over a series of rounds. Each round has 2 phases, played in order:

1. Player Turns Phase
2. Colony Phase

Player Turns Phase

Resolve these 3 steps in order:

1. Reveal Crisis — Reveal the top card of the crisis deck. Its effect will take place during the colony phase if not prevented. Crises can be prevented if players contribute enough of the correct type of cards.
2. Roll Action Dice — Each player removes any action dice remaining in their used and unused pools. Then each player receives 1 action die, plus 1 additional die for each survivor they control (so players start the game with 3 dice). Each player rolls all their dice and keeps the results in their unused action dice pool. Action dice belong to the player's group, not to any individual survivor — a player may spend multiple dice on multiple actions with a single survivor.
3. Player Turns — Starting with the first player and proceeding clockwise, each player takes a turn. At the start of a player's turn, the player to her right draws a crossroads card (see below). A player may perform multiple actions on her turn. When done (or unable to act further), play passes left. Once every player has taken a turn, the colony phase begins.

Player Turn Actions

Some actions require spending an action die; others do not. To spend an action die, move it from the unused pool to the used pool. Some actions require the die be a specific result or higher.

Actions That Require an Action Die

• Attack — Choose a survivor you control and spend an action die equal to or higher than that survivor's attack value. Choose a target (a zombie or survivor sharing the location).
  • If a zombie is chosen, kill it and remove it from the board, then roll for exposure on the attacking survivor.
  • If a survivor is chosen, roll the spent action die. If the result is equal to or less than the chosen survivor's attack value, place a wound marker on that survivor and take a card at random from the hand of that survivor's controller. The exposure die is not rolled when attacking a survivor.
  • A player may attack multiple times with the same survivor, spending a qualifying die each time. A player cannot have a survivor attack another survivor they control, and cannot attack a helpless survivor.
• Search — A player may search at any location except the colony. Choose a survivor you control and spend an action die equal to or higher than that survivor's search value. Draw 1 card from that location's item deck, look at it without adding it to your hand, then either: (a) add it to your hand and end the search, or (b) make noise by placing a noise token on an empty noise space at the location to draw and look at an additional card. You may keep drawing as long as empty noise spaces remain. When finished, keep 1 drawn card (add it to your hand) and place the rest on the bottom of that item deck. A survivor may search multiple times in a turn, spending a qualifying die each time.
• Barricade — Choose a survivor you control and spend an action die of any result to place a barricade token on any empty entrance space at that survivor's location.
• Clean Waste — If you control at least 1 survivor at the colony, spend 1 action die of any result and remove the top 3 cards of the waste pile from the game.
• Attract — Choose a survivor you control and spend an action die of any result to move 2 zombies from any location to any empty entrance spaces at the chosen survivor's location.
• Survivor Ability — Some survivor abilities require an action die, signified by a number before the ability text. Spend a die equal to or higher than that number. A survivor's ability may be used multiple times in a turn unless it says otherwise.

Actions That Do Not Require an Action Die

• Play a Card — As many times as she likes, a player may play a card from her hand by placing it on top of the waste pile. Event item cards are removed from the game instead of going to the waste pile. A card with an equip ability is not placed in the waste pile; instead the player may equip it to any survivor she controls by placing it next to that survivor. Once equipped, a card cannot be unequipped unless it is added to a crisis or handed off. If a survivor with equipped cards dies at the colony, those cards return to the controlling player's hand; if it dies at a non-colony location, the cards are shuffled into that location's item deck. (Reminder: for every 10 cards in the waste pile during the check waste step, the colony loses 1 morale.)
• Add a Card to the Crisis — A player may add 1 or more cards from her hand and/or equipped to survivors she controls to the current crisis. Cards from a hand are added face down. Cards matching a symbol in the crisis's prevent area help prevent it; cards that do not match help cause it.
• Move a Survivor — A player may move each survivor she controls once per turn to any location with an empty survivor space. After each move, roll for exposure. (If a bitten result is rolled, the bite spreads to a survivor at the location the moved survivor just moved to.)
• Spend Food Tokens — A player may remove food tokens from the colony's food supply to increase any 1 unused action die she controls by 1 for each token spent.
• Request — A player may request 1 or more item cards from other players. Others may give the requester an item card from their hand; if they do, that card must be revealed and immediately played (it cannot be added to the crisis).
• Hand Off — A player may have a survivor she controls that has an item equipped hand it off to another survivor at the same location. The item is unequipped and immediately equipped to the receiving survivor. (A once-per-round ability already used that round cannot be reused by handing it off.)
• Vote to Exile — Once per turn a player may choose another player and initiate a vote to exile them. All players simultaneously vote yes (thumbs up) or no (thumbs down). A player cannot initiate a vote to exile themselves. Ties are broken by the first player.

Resolving Crossroads Cards

At the beginning of each player's turn, the player to her right draws a crossroads card and keeps it secret, revealing it only if its trigger happens. The card's text applies to the player taking the turn. If at any time during her turn she meets the trigger requirements, the card is read aloud by the player who drew it, and the active player chooses one of the offered options. That option takes effect immediately and the card is removed from the game. If the card doesn't trigger during the turn, place it on the bottom of the crossroads deck. If a player cannot meet the conditions of one option, she must choose the other.

Notes: A crossroads trigger tied to an action takes place after that action resolves. Some crossroads effects have you search a deck; shuffle it afterward.

Rolling for Exposure

Immediately after a survivor moves to a new location or kills a zombie, that survivor's controller rolls the exposure die. Each face has an effect:

• Blank — Nothing happens.
• Wound — The survivor receives 1 wound token.
• Frostbite — The survivor receives 1 frostbite wound token (counted as a wound). At the beginning of each of your turns, each survivor you control with 1 or more frostbite tokens receives an additional wound token.
• Bitten — The survivor is killed and the bite effect spreads.

Spreading a Bite Effect

When a survivor is killed by a bitten roll, the bite spreads to the survivor with the lowest influence that shared the location. The controller of that survivor must choose:

• Option 1 — Kill the survivor the bite spread to. The bite stops spreading.
• Option 2 — Roll the exposure die again. On a blank, the survivor is not killed and the bite stops spreading. On any other result, that survivor is killed and the bite spreads again.

The bite continues until a player chooses Option 1, rolls a blank after Option 2, or there are no more survivors at the location. Whenever a survivor is killed by any game effect, the colony loses 1 morale.

Colony Phase

Resolve these 7 steps in order:

1. Pay Food — Remove 1 food token from the supply for every 2 survivors in the colony (rounded up). Helpless survivor tokens count as survivors. Survivors at non-colony locations do not count (they forage for themselves). If there is not enough food: do not remove any food tokens, add a starvation token to the food supply, then decrease morale by 1 for each starvation token currently in the food supply.
2. Check Waste — Count the waste pile. For every 10 cards (rounded down), decrease morale by 1.
3. Resolve Crisis — Shuffle the cards added face-down to the crisis. Reveal them one at a time. Each card matching a symbol in the prevent section is worth +1 point; each non-matching card is −1 point. After revealing all cards: if the total is lower than the number of non-exiled players, resolve the crisis (apply its fail effect). If the total equals or exceeds the number of non-exiled players, the crisis is prevented. If the total exceeds the number of non-exiled players by 2 or more, the colony gains 1 morale. Then remove all cards added to the crisis from the game.
4. Add Zombies — Add 1 zombie to the colony for every 2 survivors (including helpless) present there (rounded up). Add 1 zombie to each non-colony location for every 1 survivor present at that location. Then, one at a time, remove each noise token at a location and roll an action die for each; add a zombie to that location on each roll of 3 or lower.
5. Check Main Objective — Check whether the main objective's goal has been achieved. If it has, the game immediately ends.
6. Move Round Tracker — Move the round tracker down 1 space. If it reaches 0, the game immediately ends.
7. Pass First Player Token — The first player passes the token to the player on his right. A new round begins with the reveal crisis step.

Adding Zombies

Zombies are added 1 at a time until all required zombies are placed.

When adding zombies to the colony, place the first zombie on any empty space in entrance 1, the second in entrance 2, the third in entrance 3, and so on. A seventh zombie goes back to entrance 1, and so on. If the entrance where a zombie would go has no empty space but has a barricade token, destroy that barricade and remove the zombie that would have been placed. If there are no empty spaces and no barricade tokens, the entrance is overrun: remove that zombie and kill the survivor at the colony with the lowest influence value (if only helpless survivors are present, kill a helpless survivor; if no survivors are present, remove the zombie with no further effect). Every time a survivor is killed (including a helpless survivor), decrease morale by 1.

When adding zombies to non-colony locations, follow the same rules, except there is only 1 entrance, so all zombies go in spaces at that entrance.

If there are no zombie standees left, use the zombie tokens to add the additional zombies.

Killing Zombies

Whenever a zombie is attacked, it is killed. Whenever a zombie is killed by an attack or card effect, the survivor's controller must roll for exposure on that survivor. When killing a zombie at the colony, choose which zombie to kill (from any entrance). A killed or removed zombie returns to the pile of unused zombies.

Adding Survivors

Some effects add a new survivor to a player's following. Add the corresponding standee to the "Colony Occupants" section. The controlling player may use the new survivor during her turn, but does not roll an additional action die for it until the next roll action dice step. If there are no empty survivor spaces at the colony, players cannot trigger crossroads cards or play item cards that would add survivors (including helpless survivors).

Killing Survivors

A survivor is killed when: zombies overrun a location entrance; the survivor has 3 or more wound tokens; the survivor is bitten; or a card effect kills it.

When a survivor is killed, remove its standee from the board, decrease morale by 1, and remove its survivor card from the game. Equipped cards return to the controller's hand if the survivor was at the colony, or are shuffled into the location's item deck otherwise.

If a player's group leader is killed or lost, she must choose a survivor from her following to become the new group leader. If a player's last remaining survivor would be killed or lost, she immediately discards her whole hand, draws a new survivor card, adds it to the game, and makes it her new group leader.

If a helpless survivor is killed, remove a helpless survivor token and reduce morale by 1.

Note: Some card effects remove a survivor from the game — this is not the same as killing, and does not cost morale unless the card says so.

Exile

If players vote in favor of exiling a player, the exiled player immediately draws 1 exiled secret objective card (which adjusts his secret objective) and must move all survivors he controls in the colony to non-colony locations of his choice (following normal movement rules; this does not count as their 1 allowed move). New rules for the exiled player:

• Cannot add cards to a crisis.
• When directed to add helpless survivor tokens to the colony, those tokens are not added.
• If he plays a survivor item card, the survivor is placed at a non-colony location of his choice rather than at the colony.
• Cannot spend food tokens to increase action dice, but may play food cards to increase an action die result by 1 each (instead of using the food card's listed effect).
• Cannot vote.
• The colony does not lose morale when a survivor he controls is killed.
• When he plays a card, he removes it from the game instead of placing it in the waste pile.

Important: If at any time there are 2 exiled players and neither had a betrayal secret objective, morale immediately drops to 0.

Winning and Losing the Game

When the game ends for any reason, a player wins if he has completed his secret objective, and loses if he has not. There can be multiple winners, and it is possible for everyone to lose.

The game can end when:

• The morale track reaches 0 (game ends immediately; do not check the main objective).
• The round track reaches 0 (game ends immediately; do not check the main objective).
• The main objective is completed.

Voting

Players may be asked to vote (for a vote to exile or a crossroads-called vote) with a thumbs up or down. Players may deliberate, then count down from 3 and cast their votes simultaneously on 0.

Card Text

When a card effect contradicts the rulebook, the card effect takes precedence. If 2 effects would trigger simultaneously, the first player decides the order. An item card cannot be played to interrupt an effect currently taking place — for example, a medicine card cannot prevent a wound; it can only be played after a wound is received, so a survivor receiving a third wound cannot be saved.

Roll a Die

Many cards instruct you to roll a die. When they do, take an action die not in use by any player, roll it, apply the result, and then return it to the pile of unused action dice.

Gameplay Variants

• Co-Op Variant — Play cooperatively using the hardcore side of the main objective and no secret objectives; each player's only objective is to complete the main objective. Players cannot vote to exile. During setup, remove every card showing the non-co-op symbol.
• 2 Player Variant — Follow the Co-Op Variant rules. Each player receives 7 starting item cards (instead of 5) and 4 survivors, keeping 3 (instead of 2).
• Betrayer Variant — During setup, add only 1 non-betrayal secret objective per player rather than 2, greatly increasing the odds of a betrayer.
• Hardcore Variant — Instead of the standard side, use the hardcore side of the main objective for a greater challenge.
• Player Elimination Variant — If a player's last remaining survivor would be killed or lost, that player discards her hand and is out of the game.

Main Objectives

The game includes 10 main objective stories, each dual-sided (standard and hardcore):

• M01 – X Weeks of Darkness
• M02 – Kill Them
• M03 – Find a Cure
• M04 – Home Sweet Home
• M05 – Raiding Party
• M06 – Leave it all Behind
• M07 – Stockpile
• M08 – Winter Has Come
• M09 – Too Many Mouths
• M10 – We Need More Samples (suggested first game)

Credits

Game Designers: Isaac Vega, Jon Gilmour. Producer: Colby Dauch. Illustrator: Fernanda Suarez. Published by Plaid Hat Games. © 2014 Plaid Hat Games.