Review: Outbreak!
Product Name: Outbreak!
Publisher: 6d6
Author: Ben Jackson
Interior Artist: Chris Tregenza
Page Count:108
Price: £25.00 Hard Copy / £10.00 PDF
From the Publisher
The cheerleader, the criminal, the driver, the guard, the punk girl, the cage fighter and the child. Seven lucky survivors of the first day of the zombie apocalypse. As nightfall approaches, can they find some way to survive until dawn?
Outbreak! is a scenario that is for 3-7 players and a Game Leader. Designed to be run in a single session it draws heavily on the entire canon of zombie films and is written to encourage a cinematographic feel in its play.
One consistent theme in zombie films is that most, if not all, of the characters will die by the end of the film, often in horrific circumstances. Outbreak! follows that mould and, unlike most role playing adventures, expects the characters to be killed. There is a ‘proper’ way for this adventure to end with the survivors driving off into the sunrise on their way to a secure government facility. However it is very unlikely that the party will achieve this. Instead the Game Leader should bring the game to a close at a suitably dramatic and cinematographic point.
First Thoughts
You generally do not have to twist my arm to pick up a zombie game. Well actually, a zombie anything. Since the 6d6 system is one that just “makes sense” for combat encounters, I was more than fairly certain that Outbreak! was going to be a perfect fit. And it turns out I was right on the money.
The Good
From the hauntingly beautiful cover photo by Rob North, to the simplified details of how to run the scenario itself, this is a very nice product and a welcome fresh edition to zombie RPGs. Ben Jackson did an awesome job on this, and I look forward to more of his work in the future.
The Bad
None. This is a quality product all around.
The Ugly
When there is no bad, there can really be no ugly.
It’s Time to Play The Game
Outbreak isn’t going to be a game that you’re going to run a campaign for weeks and weeks. Like all of the classic zombie movies, it is the type of game that you can play in a couple of hours and have a blast doing. And if you want to run it again in the future, you can do just that – because I doubt that any one session is going to resemble another.
The pre-generated characters for players to choose from fit all of the standard zombie movie tropes, and while you’re welcome to make your own, the ones provided are rather good. Any leftovers become NPCs for the Game Leader to use as he sees fit.
And like any great zombie movie, the characters all come together just before a zombie apocalypse, with a very well-written narrative to help set the stage for mayhem.
The rules themselves are a slightly more simplified version of the 6d6 Core, which was reviewed earlier.
What Else is Great
You can’t go wrong with zombies. So if you’re a horror fan, you’re going to love Outbreak! In fact, if you’re a fan of good games, you’re going to love it.
And as I have mentioned before, everything comes with their Living Document Promise. That means that you will have access to the latest versions of the PDFs for all these products – forever.
I generally don’t say this too often, but I smell an award with this product… go get it!
Overall Rating
