Kickstart This!

It's 1953 and the United States is under siege.You, your family, your neighbors, and your friends have to fight the shambling dead as they trample your begonias and drag ichor all over your new front porch. They're clawing at the door, and it's not just because they want your apple pie recipe.

Man... I hate when that happens!

DEAD SCARE is a tabletop roleplaying game by women, about women and children killing zombies in McCarthy-era America. It's based on Apocalypse World by Vincent Baker, and combines subverted 1950s American idealism with a blood-spattered zombie apocalypse.

Oh... well... that actually sounds pretty darn cool!

I think what I love most about Dead Scare is that, as a tabletop RPG, the possibilities are endless in how to tell the stories in new and interesting ways. The characters aren't limited to the traditional weapons, but instead have to get creative to defend themselves. Players can be creative in the type of characters they design, building on the idea that it's the common folk who are being called into extraordinary action. And because it's set within this alt-history world, players can incorporate larger themes and issues into the game play.

As Elsa S. Henry, one of the game designers, says in her interview with The Illuminerdy:

You can tell the stories of women protecting their communities with whatever weapons they can make, you can tell the stories of the Freedom Scouts (orphans of the zed outbreak), Jewish women fleeing from Brooklyn and a Jewish diaspora, the fight to end segregation through the lens of an apocalypse. Dead Scare can be played in a variety of ways, from a goofy Leave it to Beaver crossover with the Walking Dead, to a serious and dark game looking at the way the fabric of American society frays under the stressors of fear.

Check it out!