Move your ships and Samurai to block a key location, draw cards to change the course of battle, move a Clan Token to secure your claim to the throne or generate wealth to give you even more options. This system allows players to adjust their strategy at a moment’s notice to reflect the challenges they’ll face from rival clans. The value of each action is determined by the token used (1-4). Each round, players will use an innovative action selection system to use one of four available actions: Gain Wealth, Move Units, Draw Cards or Move a Clan Token. Battle for control of key locations in the Lotus Galaxy to increase your clan’s honor and sway lesser clans to your cause. Take control of your clan and lead your fleet of ships to glory with cunning tactics and political manipulation. The survivors are all dealing with their own psychological imperatives but must still find a way to work together to fight off outside threats, resolve crises, find food and supplies, and keep the colony’s morale up. It is a story-centric game about surviving through a harsh winter in an apocalyptic world. Work toward the group’s goal but don’t get walked all over by a loudmouth who’s only looking out for their own interests! Dead of Winter is an experience that can only be accomplished through the medium of tabletop games. This secret objective could relate to a psychological tick that’s fairly harmless to most others in the colony, a dangerous obsession that could put the main objective at risk, a desire for sabotage of the main mission, or worst of all: vengeance against the colony! Certain games could end with all players winning, some winning and some losing, or all players losing. This means players are working together toward one common victory condition-but for each individual player to achieve victory, they must also complete their personal secret objective. Each player leads a faction of survivors with dozens of different characters in the game.ĭead of Winter is a meta-cooperative psychological survival game. It puts 2-5 players together in a small, weakened colony of survivors in a world where most of humanity are either dead or diseased, flesh-craving monsters. Dead of Winter is the first game in this series, designed by Isaac Vega and Jon Gilmour.