Dice of the Living Dead is a solo dice game that is free to print and play.

These rules support the alternative

version of the gameboard and separate score sheet. Other than visual differences, this version of the game is
exactly the same as the original.

Downloadable files for both versions of this game are freely available on the BoardGameGeek website at
http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/56022/dice-of-the-living-dead

The Story
It’s Monday morning and you’ve been listening to reports on the radio about some sort of accident at the chemical
and nuclear research facility at the edge of town near the cemetery. You happened to be driving by the cemetery
when you saw what looked like people from a funeral fleeing in panic – and some of them ran out into the road right
in front of you. Swerving hard, you managed to avoid the panicked people, but ended up crashing your truck into
the ditch.

A disheveled young man wearing a black suit and tie stumbled by; you quickly grabbed him to ask what’s going on.
He related an unbelievable account of the dead rising from their graves… attacking people… and then eating them!
Just as he finishes his tale, you saw what can only be described as a living dead person shambling towards you.

You have no intention on hanging around at ground zero; it’s time to get moving. You grab your shotgun, what little
ammo you have, some left-over camping supplies in the back of the truck, and from the glove compartment: a map
of the town and an old bowling score card that might be handy to keep notes on.

You round up the stragglers from the funeral party and take stock: There are twelve of you, you’ve got six pieces of
equipment from your camping supplies, and six shells for your shotgun. There’s no chance of fighting to save the
town – the town is lost. Your only chance is to just try to survive, and that means escaping the town before
nightfall.

Based on the radio reports, the only safe way out of town is to get to the Interstate where the National Guard has
set up an armed blockade. And that’s on the other side of town.

The day is going to get worse before it gets better. If it gets better…

Components
These rules assume you are using the associated version of the gameboard and score sheet. In order to play this
version, you’ll need the following:
 A printout of the gameboard.
 A printout of the score sheet.
 A pen or pencil and a die for bookkeeping.
 At least 8 normal six-sided dice, preferably in three different colours (5 white survivor dice, a red zombie die, a
black scavenger die, and an hour die of any colour).
 A pawn to show your progress on the gameboard.

Set Up
Start by placing a die with the “5” side up on the hour marker on the score sheet. Place your pawn at the start
space (the circled cemetery at the top of the gameboard) and you’re ready to go.
The Gameboard
The primary feature of the gameboard is the progress track. It shows safe houses (mall, gas station, and
abandoned house – circled in green) and overrun parts of town (red circles). Summary tables of the safe house
events are also included on the gameboard.

The Score Sheet

The score sheet features an area to keep track of survivors, supplies, ammo, and infected. There are also areas
used to hold the different dice before resolving them. Summary tables of the various dice rolls are included on the
score sheet.

The Dice
The game has three different kinds of dice. All are standard, six-sided dice, but they cover different parts of the
story.

Survivor dice
Every turn you roll 5 survivor dice – no matter how many survivors you actually have left. They can give you
movement to get closer to your goal and they can give you valuable resources to fight the zombie horde, but
they can also generate zombies and make you lose hours.

Scavenger die
This die determines what you scavenge as you search through the town. Maybe you’ll find badly-needed
supplies, desperate survivors, or ammo to fight the zombies; but there’s a small risk of a survivor becoming
infected as he/she searches through the buildings.

Zombie die
The zombie die shows how many zombies you encounter during the game round. The higher you roll, the
fewer zombies attack you.

Fight dice
Both you and the zombies roll fight dice. The number rolled and their effects are detailed below in the Fight
zombies section.

Playing the Game

You and your band of survivors must make it to the Interstate on the other side of town and escape the undead
menace. Along the way you will be fighting zombies, searching for survivors, and doling out your limited supplies.

Each turn you roll dice trying to find the right balance between moving fast and having the time to fend of zeds. But
just as every roll of the dice can help you, it also holds certain risks.

The game consists of a series of rounds. You play until you make it to the Interstate, lose your last survivor, or time
runs out, in which case darkness falls and the zombies overwhelm you. Do note that the term “hours” is not used in
a literal sense – even in this game you have more than five actual hours of daylight.

Each round consists of the following elements, which are explained in further detail below:
1. Roll and resolve survivor dice.
2. Resolve scavenger dice.
3. Resolve movement.
4. Resolve zombie die.
5. Fight zombies.
6. Safe house phase (only if you reached a safe house during movement).

1. Roll and resolve survivor dice.

First you roll the five survivor dice. At the same time you roll the zombie die and the scavenger die. Make sure
to use dice that are easily distinguishable (eg: different colours for the different die types). The zombie die is
immediately placed in the zombie dice pool to be resolved later, whereas both the survivor dice and the
scavenger die may be rerolled two times for a maximum of three rolls. After the third roll all dice are frozen.
 At any time between dice rolls you may freeze the dice and place them in their appropriate spot on the score
card. As long as the three-roll maximum has not been reached, you may later reroll dice you’ve already frozen.
The only exception to this is that every survivor die you roll a “1” on must immediately be placed in the zombie
dice pool and cannot be rerolled.

Survivor dice results table

1 – Zombie. Place in zombie dice pool. No reroll.
2 – Lose one hour.
3 – 1 movement point.
4 – 2 movement points.
5 – Fight.
6 – Fight.

Dice placed in the fight dice pool will be rolled again later, so it doesn’t matter if you freeze 5’s or 6’s.

Before moving on to the next step you resolve any frozen 2’s by losing an hour for each.

2. Resolve scavenger die.

Your scavenger die will be resolved according to the following table. Do note that a result of “1” is applied
immediately, and the die may then be rerolled as normal.

Scavenger die results table

1 – Lurking zombie. Immediately mark one infected on the game sheet. The die may still be rerolled, but you
risk infecting another survivor.
2 – Small supply cache. Gain 1 supply.
3 – Large supply cache. Gain 2 supplies.
4 – Survivors. Gain 1 survivor.
5 – Ammo cache. Gain 2 ammo.
6 – Fight or flight. You may place the scavenger die in either the fight dice pool or the movement dice pool
where it will count as a movement die showing “4”.

3. Resolve movement.
When moving, you must move the total of your movement dice. If you have three of the same kind you gain
one extra die of that kind. So having three dice show 4’s results in a total of 8 movement points (die showing
“4” equals 2 movement points, so if you roll three 4’s, you have 6 movement points, plus the bonus equals 8
total movement points). If movement ends on a red circle, place an additional die in the zombie dice pool. If
you reach a safe house you must end your movement and lose any remaining movement points.

4. Resolve zombie die.

Zombie die results table
1 – three zombies and lose 1 hour.
2 – three zombies.
3 – two zombies.
4 – two zombies.
5 – one zombie.
6 – one zombie.

Place the appropriate number of dice in the zombie dice pool.

5. Fight zombies.
When fighting zombies you go through the following steps:
a) Use ammo to add fight dice. Every ammo you spend gives you an additional fight die.
b) Roll fight dice. As with survivor dice, you may roll the dice a total of three times, freezing any or all of the
dice when you want to. The idea is to roll as high as possible, but every time you roll a “1” you immediately
lose one hour fighting the zed with the exception of the first time you roll your fight dice. In other words you
only risk losing hours if you reroll any or all of the dice. If at any time during a fight you lose your last hour,
you also lose the game.
c) Roll zombie fight dice. The zombies fight with all the dice you placed in the zombie dice pool plus zombies
generated by the red zombie die. You only roll the zombie fight dice once.
d) Infected. Before comparing results you may remove any zombie die showing “6” and gain one infected
(see below). This is unnecessary if you already have as many infected as you have survivors.
 e) Compare results. You may remove zombie dice by matching with fight dice on a one for one or a one for
two basis. For example, one fight dice showing “6” can remove any one zombie die or any two zombie dice
that totals up to 6 or less. But you can also sacrifice two of your fight dice to remove one zombie die – for
instance a 1 and a 3 can remove a die showing 1-4.
f) Take casualties. For every zombie die remaining you lose one survivor.

6. Safe house phase.

If you’ve reached a safe house, go through the following steps:
a) Reset hours. Set the hour die to “5”.
b) Roll or choose a random event depending on the instructions; see the tables on the gameboard for details.
c) Lose supplies. You must spend supplies equal to half the survivors (round down). For every unit of
supplies you are short, lose one survivor.
d) Infected. Roll a die for every infected marker you have and consult the table below.

Infected die results table

1 – The infected turns zombie, killing one survivor and infecting another. Lose two survivors, keep the same
amount of infected.
2, 3 – The infected turns zombie, infecting a survivor. Lose one survivor and keep the same amount of
infected.
4 – The infected dies. Lose one survivor and one infected.
5, 6 – Nothing happens.

You cannot have more infected than you have survivors.

Note that if you fight zombies as a result of safe house events, you must use ammo in order to gain fight dice.
But since you are in the safe house you do not lose hours while fighting as a result of an event.

Winning or Losing
If at the end of a round you have reached the Interstate and have at least one survivor, you win the game. This is
the case even if all your survivors are infected – they just have to hope for a cure.

Note: since the Interstate is not a safe house, you skip the safe house phase on the turn you reach it. However,
you still roll for each of your infected. In other words you can reach the Interstate space only to lose your last
survivors to infection.

If at any time you run out of hours and your pawn is not on a safe house square or if you lose your last survivor, you
lose the game.

Optional Scoring
As an optional rule you can calculate your score after finishing the game, but it requires a bit more bookkeeping as
you play. Of course, if you lose your last survivor or run out of time, you score no points.

Reaching the Interstate ....... 10 points

Survivors ............................. 5 points each
Remaining ammo ................ 2 points each
Remaining supplies ............. 1 point each
Remaining hours ................. 1 point each. You score hours every time you reach a safe house and when you reach
the Interstate space.
Zombies killed in a fight ...... 1 point each. You calculate this by noting down how many zombie dice you remove
during the game. This includes zombies fought as a result of safe house events, but
not zombie dice you’ve moved during combat by gaining an infected.
Infected survivors ................ minus 3 points each (remember that you cannot have more infected than you have
survivors).

Acknowledgements
This game is more than inspired by the free, online game The Expedition (http://www.history.com/expedition/game/)
and The D6 Shooters by Eric Herman Endres.