Let's Review: Road Kill

Welcome to (yet another random) series here on Bearers of The Word. In this series, I'll be covering more recent things that are still supported (to a degree) and easy to find.

What it is:

A 28mm scale post-apocalyptic supernatural horror skirmish minis game. With motorcycles. And Zombies.

Alright, what did you guys do?

The setting:

Set in the far-off year of 2015, the world has gone to hell in a handbasket. In 2010, a group of anarchists set off a device known as the 'Shadow Bomb' in Jerusalem, unleashing the destructive power of a parallel shadow dimension. The fallout from this bomb killed half of the world's population, changed a quarter in to vampires, werewolves, and zombies, and left the remaining quarter strangely untouched.

In the bombed-out and depopulated wasteland of North America, the various survivor groups, monsters, and zombies fight to survive another day. The Survivalists, who had been preparing for this day in their bunkers, and the 'Man,' or the remnants of the government (including cops, soldiers, and highway patrol officers), are the only 'true' human Factions in the game. The Brotherhood and the Sisterhood are the bio-engineered monks and bio-enhanced nuns who fight the monsters on their own terms. The Sons of Night are the vampires that control LA and the surrounding area. Wolf's Angels are werewolf bikers. The only zombies in the game are 'Rage Zombies' very much like the ones in 28 Days Later. Many of these Factions can work together, so you don't have to buy just one Faction's models.

It takes all kinds to survive...

The system:

The game uses the '4 Goal' system created by West Wind Productions to handle combat and etc. The system uses d6s. Lots of them. The game includes rules for the various factions, and their alliances, as well as rules for motorcycles, larger vehicles, and most weapons you could think of. Initiative is done with a deck of playing cards, which is cool. Especially since I picked up Deadlands years ago, I have a ton of decks laying around...

One of the cooler things about the game is they allow you to create your own characters and vehicles, so you can use minis and terrain you have laying around to play. I also imagine gamers (especially 40k players) have one, if not several, piles of dice laying around and a deck of cards are easy to find. That cuts down your buy-in cost by a bit.

Nuns with chainsaws. Who would have thought?

Is it worth it?:

I picked up the rulebook for this game for $12, and I'll be honest, I think I might have overpaid by a bit. The rulebook is poorly edited and is just plain missing parts. Nothing critical, but enough so you'll have to make some stuff up (what does Unwieldy do? I have no clue). The book is also black and white and is clearly made from high quality 8 ½ X 11 sheets of paper folded and stapled. Professionally done, but, still... If feels like it was suppose to be included in a starter set that never got made (or is no longer made, the game is 10 years old at this point). There's only two Scenarios in the book, both of which involve specialized buildings. While there's a lot of story elements in the game, I think a once-over on the rulebook during the final edit would have made this game much more worth the price. I haven't bought any minis, as I almost always buy the rulebook first then minis, but from what I've seen of them, they look cool and aren't terribly expensive.

I picked this up because I thought the setting and minis looked cool. Once I read the rules, I figured I use it for some minis I picked up just to paint (like the Hasslefree stuff). The cool thing about being about to make your own characters is that you can buy something like the Wargames Factory Survivors, Zombies, and Greatcoat Shock Troopers and make yourself a force. Or three forces. If you're in to converting and modding things, picking up some cheap 1:24 or 1:35 models and some plastruct sounds like a worthy project.

So, if you've got some 28mm scale guys laying around that you're not sure what to do with, this might be worth the $12 to have something new to play with. The basic system is solid, but the poor editing will require you to work with it a bit before you'll really be able to play. Which may or may not be a selling point for some people. If you're interested in vampires and werewolves on motorcycles minis, they've got you covered.

Some time soon, I'll be sitting down and trying to not only fix this game but expand it as well. Stay tuned for that. 

Yeah, that's creepy