Characters / Dead of Winter

The Survivors

General Tropes

• Action Girl: The women fight as ably as the men. Some, like Ashley Ross or Bev Russell, are incredible fighters.
• Badass Bystander: Most of the Survivors are normal people you'd find in any town. In the Zombie Apocalypse, they've had to toughen up to survive.
• Chekhov's Skill: Many Survivors possess special skills that don't seem all that useful at first. Certain Storylines prize barricade-building or healing, others do not.
  • If your Secret Objective is to have more Survivors, playing as Gabriel Diaz, whose special skill is finding Survivors, would be ideal. However, if your Secret Objective is to have the least amount of followers, Gabriel Diaz wouldn't be very useful at all.

Dead of Winter Survivors

Gray Beard

Pirate. White-haired man holding an uzi.

Tropes:

• A Pirate 400 Years Too Late: Not being on a ship is only the start.
• Hero Antagonist: At best. You can't play as him when using the co-op variant.
• The Load: Kind of. If you come across him through his Crossroads card, you (his controller) can't contribute anything to a crisis.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: His Crossroads card consists of him berating people, and his influence is among the lowest in the game.

Harman Brooks

Park Ranger. Black-haired man in a green coat.

Tropes:

• Exposed to the Elements: Averted. His special ability is that he cannot get frostbite.
• Great White Hunter: Unless he's a betrayer, but his Crossroads card paints him as heroic.
• Green Thumb: His past as a park ranger gives him a knack with plants. So much that he knows one can be used as a medicine, curing three heroes of any kind of wound.
• Nature Hero: He's got a knack for the outdoors, so much that he cannot get frostbite. His card also allows him to either bag some wild game or use plants to make a healing salve.

Olivia Brown

Doctor. Redheaded woman in a long black coat.

Tropes:

• Find the Cure!: Her Crossroads card allows her to do some research on a zombie. It's a fairly dangerous procedure, but if she completes it, she can have any survivor ignore a bitten result.
• For Science!: Downplayed. There's a practical reason to do her research, but she follows it to the point of defying sense.
• Hospital Hottie: With long flowing hair and a tight body.
• The Medic: Can heal a Survivor once per round at no cost.

Annaleigh Chan

Lawyer. Black-haired woman in a black coat.

Tropes:

• Chekhov's Skill: She speaks Chinese. A crossroads card can allow her to use this and gain morale from it.
• Driven to Suicide: A choice in her story.
• The Millstone: Due to her personal traumas overriding common sense, she'll release zombies, potentially killing other survivors, due to her inability to cope with the past. That or she kills herself, costing the team morale. At least her fight and searching score is really good.
• Nosy Neighbor: Her special ability allows players to look at a card in another player's hand.
• Properly Paranoid: If there's a traitor in your midst, being able to see which cards other players are hanging onto is a useful skill. She's properly so, because in a co-op variant game, with no traitors, she can't be selected.

Mike Cho

Ninja. Man dressed all in black.

Tropes:

• Back-to-Back Badasses: In his crossroads card, you team up with him to fend off zombies, and he'll join you afterwards. It's the only time he'll ever get injured fighting zombies.
• Big Damn Heroes: He can appear during a Crossroads scenario fending off zombies with ease.
• Gratuitous Ninja: There's really no reason why he's a ninja. He just is.
• Highly-Visible Ninja: In the snowy landscape, a man dressed all in black stands out rather than blending in.
• No-Sell: Mike does not roll exposure when attacking a zombie.

Jenny Clark

Waitress. Blonde woman in an off-white jacket, wielding a knife.

Tropes:

• The Ditz: She thinks the zombies aren't all bad in her crossroads story because they smile at her.
• The Load: She's reflected as such in her personal story. She can get killed off by the others.
• Service Sector Stereotypes
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Not to the extent of Gray Beard, but in her Crossroads card, someone kills her without remorse and calls her an idiot.
• Too Dumb to Live: Because a zombie smiles at her and doesn't initially attack, she thinks it's friendly, and tries to bring all of the zombies to the colony. If she's not killed, she adds eight zombies to the colony.

Loretta Clay

Cook. Silver-haired woman in a black jacket.

Tropes:

• Chef of Iron: She can attack on rolls of 2 or higher.
• Never Mess with Granny: She's one of the game's better fighters.
• Silver Vixen: She looks good for her age.
• Supreme Chef: She can make even spoiled food better, and her special ability lets her create food tokens with no need to scavenge.

Kodiak Colby

Woodsman. Man in a fuzzy hat and a red plaid shirt. A special pre-order character.

Tropes:

• Ambiguously Gay: If you character is male, and Colby's Crossroads Card activates. He swoops in to rescue your character from a vicious bear attack by ripping off its head. He then asks your character to frolic naked in the woods with him. You have the option of saying yes and feeling "freer than you've ever felt before."
• Creator Cameo: Kodiak Colby is modeled after Plaid Hat Games President Colby Dauch.
• Mountain Man: An unusually well-groomed version, but he's a woodsman who knows how to live off the land, and doesn't require food or attract zombies to his location.
• Wrestler of Beasts: His Crossroads card has him jump on a zombie bear and kill it with a chokehold to save a survivor.

Buddy Davis

Fitness Trainer. Blond man in a striped shirt.

Tropes:

• Dumb Muscle: Good at fighting, not so much at searching.
• Extra Turn: His Crossroads card can gain the ability to roll an extra action die if food is spent.
• Large Ham: One Crossroads Card has an option of him trying to inspire people with his muscles. You can throw a bottle at him instead, and it makes the survivors laugh.
• Made of Iron: Takes four wounds to die instead of three.

Gabriel Diaz

Fireman. Dark-haired man in a fireman's uniform, carrying an ax.

Tropes:

• Chronic Hero Syndrome: His special ability is to search through the decks and find Outsider Cards, which can add new Survivors to the Colony.
• Firemen Are Hot
• Recruitment by Rescue: There's a card that will allow the player to meet Gabriel as he saves them (if he is not in the game already). The survivor can let Gabriel into the colony if he is in the survival deck. You have to accept his family (3 helpless survivors) if you want him.

Andrew Evans

Farmer. Man in ballcap and dark blue jacket.

Tropes:

• Call to Agriculture: One of the Crossroads Cards triggers an event where he can set up a greenhouse and produce extra food at the Colony.
• Mr Fix It: A whiz with PVC pipe and plastic sheeting.
• Nature Hero: Building a greenhouse certainly qualifies.

David Garcia

Accountant. Black-haired man in a gray jacket.

Tropes:

• Properly Paranoid: He can call a vote to exile on his Crossroads card.

Alexis Grey

Librarian. Blonde woman in a black jacket.

Tropes:

• Heroic BSoD: She might fall apart if she goes to the library, either unable to move from it, or be unable to return to it.
• Hot Librarian: And how.

Thomas Heart

Soldier. Man in camo-jacket holding a gun.

Tropes:

• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Using a weapon during his crossroads card can make him go insane. He either hurts people, uses medicine, or gets killed.

Brandon Kane

Janitor. Gray-haired man wieding a mop.

Tropes:

• Almighty Janitor: True, his special ability is clearing more trash out of the Colony. But his attack score is low, which means he can attack zombies more readily than other characters.
• The Pig-Pen: He is utterly filthy in his Crossroads card.

Talia Jones

Fortune Teller. Woman with dreadlocks and a red hooded jacket.

Tropes:

• Dreaming of Things to Come: She can look at the crisis cards, and offer hints (totaling no more than two words) as to what is to come. She can also change the order of the cards if she likes.
• Fortune Teller: Her job description. She appears to be the genuine article, since she can predict upcoming crises.
• No-Sell: Her crossroads card has a powerful ability in that she can completely ignore the next crisis.

Brian Lee

Mayor. Black-haired man in a black jacket.

Tropes:

• Action Politician: Small-town Mayor is going around killing zombies.
• Rousing Speech: His crossroads card delivers one, and allows the player to choose to remove all zombies and build four barricades in either the grocery store or the hospital.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: As the survivor with THE highest Influence level, Mike is guaranteed to dodge any card picking on the lowest-level Influence survivor.
• Time to Step Up, Commander: He tells himself this just before his Rousing Speech.

Maria Lopez

Teacher. Dark-haired woman in a red jacket, crouching.

Tropes:

• Badass Teacher: Can kill a zombie at the school with no risk of exposure on a 1.
• Friend to All Children: Her card allows her to meet some starving, but uninfected, children at the school. She can either give them food reserves, or unlock the pantry for them.

James Meyers

Psychiatrist. Balding man in a tan jacket.

Tropes:

• Heart Is an Awesome Power: He thinks so, that being able to talk to people about their problems would be very useful. It allows his player to look at a secret objective.
• Non-Action Guy: He needs a 6 to attack.

Rod Miller

Truck Driver. Man in a reflective vest sitting on a chair.

Tropes:

• Better to Die than Be Killed: If his heart attack Crossroads event triggers, his potentially final thoughts are that he'd rather die from having eaten too much mac and cheese than from zombies.
• Boring, but Practical: His special ability is to be able to move without rolling for exposure isn't flashy, but it is incredibly useful in that it saves fuel for other purposes, and allows him to go to the places where one needs cards. Plus, it helps avoid some particularly nasty Crossroads cards.
• Hollywood Heart Attack: Can suffer one during a Crossroads event, forcing players to decide whether or not it's worth the risk of rushing him to the hospital.

Forest Plum

Mall Santa. White-haired man in a Santa suit.

Tropes:

• The Alcoholic: His card lets him get drunk and cause noise at the Grocery store. If you don't give him the booze, he attacks a person at the colony.
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Low influence and people yell at him in his Crossroads card.
• It's All About Me: Throws a tantrum if the survivors don't give him booze,
• The Load: Low influence, poor ability to search, and most insultingly of all removing him from the game increases morale instead of lowering it. (His death will lower morale, however.)
• The Millstone: If you give him booze, he puts four noise at the Grocery Store and is stuck there.
• Throw the Dog a Bone: If you get the Christmas dinner event card, on top of improving morale for the colony, Forest Plum can bring free gifts in the form of supplies right out of the grocery store — a rare opportunity where he'd be useful.
• Too Dumb to Live: He goes to the grocery store and makes noise if you give him alcohol. This can very easily get him killed.

John Price

Student. Dark-haired boy in dark jacket.

Tropes:

• Power Copying: His special skill, he can mimic the abilities of other Survivors who share his location.
• Recruitment by Rescue: You can encounter him in the school if he is in the survivor deck. You can choose to rescue him, but the two zombies chasing him must be dealt with, or you can leave him to die and gain two food.

Sophie Robinson

Pilot. Blonde woman in a pilot jacket.

Tropes:

• Ace Pilot: Subverted - Sophie is permanently grounded in the game. In fact, a Crossroads card introduces her by having her helicopter crash in front of the player.
• Eagle-Eye Detection: Sophie can search on a 1, meaning any die can allow her to search. She even has an ability that lets her look at the top card of a deck.
• Killed Off for Real: One of the Crossroads cards has the option of leaving her to die in a helicopter explosion. Her card is removed from the game for the duration of the story.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: She can fix up a plane and go to find help.
• Video Game Caring Potential: One of the Crossroads cards can have the player drag Sophie Robinson out of the wreck of her helicopter just before it explodes. However...
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: The other option of that card is to draw two cards from the deck, as the player scrounges for scrap from the helicopter instead of freeing Sophie, leaving her to die.
• You Monster!: Sophie's last words if the player chooses to let her die during her Crossroads event.

Ashley Ross

Construction Worker. Brunette woman in a white jacket.

Tropes:

• Action Girl: She hits on a 2.
• Chekhov's Skill: Barricade building is very useful in certain Main Objectives. Even without that, the ability to prevent a zombie from showing up can be lifesaving.
• Wrench Wench: Anyone can build barricades, but she can build one a turn without a dice roll. She can even build special improvements, such as attacking one of the colony spaces without risk of exposure.

Bev Russell

Mother. Blonde woman in a red jacket.

Tropes:

• Action Mom: She can kill zombies well, hitting on a 2, but if she is at the colony and there is a child there, Bev can hit on a 1, kill two zombies at once, and not risk exposure.
• Mama Bear: Her defining trait. So long as at least one Helpless Survivor (implied to be children) is at the Colony, Bev can kill 2 zombies in one go, without risking exposure.
  • On particularly tragic Crossroads card involves the Survivors finding a school overrun with zombie children, including her own. For one option, Bev can decide to stay at the school, protecting the kids, and is no longer involved in the game (on top of attacking any other survivors who try to go to the school).
• Mercy Kill: The second option of her Crossroads card is to put her son and the other children out of their misery by burning down the school, along with anything else in it.

Daniel Smith

Sheriff. Man in cowboy hat with a brown jacket, taking a swing at a zombie.

Tropes:

• Authority Equals Asskicking: High influence and the ability to attack on a roll of 2 or higher.
• Batter Up!: In his icon he's swinging a baseball bat. His special ability also mimicks the baseball bat card, letting him kill two zombies and risking exposure only once.
• The Sheriff: His Crossroads card lets him find a killer and put them behind bars.

Sparky

Stunt Dog. A yellow dog with remnants of a red cape.

Tropes:

• Emergency Food Supply Animal: A situation may come up where the colony needs Sparkyburgers to survive.
• Heroic Dog: To the point where his special card lets him kill 8 zombies at once in the colony.
• Nearly Normal Animal: Sparky is capable of doing everything the human Survivors can, such as attacking zombies, searching for food, wielding weapons, reading books, and building barricades. This becomes a little silly when a Crossroads Card is triggered that requires outsiders to interact with Sparky, and the dialogue suggests that they think he can respond back in English.
• No-Sell: Sparky is immune to the plague, he cannot get bitten. He is merely wounded, and a spreading plague does not affect him.
• Weaponized Animal: He gets fitted with an automatic weapon in one Crossroads card. The player can choose to boost Morale with the sight or use it to mow down some zombies.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Sparky's death impacts the Colony morale just as much as the death of a human Survivor.

Janet Taylor

Nurse. Redheaded woman in a green parka.

Tropes:

• The Medic: While it is Olivia who heals survivors with her special ability, Janet can gain a similar ability to discard a card to treat a wound through her crossroads card.
• Ms. Fanservice:: Her icon is that of a young, attractive woman who's just fallen down and has visible cleavage through her opened jacket, despite the winter setting.

Carla Thompson

Police Dispatcher. Dark-haired woman in a yellow coat.

Tropes:

• Heart Is an Awesome Power: Her crossroads card lets her give the other survivors mementos and pictures of their loved ones, making them feel better.
• Stalker with a Crush: She was looking into someone like this before the zombie outbreak. During her crossroads card, she goes to that guy's house and, if she survives an attack there, finds photographs of the other survivors and their loved ones, bringing people hope.

Arthur Thurston

Principal. Balding man in a tan jacket holding a flashlight.

Tropes:

• Cool Old Guy: Fights and can kill with the best of them, despite being easily in his 50s.
• Eagle-Eye Detection: He can take 2 cards at once on a search provided he's in the school.
• Heroic BSoD: If he fights the swarm of infected children, he undergoes a minor one.
• The Swarm: He gets mobbed by zombie children in his crossroads card.

Edward White

Chemist. Dark-haired man with a beard in a red jacket.

Tropes:

• Critical Hit: Once per round he can kill three zombies instead of the usual one, by using a medicine card.
• For Science!: Averted. In his crossroads card with John Price, he lambastes the kid for doing things blindly.
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Obviously an Expy of Walter White.
• Science Hero: He can make dynamite or homemade beer.

The Long Night Survivors

Rocco Bellini

Father. Brown haired bearded man wearing a leather jacket.

• My Greatest Failure: His Crossroads card involves this. He believes it to be the fact that he was unable to kill his zombified child.
• No-Sell: His special ability reduces the amount of zombies that would show up at the colony.
• Papa Wolf: His special ability triggers if a helpless survivor is at the colony. He also fights on a 2, like Bev.

Blue

Test Subject 112. A monkey who was a subject of Raxxon's experiments.

• Berserk Button: A man named Barry who apparently hoards bananas. Blue thinks one of the other survivors is this Barry.
• Eagle-Eye Detection: Has a high search skill, and can keep bonus items from Raxxon.
• Samus Is a Girl: She is a female monkey.
• Undying Loyalty: During one Raxxon scenario, Blue is trying to rescue a scientist buried there under rubble and refuses to leave until he's freed.

Jamie Gilmour

Private Detective. Woman in a red coat wielding a hatchet.

• Eagle-Eye Detection: Searches on a 2, and can look at other player's cards.
• Nosy Neighbor: Like Annaleigh, she can look at a player's hand, making her a non co-op character. This bites her in the butt in her Crossroads card.

Melissa Gupta

Mechanical Engineer. Long haired woman wearing a safety vest holding a drill.

• Granola Girl: And a real bitch about it in her Crossroads card.
• The Millstone: Her crossroads card can make her add starvation tokens to the food pile.
• Reduced Resource Cost: Her special ability advances the construction of improvements for free, rather than spending scarce item cards.
• Wrench Wench: Even more so than Ashley, as Melissa can create improvements.

Emma Han

Student. Young girl with a book in a blue jacket reading a book.

• A Day in the Limelight: She takes center-stage in the module that introduces Raxxon.
• Eagle-Eye Detection: Like Gabriel, she can search for 4 cards in her location. However, instead of survivors, she gets books.

Kevin Jackson

Sniper. Man in a baseball cap holding a rifle.

• Long-Range Fighter: Notably, Kevin doesn't even have to be at the same location as the zombie when he uses his special ability.
• One-Hit Kill: Just like he has a sniper rifle equipped, he can use his special ability to remove any normal zombie from play, no die roll or exposure needed. This doesn't count as an attack, so it's useless on special zombies, but it is still powerful.
• The Rival: A man in black who can appear if Kevin uses his special ability. Kevin has to kill him.

Elijah Jordan

DJ. Kid in a heavy sweater with a baseball cap holding a torch.

• Playing with Fire: Holds a torch.
• Throwing the Distraction: He can move noise to any location, provided the place has space for the noise tokens.
• We Need a Distraction: His Crossroads card lets him play Michael Jackson tunes on a loud speaker. This grants access to a Luck-Based Mission that can prevent zombies from ever showing up as a result of noise, as long as fuel is used to power his loudspeakers.

Chloe Larousse

Dancer. Black-haired girl in a brown jacket.

• Eagle-Eye Detection: Has an amazing search score, unusual for simply being a dancer.
• Stealth Expert: She can remove noise from a location. She partners well with a chainsaw or shotgun. Her Crossroads card also lets her sneak into bandit territory.

Lily Mae

Explosives expert. Woman in a green vest holding a board with a nail in it.

• Stuff Blowing Up: She can create exploding traps.
• Taking You with Me: Potentially inverted. She can wipe out all zombies at the colony. The catch is, it might take Lily with them.
• Trap Master: Her ability lets her lay explosive traps, which basically act like better barricades.

Fatima Maktabi

Professional Athlete. Woman in a blue vest with long hair.

• It's All About Me: She's a gold medalist, and thinks she's above taking out the trash in the colony.
• The Millstone: If her Crossroads card triggers, her player can only use Fatima to search for items.
• Ungrateful Bastard: She considers herself better than the other survivors because she won a gold medal at the Olympics.

Gia Naajar

Physical therapist. Lanky woman with long red hair in a brown sweater.

• Badass Bookworm: Searches and fights on a 2+.
• Healing Factor: Like Olivia, Gia heals a wound or frostbite every turn. Her ability differs in the fact that she can only heal someone at the colony, but Gia need not be there to do so.
• Ms. Fanservice: So much that the bandits try to take her in her Crossroads card.

Alfonso Ortega

Gunsmith. Long-haired man in a green jacket holding a rifle.

• Badass Spaniard: He's got the language and the accent.
• Just Like Making Love: The way he talks about modifying assault rifles.
• Power at a Price: In one Crossroads scenario, he can offer to modify an Assault Rifle weapon to become fully automatic. It will kill 3 zombies without rolling for exposure instead of 2, but has a 1 in 6 chance of breaking every time you do.
• Ungrateful Bastard: In a Crossroads card, he can take a gun if you don't offer him room in your entourage.

Eric Parker

Coach. Man in a beanee and leather jacket wielding a sledgehammer.

• An Arm and a Leg: He lost his leg to frostbite.
• Friend to All Children: He gets pissed when he sees a deranged lunatic talking to zombie children strapped to desks in his Crossroads card.
• Handicapped Badass: Has decent search and fight skills, and he's got a wooden leg.
• No-Sell: As long as you share a location with Eric, the exposure die is not rolled for movement purposes.
• Support Party Member: Downplayed, but Eric can't use his special ability on himself; it's only for other characters.

Nadia Rivers

Politician. Woman with long hair wearing a maroon jacket speaking into a walkie-talkie.

• The Leader: Has a high chance of being the most influential survivor at any given time.
• Luck-Based Mission: Nadia's special ability lets her roll a die, and allow players to change one of their dice to that roll. Since the players aren't required to change the roll, it is less punishing than other types of luck missions.
• Sassy Black Woman: She'll take Rosa to task with her Crossroads card, and does not pull punches.
• Support Party Member: Has a potentially great ability that benefits the whole party (roll a D6, anyone may change one of their own dice to that roll), but her search and combat rates are low.

Rosa Rodriguez

Prison Guard. Long haired woman wearing an army jacket wielding an assault rifle.

• Democracy Is Bad: Rosa hates the idea of voting, and wants to become leader of the colony. This allows her player to take any card that is found. In contrast, though, her efficiency allows for one less card for the Crisis.
• The Dreaded: Apparently, she was so brutal at her job, she scarred the inmates physically. They remember her.
• One-Hit Kill: She can kill a zombie or bandit for free.
• Spicy Latina: Has an actiony pose, her special ability involves violence, and high fight score? Check on all counts.

Kumar Sen

Public speaker. Blind man in a brown suit.

• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: He hates it when people try to support him because he is blind. He also remarks it's how people try to pickpocket him.
• Handicapped Badass: He can still fight on a 3, even though he is blind.
• No-Sell: He can roll a die whenever morale is lost, and, if his roll is high, the morale is not lost.
• Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: He can only search on a 6. Handicapped Badass aside, he is still blind.

Rich Sommer

Regular guy, known for Mad Men. Brown-haired guy riding a motorcycle.

• Abhorrent Admirer: In his card, a woman named One-Eyed Sue demands he sleep with her for admittance to the colony. This gives him a despair token.
• Critical Hit: If his skill succeeds, he removes three zombies from his location, with no exposure chance.
• Luck-Based Mission: His special effect. He can remove three zombies, or he'll get a wound on himself.

Hugo Valentine

Bike messenger. Androgynous kid in a camo jacket smoking a cigarette.

• Jack of All Stats: Can fight and search on anything but a 1 and can move without risking wounds or frostbite (bites still count), making him versatile. His influence is low though.
• The Millstone: Downplayed when compared to other Crossroads cards, but if a player searches at the hospital, they have to either waste the die to help, or Hugo gets a despair token.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: If found at Raxxon, he thinks the delivery isn't worth it. The player can either pick him up, or gain items from the hospital.
• No-Sell: Wounds and Frostbite cannot trigger on Hugo during traveling.

Anita Wallace

Unknown occupation. A heavyset woman with an afro.

• The Millstone: Even more than Forrest. Anita has more Crossroads cards than anyone else. They involve her doing a terrible job at something she claims to be good at. And if the player doesn't let her fail, this can make things worse.
• Mysterious Past: Her previous occupation is listed as "Unknown" and each of her Crossroads cards has her blatantly lie about having had a different job.
• Quack Doctor: One of the lies she tells in a Crossroads card is that she was an herbalist; if she convinces an injured survivor to let her treat them, her salve makes the injury worse.
• Sassy Black Woman: She's got a mouth on her, hits on a 1, and can even use her special power to instantly wound a survivor or kill a zombie no questions asked.
• Wild Card: Depends on the player controlling her, but Anita has both great potential to slay zombies and to backstab another survivor she's with.

Cole Winters

Pharmacist. Short blond guy holding a lantern wearing a black jacket.

• Berserk Button: Hates when people call him short.
• The Medic: Can spend an item (non-event) into the waste pile to heal all wounds or despair on a survivor he shares a location with, including himself.
• Non-Action Guy: Useful ability and searches on a 1+, but needs a 5 or 6 to attack.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Can leave a wounded survivor to die, simply because they called Cole "shortie".

Derek Yoshida

Nutritionist. Scraggly man wearing a black jacket.

• Healing Factor: He can use food tokens to heal wounds.
• Luck-Based Mission: His crossroads card allows him to roll a die, and, if he gets a six, he adds food to the colony, or removes starvation tokens from the supply. This is the only way to get rid of them if they are there.

Warring Colonies Survivors

George Coleman

Economist. Bespectacled man with glasses wearing a hoodie and carrying a book.

• Hollywood Autism: In his introductory Crossroads card, he flatly makes a Rain Man reference, claims to be able to improve the Colony's operational efficiency, and leaves unemotionally if not allowed to join.
• Luck-Based Mission: He can potentially keep a player from discarding a card to the waste pile. Since there is no downside to trying the mission, there's no reason not to undertake it.
• Resource Reimbursement: If a player has George Coleman as their leader, whenever they would play an item card (ranging from gasoline to single-use weapons) into the waste pile, they have a 1 in 6 chance to gain its effect but keep it in their hand — potentially a major benefit in Resources Management Gameplay.
• Shout-Out: In-Universe to Rain Man, invoked in his introduction.

The Enforcer

Viligante. Masked man with an open overcoat and a baseball bat.

• Large Ham: Players are encouraged to shout hammy action phrases when using The Enforcers special ability.
• No-Sell: His special ability allows for the killing of three zombies with no exposure roll at the cost of adding two noise tokens.
• Spell My Name with a "The": "The" Enforcer. Used in his hammy action phrases.

Huang Fen

Retiree. Elderly woman holding a cane and a flare.

• Support Party Member: To the extreme. She fights and searches on a 6, making her nigh-useless. But if she's in a location with another character, they may draw an extra card every time they search.
• The Friend No One Likes: Her idea of motivation is to bark orders. No one likes her as a result.

Father Fitzpatrick

Priest. Elderly man wearing a bodywarmer holding a rosary and Bible.

• Crisis of Faith: Defied. He views what happens to the world as terrible, but he has not lost his faith. In fact, his faith can help him grant an extra action die a round.
• No-Sell: He can potentially stop combat on a Luck-Based Mission die roll.
• There Are No Therapists: Averted. He can spend a die to remove despair tokens.

Honiahaka

Lobbyist. Long-haired man in a leather jacket brandishing a long rifle.

• Only One Name: Notable in that he is the only human to lack one.
• Out of Focus: Notably, he is the only survivor that has no Crossroads card.

Marcus Johnson

Security Officer. Bald man with power armor.

• It's All My Fault: He used to be a security guard for Raxxon, and he feels bad about what they've unleashed on the world.
• The Big Guy: Towers over all of the other characters.
• Power Copying: He may use one of his equipped weapons twice in one round.
• Suicide by Cop: By zombie. He plans to go out killing as many of the zombies as he can.

Rohan Patil

Small Business owner. Man with a mustache wearing a thick jacket and jeans.

• Heroic Resolve: He can choose to reroll a die if he gets a wound.
• I Will Find You: He is searching for his missing son.
• No-Sell: He ignores despair wounds.

Oscar Rios

Auto Mechanic. Heavyset man holding a toolbox.

• Big Fun: He's a large man, but the mechanical things he makes can bring great delight, and it's clear he enjoys them too.
• Mr Fix It: If it runs on wheels, he's got it.

Charlotte Ross

Spy. Short-haired woman in a leather jacket holding a pair of binoculars.

• Action Girl: Fights on a 2.
• Boyish Short Hair: Has very short cut hair.
• Wounded Gazelle Gambit: She can infiltrate an enemy colony with these.

Atticus Sanders

Veteran. Older man in a wheelchair wielding a shotgun and wearing camo gear and a bandolier.

• More Dakka: He gives extra bullets for fighting. Notably, he can only be used if there are two colonies at war with each other.
• Old Soldier: He is all about fighting, and he's old. Notably, he fights on a 1.

Fernanda Suarez

Artist. Woman with long hair wearing a red dress holding an artist sketchpad.

• The World Is Just Awesome: She likes to paint beautiful things to renew faith in the world.

Danica Walker

Student. Young girl wearing a hoodie, holding a gun and knife.

• Action Girl: Hits on a 1.
• Cluster F-Bomb: Swears a lot in her introduction.
• No-Sell: Does not roll exposure when attacking.
• Recruitment by Rescue: You can find her this way. She freaks out before doing it first, though, causing one of the survivors who finds her to get a wound.

Hawk Wheeler

Cowgirl. Heavyset woman wearing leather, a cowboy hat, and a bandana wielding a revolver and lasso.

• Action Girl: She fights on a 2.
• Big Sister Instinct: She wants to find and keep her brother safe.
• I Will Find You: Non-romantic, to her brother Scott. She wants to take him back home.

Scott Wheeler

Marketing Rep. Blond man wearing a thick overcoat and red scarf.

• Do Not Call Me "Paul": If he and his sister are both in play, a Crossroads card can have her antagonize him over his birth name to the point that either she's forced to leave the Colony or they both suffer Despair.
• Embarrassing First Name: His mother named him after the first thing she saw after he was born. It was Pigpen.
• Intrepid Merchant: He can trade food for bullets, or bullets for food.
• Precocious Crush: Apparently, on Alfonso. Even if he's dead already.

Bernadette Wilson

CEO. Short haired woman in a brown overcoat loading a gun.

• Support Party Member: Interesting twist. Bernadette's ability requires her to be the leader of the group. But with her high numbers for search and fight, she can't do much herself. However, her gamebreaking ability to increase die rolls by 2 can help make up for this.
• Unholy Matrimony: She and her husband didn't like each other.

Promotional Survivors

Ruckus Burley

Unemployed. Man in dark sunglasses and camo bodywarmer wielding a hockey stick.

• Armor-Piercing Attack: He can kill a zombie without rolling exposure by discarding a junk card. He also hits pretty hard.

KD James

CDC Official. Long haired woman in a hazmat suit.

• Find the Cure!: She almost had it, before everything went to hell. Her Crossroads card lets her try to use an experiment. It might even work (granting KD's player an extra survivor and removing a zombie).
• No-Sell: Downplayed. But she can ignore bitten results through a re-roll.

Roberta Plum

Mrs. Mall Santa. Elderly woman in a Santa outfit holding a bottle of booze and a lit cigarette.

Tropes:

• Action Girl: Hits on a 2.
• The Alcoholic: She's carrying a bottle on her standee. Also has to do with her Crossroads card.
• It's All About Me: Will whip up a batch of drugged Christmas cookies just because the children are too loud during her hangover.
• Never Mess with Granny: A strong fighter, and will drug you if you bother her.

Meryl Wolfe

Journalist. Blonde woman in a pantsuit wielding a crowbar.

• Intrepid Reporter: She has figured out that other survivors have secret objectives without the colony's best interests at heart.
• Nosy Neighbor: Her Crossroads card gives her the option to peek at another survivor's secret objective.
• Secret-Keeper: Other players can bribe her to keep their secrets.

Other Characters

Helpless Survivors

They live at the colony, consume food, and attract zombies, but cannot do anything else.

Tropes:

• The Load: By design.
• The Millstone: A few of the Crossroads cards have them actively make things worse, like causing a riot, stealing food, or costing morale. They can also turn unruly in the expansion.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Some crossroads cards have them do terrible things. The unruly survivors are even worse.

Zombies

The only antagonist of the base game and the most common even in the sequel, zombies are reanimated dead that hunt to feed and eat the living. The expansion has experimental zombies in the Raxxon building that are far more dangerous.

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• Always Male: Attempts to use steroids on the virus caused female subjects to either die or be normal zombies. But male zombies became tanks.
• Body Horror: Most of the zombies, to be sure, given they are pustule covered reanimated dead. But the hunters have tails, paws, and claws, the screamers have distended jaws, the frostwalkers have ice spikes sticking out of them, and the spewers are bloated balls of gas that do nothing but vomit.
• Death by Despair: The entire point of the screamers, especially if the player fails to kill them. According to the backstory, one of the scientists killed herself after three days of listening to them.
• Death of a Child: The siren is actually a reanimated child.
• Kill It with Fire: The reaper and collector are discussed to be killed this way in their cards.
• Kill It with Ice: The frostwalkers were created when Raxxon attempted to use freezing to kill the virus. But the virus mutated and now the frostwalkers are capable of harnessing cold temperatures capable of frostbite.
• Healing Factor: The researchers tried to combat the virus by bolstering the human body to have one of these. It just created the Hydra, which had two heads, and would regenerate both of those.
• Half-Human Hybrid: The hunters are half-man, half wolf, with paws, claws, fangs, and tails.
• Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: Between the taunts, sweater, fedora, and claw hand, the claw zombie is a rather obvious one to Freddy Krueger. He even states there is no dream to wake from when he dies.
• It Can Think: The claw zombies can speak and taunt their prey, and the reaper moves far too swiftly and ably to be a simple creature. Subverted with the siren, as it was believed to be intelligent, but further studies showcased it is little more than a predator.
• One-Hit Kill: Zombies, even elite zombies, do not have hit points. One successful hit is all it takes to kill them. Both the Reaper and the Tank zombies can issue this to a survivor (while it is harder to kill a Reaper and easier for her to gain kills, the Tank will always kill, as he will cause Taking You with Me).
• Sticky Fingers: The collector zombies take random things (even from the player, should they fail to kill the zombie).
• Typhoid Mary: The carrier, Patient 1, looks like a normal human woman, albeit one with red eyes. She does not know, or might not even possess the capability to know, that she is infected, and can cause an outbreak at the colony.