The world has fallen to infection. You are one of the few who lived long enough to call it survival. The cities are husks, the roads are graves, and every shadow feels like the end of something that used to be human.

You don't roll stats to decide who you are—you roll fate. Before the game begins, you will roll to determine your background, your starting location, your strength, and your flaw. The result defines who you were before the collapse and what remains of you now.

You are not a hero. You are what’s left.

Ability Scores: The world doesn’t reward perfection—it rewards persistence. Your ability scores reflect what you were before the end. You may assign scores normally or roll them using your DM’s custom table. Strength, Dexterity, and Wisdom often decide whether you live another day. Charisma and Intelligence determine how long before you lose your mind.

Modifiers to sanity, perception, or infection will override normal ability effects.

Feat: As a Survivor, you gain no traditional feats. Instead, you possess a fragile will to live. Each new location you explore requires a Sanity Check. Rolling high brings clarity and focus; rolling low invites panic, hallucination, or death. Your DM tracks these rolls to decide the world's reaction and your party’s morale.

Every Survivor has a Positive Trait and a Negative Trait. These are rolled at creation and may evolve with your decisions. Traits can give mechanical bonuses, narrative advantages, or haunting weaknesses.

Skill Proficiencies: Choose two from the following: Survival, Perception, Medicine, or Stealth.

Your experience scraping through ruined cities has taught you when to hide, when to listen, and when to move. Survival reflects your ability to navigate and forage; Perception is your awareness of danger; Medicine helps you stabilize others or slow infection; Stealth keeps you breathing when others aren’t.

Tool Proficiencies: You gain proficiency with one of the following, representing what you used to do before the world fell apart:

• Mechanic’s Tools (repair and maintenance)
• First Aid Kit (medical use)
• Firearms Maintenance Kit (cleaning and repairing guns)
• Lockpicks (breaking into places)
• Cooking Supplies (prepping salvaged food)

If the DM allows, you can substitute an equivalent “improvised” tool depending on your background roll.

Languages: Common. Most survivors speak the remnants of the old world tongue.

Optional: You may add one “coded language” unique to your group (radio slang, hand signals, or written marks). This has no mechanical bonus but can be used for secret communication between survivors.

Equipment: You start with whatever scraps you managed to scavenge before the world ended. Choose or roll one of the following starting loadouts, or work with the DM to customize what fits your fate roll.

1. A battered backpack, a half-full water bottle, a lighter, and a broken photo of someone you loved.
2. A small satchel with canned food (1d4 uses), a flashlight with weak batteries, and a worn jacket.
3. A torn duffel bag with a basic melee weapon (bat, pipe, or knife), a roll of bandages, and a single ration.
4. A messenger bag with a notebook, a mechanical pencil, a disposable camera with two shots left, and a single adrenaline shot.

Encumbrance matters. Whatever you carry, you’ll have to defend it.

Spell List

Survivors have no access to spells or magic. Instead, their “miracles” are made of duct tape, adrenaline, and human stubbornness.

Spell Level	Spells

Suggested Characteristics

The apocalypse strips away everything but truth. The traits below help define who your survivor truly is when no one is watching. Roll, choose, or invent your own.

**Personality Traits (d6)**
1. I talk to the dead more than the living.
2. I count bullets when I’m nervous.
3. I laugh when I’m terrified—it keeps me from screaming.
4. I keep lists: names of people I couldn’t save.
5. I don’t believe in luck, only timing.
6. I always check the exits first.

**Ideals (d6)**
1. Survival. I live because I refuse not to.
2. Humanity. Even now, we have to care for each other.
3. Order. Without rules, we’re already dead.
4. Hope. Someone has to remember the light.
5. Control. The world fell apart because we let it.
6. Knowledge. If we understand the infection, we can end it.

**Bonds (d6)**
1. I’m searching for my family—alive or dead.
2. I owe someone my life, and I’ll repay it no matter the cost.
3. I guard a child who doesn’t remember the old world.
4. I keep a secret that could change everything.
5. My group is my family; anyone who threatens them dies.
6. I made a promise to someone long gone.

**Flaws (d6)**
1. I hoard supplies even when others need them.
2. I freeze when I hear children cry.
3. I’d rather die than be bitten.
4. I don’t trust anyone who smiles.
5. I talk big, but I’m terrified of being alone.
6. I can’t throw away anything—it all feels like history.

d6	Personality Trait
1	I talk to the dead more than the living.
2	I count bullets when I’m nervous.
3	I laugh when I’m terrified—it keeps me from screaming.
4	I keep lists: names of people I couldn’t save.
5	I don’t believe in luck, only timing.
6	I always check the exits first.

d6	Ideal
1	Survival. I live because I refuse not to.
2	Humanity. Even now, we have to care for each other.
3	Order. Without rules, we’re already dead.
4	Hope. Someone has to remember the light.
5	Control. The world fell apart because we let it.
6	Knowledge. If we understand the infection, we can end it.

d6	Bond
1	I’m searching for my family—alive or dead.
2	I owe someone my life, and I’ll repay it no matter the cost.
3	I guard a child who doesn’t remember the old world.
4	I keep a secret that could change everything.
5	My group is my family; anyone who threatens them dies.
6	I made a promise to someone long gone.

d6	Flaw
1	I hoard supplies even when others need them.
2	I freeze when I hear children cry.
3	I’d rather die than be bitten.
4	I don’t trust anyone who smiles.
5	I talk big, but I’m terrified of being alone.
6	I can’t throw away anything—it all feels like history.