Dead of Winter Edition Released!

I tried to get a new version done for February, to mark a year since the supposedly temporary "FFS edition" was released. I tried for may for my birthday, 200th post, the 250th post, Halloween... Still nothing.

Well screw it, I'm not going to say I couldn't release a version until 2013 or 2014. It might be the eleventh hour and not quite a milestone post (295 published if you're counting, so 300 is next month...) but here you go - a rough draft of the Fourth Version of the rules.

Dead of Winter, Release Candidate One

It is a lot rougher than I'd like for a release.I fully admit there are blank entries in some charts, tons of optional rules since I haven't gotten enough feedback to settle a few things, a few old examples haven't been altered, and setting information is limited. (That should be a whole other book though...)

What is present?

• The Character Creation chapter has been reordered, and is hopefully a bit more intuitive.
• Updated rules for vehicles
• More of the scarcity system for tracking resources
• Combat now behaves like everything else - the top two numbers on the die, not just one 
• Some incomplete random tables for creatures
• More information about handing out Altruism Points
• A new character sheet and reference sheet 
• Changes to the initiative system - its now once per combat, though deadening can be spent to alter the order temporarily.
• At least some setting information for both Unit 2552 and Anarchy Zones, and a very basic introduction to the Oroborus project.

Generally speaking - this new document is slightly over 80 pages long, the last release was about 50, and the very first edition of the game was only 20. Yet I am still not done. So many stories, so many little errors, such a need to run a con game for feedback. How many more drafts until this is sitting on the shelves at your local book store I don't know, but I hope its not more than two or three.

Thanks for reading, thanks for playing, and aim for the head. 
 
Transcript

You OK? You Okay? Damn It! You're worse off than I thought. Well, so sorry to find you're the first one to learn the Zone has gotten a lot more deadly. I'm trying to get some vehicles together, move a bit out, but things are getting more scarce and the creatures have some new abilities of their own. Oh Well. Get out the word. Its time to revise your survival plans.
Oh, um - nothing personal, my friend but you know - got to remove the head, or else they come back.