The Quick & The Undead

The Quick & the Undead

Fast, cinematic, pick-up-and-play apocalyptic mayhem!

The Quick & the Undead is a rules-light, GM-less tabletop roleplaying game designed to be learned, played, and (possibly) survived in a single night.  Rules, characters, locations—this is a fully self contained, ready-to-play game.  Built for speed, tension, and dark humour, it drops you straight into the outbreak of a zombie apocalypse—no prep, no homework, no long-term commitment. Just a fast, furious apocalypse to share with friends! 

Grab some dice, choose your survivor archetype, and see who’s still standing (alive, infected, or undead...) by sunrise. Will you help your friends... or eat them???

Back the printed zine in first 48 hours at a DISCOUNTED rate of £12!

About

The Quick & the Undead is a fast, GM-less zombie TTRPG where you band together as survivors, race through a collapsing town, scavenge for answers and shelter, and try to outlast the night—make no mistake, this game is deadly and...

...if you get bitten, you don’t drop out—you turn and join the UNDEAD, join the horde, and play against the rest of the table! Can you disguise your symptoms? How many friends will you turn...?

Start and finish a complete story in a single session. Ideal for last-minute game nights, conventions, or when nobody has the energy for a six-month campaign. Zero prep. Maximum action!

Easy to pick up for new players and seasoned TTRPG veterans alike. Uses fast, punchy dice mechanics based on the Q Basic System (launching 2026). As your adrenaline spikes and your energy dwindles, you’ll unlock new feats… just as things get worse.

A compact A5 zine (approx. 50 pages) you can take anywhere and play anytime. Rules, pre-generated characters, locations, enemies—this is a full TTRPG, replayable, oneshot with all the info you need in one beautiful, simple & accessible bite-sized package! 

Tense decisions, fast resolutions, frantic combat, and glorious last stands. Not for the faint-hearted.  This is the zombie apocalypse stripped to its essentials: panic, pressure, and impossible decisions. But remember: this is the apocalypse. Survival is optional. Get bit, and infected, you don’t leave the game—you switch sides and play as one of the wandering dead... 

Will you escape the zombie horde and set up sanctuary with the other survivors? Or join the throng of the undead and eat the brains of your best buds??

Who is this for?

• Groups who want a complete, action-packed story in one night
• Game Masters who want a night off
• New and experienced TTRPG players
• Fans of apocalyptic, dystopian, and action-thriller genres
• Anyone who wants fast-paced chaos with a playful edge
• Zombois & zombaes!

What's a TTRPG?

This is a TTRPG "oneshot" (Tabletop Roleplaying Game): You sit around a real table, pretend to be someone else, make choices in character, and collaboratively tell a story with your friends. In this case: you are survivors of a zombie apocalypse, trying to escape the undead horde. A "oneshot" game can be be played start to finish in one session - The Quick & The Undead plays out in roughly 2-3 hours.

The Quick & The Undead is super accessible to brand new players or RP veterans. Unlike many TTRPGs, there’s no Gamemaster required. Everyone's player, everyone's a survivor. Until they're not...

The most important rules are:

• Have fun!
• Don’t be a d**k

Everything else you need to play is inside this zine (apart from dice - get some dice, you won't regret succumbing to the thrall of the shiny digit rocks!).

The Team

This project is 100% HUMAN MADE by the following humans:

I’ve worked as a multi-disciplinary visual communicator for over 20 years, running businesses across manufacturing, design, and social enterprise. I came to TTRPGs late in life and immediately fell headfirst down the rabbit hole—running games, homebrewing systems, and obsessively designing worlds and mechanics.  I’ve published two TTRPGs to date (Quintessence and Age of Goblins), with many more on the way! 

Like many great games (I assume), The Quick & the Undead was born from a question posed over a pint: 

"why do characters get more powerful as they progress in post-apocalyptic games?"

Cue me, obsessing about mechanics & narrative framework to facilitate the demise of a character in an unwinnable situation, followed by a separate request (from artist Juan Moore) to play a zombie-themed game for his birthday.  I retreated to my underground bunker, planned for the worst, and somewhere in my prefrontal cortex, a small, juicy idea twitched —  like any good zombie infection, it refused to die, so here we are...

When I’m not making games, I can usually be found jumping into the wild Irish Sea. My long-term plan remains unchanged: make small, meaningful things… then evolve gills and live underwater.

Juan (Manx, pronounced "Joo-an") Moore has worked as a visual artist in publishing, animation, and film for over 20 years. You may know him from his excellent YouTube channel OddArtworks, where he draws dungeon maps with the calm menace of a faceless Bob Ross, or from the two TTRPGs we’ve designed and published together, Quintessence and Age of Goblins (you’ll notice that all his activities tend to be indoors, which helps protect his very pale skin…).I've worked with Juan for years, but I am super excited that he's offered to illustrate The Quick & The Undead.  His ghoulish illustrations bring a rare blend of vivid, fantastical imagination and rich character creation, that will evocatively bring The Quick & the Undead to life (and they’ll do a lot of the heavy lifting for your imagination at the table too!).  He is, without question, the best "human" for the job, and the most deadline-orientated person I have ever worked with – I have total faith in the timely delivery of top-quality art, and couldn't imagine anyone else doing it!

Reward Tiers

• Digital Zine — £7  Our precious zombabies! 
• Physical Zine — £15* (+ P&P) We’ve got ya covered, zombuddie!
• Retailer Pack (5 copies) — £35 (+ P&P) For all you zombosses out there!

*only £12 if you back in the first 48 hours!

Please note that to minimise risk, shipping will be calculated after the campaign ends.

The Zine (Print & Digital) 

A fully illustrated, full-colour A5 zine (approx. 50 pages) containing:

• A complete, self-contained TTRPG system
• 6 pre-generated survivor archetypes for instant play and replayability 
• Illustrated map and location scenarios — where will you run when the dead close in?
• Tables and narrative prompts to keep pressure high and scenes dramatic
• 6 pre-generated zombie sheets — when your time is up, what symptoms will you develop, when will you turn, and how will you destroy all humans? 

Retailer Pack (5 copies) 

Perfect for friendly local game stores and indie retailers:

• 5 physical copies of The Quick & the Undead
• Reduced wholesale pricing
• Compact, eye-catching format 
• Ideal for demo nights

Why Kickstarter?

Being based on the Isle of Man has made publishing routes tricky, and until recently Kickstarter simply wasn’t accessible from our little island in the Irish Sea. That’s changed this year, and I’m genuinely excited to finally launch a project here!  I'm even more stoked to finally be part of ZINE QUEST which I've been personally supporting for years and have gotten some incredible games from!

This campaign will help bring The Quick & the Undead to life in both digital and beautifully printed zine formats, while keeping it affordable and accessible for players and retailers alike. Backing this project supports my work in game design, and helps it make it possible for me to create (hopefully lots) more future bite-sized TTRPG experiments!

Thank-you!

If you made it this far and read all my words, please accept a heartfelt thank-you for your time and attention. If we ever get the chance to meet in person, the code to identify yourself as the awesome human you are, is "I'm a zomboss-bitch".