Dead of Winter’s spirit lives on in social deduction title Savage: A Game of Survival
Humanity is the greatest threat.
An upcoming board game called Savage: A Game of Survival looks to take several cues from semi-co-op game Dead of Winter.
A social deduction board game, Savage sees players taking on the role of survivors after society collapses from a series of disasters. As a survivor, players will be looking to either help their fellow humans to survive long enough to be rescued or to ensure that the weakest don’t make it.
Similarly, to Dead of Winter – a horror board game about surviving a zombie outbreak – Savage sees players using item cards to come to the group’s aid or at least prove their trustworthiness. Throughout the game, players will encounter a variety of random events that will require players have certain cards to survive through them, whether that’s a weapon for attacks from enemies or a bear trap to prevent potential invasion. As the game progresses, players may find themselves in need of food or medicine, with the group having the option to help them out.
In another similarity to Dead of Winter, Savage begins by having players be secretly assigned the role of survivor or traitor, with the survivors wanting as many of their fellow survivors alive by the end of the fourth round. By contrast, traitors want to see at least one survivor be eliminated, with the aim being to use the events to cause a survivor’s death. The more players in a game of Savage, the more traitors there will be, with larger groups needing to be prepared for traitors trying to sabotage the game.
Groups can play Savage in a standard mode – wherein the traitors know who their fellow traitors are – or in a more challenging insomnia mode, where the traitors are unaware of each other until they figure things out. Traitors can attempt to lie low, tricking the survivors into making poor decisions or thinking they’re causing the elimination of a traitor. Alternatively, traitors can also openly sabotage the game, as they cannot be voted out and can only be removed via events.
The game immediately ends if a survivor is eliminated, otherwise the game continues until the end of the fourth round – with the survivors winning if they make it that far.
Savage: A Game of Survival was created and is set to be published by Grinly Games, with this being the studio’s debut title.
The Kickstarter campaign for Savage: A Game of Survival is live until August 22nd, with a pledge of $35 (£29) getting backers a copy of the core game in March 2023.