SPI's Dawn of the Dead Board Game (1978)

As I was huge fan of George A. Romero's DAWN OF THE DEAD after just one view of the VHS at a friend's house, I jumped at the chance to pick up SPI's board game tie in when I spotted it at my local game shop. I can't begin to count the number of times I played the game, mostly the solo variant, for years to come. But as time passed I moved on to other board games. Recently, I decided to take a trip down memory lane.

Components

The ugly paper map of the mall, the cheap cardboard counters and simplistic artwork are all products of their time. Compared to the glossy, plastic figure infused zombie board game LAST NIGHT ON EARTH, one can certainly see how far gaming has come. DAWN's components are serviceable but there's a far greater appeal to moving a plastic zombie figure around a heavy cardboard map than a cardboard chit with a zombie face on it around a paper map.

Starting set up

For those into print and play, there is a really nicely done remake of the game available from Witchmaster Creations. Throw in some plastic zombie miniatures and that will take care of the issues with the components.

Rules

The rule book is eight pages of black text with the back page collecting all charts and tables needed for game play. The rules are easy enough to follow. The Human player, controlling Fran, Peter, Roger and Steve, moves one character or stack of characters who start on the same square through the shops and halls of the mall. The object is for Fran and Steve to collect hunting rifles from Edwin's Sports Center to replace their pistols and for the team to close the four main doors to the mall. Each character has a fire rate, the number of times per turn they can shoot, a panic level, how easy it is for them to freeze up when confronted by zombies and a movement allowance. Combat is resolved by rolling six sided dice, the amount of dice depending on the weapon being used, with a hit being any number equal to or greater than the zombie value. Zombie values range from 1 through 11 and represent the number of zombies on a square.

Once the Human player's turn is over the Zombie player begins his turn which is broken down into phases. The berserk zombie phase is a check to see if a zombie becomes berserk. Berserk zombies move faster than other zombies and can attempt to destroy a closed glass door. The next two phases are for zombie movement. Those zombies that saw the humans move react and move towards their meal and then the zombie player can move a number of zombie units equal to a die roll. The zombie attack phase occurs if a human is in the same space with a zombie unit. The last phase is for zombie generation, a check is performed for if any new zombie units enter the mall via an unsecured main entrance. Once the Zombie player finishes all phases it is the Human player turn. But the Human player can't move any characters who moved on the previous turn. Turns alternate until the Human player achieves his objectives or the Zombie player kills three characters, two if one of them is Fran.

Rules are included for solitaire play and a three and four player version. It's been years since I played a three or four player game and I don't recall how well the game went but I expect there was a fair amount of downtime. The solitaire rules work out well.

Steve and Fran need to roll an 8 or higher on three dice to take out the zombie hoard.
They roll three ones

Conclusion

It may be my love for DAWN OF THE DEAD film and all things zombie, but this 37 year old game is fun to play despite its short comings. There's a lot of dice rolling but I had to plan the character's moves in order to blast as many zombies as possible before finding refuge in a shop. At times the dice rolls went against me leaving Peter and Roger exposed to the oncoming zombie hoard due to Roger panicking. It made for tense game play.

It's a game I'll continue to pull off the shelf from time to time and the closest any game I've played has gotten to the film.