Can You Survive Ink Ribbon? The New Survival Horror TTRPG From Old Oak Games

Irish publisher Old Oak Games have revealed their next project - a survival horror tabletop roleplaying called Ink Ribbon, coming to Backerkit this September.

Written and designed by Emmet Byrne (Warhammer: Age of Sigmar Soulbound TTRPG; Beyond The Woods), Ink Ribbon is inspired by classic survival horror video games such as Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and Alan Wake. The game sees a handful of survivors fighting to escape the fictional midwestern city of Sparrow’s Rest, after the city has been overrun by the walking dead.

It puts you in the shoes of everyday people (or a rookie cop having the worst first day in history) as you try to survive a zombie apocalypse caused by a shady pharmaceutical company. You’ll need to manage your inventory, keep an eye on your ammo, search for healing herbs, and face down rotting zombies and terrifying bio-weapons - all while trying to escape a doomed city that is just hours away from being nuked out of existence.

Ink Ribbon takes inspiration from Legacy-style board games and encourages you to play each scenario as a different group of survivors. Play through parakkek stories happening over th final hours of Sparrow’s Rest and discover how different groups deal with the outbreak - and who survives. Use the city map to mark what buildings have been explored, when bridges were destroyed or roads collapsed, and where each survivor died. Maybe their corpse has some valuable gear another group can use - that is, if they are really dead…

Ink Ribbon will be available in a Core Box or a Deluxe Box. Both will include the zine-sized Survivor’s Handbook (core rules, character generation, etc), Welcome to Sparrow’s Rest (a 60-page visitors guide to the city, including hidden secrets and dark history), Heal-X Pharmaceuticals Research Dossier (a dossier full of twisted experiments and bio-weapons gone wrong), Dead on Arrival (introductory scenario), and a GM Screen and City Map (although the Deluxe Box versions of these are larger and in colour). The DFeluxe Box also features a bunch of exclusives such as four extra booklets full of scenarios and extra rules, custom dice, tokens, character sheets, etc.

The campaign page is currently in prelaunch mode, and if you follow it you can download a free Quick Start Demo which runs to 117 pages and includes everything you need to start playing Ink Ribbon including four pre-made characters and the Dead on Arrival introductory scenario.