Ink Ribbon Brings Survival Horror to the Table

Old Oak Games has launched Ink Ribbon, a tabletop RPG of survival horror inspired by video games such as Resident Evil, Silent Hill, and Alan Wake. It’s setting is Sparrow’s Rest, a Midwestern city overrun by zombies and bioweapons, where a group of ordinary survivors only have a few hours to escape.

Created by Emmet Byrne, Ink Ribbon uses a d6 dice pool, with Stress and Panic making dangerous situations even harder to handle. Players must watch their ammunition, search for supplies, and decide what deserves space in their limited invetory. The free to download Quickstart shows how closely the game embraces video game logic with its introductory scenario, Dead on Arrival, taking survivors into the Sparrow’s Rest Police Department, complete with scarce resources, puzzle-box exploration, and safe rooms where monsters can’t follow which allow you to rest and heal without worry.

Another interesting idea in the game is how the city changes across scenarios. Groups can play different survivors during the same outbreak, marking explored buildings, destroyed routes, and even deaths on a shared city map. Later survivors may encounter the consequences of an earlier group’s choices.

Ink Ribbon is available as a Core or 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 Deluxe 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 Ink Ribbon - A Survival Horror Tabletop RPG crowdfunder is live now and runs until Friday 23rd October 2026.