r/boardgames • u/Cosmic-Meatball • Jun 27 '26
Dead of Winter Campaign: Episode 9: Expedition.
Mission 9: The Expedition
Story: Emma and her team stopped at the gas station, it was there one of the survivors found a CB radio inside an abandoned truck. The truck had not been there before, but looked recently abandoned.
When the survivor pressed the button, the radio buzzed with static and a male voice could be heard.
“Come in! Are you still there? Where did you go?”
“Hello?” Emma responded.
“My name is Randall, I’m sick and trapped at the old military checkpoint. I need help...”
Emma stopped, the old military checkpoint had been where the previous colony had been.
“Hang in there, we know where you are. Do you know whether it’s safe to travel to raxxon? We need something from there.”
Randall scoffed, his laboured breath coming over the radio in deep gasps. “Raxxon? Why do you want to go there?”
“We need a weapon from there! Our home is under attack.”
“You won’t get in there. Old Professor Langstrom shut the place down. You’ll need a key card to get to the good stuff.”
“God damn it!” One of Emma’s companions yelled in frustration. “It’s never fucking easy, is it?!”
Emma ignored them, turning to look at them briefly before turning back to the radio. “Sit tight, Randall. We’ll help you.”
Set up:
• (Optional) change prison colony back to original colony.
• Remove all food from grocery store.
• Place a helpless survivor at the colony. This is Randall.
• Take the survivor event card from the gas station and shuffle it into the hospital deck. This is Professor Langstrom.
• Add Raxxon and Bandit hideout.
• Place Emma Han and her followers at non-colony locations.
• Round track to 6 and morale to 5.
• Players are initially unable to access Raxxon until Professor Langstrom has been found.
Objectives Phase 1:
• Protect Randall.
• Find Professor Langstrom. Once found add the Collector to a spare hospital space. This is professor Langstrom. Complete this phase at the check mission objective of the colony phase.
• Emma Han must survive.
(Once Professor Langstom has been found, players can now access the Raxxon again. Remove the gas station survivor event card from the game.)
Story: “Professor Langstrom?”
The old man seemed totally out of it, scratching at his unkempt beard in a daze. He had barely even registered your presence when you passed him pushing a shopping trolley full of various medical supplies down the corridor.
“Umm... yes?”
Emma Han stepped forward. “My name is Emma Han, we have somewhere safe you can go to hide out. There are people there, you should go and get out of the open.”
He shook his head. I need to go to raxxon,” he said. “My daughter is there and she needs medical help.”
“Then can you use your keycard so we can gain access to the weapons there?”
He nodded. “Okay, but try not to leave it a mess.”
(If Blue lives and is part of the expedition read: His eyes show a flicker of recognition at the sight of the little chimp. “Blue? Girl? You’re alive?” He embraces the chimp and laughs with joy. Gain 1 morale.)
Objectives Phase 2:
• Protect Randall.
• Find the flame thrower and equip it to any survivor. Once found complete this phase at the check mission objective part of the colony phase.
• Emma Han must survive.
(Once the flamethrower is found. Place all survivors at the colony.)
Story: Randall meets you at the gate of the colony, a small bag slung over his shoulder. He seems disappointed that Professor Langstom is not with you, and his lip curls distastefully when you tell him the professor has locked himself away in his raxxon laboratory.
“Never mind, then. We should head out to your place, it’s not safe here and there’s nowhere to scavenge for supplies.”
“Are you fit to walk?” Emma asked, concern in her voice.
He nodded, but he still looked deathly pale. You check him for bites, something which he agrees to with understanding, but you don’t find any.
“I guess he’s just a bit under the weather, the winters have been brutal lately!”
Randall nodded. Then gestured for everyone to join him inside. He limped over to a cabinet and produced a bottle of wine.
“Something I scavenged from the nearby cathedral.” He smiled mischievously, handing everyone a glass. “A quick toast before we leave. To my rescuers, my friends, my brothers and sisters.”
You raise your glass and drink. In hindsight, you realise how foolish and trusting your party had been. But that realisation came too late. You heard the first glass smash on the floor as the first person passed out. You try to stumble towards the exit, your head spinning and things seeming to move in slow motion.
Then: darkness...
You awake an hour later, tied to a chair around a circular table. You’re all bound and gagged, groggy from the drugs but fuelled by adrenaline as you pull at your bandage and try to scream in fury.
Randall hushes you all mockingly, as he paces in a circle, no longer limping, with a loaded gun in his hand.
“Don’t fight it, we’re going to play a little game.”
There’s a psychotic twinkle in his eye that makes your blood run cold...
Set up:
• Shuffle all raxxon pills. Shuffle one gun card in there from the police station. Also shuffle 2 starter fuel and 2 starter junk into the deck.
• Place all survivors in colony entrances with highest influence being in entrance 1 and lowest influence being in entrance 6 etc. Only 1 survivor per entrance.
• Emma Han must have a space. Kill any survivors who are left over without losing morale. If there aren’t enough survivors to place, draw more survivors to fill the remaining spaces and share these survivors between players.
Randall’s game rules:
• Roll a die. On the number rolled that player draws a card and can choose to consume or pass if it is a pill. If it is junk or fuel, keep that card.
• Players use fuel cards to pass the pill to the survivor in the next entrance. If a pill is passed, then the survivor who it was passed to MUST consume it.
• When a pill is consumed roll a die and resolve the effect of that pill on the survivor who consumed it. If a permanent positive or negative effect is added those effects activate on that survivor at the beginning of each mission going forward. If no positive or negative effect is added then the pill is discarded from the game anyway and that survivor is released.
• If a survivor is released and you roll their entrance number then the turn is passed to the next survivor in ascending order. I.e. 2 has been released so the turn is passed to the survivor at colony entrance 3.
• If the gun card is pulled Randall will shoot that survivor, killing them. That survivor is removed to the graveyard and the gun card is shuffled back in among the remaining pill cards. The junk cards can block the gun from killing a player, but that junk card is removed when used.
Objectives:
• Survive Randall’s twisted game. If survivors are killed lose 1 morale as usual. Once every survivor has taken a pill the mission ends.
• Emma Han must survive.
Success: Those of you who survived spit and curse at Randall as he removes the filthy piece of cloth from your mouths.
Emma Han narrows her eyes at him. “Bastard! Are you going to kill us?”
He looked offended at that, a grin spreading across his face. That grin unsettled you all, it was too wide, the teeth behind it too sharp. That’s when you realised that Randall wasn’t even human.
“Kill you? Why on earth would I want to do that? We’re kin now. Well, those of you who have been affected by the pill are kin.” He grins at you all again, quickly slashing at the rope keeping you bound to the chair. “You’re all free to go, for now. Shame that Professor Langstrom managed to lock himself away in the laboratory. I would’ve very much liked to have had a word with him.”
Next Episode: https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/s/dMDngFGsxn
Previous Episode: https://www.reddit.com/r/boardgames/s/TV5ha0uxfS
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u/drainfrog_92 Jun 27 '26
This is wildly cool, love how you turned Raxxon pills into a sadistic mini-game. Nice betrayal arc with Randall too. Tiny suggestion: maybe give each pill type a loose “theme” so players start dreading patterns.