Draft:Escape the Horde

Escape the Horde is a cooperative card game designed by Todd Stewart, and first published by Infectious Games in May 2023. The game began as a Kickstarter project seeking US$5,000 in crowdfunding, with Infectious Games exceeding its goal early in the project. Delivery to backers started in late September 2023; all backers received their copies of the game by October 2023.

Escape the Horde was officially launched into New Zealand retail stores on Halloween 2023, with many games stores running cosplay events to promote the game.

Appearing at the 2024 Armageddon expo and 2024 Cancer Society Games Fair, Escape the Horde offered experienced and new gamers the opportunity to playtest the game, raising money for the NZ Cancer Society with sales at the latter.

Gameplay

Escape the Horde is an exciting multiplayer collaborative card game of strategy, teamwork, and a little bit of luck. Game-play is surprisingly simple; everything revolves around a game of survival in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Survivors must work together to avoid becoming infected, whilst Patient Zero and their relentless horde of zombies attack them at every chance they get.

At the start of each game each player is dealt a Faction card, to determine their role. Players will either play as a Survivor, or as Patient Zero. Then, players remove the excess Faction cards (Survivors and Patient Zero), along with the Wasteland, Countdown and I'm Fine cards, as these will not be used in general play.

The deck is shuffled and each player draws 5 cards if there are 4 or less players, otherwise each player draws 3 cards. If a player draws a Zombie or Discard Weapon card, they set aside those cards and redraw until they have a full hand. The Zombie and Discard Weapon cards are then shuffled back into the deck (known as the Stack).

During each player's turn they may play as many cards from their hand as they like (Steal, Binoculars, Spill Blood, and more...), before ending their turn by drawing a card. Should a player whose Faction Card is Survivor draw a Zombie card the Combat Phase is triggered and they are now being attacked. Survivors must either use a weapon, or another card to prevent themselves from being bitten. One bite from a Zombie and they receive an I'm Fine card; two bites and they are Turned and change factions to work with Patient Zero to turn the other remaining Survivors.

Should a player whose Faction Card is Patient Zero draw a Zombie card the Combat Phase, they may trigger the Combat Phase by placing it in front of a Survivor where it now attacks that player, or instead they may place the Zombie card secretly into their hand. Escape the Horde contains an element of social deduction as Patient Zero has the choice to play the Survivor text on cards so as to hide their identity until it is they chose to reveal themselves, or an action ultimately reveals who they are. The game is filled with many questions and accusations up until that point.

Survivors win when they beat the Stack of cards or outrun the Countdown clock at the end of the game; Patient Zero and Infected Survivors win when they turn all other Survivors, with the last Survivor turned being crowned the biggest loser.

Expansions

The creators released two expansions in 2024, both of which require a copy of the Escape the Horde core set to play.

Overrun, a multiplayer booster pack expansion introduced a preferred weapon mechanic, primarily for Survivors. It also introduced a Backpack for Survivors. The scariest addition to the game, released in the Overrun expansion, is the King of Zombies. Harder to kill, lethal on attack, friend and ally to Patient Zero, the King of Zombies poses all sorts of new threats to Survivors.

Welcome to the Wastelands, an 88 card expansion removes the Patient Zero Faction from the game and instead pits Survivors against the environment. Each player starts the game in the Welcome to the Wastelands expansion as a Survivor, and are forced to collaborate and work together to stay alive. Players draw an oversized card from the Welcome to the Wastelands Pile at the start of their turn, and must follow the directions on the card before they start their turn proper. Welcome to the Wastelands is a suitable expansion for larger groups, but for the first time, it allows for one-on-one play.

In 2026, the creators have indicated that they will release a rebranded version of the Escape the Horde core set, called Escape the Karen. This new version of the game replaces Zombies with Karens, Weapons with Managers and is a play on the 'Karen' phenomena that is sweeping the world. Super Managers must work together to keep Karens from taking over the world, by defusing their rants. Escape the Karen will be released in a bright pink box.