The September heat wave is nearly over, so it was the perfect opportunity to fight off the cold … and an unending wave of zombies.

Actually, it was another warm night, but my local gaming group got into a cold-weather mood and played Dead of Winter. I enjoyed it despite having one of my characters die immediately, thanks to a horrible first roll of the die. It happened so fast I forgot her name, but I did miss her search skills for the rest of the game. My lone survivor was the ninja and he proved quite adept at slicing and dicing zombies.

Dead of Winter is a terrific co-operative game with a traitor element. The theme is outstanding if you’re into zombies and the tension level ramps up quickly as characters try to scrounge up food, fuel, medicine, and weapons. The traitor managed to complete his mission (it was between me and him and I was expelled since I was going to die of frostbite anyways) as we all succumbed to our lost morale.