You’re staring at a frozen colony. Food is low. There’s a guy named Sparky—who is literally a stunt dog—carrying a shotgun, and a mall Santa who might be a serial killer. If you’ve played Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game by Plaid Hat Games, you know exactly how weird and stressful the Dead of Winter cast can get. It isn't just a list of names. It’s a collection of tragic backstories, weirdly specific skills, and the constant, gnawing fear that one of them is about to stab you in the back for a pile of canned beans.
Honestly, the "cast" of this game is what makes it a modern classic. Unlike most zombie games where you play as generic "Soldier" or "Medic," Isaac Vega and Jon Gilmour designed these characters with distinct, often messy personalities. You aren't just managing health points. You're managing a group of survivors who have baggage.
The Core Survivors You’ll See Every Game
The base game comes with 30 survivors. That’s a lot of cardboard standees to keep track of. But let’s be real: some of these characters are just objectively better than others.
Take Thomas Meyer, the soldier. He’s basically your heavy hitter. With an influence of 56—the highest in the base game—he’s usually the leader of the colony. If things go south and people start dying, Thomas is the one who keeps everyone from panicking. His ability to kill a zombie in his location without rolling the exposure die is a godsend. Seriously. If you’ve ever lost a favorite character because you rolled a "tooth" on a simple move action, you know why Thomas is essential.
Then there’s Ashley Ross. She’s the construction worker. She isn’t flashy. She doesn’t have a cool gun. But she can build a barricade for free once per turn. In a game where action dice are more precious than actual gold, saving a die while keeping the zombies out is huge. She's the backbone of a defensive strategy.
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The Weird Ones: Sparky and Forest Plum
We have to talk about Sparky. Yes, a dog. He’s a stunt dog, specifically. Sparky is legendary in the board game community because he is immune to the "zombie" result on the exposure die. He can’t turn into a zombie. He just gets a wound. He can also use items. You haven't truly lived until you've equipped a Golden Retriever with a Sniper Rifle to clear out the Police Station. It’s ridiculous, but it’s part of why the Dead of Winter cast feels so unique.
Forest Plum, the mall Santa, is another fan favorite. He’s got high influence, but he’s essentially just a guy in a suit who is very good at finding things. His ability allows him to look at the top card of a deck before searching. It's subtle. It saves you from drawing useless junk or, worse, a "jolt" card that messes up your turn.
Deep Dive into the Expanded Cast: The Long Night and Warring Colonies
If you’ve moved past the base game and jumped into The Long Night or Warring Colonies, the cast expands significantly. These characters get darker. They have to. The world is getting worse.
In The Long Night, you get characters like Ransome, the "experiment." He’s a victim of Raxxon, the pharmaceutical company that probably caused the whole mess. He’s powerful but unstable. Then you have Fatima, who is incredible at finding food. Food is the most common way players lose the game (the hunger mechanic is brutal), so having her in your starting hand is like winning the lottery.
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Why Influence Matters More Than Combat
Most new players look at the "Attack" stat first. They want to kill zombies. But the real pros look at the Influence number on the top right of the character card.
- Leadership: The player with the highest influence character starts the game with the first-player token.
- Survival: When a character dies, the player with the lowest influence character is usually the one who suffers the most from morale loss or "bite" spreads.
- Betrayal: If you are the traitor, having a high-influence character like Arthur Thurston (the principal) makes it much harder for people to exile you. You have more "weight" in the colony.
The Impact of the Crossroads Cards on the Cast
You can't talk about the Dead of Winter cast without mentioning the Crossroads deck. This is the secret sauce. Every character has specific cards that only trigger if they are in play.
For example, if you have Buddy, the fitness trainer, a card might trigger where he finds an old gym. You have to choose: does he work out and gain a permanent boost, or does the noise attract a horde? These narrative moments turn the cast from "pieces on a board" into a story you’ll talk about for weeks.
I remember a game where Loretta Clay (the cook) had to choose between feeding the colony or keeping a secret stash for herself. Because she was being played by a guy who was actually the traitor, he chose to hoard the food, and the "cast" fell apart within two rounds. It was poetic.
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What Most People Get Wrong About Team Building
A lot of players try to build a "combat team." They want the Soldier, the Ninja (Blue), and the Deputy. This is a mistake.
Dead of Winter is a game about logistics. You need a searcher, a builder, and a "cleaner."
- The Searcher: Someone like Bev Russell (the mother). She can search decks more efficiently.
- The Builder: Ashley Ross or someone who can mitigate the need for barricade tokens.
- The Cleaner: Someone who can kill zombies without risking an exposure die roll.
If your team is all fighters, you’ll run out of cards by round three and starve to death. Balance is everything.
Managing the Cast in Warring Colonies
When you play the Warring Colonies expansion, the cast becomes a resource to be traded. This changes the dynamic entirely. You might find yourself trading away a "good" character to another player just to get enough fuel to survive the winter. It adds a layer of human cost that the base game only hints at.
Actionable Tips for Mastering the Dead of Winter Cast
If you want to actually win your next session (assuming you aren't the traitor), keep these tactical realities in mind.
- Don't over-expand: Every new survivor you add to your team is another mouth to feed. If you have three survivors, you're contributing three food to the pile every round. If you can't guarantee you'll find that food, don't recruit. It’s better to have one "elite" character like Edward White (the chemist) than three useless ones.
- Protect your high-influence characters: Keep Thomas Meyer at the Colony. Don't send him to the gas station where he might die from a lucky zombie roll. Use your "expendable" survivors—the ones with influence in the teens or twenties—to do the dangerous scouting.
- Watch the Traitor: If someone is playing a character like Mike Walters (the ninja) and they aren't killing zombies, they are probably the traitor. The ninja is built for clearing paths. If he's just sitting in the library searching for "blueprints," something is wrong.
- Use Sparky for everything: Seriously. Because Sparky doesn't trigger certain negative "human" effects on Crossroads cards and can't turn into a zombie, he should be your primary mover. Send the dog to the Police Station. Send the dog to the Grocery Store.
- Read the backstories: This sounds like "flavor" advice, but it helps you remember abilities. Knowing that Carla Thompson is a courier makes it easier to remember she has high movement capabilities.
The Dead of Winter cast is a weird, disparate group of losers, heroes, and psychos. Understanding their individual mechanics—not just their flavor text—is the difference between surviving the winter and becoming just another frozen corpse in the snow. Pay attention to the influence levels, keep your food-finders alive, and for the love of everything, let the dog carry the shotgun.