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The Last Caravan: A Cars and Aliens RPG

The Last Caravan: A Cars and Aliens RPG

2–6 players 2024
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About this Game

The invasion came less than a year ago. Swift and brutal, the aliens and humans bombed each other for two months before the dust had time to settle. It's hard to say who won—earth is ravaged and the debris from the alien mothership clouded the atmosphere to create the harshest winter in a thousand years. Now your caravan must cross this landscape, a road trip across North America, following rumors of a safe haven on the other side of the continent. Amongst the threat of alien invaders, xenofauna, and new factions arising from the ashes of war, can you find the strength you need to make the journey? The Last Caravan is a roleplaying game of ordinary people finding their heroism on a midwinter road trip, exploring the landscape of a North America ravaged by an alien invasion. Your group might play as a family, a group of researchers, or veterans of the Two Months' War. Individual characters are regular people forced to apply their skills to an extraordinary situation; perhaps a medic, a mechanic, a hunter, a talker—you can even play as the childlike Innocent or the caravan's dog! The Last Caravan uses the Forged in the Dark system to tell a collaborative story of these people finding the strength to continue on, exploring the world in the wake of war, and fighting for a new life in a harsh world.

Categories

Survival Modern Post-Apocalyptic Sci-fi

Mechanics

D6 System

How to Create a Character and Play The Last Caravan

To play The Last Caravan, you don't just create your character, you also create the caravan itself! Start by choosing a type from Kin (a family unit, blood-related or not), Brains (a curious group interested in understanding the invasion and its secrets), or Vets (veterans from the war against the aliens. Each caravan should have a "hook," a reason why they're traveling coast-to-coast. Then each player will choose an "imprint," a character archetype like the Bruiser, the Lookout, the Talker, even the Innocent or the Good Boi (the caravan's dog). Decide your background, and assign dots to your gambits, the actions you can take in the game. For each dot in a gambit, you'll roll one six-sided die when you use it. When making a gambit, you roll all your dice and take the highest: on a 6, you succeed! On a 4-5, you succeed, but with a complication, and on a 1-3, you face the consequences. Characters also have a special ability from their imprint and an inadequacy.

Inadequacies are a way your character gains heroism, a resource that allows characters to find useful items, gain bonus dice for gambits, or increase the harm they deal with a gambit in a fight. The caravan also creates their first vehicle together (their first because they may need to abandon or destroy it as the game proceeds...) and begins their journey.

Play proceeds in phases: Travel, where characters are on the road, supplying, resting, scouting, talking, and staying on the move. They may encounter trouble on the road or learn of opportunities. This may lead to Detours, where characters explore, deal with obstacles, talk to other characters and factions, and fight, if they have to. After each detour is some Upkeep, then play continues into Travel.

Imprints

Bandage

Bandage

An insightful friend and caretaker. Your job is to keep everyone intact — despite their best efforts to self-destruct. Caring can be kind, but sometimes, to get a broken nose in place, you have to break it a second time.

Bruiser

Bruiser

A tough fighter and protector. You can try to avoid trouble, but it always finds you eventually. You stand between your friends and danger — and then rush in, full of adrenaline, to punch an alien monster in the face.

Good Boi

Good Boi

A loyal friend and sniffer. Your people need you. You can bark to warn them and smell the things they can’t see. The world is getting dangerous, but that might mean new friends. And where there are friends, there are treats.

Innocent

Innocent

An inspiring person on the cusp of change. Your whole life, you’ve relied on people — and inspired them to be better. But soon you’re going to learn some difficult truths, and you already know that those truths are going to change you forever.

Lookout

Lookout

A farsighted hunter and scout. You’ve always had a good eye for landscapes and long shots. Whether you’re first into the unknown or hanging back with a rifle, you make sure that the caravan’s way forward is secure.

Stargazer

Stargazer

A curious researcher and scientist. You believed knowledge was salvation, but then literal aliens invaded the planet, and everything’s been turned upside-down. Now you are determined to use your expertise to help the people you love — and find the truth.

Talker

Talker

A charismatic negotiator and liaison. In your experience, words are cleaner and cheaper than guns. Using brilliant persuasion skills, inherent likeability, or just the speed of your motor mouth, you’ve kept yourself alive with conversation.

Wrench

Wrench

A handy tinkerer and repair person. You might have honed your skills at a trade school, in the grease of a workshop, or tinkering in your garage, but whatever your background, you have a mind and hands built for solving problems.

Frequently Asked Questions

What do I need to play The Last Caravan?
You'll want some character sheets, pencils, paper, and a few six-sided dice for each player. If you're playing in person, you may also want some snacks for the table! If you're playing online, you'll need a microphone and possibly a webcam and a way to roll dice digitally.
Is The Last Caravan a horror game?
While it can certainly include scary situations, The Last Caravan is primarily a survival game, about a group of people doing their best to find moments of heroism on a difficult journey.
Can you play as a dog in The Last Caravan?
Yes, two of the character classes, or "imprints" in The Last Caravan are The Good Boi, the caravan's dog, a canine companion with special abilities and unique gambits; and the Innocent, a child or otherwise not particularly powerful or skilled character with the potential to grow into one of the other imprints (though probably not the dog).
Do you fight aliens in The Last Caravan?
The Last Caravan is not generally a combat-focused game, but you can absolutely run afoul of alien invaders and hostile xenofauna that your caravan may have to fight with or flee from. One of the caravans types your group can choose is "vets," veterans of the war between humans and aliens, if you want more of an XCOM-style game about fighting aliens across the country.

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