The Long Night: The Improvements Module

Welcome to our weekly previews for Dead of Winter: The Long Night, the stand-alone, fully compatible expansion to Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game. Click here to pre-order Dead of Winter: The Long Night from the PlaidHatGames.com store - get 20% off and the Rich Sommer exclusive character and crossroads card for free! Click here to explore MyRaxxon.com.

Did you know we've got whole bunch of other items up for pre-order too? SeaFall: A Legacy Game went up yesterday, and 8 new summoners for Summoners Wars are up for pre-order as well! Plus, All US orders get FREE shipping on orders of $100 or more. So double up on some pre-orders and save!

During the last two weeks I’ve introduced the Raxxon and Bandit modules, complete with their own rules and new locations. The third and final module allows you to make lasting improvements to the colony. At any given time, the colony can choose between four different improvements.  Once one is complete, a new one takes its spot as a potential choice, and you get to place a token to remind you about which improvements have been completed.  Some of them are pretty straightforward, giving you additional uses for your dice.

Others provide a passive benefit to the colony which can occur during different steps of the round, such as the Trench.

If you think that sounds useful, just imagine if you combine it with Rocco Bellini. (I’m pretty sure he’s a dad, not a priest).

At this point you might be wondering what an Advancement Token is, and how you get them. There’s one survivor who can create them.

If you’re unable to draw her at the start of the game, there’s always the re-imagined Junk card.

You’ll start with some, and there’s always more to be found while searching. There’s even a tool out there that can be used repeatedly, much like Melissa’s special ability.

Keep in mind that there are still a number of crises, secret objectives, and main objectives that will require tools, so it won’t always be a given that these get built. In any case, these play pretty easily with any other module, and will likely make the game easier. Maybe they’ll be that little leg up that you need to take on the hardcore side of objectives? Or maybe they’ll just make it a little easier for you to sleep at night…

Do you want an action die or to remove a despair token? Hmm... I’ll have to let you know about that next week!

Week 1: Why Standalone?
Week 2: Raxxon and Video Trailer
Week 3: The Bandit Module

Come back next Wednesday for our next The Long Night preview, on the Improvements module. Click here to pre-order Dead of Winter: The Long Night from the PlaidHatGames.com store - get 20% off and the Rich Sommer exclusive character and crossroads card for free!

Written by James Sitz James Sitz is the lead playtester of Dead of Winter: The Long Night.