Last Night on Earth is a zombie-themed modular Adventure Board Game created by Flying Frog Productions in which players are split into two groups: Heroes and Zombies. The game objective changes based on which of several different given scenarios has been selected for play. The game takes great care in its thematic elements to achieve the look and feel of a zombie movie, causing the game to exhibit some of the most classic horror movie tropes.
This board game contains examples of:
- Beauty, Brains, and Brawn: The original three female heroes: Sally (the school sweetheart), Becky (the school nurse), and Jenny (a local Farmer's Daughter).
- Breakable Weapons: Most weapons are either one-shot deals, or need a dice roll to see if it breaks (the ones that don't need to take these challenges often give little benefit compared to the breakable weapons). Guns can't break, but can run out of ammo... which functions exactly like the "breaking" mechanic of the other weapons.
- Chainsaw Good: A staple of zombie horror stories, and one of the most effective hand weapons in the game - provided it doesn't break or run out of gas...
- Crossover:
- Visually identical versions of Jake Cartwright appear in two other Flying Frog games, A Touch of Evil and Fortune and Glory, set in the late 1800s and the 1920s respectively. It's left unexplained if this is an Identical Grandson situation or if Jake is somehow immortal.
- Another Flying Frog game, Invasion!, features a similar concept but with Martians attacking a carnival. There are official rules for combining the two games and having the Martians attack Woodinvale, zombies infest the carnival or a three way game where the Martians invade during a Zombie Apocalypse, including rules for zombified Martians.
- The Drifter: Jake Cartwright is called this by name and indeed isn't a resident of the town but wandered through at a bad time.
- Dungeon Bypass: Helping to make up for their slow movement (one square at a time) zombies can move through walls. This is explained in universe by them squeezing through windows and other tight spots that would be too painful and damaging for humans to use but since zombies Feel No Pain they can make it.
- Elite Zombie:
- Optional rules allow heroes who are killed to become "Zombie heroes." They're identical to normal zombies for movement and attacks but retain the wound track of the hero they were, making them much harder to kill.
- Some scenarios feature radioactive zombies that pose a greater threat to the heroes.
- Mook Maker: Zombie Spawning Pits. All new zombie models have to start on the board on one of these squares.
- Must Not Die a Virgin: The Zombie player(s) can play a card (called "Last Night on Earth") with this effect. It keeps a pair of male and female heroes from doing anything that turn. Oddly, it also means they don't have to fight any zombies on their space as well. Perhaps even the living dead can be Distracted by the Sexy?
- Notably this can be used on school teachers or the school nurse and students though the priest PC is explicitly immune to this card.
- Nuclear Mutant: A few of the available scenarios have the zombies be the result of radiation, with rules for radioactive zombies.
- Removing the Head or Destroying the Brain: As per usual a headshot is required to put down a zombie. In game this is represented by the heroes needing to win a fight and roll a double on their attack dice to actually remove a zombie from the board. Winning the fight without rolling doubles merely pushes the zombie back a space. A number of weapons, skills and cards can be used to finish off a zombie without doubles.
- Revolvers Are Just Better: Sheriff Anderson and Detective Winters seem to think so, and though they aren't the most powerful guns in the game, they certainly win for reliability.
- Stylistic Suck: Is deliberately designed to feel like a B-Movie Zombie Apocalypse Slasher Movie, with all the gloriously cheesy tropes therein.
- Too Awesome to Use: Dynamite and Gasoline. Subverted in some scenarios like "Burn Em Out", where they're explicitly needed to blow Spawning Pits sky-high, and when one can reliably take out a group of zombies without fragging other Heroes or mission objectives. Gasoline can also be used as, well, gas, for objectives requiring fuel, or for items like the Chainsaw.
- Town with a Dark Secret:
- Some of the background material seems to indicate that Woodinvale is this, but this is taken further in Survival of the Fittest, where the "Record" Cards reveal that at least one major zombie outbreak occurred in 1956... and zombies have been spotted over the past four generations of the Anderson family.
- Another dirty secret of Woodinvale is Sally's mother apparently being sent to the Widowcrest Asylum, and apparently having to get a full-fledged exorcism performed on her. This is mentioned in Timber Peak, where Sally is considerably shaken by not just Billy dying, but also discovering the dark secret of her mother.
- Zombie Apocalypse: The basis of the game, though initially limited in scope to the small town of Woodinvale and it's environs.
