Survival TTRPGs are strongest when the rules make something scarce: oxygen, food, safety, ammunition, time, warmth, trust, or hope. Start with Mothership for sci-fi survival horror, Alien for cinematic franchise horror, The Wretched for focused solo survival, and Death in Space for rules-lite scavenging in a dying universe.
Survival overlaps heavily with horror and science fiction. For a broader comparison, use the Best TTRPGs hub.
ShadowDark belongs here when the table wants pressure around staying alive, not just the label on the cover. Shadowdark RPG rejuvenates traditional tabletop RPGs by blending old-school elements with modern mechanics for a fast-paced and intuitive gameplay experience.
Cairn belongs here when the table wants pressure around staying alive, not just the label on the cover. Cairn RPG is an exploration-focused tabletop RPG set in a mysterious, dark forest filled with strange creatures and hidden treasures.
Alien fits survival because it makes endurance, scarcity, and immediate danger part of the table's decision-making. Alien RPG immerses players in the foreboding universe of the Alien franchise, blending survival horror with science fiction in a game of fear, power, and survival.
Ten Candles belongs here when the table wants pressure around staying alive, not just the label on the cover. A tragic horror storytelling game designed for one-shot sessions.
Blue Planet: Recontact fits survival because it makes endurance, scarcity, and immediate danger part of the table's decision-making. Dive into the depths of a water-covered world in Blue Planet: Recontact, a tabletop RPG where players explore the mysteries of an alien planet while facing environmental...
Mörk Borg belongs here when the table wants pressure around staying alive, not just the label on the cover. A doom metal-inspired tabletop RPG characterized by its dark, apocalyptic fantasy setting and horror elements.
Mothership fits survival because it makes endurance, scarcity, and immediate danger part of the table's decision-making. Step aboard the desolate, dark confines of space in Mothership, a sci-fi horror RPG where players navigate treacherous alien worlds and face off against cosmic terrors.
Degenesis: Rebirth belongs here when the table wants pressure around staying alive, not just the label on the cover. A 'Primal Punk' post-apocalyptic RPG set 500 years after the Eschaton meteor fall.
A Quiet Year fits survival because it makes endurance, scarcity, and immediate danger part of the table's decision-making. A thought-provoking tabletop RPG where players collaboratively create a post-apocalyptic community struggling to survive over the course of one quiet year.
Choose A Torch in the Dark for survival play when you want pressure around staying alive. A rules-lite solo dungeon delver using Forged in the Dark mechanics.
After the Blast earns this tag by making survival pressure matter during play. A rules-lite post-apocalyptic survival RPG using 2d6 + stat resolution.
Against the Wind belongs here when the table wants pressure around staying alive, not just the label on the cover. Against the Wind invites players into a richly woven tapestry of survival and adventure in a world perpetually buffeted by furious storms and relentless currents.
Choose All Flesh Must Be Eaten for survival play when you want pressure around staying alive. A rules‑lite survival‑horror game using the Unisystem.
Alone Among the Stars earns this tag by making survival pressure matter during play. A rules‑lite solo journaling game about exploring strange worlds.
Alone in the Ancient City belongs here when the table wants pressure around staying alive, not just the label on the cover. A rules-lite solo journaling RPG about exploring the districts of a vast forgotten metropolis.
Choose ARC: Doom Tabletop RPG for survival play when you want pressure around staying alive. ARC is a rules‑lite, doom‑clock RPG about racing the apocalypse.
Barbarians of the Ruined Earth earns this tag by making survival pressure matter during play. A rules‑lite post‑apocalyptic sword‑and‑sorcery game built on The Black Hack.
Best Left Buried belongs here when the table wants pressure around staying alive, not just the label on the cover. A rules‑lite fantasy horror about desperate cryptdiggers braving lethal, resource‑starved dungeons.
Choose Breathless for survival play when you want pressure around staying alive. A rules-lite survival horror RPG using polyhedral dice with degradation mechanics.
Broken Shores earns this tag by making survival pressure matter during play. A rules-lite dark fantasy survival RPG using d100 resolution.
Cast Away fits survival because it makes endurance, scarcity, and immediate danger part of the table's decision-making. A rules-lite survival RPG using Diminishing Dice mechanics to model deteriorating conditions after disaster.
Choose Castaway for survival play when you want pressure around staying alive. A rules-lite shipwreck survival horror RPG compatible with Mörk Borg.
Curseborne earns this tag by making survival pressure matter during play. Curseborne, Onyx Path’s 2025 urban horror RPG, explores cursed lineages in a modern world.
Dead Belt belongs here when the table wants pressure around staying alive, not just the label on the cover. A rules-lite solo/co-op survival RPG where you play as a Belter scavenging derelict starships on the Gasping Frontier.
Choose Dead of Night for survival play when you want pressure around staying alive. Dead of Night immerses players in a chilling modern horror setting where they take on the roles of ordinary individuals grappling with unimaginable terror.
Dead Reign fits survival because it makes endurance, scarcity, and immediate danger part of the table's decision-making. A post-apocalyptic horror RPG about surviving the zombie outbreak.
Death in Space earns this tag by making survival pressure matter during play. A rules‑lite sci‑fi survival game about scrappy crews trying to make it through a dying universe.
Deathmatch Island fits survival because it makes endurance, scarcity, and immediate danger part of the table's decision-making. A reality-show survival RPG about contestants trapped inside a violent spectacle built on paranoia, performance, and control.
Desperation fits survival because it makes endurance, scarcity, and immediate danger part of the table's decision-making. A rules-lite survival horror RPG containing two complete games: Dead House (blizzard-stranded Kansas town, 1888) and The Isabel (doomed fishing vessel in the Gulf of...
Choose Don't Rest Your Head for survival play when you want pressure around staying alive. A rules‑lite psychological survival horror about insomniacs who awaken to the Mad City.
Durance earns this tag by making survival pressure matter during play. On a remote prison planet, convicts and guards struggle to survive in a brutal hierarchy.
Endure belongs here when the table wants pressure around staying alive, not just the label on the cover. A rules-lite survival RPG using a 2d6 Risk Roll system.
Enter the Survival Horror fits survival because it makes endurance, scarcity, and immediate danger part of the table's decision-making. A rules‑lite, Forged in the Dark survival‑horror game about dark corridors, dwindling resources, and mounting dread.
Choose Escape from Dino Island for survival play when you want pressure around staying alive. A rules-lite survival adventure using Powered by the Apocalypse mechanics.
Fallout earns this tag by making survival pressure matter during play. A post-apocalyptic tabletop RPG set in a world devastated by nuclear war, where players navigate a harsh, radioactive wasteland filled with mutated creatures, factions,...
Fearsome Wilderness belongs here when the table wants pressure around staying alive, not just the label on the cover. A rules-lite survival RPG using the Year Zero Engine.
Forbidden Lands fits survival because it makes endurance, scarcity, and immediate danger part of the table's decision-making. A sandbox survival fantasy RPG where you play rogues and raiders exploring a cursed world.
Choose Frontier Scum for survival play when you want pressure around staying alive. A rules‑lite acid‑western OSR game about wanted outlaws scraping by on the Lost Frontier.
FROSTBITE earns this tag by making survival pressure matter during play. A rules-lite arctic survival RPG using d20, d4, and d6 dice.
Green Dawn Mall belongs here when the table wants pressure around staying alive, not just the label on the cover. A rules‑lite survival-horror about teens lost in an endless, uncanny shopping mall.
Grimwild fits survival because it makes endurance, scarcity, and immediate danger part of the table's decision-making. Grimwild immerses players in a richly woven, dark fantasy world teetering on the edge of collapse, where nature has taken on a terrifying life of its own.
Choose HOSTILE for survival play when you want pressure around staying alive. A near‑future, blue‑collar sci‑fi survival RPG using classic 2d6 task resolution.
In the Light of a Ghost Star earns this tag by making survival pressure matter during play. A rules-lite sci-fi RPG set on a frozen, abandoned Earth lit by a dead white dwarf.
Into the Dungeon: Revived belongs here when the table wants pressure around staying alive, not just the label on the cover. A rules‑lite OSR fantasy game using simple d20 saves and inventory‑driven resource play.
Long Haul 1983 fits survival because it makes endurance, scarcity, and immediate danger part of the table's decision-making. A solo journaling RPG of survival on empty highways.
Choose Low Fantasy Gaming for survival play when you want pressure around staying alive. Low Fantasy Gaming immerses players in a gritty, realistic world filled with danger and intrigue, where survival is not guaranteed and every choice has consequences.
Moonbase Blues earns this tag by making survival pressure matter during play. A rules-lite sci-fi horror scenario compatible with Mothership RPG 1e.
Mountaintop Isolation belongs here when the table wants pressure around staying alive, not just the label on the cover. A solo journaling survival game where you document your struggle to endure a blizzard trapped alone in a remote ski cabin.
Choose Mouse Guard for survival play when you want pressure around staying alive. A mission-structured fantasy RPG of duty, weather, travel, and small heroes protecting a dangerous world much larger than themselves.
Choose Mutant Crawl Classics for survival play when you want pressure around staying alive. A post-apocalyptic, OSR-inspired game of deadly expeditions into ancient ruins.
Mutant: Year Zero earns this tag by making survival pressure matter during play. A post-apocalyptic survival RPG using the Year Zero Engine.
Never Going Home belongs here when the table wants pressure around staying alive, not just the label on the cover. A rules-lite WWI survival-horror game using straightforward tests plus card-hand pressure.
Night Witches fits survival because it makes endurance, scarcity, and immediate danger part of the table's decision-making. A Powered by the Apocalypse RPG about the all-female Soviet 588th Night Bomber Regiment in WWII.
Choose Other Dust for survival play when you want pressure around staying alive. A rules-lite post-apocalyptic RPG set on the Tomb World of Earth, centuries after civilization's collapse.
Outbreak: Undead (2nd Edition) earns this tag by making survival pressure matter during play. Outbreak: Undead (2e) is a survival-horror tabletop RPG focused on realism, resource scarcity, and tough choices.
Paleomythic belongs here when the table wants pressure around staying alive, not just the label on the cover. A rules‑lite stone‑and‑sorcery survival game using opposed dice pools and conditions.
Perseverant fits survival because it makes endurance, scarcity, and immediate danger part of the table's decision-making. A rules-lite collaborative story game about surviving a brutal wilderness.
Choose Perseverant RPG for survival play when you want pressure around staying alive. Perseverant is a rules-lite survival story game about desperate journeys through hostile wilderness.
Pirate Borg earns this tag by making survival pressure matter during play. A dark fantasy pirate RPG about cursed seas, undead threats, and fast, filthy adventure on a doomed black ocean.
Polaris RPG earns this tag by making survival pressure matter during play. A post-apocalyptic underwater survival game where humanity fled to the seas after the surface became uninhabitable.
Primal Quest - Essentials belongs here when the table wants pressure around staying alive, not just the label on the cover. Primal Quest – Essentials is a rules‑lite stone‑and‑sorcery RPG.
RECON fits survival because it makes endurance, scarcity, and immediate danger part of the table's decision-making. RECON transports players to the heart of the Vietnam War, blending military tactics with immersive roleplaying as they navigate the chaotic jungles and political turmoil...
Choose Runecairn for survival play when you want pressure around staying alive. Runecairn immerses players in a rich world inspired by Norse mythology, where they must navigate treacherous lands filled with ancient magic and powerful beings.
Ryuutama earns this tag by making survival pressure matter during play. A cozy, Japanese-inspired RPG where village folk—bakers, healers, farmers—embark on a grand journey across a world born from seasonal dragons.
Sleepaway fits survival because it makes endurance, scarcity, and immediate danger part of the table's decision-making. A rules-lite horror RPG where camp counselors protect their wards from the shape-shifting Lindworm.
Choose Solo Gamemaster's Guide for survival play when you want pressure around staying alive. A comprehensive resource for players who want to experience the thrills of tabletop roleplaying games on their own.
SQUISHY! earns this tag by making survival pressure matter during play. Is a rules-lite survival horror TTRPG using a d10 resolution system.
Stay Frosty belongs here when the table wants pressure around staying alive, not just the label on the cover. A rules‑lite military sci‑fi game using streamlined OSR/Black Hack–style rolls.
Stoneburner fits survival because it makes endurance, scarcity, and immediate danger part of the table's decision-making. A rules‑lite sci‑fantasy survival game using the Breathless step‑die engine.
Choose Survive the Night for survival play when you want pressure around staying alive. A rules‑lite horror one‑shot built for fast, cinematic survival.
SURVIVE THIS!! Zombies – Ultimate Edition earns this tag by making survival pressure matter during play. Zombies is a rules‑lite OSR modern horror game using d20 tests and class‑based play.
Tales of Argosa belongs here when the table wants pressure around staying alive, not just the label on the cover. A low-fantasy adventure RPG built for dangerous exploration, rough-edged heroism, and sandbox play with old-school pressure and modern usability.
The Beast fits survival because it makes endurance, scarcity, and immediate danger part of the table's decision-making. A rules-lite one-page RPG about low-rent monster hunters in 18th-century Eastern Europe.
Choose The End of the World: Wrath of the Gods for survival play when you want pressure around staying alive. Wrath of the Gods is a rules‑lite modern‑day survival game using a simple positive/negative d6 pool.
The End of the World: Zombie Apocalypse earns this tag by making survival pressure matter during play. A rules‑lite modern survival RPG using simple dice pools and stress tracks.
The Midnight World earns this tag by making survival pressure matter during play. A darkly atmospheric tabletop RPG that plunges players into a hauntingly beautiful realm where nightmares and reality intertwine.
The Morrow Project fits survival because it makes endurance, scarcity, and immediate danger part of the table's decision-making. A post-apocalyptic RPG about teams waking into a broken future with missions, military structure, and the burden of rebuilding after collapse.
The Mutant Epoch belongs here when the table wants pressure around staying alive, not just the label on the cover. A rules-lite post-apocalyptic RPG using the Outland System.
The One Ring (Second Edition) fits survival because it makes endurance, scarcity, and immediate danger part of the table's decision-making. A Tolkien fantasy RPG built around journeys, weariness, and hope in the twilight of the Third Age.
The One Ring RPG belongs here when the table wants pressure around staying alive, not just the label on the cover. The One Ring is a survival-focused fantasy RPG set in Middle-earth between The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
The Walking Dead Universe fits survival because it makes endurance, scarcity, and immediate danger part of the table's decision-making. The Walking Dead Universe immerses players in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by a relentless zombie outbreak, where survival hinges on difficult choices and the...
Choose The Warren for survival play when you want pressure around staying alive. A rules-lite survival RPG about intelligent rabbits facing a hostile world.
The Wildsea fits survival because it makes endurance, scarcity, and immediate danger part of the table's decision-making. A narrative survival-fantasy RPG set on an endless treetop ocean.
Choose The Wretched for survival play when you want pressure around staying alive. A rules-lite solo journaling RPG played with cards, a tumbling block tower, and a microphone.
Those Dark Places earns this tag by making survival pressure matter during play. A rules‑lite industrial sci‑fi horror game using simple dice pools and stress checks.
Thousand Year Old Vampire belongs here when the table wants pressure around staying alive, not just the label on the cover. A solo journaling RPG about immortality, memory, and loss.
Torchbearer fits survival because it makes endurance, scarcity, and immediate danger part of the table's decision-making. A survival-focused dungeon crawler where light, food, and supplies deplete constantly.
Twilight: 2000 earns this tag by making survival pressure matter during play. A retro-apocalyptic survival RPG using the Year Zero Engine.
Choose Twilight: 2000 for survival play when you want pressure around staying alive. A post-apocalyptic military survival RPG from Free League.
Vast Grimm belongs here when the table wants pressure around staying alive, not just the label on the cover. A rules‑lite sci‑fi horror game powered by Mörk Borg’s chassis.
Choose Wolves of God: Adventures in Dark Ages England for survival play when you want pressure around staying alive. Wolves of God is a rules-lite OSR RPG set in 710 AD Dark Ages England.
Zombie World earns this tag by making survival pressure matter during play. A rules‑lite, card‑driven survival RPG about a community fighting to live through the zombie apocalypse.