ZONES
A downloadable game
Explore. Discover. Survive.
Enter the Zone - a quarantined region warped by catastrophe, filled with mystery, danger, and strange things beyond our understanding. In this tabletop roleplaying game inspired by the STALKER video game series Escape from Tarkov and Twilight 2000, you are a scavenger, survivor, and seeker - known as a stalker. You have come to the Zone either by desperation, curiosity, greed, or something else. Whether alone or with others, you’ll explore a shifting landscape filled with abandoned outposts, strange anomalies, hostile factions, and mutated threats beyond natural laws.
Zones utilizes a fast and lethal d20 roll-under system, accompanied by lightweight rules for character creation, tactical combat, survival mechanics, and hex-crawl exploration. It’s fully playable solo or with a group. It supports emergent storytelling through many procedural tables, mission generators, oracles, and world events. Designed to be gritty, flexible, and atmospheric, expanding on the Mausritter SRD, Zones doesn’t care how you survive, just what you leave behind.
What's Included:
- A core rules with solo and group play, with or without a Game Master using the Mausritter system
- Fast and lethal combat for both ranged and melee, adding some strategic depth for gunfights and mutant ambushes
- Inventory management using limited slots that ensure your gear defines you
- Simple stats and roll-under d20-based saves
- Systems for settlements, factions, world events, anomalies, scavenging, downtime, artifacts, and weather
- Full support for emergent storytelling with oracles, NPC generators, location types, hexcrawling rules, and more!
All you need to play is this book, the character sheets, a collection of polyhedral dice, and the will to brave the unknowns.
Delve into ZONES. The deeper you go, the more you discover.
The Zone remembers you.
The Zone changes you.
Physical Copies
ZONES is available as a print-on-demand option through DriveThruRPG. Use the following link to grab a copy: https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/526868/zones
Credits:
Cody Barr (Sasquatch Games) - Design, Layout, Writing
Anna (Windlass) - Art
This work is based on Mausritter, a product of Losing Games and Isaac Williams, and is licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $15 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Exclusive content
Support this game at or above a special price point to receive something exclusive.
Community Copies
Take a community copy as needed, no reason required. These are made possible by all backers during the Kickstarter campaign.
If you enjoy ZONES, please leave a review (even just a star rating). It really helps show support. Each purchase of this game adds 5 additional community copies. Thank you.
(Last updated December 9, 2025)
Comments
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There is an Enemy Reactions table on p 40 and a NPC Reactions table on p 55. How do you determine which one is used in a given situation?
I have players who don't own the game but are using the DTRPG preview as essentially quickstart rules. Thus, they don't have access to the full list of Conditions. Are you comfortable with me sharing those with them, or should I get them to buy the full game?
Feel free to share all the rules with your players! If they want to support the game later on, have them grab a copy on discount (I run sales every couple of months).
The section on Anomalies talks about anomaly detectors but the Basic Gear section mentions an Artifact detector. Are those two different things?
All the same thing when concerning gameplay. A detector can do both anomaly and artifact detection. Treat the "Basic Artifact Detector" as a "Basic Anomaly Detector" too.
Thank you!
In the section on Character Backgrounds, there is mention of "1P" and "2P". Are those just one usage dot and two usage dots?
That is the Protection value of the item (see page 19, "Attacking" for info on how that works).
Is there a difference between a Combat vest and a Tactical vest? Is there a difference between a Med-kit and a Field med-kit?
Hi again, I looked through your preview in Drivethru RPG and a bit confused. Your combat has 'Range' from near to far away, but in Solo how would you specify range of the enemy? Do you also have Oracle table specific for that?
In the full rules there is information on setting the distance for the enemies from the player. This is directed towards the GM but is also applicable for solo players. It is essentially roll a die, see if an ambush occurs, and set the distance for the encounter. Players can try to ambush enemies as well. Sorry that the preview doesn't show all of this!
Hi! I am interested in buying the game but I couldn't find any review online. For solo play, what are the differences between this game and Courier in terms of generating new locations and events? Do I need to use my own imagination to fill in some narratives or all are already in the book?
Hey there!
ZONES is an entirely different game from Courier, both mechanically and thematically. In ZONES, you are playing a more "standard" RPG experience using the Mausritter ruleset. If you've seen anything on Mausritter, then you'll understand what ZONES offers, just with guns and humans instead of mice.
Everything you need for solo play is included in the ZONES core rules, such as generating locations, factions, encounters, NPCs, and more. You will need to fill in the gaps, but the game leads you through creating a ZONE (19 hex-tile area) filled with things happening that the player can interact with.
Hope that helps.
This looks amazing! I'll wait till pay day to splurge on this. Great job Sasquatch team!
Thanks for the support! I hope that you enjoy your time with ZONES.
I have already started my solo exploration of the Zone and the experience so far is awesome! I cannot find the keyword "Reactive" anywhere! It's the improvised kit armor keyword on page 15. Any ideas?!
That was an old rule that didn't make it out of playtesting, yet I missed removing it. Thank you for letting me know.
Just ignore it for the Improvised Kit armor as there shouldn't be a keyword - it is just improvised protection after all!
Cool! Thanks! One last question. What happens if I gain a condition, but my inventory is already full? Do I reduce my toughness instead?!
On the page 14, opposite of the Conditions Rules:
"Encumbrance
If your stalker is carrying more items or Conditions than available inventory slots, they are considered to be encumbered. While encumbered, the stalker cannot run, moves at half speed, and makes all saves with Disadvantage."
This rule is changed from Mausritter, where you would discard an item to make room for the condition. I decided on a "video-gamey" solution for carrying lots of stuff as I'm not a huge fan of inventory management.
Great, I missed that one, although I was focused when reading the rulebook! I am with you all the way on this rule! Back to the zone! An anomaly tried to communicate with my character and planted someone else's memories in his brain. I am loving the game!
great job, so much good work here!
Super cool survival ttrpg, Cody and Anna!