Dead of Winter: A Crossroads Game FAQ
218 questions players ask · Updated Nov 9, 2026 · Full rulebook
Setup and Secret Objectives
- Can you tell other players your secret objective, or hint at it, during the game?
- Can a player hide cards from the other players, or keep their hand size secret?
- What does the group leader do?
- What counts as your "following"?
- What is influence used for?
- Can you play without the Betrayer card?
- How many betrayal secret objectives are used, and is a traitor guaranteed?
- How do you set up a two-player game?
- Who does a player represent in the story?
- How many players can play Dead of Winter, and does it work with three?
- Do equipped cards count as being in your hand for a secret objective?
- In the Shelter objective, what does "3 locations with at least 2 barricades" mean?
- Can the same cards satisfy both a secret objective and an exiled objective?
- Is there a hand limit or a limit on survivors?
- Do unused starter item cards count as "removed from the game"?
- Are components such as zombies, barricades or food limited?
Round Structure and Action Dice
- If a survivor dies or joins during the round, do my action dice change?
- Which way does the first player token pass, and why does the last player get two turns?
- Do I have to use all my action dice, and can I save them?
- Can I play cards, add to the crisis, or feed the colony when it is not my turn?
- At the start of my turn, what resolves first: frostbite or the Crossroads card?
- When does "end of the round" happen?
- How many crisis cards are revealed each round?
- Can food tokens give me extra dice or lower a die?
- How does a "roll a die" card effect work?
Searching and Noise
- Do you reveal the cards you draw when searching?
- When I make noise on a search, do I keep the extra cards?
- Can I make noise at a location and then move away the same turn?
- Do I need another action die to search again, and does noise replace it?
- Can search abilities (survivor abilities, items, or two on one survivor) stack?
- How does Jenny Clark's search ability work?
- Do Event cards play automatically when I draw them?
- Can I abandon a location full of zombies?
Request and Hand Off
- Can you request an item from a player whose survivors are at a different location?
- If another player gives me a card I requested, must I play it right away?
- Can a requested card be used for a survivor ability or item, such as Edward White or the Lighter?
- Can you request an item that is equipped on another survivor?
- Can a survivor hand off an equipped item to a survivor at another location?
- Can a hand-off be refused or forced on another player?
- If an item or ability was already used this round, does handing it off reset it?
- Is there a limit on requests or hand-offs per turn?
- How specific must a Request be, and can you request survivor cards?
- Can you request an item, equip it and add it to the crisis in the same turn?
- Can you request Fuel and use it for the move on the same turn?
- Can you request a card in the middle of an action to feed an ability like Lighter or Edward White?
- Can an exiled player give a card that someone requested?
- Can I give a card from my hand to another player without a Request?
- Can I pass an equipped item from one of my survivors to another?
Attract, Barricade and Other Actions
- Must Attract take its zombies from a single location, and can I take just one?
- Can Attract overrun a location, break a barricade or fill a full location?
- If a location has only one empty zombie space, can Attract still bring one zombie?
- When Attract sends zombies to the Colony, which entrance do they go to?
- Can I attract zombies from one Colony entrance to another entrance?
- Can Attract put a zombie on a space with a barricade?
- Can the same survivor barricade, clean waste or attract more than once per turn?
- If two of my survivors are at the same location, do their bonuses combine on one die?
- Can I spend food to raise an action die that is already 6?
- Do cards played at a non-Colony location still go to the waste pile?
- Can I use a survivor's activated ability, such as the Doctor healing, on another player's turn?
- Does Daniel Smith's ability count as an attack for weapon effects?
- How many action dice does Edward White's medicine ability use?
- Can the Pocket Knife's attack be used with an ability that requires an attack?
Colony Phase: Food, Waste and Crisis
- How much food is paid in the Colony Phase, and who counts?
- How do starvation tokens work, and how much morale do they cost?
- Can the colony choose not to eat, or eat only some of the food?
- Does unused food carry over between rounds?
- How much morale does the waste pile cost, and are the cards removed?
- Which cards end up in the waste pile?
- Does a card with 2 food count as 2 toward a crisis?
- What number of cards does a crisis need, and does it change if survivors are added?
- If I overshoot a crisis by more than 2, do I gain more than 1 morale?
- What can be added to a crisis, and from where?
- What happens to cards added to a crisis once it resolves?
- Are zombies still added in the last round before the main objective is checked?
- If a crisis adds a starvation token, does it also cost morale immediately?
- If a wounded survivor has frostbite, can I save them before it kills them?
- Can I add cards to a crisis when I have no survivors at the colony?
Adding Zombies and Overruns
- When zombies are added, do they fill empty spaces first, or break barricades first?
- When adding zombies to the Colony more than once in a round, where does placement start?
- How many zombies are added in the Colony Phase, and what if no one is at a location?
- Do noise tokens still add zombies after the survivor who made the noise has left?
- Does the order I roll noise tokens matter, and can I use another die?
- When a location is overrun, how many survivors die?
- How do overruns work at a non-Colony location?
- What happens when zombies are added to a full location with no survivors?
- Can survivors still go to a location that is full of zombies?
- If morale hits 0 in the middle of Add Zombies, does the game stop at once?
- Can I leave the Colony empty?
Killing Zombies and Exposure
- If one attack kills two zombies, do I roll for exposure once or twice?
- Can effects that kill extra zombies instead of one be combined?
- Does removing a zombie count as killing it (for exposure, samples or objectives)?
- In We Need More Samples, what is the order of attacking, rolling for a sample, and exposure?
- Can zombies killed in one attack come from different Colony entrances?
- Does a "kill 4 zombies instead of 1" effect need four zombies present?
- Can I avoid the exposure roll when moving?
- How likely is the bite result on the exposure die?
- Is a bite resolved immediately, or at the end of the turn?
- If a survivor does not roll exposure when moving or fighting, do they still roll when a card tells them to?
- Can I request or play medicine between repeated exposure rolls?
Bites, Wounds and Killing Survivors
- How does a bite spread?
- If the bite-spread roll is blank, does the survivor take a wound?
- Does an overrun death start a bite that spreads?
- Does a bite spread to helpless survivors?
- If the bite kills the last survivor at the Colony, does it spread to the replacement survivor?
- How does frostbite work, and can medicine cure it?
- What happens when a player's last survivor dies?
- Does a killed survivor cost morale, and does a card that removes a survivor?
- What happens to a dead survivor's equipped items?
- How do helpless survivors die?
- How does attacking another survivor work?
- Can a traitor deliberately lose their own survivors to lower morale?
- When John Price moves with a copied ability, does he die before or after the exposure roll?
- When does a replacement survivor enter after the last one dies?
Item Cards
- Are Event cards item cards, and can they be requested or added to a crisis?
- How do Outsider (survivor) cards work as item cards?
- Do starter item cards count as items for secret objectives?
- Does a Food 2 or Food 3 card count as more than one food for a crisis or an objective?
- Is there a limit on equipped items, and can a survivor equip two of the same item?
- Can I refuse healing from a Doctor or Medicine card?
- How many wounds does a Medicine card remove?
- Can I use the same item more than once in a round?
- Can the Lighter's kill-four effect hit zombies at another location?
- Can the Megaphone or Microphone item move zombies onto a full location or break barricades?
- Can weapons be used against other survivors?
- If a once-per-round equipped card returns to hand, can another survivor use it again that round?
- Can I play an item to prevent a wound or frostbite as it happens?
- What if two effects trigger at once, or a card contradicts the rulebook?
- Can the sniper rifle kill a zombie at any location?
Survivor Cards and Abilities
- Can I use any card with a medicine symbol for Edward White's ability, or request one?
- What die does Loretta Clay's ability need?
- Does Brandon Kane's clean-waste ability need a specific die?
- When does John Price gain a copied ability, and when does he lose it?
- Can John Price combine copied abilities or reuse once-per-round ones?
- Can one survivor use another survivor's ability at the same location?
- Can a once-per-round ability, such as Dr. Olivia Brown's heal, be used on another player's turn?
- What exactly does Felicia Day's ability do?
- Does Sparky the dog have special limits?
- Does Maria Lopez's school ability count as an attack for weapon bonuses?
- Can Talia Jones say the very words on a crisis card?
Crossroads Cards
- Who draws the Crossroads card, and when?
- Should the whole Crossroads card be read aloud before choosing?
- When does a Crossroads card resolve relative to the action that triggered it?
- If a survivor dies while moving, does the movement-triggered Crossroads card still trigger?
- Who votes on a Crossroads card with thumbs up and thumbs down?
- Whose survivors does a Crossroads card refer to by "the player"?
- What if I cannot meet an option's conditions on a Crossroads card?
- Can a betrayer lie about whether a Crossroads card triggered?
- Does a Crossroads card still trigger if its outcome cannot be carried out, such as Maria Lopez having nowhere to go?
- How does the Bev Russell Crossroads card work?
- Does Lover's Quarrel trigger for a dog such as Sparky?
- How long does the extra action die from the Music Crossroads card last?
- Does a search granted by a Crossroads card cost an action die?
- Can I play an item card to interrupt a Crossroads event that is resolving?
- How often do Crossroads cards trigger?
- Do "for the rest of the game" Crossroads effects last after the card is resolved?
Exile and Voting
- Who can vote on an exile, and how often can I start one?
- Do I reveal my secret objective when I am exiled?
- What happens if two players are exiled?
- Can an exiled player return to the colony?
- What if there is no room outside the Colony for an exiled player's survivors?
- Do an exiled player's survivors roll for exposure when they leave the Colony?
- Can an exiled player request, give cards, or hand off?
- Can an exiled player add cards to the main objective?
- Can an exiled player add food tokens to the colony supply by playing a food card?
- Does the colony lose morale when an exiled player's survivor dies?
- When a player is exiled, do the helpless survivors leave with them?
- Does an exiled player's zombie kill count for the We Need More Samples roll?
- If a betrayer is exiled, does the exile card replace their entire objective?
- Does an exiled player need the main objective to win?
- Where does an exiled player's replacement survivor go after losing their last one?
- Who breaks a tie in a vote, and does it still work if the first player is exiled or does not vote?
Locations, Noise and the Board
- What happens when a location's item deck runs out?
- How much noise can a location hold, and what about the Colony?
- Is the Colony one location or six, for card effects?
- Can an exiled player (or anyone) fill a location's survivor spaces so others can't move there?
- Can I count the cards left in a location deck or look through the waste pile?
Adding Survivors
Main Objectives
- How do I add cards to the main objective, and how many can I add?
- Does an objective that counts food count tokens or cards, and what counts under "card" requirements?
- What does "deplete" mean in Raiding Party, and does it need the deck to stay empty?
- In Kill Them, are the three zombies counted per location or combined?
- How many zombies start at each outside location in We Need More Samples?
- How many medicine cards go under Find a Cure?
- Can the same food in the supply count for both a Crossroads card's condition and the main objective?
Winning and Losing the Game
- Does the game end the moment the main objective is completed?
- If morale or the round track reaches 0, is the main objective still checked?
- Do I win if the main objective is completed but my secret objective is not, or the reverse?
- Can a secret objective already be met at the start of the game?
- When does an exiled player win?
- Does the Hoarder win if they tie another player for the most cards in hand?
- Does "two more survivors than any other player" mean beating the largest group by two?
- Does the Serial Killer objective count the group leader as a follower?
- In Too Many Mouths, do I win when the round marker shows 1?
- Does "on the board" in Repopulate mean only the Colony?
- Can an unexiled betrayer win together with the other players?
Dead of Winter: Warring ColoniesExpansion
- How many players does Warring Colonies support, and how many survivors does each start with?
- Is there a betrayer in Warring Colonies?
- When is the Lone Wolf module used?
- How does the Lone Wolf get and replace mission cards?
- Is the Lone Wolf an enemy, and how does it act in combat and crises?
- How are the search decks built in Warring Colonies?
- What do I need from the base game and The Long Night to play?
- Can base-game Crossroads cards be mixed into Warring Colonies?
- What happens if two players search the same location at the same time?
- Can items like Fireworks be used on enemy survivors?
- Can I enter an enemy colony if every entrance space holds a zombie or barricade?
- Does combat end as soon as one side has no survivors left?
- What counts as winning combat, for the Killing Blow objective?
- What happens when combat ends in a tie with the combat tracker at 0?
- If a zombie is added where an enemy survivor stands next to a barricade, what happens?
- How is a bite spread between survivors with the same influence?
- Can I still use an ability after flipping the timer to end my actions phase?
- Do enemy survivors at my colony cost me morale?
- If I roll a bite at the enemy colony, does it spread to the enemy survivors there?
- Do "on the board" or "any player" on cards mean both colonies?
- Can players be exiled in Warring Colonies?