Appalachia has been at war for more than 60 years. In 1921, federal troops sent to break the coal miners at the Battle of Blair Mountain joined them instead, and the region broke away from the Union as the State of Appalachia. From the revolt came the Appalachian Republican Army, which took up a bloody insurrection against the federal government and corporate interests.

Through the war, the mining companies kept digging, and coal turned into silver. Silver turned into lithium, and by 1943, their deepest workings had reached ancient anomalous artifacts. In 1945, the federal government placed the region under the Appalachian Strategic Reserve, which it presented to the public as conservation, and began removing the population. About 8 million people lived in Appalachia that year, but by 1980, fewer than 2 million remained. The mines stayed in corporate hands, guarded by private militaries, and contractors like the Black Pine Group studied the finds. Everything they produced was born secret. By the late 1970s, the government and its contractors operated as a single corporate state.

In late 1978, a joint American, Soviet, and Chinese study called Project Pale Star began testing an anomalous artifact like the ones pulled from Appalachia. Within two years, nuclear war, plague, and the Katabasis had ended humanity’s control of the Earth. Your story begins five years later; you play as a survivor in an exclusion zone deep in the heart of Appalachia, scraping by to survive in a world plagued by corporate interests, geopolitical feuds, and unknown cosmic horrors.

Black Pine is an alt-history first-person co-op survival RPG you can play with up to five friends. This game has been a multi-year labor of love, and its ideas and lore are inspired by the team's favorite games, stories, and culture.  We seriously hope you enjoy.

You start with little protection, few skills, and no idea where you are. Work alone or with friends to get stronger and unravel the mysteries of this place. Try as you might, there’s no way to stay safe in this horrific new world. The animals, humans, and everything else want you dead...

You need food, water, and sleep to keep going, and untreated wounds will get infected. You must hunt, fish, set traps, grow crops, and scavenge what people left behind. Items required for survival will realistically wear down with use; this includes firearms, tools, and apparel. When you die, your gear stays on your body, and you'll have to retrieve it yourself. There's also moonshine, tobacco, and meth. Good luck.

There are more than 100 kinds of food and drink to find, grow, hunt, and cook. Much of it is perishable, so what you carry will not last forever. Cook venison, fish, and bear meat over a fire, raise crops at your camp, and brew your own moonshine. With more than 200 recipes and blueprints to learn, your cooking and your camp can both grow as you do.

More than 40 tools cover the work of staying alive. Axes and saws cut timber, pickaxes work the rock, and hoes, scythes, and watering cans keep a farm going. Set snares and box traps for small game, pick locks to get at what people left behind, and carry a lantern or flashlight into the dark. 

Black Pine has more than 30 firearms, including pistols, shotguns, rifles, submachine guns, and light machine guns, all from before the Katabasis. Ammunition is just as varied, with more than 25 loads from birdshot to hollow points, so what you load matters as much as what you carry. If you run out, there are bows, blades, grenades, and Molotov cocktails.

Every gun wears down as you use it, and an old one can turn up with its paint chipped to bare steel or covered in rust. You can also find guns in six camouflage paint schemes.

Explore the Blair County Exclusion Zone. A 39-square-mile wilderness of forests, old farms, mines, and labs that fully encapsulates the beauty of the Appalachian region, as well as its folklore and anomalous mythos.

With no handholding regarding the game's difficulty, you'll need to brave the wilderness with your friends as nature shows its true strength while you explore. Rain, fog, and darkness make the world more dangerous, and loud noises like gunshots and engines attract attention. Documents, wreckage, and radio broadcasts can give you details of what happened here, but they are not always reliable.

With Black Pine's extensive building system, you can build a camp to store your gear, craft, recover, and respawn. Manage your water supply. Set up solar panels to run power to your battery bank. The camp and building system are incredibly fun for any player looking for a fun survival experience with friends. Also, noise from your camp can draw attention, and attackers will test your defenses, so you need to fortify it and keep it supplied. 

You will meet other people in the zone. Some will trade with you, raiders will attack you, and others have their own reasons for being here. Play alone or with up to five friends. You can share loot and gear, split up to cover more ground, and revive a downed teammate with a treatment item. The host owns the world, and each player keeps their own character and skills.