Black Death Survival: Can You Last Forty Days in Plague-Struck Florence?
▶ Play free nowNo install · phone or PC · 3–4 minutes a runThe Plague City, 1348 is a free, choice-based Black Death survival game and plague simulator you play right in your browser. March 1348, the San Frediano district of Florence: wool-dyers stir vats of woad-blue dye by the Arno, and rumours arrive from the coast. “That's Pisa's problem,” says Master Guido. “Back to work.” Within weeks the plague is in your street.
The core idea: the beliefs of the age vs what we know now
In 1348 physicians blamed corrupt air (miasma), prescribed incense and bloodletting, and crowds walked in processions to pray the plague away. We now know the plague bacterium (Yersinia pestis) is carried mainly by rat fleas, and that the pneumonic form spreads between people through coughs. In the game you can follow the common sense of the time — and your neighbours will trust you — or do what is right today: clear the dead rats with a shovel, burn the flea-ridden straw, keep your distance from the sick, flee early. But insist on it too loudly and the street starts to whisper that you are the strange one. The result screen shows every belief you met: what they believed then → what is true.
How a run unfolds
One run takes about 3–4 minutes.
- Two weeks of rumours: news from the coast, the town crier, a quack selling “theriac with gold dust”. Write to your uncle in the country, block the rat holes, stock grain — or join the candlelit procession.
- The first case in your street: your neighbour staggers out of his door, coughing. You have 1.7 seconds to cover your mouth and step back, then 25 seconds of quick decisions: dead rats on the doorstep, straw bedding, a sick neighbour asking to come in.
- Seven days to decide: flee to the countryside or bar the door for forty days? The roads fill with refugees day by day.
- Forty days: time flows on its own and stops when something happens — a friend knocking after a day at the market, corpse-bearers selling the bedding of the dead, a fever in the house, a mob with torches at night.
- When to go back: the bells ring less often. Do you return to work now, or wait until autumn?
Body actions: shake off the fleas, hold your breath
Some moments are played with your hands, not buttons: mash the button to beat the fleas off your clothes, and press and hold to stay silent in the dark while torches gather outside your door — let go too early and they hear you; hold too long and your breath bursts out. At most two such moments per run, at the decisive points.
The news window and the villain, Novello
Instead of a phone, the History Series uses the news of the age: the town crier's proclamations, market rumours and what Maso the errand runner brings back (treat him well and he checks his facts; snub him and he brings you gossip). Novello is a fictional quack who sells gold-dust remedies and then the clothes of the dead, cheap. Ask him the right question, remember what you saw, and report him.
Story, random scenarios and perks
The story follows the real course of 1348: the plague arrives in spring and lasts all summer. The random scenario changes the length of the rumour weeks, the strength of the outbreak in your street and who falls ill. Each run you get a new name and a trade of 1348 Florence — a hospital nurse of Santa Maria Nuova, a mason, a scribe, a gatekeeper — and each one unlocks its own choices.
- 🩺 Nurse at Santa Maria Nuova hospitalKnows how to nurse the sick at a distance · holds out better when ill
- 🔧 StonemasonSeals rat holes with mortar in no time
- 🦺 Veteran of the city watchWords that win people over · less shaken by whispers
- 📦 Grain merchant's clerkBuys plenty of grain and salt in advance
- ☕ Baker's handStarts with extra bread and flour · shares bread with neighbours
- 🔦 San Frediano gatekeeperHears gate news first · can leave for the country anytime
- 💻 ScribeReads and writes proclamations and letters fast · news is clear
- 📢 Notary's clerkQuestions the facts when rumours spread · sees through the quack's lies at once
- 🛋️ Day labourer up from the countryHas relatives in the country · can leave anytime
- 🚴 CourierKnows the roads · a shorter journey out
- 🧹 Lye-man at the dye worksKnows how to boil clothes and bedding in lye
Same faces, a different century
The same faces from the Survive series appear as people of 1348 Florence: the anxious, pompous Master Guido clutching his account book; Nella, the frightened youngest apprentice; Monna Donata, the widow next door who knows herbs and nursing; and Maso, the cheerful runner who hears every rumour first. Costumes follow mid-14th-century Tuscan dress: wool cotte in woad blue and madder, linen veils and coifs, hoods (cappucci) and hose.
12 hidden missions
Three missions are secretly chosen each run and revealed on the result screen — for example Leave early, Dead rats with a shovel, Keep Nella safe, Expose the quack, Help from the doorway and Come back late.
12 survivor types
If you survive, your actions decide your type.
Ahead of their timeRats, fleas, distance, forty days — in 1348 you chose the answers of 700 years later.
Left fast and farYou went out the gate before the plague reached your street. That was all — and it saved you.
The 40-day doorYou lowered the shutters and scratched forty lines. Before the word "quarantine" even existed.
The one who saw the ratsWhile everyone blamed the air, you shovelled away the dead rats at the door.
Carer outside the doorCloth over your mouth, from outside the door, you pushed the water bowl in with a long pole.
Quack-buster"Who was the owner?" With those few words, Novello's cart stopped.
Beat the buboYou got through ten days of fever — thanks to lying apart and drinking water.
The quiet sageYou kept to the right answers without standing out. Censer in the window, straw still burning.
With the workshop folkMaster, Nella, Donata, Maso. You lost no one.
Barely survivedYou suffered much and lost much, but in autumn you stood at the vats again.
The cool-headed survivorYou got through the summer of 1348 without big mistakes.
The lucky-break survivorFull of mistakes, but you survived. The fleas just passed you by.12 ways to die
If you die, your type shows which belief or mistake did it.
Looked too closeWorried, you looked into his face. A cough only needs one step.
The same blanketYou nursed them sleeping at their side. The heart was right; the distance was wrong.
Rats by bare hand"Just a few rats." The starving fleas were looking for the next body.
Fleas in the strawWhy burn good straw, you thought. The straw was crawling with fleas.
A dead man's cloakHalf price — no, a third. The warm cloak still held its owner's fleas.
Candle processionYou walked with everyone. At shoulder distance, coughs went back and forth.
Bled dryYou let blood as the physician said. The strength to fight the fever drained out with it.
Gold-dust potionYou trusted the one-florin jar. It was honey and brass dust.
The crowded marketYou went out for a loaf of bread — and stood right in front of a coughing trader.
Kept the workshop openYou kept the doors open to meet a deadline. In came wool from the dead houses.
Came back too soonYou believed "it's over". The plague didn't end all summer.
Fled too lateLeaving was right. But on the day everyone left, it was the same road.10 tips
- Dead rats are a warning. When rats die in numbers, hungry fleas move to people.
- Never touch them bare-handed. Use a shovel and burn them.
- Burn or boil flea-ridden straw, clothes and bedding.
- Cover your mouth and nose and step back from anyone coughing.
- Help from the doorway: leave water and bread outside; don't share a bed.
- Avoid crowds — processions and markets spread it.
- Leave early, if you leave at all. Late roads are packed with refugees.
- Don't buy the clothes of the dead, however cheap.
- No miracle cures. Bloodletting weakens you; gold dust is just dust.
- Come back late. “It's over” is often a rumour.
The real history and today's science: Black Death history and quarantine.
Send your result to a friend
When a run ends, enter your name and share the result card. Your friend opens the link and can take the same forty days in 1348 Florence.
FAQ
Is the Black Death game free?
Yes. It's a free browser game with no payments, no install and no ads. It works on phones, tablets and PCs.
Is it historically accurate?
Dates, places and the broad course of events follow historical records such as Boccaccio's Decameron and the 1348 Pistoia ordinances. The workshop, village and characters are fictional.
Is it a plague simulator?
Yes — a short choice-based plague survival simulator. Infection risk builds up only from your choices: crowds, dead rats, fleas, the sick, the clothes of the dead.
Did plague doctors wear beaked masks in 1348?
No. The beaked plague-doctor costume is first recorded in the 17th century, about 300 years later, so it does not appear in the game.
Where does the word quarantine come from?
From the Italian for “forty days”. In 1377 Ragusa (Dubrovnik) made travellers from plague areas wait 30 days; the period later became 40. In 1348 there was no such rule yet.
How long does a run take?
Usually 3–4 minutes. The weeks pass automatically in compressed time and stop only when something happens.
How many survive if I choose by gut feeling?
In bot tests, about 89% of gut-feeling players die. Choosing by what we know today, everyone survives.
Are there other episodes?
This is episode 1 of the History Series (next: a medieval siege). There are also the Escape, War, Distress and Disaster series.