Professional Documents
Culture Documents
1
MANUAL
KIERON GILLEN
©2019
Copyright © 2019 Kieron Gillen Ltd & Stéphanie Hans. All rights reserved. DIE, the Die logos, and the likenesses of all characters herein
or hereon are trademarks of Kieron Gillen Ltd & Stéphanie Hans. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any
form or by any means (except for short excerpts for journalistic or review purposes) without the express written permission of
Kieron Gillen Ltd or Stéphanie Hans. All names, characters, events, and places herein are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to actual
persons (living or dead), events, or places is coincidental.
3) PREPARATION
7) THE RULES
This RPG creates, in a miniaturized form, your own version of the first arc of DIE. As
such, there’s some possible structural spoilers for the comic. I say “possible” because it
really is your own version of the comic. The comic is available in a handsome trade
edition from all good book and comic shops, whether physical or online. It’s $10, so even
reasonable. I’ve justified this whole ludicrous endeavour to myself as “marketing” so
popping to your retailer of choice and reading it to get the vibe would be an excellent
thing. It looks like this…
Thanks for reading and/or playing and/or existing. This will be an adventure.
Kieron Gillen
London
CHANGELOG
V1.1 DECEMBER 2019
Key rules-changes
Willpower is now Wisdom + Intelligence, not Wisdom x2.
Stressed the Fool’s exploding Special only works in dice pool where the Fool’s dice is
included.
Tweaks to Fallen.
Emotion Knight Emotion Draining lowered difficulty to a standard 1.
Godbinder has a max debt taken on in a single roll when casting a miracle. Clarification
of how breaking promises leads to God Debt, and how God Debt can be used.
Future Plans
This update has primarily been the addition of the Arcana and various bits of balancing
and bugs. The new year is going to be working on campaign mode stuff and a bunch of
more meaningful changes to the archetypes, including a playable Master. The
archetype tweaks in some form will likely be released for playtesting too, at least in a
private Beta. Then we need to work out if we’re releasing this, right? Onwards. Thanks
for playing.
.
WHAT IS A ROLE-PLAYING GAME? and try to find their way home – or not.
Upon arriving in the world, each comes
This is a classical question to answer in into possession of one of the six titular
an RPG manual. In the modern age, if dice of the comic and is entirely
you don’t know, I’d suggest just transformed into a heroic identity.
googling something like Critical Role and
watching for a few minutes. That. That’s This is the structure of many pieces of
a role-playing game. pop entertainment, from the 1980s D&D
cartoon to Jumanji. Without the
For the majority of the play time, DIE transformational aspect, it’s the
mostly operates like a D&D model game. structure that underlies The Wizard of
Players state what they want their Oz and The Lion and The Witch and The
characters to do. The GM generally says Wardrobe. It also underlies the famously
what happens. For character actions brutal 1980s fantasy epic The
which are uncertain, the mechanics are Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the
used to ascertain the success or failure Unbeliever, so don’t assume those
of that action. references mean that it’s fun.
There are some exceptions to the As such, each player generates two
above, but we'll hold your hand through characters. The identity of the person in
them. We love you. We will not abandon the mundane world, and the identity of
you. the person in the fantasy world. Clearly,
this can be confusing. For clarity, a
INTRODUCTION TO THE DIE RPG BETA Persona is the person in the mundane
world, and the Character is an
DIE is a role-playing game (not to be individual in the fantasy world. The
confused with “the world of Die” where Player controls the Persona who
the game is set). Its standard mode of controls a Character.
play involves between one and five
players (who each play a single So for example, Lucy is sitting down to
individual) and a Gamesmaster (who play. She generates Bob the depressed
controls the rest of the world, and acts IT guy, who is then transformed into a
as a referee). We may shorten towering Barbarian Rage Knight in the
“Gamesmaster” to “GM” if we're feeling world of Die. Lucy is the Player. Bob the
lazy. depressed IT guy is the Persona. The
towering Barbarian Rage Knight is the
DIE’s main mode is horror-fantasy. How Character.
much it leans towards horror and how
much it leans towards fantasy will be It should also be noted that Character
for you to decide, if only through your rules apply to all people in the world of
perception. One person’s horror is Die, whether they are controlled by
another person’s fantasy. players or the GM. If there’s ever a case
where we need to separate player-
Specifically, DIE is a role-playing game controlled characters and GM-controlled
where a group of people find characters, we use the phrase Avatar
themselves transported from their to mean player-controlled characters.
mundane lives to a fantasy world. In this There’s none in the Beta at the moment.
fantasy world, they have adventures
Oh – and we use dice to mean both the it's equally as likely that the players
singular and plural of dice. As the will have to fight the Gamemaster's
game's called DIE it's going to get persona to go home. It's possible
confusing otherwise. that at least some of the players'
personas will change their opinions,
DIE RPG STRUCTURE possibly multiple times. Drama!
Climax!
A game takes the following structure. I
suggest running it across 2-4 sessions, In other words, this is a core scenario...
though include some guidelines for but a very flexible core scenario. It is a
running it in a single session or dramatic arc rather than a set series of
extending it. events. After a certain point, your game
will go in its own radical direction,
• Players and Gamesmaster (”GM”) before gathering back together in the
gather and each generate a climax.
persona. This is a social group in the
real world, complete with rivalries, In playtests, we’ve had games which
passions and bitterness. Unlike have just ended in a glorious RPG-
many role-playing games, the GM typical brawl. In other playtests, we’ve
also creates a persona. had players sit down in a circle and
• You then roleplay the personas basically have a therapy session.
sitting around and about to play a Seeing what happens is absolutely the
role-playing game. Each persona fun of the game.
then generates a fantasy role-
playing character. BETA? WHAT DO YOU MEAN “BETA”?
• The personas are magically
transported into the fantasy realm, It means it’s not finished. Here’s a list of
and (likely) transformed into the some things which you may expect to
characters they generated. They find in a full DIE RPG which are simply
rapidly discover that this has all not in this Beta release.
been part of a scheme by the
Gamesmaster’s persona – the • Extensive details on the world of
Master. The Master has trapped the Die as described in the comic. As
players there. in, monsters, areas, locales, etc
• The personas go on an adventure, • Campaign play
trying to find their way home. On the • Character advancement
way they discover that the only way • Non-player characters of the
to go home is for all the personas to core DIE archetypes
agree to go home. And dead • A lot of balancing
personas don’t get a vote. If a • An acceptable level of
decision is not made, everyone will playtesting
end up dying. Erk. • A suitably professional time for
• The story reaches a conclusion as proofreading
the personas come to a consensus • A lack of self-indulgence
on whether to go home or not – • Lists that stop when it runs out
which includes the Gamemaster's of content
persona. While it is possible that a • Really, it’s bad at lists
peaceful consensus will be reached, • Oh so bad at lists
At which point you may be mechanics of the game. If you ever feel
understandably wondering why this you need to know the actual mechanics,
thing is as long as it is. I swear, it’s not feel free to stop and jump to The Rules
just because we’re bad at lists. which will explain all of that.
There are a few suggestions for how an (For those who are familiar with RPGs
intrepid player may choose to add these and want a brief overview, DIE runs off a
things, if they wish, but fundamentally dice-pool system, where you compare
this is a work in progress by a the number of successes rolled in a dice
determined if enthusiastic amateur. If pool to a target number of successes to
folks respond to it, hopefully we’ll determine results. It has a lot of
continue to develop it. Either way, it’s elements from narrative RPGs in there,
something I hope you like. but it’s got a fairly procedural core. If
you’re not familiar with RPGs, don’t
HOW TO READ THIS DOCUMENT worry, none of this paragraph should
make any sense whatsoever.)
Don’t worry. If you’ve reading this
sentence, you’re doing it right. The Handouts are to be printed out.
They are the character sheets, the
There’s three PDFs discussed herein: sheets for the GM, and the cheat sheets
which boil the key advice from this
• The Manual ludicrous document into a few pages.
• The Handouts
• The Arcana The Arcana should be available now. It’s
available to download on the
The Manual is what you’re reading, diecomic.com site.
which is the core rules. It takes you step
by step through the whole of the game. It’s a PDF of (for want of a better
We describe how to run the game before phrase) Weird Shit and the more
the specific mechanics of the game, and experimental, less playtested material.
only interject the rules section when If this is all a Beta, the Arcana is all pre-
you need it. The back end of the PDF is Beta. The stranger or more rules-centric
advice for running the specific stuff has been put there to avoid
character classes, and generalised GM overwhelming people, as well as all the
advice. If you’re not interested in role- alternate play modes – including my
playing games at all, I suspect you’ll get thoughts on running DIE as a one-off or
a giggle out of some of the GM advice. even trying for a campaign. It also
Much of it is just writing about narrative includes lots of worked examples to
structure. show the various ways people have
played their games. If you read the
In short: we describe how to run the manual and still want some more
game before we describe the specific advice, the Arcana is where to go.
THE WORLD OF DIE takes seriously. Some are Saruman.
Some are Radagast. Their character
The personas will be transported to a defines the character of the region –
fantasy world. Your fantasy world will and its rules. They also get to redefine
be set inside ours, so I’m going to give the rules, assuming they're willing to put
you a little of its structure. It's likely your in the effort.
players, especially in this Beta, will
never know any of this. Above them is the Grandmaster of Die.
The Grandmaster gets to meddle with all
Die is a planet-sized 20-sided the regions of Die. If you were playing a
polyhedron consisting of 20 equal-sized long campaign on Die, it's likely the
triangular planes. It tumbles, though Grandmaster would either be the
does not move. Despite this, gravity player's primary antagonist or their
appears to operate as it would on Earth. ultimate patron. Or perhaps both.
It is fun to be a physicist in the world of
Die. That’s the world of Die.
Die is suspended inside a sphere that is However inside Die are countless pocket
half-dark and half-light. As Die tumbles, dimensions. Some are the size of a
we get a day and night cycle – though it dungeon. Some are the size of a
is far from as predictable as on Earth. universe. All are controlled and shaped
Embedded in the dark half of the sphere by a single Master. The Master in
are what appear to be stars, but are in question is the role the GM’s persona
fact cities of the Fair, about one takes when they enter the world.
hundred miles distant. The Fair are
“Elves as designed by William Gibson.” It's also worth noting that a Master's
On the light side we have an enormous control is considerable, but also
fusion-explosion, looking like a sun. imperfect. A Master's subconscious is
There are occasionally secondary fusion often at play, in a way which can be
explosions, giving Die multiple suns. instrumental in their self-defeat. In a
world where their wishes can create
The Fallen are beasts that are generally things, it's possible they have created
believed to drop from the sky. enemies who exist to help the players
Cybernetic monsters, primarily, but bring them down. There is also the
which can appear in many forms. If the nature of the world of Die itself and the
Fair are elves as designed by Gibson, indirect meddling of the Grandmaster,
the Fallen are orcs auditioning to play a both of which can be messing with a
part in Tetsuo: The Iron Man. The Fallen Master’s desires.
have an awful secret which the players
may or may not discover. Suffice to say: this is in a realm of
fantasy and it's fucking with the Master
There are kingdoms and empires as much as the Master is fucking with
aplenty on Die but, for our purposes, the the players. Our antagonistic Master has
real rulers are the Masters. (knowingly or not) made some manner
of Faustian pact, and these rarely end
Each of the twenty realms has a Master. well.
Sometimes they're the actual ruler. Just
as often, they're a weird hermit no one
At this point you may be wondering The word “dungeon” is interesting.
where in Die all these pocket Dungeons are prisons. They’re designed
dimensions are? This is a good question to keep people trapped inside them. Not
which I’m not going to answer, which all Masters are aware that this includes
may imply that its reveal may be a big them.
deal in a future part of the comic.
Wait – is this what’s going on with Sol
To stress the subtext of the above – in the comic?
while there is a solid fictional Do you think I’d spoil the comic a
background this is set in, you have handful of pages into a free set of RPG
complete freedom to define a sub- rules? I’m the sort of fool who decides
reality every time you play DIE. With the writing a 70,000-word RPG ruleset for
exception of our character classes, you free is a good idea, not the sort of fool
don’t need to use any of the elements of who’d do that. Or maybe this is all a
DIE. Each one of these dungeons is its double-bluff. Hobbits aren’t half as
own hermetically sealed world. Frankly, sneaksie as writers.
that's usually how the Masters prefer it.
It's their little dream home, and they
may not even notice as their dream
home slides into a haunted house.
WHAT YOU WILL REQUIRE I’m playing online – can I play the
game?
• 1 person willing to be GM (i.e. you). Uh-huh. See the Advice for
• 1-5 friends or at least people you can Gamesmasters section for some
bear being in the same room for a guides.
couple of nights.
• A D20, D12, D10, D8 and a D4. I want to play with more than five
• One D6 you are okay with doodling players – can I?
on with a marker. Oh, look at the popular one with all the
• A marker for doodling. friends. We’re not jealous.
• A few more D6. At least 6, and the
more the merrier. Sure! See the section in Advice for
• Tokens for the Master’s Cheat Gamesmasters called “The Highlander
Tokens. Coins for the Neo. Variant”.
• Pen and paper for everyone is
useful. To be honest, I’d suggest not, at least
• A printout of the Handouts. for your first game. More players means
less spotlight time for everyone, less
EXTRA CREDIT chance for each character to be
explored, and a lot more work for you,
The Box of Old Crap (see Arcana).
the trusty GM.
BEFORE THE SESSION
What’s this Box of Old Crap for extra
credit? I don’t want to go to the
Read these rules, including familiarizing
Arcana – it scares me.
yourself with all the archetypes'
It is the sound of your friend’s, the game
character sheets. Invite players and
designer’s, heart breaking as he moves
arrange times. Good luck. That’s the
the rules for them to the supplementary
hard part.
section as it’s not actually a core part of
the game any more. In short: create a
While the urge may be to go for all six
box of random mainly RPG-related stuff
players, be aware the game asks a lot of
which you pretend is the actual game
the GM to run all the archetypes. A game
Sol made, and then you use its contents
with three players and a GM works
as a glorified tarot deck to influence the
great. I’ve also run it with just one
game. It’s a fun thing to do, but really is
player. Also be aware that, with a full
non-core.
cast, to give everyone enough spotlight
time, you’ll most likely to want to run it
for three sessions rather than two.
PRE-GAME CHAT
When people are ready to play, sit For example, a persona may loathe the
everyone down in the play area. I would idea of being a wizard, but someone
suggest around a table and perhaps on who hates magic becoming a spell
chairs. Making one player stand is caster obviously has a lot of potential
generally a bad idea, unless you are a drama.
strong proponent of Player ShamingTM.
Thirdly, you should discuss about the
If you have the Box of Crap, either hide it tone of game they’re going for. DIE
or have it suspiciously prominent on the basically has two natural poles – on one
table. Discourage anyone from touching side, adventure and on the other, horror.
it. Try and build up its odd mystery. How much do they want this to be a
game about a character’s emotions
Firstly, explain the game’s basic setup. versus their adventures? If this was a
DIE involves a group of people gathering movie, what rating would it have?
together to play a role-playing game. Discuss how many sessions you plan
You’ll generate a social group of real- the game to go for. The rules as written
world friends. Stress that the game assume at least two sessions, but there
rewards messy flawed people with real are ways to run it in a single session or
needs. You will then play those expanding it to as many sessions as
personas, sitting down to play an actual you think interesting. This is to make
role-playing game. And then they’re sure that everyone is on the same page
going to go on an adventure… and, at with the same expectations, and also
the end of the session, come to a climax lets you tailor what comes next.
where our personas will grow and
change by this experience. Or not. Remember: you are also allowed to have
Stress that this may eventually involve opinions and preferences too. Your idea
inter-party conflict, and even death, but of fun matters as much as anyone
death is also a part of our story. else’s in the room.
Secondly, you should ask what sort of Fourthly, talk about some possible
things they like to do in a role-playing themes the game may involve. This is to
game. As in, what sorts of abilities they make sure people are fine with them
want to have. This should be as broad and can delineate their boundaries. If
as possible – do they want to fight? Do people have reservations, you can
they want to wield spells? Both? tweak the game away from them in play.
Neither? Is there a character from With the setup of this Beta, it’ll likely
fiction they find appealing? “I'm up for include issues from childhood – any
whatever seems good for the personas limits there? The Neo can have themes
we generate or the group needs” is also of addiction. The Dictator has themes of
a perfectly good answer. Encourage consent. Does anyone have any
them to be honest now, because later, boundaries there? Respect people’s
when they're playing their personas, choices. Say your own.
they may end up answering dishonestly.
Fifthly, introduce the X-card. Put one is X-carding a persona whose name is
card (or more) with an “X” drawn on it in identical to that of an ex.).
easy reach of all the players. The X-card does not mean someone has
fucked up. It means someone is
If any player (including the GM) touches uncomfortable, and we should be polite.
it, it means they are uncomfortable with
the current topic or subject and we The X-card was conceived by John
should take a step back and change Stavropoulos, and the original
direction. It does not mean asking documentations is here:
questions about what the element is, or http://tinyurl.com/x-card-rpg
naming it, though some people will say
(e.g. “This is too violent for me.”). The X- In the GM’s advice section there are
card can be activated for any reason, some more safety suggestions to
even minor ones (character names consider, but I consider the X-card a
which might connect to a bad memory bare minimum. This is a game that can
for one of the players is a good example go to some dark places if the group
– the best low-level example I’ve heard wishes.
PERSONA GENERATION
Here we generate the personas – the facts. Encourage players to ask each
real-world people whose personalities other questions as they occur to them.
drive the game. Essentially, it's a process of fishing for
information.
First question: this is a group of people.
What is this group of people? What The aim of the questions is threefold:
connects them?
1. So the players know who their own
They are a group of adults who were personas are.
friends when they were young, who find 2. So the other players know who each
themselves gathered together years persona is.
later, and someone suggests they play 3. To provide the GM with the raw
a role-playing game. Explain it to the material for generating the
players something like this… adventure.
“You are a group of friends who played The first allows a player to make
a normal role-playing game at school meaningful decisions about their
who, years later, have found yourself persona. The second means that other
gathered together to play a game for old players are not confused by another
times' sake. We're going to now work out player’s persona. Both are important in
who you are, how you know each other, a story-based game. Encourage players
and why you’ve got back together.” to ask other players questions about
their personas. If they don't, you should.
This is broad enough to include lots of
different sorts of groups (for example, The third is for you, and shouldn’t be
playing 21-year-olds visiting home at explicitly mentioned to the players, and
Christmas is a very different game than it is explained at length shortly. See
everyone being 55-year-olds back in “Your Purpose For Asking These
town for a funeral – and equally Questions”.
different from a game where some
characters are old and some are young) Further details to the personas can (and
while also having characters who've will) be added during play, but once
had enough adult experiences (both you've got the basics we’re looking for
positively and negatively) to impact the down (as described below), you should
game. It also leads to a wide variety of proceed. Generally, a gut feeling that
different sorts of groups – the drama “This seems like a fun, developed,
group’s D&D game suggests a different messy and believable social group!” is
social dynamic to the maths club’s. your tell. Messy is key. Once you get a
character to a point of messiness,
To stress: the game they played was not asking further questions may actually
a magical game in any way. It was just a resolve their issues. That’s counter-
normal (probably) teenage game. productive. Facing their issues is what
this game is about.
Next, proceed to ask leading questions
to the players to decide upon the key
I normally spend around an hour on this Punk Band’s Spare Activity
stage, if players are enjoying it. If Detention Survivors
they’re not, cut it short. Football Team’s Guilty Secret
Girl Guides/Boy Scouts/Other Teenage
The following are some areas a group Paramilitary Organisation
may wish to be prompted to think about. Church Group
Some of it is less ‘questions’ and more Hospital Ward
‘lines of thought for them to explore’. It Summer Camp
is likely you will bounce between Online Group Who Never Met IRL
multiple sections as ideas occur. It's not Just a Typical Bunch of Loveable Geeks
a checklist.
Actual examples from playtests: a
Players should be encouraged to go detention group; a close family who
back and edit earlier ideas if they have played RPGs; guests and attendees of a
better ones, as long as everyone agrees con; ex-members of a third-rate
with where it ends up. It's likely players' mathrock band; work colleagues; a
ideas will develop as they progress. Buffy fan forum.
How did the personas’ old RPG group What was the name of the world your
get together? game was set in?
This is likely the first question you’ll What classes did people play?
want to know – what is the shared Who GMed?
connection? The football team is a
different set of inspirations from the Don’t ask too many questions on this.
chess club. How do the majority of the For those who don’t know the standard
group know each other? way a DIE game works, being too
attentive in this section makes people
How did you know each other? know it’s related to the plot in a key
Was there a shared social activity? way. I spend a maximum of 10% of my
Were you all at the same school? persona generation time in this area.
What was the school like? Posh? Run- Maximum.
down? Rural? Urban?
Core Persona
This is also a question that can be Presented with a blank page, a group
useful to seed by presenting the players can be intimidated to get started. One
with a list of options for the social method is to prompt one strong
activity that connected the personas. persona, who the others can align
For example… themselves around. Once one piece is in
place, the rest is easier.
School Orchestra
Computer Club Now they've grown up, who's the most
Family Group successful persona? What do they do?
Drama Society
Were any of you particularly famous as Has anyone got an idea of what sort of
children? Infamous? What for? kid their persona was? If so, tell us a bit
about them.
Actual examples from playtests: an What was your best subject? Your
extremely famous author at a con; the worst? How smart were you?
one member of the band who got big. Were you bullied?
Were your parents divorced?
The Reason for the Game What did you think you'd be when you
The personas are about to sit down and grew up?
play an RPG. It's important to work out Did you have any hobbies? Music?
why. What did you hate about yourself?
That's fine. This is a great story arc. If You may wish to go further and
your players don't want to play a dark generate complexities. If two personas
game of personal temptation, that's say they were dating, you may ask “So
cool. The drama will primarily be how the why did you split up?” They say they
party interacts with the world rather didn't? “It must have been hard when
than how the party interacts with each you realised that one of your friends
other. Once again, that's okay, and you was also in love with you though...” If no
player jumps in saying that they're the asking questions akin to “What did your
friend who's in love with them, persona do when they left school?”
remember the GM has a persona and Your persona is allowed to be a little
can seed this stuff too. more mysterious. It's unlikely players
will notice or care, as GM personas are
It's also possible you will only need to always viewed as less interesting or
ask a single sharp question to make the relevant than player ones. Players are
group realise that having drama could an amazingly self-centred bunch, bless
be fun. 'em.
If you want a more friendly adventure, At some time before the start of the
angle towards the soft questions. If scenario, the GM's persona was
you're looking for something where contacted by an extra-dimensional
internal party emotional strain is key, intelligence (Most would call it a demon.
lean more towards the hard questions. In any traditional way, it’s not.) and was
You’ll also want to ask more questions offered an opportunity. They took it. If
about people’s failings and weaknesses they transport a group of people to the
so you can tempt them. realm of Die, they will get a pocket
dimension that will fulfil certain
THE IN-EMERGENCY-BREAK-GLASS fantasies ... as long as they all stay
QUESTION there. It’s likely that the Master doesn’t
quite believe it either.
Sometimes you can’t be subtle. If you
want to get a core drive, you can just If a motivation for your persona does
ask the question: not present itself in persona generation,
simply grab one of these robust
“Why does your persona hate their life?” standards and run with it...
While doing all the above, you should be Essentially almost everything is “a
also be developing about your own fantasy of what they lack in reality, if
persona. Your persona is the antagonist they are willing to give up reality to
to the players, at least initially. Your aim achieve it.”
there is to look for a motivation for this
persona to drag all their friends into a The level of sympathy you wish to have
fantasy world and strand them there. for the antagonist should dictate the
choice as well.
Early on, you are likely to use yourself
as an example to set the tone, To choose “To be united with a dead
answering the questions to show how lover” as an example – “It's the only way
it's done. As the questions proceed, you I can see the person I loved again” is
should step back, especially when likely to be at least a little sympathetic.
“I really wanted to fuck an army of the next session to think on it. You’ll
Marilyn Monroe clones” is less so. likely develop the persona’s motivation
significantly in that time as you develop
Think about the specifics of the deal in the adventure.
relation to the group – what is it
specifically about this group? Is there Actual examples from playtests: a
someone specific in this group that the jealous contemporary of a famous
demon wants them to bring and the rest author who never broke through who
are just filling up numbers? Or could it wants the famous author’s career; a
have been anyone? This all filters into closeted gay groom who wants all his
the nature of the antagonistic persona. siblings to come to a better fantasy
If they could have brought anyone, and world as he can’t face coming out to his
they brought these people specifically, parents; a band’s biggest fan who just
it implies a real hatred for them, for wants the other persona’s band to get
example. back together; a corporate AI head who
is consuming those who are brought to
Do not think too much about why these Die to make an AI that can make a
people specifically at this point. This will higher form of art; a con runner who kills
be discovered in play later. If it's not four con goers ever con to maintain his
(and it's more likely not to be discovered life; a werewolf fanfic writer who wants
than discovered) that works too. It is a to live in her fanfic universe because
horror game, and the gaps in their she can’t risk real emotional intimacy
knowledge is where their imagination with her friends.
runs wild.
PERSONA GENERATION FLOWCHART
Also, do not overly worry if you don’t
know everything about your persona at If you’re wondering whether to wrap up
this point. If you have a solid idea, that’s persona generation and move on, have
great. If you know nothing, you can a look at this flowchart…
conceal it – and you have the time until
You will be asking further questions Yes, they will be role-playing people
during the game. You don’t need to about to play a role-playing game.
know everything, just enough.
EXAMPLE SHEETS
FINISHING PERSONA GENERATION
To give a concrete example of note-
Write each persona's name and keeping, here’s the notes I have taken in
pronouns on a piece of paper and put it two games.
in front of each player's seat as a
reminder of all their persona’s names. Both are written on an A4 sheet. This is
It'll make the next bit much easier. my handwriting. Your handwriting will
likely be better.
Then encourage the players to leave the
room, make a tea, go to the toilet, or The first game is a group of three
whatever. Inform them that when they players. This game was played in a
return to the table and sit down, single session, so we spent less time
everything they say will (unless generating personas. The game was
expressly stated otherwise) be in- about four siblings gathering to play the
character as their personas. night before the Gamesmaster’s
persona – Duncan – got married.
The second example is from a two-game GM. This group highly enjoyed
session. This game was based around a developing the history of their band, so
band who nearly made it, gathering ten there are considerable notes about their
years after the original drummer died in entire history.
a car crash. This is four players plus the
Between sessions, these are the notes I drew from there…
Even for those who can read my from – these are things I found written
handwriting, you may be wondering on their character sheets, which hint
where some of the other elements came towards their desires. Having a gap
between sessions can help like this, for Jem: Feels life has been a waste.
when you’re really nosy.
And John is secretly the band’s biggest
I have highlighted the ones which I fan and will do anything to hear them
consider to be a persona’s core play again. He’s got them back together
element… for that.
Jessica: Her life is boring. She feels It’s worth stressing that in practice I
she’s missing out. was entirely mistaken about Amethyst’s
Hunter: Fears he is a fake. Worse: knows desire, but the three personas were
that he is a fake. enough to base it around, and Amethyst
Amethyst: Wants to be seen as a genius. had plenty of drama anyway.
CHARACTER GENERATION
BEFORE PEOPLE RETURN TO THE TABLE character classes. Neos tend towards
filling rogue-like roles... but they can
As people are getting their cups of tea also be a brutal cybernetic warrior.
or whatever, you’re making a decision.
Namely, what character class each While the GM does distribute the
persona will be playing. This is based on character sheets, you needn’t keep the
the desires each player expressed in players out entirely. The reason for
the pre-game chat, what character their secrecy is to create a magical moment
persona seems to suggest and a little when they get given the dice. It’s no sin
GM fiat (for example, some classes are to check in on a player and make sure
more complicated than others). they’re okay with playing a character
when you’re all away from the table, or
In this playtest, the Master is reserved to clarify what bits of an archetype
for the Gamesmaster. The present rules you’ll want to play up or down. “I was
simply don’t work for a player. thinking of giving you the Dictator – are
you up for something like that?” or “I’m
These are useful guidelines... considering the Neo – if I do, shall I play
down the addiction reading?”
Dictator/D4 = Lighter warriors. Non-
technical rogues. Bards. Diplomats, god There is a lot more about this decision in
bless them. Do not give to anyone you the Running the Archetypes section
think doesn’t understand the later in the PDF.
seriousness of a character who messes
with people’s emotions. When you’ve made your decision, get
Fool/D6 = Warriors, especially martial back to the table.
arts characters, swashbucklers or other
relatively lightly armoured sorts. This is STARTING THE GAME
arguably the simplest archetype to play,
so useful to give to the least As players arrive at the table, they
experienced player. should talk in character as their
Emotion Knight/D8 = Heavy duty persona. The GM is talking in the voice of
warriors, knights, paladins and the persona they've generated. Let
berserkers. Any persona who seems to people chat and loosen up, and
have a very strong relationship with a encourage conversation. For example,
single emotion. ask players about recent life events in
Neo/D10 = Thieves, rogues, hackers or their personas’ lives.
cybernetic warriors, especially if they
like pets. Anyone whose real-life job is The GM's persona should feel free to
technical. lead the conversation, based upon the
Godbinder/D12 = Cleric archetypes. shared characters developed above.
Demonologists. Magic users. Anyone “What happened to that person you
who really likes role-playing. were seeing at university?” would be a
good example of a line of conversation,
However, it should be noted that all or “How are the kids” or any normal
archetypes can be twisted into most adult chat. Frankly, “What are you binge
watching?” is a perennial dinner party Let the players chat. When all personas
chat fave. have bought in enough to at least sit
and play – though, it should be stressed,
Be aware that the setting for the the personas may clearly grouse about
imaginary game you’ve chosen can doing it – progress to developing their
impact it intensely. Role-playing a scene in-game RPG characters.
in a corporate board-room creates
different expectations than role-playing WHAT IF THEY’RE NOT GAME FOR THE
things at a quiet dinner party – and even GAME?
more so, if you’re meant to be in a pub
after-hours. Some personas will be up for it. Others
will show some form of reticence. Others
This should be extended as long as folks may reject playing outright, for reasons
find entertaining. The first session tends such as taste or superstition. If a
to be a shorter session, so you have persona is threatening to leave the
time to have fun. Let people get used to room, ask them – out of character –
roleplaying their personas – including “Good: but why do you end up staying?”
you. When the explanation of rules
happens, it becomes a little trickier to A player can think of any reason they
maintain their personas, so let everyone wish, or ask players for ideas. The
bed in. persona relationships already
developed will likely be the source of
When everyone is settled in, if you have this, but it's possible a new twist could
one, get out the Box of Crap. be added. If the player is stuck, the GM
should give suggestions. Here's a few to
Dump it on the table, and say the get you started...
following – adapted to your characters'
voice a little... You're in love with someone and if you
leave you may not see them for another
“Hey – do you remember that thing back decade.
in the 1990s? Those kids who were You don't trust another persona to be
playing an RPG and just disappeared. left alone in case they reveal a secret.
Mum went up to check on them, and You think another persona is rich
they were gone. For two years. enough to lend you the money you need
to pay your debts.
You must remember! Six went. Two You're an egomaniac and just wanted
years later five of the six turned up. the attention to threaten to leave.
None of them ever talked about what
happened... In practice, in all my playtests, I’ve
never had to use this.
Well you know what?
HANDING OUT THE CHARACTER SHEETS
This is the game they were playing. I got
it off Ebay. When you've made this decision, pull the
dice out of the box. Catch the players’
You guys up for it? It's really neat.” attention. You then distribute the
specific dice for each class to the
specific player.
Hold out each dice towards each player, Each player goes through their sheet,
lock their eyes and intensely recite... selecting their abilities, statistics and
customisations from each section in the
This is your die. There is no other die like sheet.
this in this whole game. This is special.
This is yours. The trickiest part is “Stats”. Here, you
distribute six scores (4, 4, 3, 3, 2 and 2)
And put it in their hand. into the six abilities. Explain to the
players what statistics are used for
The Fool should be given their dice last, what sort of challenges. For example,
with the slightest tweaked line... that Strength is normally used for melee
combat, and Dexterity for ranged
This is your die. This is exactly the same combat.
as every other die in the game. There's
nothing special about this die at all. Some players are likely to ask for a more
detailed rules explanation, and you can
It's likely this will get a laugh, and it will give them the basics – as in, you roll the
take a while for the Fool to realise what number of dice equal to whatever the
they get to do with their dice (as relevant stat is and each 4+ is a
described on their sheets). success. If the number of successes
rolled equals or exceeds a difficulty
Hold up the D20 with a flourish, and number the GM sets, they succeed. If
say… they don't, they fail. In other words,
bigger numbers in abilities are good. It's
And this one is mine. not worth going in too deep yet, and tell
them they'll pick up a bunch as they
From this point, encourage people not to play. The basics are also explained on
roll their own dice. Be deliberately the sheets.
twitchy over it, almost as if you expect
them to explode. “They're kind of At this point you should be filling in the
antiques” is a good example of the sort Master sheet too. A player may be
of excuse you may use. Imagine how surprised the GM gets a character.
you may act if you thought the dice Explain that this is just one of the cool
were made of plastic explosive. things about this game. If you want, you
can decide your Master's abilities before
Distribute the character sheet to each the game starts, but you filling in the
player. The sheets explain the sheet along with the players gives you a
archetypes, but feel free to give them way to demonstrate each step along
more information – the section Running with them.
the Archetypes includes more on this,
including how best to explain them in a When all characters are generated, ask
simple, iconic nugget form. the players to pick up their class dice
and then close their eyes.
Work your way through the sheet. To
start with, ask each player to read the Next, tell all the players to lower their
flavour text at the start of the first dice to the table, and then –
column, ending with the Fool. simultaneously – release them.
Wait a little while. Tell them to open their happens when the adventure is running
eyes. in terms of events for the rest of the
first session. There’s some mechanics
Tell them they are somewhere referenced loosely, but you likely will be
completely different. fine without them. If at any point you
want to know how the actual rules work,
Welcome to DIE. skip on into a main section we have
called – after some careful
The proper adventure starts, and you consideration – The Rules and then
should read the next section, “Into The come back here.
Dungeon”, which explains what
INTO THE DUNGEON
Up to this point, things have basically FINAL ENCOUNTER
been on rails. Flexible rails, often • The players confront the Master.
created by all the players, including the • The players either go home or don't.
GM. However, after this point, things can
go in many directions. What holds it We’ll break them down as we continue.
together is the underlying structure.
“WAIT – WHO AM I PLAYING NOW?”
Printing out the DIE GM Cheat Sheet to
see this structure may be helpful, but In the previous section where you all sat
here’s a breakdown of the core events… around the table generating characters,
you are playing the Master character.
PERSONA GENERATION The second we arrive in Die, you segue
Keep a list of each persona’s major to a traditional GM’s role of describing
motivations and minor details. the environment, the results of the
players’ action, and role-playing anyone
CHARACTER GENERATION they meet. The Master is then a
The personas generate their characters character you play, like any other
using the character sheets. character in the world.
They are still their personas. They are Now, leave the players for a few
just humans in a weird place. Stress seconds looking at the environment. If
this. they're having fun role-playing the
confusion of panic, do feel free to let it
Before anyone has a chance to react, linger. If you want to get a move on, the
say that the GM's persona grabs their Fallen arrive. I think of the Fallen as
own dice. Hey, it's almost as if they undead cybernetic orcs, as if they’re the
knew this was going to happen. offspring of old 1980s TV had sex with a
Instantly, they transform into their vat of meat. You can twist them any
character. Describe what they look like way you wish. You’ll find statistics for
now – extrapolate from whatever you’ve some basic Fallen later. Have one lesser
put on your sheet, with the volume up. Fallen for each of the players, and one
Use your imagination. This is likely your more powerful sort. So if there's three
main antagonist. players, one major fallen and three
normal ones.
I stress: make sure the players realise
that your persona grabbed their dice The Fallen seem hungry. The Fallen want
and then transformed. This is the main to kill and eat the players.
detail they need to realise. You may
need to hint at it later if the players AGAINST THE FALLEN
haven’t realised.
How the Fallen enter depends on the
The Master perhaps says a few words. nature of the room the personas were
This is the first time you get to show role-playing in in the real world. Perhaps
what kind of antagonist they'll be. If it's they slide in via the wall, or a sink, or the
someone who the players will have at lights or…
least some sympathy with, you may
lean it soft (“I'm sorry, I wish it didn't If the players have not yet grabbed their
have to be like this”). If it's someone dice, this will likely encourage them to
with a grudge against the players, you do so. Ask everyone what they want to
may show that (“This serves you selfish do. This is their one chance to grab their
bastards right”). If your game is going to dice before the combat starts.
be campy as balls, this is where you will
just do an evil cackle (“Muhahahhaha.”) At this point, combat starts, as
Honestly, saying absolutely nothing is a described in The Rules. If the players
strong choice, especially if you’ve yet to have not grabbed their dice see “Ways
decide your Master’s motivation. Players May Be Shits At This Point”.
They then disappear. Take a Cheat WHEN A PLAYER GRABS THEIR DICE
Token (as explained on the Master’s
sheet) and toss it over the board. If They are instantly transformed into the
anyone asks what it is, say it's him character they designed earlier. Their
spending some of his resources to do class dice fuses with their body.
what he did. Cheating is explained on
Ask the player if they want to describe with their bare hands or many other
what they look like. Some players will solutions that have crawled from the
leap at this, and others will much prefer players' brains. If players are simply
you to give them a fancy description. If a being a bit slow, it may be worth
player’s description is a little lowkey, reminding them about the weird magical
build upon it. These are not normal glowing dice that are here – you know,
people. For example, a player described the ones that changed the GM's persona
herself as someone with regality and into a fucking wizard. If they’re also the
charm and charisma. I added “she looks brave and noble players who want to
like Meryl Streep’s Meryl Streep.” play a character who panics, runs from
Describe how physically amazing they magic and generally is a mess? More
feel. Anyone with a Strength or Dexterity power to ’em.
of 3 basically feels like an Olympic
athlete does. A stat of 4 feels like living However, if they haven’t grabbed their
CGI. dice, they’ve missed their chance to get
the dice for free, so now all
If the combat with the Fallen has untransformed players have to survive
started, it's likely you'll want to have the a combat round in the melee... with the
descriptions be shorter to keep things abilities of a real-world human being.
pacy, but lets the players have fun. Personas, before they are transformed,
have 2 for all their six statistics and a
They can now use the abilities as set defence of 1. If a player is a professional
out on their character sheet. athlete or a world-class professor, you
may give them a 3 in a stat... but this is
WAYS PLAYERS MAY BE SHITS AT THIS unlikely. All humans are kind of average
POINT compared to fantasy heroes. Aragorn
could beat up everyone's dad.
By which I mean “express their agency
as players.” Geesh, you people. Combat starts and they are stuck in
their natural form until they manage to
Basically, there's two main ways a get hold of their dice. While the Fallen
player may choose to be awkward here. will not prioritise the untransformed
First is by trying to grab another personas to begin with, they also won't
person's dice. The second is by simply spare them. If the transformed
refusing to pick up the dice at all. characters manage to protect the
untransformed and look like they're
The first is easy: they simply can't pick defeating the Fallen, you can decide
up any dice other than their own. Their how to progress. If you want to force the
hands just change direction, as if issue, you can always have more Fallen
they're a magnet entering a field with an arrive. However, if the player really
opposite charge. doesn’t want to transform, see how it
goes. They will have a hard time, but it’s
Just not picking up the dice is trickier an interesting role-playing situation. If
for them – but also, in a real way, not a it’s possible to return to the room later,
problem at all. The personas are in a the player may always transform then.
dangerous situation. They may not Alternatively, you can have their dice
believe that you will hurt them, or they appear at some dramatically meaningful
may try and run off, or fight the Fallen point during the second session to give
them a second chance to grasp their The players should not be able to
powers. escape this area until the end of the
session.
Really though? Untransformed, they'll
be lucky if the first hit does not kill them. FIRST ENCOUNTER IN THE ROOM THE
If they are not lucky, kill them. Tell the PLAYERS ARE IN
player their persona is dead, and move
onto the next player's action. The player The above suggests that it's all
will likely be surprised, so offer a “wait modelled after the room the personas
to see what happens” nod. were in before entering Die, which is the
literary thing to do. I would suggest
Expect a scramble to pick up the going another way, at least on your first
glowing dice if they haven't already. play.
At the end of the combat, something Instead, make the room they arrive in
awful happens to the dead persona. appear in to be a dark mirror of the room
They re-animate as a new Fallen, aware the players are sitting in. As in, the
that their sentience is starting to leak actual real-life room you are presently
away (See the section called “Running sitting in.
the Fallen” later for details). To become
Fallen before a persona transforms is a This approach is accessible to the
particularly bad state for them to be in. players. If the players are in the space it
They can pick up their dice when they makes it easy to visualise, and easy to
return as Fallen, but it does absolutely understand what’s happening (e.g.
nothing to them bar attaching to their “Monsters burst in through there...” GM
body. points at the door to the room.). The
fundamental meta nature of the game
If the characters somehow all manage also becomes clear, in terms of messing
to get killed, the Fallen eat their bodies a around with reality, and there's
little then wander off. After a short something creepy about personas
period of time, everyone becomes playing characters who are now
Player Fallen. trapped in a dark mirror of the players'
reality. Plus, while being meta, it's also a
Er... an interesting adventure awaits. way to simplify. As you're already
roleplaying a person playing a
ROOM PROBLEMS roleplaying game, having something
simple to hold onto is not a bad idea in
It's possible your room may not be any way whatsoever.
suitable, in which case, you can cheat.
Expand the room in scale, so it's a much END OF THE FIRST SESSION
larger space. Alternatively, make the
players tiny, so they're the size of The encounter lasts until the Fallen are
figures on the table before them. Or defeated. If you're bored of the fight, or
anything between. Board up the you are running out of time, the Fallen
windows and doors so they can't see can all turn as if hearing something
what's outside, giving you room to make uncanny and run. Or crumble to dust.
the rest of the game anything you want. This is an appetizer, and an excuse for
the players to experiment with their Uther” is a stronger ending than a
abilities in a relatively safe environment. generalised “It’s your fantasy realm.”
When it’s over, allow the players to try If you know roughly the sort of area they
and exit to the outer world. Have them will be appearing in, you can be more
pull back the curtain or open the door specific. In practice, the name is
and tell them what they see. enough.
It’s the fantasy realm from the game Cut to black, theme tune and post-game
their personas played when they were decompression chat. Come back next
young, all those years ago. time!
Just chew it over. The players have opened the door, and
step into the world. The room is sitting
Then you’re going to work down this list. there, in the middle of the landscape
And sometimes up, but this is a logical (The Dorothy’s House gambit) or that
way to progress. the door is a magical portal into the
world (the Wardrobe to Narnia gambit).
1) THE LOCALE – where the adventure Either way, you can’t go back.
will be set.
2) THE PERSONAS’ TEMPTATIONS – how So – a fantasy world. Think about a
the adventure will test the personas generalised fantasy world, and the sorts
3) THE ACTUAL ENCOUNTERS of situations you can drop them into.
Archetypes are good. There is no need
1) THE LOCALE to even try to be clever. The cleverness
is what we do with the structure.
Why is this important?
As this is designed for a short number of
The players have to go somewhere to sessions, here’s a selection of useful
have an adventure. Knowing where it is basic situations to drop people into…
makes all the other steps easier. If you
have a space where the game take * The world is about to be conquered by
places it suggests the sort of things the the Not Sauron, unless they can creep
players will end up doing, so lets you into Not Mount Doom and destroy Not
think of what may happen. Equally, it The One Ring.
sets the boundaries of the world and so * The greatest city of the empire is
defines the amount of encounters you under siege by its greatest enemy.
will have to make. This is what happens * The Alliance of Lords are about to
in “The Personas’ Temptations” and elect an evil person to the highest
“The Actual Encounters” sections. This throne.
is you defining a place to inspire it. * The land will be destroyed if the Not
Holy Grail is not found.
I’ve decided to Dismiss Your Wisdom * You’re in a dungeon. How can you get
and Not Send Them to The Fantasy out?
RPG they Played in As Kids
At this point, be thinking about the sorts
Go to the Arcana, you fool of a Took. of antagonists and characters they will
meet. For example, the evil dark lord, the
Making Their Teenage Fantasy World henchpeople, lords, dragons and
whatever.
This is why at least most of the
personas are all connected by that Think broadly. You don’t need to nail
teenage experience – it allows you to down specifics yet. If you make a map,
create a setting which has meaning for leave spaces to fill in. I regularly just
them. Equally, as fantasy RPGs tend to draw a rough shape, and then place
work on a fairly robust set of tropes and things as I go along, either in
conventions, it means you have a preparation or during play. For example,
I have drawn a rough circle and said, worth noting that he changed sides
“This is the city under siege”, had a list again. This axis is one of the more
of ideas for encounters but only placed rewarding ones the game can provoke –
them on the map during actually running someone turning on their friends and
the game. Making a map as you go along then realising it's just not worth it is a
can be a lot of fun. real emotional arc.
There’re facts which the adventure For any given encounter, it’s possible
should impart to the players, as you will already have an idea for an
necessary. You’ll want to let the players encounter based on the personas’
know these – and the first one, as soon temptations or the locale, or both. You
as possible. may consider tweaking them in some
way, by combining them with part of a
1) If everyone agrees to go home, players’ background. This can be a
including the Master, they go home. minor detail or a major one. Meeting
That’s it. Grima Wormtongue or Bart Simpson may
2) As far as everyone in the world be a minor detail. Meeting your dead
knows, this is the real world. lover is likely a major one. Think about
3) The world is unstable. If they don’t what emotional journey each persona is
all either leave or stay, eventually on.
the world will end.
4) The world will continue once they’re Be aware, you want to include enough
gone (or all decide to stay). material that it resonates with all the
players. If the whole game is just about
Point 2 is the trickiest one, of course – one persona, it’s unlikely to be
the only character who definitely knows satisfying for most players. The
all of this is the Master character. exception may be a one-off or a game
with drama-averse players, where the Like a liche. Liches are always good.
game ends up being about the Everyone loves liches.
antagonist’s obsessions and the
personas’ attempts to survive them. If you don’t know what a liche is…
For an encounter, it’s possible you will a) Welcome to this hell of role-playing.
need some statistics for the players to I’m impressed you’ve got this far into
interact with. It’s worth noting this is not the manual without running away
always necessary. It is also possible screaming.
you will need to pull a character out of b) A liche is basically “What if Gandalf
your posterior during a game. Either from Lord of the Rings was also an
way, the following is a useful undead monster.” If you’re
methodology for making other people… wondering who Gandalf is, he’s a bit
like Dumbledore from Harry Potter. If
FRIENDS, ENEMIES, MONSTERS, THE you’re wondering who Dumbledore
GENERAL CREATURE OF DIE is, he’s a bit like Alan Moore.
This edition of DIE doesn't exactly go If you wonder why liche has an “e” at
into masses of rules and lists of the end, it’s because I was exposed to
monsters or creatures. We’ll probably do Warhammer to a toxic degree as a
more down the line, and there’s some teenager.
examples at the end of the section, but
this is the sort of thinking I go about 2) Consider weirding it up
when preparing a game and the
characters. You may not want to run it straight.
Colour it with an element either from the
1) Choose what they are! personas’ histories or an element of the
environment they find themselves in. If
Here’s some ways to generate a persona is a big Harry Potter fan,
someone… perhaps the liche is Undead
Dumbledore. Perhaps the liche reminds
a) Choosing something logically from them of their dad. Perhaps the liche is
the locale. If you’ve got ideas, use their dad. Warning: do NOT make your
them. liche Alan Moore. He will use his powers
b) If a player's Minor Detail is a movie or on you.
piece of fiction, grabbing characters
from that is amazing. It's your RPG At the least, consider making them
played in the privacy of the house. Fallen – especially if you want to be able
You don't need to pay Games to fight them with no moral questions. Or
Workshop money if you want to fight rather, relatively few moral questions.
Space Marines. Or make out with Fallen are a visual motif in DIE, so will be
Space Marines. familiar to anyone who’s read the comic.
c) For Arcana users, consider Equally, they are important to the latter
something random from The Box of game. If a player meets Fallen regularly
Crap. before anyone dies, it’ll mean more.
d) Go with something you've just
thought of which seems appropriate.
3) If you need stats, choose stats. If note to ask the player for more details in
you don’t need stats, don’t bother play. We talk about asking players
choosing stats question to tweak the world in The
Second Session in a few pages. In
DIE is deliberately simple in its use of short: ask what the parent was like in
profiles. Standard monster profiles and terms of personality, and then play the
example creatures are included at the liche as your interpretation of what they
end of The Rules. What follows explains say.
the basic process of adding some rules
to your ideas. Er... you don't need to have them be a
liche. I'm kind of committed to the liche
It's also worth stressing that while this as the standard example now.
is in the preparation system, you don't
need to generate this profile until the It’s likely we will include personality
players have to actually use the rules to quirk generators in later editions, but for
interact with the monsters. Are the this one, it seems extraneous. Almost
players going to attack that dragon with every RPG system has one, and if you
the face of their old headmaster? have one in your Box of Crap you can
Probably not. If that’s so, you don't need turn to them. If not, there are many
to generate it. If a battle actually personality generators online, which
happens, it's a case of choosing the can easily be googled. Here’s one I just
Epic Monster profile and letting it do have:
anything that would be sensible for a https://springhole.net/writing_roleplayin
dragon with the face of their old g_randomators/character-quirk.htm.
headmaster to do, like set homework, or
incinerate them. Generally speaking, don’t be afraid to
play characters to the fucking hilt. If you
DIE is a generous system. We all have want a really weird character, select
busy lives. We don’t need to know the multiple options, but be aware you're
random orc’s general knowledge skill. always risking things turning into Monty
Most orcs don’t know anything about Python if you go too zany.
generals.
Of course, for true horror players,
4) Personalities choose entirely emotionless, to the max.
Entirely non-responsive. Silent staring.
If it's just a monster, or brainless, this Monotone voices. This is also horrific.
can be skipped. Or maybe not. Maybe Especially if you do it for more than one
this is a Gelatinous Cube that sings the creature the player meets, as it speaks
songs of Huey Lewis And The News as to the nature of the horror world in
it's devouring you. I'm not even joking. which they find themselves.
It's likely, especially if you're using a Oh, there is one particular kind of
detail from a persona’s history to create character which is likely to be of use
it, that you know what their personality with this core setting – an encounter
is like. If the persona hasn’t actually with the personas’ previous characters
defined any details other than a vague (i.e. the characters the personas played
“I miss my dead parent” when the dead in their original teenage RPG). While
parent appears as a liche, just make a having the world think the players are
actually their old heroes is a logical to dovetail with the personas’ real lives
route, you can get more drama from – as in, showing them the road they’re
showing where their old characters on. If you meet your teenage hero stuck
ended up. Heroic master thieves in a loveless marriage, it can give you
begging in an alleyway, bards running a perspective.
simple pub and so on. It’s a useful way
SECOND SESSION GENERATION
WORKED EXAMPLES
Here’s a hypothetical walkthrough of leave home, and aware that she’s not
preparing for an actual scenario, to sure what to do with her life. Long-
show all of the above in practice. standing crush on Rupert, but more how
Rupert was then than now. She’s been
If you want to see how some groups sad and disappointed in him forever.
actually did it in their playtests, go look Used to play a Cleric.
in the Arcana. Core Drive: stymied creative urge.
Secondary Elements: volunteers at the
THE HYPOTHETICAL EXAMPLE library. Avid reader of literally any trash
fantasy novel. Secretly smokes.
I’m going to use the same locale, and Idealises Sylvia Plath.
show two completely different ways you
could take the material generated by Valentine, a Neo
the personas. Here’s a set of personas She’s a nervous, closeted small-town IT
in a stripped-down form. It’s likely that specialist consultant. She’s gay, still
yours will have more complicated links. afraid of coming out, afraid of her
To stress, the GM’s character – Rupert – religious mother, afraid of everything.
likely has several bits of this information Younger sister of Rupert. Used to play a
hidden from the other players. Rogue.
Core Drive: to stop being scared.
The players were a D&D group – with the Secondary Elements: huge gamer. Long-
exception of Rupert, who is Valentine’s term Blizzard fan, especially
cooler older brother. Or at least he was Hearthstone.
then. They’re now all in their late 30s.
Rupert, a Master
Bob, a Rage Knight He was the nerdy king of the school. He
Bitter divorcee, who has spent ten years was even generous then – he was
in an increasingly loveless marriage friendly with all his sister’s geek friends,
only to discover his wife has been even if he teased the game. He was a
cheating on him, and has left him. Has literary nerd not a gaming nerd, loving
always had a lingering crush on Tolkien. His life didn’t really go
Valentine. Used to play a Fighter. anywhere. He works at a bar and has
Core Drive: resentment at having never left the town, with a string of
wasted 20 years of his life. relationships with women he decides
Secondary Elements: amateur historian. “weren’t good enough for him”.
Always wanted to move to the big city. Core Drive: his life peaked at high school
Football supporter (Arsenal). Catholic. – he wants a chance to be the king he
should always have been. His
Trudy, a Godbinder expectations are simply too high.
Was the GM of their group as teenagers. Secondary Elements: protective of
Small-town wife. Two kids, mid-teens. sister, and all too aware she’s gay.
Dropped out of her literature degree Football supporter (Tottenham).
while pregnant. Now kids are about to
These are British people, btw. To Rupert’s life peaked as a teenager, and
translate to American, replace “Arsenal” he thinks he deserves better from life
and “Tottenham” with “Yankees” and than he ever got. His core drive is simple
“Red Sox”. – he wants to rule a fantasy world of his
own. To come here, he had to bring
THE LOCALE some people – the other personas. He
hopes his sister will join him but, really,
It’s their teenage D&D game. It’s a land they’re all just sacrifices for his power.
with a high fantasy feel, which is all I
need as an aesthetic – high fantasy, all He is in the Evil Lair, and he is the Dark
the time. I’m also aware that the fact Lord of the world. He has acquired the
they’re traveling to a teenage fantasy Magic Item of Evildom, which means he
world gives an excuse for the stuff drives all the forces of evil, evilly. The
around the edges being not exactly players get there, and we have the
perfectly thought out. It’s a teenage classic epic confrontation at the top of
D&D world! his lair. In other words, the encounters
are primarily aggressive obstacles
The simple setting: the land is about to trying to slow them down. This is mainly
be crushed by the forces of Evil, ruled by playing the Dark Lord situation straight.
some kind of Dark Lord.
They have to travel through the
The last free folk have gathered in the dungeon beneath the evil castle. Let’s
last stronghold. They can transport a call it the Undercity. The players arrive
group of heroes deep within the Dark in the last stronghold of the forces of
Lord’s lair, in a last attempt to stop him. good, get briefed, and then transported
to the Undercity. I could draw a map to
When they step out of the room at the link things together, or have my list of
start of the second session, they’ll find places they are likely to discover and as
themselves in the stronghold of the the players defeat them they get closer.
remaining good folk of the land. I realise I want it to be more than just
“Go to the bad guy and kill them”. As
Here’s two separate ways someone we’re riffing on a basic fantasy story,
may use the above information to having the one weapon that means the
develop two adventures. They’re written Dark Lord Can Be Defeated in the castle
to show ways your thought processes seems a good thing.
may go, including going back and
editing. So – this basically creates a list of core
encounters for the second session…
The first is a pure good and evil
structure, the other considerably more 1) The briefing in the last stronghold.
complicated. 2) The arrival in the Undercity.
3) Some manner of pursuit when
EXAMPLE ONE: RUPERT AS A TOTAL they’re down there???
SHIT/BASIC VERSION 4) Finding the magical artefact.
5) Using it to confront the Master.
This is the simple way to do it.
The briefing? As this is a pop fantasy
take, Trudy’s love of trashy fantasy
seems a useful thing to mine for content religious mother could easily be twisted
– as is Valentine’s love of Blizzard into encounters.
games. I’d like to include some elements
from Trudy’s favourite fantasy books, That Bob’s ex-wife “took” something
but I haven’t actually asked her what from him means that she’s an influence
her favourites are yet. I don’t need to. I’ll on the lieutenant who’s hunted down
just ask her in play, and then just drop the party and has taken the magical
the wisest person from that book into artefact she needs. Taking a Nazgul
the role of advisor… and can also archetype as a monster and giving her
provide the actual nature of the artefact followers gives a fairly creepy visual.
to defeat the Dark Lord. Alternatively, There’s also the idea that maybe they
the details can be filled in by asking don’t need to fight her – There’s room
players questions about their RPG world for Bob making peace with his past here.
during the session – “What was the
legendary artefact in your game?” is Valentine’s mum as a religious mother,
always an easy one. Whatever it is, it as a necromantic cult leader, leading an
either allows Rupert to be killed or gives awful dark mass? That’ll be a good thing
access to Rupert’s secret lair. to arrive in, as a huge visual, and gives
the players a choice to intervene or not
So – why is the artefact in the dungeon? in whatever is going on. As it’s
Easy option – the personas’ original Valentines’ mum, this seems to be her
teenage RPG characters went in there encounter. Her mum’s victims could be
with it. The good guys cowering in the some beautiful elves, taken prisoner,
last stronghold haven’t heard any with a suggestion that it’s because of
contact. This sets for an agreeable they’re not straight. Can Valentine stand
tragic encounter when the players up to her mum? Make peace with her?
catch up with them. That actually Defeat her? Who knows? As Powered By
changes the necessary encounters… Apocalypse World games like to say in
their manuals, we play to find out.
1) The briefing in the last stronghold.
2) The arrival in the Undercity. Next – they find their way to as far as
3) Finding the party who went first. the previous party got. All dead – which
4) Finding the artefact we’ll ask the players some questions
5) Using it to confront the Master, about in play to work out why it’s
Rupert. particularly sad. I check if I’ve given all
the characters an encounter which
Now – how about Rupert having some revolves around their obsessions. Well,
lieutenants? That gives us some Valentine and Bob already have big
antagonists who players can also scenes, but Trudy hasn’t. She needs
interact with, who aren’t Rupert. one. If the party is already dead, how do
they work out where the artefact has
There’s someone who’s killed the gone? Well, Trudy’s a Godbinder – she
previous party, and is leading the could bring them back to commune with,
resistance against the players – a via a deal with one of the gods. Which is
lieutenant figure. Scanning the fun. But… it’s a bit mechanics-based?
background – Valentine and Bob both How to make it personal? The Sylvia
have domineering figures they’re Plath mention sticks out – having a bard
resentful of. The ex-wife and the based on Sylvia Plath as part of the
original party? Whatever challenge they Rupert is married to Galadriel and
do to get the clue, they get her dying Arwen, to highlight the shallowness of
words, which is a chance for Trudy to his “No woman is good enough for me”
talk hero to hero and get inspiration bullshit.
from it (perhaps linking to that stymied
creative urge?). Some manner of A quick final scan through for minor
combat situation, fighting ghosts for a details – I’ll use one of the online
chance to speak with her literary hero Hearthstone card banks to randomly
certainly works. generate cards to influence encounters,
include a few historians in the opening
From that, one way or another, we get to council of the wise and have the
the confrontation with Bob’s Nazgul ex- banners of Arsenal on the good guys
wife (Yes, now’s there a sentence.). One and the Tottenham flag on the bad guys.
way or another, we get emotional That sounds fun, and signals that it’s a
closure and the artefact. playful game. Work out a few stats for
the key monsters – Hero Wizard for the
And then onto a final confrontation, at mum and Monster for the ex, perhaps –
the most dramatic part of the lair. That, and then we’re good to go.
according to the scenario, the world will
be falling apart means it’s going to be a EXAMPLE TWO: RUPERT AS MORE
deeply dramatic visual background to SYMPATHETIC/COMPLICATED VERSION
whatever happens. Any ways to spice it
up with the background? So, Rupert is an over-achiever who
thinks he deserves better than he got?
Hmm. Bob had a lingering crush on Let’s not throw out the affection for his
Valentine? With the rules for the Fallen, sister too easily. He actually believes
the opportunity to kill her and then have this fantasy world is better for everyone
her as Bob’s eternal bride is certainly – their lives are all shit. He’s hoping that
something evil Rupert could suggest if being here will make them want to stay.
Valentine rejects his demand to stay.
It’s certainly a loaded decision, but the The backbone of “Get to the Evil Lair”
fact this is meant to be a more fun and seems solid – do we have to throw it
games adventure means this feels far out? A simple option – in fact, the
too ugly (especially with Valentine’s Council of the Stronghold think Rupert’s
sexuality). I keep it as an idea, but find it character is the new lieutenant of the
unlikely I’ll go there unless the group is Dark Lord. The players think they’re
leaning that dark. going to have to confront them both.
However, when they get to the end, the
Wait. This adventure is designed to be players discover that Rupert has
high adventure – we’re overthinking it. already killed the Dark Lord. The world
Let’s work out a bunch of lieutenants in will be at peace now… and haven’t your
this final encounter. Rupert liked experiences along the way taught you
Tolkien? Having the key LOTR cast as his you’ll be happier here too?
petrified servants, and winning the fight
sets them free would be a big cool geek This means that the Encounters will be
thrill moment – and, if they’re suitably as much about giving players a chance
grateful, perhaps giving Bob some to realise what they could be here. As
closure on his resentment. Obviously, such, we’ll be looking for at least one
encounter (or one theme running chance to confront the mother analogue
throughout the game) for each – so Rupert taking her down has to be
character to be tempted by. after Valentine has had a chance to
either stand up to her or not. Either way,
We keep the same backbone – a magical Rupert turns on the mother (likely using
artefact, carried to the base. If Rupert’s the Master’s special abilities) but it sets
in charge, and he’s the LOTR master, we the game up for a very different
take notes straight from Tolkien. The conclusion.
artefact is the one ring. The place it’s
got to get to is a big volcano base like Okay – Valentine is done. She doesn’t
Mount Doom. Except, in our story, the have a single specific encounter – the
Dark Lord has his room in Mount Doom, Dark Mother’s influence should tinge
so you don’t get to sneak around. We’ll every encounter.
fill in other details from asking players
questions about their old fantasy world. How about Bob and Trudy? They’re two
very different personas. Bob has a big
Er… will we stick with that? Who knows, core drive – his resentment over his
but it’s enough to start with. We can bin wasted life. Trudy is more diffuse, with
it if the details change. smaller urges. Even her “stymied
creative urge” doesn’t seem to align
Who is the Dark Lord? It could be with her other elements. Hell, for some
generic, but with this game world, let’s reason we haven’t even asked anything
make it personal. The character who about the Father and how he fits into all
has most connection to the personas? of this?
Valentines’ mum – who is also Rupert’s
mum, remember. Have the Dark Lord Hmm.
inspired by her, and Rupert seemingly
her servant… until the reveal. Trudy has always had a crush on
Rupert… but younger, ambitious Rupert.
If she’s the Dark Lord, and her daughter Meanwhile Rupert is trying to get a girl
is afraid of her judgement, her rule must who is “good enough for him”. These
be deeply conservative, so implying her seem to somewhat dovetail. Rupert is
death would lead to the overthrow of all certainly ambitious now. And Trudy? By
these values. As such, we’ll have to actually fighting her way through all
filter the story with these ideas of these dungeons, she’ll have proved
persecution. Simultaneously, the people she’s an amazing hero. This is their best
of the last redoubt could be a bunch of selves! Or at least, that’s how he could
lovely sweethearts. Having the players’ see it. That Trudy has kids means it’s
old RPG characters be there seems unlikely she could be seduced to stay in
logical – rather than tragedy, let’s make the world and abandon her real life… but
them be positive meetings, to give the you never know.
players something to fight for.
That means that the encounters along
That’s Valentine’s thread. It’s her road the way should give her a chance to
to confront a fantasy analogue of her achieve purpose and show off. But what
mother, with the world-view Valentine is to do? Well, a setting does present itself
petrified of externalized all around her. – a library is a useful thing. If we’re
This means that Valentine needs a dropping into a dungeon to explore, a
huge labyrinth with long walls of books ask for more during play, specifically
is a great setting for an encounter. Hell, asking about her worst fears about him.
maybe more.
This is all feeling exciting but I want to
If we’ve got a Library and we’ve got a step back and look at what I’ve planned.
Dark Lord who’s hyper-conservative, In terms of antagonists, I’m reminded
this segues into… well, book burnings, that the creatures I’ve created may be
am I right? That’s the place they’re informed by the ex and the mother, but
going – the Holy Library that the Dark they’re not actually the ex and the
Lord is trying to destroy. We can use Mother. They are characters in this dark
literary figures who are Trudy’s fantasy influenced by the fear. I don’t
inspirations (which include Sylvia Plath, think stabbing your ex actually is a
and others can be worked out by asking great way to work through emotions…
questions) as the holy guardians of this but Bob’s core drive isn’t “Fuck my ex!”
place? Bob’s core drive is “My life has been a
waste.”
That sounds fun. In fact, more fun than
fucking Mount Doom analogue with a Hmm. Well, there’s two lines of attack –
one-ring analogue. In which case, let’s one, when meeting his old RPG fighter
throw away Mount Doom and use “The character, see that that guy had an
Dark Queen’s attack against this bastion impact on this world. Perhaps all the
of knowledge she doesn’t like” as the good guards they meet all honour that
setting, and also throw away the one old fighter? Most importantly, when we
ring. She’s in the central area and in a have an encounter we should see an
ritual to destroy the book of light, from immediate big impact. This is partially
which all that is good flows. That sounds built in (they’re saving the world) but on
high fantasy, right? The problem is to the way, their actions should help
get there before she does it. people, and we immediately thank Bob
hard. We show him this world
Let’s skip back to Bob. Now, one of his appreciates him in the way the real
minor details kicks in here – “amateur world doesn’t.
historian” certainly interlinks with the
Library setting. Including the 20 years So – Valentine’s fear, Bob’s wasted life…
thing – personal history is also history. while we’ve got a story for Trudy, it
Like in the first version, his ex-wife doesn’t actually really touch on what I
sounds like a useful flavour to add as an identified as her main issue – as in, a
antagonist, but let’s look some more. stymied creative urge. Now, maybe we
She left him for someone. Trudy is don’t need this – she already has a lot of
worried that now her kids are leaving input into the world, and her character
home, she lacks a purpose. Her husband was more diffuse than the other two –
leaving too seems like something that but we can give her a creative mission
would horrify everyone – but especially along the way? And a reward of being a
Trudy, right now. So have two Nazgul- major creative mind here?
esque lieutenants, one based on Trudy’s
husband, and the other based on Bob’s Okay – we’ve got a lot swimming around
ex. Hmm. We don’t have many details here. I work out a rough list of encounter
about the husband. I’ll make a note to ideas.
1) Arrival in the world. Perhaps they step 4) Lieutenants have gathered their
out of a magic book? The good guys of major forces, and are about to start
the fantasy realm explain the situation – executing fictional characters – any
the Evil Queen and her lieutenant character who stars in a book which is
(Rupert) are storming this library. It’s on a Christian Fundamentalist Ban List
chaos out there. The great book of light would be good (which is a lot of books –
is in peril and has been cut off from the Harry Potter jumps to mind as a good
rest of the library by a grand wall of reference). Navigating this encounter
darkness. If they had one of the army’s can be a huge battle (if the Warrior-
passes, they could get through? This Librarians from the last encounter were
story is trying to seduce – we should recruited) or a personality-based one. I
signal that. I write the first note as Trudy have the idea that if one of the
(who I suddenly remember I made a note Lieutenants based on real-life people is
is a secret smoker) being passed a actually killed, we should actually
cigarette. “Don’t worry – it’s a healing lampshade what’s happened. “Did you
cigarette. Smoke as many as you like.” really think this was me? Is this really
Instantly the idea – this world knows how you see me?” beat before they die,
you, and this world will look after you. to make the players question what
they’re actually doing. But really, “The
2) Exploring the Library. Encounter with players need to get the key off one of
order of gay monks who are being the Lieutenants” is all we need for a
dragged away into captivity. First backbone.
showing of Dark Queen’s attitude – plus
seeing the Dark Queen’s face on the 5) The final encounter – have the final
banner, so players know who it’s based confrontation of Valentine with her Dark
on. If they rescue the monks, it’s clear Lord mum, before Rupert kills her and
their order’s precious knowledge will be makes the pitch. “People like her made
hugely important to the world. Thanks, the real world terrible. She’s not here
Bob. Plus, Valentine sees her mother’s now. Now this world will be great – let’s
threat. stay here.” Then we’ll see if we’ve done
enough to tempt folks.
3) A massive book burning with the
Head Librarian being burned in the I prepare a selection of useful stats for
centre…. Introducing the two evil people they will meet, as well as
lieutenants. They will attempt to run, to gathering together a bunch of
bring warning. The Head Librarian, atmospheric things to do with books –
dying, begs Trudy to learn enough to tell as I live in a house with books, I will be
the story of this place (her creative arc). generating random events based on
They’ll likely try and make Bob help too – picking a random book off the shelf.
he’s an amateur historian, and it will Clearly, we need some charming girls to
feed into his “wants to make a flirt with Valentine and likely Bob as well.
difference” storyline. Nearby, watching And, once again, I suspect Sylvia Plath
in bunkers, are the utterly demoralised will turn up for Trudy to bond with….
Warrior-Librarians (I’ll need to work out Hmm, someone has to be the Head
their statistics from the “Monsters” Librarian. Asking Trudy to be successor
sections). If they can be motivated to go to Plath certainly feeds into her
out and fight, it’ll be easier for the obsessions…
players to get around.
QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF • The two above adventures are
based on Bob being relatively
• I skirt over writing more details on blameless. Drama is usually more
characters the players meet and complicated than that. Can you think
their statistics. How much would you of ways to make the wife a more
have to pre-generate to be happy to sympathetic element?
play the game?
• The personas’ old teenage RPG
• I’m using imaginary locales, without characters are either killed or
a firm setting. How would you passively just advisors. Would you
integrate an actual map to ground like them to be more active? Or
the experience? would you not use them at all?
• Both adventures are simple quest • The second example is meant to try
narratives. As an experienced GM and lure the players to at least
knows, there’s many sorts of consider staying in the world. Does it
narratives. How would you use do enough? How would you make
similar techniques to do – say – a the world more appealing?
detective story? A siege? A courtly
romance? • The latter game goes deep into
homophobia in the world setting,
• Rupert is a literary nerd and doesn’t with gay characters being
actually like RPGs. Any ideas how to imprisoned. I considered going even
make this a bigger part of the game? further and having characters face
execution, but decided against using
• You have the personas’ notes above. it as an example. With some groups I
I say that I wish I’d asked Trudy would run that game. With others I
more about her husband. What wouldn’t. What are your limits?
questions would you ask? Would you not use that kind of overt
homophobia as a theme at all? What
• Neither example uses Bob’s themes just don’t interest you?
Catholicism. How would you use
Bob’s religion? Is that interesting to
you?
You’ve done your preparation. You’ve Tell them to lower the dice to the table,
got the players all back together. Sit then release it. Wait a few seconds. Ask
them down, let them relax, and then… them to open their eyes.
DO THIS THING!
Tell them they’re back in the game, and
PREVIOUSLY ON begin.
The final encounter is where all this has It could just be the Master by
been leading, and the confrontation with themselves, but it's likely that a
the Master is going to end the game, one satisfactory encounter may involve
way or another. Everyone will have to multiple antagonists.
decide whether to go home or not.
The Master’s character gives various
To remind you, these are the actual abilities to the GM’s persona, with the
rules... Cheat Tokens being able to be spent to
perform various impossible tasks. This
1. The party can go home at any time includes magically summoning an ally.
as long as everyone agrees. This is As such, they can increase the intensity
all personas, including the Master. encounter even mid-flow. Equally, they
2. Dead personas (i.e. Fallen) do not get can be used to perform something
a vote. If the party votes to leave, extremely miraculous – as in, fulfilling a
the Fallen are left behind. persona's unlikely wish, prompting them
to them to switch sides (effectively
In other words, the final encounter will giving the Master an ally). Most of all,
come from the above. At the simplest, it even if you want the Master to stand
will be a fight scene. Your heroes gather alone, a Cheat Token can be used to
and fight the Master. The second the simply avoid any blow – effectively
Master is defeated, they take the vote working to negate the hit.
and are transported home, leaving the
dead Master behind. This is the game's In the case of the last one, be definitely
core “if all else fails” story arc. sure to pass the Cheat Token over to the
player. Seeing the Master is spending IRONIC PROBLEMS
their resources is key to selling the
moment – as well as describing the This is the conclusion of the
impossibility of it. If it’s a killing blow, antagonist’s arc. You could be looking
see the killing blow, spend the token, for ways to make their deal seem less
and then describe the injury healing. appealing. If they are a pure villain, you
See “Running the Master” for more. can push this towards complete
reversal of their deal. They have clearly
If you're good, you should spend the got what they want, but at a cost which
Cheat Tokens so the Master has none makes it pointless. This is the “you have
when they die. If you have tokens left, eternal life, but as a statue” gambit.
I'd advise the players not seeing they Especially if you have to end the game in
have one. You don't have to spend them, a rush, something that direct can be
but if you let the Master be defeated useful. Look for the sting in the tail of
when you have one, they'll know you're what the Master wanted.
playing softball.
This can be useful in the next category
That said, better to fudge than make a as well.
game boring. And equally, you can
easily manufacture a peril which burns FLIPPING THE ANTAGONIST
through a Master's Cheat Tokens –
especially as the Master will spend If what the antagonist wanted is clearly
them to protect what they really want or not all they wanted it to be, it may
desire. The Master is a character and a become easier to talk them down or
character doesn’t necessarily make convince them of the wrongness of their
good decisions. If they made good position. The players and the antagonist
decisions they wouldn’t be a god in a talking it out like grown-ups is
pocket dimension. completely a justified end of the game. If
the bad guy agrees to go home, this is a
For example, a Master’s desire is to great conclusion. However...
create a perfect art work. The final
confrontation with the party is in his PLAYERS FLIPPING
gallery, with his masterpiece in the
centre. The party sets it on fire, and the Some of the players may have been
Master immediately spends one of their tempted to stay at this point. This can,
tokens to return it to normal and stop it for example, lead to them actively
from being flammable. At which point joining the antagonist in a final battle. Or
the players slash it to pieces, and they forming their own side, or anything else.
spend another one. And so on… Once all the living players agree to stay
or go, the game ends.
WHAT HAS COME BEFORE
It's worth noting that players can flip
Before the encounter start, try to fold in back and forth, being tempted and
elements from earlier in the adventure. changing their mind. It's also worth
If they made allies, have them show up. noting the antagonist can decide to
If they made enemies, have them cause leave and the players decide to stay,
trouble. Make sure the players feel their and any combination.
actions have weight and consequences.
In other words – any or all combinations If they can’t come to a decision one way
are good. or another, everyone dies.
This is equally true when characters This is another good reason to plan so
choose to compromise their own your session does not run up to the time
happiness to give their friends someone has to run for a train. If
something that is entirely essential to someone has already left, check in on
them. Consider a beat which leans more them as soon as possible.
tender than actively sad, allowing a little
closure.
Once you’ve all done that, sweep up as and you can let them, but definitely
many of the character sheets as you appear interested in keeping them,
can and (if you have one) slide them into especially if they died. If ask, just smile.
the Box of Crap, especially if they died. No reason. No reason at all.
Some players may want to keep them,
WHAT THE RULES ARE FOR
These rules are the procedural rules. Conversely, trying to pick a lock
They are intended to simulate the in the middle of a melee sounds
fantasy universe the story is happening like the sort of thing that a dice
in. It is designed to be light and based on roll makes sense for.
judgement calls, while having a
pretence of simulating an objective 3. Try and be consistent in the
universe. application of the rules. If you've
chosen that a thing should be a
Generally speaking... dice roll in one situation, an
identical situation should also
1. Anything reasonable to happen require a dice roll. Of course,
should just happen. If there's no there's a lot of leeway in terms of
chance of it not happening, it "identical". For example, earlier in
happens. This is the majority of the adventure a Wisdom roll was
things. For example, a character required to find the will to attack
walks across the room. No dice a ten-mouthed Katanga beast.
roll required. The next time someone tries to
do it, they should do the same.
2. The same goes for when the Unless – for example – the GM
players are bringing their rules it only happens the first
characters' skills to bear in trying time any individual attacks a ten-
to achieve a goal and there is a mouthed Katanga beast.
no real question whether they'll
succeed or not. For example, We go into detail in the following
playing a roguish thief, they try to section, and talk around uses of the
pick a fairly normal lock. As rules, but you can find a stripped-down
there’s no time pressure, this version of the rules on the Cheat Sheets
seems entirely within their in the handouts.
abilities. They pick the lock.
THE CORE MECHANIC
THE CORE MECHANIC IN A PARAGRAPH It’s worth noting these are the six
Dungeons & Dragons statistics,
The Master sets a difficulty for whatever generally used for broadly the same
a character is trying to do. The person purpose.
controlling the character assembles a
number of six-sided dice equal to the Each statistic is represented by a
relevant statistic. They roll that dice number, representing how good (or
pool. Any 4+ counts as a success. If you terrible) they are:
match or exceed the difficulty in
successes, the character pulls it off. 0 – Incapable
1 – Terrible
There’s a bunch of minor things on top 2 – Average
of that, in terms of adding more dice for 3 – Elite
other reasons and interpreting the 4 – Heroic
results, but that’s the core. 5 – Ludicrously Heroic
6 – Seriously, this is getting stupid now
THE CORE MECHANIC IN MORE THAN A 7 – Gandalf riding a Balrog playing Guitar
PARAGRAPH Hero solos on Expert with his eyes
closed
All characters inside the fantasy world
have six statistics. These are... To stress, everyone you have ever met
in your life has a 2 in all their stats. If
Strength: how strong you are! How good you’ve met an Olympian, they may have
you are at hitting things! General melee a 3. DIE’s heroes are much better than
stuff! the greatest people on Earth.
Dexterity: how nimble and dextrous you
are! How good you are at shooting This is how you work out whether any
things! Sneaking! The occasional melee character (whether controlled by a
weapon like a rapier! player or the GM) succeeds or fails.
Constitution: how healthy you are! Do
you get a cold? Do you bleed out on the 1. Decide what the character is
floor after getting stabbed by someone trying to do. For example, if
with the aforementioned rapier? presented with a closed heavy
Intelligence: how much stuff you know! gate of the portcullis style, you
Fancy book learnings! Most wizard-type may decide to try and lift it to
magic! open it.
Wisdom: how much you understand 2. The GM assigns a numeric
stuff and how much emotional control challenge difficulty to the task.
you have for those sensations! Most Difficultly 1 is the standard.
priest type magic! Difficulty 2 is something which is
Charisma: your ability to persuade GM- unlikely for a normal human.
controlled characters into doing stuff! Difficulty 3 is literally impossible
Getting a discount while shopping! Soft for a normal human without
human skills! special training, and even then
it’s extremely unlikely. Higher
difficulties are even harder. For 9. Compare the number of
example, this gate is ludicrously successes rolled to the difficulty
heavy. Normal people would find the GM set. If the number is equal
lifting it extremely difficult. In to or higher than the difficulty,
which case, it's given a difficulty they succeed. For example, the
of 2. player rolled three successes,
3. Identify which statistic is and the difficulty was 2. They lift
relevant to a task. For example, if the heavy metal gate. Gate
a gate needs to be lifted, it's likely defeated!
Strength is the relevant stat.
4. Collect the number of six-sided That's the core mechanic. There's a few
dice equal to the relevant complications and ways to interpret it
statistic. This is the dice pool. for storytelling, but it's all built on top of
Unless the game explicitly says that sequence. Gather dice. Roll dice.
otherwise, if it says add a dice, it Count successes. Compare to the
means add a six-sided dice. For difficulty of the challenge. If you match
example, if you have a Strength or beat it, you're sorted.
of 4, you would collect four dice.
5. Decide if there’s anything which Almost everything in the game is based
makes the task easier. If so, add on the above. If in doubt, you can stick
advantages. For every to it and get the game ambling along
advantage, add a dice. For well enough.
example, if you were a trained
weight-lifter, you may add a dice. THE PLAYERS’ CLASS DICE
6. Decide if there’s anything which
makes the task harder. If so, add Each of the players has a special dice of
disadvantages. For every two their own. Generally speaking, each
disadvantages, increase the class’s character sheet will say when
difficulty by 1. If there’s an odd you get to add it to the dice pool. Unless
number of disadvantages, add the rules state otherwise, it is read like a
The Bad Dice to the dice pool. For normal dice. As in, anything 4 or higher
example. if you were heavily is a success and anything 6 or higher is
injured, the difficulty may be a Special.
increased by 1.
7. Roll the dice. Ideally, on a flat ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES
surface. If you can roll dice on a
vertical surface, YouTube You may note steps 5 and 6 of the core
yourself doing this immediately, mechanic mentioned these.
people will be impressed. Advantages and Disadvantages are
8. Any dice which rolls 4 or higher triggers when there's other factors
than counts as a success. A roll beyond the basic difficulty of a task or a
of 6 (or higher) counts as a character's statistics at play. They
success, and triggers any presently share a name with
relevant Special ability the “Advantage” and “Disadvantage” in
character possesses. If the Bad Dungeons & Dragons, but aren’t
Dice is included and rolls 4+, then mechanically similar. I mention this, in
remove one success. case you’re confused, but I figured
they’re best to stick with as any
alternative I thought of was either her Strength, which is four. However,
obtuse, gimmicky, made me shudder to Kate has a Strength spell cast upon her
say or all three. (which gives an advantage to strength
challenges) and she's a trained
For each present factor in the situation weightlifter (which gives an advantage
which makes a task easier, add an to any test to see if she can lift
advantage. something). Unfortunately, she's also
drunk, which gives her a disadvantage
For each present factor in the situation on all physical tasks.
makes a task harder, add a
disadvantage. Her final dice pool is four dice for her
Strength, two dice for the two
Advantages are cumulative. As are advantages and THE BAD DICE for her
disadvantages. Neither cancels each single disadvantage.
other out.
She rolls 4, 5, 3, 1, 4 and 4. THE BAD DICE
For every advantage you add a dice to is a 5. She has three successes
the dice pool. (actually four, but with one removed as
THE BAD DICE was also 4+). She
For every two disadvantages you add successfully lifts the gate.
one to the difficulty. If there is a spare
disadvantage left over, add THE BAD Hypothetically, if Kate had a second
DICE to the dice pool. disadvantage – perhaps from being
injured as well as drunk – rather than
If THE BAD DICE rolls 4+ it removes one adding THE BAD DICE to the dice pool,
success from the dice pool. the difficulty would have been increased
from 3 to 4. We also may wonder how
THE BAD DICE is a D6. THE BAD DICE Kate ended up drunk and hurting
should be obviously identifiable – you herself. Pull it together, Kate. You're on
may place it on a podium in the middle of an adventure.
the table or in the area on the rules
Cheat Sheet from the handouts. At the It should be noted that many of the rules
start of the sessions the players may that follow are actually just codified
wish to discuss which of the dice is THE ways of adding advantages and
BAD DICE. Dice which rolled particularly disadvantages to a specific situation. A
poorly in a previous session are prime GM should consider them as examples
candidates for being punished by taking of things which a GM may decide cause
on the shameful mantle of THE BAD DICE. an advantage or disadvantage.
This method may be used when players Select one character – advisably the
are all simultaneously trying to perform one with the best dice pool – and add
a difficult task, to avoid having a one dice for every individual with skills
scenario where if one fails, they all fail. assisting.
This is most used when a group is trying
Gatelifter Kate has recovered from her SETTING DIFFICULTIES
sprained back, and come back to have
another go at that gate and found it’s The key takeaway: look at the situation.
been replaced by a door. She's brought Try to be consistent. Don’t stress too
two friends with her – Brawny Belinda much.
and Hefty Herman. While she only has a
Dexterity of 2, her friends oddly know a A dice pool system has many strengths,
bit about lock picking. Kate has a go at but its main weakness is that it’s hard to
picking the lock while her two friends predict the exact odds of someone
give advice. Gatelifter Kate rolls four dice succeeding or failing rather than a
– the two of her dice pool, and two extra straight D20 or percentage-based
dice for the two characters giving her system. Here are some useful things to
help. consider when setting difficulty.
The most common use of this rule is for Key point – as long as the game is
groups of GM-controlled characters consistent, anything is fine. Consistency
assisting each other in combat. Rather (see “Generating Rules” later) is what’s
than rolling individually for each important in DIE. If one game has
creature, roll once and add one dice for climbing a wall as 3 difficulty and
everyone piling onto the individual hero. another has it with 1 difficulty, who
cares? Maybe walls are much harder to
Gatelifter Kate has opened the gate. climb in this dimension. All DIE games
Behind it is an army of orcs. The front literally happen in their own dimension,
row rush her, and Kate finds herself after all.
attacked by three orcs. All the orcs have
a Strength of 2, so a dice pool of 2. As However, it’s worth noting difficulty
they're all attacking the same target, increases quickly in DIE’s system.
rather than rolling individually they roll a
single dice pool of 4. (Two based on their • A difficulty of 1 is what an average
Strength, and an extra two for the two person will pull off 75% of the time.
assisting orcs.) • A difficulty of 1 with a bad dice (i.e.
one disadvantage) is what an
You may note that this is just a specific average person will pull off 50% of
example of adding advantages to a roll, the time.
as described earlier. It's a preferable • A difficulty of 2 is something that an
way of handling a situation to just rolling average person will pull off 25% of
a lot. the time.
In a combat situation it is most likely to It’s worth noting that all our heroes
be used by characters of an identical have a minimum of “average person” in
type attacking simultaneously. However all their stats. With their higher stats,
a character may delay their action to they will be pulling off things which
assist another character’s. normal people simply can’t. A Dexterity
Yes, we’ve just mentioned combat. Don’t 4 character can with no training do
worry. We get to it soon. acrobatics like the Gold Medal winning
Olympian (Dexterity 3 plus advantage
for training, so a dice pool of four).
For some math for higher dice pools’ petrified of being executed by their
chances… boss, you can add a disadvantage.
For fiat it’s just sticking to a rule of
For a three-dice pool, a character will thumb. Something that most folks could
roll… probably do? 1. If it’s impressive? 2. If
it’s Olympian? 3. If it’s cinematic? 4. So
Zero successes: 12.50% for a Guard, I’d likely set a difficulty of 2.
At least 1 success: 87.5% It’s not something everyone does. If the
At least 2 successes: 50% guard doesn’t really care that much, I’d
3 successes: 12.5% set difficulty 1.
For a four-dice pool, a character will If you’re leaning towards setting high
roll… difficulties, as we said earlier, definitely
be aware of the interpreting dice and
Zero successes: 6.25% failing forwards. If you fail to charm the
At least 1 success: 93.75% guard completely, the successes should
At least 2 successes: 68.75% still mean something. If you nearly get it,
At least 3 successes: 31.25% they’ll do it for a bribe or a favour. If you
4 successes: 6.25% get a success, maybe you don’t get
past, but they definitely don’t alert
That should be enough to let you know anyone you were here.
the chances.
This is good practise anyway, but
In terms of actually setting the level, especially in these cases.
here’s two basic philosophies to guide
you… It’s also worth noting the other thing to
modify difficulty is the approach the
1) One is based on treating the character is using to do it – as DIE’s
world as a simulation and just system is based almost completely on
following from the your statistics, it will mean that
character’s abilities. someone trying to cast some magical
ability (likely rolling on their Wisdom to
2) The other is fiat. hit a difficulty level) and someone trying
to charm someone (likely rolling on their
(There’s a third about examining the Charisma) could have the same
analogous approach, but that’s so difficulty. You may want to change the
complicated and perverse, I don’t even difficulty level depending on the tactic.
want to suggest it, in case you actually
go and do it.) For example, a hero trying to climb a
rock face may find it a difficulty 3
For an objective approach, to charm a Strength or Dexterity test – but a Neo
guard to let you past them you need to with a teleport ability may simply
beat their Wisdom stat as a difficulty. teleport up there, with no test required.
So, for an average guard, difficulty 2.
However, equally, you may add As I said. Look at the situation. Try to be
disadvantages depending on the consistent. Don’t stress too much.
situation – for example, if the guard is
COMBAT
Combat has the most extensive set of If a combat starts without warning, it's
rules, but they're all an extrapolation of possible the GM may rule a character
the core principles above. starts with less or even no Guard.
If you want to use a map or counters or The orc has 2 Guard, and 2 Health.
similar to explain space, you should feel Violent Trevor caused three hits. The orc
free. If you’re an experienced player, loses both its Guard and one Health.
you likely have preferences. If you’re an
inexperienced player, you may have a If a hit removes a Health we call it a
preference too. Preferences are great. Wound. This is normally used for special
Have fun. abilities which can only activate if a hit
is a Wound.
ATTACKING
For example, a Ghoul has a paralyse
Attacks are performed by the core Special ability if it wounds a player. It
mechanic. A dice pool is assembled causes two hits to a character with 2
depending on the character's relevant Guard and 2 Health. The character loses
abilities and rolled against a challenge 2 Guard, but is not paralysed, as they
difficulty. did not lose a Health (i.e. they were not
wounded.)
Generally speaking, a melee attack
normally rolls a dice pool based on a PAIN (AKA THAT REALLY HURTS!)
character's Strength. A ranged attack
normally rolls a dice pool based on a A character can lose Guard with no
character's Dexterity. penalty. However, if a character's
Health is less than its maximum, a
The standard challenge difficulty is the character may well suffer a
target character's defence. disadvantage to their dice pools due to
being in enormous pain.
Violent Trevor attacks an orc with his
fancy sword. His Strength is 4, so he
If a character is at less than their Health, but they will also now be unable
maximum Health... to do anything which required that hand.
To stress the implications of the above, Healing is generally limited in this Beta.
characters with a low Constitution may There is magical healing, which various
skip one or both stages of the above characters have access to. Other
effects. entities in the narrative may be able to
heal characters. After a combat, a
Weedy Waldorf has 2 Constitution, so 2 character may try to perform first aid on
Health. 2 Health is his maximum, so he another character. A successful
does not suffer a disadvantage for Intelligence test with a difficulty of one
being at 2 Health. They are hit, losing a will result in a single wound being
Health. As they have 1 Health, they recovered. No more than one wound can
suffer two disadvantages. Weedy be recovered like this per combat.
Waldord never suffers one
disadvantage for being in pain. INCAPACITATION AND DEATH
One player is dumb enough to try this However, DIE also uses this with the
with a dagger. You may be tempted to rules. Making a ruling for the situation
throw even more disadvantages at their occurs first, and then sticking to it from
attacks. However, the player is a Neo then on avoids the need to memorise
with a personal short-range teleporter? rules that you don't want to. Your game
Ah! The Neo blips close enough to can be as simple or complicated as you
attack. Hell, the spear-wielder is more wish. Equally, rules described above
likely to get a couple of disadvantages aren't actually in the game until they
on their attack, now they have a neo in appear in play. You should feel free to
their face. The spear-wielder is facing hack anything as you run the game.
the other way and the players creep up
behind them? Also no problem. When a rule you've introduced proves
sub-optimum you have various options.
In short, advantages and
disadvantages are applied according to 1) Just roll with it and extrapolate what
a reading of the tactical and narrative happens in a world where something
situation. deeply counterintuitive is in play. If
your rules have made daggers the
The same process applies to other best weapon, imagine how that
things used for hurting, such as magical would change society.
spells. A jet of flame sets someone on 2) Change the rule via a Master or
fire? A couple of disadvantages on all Grandmaster. See the section later –
rolls until the fire's extinguished sounds this means that someone in the
about right. world has literally changed it. This
can very much be the start of a
It's worth noting that this process is quest.
exactly how the effects of the weapons
As this playtest set of DIE rules is mainly need to keep the rules identical in each.
for one scenario, we'd say ignoring it is Each is its own world, and the Masters
also an entirely viable option. If you run do keep on meddling.
multiple one-off DIE games there's no
GM CHARACTER PROFILES
MONSTERS, MATES AND EVERYTHING IN NORMAL
BETWEEN Stats: All 2
Defence: 1
The process of creating monsters
specifically for DIE was described in the Anyone you meet who is anything at all
Preparing the Second Session section like a normal human being at the base,
earlier. Below is the pure stats stuff. To should have this profile. You’ll note it
repeat the key thing from earlier… means that all their stats are 2. That
means they’ll have 2 Health and 2
1) Choose a basic profile. Consider Guard.
tweaking it.
2) Consider some Special abilities. Use as a basis for folks like: the village
3) Consider other abilities. guards, better classes of orcs, the noble
dwarfs who are trying to help, some
That’s it. types of Fallen.
One of these is basically a good fight for Choose one (or more) to personalise the
a player or even two. They have 4 monster into something a little
Health and 2 Guard, but also require 2 mechanically different.
successes to hit at all. With a standard
Willpower of 4 these are still very It’s worth noting what each special
vulnerable to emotional control. ability operates is not defined – for
example “Close Combat Specialist” may
Use as a basis for folks like: that huge be because the monster is trained
troll, that guy who’s a head taller than all especially in martial arts – or it could be
his soldiers and is wearing the armour because its hands are awesome
covered in spikes, the Mountain. stabbing weapons, or anything else you
can imagine.
HERO WIZARD
Stats: Constitution 3, Wisdom 4, To repeat a core DIE concept – all
Intelligence 4 elements from the fiction should impact
Defence: 2 the fiction where appropriate. This
includes how you choose to define your
Defence 2 likely simulates magical special abilities. For example, being a
defences of the wizard in some way. Close Combat Specialist because the
This gives some strong dice pools to monster is a trained fighter will not stop
use. If you want to have a less top-class someone opening a door. Being a Close
wizard or cleric, reduce Wisdom and Combat Specialist because you have
Intelligence to 3. weapons for hands will, because you no
longer have the hands to operate
Use as a basis for folks like: Gandalf, doorknobs.
Saruman, the Wicked Witch of the West,
Dumbledore, Voldemort, Alan Moore. Anyway – a short list of options. Define
<certain> and <set time> for yourself.
EPIC MONSTER (Only one option currently includes
Stats: Strength 6, Constitution 5, these, but more will doubtless follow.) If
Wisdom 3, Intelligence 3 not assume they are “all” and “until the
Defence: 3 end of the combat”:
A big ol’ monster with a big ol’ brain. This Close Combat Specialist: Advantage on
creature will have 5 Health, plus a Guard melee attack rolls.
of 2. It requires 7 hits to kill, and 3 Ranged Specialist: Advantage on
successes to even land a hit. Note the ranged attack rolls.
high Wisdom means that it’s very Berserker: Advantage on melee attack
difficult to affect with emotional control. rolls, the character has no Guard.
If you want it to be, reduce Wisdom and Flaming attacks: Adds to the
Intelligence to 2 or even lower. character’s attacks a Special: if this hit
causes a Wound the target is ignited. you’ve made a special. Well done, you’re
They suffer one further Wound every now a game designer. Game designer-
round until dead or the fire is high-five!
extinguished. When ignited a character
suffers a Disadvantage on doing almost 3) OTHER ABILITIES
everything.
Freezing Attacks: Adds to the Should the character be able to do it?
character’s attacks a Special: target is They can do it.
chilled, and now suffers a disadvantage
to all actions until their next round. If If you want to give a wizard specific
already chilled and is chilled again the magical spells, choose miracles from
target is now frozen. When Frozen a the Godbinder’s sheet or use the
character is immobilised until either Arcana’s Spells and Magical Generation
unfrozen or can succeed in a Strength System. But there’s a lot you can just
test against a difficulty of the number of make up as you go along…
times they’ve been frozen.
Paralyzing attacks: Adds to the DIE's system is flexible enough for
character’s attack a Special: if the hit almost all abilities to work on the fly,
wounds, the target misses their next giving advantages and disadvantages
action. depending on context – for example, if
Death Attack: When the character dies, the creature is very small, you may
they get to do a final attack at whoever choose a disadvantage for a full-size
killed them. player hitting it with their large weapon.
Cleaving Destructive Claws: Add to the Worth stressing: as in all the
attack a Special: if this hit causes a improvisation, once you have mentioned
Wound, it causes two Wounds. a rule, it continues throughout the game.
No Emotions: Invulnerable to all forms All small things (or at least, small things
of emotion manipulation or draining, of this type) should be a disadvantage
ether positively or negatively. to hit from that point on. Making the
Iron Will: Willpower for this monster is world seem coherent, even if we're
one higher than usual. making it up as we go along, is very
Homing: Adds Special: advantage on much the point. More on this in the rules,
<certain> attacks until <set time> to all perhaps obviously.
ranged tactics.
Secret Stealer: Adds Special: the Other major abilities of powerful
character must say aloud a secret not creatures are chosen according to
known to the majority of the characters narrative appropriateness. A dragon can
present. likely breathe fire. A wizard can likely
Vampiric: Adds Special: if a melee hit cast spells. A merchant likely can sell
removes a Health, gain a Health to your you stuff you want. In combat,
maximum. depending on how powerful they are,
choose how often they can do
This is a very short list. You should feel something extreme. For example an
free to use any Special on a character ability they can use every round or
sheet as an inspiration, or make your every second round or every third round
own. In a real way if you think of or just once a combat. Alternatively,
something neat that happens when instead of being predictable, you may
they roll a six in a dice pool? Great, want it to be random. For example, a
dragon has a 1 in 3 chance of breathing This would have a dice pool of 3 when
fire every round. attacking, but also go down with only 2
hits, due to having no Guard. In other
The golden rule: if it makes sense that words, useful cannon-fodder who can
this is something this monster should be still have a chance of hurting players.
able to do, they should be able to do it. If
not, they shouldn’t. Dragons may have a GIANT FALLEN
high Dexterity, but their hands are too Stats: Strength 4, Constitution 4
large to pick pockets. Use your noggin’. Dexterity 0
Defence: 2
EXAMPLE MONSTERS Specials: Close Combat Specialist
(brutal claws)
NON-SENTIENT GOLEM MONSTER
Stats: Strength 4, Constitution 4 The above, on steroids. This would have
Defence: 2 a 5-dice pool for attacking, and 4 hits to
Specials: No Emotions go down – but with defence of 2 making
hits much rarer.
This would be good in a fight, and
invulnerable to mind control. This is WIZARD FALLEN
useful to think about, as a creature with Stats: Constitution 2, Wisdom 2,
low Wisdom is particularly weak to Intelligence 4
emotional attacks – which is a Dictator’s Defence: 2
ability. Having no emotions means the Specials: Flaming attacks, Raise Other
Dictator can’t just take it out. Iron Will Fallen to Life (Difficulty 1).
can be used to make it harder, but not
impossible, for a dictator. An example of a support character. Sits
at the back-firing magic spells (using its
BASIC FALLEN Intelligence of 4 for its dice pools). If a
Stats: Dexterity 0 Fallen dies, it tries to raise it from the
Defence: 1 dead.
Specials: Close Combat Specialist
(brutal claws)
The core rules of each of the archetypes recommend starting by playing with a
are included on their sheets in the smaller group. The core of What You Do
handout. All require some special is also included on the GM Cheat Sheet
assistance from you, and all have for the classes, which is our attempt to
advice on how to make their experience help out.
feel unique.
You are strong! You are mighty! You’ll be
You should read the sheets before fine.
reading any of this. You likely will want
to have the sheets printed to read DISTRIBUTING THE ARCHETYPES
alongside this for reference.
It’s worth noting the game is based
But to understand the intent here, most upon the GM distributing the classes. If
games try (to some degree) to have there’s a class you don’t want to run
special abilities varying between (for any reason), you don’t have to give
classes, but they're mainly built on an it to someone. And, as said earlier, you
underlying structure. There's some of can always check in.
this in DIE, because it's an efficient way
to teach a game... but each class also The classes that follow are in a rough
has something that is radically its own. level of complexity. Each section also
In the same way they each have their includes further thoughts on who to
own special dice, they have their own distribute each class to.
mechanic, which is individual. The other
players are unlikely to ever understand It ends with the Fallen, which is the
what the other players are up to additional class that may or may not
entirely, and this is entirely as planned. turn up in the game.
The aim is to make each players'
abilities feel somewhat mysterious to FULL VERSUS LIGHT ARCHETYPES
one another... and also make each
individual feel precious and special. This There are two sets of archetype sheets
is mine, and mine alone. available. The Full includes all the rules
and choices for each of the classes.
In short: it's really about adding magic to While this edition of DIE isn’t as
the mechanics. complicated as many games, it will
often generate characters who have
But each is going to put different more abilities than will be used in a two-
demands on you as a GM, hence this session game. This is not necessarily a
chapter. problem. However, it certainly does take
some more time.
The following is a lot of useful stuff, but
you will mostly be able to play the game If you’re playing in a less experienced
just by reading the character sheets. group or have less time available (so
you don’t want to spend so much time
I’ll be honest with you here: the variety generating characters) you may wish to
of the players’ characters abilities and use the Light characters. Here you use
your involvement with them is the thing the first sheet of the full archetype, but
which is the largest cognitive load on replace the second sheet with the Light
the GM. This is one of the main reasons I version. This strims away many of the
secondary abilities of each class, and The Light characters are a little weaker
reduces the number of choices. You are than the Full versions in terms of power.
left with a purer take on each character, As such, it’s not advised to mix Light
which fulfils the core fantasy the game and Full versions.
offers.
RUNNING THE FOOL
WHO TO GIVE THE FOOL TO? similarly devil-may-care). If the player is
forced into behaviour that is nearly
While the core Fool is a playful fighter, it suicidal to get the bonus, they'll either
can be customised to any of the three not do it, or it will frustrate the other
core types of fantasy characters – players to the point they'll draw
fighters, thieves and wizards. As such, weapons on them. This can be dramatic,
no matter what sort of things a player of course, but something which should
would like to get up to, they can do them be built towards.
as a Fool.
I’d suggest that, rather than the above,
It’s arguably the easiest class to run, you remove the dice any time the player
with the least to worry about for a shows overt concern and care rather
player. Most of their abilities are passive than adding the dice if they're
(so working with no active need for the particularly careless. Entering battle
player to do anything) or simple (the with a grin is enough to get the dice. It's
Fool’s lucky dice is powerful, but also only holding back and carefully planning
works in an easily understandable way). a methodical ambush which loses it.
If there’s a player who is less
comfortable with being here, this is a It should also be noted that, when the
strong choice. Fool’s dice is in a dice pool, the dice’s
Special means that sixes can be used
It’s not just a class for beginners. to generate more dice. In raw
There’s a lot of impish fun to be had with mechanics, the Fool’s Dice is actually
the Fool. They are literal troublemakers. one of the most powerful in the whole
An experienced player can get a lot from game.
the Fool, and play them basically as
whatever class they wish. The If All Else Fails… is the Fool’s most
powerful ability. It exists to get the party
There is one more note – make sure to (or at least the Fool) to luck their way
give it someone who gets the joke and is out of trouble. It’s worth noting the
in on it. ability does not allow the Fool to dictate
how they get out, or the situation it gets
THE FOOL’S DICE them in. Dropping them into a perilous
(but less perilous) situation is certainly
They can add their D6 to literally any roll reasonable, though certainly should be
where they are acting in a foolish or less instantly deadly than the place
daring fashion. You get to decide what they were in. It’s not an ability which
that actually looks like, though you tends to kill the opposition, unless it’s
should be careful to be consistent in particularly amusing.
your rulings.
What happens next is key. As well as
It's worth noting that the higher the the Fool no longer being able to use their
threshold for getting that extra dice, the luck abilities, the GM having the Fool’s
more the player will be an irritant to the dice is a constant threat. The players
rest of the group (unless their attitude is should always be aware that you have
the dice. You should play with it, holding into, they’re being an over-sensible
it, making them aware you have this rules-lawyer. Whatever the Fool is, it’s
token that could just ruin whatever it is the opposite of that. This is called
they’re doing. Pushing Your Luck. Immediately feel
free to use the D6 to put them into an
As a general rule, the level of disaster even worse situation, and tell them that
you drop on someone should be akin to they’re Pushing Their Luck. Stress the
the level of disaster that passing you severity of this, in a “Are you sure you
the D6 avoided. Equally, the way you want to fall on your sword?” way. If they
use the dice should be worse for the use the D6 to avoid the problem again,
players than any plan which the Fool even after this warning, let them escape
deliberately sabotages. You likely want it, and then use the D6 to hit them with
to encourage the Fool to act in a foolish something that kills them instantly. They
way. If the Fool does not respond to were warned. This can even be an Anvil
your quiet teasing of peril, hitting them from the heavens, if you’re feeling like
with something particularly awful and going full Wile-E Coyote.
passing them back the dice will
certainly encourage the Fool to try and Eventually a gambler pushes it too far,
reclaim the dice in a less awful way next and their karmic debts will catch up with
time. It will also encourage the other them. In practice, most players realise
players to be more accepting of the Fool that this is a bad idea before it happens.
occasionally blowing things up – they’ve If someone asks, “What’s to stop me
seen the alternative. just using my D6 to get out of trouble?”
feel free to just smile and say, “Want to
As such, I would suggest being try and find out?”
generous to the Fool when they
sabotage a plan to get their dice back. The above is if the Fool is enjoying
The level of peril a Fool puts the party in themselves, and aware of what they’re
to reclaim the dice does not have to be doing (if not the results). If the Fool is
of the same level of the peril you used to irritated during the above, it’s more
get out of it. For example, if while talking important to pause the game and check
to a GM character, a Fool says in about what’s wrong.
something that is clearly offensive and
blows the attempt to charm them is Also remember: death is part of DIE in a
absolutely the sort of behaviour that way in which it’s not in most other
could get the D6 back in the Fool’s hand. games. Players dying and becoming
Fallen is not intended as a punishment,
Ideally, the Fool deliberately messing but an interesting bit of horror.
something up should get a laugh. It’s the
character shouting “Hey! I think the TRICKSTER WIZARD
Guards didn’t see us” beat and not a
“Hey – I’ve just stabbed my friend in the While the other two styles are simple,
back with my sword” beat. the Trickster Wizard option lets the
player select minor magical spells. The
There is one exceptional situation to Godbinder sheets includes a big list of
warn you of. If a player gets their dice pre-generated magic spells. The Arcana
back and immediately uses it to get out includes more, and rules for calculating
of the situation they’ve got themselves them. Let them cast anything which is
difficulty one that seems reasonable. SAD CLOWNS
You don’t need to tell them what they
can do – they ask to do something, and While many Fools will gleefully blunder
you tell them. their way through the adventure, there
is another more serious route. Fools can
A player can use Charisma or find themselves starting to imprint upon
Intelligence as their dice pool to cast a the world and start to take themselves
spell, according to their preference. A and their friends more seriously. This is
Fool using Wisdom seems heretical, a great character arc. It also means
right? they lose the vast majority of their
abilities.
THE BUZZFEED QUIZ
Some players actually love this,
You may notice the Fool’s sheets especially in the one-off format. If a
include a lot more things which have character goes the serious route, they
absolutely no use. This is because the likely are aware of this.
Fool, more than any class, has less
choices to make. As such, they may be However, it should be noted that this
left twiddling their fingers while the isn’t the necessary end of the route. The
other players make their choices. As Fool gains their dice not if they are light-
such, their sheet has a bunch of fun hearted. They gain their dice if they act
busy-work for them to play with. light-hearted. A GM character can
certainly point this out. An enlightened
This is thematic: everyone else does Fool is put in the position where to save
homework. The Fool fucks around. their friends they have to bite back the
tears, paint on a smile and dive into the
Of course, it should be remembered – as fray. It doesn’t matter if they cry
all things the players generate, be between encounters.
aware of what is on the sheet. It likely
will tell you something about the In short: “But Doctor,” said the Fool, “I
character, and likely can be worked into am Pagliacci."
an encounter.
RUNNING THE EMOTION KNIGHT
WHO TO GIVE THE EMOTION KNIGHT TO? loaded for the Emotion Knight, akin to an
elite Samurai finally drawing the sword.
The Emotion Knight is the closest DIE Of all the dice in the game, it’s the one
has to a straight Fighter class. It’s a role which can be treated with most fear and
which is primarily defined inside combat respect. If you act like it’s a big deal the
– or at least the threat of starting player has picked it up, it will signal to
combat. It can be one of the easiest everyone else that Shit Has Just Got
classes to play – you experience an Real.
emotion and then use that emotion to
defeat your enemies. As such, if the Fool It also isn’t a normal attack.
is taken, it’s a good choice to give to the
least experienced player. If you guide CREATIVE VIOLENCE
them towards an emotion like Rage or
Terror that is likely any persona would While the Emotion Knight is a combat-
feel when exploring a bleak fantasy leaning character, when a player uses
world then you can have a simple, yet the D8 is equivalent to the other
powerful, experience. It’s worth noting characters’ most powerful abilities – the
that you may consider filling in the Neo’s overcharge, the Godbinder’s
emotion on the sheet before handing major miracles, the Fool’s luck and so
over, if you want to especially guide on. It is about solving intractable
them. narrative-level problems.
However, it’s not just that. While a Rage If you look at the adjectives on the
Knight will have an experience akin to a sheet, you will see the scale we’re
classical Barbarian or Berserker, talking about. A GM should consider
choosing a less immediately obvious scaling encounters for grandeur to give
emotion will change their behaviour players a chance to use the higher
considerably. What’s does a Loathing levels of their ability. The terms in the
Knight do, for example? Equally, for a table are deliberately open to
role-player whose persona is clearly interpretation.
driven by their relationship to a single
emotion, giving them the Emotion Knight For example, Roland Rage Knight and
means they are going to explore their friends step out into the light to find the
relationship to that feeling in depth. assembled forces of the Dark Lord
facing them, stretching towards the
THE D8 horizon. Glenda Godbinder is about to
talk to a God to let them escape, but
Other archetypes get to add their dice Roland stops them. This is an Army,
more often to their dice pools. The right? The GM nods. He’s level 3 Rage.
Emotion Knight only gets to add the D8 He can handle an army…
to their dice pool when activating their
most powerful ability, otherwise using it The interpretative aspects are key. The
as a simple counter, sliding up and Emotion Knight’s violence can be
down the scale. This means that the mystical and even godly. Cut pathways
process of actively picking up the D8 is through doors, or – to bastardize
Hendrix – cut down a mountain with the much more philosophical. Note again the
side of the blade. Clean the Augean phrasing of the word “defeat” not “kill”.
stables of shit in a blizzard of blows. It’s
worth stressing it says “defeat” not Get creative with the violence and
“kill” on the sheet. This is an Emotion reward lateral thinking. This is where an
Knight’s passion solving a single Emotion Knight can get poetic, if they
problem. want.
An angry Roland is approached by a Half the archetypes get their own NPCs.
tribe of almost as equally angry trolls, all The Neo gets their clinical AI. The
baying for his blood. “Hmm? Is this a Godbinder gets a head full of gods,
mob?” asks Roland. The GM says it is. whispering ideas. The Emotion Knight
Roland reaches for his sword… and a gets their sentient arcane weapon… and
minute later, only three trolls are still it’s arguably the most subversive and
there, the rest either dead or run. Three least trustworthy of them all. At least
trolls aren’t a mob, and this is the the Godbinder knows the gods are trying
combat. to barter and manipulate them.
To state the obvious, many of the While the player gets to define the style
adjectives are much more of the weapon’s personality, they do not
impressionistic. Defeat a religion? A get to define what the weapon wants.
god? A belief? That could be just hitting What it wants is to actively push the
something, but it could be something
character towards indulging in its risk reading as phallic. You'll likely be
emotion. better off with energy fields or similar.
The push and pull between the sword as Above level 6 are an intensity beyond all
a friend and ally or an awful enabler is human experience. The Dictator has
definitely a key part of the class. more on this section, but even a level 4
Depending on the emotion picked, this experience could render a normal
nature will vary. It’s worth taking a few human being unconscious, or even kill
seconds to think what exactly an them.
Arcane Weapon powered by (for
example) Anticipation wants… and then For every stage of emotion an Emotion
stick to that characterisation and Knight suffers a disadvantage on doing
desire. things which are not relevant to that
emotional state. So, if you are at level 5
POWER-UPS rage, you are at FIVE disadvantages on
things which are not things you can do
Generally speaking, the weapons are when angry. If the emotion would help
going to grow more impressive as the an Emotion Knight perform a task, they
Knight gains more emotion. You can use gain a single advantage, no matter how
various visual effects, but a warning – many levels.
growing weapons can seem cool, but
At level 3 or above, the Master may As always, read the scale. Levels one to
suggest behaviour which the persona three are normal – higher, and they are
wants to do, and if they don’t want to do pushing towards madness and literally
it, they have to roll with their Wisdom to impossible experience. To stress the
resist. The difficulty should be half the above – a level 4 emotion is enough to
level of the emotion, rounding up. So, if a make a normal person (Wisdom 2 and
Rage Knight is level 5 rage, the difficulty Intelligence 2, so Willpower 4) pass out
to avoid stabbing people when all the or worse.
enemies are gone would be a difficulty 3
test. General rule: if a player is not playing or
referencing the emotion, they are not
Of course, the player doesn’t have to feeling that emotion. It’s entirely fine to
resist if they don’t want to. If they go prompt the player to encourage
with the flow, and even start selecting expressing how they’re feeling.
unwise but appropriate actions
themselves, you may wish to give an For Example…
advantage on the roll. It’s what they GM: A Monster appears in front of you.
really want to do, after all. Player: I draw my sword!
GM: It’s really horrible. Are you feeling
GAINING EMOTIONS scared?
Player: Yes! It’s a monster! I’ve never
None of the above really explain what seen anything like it before!
should increase a Knight’s emotional GM: Move your die up to level 2 –
state. “Fearful.”
Generally: look at all elements of the Here’s some specifics for how each
knight’s spoke, plus the adjacent spoke could work. If we move past this
compound emotion. Beta, having more emotion-specific
powers in the game is the sort of thing
For example, for a Terror Knight, you’ll we’ll want to add, which can expand the
be looking for the Emotion Knight class further. An Interest Knight playing
showing Terror, Fear or Apprehension a Sherlock Holmes-esque role is an
from the Terror spoke – plus an eye on obvious one.
them showing Submission and Awe. The
compound emotions should be coloured Annoyance/Anger/Rage
by their primary emotion. An Amazement Level 1: General unhappiness in a
Knight’s feeling of Awe would feel situation. “Who are these bastards who
different than a Terror Knight’s. The are trying to stab me? FUCKERS!”
Amazement Knight is a “Oh god – wow! Level 2: You being attacked and/or hurt.
look at that thing! Isn’t it neat” while Level 3: Someone you know and like
Terror Knight is “Oh god – look at that being hurt. Possibly you being hurt.
thingarggggghhhhhhh!!!!!”
Overview: Some classes in combat are
It’s worth noting that the wheel does not very easy to get a level 1 emotion. Oddly,
include all the possible combinations. If for a class that’s most akin to Viking
you want to go that deep, have a nose Berserkers, that’s not true with the Rage
at the Wikipedia page. Knight. However, in any combat,
especially one which extended, it’s
likely there’ll be something which makes Serenity/Joy/Ecstasy
them extremely angry. The longer a Level 1: Whatever sparks serenity!
combat goes on, the more that’s likely. Level 2: Whatever sparks joy!!!!!
Level 3: Whatever sparks ecstasy!!!!!!
Worth noting – someone who is primarily
excited by combat is, by definition, not Overview: The Ecstasy Knight is a good
annoyed. If you want to play someone example of a class where we realise
who really likes combat, you likely are emotions are not neutral things – they’re
looking to play a Joy Knight. things provoked by subjects. Clearly, a
Joy Knight is powered by happiness…
Interest/Anticipation/Vigilance But what makes someone happy? A
Level 1: Going and nosing at something kinder Joy Knight will use the compound
with gleeful curiosity. Standing watch, emotions of Love and Optimism a lot,
and actually trying to do the job. based upon their chipper demeanour
Anything that makes the player go “oh – and powerful feelings for other
cool.” characters or persona. A harsher one is
Level 2: Standing, weapon out, seeing a going to play at best as an emotionally
horde charging towards you. unavailable joker akin to the Fool and at
Level 3: Arnie being hunted by the worst an active sadist taking joy in the
Predator. Discovering something which murder of those who oppose them. It’s
changes your understanding of yourself also a character where you may wish to
in a fundamental way. The half second think about the effect of drugs to induce
before a dragon crashes into your emotion states.
army’s line, with you in the front row.
In short: The Joy Knight’s easy access
Overview: With knights of this family, to power entirely comes from to the
you need to be especially aware that individual Knight’s persona.
“extreme interest” can count as a
higher-level emotion and “minor Acceptance/Trust/Admiration
vigilance” can be a low-level emotion. Level 1: Forgiving behaviour which is not
Anticipation is equally broad: “waiting exactly like your own. Minor, low level
for Christmas” is different from “Waiting trust – as in, going into battle together.
for Christ’s actual second coming”. You Level 2: Any time the Knight takes an
can’t be too literal. It can also stretch to action which is deeply reliant on
“curiosity”. It should be noting that someone, in a life or death matter.
“anticipation” does not imply something Level 3: An act of trust which you know
that is experienced solely positively. someone is unlikely to actually do, and
These Knights tend to start a combat at huge stakes are on the line. When your
a high emotional level – “Interesting liking for someone changes your
enemies coming at me! I am vigilant!” – behaviour. When you’re vicariously
which drops, with few ways to recover proud of someone else’s achievement.
energy in a combat. A lot is based on a
player’s actions – they tend to be either Overview: The dynamic of the
stoic (if interested in being alert) or Admiration Knight is definitely unusual.
quirkily energetic (if interested in They’re chill and peppy, and are both
interesting things). natural followers (as they gain power by
looking up to people) and leaders (they
gain power by putting their faith in other
people). More than most, they’re nice doesn’t often align to directly attacking
people. They are also unique in being the opposition – as such, you’re likely to
able to lose their emotional state easily get disadvantages on standard attacks.
– e.g. someone they trust fails their It’s also worth noting that creative
trust, someone they admire acts violence is not based on the standard
abominably. These should crash the mechanism, so can be used entirely
emotional state hard. In some ways, the effectively.
Admiration Knight is about using the
power before someone lets you down. Catharsis is very key here. The Terror
God, that’s a depressing take, right? Knight is likely to generate power and
then burn it off as quickly as possible to
As a Master, be looking for places to avoid just running away. Moments of
offer them a difficult leap of faith and panic, then a basal level of dread. It’s
people for them to like. However, for a worth noting that sometimes an attack
player more interested in a serious would not suffer disadvantages – if
emotional journey, making the persona cornered, and slashing your way out,
who is incapable of trusting become a this is acting on your fears…
Trust Knight suggests a different
character arc – as in, finally trusting Distraction/Surprise/Amazement
people and then gaining the physical Level 1: A situation with a lot happening
power they need. In short – a player who (for example, a busy melee or a loud
trusts easily should be tested. A player environment, or just the player role-
who doesn’t trust at all, should be playing a lot of other things to think
supported as they build towards that about – like how on Earth are we going
moment. Look at their choices. to get home?). Anxiety would certainly
fit in here.
Don’t be too generous with hitting level Level 2: Sudden change of situation –
3 though. Being impressed by ambushes, being attacked from behind,
someone’s stamp collection is not a etc.
level 3 emotion Level 3: OH GOD! LOOK AT THE SIZE OF
THAT DRAGON! I’VE NEVER SEEN
Apprehension/Fear/Terror ANYTHING LIKE THAT BEFORE!!!!!
Level 1: ”Oh no – is there a monster?”
Level 2:”It’s a monster!” Overview: Amazement Knights tend to
Level 3: THE MONSTER IS GOING TO KILL find it easy to get a low level, and get
US ALL!!!?!?” occasional boosts to level 3 when
something genuinely shocking happens
Overview: In a very real way, the Terror the first time. They can be one of the
Knight tends to be about facing their lighter knights to play, but the use of the
fears. They also get powerful very word “anxiety” may imply there’s other
quickly, assuming they are actively ways to take it.
terrified.
Pensiveness/Sadness/Grief
There is a problem with this easy source Level 1: “Ennui” is a good word for this.
of power – and it’s the rule that you When a situation looks hopeless, where
suffer disadvantages when trying to all is lost, where you doubt your abilities.
avoid acting on your emotional state. If Level 2: The moment when life expressly
your emotional state is fear, that
doesn’t go the way you want. Most level, Loathing tends to be personal –
forms of loss. either at a person who has wronged you
Level 3: Someone dying. If it’s someone or acted in a way you cannot bear or
you actually really like, or even love, this some enormous unjustness.
is one of those natural emotions which
may even hit level 4 and 5. Grief is a DRAINING EMOTIONS
motherfucker.
Key thing to remember – this is an ability
Overview: The Grief Knight is the which uses a standard dice pool. It does
Emotion Knight in the DIE comic, which not involve the D8.
was picked for literary reasons. The
Grief Knight, like the Terror Knight, is a If we were a computer game, we would
creature of catharsis – by using the be keeping a statistic for everyone else
abilities, you momentarily purge it. In in the game, tracking how much they
terms of power, it’s easy to get to a level were feeling of all eight of the emotions
one, especially if a character leans into at every point, so knowing exactly how
the Eeyore-ness of the archetype, but many points could abstractly be drained
difficult to get higher. That said, when from everyone else. We’re a pen and
things are going badly, the Grief Knight paper RPG, so that sounds like a lot of
is at their most powerful. “This is a gift, work.
and this is the price” as Florence & the
Machine are presently singing, Instead, when an Emotion Knight wants
somewhat randomly. to drain emotions, you should make a
judgement of how much the target
Boredom/Disgust/Loathing character is feeling. The players’ scale
Level 1: General dissatisfaction with a can likely help – it should also be noted
situation and/or boredom. that 3 is the normal limit of human
Level 2: Seeing the insides of people feeling. It’s possible that a character is
spill out onto your sword. not feeling it highly enough to rate on
Level 3: Being locked in a room with the scale, in which case nothing can be
Hitler. drained.
If you look at the emotion wheel, you’ll It’s also worth noting if you don’t want
see there are complex emotions to play with this ability, feel free to cross
involving two different of the main it out on the character sheet. Your
emotions – for example, Love is between game, your rules, Master.
Joy and Trust. When draining an
emotion, Love can be tapped by Joy and CHARACTER GROWTH
Trust Knights, leaving the subject out of
love. If it makes sense in a narrative way,
based upon a persona's character
The Critical Failure on a draining roll growth or direction, it's possible that an
actually works as a success, draining all Emotion Knight may change emotion.
the relevant emotion – however, it For example, a Fear Knight may get in
leaves the target broken. They have had touch with their actual repressed anger
the ability to feel that emotion towards and end the game as a Rage Knight.
that subject removed forever. An
adventurer who was afraid of a dragon This is an element to consider for the
will never be afraid of a dragon again. A story, and one which is unlikely to come
guard who was looking out for up. When it does come up, it'll likely be
mysterious noises will never be obvious that it's an appropriate idea.
interested in noises ever again. A lover
who was in love with her beloved will
never love them ever again.
RUNNING THE NEO
WHO TO GIVE THE NEO TO? money, which has the problem of often
not having a heads or tails, but at least
What the Neo specialises is in is like is shiny. Using actual coins also works.
Angela in the comic – something akin to
a classic D&D Thief, Rogue or Assassin. COLLECTING FAIR GOLD
They specialise in avoidance and
stealth attacks. They are also one of the The Neo's abilities are powered by the
rare classes who can specialise in gold of the Fair – Fair Gold, for short. In
ranged attacks. the world, this appears every day and
disappears in the morning. As such,
Earlier we did say that all the classes anyone who needs it is constantly on
are flexible. It’s true, but only just. If we the lookout for it.
develop these rules further, expect
many more tech and cybernetic options The Neo’s basic system – the AI and the
to allow the Neo to move into other hacking – is always operational. A Neo
roles. The Cybernetic Terminator Thug is requires a single gold to activate each
only just about possible with the current of their core abilities. They can also use
cybernetic options. gold to activate their Overcharge one-
shot special abilities.
SAFETY-PROOFING THE NEO
As such, you need to ensure there is
To state the obvious, the Neo has a Fair Gold available to the Neo player. For
need baked into the character concept. example, when a Fallen is killed, they
In many games, this can come across can release Fair Gold. As such, giving a
as an addiction and the Neo as gold in the opening encounter is pretty
necessarily an addict. Certainly other necessary – that initial choice of which
characters can treat them as such. This of their main systems to boot up is a
is obviously material which some groups thrill of the class. By halfway through
may wish to avoid, for lots of reasons, the game, the player should have at
all understandable. least got the opportunity to have got
enough gold to activate all their abilities,
The high-like state can be played down and likely more.
and the simple mechanical need played
up. This is much more like making rent. If Fair Gold is in short supply, it is often a
You’re useless without this stuff. The good motivation to push the Neo into
need can be purely practical. It can be behaviour you wish to encourage. If Fair
about obsession, like someone losing Gold is in great supply, it is a good tool
themselves in their hobby, the one thing for the character to use to get past a
they’re good at. challenge – either with their Overdrive
abilities, or a simple bribe to a character
TOKENS FOR FAIR GOLD they met. Many denizens of Die may like
the Fair Gold. You don't even need to
While you can just write down notes of explain it. Who wouldn’t want Fair Gold?
how many gold the Neo has, tokens are
often useful. I personally use chocolate
As such, it's the closest thing to a the cyberpunk character. Don’t be afraid
currency in the game – but it's still a of the cool.
currency that is only really of primary
interest to a single player. Other players The only system that does not start with
may want to divide the gold they find. the Neo is the pet. This materialises
This is fine. The trick is ensuring the Neo when activated.
realises they want the gold. Those who
are more mechanically minded will read THE AI
the rules and already be hungry for it.
Frankly, the second you put a gold on The suit has a built-in AI system, which
the table they may be grasping for it. is always active, which you should role-
Other players will likely require some play. In a game with a large number of
guidance. This is a good chance to use players, this is advised to keep minimal
the Question/Answer technique. – the AI is a servitor system, and not as
useful for drama as the Godbinder or the
For example, upon being confronted by Emotion Knight's Arcane Weapon. In a
Fair Gold for the first time. smaller game, especially a solo one,
GM: What's the most your persona ever having an AI intelligence for the
wanted anything in your life? Tell me characters to talk to can be fun. You can
about it. take a page from 2000AD’s Rogue
Player: <Response> Trooper and give each system its own AI
GM: Looking at this gold feels like that. if you really want a lot of things for a
player to talk to.
It's also true for when someone actively
uses the gold. If you’re leaning that way, The AI can provide useful information,
a drug metaphor can be useful. If not, a especially about the Neo’s abilities. It
euphoria metaphor of your choice (”Like can also use the Fair Field ability to ask
you’ve been dancing all night in the best questions about the area, especially
club in the world”, “Like you’ve just hit related to Fair-tech. This would include
the most satisfying plot twist you’ve locating Fair Gold, if you want to give a
ever read”, “Like you’ve just met the desperate player a direction to go to
world’s best puppy”) goes a long way. find gold.
The systems all exist (possibly in a The abilities each system gives are
Neo’s body) when they transform from deliberately defined broadly. The D10
their persona to their character. The gun should be added to any dice pool which
replaces the weapons in the Neo’s it's reasonable for that ability to be used
equipment – while a Neo can’t use its in.
fancy special abilities instantly, it can
be fired as a weapon. In practice, the PET
first thing a player tends to do is use
that first gold to turn on their weapons. Pets are an adorable and popular ability.
Make sure to read the limitations and
When each system activates, the AI powers of it – damage transfers from
system should make a statement, and the pet to the persona’s character. The
there should be a visual effect. This is pet can’t be killed directly. We’re not
monsters. The only time the pet “dies” is Naomi try to lock down as many as she
if it powers down on a roll of a 0. If a can. She rolls four successes. This
player has a Fair Gold on them, the Neo means three fallen (2 for the first, 1 extra
should have a chance to use it to save success for each other one) are
their precious animal. Be nice to immobilised.
animals, kids.
While Fallen have been used as an
THE PROBLEM OF DAWN example, this also works on all kinds of
systems. Gun turrets and doors are
Fair Gold disappears at dawn, and the popular. For non-sentient creatures
systems deactivate. While most of the without a Wisdom, a difficulty of half the
one-off game will happen inside a single intelligence of their makers would be a
day, it’s possible others may stretch out good rule of thumb. In other words, set a
to multiple days. In which case, the difficulty of one unless it’s a very fancy
character will have to find more gold, door.
and you (as the GM) should be thinking
of ways to give the opportunity to find it. If a player wishes to actively try to take
over an individual rather than just
Gold can be used just before dawn to immobilising them, you will need to roll a
keep a system active for the next day. Special, which will let a Neo be able to
It’s a good way to use their surplus gold make the target perform a single action.
at the end of the day.
OVERCHARGE
Yes, the AI knows the time and will warn
the player. Most classes have an ability to try and
expend their resources to solve
FAIR FIELD HACKING intractable problems. This is the Neo’s,
and involves the expenditure of their
This is a core ability all Neo possess. It is resources. The ability lists what a one-
primarily used for “hacking” the Fallen, coin use should be – minor extensions of
but a Gamesmaster should look to the core abilities. The more unlikely the
provide other abilities for a clever Neo to effect, the greater the cost. In some
use. If a Neo is confronted by any cases you will try to reject it, but you
machinery and asks, “Can I hack it?” the likely will want to at least humour it.
answer should usually be “Yes” or “You
can try” if you’re being cagey. It is not primarily aimed to be used as a
combat ability, though certain gung-ho
In terms of immobilizing a Fallen characters may wish to try cramming as
opponent, the target difficulty would be much gold down their barrel to see what
the target Fallen’s Wisdom in happens. For those who wish to try this,
successes. If a Neo wishes to lock down here’s the basic rule of thumb for
a group, choose the highest wisdom in assigning costs:
the group. If you succeed, you
immobilize one Fallen. For each success If a player wants to attack multiple
above that, you immobile an extra one. people at once, it’s one gold per person.
Then roll a dice pool (once, applying the
For example, Naomi Neo is confronted result to every target individually).
by a group of four Fallen (Wisdom 2).
If instead a player wants to target an SACRIFICE
individual, one gold per hit is required.
In DIE the comic, when Angela returns to
For example, Naomi Neo is facing a earth, she is missing a limb. This is
mass of Fallen opponents. She asks if because she had cybernetics in the
she can overload her gun to kill them all world of Die. You may be wondering if a
in a fully automatic way. There’s 10 player Neo will also be missing limbs
Fallen. With ten opponents, the cost is from any cybernetics they choose to
an astronomical ten gold. Naomi describe.
swallows. No, she doesn’t have nearly
that kind of coin… In short: no.
Other effects – like trying to blind the However, if on the adventure, there
opposition, bring a roof down on comes a chance to upgrade a Neo with
someone’s head or so on are highly new equipment, and they choose to give
possible. Things which let the players up a part of their body, that part will be
escape from combat and go another missing when they return to Earth. This
way are definitely encouraged. The is basically how all in-world sacrifices
“automatic kill” is many things, but tend to play out, but is worth
boring most of all. Overcharge is meant highlighting especially to the Neo.
for player creativity.
THE ONE CYBERPUNK IN A FANTASY
For example, Naomi Neo is still with the WORLD
Fallen. Instead, she asks if she can fire
her weapon fully automatic, trying to This is a tonal point to think about. The
suppress the Fallen while the group players are being dropped into a
escapes. The GM likes this, and sets a Fantasy World. Visually, the Neo can
low cost of a single coin to encourage have a different aesthetic. You basically
the behaviour. have three main choices…
If the coin flip is a success, the event 1) They are as strange as a magical
happens. If the coin flip fails you take cyberpunk would be in a standard
narrative control. Simply making it fail is fantasy world. As such, characters
the sub-ideal choice – the Neo has spent they meet will act as if they’re
their resources, and would be looking genuinely unusual.
for something more than a waste. As 2) The magical cybernetics of the Neo
such, look for complications and twists are rare, but a known thing in the
rather than straight refutations. world. Especially if your Fallen has
some elements of techno-magic, it
For example, presented by a huge certainly can fit in.
metallic door Naomi Neo puts a gun into 3) It’s not even commented upon. No-
hyperdrive and tries to cut a hole one comments. Even if asked.
through. The coin is flipped, coming up
tails. The GM says a hole is cut through All are great. I’ve used all three in
the door… but the alarms all go off. different games.
Guards are coming. Big guards.
RUNNING THE GODBINDER
WHO TO GIVE THE GODBINDER TO? a player is transformed into a bear, they
would get to roll their D12 in any dice
The Godbinder is arguably the most pool related to bear activities.
flexible and directly powerful of the
classes. In terms of traditional D&D THE SECOND GOD SHEET
classes, it is most akin to a cleric, but if
the player’s choices lean more martial, There’s a second sheet with nine more
they can act like a knight. If the choices pre-generated gods on. This will extend
lean more academic in style, the the Godbinder’s time selecting their
Godbinder can operate in a manner akin abilities considerably, so do not
to a warlock or any magic user. necessarily pass it over. It’s likely better
If you’re using the Arcana, a Godbinder to keep it and then if they ask to play a
who works solely through minor different sort of god, let them fill in the
miracles and chooses miracles akin to miracles from the sheet.
what a wizard would cast in D&D is
functionally identical to a wizard. PLAYING THE GODS
But the Godbinder isn’t primarily for The player gets to define their gods, and
those who are looking for crunchy then you play them. The names the
mechanics – it is also one where the player selects and the domains are your
player gets to interact with a series of cue to their personalities, and you can
god characters and explicitly barter for build on that. The gods are big
what they want. In other words, it’s the personalities, and I would suggest
class whose abilities most involve role- leaning them iconic. If you're a reader of
play as a core element. If a player likes the comic DIE, you'll likely have a
yapping to GM controlled characters, selection of gods for inspiration. The
this is one of the best choices for them. gods, generally speaking, either want
the player to owe them, or they want to
USING THE D12 cause things related to What They’re
The God Of to happen in the world. When
The Godbinder is one of the less role-playing the gods – including setting
complicated archetypes, in its use of deals – bear this in mind.
dice. The dice is used simply as a tool
the player brandishes to contact the Time is frozen when speaking to a god,
god. Some people use it as a phone. and no one else can hear them. Describe
Some people use it as an altar. Just that effect to the Godbinder as you wish.
make the players aware of it, and It’s a good idea for a god to pro-actively
encourage them to lean into the ritual of speak to the player in the first scene, to
it. show it’s an option, and introduce the
concept of Major Miracles. A favourable-
The D12 is also added to any dice pool deal early Major Miracle is a good idea to
which involves a Godbinder’s miracles, encourage tentative Godbinders to play
including attacks (and the players’ with the system. The first hit’s free,
physical attacks if transformed or after all.
enhanced by a spell in some way). So if
I give each of my gods their own voice, These are essentially bartering with a
though avoid any accent that could be god for them dealing with a large
read as offensive. I lean towards modes problem, in exchange for a service.
of speaking more than anything else. I There's no limit to what these can be,
would also think of staging – my but the bigger the problem, the bigger
personal trick is when playing a god, to what is required for you to do to pay off
go and stand behind the Godbinder and the debt (or to complete before the
speak into their ear. Clearly, I get miracle is even performed). If the
permission for this kind of boundary miracle is big enough to side step a
pushing. The effect of the Godbinder not major point of the plot – such as side-
being able to see who they’re stepping a major problem – the task
summoning and everyone else being required should be as hard as solving
able to certainly increases the sense of the actual problem yourself.
magic.
For example, a Godbinder and party are
With up to three gods for the Godbinder, presented with a 100ft giant guarding
it's possible that they take over the the door to the lair of the Master. The
game if the Godbinder likes roleplaying players don't fancy their chances, and
with them. If there's more players, lean contact the God of Ice to ask if they can
the gods more taciturn. Of course, this freeze the giant for them. Sure, says the
excess of NPCs around the player God of Ice. But first you have to defeat a
means the Godbinder is a very good fire demon who is troubling the region to
choice for a solo game. the east. The Fire Demon is an enemy
about as difficult to defeat as the giant.
It’s also worth noting that a Godbinder
can call on their gods to just talk to A god can also just say “No, I'm not
them. It doesn’t have to be all business. interested in a deal”. Especially if the
Gods tend to have strong opinions. players have pissed the god off
somehow, or it is something that the
MIRACLES god has no interest or ability in (for
example, asking the Ice God to heal
There are two sorts of miracles. Major someone isn’t exactly their thing). You
miracles and Minor miracles. Minor can also offer deals which are clearly
miracles operate like spells in a something no sensible player would
traditional game. These are primarily are take... but remember, players tend to not
those listed on the Godbinder’s sheet be sensible.
but can also be individually crafted, as
explained below. Conversely, Major For example, a god which sets their cost
Miracles are bespoke effects, each as "You need to kill someone in your
bartered with by speaking to a god party" is not enough to stop at least
character. SOME players from doing it. That said,
that also sounds like it could be an
MAJOR MIRACLES interesting situation. I would advise
against giving an offer that you cannot
In short: Major Miracles are primarily for stand the players from saying yes to.
interacting with large-scale plot Someone will always call your bluff.
problems, or when the players are in
deep trouble.
If a player breaks a promise based on a spell which their god could provide
Major Miracle, they immediately receive could be attempted. For example, there
God Debt in proportion to how big the is no “create light” spell in the God of
Major Miracle was. You judge this. If it Light. This type of Minor Miracle can be
was something genuinely plot changing, attempted. For something that minor, a
give 4 or even 5 God Debt. The god can difficulty of 1 would seem reasonable.
save this for future player manipulation
or use it instantly to harm the player. For a guideline of difficulties, see the
spells of the other gods. Remember – the
Gods occasionally do Major Miracles spell could only be accessible if your
they really want to do, just for the fun of god’s area would cover similar areas.
it, if it's aligned with their nature. This The God of Fire may let you create a light
can be especially useful early in the minor miracle, but it wouldn’t let you
adventure to show exactly how big a create a water-bolt miracle.
miracle can be. Wiping out the initial
wave of Fallen is a good way to show Note: you should increase the difficulty
how big things can be, for example. by one if the Godbinder does not have
that miracle as one of their selected
MINOR MIRACLES ones. So if a Godbinder has selected a
fireball, you cast it at difficulty 2. If a
These are minor abilities, more akin to Godbinder tries and casts a Fireball and
the standard spells in a role-playing they haven’t selected it, it’s level 3.
game. The player picks them from the
sheet. To create the effect, a Godbinder There are full Miracle (and spell)
must roll a Wisdom roll against the generation systems in the Arcana,
spells level. As in, the spell’s level is its included a bunch of pre-generated
difficulty. spells. That they’re in the Arcana rather
than here is your tell that you don’t need
When these spells have a target, your them. It’s one of the most maths-centric
dice pool rolls simultaneously against bits of the design, and there’s more than
the spell’s difficulty and the difficulty of enough on the Godbinder sheets.
the target’s defences.
Miracles From Gods You Have Not
For example, a Gareth Godbinder casting Selected
a fireball (difficulty 2) at a group of Fallen It's worth noting that a god you do not
(defence 1, so difficulty 1). If Gareth rolls have a relationship with means you
two successes, they cast the spell and can't do Minor Miracles from their
hit the Fallen as the number of domain. However, you can do Major
successes matches or is higher than Miracles with them, based on a bespoke
both the casting difficulty (2) and the deal. This is likely harder, due to a lack
Fallen’s defence (1). If Gareth rolled only of any prior relationship, but certainly
one success, they would fail to cast the there.
fireball (difficulty 2) so no Fallen are
harmed. God Debt
If you fail to roll the requisite successes,
A player is not limited to the Minor the spell still happens if you are willing
Miracles they’ve picked. While you may to accept the debt to the god. For every
likely use the Major Miracles, any similar step you fail by, the god will take one
debt point. A Godbinder can owe no Miracle, a god won’t demand something
more than five debt points to any god. A akin to Isaac killing a son. It is worth
Godbinder can only take as many points noting that this may not be true for a
of debt on a single roll as your level in Major Miracle. The bigger the favour, the
that specific god. bigger the demand.
For example, Gareth Godbinder has a It is suggested that both GM and player
level 1 in the fire god and is trying to cast keep track of the amount of debt owed
a wall of fire requiring difficulty 2. He only to each god.
rolls one success. He decides he really
wants that wall of fire, so gives the fire A god does not need to use all the debt
god 1 debt. If he was trying to cast a at once.
Fireball (Difficulty 3) and rolled a single
success he would not be able to take on Leaving Die In Debt To The Gods
debt to cast it – as he only has a level 1 Low-level debt, let it slide, especially if
relationship to the god, he can only take it’s just been forgotten. It’s a good thing
on a single point of debt, which only to use to put a few weird notes in the
leads to 2 successes, and he needs 3. epilogue. If a player’s response to
escaping is to act in the world like the
A Godbinder can take on debt to add a god would have wished them to, this
success when performing miracles. If pays off a lot of debt.
they are able to accumulate debt, they
can force success. Is there a problem? If it’s deliberately running off without
paying a big debt, do feel free to create
Calling In God Debt physical injuries to the persona in the
There is a problem. At any time, the god real world proportionate to their debt. A
may call in any number of these favours. literal pound of flesh is perfectly
If the player refuses, they suffer acceptable in some cases.
damage equal to the number of debts
the god chooses to call in. “How many minor miracles can you
cast?” and other D&D-y questions
Gareth Godbinder owes the fire god There is no limit on the number of
three debt. On the way home, he passes miracles you can cast in these rules,
a field of wheat. The fire god wants it to though the specific world the players
burn. Gareth is going to refuse, but the arrive in may create some problems.
Fire God points out that the Godbinder There is an obvious risk in accumulating
only has three health. If they say no, debt.
he’ll be reduced to zero health and keel
over. Swearing at the hard-bargain- “They’re Cantrips” is a good way to
driving-bastard, they reach for their explain Minor Miracles to a D&D player.
torch... At which point they may go “Wait –
Fireball is my Cantrip?” And then you go
The question of what is reasonable is “Uh-huh” and they can go “Whoa.”
key. For debt accrued from a Minor
RUNNING THE DICTATOR
WHO TO GIVE THE DICTATOR TO? To state the big obvious one: making
someone fall in love with you and then
The Dictator is the Bard as a horror having sex with them is rape. You have
character. The Bard is someone who removed their consent. It’s rape.
sings magical songs that alter people’s Admittedly, this is also true of (say) the
emotional states, either positively or Charm spell in D&D. But we’re a game
negatively. The Dictator takes that and which is looking at these sorts of things
turns it into something intensely awful. seriously. Any player who thinks this is a
good idea should not be let near the
The Dictator, as said on the sheet, is a Dictator. To be honest, they shouldn’t be
character class which is the most let in your house.
dangerous, in how they can affect the
tone of the game. If given to an SAFETY-PROOFING THE DICTATOR
immature player who does not
understand the seriousness of its It’s possible to safety-proof the Dictator
possibilities, it can easily be upsetting too, to make it less charged. Remember
to all the players (including the Dictator that in these sub-realms of Die that the
when they realise they’ve overstepped rules can warp. Maybe a Master has
social boundaries). warped this world so the Dictator can’t
change the emotions of anyone who
As well as the core story of DIE, at least came from a realm other than Die (i.e. It
one reason why the GM gets to choose won’t work on the players’ characters).
character classes is so that you get to Playing with the emotions of the GM’s
judge which player is most able to characters is interesting enough, and
handle something like the Dictator. considerably reducing the chance of
Equally, it’s easy for you to simply not something going horrifically awry.
give any player the Dictator. If you’re at
all worried about the Dictator, I would If you realise you want to remove the
advise not including the Dictator. possibility mid-game, the Master
spending one of their Cheat Tokens to
ER… WHAT’S ACTUALLY THE PROBLEM? do the same is an entirely viable move.
Frankly, it’s the sort of thing a Master
The Dictator includes themes of consent may do for entirely in-character reasons
and emotional violation. The Dictator’s – the game climaxes with a choice, and
challenge to the player is mainly one of the Dictator is the player who can
navigating these boundaries and actively make someone do something
deciding what is acceptable, and seeing they consciously don’t want to. The
how treating other people like tools is a Master will obviously not want the
temptation to them. This can go to some Dictator to use the ability on them,
dark places, and the reason why you making it a fair tactic.
want someone mature enough to play
the Dictator is so that they don’t go You can also safety proof the Dictator
there unknowingly. by limiting the emotions they can pick.
Fear and Anger are “safer” emotions, as
their most common uses are for directly
attacking someone rather than EMOTION CONTROL DICE POOL
subverting them. If you only allow a
player to select joy or trust it means This is an exception to the core system.
they will be unable to create the
compound emotion Love. Frankly, a As described on the sheet, the D4 is a
player can make a real mess with just number of successes, which is then
Trust by itself. modified up or down by the number of
successes in the rest of the pool. This
THE FEEL OF THE DICTATOR’S POWER means that if someone rolls four
successes on the D4 and no actual
Here’s some things to keep in mind. successes in their dice pool, they are
stuck at a level 4 rating – a level higher
Everything the Dictator does should be than most humans ever feel. It’s also
creepy. worth noting that a critical failure (as in,
Both in the effects you describe when it no matter what’s on the D4, no
happens, and how people act on it, and successes and at least one 1) leads this
how everyone acts towards the Dictator to this being permanent. That 4 is
when they do it. enough to actually remove someone
with standard stats (Willpower 4) from a
Everyone is a little afraid of the Dictator. combat, possibly fatally, should hint at
You can signal this with friendly how badly this could go wrong.
characters in the world. Make
sympathetic people express their fears THE BAD DICE AND THE DICTATOR DICE
of the Dictator, having characters make POOL
the Dictator promise to not use it on
them, threatening them if they do. Do If the dice pool includes a Bad Dice
things to give the players reasons to be which makes you remove a success
afraid of Dictator themselves. from the results, the successes of the
Dictator’s D6s are removed first, and
The Dictator should be a little scared of then the ones on the main D4.
their own powers.
Most character classes have pretty Donna Dictator uses her voice, and rolls
tight control of all their abilities. If they a dice pool including a bad dice. She rolls
roll well, they don’t have to use all those a 2 on her D4 and 3, 4, 5, 2 and the Bad
successes. The Dictator’s abilities are Dice is a 4. As the bad dice is a success,
both more likely to succeed, and one of the two successes generated by
partially out of their control. There her D6 is removed. Donna has two
should be a reluctance to use the successes, plus or minus one success.
abilities in some situations. If Donna had rolled no successes on her
D6s, the D4’s 2 would have been
It’s worth noting that the Dictator can reduced to 1.
be extremely persuasive merely with
the threat of using their abilities. WILLPOWER
Wolverine doesn’t have to stab people
with his claws. That people know All characters have Willpower on their
Wolverine could stab people is enough. sheets. This is used for various
characters, but primarily is for working
with the Dictator. Willpower is not like
Health or Guard, in that it is not level you are at. There is no limit to the
removed. It is the threshold by which a number of disadvantages you could
character can be overpowered by their have.
emotions. It’s put on the sheet just to
remember. While it could be boosted by Donna the Dictator makes her friend
special abilities, it is usually just equal level 3 anger towards some orcs. They
to the total of intelligence and wisdom. gain an advantage while attacking them.
However, when her friend tries to stop
EMOTIONAL LEVELS orc fighting and start picking locks, they
suffer three disadvantages. Hard to pick
You will note that on the sheet the a lock when you’re murderously angry
player is given only the broadest idea of at some orcs.
what effects their powers will have. The
players are only really given a safety Level 3+
limit (3 is normal, 5 is human maximum,
6+ is supernatural) and a target for As well as above, at level 3 emotion, a
what they’d need to do to remove character is being entirely overwhelmed
someone for combat (twice Wisdom – so by their feelings, for example, to flee
with an average Wisdom, 4). This is one from a combat. Most characters would
of the ways the player is encouraged to likely act on that feeling without
feel uneasy – they’re not quite sure resisting. If a character wants to resist,
what is going to happen. However, there they have to roll with their Wisdom to
is also a big DO NOT GO FURTHER THAN resist. The difficulty should be half the
THIS sign. Will they push that far? level of the emotion, rounding up. This is
identical to the Emotion Knight’s
Level 1 and 2 compulsions.
Intensity 7 and more are increasingly This does not mean they are not feeling
theatrical. At level 7, you may be looking the emotion, however. In fact, if you’re
for unexpected side-effects. In this experiencing it at five or higher, it’s
case, the heart exploding in a way more than a normal human being could
which actually causes their chest to
bear. It’s just that the character is still THE EMOTION KNIGHT AND THE
holding onto their faculties. DICTATOR’S SYNERGY
How does this work? You extend the The Emotion Knight’s scale of emotion is
results of people with normal Willpower. identical to the Dictator’s. The Dictator
You suffer disadvantages for every level can, if successful, move the Emotion
of the emotion if doing a task which is Knight up their scale. This is obviously a
difficult with the emotion. You gain a useful strategy.
single advantage on things directly
related to it. At level 3 or above, you gain This is one area where the tone of the
compulsions related to the effect, which Dictator is key. As in, it should not just
they have to roll Wisdom to resist, at a be viewed as a simple power up by the
difficulty of half the emotional level, players. The creepier the Dictator’s
rounding up. powers feel, the less likely they’ll be
used lightly. Make sure the emotions
For example, Arnold Archmage has a impact the fiction, not used casually.
Willpower of 8. Donna Dictator hits him
with six successes to make him fear MULTIPLE TARGETS
Donna. While this would be enough to kill
someone with normal Willpower, it is less The sheet doesn’t describe this, but a
than Arnold’s Willpower. However, he Dictator can try to use the abilities on
suffers six disadvantages due to his multiple people at once. For each person
fear of Donna. A “Run away from the in the group, subtract one success from
scary Dictator” compulsion seems the pool.
reasonable, and to resist Arnold would
have to roll their Wisdom dice pool For example, a Dictator is cornered by
against a difficulty of three. three Fallen, each with Wisdom 2.
They’re going to tear the Dictator apart,
It’s also worth noting that if a Dictator so the Dictator tries to use their
does manage to match a high Willpower Admiration and Terror emotions to
character, you will go straight to a 6 or 8 create the compound emotion
level effect, which is supernaturally Submission. The Dictator wants these
intense. Fallen all on the floor hailing them. The
Dictator rolls their pool, with the D4 in it.
The character this is most likely to The D4 is a 3 and they roll two
happen to is the Master, who tends to successes. As there are three Fallen
have high Wisdom and Intelligence. It is being targeted, three of those
definitely the sort of thing a Master will successes are lost, leaving two
spend a cheat token to get rid of. successes. All the Fallen are now
experiencing level 2 submission. Not
enough to make them beg, but still a
powerful emotion.
RUNNING THE MASTER
WHO TO GIVE THE MASTER TO? secret passageway opens, and guards
rush out of it.
You. You are the Master in the playtest.
That makes it easier. At least there’s When to use the Cheat Token?
one thing you don’t have to worry about. Whenever the Master would, which
means the Master needs to “know”
They are the D&D Magic user as a about an event to do it. Do not be
reality-warper. surprised if you don’t use any tokens
until the final encounter. The “survive an
CHEATING attack” use of the token significantly
extends how long the Master can act in
The guidelines on the actual character a stand-up brawl against the players. If
sheet show where they should be used. the entire party are united against the
It should be noted that these are for Master, without the use of tokens, they
when the Master is expressly and will take the Master down quickly. With
deliberately fucking with the players. it, it extends into a suitably sized set-
piece to climax a game.
Not you, the GM. The Master.
What to use as a token? Coins should be
As the Gamesmaster, you create avoided (as they’re the Neo’s signifier)
situations where the party may be but almost anything can work. I have a
attacked, as a response of the world. As preference for using dice unlike any
a Master, you spend a Cheat Token to do other in the game, but that does risk
it in a way which is entirely unfair – and confusion. If you can work out a token to
likely magical. They should feel different do with the setting, even better.
and be presented differently. A lot is to
do with the simple symbolism of passing For example, during a story set at a
the token to the players – “This is music festival, I used a flyer for the
something that is only happening festival as the masters’ tokens – and
because of this.” actually quickly photoshopped a flyer
between sessions to use as the prop.
For example, for you as a Gamesmaster:
The passing of the token is to
The Master Malcolm is cornered by the lampshade that what’s happened is
party in his throne room. He rings a bell, unfair, and to also show the Master’s
and summons the guards the players resources are being used up.
were trying to avoid. The guards rush in.
Do the tokens do anything for the
For example, for you as the Master player? As standard, no. However, that
spending a Cheat Token: they are an element in the game means
you should consider how they could
Master Malcolm is cornered in the party integrate into your adventure. They are
in a dead end. There’s no escape. He a free gift that your friend, the Game
smiles and clicks his fingers… and a Designer, has left for you to fill with your
own mystery.
(Or maybe I haven’t had a good enough Major Rules Tweaks are changes which
idea yet? Oh, cynic. Of course, I have a reduce another player’s options and are
good idea. I’m just keeping them over of sole advantage to the Master.
there, where you can’t see them and
also the dog ate my homework.) The former can be treated as spells,
akin to a Minor Miracle for the
CHEAT TOKENS Godbinder. Use the difficulty of the
nearest Godbinder spell (plus one) to get
Regenerate at the start of each session. a difficulty, or use one from the Master’s
If a player has any, collect them up. own sheet.
Of course, you don’t have to use all the For example, Malcolm the Master wants
tokens. If you don’t, and there’s no to tweak the rules of existence so that
reason why the Master character for a while daggers gain a special bonus
hasn’t, the players may feel that their to hurt people. This is an effect that
hard-fought victory has been stolen, could help almost everyone who grabs a
assuming they realise how many tokens dagger. This sounds like a Minor Rules
the Master has. Tweak, so the Master looks up an
equivalent miracle. It sounds identical to
THE MASTER’S OTHER MAGICS Bless. Its difficulty is listed as 1, so it
counts as 2.
During a combat the Master character is
involved in, run this like the Godbinder’s Conversely, Malcom Master wants to
Minor Miracles, but based off limit Donna Dictator’s voice so she can
Intelligence statistic rather than only work on people native to Die (i.e. not
Wisdom. A Master cannot accumulate players). This limits the Dictator’s
debt to make their abilities cast. abilities, and the Dictator’s alone. This is
a Major Rules Tweak.
CHANGING THE RULES
Major Rules Tweaks are limited to
The Master’s normal magics are easier complications and limitations rather
to comprehend – the concept of the than entire removals. You could not
Master messing with the rules of the remove a Dictators’ ability entirely. It
game is one I want to develop in the has to be a reasonable limitation – for
future, as the Master works towards example, the Dictator’s voice doesn’t
becoming a more robust class for work on this room, or on players, or
players to use rather than an when someone else is singing. It cannot
antagonist. Until then, stick with the just remove a tool.
conceptual rules tweaks below which
draws a line between Minor Rules The word “reasonable” is loaded. In
Tweaks and Major Rules Tweaks. universe, if a Master tries to cheat too
hard, the reality which they’re trapped
Minor Rules Tweaks are changes with in will resist and likely kill them. They are
limited scope and possible advantages a Master in a world that’s inside a world
to everyone, not just the Master. ruled by a Grandmaster, remember, and
the Grandmaster is the one who’s really
in charge. Cheat, but show some class. tend to realize that breaking the rules
This could be a useful end for a certain too hard ends badly.
sort of Master character, but Masters
RUNNING THE FALLEN
WHO TO GIVE THE FALLEN TO? SECOND DEATH
Anyone who dies. With a flourish and a The sheet does not tell the player what
smile. dying when already playing as a Fallen
means, but hints that it’s bad. It is bad.
RUNNING THE FALLEN
For each death as a Fallen, the persona
If the players have not read DIE, they slips further and further away. They die,
will not be aware of the nature of the and resurrect at the end of the
Fallen. As such, this will be a surprise to encounter, with one lost statistic point.
them. Even if not, be sure to lean into If they die again, they lose two statistic
the weirdness and horror of your friend points, then three and so on. This is at
lurching to their feet again, awfully the Gamesmaster’s choice. Reduce all
changed. The zombie in pop culture is a stats to one before you reduce anything
trope so common as to deaden us to it. to zero. If a player reaches zero, they
Your aim is to make this feel real and as become a mindless creature. They can
unusual as it would be. When describing carry on playing, but they’re really a
any player's Fallen activity, be sure to passenger that’s pushed around or
highlight it, (as much as the vibe / carried.
perceived age rating for your game
allows). Assuming the players are If any statistic is one and the player
leaning into the horror, describing returns to the real world, they suffer a
seeing bones slide beneath gaps in the permanent ailment and impediment,
skin is about my personal minimum, for which should be worked into the
example. conclusion.
Equally (if not more) important, is If they’re still zero and they’re somehow
making the experience a real one for the brought back to the real world (as in,
Fallen player themselves. What does resurrected into a living form), their
being a Fallen feel like? Make sure the persona will be either physically (if
player knows. The technique of Asking Strength, Dexterity or Constitution) or
Questions (See Advice for mentally (Wisdom, Intelligence,
Gamesmasters) can be extremely Charisma) dead.
useful here, in terms of asking a
question of what something is like, and Bleak Bleak Bleak.
then telling them it’s like something else
entirely. “You march through this grove, RECOVERING FALLEN
full of fauna. Hey, Fallen Player, tell me
about how flowers smell” “<player Bar the method described on the sheet
answers>” “Well, you can’t smell that of intra-party fratricide, the players may
any more. All you can smell is the scents wish to pursue other methods for
of your friends, and the pulse in their returning people to life from Fallen. The
wrists.” more sessions the game lasts, the more
you’ll need to do this.
Subvert. Make being dead truly live.
In terms of options inside the party, the and the latter automatically includes the
Godbinder’s deities could possibly help – former – the darker the ending will be.
but are unlikely to do so without a good There is an exception: in a game with a
reason, which means a quest. A Neo pure antagonistic Master, the “Fallen
with sufficient gold, perhaps. The murders the Master to return to life”
Master’s Cheating ability is also an tends to come across as a just ending.
option, if the Master could be Dark, sure, but not abyssal bleak.
persuaded.
If you want a lighter tone, a GM-
The key thing in all of these is that the controlled character (such as a god)
Fallen rules are written to demand offering a simpler quest to return them
sacrifice – a Fallen kills someone and to life is a good solution. If you want a
takes their life, and the victim (willing or darker tone, the quests should be just
otherwise) becomes a new Fallen. As as dark as the murder-your-friends
such, no matter what mechanic, a method. In fact, possibly identical – a
meaningful sacrifice for a player may be god insisting the Master is murdered is a
called for. Giving up parts of the body, good one, in that it moves the dilemma
parts of their memory and so on. A from the Fallen character to the whole
Godbinder is likely to be aware of this. A party. Whether the god reincarnates the
Master using a Cheat Token is aware Fallen player before or after the task is
that it’s unlikely to be as simple as that – done is a matter of style.
the cheats have limitations. Bringing a
Fallen back, only for them to become a It perhaps goes without saying that if
Fallen again before they leave the the Players try to cheat the gods and
dimension, for example. Perhaps being not perform the task, the once-Fallen
left behind, as it’s too late. Or the Master character will return to being Fallen as
actually becomes Fallen due to making the others leave, trapping them in Die
the wish, perhaps also not realising. forever.
It needs a cost. It also needs work. Of course, I say the above makes it dark.
For some groups I’m sure the gleeful
Equally, powerful GM-controlled inter-party murder is embraced with
characters could perform the task – nary a care for the consequences. In
something which obviously includes the which case, you should go and buy
Godbinder’s gods. They could ask for Paranoia, as your players would love it,
player sacrifice, or questionable and your Friend The Computer needs the
activities inside the world itself. What money.
are you willing to do to get a friend
back? Player Fallen can be hacked by a
determined Neo to immobilise them. This
The relative ease or difficulty of is a useful leash. They can also be
returning a Fallen to life through any influenced by Dictators.
other method speaks to the tone of the
game you wish. The harder it is, the FALLEN SHEETS
more likely players will be left behind by
their party who choose to return to There’s one sheet in the PDF. You may
existence OR a player murders another want to print a couple of them if you
player to stop being Fallen. Either way – think it’s going to get messy. In reality,
people can share. Let’s spare mother are too far gone. They’re over the event
nature our awful yoke. horizon and can’t find their way back,
and are trapped with their terrible
NON-PLAYER FALLEN hunger. Talking of a terrible hunger, I’m
feeling peckish. Let’s have a snack
Nothing gets resurrected if a non-player before the next section.
Fallen kills a player. All the other Fallen
This is broad advice for anyone running
this game. There’s some more in the
Arcana, along with the weirdo rules.
SAFETY TOOLS
This is a game and a nice time. Let’s brakes. DIE has the potential to go
keep it that way. anywhere, and that includes bad places.
Don’t drive off the cliff.
This is a brief overview of various ways
to make the game safer. The core basics The X-card is the popular version of this
have been included in the text, but are concept, but there’s other more
repeated here for ease of access. All sophisticated ones which allow more
these are ideas from the RPG nuanced expression. Have a look at the
community, none of which are mine – Script Change Toolbox
google them up and nose. (https://briebeau.itch.io/script-change)
or Safety Flowers
THE X-CARD (https://breakoutcon.com/extras/safety
-tools/) for more complicated versions
As conceived by John Stavropoulos, of the same ideas.
this is one (or more) cards with an “X”
drawn on it, placed on the table. If any RATINGS AND GENRE
player (including the GM) touches it, it
means they are uncomfortable with the This is in the opening discussion with
current topic or subject and we should the players, and gives broad guidelines
change direction. It does not mean for the sort of content which will be
asking questions about what the included. It’s a discussion of elements
element is, or naming it, though some that may be in the game – inter-group
people will say (“This is too violent for conflict, for example – and is also meant
me”). X-card can be activated for any to warn players the game may go that
reason, even minor ones (characters way, which makes it less possibly
with names who have bad connections destabilising when it does. It also allows
for a player is a good example – X-card groups who really don’t want to do that
does not mean someone has fucked up. to angle away from it.
It means someone is bothered.).
VEILS AND LINES
The original documentation is here:
http://tinyurl.com/x-card-rpg A concept I believe introduced by Ron
Edwards in Sex & Sorcery, this is
You should also be aware as a GM to formalising content that can or cannot
watch players. Not all players will be the game. Lines are things which
remember the X-card, especially if simply you don’t do. Veils are things
stressed. You can also use the X-card, which you include, but cut away from.
even if you said it. One of my usual Lines is that I don’t
include racial slurs or sexual violence.
Don’t play DIE without the X-card any One of my usual Veils is explicit sex
more than you would drive a car without
acts. Don’t include the former at all. Cut those new to the form who had no idea
to black for the latter. that this could happen – may find it too
much for them, at least initially. Being
I’ve found doing this live on the table is aware of how emotionally agitated
difficult. You may wish to introduce the someone is key – X-cards exist for a
concept of Veils and Lines at the end of reason, and you can always suggest (or
the first session, and then say you’ll call for) a break.
make a shared document, and ask
people to add anything they want as a AFTERCARE
Line or Veil to it. And clearly, make it
anonymous. As mentioned earlier, this is a phrase
lifted from the S&M community, and is
BLEED about leaving room to emotionally
support people and let them recover. I
It’s less a tool, and more something you would advise for some time after a
need to be aware of. Games exist in a game to just unpack with one another,
magic circle – so you are not the talk about what got to them and their
persona you play. If I stab and kill you in feelings about what occurred.
game, it’s not because of my personal
enmity to you – it’s my persona’s This is another good reason to plan so
personal enmity to you. “Bleed” (as your session does not run to the time
coined by Emily Care Boss) is what someone has to run for a train. If
happens when the emotion of one someone has already left, check in on
crosses into the other. them as soon as possible.
This is neither a good nor bad thing – As I said – the above safety tools are the
some people actively chase bleed to tip of iceberg, but they’ve been put first
process, play with or experience intense in this section, even in this form,
emotions. However others – especially because they are important.
ALTERNATIVE MODES OF PLAY
Here’s some thoughts on other ways of Then tweak the style of speaking like
playing. so…
This will result in a play area that looks THE SINGLE SESSION
something like this, allowing all players
to have “ownership” of their dice while I originally thought this Beta would be
still having access to a central pool of for a game that’d happily play in a single
dice. evening. Wrong, I was.
4. Cut the number of encounters before As standard, each player has a different
the conclusion. Two encounters plus dice. There is no more than one Neo,
the first confrontation against the Emotion Knight, etc. This is to feed into
Fallen is a good number. You can the world, increase the importance of
always add another one if it’s the dice fetishization and player
running short. individuality. After all, each class can be
personalised in radical ways. However...
5. Be very aware of how much time you
have to play, and ensure you leave If you want to play with multiple players
enough time for the final encounter of each class, simply do so. Do not
and the epilogue. I would say that if change the actual ritual when
there's an hour left of the session, distributed. Say there is only one of this
you should be thinking of moving to dice, despite the fact another player
the final encounter. Don't be afraid to clearly has one.
bring the final encounter to the
players if time is pressing. The See where it goes. Can both be right? Is
Master can come and try and finish one wrong? The name of this variant
them off. may give a clue to where I suspect the
story will end up going.
This variant is really me just thinking of swift player death. You will likely use
a party full of Emotion Knights, each other methods to bring people back to
with a different emotion, running around life than the basic ‘eating another
like a murderous version of Pixar's player’ – or make player death rarer. The
Inside Out. easiest way to do that would be to avoid
any instant death in any normal combat
This is also the solution if you want to situations, and characters only die if not
try and play a game with more than the revived by the end of the combat.
recommended number of players.
(They should die in some obvious “Oh,
THE CAMPAIGN no, that person is dead” moment. Like
being eaten by a dragon and then
“BUT I DON'T WANT TO RUN THIS AS A pooped out the other end.)
ONE-OFF!” you say, in capitals.
I will mention one mechanic which I’m
Hey! While written as a single scenario, playing around with, which is a third
it can be run longer. It's not as if I can sort of damage – as well as Guard and
stop you. If we develop this from the Health there are Hero points. Guard
Beta, clearly this mode of play is regenerates every combat. Health only
something we’d want to do. regenerates when a character is healed.
Hero points are a resource which
In the meantime, here’s some rule-of- includes the increased ability to survive
thumb tactics for improvising chaos that True Heroes have. If you add
advancement. I’d suggest letting each something like levels, for every level,
player choose one new ability from their gain a Hero point. Hero Points are lost
sheet for their character for every after Guard but before Health, and only
adventure. I would advise against being regenerate between sessions. You
able to increase statistics. I would also could try it so that Hero Points are lost
consider starting characters with less only when you would lose the last point
choices and a lower statline if you really of Health, meaning they extend your
want to run a long campaign. Players “nearly dead” period rather than your
are already extremely powerful in basic “totally healthy” period. This is entirely
DIE. unplaytested, I stress.
For example, you could try starting the Finally, if you wish to run this as a
Dictator with one emotion, the campaign, you'll have to bear in mind
Godbinder with one god, the Neo with not to bring the character's interactions
one piece of equipment, the Emotion to the boil until the final session. If the
Knight with a cap on what level of sword party decide to go their separate ways
attacks they can use, and the Fool early in the story, the game will
without some of the ability to hand over effectively break. In the full edition, we'll
their dice to the GM. Start the players have some helpful approaches to make
with one four stat and one three stat the game operate even when the
too. I say, off the top of my head. characters do go their separate ways.
But for now, if you go further than one-
Also note that if running a long offs or very short campaigns, you're
campaign, the present system basically on your own.
deliberately leads towards relatively
Good luck. Do tell me how you get on. For this playtest, I'd strongly suggest
keeping to a mundane setting even if
MAKING THE PERSONAS NOT OLD you're not old friends, but – hey – it's
FRIENDS GETTING BACK TOGETHER your game.
This Beta has a standard scenario of old I would be particularly careful about
gaming friends getting together. If your making them all strangers. Personas
players seem particularly excited about who don’t know or care about each
trying something else, you can try it. In a other will tend to lead towards a flat
real way, the possibilities are basically experience.
endless.
Most importantly, if none of the
For example: a playtest in a games personas had a previous fantasy
company; a training exercise at work; an gaming experience, the adventure
old people's home; a pick-up game at a generation described in this document
con; group therapy; astronauts aboard will not work for the group. You’ll have
a space station; Mad-Max-style to use some of the alternative world
survivors in the ruins of civilization; generation tactics from the Arcana.
Roman centurions on Hadrian's Wall
circa 100AD. YOUR GAME SUCKS! DON’T WANNA
PLAY YOUR GAME!
I wouldn't necessarily jump to the idea
that a weird situation is in any way There’s a lot of ideas in DIE. If you want
better. The more mundane the real- to lift them and run your own game with
world setting, the more credible the another system, go knock yourself out.
resulting drama in the game will be
when you put them in an unusual place. A persona design stage, followed by
Playing cave people dealing with a character creation in whatever system
modern fantasy world may be an of your choice, followed by being
interesting role-playing challenge, but I transformed into those characters?
suspect it’s one which is best for people That sounds like a fun time to me. Go
who are already familiar with DIE. It’s knock yourself out. Be happy. I won’t
also one which is gimmickier and mind.
distances us from the reality of the
scenario.
There is a lot about DIE’s design which They key thing is to not make this
tries to mitigate this. The stuff at the appear vindictive. It’s neutral. It’s just
start where you say broadly what the stuff that’s happening, which is
game is? That’s meant to explain to interesting. A player acting like the
people what we’re here to do. While universe isn’t real will have to
dropping someone into a fantasy world experience the horror of a universe that
and let them act however they wish may has no interest in their solipsism. This is
seem to be a recipe for players being a really interesting story. How can they
awkward, there is actually only one find their way back from that? Well,
moment in DIE when player rejection that’s also in the “Running The Fallen”
matters. It’s the section in the persona- section, right?
playing section where a persona wishes
to leave the table. Clearly, someone just However, there’s two ways in which
wanting to walk out of the game is a premise rejection happens – either part
problem, which is why I floated some of the party or the whole of the party.
If part of the party rejects the premise in ill, and have him send problems at the
some way, and the other part goes on heroes (either from in-world situations
an adventure, you have part of the or using his powers). This makes it a
group who are in some ways “It’s him or us” situation, and if the
defenceless. Do a scene with the main players come to the Master, we get the
group, and then skip back to the conclusion that way. If not, the Master
dissenters. Now, they’re either not doing comes to them, which does the same
anything, or not taking the magical (based on the same concepts of
abilities we’ve offered them. Die is a escalation as described in the earlier
hostile place. Even if the Master is rules – as in, pushing towards a final
friendly, the Grandmaster who is above decision from the group).
all our bullshit isn’t. All manner of awful
stuff can happen, which likely kills them, Equally, there is the core problem of the
which likely makes them become Fallen world they’re in – they either all go
(with all the descriptions of physical home, or all stay, and if they don’t come
horror as part of that) and gives them a to a decision, the world ends.
nod. Eventually, if they do nothing, they’re all
going to die.
Some players who are now cybernetic
zombies will likely try to catch up to the (And in the game!)
party. They do so, and reenter the main
story. If they continue not wanting to be If you really desperately want the
anything… well, I’d ask them if they want Master to remain sympathetic,
to see how this ends up. If they do, tell remember Die itself is hostile and
them to go play videogames and you’ll there’s always the Grandmaster. Die
shout at the climax where you can itself wants players dead. Die likes
reintegrate them. If not, tell them to go Fallen.
home. I’d never invite them to play a
game again. In a real way, the world is a closed
circuit. Players do things. Reactions
Second is absolute premise rejection by happen. See how the players respond to
everyone – where the party just refuses the reactions. Onwards. At the absolute
to engage with what you’ve thrown worse, all the players will end up as
upon them, and head off and do their Fallen and so be trapped in Die forever.
own thing.
And the story about how a group of
This is actually the easier one. The gamers get lost forever in their
players are in a world controlled (to fantasies is 100% a story.
some degree) by their antagonist.
Respond to what they want to do, but be TL; DR: there is no premise rejection
aware that your Master is there. You will when all their rejections are part of the
likely want to make your Master more a premise.
pure antagonist who wishes the party
WORLDBUILDING AND EFFECT ON THE FINAL
DECISION
get to rework it, somehow. Even then,
To state the obvious: the nature of the their whole experience being in the
world you visit highly skews the odds on weird, warped world is not likely to
the final decision. tempt them.
The weirder you make the setting, the The more “normal” you make the setting
more likely players are to leave. Even if (and the more the Master is clearly the
they’re going to rule it now, living in a villain of the world, and the world would
hellish dimension full of warped be fine without it) the more likely you
elements is not something that’s push someone into wanting to stay.
attractive. The exception here is if they
Dragging people you love into another The more conflicted the group, the less
world is a cry for help. If someone cries, you need an aggressive Master to
you always hope someone listens. provoke a meaningful climax.
I’d argue the major mode of narrative Clearly, the examples are coarse, and
RPGs at the moment involves players even the traddest of RPGs often have
influencing the game world’s creation some elements of the player-as-world-
directly. As in, rather than the GM generators (How many long character
creating the world the player moves bios did we write in the 1980s?) but the
through, the players and the GM point is there. Players get to add
collaborate in some way to create the important elements to the setting and
details of the reality, not just the actions guide the narrative in meaningful and
of the players’ characters in an powerful ways. The argument is that if
environment. the players have made the world, it
means more to them.
This operates across a whole world of
scales. These games are great. Frankly, most of
the games I play are these sorts of
For example, in an early minor way games.
foreshadowing this, Hong Kong Cinema
combat game Feng Shui encouraged DIE doesn’t tend to work like this. At
players to invent items to use mid- least, not always.
combat. So, if the fight is in the bar,
players may say throw someone into a The players have lots of room to create
one-armed bandit sending coins flying things at the persona level. They can
everywhere. Until the player invented it, create almost everything about
there was no one-armed bandit – the themselves and their identity. And, as
responsibility is devolved from the GM to we’ve talked about, this will then be
the players. It’s a device to add to the interpreted by the GM to create
freewheeling action-setpiece of the situations to move or horrify the player.
genre it describes.
This principle is a useful one to consider
More narrative games give the players throughout DIE. The players have given
even more power; moments where they the GM something… but they don’t know
can get to dictate things. For example, how it will turn out, or what it’s for. This
to use a trad RPG setting, if the players is designed to create a level of fear of
discover a nest of orcs, in a traditional what could happen, but also mystery.
game, the players would assume the GM You simply don’t know what the
has a map, and the details of who’s in consequences of some actions will be,
there and why. In a game of Dungeon and that is both terrifying, but also a
World or similar, there may be a moment delight.
when the GM asks “the orcs have
captured someone who you know from While the majority of these are based
around persona generation, or the open-
ended persona generation above – the And it’s lucky that Ray made that
equivalent of “Tell me about your bully choice, as I always thought that their
from childhood” “<Player gives details attempt to cheat the system was clearly
from the character>” “Well, this monster doomed. If they think of nothing, I dare
that just walked in the room looks like say that it’s not that the world wouldn’t
that guy” – it doesn’t have to be just end… it would be that an Evil
that. I encourage using the principle Nothingness would consume everyone.
widely. And that’s a damn sight harder to fight
than a Marshmallow man.
Listen to the players. Do something with
what they give you. For all the fun and power in being able to
make stuff up in a narrative RPG, there
For example, to use a playful example, I is a genuine magic to a player saying
once asked the players to name a work what they want to do and the GM
of art. They named the awesome ‘Truth leaning over and telling them what
Climbs Out Of Her Well’. At which point, I happened. There is a verisimilitude to it
introduce a Godzilla-sized Truth Climbs being out of your control – which is what
Out Of Her Well into the game. most narrative games use the dice for.
Being listened to. Being cared for.
Point being, the players have huge
power – but the response is Because really? The GM as Master isn't
unpredictable. They know whatever true. The GM is a servant. They are
choice they make, it will be fed into the attentively acting as a player’s senses,
game in some way out of their control… and every time they do so, they are
But it will certainly impact it. They can’t deeply submissive. Each description is a
avoid it. little love letter, written directly to the
player. There is a play to each player’s
And we think of the Ghostbusters, at the ego here, and even when describing the
end of the original movie, told to choose worst things, this is for them.
the shape of the destroyer of the planet.
They try to avoid thinking of anything, Once again, we return to the Goblin King:
but Ray thinks of the Marshmallow Man, “I have done it all for you.”
and a hundred tonnes of confectionery
is going to fuck up New York. Have fun.