In a world saturated with combat-oriented board game and RPG Kickstarter campaigns, Grant Howitt aims to bring something different to the table. Based on Kieron Gillen’s award-winning comic by the same name,DIE: The Roleplaying Gameoffers a metafictional experience oriented around exploring, confronting, and conquering psychological trauma. Players adopt the roles of people who are swept into a harrowing fantasy world, akin toJumanji, Narnia,and Isekai anime. As of this writing, the game’sKickstarterhas already met its funding goal, and is open until June 10.
Game Rant spoke with Howitt to discuss the RPG’s core systems, themes, and approach to combat. Even those tired of Kickstarter campaigns should be interested to know that this rules-lite, flavor-heavy RPG system promises creative, original, and challenging experiences that will appeal totabletop newcomersand role-playing veterans alike.
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A Freeform Approach to Tabletop Fun
There isa common tabletop gaming misconceptionthat a title’s depth is equivalent to its mechanical complexity. By Howitt’s own admission,DIE’s core book is light on hard rules. There are no massive tables or charts to navigate, and no complex formulas to calculate skill success or damage outcomes. Instead,DIEdemands improvisation and imagination in exchange for narrative flexibility and a focus on pathos.
“It’s all very freeform, and it has to be, because a lot of the play focuses around the GM mashing up elements from your real-world lives and your fantasy obsessions. So we don’t have a rule that says, ‘If the dragon has the face of your abusive boss, you must pass a Will save or become Distressed for D6 rounds,’ and instead rely on the GM to apply penalties and bonuses as needed.”
The core of the game sees players rolling two-to-four dice, with rolls of four and above qualifying as a success, and rolls of six functioning as phenomenal critical outcomes. LikeDungeons & Dragons,DIErevolves around discrete character classes, each having their own thematic style of play with certain classes having “ownership” of certain dice. Neos,DIE’s cyberpunkish rogue class, hold sole dominion over D10s, whereas D12s are used by the game’scleric-esqueGodbinders.
How DIE Plays With Trauma
With so much flexibility, fledgling players may feel overwhelmed by the amount of creative freedom (and responsibility) required to enjoy the game. However, Howitt has advice forfirst-time GMsdipping their toes intoDIE’s world.
“It’s not that hard to appear imaginative. All you have to do is put together two things, and suddenly you look like a creative genius. Write down six things your player characters are interested in (or conflicted by) and then mash those together with six fantasy tropes and Boom. That’s a campaign right there if you’re canny about it.”
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Collaboration between players andDIE’s GMs, a character class called “Masters,” is essential. Much of the game’s appeal comes from players leading a double (or perhaps triple) life that plays off the distinctions between their characters' normal, reality-based selves and their fantasy world proxies. As per Gillen’s comic, a player character’s fantasy self may be a different gender or race inDIE’s world, and like anygood Isekai anime, actions in the fantasy world have lasting consequences in reality. This makesDIEan ideal vehicle for metaphorical, larger-than-life explorations of real issues such as stress, grief, body dysmorphia, and other topics seldom tackled by tabletop gaming.
Fast and Loose Fighting in DIE
Like the rest ofDIE’s mechanics, combat is flavor-heavy and light on rules. One of the most important mechanical distinctions betweenDIEandDungeons & Dragons, according to Howitt,is thatD&Dis built around combat. By contrast, while combat constitutes a good deal of the action inDIE,the system’s focus is broader than a monster slaying, looting, and leveling-loop. Emotional beats do not only steer the course of a campaign’s plot, but also affect what characters are capable of in battle.
Character development relies on personality growth and responses to external stimuli as opposed to stat blocks. The net result is a situational game that demands a GM who can think on their feet without falling back on mechanical artifice, players with healthy imaginations, and a different focus than power fantasies measured in body counts. That is not to sayDIEwill lack the guilty pleasures of vanquishing enemies; in fact, putting a face to trauma and conquering it with friends may bethe most empowering form of escapism that fantasyhas to offer.
The Kickstarter campaign forDIE: The Roleplaying Gameis live until Friday, July 02, 2025.
