The Death Game genre has gone through a resurgence in the last few years. While television shows like Squid Game and Alice in Borderland are the most famous examples of the genre’s resurgence, credit must be given to the Danganronpa videogame franchise, as it kept the genre’s flag flying even during the fallow years. With its massive cast of colorful characters with varied personalities and complex personalities, Danganronpa has always seemed ripe for a TTRPG adaptation. Thankfully, Despair Dilemma shows that the game’s format can be turned into a stunning TTRPG.
Despair Dilemma is a GM-less Death Game TTRPG designed for up to 12 players. The game is split into three main stages: the prologue (where the characters, location, and death game are created and defined), the narrative (where the death game itself plays out), and the epilogue (where the story is wrapped up).
A Mystery In Three Parts
The middle narrative segment is split into three chapters, each representing a different part of the death game story. The start of each chapter lays out the general situation (where the characters are and how they are feeling) and the chapter’s central mystery that the characters aim to solve. Once this has been laid out, each player draws a hand of cards, and the player whose sheet gives them priority is assigned the narrator role.
The narrator’s first act is to pick one character and assign them the Perspective Marker, signifying that the upcoming segment will be told from that character’s perspective. After this, the narrator begins telling the scene’s story from that character’s perspective. While the narrator may flesh out any details they wish, performing massive actions (such as having a new character join the scene, having a current character leave the scene, or performing a tricky task with a decent chance of failure) requires them to use one of the actions listed on their Plot Sheet. However, these actions require the player to discard a specific card from their hand, meaning that players who want a specific outcome must think carefully to avoid losing cards they’ll need later.
Mechanics Built Around Giving Up Control
However, one player doesn’t remain the narrator for the whole chapter. When the narrator plays a card, another player can play either a card of equal value or any two cards from their hand to take control of the narrative. Alternatively, at any point during their description, the narrator can pass control of the narrative to a player of their choosing. When a new player assumes the narrator role, they may move the Perspective Marker to another character and continue the story from where the previous player left off.
The chapter continues until every player has had a chance to be the narrator, three or more cards have been assigned to the chapter mystery (something that can happen when control of the narrative switches), or every player has used all of their cards. After this, the player with the most cards assigned to the chapter mystery gets to answer the mystery however they wish and define how the next chapter starts.
This is a fantastic gameplay loop. As all players want to answer the chapter mystery, they are encouraged to take control of the narrative whenever possible. Because of this, narrative control will switch hands and jump between characters constantly, keeping things fresh and frantic. However, as stealing control of the narrative and using ability requires spending cards, players are forced to think and act strategically, preventing situations where a player takes control of the narrative only to have the previous narrator instantly snatch it back, guaranteeing the spotlight is shared evenly between players.
GM-Less Gameplay Avoids The Main Issue With Death Games
Plus, Despair Dilemma’s GM-less format allows it to avoid the main issue many death game-inspired, Danganronpa-esq tabletops run into. In death game media, screen time is rarely split evenly between the entire cast, and characters can be suddenly written out without warning. While this is great for narrative works (as it imbues the narrative with plenty of tension and intrigue), it causes problems in multiplayer games, as it means that some players are eliminated before they get the chance to interact with most of the mechanics or make an impact on the game. This problem only becomes more intense for larger games that require a lot of setup, as few players want to spend an hour prepping for a game they’ll only be playing for twenty minutes.
Excellent Visuals That Pay Tribute To The Inspiration
The game should also be commended for its visual style. The game uses purple to highlight important terms and crucial information. Not only does this make the rules of the TTRPG easier to follow, but it also doubles as a nice call back to Danganronpa, which often uses a similar shade for its gore discretion shots. Similarly, the character and location art included with the demo games has a retro-videogame feel, with chunky characters that resemble something ripped from the overworld of a Gameboy-era Pokémon game and backgrounds that resemble SNES RPGs. However, one of the best things about this art choice is that players who wish to make their own scenarios can easily recreate this visual style, meaning the game will likely develop a large and dedicated add-on creator community when it launches.
Despair Dilemma is a fantastic death game TTRPG that captures the feeling of death game series like Danganronpa and Squid Game while fully exploiting the TTRPG’s medium’s strengths. While the action and card-passing mechanics may seem intimidating initially, they quickly become intuitive, making the game a breeze during play. Plus, these mechanics give the game a fantastic amount of flexibility, meaning that even if two games use the same scenario, they’ll go in entirely different directions and play out in a unique way.
