Playing the game: Deathmatch Island

A game where you roll first and then work out what happens

This last month I’ve backed something exciting - Deathmatch Island. It’s the latest game from Aotearoa’s own Tim Denee, and if patriotic fervour wasn’t enough for me to back it there are 2 other reasons. Number 1 - Tim created the excellent Odyssey Aquatica and number 2 - it uses the excellent Paragon system. Recently I assembled a group of rubber-armed players and gave Deathmatch Island a go. You can do that as a backer even now because, in a truly generous move, the publisher Evil Hat has made a low-art version available to all backers with a Roll20 into module as well.

I’m going to divide this little ramble into two sections. - a little bit about what Deathmatch Island is and then something about the core mechanic of the Paragon system and how it allows Deathmatch Island and other Paragon games to shine….for the right players.

“Survivor” meets “Squid Games” meets RPGs (with actual RPGs in it)

The premise of Deathmatch Island is that you are a group of competitors in a game. Maybe it’s a gameshow, maybe it’s an experiment, maybe it’s a sinister government conspiracy. Whatever it is you’re on an island with little memory of your past or how you got there and forced to compete in a last-person standing battle royale.

You’ll face challenges posed by other alliances of competitors, from the environment and gameshow style challenges with lethal twists. You’re rewarded for completing challenges and encounters with helpful items that range from booze and cookies all the way to rocket-propelled grenades.

Over the course of three different islands you’ll see your fellow competitors whittled down until only you (or the new character you’ve had to create because the game is hella lethal) must make an all-important decision: battle it out til only one person remains or attempt to break the game and stop this madness once and for all.

This whole premise is wrapped up in a design which evokes bland corporate training manuals and a sort of bureaucratic production dystopia. Already the WIP doc is a beautiful artifact and the design and the writing really help you get into the spirit of a faceless, bland corporate bureaucracy emotionlessly killing people for some greater design. What that design is is shaped by the players throughout the game and has a bearing on the final choices you make and the nature of the final showdown.

Being a Paragon system game it is fast to create a character and it moves at pace. This is good since it’s so lethal that there’s no time to get overly attached to any one character. It’s more about survival and unmasking the mystery behind the islands, the competition and who the mysterious “Production” controlling the whole thing really is.

Here’s our crew for Deathmatch Island. Everyone made it out of Island One alive!

Roll first and ask questions later

Deathmatch Island uses the Paragon system, first seen in the excellent Bronze Age hero game Agon. The Paragon system describes itself as “zoomed out” because it doesn’t focus on the minutiae of a moment. Instead, the game uses a roll to determine the player’s success in a scene - so one rule covers it all. This means things move quickly and agency lies right with the players.

Paragon games begin with the GM creating a dice pool for the scene. The dice may come from the location, the characters within it, and from other factors that influence that particular moment. These dice are rolled and the highest roll is combined with the danger level for the scene to create a difficulty rating for that moment. Once that has been done the GM outlines what is in front of the players. For Deathmatch Island this may be negotiating with a rival alliance to gain supplies or support them in defeating another group. It may be negotiating a raging river or avoiding an automated machinegun turret that is trying to prevent you from entering out-of-bounds areas.

Once the target number has been set each player builds their own dice pool. This can consist of their name dice (which increases as their follower count grows), their occupation dice (if relevant) and other dice that may be given to them due to their bonds with other players or NPCs. The dice that apply are rolled and then a number of 1d4 for any pieces of equipment they may have found, taking the highest one of these. If it meets or exceeds the target - success, otherwise it’s a fail!

But at this point, there has been little narrative. Unlike a game like DnD players don’t describe in detail what they are doing and/or saying and then pick a relevant ability and roll the dice. Instead, they assemble the pool and then narrate either their success or failure. It seems like a small difference but it really changes the way the game feels. Especially since the system doesn't;t boil it down to a single moment, but instead the roll relates to the scene.

During the narrative that follows the roll, the player describes what their player is doing, they use and honour what the GM has established and the players that have gone before, but there is plenty of license for them to introduce new material, even new NPCs. And this becomes part of the game.

During our play of Deathmatch Island, this meant some players had a great time. The Paragon system really suits those players who like some improvisation and want a bit of uninterrupted time in the spotlight. Because they can go into great detail about how their character succeeds or fails. Players who like to be supported by mechanics and chip in with clear narrative guidelines may find it tough when the spotlight goes on…at least at first. We had some in our crew who stepped up as the session went on, once they realised they couldn’t go wrong and could create the action rather than just respond to it.

For me, as a GM, Paragon system games are a delight. I’m not responsible for a whole lot and instead, I really get to be entertained and surprised by the players as an audience for a change. I could kick back for 3 or 4 minutes without having to worry about what DC I needed to generate or what piece of dialogue needed to come next. It was a real joy to see my players in full flight and then have to incorporate whatever they gave me.

Player agency is something that is talked about in many games and, for a lot of systems, the GM has to move the system out of the way to allow players to experience agency. Paragon builds it right in by reversing where the dice come in and by zooming out from a micro action to the whole scene level. This tension between increased agency at the player level and a real lack of power and fragility at the character level works an absolute treat with Deathmatch Island. It’s a game about being stuck in a deadly game where you don’t know the rules and don’t know how you ended up there but it also gives you power as a player.

It may not be everyone’s flavour because the spotlight shines brightly on the players for longer but if you are a player who likes to improvise and a GM who likes to watch the madness unfold then Deathmatch Island or any of the excellent Paragon games are worth checking out. If you’re ready this post pretty fresh then there’s still time to back Deathmatch Island and get your hands on a ruleset that’s ready to play today.