#dierpg

“Sometimes we just have to start over, from scratch, to make things right.”

In RRD's latest newsletter they've announced the first DIE expansion, Scenarios 1: Bizarre Love Triangles. You can (and should) sign up for updates on it here, as well as future adventures in the series. DIE RPG itself is also available to buy from retailers, as well as RRD directly. Here's the link to them.

I’m rewatching the Star Wars movies, and it suddenly occurred to me, with Jar Jar on the battlefield in the third act; this isn’t happening in the Star Wars Universe, it’s happening in the DIE game. If you aren’t familiar, DIE is an rpg where you play as a group of people playing an rpg. It’s beautiful, it’s meta as hell, it has an amazing comic it is spun out of. Part of DIE (the comic and the game) is very much an examination and reinterpretation of classic rpg types and tropes. So the usual classes (fighter, bard, mage, rogue, etc) are reinvented incorporating games, player types, and the dice themselves.  Like I said, you play as players playing as characters. So the idea that a bunch of people would play this game in a Star Wars Universe makes perfect sense, right?

Jar Jar Binks is, of course, The Fool; if you know what I’m talking about, this won’t need any explanation, but if you don’t... The Fool is a character who’s whole thing is doing reckless or stupid stuff at the possible expense of their personal well being but it works out for the best. So, y’know, Jar Jar.

Qui-Gon Jinn is The Dictator. Is there another Jedi that uses mind tricks as often as Qui-Gon? The Dictator is a class where your power is making other people do what you tell them to; the trick is not whether or not it will work, the trick is how emotionally disrupting it will be. Anakin Skywalker is The Neo. The Neo is a rogue archetype, but with a cyberpunk twist. You’re a thief and a hacker (also an addict although that doesn’t really apply here). You also get a pet (ie build a droid). So, say, being a tech-prodigy child that sneaks into a starship an then into the enemy base and explodes it would totally jive. Now that’s podracing.

Obi Wan Kenobi is an Emotion Knight. Albeit one who is struggling not to tap into his power. Emotion Knights get power from their -- you guessed it -- emotions, and like most things in DIE, it usually comes at a great spiritual and emotional cost. So one might, say, not want to tap into fear, hate, passion, etc. Even though one might feel deeply, and that might make one a bit of a rebel.

Padme Amidala, I guess, is The Godbinder? The Godbinder is the cleric role in DIE, where they can curry favor from the Gods, but again, at a great cost. Padme is a total badass in this movie in particular, but she doesn’t end up surviving the trilogy.

Senator Palpatine is The Master. The Master is the Game Master, the Dungeon Master, etc, turned into a player character but still the grand manipulator. Their whole goal is controlling all the npcs -- friendly and enemy -- in order to get the rest of the party to continue playing the game. So, say, orchestrating both sides of an interstellar conflict with the end goal of UNLIMITED POWAH!!

For someone who’s shite at actually playing DnD I sure do design a lot of characters, huh