DETECT OR DIE
A downloadable tabletop RPG
Discover who you were. Decide who you are.
Solve the Case.
A tabletop RPG of neo-noir empiricism, unstable detectives, and total ego death & resurrection.
Inspired by science fiction stories of memory and detection like Blade Runner (1982) and Disco Elysium (2019), Detect or Die places the players as the various inner voices of the Detective, collectively embodying the fractured psyche of an amnesiac protagonist attempting to solve the Case - whatever that entails. One player takes on the role of the World, laying out the setting and mystery for the rest, using a bespoke variation of the Powered by the Apocalypse game engine influenced by Blades in the Dark and Bluebeard's Bride. The rest play Personality Components, the fragments of the Detective's Ego who combine investigative competencies with erratic coping mechanisms, trading off control and emotional stamina to make it through the Case to the ultimate revelations - about the World and about the Detective.
This 132 page book contains rules for:
- Acting and investigating as the Detective, both as the conscious steering mind and in the unconscious back seat.
- Skills suited for the situation, representing the Detective's unique perspective and estrangement.
- Trading off direct control via the Glass, which gives reasons both to take charge and, at times, to hang back and let other parts of the Detective run the show.
- Recovering memories over time, both those the Detective wants and the ones the Detective definitely does not, using an innovative system of Déjà Vu.
- Losing control, freaking out, and undergoing Total Personal Katabasis... and recovering.
- Twelve archetypes with unique flaws and perks, each of which expresses a particular side of any Detective, and guidelines for creating your own archetypes.
- Alternative ways to play, including progression rules for longer-term Cases.
- KNIFE FIGHT IN THE MEMORY PALACE, in which the PCs jockey to become the Detective's true self, trading off Ego points in a semi-competitive optional mode.
- Extensive advice for the World, to help design and run your own unique Cases for your own unique Detectives.
Despite the high concept, gameplay is straightforward, with a more or less traditional GM-and-PCs arrangement that has proven easy for beginners and hobby veterans alike to pick up and get started.
Also included with the Detect or Die rulebook are:
- "The Case of the Example of Play," a 20-page example of play (unsurprisingly) that shows Detect or Die in motion. You can also download "The Case of the Example of Play" for free, right here!
- Printable Detective character sheet, with fields for both standard and KNIFE FIGHT rules.
- Printable clock tarot cards.
Playtesters say:
"Brilliantly conceived and thrillingly open-ended. Some of the most fun I've ever had sitting at a table."
~ Esther Rosenfield
"Detect or Die is one of the best games I've played in terms of representing its distinct niche and suiting modern playstyles - in terms of its mechanical benefits, it's a smooth engine for the glorious mess that investigating a mystery with your brain scrambled should be. Outside of the game, the semi-troupe structure has made it amazingly easy to organise and fit in to hectic lives."
~ Spectralent
"Wildly creative and a joy to play. I've never had this much fun just assembling the party, let alone seeing how they tackle the case!"
~ Lilian
Purchase
In order to download this tabletop RPG you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $20 USD. You will get access to the following files:
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Community Copies
If you'd like to check out Detect or Die's full rules, but feel it's not really affordable for you right now, consider grabbing a free community copy. I'll add more over time, so check back occasionally if they're all gone.
Development log
- Whoops, fixed that15 days ago
- Perks Updated30 days ago
- Typo Fixes & Perk ClarificationOct 18, 2023
Comments
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This is a really cool game!
Are there any published scenarios, or scenario seeds, or advice on how to construct the Case? Since you need a Case that also features the mystery of the detective's own past, I've had a lot of difficulty building my first Case (and RPG mystery scenarios are hard in the first place).
Hey Zeedox, thanks for checking it out!
I've been working on my first full Case File, The Case of the Signal Fire, and I hope that the back half of the book contains some useful Case framing advice. There's also the Case of the Example of Play, which is an example of play for the game but also could be a scenario seed to build on.
My big practical piece of advice would be that the Detective's own past can be relatively simple - and so can the Case, given the Detective's significant challenges (amnesia, etc). They'll also get more complicated when the Detective players (and the World) add in more details over time. Also, steal from movies and books! Grab a fun murder mystery, then make it much easier to solve (double or triple up on clues, make sure the Detective has many more ways to figure it out than in a Sherlock Holmes story, and be prepared to toss Investigation rolls to players that snap things together when they need it).
Another piece of advice is that the amnesia doesn't necessarily have to be a direct result of the Case. Two of my playtest cases had the Detective's amnesia be a direct result of the main plot, but another three involved coincidental amnesia - the classic 'bonked on the head' option from some investigation, but also catching a fever or having an unrelated psychological crisis are options I've used. That last one can be really easily tied in to the themes of the story - whatever the Detective's past self was dealing with that reached a crisis, it can be reflected in the Case in some fashion (It's also, basically, what Disco Elysium does, with some Exofamiliar twists).
I hope this all helps, and let me know if there's anything else I can help with.
Thanks for the detailed reply! I guess I feel a little self-concious about stealing another plot, but good point about making easy to solve and having an unrelated reason for the amnesia!
I’ll try to make a Case and report back if I succeed!
So! I managed to build a Case - The Case of the Fall, where a husband and his butler has murdered his wife and thrown her out a window to make it look like an "accident". You were right to keep things simple - even though all the clues seems TOO obvious to me, for the players it was just hard enough that we could finish in a single sitting. Inspired by the real death of Appia Annia Regilla.
It was hard to drop clues about the identity and backstory of the detective, but I imagine that will be easier on a second playthrough. I'm really eyeing the optional rule to color descriptions based on the current holder of the glass. Also hard to decide when to ask for a roll, and when just to give a Clue directly to the players.
Fun game, all in all! The players we're imagining it like Pixar's Inside Out, which I thought was a great take on it.
That's excellent - and I'm glad it went well! I've had some Inside Out type imagery show up in some games I've run, mostly when using the Knife Fight In the Memory Palace rules for semi-competitive play.
Oh, and as a second suggestion: Consider having them roll, but the roll is to determine if they get Deja Vu, or the World gets Deja Vu, or Morale or whatnot, and the Clue happens either way. This can be usefully be framed as 'do you easily find and digest this detail, or does it take you a moment or remind you of something you don't want to remember, in an inchoate way.'
It's a good way to split the difference between knowing they really need the Clue and wanting it to be something they can engage with.
That’s good framing - you get the result but with a little flavoring, and maybe some resource gain / loss. I’ll try that next time.
How about when there are many clues in a place, some a little bit more hidden? For example, I had a ring hidden in some high grass that the players never rifled through, and I didn’t know if how heavy handed I should have been in pointing it out.
My advice on that front is just to have more clues than you need, and so if they miss a few juicy ones it's not the end of the world. You can tell them after they solve the Case! There's a Reconstructure expertise, if I remember my own writing correctly, that also lets them know if they haven't found any clues you had pre-written.
If they absolutely need a clue, force it (offer them a roll where no matter what, they find the clue, but a bad roll stings a bit) as discussed above. Missed clues are actually good, because they mean the players genuinely get to carve out their own path through the mystery - as long as there's enough clues to get there in the end. You may have to generate some on the fly to make sure, but again that helps the players take ownership of their solution.
We had a great time playing with 3-5 players over three sessions. It feels novel to be all representing the different parts of just one character's psyche, and we enjoyed the back and forth discussion between us - it felt like a real internal battle of wills! The conflict resolution is simple to grasp and effective. I also really enjoyed the tone of the game - very noir, very cool! Thanks for the fun experience.
Thank you for playing it (and for commenting) - I'm also really glad you got a good internal push and pull with the Detective, getting them to feel like a single, but complicated and contradictory, person is a huge part of what I wanted the game to do.
I played a mini-campaign of Detect or Die, which I found refreshingly different. I loved the game, the atmosphere is very noir, and the system is flexible. The rules are easy to follow, and there's plenty of space for the narrative. I highly recommend you check it out, thank you B.P.S Klug, our group had a great time!
I'm really glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for playing!