Deathmatch Island (Part 1)

Finally, A TTRPG Where You Play To Find Out

Deathmatch Island is a game by Tim Denee. Game material and content is reproduced here for review purposes and is owned by Old Dog Games and published by Evil Hat. Deathmatch Island benefited from crowdfunding.

1. Every Individual Component Is The Best

In our analysis, we consider every individual artistic element of a game the best; we do not find bad or good useful. So, the Split/Party framework assumes it is the best art, best layout, best writing, best design. This is an acknowledgement that nobody makes “bad” art on purpose; any given element is the best art that could have been produced at that point, restricted by its material conditions and constraints of time and effort. This is also because saying something is good/bad art is the most useless criticism that can be given. In practical term, this section is for things we will not touch on the review but merit acknowledgement. )

Ludo

This game has all the polish one can expect from Evil Hat’s books or from Tim Denee. It is described as striking and is very popular¹. The labor allocated, and for what, can be easily discerned upon observation of the book and the many, many handouts and immersive forms, but references to AGON domains instead of their Deathmatch Island replacements in the final version.

Brad

Beautiful, sharply art-directed, and polished as hell, Deathmatch Island is a beautifully designed product. The design helps it stand out and the handouts and forms help carry this design forward plus the game has an excellent index and table of contents.

2. Meet The Game At The Level It Is At

Each game comes with certain expectations and tone. To properly breakdown, we have to meet the game at the level it is: not lament its choice of premise and wish it was something else, nor resent for not conforming with our politics, not letting “missed opportunities” stand in our way of applying the critical framework relentlessly. It also includes not working with the game as marketed or how it exists in our desires, but as it is.

Lucrécia

You are playing amnesiacs, forced to kill each other in a deadly reality show. There is a big mystery behind this — so you are told —, and you are expected to keep playing enough with the deathmatches until you get to the bottom of this.

Maybe; you may just be Scoobie Dooing through the whole thing to figure out what evil corporate scheme is going on behind the spooky reality show.

Layout is stylish, Corporate Memphis, like another game we recently discussed. It is used for great thematic effect and offers a clean, easy to reference. However, unlike that other game, it does not use these design tropes to create its own identity; it mostly plays the Corporate Memphis straight but with Scary Death Game words.

This game is full of paper toys that are pretty good at creating ambiance while not being essential through play; there is no issue in case you don’t have all the handouts. It lends itself well to VTTs, and is pretty enjoyable played this way; online may be one of the best ways to experiment this way.

Deathmatch Island uses the PARAGON-system, first implemented in the second edition of AGON. Despite the many flowcharts and diagrams, the game examples are poor on their own. A familiarity with PARAGON/AGON is expected and desired. That said, there is not much you need to reference and the rules are simple and accessible.

Unfortunately, Deathmatch Island suffers from the HR-fied, corporate top-bottom, approach to safety and comfort that has become all too common among publishers in the past five years. If is unhelpful and oppressive or misguided. For example, In a game about exploitation and violence, with Deathmatch Island in the name, you would think that violence would be a buy-in — you know, to reinforce and expose the corporate horror and the banal violence capitalism requires every day to perpetuate itself. However, there is a non-lethal mode, instructions handed down from high-up rather than tools for you to develop specific and local tools; instructions that are ill-fitting for the cooperative collaborative storytelling artform, that look more like an option for a blood-replacement in video game. Ultimately, this gives a sterilized, HR-friendly whitewash of the themes; you wonder how toned down its themes will be, how much it actually is about it, if it is only paying lip-service so it could be easily removed for certain audiences. What is more baffling is that the actual system of the game has measures for safety and comfort, that are pretty well implemented in specifics and to foster local development of a culture of safety. This suggests a later pass to conform to “what safety tools are supposed to look like” from editorial/publisher hand that actually compromises the serious considerations and useful cultivation of safety.

Brad

You wake up on an island with few memories and many goals, the game preps you to play itself, and you begin. You have a big stack of tables to add weight and flavor to your newly created competitor and can hop of to the death races.

Deathmatch Island sets out to have a very strong cycle of play, and to that end reproduces several gorgeous tables and an effective layout to inform you about them. The game has a lot of handouts designed to help you achieve various gameplay elements and immersion, and honestly, I wish they had done fewer and much clearer breakdowns.

3. Identify What The Game Says It Is About

Games are about things. Usually. Mostly. That is often the same thing they market themselves as. This often means to establish the relationship of the game with systems, mechanical frameworks, genre, etc. This is how games establish exceptions about the nature of play and creates a common space for creation.

Ludo

This is Lost and Squid Game², but in TTRPG by way of PARAGON engine. It is about being involved in a death-game reality show, being rewarded by being popular at home while forging and betraying alliances — all while discovering the Conspiracy behind the games.

Brad

Deathmatch Island where our Games Of Death meet American Idol! You live on the island! You Stab each other! You bang the enemy team member! You enter The Code and prevent reality from ending!

4. Uncover What The Game Is REALLY About

What the game says it is about is not always what the game is about. This is where we look at all the weird interactions, examining the system that game creates, how the way mechanics interact with the text and art, how it exists on a given context, how well parts flow together or get in the way. This creates a much richer environment that the original design could ever imagine once a game hits the table.

Lucrécia 

The game is not even about capitalism or reality shows or media or whatever Lost was. Deathmatch Island is about Deathmatch Island. It is a finely crafted Mystery Box, made into a Mystery Box more than any Box has Mystified in TTRPGs³. It is about what you bring to it as you open it. Fans of Lost will not be disappointed.

That said, it is mostly about reality TV.

Brad

What if Survivor was on the island from Lost and the media company filming it was run by the guys from Control.

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1. The most important feature of both candy wrappers and TTRPGs.

2. I do not get what hamburgers saw as so remarkable and revolutionary on Squid Game, and thankfully, that is not needed to get for this game.

3. Sunned more than anyone ever Invisibled.