Afterlife: Death Stranding

[Warning: This post contains spoilers for the video game Death Stranding.]

So I’ve spent the last month loyally playing Death Stranding on my PS4 and I am one of those people who absolutely love the game. It is weird, beautiful, and has enough mystery woven into it to keep me guess. Perhaps my only gripe with the game is that as a new parent the last thing I need in my life is my controller crying at me, but at least I don’t have to change its diaper.

But I digress, thinking about what I love about Death Stranding reminded me a lot of what I love about Afterlife: Wandering Souls. In fact, the more I played the video game the more I started to draw parallels between the two. The idea that these games hit on a lot of the same themes was cemented by a conversation with Heartman where he explains that every person has a Beach and every Beach is a gate to the Afterlife, wait a minute… yup every Beach is in fact a limbo—the limbos we use in Afterlife: Wandering Souls.

Once this was confirmed I knew I had to hack my own RPG so that people could play a version of something like Death Stranding if they wanted to. So I present to you:

Afterlife: Death Stranding

The new mechanics I’ve created here replace the mechanics of a normal game of Afterlife: Wandering Souls. If I haven’t mentioned a mechanics that is in a normal game of Afterlife, assume it remains the same as in the core book. This setting is a mash-up between Afterlife and Death Stranding, if a little more one or the other is more your flavour have at it, alter the mechanics as you see fit to create a game you love! Please note, I don’t own rights to Death Stranding and this is purely a fanfic love letter on my part dedicated to Hideo Kojima and the awesome studio who brought us this game! 

Character Creation

First, character creation remains basically the same, but rather than speaking to the Boatman you swim through a vast ocean touching watery images of past memories. Just as the pressure of the water becomes too much, and you’ve completed your character, you surface from the water and are spit out on the shore of the Tenebris.

The two changes to character creation come in altering Approaches and Talents:

BB

Rather than an Approach you have a BB. Give your BB a name! Using your BB works the same as an Approach, giving you a +1 die to a check if you use them. 

• You have five levels of Connection with your BB and you start out at 1 Connection.
• Each time you use your BB and the check is successful you add a level of Connection (max. 5).
• Each time you use your BB and fail a check you remove a level of Connection (min. 0). If you don’t spend time to soothe your BB after loosing a level of Connection —lose an additional level of Connection (failing to soothe BB after this doesn’t incur another penalty… but it’s kind of mean.)

Connection Levels

• Connection 0 = You cannot used your DOOMS abilities.
• Connection 3 = You may use your BB & DOOMS for the same check (giving a +2 die to your check.)
• Connection 5 = Your BB gives you an additional Like every time you succeed in a check when using it.

DOOMS

Rather than a Talent you have DOOMS. Pick one DOOMS specialty and one of its abilities. Getting more DOOMS works the same as with Talents.

Calling—Call BTs from the other side to do your bidding. [You must take these abilities in order.]

• Summon one Easy BT from their Beach.
• Summon one Moderate BT from their Beach.
• Summon one Difficult BT from their Beach.

Sight—See and interact with BTs.

• See BTs from [Mind x 5] meters away.
• Your blood damages BTs.
• Your pee makes BTs run away.

Teleportation—Move through your Beach from one location to the next.

• Teleport from one place you can see to the next.
• Teleport between two Mirages you’ve visited.
• Bring someone with you when you teleport [requires one or both other abilities to work.]

Death

Rather than dying you Repatriate. When your character reaches 0 Health they pass out for the scene and fall into an ocean where they must find themselves in order to return to the land of the living. When you come to your Concept Pools are at 0 and your Connection to BB is at 0—try not to scare BB like that again! You regain Concept and Connection as normal. You cannot used Will to avoid repatriation.

Experience

Rather than gaining XP you gain Likes, Likes during the game work the same way as XP and are gained the same way as well. People on the Chiral network like to see that you are learning from your mistakes!

At the end of the session rather than gaining Likes for the conditions in the Afterlife corebook. All Porters vote and award the following Likes to the individual(s) who exemplified them the most:

• 1 Like—Most creative use of BB or DOOMS
• 2 Like—Role played their character best
• 3 Likes—Most helpful to other Porters

If there is a tie for one of the awards both players get half the likes rounded up.

Setting

In the Tenebris you’re not a Wanderer, but a Porter. Tenebris inhabitants us your kind to bring packages from one Mirage to the next, because they are trapped within their Mirages and it is too dangerous for them to travel the Dark. You may also choose to have the Tenebris be more alive than the endless desert it normally is, but I like keeping it that way, because it’s like the Tenebris is one large Beach itself. 

Rather than limbos dotting the Tenebris there are Beaches. Each person has their own Beach and only Porters can enter Beaches, unfortunately, like in a normal game of Afterlife a Beach is as far as a Porter can go—they cannot move onto what lies Beyond until they regain all their memories. 

When your Porters travel onto Beaches and experience Fragments which lead to Breaks, rather than remember forgotten memories like in Afterlife: Wandering Souls—your fellow Porters learn something about your backstory. You know your entire story, but you’ve lived a long life and aren’t about to share everything out in the open right away. When your Porter experiences a Break help the GM narrate the experience as if it was a cutscene in a video game. Tell your fellow players what your life was like before the Death Stranding and let them get to know you better.

When you have 0 Will rather than gaining a point of Stagnation (remove Stagnation all together) —you trigger a Timefall. Timefalls work the game as in the video game so unless you want your Porters to go through a dangerous areas, be careful with your Will! GMs may choose to trigger Timefalls at other times as well.

Done!

Do you have any other mechanics you’d change about Afterlife to re-create a game of Death Stranding? Let me know in the comments and if I think they work I’ll add them to the list above crediting you of course!

Till next time!

Greetings,

Liz