Do you have what it takes to be the last one standing? In these games, a group of people enter an arena, and only one, the final survivor, will live to see tomorrow. Fuelled by self-preservation, desperation, or honed bloodthirst, players will fight off deadly enemies, and each other, as they compete for that coveted first-place prize: the rest of their life.
Since the turn of the century, the ‘battle royale’ genre has skyrocketed in popularity. Owed to the likes of the Hunger Games books/films, the Squid Game TV show, and Fortnite-style games, most folks understand that the path to the ultimate ‘Victory Royale’ is one painted in the blood of every other competitor on the field. For veteran TTRPG players, the idea of a grand deathmatch TTRPG may be difficult to grasp. Typically, player versus player (PVP) combat is extremely infrequent and taboo at the table because most games are built to be collaborative storytelling devices. However, from deadly, trap-filled island arenas to a class of students on depraved reality TV, these games prove that competitive storytelling can be just as rich and fulfilling as boring ol’ teamwork.
Deathmatch Island
Fame, fortune, and glory could be yours, but it’s only for WINNERS on the legendary television game show, ‘Deathmatch Island’! Broadcast around the globe, you and your fellow competitors have been selected for the opportunity of a lifetime! Well, what’s left of it, anyway… Across three carefully crafted islands, you’ll forge alliances, gather resources, and brutally eliminate other players for our entertainment, like our motto says: Play to Win™!
Built on the AGON system, the game is separated into three islands and six phases, two per island. Deathmatch Island is meant to be an extremely fast-paced game, but allows time for players to build connections with each other and NPCs in the first phase of each island. These relationships make betrayal all the more burning, and loss all the more heartbreaking. In the second phase of the island, the battle royale mode kicks in and contests are resolved.
Although the show’s all-seeing Production team wants you to cooperate and play the game, there are really two ways to play. Players can progress as normal, slaying and betraying for endless wealth, or rebel and potentially break the game. If they don’t want to fight each other, they can try to fight Production, which can deploy mind-altering drugs and traps to deter disobedient competitors.
Classroom Deathmatch
What is it with people wanting to watch a bunch of other people kill each other? Similar to Deathmatch Island, this game centers around a reality show called ‘Classroom Deathmatch’, where you and your friends are a few of the 50 Japanese high school students pitted against each other, abducted from their school and brought to an arena for the upcoming bloodshed. This scenario is not unique to Classroom Deathmatch. In fact, it’s a direct reference to the original Battle Royale, the 1999 manga by Koushun Takami and its subsequent movie adaptation that forever defined the ‘battle royale’ as a death game with only one survivor.
Over the course of five days, the teens' arena will get smaller and smaller until only one student remains. The competitor you play as is random, as the cast of 50 students remains the same, but who you get is up to chance. This is an important mechanic because these kids will die, gruesomely and frequently, and this game wouldn’t be any fun if you died early and just had to watch everyone else play out the rest of the deathmatch. Instead, when you die, you switch to playing a different student who is still alive, maintaining the momentum and enjoyment of the game.
Despite its over-the-top brutal premise, Classroom Deathmatch challenges players to make hard choices, like whether they’re willing to sacrifice someone they care about to save themselves, or choose to find a way to win without violence. These are the questions that draw us to Battle Royale scenarios, as we learn what we’d do when life or death is on the line.
The Hunger Games TTRPG
As one of the massive franchises that popularized the genre, across the world, people understand what the ‘Hunger Games’ are without having seen it, and its title has become synonymous with the savage battle royale death games that these games aim to recreate. From Suzanne Collins’ first novel in 2008 to the iconic Jennifer Lawrence movie trilogy, The Hunger Games universe has invented and inspired hundreds of creative ways to torture competitors as they slaughter each other on live TV.
Immersing players in the post-apocalyptic, dystopian country of Panem, only a short time ago, their characters were Reaped. After their brief time in the luxurious spotlight leading up to the games, they will enter the arena for this year’s Hunger Games, a battleground expertly designed to push Tributes to their limit. Two teens from each of the twelve districts go in, and at the end, only one Victor comes out.
Complete with unforgiving Hunger, Weather, and Trap mechanics, the Hunger Games TTRPG is not only about killing other Tributes, it’s a nail-biting suspense story about survival, self-preservation, and staying photogenic for Sponsors even during traumatic experiences. So if you think you and your friends could do it better than Katniss, this game gives you the chance to prove it.
Shinobigami
Advertised quite plainly as the ‘Modern Ninja Battle RPG’, Shinobigami tells you exactly what it is and fulfills that promise. Players will embody talented ninjas who are typically hidden, keeping their skills from prying eyes and keeping a low profile. Meanwhile, some sort of war has broken out between your Ninja clan and another, so combat with them is swift, honorable, and completely hidden from the general public.
This game is meant to be played as a single-session one-shot over the course of about four hours, as the number of ninjas in play dwindles with time. This helps to lessen the blow if a player happens to die early, so they don’t have to wait without playing for too long. Shinobigami has different modes of play, all matching the main Freytag’s Pyramid story structure that’s behind every game. In this case, the Battle Royale gamemode has players traverse the Introduction, Main, Climax, and hopefully the Ending, while their friends and enemies will drop like flies throughout the session.
Shinobigami translates to ‘God of Ninjas’ in Japanese, and in this cutthroat game of assassins and ‘ultimate ninja techniques’, it’s nice that the developers tell you who you can pray to as shurikens cut through the air towards your back.
The Most Dangerous Game
Originally published in 1924, Richard Connell’s short story ‘The Most Dangerous Game’ told a horrifying tale of a man being invited to go on a hunting trip with an extravagant big-game hunter, only to realize far too late that he is the prey. This relatively short idea has been adapted in all kinds of ways in pop culture, where humans are tracked and stalked because of their exciting ingenuity, and this D&D expansion brings the Most Dangerous Game to one of the most fun mediums.
Technically, no, it’s not exactly a ‘battle royale’ because not everyone started on the same playing field, and more than one person can hypothetically survive the onslaught of the great predator General Zarrov. However, it certainly lends itself to the ‘last man standing’ idea, since as long as Zarrov lives, he’ll pick off players one by one without mercy.
While The Most Dangerous Game D&D expansion shares name and premise with its 20th-century inspiration, it is infused with the magic, ancient cults, and hostile, fantastical beasts classic to D&D, adding an extra layer of wonder and danger to your attempt to survive the General and call for help.
Survival of the Fittest
So, still up for it? Each of these games pits players and NPCs alike against each other in grand tournaments of death, all for the entertainment of people watching at home or the one doing the hunting. It’s worth noting that a few of these games have mechanics for fighting the machine instead of each other, where players can attempt to free themselves and their friends rather than eventually having to betray everyone they’ve come to care for. However, the forces that put on these demented games are powerful, and are willing to reward you dearly if you play the game as intended, so is it worth the risk?
by Finn Halpern
A Chicago-based writer, passionate about TTRPGs, nerd culture, and the art of storytelling.