Dead After Dinner
A downloadable game
The aging Patriarch of your family has uncharacteristically invited everyone to dinner.
He says he's made changes to his will that affect you, and he will read it after dinner.
Inspired by the films Clue and Knives Out, you'll tell a story about the death of a grandfather and the familial drama that caused it.
Deck Building
As a Descended from the Queen game, you'll read some instruction cards first, and play consists of drawing and responding to prompt cards.
Unlike For the Queen, you'll build your deck with cards for each of the 8 phases- some decks have 1 card like Dessert, Murder?!?, Detective and Questioning, and some decks have 1 or 2 cards per player.
Resentment
Every character has Resentment- a stat that represents your feelings toward the Patriarch and the family. Cards will instruct you to modify yours, or ask others to do so.
If your Resentment is 0 or below, you are automatically innocent when the last card is drawn, and being a murder is always opt-in.
Phases
0. Instructions (11 cards)- Learn the game and set up your deck
1. Characters (8)- Define your relationship to the Patriarch and each other
2. Dinner (15)- Set up your sordid family history
3. Dessert (1)- Transition between Dinner and The Will
4. The Will (6)- Read the updated document
5. Murder?!? (5)- 5 different ways for the Patriarch to die
6. Detective (1)- Transition between Murder?!? and Questioning
7. Questioning (18)- Inconvenient and unavoidable
8. Whodunnit (1)- Unveil the murderer(s)
What You'll Get
- 34 page color PDF with 4 tarot-sized cards per page (68 cards total), laid out to print double sided on cardstock
Play for Free on Story Synth
Want to check out the game before you buy? Or play online with friends?
Head to bit.ly/playdadgame
If you play the game there and want to come back and buy it, that would be rad!
Get the Physical Edition
Available now on DriveThruCards!
Thanks
Randy Lubin, Story Synth, Grant for the Web, Big Bad Con & Ash Cheshire
Special thanks to: Andy Hague, Sidney Icarus, Javier Beltrán & Adam Robichaud
For the Queen™ is a trademark of Alex Roberts. The Descended From the Queen Logo is © Alex Roberts, and is used with permission.
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $10 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Anti-Capitalist Propaganda
Support this game at or above a special price point to receive something exclusive.
Community Copy
Want to play Dead After Dinner but don't have the funds?
Grab a community copy for free, no questions asked. If you want to play my game, I want you to be able to!
You can also play it online for free on Story Synth at bit.ly/playdadgame.
Learn more about Community Copies from @DeePennyway here!
Comments
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I have crafted the game as a holiday gift for a family member and we had a blast playing it! It was the first TTRPG experience for most of us, and our story was not always coherent, but hilarious nonetheless. As the Patriarch's ex-spouse, I got away with a very chaotic murder!
Oh my goodness, this is delightful! Thank you for sharing this! I'm so glad you could get away with murder!
Hi! This looks super cool and I'm very excited to play! I'm hoping to invite some friends over for dinner and a game. My one question is how would you recommend printing it? I see the Drive Thru Cards link, and under better circumstances I'd be happy to pay a bit more for this game, especially since I got it from a bundle, but money is tight at the moment so it looks like I might have to do the printing myself. Thank you so much, the rules sound very fun!
The file is formated to print 4 tarot sized cards per page, so you can print them duplex (the printer prints on both sides) or print ask the pages one sided and glue them together.
You could also take the file to a print shop to print on cardstock paper!
I hope you have a good time with it!
Thank you! I think I'll be going with cardstock, and I can't wait to play! I really enjoy the movies you cited as influence and I'm excited to get dastardly with my friends!
How many can play?
3-5 is what it was designed for. You can have 2 players each control 2 characters, but 3 players is better.
Thanks! I just finished facilitating it for the Goblin Market's inaugural GoD. I was Margot, forgotten middle child and murderer.
Amazing, who could have predicted the middle child would be the murderer?!?
I wrote (in french) a short review of the game after reading it. Might be playing it soon.
https://www.gulix.fr/blog/2022/12/23/lectures-de-role-34/
Thank you for writing about it! I'd love to hear about it if you play!