Like the comic, the game has The Game Come to Life as its framing device. First, players create their characters (described as 'Personas'), normal people living in a realistic world. Then their personas create their characters (described as 'Paragons') and sit down to play a role playing game. And then the Personas get swallowed by their game, becoming the Paragons they've created.
DIE is a game about trying to escape from (or adjust to) a fantasy world that's imported your Persona's fears, needs and insecurities and translated them into challenges for the Paragons. A dungeon crawl in DIE isn't simply about facing monsters, it's about dealing with all the emotional baggage and conflict that the Personas brought into this fantasy world when it consumed them.
DIE was initially launched as a free (beta) pdf game to accompany the comic, then funded via a Kickstarter and released in both print and pdf by Rowan, Rook and Decard. The RRD version of the game also includes a new introductory DIE comic by Gillen and Hans.
DIE contains examples of:
- Anti-Escapism Aesop: DIE is a world that feeds on imagination, and so it loads every adventure with symbolism of things the characters are running from in real life, and is likely to include a Lotus-Eater Machine / "Leave Your Quest" Test. Choosing to stay is described as "betraying the real world". But notably, DIE doesn't actually care if you accept the offer; it's already learned about you and will let you leave as long as you do it by the rules.
- Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Downplayed. While there's no permanent death, dying makes you an undead Fallen who must kill another Paragon to resurrect, and each death in that state makes you lose more of your identity. Also, you don't get a vote in the endgame while dead.
- The Game Come to Life: The introduction refers to the comic, and by extension the game, as "Goth Jumanji". The game-within-a-game captures Personas from the 'real' world, and they can't leave until they reach a consensus. This is usually harder than it sounds.
- Genre Refugee: The Neo is a cyberpunk character in a game that usually (but not always) skews closer to the classic High Fantasy aesthetic.
- GMPC: Mandatory in a standard session: the Master is played by the real-world GM and by the in-game GM, and they have meta abilities because they're the one who set up the game. As in the comic, they're usually the antagonist.
- The Loonie: Handled in-game via the 'Fool' Paragon, who gains advantages from acting in a foolish or daring fashion, from attempting stupid plans, or by amusing other characters. It's clearly stated that this can just be the result of a Persona playing the role as a Paragon, hiding their true feelings lest it make them vulnerable.
- Lord British Postulate: Defied in two different ways. The Fair can be attacked and defeated at least temporarily, but instead of going through regular combat mechanics they do everything by flipping a coin, rendering specific abilities meaningless. The embodiment of DIE, on the other hand, being a physical manifestation of the concept of hopes and fears, cannot be attacked and can do anything to you.
- Regenerating Shield, Static Health: Guard is only up during combat, but it resets to its default at the start of each fight and absorbs damage. Health doesn't automatically reset.
- Role-Playing Endgame: The campaign ends when the Personas can escape DIE, leaving their Paragons behind, and return to their real lives. The rules clarify that this needs a consensus from all surviving Personas - including the Master, who's likely to be an antagonist, but not including any Paragons who've become undead Fallen.
- The Multiverse: the rules state that the events of the comic are how the world of DIE first made contact with ours, each of the eggs of DIE (the entity) contains a game of DIE. Your game is one of them. Every single game is a part of the canon. It's a very unusual kind of Expanded Universe, in that all of these fan creations are, in a sense, licenced. (Since selling the game offers an implicit licence to play the game.)
- The Six Stats: The traditional ones from Dungeons & Dragons, but they're used differently, particularly for generating dice pools.
