A conversation on Twitter got me thinking about a game where you go back and try to fix the things you did on your last day on earth. The premise being that you have died, and you are given a chance to fix things, but you only have so much effort you can put into it, and the end result may not be what you intended.
Thus was born Mulligan’s Dead.
It’s still in the bare bones idea phase, but here’s what I’ve got so far:
It’s a two player game. Together you and a friend will describe the last day of poor Mulligan, recently deceased. Discuss the questions below.
- What did you succeed at on this day?
- Did it really matter?
- Who did you fail to reach out to on this day?
- Why didn’t you?
- Why did they need to hear from you?
- What did you fail to appreciate on this day?
- Who was with you, if anyone, when you died?
- Why do you regret that?
- What did you do on this day that people will remember?
- What are you afraid might become of that?
Once you’ve established what happened the first time around, you begin the process of going back to try your luck at fixing things.
You’ll get seven (?) scenes to try and make things better.
The clerk at the afterlife makes sure to tell you that you’ve only got so much you can do. That’s represented by your pool of dice. You get ten six-sided dice to spend.
Together, pick the first scene you’d like to do over. One of you will play Mulligan and the other will play anyone else in the scene. Together, describe the scene and get right to the meat of the action. Describe or act out what you do or say to try fixing what went wrong. When you get to a point where you feel like you’ve established the resolution you’re attempting, you’ll make a roll to see how it turns out. Keep in mind that you can’t change your own fate. Them’s the breaks, kid.
Choose any number of dice from your pool, keeping in mind that you only get ten total for the whole day.
To determine the result, roll the amount of dice you are choosing to spend and take the highest number that came up. If you choose to spend no dice, instead roll two dice and take the lowest result.
- Something terrible happens. You’ve made things so much worse.
- It doesn’t go well. You don’t get what you wanted and this is something you’ll regret.
- You don’t improve things. Maybe it just wasn’t meant to be.
- Things improved, but not how you expected.
- You succeed. It all works out.
- You did it! You took the opportunity and made the most of it. Something great will happen on top of what you were going for.
After each scene, switch roles. When you get to the end of the day, answer the following questions.
- Did you really end up making things better?
- What would you do differently if you could do it again, again?
- Who are you, the player, going to call or text or whatever today to let them know they’re important to you?