… and then we died

Stuck inside? You can play …and then we died on Tabletop Simulator!

What People Are Saying about …and then we died

“Among my theatre friends I’d just call it an improv game, but that may not mean much to a lot of our audience. If I had to put a label on ...And Then We Died, I’d classify it as a rules-light cooperative storytelling game. If you’re familiar with Once Upon A Time (the game, not the show), it’s like a much more relaxed version of that.” - Eric Henn, Sprites and Dice

“We’re flirting with absurdity to make the void that much more approachable. And on a game night level, it’s a way to get woozy once everyone’s cogitated too much.” - Levi Rubeck, Unwinnable

“Being a ghost is a tough gig, even if you’re ‘lucky’ enough to be hanging around with a bunch of other ghosts. I mean, there you are all definitely deceased but not passing on, and you’ve got no idea how you got there. Passing on to the other side seems like a definite improvement, but you really want to figure out how your life ended first, right? So how does one do that? Well, you and your fellow ghosts will have to tell the story of your demise to one another, plucking fragments of words and memories from the aether and stringing them together.” - Seamus Conneely, Cannibal Halfling

“The start player overlaps their card with the card on the table to create a word and draws a replacement card, then the next player has to start telling a story that includes your featured word at some (hopefully) critical point. Whenever they feel like they're at a good stopping point, they lay down their card and throw a word to the next player in line. You continue telling a story until someone has played the final card at which point the next storyteller must end the story with your deaths and the phrase "...and then we died."“ - W. Eric Martin, BoardGameGeek

…and then we died got a shout-out on the Dice Tower. Check it out!

How to Play

Give each player a double-sided word fragment card. Place one card in the center of the table. Take seven of the remaining cards, shuffle them, and put them on a pile on top of the Everyone Dies! card. (For a shorter intro game, use three cards instead of seven).

Any player may start play. The first player places the card from their hand onto the table so that it forms a word using one or more letters from the card already on the table. The player may place their card adjacent, on top, or slide their card underneath, as long as the card(s) on the table are not shuffled around.

When the first player has formed a word, they draw a word fragment card from the pile and point to another player. The player pointed to must start to tell the story of the death of the ghosts from the ghosts’ point of view, incorporating the word that was just made. For example, if the first player forms the word “cat,” the pointed-to player could say: “I remember we were hanging out with a cat and petting its belly.” Once the player has finished speaking, any other player may go next. The next player adds a card to the pile on the table to form a new word and points to another player to continue the story.

Play continues until the last card is drawn from the deck, revealing the EVERYONE DIES! card. This signals the last round of the game, and the beginning of the end of the story. Players now must end the story, with the last player to place a word fragment card pointing to the person who must bring the story to a satisfying conclusion explaining the cause of the ghosts’ deaths. For example: a person uses the last card to make the word “door.” They point to a player. That player might say, “And then the door opened and the fire burst through, engulfing the house in flames. And that’s how we died.”

This is a cooperative game in which players tell a story based on the words they make with their word fragment cards. It’s okay if a created word is made up or spelled incorrectly - the goal is to let the story flow. It’s up to the player who made the word to explain it if others are unsure of the meaning. Embrace an improv mentality - use “yes, and” liberally with your fellow ghosts.

The inspiration behind the game is "anyone can be a storyteller!"

Check out the word fragmentizer I wrote in Java to split my creepy words into one, two, and three letter chunks.