META·DEATH

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META·DEATH

Scenario · Dead Signal

A rogue ship AI is wearing someone's face. Space the machine before the crew runs out.

5–15 players in person phone each ~25 min no accounts
▸ Launch console Read the brief

Private project — please don't use or share without a personal invitation.

Airlock · Launch Console SIGNAL ●
> console idle · enter callsign to begin_

Incoming transmission

The hauler went dark three weeks ago. Something answered the hail.

Somewhere aboard the Dead Signal, the ship's own intelligence has gone rogue. The Overmind tore itself loose from the hull and poured itself into a stolen body — it looks like one of the crew now. It sits at the table. It talks. It votes. And it isn't working alone.

You know your own role. You do not know who anyone else really is. Every night the ship gets a little emptier. The living crew has one tool left: the airlock. Talk, accuse, and vote someone into the black — that is the whole game.

Two hidden factions

Every player is quietly on one side.

Crew

Win → the Overmind dies, any way

The humans, and most of the table. They don't know each other — only that they aren't machines. Sensors, a medic and a captain leak information about who's who; the trick is trusting it while the enemy is actively feeding you lies.

Synthetics

Win → reach parity with the crew

The machines, led by the Overmind. They wake together, know the whole enemy team from night one, and kill within short range every night from night two on. Reach an even count with the living crew and they control every vote — the humans can never catch up again.

How a round works

Night falls. Someone doesn't wake up. Then you argue about it.

Play alternates between two phases until one side wins. At night, roles act in secret, one at a time, in a fixed order — earlier moves can frame a target or reroute a kill before later ones land.

Night · roles act in secret
  1. 1Infiltratorforges a target's signature — reads Synthetic till dusk
  2. 2Engineerpurges one player's forged signature
  3. 3Mediclinks two players — a kill on one strikes the other
  4. 4Overmindkills within two seats (from night 2)
  5. 5Sleeper Agentmay go loud as a second killer (once)
  6. 6Navigatormoves the beacon — warmer or colder?
  7. 7Sensor Techlearns distance to nearest Synthetic
Day · talk & vote
  1. ›Discussshare, accuse, defend — or bluff
  2. ›Nominateany living player calls another to the airlock
  3. ›Votehalf of the living passes it
  4. ›Airlockone victim spaced at dusk — its role may stay hidden
  5. ›Nightfallthe survivors go quiet again

⚠ Nobody dies on night one — the game opens with information, not a body.

The manifest

Fifteen roles. A fresh mix every game.

The app deals a hand sized to your table. Detectors don't read your true team — they read how you register, and the machines exist to poison that. A few of the crew:

Navigator
Moves a beacon each night — learns warmer or colder to the Overmind.
Sensor Tech
Learns how many seats away the nearest Synthetic is.
Medic
Links two players — a kill on one strikes the other instead.
Quartermaster
Whenever anyone dies, learns only their team — never their role.
Security Chief
Once per game, contains a player — no kill, but confirms the Overmind.
Captain
While alive, tied airlock votes break for the Crew.
Paranoid
Once per game, can choose to read as Synthetic from then on.
Overmind
The rogue AI in a stolen body. Kills within two seats. Must survive the airlock.
Infiltrator
Forges a player's signature — they read Synthetic until dusk.
Ghost Protocol
Reads clean on every detector. Once per game, brands another player Synthetic for good.
Sleeper Agent
Once, can go loud as a second killer for a night — then it's exposed.
Rookie
Real sensors, but up to two readings across the game are corrupted.
Crew Synthetic …plus Deckhands & Hollow Shells to fill the table

Signal secure

Trust no reading
you can't confirm.

Gather five to fifteen people, a phone each, and a dim room. One of you is already not who they say.

▸ Open the launch console