Megan Marie McKnight

Most games are about what happens before the character dies. Thrilling adventures and heroic deaths. Well, this is a game about what happens after death, when a character doesn’t want to cross over yet. They can get jobs as Shinigami, or Guardians of Death.

Some way or another, you died. It may have been suicide, an accident, or even murder, or something else. But for whatever reason, you didn’t want to go on to the afterlife. Something kept you here. Your unfinished business, if you will. It might have been looking after a loved one, or continuing your life’s work, or some other reason. But that’s okay; there was a place for those who didn’t want to go on.

So you became a Shinigami; a Guardian of Death. It’s your job to help monitor the mortal world. You’re supposed to help make sure people die when they should. Not before, not after. Sometimes this might mean protecting a mortal from a supernatural threat. Sometimes it might mean finding and stopping a mad killer. Sometimes it might even mean hunting down and killing someone who’s somehow outlived their allotted time. Mostly it’s the first two. Mostly.

But hey, there are perks to being a Shinigami, in the form of supernatural powers, a monthly paycheck (Yes, you get paid. This is a job after all.), and a warm fuzzy feeling when you help people. Oh, and there’s also the fact that you’re really freaking hard to kill, what with being dead already. You can take massive amounts of damage, and though it will still hurt like hell, you can regenerate fairly quickly. That’s the good news. The bad news is that you can be destroyed if you take enough punishment in a short enough time. And this is all you get. If you die now, you’re gone forever. You just? cease to exist.

There are also other dangers. Demons tend to take your existence personally. And there are the rare few sorcerers and madmen who know about the Shinigami, and try to use that knowledge to their advantage. Usually, it’s these same sorcerers and madmen who find ways to live beyond their time, so you’ll probably run into at least one eventually. And in a job like this, it’s easy to get disillusioned and depressed.

Anyway, that’s in the future, and this is now. Welcome to the ranks of the Shinigami.