Overview
At a glance
Is this game right for my group?
ABG editorial scores on a 1–5 scale.
Harder to teach
High replayability
Highly interactive
Scales well
Deep strategy
How it plays
How does it play?
Death Wish is a light-hearted party card game where the goal is to be the first player to die from fictional diseases. Truly a game you're dying to win.
Core mechanisms
Key systems that shape the decisions players make.
Set Collection
Gather related items that become more valuable when scored together.
Hand Management
Time and sequence a limited hand of cards to preserve future options.
Storytelling
Create or extend a narrative in response to prompts or game events.
Take That
Direct negative effects at selected opponents.
Read the full game description
Death Wish is a light-hearted party card game where the goal is to be the first player to die from fictional diseases. Truly a game you're dying to win. Players take turns to collect matching symptoms and afflicters with the aim of contracting the diseases displayed on the table. Diseases are always changing on the table so it’s a race before they’re snapped up by other players. The colours play a part in the game with white strains the most common, less harmful types contrasted with the rare and deadly reds. Share your weird diagnosis! Contract a disease and declare the the disease you caught, how you caught it and the terrible combination of symptoms you are suffering from. With over 240 different diseases, afflicters and symptoms, the combinations are vast. Does your disease have an outbreak? Read out an outbreak card to the group. Outbreaks allow events such as mutating diseases, puking on players or even de-fibrillating someone back to life. These cards have an array of random creative effects that change the dynamic of every game.