Death Con
Death Con is a short-form game in which performers play characters who must die onstage in increasingly creative, dramatic, or absurd ways. The audience or host may assign a specific method or style of death, and performers must commit fully to the dying with physical commitment, theatrical specificity, and genuine emotional investment. The game rewards physical bravery, comedic timing, and the willingness to commit to absurdity completely.
Structure
Setup
An audience suggestion establishes either a specific method of death, a location, or an event. Multiple performers may be in play simultaneously or take turns.
The Death
Each performer must produce a death that is specific to the suggestion and physicalized with full commitment. The death should have clear beginning, middle, and end: the cause arrives, the character responds to it, and the dying is completed with some form of final beat.
Variation Options
Variations include: assigned style (die like a soap opera, die like a silent film), assigned genre (western showdown, tragic Shakespeare, anime battle), or competitive death-offs where the audience judges which death was most committed or most creative.
Conclusion
The host wraps when a sufficient number of deaths have been performed, often ending with the most committed or creative death as the final beat.
How to Teach It
Objectives
Death Con targets physical commitment, the willingness to go fully into a theatrical moment without self-protection, and the skill of finding specificity within an absurd constraint. Dying is a useful theatrical exercise because it requires performers to commit completely to a physical and emotional state and then stop -- both the commitment and the ending require discipline.
How to Explain It
"Your character is going to die. The cause is [suggestion]. Make the death specific, committed, and complete. Don't rush it. Don't protect yourself. Die."
Common Pitfalls
The most common drift is performers who produce small, tentative deaths: a slight gesture and then stopping. The game requires full physical commitment to the dying process. A second pitfall is deaths that do not end cleanly; performers should find a specific final image or sound rather than trailing off.
How to Perform It
Audience Intro
"Tonight, our performers are going to die for you. What should they die of?"
Cast Size
Two to six performers, depending on whether deaths are simultaneous or sequential.
Staging
The full stage is available. Deaths should use the whole space rather than staying in one spot.
Pacing
Quick deaths in succession build energy; one extended, highly theatrical death can anchor the game. The best structure varies short punchy deaths with one or two fully elaborated ones.
Wrap Logic
End after a particularly committed or climactic death that functions as a clear finale.
Worth Reading
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Acting Through Improv
Improv Through Theatresports
Lynda Belt; Rebecca Stockley
Pirate Robot Ninja
An Improv Fable
Billy Merritt; Will Hines
Theater Games for Rehearsal
Viola Spolin
The Playbook
Improv Games for Performers
William Hall
Group Improvisation
The Manual of Ensemble Improv Games
Peter Campbell Gwinn; Charna Halpern
Improvisation
Use What You Know, Make Up What You Don't
Brad Newton
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How to Reference This Page
The Improv Archive. (2026). Death Con. Retrieved March 17, 2026, from https://improvarchive.org/games/death-con
The Improv Archive. "Death Con." The Improv Archive, 2026. https://improvarchive.org/games/death-con.
The Improv Archive. "Death Con." The Improv Archive, 2026, https://improvarchive.org/games/death-con. Accessed March 17, 2026.
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