John Harper’s New “Ride or Die” RPG Kicks Into High Gear

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Award-winning indie TTRPG designer John Harper (creator of the popular Blades in the Dark game and Forged in the Dark system) has just released new info on his much anticipated next project. Entitled Ride or Die, the upcoming tabletop RPG has been in the works for several years, with Harper only unveiling more information on his Bluesky account and, more recently, the Dungeon Master of None podcast.

The game, which will published by Evil Hat Productions, is described by Harper as a love letter to the Fast & Furious franchise and over the top action movies like Mission Impossible, with players taking on the role of elite criminal drivers who pull off daring heists. It’s an explosion-filled Michael Bay fever dream where the laws of physics take a back seat to the rule of cool.

So just what can fans expect when the rubber meets the road with Ride or Die? Below, we get behind the wheel and Tokyo drift into all the details.

What is the Ride or Die TTRPG about?

Ride or Die is an upcoming tabletop RPG created by award-winning designer John Harper. The game uses a streamlined version of the Agon 2nd edition rules (a TTRPG inspired by ancient Greek culture which Harper co-created with designer Sean Nittner back in 2020). The idea for Ride or Die came to Harper after he decided to use a modified version of the Agon rules to run a tongue-and-cheek one shot inspired by the Fast and the Furious. He later decided to expand the idea into a standalone game.

The core pillars of gameplay for Ride or Die include:

• The Power of “Family”: A nod to a well-known meme from the Fast & Furious franchise, characters are members of a crew whose bonds allow them to accomplish impossible feats (tracked as a stat called “La Familia” on character sheets).
• Vehicular Invulnerability: A key rule of the game is that characters are essentially invulnerable as long as they are inside their vehicles (which are also essentially a character’s armor and weapon). Danger only becomes a serious threat to the player once they step outside their ride.
• High-Stakes Missions: Players take on the roles of elite drivers performing over-the-top missions, such as stopping global arms smugglers, recovering high-tech computer viruses or performing elaborate heists on fast moving trains.
• Genre Emulation: The mechanics are built to support the specific physics of action cinema, with double-clutching, death-defying jumps and explosive nearly superheroic feats that would be impossible in the real world.

What are the gameplay mechanics of Ride or Die?

Going under the hood, below are a few of the main mechanics:

• One-Roll Scene Resolution: Unlike most TTRPGs that track combat and encounters round by round, in Ride or Die a single roll resolves an entire complex, multi-stage scene. For example, if players are chasing down a semitruck with a nuclear bomb in the back that’s about to detonate, they’d each make a single roll to determine what happens.
• Simultaneous Resolution: During scene resolution, everyone rolls at once, including the GM (known as a “Director”). The Director sets a target number and only one of the players needs to beat it for the crew to be successful.
• Post-Roll Narration: One of the most unique features is that players don’t describe their actions until after the dice are rolled. If players are successful, they describe what happened (starting with the highest number), but even if the fail, they still get to describe the outcome, allowing players to shape the narrative at all times.
• Boost: Players also have a “Boost meter” on their sheet. Spending this meta currency allows you to add special d4 dice to your total outcome, pushing the results higher during critical moments.

It’s worth noting that the game is still in testing and development, so things may change in the months ahead.

What is character creation like in Ride or Die?

In Ride or Die, players are known as “Actors” while the character themselves are a “Driver” constructed of a few key elements:

• The Profile: This is essentially the character’s class or background (for example, ex-government agent, street racer or CIA assassin). The Profile provides a larger die to roll when the character’s history is relevant to the action.
• The Ride: A description of the character’s vehicle. Players can be specific with their choice (i.e., a ’71 Dodge Charger) or use archetypes like “American Muscle Car,” “Luxury Sports Car” or “Military Beef.”
• Traits: These are special talents and abilities, such as being a master of martial arts, an elite sniper or a professional cat burglar.

For players who want to jump in quickly, the game will also includes pre-made character archetypes like the “Lone Wolf” or “The Duo,” the latter of which allows for a single player to control two characters, like the classic comedic pairings in the Fast franchise.

What are adventures like in Ride or Die?

In Ride or Die, adventures are known as “Movies” and are designed to capture the pacing of a Hollywood action movie. Each Movie is really a one shot that’s meant to be completed in a single 2–4 hour session. And while players can potentially replay their characters in “sequels,” it’s not really a game that’s meant to supports an ongoing campaign with complex, multi-session narrative arcs.

A Movie also follows a specific cinematic flow:

• In Medias Res: The game starts in the middle of a high-stakes stunt, much like a James Bond or Fast & Furious opening.
• Modular Acts: The middle of the Movie consists of vignettes (i.e. tracking an informant, gathering clues or a high speed chase) that bridge the opening to the finale.
• The Showdown: A multi-stage contest (race, heist or battle) broken into phases that include Infiltration, the Plan Falls Apart and the Escape (emulating the structure from classic action and heist films).

During a Movie, there are also four key precepts that shape play:

• Flying High: Cars can become airborne at any time if it makes the scene cooler.
• Blowing Up: Explosions cause cool collateral damage but never destroy a hero’s car or seriously hurt the crew.
• Wrecking Ball: Crashing into something damages the target, but as the aggressor, your car barely gets a scratch.
• Showing Up: You can always enter a challenge, regardless of where you were previously, because you “always show up for family”.

Another core principal is that the movie never stops because of a bad roll. If a character is captured or a heist fails, the story simply “rolls downhill” into a jailbreak or a mid-air takeover, until the players and Director feel they’ve reached a satisfying ending.

When will Ride or Die be available?

Unfortunately, John Harper has not provided an exact date for when the game will be released, noting only that he’ll be starting with an early access package first. This version will include the core game rules, a sample Movie and several pre-generated characters. It’s also worth noting that Harper will be doing the art himself (having worked as a graphic designer before he started in the TTRGP industry) and has already released a number of images on Bluesky.

It’s not clear if the game will be immediately released by Evil Hat Productions or go into crowdfunding via Kickstarter or Backerkit. We’ll likely know more in the weeks ahead.

Final thoughts

There are few genuine auteurs in the TTRPG space, but John Harper is one of them, having crafted arguably one of the most popular indie titles in Blades in the Dark. With Ride or Die he looks to be pushing the medium in even newer and more interesting directions and we are 100% on board for it.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on the development of the game in the days ahead and will update this page with new information as it’s made available.