DDP Rules

As every year people ask what the rules to the DDP are out of season, here’s a quick reminder of the rules as they stand. Although obviously new teams are only accepted in December!

RULES as of 1/1/2026:

  • Send a list of 20 names, and a minimum of three subs, to the DDP email address, along with your team name and an email address you can be contacted at.
  • All entrants must supply a team name and a valid email address. We will never reveal your email address to anyone else. GDPR baby!
  • Please proof read and ensure the spelling of your picked celebrity names is correct.
  • If the celebs are a little obscure, provide an explanation of who they are. There is no need to clarify who Donald Trump is for instance, but if you’re picking a poet from Guam then provide an explanation of their fame, however brief.
  • Some celebrities have shared names, so please indicate which one you mean. Patrick Duffy the Dallas hunk or Patrick Duffy the Labour politician of the 70s and 80s, for instance.
  • The joker, which scores double points, will be the first name on your list and be accepted by the host as such. Please make sure your joker is top of the list.
  • Should one or more of your picks croak it before midnight December 31, 2025, then a substitute will replace them. Should your joker do so, the second name on your list will become the joker, then the third, and so on in sequence. 
  • Once you have sent your list, the hosts will not accept any wholesale changes.
  • If your celebs die before the end of the year, but their death is only confirmed after teams are uploaded to the site (early/mid-January), then no replacements can be made, and they will score zero points.
  • You will receive a confirmation email when your team is received by the host. Over the Xmas period do not expect this immediately, as unsurprisingly the last week of the year can get a little hectic for your game runners.
  • You may be contacted by the hosts for any queries regarding the names of the picks and what they do, if they are among the more obscure picks.
  • If you are entering again, but with a different team name, let the host know what your previous team’s name was.
  • PLEASE INDICATE IF YOU ARE ENTERING A THEME TEAM. There must be a theme that reasonably limits the scope of the team. It cannot just be a list of twenty men, or a scavenged list of survivors from the previous year.
  • There is a maximum number of 3 teams per individual. These can be any combination of normal and theme teams. There are some cases that certain emails will contain many teams as part of a “syndicate” of different teams.

Celebrity Eligibility

All your chosen celebs must be:

  • Human. No famous animals please.
  • At least 18 years old as of 1st January 2026.
  • Actual real-life people, not characters out of soap operas and the like.
  • Named individuals, not just “Pope Wotsisface” or “the oldest person in the world”.
  • Players must not murder their chosen celebs. That’s cheating, and cheating is wrong and is not in the spirit of the game.

Conditionally Accepted Picks:

  • Prisoners on “Death Row” and awaiting state execution as of 01/01/2026 can only score points if they die of other causes.
  • Picks that are on trial as of 01/01/2026, or are put on trial and subsequently found guilty and executed during 2026 are eligible, but will not claim the unnatural points bonus.
  • Terrorist organization members are eligible, but there must be official verification of when they died from both sides of the conflict (i.e. “The West” and the terrorists themselves).
  • Any person considered “missing in action” or not traced as of 01/01/2026 can only score points if their death is confirmed as happening in 2026 and not before, so don’t bother picking Jimmy Hoffa.

Excluded Picks:

  • Hostages of terrorist organizations. We have no absolute knowledge of whether they are alive, dead or when they supposedly died.
  • Picks viewed as famous for being ill. Any picks that have not achieved notability or fame for any reason other than being terminally ill will not be accepted. Those who wish to read the FFBI ban more in depth in order to try and judge eligibility for a pick can do so here.

Obituary Qualification

To win points, there must be the mention of a celebrity’s death on a national online news source:

The notice of death must be in written English. Video links are only accepted if the strapline mentions the celeb’s passing.

 

The following previously accepted news sources are excluded:

  • Huffington Post UK
  • MSN UK
  • Scotsman
  • Yahoo, including uk.news.yahoo.com
  • Death announcements section of broadsheet websites, which members of the public can pay for listings

Scoring

The date and time of death is taken as that local to the country/region where the person died. The age of the celeb at the moment of passing must also be established to calculate points. If the time of death is reported as exactly midnight local time, the date of the day just beginning is used. This may be relevant in deciding bonuses (see below).

Points will be awarded based on age at death on the following basis:

Age at Death Points Bonus Bonus Points
18 – 29 12 Unique Pick, +4 
30 – 49 10 Drop 40 Pick, +3
50 – 59 9 Unnatural Causes, +3
60 – 69 8 Party Pooper, +5
70 – 79 7 Joker, x2 Total Points
80 – 89 6    
90 – 99 5    
100 – 109 4    
110+ 3    

 

Good luck!


Banana,
time,
Marlfox,
Octopus of Odstock

(The Cmme)
www.derbydeadpool.co.uk
P.S. For those of you unaware, a hive of Derby Dead Pool chat can be found on the Death List forums,  https://forums.deathlist.net/ . Why not turn up and harass the DDP Committee for being a day late with emails there?