History Main / PressStartToGameOver

* ''TabletopGame/{{Traveller}}'':
** Character generation involves picking a career and then rolling lots of dice for each four-year term of service to determine what skills and other bonuses you receive each term. The first roll is to see if your character survived the current term. Yep, your character can die before the game even starts. This was intended as a game balance issue. The Scout career, for instance, automatically received the Pilot skill, had good access to the extremely useful jack-of-all-trades skill, and had the best chance of getting a starship. It therefore also had the most difficult survival roll. More recent versions of the game merely have failing a survival roll mean you are discharged from your current career, possibly with an injury. Dying when you fail a survival roll is now an optional rule, called "Iron Man Character Generation".

* In ''VideoGame/{{Facade}}'', your goal is to help save your friends Grace and Trip's marriage, and the game will end if you fail to help them work through their issues and/or offend one of them too much. The latter is easier than it sounds, as "melon" infamously [[BerserkButton causes Trip to throw the player out of the apartment]], so if you say something offensive to Trip after he opens he door for you, he will close it in your face, ending the game.

** Additionally, it's possible to make a character who dies before the game even begins. The feat Troth of the Forgotten Pharoah was ''meant'' to be used by [=NPCs=] in the Mummy's Mask adventure path, so enemies could blow themselves up after they die, but there's no rule against taking it as a player. Except... it ''permanently'' reduces your max HP by 3, and it's possible to start with 2 or less HP if your constitution is bad enough. (E.g. a level 1 wizard with 3 Con will have 2 hp) Thus, if you take the feat, you'll immediately start dying and your body essentially becomes a time bomb. This, of course, is often suggested as a way to spite GMs who force you to roll stats and keep that 3.

Contrast KaizoTrap, which is when you get killed by surprise after you finish playing rather than immediately when you start.

* ''VideoGame/FearAndHungerTermina'': It is entirely possible to get yourself killed during character creation if you choose to play as [[EthnicMagician O'saa]], select to fully recount journeying through the location of [[VideoGame/FearAndHunger the previous game]], and then make a few unlucky choices in the resulting text adventure. Should this happen, the game points out that your "adventure ended before it even began" before kicking you back to the title screen.

* As the WebVideo/GameGrumps [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZzX4UAXsLw accidentally discovered]], the ''Film/HomeAlone2'' video game can be lost instantly by just holding the left arrow, causing Kevin to run directly into the concierge and be caught.

* In the ''Website/{{Neopets}}'' game ''Dice-A-Roo'', one of the possible outcomes of a dice roll is a skull symbol, which means possible loss. Although some symbols only come up after you've been playing for a while, the skull is not one of them, which means that one can lose immediately after starting the game.

* Stephanie of ''HellsKitchen'' season 8 nearly had this happen to her when she made the mistake of yawning ''in front of Gordon Ramsay during the Signature Dish competition''.

* ''Franchise/MegamiTensei'':
** In ''VideoGame/DigitalDevilSaga'', entering the OptionalBoss fight with the [[VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiIIINocturne Demi-Fiend]] with any sort of immunities equipped on your characters will [[RocksFallEveryoneDies prompt him to use Gaea Rage]] for an unavoidable TotalPartyKill, ''before you even take your first turn.''
** ''VideoGame/ShinMegamiTenseiV'' inverts the above case with him as a DLC bonus fight, in which he takes his turn first and opens by casting Javelin Rain on your party; if you enter the fight ''without'' any physical resistances or immunities, you'll die before you even get to take your first turn.
** The start of the story in ''VideoGame/DevilSurvivor2'' and its UpdatedRerelease has the protagonist facing imminent death when your chosen Nicaea attendant, Tico, shows up and offers to save his life. You can refuse this offer -- after three refusals, Tico relents and you are given a game over.
** ''Videogame/Persona5'' begins with a prompt asking if you're willing to accept that everything you're about to see is a game. If you hit disagree, the game kicks you back to the title screen.

* In ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'''s Phantom Liberty DLC, you can fail the first two main quests early on by [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere having V running away from the site and Dogtown]], [[PermanentlyMissableContent locking themselves out of all the main missions included in the pack]]. Songbird leaves scathing parting words afterwards, while [[VirtualGhost Johnny Silverhand]], having distrust with NUSA and seeing this as an InstantWinCondition, snarkily comments with his approval, offering V some drinks and continue the base game altogether.

* ''VideoGame/AIDungeon2'' is a... [[ZigZaggedTrope weird case of this trope]]. The player character can very much potentially die before the player even inputs a command... Yet rarely does death ever actually end the story it's generating.

* ''VideoGame/AIDungeon2'' is a... [[ZigZaggedTrope Weird case of this trope]]. The player character can very much potentially die before the player even inputs a command... Yet rarely does death ever actually end the story it's generating.

** The ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' anime has a notable example of a Zero Turn Kill: in one duel, Sartorius/Saiou uses a series of cards that can be discarded during the opponent's turn to trigger further combos and win before his own first turn ever begins.

* Combinations that cause this, known as "First Turn Kills" or [=FTKs=] for short, appear in ''TabletopGame/YuGiOh'' on a regular basis. Luckily, however, any consistent examples get banned on the next banlist. It is actually possible for the game to end before ''either'' player has taken a turn: if all five cards in one player's opening hand are the five pieces of Exodia, they win outright before the first turn starts, notably Exodia is among the very very few instant win effects that can cause an FTK (as opposed to very difficult combos later in the game) through this show of absurd luck as Exodia's instant win activates from the hand the moment all five pieces are present, bypassing anything else in the game. There's also an infinitesimal chance that ''both'' players get this hand, resulting in the game ending in a draw.

* ''VideoGame/PokemonGo'' [[BribingYourWayToVictory Plus peripheral]] gives the player only one shot at catching Pokémon using one regular Poké Ball by pressing its button, with no other options allowed such as using Berries or better Balls, increasing the likehood of [[SmokeOut having Pokémon fleeing away]] as well as running out of regular Poké Balls in your inventory.

* The ''Anime/YuGiOhGX'' anime has an example of a zero-turn win: Sartorius/Saiou once uses a series of cards that can be activated during the opponent's turn to win before his own first turn ever begins.

* In ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'''s Phantom Liberty DLC, you can fail the second mission "Hole in the Sky" early on by [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere having V running away from the site and Dogtown]] after the tube slide scene, [[PermanentlyMissableContent locking themselves out of all the main missions included in the pack]]. Songbird leaves scathing parting words afterwards, while [[VirtualGhost Johnny Silverhand]], having distrust with NUSA and seeing this as an InstantWinCondition, snarkily comments with his approval, offering V some drinks and continue the base game altogether.

* In ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'''s Phantom Liberty DLC, you can fail the second mission "Hole in the Sky" early on by [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere having V running away from the site and Dogtown]] after the tube slide scene, [[PermanentlyMissableContent locking themselves out of all the main missions included in the pack]]. Songbird leaves scathing parting words afterwards, while [[VirtualGhost Johnny Silverhand]], seeing this as an InstantWinCondition, snarkily comments with his approval, offering V some drinks and continue the base game altogether.

* In ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'''s Phantom Liberty DLC, you can fail the second mission "Hole in the Sky" early on by [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere having V running away from the site and Dogtown]] after the tube slide scene, [[PermanentlyMissableContent locking themselves out of all the main missions included in the pack]]. Songbird leaves scathing parting words afterwards, while [[VirtualGhost Johnny Silverhand]] snarkily comments with his approval, offering V some drinks and continue the base game altogether.

* In ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'''s Phantom Liberty DLC, you can fail the second mission "Hole in the Sky" early on by [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere having V running away from the site and Dogtown]] after the tube slide scene, [[PermanentlyMissableContent locking themselves out of all the main missions included in the pack]]. Songbird leaves scathing parting words afterwards, while [[VirtualGhost Johnny Silverhand]] snarkily comments with his approval.