88th ♫ | electric, a stun gun pulse surges through the crowd buzzing out the shadows

[sakurabeam]

The Murder Game Meme



You know the script. You wake up in a place you've never seen before, with a whole bunch of complete strangers and there's a mysterious voice or a mascot or what have you ready to let you know how things are going to work around here.

The rules are simple: You're trapped here, with no hope of release or rescue. You've been provided with all the basic necessities you need to live comfortably, and all you have to do is settle down and live out the rest of your days here in peace. But if you can't do that -- if you're really so desperate to escape that you'll do anything -- then there's one teeny tiny thing you have to do first.

All you have to do is kill somebody.

But it's not quite that simple. Every death will be followed by a period of investigation, followed by a trial in which the survivors will attempt to solve the mystery and out the culprit. If the survivors guess correctly and out the culprit, the killer is executed and life goes on. But if the survivors guess wrong, then the culprit is free as a bird and everyone else is executed.

Even with the promise of freedom, can you really bring yourself to kill so many other people?

tl;dr: it's a murdergame meme. TIME TO HAVE A BIG OL' MURDERGAME BLAST.


Settings

1. High School A classic! Doesn't matter if you're too old or too young to be in high school -- you've been enrolled and the only way for you to graduate is to kill a fellow student. But hey, the faculties are nice!
2. Tropical Island Weren't you just hankering for a nice tropical vacation? No? Too bad! You're going to have a nice sunny vacation at the beach and if you don't like it, just kill someone and go home. Simple!
3. Prison It doesn't matter if you don't remember committing any crime; you've been tried and found guilty of something or other and now you can go ahead and rot away in jail. If you ever want to see the sunlight again, better put that criminal mind to good use and get rid of your inmates.
4. Mall A huge mall stuffed full of stores, places to eat and all the regular amenities like deadbolted doors and the threat of death. It's like Black Friday but even worse because you can't leave and all the rest of the shoppers might actually kill you for real this time.
5. City Holy shit, you've got the run of a whole city this time around! Maybe with all this room to keep out of each other's way, you'll be able to make sure no one starts killing people. But probably not.
6. Cruise Boat YOU'RE ON A BOAT, MOTHERFUCKER. The accommodation is all five star, even if there's no one around to act as wait staff. The only snag is that you still have this whole murder thing hanging over your head – but on the plus side, they have those little drinks with the umbrellas in, so...
7. Space Station THE FINAL FRONTIER... Maybe you're familiar with space stations like this or maybe all this future tech is fascinating to you. Not like it matters either way, of course, because you won't be getting out of here unless you lay down a murder on someone.
8. Wildcard! None of the above scratch your murder itch? Go wild and come up with your own setting!



Downtime

1. Excuse Me, Who Are You? You've just woken up in this weird place and you have no idea what's going on. But hey -- maybe this stranger's more informed than you. Or maybe you can put your heads together and investigate what's going on.
2. Social Link Go! Well, if you're going to be stuck in here for however long, you might as well get to know the people stuck in here with you. You've got plenty of rooms to explore together and there's enough to do to keep you occupied. How do you plan on passing time without killing each other?
3. Vending Machine Woes Somewhere in this place there's a mysterious vending machine that spits out all manner of bizarre items and occasionally dispenses items that belong to you and the other people trapped here. You've got a fat stack of tokens and nothing to lose.
4. The Corners of My Mind So as it turns out, your lovely hosts have been fiddling with your memories. Maybe you're just discovering this now or maybe you've had a particularly upsetting memory regain you're dealing with.
4. Wildcard! GO WILD AND BE FREE (or as free as you can be here, anyways)



PUTTING THE MURDER IN MURDER GAME

1. Motive Your mysterious overseer has decided there's not nearly enough murder going on and so they've ~helpfully~ given you a little push to do the deed. Maybe one of your loved ones is in danger, maybe they're offering more money than you could ever dream of or they're threatening to reveal your deepest darkest secrets. Whatever is it, would you kill for it?
2. Murder WELL APPARENTLY, YES. Are you a killer or are you being killed? Either way, someone's not walking away from this alive.
3. Body Discovery Rise and shine, murdergame! It's a brand new day and someone's dead. Better get investigating!
4. Trial You know how this one goes. Line up all your evidence and sniff out the killer -- or sit there and sweat and hope no one works out you're the murderer. Will they go down with a confession or put up a fight?
5. Afterparty You've survived another trial, but more of your friends have died. Even without the executions, trials are a stressful enough affair. It's time to destress and lick your wounds and support each other.
6. Mastermind It's the end. It's time to uncover all the mysteries behind this murder game -- and find out just who trapped you here. Are they really an unconnected party, or is the mastermind someone among you...?
7. Freedom Just as it says -- you're finally free, but at what cost? Have those you love been returned to you, or are you still reduced to just those who made it to the end? Are you on your own, or is anyone here to help you? And more importantly, how the hell are you going to get home?
8. Wildcard YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO


OPTIONAL FUN

Lots of murdergames have in-universe public profiles for other characters to get the skinny on yours. If you'd like to fill one out to post with your toplevel, peep at the code below!

<center><b>Name:</b> NAME | <b>TITLE (Super High School Level, Ultimate, Champion, etc)</b> <b>Age:</b> AGE | <b>Species:</b> SPECIES | <b>Occupation:</b> OCCUPATION <b>Likes:</b> LIKES <b>Dislikes:</b> DISLIKES <b>Traits:</b> A HANDFUL OF NOTABLE TRAITS <b>Trivia:</b> A PIECE OF TRIVIA</ul>

Comments

[impurifies]

[ Yuri goes quiet. She wants to argue that Sara's wrong – it doesn't matter who any of them are back home because here, they're all the same. All potential victims or potential culprits and all of them, right now, are hurting. It's okay for Sara to be hurting too.

But the words won't come to her mouth. It seems bitterly ironic for her to call herself a poet when she's so truly useless with words when it matters. ]

... we just... have to stick together, right? [ Her voice is tight and unhappy. ] Maybe that way... we can fight back.

[onlyyoucan]

Can we stick together? This whole exercise is about driving us apart until we're dead. Even if it's a nice thought, there's always that risk.

[impurifies]

[ It's... bizarre, hearing her own pessimistic thoughts coming out of someone else's mouth. Even more bizarre for it to be Sara. But somehow, hearing it voiced by someone else makes the line of thought easier to argue with. ]

What choice do we even have...? If we give in, then...

[onlyyoucan]

I didn't say to give in.

[She folds her hands in her lap, staring at the floor.]

We can't. I know that. ...It's just difficult, relying on other people in this place. Even if I know you're right.

[impurifies]

I know what you mean. Nothing feels... permanent here. Even the people.

[ 'Especially the people', she thinks but decides not to say. ]

Deciding to trust anyone is... frightening.

[onlyyoucan]

...It feels like there's no point making friends. I... felt like that before, too. When I was lying.

[???]

Sorry. It's my problem.

[impurifies]

[ And of course, Yuri immediately hurries to take the blame. ]

Ah, n–no, no, you don't have to apologize for anything. It's my fault for saying such a horrible thing in the first place...

[onlyyoucan]

You didn't do anything wrong, though. You don't need to say so.

[pot,]

[impurifies]

[ Yuri smiles weakly. ]

Then should we both agree not to apologize, if neither of us did anything wrong?

[onlyyoucan]

...

[She doesn't say much to that, just hugging herself for a while.]

I don't want anyone else here to die. Even if they all say it's hopeless to try for that.

[impurifies]

[ Yuri, similarly, is quiet for a while before she answers. She wants to say something to reassure Sara, but... Yuri thinks it's hopeless too. She wants so badly to believe there must be some way out and she doesn't want to just roll over and die for the sake of this sick game, but it feels inevitable.

But that's not what Sara needs to hear right now. ]

Maybe... we should try thinking of it differently? If we can say to ourselves "as long as somebody survives and escapes", that might be something to hold onto.

[onlyyoucan]

[Isn't that just giving up, too? Sara listens, shaking her head.]

The person behind this won't be satisfied until we're all dead. I don't want to give them that satisfaction either. Even if we can't save everyone, and I won't give up on that... we have to take them down.

[impurifies]

Where do we even start, though? They have all the power and we...

[ She's being pessimistic. She knows it, but she can't help it but she at least forces herself to swallow back the rest of the words she had sitting on her tongue. ]

Sara... what can we do?

[onlyyoucan]

The only thing we can do.

[She takes a moment to breathe in and out.]

Remember the wallpaper in the karaoke room? There's probably more that we can find without breaking the property damage rule. Things they've covered up. It might lead to nothing, but at least we'd be doing something to try. I know it isn't much, but... I'm used to starting from nothing.

[impurifies]

[ Yuri stares at her uncertainly. It sounds like a reasonable plan, but... ]

Do you really think they'd let us get away with investigating things so obviously?

[onlyyoucan]

It's right in the rules! Investigate at will. I know they mean before trials, but that's not what it says, and...

...And I can't not try.

[impurifies]

... Then...

[ Sara's so determined. Sara's at the end of her rope and... yet, she's still willing to try investigating. To give it at least one more try, despite everything.

It almost makes Yuri want to believe in her. ]

Th–then...! I'll do what I can to help...!

[onlyyoucan]

[She looks a little surprised, but wipes her eyes on her sleeve and nods.]

...thank you. I might not understand it, but I think... no, I'm glad to have you around.

[impurifies]

[ Her face flushes a little bit, but she fights the urge to protest. Sara needs someone to support her right now and if Yuri can be that person, then she has to do her best to be worthy of it. ]

Y–yes...! I... um... [ She has to swallow to get her words past the knot in her throat. ] I'm glad too. Let's do what we can, together.

[onlyyoucan]

[She hasn't really been good at working as a team lately. But, well... it's nice. She nods.]

You should rest. It's been hard.