102nd ♫ | sell your soul to the devil on the street corner

[superorbit]

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

Briar | OC

[imaginaive]

Name: Briar | Champion Protagonist | The Work-In-Progress
Age: 15 | Species: Human? | Occupation: Apprentice Imaginieer
Likes: The smell of fresh ink, Camellia, sunrise
Dislikes: Dust, nonfiction books
Traits: Creative, curious, capable
Trivia: Briar has never once uncorked a bottle of ink without spilling at least some of it.

[ Full info post here! The TL;DR: Briar is a self-aware fictional character from a world called Libretto that serves as a sanctuary for characters who have been abandoned by their authors and narratives. Once the hero of a turn-based JRPG, Briar decided she didn't particularly like fighting and hurting people and is now the apprentice Imaginieer who will one day be responsible for keeping Libretto alive and functioning. Scary stuff!!

Despite not really diggin' it when it comes to all the death and despair, Briar does her best to hold her own and be of help when the chips are down. During trials, she will be one of the first to start pushing for people to nail down timelines and potential motivations for any of the murders. Has probably at least once figured out who the murderer was purely by breaking down their motivations and matching it to someone at the trial.

As you can probably imagine, her usual hangouts are places like libraries and anywhere she can sit and read and write quietly. Surprisingly, if they ever get a hold of gyms or training rooms, then she might take up practicing with a sword again in the hopes of getting strong enough to protect people, but she seems distinctly uncomfortable with it.

For the first few weeks, she may occasionally gush to you about her teacher, Camellia, and how cool Briar thinks she is but as time goes by and memory regains come in, she mentions her less and less... ]

[greyvoid]

[Memory regains make things between the two a little awkward- likely because as a later arrival to Libretto the fact that they were companions at all is a new revelation. Still, Grey accepts it like he does most things: with an almost inhuman level of grace.

Which is why he's here with her in the training room today, his own massive two handed sword (returned by the gatcha) in hand]

... I never expected you to wish to take up the blade once again, Briar. Are you sure of this? A heavy heart will only slow your strikes.

[imaginaive]

[ Briar's little wooden practice sword looks particularly feeble in comparison, huh... as does the look on her face. She tries to give him a smile, but it doesn't quite reach her eyes. ]

Neither did I, really. But with everything that's happening... I have to do everything I can to keep myself and everyone safe. And if I don't go back to this... then I'm not really doing 'everything', am I?

[ Even if it feels strange and ill-fitting to be stood here, holding a sword instead of a quill. ]

[greyvoid]

[ he frowns slightly at that ]

Do you? You shoulder old mantles for the sake of some misplaced duty- why do you assume it is on you to 'protect' anyone? Do you find the others to be that lacking?

[imaginaive]

... Mm.

[ As usual with Grey, he hits where it hurts, huh. It's not necessarily that he's wrong or he's being intentionally cruel but it makes her resolve waver just a little. Enough so that she lowers her sword. ]

I guess... we've been working hard to protect ourselves and each other so far, but it hasn't actually stopped anything from happening. People are still dying. We're risking our lives every week. And...

[ ... she shifts uncomfortable from one foot to the other. ]

I know I'm a good target. Like this, I'm small and I'm not all that strong. So...

[greyvoid]

[He puts his own sword down, leaning it against the wall. The blade is taller than Briar herself, and probably heavier]

A battle is won by more than blades, Briar. Your quill and your wits are more of a danger than any other weapon- you speak the truth into existence every trial.

[imaginaive]

... Not... every trial.

[ Ah. That's what this is about.

It'd been an understandable mistake – their last trial had come perilously close to a wrong vote and they'd been pushed along in that direction thanks to Briar. Not entirely or even primarily, but she'd given testimony about what she thought the culprit had been thinking and how they might have been affected by the motive. Thanks to that, they'd all thought they'd cornered poor, skittish Yuri and it was only by chance (in Briar's eyes) that they'd stumbled across the real culprit.

Even now, most of the way into the next week, it makes her sick to her stomach to remember it. ]