117th ♫ | aren't i filthy? why won't you kill me?

[phaiinein]

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></center>

Comments

[worstliar]

Okay, good start.

[ She moves over to a cabinet. ]

And how did you actually kill him? The classic uh... Norman Bates, or did you find an actual poison, or...?

[sisterlyduties]

Poison. I recognized that some of the plants they're using to keep the station's oxygen flowing were poisonous.

[Look, Mio is smart but she's not... murder is not her strong suit.]

I spiced some of the dried meat, let him eat some and then talked a bit with him before he realized something was off.

[On the counter is a plastic bag of normal herbs and some definite Not Good stuff.] Apparently having a 'hot woman' preparing him a meal didn't raise suspicions.

[She's too gay for this.]

[worstliar]

Okay, poison. I can work with that.

[ She snorts. ]

Ah, undone by heterosexuality. I see.

[ Rude, Mona! She frowns at a couple packages. ]

Which plant was it? The hemlock, the foxglove, the nightshade...? No one's doing a full autopsy, but we have to watch symptoms.

[sisterlyduties]

I don't think he realized I'm not into men.

[He wasn't the first blonde delinquent to be lured in by her. Though, admittedly, the first to be killed by her.

Poor Ryuji.]

Foxglove. Some of the leaves, I thought nightshade would be too obvious.

[worstliar]

Okay, foxglove. That just slows down the heart, so we don't have to clean up too much on the body.

[ She exhales, then turns towards Mio. ]

So here's your choices: One, we pretend this never happened and go to trial and it's boring as hell because now I have spoilers; two, You kill me and the magic space junior detective squad figures you out tomorrow because you are not foolproofing two murders with this kind of time; or three, I help out so that tomorrow is at least interesting, because playing accomplice is more fun than playing detective when I already know the whole freaking mystery.

[sisterlyduties]

A heart attack is much easier to cover up, yes.

[...Okay. This is a tough choice. She should just stab Mona and take her chances. Say try to plant evidence that Ryuji stabbed her. She'd probably fail but being betrayed is...]

...What would you want in return for helping me?

[Three. She's going three.]

[worstliar]

First pick of your stuff if they find you out? I don't know.

[ She shrugs. ]

I'm in it for the love of the game, sister, don't put a knife in me and we're square.

[sisterlyduties]

I can't exactly stop you after I'm dead.

[Okay, yeah. She honestly doesn't mind playing second fiddle. She's smart enough to get things done on her own but she doesn't have that certain... quality to be any sort of master mind.]

So, yeah. I think we're square. I won't stab you and you'll get your game.

[Since, honestly, Mio will fight her hardest but she knows she's not the slickest person on board.]