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

[liedol]

Heehee. You don't have to apologize. It's kind of useful being able to talk over all this with someone, honestly.

[ Ai flashes him a smile in return – equally rehearsed, if more natural for it. She's been practicing it in the mirror again since she got here, trying to keep it from being too bright and bold and perfect. She tries to make it more subdued, more gentle and wounded, in hopes that if she rolls over and shows her belly a bit then the act of submission might be enough to ensure she isn't preyed on.

Standing out too much in a place like this could only be trouble. ]

But I was thinking more like... if there's this many of us and becoming a wolf turns everyone into your enemy, isn't there still a chance that we could decide to work together and turn on the person who brought us here?

[scallopstrategist]

It's one way to work through it, I suppose.

[Still, he's dissatisfied. Jay doesn't like to show his work, especially when he isn't sure of his own conclusions or ultimate answers; he does hate to be proven wrong. He falls quiet as he considers Ai's strategy, eyebrows pinched together as he rolls it around in his mind.]

Theoretically. But that sort of tactic requires coordination and, more importantly, trust. It would be easier to pull off with a smaller group, rather than one as large as ours. [He tips his head to the side, curious.] Right now, can you honestly say that you trust the others? And not just one person, or a few of them. All of them.

[Jay can't. As far as he's concerned, that's impossible.]

[liedol]

[ The obvious answer, of course, is no. Of course she can't trust all of them – she'd be hard pressed to say she even trusts most of them. Nobody here has given her a reason to actively suspect them of having cruel intentions but that doesn't mean anything at all when they've all been pre-supplied with a perfectly good reason to betray the group, even before their own inclinations ever enter the picture.

But that's not the sort of thing Ai should say. Especially not right now and even more especially not to Jay. He's smart – which means Ai has to be extremely careful about the sort of things she lets slip around him.

So she hums thoughtfully to herself as she carefully chops another potato. ]

I'd like to think... maybe I could, eventually. Or at least, I can trust that we probably all really want to get home. And everyone's probably just about as mad as everyone else at the person running this whole thing. Don't you think that'd be enough to get people thinking about working together?

[scallopstrategist]

[Jay watches Ai as she considers. When he isn't thinking about it, or trying to look like anything, his own expression settles into one of stillness. It's difficult to say what he thinks of her answer just by looking him.

It's a bit ... naive. But more measured than he expected. "Maybe". "Eventually". If anything, that's more likely to happen after most of them have died. But who knows? Maybe they'll hold out.]

Maybe. Maybe not. I suppose we'll just have to see, won't we? Whose theory pans out. Only time will tell.

[Jay neatly pinches off the peel of the potato in his hands, discarding it and placing the potato with the last few waiting for Ai to chop them. Since it's the last of them, he helpfully nudges the bowl closer to Ai's side of the counter.]

That's the last of them. I'll be right back. [Jay hops off of his step stool-- completely demeaning, he hates it, why was everything in this kitchen made so annoyingly tall... but at least he's not the only one who needs the help, because Ai is also standing on one-- and jingles over to where Shirou is working.]

Mr. Emiya? We're almost done with the potatoes. What vegetable would you like us to work on next?

[Good grief. Does this guy have multiple arms, or something? How on earth has he managed to make this many side dishes already??]