120th ♫ | it's hard to feel alive with a knife in your back

[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

Liquid Snake | Metal Gear Solid

[dendroaspis]

Name: Liquid Snake | The Enfant Terrible, Champion Pilot, SHSL Operative
Age: 33 | Species: Genetically engineered human | Occupation: Soldier
Likes: Warfare, recognition, giant robots
Dislikes: His brother, his father, pacifism
Traits: Cold, driven, calculated
Trivia: Despite being American, Liquid was raised in England for several years.

[Being largely allergic to shirts, Liquid is hard to miss and harder still to ignore; while he's miles from a team player, he's at least not openly hostile to his fellow murdergame captives. You know, provided one doesn't try to start shit with him.]

[When it comes to murders and investigations, he's far smarter than appearance might indicate--both with an understanding of what it would take to kill a human and exactly how it could be done, as well as dangerously clever in matters of logic and deduction. However...he never really seems to care all that much, almost completely detached from anyone else on any personal level.]

[And yes, at every turn he will insist 'Liquid Snake' is his actual real name.]

[sanbuzhi]

[In all honesty, Nie Huaisang does not know what to make of Liquid. He's mostly been eyeing him from the crowd here and there, but hasn't made an effort to approach yet. It might be because Liquid makes him nervous, but then, a lot of things seem to make Nie Huaisang visibly nervous.

So it's one afternoon that he winds up in the middle of the mess hall, staring down at a cardboard box that's popped out of the vending machine, mysteriously. He's frowning, bending down to poke it with his closed fan]

Well...what use is this supposed to be?

[dendroaspis]

...Is it not blatantly obvious? It's a box.

[...yes, but the way he said that seemed to imply the use itself was readily apparent. it was not.]

[the box sits, patiently. awaiting its purpose.]

[sanbuzhi]

[Nie Huaisang's bottom lip pushes out in a pout]

That does not make its use obvious. What material is it even made of?

[mourntalitasi]

[Good afternoon, Liquid, hopefully you're having an uneventful day as a killing game captive. No stumbling on corpses, inopportune punishments for breaking arbitrary rules or visits from some clown with a codpiece. Just a peaceful, boring, normal day.

Unfortunately, by decree of whatever fates exist, "normal" isn't allowed in these parts because there is an actual skeleton ambling down the hallway in Liquid's general direction. The creature is dressed more like it's ready to go for an outdoor hike than to try to fight, a medieval-looking backpack strapped to it and various supplies carried in it's vacant chest cavity, and its goggle-like crystalline green eyes scan it's surroundings with a distinct air of curiosity. In its hands, covered by oversized work gloves that match the heavy brown boots on its feet, it carries a tray with a full tea set.

When the skeleton finally realizes that oh, there's a new person (!!!) it's jaw drops in a surprisingly friendly-sounding hiss of greeting and holds up the tray a little higher, as if asking if he'd like a cup.]

[dendroaspis]

[Somehow and for some reason, this does not even register as worth more than a small double take and a small amount of hesitation to weigh how poisoned the tea might be.]

[...When one worked with Psycho Mantis for god knew how long, one tended to just brush past the weirdest of shit.]

Oh, may as well.

[bloodcell]

[Sometime after a trial, Liquid's going to be having some company. Yes, yes, gruesome murder, nasty execution, such a shame. But let's put all of that aside, for a moment, as Astarion is going to just perch on whatever surface is near Liquid. Probably a table, because the man is just a cat at heart.]

Now, that all certainly was... dramatic, hm?

[dendroaspis]

One could say as much, surely.

['no shit sherlock'. Liquid had taken up a chair in the most cavalier way imaginable, half-slouched across the back of it. The field in which fucks are grown has burned and been salted.]

I daresay we've not seen the last of such a troublesome mess.

[bloodcell]

Oh, certainly not! First blood, but most definitely not the last. I'm surprised we lasted this long.

[Like frankly he's shooketh no one tried to stab someone day fucking one.]

[dendroaspis]

Likewise.

[He glanced Astarion up and down, with a silent appraisal of 'this guy can't be serious right now'.]

So what do you make of the whole situation? I estimate we'll have to kill the one responsible, but it's getting to the point that may prove troublesome.

[bloodcell]

Have you looked around at the mess we're stuck with? [He's not talking about the murdergame part. He means the people.] Obviously we'll have to kill them, but I doubt we'll have even half this number left by them.

[dendroaspis]

Mm. [He wasn't particularly enthused about the idea of killing what amounted to a group of sitting (particularly stupid) ducks, but the whole matter seemed a foregone conclusion at best.]

Fear breeds desperation, and desperation tends to cause a right mess of things. I give us a matter of days before someone else turns up in a puddle of blood.

[bloodcell]

How good, then, that we have at least a handful of sensible people around! Because I must say, darling, you certainly don't seem like you'll be the one ending up in said puddle.

[dendroaspis]

I would estimate myself somewhat harder to kill than most.

['you brainless idiot' was implied but not stated.]

And what concern is that of yours?

[bloodcell]

It makes you much more interesting. I mean, why get invested in someone who will probably be reduced to a bloody smear in another week or so anyhow?

[dendroaspis]

I question the wisdom of getting invested at all. What a colossal waste of time, when all of you are hardly long for this world.

[bloodcell]

You're betting against me, are you? I'm hurt.

[he doesn't even look offended, just amused]

[dendroaspis]

Oh, now let's not take it personally. I'm betting against everyone, you're not all that special.

[bloodcell]

Oh, I'm plenty special, dear. But we're still getting to know each other.

So, in your estimation, this ends with you being the "last man standing", then?

[dendroaspis]

[Pausing to just sort of...look him over again.]

Yes, I'm sure that you are.

[Still only the fourth or fifth weirdest thing he'd ever seen.]

Of course it does. I highly doubt any of you can pose a threat to me.

[liedol]

[ It should probably go without saying that Ai and this guy go together like oil and water - but that's exactly why she's been doing her level best to try and ingratiate herself to him at every opportunity she gets. Someone as level-headed as Liquid is will probably peg her as an easy target the moment a good enough motive comes along, so the best thing to do is make that as unappealing a prospect as possible. She's been going out of her way to try and include him in group activities (which is an uphill battle, but she's still doing it!!), to looking out for him after motives and in the aftermath of a trial... here she is breaking away from the rest of the group to come deliver him some food. You have to give her some points for stubbornness if nothing else. ]

Have you eaten yet? We were in there for a while, so you should at least try and get a little food in you.

[dendroaspis]

[For all his myriad bloodlust-related faults, Liquid wasn't often much for killing civilians (outside of the wide-ranging concept of collateral damage). Not out of any misplaced sense of honor, mind you; more that he just found it more trouble than it was worth.]

[But if Ai Hoshino wasn't testing him on how the blessed relief of silence would outweigh the resulting trouble, no one was.]

I'm quite fine, actually. I ate this morning, and I can go for quite some time yet.

[liedol]

Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

[ It's an empty platitude, though, and she seems to be done with the pretense of pestering him into eating once he pushes back. A script that's run its course. She huffs out a sigh and sets the food down so she can settle herself down into one of the spare chairs. It's not oven she lets herself look as worn ragged as she feels, but there's a flash of it in her face as she sits herself down. ]

But I guess I could be saying that to basically everyone here.

[dendroaspis]

There are plenty of people in varying degrees of emotional turmoil for you to waste time helping, Hoshino. Whyever bother focusing on me?

[liedol]

To be honest, at times like this, I'm not actually any good at helping anyone. Heehee.

[ The smile she flashes him is picture perfect, but her laugh is mirthless. ]

Everyone's upset... and I don't really know what to do about it. So this...

[ She nods her head towards the food she's been trying to hand off to everyone. ]

... it's easier, I guess.